On two GV at network stations. This is Afternoons with Michael McLaren.
Well it is, and thank you for being with us.
It is ten past twelve on this Friday afternoon, June twenty, twenty twenty five. Hope you're well. One three one eight seven three the open line number, of course, can send me a text at any points ro for six zero eight seven three eight seven three, and there is always the email two GB dot com. Click on the feedback icon. As you can probably tell by the voice, I'm not
one hundred percent, but we're here. A big thank you to Bill for filling in over the last couple of days, and it was it was quite a difficult couple of days for our family.
We lost a dear uncle.
And I was thereby his side at the moment that he passed, which was I suppose. I'm very grateful for having that opportunity to be there, but it did happen a little more suddenly than we expected, and so as the family, we've had to obviously, as you do in these circumstances, rarely around and organize some of the arrangements and all the rest of it. Hence my absence the last couple of days, but nice to be back with you today and let's get the show on the road between now and three o'clock.
It will be busy. It will be busy. A lot is.
Happening, not just at home, but of course around the world. And Penny Wong, the Foreign Minister, was speaking earlier in Adelaide. I think about the situation with Iran. The Australian embassy in Tehran has closed. Australians who are there, I think being told if you can get to Azerbaijan. I think that's the information, if I'm not mistaken. Similarly, Australians in Israel are about twelve hundred of which have registered that
they want to leave. Things are in place to try to make that happen, but it's very, very difficult because airspace is closed, missiles continue to rain down at both ends, and it's going to be tough getting everybody out, there's no doubt about that. But leaving that issue aside, there's a lot to get through. I will later this hour go back to this issue that got a lot of conversation last year midyear, and that is Australia's push for
age verification technology for the under sixteens. When it comes to social media. Effectively, we want a ban under sixteen year olds getting access to social media. Now, I mean I have some sympathy with that because I don't see a lot of this as social media, as you know, I see it as anti social media. And when you're young, you don't have the tools at your disposal to be able to decipher the good from the bad, to work your way through the bullying and everything else which is
just so rife in these particular formats. And there's no doubt that the proprietors of these bits of technology are not doing enough. But maybe that's not in their business interest to do enough. That's cynical, but I suspect that's true. But now that the band will come in, and I think December is when this kicks in, there are significant questions about whether it will work. I believe some trials are showing some positive results, but I'll speak later to Dr Daniel Einstein.
Now.
Daniel is a clinical psychologist and adjunct fellow at mcquarr University, and she's making the point that we need to do more than just have the ban. The ban in and of itself won't solve the problem, and there are problems. We need a more holistic approach and so that is something that we're going to have to look at and I'll do that with doctor Daniel Einstein Rodney Fox after one o'clock. Now, this is an extraordinary Australian Rodney Fox.
He's a filmmaker, conservationist, he's a shark expert. And the reason we i' speaking it to Rodney is today marks fifty years since the release of the movie Jaws. Now, I would challenge anybody to come up with a movie title that has had more impact on people's lived experience than Jaws. I mean, when you think about it, a lot of people knew about sharks prior to Jaws and were cautious. We had shark nets, people weren't crazy. But this almost pathological fear of sharks which seems to pervade
a lot of society today. I think you can probably trace it to Jaws. You know, the iconic music, the scenes, will play some of them later on. But I mean, in your lifetime, has there been a movie that's had a bigger impact on the way you live than Jaws? I mean, Gladiated clearly didn't. So I mean, what could it have been? One three, one, eight seven three. Maybe there's a horror movie, so I don't know. But as far as the sort of fictional story, and it's fiction,
let's be honest. But as far as these fictional stories are concerned, Jaws just seeped into the published public consciousness and scared them crikey out of a couple of generations of people. And I think it was the first movie to go of one hundred million US of the box office.
It broke all of these records. It really was.
It was being laughed at at one point, and Spielberg was very young at the time, so no, I reckon. This is a goer stuck with it, and of course it basically made his career. But Rodney Fox was instrumental in the movie, and I'll speak to him about fifty years of Jaws and the impact particularly that's had on our relationship with the shark. Later in the program, Alice will be here from Demand with the real estate segment for Friday Food. I'll be speaking to a legend of
the local industry. He's about to retire. As we announced last week, Rudy Deats, the owner of Stuyversant's house.
It's going on the market.
Next week and so I'll be speaking to Rudy after two o'clock. He's a lot of fun Rudy. If you've ever been to Stuyvesant House, he's a fun guy. So we'll be speaking to him and anything else that comes up. Of course, we've got the wind wheel. We want to give away another twenty five hundred dollars. I think was it huge Hole that's spun it for Bill?
Or was Bill Bah? It was?
You knows Bill, magic fingers Bill. We might need to get Bill back to get some more money away today. Twenty five hundred went off on Wednesday, I think. So we'll see how we go between now and three. Stay with us one three one eight seven three. I just see that Superintendent Adam Drew breeses phone through with a potential gas leak at Fairfield.
Adam, what's the latest.
There, good old Michael.
It's at Fairfield High Now. The school's implemented it's a self evacuation plan. We have a strong smell of gas. All their students are safe. They have I related themselves in an open area the school. We've got a gas leak.
We've turned off the gas supply, we've turned off all the electricity, so there can be no ignition if there is an actual gas in and around that odor, which we think there is, but fire risking your South Wales is onseene and we'll render that site safe for a good call from the school to get us out there early, just to make sure that we don't have a major incident out there.
Okay, wonderful, Thank you for the update, Adam.
Of course, if you're seeing some fire trucks and whatever around Fairfield High that's why there's a potential gas leak there and the authorities are all over it. We'll keep you up to date with that one three one eight
seven three where it is seventeen minutes past twelve. Well, look, while the world is focused on the unfolding events in the Middle East, the United Kingdom is focused on a very different story, and it's one that's going to force those isles to ask and answer some very tough questions.
For years.
In fact, for the better part of the early twenty and twenty tens, suspicions swirled around many Northern English towns that young girls were being abused in very large numbers by what the British called men of Asian background, now to be Pacific, the finger was often pointed to men of Pakistani heritage, but at almost every turn it seemed as though the institutions that ought to investigate such suspicions
failed in their duty, especially some local councils. And as a report just released by Baroness Casey has found, the reason why so many failed in their duty was out of a fear of igniting community tensions. Now, as the report says and I quote, despite reviews, reports and inquiries raising questions about men of asion or Pakistani backgrounds grooming and sexually exploiting young white girls, the system has consistently failed to fully acknowledge this or collect accurate data so
it can be examined effectively. And here's the key sentence quote. Instead, flawed data is used repeatedly to dismiss claims about Asian grooming gangs as sensationalized, biased, or untrue. In other words, the establishment went out of its way to protect a mirage of social cohesion rather than to protect vulnerable girls. And this despite, as Guy Dampier at the UK Telegraph says, the racially driven rape of hundreds, perhaps thousands of mainly
white girls being the worst hate crime in modern Britain. Now, as he went on to write the other day, the inquiry or in inquiry after inquiry, it was revealed that the authorities had failed to prevent the crimes, often over fears of racism. But rfial investigators and investigations have not probed the.
Core of the issue.
Now there lies the ultimate question, and an announced national inquiry must answer this, and that is why did so many in a position of authority choose not to pursue justice in these cases? Why did the seemingly why did they rather seemingly turn a blind eye or downplay the alleged racial element to the offending. Of course, many are right to question whether such a lack of curiosity would have prevailed if there were suspicions of gangs of white
men deliberately targeting girls of a different ancestry. Now, Britain's Prime Minister said Kiss Starmer has been forced to backtrack in and call a national inquiry into all of this. But as many have said, the terms of the inquiry
are going to be the key. Again, as Guy Dampier says, it needs to look at the role of anti white racism among some ethnic minority groups and the role played by anti racist ideology in the failings of the authorities, because you know, it's hard to escape the conclusion that decades of this anti colonial critical race theory in doctrination at the highest levels has played a bit of a
role in all of this. There's obsession with social cohesion at all costs, certain questions now being off limits, certain thoughts actively discouraged, all of this culminating in an institutional default position that's petrified of probing the truth if it might be uncomfortable. In other words, the deepest and hardest
line of inquiry. It's not going to be about the racial origins of the alleged perpetrators, although that must be the foundation of the inquiry, but it's going to be about the failings of the authorities, because it's as if they didn't want to know. As Baroness Casey's report made clear, flawed data had been repeatedly used to dismiss claims about Asian grooming gangs. Indeed, as the report said, and I quote, the ethnicity of perpetrators is shied away from and is
still all not recorded for two thirds of perpetrators. So we're unable to provide any accurate assessment from nationally collected data, despite there having been enough convictions across the country of groups of men of Asian ethnic backgrounds to have warranted
closer examination. Now, as I said earlier, this story is a massive scandal to date, I think I'm right in saying that no police officer, no council staffer, and no politicians certainly have gone to jail for their lack of interest in the true nature of what was going on across the UK.
But they should.
They should go to jail, as Baroness Casey said, instead of examination, the British instead witnessed obfuscation, and whilst that happened year after year, hundreds of girls' lives were shaken to the core, many of them sadly preyed upon from within institutional care. Now I know all of this concerns matters in Britain, and Britain's a very long way from Australia.
But Australia too must learn from this outagege and pledged to never allow such politically motivated, deliberate and institutional ignorance to permeate our body politic because if the boffins think precious social cohesion will be damaged, if certain racial data is released, even when it's integral to the situation at hand. They better be prepared for the absolute collapse of social cohesion if they try to cover it up, but then the truth gets out. Twenty almost twenty six minutes past twelve.
Got to be back with you. Thank you for your company. Nice day again outside. It's been cold, but it's been very sort of blue skies and very pleasant, hasn't it? One three one eight seventy three? On Jaws, this person here says, sensational movie. Perhaps why we've got the drum lines and the shark nets. Anyway, the Exorcist scared the Jesus out of my generation and created a fear of seances and trying to talk to the other side with the spirit board. I wonder how many people partake in seancess.
I mean, I know John Stanley has one somewhere here, but other than John, I don't know anyone who's been in a seans lately. Michael says Jaws famous tune. It's my ring tone and it sounds funny on my houseboat. I better that good point, Thank you, Michael. Now, the situation in Spain, remember when Spain and Portugal had that complete blackout across the Iberian peninsula. It was a massive story and ever since we've been waiting for the official reason as to what happened.
Well we've got it. I don't know if anyone.
Believes it, but as the BBC reports, the Spanish government have said that the national grid operator and private power generation companies were the ones to blame for that energy blackout, the one that caused widespread chaos in Spain and Portugal on April twenty eighth. In the immediate aftermath, the government didn't provide an explanation. Instead, they called for patients as they investigated. Now, they seemed to continually call for patients
because people said, well, surely you know what's happened. One minute the lights are on, the next minute the lights are off. I mean, with all the technology built into a national and internationally connected grid, and they are connected to France and elsewhere, you would have sensory readings pretty quickly as to what went wrong and where, and you'd rectify it and it won't happen again. Well, no, I mean, what is it two months or so we waited for
the official explanation. Now that gives everyone's suspicion that they were simply doctoring up some excuse anyway.
The finding was this.
