On two GB at network stations. This is Afternoons with Michael McClaren.
Good afternoon, thanks for being with us. The second last day of May. It is May thirty. It's gorgeous outside. If you're one of those work from home types, today is a pretty good day to do it. Go and hang out the Washington hang outside with a cup of tea for a while. Gorgeous, gorgeous day one, three, one, eight, seven, three, the open line numbers. We push through Friday and enter the weekend. Plenty of footy on and looking forward to seeing the Tigers play this weekend. Of course the new
South Wales girl the Origin series. They were defeated last night in Newcastle. It's always a good match. The caliber of the standard rugby league at the elite level in the women's part of the game is really extraordinary. If you haven't watched it, do it. It really is very very good. Now, what have we got for you between now and three o'clock. Well, a little later this hour I'll be speaking with a professor of urban planning from
the Western Sydney University. There's a lot of talkers, you know, headlines everywhere at the moment following the defeat of the proposed sale of rose Hill for development. As to where all of these additional properties are going to go, they'll pretty much be units. But where are all the units going to go? If you're not going to get twenty five thousand new potential dwellings in rose Hill, you're still
going to need them, where are you going to put them? Well, there was a master plan released the other day suggesting that we could really beef up the development at Sydney Olympic Park, and I think they want to call it the East Village or something like that. Another suggestion today, and a lot of this is coming from people with skin in the game, either connections to developers or whatever.
But also former planning officials now remove from the constraints of government, so they're free to talk as they want or as they wish. So there's another suggestion today that in fact, just around here, the old Fish Market site and spilling into this part of Piermont where I am sitting right now, is right for far denser development than the original governmental proposal. Now that's probably true, but all along the way, and that's just two examples, there's obviously
a lot of medium density six story units. This sort of thing going up all over the place, the north Shore, the inner West, everywhere you look.
This is infill is happening.
So the question is not so much do we need the properties the answers yes, The question is who is ensuring which body is ensuring that all the associated infrastructure goes along with it, Because the last thing you want to do is put in tens of thousands of new units in already reasonably heavily populated areas where the roads are already quite congested, the schools already pretty full, the
hospital's already under strain. Without adding to the school facilities, the hospital better availabilities, the open space for people who, because they're living in flat won't have backyards, the kids going to want to run around, the dogs are going to need someone to go and chase the ball. This they're going to have parking. There's a lot of things that have to be factored in dare I mention water
and energy availability. Now, I having spoken to a few mayors on this program over the years, they often tell me that they're under enormous pressure to sign off on the new developments. And when they push back and say, look, okay, we're not Nimbi's we're willing to do it within reason, But where's the money going to come from? Where's all the planning and all the gazetting for the schools, the hospitals and everything else, And they get two fifths of nothing.
Come back to those questions. That's when they get reluctant to sign off. And they're right to be reluctant to sign off.
So I want to.
Speak to a planning expert about how we can put all of this together so that we're not doing the usual Australian trick, and that is retro fitting rather than planning in advance, so it's cheaper to do the latter than the former. Now Alice will be here speaking of Really, we've got our Domain real Estate segment later this afternoon, and don't forget if you want a property valued, just get in touch with us or go off my part of the website and there's a special form there.
It's all there.
Just fill it out name and addressing this sort of thing. We'll get all of that info to the people at Domain, they'll crunch the numbers. We'll get you on air, we'll chat about the property. You can tell us a bit about what it's like inside and all this sort of stuff, and we'll get you a price range that's part of the service of the segment. So that's later this afternoon. Now we've also got one last chance to get into
the draw for that incredible National Wine Festival prize. I'll be drawing it out of the bottle as it were, later this afternoon. But there's one more chance to get in and hopefully, hopefully later today, I'll also get to speak to Warick Stacy. Now I've met Warwick once or twice, very impressive human being. He's now the one Nation senator elect for New South Wales. Pauline Hanson's team have done quite well. I think four Senate seats now for Pauline Hanson,
one Nation, one of them coming from this state. Warick Stacy, he's got in there and so I hope to speak to him later this afternoon if we can arrange that His military credentials a sound and we do need, as Patrick wrote to me earlier on the text line, we do need people with know how in this space to really push the government to bring Ford the investment that
is necessary to keep our commonwealth safe. So a figure like Warick Stacy in the Senate for that, if no other reason, I think will be in every Australian's interest. So we've got all of that and more. Stay with us one three, one eight seven three. By the way, news just coming through from the ABC that up to eight people believed to be from China have been detained by border protection authorities after reaching a very remote part of the Northern Territory coast by boat earlier this week.
I haven't seen any other details about this, but the ABC has been told the first six members of the group were discovered by local workers on Tuesday while walking near the remote indigenous township of Madin Grader. That's approximately five hundred kilometers east of Darwin, up in Arnham Lands and there's not much there. Another two men were picked up the following day by indigenous rangers before eventually being
taken into custody by the Australian Border Force. So far, I don't think they've commented on the operation, as the ABC reports, it's unclear where the group has now been taken, but a source familiar with the interception says the men were believed to be Chinese and had reached the Australian mainland by.
Sea before being detected.
Now, if my memory serves me right, this is certainly not the first incursion by Chinese nationals through these sort of routes. In fact, yes, late last year, the ABC reported on several suspected people smuggling operations involving Chinese nationals, including a venture which was disrupted by Indonesian authorities twelve months ago. So, for whatever reason, there's this appetite for some Chinese people to try to come here by boat.
Perhaps they're fleeing political persecution. Who knows what the story is, but it seems to be happening a little more frequently than was the case in the past one three, one, eight, seven three, just gone seventeen past twelve. Nice to have you with us now. Of course, we're all familiar with the old saying a fool and his money are soon parted. Well, it seems there's no bigger fool than the government. But the problem being it's our money that they keep parting with.
Now.
A report in The Herald just last night once again highlighting how millions and millions of dollars are siphoned off to indigenous related programs that are seldom audited, rarely effective, and often downright unaccountable, as Angus Thompson writes, according to a damning report from the Order to General, New South Wales taxpayer spent two hundred and twenty two million dollars on measures to close the gap, but less than half led to tangible outcomes for First Nations people less than half.
And the sad thing is I doubt many of you would be surprised, because we've been here before and often. In fact, eight or so years ago, the team of the Center for Independent Studies wrote a submission to the Productivity Commission's Review into National Prosperity, and it suggested some ninety two percent of indigenous programs were not evaluated. Inefficiency
was a hallmark of many such programs. Many were poorly targeted because they treated Indigenous people as some homogeneous blob, and unremarkably, there was significant overlap between the myriad programs on offer. Now, the paper that uncovered all of that was titled Mapping the Indigenous program and Funding Maize. Well, it seems very little expenditure photography has been done in
the near decades since. Speaking of mapping, and as the New South Wales Order to General report says, quote, some individual projects have established effective partnerships and are beginning to demonstrate positive results. However, governance arrangements do not provide adequate oversight of delivery. Now, in Layman's terms, what they're saying is the taxpayer dollars being wasted because no one's checking to ensure the rivers of gold reach those who are
in need. Now, look, I'm not sure whether all the findings from twenty sixteen still hold true, but back then, the Center for Independent Studies suggested the community of Tumola, and that's on the MacIntyre River, population three hundred, had something like seventy service providers delivering programs, which seems like an extremely generous ratio of service provider to resident. And it wouldn't surprise me if it's still the same story out there now, which begs the.
Question who's accountable here?
Who checks the efficacy of all of these services, let alone whether they're being delivered in a productive manner, and how many of the Indigenous specific budget is actually being spent on manpower instead of outcomes. Because tumul are aside. Believe me, there will be a small army clipping the ticket right up and down the food chain here and whether many of them are being held to account and forced to justify the merits of their offering, is anyone's
guess now? Sadly, for the many Aboriginal people doing are tough, let alone for the nation's international reputation. The vast majority of closing the gap targets, first set in two thousand and seven and then expanded in twenty twenty, have not been met. In fact, only scant improvement has been measured, despite billions of dollars being poured in. From indigenous employment to infant mortality year twelve attainment rates to average life expectancy,
the metrics are not on target. But when bodies like the New South Wales Order to General concludes and I quote the governance arrangements are not operating effectively and do not provide clear accountability for the delivery of national agreement initiatives.
Is it any wonder now? I know?
One of the key findings from a review done at the national level into all of this just last year, in fact, suggested too many in government and the public sector were reluctant to seed responsibility to Indigenous people and to take on board their views and experience from ground zero, as it were, Now, as Catherine Little from the so called Council of Peaks said at the time, quote government was still not meaningfully giving us a voice in the
decisions that affect our lives end quote. Well, unfortunately that's a truism of government, whether you're Aboriginal or not. But even when they do consult indigenous bodies and inability to agree on outcomes only Hamper's progress. Again, as the Order to General report concludes, despite agreeing to work collaboratively, the New South Wales Premiers Department of the Coalition of Aboriginal
Peaks have quote not formed a genuine partnership end quote. Now, as I've said many times before, until the very isolated and remote Aboriginal communities are closed and consolidation of populations is encouraged in larger town centers with the existing medical, educational employment opportunities, we're going to fail to see the sort of outcomes that one would expect considering the scale
of investment in this space. You know, hard conversations are needed here and leaders with a practical rather than paternalist mindset must rise to the fore See, all taxpayers, I think should be appalled appalled that half of the two hundred and twenty two million dollars recently spent on closing the gap in this state was found to have no
tangible benefit at all. But as I've said, it's but the latest chapter in a long story of misallocated, wasted and unaccounted expenditure by governments that seem to score their credentials in aboriginal affairs not by outcomes, but rather by the size of the check that they sign. A lot of feedback coming in on this Friday afternoon nights to have you there with us, by the way one three one eight seven three. The open line is open. You can keep the text coming zero four six zero eight
seven three eight seven three. Someone rather cheekily suggested those suspected Chinese nationals up Arnam Land Way might have crept out of the sub as it went around the coast. I'm not quite sure that was the way they got here. I suspect it was a boat that was quite discernible from above water. But I like your thinking a lot of texts about the population issue. It really is the big one, the one that's hot to trot, because it's going to affect everybody one way or the other.
Positively and negatively. I mean, we've got to be realistic here.
It's a lot of people that own homes but whose children and grandchildren don't and are looking at the market and saying, well, unless something really gives, they're never going to own anything. So, you know, even those that may suffer to an extent because their neighborhood is about to change and the quarter acre blocks are going to go because we're getting apartments and there's going to be more cars on the road, even they many of them understand that if we just sort of set and forget, that's
not going to help their next generation either. So it's a balancing act, okay, But that's what I'm saying in this whole maneuver. We've got a balance building new apartments with building the rest of the economy that is required to service them and the people that will be living in them, so that all the other metrics don't just.
Fall in a heap.
