Speaker 1: On two GB at network stations. This is Afternoons with
Speaker 1: Michael McLaren.
Speaker 2: Good afternoon, Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 3: It is ten past twelve Tuesday afternoon, June three.
Speaker 2: Hope you're well.
Speaker 3: Looks nice outside today too, actually a bit cold, but
Speaker 3: blue sky is beautiful. One three, one eight seven three
Speaker 3: the number. If you'd like to be with us between
Speaker 3: now and three o'clock. You can send me a text,
Speaker 3: of course, at any time zero four six zero eight
Speaker 3: seven three eight seven three, and there's always email two
Speaker 3: GB dot com.
Speaker 2: Click on the feedback icon.
Speaker 3: It's going to be busy between now and three o'clock,
Speaker 3: but of course we put our callers first. I will
Speaker 3: later this house speak with Greg Sheridan, the foreign editor
Speaker 3: at The Australian.
Speaker 2: I always enjoy being able to pick Greg's brain.
Speaker 3: He's well plugged in on the issues of defense, obviously,
Speaker 3: and it's going to be about the issue of drones.
Speaker 3: It's not a new topic, but it's gaining I think,
Speaker 3: increased urgency when you look at how potent drones have
Speaker 3: been for the Ukrainian armed forces against a wealth here
Speaker 3: much bigger, better equipped adversary in the form of Russia.
Speaker 3: Now the epitome of all of this is what is
Speaker 3: being described as Russia's Pearl Harbor. Over the weekend, a
Speaker 3: very sophisticated plan was hatched by the Ukrainians and drones
Speaker 3: that had been driven into Russian territory were elevated, used, exercised,
Speaker 3: whatever the verb you want to choose, and they went
Speaker 3: and attacked some of Russia's long range bombers that were
Speaker 3: just all parked all up and down the tarmac and
Speaker 3: they just blew them to smithereens. So you're talking here
Speaker 3: about hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of drones, maybe
Speaker 3: in the low millions, destroying billions of dollars of Russian
Speaker 3: hard military equipment. Now, as Andrew Tillet writes in The
Speaker 3: fin Review, while Kiev thinks big by acquiring the cheap,
Speaker 3: the small and the many, Australia, by contrast, is persisting
Speaker 3: with expensive and technically complex, new clear powered submarines that
Speaker 3: fingers crossed will be arriving here in the twenty thirties. Now,
Speaker 3: like me, Andrew Tillett is not against orcas he follows
Speaker 3: that up with this, He says, quote, this is not
Speaker 3: an argument against the Orcus nuclear powered submarines, but he
Speaker 3: does say the dilemma confronting Candra is that while the
Speaker 3: defense budget is increasing in response to the challenge posed
Speaker 3: by China, it is not rising enough to pay for
Speaker 3: what the military needs and wants.
Speaker 2: Now, the British are aware and alert of this as well.
Speaker 3: They're obviously close to Russia, but we're closer to China,
Speaker 3: and over the weekend, Britain's Prime Minister Labor Sirkis Starber
Speaker 3: said that Britain would radically change its approach to defense.
Speaker 3: They're not necessarily in the short to medium term going
Speaker 3: to make the army bigger, not stacks more boots on
Speaker 3: the ground or anything, but they're heavily going to be
Speaker 3: investing in technology, particularly drones, investing in drones and digital warfare,
Speaker 3: rather than relying on a much larger army to engage
Speaker 3: in modern combat. Now, the thinking, I guess is that
Speaker 3: this is a much more cost effective defensive strategy. You've
Speaker 3: got a tight budget, they've got slow growth over there
Speaker 3: like we do, and they've got massive debts and deficits,
Speaker 3: and say, you've got to be sensible about all of this.
Speaker 3: But of course none of it matters if your sovereignty
Speaker 3: is going to be taken, so you've got to invest.
Speaker 3: This is the most important thing a government can do
Speaker 3: keep its people safe. The armed forces do that, and
Speaker 3: as the ABC reports, Starmer has pledged the largest sustained
Speaker 3: increase to UK defense spending since the end of the
Speaker 3: Cold War. Now out here, after meeting Pete hegxas in
Speaker 3: the United States, the Australian government been saying no, no,
Speaker 3: we will determine how we do this. The Americans and
Speaker 3: say what they want, We'll determine our defense policy and
Speaker 3: they can go jump. That's basically been the rhetoric from
Speaker 3: the Prime Minister. Well, okay, fair enough, but if the
Speaker 3: Americans took the same attitude, we all know that Australia
Speaker 3: would be open and defenseless. If the Americans said, oh, well,
Speaker 3: ook to can dance that tune, We'll just forget you
Speaker 3: guys and anything you want and we'll just go on
Speaker 3: our own merry way, well then we know we would
Speaker 3: be open and vulnerable to Chinese attack. So we've got
Speaker 3: to be careful in how we pursue the next decade.
Speaker 3: In defense, there is always this overarching concern that because
Speaker 3: the Defense Department seems so inept at spending the money
Speaker 3: it's already got that just giving it more would be
Speaker 3: wasting more precious dollars without first going through the department
Speaker 3: than working out where the wheat and the chaff happened
Speaker 3: to be. However, if we just continue to talk and
Speaker 3: have examinations and white papers and that, we're never going
Speaker 3: to get anywhere. These things are medium to long term developments.
Speaker 3: So the British are showing us I guess what to
Speaker 3: do in some respects. That is, start spending and spending now.
Speaker 3: And I would argue we've got to really lift our
Speaker 3: game in drones. I'll speak to Greg about that after
Speaker 3: one o'clock because it is a Tuesday. It is health
Speaker 3: and I'll speak to Helen. Gents use the CEO Musculo
Speaker 3: Scalital Health Australia. We've got a new phenomena. It's called
Speaker 3: tech neck. Tech neck, and as the name sort of implies,
Speaker 3: it's the problem that we all get in the neck
Speaker 3: and the upper back as we spend most of the
Speaker 3: day hunched over a keyboard or staring into a phone. Now,
Speaker 3: I guess there's almost a bit of a connection here
Speaker 3: with myopia, with short sighted This we.
Speaker 2: Spoke about that a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 3: The two probably go hand in g love in that
Speaker 3: constantly staring at screens means you're not looking long distance,
Speaker 3: and so that part of the muscle in the eye
Speaker 3: is not getting the exercise it needs, and we all
Speaker 3: become myopic. But at the same time, our spine is
Speaker 3: being manipulated by constantly being hunched over. So I speak
Speaker 3: to Helen about what we can do about that. I mean,
Speaker 3: I guess the obvious and easy answer is drop the
Speaker 3: phones and the computers for a while and look at
Speaker 3: the stars. But that's easier said than done for some
Speaker 3: For travel, As I said to Mark, we're off the
Speaker 3: Lord Howe Island.
Speaker 2: I've never been. I'd love to go.
Speaker 3: It really does look gorgeous, but I've got a feeling
Speaker 3: it's not cheap when you get there.
Speaker 2: That's my hunch.
Speaker 3: But I don't know. I've not been. Family have been,
Speaker 3: and those that it was beautiful with a capital B.
Speaker 3: Gorgeous part of Australia, of course, But Lord Howe Island's
Speaker 3: the destination. You might have been, you might be able
Speaker 3: to give us some insights.
Speaker 2: Take I went to.
Speaker 3: School with a guy whose father was the doctor on
Speaker 3: lord How Island. He was a border at Barker for
Speaker 3: a while and his dad was the GP on lord
Speaker 3: How Island or one of them, and he used to
Speaker 3: say how beautiful it was. But anyway, look forward to
Speaker 3: that later on and later also in the final hour.
Speaker 3: Rowan Pike no stranger to the show. He's the former
Speaker 3: AFP and ABF officer who helped set up the Australian
Speaker 3: Border Forces Tobaccos Strike Force. Now, I'm sure Rowan will
Speaker 3: agree with me that the catalysts of the problem we
Speaker 3: face now with illegal cigarettes, I would argue now dominating
Speaker 3: the cigarette market is the tax or the excise that
Speaker 3: applies to the legal product. Now, you've got a lot
Speaker 3: of people, We've been over this a thousand times. Finally
Speaker 3: some politicians coming to the party. You would have heard
Speaker 3: chris Min's this morning with Ben on breakfast saying, you know,
Speaker 3: unless we deal with the excise here, it's like standing
Speaker 3: at the beach saying, you know, trying to hold back
Speaker 3: the tide. You're not going to achieve anything. And yet
Speaker 3: you've got the Federal Treasurer out there. Last night Jim Charmers,
Speaker 3: doctor Charmers saying, oh no, we're not going to do
Speaker 3: anthing about this. Quote Tobacco excise is an important public
Speaker 3: health measure to encourage people to give up smoking. Yeah,
Speaker 3: oh yeah, that's doctor Charms. That's the intellect operating in Canberra.
Speaker 3: We've got to keep it going because it's helping people quit.
Speaker 3: Well that the quit line, as it were, has flatlined
Speaker 3: and people are not quitting anymore. What they are quitting
Speaker 3: is legal product, and they're now buying illegal product. So
Speaker 3: the only quitting now going on is of the legal product.
Speaker 3: We are making petty criminals out of otherwise law abiding
Speaker 3: citizens in an inflationary cost of living environment where they're
Speaker 3: addicted to cigarettes. They're buying the cheap illegal product and
Speaker 3: risking a criminal record. Well I say they're risking a
Speaker 3: criminal but no one's going to be nicked for it,
Speaker 3: because the problem is so huge and it's all there,
Speaker 3: it's all in everybody's high street. You see all of
Speaker 3: these packets all over the place, and the butts of
Speaker 3: all of the illegal cigarettes all over lawns and medium
Speaker 3: strips and gutters that they're everywhere, and nothing's done about it. Nothing,
Speaker 3: And so it's a problem created by government. But of
Speaker 3: course it's the federal government that control of the excise
Speaker 3: and the treasure is pretty clear.
Speaker 2: He ain't touching it.
Speaker 3: Addicted to the money more than it seems the smokers
Speaker 3: are to the nicoteaine. So I'll speak to Rowan Pike
Speaker 3: about what needs to be done, you know, I mean,
Speaker 3: the truth is he's the expert. I'm just the radio hack.
Speaker 3: But I think the truth is in everyone to agree
Speaker 3: with this. You can only arrest your way out of this.
Speaker 2: So much.
Speaker 3: Having created such a massive problem, we know what the
Speaker 3: catalyst is. The government, federal, with the support and the
Speaker 3: encouragement of the states, have to go and address the catalyst.
Speaker 2: And that's excise.
Speaker 3: I'm not saying you take it back to ten dollars
Speaker 3: a packet, but at the very least excise high baked
Speaker 3: into the future.
Speaker 2: Budgets have to be frozen no more, no more.
Speaker 3: You know when you when the packet of illegal a
Speaker 3: packet of legal cigarettes is what fifty dollars, let's say,
Speaker 3: give will take and the better part of thirty eight
Speaker 3: of those dollars goes to Canberra. I think you know,
Speaker 3: sensible people would say, haven't they had enough? Haven't they
Speaker 3: got enough? Clearly the answer from Canberra is no, so
Speaker 3: we'll look at that issue as well. Stay with us
Speaker 3: one three one eight seven three. Now, just before we
Speaker 3: move on as well, I've got a report that the
Speaker 3: Fair Work Commission you would have heard this during Mark's program,
Speaker 3: have granted an above inflation three and a half percent
Speaker 3: pay rise. This is to two point nine million low
Speaker 3: paid workers from July one. It's going to kick in
Speaker 3: July one, so roughly a month from now, three and
Speaker 3: a half percent pay rise, two point nine million low
Speaker 3: paid workers to benefit. What they've basically done, the Fair
Speaker 3: Work Commission has split the difference between what the employers
Speaker 3: wanted and what the unions demanded. The AC two U
Speaker 3: wanted a four and a half percent rise. They described
Speaker 3: that as affordable and responsible. Well, they could say that
Speaker 3: because they're not paying the bill. The employer groups that
Speaker 3: would pay the bill wanted two and a half percent,
Speaker 3: saying well that's basically where inflation is. So the Farewell
Speaker 3: Commission basically doing what the government wanted actually, and that
Speaker 3: is a slightly above inflation wage rise. That wasn't quite
Speaker 3: as generous as what the unions had pushed for, but
Speaker 3: I mean, this is what happens in negotiations. Let's call
Speaker 3: the union the worker and the employer groups the boss,
Speaker 3: and you know what happens. You go and as the worker,
Speaker 3: you go to meet your boss and you say, look,
Speaker 3: I want two hundred thousand dollars a year for what
Speaker 3: I do. And the boss says, you're not going to
Speaker 3: get that. He said, he is one hundred and ten thousand.
Speaker 3: He said, oh, I'm going to have to think about that.
Speaker 3: And you negotiate and you sort of get to a
Speaker 3: point that's agreeable for everybody. And that's really what's happened here.
Speaker 3: So the extremities are either end to be knocked out
Speaker 3: in the middle ground's been found three and a half
Speaker 3: percent for two point nine nine million low paid workers
Speaker 3: kicking in the first of next month. Now, also, we'll
Speaker 3: keep an eye this afternoon on the traffic building city
Speaker 3: bound at the M Fivev's tunnel. Will Bottom, of course,
Speaker 3: has been across all of that throughout the morning. A
Speaker 3: rolled crane, a small crane, we believe in the tunnel
Speaker 3: that's creating chaos there. There are diversions in place. Follow
Speaker 3: the signage, as Will says, and we'll keep you across
Speaker 3: that throughout the afternoon. As hopefully it won't happen fast
Speaker 3: by the nature of what's happened here, but hopefully by
Speaker 3: the time we're off air at three o'clock that situation
Speaker 3: can be rectified. Three one, eight seven, three twenty one
Speaker 3: past twelve. Now, look, I wanted to sort of officially
Speaker 3: start today though by asking you a question I have
Speaker 3: asked different radio audiences in years gone by on other programs,
Speaker 3: and that is, what is it about soccer that attracts
Speaker 3: so many lunatic criminal fans?
Speaker 2: What is it about soccer?
Speaker 3: I mean the latest example of this was scenes in
Speaker 3: Paris and indeed across France over the weekend following PSG's
Speaker 3: victory in the Champions League final. And here are the
Speaker 3: numbers too dead, A police officer left in a coma,
Speaker 3: one hundred and ninety two injured, five hundred and fifty
Speaker 3: nine arrested, two hundred and sixty four vehicles set alight,
Speaker 3: twenty two police officers and seven fire fighters injured. I mean,
Speaker 3: heaven knows the cumulative cost of all of the vandalism,
Speaker 3: especially in the capitol. And this is what happens after
Speaker 3: the home side wins. Imagine if they lost. And here's
Speaker 3: the strangest part, the game wasn't even played in Paris,
Speaker 3: let alone in France. It was across the border in Munich.
Speaker 3: And yet French authorities knew what was coming, and so
Speaker 3: they deployed and estimated five thousand, four hundred police officers
Speaker 3: in what can only be described as an extraordinary security operation. Actually,
Speaker 3: I probably shouldn't call it extraordinary, because, especially in European football,
Speaker 3: such large scale security arrangements are hardly extraordinary than now
Speaker 3: stock standard necessities, certainly for big matches, because these sorts
Speaker 3: of marquee events seemed to out the worst. But the
Speaker 3: question has to be why why does this sport attract
Speaker 3: such tribal barbarianism when others don't.
Speaker 2: Now some point to.
Speaker 3: The racial or the regional origins of teams and how
Speaker 3: that then intersects with long standing historical animosities. Others to
Speaker 3: intergenerational hatreds that have incubated within the support a base
Speaker 3: of certain clubs and as it handed down the generation
Speaker 3: from father to son or whatever. Some psychologists, I guess,
Speaker 3: would theorize that a game where so few points are
Speaker 3: scored encourages a sort of tension to brew in the
Speaker 3: stands among the fans otherwise desperate to go and let
Speaker 3: off a bit of steam. Look, it might be all
Speaker 3: of the above and then something else, But whatever the answer,
Speaker 3: the so called beautiful game must work out what to
Speaker 3: do about its cohort of not so beautiful fans.
Speaker 2: Now, look, with all of that said, let me make
Speaker 2: this perfectly clear.
Speaker 3: I am not lumping every soccer fan into the same basket.
Speaker 2: Far from it.
Speaker 3: When you look at the law of averages, the standard
Speaker 3: football supporter is a decent, law abiding type who rarely
Speaker 3: probably attends the game they watch it on the television,
Speaker 3: let alone a street party with a pocket full of flares.