That the partly state owned grid operator read Electrica, had miscalculated the power capacity needs for that particular day, April the twenty eighth, and the female minister said that the system did not have enough dynamic voltage capacity. She said that the regulator should have switched on another thermal plant, but they made the calculation and decided it wasn't necessary. She also blamed private generators for failing to regulate the
grid's vaulty shortly before the blackout happened. Now it's interesting that the minister that's been put forward to explain all of these very technical and engineering physics based issues isn't the energy minister. It isn't the science minister. It's the Minister for Ecological Transition, right Hello, So they're not going to blame anything to do with the renewable rollout of
the grid which has been rushed in Spain. They're rolling this stuff out, pulling nuclear out prematurely, without having the engineering capacity to ensure that the grid remains viable. Now I share all of that because I don't necessarily believe the fighting that's official fighting and okay, because a couple of weeks ago I s sheard with you part of a
story by Ambrose Evans Pritchett. Now he's a UK journalist, he's pretty well switched in and as he said, even back then, the stench of a cover up hangs over Spain's giant blackout, the worst electricity failure in there. He developed country in modern times. Now, I just before I go on, I make this point, Ambrose Evans Pritchard is a big renewables advocate.
He's not old King.
Cole, and he's in favor of the renewable rollout. So he's not here to say, oh, look this is what you get when you put turbines in the grid.
That's not his position.
But as he says, the socialist governor Pedro Sanchez is trying to buy time with explanations that either make no technical sense or veer into absurdity. Red Electrica, which runs the grid, the mob that the government blamed is accused of stonewalling. You said everybody, and this is the kicker, he says. Sources in Brussels have told the Telegraph that the authorities, the Spanish authorities, were conducting an experiment before
the system crashed. What was that experiment? Well, it was probing how far they could push reliance on renewables in preparation for Spain's rushed phase out of nuclear reactors by twenty twenty seven. As he said, one's reminded of the Chernobyl melt down in eighty six. I mean that all came about because they were running an experiment. And it might well be that they were running this capacity experiment
and they got the result. And if the result were public that the grid is just not ready for no nuclear and only renewables or whatever they want by twenty twenty seven, that the government that has advocated this for years would collapse because the public would say, well, you're going to destroy our economy in our wave of life. We're gonna have the first world economy without power. You guys got to go. So I don't know what the truth is in Spain, but I suspect it's not the
official line from the government. Not that I'm a betting man, but I reckon the odds on that actually being factor will be pretty long one three, one eight seven, three.
Good Mal.
There you go with them, Michael, you're talking about jaws. Yes, back in seventy nine, we did a tour of Universal studios, and you have on your little train, your half a dozen carriages been turned around by a little tractor thing, and go for a tour around the block. And at one stage a game, you come up this larger body of water with suddenly parts like most are doing the
red sleet. And when you're halfway through the study, the trains hard lurks to the left, and then the hand side just picked up just as the shark came out of the water. And needless to say, there are quite a few people had very relaxed internal muscles after that.
Yes, I think I follow you.
Yes, I'm trying to be discrete. You're here now.
You've been very discreet. I think you've been very medical. I mean it's extraordinary, isn't it the impact that this movie has had, isn't it? Now?
Yes, yeah, there's a good movie. As the noises. As that previous caller said, it's a great ring tone.
It is.
I haven't put it on my phone yet, but maybe after today's chat. I will good on your mouth. Thank you, you drive safely. It's twenty seven minutes to one. It's twenty four minutes to one. Good to have you there with us one three one eight seven three the open line number if you want to lob something in keep the text coming as well. Plenty of those zero four six, zero eight seven three eight seven three. I said earlier, I want to go back to this issue of the
under sixteens being banned from social media. Now it's been announced that Australia has been given the green light to use age verification technology. That's part of this new social media ban for the children under sixteen. It's all part of the crackdown on social media companies that the Prime Minister announced last November, and it includes that world first initiative to ban those under the age of sixteen from using social media platforms the Facebook's Instagram, snapchats, tiktoks of
this world. So a trial of the age verification technology has reportedly deemed it ready for use, and the trial has determined that it will be private, robust and effective. Now I'm not so sure, but I'm a cynic by nature, But you know, I think you've got to remember the kids, the sixteen year old's, fifteen year olds or whatever. They've been raised on technology in the way that you or
I might have been raised on books. They're technology natives, digital natives, and they're going to find a loopole, I would imagine. Now that's not me saying we shouldn't try to protect them from social media, but I don't think it's going to be easy to do. But whether the band at the age of sixteen is going to work or not, whether the age at sixteen's appropriate or too high or too low, I mean, all these debates can
be had. But as Dr Daniel Einstein, who's a clinical psychologist n adjunct fellow at mcae University, points out, the band will almost count for nothing unless we.
Have urgent digital reforms that complement it.
And that's something that I think to date has almost been lacking in the discussion. There's been a lot of focus on the ban world first and all this sort of stuff, or how's it going to work? Or could it work? Should it work? Is it a trojan horse? But what about the broader story here? Well that's what I want to speak to her about, and she's with me on the line, Doctor Daniel Einstein.
Good afternoon, Hi Michael.
We have done a lot of focus on the ban it's the headline grab or I get that but as you say, the ecosystem that it's meant to support or that it fits into, we don't discuss.
That as much.
That's right, that's right. We need education out there funded by the government that changes our understanding of our addictive use of social media and that will help the students and the parents themselves.
Okay, how do we address addiction in this sense? I mean when it comes to cigarettes, apparently we just tax it to oblivion. We're seeing how that's working now. But with digital technology you can't do that. So how do we approach that?
Well, we just need to understand it, because if we understand how we're pulled in, we'll make a few changes and those changes will help all of us.
Okay, understand it, though in what sense the algorithms that are applied behind the scenes or what.
No, it's really about understanding what happens with.
That addictive pool. So if you walk in the front door of your home and you automatically you kind of might be very used to pulling out your phone in that moment and having a look, does someone want me? Does someone need me? Is there a great message waiting for me? On that post I posted this morning? And someone posting about a topic that I really care about. If every time you walk in the door you look at that, you just get used to doing that, and in fact what happens is we get a bit of dopamine.
It comes out because you go, oh, I wonder if there's something there. I just wonder, maybe there's something good. And what's going on beneath.
The surface is that we're all slightly.
Addicted and wanting that little hit, and it's become associated with where we are and what we're doing, and it gets brought on by the location we're in because we've just let it happen, or looking at our phone or our computer or our iPad. So it's that that's the bit of education I want out for the whole community, for parents, the educators, for doctors, and for the students themselves, because once the students recognize it, they'll put limits in themselves as well that.
You think they will, they'll limit themselves.
Yeah. No one wants to be have their attention all the time taken up by an online community and unable in fact to appreciate the world around them, the relationships in their own family, their own real life friendships. People want to care for people around them, I think genuinely.
Okay, you made the point that it was speaking here of addiction in this sense that it's twin brother is anxiety. So I think from that you're inferring that if one is unable to access digital services willy nilly, they will be anxious that I don't know they're missing out or they're not in loop, or that something's and so it's trying to address both of those simultaneously.
Yeah, that's the big picture. What you've just said is that is the big picture version of anxiety, Like am I fine without my phone?
But the small.
Picture is actually the way we worry. The fact that just because I see my phone on my computer, I think about something that's important to me and I want to grab it and see if there's a problem there or if I've nailed it with something I've done this morning. So I might want to get off this phone and
go did I do well with this interview? Has anyone sent me a text to say, Danielle, that was a great interview, and because it's important to me, I'm going to reach for my phone and urgently want to nail it right. Or if there's a problem with my child I urgently want to see that my child is okay. But that's how it feeds into anxiety. It's actually just the worry that's brought on that I can quickly stamp out.
I can stamp out uncertainty, okay, And uncertainty is it drives us like uncertainty both in positive and negative situations, makes us more emotional.
That's the official psychological point of view that you're presenting. Understand that I'm just the radio guy, but I'm thinking if the technology is there, and yet that is the human inbuilt psychological predisposition. How are people going to self regulate?
Well, that's where conditioning comes in. Sorry to get technical again, but that's where if you understand the addictive pool, you just put better practices in for yourself. So when you walk in the door, you put your computer down in a set location in the house, or your phone down in a set spot where it's not in view all the time, and that way you've got you get better
digital habits. Some people have good digital habits already. Those people don't need to make changes, but many, many in the community do not have good digital habits because we just haven't caught out this addictive pool.
I'd say more than many. I said the vast majority.
I mean, if I take public transport, I'm often the only one that isn't staring at a phone. If you go to a food court at say your local Westfields, most people would be completely oblivious of what was happening behind them because they're scrolling on some ridiculous social media thing, looking at garbage while they eat. People are just hooked on this. So I mean, and that's the adults, let alone the kids.
That's fat, Michael.
But that's where you can make a deliberate.
Decision to change if you recognize.
That it's addictive to start with. But if we pretend that it's not addictive and we don't just call it out, which is what I'd like the government to do. I want the government to educate both clinicians like doctors, pediatricians, psychologists, researchers so that people are feel comfortable talking about it. If a client or a patient comes in with anxiety, we need to ask them, oh, let's have a look at what's going on. How many hours did you spend
on your phone yesterday or on your computer. Let's just have a look like a little digital health chair, not to be in basics, It's not to be intrusive of what they're doing. It's just to acknowledge that this stops them getting better if they have anxiety.
Okay, I think that's smart. Yeah, that's smart.
Okay, education, I know one of the things you really want to do is launch a national digital health campaign and look at this through a health prism, and I concur with that. But let me just ask you with your psychological expertise, because you know, I mean, you helped inform government with this sixteen band and the rest of you are part of all of that. So what is it about us psychologically that makes us gravitate to this? Because you know, my parents' generation, my grandparents general, they
didn't have this. They didn't have phones and smartphones on the internet, so they had to occupy their time some other way, and heaven forbid, occasionally maybe they were bored, which I don't think is such a bad thing. But these days, we've always got to be fiddling and doing something and being constantly reinforced that we're liked and popular, And does that say something about us as a society today.
It's just easy for us to get hooked on it that actually speaks to the technology companies themselves. Right, they have analyzed you in psychology and they use it to pull us in and hold us. And unfortunately, in under sixteens it's very bad for their emotional development. They're socializing in real life, their social skills. If they've got any vulnerabilities, they're going to get a lot worse. But in real terms, for you, Michael, and for the audience, it's just the
fact that of course we want connection. Of course we want to be liked. Of Course it makes us feel good if someone says something nice to us, or if we're needed.
And so of course we're going to want that.
If they're easy hits, it's easier than putting effort into working hard at something and then say a child at school work has to work hard at their English and then they get.
A good result. It's much more effortful.
But if we want to build children's competence in putting effort in and learning that there are no quick, easy fixes and that their parents can't get the results for them, that they've.
Got to put the work in themselves.
We've got to take away and or not take away, but just only gradually introduce these cheap hits that make us feel good in the moment, the sugar hits.
Yeah, okay. Just finally, as we're speaking, is you're saying that if.
We don't do all of this, the background work, which is the cause of really the tip of the iceberg, which is the under sixteens band, if we don't do that, the under sixteens band will fail.
That's what you're saying. Essentially, isn't it way to achieve its purpose?
No?