Now, a number of people on the text making the point that we wouldn't be chasing our tail as hard as we do if it weren't for the migration policy that we are running. And that is a very valid point. And I know as soon as you raise this, you're either accused of being racist or whatever, which is just ridiculous. It is simply numbers game. It's not the be all
and end all. But it's quite obvious if you pump prime the market with lots of would be buyers and you can't match that with develop then you are going to have an imbalance. And that's what we've got now. Brett on the text in for quite a few different Breats have texted. So here's Brett number one. He says, where are the billions of dollars gone over the decades for Aboriginal communities? If you divided up what has been spent to each individual, it'll be multi millions. Bureaucracy choose
up most of the money. Same with the NDS. No checks, no balances, just government money. Well it's not government money. Is tax pays money from Brett? Yeah, Well true, I mean the ndis they're now discovering Rohtz left, right and center. But you know, you build these behemoths unless you've got the requisite auditing in place, there will be a lot of people clipping the ticket and not delivering the service. Brett number two on the tech says, Michael, if I
can just throw him two, Bobsworth. In regarding the housing crisis, unless we review our current immigration policy, we'll never have enough affordable housing in the country. That's echoed by many other people. Miriam says, in relation to where in Sydney being rezoned, the council looking after areas around Strathfield Station, particularly between the station and paramatter Oro, there is a lot going on there, that's true. I think that would
be Is it Burwood Council? Is there Burwood Councilors? I think it is Burwood Council that would have that. There's certainly a lot of development there. Maybe it is Strathfield Roz. Thank you for your note, She says. Not only are our hospitals undergrades, strain with ramping and insufficient beds every day, but we're already unable to get through the traffic congestion to get to them. What would more congestion do to the area, was say twenty five thousand more high rise boxes squeezed in?
Especially without any more hospitals, We've.
Lost access to our services, lost the amenity of our communities, so that we can just have this big Australia that the average citizen does not want. True that's true. Now again, we've got to be rational. There are shortages in the economy, in the workforce for age care, childcare, a lot of these sort of sectors, and without migration, it's pretty obvious the average Australia is not going to fill those jobs. They don't pay well enough, the conditions aren't right, whatever.
So that's just the way it is. Now.
You can try to train your way domestically out of that problem and raise the wages and when, or you can just bring people in who are going to be willing to work for less and do the job. And it seems that the latter is where we've landed. So if we just shut the whole show down tomorrow, there would be a cascading and cataclysmic effect throughout the economy. But it's about getting the balance on the numbers right.
And I think I'd be speaking for many people when I said I don't think we've we haven't recalibrated that meter effectively. All right, let's just go to Tasmania quickly. Here you know, budgets left, right and center everywhere. But it's a story all over Australia. We're living beyond our means.
Tasmania's government. According to Matthew Denholm, who's the Appollisle expert at the OS, he said, the government will double state debt down there, double it while funding a new AFL stadium, an increase spending while running deficits for the foreseeable future. It's a liberal government, the minority, but liberal will allow net debt to further balloon from five point twenty six billion this financial year to ten point seven eight call
it eleven billion by twenty eight twenty nine. Now, that doesn't sound like a lot of money, eleven billions to the federal government, like you or me losing a twenty cent coin down the couch. But you've got to remember that Tasmania's economy is tiny. It's tiny, right, so eleven billion dollars in net debt is a lot of debt
for that small economy to service. Now, the budget, according to Matthew Denholm, allocates three hundred million dollars for a second power interconnector to Victoria, despite conceding in the budget that it may never eventuate. Well, even if it did, I mean, is there any guarantee Victoria will have surplus energy to send to Tasmania As we've discussed. I'd be
surprised if they can keep their own life. It's on littleone anybody else's By twenty thirty five, an extra nine hundred and forty million dollars to address the state's failing health system. It's problem all over the country. But this is going to be the controversial one, and it has been for years. The new treasurer, his first budget includes six hundred and fifteen million dollars for us AFL Stadium. Now, the total cost of the stadium will be just shy
of a billion. Now that's at the moment, so you can guarantee it we'll go to one point two one point three billion by the time it's done. There's a lot of money to spend putting seats around a paddock. It might be whiz bang state of the art, but you know, I mean, we've been through these discussions in.
New South Wales before.
You know.
The Allion Stadium is a fantastic facility, but it still cost taxpays about eight hundred million dollars or something.
There's a lot of money, a lot of money.
So you know, you can only spend the dollars once and I'm not convinced even though many of us enjoy that facility and it's an improvement on the old Sydney football stadium, that was the best way to allocate that eight hundred million or whatever it cost, is still I think an open debate in this state. But of course, the New South Wales economy is far bigger than the Tasmanian economy and to tip six hundred and fifteen million scarce Tasmanian economic dollars into a football stadium, to me
seems insanity. But anyway, it's up to the Tasmanians. They can vote which way they like. Anyway, the Treasurer claimed that the budget down there off at a quote sensible pathway to surplus. Well mate, sorry, there must be something wrong with your apicus. There is nothing in the numbers that suggest Tasmania will be heading to surplus anytime soon.
Just not there.
It's not there, So they're kidding themselves, but they, like most of the rest of the country, living beyond their means. One three one eight seven three the open line number.
G I there, John.
God imight you took the words down of my map? There been those hill and I thought you might as well get as they say, straight from the Horse's Mouth. I've been here about thirty years, mate, in that area, yep, and they wanted to flog it for five billion, and they reckon that can put twenty five thousand homes on it? Mate, if they put twenty five on No expert, but I've spoken to a couple of mates and this and the
building game they've been. If you put put two five thousand, five hundred homes on that.
Right of ops, John, I think your lines dropped out, mate. We'll try to get you back just so we can finish it. Whether it's twenty five thousand home slash units or whether it's accommodation for twenty five thousand people. I just want to double check that, because obviously that's two very different figures. Twenty five thousand homes that accommodate fifty fifty five sixty thousand people. I think it might be twenty five thousand people, which would probably necessitate I don't know,
eleven twelve thousand units something like that. I don't know, but I can guarantee you this, John, there'll be no free standing houses there. They'll all be units of one description or another. We'll see if we can get that line fixed. Thank you, mate, can I Richard, Hello.
Michael, Look, waste of money. And I just want to draw Malcolm Davis from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, public funded organization which has been around for decades, gives advice to governments of war persuasions about strategic but essentially they're about matter and in the defense force, Malcolm Davis is absolutely correct. The Prime Minister Albanez is absolutely incorrect and he's misleading Australians. He are hollowing out the defense defense
budget for a whole range of places. And I'll give you two things. Before the action last year there was a review policy which they're still sitting on, on how much Sapless defense land they want to sell to fund not to fund defense, but to fund there. They're drunken saloh seventeen billion dollars for students whose for students who have been subsidized for thirteen years on the public education system. And then a pair of three or five what about
the rest of the people. We're going to flood zone eight hundred kilometers up the coastline, and who's going to talk about diets to dams and other stuff to try and minimize that type of thing. But I want to come back to the defense. Malcolm Davis talked about the holing out of the AF of the ADF.
I go further.
If you read the late Senator Moland's book about danger on their doorstep, about the capacity industrially and commercially, we are about to commit one of the greatest administrative mal administration, I say, criminal decisions between the Men's government, Premier Men's John Graham and Paul Scully and Tims and others in the Attorney General in the sell off of Green Island
that day. Why shouldn't this concerns you and every person here in Sydney because once that's brow on that shipping operation, this is this has been charted by the Men's that he'll have a look at it now because he didn't get Rose Bay, rose Hill, so he wants to put a whole lot of townhouses on there. Well, here's here it is for you people and for the politicians. I'm not the only one read the report. There's the didn't review on Thursday, page three, a picture of the shop.
Everybody's opposed to it, the port tourism everybody.
Well just on that one, Richard, I don't think, well put it this way I've looked at it. From what I understand, it isn't yet going ahead. I mean, there's there's talk about, yes, we could convert that to towers and houses and take the commerciality away.
But I agree with you.
If you got rid of that, you're hollowing out the industrial core of your city.
Crazy.
Now they's oh, you we can just move it down to Port Kembla or move it to Newcastle or something like that. We'll bring it all in on trucks and trains, and but I think that's playing toy soldiers. I think what we've got to do is have some industrial base in the city, and that includes your concrete and cement
facilities and whatever that's already there. So the problem is, as you well appreciate, because we've spoken many many times Richard, as you know, we have this imbalance between the number of people wanting to live in Sydney and the ability to house them. And so you're trying to squeeze things in left, right and center. But at some point, at some point, someone in government's got to say, right, no more of that. We've got to keep some industrial work
in the center of the city. We've got to diversify the suburbs and the industrial footprint of the city. You can't just have a big housing circle and then have everything on the fringe. It just won't work. Thank you for your call. As always, Richard, it is twenty one to one. Will take a break. We'll keep this conversation of planning going after the break with an expert in
the field. All right, Well, now that the rose Hill proposal is dead, as we've been discussing, Crispin's and his government are going to have to find other ways to bring new housing into Sydney. That's going to be I think what they're measured on now they are elected with this push for more density across the city, something that many understand is required. But News Today suggests that a development at BLACKWALLLL Bay, just over the back here, the site of the old Sydney Fish Market as it will
be very soon, could see even more apartments added. Now the sites already you marked for twelve hundred apartments, this as part of a mixed use precinct or something, but that could become fifteen hundred because of the spill on spill through pressure from the Rosehill No go, that's just one idea.
There's also talk.
About adding more at Sydney Olympic Park and elsewhere. But as I've been saying, are we putting in all the requisite planning around just ticking the target boxes for more apartments. You've got to be able to have the water pressure available, You've got to have the electricity available, and beyond that, you've got to have additional hospital beds, public school rooms available for the new students that are going to be moving into the area. You've got to have provision for parking.
Even though they are closely aligned with public transport hubs, we know everyone's still going to have a car. This fantasy that people are only going to get around in metro trains and light rail, it's just that fantasy. It's not the real world. So you've got to have all of these things as part of the story. And a number of people that speak to me in this space say, we just don't have that whole story finalized. Well, I
wanted to turn to an expert who studies this. Sebastian Fouch is a professor of urban planning and management at the Western Sydny Universities with me. Sebastian, thank you for your time.
Hallo.
Michael Now just on that issue.
There's obviously enormous and it seems increasing pressure just to build apartments and try to deal with the imbalance between supply and demand in housing. But do we have the same urgency brewing below the surface to build all of the other things that I just described that are required to make life in those apartments practical.
You mentioned transport, and I think that's a very good point to start when you look elsewhere, how do other cities manage this kind of increase and their density. So looking at density in Sydney, we have about when you take Greater Sydney about five hundred, give or take five hundred people per square kilometers. You go to Paris or London and you find that they have more than five thousand per square kilometer, So there is a huge difference.
We're still very much flat and wide in Sydney and compared to that in the inner Sydney area we have twenty two train stations and you go to Paris or London. Paris has about two hundred and London has about ninety. Massive difference. That means people get around in a very different fashion. And yes, we have a great car dependency. The way that we Plan Sydney so far where we just added, you know, the new suburbs in the high
growth areas to the north and south. In Western Sydney, we now have all these people commuting because they're all car dependent, no transport there, and that means we lose about six billion, six point one billion dollars every year because people are sitting in their cars on average for a seventy minute commute. It's just crazy.
To do it.
That just to a drop, that's six point one billion. That's the financial equivalent of the lost productivity.
Is it? Yes?
Yes? And then on top of that in Western Sydney, we recently had a report coming out that calculated how much money we're losing because of the extreme heat in Western Sydney. Part of what we're studying, and currently we're losing one point four billion dollars every year because of extreme heat in Western Sydney, projected to be more than
six billion dollars by twenty seventy. So we are not only putting people in an area where they have long commutes where we lose a lot of money, but also in an area where because of the climate impact, we're having particularly productivity and health costs that are going skyrocket. We're losing again. And this is of course all funding. If you think of a city scale, this is funding that is not available to build new hospitals and new schools, and it's not a to build new roles or look
after our row network and build new transport options. It's really that kind of scare that we need to look at Sydney.