Speaker 3: But to deny that soccer has a problem is to
Speaker 3: deny reality. Sadly, the events in France from the weekend
Speaker 3: are not an isolated situation, and they do stand in
Speaker 3: stark contrast to the sorts of celebrations that follow a
Speaker 3: rugby World Cup, or even a rugby League Grand Final, or.
Speaker 2: A cricket World Cup or you name it.
Speaker 3: And again that's not to pretend those sports have an
Speaker 3: unblemished record, but for whatever reason, their fan bases seem
Speaker 3: to be able to control their passions far better on average. Anyway,
Speaker 3: back to the situation in France. I guess we're going
Speaker 3: to have to wait for the inevitable police investigation to
Speaker 3: run its course here before drawing every conclusion. But interim
Speaker 3: comments from the police chief suggests that Paris may have
Speaker 3: in fact dodged a bullet, if that's possible to believe.
Speaker 3: As he said, in most cases, those who were hell
Speaker 3: bent on committing violent acts were prevented from doing so.
Speaker 3: In other words, without that massive police presence, we would
Speaker 3: have been looking at a far higher death toll and
Speaker 3: criminal footprint come Monday morning. But equally, I think we
Speaker 3: should all assume here, and this is to be fair
Speaker 3: to soccer, that not everybody involved in the violence and
Speaker 3: the criminality where PSG fans are indeed soccer devotees. Now,
Speaker 3: it'll no doubt emerge emerge with time that a good
Speaker 3: chunk of the thugs were what we'd call blow ins,
Speaker 3: as Captain Louis Reno of Casablanca Fame would.
Speaker 2: Have said, the usual suspects.
Speaker 3: France certainly seems to have a hard core subculture pulsating
Speaker 3: with angry gang affiliated young men that leverage big events
Speaker 3: like the Champions League Final to simply go and cause trouble.
Speaker 3: They gravitate to big crowds and they use them as cover,
Speaker 3: essentially as cover to vent their anger at the world.
Speaker 3: And as the chief of police said, clashes began as
Speaker 3: soon as the game kicked off, and in his words,
Speaker 3: thousands of people came to commit atrocities. Now I'm not
Speaker 3: a soccer devotee, but as a sport lover, I find
Speaker 3: it hard to believe that a genuine supporter would think
Speaker 3: smashing a few shop windows as the opening whistle blew,
Speaker 3: was a good idea. So no doubt, hardened criminals were
Speaker 3: also thick on the ground, but they weren't the whole story.
Speaker 3: And I shuddered to think, as I said earlier, what
Speaker 3: Paris would have looked like come Monday morning if PSG
Speaker 3: had actually lost to enter Milan.
Speaker 2: Instead they won five zil.
Speaker 3: But leaving the events aside for a moment, let me
Speaker 3: ask once again what is it about soccer that attracts
Speaker 3: the worst supporters, Because it seems to Why the hatred,
Speaker 3: why the propensity to violence. Why is it uncommon for
Speaker 3: home and away fans to sit side by side in
Speaker 3: the grandstands of say Premier League match, whereas you just
Speaker 3: go up the road. Wigan and Hull supporters will mingle
Speaker 3: at a league game. Now you might have a theory
Speaker 3: if you do. I'm all is one three one eight
Speaker 3: seven three. I'll get to your calls on all of
Speaker 3: that in just a moment. Back to the situation near
Speaker 3: the M five or actually at the M five tunnel.
Speaker 3: It's a mess and it's getting worse. Mark, you're there,
Speaker 3: are you?
Speaker 2: What's happening?
Speaker 4: Ah?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I've just come past the Eastern Way and they've
Speaker 5: dropped it by foot directions now, so east and west.
Speaker 5: I know traffic on the east is nearly nearly back
Speaker 5: to Foreshaw Ride.
Speaker 2: Jeez.
Speaker 3: All right, so it's banking up really fast, eh yeah,
Speaker 3: all right, Mark, I appreciate that. Thank you for being
Speaker 3: our eyes down on the ground there. If you're around
Speaker 3: the M five, just let us know what you're seeing.
Speaker 3: One three one eight seven three. Of course we'll keep
Speaker 3: you regular traffic updates throughout the afternoon. But as Mark
Speaker 3: was suggesting, and we'll bottom touched on this earlier, this
Speaker 3: won't just be an eastbound situation. Traffic management have just
Speaker 3: said that the motorway is also now closed westbound at
Speaker 3: General Holmes Drive. The M five Motorway General Homes Drive.
Speaker 3: It's now closed westbound. So this is all because of
Speaker 3: this rolled large vehicle or crane, whatever it happens to be.
Speaker 3: So the motorways closed eastbound. At the M five tunnel entrance.
Speaker 3: It's also closed westbound now that came through just a
Speaker 3: few minutes ago at General Holmes Drive. Basically people are
Speaker 3: being told to avoid the area and use alternate roots.
Speaker 3: I'll keep you up to date throughout the afternoon as
Speaker 3: things happen there. One three one eight seven three Hayden,
Speaker 3: Good afternoon.
Speaker 6: Caday, Michael, how are you well?
Speaker 2: Thanks mate.
Speaker 6: I do have a suggestion about soccer. I played soccer
Speaker 6: most of my life and I got frustrated with a
Speaker 6: game that you can play two forty minute halves and
Speaker 6: end up with a Nillel draw more often than not.
Speaker 6: As a forward, I believe it will be a complete
Speaker 6: game changer to push the offside rule back to the
Speaker 6: last quarter to make it a little bit more open,
Speaker 6: a few more goals, and at the end of the game,
Speaker 6: if the fans aren't hard fighting over the last little
Speaker 6: refs call, that could have changed the game for one.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's a theory.
Speaker 3: One I'm not an expert too, I'm not a psychologist,
Speaker 3: but there is and I'm not saying every soccer fan.
Speaker 3: I'm not saying every match, none of that. But there
Speaker 3: is a problem, and I mean to deny it would
Speaker 3: be to deny reality. There's a problem. I don't know
Speaker 3: why it's there. You know, as I said, psychologists might argue, well,
Speaker 3: you know, when you've got a sport where you say
Speaker 3: you play ninety minutes and there's no goals, there's no
Speaker 3: opportunity for the people in the crowd to let some
Speaker 3: steam off like happens in other sports, and maybe all
Speaker 3: that pent up testosterone. But I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I think it's more complicated than that. Just quietly, but
Speaker 3: there's a problem and if possible, they should try to
Speaker 3: address it. Alistair says, re your point about the Premier
Speaker 3: League fans sitting side by side, I can assure you
Speaker 3: nothing's further than the truth. Now, I said, Rugby league
Speaker 3: fans further north sit side by side if you can
Speaker 3: watch hul play Huddersfield or whatever that they're all mingling
Speaker 3: around in the Premier League. Oh no, the away fans
Speaker 3: are segregated. I mean I've seen it. I went to
Speaker 3: a few Chelsea matches. I was like enough to be
Speaker 3: invited and stuck up in the members stand and get
Speaker 3: a very good advantage there at Stanford Bridge, and you
Speaker 3: could see behind one lot of the goalposts all the
Speaker 3: away fans and then there were spare seats and then
Speaker 3: rows of police and then spare seats or security guards,
Speaker 3: and they were segregated. And the announcement came over the
Speaker 3: PA at the end of the match that the away
Speaker 3: fans had to stay put until all the Chelsea fans
Speaker 3: not only had left the ground, had left the metro
Speaker 3: station down the road Stanford Bridge. That gives you a
Speaker 3: sense of the fear that the authorities have that violence
Speaker 3: will break out if someone in that colored jersey meets
Speaker 3: someone in that colored jersey.
Speaker 2: Out on the street.
Speaker 3: Now, you know that doesn't happen at ly hard oval
Speaker 3: that doesn't happen, you know, generally speaking, in any other sport.
Speaker 3: I hear about ice hockey, but I know nothing about it.
Speaker 3: But beyond that, it just doesn't happen. So what is
Speaker 3: it with soccer? I mean, it's just it's not a
Speaker 3: criticized soccer. It is the beautiful aim and it's the
Speaker 3: most popular game around the world and for a reason.
Speaker 2: It's extraordinary.
Speaker 3: But there's a problem, and I'm not sure that too
Speaker 3: many people have tried to get to the bottom of it.
Speaker 7: David Goday, Yes, thanks for taking my call. If you
Speaker 7: look at especially in Britain and all over Europe, in
Speaker 7: a town there might be a Protestant side and a
Speaker 7: Catholic site. In Scotland you've got Celtic which is the
Speaker 7: Catholic side, and they've got Rangers which is the Protestant site,
Speaker 7: and Rangers playing blue and Celtic playing green and white.
Speaker 7: And so consequently the fight is not so much what
Speaker 7: happened on the cricket on the pitch. It's the ancient
Speaker 7: hate and you're see in a lot of places. Most
Speaker 7: of the English cities have a Catholic site and a
Speaker 7: Protestant site and they willow or even to the point
Speaker 7: where anybody from South London. I forget the teams in
Speaker 7: South London that they go and bash up the mob
Speaker 7: from the north. They hate the Northernans. It's it happened
Speaker 7: in Australia too, but I mean like in this local
Speaker 7: soccer side there was a cycle Bonnie Rick White Eagles
Speaker 7: and they were a Serbian side and if they played
Speaker 7: the Croatian side there would be vallence.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's and that's why the A League was
Speaker 3: completely created and revamped from the old Soccer League because
Speaker 3: all of the old ethnic rivalries that were built into
Speaker 3: the old teams. There was problems in the stands.
Speaker 7: Well, I mean they had an elite at Eagles New
Speaker 7: Town or something. They were some people from alder That
Speaker 7: was all just ethnic, simple as that. I mean arf
Speaker 7: you like, art was the Italian scene. But I don't
Speaker 7: think you know, in some places they just really the
Speaker 7: ancient hatreds by brawling it out on the street. They're
Speaker 7: not interested in the game. They go to the game,
Speaker 7: they singing, one side singing air anthems, the other side
Speaker 7: singing their anthems. Liverpool sings You'll never walk alone, you know.
Speaker 7: So it's it's under well, I won't say it's understandable,
Speaker 7: but that's what happen.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's part of the history that You're quite right,
Speaker 3: there's no doubt about it. And I think I said earlier,
Speaker 3: you know, whether this is just the manifestation of ancient
Speaker 3: hatreds being played out on a soccer pitch, and then afterwards,
Speaker 3: after the game, you get a few drinks involved. I
Speaker 3: suspect that's a big part of the story as well.
Speaker 3: But you know, I mean, those same religious divisions and
Speaker 3: regional divisions are ever in other sports.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they are.
Speaker 3: I mean some of the rugby comps. You've got Protestant
Speaker 3: originating sides. You've got Irish sides playing London Protestant sides,
Speaker 3: and they've got different names now, but that was all
Speaker 3: their origin. They're not belting each other up in the
Speaker 3: car park. So there is an issue with what the
Speaker 3: Europeans called football, which isn't anywhere near to the same extent.
Speaker 3: I'm not saying it doesn't happen. It does, but it's
Speaker 3: not to the same extent in other sports.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: I don't know. I'm just bouncing this around and we're
Speaker 3: getting theories here. But maybe there is a greater sense
Speaker 3: of contact points being scored, all of other relief valves
Speaker 3: being pulled in other versions of football which aren't necessarily
Speaker 3: allowed in soccer or not part of the formula of
Speaker 3: the game, which helps relieve a bit of the tension that.
Speaker 2: Otherwise might bubble up. I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 3: I'm not a psychologist, but that is an interesting conversation.
Speaker 3: Thank you, David, appreciate you call this just threw by
Speaker 3: the way. From the Transport Management Center, the M five
Speaker 3: East Tunnel is now closed in both directions due to
Speaker 3: that crane crash inside the tunnel. Westbound lanes of the
Speaker 3: motorway are closed from general Homes Drive. As we said earlier,
Speaker 3: city bound lanes remain closed from Bexley Road. The marsh
Speaker 3: Street westbound on ramp to the motorway is also closed
Speaker 3: now as well. The city bound on ramp to the
Speaker 3: M five East from Kingsgrove Road is closed. Motorists are
Speaker 3: being advised to avoid the area consider using the D
Speaker 3: five D tour instead in both directions, okay, if you
Speaker 3: can use the D five D tour in both Emergency
Speaker 3: services and traffic crews are on site. Due to the
Speaker 3: nature of the incident. There is no forecast as to
Speaker 3: when all lanes will reopen, so we're going to be
Speaker 3: dealing with this for a while. But just to repeat
Speaker 3: the basics, the M five East Tunnel now closed in
Speaker 3: both directions. The city bound on ramp to the M
Speaker 3: five East at Kingsgrove road has closed and the Marsh
Speaker 3: Street westbound on ramp to the motorway is closed. If
Speaker 3: you can use the D five D tour instead in
Speaker 3: both directions. Emergency crews, traffic crews are on site. They're
Speaker 3: at work, but because of the nature, we've got a
Speaker 3: rolled crane here. Obviously, it's very complicated. No forecast, no
Speaker 3: forecast as to when all lanes will reopen. As soon
Speaker 3: as it happens or as soon as we know, we'll
Speaker 3: share it with you and hopefully we can do that
Speaker 3: before we.
Speaker 2: Wrap up at three o'clock.
Speaker 3: It's twenty to one, seventeen to one, just before we
Speaker 3: get to greg Sherion. A further update about the M
Speaker 3: five Fire Rescue New South Wales reporting they're now on
Speaker 3: the scene containing a large hazardous oil spill after that
Speaker 3: crash involving a crane and a truck on its side,
Speaker 3: so that obviously complicating the situation. Fire Rescue New South
Speaker 3: Wales on scene there at the M five tunnel. A
Speaker 3: large hazardous oil spill also part of the story. All right,
Speaker 3: one three, one eight seven three. Now back to this
Speaker 3: situation of defense and drones. Yesterday we saw something pretty incredible.
Speaker 3: I was glued to the six o'clock news watching all
Speaker 3: of this come through. In this war between Russia and Ukraine,
Speaker 3: the series of drone strikes apparently code named Spider's Web.
Speaker 3: It took more than a year and a half to
Speaker 3: plan to by kriche wasn't it defective? One hundred and
Speaker 3: seventeen drones used in total, hidden in the roofs of
Speaker 3: wooden sheds, which themselves were loaded onto trucks and then
Speaker 3: driven to the perimeter of the air bases across Russia
Speaker 3: that they were to target. And they did a hell
Speaker 3: of a job on the Russian equipment. The damage bill
Speaker 3: estimated to be about eleven billion Australian dollars, largely in
Speaker 3: lost bomber aircraft in the Russian Air Force. Now I
Speaker 3: can guarantee you this much. The Ukrainian spent nowhere near
Speaker 3: eleven billion dollars doing that sort of damage. There is
Speaker 3: another example here of the potency, and I think the
Speaker 3: potential for drones being a central part of Australia's future
Speaker 3: warfare preparedness.
Speaker 2: I wanted to speak to Greg Sheridan.
Speaker 3: About this because, of course it comes on the back
Speaker 3: of a conversation between Richard Miles and Pete Hegseth. He's
Speaker 3: equivalent in America about what Australia should be spending and
Speaker 3: how much and by when in its defense. The British
Speaker 3: over the weekend labor government there Sir Kiss Darmer pledging
Speaker 3: to in a real way increase defense expenditure over the
Speaker 3: next three years and beyond, and drones again and cyber
Speaker 3: technology being a central part of the new approach in
Speaker 3: Great Britain. Greg Sheridan, as you know, no stranger to
Speaker 3: the program, foreign editor at The Australian with us.
Speaker 2: Greg, good afternoon, Good soon, Michael.
Speaker 8: How are you.
Speaker 2: I'm okay. Look, you're the defense expert. I'm the radio guy.
Speaker 3: But I'm looking at this and thinking, look, surely, if
Speaker 3: we haven't already led the lesson, the images out of
Speaker 3: Russia over the weekend with what the Ukrainians did with
Speaker 3: drones should be a wake up call.
Speaker 8: Well, we're absolutely right, But our defense circumstance at the
Speaker 8: moment is pathetic and the Albanesi government must rank with
Speaker 8: the Whitlam government as the worst government in our history
Speaker 8: for our defense capabilities. So we're spending two percent of
Speaker 8: our GDP on defense compared with the United States three
Speaker 8: and a half. Britain is going from two point three
Speaker 8: to two point five, but we'll get to three shortly.