I think part of the purpose is just to get the tech companies to set up, to step up for them to have skin in the game. So as long as as long as we stick with that legislation, they have to have skin in the game. But I would like the public to support it and to know that parents feel solid, and that students themselves who have said that they want this, they've actually you know, a lot of seventeen eighteen year olds look back and say, I
don't want my younger brother or sister on social media. So, you know, young people themselves feel that this is a healthy step forward, and I just would like the whole community to understand that we can safely do this and to support support a change in norms. We've already started that. We already started the changing norms by introducing the legislation. Now we need more, We need more education, and we need the health everyone in health to get on board.
And I just don't want to hear negative messages coming from those who might be invested. Maybe Michael in not having a successful change in our community.
Well, yes, heaven forbid, there could be those people involved. Yes, wouldn't surprise me. Thank you for your time, Daniel, appreciate it.
Yeah, thanks for having me.
All the best, doctor Daniel Einstein, clinical psychologists there. It's an interesting conversation. I look, perhaps Daniel's a little more glass half full than me. I just suspect, well, look, I was about to tell I suspect the addictions baked in.
But there again. I mean, people said that about.
Alcohol use in the nineteen eighties and nineties, and look at the young people today. They're not drinking as much as they used to. They're putting other things in their bodies, but the alcohol consumption of a lot of young people is down. There's a trend from alcohol. So maybe in time there will be a trend away from this insane
incessant scrolling on social media. I mean my anecdotally, I find the lonely people tend to do it more than those that have a lot of friends and are occupied and have a good job and are you otherwise busy. There seems to be Again it's just anecdotal, but there seems to be a bit of searching for a community among some and if they can't get it in the sort of terrestrial sense, they go online to try and find it there. That's sad, but that's what I've observed.
But there's always exceptions in this case, I think many to the rule. But when you've got the young kids and they can't really decide, I mean, their friends are doing this. This is sort of as soon as the school bell goes and they're at home, that sort of or just carries on in the online realm and without the adult supervision, bad things happen and we know that. But I just don't know how you're going to break
that relationship between the young people. Particularly in the technology smart phones, the problem is to people using them are smart phone might be smart the user is That's that's the issue. One three, one, eight seven three. Thank you for all the feedback. Elizabeth says, it's just about maturity and the brain isn't mature until you're in your mid thirties,
which I think is very true. Another note here from Dayton who says you can't stop TikTok and once users get dumb to that, they then move on to Reddit or Telegram and so on and so forth.
Rod, good afternoon, Yeah, good afternoon.
Look, I've got it, not a different point. I've got two points now. Because I listened to your conversation. I think you're more on the money than she is. It is about community, and she was suggesting that you don't like to be without community. But what I'm saying is it's become a substitute community. There's less rules and personal demands on you to be part of it. You've got it in the back of your head. You're safe in it. You've got it in the back of your head. You
can ignore it if you need to ignore it. And that's how it's sucks. If you're in control, you're not the other side of it is all this education that I've got good, I've got good habits. They're people who aren't addicted. If you've got good habits, you're not addicted. And everything that we do light the war on drugs, which at educating and holding hands, and then we end up going, okay, we'll get rid of the laws on drugs and that way the problem goes away. Now, my
other point is that this is insidious. They're not genuinely trying to help our kids. It's even if they bring it in, it doesn't stop you getting onto porn sites, doesn't stop you getting onto other adult sites that have their own chat rooms. And how do you get on You have to prove that you're over sixteen, don't you mate? So so do I? So does every adult?
Yes?
Yes, So they're collecting all our information, and when they say that they're going to bring in optics and facial recognition, they're going to know everything about everybody.
That's yes, And that's a genuine concern. I share that concern. A number of proop thank you Rod for raising it. A number of people on the text said, okay, well, look, you know, we're sort of saving the house, but will burn the village down in the.
Process, so to speak.
You know, we'll protect the under sixteens by attempting this age verification, but of course that means everyone sixteen up still has to prove their bona fides. And so that's all in some respects harvested now you know, I mean data is harvested all the time.
It's what you do with it that matters.
But I don't think too many people trust either government or indeed tech companies to hold all of that data in our best interests.
Thank you, rod Sev? Quickly, Hi Sev?
Can I mate?
Yeah, very quickly.
Look that conversation, matage, occasion, all the rest of it. Well, how do you change habits when every aspect of your life is online and he's digital versus the generations of our parents and our grandparents, where, for instance, if you wanted to go and speak to the bank manager about.
A loan, who knows that?
Now, oh wait, we can't do that because there's barely any branches left.
How does that even work?
Well, that's another vavle of point good on you see that broadly, forget the under sixteens. Broadly everything is being forced by government and business online everything because they don't want bricks and mortar stores and they don't want to pay human wages. And listen, everything's going online and AI and digital.
OK. Five, maybe it's going to be more productive.
I don't know, but that is the thrust, and so we're sort of incubating this mindset, this system where the world is going to be digitized. Then a bit of a stretch to say to the young ones, Oh yeah, but on all these sites, No, don't go there, pull back age verification sort of, it doesn't all fit together.
Okay, stay with us.
News is next, and then fifty years since Jaws will look.
At that straight after this.
Now on TGB and network stations. Back to afternoon with Michael McLaren.
All right, let's get into the second hour. Thank you for joining us on this Friday. It is June twenty. Where has the year gone?
My goodness? June twenty already one three, one eight seven three.
Later this hour, Alice Stultz will be with us from Domain and the Real Estate Show. And don't forget if you want a property valued by the Domain team or the special computers and numbers behind the scenes that they crunch to get you the value, just get in touch with us or go to our part of the web page and fill in the form there that is purpose built and we'll get you on air as soon as we can, and Alice and the team will give you a rundown of what your property may be worth. And
it's a good service. So if you want that, just get in touch one three one eight seven three and we'll do that in the weeks ahead.
But before we do.
All of that, as I said, I wanted to reflect on fifty years of movie history today because it was on this day in nineteen seventy five some of you may have been.
There that Jaws was released in US cinemas the iconic soundtrack. I mean, you know it anywhere you hear that.
Jaws and Steven Spielberg's blockbuster completely changed the film industry. It was the first movie to earn one hundred million US at the United States box office, and some would argue even revolutionize the way that music was used to create tension or emotion for audiences in the movies. But the film received Academy Awards I think for sound editing.
It might have even been for the music. But aside from all of those accolades, Jaws, perhaps more than any other film before, it was able to change attitudes.
Now.
At the time, a lot of people watched Jaws and as you can appreciate.
Became scared of sharks.
And I guess you know who could blame them when you think about some of the iconic scenes like this one tell.
Them to get out of the water. I remember that well.
I mean, yeah, we often talk about art imitating life, but in some respects, I think it's important when we analyze these sort of movies fifty years on to recognize the real impact that art can have on life, and in this case, how a blockbuster film about a killer great white shark, as fictitious as it looked, could inform opinions and perspectives on these incredible sea creatures and of course the way that we treat them now. I wanted
to turn for this discussion to an extraordinary Australian. His name is Rodney Fox. He's a filmmaker, conservationist and shark expert. He was working alongside the team in Hollywood as well as off the coast of South Australia back in seventy five when the movie was released, and he's with me on the line. Rodney, thank you for your time, much appreciated.
Yes, fine, Michael, it's quite an event to I think it's fifty years ago since everybody raced out of the water and hayed and wanted to kill Shark.
Well, I suppose we can almost sum it all up in our first question, and that is that despite the fear that came as a result of this movie, he was incredibly well put together movie.
Spielberg did his magic.
But despite that, as you've said, over the years, it created a curiosity in these creatures, which in turn has ironically led to conservation efforts.
It's amazing, really running. We're still running our Great White Shark expeditions regularly off the South Australian coast and we had four times out doing a film recently and they said they were all inspired by the charts, by the Jaws movie. And you would be unbelievably surprised how many people have said told us over the years how it's got them interested in charts and one of them to
learn more. There's been so many articles and magazines, and we've actually worked on over eighty different movies documentaries over the year from all different countries and they've all been so very interested and a lot of all of them can nearly quote scenes from the Jaws movies.
Mind, the damn Jews movie did pay a few of your bills.
So let's go.
Back a lot over the Yes, I ended up with a job as it was acrust the old fault at Universal Studios Corridor and had to go around and tell stories of and television and stuff. But the interesting thing I went on that Jaws ride.
I was.
In the unit studios, yeah, Universal Studios, and I really was interested in why people would stand for an hour and a half and wait to go on the ride. And I ended up by coming up with just a few words. It's the tingering excitement of fear that people get to go on those rides and things that they're really interested in. But what really worries me a bit is that people say, you know, I have never been
in the water since I saw the film Jaws. And one guy even said to me, I haven't even had a bar since I've actually been since I've seen the film Jaws. But if people can't work out fiction from fact, and imagine all those other horrible movies that are out there that they they're learning from and they think that's what's normal, that's really quite amazing.
How yes movie, Well that's a very valid point.
And of course they'd never get in a taxi, they'd never get in a bus, they'd never do anything.
If they based their life off movies.
To take me back fifty or so years to when you know the Spielberg too, and he was sort of starting out. Really he wasn't the big superstar that he is now, Steven Spielberg. But I mean you and I think Valerie Taylor and Ron and others they sort of tapped on the shoulder and said, right, well, we need a bit of expertise here.
Fellas well.
I was very excited. Ten years before that I'd made the first underwater cage. I was badly attacked by great white of course, and I wanted to learn more about them, to see if it was safe to go back in the water. So I invented the shark diving cage, and we made the first films right with Ron Taylor as the cameraman and he as the expedition organizer and leader. And that film went around the world, and it was amazing how people would just ring up and ask us
if we could organize an expedition. And so that's how Rodney Fox Shark Expedition started because people just kept contacting us, and for twenty years we were the only really place in the world where you could film great white sharks. And it became quite a and of course the Jaws movies was an inspiration to anybody who was a bit interested and they wanted to go and see them face to face themselves. And it's so our expeditions really have been running for sixty years now, all off.
The Air Peninsula.
That shark attack, though, was one hell of an attack that you suffered, and I mean, I think you would say you were lucky to be alive after it.
It's been recorded as.
One of the worst ever shark attacks where someone's pulled through.
I can't believe how I always thought in the back of my mind that I've been left here to do something on this earth, because nobody would, you know, could vibe all that those down wounds. And of course they took them on the operating table, and they went around the world many times. And I'm still been sending off photographs of the scars, you know, and whereas I don't show them anymore because I'm they're a bit fat and ugly. It was amazing and I often thought I'd been lefty
to do something. And I look back over my whole life and we've really all just worked with sharks and sharks and got people to try and understand them and those sharks. With over four hundred varieties of sharks in the oceans, we've really, you know, with the great white of course is the pinnacle one, but there were so many other problems in oceans with the overfishing and plastics and pollution. Now that been a bit instrumental in helping all those because so many people now are researching and
looking at sharks. We had these four signists out on our boat during a film the other day and we died with them with great white sharks from South Africa and America, and they were really quite interested. And they also knew half the words of the Jaws movie.
It seems to be the basis of the lexicon, doesn't it.