Okay, Now, the transport very important, as you've outlined, and that the equivalence with London and Paris is is certainly very telling. But equally Paris in London don't tend to have a lot of people living on cordaga blocks. We do, and that's one of the things that endears people to
the lifestyle of Sydney. I mean, if you want to go and live in a flat, well, there's a lot of cities around the work and live in a flat, but this is one of those great global cities where you can still have a block of land and have a small little lauchard out in the back and the kids can run around and kick a ball. And maybe that's why Australians punch above our weight in sport and all.
I mean there are great health benefits to that So I guess what I'm asking is is it possible to have your cake and eat it too?
Yes, that's a very very good question. And what's the silver bullet to solve that. I guess you have on your program talked already about the Nimby's and the indies, right, so not in my backyard, yees, in my backyard all of that. It's really difficult because you have a local affiliation with where you live, and if you live in an area that has quarter acre blocks, it's probably also
a very green area. You go out to western Sydney, your average lot size is now down from eleven hundred square meters or one thousand square meters for your quarter acre block, down to three hundred and fifty. So there's already this massive change that many many people don't even have that luxury anymore. We forget that, but for your
quarter acre block. The new South Wales government and our Planning Minister Scully has released about December twenty twenty three new regulation that allows you now to subdivide residential blocks larger than four hundred and fifty square meters. So this is now happening because these are the blocks where you have a nice big garden, and now you can chop
off the garden. Of course, the first thing that will go are the trees, so we will we will very much struggle to keep up with tree canopy cover that keeps us cool and green and nice. In a city that starts to densify where we only look at division, second house, third house on residential blocks, we really need to look at smart density, and that means vertical density.
There's no way, there's no way around it. You're quite right, there's no way around it. But it's got to be done right. And so near me there's a proposal to put all these towers up where the average house is probably one and a half stories high. As far as the eye can see, they'll stick out like for now, but you know, in fifty years time the whole area could look like Shanghai. So who knows, right, but for
now they'll look really strange. But as far as I'm aware, in the local mayors tells me that there's there's really no additional plans for additional schools or hospital beds or open spaces.
They just want to put the towers up.
That's where it becomes really important to look at the amenity that you provide, want to densify. There's a lot of work that the Committee for Sydney has put forward since twenty sixteen actually, so it's not a new thing, but they have talked about smart density or density that works, where you do have your eye at the beginning, not only at the towers, but at everything else that you need to provide as public space, as services and amenities.
But are we doing that?
I guess that's the point of this conversation from your expertise.
Are we doing that?
No, at the moment, I can't see that we're doing it properly. The new metro is great, we need five new metros to make this work really well. The densification that you see the TOD Transport Oriented Development released from the Men's government, where we have eight hubs where run in your stations in the radius of twelve hundred meters you will have identification. There are proposals attached to that that will give you one new park, or they give
you additional shopping opportunities. But the really important public infrastructure, the bigger library, the additional hospital, or new childcare centers are not part of these plans, at least not for my visibility that the problem that it's really the problem.
That's right.
I'm glad you confirmed that because anecdotally that's what I've been told. We'll keep the conversation going at another time. It's not going anywhere, as I'm sure you're quite familiar with, Sebastian.
Thank you for your insight. I appreciate it.
Thank you well the best, Professor Sebastian Fouch there from the Western Sydney University.
Thank you so much for your company.
You're so much feedback pouring in, Diane says Can Barns in the New suburbs at a love four hundred and fifty square meters blocks, we're down to under three hundred only trees on site of the small amounts on the government ground. That's from Diane. Paul says in the Padstow area, the oldest structures of the train station in the public school. We've got to build the infrastructure before we build the houses. Now, by the way, have a listen out when you hear this bit of music.
A bit of Elvin John and Mulberry Wine. When you hear that, in the next hour.
I need you to call that open line and you will be our fifth and final contestant into the barrel or the bottle or I think it's a box actually, and we'll be drawing the winner of the National Wine Festival Prize, one heck of a prize, accommodation and tickets, the whole shebang in the final hour.
But you'll hear that little bit of.
Elton John in the next hour when you hear it straight on that open line, and you'll be number five into the draw to win. By the way, Commonwealth Bank App customers, we're told there's a bit of an issue there. The bank's released a statement saying we're working to fix an issue affecting transfers from your accounts. You may be unable to make transfers between your accounts or pay someone using pay ID or BSB. An account number in net bank and the comm Bank app will keep you posted.
I think I said mulberry wine. I think it's elderberry wine, isn't it. Apologies for that.
News is next now onto GB and Network stations, back to afternoons with Michael McLaren.
Thank you, let's get into our number two. Nice your company on this beautiful Friday. Actually this is turning out second last day of May one three one eight seven three.
The open line number.
Just at the Bradfield recount, Giselle Capterian three votes in front. I think at one point yesterday she had a rather slender margin of one. So she's improved that significantly to three today at this point. But it's going to be very, very tight all the way through. Now, Look, I will profess the following topic. I have no expertise in whatsoever, but the team here suggested I raise this with you, not because you may have expertise, but we will branch
you will understand what I'm saying this second. We will branch this out into a broader talk topic about dating and heights. But there's a story here that says that Tinder, which helped popularize a modern dating culture that puts looks first. So the story says, now the app is trying out a new way to capitalize on This is a part of a test select Tender Gold and Tender Platinum subscribers. There's such a thing Tender Gold, and then there is
and then Tinder Platinum. It sounds like a frequent flyer scheme. Frequent something scame. Anyway, they'll be able to set a preferred height range for matches that they receive in the app. This is according to something called tech Crunch. The feature was first spotted by a Reddit user what Isn't who noticed that the option in the app's discovery settings was there. Okay, so the point of this is apparently tender instead of I mean, I don't know that you can filter I
suppose this, or that you like this. You don't like that, you know. But now there's a thing, apparently for the Golden Platinum subscribers, where they can put in a preferred height range. Was this something that ever sort of bothered you? I think I think taller women. I think taller women maybe this is something for them. I don't think, you know, I think, you know, I don't know if the taller ladies like having shorter men.
I don't know. Is that I just get that feeling.
You hear that anecdotally that if the other woman, say, six foot, maybe they're not instantly drawn to a man that's five foot one. I don't know's that's what you hear. I don't think it matters so much for the men, because on average, the man is taller than the woman, right, But anyway, particularly for the ladies listening, if you're a tall lady. Was this something when you were on the on the dating scene? Is this something that was of concern to you that the bloke might be too short?
Or would that just be being too picky? One three, one, eight, seven to three. Anyway, the story goes on. I don't think we need all of the details, but there you go. Now for those considering a little bit of a European summer holiday and they might want to taken the joys Turkey, be warned when the plane lands at anchor or Istanbul, don't get out of your seat before the seat belt light goes off, because if you do, you may be
financially penalized. Reporting the ap suggesting the passengers on flights to Turkey who unbuckle their seat belts, enter an aisle or open those overhead compartments before the plane has stopped taxing upon arrival eligible for fines under new regulations issued
by the country's Civil Aviation Authority. Now, under the updated rules, commercial airlines operating flights in Turkey are required to revise their standard in flight announcements, telling passengers to remain seated with seat belts fastened until the aircraft has reached a gate or other final stopping point. Now this, I've got
to say, this is one that annoys me. You know, flying occasionally you do a long haul flight, the first thing you do want is you want to get up, You want to get out of the tube, or I just want to get out of there, get to the tar, make getting the tax, you can get to your destination.
You know you've had enough.
You've been in the air confined for the better part of probably if you're flying to Europe in a plane itself, for probably twenty one hours, and then you've got the stop over and all, you've had enough. But why is it that the moment, the moment the plane has hit that sort of that slow roll as it were, into the into the terminal area, there's always a phalanx of people that get up straight away and jump up and start opening up the lot. Why do they do it? Like,
what's the rush? The point is, you're not going to get out the door any faster than anybody else. And particularly in an economy, what's the rush? First class goes first, then business class goes, and then premium economy goes your last. It doesn't matter if you've got your bag on you or not your last and yet they do it.
Why, Like there's some strange psychology there. I don't know. I can't quite work it out.
If you want to study human beings, the best place to do it to study the weird and the one for is it an airport. I mean, if you go to an airport, you do it. Send me frequently people watch because it's a really interesting.
Thing to do.
You know, you see the inner workings of the human brain on display frequently at an airport check in. Yeah, it's the psychology of how do I get the upgrade?
How do I.
Make myself more important to this airline than the porschemuck behind me in the queue, let alone the other seventy five people waiting to get their ticket. So, you know, some people put on a collared shirt. Doesn't work, apparently. Some people say I've got a child, and you know a lot of people have children. That's not kidding.
You just watch what goes on.
And then as soon as people actually get on the plane and they've got the allocated seat in the rest of it, you know there will be at least half a dozen on a big on a big A three eight, or at least half a doesn't that try it on?
You know.
Oh look I'm not sure I like this seat. I don't think it suits me. Could you bump me up to the business seat?
You know.
No, they're not going to do it, you.
Know, And there's there's always people. I've got a reason I'm more important than this. But you just watch people at an airport. It's fascinating how everybody thinks they're an earl, you know, or a lord.
It's quite quite interesting if you do it.
But back to Turkey, I don't know how they're going to enforce this because let's say some people get up and they start taking their bags out, and the announcement's been said, Look you've got to stay put until the light goes off.
And I mean, what are they going to do?
Have some Turkish authority come on and issue them a fine?
And I mean maybe maybe it's more a threat.
Than a follow through, but it'll be interesting to see if it catches on, because there are safety issues involved at the end of the day. But maybe you can answer this question for me one three one eight seven three when when the plane starts the sort of it's pulled up at the at the at the terminal, but the lights still on. The seat belt light is still activated as soon as the plane stops. Why to half a dozen at least jump up straight away and grab the bag.
Why do they do it?
I mean, all they're doing is going to nurse their bag for a long time on their lap. I don't understand that psychology. One three, one eight seven three the open line number. It's a quarter past one. Oh, you just never know who's listening. Ross out there has just said, oh my goodness, you just covered all my major gripes in one hit housing population. Why people have to stand up and cue to get out as soon as a plane lands. Now, if you can just cover Chris Bowen
being incompetent in his role, that'd be the trifecta. Hey, Ross, you might be in lucky a little later on.
You just stay listening.
Stayed listening, by the way, also, because as soon as you hear that little bit of Elton John music onto the open line, you go one three, one eight seven three designated caller. You'll be the fifth into the bottle and we'll draw that wonderful Wine Festival prize in the final hour Today, Michael suggests the reason people jump up on the planes as early as to give radio host something to discuss.
Court. I think it's probably valid point.
Mind you, I'm not quite as bad as Mark Lever, who just too as you would have heard earlier today throughout the Ultimate the ultimate talk topic that an overnight announcer would do on a very very slow winter's morning at two thirty in the morning, and he said, what's your favorite biscuit? I don't even know if I went there on eleven years of overnights, just saying.
Marie says, my hubby's a pilot.
There's much maneuvering to get to the gate, and just because the plane stops, it may not be in the correct gate spot and may require another half or so meter movement forward. Keep your seat belt sign on until it's turned off. If you're standing, you may be propelled forward or back, injuring yourself. In others, you won't get out of the plane any quicker true never a true word, said Marie.
Thank you.
Jen says there's a previous flight attendant. Emergencies can still happen in the plane once we've stopped. They should stay seated. Very important as if we need to get out on a hurry and there are bags everywhere there is.