Speaker 8: Unlike Britain, Britain has independent, nucleared Terrance and surrounded by
Speaker 8: allies France, Germany, and so we've got no allies except
Speaker 8: the United States, where we're not surrounded by any other allies.
Speaker 8: And we face a vastly more formidable strategic competitor in
Speaker 8: China than Britain faces in Russia. Now, Britain is moving
Speaker 8: to drones, but the Alberanzi government has decided not to
Speaker 8: spend an extra dollar on defense. It increases defense spending
Speaker 8: in a nominal way with inflation, but at a tiny, tiny,
Speaker 8: small increase on top of that. But all the money
Speaker 8: is going to pay for the Orcus subs. Now, I'm
Speaker 8: in favor of the Orcat subs, but they don't come
Speaker 8: along for the first of them doesn't come along for
Speaker 8: another ten years. And in the meanwhile we're doing nothing.
Speaker 8: So we have announced one billion dollar investment in drones.
Speaker 8: Wait for a Michael over ten years. Ten years now,
Speaker 8: Unlike every other military in the world, we have virtually
Speaker 8: no armed drones in our order of battle. We have
Speaker 8: no missile defenses. All of our military bases, our air
Speaker 8: force and so on, they have no ground based missile defenses.
Speaker 8: All of our bases could be wiped out by drone
Speaker 8: strikes like the Ukrainians did to the Russians, or just
Speaker 8: by conventional missile strikes. They don't even have to be
Speaker 8: as clever as that. The Chinese could just destroy our
Speaker 8: air force on the first day of a conflict with
Speaker 8: a few missiles. Because we have no missile defenses, we
Speaker 8: have no offensive drones, and we have no counter drone capability.
Speaker 8: Because the Albanezi government has decided that to win the
Speaker 8: election before the last it had to sign up to UCUS,
Speaker 8: so it's signed on for that minimum expenditure, and it's
Speaker 8: also signed up to these ludicrous hunter frigates which are
Speaker 8: going to come in another ten years. That's one hundred
Speaker 8: billion dollars over the next ten years, which will yeald
Speaker 8: US nothing. We get nothing out of that in ten years.
Speaker 8: And meanwhile, therefore, because they won't increase defense spending to
Speaker 8: a reasonable level, we don't spend any money on anything
Speaker 8: else like drones.
Speaker 3: I mean, the British Defense Secretary, I again remind people
Speaker 3: this is the Labor Party over there, John Healey, He said, no, quote,
Speaker 3: we know that the threats are increasing and we must
Speaker 3: act decisively to face down Russian aggression. Now, I mean,
Speaker 3: we've got politicians, as you know, Greg out here, who
Speaker 3: also acknowledge the increasing threat, but that seems to be
Speaker 3: where the rhetoric ends. The decisive action, as you said,
Speaker 3: hasn't been forthcoming. I mean, I sort of get the
Speaker 3: impression that some in government think that all of the
Speaker 3: warnings about a deteriorating geopolitical situation is an invention of
Speaker 3: the weapons lobby or something and can just be ignored.
Speaker 3: Did you get that impression.
Speaker 8: Well, that's that's a fair speculation, Michael. But I think
Speaker 8: it's even worse than that. Our politicians are Metaphorically, I
Speaker 8: don't mean this literally. Metaphorically, they're fat and lazy and
Speaker 8: stupid in terms of defense. They have grown up in
Speaker 8: a world where the Americans always take care of them,
Speaker 8: and they just think that all they have to do
Speaker 8: is go along paying their minimum dues to the American Alliance.
Speaker 8: But they're absolute minimum dues. So we're only spending two
Speaker 8: percent of GDP on defense, and we're doing these orcus
Speaker 8: subs the first three of which we buy from the Americans,
Speaker 8: and then we acquire in tiny numbers these exquisitely expensive,
Speaker 8: highly complicated platforms, giant ships and som but in tiny,
Speaker 8: tiny numbers, so that you could never risk losing one
Speaker 8: in war, because then you'd lose your whole fleet. We've
Speaker 8: got three modern warships, their warfare destroyers. They're not they're
Speaker 8: not great ships. They're not first division ships. They wouldn't
Speaker 8: strike a native fear into the Chinese. But they are
Speaker 8: modern capable warships. We've only got three of them. The
Speaker 8: rule of three in the navy means one is coming
Speaker 8: back from operations, one's getting refitted, and one is out
Speaker 8: on operations. Third means we can deploy precisely one modern
Speaker 8: warship at any given moment, so we won't do the
Speaker 8: things that we could do to defend ourselves. Now we're
Speaker 8: a rich nation, and we could create an asymmetric strategy.
Speaker 8: We could purchase or manufacture thousands of missiles to have
Speaker 8: in northern Australia and so on, so that any navy
Speaker 8: that came towards us would be in a lot of trouble.
Speaker 8: We could purchase or manufacture thousands upon thousands of drones.
Speaker 8: We make some of the drones that Ukraine users. Australian
Speaker 8: manufacturers do, but they can't sell any of them to
Speaker 8: the Australian Defense FORRSE because it is so schooled in
Speaker 8: the old mentality that it exists only to provide niche
Speaker 8: supplements to American expeditionary operations and that will keep the
Speaker 8: Americans sweet and they'll always look after us, whereas the
Speaker 8: Americans have been saying now for a long time, even
Speaker 8: before Trump, you allies have got to do a lot
Speaker 8: more to look after yourselves if you expect us to
Speaker 8: come and rescue you in any emergency. Now, without the Americans,
Speaker 8: we are completely defensive. Albanesi can say, we'll do as
Speaker 8: we like, not what the Americans tell us. Well, imagine
Speaker 8: if the Americans went home and said, Okay, we don't
Speaker 8: have an alliance with you anymore. We're going home now.
Speaker 8: We would have no intelligence capabilities We've got the brilliant
Speaker 8: ed husic. One of his smart actions as Industry Minister
Speaker 8: was to abolish the coalition's program to launch our own satellites.
Speaker 8: We're going to have low Earth orbit satellites of our own.
Speaker 8: We've got no satellites of our own, so we get
Speaker 8: every bit of military intelligence that we possess we get
Speaker 8: from American satellites. Now, if they said, okay, you don't
Speaker 8: want to be bossed around by us, you now to
Speaker 8: your own devices here, we would be defenseless. And Albanizi
Speaker 8: is an emperor with no clothes. He's a poser, he's
Speaker 8: a fake. This is the worst leadership, mind you. The
Speaker 8: Liberals are no better. Their ten years in government were shocking,
Speaker 8: and we are at our nation where the equivalent of
Speaker 8: the Afghan government before the fall of Carbull. We just
Speaker 8: think the Americans will always look after us.
Speaker 3: Hell of aage to do anything, hell of an image.
Speaker 3: We'll leave it on that point, Greg, thank you for
Speaker 3: your inside as always, Thanks Michael Greek Sheridan, Foreign editor
Speaker 3: at the OS five to one. Brilliant stummation there by
Speaker 3: Greg Sheridan, a lot of support coming in on the
Speaker 3: text line. Thank you to all of those saying that
Speaker 3: just really hit the nail on the head. He does
Speaker 3: it so well. Greg, back to the five situation just quickly.
Speaker 3: I've just seen some images here of inside the tunnel,
Speaker 3: the crane that has toppled the oil spill, etc. It
Speaker 3: is a real mess in there, a real mess, and
Speaker 3: it does look as though some of the paneling on
Speaker 3: the inside lane this is sort of that that the
Speaker 3: prefabricated stuff that r along the edge of otherwise a
Speaker 3: concrete curve has been taken out.
Speaker 2: It's a mess.
Speaker 3: So this is going to take a long time to
Speaker 3: clean up, and looking at these images, I think it's
Speaker 3: going to take a lot longer than even I that
Speaker 3: assumed I may not be giving you the news by
Speaker 3: three o'clock that it's all good to go at the five.
Speaker 3: So I'm just studying these images. There's obviously emergency services
Speaker 3: there and people on the scene, but the oil spill
Speaker 3: is evident and the damage is quite substantive. So I
Speaker 3: can also see a lot of cars there with headlights on,
Speaker 3: still stuck in the tunnel. They've got nowhere to go either,
Speaker 3: so I'm thinking all of the motorists in there as well.
Speaker 3: We'll keep you up to date throughout the afternoon. All right,
Speaker 3: we've got the news coming up in a matter of seconds.
Speaker 3: We'll be back into the second hour. A lot to do,
Speaker 3: including Tuesday health, and we'll look at this new phenomena
Speaker 3: of tech neck you might have it. Tech Neck will
Speaker 3: find out all about it. After the news.
Speaker 1: It's now onto gb and network stations. Back to afternoons
Speaker 1: with Michael McLaren.
Speaker 3: All right, let's get into the second hour. Thank you
Speaker 3: for your company on this Tuesday. Aiful day today, it
Speaker 3: happens to be as well, unless, of course, you're stuck
Speaker 3: in the M five tunnel and it's a mess, and
Speaker 3: just receiving notes here from people to say, look, we
Speaker 3: just have no idea when this is going to be rectified,
Speaker 3: and we don't.
Speaker 2: We don't. It's a big situation down there with this
Speaker 2: crane that throlled. There's oil on the road.
Speaker 3: I saw video earlier of the automatic fire extinguish A
Speaker 3: sprinkler's belting water out all over the place at the point.
Speaker 2: Of the accident.
Speaker 3: So it's going to take a long time to fix up.
Speaker 3: And I feel very sorry for all of those people
Speaker 3: stuck in the tunnel by truck. You want to want
Speaker 3: to be claustrophobic, and I'm sure they'll get the assistance
Speaker 3: they need as the emergency services are down there as
Speaker 3: we speak.
Speaker 2: One three, one eight seven three.
Speaker 3: Interestingly enough, on the situation of petrol, there was a
Speaker 3: report around today. In fact, this has just come out
Speaker 3: from who was at the ah Trible c and the
Speaker 3: retail margin at the pump between December to March, so
Speaker 3: the March quarter the retail margin has declined two point
Speaker 3: eight cents a liter. It's now fourteen point four cents
Speaker 3: a leader. It was leading into Christmas seventeen point two
Speaker 3: cents a leader. So the margin, the profit that they're
Speaker 3: making at the point of sale has declined. I guess
Speaker 3: that's good news for you the motorist. But Jacob was
Speaker 3: just having a bit of a whip around out there
Speaker 3: about the status quo with the price for E ten
Speaker 3: around New South Wales. The cheapest in the state as
Speaker 3: we speak seems to be the Metro at Greenacre, and
Speaker 3: they often come pretty close to being the cheapest, don't they.
Speaker 3: One hundred and forty seven point seven cents.
Speaker 2: A leader right now.
Speaker 3: It was as of an hour ago for E ten
Speaker 3: one hundred and forty seven point seven at the Metro Greenacre.
Speaker 3: The most expensive in the state way out at Whitecliff's
Speaker 3: two hundred and fifty six point nine cents a leader.
Speaker 2: Holy Nelly.
Speaker 3: But closer to home there's still some difference in the
Speaker 3: price if you go to Dramoin two hundred and nine
Speaker 3: cents a liter there. I'm not sure which one it
Speaker 3: is at Dremoine, but two hundred and nine cents e
Speaker 3: liter for E ten as opposed to one hundred and
Speaker 3: forty seven point seven at the Greenacre Metro. And we
Speaker 3: are being told that the price cycle is on the
Speaker 3: way back up. And so if your tanks looking a
Speaker 3: little dry, maybe, if you're in the green Acre area,
Speaker 3: maybe a good idea to fill her up. It does
Speaker 3: seem the price cycle, that wonderful, unique Australian invention that
Speaker 3: no one wants to copy, funnily enough, is ticking north
Speaker 3: one three one eight seven three. I just want to
Speaker 3: bring in Superintendent Adam Dewbree from Fire Rescue New South
Speaker 3: Wales obviously to give us the latest on the situation
Speaker 3: of the M five tunnel. It's closed in both directions, Adam,
Speaker 3: what's happening here?
Speaker 9: Michael? It is quite a message the motor stat there
Speaker 9: already appreciating. So we've had a truck roll over on
Speaker 9: its side in the US bound tunnel, spilling quite a
Speaker 9: large quantity of hazardous oil. So fire is you you
Speaker 9: Southwardales has contained and cleaned that up. We've worked with
Speaker 9: the ENVIIRO teams from the tunnel operators a RMS. All
Speaker 9: of that is safe and contained. But this crash has
Speaker 9: actually taken out the safety systems of the deluge system,
Speaker 9: the sprinkless system that operates quickly in the event of
Speaker 9: a vehicle fire. So to get that tunnel operating at
Speaker 9: least westbound by rescuing your South Wales, he's working with
Speaker 9: the operator there to get two fire trucks at either end,
Speaker 9: so in the event of a vehicle fire, because the
Speaker 9: sprinkless system is out to be ready at hand to respond.
Speaker 9: So we are working quickly to try and get at
Speaker 9: least some traffic flowing westbound in the first instance. But
Speaker 9: we've still got a little bit together that the rest
Speaker 9: of the field automotives out there. Everyone's working together to try
Speaker 9: and get this traffic moving in one direction at least,
Speaker 9: But getting the crane out is going to be a
Speaker 9: very different story. It's a big crane and he's on
Speaker 9: each side, so a little bit of work to do there.
Speaker 2: A little bit.
Speaker 3: It might be an understatement i to speak, and it
Speaker 3: looks like a lot of so just to clarify obviously
Speaker 3: the westbound lane has also. The lanes have also been
Speaker 3: closed despite the fact that the crane has rolled over
Speaker 3: in the eastbound lanes. And the reason is that that
Speaker 3: fire safety system has been damaged when that affects both
Speaker 3: east and westbound lanes, right.
Speaker 9: Yeah, exactly, and that's a critical component for the safety
Speaker 9: of the motorists getting through there. We do see a
Speaker 9: number of fires in those tunnels across the city. It happens,
Speaker 9: they're vehicles, they do catch fire. But these tunnels and
Speaker 9: the sprinkler systems that are installed is what keeps our
Speaker 9: people safe when they're driving around. So we need to
Speaker 9: have a protection system in place before that opens up again,
Speaker 9: because the lasting we want is to let traffic through,
Speaker 9: and we don't have a fire protection system and all
Speaker 9: the toxics that comes off that to take hole causing,
Speaker 9: it's much much more catastrophic damage and injury to people.
Speaker 9: So but just rest the short everyone out there. We're
Speaker 9: working to get plans in place to actually get the
Speaker 9: traffic moving as quickly as possible.
Speaker 3: Okay, So I am I right to assume by at
Speaker 3: some point this afternoon, hopefully by around the peak afternoon,
Speaker 3: that the westbound lanes will be reopened.
Speaker 9: Yeah, that's what we're working for as quickly as possible
Speaker 9: to get that happening. Once it's clear and we have
Speaker 9: fire protection in place. I understand that's when the traffic
Speaker 9: can start to flow westbound, but as we said, the
Speaker 9: eastbound is going to be a different story because of
Speaker 9: that big truck on its side.
Speaker 3: Are we're probably looking at tomorrow for the eastbound lanes.
Speaker 9: Look, I'll let the people the RMS talk about that
Speaker 9: in their commanders because there is a lot of work
Speaker 9: because it's a it's a big truck which would normally
Speaker 9: outside would have another crane lifted up back on its wheels,
Speaker 9: but obviously a crane can't fit in there, so there's
Speaker 9: going to be some very ingenuitive work to get this
Speaker 9: one out.
Speaker 3: It's going to be a real boondog or this one.
Speaker 3: I thank you for the update, Adam. I know you'll
Speaker 3: be back in touch if there's further developments. Appreciate your time.
Speaker 9: Great thanks Michael.
Speaker 3: Superintendent Adam Dewbreey there from Fine and Riskuing New South Wales.
Speaker 3: So the message there just to repeat. Hopefully the westbound
Speaker 3: lane will be opened by the afternoon peak. They're positioning
Speaker 3: fire trucks at either end of the westbound tunnel on
Speaker 3: the M five in lieu of the safety system. That
Speaker 3: the sprinkler system being damaged on the eastbound lane, which
Speaker 3: has affected the westbound So once the fire trucks are
Speaker 3: in place, hopefully the westbound lanes can reopen. But as
Speaker 3: Adam clearly said, the eastbound lanes, and this is where
Speaker 3: that crane has turned over in the tunnel, that is
Speaker 3: a very different story. And the time expected to have
Speaker 3: that rectified is still anyone's guess. If we can speak
Speaker 3: to some experts that might be able to give us
Speaker 3: a guide, we'll let you know. But this, I'm hesitant
Speaker 3: to say is a unique situation. But it's going to
Speaker 3: be very difficult situation because, as Adam said, a crane topples,
Speaker 3: you normally get another bigger crane in to get it
Speaker 3: back up on its wells. Well, you just don't have
Speaker 3: the space, the height, the volume in the tunnel to
Speaker 3: allow that, and so Plan B is going to have
Speaker 3: to be utilized.