Nineteen ninety nine was an important year in this whole story for Australia though, because that's when the federal government declared the Great white vulnerable to extinction. And when that happens, you know, things happen, Things change from a legislative point
of view. When you think about the movie came out on this day in nineteen seventy five, and then it took the better part of twenty four years before the federal government here is that Actually, you know, if we actually scientifically look at the numbers, these things are under pressure. Just just give us a sense if you could ron if the great whites were hunted to extinction because everyone feared them, would what would the ocean ecosystem look like?
Well, it's basically that they apply pressure to any schools of fish that get too large that we eat all the food that they eat, or the dolphins or the seals. They actually are very good at locating the sick and the slow ones because they're easy to catch, the dolphins, the seals, the whales, and so they keep our oceans clean. And so they're called a major predator in our sea for sea life farm and we really need them in our oceans. And just to wipe out something from fear
is not just the thing to do. We've got to learn to live with them and not just kill them from fear.
Well, what about those that go into the water, their surfers or their ocean swimmers or whatever. What can they do to as best as possible not be attractive to shark shark's.
Drawn to us? Or I mean, what's the story with the relationship.
I made my living as an abaloney diver in the same order as we're filming all these great white sharks for sixteen years. And I used to use the analogy that sharks only eight to ten sort of kill eight to ten people in the whole world for a year. They don't like abalony, and generally speaking, there's a reason. And a lot of the surfers that get bidden, of course, are in the same area where the sharks are like to live, on the reefs where the seas break, and
that's where the fish live. And so at surfer on the surface with his legs over the side looks like a dolphin or a seal that could be damage or cook. You know, a surfing is not really a good place to go. And a lot of our southern headlandes and coastlines because that's where the great white sharks hang out.
That makes sense. I guess where where's sort of swimming in their supermarket as it were.
Well, that's right, it's their world out there, and we've got to learn to live with them and not just kill them from fear. And over the years, the Finders University of a lot of people and we on our boats have been trying to make available to anybody who's got a great shark repellent, And there's been fifteen or twenty different times, And there's an electronic shark repellent now that you wear that sends out an electrical field that
keeps sharks they reckon. It's very, very good and the results have been by the Frienders University has shown that they actually are keep sharks away.
Just finally, Rodney, because I've soaked up a lot of your precious time, but it is fascinating speaking with you. Just had a text come in from someone who was listening as we speak, and it's from Jeffy saysm mate and I were on a surfing trip up Foster Away in nineteen seventy five and we saw the movie Jaws for the first time at the local cinema. We didn't surf for the rest of the holiday. Now, I mean
that stockstandard. But having overcome that extraordinary attack, and I've seen the photos of what the shark did to you, I mean you were a miss. How did you overcome what I think would be completely acceptable as a natural fear of these creatures to not just go back in the water, but to dedicate your life to their preservation.
And the study of them when I was in hospital. They and after about a week I was allowed to visit this but they allowed forty visitors to come instead of two the normal two, because the doctors thought that if they showed that I was really loved and I had something to live for, i'd fight hard and to
fight off any problems that I had. And so I noticed at that time that the word shark was really a feared and horrible thing, like death and hell and the devil up there, you know, the sort of you know they're there and they might affect you in time, and the fear of not seeing them in the water by standing on the beach was really quite a difficult thing because you didn't know there was a shark within
it a few meters or miles away from you. And as an adalony as a diet snorkeler in the early days when I was attacked, I knew that when you had the mask on and you go into nice clear water, you can see there were those sharks there, and I
badly wanted to get that diving again. It was a fabulous sport where you not only saw all these incredible beautiful scenes, but you got healthy and well at the same time, and I certainly wanted to dispel the myths that people had that you just had to kill them for the safe of fear.
Well you've done that. It's been an extraordinary right of yours. Wonderful to speak with you, Rodney. I've really enjoyed the opportunity. Thank you for your time.
Yes, thank you for calling all the best.
Bye bye, Rodney Fox, as I said, instrumental in the Sharks scenes in Jewels and Jewels came out on this day in nineteen seventy five. You might have seen it in the early days. You can tell me your recollections, as Jeff did there on the text us up on a surfing trip up Foster Way and didn't surf for most of the troop after he saw the movie at the local cinema one three, one eight seven three. Things happening closer to home, of course as well. On the roads, Richard, what are you seeing?
Oh?
Here you going? I was driving along the Horsbury Valley Way and there was a thick black smoke coming from the bus center are from. I'm pretty sure it's the government bus. Say yeah, one of the buses up in flames. The fiber gave just ropped up, and yeah, it's just really bad with the smoke there at the moment.
Is this in Malgrave Road? Is that the bus enter there?
Yes, Yes, I'm pretty sure that's that's the road.
Yes, And you're it looks as though one of the buses inside the center's on fire.
Yep, it's definitely on fire. And there's a thick black smoke coment heading over the Hausby Valley Way right.
Well, Richard, that's the first we've heard of it. Thank you for being our eyes on the road. We'll put some calls in and we'll see what's happening there. Just to repeat Richard saying at the bus center, I think it's a government bus stepot.
Isn't it.
At Moulgrove Road There at Maulgrave it does look as though a bus is on fire inside the bus depot. So we'll try to find out what's happening there in the cause of that particular blaze. Pat, Good afternoon.
Good afternoon. It was interesting your previous interview just what knowledge people have and that can lend into films. You were talking about Steven Spielberg in the production and the directing of that movie Jaws. There is just a segue out of that Stielberg's direction. He directed a movie called Duel with Dennis Weaver was the actor, and it was about two trucks that were driving through I think it was California in the desert, and the antagonist was running
down road rage wise of Dennis Weavers truck. Two large trucks. But you never got to see the antagonist. You never got to see who was driving the truck that was being road rade, you know, doing the road raging, right, But you can see Dennis Weaver doing all the acting out of the truck. And it is the most nail biting I think I've seen. And you know, because you look at directors and you look at musicians and you
kind of track them down. And after Jaws came out, you know, Duell kind of hit the screens again for a second, you know, reenteration.
You know.
Ah.
Yeah, But if you get to see Duell, it is it is the most amazing directing because you never get to see the antagonist. The faces always obscured you to see his truck driving behind Dennis Weavers truck. And it is a classic movie.
Yeah, it's one of the greats. It's certainly one of the classics with that long. I mean here we are talking about it fifty years on. A lot of movies are made you don't talk about in five minutes after they've hit the screen. Let Lane, they go to the midday movie. Let alone the fifty years. But here we are speaking. Hey, Pat, great call. Thank you for that. George on the Texas, I've seen Jaws in three D. Absolutely terrifying because you think the shark's about to circle.
You bet it is, Mitch said, a lot of these stories coming in. Mitch says, a maid and I used to swim laps of Couldgi Beach. On one swim, I saw a hammerhead shark was about five meters below me. I made a sharp right turn and swam to shore very quickly, and that was the last time I did that. Tony says, I was twelve years old. I saw Jaws in tweed heads. We're in deck chairs. I was in the front row, very scared. Oh this, Karen, Thank you, Karen. Steve says I watched Jaws as a fourteen year old.
It scared me that much that I checked for sharks when I have a bath.
Steve, you need help.
And this from Dick, He says, with jaws. I noticed it from time to time. Some prints have censored that wonderful scene where Robert Shaw at the stern of the sinking boat is sliding feet first into the Great White's mouth. Steven Spielberg wouldn't like to hear that one, after all, wasn't the objective to scare the Jesus out of all of us? That's from Dick. I haven't noticed the censoring, but okay, that's interest one. Others have picked that up.
Very observant. Good on your Dick, will take a break more.
In a moment, text after text after text, Rob says.
Oh that this is regarding that that movie duel was a truck and a car, not two trucks. A few people have made that point. Thank you, Rob and others. Harry says, Mick mack good on you. Harry, Ben said had again this morning. He said, I just googled Rodney Fox and the shark injuries. They are not for the fade hearted. His recovery is a miracle. It is, it is, and that's why I said to him, it's I mean, you'd be completely forgiven Rodney for hating sharks, being afraid
of them. Be the natural reaction, and yet he's dedicated his life to their preservation. If you said not for the fainthe hard, but if you google it, you see the injuries, the bite marks, horrendous, horrendous, how he survived. I had no idea, Pete says, after Jaws, I'd even sit and study a saltwater pool for signs of a fin. That's Pete and Kaz, I think speaking on behalf of many says ever since I saw I'm never the person furthest.
Out in the water. Let's get all the latest news eron mah Good afternoon.
Good afternoon, Michael. About thirty eight Australians have been evacuated from Israel driven on a bus into Jordan. Azerbaijan is looking to be the most likely exit for Australians stuck in Iran. Police don't know why thirty four year old James Packis was stabbed to death at Belmore in March, but they are hoping to find out why, as they released security camera footage of a getaway vehicle. A police officer has been charged over an alleged domestic violence incident
in Sydney Southwest. The thirty five year old facing a common assault of pens, and an independent evaluation has found the federal government's social media age restrictions can be introduced in a private, robust and effective way. In sport, the NBA Finals are going to a decider after the Indiana Pacers beat Oklahoma City Thunder one hundred and eight to ninety one to square the series at three all Ozzie
Johnny Firfey played six minutes for the Pacers. And there'll be more news at two o'clock on afternoons.
Oh weather update, we'll be here to help in unexpected weather. Nurmain Insurance a help company.
Yeah, a nice one for us today, Sonny in seventeen for Sydney. Pretty much the same everywhere up to eighteen at Richmond, Terry Hills will get to sixteen eighteen at Campbelltown as at seventeen everywhere else like Paramounta, Bondai, Pendrith and Liverpool Tomorrow, sunny in eighteen in town and mostly sunny in nineteen four Sunday. Maybe you drop it to
a rain Tuesday, but otherwise it looks pretty good. Camberra today today in the Capitol sunnay in thirteen for you Tugrinong, just that one degree warmer at fourteen minus foured the low tomorrow morning it will warm up there at a positive fourteen morning frost that'll be burnt away by a nice sunny day for Saturday, and then a very similar story on Sunday as for Lithgo fifteen the top morning frost that's gone now obviously a sunny day there Orange
thirteen and sunny Mudgie seventeen, Baptist fourteen, katomb but just twelve, but the sun is out Spring sixteen and sunny which is beautiful at springwood minus two to positive fifteen tomorrow, depending on where the sun dials at morning frost and sunny for Lithgo. Very similar story on Saturday our Sunday rather, but a top of sixteen. Let's get back to all of these calls and text Michael, what's your story?
Mate?
Yes, mate, it's you, sorry mate. Thirty odd year ago. Man and mate fishing in a little four meter ting dinghy in Brooklyn, little ten horsepower on the back of it. They were looking in the water. Great white shark cruises past the boat. He's a true story, guys. He's done a ywey. He came back, rolled on his side, looked at me. And piped in his boat and his eye was as big as a soccer ball, was bigger than the boat. This shark and within seconds that motor was
going and we were on the shore. Brother, we were born to this day. I will not get back in salt water.
But this is a Brooklyn, Brooklyn, just up here near Boston.
Yeah, yeah, out in the ocean. You're up, You're up the estuary.
So speak, we're up in Brooklyn. We weren't that far off the boat right there, and yet she was. She rolled on the side, and I'll never forget that. I'm looking at us. Was as big as a soccer ball, was huge, and that ended our fish and trip we were on that.
We're on the bank, mate, I would have been there faster than you.
Did.