Is a massive issue. So true.
Okay, Now to the ladies and the height and the dating the big issue of the day. Kate on the text, and Kate, I feel for you here, but there's not much I can do about it, she says. I'm a tall lady, and when I was looking to date, all the tall guys were already hooked up. Short ladies should be with short men as well. Otherwise the tall lady misses out and the short man misses being partnered. I hate seeing that quote unquote. I hate to see tall
men with short ladies from Kate. Okay, As I said, in an ideal world, you know, so like Ordless Huxley can create it for us, that would happen, Kate. But the problem, I don't know. Maybe maybe the short ladies had great personalities and the tall guys just were after that.
I don't know. I don't know.
I can't answer that for you, but I understand your point and any other tall ladies out there, like Kate feeling a little myth that the guys are all taken and so you were left with the short fellas or you missed out? Is that an issue? One three, one eight seven to three. Now a lot of other texts coming through re the airlines. Patrick says, it's a very easy way to make yourself look more important with an airline. You just give them a very great deal more money. True,
they'll look after you, so I'm told. Glenn says the two best psychologists in the world are an aeroplane and a motor vehicle, as they turn what appear to be perfectly normal human beings into absolute crazy nut chops. It's true, at the moment a human gets in a motor vehicle orques up to get on the flight, they become someone different.
We all do, if we're being honest. We all do.
But there is something odd about the psychology of an airport slash aeroplane, This self important streak that a lot of us didn't know. We had sort of ooze us out, and we think, all of a sudden, we know where Baron de rothschild or something, or we should be on that seat, or we shouldn't have to sit near that crying kid, or we should get this sort of you know, it's odd, And then we get off at the other end, do we get an attacks in we're all just equally again,
We go to our two star hotel. You know, it's a really really strange thing. So keep the feedback coming zero four six zero eight seven three eight seven three. Of course you can send me an email this all today two GB dot com click on the feedback icon. Michael says, wasn't there a Seinfeld episode where George was dating a taller woman?
I think there was. I think you're quite right about that.
Now to the football, Steve, our Cowboys fanatic from Cans, says, tomorrow Tigers v. Cowboys. Which one of us will be happy on Monday? Or will the Cowboys have another draw just like against the Panthers. D you to select drawer as your tip of the week. Well, look, I've got to tell you, Steve, that Chuck does my tips, as you know, and he was very very successful last week, very consistent in the sense that he got all of them wrong. So this week he's tipped the Cowboys.
Now I don't know if I don't know if.
He's going to have a breakout we can get if you're right. I don't know, but I suspect he might be right. And the Tigers have issues Lockie Galvin and that's going to muck around with them playing up in North Queensland. It'd be a pretty special win if they can pull it off. I suspect to answer your question, Steve, you're going to be happy now.
Matthew.
Matthew, Matthew, what can we do for Matthew? He simply says, I can't get tall or short.
That's sad. Can we send Matthew scarf? Can we do that?
So if you, Matthew, if you have an open Marino scarf around that neck of yours, tall, short, average, they'll all be keen to talk. You could have the dullest personality on the planet, but if you've got an open Marino scarf, the lady will notice you.
I've heard people say that too much of anything, Matthew.
Matthew's not getting too much of anything by the sid of thing. So he begs to differ. Matthew, we've got your details. You are going to be receiving in the mail an opal Marino scarf. They offer elegant and contemporary scarves in apparel for all occasions, including date night. Search Oprah Marino to find the perfect scarf for you and Matthew. As soon as you start to what would we say in the modern parlons. As soon as the swipe wrights start happening, you've got to let us know so that
the magic of the open Marino scarf comes true. One three one eight seven three the open line number. Now, this one comes a great surprise. New ABS dart are out confirming that the federal government's failure on housing is real. New housing approvals have slipped further behind the National Housing Accord targets. The IPA have crunched the numbers. As they say here, the Accord has failed to deliver the level
of new houses promised for the tenth consecutive month. Now the ABS numbers today and there for the approval data to April twenty twenty five revealed that just fourteen thousand, six hundred and thirty three new dwellings were approved. Approvals were granted in April. That's a six percent decline from the previous month. Dwelling approvals in April were five thousand, three hundred and sixty seven units, twenty seven percent below
the government's monthly minimum delivery target under the Accord. Now some would say, oh, there's still time, but time's running out. And with every month that you're well below the target of the accord, You've obviously got to make it up in the next month or subsequent months. It gets harder and harder. Now, the culative shortfall, I guess this is the key metric. The cumulative shortfall since the beginning of the accord in July twenty four is now forty five thousand,
seven hundred and eleven. In other words, two rose Hill developments. Right, that's to date and counting. Now, if the later shortfall is replicated and the remaining two months of June twenty five, the National Housing Accord will have missed its target by more than fifty five thousand homes in just its first year.
Now that's a problem, okay. And so look, some might say, I suppose a charitable person, So well, yeah, look, we don't get the million or one point two million or whatever the target one point three I think it is the target. But let's say we get eight hundred and fifty thousand. Well that's better than a poke in the eye. Well okay, but if your immigration numbers and your population growth statistics are metrics against these outcomes, then you can
see what the problem's going to be. So well done to the IPA for pointing at all of that so clearly for us. But equally this is a big, big problem and it's only getting worse one three, one eight seveny three of course, now I understand this from New South Wales Police. They're appealing for public assistance to locate a man missing from Sydney's Inner East. His name is Graham len Age seventy five. He was last seen at Central train Station at about ten to twelve that's eleven
fifty am on Sunday, May twenty five. Now, when he couldn't be contacted or located, officers attached to Sydney City Police Area Command would notify it. They commenced inquiries into Graham's whereabouts. Police to hold concerns for his welfare. He's described as being of Caucasian appearance, about one hundred and seventy five to one hundred and eighty five centimeters tall, large build, gray hair, and he was last seen wearing a gray T shirt, green zip jacket, black pants and
a gray bucket hat. He was last seen carrying two Duffel bags and a backpack. Now he's known to frequent the Waterloo and Central areas, so anyone with information is urged to contact Sidney City Police, or of course there is crime Stoppers one eight hundred, Triple three, Triple zero, one eight hundred, triple three, triple zero. They got a lot of feedback coming through, but I might have to preread some of this because it's about dating and all of that. Will just be a little careful. It is
a family program, after all. We'll take a break. It's twenty seven past one.
All right, after the newsroom, we go, Iramar good after that, good afternoon.
Michael, a Bonnie Rigg Heights woman, has likely saved her husband's life, waking him up as a fire broke out in their home. The couple had disconnected their smoke of arms. Pauline Hansen says she's elated with One Nation's performance in the federal election, as the party doubles its representation in the Senate from two to four seats. A sixteen year old boy's been charged over the discovery of a kill car in Sydney's West. It was Task Force Falcons first fined.
And lollymaker Haribo has recalled packets of Happy Colar Fizz in the Netherlands after cannabis traces were found in some of them. In Sport, the New York Knicks have beaten the Paces one hundred and eleven to ninety four in the NBA, cutting Indiana's lead to three to two in the Eastern Conference finals. The series winner will play the Oklahoma City Thunder in the finals. And there'll be more news at two o'clock on afternoons.
OH weather updates.
We'll be here to help in unexpected weather. Nurmain Insurance a help company.
Okay, partly cloudy in twenty for Sydney today eighteen for Terry Hills nineteen at PARAMOUNTA twenty everywhere else including Campbelltown and Bondi tomorrow. Partly cloudy in twenty and for something a little different on Sunday twenty, but mostly sunny Candra today, sunny in eighteen. Tugernong's the same. Partly cloudy tomorrow top of sixteen up to about seventeen on Sunday they reckon the morning frost in the Capitol, but the cloud will
clear after that. Lethgo good day through two LT fifteen the top for you today and mostly sunny. Same at Orange, although I think it's fully sunny in Orange actually eighteen and a bitter sun and a bit of cloud at Mudgi today bath are seventeen thirteen for Katomba, but sunny
and springwood partly cloudy. Top of nineteen tomorrow for Lithgo fifteen the max reasonable minimum positive for are cloud clearing and for the last day of autumn as it will be, that's tomorrow Sunday, the first day of winter officially June one. Some sun out for Lithgow top sixteen morning frost. A lot of text messages still coming through. No name on this one, but says I'm six foot six, my wife's five to two. She only married me to get things
off the top shelf. Whatever works, Bruce says. Read the airports, I just wait for everyone to get off first, then I just follow them. The good part is that if I'm not familiar with the airport, I just followed the crowd. It's a win win. You're a logical man, Bruce Sharon says, flight to remember. On my flight from Athens to Cairo, the passengers are almost all Egyptian. When the captain announced we were starting our descent, every Egyptian got to their feet to retrieve the bags.
They didn't even.
Have to go far because most of the luggage were stacked in the aisle. They didn't check in the luggage.
You see.
The hostess couldn't even serve a coffee to some of the seats. She said she couldn't get the trolley down the aisle. A flight to remember, says Sharon Gene on the developments things. She says, only plan is to destroy the state. Rose Hill can still build ten thousand houses next to the course. What about Rose Bay? Sixteen beautiful houses about to be knocked down. The owners all be getting a stack. The developers will get rich. This is
from Rick, he says. In regard to standing up early to get your bag out of the overhead locker on a plane, he says, I love it. How when you go to the carousel, those very same clowns are the ones waiting for their checked in luggage.
Yeah, they rush.
Everywhere with these people, and yet they don't get out before you.
I just anyway, I don't know.
I mean, it's you know, when you fly economy and you as most of us do, and you just watch all of this from an anthropological point of view. I know, I feel like David Attenburg watching like the Great Migration. It just it's a bizarre, absurd Yeah, don't they understand the people that pay twenty five thousand dollars for a ticket, who are sitting up there near the captain, their bag comes out first at the carousel as well, you know, like, don't run. It doesn't matter how quickly you get there.
It's not a game of British Bulldog or something. You know, it's all worked out based off how much you paid for your ticket. Anyway, maybe one day the message will get through again, maybe it won't, and if it doesn't, we can always just enjoy watching it. Oh okay, well there you go. That's the cuter call. I need call
a number ten today. Please call a number ten to the open line one three, one eight seven three, and if that's you, well then you're going to go into the draw for this wonderful, wonderful, wonderful trip to Canberra for the National Wine Festival. As I said, we've got accommodation for you, we've got tickets to the show, the whole shebang. So call a number ten on that open
line one three, one eight seven three. You're our last one to go in the draw, and we will draw the lucky winner for as Extraordinary Prize, the National Wine Festival Prize in the final hour of the shows and now.
The Real Estate Show thanks to Domain, Australia's trusted property marketplace.
Okay, well, let's do this.
We do it every Friday at about this time, the Real Estate Show with our friends at Domain and the wonderful Alie Stultz's all the numbers for us, as she does all she does all week, just crunch numbers for us.
Hello Alice, good after noon, Mark, Or what an entertaining show you've had on today?
You're covering all my favorite topics.
Well, tall tall women dating short men and cheople at airport kills.
Well, I confess to marrying a tall man and it does very much come in hand. You've got that call a set about reaching for things, and I love that idea of David Ashenbarrow doing a bit of a commentary about people getting on and off planes.
It is fascinating, isn't it herd mentality.
It is, the Only problem is there'd be no sort of sense of evolution having occurred, and that would miss the general thrust of David's pieces. Now, of course we normally value one or two people's properties, not this week, but got a lot of other stuff to get through.
But if you do want a property valued, get in touch.