Speaker 2: We'll keep you up to date obviously.
Speaker 3: One eight seven three the open line number one three,
Speaker 3: one eight seven to three. Just speaking of transport, by
Speaker 3: the way, I just I'm still trying to get my
Speaker 3: head around the development over the weekend, and it was
Speaker 3: a positive and a welcome development with the rail unions.
Speaker 3: It looks as though, you know, things are going to
Speaker 3: be worked out there with that whole pay agreement. But
Speaker 3: I remember butting heads with Toby Warns from the RTBU
Speaker 3: on a number of occasions last year and early this
Speaker 3: year about their ridiculous demands which seemed to be immovable
Speaker 3: objects when it came to these pay agrees.
Speaker 2: What do they want?
Speaker 3: Thirty two percent pay hike plus one percent increase in
Speaker 3: super plus this plus that, And of course the government
Speaker 3: were never going to give it because the public didn't
Speaker 3: support it. It was uneconomical, it was crazy, crazy stuff.
Speaker 3: And yet Toby in others was oh, no, no, no,
Speaker 3: you know, this is what we think is right. And
Speaker 3: I'm trying to describe to him how a negotiation tends
Speaker 3: to work. You know, you've got to expect to give
Speaker 3: a bit, and you in the same way, you hope
Speaker 3: the other guy, the one with the money, is willing
Speaker 3: to give a bit himself. So you know, imagine my
Speaker 3: surprise over the In fact, it was Friday, Clinton I
Speaker 3: think broke the story here on two GB that the
Speaker 3: government reached a wage agreement with the rail unions. Okay, well, Jeef,
Speaker 3: Well they really rattled the tin, have they? Well, As
Speaker 3: it says here, this is The Herald's report, it abruptly
Speaker 3: ended a bitter and protracted industrial dispute that has repeatedly
Speaker 3: crippled Sydney's train network. The government proposed enterprise agreement with
Speaker 3: the combined rail unions, agreed to in the Fair Work
Speaker 3: Commission late on Friday, will deliver workers a twelve percent
Speaker 3: pay rise over three years, and they wanted thirty two.
Speaker 2: And they've signed for twelve now. I was getting the.
Speaker 3: Impression from Toby, although we wouldn't name the exact figure,
Speaker 3: months ago, that they are on the verge of getting
Speaker 3: about fifteen percent but wanted more. That was the impression
Speaker 3: I got. I can't say that's accurate, but that was
Speaker 3: sort of the ball park we started to hint and
Speaker 3: wink at in our conversation. Anyway, they've signed for twelve now,
Speaker 3: over three not four years. But nonetheless, I'm sort of
Speaker 3: left wondering, and I don't know if you are as well.
Speaker 2: You know what happened here? Why?
Speaker 3: The better part of I think in the end, nine
Speaker 3: months of chaos and threats and shutdowns and disruption and
Speaker 3: who knows how many billion lost in productivity with all
Speaker 3: of the mess.
Speaker 2: For what for what?
Speaker 3: Both sides really have come out of this looking completely.
Speaker 2: Week and inept.
Speaker 3: Now I know we've got a different transport minister. I'm
Speaker 3: not blaming mister Grahame. He's clearly solved this. The previous
Speaker 3: minister was unable to do so. But between the government
Speaker 3: and the unions, I mean, this has just been a shammozzle,
Speaker 3: all of that for twelve percent, just sort of you think,
Speaker 3: I mean really so, I don't really know what went
Speaker 3: on there. I'm glad it seems to be solved. I
Speaker 3: think the ETU were still sort of hanging out for
Speaker 3: more or something. But I'm not sure the whole thing
Speaker 3: will be rectified and sorted. It's not to say the
Speaker 3: rail system is going to run effectively and on time.
Speaker 3: It's had its problems lately as we know, separate to
Speaker 3: all of this. But still am I the only one
Speaker 3: sort of scratching my head and wondering why why all
Speaker 3: that brinkmanship and who knows what else was going on
Speaker 3: when in the end the Union went for the twelve percent.
Speaker 3: I just it's the whole thing's bizarre. One three one
Speaker 3: eight seven three. Mark McKenzie's called in Mark's the sea
Speaker 3: of the Australasian Convenience Association. Off the back of what
Speaker 3: I was saying there about that A Triple C report, Mark,
Speaker 3: good afternoon to you.
Speaker 10: Good o Michael, how are you?
Speaker 2: I will, but what's on your mind?
Speaker 7: Make look that.
Speaker 10: Margin that you actually quoted that the A Triple C
Speaker 10: reports on. They report on at every quarter. It's not
Speaker 10: actually profit margin. A lot of people misunderstand that this
Speaker 10: is the average price between what service stations pay for fuel,
Speaker 10: that is the wholesale price and what they the average
Speaker 10: retail price is so built up in that fourteen cent
Speaker 10: a leader cost is actually the cost of wages, the
Speaker 10: cost of leasing the site, the cost of electricity. So
Speaker 10: the profit margin is not fourteen cents a leter as
Speaker 10: some a use, as you suggested. But it's a very
Speaker 10: common misunderstanding every time the atripleceed puts this report out.
Speaker 10: So I thought i'd just ring in and let you know.
Speaker 2: I'm glad you did.
Speaker 3: So let me just refer back to this and I'll
Speaker 3: use exact language that the a triple c use, which
Speaker 3: might be gobbledygook to people, hence why I tried to
Speaker 3: simplify it.
Speaker 2: But they refer to it as the gross.
Speaker 3: Indicative retail difference, which I think, when having had you explain,
Speaker 3: it makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 10: So that's a difference because we have two benchmarks, Michael,
Speaker 10: which are reported to the market all the time. That
Speaker 10: is the terminal gate price, the average wholesale price, that
Speaker 10: is what it costs for you for a service station
Speaker 10: to get the fuel from a refinery, and then what
Speaker 10: they sell it for as an ambridge. And as you
Speaker 10: rightly said, I mean different retailers charged different prices, but
Speaker 10: it's that different, so it still includes that that figure
Speaker 10: includes all their costs. It's not just profit.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm glad you clarify that. Hey, why I've got
Speaker 2: you there, Mark.
Speaker 3: Let me ask you about another issue which has been
Speaker 3: bubbling around, and that is this issue of cigarettes and
Speaker 3: illegal cigarettes. Of course, a lot of service stations sell legal,
Speaker 3: index taxed cigarette products. Have you and your members noticed
Speaker 3: to decline in sales as more and more people go
Speaker 3: and buy these illegal things from all of these disreputable retailers.
Speaker 10: Yeah, Michael, it's one of the hottest issues in our
Speaker 10: industry at the moment. Our service station businesses are reporting
Speaker 10: have been reporting declines between fifteen and twenty percent year
Speaker 10: on year over the last two years. It's out of control.
Speaker 10: The illegal cigarettes are just purchased everywhere and they are
Speaker 10: really cutting the lunch of those businesses that are selling
Speaker 10: valid products.
Speaker 3: I mean, obviously, we've had the State Premiere on with
Speaker 3: Ben this morning saying something's got to be done about excise.
Speaker 3: That's a federal call, and the federal Treasurer looks like
Speaker 3: he's blind and deaf to the idea. But if you
Speaker 3: had his ear, what would you be saying to doctor
Speaker 3: Chalmers about this.
Speaker 11: Well, I think the key.
Speaker 10: Thing we stay out of the excise debate, Michael. But
Speaker 10: you know, there is a big difference, and it's a
Speaker 10: very big incentive. But there are two problems. One, the
Speaker 10: penalties for people who sell illegal cigarettes are trifling. They're
Speaker 10: nothing near what they should be. And the second one
Speaker 10: is there is no enforcement. So yes, you're collecting all
Speaker 10: this exercise, but if you're going to maintain the integrity
Speaker 10: of your tax system, then you should be ensuring that
Speaker 10: you're putting money into enforcement and if the federal government
Speaker 10: wants to keep the excise high, then my belief is
Speaker 10: they should be supporting the enforcement costs that the states
Speaker 10: have to enforce.
Speaker 2: I'm glasu your phoned in Mark. I appreciate that.
Speaker 11: Thank you all the best pleasure, Michael, thank you.
Speaker 2: Take care.
Speaker 3: Mark McKenzie see over the Australasian Convenience Association. Just to
Speaker 3: make that point again, when we talk about fourteen point
Speaker 3: four cents, that is the gross indicative retail difference. So
Speaker 3: as Mark quite right, the point that's not the margin.
Speaker 3: Out of that come wages and electricity costs and insurance
Speaker 3: and everything else. Right, So that's the difference between the
Speaker 3: wholesale and the retail price of fuel one three one
Speaker 3: eight seven three. If you want to have your sol
Speaker 3: on anything this afternoon, Steve, good afternoon.
Speaker 11: And time of the day to you, Michael. I been
Speaker 11: listening on off to this in five catastrophe with the
Speaker 11: crane and those poor buggers that are stuck in the tunne.
Speaker 11: I was wondering how they're dealing with bathroom breaks for
Speaker 11: these poor people.
Speaker 3: That's a very good question and I simply don't know.
Speaker 3: I simply don't know, but the longer it goes on,
Speaker 3: obviously that the more that's urgent.
Speaker 11: Pretty tough sitting in a car when you've had a
Speaker 11: cups of coffee a couple of hours before with it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, I mean obviously the safety of the safety
Speaker 3: of everybody's got to be bare amount. But you know,
Speaker 3: I mean, nature is what nature is. And if you're
Speaker 3: there in the car for I mean, who knows, at
Speaker 3: least people have been there almost two hours now. I
Speaker 3: think at least you know, that's just the nature of
Speaker 3: being a human being. At some point you're going to
Speaker 3: have to relieve yourself. So I don't know what the
Speaker 3: contingencies are there, Steve, if people can safely leave vehicles
Speaker 3: and be escorted.
Speaker 2: So I have no idea, no idea.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to speculate because I don't want to
Speaker 3: send false messages out if people are listening to the
Speaker 3: radio in the tunnel, but no doubt that will be
Speaker 3: a point of conversation in a lot of cars and
Speaker 3: a lot of utes, and who knows what's stuck in
Speaker 3: the tunnel as we speak. Thank you, mate, appreciate the call.
Speaker 3: Take care to stay safe. One three one eight seven three.
Speaker 3: The open line number more after this twenty six past
Speaker 3: one will get the latest news and weather shortly for you.
Speaker 3: Just interesting note from Anthony going back to a conversation
Speaker 3: with Greg Sheridan and drones. So he says, I'm having
Speaker 3: a bit of trouble getting my head around buying drones
Speaker 3: for defense because he said the world's biggest drone maker
Speaker 3: seems to be China, and especially when it's been reported
Speaker 3: there are spy chips being found in all sorts of
Speaker 3: circuit boards, in a range of popular electronic products emanating
Speaker 3: from China.
Speaker 2: Can you be sure if they were used against.
Speaker 3: China that a signal wouldn't be activated to disable them. Well, look,
Speaker 3: I can't answer that, Anthony. I assume that in the
Speaker 3: United States, Taiwan, France, the UK, elsewhere that there would,
Speaker 3: indeed Australia, there would be enough capability to manufacture of
Speaker 3: drones independent of China. That would be my hope. If
Speaker 3: there isn't, by craiky, we better get cracking in that
Speaker 3: sort of a space. But this concern, it's a very
Speaker 3: valid concern. He goes way back in defense circles. I
Speaker 3: remember was the fortieth anniversary of the Falklands. There were
Speaker 3: reports coming out of the UK Telegraph at the time
Speaker 3: that the Exercet missiles that the Argentinians were using to
Speaker 3: hit the British were obviously purchased from the French. And
Speaker 3: what the French didn't tell the British, even though they're
Speaker 3: meant to be close allies and this sort of thing,
Speaker 3: was that the French had inserted a kill switch into
Speaker 3: the missiles. So the Argentinians had them and they were
Speaker 3: launching them and hitting British ships and killing people, and
Speaker 3: the French, technically, so the story goes, had the ability
Speaker 3: to remotely disable them, but never told anyone. And the
Speaker 3: reasons seemed to be that they were also in negotiations
Speaker 3: with some other countries to sell exos set missiles, and
Speaker 3: they didn't want those negotiations and those potential sales to
Speaker 3: be scuppered by nations that said, we'll hang on if
Speaker 3: you can knock out their ones when they want to
Speaker 3: use and probably knock out our ones, So we'll buy
Speaker 3: missiles from somewhere else that don't have the remote kills,
Speaker 3: which that was the theory. I can't prove it, but
Speaker 3: that seems to be the theory, and I don't think
Speaker 3: the French denied it. And so these concerns about foreign
Speaker 3: nations having some sort of ability to terminate the lethality
Speaker 3: of the weapons you may purchase remotely if it doesn't
Speaker 3: suit their interest. Where that weapon is heading is not new.
Speaker 3: It is not new. And anything the French could have
Speaker 3: done back in the was it the nineteen eighties, I
Speaker 3: think early eighties, wasn't it fuclans. I'd imagine the Chinese
Speaker 3: can do to a power of ten today. Back to
Speaker 3: calls Pat, good afternoon, Yeah.
Speaker 12: Good afternoon. I know that with the mv's tunnel and
Speaker 12: anyone that's stuck there and blocked and all that kind
Speaker 12: of scenario. You know, my heart goes out to you.
Speaker 12: I've just come past General Homes driving. They've clothes off
Speaker 12: the southbound going in there. So there's a big intermodal
Speaker 12: as you know at Port Botany. So all those trucks
Speaker 12: now are going down towards the stuff and using all
Speaker 12: the side streets. So traffic management and control have closed
Speaker 12: off that. What they should be doing now is going
Speaker 12: to any of the ride works that are happening on
Speaker 12: arterial roads, small arterial roads that are closing off lanes.
Speaker 12: They should close the work off, get those people that
Speaker 12: are doing the work and just say listen, you've got
Speaker 12: to get off because you know the traffic's banking up
Speaker 12: and you know it's just flooding the streets. It's like
Speaker 12: a rain deluge of traffic. And then when you go
Speaker 12: down the side streets to go where you need to
Speaker 12: go to, they've got traffic lanes closed off because people
Speaker 12: are doing works on the side of the streets. But
Speaker 12: you know, repairing a pothole or doing something. So the
Speaker 12: traffic management needs to say drive down there and go listen,
Speaker 12: close the works off. We need all the lanes open
Speaker 12: so all this traffic can get through. It's no use
Speaker 12: just closing off the tunnel and expect all the traffic
Speaker 12: bed to go downside streets and backstreets and other small
Speaker 12: arterial roads because then there's works going on there. So
Speaker 12: all those works programs should be covered up, go off
Speaker 12: the road so people can use the roads. And that company,
Speaker 12: if they're liable for the incident that's happened, they should
Speaker 12: reimburse in those companies that have to shut down their
Speaker 12: program work.
Speaker 3: That's an interesting I understand what you're saying, Pat. I
Speaker 3: appreciate the call that's an interesting point of view. You've
Speaker 3: just been around there, you're seeing what's happening. Obviously, you're
Speaker 3: closed down a main arteria like the M five east
Speaker 3: and westbound. At the time being, you are going to
Speaker 3: have all the traffic disperse elsewhere, and so a lot
Speaker 3: of them will be following their SAT nabs and instructions
Speaker 3: and whatever, and if they're going into roads that have
Speaker 3: existing roadworks, then that will only exacerbate the situation on
Speaker 3: those terrestrial roads.
Speaker 2: I take your point.
Speaker 3: Look how practical it is to just shut down the
Speaker 3: works that maybe some of them are based off safety
Speaker 3: issues that need immediate rectification. I don't know, but I
Speaker 3: understand what you're saying. One three one eight seven three.