You blow a kiss. At least you were polite. I hope.
I thought I nearly walked on water. It was scary.
I was telling up, Well.
I wouldn't if that was all legit, Michael, I would be as scared as you.
Thank you, mate. Here's another one. This is from Stavros. He's listening in Adelaide. Gooda Stavross. He says, me and a mate we were out fishing off the York Peninsula, the big shark territory out there, and he said, a great white cruise by us. He was bigger than our seventeen foot boat.
It was huge, had.
A heap of massive scars along its body, a real fighting brute of an eating machine. I'm glad I was in a boat that's from Stavross. Okay, Steve Even says, did you know the mechanical shark in Jaws was nicknamed Bruce by the film crew after Steven Spielberg's lawyer, Bruce Raymer. Okay, well, I guess that'd makes sense if that's true. Nice bit of trivia. Thank you, Stephen. Keep them coming. One three, one eight seven three or zero four six, zero eight seven three eight seven three.
I remember my dad said, I went probably back in the seventies or so.
He was up probably of Byron Bail up that way before it was trendy, and they were out I don't know if they were spear fishing or they were out just swimming in pretty deep water. He had a couple of mates and the shark he was swimming. The shark went under him a fair way under big sharks sort of thing, and he noticed it, you know, as soon as you see it. I guess a lot of people
the natural instinct. This was Dad's let's get back to the beach fellers, you know, the quick coopie calling out, we go, And I said, I've been in the ocean plenty of times, never deep sea fishing or anything. I'm not that adventurous. But swimming at the beach in the harbor of this sort of thing over the years, I don't know if I'd swim in the harbor anymore.
Just jumping off a boat into the harbor.
We used to do it, but I don't think I do it now because it's so clean that there is a lot of life in the harbor, including sharks. But I think jaws. I'm not thinking about jaws and just think general self preservation. I don't think i'd do it, but you know, normal beaches, yeah, why not. But a lot of people it's had this impact fifty years and still going. They just won't go near it because of the Jaws effect. It's twenty four to two, all right,
let's get back into it. Twenty minutes to two. Just a couple of updates for you. Hear a bit more information coming to Handrey that bus fire that our listener tipped us off about. Fire and rescue have been in touch. The fire is in a bus yard on Curtis Road in Moulgrave in the Windsor area. Two fire trucks are on the scene fighting the fire. It's the result of one bus being alight. Other buses nearby have been moved. That's thanks to staff at the bus yards, so they've
done very well. No injuries thus far reported. The fire is expected to be under control shortly now at Fairfield House High School and that suspected gas leak we heard about early from Adam Dewbry, specialist Hazardous materials Response technicians responded to that scene. They haven't been able to locate any actual gas in or around the school, so the school evacuated early. That was a precaution, but everyone's now
being returned. I think investigations are ongoing, but the odor may be due to some bitumen.
Being laid on a nearby road.
I'll have to remember that one next time I get stuck in the lift.
There's no flammability in the air.
I'm just saying what you were thinking, Joel, and the school is returning to normal operations with no injuries.
Reporter, which is good.
So that's the latest from Fairfield and the latest from Mulgrave. The Mulgrave situation is still ongoing, but it is expected. We hear that the fire will be under control shortly. Well done to all involved.
And now the real estate show.
All right, let's talk real estate, of course we do that.
The wonderful people at Domain and our stults have is the champion there and she's with us.
Hello, Alice, Good afternoon, Michael.
Great to be with you and with you as well, and just a reminder of people have a property they'd like valued.
Alice's the guru and she's got the supercomputers.
You know, they invested huge money and many nuclear reactors and everything to have those data center and is operating twenty four seven. So take advantage of it. One three one eight seven three, give us some details. We'll pass it on to Domain. They'll do the work. We'll get you on air and Bob's your uncle, as they say. Let's look first at the Sydney market. The auction results, another big number coming through over one thousand auctions last week, so we're back over the thousand again.
We are, indeed, and you know that clearance rate last weekend, Michael came in at sixty nine percent, So pretty solid result given just how much stock there was. And yet again we're hearing of these auctions where kind of bidding can get a bit scrappy and people are kind of just going up in tiny little increments us to try to get their nose in front of the line as
that gavel goes down. But still pretty tough competitions out there. Tomorrow, we're seeing six hundred and sixty nine options take place around Sydney, okay.
And the clearance rate was strong, wasn't it almost seventy percent?
Yeah?
Yeah, sorry, that was what I was alluding to. Then, you know, nearly seventy percent on that much stock is a really good indication. And I think it's also a sign that we are going to see those prices rise, because that really is that we're sort of getting that sweet spot where the demand is actually clearing despite how much choice there is for buyers in the market.
I mean, look, I'm naive in these sort of things, but I sort of stretched my head outs and think price is rising again, no doubt above inflation. Where do people get all this money from? Like I would have thought most people's borrowing capacity was exhausted in the middle of COVID when we went on a real gallop, despite the men in the bank saying we'd have a collapse. But now the price is going again, that seems I mean, people's wages haven't been rocketing, so so where is this money coming from?
Well, the short answer is it's probably coming from property investment. We know that when people have invested in property historically, they are often the ones who are really reaping the rewards of that. And I think that's why the whole topic of property is so sort of contrariant, and that if you're an owner, you're kind of probably quite happy about the price gains that you're making on your property. However, if you're not, you're a first time buyer, you're worried about, Hey,
kids are going to get into the market. You have this conundrum of thinking, don't let these prices keep racing away like they have been. But the reality is that people are making that wealth through property. But to get into that market in that first instance remains a very big challenge for many people who are just quite simple at the moment, locked out of it.
Okay, just on that, I mean the whole domain team. I mean, you're always churning through data. And this is why it's good we speak to you, because you're the head of the curve. Now you're looking at household affordability and you're making a forecast for the next financial year out of this data. So what are some of the predictions here that's coming forward through all of these numbers.
Well, the forecast data came out this week and what it's looking at is what prices may well do in the year ahead. Now this is based on three to four further interest rate cuts. Now, the alarming and stark figure is that Sydney prices are expected to rise around seven percent over the next twelve months, which will pip
that medium to around one point eight two million dollars. Michael, and I just I don't know how you sit with that, Michael, but I just think, how can that be the average price of what you pay for a house in Sydney. But yet here we are, having said that, the average prices of today's around one point seven million, So we're already at that point where many of us are just thinking how do we get here and how do I
guess do we course correct? So that current owners are able to maintain their investment and their asset, but also open up more opportunity for younger people and future generations.
Okay, a number like that. I remember being on air. It didn't seem like.
That long ago when we were speaking to the people I think from Domain when Sydney's average tipped over.
The million, and was holy Nellie.
And we've almost you know, if this is all going to be a fruit, by the end of next year, will almost be double it, and I don't know a decade.
Will almost crack. Yeah, and you and I will sit here and sort of think, gosh, when will it crack two million dollars?
Now?
How nuts is that? And as you just said at the top there, the issue is that wages are not keeping pace with that price growth. So look, what will help sort of alleviate a bit of that pressure on it is once we get more supply into the market. We probably don't have enough hours in the day to talk through about when and how, And you know, is that coming soon enough to resolve that, Michael? But we know that Finally it feels like governments are kind of joining forces a bit more, but it is going to
take time. You can't just click your fingers and sort of you know, have that supply arise instantly.
But you see, like as you said, there's a contrarian aspect of the market from a private point of view, there's also a contrarian aspect from a governmental point of view, as you know, because the higher the prices go, the bigger the stamp duty clip because it's based off a percentage of the sale price or the land value technically.
So they are short of money, particularly the Victorian money a government, they're broke, and so anything where they can bring more money in than they expect it is good for them, and so one wonders how invested they really are in moderating price growth in the housing market.
Indeed, that is completely an accurate description that you've just given there, And I think that's why for me, I would like to eventually see brave policy like looking at abolishing stamp duty in favor of that land tax, which
we've talked about before. But I do think that until we're actually going to sort of see government put their money where their mouth is and willing to take a hit on that instant cash hit they get from stamp duty, we're going to be locking out a lot of younger people when it comes to home ownership.
That's crazy. Okay, that's a debate. We'll go into those numbers again in more detail later. We'll take a break. We'll come back with the special guest, Rich Harvey. He's a buyer agent, CEO and founder of Property Buyer. I want to get his thoughts on a couple of things straight after this.
It's ten to two.
I want to bring Rich Harvey in here as we talk real estate now, because you see, whether you're looking at an open home or you're going to an auction or whatever, it's important to know what you're getting into before making an investment as big as property. Just talking about the values there, I mean, you know, there's a lot of money on the line, and these days the property market across the country's a bit of a mixed bag.
Some areas cooler homes on the market for longer, and other areas and locations is pretty hot, so things are flipping quickly.
Now. Some sellers may have staged their home for the sale, so they hire furniture. They do is to make it look really impressive.
But as a perspective buy you've got to know what you're buying, You've got to be able to see behind the veneer as it were. And I think this is where people like Rich Harvey come in. As I said, Rich as a buyer agent, a CEO and founder a property buyer. And he's on the line. Good to speak with you. Rich, Thank you for your.
Time and pleasure. Mica, We're great to chat with you.
You had a lot of sperience obviously selling homes over the years. Do a lot of people stage the property to make it look better and hide some sins.
Absolutely, And by the way, I don't sell properly. I just buy properly. I've been doing it for twenty five years as a buyer's agent. But yes, a lot of people do spend the money, and the reason they spend the money staging or styling a home is simply to create that emotional connection with the buyer. Like you know yourself, if you've walked into an open home and it's just empty rooms and corridors and it feels soulless compared to
something that's got beautiful decor. It's been done in a theme, like a beach theme or a Hampton style, and you look at all the knickknacks, and someone spend anywhere from five grand to up to twenty grand plus to really create that emotional connection and entice the buyer to fall in love with the property and therefore pay a high price. So you've got to look beyond those things, to the bones of the property before you make your decision.
I must met.
When my wife and I bought our property, there wasn't too much styling going on, as made too much sins either. Let's bring it, of course, Alice, no doubt. A couple of questions, Alice, what do you want to ask?
Rich?
Yeah, hi, Rich, I think tell me what you think about when people go sort of the themed approach in their styling. Rich, you know, you might have a modernist home and people kind of really lean into styling it with moderns furniture or a certain theme. Do you think that can really enhance a property for a potential buyer.
Yes, I do very much so, Alis, And it also depends on the suburb and the profile of homes and the demographic of the buyers in that area. So there's certain suburbs where you definitely spend a lot of money to style home in a certain theme. The risk that some sellers have indors have is that if they style it in the wrong theme or go too crazy with pastoral colors, for example, it could actually put some buyers off and go, oh, I don't like that, even though
the bones the property might be good. So I think the message here is to just be careful and look beyond the styling, to see the functionality of the floor plan, see how big the rooms are, because I've seen somehowses very cleverly disguised small rooms with three quarter beds or minute furniture to make the room look big.
That's clever.
Speaking of the bones, you know a lot of first home buyers, you know, these are traps for young players, I guess.
So they say this looks good.
Oh that tap tap wall, pretend you know what you're doing as you walk around. That sounds solid. But how do people know that what they're buying is actually solid and there's not a lot of hidden disasters and waiting to be revealed.