Or there's a beautiful thing on the website that the team of design just fill it all out there, will send it off to domain and Bob's your uncle, or Alice as your ARTI or whatever you want to say. We'll do that next week. Now let's start as we always do, Alice with the auction results, because we had a stonking number in Sydney, didn't we It.
Was a huge number last weekend Michael, nine hundred and ninety two options took place and the clearance for it came in at seventy percent. Now remember that was just after the RBA announced that decline an interest rates. So we're kind of watching what the market would do, and I've got to sell lot of the auctions be covered.
You could feel a bit more, I guess, a bit more of a pep in the step from buyers. I think to.
Push that little bit harder, which I'm not surprised that, but it's just interesting watching it.
Now.
Tomorrow we've got another big day in city. Nine hundred and sixty five houses going under the hammer, so pretty decent conditions and I dare said it could'll be the last hurrah before things before things wind back a little bit throughout the winter months ahead.
Yeah, look, I don't know, just weather matter. Tomorrow it's mostly sunny. I think top of twenty nice, nice sort of last day for autumn. That helpside, imagine, rather than having thunderstorms on.
The day it does. I think it does help because all of a sudden you look at these houses and they're sparkling and beautiful and sun filled and dappled, you know, dappled.
Light over the gardens.
And I think all that goes along while I'm letting people sort of get carried away a bit. Having said that, I have seen and myself done it, stood through torrential rain in auctions and watch bidding take place, because of course we're not talking about, you know, buying a leader of milk or not. This is the high stakes here, so people will do what it takes. And I think we're a hearty lot. But I think the sunshine does help us make the house look a bit more sparkly.
That's how you want to show it. Okay, Now, the sustainability in property of report and the team of domain do this. I think every year, if I'm not mistaken, you've released it the Sustainability in Property Report. Firstly, just I mean this word sustainability is bounced around like it's going out of fashion these days, right, So what's the report about? Just give us the background first.
Yeah, So basically it is banded around a lot, that word sustainability, Michael. But what we've been looking at here is how many features that are sustainable or energy efficient pop up when people are selling their houses, and do these houses sell for more that houses that don't have these features? Now, what I'm talking about things like solar panel, double glazed windows, northern orientation features like that was smart energy efficient housing.
And what we've they've.
Done is they've crunched the data to just see how much those listings rise to the surface in comparison to properties that don't have those features to them.
That's interesting.
The double glazed windows. You know, that's my wife being European. That stock standard over there, because you know, they tend to build I think a little more sensibly and practically for the variability of conditions than we have traditionally done here. But one of the first things we did when we bought our little cottage was take all the old timber windows out, put the double glazed uPVC windows in wasn't cheap,
but it's made an enormous difference inside. Doesn't matter if it's the heat of summer or the cold of winter. You do get a more averaged temperature divergence inside the house. What means you can obviously your power bill can come down a bit with the heating and all that.
Right, I have to say, for my money, it's probably one of my favorite features if I was going to put into something, because I think it makes such a notionable difference. What I'm talking about is that time of an evening, the lack of need to put another jumper on when it's the middle of winter, if you haven't got curtains or something. It really just makes rooms feel a lot better and as you said, evan cooler in summer. But I think the outlay is quite high.
But it also is.
Another great security feature. I don't know about you, Mark, but I lived in a home very old, very thin glass windows, and they would break when kids were thwacking cricket balls or tennis balls whatnot, and burglarsten get a lot more easily. Double glazing also provides that level of security. But I do just think from a sustainability point of view, it really can cut down on heating and cooling costs.
The other thing is without giving the businesses that do this a plague. The other thing is it does knock a fair bit of the sound out. We're near a main road, and in the old days, with the very thin single glazed glass timber windows putty putting it all together, as soon as trucks or busses or anything went down, you could hear it. Even in the evening someone's doing some early morning work a tradees sort of ten to eight they get started, you know, you could hear it
clear as a bill. It does knock probably sixty to eighty percent of the sound out, And I think.
That's why when you look at medium density or even high density buildings, you're seeing how quiet they can be. Obviously, if you go out to the balcony or it's a courtyard, not so much. But when you're inside the place, it is kind of quite vacuum sealed and very quiet, which just helps with that sort of filling of the ambiance in the house.
I think, Okay, so then how does all of this then translate into saleability? Because you know, let's say you are investing in all of these things. Beat the double glaze windows, the solar panels, the battery, whatever you got going right, the sustainability things.
You've got to pay for it.
There's government grants for certain things, but you've got to pay a lot out of your own pocket.
You may not even come out in front.
But if you are putting it in as part of a you know, sort of sexing up the house.
For sale, how do prospective buyers view this? Is it with a premium?
I think that's what's really interesting. We've gone from it being kind of a niche thing that sort of many affluent buyers would stretch or extend themselves for a sort of a luxurious element of a house being sustainable, and now we're really seeing demand across middle income homes. They're the ones really driving and demanding this sort of feature
in a property. And what we're seeing in houses in those areas, those middle band suburbs in particular, other ones where demand is high for these features in a property. And you know, we're seeing in Sydney on average around twelve and a half percent more premium that people are paying for.
A house with those features in it.
And I think it's really largely because we've had this obviously revolting cost of living crisis, and people have now just realized that, you know, that little bit of an investment pays off for years to come in the future, and that if you are buying a house, the premium that you're paying the sustainability will be the reduction in energy bills until you then sell the house again. So I think I think people have had to through the necessity of how high inflation has been over.
The fews, particularly around energy costs.
You did a bit of a case study in this report about a property at Asquith up on the north of Sydney, just north ere of Hornsby.
What did that uncover?
Yeah, we did a tour of this incredible house there. It's what's called a passive house. That's a very it's a Germanic term that basically is a house. This is why I think of it. It sort of has lungs in the house. So what it does is it completely filters air that goes in and out of the house, and you are in this space and it feels like you are living and bear with me here under the sun on a perfect spring like day. What I mean is the temperature is constant, the air is completely filtered.
It is the strangest feeling and you hear absolutely nothing. It's completely baffling how these houses work. But basically they are completely almost off the grid and require no energy to run them. They've got battery packs, soul a panel and the energy costs are basically zilch because of them maintaining that constant temperature of the home.
Okay, I have no idea, but does that also improve the mold situation? I mean a lot of people listening now, as we're seeing the temperatures drop without a lot of rain, they'll be seeing mold on their cornices, in their plasters, ceilings all over Sydney, and who knows where does that help in that circumstance.
It's an interesting point because I from my understanding, there's not scientific data that supports it. However, people who live in these houses talk about the health benefits themselves. It is at this stage I believe and ancdotal evidence. But just because you're not getting any of those pollutions in the house and the stabilization of the temperature, I think that's ultimately what you're not getting that humidity in a house.
Some of these houses can even run like this gentleman was saying, even in Sydney in the middle of summer, technically without air conditioning, and I just think of those scorching summers of experienced. It's quite phenomenal how that incredible incilation, along with the filtration system and the heating and calling being just right, actually runs the house.
But I have to say the infrastructure required for this is substantial. It's not cheap, it requires a lot, not cheap.
To do the initial outlay, but incredibly cheap to run and increasingly becoming more desirable.
You know, passive house.
This house in Asquith is and it is an extreme example. But I'll give you say something about this as well, Michael. This house was opposite a very large school there. I'm not sure if it was Asquith.
High, but it was a very huge school.
And when you're in the house you hear nothing, and you step out in the street and there's bells and cart I mean, the whole shebang of a school. But it was fascinating from that perspective how you could be living anywhere.
And we've got one in Melbourne in the market.
Actually, and it's literally on a train line, but you hear nothing when you're inside the house.
Impressive. Okay, now we'll take a break.
When we come back, we've got sort of I guess you'd say, a unique real estate opportunity, but also the bargain of the week. I can't believe we're going to Paddington, Paddington for the bargain of the week. If you said to someone you can buy in Paddington's run to half a million, they'd say your nuts. But you can, and in fact someone did so. We'll give you all of those details straight after this. By the way, should you say, Michelle from Smithfield, well done, you're our fifth entrant into
the National Wine Festival Prize. Will be drawing the winner and probably about thirty forty minutes from now. Good luck, fingers cross Michelle one three one eight seven three. We're talking real estate, of course, in the meantime with the wonderful Ali Stalts from Debain. Now this, shall we say unique real estate opportunity of the week, Alice?
What's this.
You talking about? Paddington?
Michael up, Now a little further north an island.
It sounds like you'd like an island, is that right? Mike it's incredible. There's a island on the market off the Great Barrier Reef.
Now I love this story because when you think about an island, you think I'll never be able to afford that. But this island that's called Temple Island. It's about three k's off Cape Palmerston National Park in tropical Northern Queensland.
The islands one hundred and twenty three acres.
Now on this island is a house, so you are actually buying the rights to the island with the house. Now, the only caveat here is the house. And the island is also owned by another family and one of the other families and are selling it. So you will co share ownership of the island and this property. I'm told you're a lovely family, but you have to sort of negotiate, you know, use it six months of the year, eyes.
At six months of the year. But what an extraordinary thing.
Now to get to this island. You can you can hop on little light plane or you can catch boat. But I just thought for under six hundred thousand dollars, we don't see this every day, Michael, Okay.
No, you wouldn't.
No, So three the house itself three bedrooms, one bathroom.
There's no car bar. There's no point having a car, is.
No, But not to worry. You can put your light plane just out the front. There's plenty of space for you to park the plane or pull up the dinghy on the boat.
But it's quite extraordinary.
I mean, I'm sure mus be one of the only countries in the world where you can actually buy an island for under a million bucks. I'm pretty sure it would be. But literally on this there is snorkeling nearby. Beautiful obviously the Great Berrier Reef to explore whales here. You apparently hear the migration once or twice a year and whatnot. But apparently a very special part of Australia.
And there'd be ample opportunities to catch some fish for dinner.
I would think.
Indeed, you would never need a local store. I'm not sure you get your milk from but look, you know. And the other thing is I had to laugh at this listing. It comes with you do have Telstra and Optus coverage on the island and it says, you know, for those who want it. But I thought it's actually it's an interesting caveat, isn't it to actually have to put that in there.
I thought, in a place like that, do we believe that anymore after recent stories? Okay, now bargain of the week not quite as exotic. But you know, as I said, if you were saying to anybody listening, oh look, you can get a joint in Paddington in glen View Street if you don't mind, for under half a million dollars. No, yeah, what are you selling a shoebox? Okay, well, this is a studio, so it's a shoe box for people really big feet. But tell me about this.
Yeah, if you want the two two to one post code of Paddington. This studio sort at auction last weekend for four hundred and seventy nine thousand dollars.
Now a lot of money, but.
As you said, this is the cachet of one of the arguably Sydney's most lovely little areas. Now it is a tiny studio, but we've also talked about in the past clever ways you can sort of reconfigure these to actually make them work quite efficiently.
It's got a little living.
Space which is also doubles as you're sleeping space. But I do believe that imaginatively you could sort of potentially put a little wall up or a blind or sort of cording that of small kitchen and a little bathroom as well. Now it doesn't come with a parking spot, which is what I always love because you can always rent that out on the side. But there is parking on site for residents, but you can't obviously rent out
your own. It's not on the title. But I just thought, what an extraordinary sale to see in city, just three hundred meters from Liverpool Street, right near five Ways in Paddington and in that lovely sort of Glenville partment building. It so that's sort of old Deco building and it's a lovely building. It's on level too, so you've got a bit of light coming in from it as well.