Speaker 3: Thank you for the call. By the way, read the
Speaker 3: M five crane crash in the tunnel. I'm told that
Speaker 3: you can now see some of the pictures of what's
Speaker 3: happened if you go to two GB dot com. So
Speaker 3: we've tried to paint a picture for you, but you
Speaker 3: can go and see the real thing yourself.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: Just go to t GB dot com some images there
Speaker 3: and you'll get a real sense of the scale of
Speaker 3: the situation which is facing the emergency services and the
Speaker 3: engineers and everybody else who are going to have to
Speaker 3: try it somehow and obviously confined environment, get this crane
Speaker 3: back up onto its tires and somehow get it out
Speaker 3: of there. And when you look at it from a
Speaker 3: practical point of view, it does look like it's going
Speaker 3: to take a long time and will.
Speaker 2: Be very difficult.
Speaker 3: You've got that issue, You've got the oil on the bitumen, damages,
Speaker 3: damage to the side panels, the sprinkler system and the
Speaker 3: safety system a critical component of course, everything involved in
Speaker 3: the mix. It's a real mess down there on the
Speaker 3: M five tunnel. Let's all the rest of the use
Speaker 3: of course thereon Mars standing by high erin.
Speaker 13: Hello there, Michael. And the M five East Tunnel will
Speaker 13: remain closed for some time after a crane tipped, tearing
Speaker 13: through the wall panels and a pipe. The sprinkler system
Speaker 13: needs to be repaired before cars are allowed through. Aaron
Speaker 13: Patterson has told a Victorian court of her distrust in doctors,
Speaker 13: as she admitted she was never diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
Speaker 13: Unions say a three and a half percent pay rise
Speaker 13: for workers on minimum and award wages will have flow
Speaker 13: on benefits for small businesses, but businesses say it's hard
Speaker 13: to swallow because it's an extra cost, and the annual
Speaker 13: Emergency Services Blood Drive is launching in Sydney as stocks
Speaker 13: for some of the most common blood types sit at
Speaker 13: critically low levels. In Sport, England, players are using heated
Speaker 13: tents as part of their preparation the next years Men's
Speaker 13: fee for World Cup. It's designed to acclimatize the players
Speaker 13: to the expected hot and humid conditions they'll face in
Speaker 13: the USA and Mexico. And there'll be more news at
Speaker 13: two o'clock.
Speaker 1: On afternoons.
Speaker 2: Oh where they are, update, We'll be here to help
Speaker 2: in unexpected weather. Nurmain Insurance a help company for the city.
Speaker 2: Today in Sydney partly cloudy.
Speaker 3: In twenty are the temperature anywhere between nineteen and twenty one,
Speaker 3: depending on your postcode. Tomorrow's showers the top of just
Speaker 3: sixteen in town, maybe nine mil of rain that should
Speaker 3: largely clear away for Thursday, a sunny day in seventeen
Speaker 3: Canberra Today mostly sunny and seventeen Tugrinong is the same.
Speaker 3: Cloud clearing tomorrow, but all of just twelve and then
Speaker 3: minus three will welcome you on Thursday will warm up
Speaker 3: to a top of thirteen once that frost clears in
Speaker 3: the morning and a sunny day Lithgo gooday through two
Speaker 3: lt partly cloudy in fifteen for you today Orange bit wet,
Speaker 3: thirteen nineteen for Maudjy a little less wet, Baptist dry
Speaker 3: and seventeen katomber fourteen spring wood twenty Today Tomorrow possible
Speaker 3: morning showers there maybe one mill of rain for Lithgo
Speaker 3: nine the top and then anywhere between minus two and
Speaker 3: twelve depending on the time of the day On Thursday
Speaker 3: morning frost with then a sunny day to come, which
Speaker 3: sounds pretty nice. Speaking of Orange, by the way, report
Speaker 3: just through from New South Wales Police. They're appealing for
Speaker 3: information following an alleged assault and kidnapping at Orange. They
Speaker 3: say here that this happened last month around one thirty
Speaker 3: am Thursday May fifteen. A man was sitting inside his
Speaker 3: blue MG sit down on Maxwell Avenue, Orange when he
Speaker 3: was approached by three men. Police were told the group
Speaker 3: threatened the man with a knife before they assaulted him
Speaker 3: and forced him in the back seat of the car.
Speaker 3: The group entered the car, they drove towards Wellington on
Speaker 3: Burundong Way before forcing the man to exit the car
Speaker 3: and driving off. Now a fifty four year old man
Speaker 3: contacted emergency services. He was treated by ambulance paramedics before
Speaker 3: being transported to Orange Health Service for further treatment. He's
Speaker 3: since recovered which is good. But about six am the
Speaker 3: same day, so this is Thursday, May fifteen, Emergency services
Speaker 3: were called to Nanima Mission, that's Wellington following reports of
Speaker 3: the MG well alight. Fire Rescue New South Wales extinguished
Speaker 3: the blaze, however the car was destroyed. Officers attached to
Speaker 3: Central West Police District of commenceding investigation into the circumstances
Speaker 3: surrounding the incidents under Strikeforce Collingwood. As inquiries continue, anyone
Speaker 3: with information or dash cam CCTV vision about the incident
Speaker 3: has erge to contact Orange Police Station or you can
Speaker 3: get in touch with Crime Stoppers, the number being one
Speaker 3: eight hundred triple three Triple zero. One eight hundred triple three,
Speaker 3: triple zero. But aside from the whole situation again knives
Speaker 3: allegedly involved. We're keeping told we're getting knife crime under control.
Speaker 3: There some disturbing stories coming out this morning about some
Speaker 3: incidents involving knives allegedly and here's another one, so clearly
Speaker 3: there is still it seems a problem with knives in
Speaker 3: the community.
Speaker 2: It is twenty five to two. We'll talk health after this. Great.
Speaker 3: Have you with us any further update on the M
Speaker 3: five either westbound or eastbound?
Speaker 2: I'll bring it to you as soon as I know.
Speaker 2: It's twenty to two. Who scoon full.
Speaker 1: Of sugar helps them?
Speaker 13: Lex go dun.
Speaker 14: Leic, go down, go down?
Speaker 1: Just a spoon full of sugar held a most delayedful
Speaker 1: well on afternoons talking health?
Speaker 2: Okay, now, let me ask you this.
Speaker 3: How many times a day do you find yourself looking
Speaker 3: down at your phone or leaning forward while you work
Speaker 3: on a computer or a laptop device something like that.
Speaker 3: It turns out more assies are finding themselves with what
Speaker 3: they call tech neck. It's kind of a catchy name
Speaker 3: as it sounds a tech related neck problem. Prolonged periods
Speaker 3: of working or looking at screens. It has affected individual's posture,
Speaker 3: and it seems it could actually have long term effects. Now,
Speaker 3: the average person spends three hours and fifteen minutes or
Speaker 3: more on their devices that's daily, while others who may
Speaker 3: rely on technology for their work are spending up to
Speaker 3: eight hours on top of that during your standard work day,
Speaker 3: so it's the majority of the waking hours for some
Speaker 3: people spent staring at a screen of sorts. Now, that
Speaker 3: generally affects your posture, and so the health specialists are
Speaker 3: waving some warning flags here because if people don't act now,
Speaker 3: it could have prolonged effects down the line, so much
Speaker 3: so that it's becoming the fourth leading cause of disability.
Speaker 3: Just think about that now. The question, therefore, is how
Speaker 3: can we prevent these issues from turning from what is
Speaker 3: already bad to worse. Well, let's turn to the people
Speaker 3: who know a bit more about this than we do.
Speaker 3: Helen Gents is the CEO of Muscular Scleito Health Australia. Obviously,
Speaker 3: hence the name suggests they know a bit about this.
Speaker 3: And Helen's with me on the line. Helen, thank you
Speaker 3: for your time. I appreciate it.
Speaker 15: Him Michael, how are you.
Speaker 2: I'm all right.
Speaker 3: I try to avoid the technology as much as possible,
Speaker 3: but you can't. You can't wipe it away from your life.
Speaker 3: It's the nature of the way we live these days.
Speaker 2: So just how bad a problem is this? This technic?
Speaker 2: What are you seeing?
Speaker 15: Well, Michael, I think you pointed out it's the fourth
Speaker 15: leading cause of disability globally at the moment. But a
Speaker 15: really good point around muscular scletal disease, or as they
Speaker 15: call MSDS, is that back pain is actually the leading
Speaker 15: cause of disability globally, and it's also the leading cause
Speaker 15: of early retirement globally. So muscular scaletal health is such
Speaker 15: an important thing that is often overlooked in a lot
Speaker 15: of our health literature, a lot of the health priorities
Speaker 15: that our government has, and it is so very important
Speaker 15: to your overall health because, as you noted, these sorts
Speaker 15: of things can actually have really bad long term impacts
Speaker 15: with other comorbidities, and I'm talking cardiovascular dive. If you
Speaker 15: don't have good muscular scaletal health, you can actually be
Speaker 15: in pretty big trouble.
Speaker 3: All right, let's just unpack that then. Okay, So someone
Speaker 3: spends eleven hours a day, let's say, bent over a
Speaker 3: laptop or a screen, and then they spend the rest
Speaker 3: of the time swiping left and right on dating apps,
Speaker 3: and they're scrolling up and down on TikTok. Their whole
Speaker 3: life has spent hunched over a device. How does that
Speaker 3: then get you to a point where other comobilities become
Speaker 3: particularly problematic.
Speaker 15: Well, it's things like when you have muscular skeletal conditions
Speaker 15: like as you said, the newly coined tech neck. What
Speaker 15: happens is your posture is adversely affected. Your movement, your
Speaker 15: ability to get around and just go about your daily
Speaker 15: activities without pain is severely affected. And when you can't
Speaker 15: move and be active, then there are those other comorbidities
Speaker 15: that come into play. Your weight can be impacted, and
Speaker 15: when your weight is impacted, things like diabetes comes into play,
Speaker 15: things like cardiovascular disease. So having good muscle, joint, bone
Speaker 15: health is so important to everyone. And as you said,
Speaker 15: spending you know, eleven hours most of your waiting day
Speaker 15: looking at computer screens, looking at telephones and having that
Speaker 15: adversely affect your posture and the way you can hold
Speaker 15: yourself and your muscle, bone and joint health, it's becoming
Speaker 15: a bit of a crisis.
Speaker 3: Michael, seems to be okay now with that established, I
Speaker 3: guess the obviouscustion is what do we do about it?
Speaker 3: I mean, yoga seems to stretch and flex your muscles,
Speaker 3: bones and joints. Having done it once, or twice rather poorly.
Speaker 3: I mean, is that part of the answer. I mean,
Speaker 3: I've read the other day that adults are being total
Speaker 3: some are being told to embrace tummy time, tummy time
Speaker 3: like babies, get on your tummy and put your neck
Speaker 3: up in the air, that reverse of technique.
Speaker 15: Well, I think, I think, as you rightfully point out,
Speaker 15: prevention is really important. So limiting your tech time is
Speaker 15: a good start. But obviously a lot of us can't
Speaker 15: do that for work, for all other commitments that we have.
Speaker 15: So there are some simple things we can start to
Speaker 15: introduce with our everyday activities. Ever heard about chair based exercise, Michael,
Speaker 15: I have yeap. Chair based exercise is a great way
Speaker 15: to think about moving differently. Think about your posture, think
Speaker 15: about moving your arms, your legs, all's while seated, and
Speaker 15: you can do that in front of your computer. So
Speaker 15: introducing movement like that throughout your day where you have
Speaker 15: that break from looking at your screen, looking at your
Speaker 15: telephone and doing some really simple movements. And I'll do
Speaker 15: a plug for us here, Michael. On our free YouTube channel,
Speaker 15: we have a series of great share based workouts that
Speaker 15: people can access whenever they want. From a five minute
Speaker 15: workout to a thirty minute workout, and they're a really
Speaker 15: good way during a work day to just keep yourself moving.
Speaker 2: Okay, so check out that YouTube link.
Speaker 3: Okay, So I mean I wonder if we've got to
Speaker 3: look at this a little bit, be a bit more
Speaker 3: conscious like we are when we go on a flight.
Speaker 3: You know, you sit down in an economy and you're
Speaker 3: cooped up there like a battery hen we're told be
Speaker 3: careful of DVT, get up, move around occasionally, do those
Speaker 3: chair based exercises to get the blood pumping, the muscles moving,
Speaker 3: and that sort of drilled into you when you get
Speaker 3: on the long haul flight. I suppose these same messages
Speaker 3: haven't been drilled into us when we go for a
Speaker 3: long haul tech session at work, followed by all the
Speaker 3: social media you're at.
Speaker 15: Home exactly you've spot on, absolutely spot on. And this
Speaker 15: is what I was saying about the fact that muscular
Speaker 15: ski legal health has to become an absolute top health priority.
Speaker 15: People need to be aware of how moving regularly, from
Speaker 15: simple things like share based exercise to walking around the block,
Speaker 15: just moving. If you don't like walking or walking's too painful,
Speaker 15: think about some warm water exercises. Get yourself off to
Speaker 15: one of the many pools around the cities that offer
Speaker 15: warm water exercises. They're great for your muscular skillegal health
Speaker 15: and to keep moving and just be active, and that's
Speaker 15: the fundamental part of prevention and keeping good good muscle
Speaker 15: and bone and joint health.
Speaker 2: All right, let me.
Speaker 3: Ask you this about from an employer point of view,
Speaker 3: because they've got duties of care here. I mean, it's
Speaker 3: the role and they're paying people to do the role
Speaker 3: in and being hunched over a screen all the time,
Speaker 3: I suppose a legal duty of care that comes into play.
Speaker 2: So we're speaking of chairs earlier.
Speaker 3: Some workplaces have spent some money on quality chairs, standing desks,
Speaker 3: these sort of things for their office based teams. But
Speaker 3: do they need to go further?
Speaker 2: Do you think?
Speaker 15: What I would say first up is I'm not a clinician,
Speaker 15: so I'm not coming at this from a clinical perspective,
Speaker 15: but from an employer's perspective. I think anything that you
Speaker 15: introduce into the workplace you have to ensure has a
Speaker 15: solid evidence base to it, because there are a lot
Speaker 15: of things out on the market and a lot of
Speaker 15: people touting things that don't have the qualifications that they need.
Speaker 15: To have to tout solutions to muscular skeletal pain or
Speaker 15: to ensure muscular scleedal health. I think what you need
Speaker 15: to do as an employer is make sure you are
Speaker 15: looking at the research behind what is being presented to
Speaker 15: you and making sure that is clinical and evidence based,
Speaker 15: hopefully with some significant clinical trials behind it, and that
Speaker 15: what you're implementing your team is understanding why you're doing it,
Speaker 15: what it's going to do for their muscular skeletal health,
Speaker 15: and how it can actually make them more productive. Because
Speaker 15: you've got to admit, Michael, if staff is feeling a
Speaker 15: bit of pain during the day because they've been sitting
Speaker 15: too long, or their necks a bit because they've been
Speaker 15: looking at a screen, surely making them feel better in
Speaker 15: terms of their muscular skeletal health is going to improve
Speaker 15: their productivity as well. So it's a win win.
Speaker 3: They can be a pain, You're quite right, But I
Speaker 3: shouldn't say I try to buy their love with cakes
Speaker 3: and things. I assume that's not the sort of rectification
Speaker 3: you had in mind.
Speaker 16: Probably not.
Speaker 15: I'm a big fan of cakes, I can tell you.
Speaker 15: But you've raised another really good point that it's not
Speaker 15: only exercise. It's also nutrition that's really important in this
Speaker 15: and there are a lot of foods that you can
Speaker 15: actually eat that help your muscular scaletal health. And once
Speaker 15: again another plug head to our website. We've got many
Speaker 15: recipes free once again on our website that help with
Speaker 15: lowering inflammation, help with improving bone density, all of those
Speaker 15: sorts of things, and they're actually really.
Speaker 2: Delicious donuts on that list.
Speaker 15: No, but I might work on that for you, might
Speaker 15: see what I can come up with.
Speaker 2: You do something there that'd be wonderful. Helen. I appreciate
Speaker 2: your time. Thank you so much.
Speaker 15: Thanks Froch.
Speaker 4: I'll have a good afternoon you.
Speaker 3: Too, Helen Jensen said, see of musculo skeletal Health Australia.
Speaker 3: It's an important issue. It's only going to become more important.
Speaker 3: We've got to deal with it. And maybe indeed you're
Speaker 3: already dealing with it in your own way. But as
Speaker 3: we go to the break, maybe we should all, if
Speaker 3: we're in our chairs, we should all just do the
Speaker 3: YMCA moves or something and just limber up a little bit.