Yeah, first and fundamental thing Michael, You've got to do is get an independent pest and building inspection done. You know, me, as a buyer's agent, I'm not a qualified builder. So what's inside the wall? They could be termite damage. There could be water penetration, that could be structural damage. They could be rising damp. Those things are not visible to the naked eye. And unless you get an experienced building inspector and pest inspector, pay your five hundred and six
hundred dollars. It's money very well spent. In some states it's mandatory that properties are sold with a pest and building inspection. But if it was my money, I'd get my own done. I trust my own building inspector, and that way you've got some insurance there to know exactly what you're buying.
Yeah, I completely agree, Rich. I think that due diligence can go a long way and saving people money in the long run. The other suggestion I've got is also when houses look incredibly styled, don't be afraid if you're looking at it for an inspection to lift up those
rugs a little bit. I'm not suggesting go and get your husband to move the slow through or something, but it is okay to kind of peek around things and roll things back a little bit within reason if you feel like something could be concealed or hidden by the use of styling, and many people do this. You'll often see those big oversized rugs in a room and they're often covering up a few little cracks in the floor
or holes in the carpet. So you know, you have it in your rights to kind of go and fossic about the property a little bit.
Absolutely. Look, when I go through properties and my team go through properties, we look at anywhere from thirty eighty properties a week, So I'm always opening and closing cupboards, checking everything out. I'm opening and sliding the doors to check if the roll is a bustard, the windows open,
the water taps work. You know, I'm obviously not as staro as what a pest and building inspector in, but I want to do a first path to know it's going to meet the grade of what my once and then I can say, hey, let's look out, I've saw that crack in the wall outside. Let's tell the buildings to take special note of that. Or there's a bit of paint peeling in this room. Why is that happening?
Is there?
And what a penetration getting in?
You tell, don't be shy, that's got a lot of money on the lne Haye Rich, We've got to run there's some valuable points there.
Thank you for your time. I appreciate it, my pleasure.
Thanks Michael, all the best.
Rich Harvey there said Buyer Agent, CEO and founder of Property Buyer.
That means we've got to run as well.
Alice will catch up same time next week.
Look forward to it.
Thanks Michael, my pleasure.
Alice Stoltz there from Domain Susan says. Back in the day, it was a batch of biscuits or scones cooking in the oven for the open house. These days it's a little more complicated and here it seems to be.
But that's change for you.
News is next now onto gb and network stations. Back to afternoons with Michael McLaren.
Thank you for being with us as we get into the third hour. Do for Clinton.
Maynard es Squire will be up straight after three o'clock with Sydney.
Now there'll be a lot going on.
He'll be across all the details as stay Parliament workout who should go to jail or not, depend on who he's giving evidence. I mean, my goodness, this sort of stuff anyway. Word coming through from the federal government too, that two eightyf aircraft have been deployed to the Middle East. This is not for combat purposes. This is for getting Australian citizens out of the Middle East. Two aircraft eightyf aircraft ready to evacuate Australians.
That's the word coming out obviously.
I think the numbers was something like twelve hundred Australians in Israel and fourteen or so one hundred in Iran have sought government help to get out.
Not everybody wants to leave, obviously.
But I can imagine those that do, so the government's going to do their best there one three, one eight seven three.
Now I tell you stay listening this hour because you've got to listen for this.
These Winter Wheel.
The Winter Wheel.
Now that's not the Queuter cor but that will be the cuter course when you hear that later this hour. You've got to get on that prize loan really really fast. One three hundred and seven do two eight seven three not now, not now, or Olivia and the team will go absolutely ballistic at you. They can be like that, so just you know, don't test their patience. It's been a long week for them out there. Brianna and Olivia.
I'm getting death stairs, so I'll just in there. But when you hear that later, that's when you call as quick as you can, and I'll give you the designated caller. And of course then we'll spin the wheel. We might get old Lucky Fingers over there Joel to do it and see if we can give away twenty five hundred dollars in cash or something just as good. There's stacks of money and great prizes on that wheel to warm up a winter day like this for you, So stay
listening for that later. Also, later this hour, I'm going to ask you about chocolate, because I like chocolate. But there was a story bouncing around one of the papers overseas, and it's one of those questions that I don't know if humanity is yet resolved. It depends on the type of chocolate we're speaking of here. But do you keep it in the fridge or not? Now, my wife is insistent the chocolate goes in the fridge, and I'm not
a big fan on that. But in some cases, yeah, certain chocolate bars, but Mars bars I don't think belong in the fridge because then when you chew into the newgar caramel, it almost rips your fillings out. You want them soft, in the inside and so it's horses for cause. Anyway, the UK Telegraph's done a bit of a show, we say, scientific study on some different types of chocolate bars and whether they're better to chill or not to chill.
I'll throw that your way and.
Get your expert take family of chocolate loving listeners between now and three.
O'clock now one afternoons Friday. Food Well.
I mentioned this last week, but looks some sad news for the hospitality scene in Sydney because a great culturals about to change hands. Rudy Deats he owns one of Sidney's oldest restaurants, Stuyvesant's House. No many of you have been there over the years. It's known for its German hospitality, extraordinary food, located in Crowsness, but the property is about
to go under the hammer. I think the auctions next week in fact, and Rudy himself is looking to retire, but who could blame him after decades at the top. It'll be sorely missed though by people all over Sydney. And when I mentioned this last week many of you made that point. Memories came flooding back. For decades many have enjoyed the authentic German and European offerings on the menu, and they're not easy to get in Sydney these days.
The pork knuckle, of course famous, the Stetzel, the extensive and expansive wine list. Probably they're almost better known for that than the food. It's all at Stuyvesant House and it's been in Rudy's trusted hands with his brother Max for decades. But as they say, all good things have
to come to an end. But before it ends, I wanted to speak to Rudy and share my thanks for the wonderful meals I've had there a no doubt on behalf of many of you, and he's on the line with us, the owner of Stuyvesant's House in Crosn's really date, Good afternoon, and thank you for your time.
Rudy.
You will come anytime.
It's been an incredible ride.
The hospitality trade in Sydney's tough, as you've told me before when we've been dining there.
How did you survive all of these years?
Well, if you're on a good thing, stick to it and always do it right. What do you think is right? I think that's the main thing, and hospitality is a great word. And one third of all the world's people working there are in hospitality. And you know, looking after people. You're not cleaning windows, you're not changing tires. There's nothing wrong with their job eitherle but you're looking after people. You're looking after their health, they're looking after their food
and a nice class of wine. Like we say, a day without vine is like a day without sunshine. And it makes it all good. Nice table around, everybody is around, and they're all friends, and they're all talking to each other, business discussions, whatever. It's fantastic, it's great. It's a good job. I wouldn't do anything else in my life. I would do it again.
Let's go back to the start.
I remember speaking to you on a number of occasions there as you were delivering that hospitality to me at my table, and you made the point that you know you were I suppose we'd say, classically trained in this, in this profession, and you treated it as a profession. And there was something I think you said was you lamented to a degree that there's not enough people or institutions in Australia that treat hospitality as a profession. It's almost just a way to make money for some people
as they go through university or something. So do we in Australia generally lack that professional aspect of hospitality.
Well, if you go to Europe, it is a profession. And when I say people saying to me, how long you've been in the game, I really rechecked this. I said to him, I'm not in a game. I'm in a business. I did four year apprenticeship in the Black Forest, one year in Austria and four years in Switzerland just to get to know things. In Germany views to cook with oil and margarine. In Switzerland we cooked with cream and battle. So I learned the halfway. And you learn
from scratch. You learn from the bottom up. And it's in building you.
You.
It's it's your status. You it just made it. It's And I came to Australia in nineteen seventy on the third of October, and I've been opening up a few restaurants for other people and they're all being successful and my place after people say sometimes because I'm a bit naughty or a bit straightforward, I said to him, hey, look i'm there fifty three years. I wouldn't be there
fifty fifty three years if I did everything wrong. I might have stood on some people's clothes, or I said something wrong, or I at best on the wrong way because I didn't know any better. I'm sorry, but that's how it is.
That's right.
October three, nineteen seventy is a date you obviously remember. Why Why did you come to Australia, Because, as you said, the hospitality scene in Europe is the best in the world. The training's there at the fine restaurants, so there, Why make the journey out here?
Okay, it's a bit of a story. Our father was in stalin guard and he said, young ones, I'd done enough for you. So I went to neutral country. Austria is nutros Vittal and is neutral. I didn't want to go to the army, so I thought, I come two years to Australia, and I got stuck. I got married, got two children, I got stuck again for another two children, and I'm here. I've got four kids. And I called my father and I believe them.
I love you. So you got stack.
There's worse places to get stack, obviously you mentioned over the all these decades of hospitality, though not not everyone that comes in as just a client. Some become friends over that time, don't.
They absolutely, And with tears in my eyes, I would I have to walk out here because people were here in the last few days. They've been coming here for forty years, and they have their children next to them, and I just have to turn around because I get teary. I just it's just amazing journey. And you know, kids come in and I call you Uncle Rudy or Uncle Max. It is just absolutely fantastic. It is, it is. It is a great job, and it's great to have people
like this that don't go out without saying goodbye. They come from table number sixteen, which is by the window. They come all the way to the kitchen to thank you and to embase you and say see you later. All the best, and you know, Christmas and New Year's we talk to each other either over the telephone or saying hello to each other. It's a family. It's a big, big, big, big family. It's a big family. Stuyvesant's House is a big family. And if I ever upset somebody, I'm sorry,
but it's just my stupid German mouth. I can't help. But it's just straight forward. Some people like it, some people don't.
I'm married to a German lady, So I understand what you're talking about. The food, of course, is the celebration of the restaurant. That's been the corner stone of the success all of these decades. And we've got to talk about Max, your brother, don't we, because I mean he's slaving away in the kitchen as you're working hard out on the floor.
You made it.
Well, Max, Max has the tired and he does his own thing. Now I'm in the kitchen back where I started when I first opened the restaurant in nineteen seventy three, to go from Bernard DeJong, a fantastic chef, a Dutch gentleman, absolute gentleman, and you know, been going ever since. And then Max came back, or he came in five years later than me and helped me at the restaurant, and he opened up his own restaurant and didn't come back. And it was a good journey. It was a good journey.
It was a good It's something you cannot repeat. When I went to the fish market to bought something and I said to Max, can you get me something like this, this and this and this, and he already had it in his hand. It was like mental celebrity. It was a transformation without words. It's it's it can't be a But unfortunately that has come to an end too. I'm very sad about it. But have a look. Each one goes our own way with it.
This way, that's light, that's life, and you're going your own way out of Stuyvesant House. I assume the name will live on. Hopefully someone buys it next week at auction and it carries on.
Right, Well, we see how it go. It's it's not with an easy half, okay, because there's a lot of half blood in this restaurant every day, day and night to come in, open the door, go to the fish market at five o'clock in the morning, or the Virtue Market, taking your trolley getting the vegetables and whistling along and saying hello to everybody, all the Italian friends which I have at the Virtue Market. And it's amazing. It's it's
it's it's a culture. It's a culture, and the culture is embedded in Europe and it's certainly has taken on in Australia. When I first came here, they used to drink wine out of bound paper bag because they weren't allowed to drink alcohol. Open on the road and have a look at Bob because now fifty years, I'm so happy to be fifty years involved in the Australian wine industry. The wine has grown so much, so fantastic, beautiful wines and if you store them, probably have evidence of the wine.