Okay, so it's not massive, but I mean it's the low not good if you've got five children and planning to expand. But if you're a single guy or girl, and I don't know, maybe you're working in the city or you're just starting your real estate journey, you want a little bit of a little bit of capital behind you or whatever.
I mean, my goodness, for four hundred and seventy nine.
Thousand, correct, and I do I do again say that I think when you if this was your own place, you could sort of kiss it out in a way that made it as efficient as possible. And I hear what you're saying, probably not five children, but there are ways to actually configure these to sort of put in custom bunks. I mean, I'm not joking here, but there are many imaginative things you can do when you start researching how to live in a very small footprint with
sort of custom joining in. That is a very worthwhile investment that can actually make their studios feel much more efficient and have a real sort of style of their own. So I just thought it were a fascinating by that we saw last weekend.
Absolutely, I'm quite blown over by just how close you can get to the city for that sort of a price, given it is a small footprint, but none the less wonderful. Thank you for this week, Alice. As always, we'll speak same time next week.
Okay, look forward to it. Thanks Michael, my pleasure.
Thank you, Alice Stults, the National Property editor there from domain three one eight seven three is our number. It's five to two, okay, we've got the two o'clock news just around the corner. Let's go make a cup of tea or whatever it is and we'll come back. An interesting third hour coming up. We'll speak with Andy Gregory, who's the chair of the National Wine Festival. Of course, so we've been putting people in the drawer for this extraordinary prize, so we'll have a chat to him about
the whole Australian wine scene. And also we'll get our lucky winner up on the open line and give them the good news during that later in the hour. I'm looking forward to this as well. I'll be speaking to the successful New South Wales One Nation Senate candidate Warwick Stacy.
Now I've met Warick once or twice at some different functions hosted by Professor David Flynt, and Warick is a very very impressive human being, very gifted orator and an incredible backstory, a former British soldier, and I think he will make a great addition to the Australian Senate. I think we need a few more people like him in
there sorting out the nonsense that goes on. A few more Warick's and a few less lydia Thorpes, if you get my drift anyway, So We're having a chat with Warreck in the final hour as well, looking forward to that and seeing what's on his agenda and what his priorities are. I think dovetailing off the conversation yesday with
Malcolm Davis from Masby. You know, the defense of the Commonwealth has to be a very significant issue in this Parliament and people like Warwick will be able to keep that topic relevant.
News is next.
It's now onto gb and network stations. Back to afternoons with Michael McLaren.
All right into the third hour. Thank you for joining us on this rather glorious Friday. I hope you've got a nice weekend planned as well. One three one eight seven three The open line number if you want to have you say on anything really doesn't have to be anything we're discussing.
You just sent the agenda. You're in control.
You can set us a text. Many have I'm trying to get through what how many texts. I can't get through all of them. But thank you for writing zero four six, zero eight seven three eight seven three. Not that this is going to be the biggest issue in the world, but of course, you know, you change certain things around and then there are knock on effects. And so the new Sydney Fish Market is obviously adjacent to, but not really in the same location as the old
Sydney Fish Market. As we were discussing earlier, the old side will be bowled over and developed, and in part that will help fund the rather extraordinary cost of building than you and all of that. But one side effect, as it were, of that is that the Fish Market light rail stop may need to have a name change because people will be getting off stepping out, and they're not really at the fish Market, mind you, they're not
far away. But there is some talk about changing the name, and I see that the Geographical Names Board is seeking community feedback on a proposal by Transport for New South Wales to rename the fish Market light rail Stop the Bank Street light rail Stop. Now the fish Market light rail stops located in the intersection of Bank Street and Miller Street, just over here underneath the Western Distributor, and it's near the entrance to the current Sydney Fish Market.
But Transport for New South Wales has proposed changing the name to Bank Street light rail Stop to reflect the street on which it is located.
Okay, now, look, I use that light rail.
Occasionally I think I'm just going off the top of my head here, trying to sort of bird's eye view, But I would imagine that the Wentworth Park stop is actually going to be closer to the new Fish Markets than the Fish Market stop is at the moment. So perhaps that's also part of the quite unquote logic here.
If it were me, I just transport for New Southwest before I went down this path, I say, listen, okay, just tell me if I was the minister, how much is it going to cost to change all of the signage, all of the names, all of the signage and stickers and everything that are inside the light rail trams, the light rail vehicles themselves, to change the name from fish Market to bank Street on all of those London Underground style maps on the how much is all of that
going to cost? And if the figures in any way sizeable, forget it, leave it. People can work it out. It's not far away. But if it's a negligible cost change the name, whether bank Street's going to mean much to people. I don't think too many people are hopping out of bank Street because of Bank Street, but anyway, that's that. So you might want to have, you say you can do that. There'll be submissions closing June the thirtieth, so
you've got about a month. I think you just go to the geographic name Board website if you're half.
Interested in any of that. All right, So there's that.
There's an interesting story also, the bubble up earlier in the week, and it's to do with Tesla.
Now.
You know, sometimes I think we can be our own worst enemies. As reporting The Guardian that Elon Musks Tesla as they'd like to call it, there is one step closer to opening a factory in an Adelaide suburb. That is, despite overwhelming community opposition from quote anti Tesla and anti Elon Musk sentiment end quote.
Now.
On Tuesday night, the city of Marion, that's the council there, Adelaide, voted to seek state government approval to sell the site to a developer who will build the factory. You know, lots of jobs and whatever, but environmental concerns and worries the site would draw protesters were also cited among the ninety five percent of people who made submissions opposed to the plan for the battery factory. Okay, so there's environmental whatever.
But I would imagine the majority of people who are get upset don't like Elon Musk because he's associated himself with Donald Trump, and they don't like Donald Trump. So anyone who's even vaguely within the oscillation of the Great Trumpster is persona non grata and anything associated with them can't be anywhere in me. So the argument goes, I mean that these people crazy. Now, let's just put it
this way. B yd or Great Wall or whatever, one of those Chinese companies wanted to open a battery factory, do you think.
They'd be getting upset. I don't think they'd blink an eye.
I mean it'd be interesting to go and have a look in the backstory about all of these different companies and what goes on. But you know it links to the Communist Party of China. Oh good, nothing.
To see there.
Oh but Elon's been advising Trump with doge, and so therefore we can't have anything to do with him here, even though the jobs would be well paying and high skilled and good for our kids. And oh I can't have that because Elon's got something to do with it.
This is just mad.
Anyway, It will be interesting to see what happens. I don't know for a determination as yet been made. The mayor said that blocking the sale of the site would have no impact on Musk and would have cost one hundred local jobs. True, so the mayor is smart. I'm not sure about all the constituents, mind you. The people complaining may not even be constituents themselves. They could be from you know, it could be from Mozambique.
For all I know. The wonder of the Internet.
One three, one eight seven three Friday food after this great to be with you at sixteen minutes past two now one afternoons.
Friday food.
Okay, Well, Australia makes some beautiful wines. That is a statement that has absolutely no one in disagreement. Regions like the Hunter, the Yar of the Barossa Valley, all of that and more, of course testament of the truth. But the wines and the work that goes into making them, that's got to be celebrated. And that's exactly what's happening at the National Wine Festival. It is one of the country's most prestigious events for wine on the calendar and
this year it'll be June twelve to fifteen. Award winning producers experts and enthusiasts, all invited to four days of learning about and celebrating and yes, tasting, everything that goes into creating the perfect Australian drop. Now, our wine industry is a major contributor to the global economy, certainly to our own economy, where the fifth largest wine producer and
exporter in the world. Not bad when you consider that the vines didn't arrive here until what at the earliest two hundred years ago, and with a total vineyard area now estimated to be about one hundred and forty six thousand hectares, one point zero four two million liters of wine are produced per year. I think it's safe to say we love it, but above all, the rest of the world loves it as well. Now, Andy Gregory is the chair of the National Wine Festival. That's not a
bad gig. And he joins me on the line. Andy, good to.
Speak to you, Great to speak to me you.
Michael, congratulations on the festival. It's a wonderful celebration of what we do.
Well, isn't it exactly a great opportunity to celebrate great industry. As you just said, it's really important to the nation and we're trying to amplify that importance. We're hosting the first ever national Wine Festival.
Now, despite the surname, I have no connection to the McLaren Vale region, South Australia.
Alas I do like medic and big reds.
I think, what's our most famous once pon a time called Sharaz? It was Chardonnaye we used to send around the world and that was the Australian wine. Is it now more the reds the Sharazes? And is that what we're now better known for?
Probably the bigger reds, the Sharaz.
But but we are getting world class RNES wines across the board, from front in sparklings, where we've got we're one of the few countries outside France the one of the best sparkling award in the world, and all the way through to the back end fortified wines, where we've got producers in rather Glen who are simply the best in the world.
So we're really.
Broadened out in terms of our quality wine offerings.
How have we got to that point, because as I said, you know, you look Europe, some of those vineyards have been the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years we haven't had that longevity, but we've clearly got the right conditions.
You know what we've had, Michael, and this is James Halliday quote. We basically had the most rigorous wine judging system in the world, where we have wine shows at regional levels in the major capital cities and the national line show and the rigor that's associated with that has helped us really work through the last fifty one hundred years in terms of improving the wines on offer and making sure that we're positioning ourselves well well for the future.
And it's really worked well. Like we are really in a good space at the moment.
Speaking of the judging, the trophy presentation dinner, which is I guess the apergye of the festival, regarded as one of the highlights of the whole thing. That's Thursday, June twelve. What happens to that dinner, because that's the great and the good go to that one, don't.
They they do?
Look at For the first time really ever, we've offered publicly available tickets. We hild up to five hundred people in the Great Hall of Parliament House, which is spectacular in its own right and basically the wineries coming from around the nation and the awards are delivered and with the top gong being the Prime Minister's Trophy, which we're hopeful the Prime Minister will award again this year as.
He did last year.
So it's a it's a meeting of people who have a passion for wine and just want to celebrate the success of the industry.
The politicians will be there, of course.
Not so much.
Oh really, not so much.
It's it's very much industry and yeah, industrument media.
There'll be a lot of media there.
There's a few free drinks. That's why the media will be there.
You know them well, Mike, yeah.
They of themselves, but on a serious level for the average enthusiast, a lot of Australians are an enthusiast without getting into all of the origins and all of this. When they sip it through the teeth, there is going to be just so many variet available to try.
And that's one of the great things of this, isn't it Michael.
This is probably the biggest offering that's ever been made to the public, Australian public to engage with the industry. In terms of we have one thousand and seventy one wines that people can taste. All of those have gone through the show system, so they've actually have won a gold or a silver medal even before they get to the National Wine Show. So every one of those one thousand and seventy one wines is outstanding in its own life.
So we've got five public tastings for three hours long where people can come along and really test out all the varieties. We've got thirty five master classes led by luminaries of the Australian mine industry. And we've got the two dinners this said the Parlament House, and we've also got a great dinner on the Friday night at the Higatt High Canbra with Jene Kitson mcn o.
Wonderful, great fun.
It's always great fun, and.
There's a lot of a three course center cheese and all the best wines in the country being served, and it's well, I won't name price, but it's actually very very very good value. So there's a lot of people can Basically, if you're looking for an excuse to come to camera, you wouldn't.
Get much better than this.
It's great. It's actually beautiful time of the year.