Speaker 3: And I just spoken to Hell and I'm noticing there's
Speaker 3: a bit of pain in the back and whatever. This
Speaker 3: wouldn't be the first time I've been described as a
Speaker 3: pain in the neck or the back. But anyway, it's
Speaker 3: ten to two people wondering about that YouTube site for
Speaker 3: tech nick. I think if you just stick into the
Speaker 3: YouTube search ready sit move six the number six, Ready
Speaker 3: set move, then the number six, you should get the
Speaker 3: relevant video. That's what I've got here, and there's a
Speaker 3: bunch of people doing their exercises.
Speaker 2: It looks pretty good. Just to repeat the news about
Speaker 2: the five.
Speaker 3: Now, obviously the eastbound tunnel is still a mess, but
Speaker 3: one westbound lane has reopened in the M five East Tunnel.
Speaker 3: So one westbound lane has reopened, but all the eastbound
Speaker 3: lanes remain closed. Due to a crane crash inside the tunnel,
Speaker 3: the motorway was closed in both directions, but one westbound
Speaker 3: lane has reopened. We'll keep you up to date with
Speaker 3: any further developments there.
Speaker 2: Just before we get to the two o'clock news've got
Speaker 2: to ask you about Aldi.
Speaker 3: By the way, I've got a press release here saying
Speaker 3: that they've just opened their six hundredth store in Australia.
Speaker 3: Now I find that kind of surprising. I know, Aldi
Speaker 3: have a pretty decent footprint, but six hundred Aldi's seems
Speaker 3: a rather significant number, doesn't it. So this is open
Speaker 3: in right in the act it opened on Saturday. It's
Speaker 3: number six hundred and as they say, they entered the
Speaker 3: market here in Australia in two thousand and one two
Speaker 3: stores I think it was Marrickville and there was one
Speaker 3: near Bankstown Airport, wasn't there Sydney. From two thousand and
Speaker 3: one to twenty twenty five, they've gone from two stores
Speaker 3: to six hundred and they claim I can't verify this,
Speaker 3: there's an asterisk. I've got to read the fine print,
Speaker 3: but they claim eighty eight percent of the nation's population
Speaker 3: now lives within twenty kilometers of an Aldi store. Now,
Speaker 3: I don't know too many people that will drive twenty
Speaker 3: kilometers in one direction if you're in the city anyway,
Speaker 3: to go and visit a supermarket, but a lot of
Speaker 3: people go. I mean I go to Aldi a lot,
Speaker 3: not for everything, but for certain things. I think the
Speaker 3: cheese is pretty good. I love the chocolate. I love
Speaker 3: the chocolate. I just don't tell my pre just guessed that.
Speaker 3: And you know, some of the Center Isle stuff's kind
Speaker 3: of good. Some of the bread's all right, don't tend
Speaker 3: to buy too much meat and veg from Aldi. But
Speaker 3: the berries ck generally the grape, so I mean, yeah,
Speaker 3: you can pick and choose what you want. But the
Speaker 3: whole thing about having to pack your own groceries was
Speaker 3: introduced by Aldi first. I think they had that, I
Speaker 3: think before the self service checkouts at Wollies and Colds.
Speaker 2: I might be wrong.
Speaker 3: That's been part of the Aldi business model for a
Speaker 3: long time and it's taken some people a long time
Speaker 3: to get used to it, including someone who's at my
Speaker 3: local Audi the other day winging complaining about it.
Speaker 2: But anyway, they're now at six hundred. News is up.
Speaker 1: Next now onto GB and network stations, back to afternoons
Speaker 1: with Michael McLaren.
Speaker 3: All right to our number three, thank you for your company,
Speaker 3: just repeating that news that came through from Steve there.
Speaker 3: In traffic, all westbound lanes have reopened in the M
Speaker 3: five East Tunnel, but all eastbound lanes remain closed due
Speaker 3: to that pane crash inside the tunnel. The image is
Speaker 3: upon two GB dot com. A lot of people saying
Speaker 3: don't we have things about overheights. My understanding is the
Speaker 3: crane was not over height. This isn't an overheight issue.
Speaker 3: That's my understanding. This is a rollover. It doesn't seem
Speaker 3: as though any over height detector was activated or any
Speaker 3: damage to the roof of the tunnel per se. From
Speaker 3: what I can see side panels. Yes, and the crane
Speaker 3: has rolled on its left, I believe, but I don't
Speaker 3: think I might be wrong, but I don't believe there's
Speaker 3: anything to do with an over height vehicle at this stage.
Speaker 3: But just repeating the news. All westbound lanes have reopened
Speaker 3: in the M five East tunnel. However, all eastbound lanes
Speaker 3: remain closed due to that crane crash inside the tunnel.
Speaker 2: We have no.
Speaker 3: Idea when the eastbound lanes will reopen. People writing to
Speaker 3: me off ere suggesting that is going to be a
Speaker 3: long time coming.
Speaker 2: In fact, Gary's just called through. So, Gary, you were
Speaker 2: stuck in the tunnel, were you?
Speaker 9: Yeah? I was so.
Speaker 2: Were you heading westbound?
Speaker 11: Now?
Speaker 17: I was heading eastbound fairly early into the incident, I guess.
Speaker 2: So let me ask you. How did you get out?
Speaker 2: Because the tunnel still closed.
Speaker 17: I had to reverse out. So after a while the
Speaker 17: police came down and said to everybody they'll be reversing out. Obviously,
Speaker 17: the big B doubles couldn't do it, so they stayed
Speaker 17: on one side and motorius and generally anything small was
Speaker 17: just reversing out. But that was about an hour and
Speaker 17: a half after it all started.
Speaker 3: Seeing there for about ninety minutes or so.
Speaker 9: It's part of it.
Speaker 17: Yeah. But the thing that I want to mention on radio,
Speaker 17: I don't know if it's been mentioned already, is as
Speaker 17: a private contractor, you've got to do risk assessments and
Speaker 17: work method statements for everything you do in life. And
Speaker 17: what I found in that tunnel was they say, tuned
Speaker 17: into the radio for announcements. So I did that for
Speaker 17: the best part of twenty minutes. Nothing came out of
Speaker 17: the radio, so you're thinking, well, what happen me up ahead?
Speaker 17: And then finally the police walked through and I said
Speaker 17: to one of the coppers, I said, while am I
Speaker 17: geting announcement over the headphones or the radio or anything
Speaker 17: like that, he goes on, communications is down. I went, okay,
Speaker 17: So I said in the book, just biding my time.
Speaker 17: And then after about an hour and a half, I thought,
Speaker 17: there's been no announcements, no communication except we will be
Speaker 17: reversing out at some time, and I thought the muppets
Speaker 17: that run that tunnel, there's procedures in place when an
Speaker 17: incidant happens, and that whole thing fell over today. There
Speaker 17: was no communication. If there had been a fire or
Speaker 17: a chemical incident or worse, nobody knew what was happening,
Speaker 17: and there was no plan in place and no communication.
Speaker 17: And for people that have to manage so many lives
Speaker 17: going through that title, that's disgraceful.
Speaker 3: That's an interesting insight that you were in there for
Speaker 3: ninety minutes. When you say there were no announcements. This
Speaker 3: is through the PA essentially that activates on radios.
Speaker 2: You go through the.
Speaker 3: City whistlink here and it says low down, traffick ahead.
Speaker 3: That's sort of a thing you say.
Speaker 9: Exactly right, yep.
Speaker 17: You've got an overhead displayed that says tuning into the
Speaker 17: radio or words to that effect. But there was no
Speaker 17: PA announcement either through the tunnel or over the radio.
Speaker 17: And the COPR I spoke to said your communications is doubt.
Speaker 17: I went, okay, well that's cool, but you guys are
Speaker 17: walking up and down the tunnel telling telling people that
Speaker 17: we're going to have to reverse out. But if something happened,
Speaker 17: if a car sparked up down there, what surprised me
Speaker 17: was half the cars were still running for an hour
Speaker 17: and a half. A lot of people turn their engines off,
Speaker 17: but if you get a car spark up, what's going
Speaker 17: to happen.
Speaker 2: Then of course, No, they're very confined and tight space.
Speaker 3: That is a concern. Gary, leave it with us. We'll
Speaker 3: put that to the relevant people and we'll endeavor to
Speaker 3: get an answer. I think you've raised a very interesting insight.
Speaker 3: I'm glad you're out, and I'm glad you're out safe,
Speaker 3: and I thank you for the call.
Speaker 2: Just hang on there.
Speaker 3: We'll just grab some details off here, just to make
Speaker 3: sure we can cross some t's and dot some eyes
Speaker 3: with the team out there as well. Gary appreciate that.
Speaker 3: One three one eight seven three.
Speaker 1: Now on afternoons, it's time to go traveling.
Speaker 3: Well, let's do it and for Tuesday travel today, we're
Speaker 3: going far out of Sydney. We're heading off to a beautiful,
Speaker 3: beautiful part of the world.
Speaker 2: It's known as Lord Howe Island.
Speaker 3: And if you've been there, and I have some family
Speaker 3: that have been there, they just rave about it. It
Speaker 3: is well it's sort of, what would we say today,
Speaker 3: instagrammable at the nth degree. One of the most beautiful places,
Speaker 3: most of the those beautiful natural landscapes of all of Australia,
Speaker 3: marine parks, flora, fauna, raret, the whole thing.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: The island was first discovered back in seventeen eighty eight.
Speaker 3: That was via a trip to Botany Bay on the
Speaker 3: HMS Supply and was claimed as a British possession back then,
Speaker 3: but thriving on an economy of Kentia palm trees, tourism
Speaker 3: then became the main focus of Lord Howe Island at
Speaker 3: the conclusion of the Second World War and since then,
Speaker 3: with the air travel and whatnot, it's flourished and it's
Speaker 3: been listed of course as a World Heritage Site of
Speaker 3: Global Significance because of the untouched nature of its forest landscape.
Speaker 2: It is, as.
Speaker 3: Anyone who has been there will tell you, a site
Speaker 3: to behold.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: Tim Maxwell is the vice chairman of the Lord Howe
Speaker 3: Island Tourist Association, and I wanted to have a chat
Speaker 3: with him. He's on the line. Tim, Good afternoon to you.
Speaker 4: Good afternoon, Michael. It's pleasure to be with you.
Speaker 3: You have one of the great jobs of the world,
Speaker 3: because no matter how gifted you are, you don't really
Speaker 3: have to do anything because the island sells itself right
Speaker 3: I does.
Speaker 4: Indeed, it's got a real natural beauty about it, and
Speaker 4: it certainly goes a long way into welcoming people of
Speaker 4: it to our little spot of paradise.
Speaker 3: What's your connection? How far do you go back with
Speaker 3: Lord how island?
Speaker 6: Well?
Speaker 4: I go back a decent ways. My parents are actually
Speaker 4: managed to buy a property there in the year two
Speaker 4: thousand and ever since we've been I was going as
Speaker 4: a kid in school holidays and then since then we've
Speaker 4: launched a few businesses over there, and I just completely
Speaker 4: love it. It's such a special special spot. It never
Speaker 4: never grows old on me.
Speaker 3: What's the population size?
Speaker 4: So on Lord howim? Because it's a World Heritage area,
Speaker 4: there's a maximum of only four hundred people that can
Speaker 4: live on the island at any one time, and then
Speaker 4: for visitors there's a maximum of four hundred people that
Speaker 4: can be welcomed.
Speaker 3: Okay, so one for one at any one time. There
Speaker 3: is the range of accommodation options available, that's my understanding,
Speaker 3: and they range from five star luxury through to something
Speaker 3: a little more simple, talk us through some of those.
Speaker 4: Sure, So I suppose on the island you've got an
Speaker 4: incredible array of different operators that take people on adventures
Speaker 4: and restaurants and things. But when it comes to accommodation,
Speaker 4: you've got a nice sort of varied amount of people
Speaker 4: that are putting on all sorts of different experiences, whether
Speaker 4: it be small sort of shock if you will, that
Speaker 4: you've got a really nice place to sleep, a kettle
Speaker 4: and a good sink, right up to real high end
Speaker 4: luxury where you know, you're celebrating the timeless nature of
Speaker 4: the place with you know, beautiful food and service and
Speaker 4: things like that.
Speaker 3: I think I think people I know stated I think
Speaker 3: the name was Capilla Lodge.
Speaker 2: It was that the Capilla.
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, indeed, yeah, Capella is a beautiful special.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 4: No, it's it's absolutely stunning. It's looking at the two
Speaker 4: really massive, beautiful mountains called Mount Galler and Mount Lichbird.
Speaker 4: And you know, I think one of the really beautiful things,
Speaker 4: whether you're staying in one of the high end lodgers
Speaker 4: or one of the more accessible spots, is that you've
Speaker 4: got this access to this unrivaled nature that is completely
Speaker 4: protected legally through World Heritage and then also through lots
Speaker 4: of different initiatives to make sure it always remains as is.
Speaker 3: Talk to me about some of those initiatives, because you've
Speaker 3: got this incredible piece of real estate there. World Heritage listed,
Speaker 3: incredible wildlife, not just on the island, some of the
Speaker 3: endemic I think to the island, but also obviously under
Speaker 3: the waves.
Speaker 2: How is all of that maintained and protected?
Speaker 4: Indeed? Yeah, I think first and foremost the government does
Speaker 4: an incredible job, whether it be in the waves with
Speaker 4: the marine parks authorities, or whether it be the Lord
Speaker 4: Highland Board which is sort of like our council, where
Speaker 4: they get funding and have coordinated initiatives to ensure that
Speaker 4: the environment stays. And so on the land, you might
Speaker 4: have the weed team, and the weed team has a
Speaker 4: pretty awesome job. They go exploring throughout the permanent park preserve,
Speaker 4: whether it be the mountains or the valleys, and they're
Speaker 4: finding a noxious species, whether it be weeds that have
Speaker 4: literally flown in over the winds or through just travel
Speaker 4: and things like that, and they will go in and
Speaker 4: they'll literally weed the mountains of the permanent park preserve
Speaker 4: and then replant native plants, so it's a pretty beautiful job.
Speaker 4: They go to some pretty incredible spots and at times
Speaker 4: they're dropped by helicopters. It's an amazing spot.
Speaker 3: Okay, those two mountains you mentioned, I guess they're really
Speaker 3: the iconic landmarks of the at one end of the island,
Speaker 3: and a lot of people, my understanding is do hiking
Speaker 3: when they get to Lord Howe Island. The vistas from
Speaker 3: up on top must be very very special.
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, absolutely. I suppose for a guided walk up
Speaker 4: Mount Gower, it's rated as one of the best walks
Speaker 4: in Australia. I think it's top five indeed. And then
Speaker 4: you've got self guided tracks and trails that can be
Speaker 4: enjoyed all time of a year. But they're particularly beautiful
Speaker 4: in the shoulder seasons because it's nice and secluded and
Speaker 4: you probably won't see another person. But it's of all
Speaker 4: sorts of abilities where you can really challenge yourself or
Speaker 4: you can for a really beautiful, leisurely fifteen minute stroll
Speaker 4: through the jungle.
Speaker 3: Imagine the shoulder season. What's the best time to visit
Speaker 3: if you sort of like to be a bit alone.
Speaker 4: Well, I suppose all times of year. You're only going
Speaker 4: to have a maximum of sort of one thousand people
Speaker 4: on the island at any one time. But there are
Speaker 4: particular times of year being September through till about before December,
Speaker 4: so September to November and then after after sort of
Speaker 4: January is over where you've got these beautiful shoulder times
Speaker 4: where it's not during school holidays. The weather is absolutely beautiful,
Speaker 4: the water is warm, and yeah, you've got this secluded
Speaker 4: nature to enjoy.
Speaker 3: It's not that far from Sydney or Brisbane. I think
Speaker 3: Quantas used to do the flight, but that's changed recently,
Speaker 3: hasn't it.
Speaker 15: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Indeed, yeah, there was a tender that went out to
Speaker 4: Broad Australia to see who would be interested in servicing
Speaker 4: the route from Sydney to the island, and Quantus has
Speaker 4: worked together with the successful applicant being sky Trans and
Speaker 4: they're going to do a code share arrangement. So you
Speaker 4: can still book your flights through Quantas or sky Trans.
Speaker 4: The frequent Flyer points and the lounge privileges will still
Speaker 4: remain if you're flying with sky Trans, the only difference
Speaker 4: being the operator will be our new sort of service
Speaker 4: in airline called sky Trans yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 3: Now I haven't been to Lord Howe, but I've got
Speaker 3: to get there one day. It's on the bucket list.