And you give them to people and they're enjoying it and they say wow, because it's just delightful to have a thirty or forty old wine and it just falls over your tongue and has an elegance to it and a body to it. It's fabulous. It's magic. It's just in this type of goal. It's just fabulous. And then, like you said, the folk knuckles. But last night I made some wheel filets and they're melded in the mouth that pats a part of it, and take them all down in the cellar because there's not enough.
Woom speaking of a cellar, because that was everyone's fear when the big fire happened, that the cellar would go, but it survived. What what happens to the contents of the cellar when you sell?
Well, I've got a warehouse in length Off and I'm gonna do a little wine shop and sell the wine when I feel. When I'm in Australia, I like to travel a little bit. I like to go overseas. I like maybe do a nice little bruise or just spend some time in Southeast Asia. I'd like to go to China anything. I mean, the world is open, the Western world is still open, and you can travel. It'd be great, But we don't know how long. Maybe I'm lucky and I find a nice partner.
You never know.
Excuse me, Have you got a sister?
I got.
No, I don't, but I'll think for you and I'll see if i can come up with some solutions.
Call anytime.
I'm ready, all right, wonderful to speak to you. Congratulations on all of those decades of success.
Yes, thank you very much. All the very best to your two and thank you for calling my pleasure.
Rudy Deats he's a legend in the hospitality scene, one of the best, and the owner of Starves at.
House Willie on the Texas.
If you like German and Austrian food, you've got to get to jaeger Stuba at Schofield.
He said.
It's sort of a beer hall type thing and great drinks as well, and Oscar is going to make you welcome. All right, I'll drop that one down because I'm always looking for good food of that part of Europe. I like that sort of food, but you can't find it everywhere, So all right, Jaeger Stuba, that'schofield. Thanks for the tip, William,
I appreciate that. Just before we get to Clinton, the situation in the Middle East continues to unfold, obviously, and I guess it's only a matter of time until certain airlines say it's too risky, which I'm certainly keeping an eye on, because as you know, next week I'm taking a bunch of well a week after next for a lot of our listeners, so we're heading over to Europe for a cruise with our sponsors Travel right, and so I've got
a commercial arrangement with them. But that's all going to be taking place in the coming weeks, and many people will be, no doubt flying en route to Europe via the Middle East, because that's what happens with a lot of the airlines these days. So everyone will be checking their respective airlines and tickets. But I see here this has just come through that two American airliners have stopped regular flight routes to the Middle East. Amid all of
these escalating tensions. American airlines are going to suspend their flights to Doha and Kata, and United Airlines have made the same decision about flights to Dubai and the UAE. Now it's important to stress that Qatar, the UAE and Dubai are not being hit by missiles. These are missiles going between Israel and Iran, often over Saudi airspace or Jordanian airspace or something like that. But these American airlines have decided it's too risky. Both airlines said they're monitoring
the situation and they're working to rebook customers. And as the article with AP says, the move from the US airlines follows similar cancelations by dozens of other carriers which had already canceled a large number of services to cities
between Israel and Iran and Jordan. Now I can understand those flights being canceled, but when you look at a map Dubai, for example, and also the UAE, which is Emirates Edti Hads home base, they are at that northern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, not far from the Strait of Homwitz, and there is a lot of concern that if the next step will be taken by Israel or Iran to try to leverage a stronger position here, that that very narrow body of water between the Arabian Peninsula
and what we used to call Persia will be blocked or bombed, and that would be getting very very close for comfort for a lot of those airlines that service the Australia into Europe market, for example.
So keep an eye on this. It is forever unfolding.
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 Kak four kias on new small sedan GT line very unavailable. Now find out more about Kia's latest small car.
Well there he is, Clinton Maynard, Good afternoon, Good afternoon, Michael.
Will certainly keep our listeners aggressive for the developments in the Middle East, and there is more news about airlines, particularly given it's such a such a hubbyist route now for Australian based passengers, whether they're flying the Middle East in the airways or the others, will be across all that. I'll try to keep up to date with what's happening
in mcquarie Street at the moment. So the Usher of the Black Rod has his j has keys rattling around in his back pocket in the moment, just figuring out what the process is from here on.
Joking.
Look, what's going on at the moment is unprecedented with the demand to arrest five staff. But that's actually what's the outcome of this parliamentary inquiry today because the five staff, as I was explaining to Mark leeby this morning, didn't arrive and that they did submit a letter asking to be excused, but that was rejected by the committee's chairman. Because that has occurred, the committee now puts the issue over to the President of the Upper House, Ben Franklin.
So it's now to Ben Franklin.
But there's a lot of hurdles to go through.
Before the Usher of the Black World was actually arresting people, or it's the sergeant at arms or the other police sewer based at Parliament House, Ben Franklin has to convince a Supreme Court justice that there are grounds to make an arrest five arrests here And.
It all sounds very guy forksis, doesn't it.
All of this There's also the issue, as I've been discussing on my show yesterday but also today, that that Ben Franklin has issues here about his own position.
He was an ex NAT, wasn't he.
He was the ex nat who was recruited by Chris Mins, and he's reasonably close to mister Min's out of politics, and if he was to refuse the request to make the application of the Supreme Court, there could be no confidence in him on Tuesday, which puts it risk his three hundred thousand dollars a year job, and he's fancy office and so forth, so he will also be torn. He's not in Sydney at the moment's my understanding. So look, there's a lot of water to the flow under the
bridge here. I don't think the five staff members are going to be spending the weekend in the lock up, and they wouldn't actually be going off to jail. And I have confirmed there is no dungeon underneath stars.
I was going to say, theoretically, where does one lock them up well in the dining room or what.
There was a thought that there were certain dungeons under It's very old building, right, and both political parties have dirt units that dig up information on people within their own parties. So there was a suggestion maybe this dirt you know, underneath Parliament House in Macquarie Street, and they could use that premises as a temporary jail for these parliamentary.
Operatives, rogues, the stooges.
What it actually happened is so if this if a Supreme Court justice ordered their arrest, they would most likely have the officers at the Parliament would most lockily knock on the door, although they're based in a different building in the city. They probably confined them to their parliamentary office until they're physically taken into the mcquarie room, which is where this inquiry has been conducted, and sit there and take questions. They won't be behind bars.
So it's all very cosplay in all ways. All right, Okay, so we await all of that wonderful theatrics in the meantime, what else are you covering?
I'm really excited to be speaking to either Davies after If you think about the hits that Ice House pro Juice back in particularly in the nineteen eighties, Man of Colors, which was the first album I owned on cassette, so it would have been around eighty six eighty seven, five singles married to the Australian top ten from Man of Colors.
So looking forward to talking to I legendies about that wonderful Okay, look forward to listening to that. Thank you Clinton Clinton Maynard was sitting now straight after three o'clock. Now let's get the latest news eron Margaret after.
The good afternoon. Michael of Parliamentary Inquiries considering further action after senior government staffers didn't turn up to give evidence over the Dural caravan incident. The federal government's being urged to engage more broadly on the issue of digital health as it gets closer to introducing social media age restrictions.
New South Wales Health has issued and alert after a traveler infected with measles fluid as Sydney from Vietnam on Monday morning, and firefighters have launched a b Fire Safe Winter campaign identifying older Australians and those with disabilities as the most at risk in the winter months. In Sport, dozens of people required medical assistance because of heat related illnesses on the second day of racing at Royal Ascot, just outside London. The event attracted over forty one thousand
spectators with temperatures peaking at twenty nine degrees. There'll be more news at three o'clock on afternoons.
A finance update for Pretzel, Wealth and Finance, Trusted Financial Planning, just Google.
Blake went to Pretzel.
It's hard to believe, isn't if they had an empire and they all start falling over twenty nine Celsius. Let's get the latest from the stock market. Of course, that's one to watch at the moment with everything going on. Scott Phillips from the Motley fool Full dot com.
Dot la Scott Michael Good afternoon, Good grief.
They sent the tough ones down here, didn't they? Pearly over twenty nine at Ascott Good unbelievable. Is the chill Champagne enough? One of the big four accounting firms PwC Australia, they might have a few at Ascott Family Enough.
The profits slumped seventeen percent.
Yeah, big fall a third lower in total since the accounting got the cut government contract scandal of a couple.
Of years ago.
They are doing well. I was going to say they're doing it tough. I wouldn't say that necessarily. Revenues down six percent, profits down seventeen percent. The average partner six hundred and twenty eight of them still managed to walk away with seven hundred and sixty seven thousand dollars, so they're going to be okay, mate, speaking of it, Speaking of it, For the Chill Champaign to be able tofford
a little bit of that, it's a yeah. Look, it's been a fall from gra from PwC reputation wise more than anything, particularly a lot of those government contracts, and that's what's behind a lot of this revenue loss. Got to say, though only six percent fall, you'd be pretty happy that given what happened, given the reputational damage they took. So yes, down should be deserved to be, frankly, I think.
But hopefully for them, they'll turn this thing around. Hopefully for the rest of us, they can put that wall between government work and other private client work and make sure that we're being looked after. I'm sure they made those changes already, by the way, so that should be the story.
Of the future.
But PwC, Yes, revenue down, profits down, but still doing okay.
Okay.
Now, the markets and the dollar, I mean a lot of focus on oil and energy stockside. Imagine CBA, though that still seems to be rollicking along. We might have a look at that next week. But broadly, how are we going?
Yeah, another record for CBA this week, by the way, doing remarkably well. The market's underwater, but we've actually halved our losses. About midday was the low point of the day, so still down, but by two tenths of one percent. It was down about double ad as I said, seven hundred and twenty six points for the all ordinaries. Meanwhile, in the currency markets, the dollar is down against the
era on the pound, but only up. Actually, buy a tup now against the US dollar a tenth of a percent of the good sixty four point nine one US aps.
Actually, just by one more minute of your time, Scot, just quickly on CBA, because you know most people have shares in it through their superfund, I'd imagine, but just quickly on the movement all of.
These record stock highs.
How much of that is reflecting genuine value in the brand or how much is simply money leaving, let's say, other socks that are deemed more risky and moving to a perceived safe haven. Because I'm no stock picker or economists. But you look at the valuation of CBA and how much it's gone up the last twelve months, do you think is is that based off the actual value of the bank or is there something else going on here.
I don't think it can be, Michael. I think you absolutely nailed it. Is a bit of the grew six percent last year, which is not bad. The other banks were pretty flat, so it's done pretty well. Pe Rashow price to Earning's Racehof twenty nine times now the average from the market closer to sixteen or seventeen times, so not far off double the price you're paying CBA, by the way across the morning, So I reckon it's a sell. The consensus estimates I've seen there's two holes, five moderate cells,
and nine strong cells. Everybody is selling you these things over the value. But it keeps going out because people keep buying the shares. I think it is Mate. There's a acrium in the trade, Tina. There is no alternative. I think right now people are looking at that saying, well, I could be somewhere else, or I could be with CBA. I know that I trust them. They have done well for forty years. I guess I'll stick my money there.