Ago Okay, so the festival will be as we've established, a celebration of the industry, but at the same time there will be a lot of frank conversations taking place among those in the industry. There's stories abounding about a bit of a glut of grape produce certain varieties in certain areas. I think the River Arena particularly producing a
glut at the moment. So it's one of those things, like a lot of agriculture broadly in Australia, where you have your highs and you have your lows, and the tougher the ones that can ride it out, but you know there's casualties along the way. It's not just a license to print money, is it.
No spot on, It's just an agricultural endeavor and that comes with all those risks. At the moment, there's a global over supply of grapes and what I guess we do quite well in this country is ensure that the grapes we continued push through into the future are the better ones. And along the way we lose some of the margins, which is sad, but that's agriculture and it
is an opportunity. We have an industry specific session where winemakers come from around the country and they taste all the different wines produced by their competitors and others, and they look for why wines are winning trophies or gold medals and they feed that knowledge back into their wine making practices.
So it is an education for industry as well.
Okay, now we've got a wonderful prize to give away and we'll announce the winner in just a moment. But before we do, whenever I do this Friday Food segment, we don't just celebrate wonderful produce and all that. We talk about the business. Now we've just sort of gone there obviously there greg Andy, But broadly, the tax arrangements around alcoholic beverages in this country, wines included, can be prohibitive.
I mean a lot of Australians know, you fly out the London or Europe or whatever, you can pick up an Australian bottle of wine off the shelf, even when you convert the currency exchange for far cheaper than you can probably get the same or similar bottle off the shelf here. And the difference is tax. Is that something that the industry is constantly speaking to government about.
So it's a cost of being in business industry acutely of where it's a significant cost.
We're working the industries, working.
With government all the time on those and a high range of other issues. We're fortunate in having to Trade and Tourism Ministry at the moment happens to be a wine maker, Don Farrell and basically governments, whatever the flavor of government, are sympathetic.
To the course.
They realize the value of the Australian wine industry. They don't want to compromise that. But let's be honest. All of us pay tax in one form or other and the wine industry is no different.
That's right, all right, Andy, I just want you to hang on there because we're going to announce. We've got five very excited, anticipating individuals waiting. There can only be one winner, of course, for this extraordinary price we've been speak about all week with the National Wine Festival, two nights accommodation of the Park hy at Canbra, which is one heck of a hotel Thursday, the twelfth Friday, the
thirteenth of June. Double pass to that trophy presentation dinner at Parliament House that Andy's been talking about, along with a double pass to the Expo tasting event. Alright, I'm going to put my hand in the official two GB cardboard box.
Here, pick out a name and it is Raphael. Hey, Raphael, are you there?
Yeah?
Yeah, I'm here, Mike mate, you are off to Canberra.
Thank you for that, and thank you to two GB and to the wine industry.
Well that's the I'm sure it's everybody's pleasure made. Hang on there.
Congratulations. You are in for a wonderful, wonderful couple of nights. As I said, you're getting two nights accommodation of the Park Hy at Canbra and that is one Stonking Hotel Thursday the twelfth and Friday the thirteenth of June. So if you've got plans, cancel them. A double pass to the trophy presentation dinner at Parliament House, Andy, that's the one in the Great Hall, isn't that one?
Hey?
It is absolutely The Great Hall is a fantastic venue.
It's just great.
And the double pass to the Expo tasting event. Raphael, you are in for a treat. Thank you for listening, thank you for being a loyal listener, and thank you for what you do. Best of luck for that extraordinary festival that's coming up, and look forward to speaking down the track.
Well, thanks Alatt and Mike.
Can we look forward to seeing half of Sydney at the festival.
That'd be a good start.
We might need more than that one thousand and seventy bottles. I reckon all the best, Andy Gregory. They're the chair of the National Wine Festival.
It's that time of the afternoon. Time to find out what's coming up on Sydney. Now for the Serrato successor, the turbo charged Kia K four kias on new small sedan GT Line veryant available now find out more about Kia's latest small car.
And by the way, those that didn't win, you're not going without two GB price pack coming to all of you, so there'll be some goodies in there to enjoy.
Clinton Maynard, good afternoon.
Just referring to the Great Hall in Parliament House. So I just took my son to Parlment House, Soviets and he looks he's fourteen. He's not really into politics. He was more interested in going to Questerakin in the museum that we visited in Canberra, and it was on a Saturday, so the politicians weren't at home. But we went through the Great Hall and then I showed him the Senate and showed him the Lower House, and he obviously taking
a keen eye in these issues. He spotted a timer in the Lower House, so it's obviously the time that it's used. This is actually I think a digital one that was up there, because they do use a digital one as well, just to make sure the politicians stick to time with their responses to questions. And he remarked, oh, this is just a sport, right for a little bit like a school board countdown clock.
That's a pretty good analogy.
I think it's just a sport. He's probably seen question Tom on Parliament and figured that's what it a mounts to.
True, it's it can be a contact sport, there's no doubt about it, verbal rather than physical.
Well in our parliament. You go to some other places and it's on for young and old.
Oh the ti wee in these parliaments except oh yeah, I think.
The Serbian parliament had a crack not long.
Ago, didn't they. They were letting off flares inside the parliament there.
South Korea, they storm the buildings.
If we could do it to the Americans, Well, yeah, the issue at the moment, is it's actually be the coalition?
Would people?
No, I should say the Liberal Party now that it'll be fighting amongst themselves.
Well, the timer would be app because you could say like sands through the hour glass. So the days of our lives.
You know, it's a bit that way, isn't it.
I'll certainly bring you the latest for the AEC because the count is continuing the south and and I note that the gzel cap tire.
In three front front one.
It's back down to one, back down to one, it's back down to one.
Now is this because they're actually getting through a lot and the just oscillating or are they counting like one ballot every twenty minutes yet?
From what I understand that the scrutin is, so you've got the people that are working with the Tals and those that are Liberals that they're taking it very slowly. Obviously they are looking at each individual ballot paper closely to figure out whether it's informal, whether it's valid with all the numbers have been.
All the box.
I'm a horrible cynic eleven years on overnights does that too. It's part of the vitamin D deficiency. But is it the case that correct me if I'm wrong here?
But the tablets.
If so, you listened to Russell said right, more like it. But if you were a liberal scrutiny, let's say, and it looked as though they put one where the Gizell kept hearing name was, but sort of stuffed the rest, are you more likely to say, I think we can count that. I think we can see the intent there, whereas if they put one beside, say miss Buller and stuff the reason.
I think that's the way it works, Michael. And then with the scrutiny from the tiers, and then there's probably someone from the AEC.
So this is why it takes a long time, I suspect.
So okay, all right, And then of course we use pencils that were an issue of whether we'll hang on. There's an eraser may have been used there.
There's a third of an inch of that one popped into the box above it.
I know we have the debate about whether we should go digital, and that does bring complications in itself. I mean, look at the Comwealth Banks got problems this afternoon with their app. But it does seem antiquated.
It's very slow.
Look at least this and this isn't deciding who's empowered, and that's the good thing, thank goodness. But it was supposedly going to be a close election and it was going to come down to a few seats. So I think because it didn't.
What else is coming up?
The Fine and Risky Commissioner Jeremy Firtrell would join me this afternoon. A few house fires in the last twenty four hours, not necessarily sparked by electric bikes this time, but you would have noticed to see what you're wearing at the moment. You got a big puffer jacket on from Unichlo. It's obviously sparking a warning about heat. It is a smoke awareness day on Sunday. But the fire and Bonnie rig this morning it was as they're investigating
the causes. The residents have admitted they had turned the smoke larms off because they cook a lot. So I'll speak with the commissioner about that in the program, and the latest on Penrith Council's threats to find one of our listeners, and I brought us the story yesterday that Andrew, who is a veteran and has a Bobcat, he used his Bobcat to clear a storm water drain.
At least someone is.
During the floods of last and parts of there's a lot of flash flooding in city last weekend. He's in London Dream cleaned out the storm water drain because it was threatened to flood his neighbor. Neighbor was very grateful because their house is dry and the debris pulled out of the storm water day and just just left it
up on some of the grass. Of course, you know what the Council's done fight him, Well, they're threatened the police to investigate and laid charges and find him and they're going to send him a bill to remove the debris. The debris they're responsible for. So we went through that yesterday. We've got some formal response now from the council. I'll bring you that this afternoon.
That'll be worth listening to it. I heard you yesterday speaking about that.
Yeah, what I'm going to tell you about the council will blow your mind. Lego Master's back on TV Sunday night on Channel nine. Your daughter would love Lego Masters, she would Is she old enough yet?
Yeah? Yeah, loves Lego. Loves Lego.
The Brickman will be on the program.
Okay, Oh, he's a lovely fellow.
Brickman will be on the show. And Mark guy with all his footy tips.
All right, great, thank you.
He'll be tipping the Tigers, no doubt.
Okay, well, no, I know again, I thought as disclosure, don't do my tips.
Chuck does, and Chuck tip the Cowboys.
Did Chuck tip the Sharks?
I don't remember. All I know is you got none from five last week, so the Tigers.
Have a chance.
All yeah, A lot of us tipped one from five. I've tipped the Sharks this weekend.
Oh my goodness, ye wow, oh there's a turn up for the books.
They're playing the bi true.
I forgot about that.
Thanks Clinton, I should remember that Clinton Maynard would Sitney now straight after three.
Good afternoon, Michael three. M Australia has sixty days to present a clean up plan for a quarry in the state's central West which is contaminated with cancer causing PFAS chemicals. The EPA says the remote location means there's little chance of human exposure. Two people have been rescued after becoming stranded on ROCKSI could you prompting life savers to issue are wanting to be careful along the coast with a
hazardous surf warning for the weekend. Teenage boys been charged over Task Force Falcons discovery of a kill car in Guilford. The car had firearms, balaclavers and a jerrycan with fuel in it. And a paraglider in China who was testing some equipment has ended up a twenty eight thousand feet up when lifted by strong winds. He survived the altitude without oxygen, although his face and body work covered in ice.
In sport, video has emerged of Tiger's five eighth Lachlan Galvin training with bulldogs at Belmore Sports Ground despite no official confirmation of him signing with the club. The nineteen year old is attempting to complete a messy split from the Tigers. And there'll be more news at three o'clock on afternoons.
A finance update for Pretzel Wealth and finance for Trusted Financial Planning just Google Blake.
Went to Pretzel.
Well, as they say, generally speaking, some things go up, some things go down.
One step four, two steps back, whatever it is.
Scott Phillips from the Motleyfull dot com dot au retail spending data out today from the ABS, and I guess all of that ring true on that front, doesn't it.
Scott call Gora and I think, yeah, that's pretty much right. Unfortunately, the bad news is retail sales fell for the month of April down zero point one percent. Now that's on the previous month on March lop three point eight percent for the year, but that point one percent decline is worth unpacking it. So household goods were up a little bit, clothing and footwear down two and a half percent, Department
store spending down two and a half percent. Food also down three tenths of one percent, so a couple of key areas there. The games were in other retail and cafes and restaurants as well. As I said, household goods by state too unfortunate. New South Wales was the worst of the states and territories. Again, that minus zero point one percent nationally compares to a one percent fourth New South Wales aer point seven percent drop for the ac TEA.
In fact, the only two states in positive territory were Queensland and Western Australia, so a bit of work to be done. Unfortunately, the simple reality is that we know after yesterday's CAPEX numbers. By the way, private capital expenditure also down by a time of one percent. There is some sense that maybe the economy is just slowing a little bit, whether it's confidence on the back of these tariff news, whether it's simply business is not prepared to
put that money to work just in case. But yeah, the wind is not exactly at our back to the moment, not exactly at our front either. But it's interesting times and probably pressing actually in the event, the ABS did the AES, the IBA did decide to cut rates last month because we may well need that support if these things continue to weaken.