Speaker 3: Beautiful part of the world. But I've been to a
Speaker 3: couple of shall we say, remote or isolated places, islands
Speaker 3: around them here and overseas, and one thing that I
Speaker 3: do find is generally actually the food is very poor
Speaker 3: because they don't have the access to agriculture and farming
Speaker 3: and all the fresh produce that we do. They don't
Speaker 3: have greenhouses and then traditionally not traditionally advanced farming and
Speaker 3: pesti side and everything, so they don't get the range
Speaker 3: that we do. And you know, sometimes when the potatoes
Speaker 3: run out, well they run out.
Speaker 2: What's the story like on Lord.
Speaker 4: How Well, we're extremely spoilt in a number of ways. Firstly,
Speaker 4: you've got the incredible fish that are surrounding us, So
Speaker 4: you've got beautiful pelagics like kingfish, trevalley and tuna at
Speaker 4: certain times of year, and dedicated fishermen that take also
Speaker 4: guests out fishing with them catch these incredible fish. And
Speaker 4: then and then sometimes while people are dining, they'll be
Speaker 4: walking beautiful tuna or beautiful kingfish through the dining room.
Speaker 4: And then when it comes to produce and fresh ingredients,
Speaker 4: there are a number of beautiful gardens throughout the island
Speaker 4: where islanders will be making beautiful coslettice or herbs or
Speaker 4: these sorts of things, and restaurants will buy from the islanders.
Speaker 4: And then we also our family also have a business
Speaker 4: called the Nursery where we grow a lot of produce
Speaker 4: in glasshouses and greenhouses and in ground growing as well.
Speaker 4: So there's beautiful produce, there's beautiful seafood, and whatever we
Speaker 4: can't get we get from really great regional producers of
Speaker 4: meat and proteins. But actually, just just recently on the island, Lord,
Speaker 4: how lambs have become a thing. And I've got to
Speaker 4: tell you that the lambs that are beautiful.
Speaker 2: Just just on.
Speaker 3: Is there any tension ever between the weed team as
Speaker 3: you call them, and those that grow some of these
Speaker 3: obviously non endemic things like coslet or do they look
Speaker 3: at the greenhouses, We've got to rip those up.
Speaker 2: They're not from here.
Speaker 11: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Look, I think everyone on the island gets on in
Speaker 4: a beautiful way. We all live so closely the community
Speaker 4: on the island itself, where we're always rubbing shoulders and
Speaker 4: so whilst the weed team acknowledges that, you know, growing
Speaker 4: things is a necessary evil if it's to service beautiful
Speaker 4: restaurants or for themselves for good nutrient food, we all understand.
Speaker 4: We all get on and it's it's it's it's type net.
Speaker 4: But it's all beautiful and amicable.
Speaker 3: Just speaking of that beautiful amicable community, I mean take
Speaker 3: Norfolk Island where I've been. I mean, they've got a
Speaker 3: strong connection to the Bounty mutineers and then they came
Speaker 3: from pitt Can and were given Norfolk by Queen Victoria.
Speaker 2: And all that story.
Speaker 3: Right Lord, how it doesn't have that foundation story, does it?
Speaker 2: So?
Speaker 3: So who are the families? How's it all come together?
Speaker 3: For the four hundred that live there at the moment?
Speaker 3: Great diversity, I'd imagine what do we have a sense
Speaker 3: of their backgrounds and their stories?
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's there's an extreme colorful history, although a short
Speaker 4: history on the island, and you've got some foundational families
Speaker 4: being the Thompson family, the Wilson family and the Nichols
Speaker 4: and how they intertwined between each other over the years
Speaker 4: is never short of a story. But I suppose every
Speaker 4: decade or so there's a new layer of people that
Speaker 4: are either drawn to the island and live there to
Speaker 4: be a part of the conservation efforts or part of
Speaker 4: the natural history, or part of just island life. That
Speaker 4: might have fallen in love with someone and started a family,
Speaker 4: And so throughout the years you've got these incredible foundation families,
Speaker 4: and then you've got all of these subsidiary people that
Speaker 4: have joined over time that I think everyone's extremely proud
Speaker 4: to be there, and everyone's sort of just living in
Speaker 4: this paradise, pinching themselves a lot.
Speaker 3: Well they should be, because it is really one of
Speaker 3: the great inventions, sir lord how island When God got
Speaker 3: to work on that one on the day six or
Speaker 3: whatever it was, he did just out of interest. If
Speaker 3: someone's thinking, you know, sort of had enough of the
Speaker 3: rat race in Sydney or wherever I'm canber and you know,
Speaker 3: I'd like to live on Norfolk Island. I mean, obviously,
Speaker 3: the permanent populations kept at four hundreds. So when or
Speaker 3: how do any availabilities for permanent residency come up?
Speaker 2: It must be pretty.
Speaker 4: Rare, it is. It is very rare.
Speaker 2: So to be not a waiting list or something, What
Speaker 2: do you do well?
Speaker 4: There's there's there was actually an act, a legal act
Speaker 4: that got passed in nineteen fifty three that ensured that
Speaker 4: there would be a vibrant community living on the island
Speaker 4: at all times. And there's basically a rule that to
Speaker 4: be eligible to buy a house and live on the island,
Speaker 4: you have to have lived on the island for ten
Speaker 4: years or longer.
Speaker 12: And so.
Speaker 4: That makes sure that the people that are living on
Speaker 4: the island are there for you know, there for good
Speaker 4: if you will, And so the opportunity to buy land
Speaker 4: or to buy property comes up very very very very sparsely.
Speaker 4: So everyone's very lucky that's living there, that's for sure.
Speaker 3: Well, the Maxwell's clearly did the right thing of the
Speaker 3: right time. Well done to your aunt, Tim, and well
Speaker 3: done to you. Wonderful, wonderful job. Thank you for all
Speaker 3: of that. And I think it's probably just wet of
Speaker 3: the appetite of others to get there, even if.
Speaker 2: It's just as a tourist. Obviously, I appreciate your.
Speaker 4: Time, Thank you so much, thank you for having me,
Speaker 4: and have an excellent.
Speaker 2: Day you two.
Speaker 3: Tim Maxwell, very lucky man, Vice chairman of the Lord
Speaker 3: Howe Ireland Tourist Association, you may have been there. If
Speaker 3: you have, I'd love to hear your stories. Time on
Speaker 3: lord How Island. It really looks gorgeous. One three, one
Speaker 3: eight seven three. Will catch up with Clinton straight after this.
Speaker 2: It's that time of the afternoon.
Speaker 1: Time to find out what's coming up on Sydney.
Speaker 18: Now for the Serrato successor the turbo charged Kia K
Speaker 18: four kias on new small sedan GT line very unavailable.
Speaker 18: Now find out more about Kia's latest small car.
Speaker 2: Here he is Clinton Maynard. Good afternoon, Hello Michael. After
Speaker 2: three o'clock.
Speaker 3: This situation with the M five tunnel will still be
Speaker 3: an issue, obviously.
Speaker 19: I think it sounds a commun issue well into the evening,
Speaker 19: at least for in one direction. So we'll keep across
Speaker 19: that throughout the next couple of hours. We'll also look
Speaker 19: at the ins and outs of the FU Work Commission's
Speaker 19: decision today to increase them in the WAH like three
Speaker 19: and a half percent thirty two dollars a week. I've
Speaker 19: been having a look at what you can buy for
Speaker 19: thirty two dollars a week. About three beers.
Speaker 2: At the pub.
Speaker 19: You could buy half a case of VB if you
Speaker 19: wanted to have some drinks at home. You could buy
Speaker 19: eight cartons of Sanitarium so good Barista.
Speaker 2: Oat long Life milk for Woolies.
Speaker 19: If you want to go to the movies, you could
Speaker 19: go and see Liloh and Stitch at Blacktown Events Cinemas
Speaker 19: actually houst Cinema's Blacktown twenty six dollars and you'll have
Speaker 19: some change.
Speaker 2: You can't bring your kids because it's twenty dollars free.
Speaker 19: So if you want to chock top squoozed in there, no, no,
Speaker 19: you can buy a pack of Maltesers, but you need
Speaker 19: to do that at Woolies before you go into the cinema,
Speaker 19: just to get it under the.
Speaker 2: Thirty two dollars.
Speaker 19: Or you could use the M five five and a
Speaker 19: half times be stuck in a traffic jam, but at
Speaker 19: five dollars seventy eight you could have five and a
Speaker 19: half M five.
Speaker 2: Trips for your thirty two dollars.
Speaker 3: That gives it some context, my Joe, I think at
Speaker 3: three and a half percent, it's a fair decision.
Speaker 2: It's above in unions wandered four and a half in
Speaker 2: two and a half.
Speaker 19: Basically, and we'll speak with both sides about the program
Speaker 19: to day. It's the question will be what effect does
Speaker 19: it have on inflation? Okay, there's the question, but what
Speaker 19: are thirty two dollars a week buy you? But what's
Speaker 19: the inflationary effect? Is that planned to the RBA's decisions
Speaker 19: in the coming months on interstrates as well, we'll get
Speaker 19: the latest from the Coalition. They've been having a meeting
Speaker 19: throughout the day and Parliament has now set about their
Speaker 19: position on the workers' compensation changes at state government. Dairy
Speaker 19: prices are going up because the floods route will have
Speaker 19: around that and increasingly, whether you're a fan or not,
Speaker 19: more Australians are buying electric vehicles, but they're now encountering
Speaker 19: a problem.
Speaker 2: It's hard to get them fixed. Oh yeah, we've covered
Speaker 2: that many times.
Speaker 19: We're going to look at that as well, and straight
Speaker 19: shooters with that. Susan Temperman Holly Hughes. Today, Holly's actually
Speaker 19: cleaning out her office in Parliament House as her term
Speaker 19: is coming to an end. In the Senate, we're going
Speaker 19: to talk about cleaning out your office.
Speaker 2: Okay, what an interesting topic. Thank you. Clinton.
Speaker 3: Clinton is coming up straight after three o'clock. Just the
Speaker 3: other thing with the fair work decision is people have
Speaker 3: to also bear this in mind. Not everybody who's going
Speaker 3: to benefit from this is in a situation where both
Speaker 3: the husband and the y, for whatever the arrangement, is
Speaker 3: both on the minimum wage. I mean, we hear about, oh,
Speaker 3: it's thirty five dollars a week, and to cambuy you
Speaker 3: this can buy there. Well, let's just say hypothetically that
Speaker 3: the wife is earning the minimum wage doing whatever she does,
Speaker 3: but the husband's out there working in a very well
Speaker 3: paying job. Combined the income is strong, and so you know,
Speaker 3: it's we've just got to be nuanced in how we
Speaker 3: look at these discussions, and indeed, the Fairwork Commission would
Speaker 3: have factored all of that into the broader deliberation they
Speaker 3: landed on their decision today. But yeah, yep, sure there
Speaker 3: would be a number of circumstances where harby and wife
Speaker 3: are both on the minimum wage and so this is
Speaker 3: a great benefit to them. But in other circumstances this
Speaker 3: will just be a nice little learner on the side
Speaker 3: without necessarily affecting the weekly budget, as it were, one
Speaker 3: way or the other too much. It's horses for courses.
Speaker 3: After the news, we are again Aaron Margaret afternoon.
Speaker 13: Good afternoon, Michaels. We've been hearing a driver who says
Speaker 13: he was duck in the M five East Tunnel for
Speaker 13: nineteen minutes due to the crane crash. Says communications were
Speaker 13: down and motorists didn't receive any updates over the radio system.
Speaker 13: The tunnel is still closed eastbound. A man's been charged
Speaker 13: with murder after a body was found at Croydon Park.
Speaker 13: A twenty nine year old Malaysian man has been stabbed
Speaker 13: in his neck. The Fair Work Commission says stagnating productivity
Speaker 13: limited how much it could increase minimum and award wages.
Speaker 13: It's announced a three and a half percent wage rise for
Speaker 13: the nation's lowest paid workers, and the SEES has wrapped
Speaker 13: up its operational response to Mid North Coast and Hunter floods.
Speaker 13: More than seventeen thousand calls for help received, eight hundred
Speaker 13: and six flood rescues carried out. In sport, Formula One
Speaker 13: champion Max Forstappen has stopped short of apologizing for deliberately
Speaker 13: ramming rival driver George Russell during the Spanish Grand Prix.
Speaker 13: The Dutchman says the move was not right and shouldn't
Speaker 13: have happened. There'll be more news at three o'clock.
Speaker 1: On afternoons a finance update for Pretzel Wealth and finance
Speaker 1: for Trusted Financial Planning.
Speaker 18: Just Google Blake went to Pretzel.
Speaker 3: All right, let's go to Scott Phillips from the monthly
Speaker 3: Full dot com Dot you Scott. The minimum wage we're
Speaker 3: just discussing there with Clinton. It's going to go up
Speaker 3: three and a half percent. What benefit is this going
Speaker 3: to have on the average lower paid worker?
Speaker 16: Michael, Yeah, this is the key one, right. We know
Speaker 16: about twenty percent of Australian employees are covered either by
Speaker 16: the minimum wage or an award, and that's what this
Speaker 16: is going to apply to, So about one in five Australians,
Speaker 16: about ten and a half percent of the wager's bill.
Speaker 16: And that makes sense, right, because we're lower paid workers.
Speaker 16: The smaller percentage of higher paid workers make up a
Speaker 16: disproportionately large proportion of that bill. So of itself, as
Speaker 16: you rightly pointed out, now one's going to grow to
Speaker 16: someone on minimum wage, particularly after the last five years
Speaker 16: of inflation, getting a bit back inflation at the moment
Speaker 16: two point four percent, so a bit above inflation, which
Speaker 16: is kind of what we all are striving for. The
Speaker 16: real risk for inflation is going to come down to
Speaker 16: whatever copycat or flow and effects this has. And this
Speaker 16: is kind of setting off the you know, the next
Speaker 16: conversation they one has with their boss, what's a pay
Speaker 16: rise as well? The award went up three and a
Speaker 16: half percent, So boss, how about you give me something too,
Speaker 16: And that's kind of the biggest financial potential impact on inflation.
Speaker 16: Wherever wages are greater than inflation, you want to make
Speaker 16: sure the gap is made up with productivity gains. We've
Speaker 16: talked a lot about this over the past couple of months,
Speaker 16: maybe in a couple of years, and certainly the government
Speaker 16: says they're going to try and deal with this. But
Speaker 16: if you have wages that increase faster than prices and
Speaker 16: there is no productivity improvement, that must be inflationy. And
Speaker 16: that's the key one. So wages are important. And again
Speaker 16: for those people who are on the minimum wage or
Speaker 16: award wages, neither anyone's going to be grude some of
Speaker 16: an increase. We've got to make sure is that across
Speaker 16: the economy we are becoming more productive and we're covering
Speaker 16: those increases with more output, not just putting up prices
Speaker 16: and hoping everything goes away. That's how you get into
Speaker 16: that price wage spiral on the end.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 3: We were expecting to have a good opening to the
Speaker 3: market today. Did that come through?
Speaker 16: It did, and it went pretty well dipped again just
Speaker 16: after lunch, but back in decent territory at the moment,
Speaker 16: up four tenths of a percent. The your Lord's currently
Speaker 16: eighty six hundred and seventy three points. The AUSI dollar
Speaker 16: also higher by about a quarter of sixty four point
Speaker 16: six six USS.
Speaker 2: Wonderful. Thank you, scottppreciate that. We'll catch you tomorrow.
Speaker 3: Scott Phillips, their chief investment officer from the Motley fool
Speaker 3: full dot com dot you this just threw from police.
Speaker 3: A man will face court today charged with murder after
Speaker 3: a body was located at a home in Sydney Southwest
Speaker 3: yesterday just after five pm. Emergency services called to a
Speaker 3: home on Kembler Street, Croydon Park following reports of an
Speaker 3: alleged stabbing. You would have heard about this in the news.
Speaker 3: On arrival, officers attached to Burwood Command found the body
Speaker 3: of a man inside the home with the stab wounds
Speaker 3: to his neck. He's yet to be formally identified, however,
Speaker 3: Police believe he's a twenty nine year old man. A
Speaker 3: thirty two year old man was arrested at the scene,
Speaker 3: taking to Burwood Police Station before being taken to hospital
Speaker 3: for assessment. Police established a crime scene and detectives commenced
Speaker 3: Strike Force Buchanan to investigate the incident. The thirty two
Speaker 3: year old was released from hospital today before being returned
Speaker 3: to Burwood Police Station where he was charged with murder.