The risk for investors, of course, is even when that trade unwinds and people start selling and going back to other things, there may be downside for the share price. So you got to be careful what you wish for. Good for now, hopefully shareholders on the stage where it is, by the way, but a risk given the valuation and by the way, that price earnings ratio more than double the average of the other three of the big four banks.
So I teld you how much investors love CBA, but also how stretched that valuation probably is.
Yeah, I'm glad I asked.
Okay, have a good Friday. Thank you, Scott, appreciate all of that. Thanks Michael Scott Phillips.
Chief investment officer from the Motley full dot com dot you.
GV Winter Wheel.
Oh okay, well there it is.
Okay, call a ten please, we need call a number ten on the prize line right now. One three hundred seven double two eight seven three One three hundred seven double two eight seven three will take a break.
In a moment, Joel will warm up his.
Magic hands, or so he tells me, and we will spend that wee all hopefully we can give away a lot of money, but you're not going to lose no matter what comes up, You're going to be in front. So call a ten now, prize line one three hundred seven double two eight seven three up to forty thousand dollars worth of cash and prizes to be.
Won after this.
Now we've got track of the day coming up, so there is another chance to win something for listening.
But let's do the winter Wheel.
We have Damiens sitting there waiting to take something home. Damian, you're not going to go empty handed. But I suppose twenty five hundred in cash would be kind of nice, wouldn't it.
Oh, that'd be a fantastic right away in the work, I think, Michael, what do you reckon?
I think? So?
All right, yes, well I'm not in the running, but I'd love to give it to you. All Right, here we go, Joel, it's not it's look, let me just put it this way as a caveat, as a legal statement. Whatever happens has nothing to do with me. I'm not spinning the wheel. Joel is all right.
So if you're lucky, yeah, sorry.
I was gonna say if you're lucky, it's thanks to Joel. If you're unlucky. I'll give you his home address. Okay, so here we.
Go, Here you go.
I'll do my best way you hear, Damien.
Here we go, round you go, Joel, beautiful spin go Look at that action.
All in the rest he's been practicing. Okay, where are we? Where are we?
All?
Keep going, keep going, keep going? Fifteen hundred.
That's pretty good, beauty, one thousand and five hundred, thanks to Joel. Now that'll take six months to get to you because that's half a year's salary for him.
But there you go. Damien, you fleeced him and it's all going to you. Well done. What are you going to do with fifteen hundred dollars?
Oh?
Mate?
You know how it is, tobby K one or two bills. Yeah, go after dinner and that.
Sort of thing, you know.
Enjoy some of it, yeah, exactly.
Enjoy some good on your Damien, well done, thanks for being loyal to two GB.
There you go. It's pretty straightforward.
Damien was calling number ten, Joel spun the wheel, and Damien walks away with fifteen hundred dollars minus Joel's cut whatever the percentages, I'm not yet sure. Well, well dam in fifteen hundred dollars. We love supporting our loyal listeners. We'll be spending the wheel in breakfast mornings afternoons in Sydney now with Clinton. So of course Clinton coming up after three stayed listening for your chance to win big on Sydney's two GB one three one eight seven three of the open line number.
Now, chocolate. I was going to ask you about chocolate, wasn't it. Yes?
Okay, So there's this story in the UK Telegraph and it's debating one of these it's not age old because we haven't had refrigeration forever, have we, But nor have we had chocolate forever.
But what to do with chocolate?
Is it best stored in the fridge or is it best left in the cupboard. Now, I'm a cupbed kind of guy. My wife likes to put the chocolate in the fridge. I will eat it out of the fridge. I'm not that fussy. But I think, you know, certain maybe it's maybe I should say certain chocolates don't belong in the fridge.
I'm just going to say that as a statement. If you've got or something they.
Don't belong, they should be soft in the center, have them in the have them in the capboard. But this I think is coming out of the UK now because you know, as you heard in the news, they're having these sweltering conditions, you know, it's twenty nine degrees.
Don't have the in its virtue.
So the debates on should the chocolate go into the fridge or otherwise we really end up with some sort of big, brown, messy puddle of sweetness. Well, according to recent research, fifty three percent of the palms regularly keep their chocolate in the fridge, insisting it makes for a more refreshing way to get their summer fix. But traditionalists are appalled. They point out that the cold dulls the flavor of the chocolate, and it does. Cold dulls the
flavor of everything. If you want a really good tasting tomato, you don't leave it in the fridge because it'll kill a lot of the flavors. Same for fruit and what so chocolate's no different anyway. So they've done the hard work for us here. I mean, this must have been extremely strenuous, high level research. But they've gone through and listed a few things that we would certainly recogniz I've got a couple of things over there we don't get.
But Cadbury dairy milk we know about that.
The verdict is chill it. That should go on the chill put it in the fridge. Tob larone. That's a bit controversial. They say the toblaron should go in the fridge. I mean, I know it's sort of reminiscent of a Swiss Alpine peak, but I think toblerone's better unchilled.
But that's just me.
Now, they've got to think over there called Tony's Chocoalony milk chocolate.
I think we have that. We do, Joel says we do. I've never bought it.
But if you like Tony's Chocoalony something rather, you don't chill.
That apparently, I don't know why you don't, but you do dairy milk. I don't know. Then there's the Green and Blacks.
White chocolate, and they say that's okay either way.
So there you go.
That's one for the undecided lint. You don't chill lint. No, well you shouldn't because it's got that really soft creamy like you know, like why would you do that. Ferrero Rocher milk chocolate, a hazelnut bar. They say that goes in the fridge. Okay, Cadbury dairy milk with the caramel inside always chill. Really, I would have thought you wanted the caramel center to be really ooey and gooey and whatever. The other seven dwarves were right, Why would you want
that chilled? And then Mars bars? I see, this is the one they say to chill it. I understand, but no, I mean again, you want the caramel and the newgard to be soft, maybe just temporarily five minutes, just to knock the edge on the chocolate. But the rest of it, no, you don't want that hard. The last thing when you're going to have a treat is to then take your filling out right, So why would you do it anyway? You might want to throw your two bobs worth in
on that. There's no prize on offer. You just might want to share your wisdom over the years of chilling or non chilling your chocolates.
One three one eight seven three. No, you don't put the Mars bar in the fridge.
No, no, just do what The kids never put the Mars bar in the fridge.
Why would the adults do that? Just think about that? One three one eight seven three dairy milk. I can go with it.
Well, I'll survive that, but not the Mars bar and not the caramel, the chewy, not the not the soft scented caramel chocolate.
No way. It is thirteen to three. Okay.
I should have raised this at the start because we've had a meltdown there. I say it about chocolate, whether you put in the fridge, the freezer, the cupboard, or somewhere else wherever that might be.
Let's get some calls before track of the day. Ash, good afternoon.
Yes, okay, Michael, what's.
Your chocolate recipe? As it were, Ash, what do you do?
Yeah?
Well, I was having a new take on or a different take on chocolate bar in the fridge. I love the Snickers in the freezer and it really snaps and crunches when you first eat it.
You said snickers, not knickers. I hope they're Ash.
No, just stickers, stickers.
I wouldn't judge it.
Okay, Snickers in the freezer. Well, you you have your lines break up. You have very strong teeth. If you have frozen as snickers with the caramel, the nuts and the lot, you're like forget Jaws the shark.
Your jaws out of Joe's bond. That's extraordinary.
Well down to you. Your dentist deserves. I don't know, some sort of accolade. That's extraordinary work. Thank you, Ash, Peter.
Good afternoon, young Michael.
I'm all right yourself. Not too ran a chocolate.
Have my view on chocolates, and I think they're much nicer in the fridge.
All of them.
Well, yeah, all of them except the table iron. You have to be really careful table because that gets a bit too hard. That can that can knock your teeth at that one. So you've got to let that normalize a bit.
The toblon if you're not, if you're not just snapping the individual triangles. Often because the gaps between the little mountain peaks, it's hard to get your thumbs in right, so you tend to bite them off. If that's really hard, you'd be putting a dent in your gums, wouldn't you.
You're up a palette.
Yeah, you've got to be very careful. You got to let that normalize a bit. But it does taste very nice.
Chill the tobler owners very nice chocolate. Indeed, thank you, Peter, appreciate your appreciate your tip. Daniel likes freckles when they're cold. All right, Thank you, Daniel.
This person says, my husband puts bounty in the freezer. Surely that's worse than any fridge chocolate. Probably.
Thank you for all the nice messages coming through as well. Chris says, regarding chocolate and the fridge. I've got all of mine in the fridge. I find I eat more if it's chilled. Okay, Each to their own. One three eight seven three now one afternoons Crack of the day. By the way, Jan says linked dark chocolate's now twelve dollars. It will lease forget the fridge. I might need to go into the safe with the gold. It's getting expensive, isn't it. That's the cocoa prices we're speaking about that.
During the Easter show, they're going up, up, up and up again.
Track of the day.
I've got one hundred and fifty b store voucher on the line. If you'd like to get that one hundred and fifty dollars worth, why wouldn't you? One three one eight seven three here's your question. By the way, I'll give you some thinking music in the moment. But it was on this day in twenty eighteen, Woolworth's Gay stopped giving away something for free on this day twenty eighteen.
I can't believe it was actually that long ago. It seems more recent than that.
Woolworths stopped giving something away for free?
What was that something? If you know? One three one eight seven three.
Here's a little thinking music for you, a bet of James Brown. All right, So what did wolworth stop giving away for free on this day in twenty eighteen? But a James Brown with Papa's got a new bag that might help? One three one eight seven three. As I said, We've got a one hundred and fifty dollars voucher to B Store shoes. You'll love comfort, you'll live in. B Store brings you birken Stock, Bloodstone, Fitflop, MBT, Frankie four
and more. You can visit them at mcquarie center, Good Choppings that or of course Westviille Miranda style starts here.
Max, you're a stylish guy. But we could all do with a bit of help.
I suppose what did woolworth stop giving away for free on this day in twenty eighteen?
Max?
It was plastic bag?
Was Max? Max?
Plastic bags? Hey one hundred and fifty buck voucher to Bee still coming your way. That's a good way to wrap up a Friday for you, Max, Well done.
Who knew the free plastic bags were so lucrative for you.
Hang on there, we'll grab your details, of course, and we'll get that voucher to you.
It's five to three stacks feedback, someone says Michael. Michael, Michael.
The only plays from Mars bars in the freezer Crispian delicious, My goodness, Okay, thank you. Jeff says, do yourself a favor. Go to the Junee Chocolate factory. I haven't been.
I must do that. James says.
The real crunch when you eat a crunchy is when it's from the freezer. The honeycomber is explosive, so lovely, says James. Stephen says, reed Jaws. I saw it in nineteen seventy five, was at the State Theater in Sydney. I remember the restaurant next door had Twomato soup on the menu.
Is a special joke. That's very good. I think it's a hotel. Now.
There is a QT that's beside the State these days, And Jr. Says being cheeky re the track of the day question. The thing that Woolworth gave up for free on this day in twenty eighteen, he says, was a customer service. They're good sponsors of ours Jr. Now you behave yourself, perish the thought. Thank you for your company, A big thank you for Bill filling in on Wednesday
and Thursday at short notice. A big thank you to you the listeners for your beautiful messages that came in for my family after the announcement earlier today as well.
I do appreciate that
Clinton is up next, and here will guide you through to six o'clock and keep you up to date with everything you need to know.