All right, now, the markets and the dollar today because in US tariffs are legal and now they're not unless they are, And so that's throwing things around a bit, isn't it.
Yeah, you know it.
In fact, the last one so far at least is they are now neither legal nor legal. The court found they were illegal the Court of Appeal, so though we have put that aside and wait for an appeal to be heard. So the tariff remained in place until that appeal. The market's been topsy turvy today. Spend the morning in
the red. The early part of the afternoon of the green back in the red before two o'clock, but the last little while just poked its head above water again up about oh, I mean less than a tenth of one percent eighty six hundred and forty four points GASI dollar needive against all the major currencies in coulding against the US dollar, but only again by the slightest of margins sixty four point two nine US set.
Okay, Scott, thank you, We'll catch you next week.
Have a lovely weekend, Scot Phillips there from the Motley fool full dot com dot e you. It's about twenty four minutes to three. Will take a break when we come back. Looking forward to speaking to Warick Stacy. He snagged that sixth Senate seat in New South Wales. He goes in as one nation's fourth senator. That equals their best ever result of a federal election. But Warick Stacy is a very very interesting human being. I've met him a few times, great communicator, and I think you'll make
a great senator. Look forward to speaking to him after this. Right on twenty to three, bank smack on it. Thank you for your company this afternoon, one three, one, eight seven three, of course, is our open line number track of the day coming up as well. Now, look, many have been focusing politically on these seats Bradfield, they're still counting there, of course, Goldstein and cou.
Yong in Melbourne.
But there has been another political story bubbling away below the surface. It's the one that usually drags out and it's the Senate. But One Nation, Pauline Hansen can feel pretty buoyant today because the final seats in WA and New South Wales have been decided and they've gone to her candidates. One nation has seen I think their equal
best result now four senators in total. I don't know what sort of difference it's going to make, because between Labour and the Greens, the left of politics will control the Senate. But nonetheless, a greater presence gives you a greater ability, I would say, to start prosecuting the case and hold governments to account. So we've seen Malcolm Roberts reelected this time around. Paulin Hanson of course still has her seat, but now they'll be joined by Tyron Witten,
Senate of a Western Australia. I don't know anything about him, but my next guest, I do Warreck Stacey. He's picked up the final spot in the new South Wales Senate. Now, Warreck's got quite the background. I believe he was born and raised here but then moved to Europe in his twenties. He eventually joined the Armed Services. Plenty of his time was with the British Army, including I think spending time in the Sas before coming back to Australia to serve
in our Army Reserve. An interesting history. Now, I've seen Warick present to audiences on a number of occasions in the company of Professor David Flynt, and I can tell you this man is a very very gifted orator, no notes, just bang, and very inspirational in engaging in the way he speaks. With that military background, I'm quite confident in saying will make a very positive contribution not just to the Senate but Australia's politics over the next six years.
And I'm also very glad to say Warwick Stacey's with me on the line. Warick, nice to speak with you again.
Michael, Thank you very much and thank you for that for your very kind words. The point I'd like to make about your point about a greater presence in the Senate means it will have a greater voice, and I shall certainly be there with Pauline and Malcolm and Tyrone speaking for Australia.
Okay, now I should probably address you a Senator Stacey. Shouldn't they forgive me?
For that's what Senator elect.
Senator elect off to be very precise, quite right.
But otherwise Warri, it's fine, Worri, it's fine.
Let's stick with Wrick. What's top of the agenda when you get to Canberra.
Well, I think the first thing is to certainly continue to prosecute out the policies that we took to the election, and that is basically to put money back into people's pockets, to stop the waste, the government waste. We're looking at saving ninety billion dollars and there were areas which we already determined where that could be done. And so really just pursuing our election points, and that includes also stopping the madness with the net zero.
Just on that.
Just let me just put in there, because a lot of listeners Warrick say, look, okay, net zero, whether we stick with it or not, legislated or not, may not even matter because everyone around the world is doing it, but none of them will probably meet it. So yeah, one goes down, they all go down. But just from a purely practical point of view, let's say governmentally we stick with zero's legislation by twenty fifty, can we achieve that without nuclear power?
Well?
Could? I say?
First of all, the fact that everybody around the world is doing it doesn't mean that it's right and that we should be doing it. So I mean that's I think it's an absurd position to take. And to come back to your second point, No, it can't be done without nuclear power, and so that's another hurdle that.
Has to be crossed.
But it's it's not just the and whether it's as you say, whether people and it's failed. I mean, the Paris Agreement has failed. All the signatories as soon as the ink was dry, they went home and they can just continue to do what they were doing. They had no intention of meeting their supposed obligations. And this is it's the cost of the role out that is destroying Australia. It's just this mad rush to this eighty two percent
Noble's target. It's what's causing the huge spikes, the huge increases in people's electricity bills if I wonder what that's coming from, which I just saw recently and in fact a very good article by Judas Sloan some weeks ago. She said that ten thousand killer meter is it thirty thousand kilo meters? Nobody seems to know of transmission lines have to be constructed. So and that's of course, is going to cut through farmland, and it's going through the
Kosiasco National Park at the moment, destroying that. And it just brings to mind the phrase it was used during the Vietnam or we had to destroy the village to save it, and we've now got Bowen and the environmentalists destroying our environment supposedly to save it. So there's a huge cost. But again back to your point, nuclear has to be on the table. But also I think what we can have is net zero is zero. You have high efficiencies, zero zero emission coal fired power stations. We
have the cleanest, the finest call in the world. There's this new technology zero emissions from coal fired power stations. Why aren't we doing that?
Just on the point of the military, I mean, that's a very significant part of your background. And when I met you that came across very strongly. Just in the way you presented, you could tell you were a military man, and that's a great compliment. Obviously Australia faces and everyone agrees left right center, doesn't matter that we face some of the most challenging geo strategic circumstances, probably since Vietnam, which you mentioned, but perhaps even since World War II.
A lot of people say we are just not prepared in Australia, not just from a military point of view, but from an entire industrial point of view. The late Great Jim Molan made that point in that Gift to the Nation, his final book to the Nation. I wonder how many canber have actually read it, but they should have. You will no doubt be prosecuting that case through your role now in the Senate.
Well indeed, and again it's I mean, I look at Australia, I hold my head in my hands sometimes and I wonder what the bureaucrats are doing. The Department of Defense has done nothing but waste money over I think, if you like, my lifetime back in Australia since I returned to Australia in the late nineteen eighties, and as you say, I joined the Army Reserve. When I returned, I wanted to be an Australian soldier. And it's it's just been
unmitigated waste, one thing after another. So the Sea Sprite helicopter is one point three billion, it never even flew. We've had the Armored Reconnaissance helicopter who's never fully commissioned before it was binned and something else was bought. The MRH ninety that it crashed sadly with four lives lost two years ago, but what just a knee jerk reaction. The whole fleet was grounded. It's since been found that
it was pilot era eight or ten. Armies around the world still flying the MRH ninety.
What did we do?
We cut up our forty six aircraft, nearly a billion dollars worth of equipment and buried it. And who took this decision? And so what we've had is waste. The Prime Minister I saw he was He commented the other day on a report from the IPA and claiming that it was a report written by coalition former coalition people that they needed to take a good look at themselves. And I think he needs to take a good look at himself because he said, we look at the amount
of money we're spending. It seems to me that both this government and there I say, the previous coalition government, they measure everything by the amount of money they spend. They don't look at the results, they don't look at the outcomes, they don't look at whether what they spent the money on was actually going to is going to do what it's supposed to do.
And so from the.
Prime Minister, the only metric Key's interested in is the money that is spent, not looking at the equipment. With that we get the whether it's needed or not, whether it's going to work or not, whether it's going to do what it says it does it's supposed to do on the tin. And so unless there's a change there. I mean, these frigates that we're buying, apparently it's about forty five billion dollars worth of frigate I think from memory it's about nine billion dollars each, and they've been
I think they're in the design phase. They're supposedly top heavy. They don't have enough miss missile silos. The fifth generation frigates today have ninety six silos. This one's got about thirty five or thirty six, and yet we're plowing ahead with it forty five billion dollars. And I've seen the South Koreans can build a frigate for a billion one
billion dollars, so one billion Australian dollars. So why why we are not buying off the shelf equipment that's been proven, it's been tested and it's operationally ready is beyond my comprehension. It just seems that we just spend on material that hasn't been designed that or if we do buy it off the shelf, we cut it in half at an extra ten or fifteen meetings and then expect it to work.
A lot a lot of that, as you know, is about propping up jobs in Adelaide. Now before you go, a fan of yours are just called through. Finally enough Pauline of Queensland. I think it says here on the open line, Pauline, good afternoon.
Good afternoon, and gratulations Warwick. I haven't had a chance to speak to you. I sent you a message, but I am so happy for you, But not in that. I'm so happy for the people Astra, especially those people in New South Wales who had the common sense of ope, for you, you know, just listening to you again, Warwick, and I have heard you speak before, and the fact is that this is why you're a good fit with one nation. You want accountability, you want to know where
the tax dollars are going. You want, you know, to do a lot for defense. I know that's dar too. Heart is defense, and you know that's why we had you and chose you to be the Senate lead Senate candidate. And I am so pleased to see that actually one year seat. I'm going to look forward to working with you closely on the Flora Parliament.
So congratulations now, Pauline Hanson, before you go, you're telling me you haven't yet been able to congratulate Warick. You had to do it on my show. Was that what you're saying?
Well, I did personally.
Yeah.
So I had to send him a text message because he never picked up my call. But anyway, of course he's overseas, it's not but I'm so thrilled. I was just so shocked. I was thrilled and also surprised when I was told this morning that we'd run the seat the same as with Tyrone and just missed out on Victoria as well. Just clearly missed out on that seat.
Just in Tasmania. You've done very well. There'll be four of you in the Upper House. Pauline, thank you for the call. Warick, I've got a clearer commercial break, but thank you for your time and we look forward to watching your now senatorial career.
Thank you, Thank you, Michael, Thank you Pauline too. I'm grateful for the opportunity.
Warwick Stacey, Senator elect for New South Wales.
Okay, we're almost out of time, but I've got to give away a double pass to Ireland, orchestrated starring the magnificent Damien leif Thiss is track of the day.
Here's your question.
One three one eight seven three, Which Cadbury product was first produced in Tasmania on this day in nineteen twenty eight. Which Cadbury product was first produced in Tasmania on this day in nineteen twenty eight. This song might give you a bit of a clue my old theme song. Okay, so a bit of hot chocolate there, which Cadbury product was first produced in Tazy on this day in nineteen twenty eight. If you know one three one eight seven three and a double pass to Island orchestrated starring the
magnificent Damien Leith as yours. He is the voice that stole our heart. And of course it's Saturday May thirty one. Joanavisk Gosford, well done. Of course the answer was Dairy Milk, the Dairy Milk chocolate first produced on this day back in nineteen twenty eight. And Tazzy, You're off to Sea Island, orchestrated with Damien Leith on Saturday May the thirty first at the iconic State Theater in Sydney. That will be
a wonderful night. Yes, I believe the Commonwealth Bank's still having some issue.
No, it's fixed.
The Commonwealth Bank have fixed their issue with the online banking, so that is good news.
Clinton is next