Speaker 3: He was refused bail and will appear before Burwood Local
Speaker 3: Court today. Just through from New South Wales Police. Lots
Speaker 3: of feedback about Lord how Island. Shari says it's stunning.
Speaker 3: She's been there twice. Interesting note from Brett. He said,
Speaker 3: I've never been to Lord how but my great grandfather
Speaker 3: was actually instrumental in establishing the hospital there, doctor Cedric
Speaker 3: Balker b owk Er. He volunteered his time when he retired.
Speaker 3: There are places still named after him. Loved the segment.
Speaker 3: Thanks that's from Britt good On. You're brittin glad you
Speaker 3: enjoyed it. Appreciate your feedback. While he says, my parents
Speaker 3: took myself and a younger brother to Lord Howe Island
Speaker 3: over Christmas nineteen fifty nine sixty and we flew in
Speaker 3: by Sunderland flying boat. It was an amazing thing and
Speaker 3: at the time I was just short on my twenty
Speaker 3: fourth birth. I've never forgotten it. Beautiful island, the Gray Nurse,
Speaker 3: sharks at Ned's Beach, everything there, he says, haven't forgotten
Speaker 3: a moment of it. Someone said, you forgot to mention
Speaker 3: the time zone, Lord how one hour in front of Sydney,
Speaker 3: one hour forward of Sydney. That's true, it is stan.
Speaker 3: What's your Lord Howe Island story?
Speaker 20: Good afternoon, Michael. Yes, I've got some great memories of
Speaker 20: Lord how You. Certainly you've brought them back. My first
Speaker 20: first time I went to Lord how was in nine
Speaker 20: and fifty two. Again I went by answered short. Someone
Speaker 20: had to catch the plane from Rose Bay at two
Speaker 20: am in the morning. That was the only way because
Speaker 20: they had to get the high tide to get into
Speaker 20: into land on the lagoon. Had a great time, and
Speaker 20: I returned some fifty five years later when I remarried
Speaker 20: my second wife on Lord Howe in two thousand and six.
Speaker 20: So and I can remember, of course, on the first
Speaker 20: occasion I was a lot younger then. Obviously, Pimon Mount Gower.
Speaker 20: It was inducted whour. It was not actually a tour,
Speaker 20: it was really a hike, but it was great but
Speaker 20: great memories. And I've got some great photographs of Lord how.
Speaker 2: Well, cherish those. Thank you for the cool stand.
Speaker 3: Actually, somebody else Ian's just sent me not here saying
Speaker 3: I spent my honeymoon at Pine Trees and Lord how
Speaker 3: back in nineteen eighty six. The food was a that's
Speaker 3: from me, and thank you so beautiful memories coming through
Speaker 3: one three one eight seven three.
Speaker 2: We'll take a break.
Speaker 3: When we come back, I'll catch up with Rowan Pike
Speaker 3: will repivot back to this issue of the tobacco excise,
Speaker 3: the Premier makers and pretty strong comments with Ben this morning.
Speaker 3: I agree with the comments. Something's got to be done
Speaker 3: about the excise issue. I doubt it will, but I'll
Speaker 3: speak to row and Pike and get his thoughts. It's
Speaker 3: eighteen to three. Thank you for joining us. We'll keep
Speaker 3: you up to date right throughout the day. On TWOGB,
Speaker 3: considering the situation on the M five East Tunnel eastbound
Speaker 3: obviously it's still closed. Westbound is now open again to traffic.
Speaker 3: It's going to be a while before this rolled crane
Speaker 3: can be rectified, let alone the oil on the bitchumen
Speaker 3: and everything else.
Speaker 2: Now, just back to this other issue of tobacco excise.
Speaker 3: Believe it or not, I spoke to my next guest
Speaker 3: just over a year ago to the day about this
Speaker 3: very issue, tobacco excise. Now, at the time, we knew
Speaker 3: the tobacco black market was growing and rapidly. Everyone could
Speaker 3: see main streets, every suburb, every town. More and more
Speaker 3: is tobacco shops opening up, despite the fact we're told
Speaker 3: fewer and fewer people were smoking. Just from a business
Speaker 3: point of view, it just didn't make sense. So something
Speaker 3: wasn't right. The accusation is many of them are selling
Speaker 3: illegal cigarettes.
Speaker 2: But not just them.
Speaker 3: I mean I'm hearing reports from you that you buy
Speaker 3: them from butchers and green groves. I mean all over
Speaker 3: the place people, And the story the other day, think
Speaker 3: about delivery services delivering illegal cigarettes. I mean, for goodness sake,
Speaker 3: they're everywhere now. Speaking earlier today and I was glad
Speaker 3: to hear it. Chris Mens, Premier of New South Wales,
Speaker 3: is on with Ben and he was talking. Since haven't
Speaker 3: listened to Chris Mins.
Speaker 21: My real fear here is a that this is just
Speaker 21: naked breaches of the law in every high street right
Speaker 21: across New South Wales. Secondly, you're asking, I think we're
Speaker 21: almost driving law abiding people who in every other aspect
Speaker 21: of their life follow the rules. The costs are so
Speaker 21: massive that they're being almost drawn into an illegal marketplace,
Speaker 21: which is not good public policy by any stretch.
Speaker 3: Chris Men's they're speaking with Ben Fordham this morning pointing
Speaker 3: out the obvious that these incredible hikes in excise year
Speaker 3: after year bi annually, in many circumstances legislator by the
Speaker 3: federal government as the catalyst to the problem. We see
Speaker 3: now there's a cost to all of this for legitimate retailers.
Speaker 3: Earlier in the day, Mark McKenzie phoned my program. Marks
Speaker 3: the CEO of the Australasian Convenience and Petroleum Marketers Association,
Speaker 3: So petrol stations and the like now they sell legal cigarettes,
Speaker 3: the ones with all the excites the tax, but it's
Speaker 3: having an effect because people aren't buying those anymore.
Speaker 2: Have a listen to Mark.
Speaker 10: Our service station businesses are reporting have been reporting declines
Speaker 10: between fifteen and twenty percent year on year over the
Speaker 10: last two years. It's out of control. The illegal cigarette
Speaker 10: just purchased everywhere and they are really cutting the lunch
Speaker 10: of those businesses that are selling valid products.
Speaker 3: I wanted to bring Rowan Pike in again. He's a
Speaker 3: former Australian Federal Police and Australian Borderforce officer. He was
Speaker 3: part of the team that created the ABF's tobacco strike Team.
Speaker 2: He's on the line. Good to speak again.
Speaker 14: Rowan, Hi, I'm Michael.
Speaker 3: We've been about twelve months between conversations. The situation's only
Speaker 3: got worse, and it seems at the federal level anyway,
Speaker 3: they just don't get it.
Speaker 14: No, but very glad to hear what your premier had
Speaker 14: to say yesterday and this morning. Someone gets it and
Speaker 14: he's got a big, powerful voice and hopefully that changes
Speaker 14: the rhetoric he does.
Speaker 3: Mind you being labor and the federal government's labor, it
Speaker 3: doesn't seem to matter. The man that really could do
Speaker 3: something about this, the man who holds the purse strings,
Speaker 3: the treasure of Jim Chalmers was asked, as you know,
Speaker 3: I think last night about this situation, about what Chris
Speaker 3: Min's has been saying, and he said, quote, tobacco excise
Speaker 3: is an important public health measure, to encourage people to
Speaker 3: give up smoking anyway. In other words, I'm not going
Speaker 3: to do anything about it. It's not making people give
Speaker 3: up smoking anymore. The only thing that's doing is making
Speaker 3: them give up smoking legal cigarettes.
Speaker 14: Right, that's exactly right. Perhaps well, I over fifty percent
Speaker 14: now of the market is illegal. Jim Charms as one
Speaker 14: of the people who is important in this argument, obviously
Speaker 14: the health minister, Mark Butler or the other and he's
Speaker 14: backed himself into a corner with his past comments saying
Speaker 14: that he won't change course. In fact, he's doubled down.
Speaker 14: But I was pleased to hear the Premier say that
Speaker 14: his health minister will be going to a meeting next
Speaker 14: week pleading with the federal government to change their policy.
Speaker 14: So I think there could be a number of health
Speaker 14: ministers across the country. I'll be saying the same thing.
Speaker 3: I think the Victorians are increasingly on board. So the
Speaker 3: two big states that have seen the light. I mean,
Speaker 3: this is an issue, isn't it a bit like immigration?
Speaker 3: The federal government control the inflow or whatever. It's the
Speaker 3: states that are left to deal with the mess on
Speaker 3: the ground. Here's you've got the federal government raising the excise.
Speaker 3: They're the beneficiary of all the money, but it's the
Speaker 3: state governments on the ground, with their state health authorities
Speaker 3: and state police and state whatever, having to deal with
Speaker 3: the crime that is flourishing before all of our eyes.
Speaker 14: That's right, And your premier doesn't want to be left
Speaker 14: carrying the bag being the open blame for the increasing
Speaker 14: crime problem on your streets. He realizes that it's going
Speaker 14: to take a massive investment in law enforcement to respond
Speaker 14: and to turn this chip around. And he's pointing the
Speaker 14: figure quite rightly at the federal government and they need
Speaker 14: to do their bit and take away some of the
Speaker 14: driver of this problem, which is clearly the excise.
Speaker 2: Okay, just on that.
Speaker 3: So, I think the sensible people in your top of
Speaker 3: that pile row and understand and agree that the excise
Speaker 3: is the catalyst.
Speaker 2: It's now the problem.
Speaker 3: It was certainly, without doubt beneficial in bringing down the
Speaker 3: rate of smoking when you made the cigarettes more expensive.
Speaker 3: A few people gave a lot of people gave up.
Speaker 3: It's now the point where it's I would argue, it's
Speaker 3: extortion really, and so it's now counterproductive. So what do
Speaker 3: we do? Do we freeze excise? Do we slash excise.
Speaker 3: What lever do we pull when it comes to.
Speaker 14: Excise, that's a great question. Clearly we need to freeze
Speaker 14: increases going and review where we're at. I'm not a smoker,
Speaker 14: so I can't tell you what would attract me to
Speaker 14: the legal market as opposed to the illegal market, but
Speaker 14: that needs to be reviewed. Research needs to be done
Speaker 14: with the smoking market with that card rate and actually
Speaker 14: go to them and say what price will attract you
Speaker 14: back to the legal market, and that's significantly less than
Speaker 14: what it currently is. But yes, we certainly need an
Speaker 14: excise to dissuade people from smoking, but it's just gone
Speaker 14: too far, especially in the last say five to ten years.
Speaker 3: Well, no one's benefiting from the status quo. Excuse me,
Speaker 3: the status quo and even the Treasury if he wake
Speaker 3: up in Cambrill, would realize he's now not benefiting really
Speaker 3: compared to what he was estimated to be benefiting. I'll
Speaker 3: just plan a little bit more of the Premier Chris
Speaker 3: men speaking with Ben Fordham here this morning, because of course,
Speaker 3: if we don't do anything about excise, the other response
Speaker 3: seems to be all we just get more and more
Speaker 3: health authorities in there and they can go and try
Speaker 3: to deal with this on the ground. Here's the premiere.
Speaker 21: Gone from seven health officials to I think about sixty
Speaker 21: health bureaucrats who are responsible for policing and launching investigations
Speaker 21: into illegal tobacco. But it's a bit like someone's standing
Speaker 21: on a beach trying to stop the waves. It's so
Speaker 21: massive because it's occupying every second shop in the street.
Speaker 21: I've got health bureaucrats who I want running hospitals and
Speaker 21: managing the primary health industry, conducting criminal investigations into tobacco
Speaker 21: because the excise is so gigantic.
Speaker 2: It's so huge. I mean premium means.
Speaker 3: As writers in Hero, you can't police your way out
Speaker 3: of this when you've incubated and created the problem and
Speaker 3: you continue to make that worse by hiking excise.
Speaker 14: Yes, I can pleately agree with everything. I'm in the
Speaker 14: serving fact, I think he's stole on my talking flights
Speaker 14: from my computer at some stage in the last few months.
Speaker 14: But yeah, no, and he's quite right. Health officials are
Speaker 14: not trained, equipped, powered, don't have the proper legislation to
Speaker 14: address an organized crime problem. It's a role for the plants.
Speaker 14: And even then, as he points out, it'll take large
Speaker 14: numbers of plays, So I think he's actually heading towards
Speaker 14: a significant request to the federal government for resources in
Speaker 14: order to do with the problem that they have caused.
Speaker 3: So often, the political response to any problem, though having
Speaker 3: created it, their answer is more money, but in a
Speaker 3: different direction to try to solve it without acknowledging they
Speaker 3: created the problem and dealing with it a source.
Speaker 2: But we'll leave that as a statement.
Speaker 3: Just finally, then, what do you recommend to all the
Speaker 3: political cadre out there that could do something about this?
Speaker 3: If you were running the show and you've got a
Speaker 3: great experience and longevity in this space, Rowan, what do
Speaker 3: you do? What do you do?
Speaker 2: Well? What do you And that might be more than
Speaker 2: one answer.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 14: Well, firstly, in relation of the exercise, the health ministers
Speaker 14: from each state need to band together and put pressure
Speaker 14: from that government to review and change that to a
Speaker 14: more balanced and meaningful level. We still don't have a
Speaker 14: national alicted tobacco strategy, so each state is doing their
Speaker 14: own thing. In relation to enforcement. Queensland and South Australia
Speaker 14: are well ahead of the game compared to News at
Speaker 14: Lars and Victoria at the moment and they are trying
Speaker 14: their best and it's yet to be seen whether that's
Speaker 14: going to be totally effective, but at least they're having
Speaker 14: to go. Certainly in New South Wales you've got the
Speaker 14: Parliamentary Inquiry is just starting to listen tobacco, so hopefully
Speaker 14: some sensible suggestions will be put forward at that and
Speaker 14: you'll be able to work out the best way going forward.
Speaker 3: Great to speak to you again, and let's hope if
Speaker 3: we're having a conversation twelve months hence we can have
Speaker 3: it with some solutions on the table.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Rowan, Thanks Mina well the best.
Speaker 3: Rowan Pike, former AFP and Borderforce officer. They're very, very
Speaker 3: connected to the whole situation about tobacco. He was one
Speaker 3: of those that created the ABF's tobacco strike Team. Let's
Speaker 3: hope the people that can do something about this are
Speaker 3: listening to him.
Speaker 2: I'll get all your.
Speaker 3: Calls on that tobacco is show tomorrow straight out at
Speaker 3: the top of the show. If you want to give
Speaker 3: us a buzz one three, one eight seven three, mind
Speaker 3: you of the number, because quickly before we go time
Speaker 3: for Track of the Day. I've got a double pass
Speaker 3: to the Sydney Film Festival on the line. If you
Speaker 3: want to go one three, one eight seven three to
Speaker 3: the Sydney Film Festival, here's your question. The acting legend
Speaker 3: Tony Curtis, if he was still with us, he would
Speaker 3: have been one hundred today. Can you believe it? He
Speaker 3: was born on June three, nineteen twenty five. Featured in
Speaker 3: hundreds of films, of course, But which nineteen fifty nine
Speaker 3: classic did he start in alongside the one and only
Speaker 3: Marilyn Monroe.
Speaker 2: Here's a little song to give you a clue.
Speaker 18: Hot town somewhere in the city getting burn credit, bend down,
Speaker 18: isn't it a bit?
Speaker 8: It doesn't seem to be a shadow in the city.
Speaker 1: All around people looking half dead are walking on the
Speaker 1: sidewalk in a matchairn night.
Speaker 13: It's different.
Speaker 3: Well, go on, all right, So Tony Curtis, he would
Speaker 3: have been one hundred today. In nineteen fifty nine he
Speaker 3: starting a classic alongside Marilyn Monroe.
Speaker 2: What was the name of that film?
Speaker 3: If you know one three, one eight seven three and
Speaker 3: you're off to the Sydney Film Festival, well that's it
Speaker 3: for us. Thank you Graham of Oberon, by the way,
Speaker 3: well done. The double past of the Sydney Film Festival
Speaker 3: is yours? The answer, of course was some like it
Speaker 3: hot the Sydney Film Festival fourth to the fifteenth of June.
Speaker 3: Get your tickets s if if dot org dot au.
Speaker 3: The M five East Tunnel still closed eastbound. Clinton will
Speaker 3: give you all of the latest