Highway Hiccups, Inside Australia's Policy Debates, & Why Women Should Start Work Late

In a world where voices are silenced. Please, please. One man refuses to lie down. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done. He's been punted not once. 40 years they've been trying. Not twice. You couldn't fire somebody if they were horrible, doing a terrible job. Three times you're fire. Doesn't tell you what to think, but gives you something to think about.

Welcome to the Bonafide podcast with Luke Boner. And he's not. All right, here we go. Done. Hold your ears, folks. It's showtime. Well, g', day, folks, and welcome to podcast number 443 of bona fide, with me, Luke Boehner, and a lot coming up, so stay with us. The leader of the National Party in Australia, David Littleproud, will join us for his regular spot. He's got some thoughts on what's going on overseas and here in Australia, and we'll answer some of your questions.

Employment expert Graham Winns. Just around the corner, we're gonna catch up with an old mate, Martin Shaw. He's the president of Wounded Heroes. They've got a new coffee that you can buy, and. And every cent goes towards helping a very worthwhile cause. And of course, Truckee Tuesday with Rod Hanafi. News updates. But first, let's have a look at some of the headlines that have got people talking this week. What about Kathleen Folbig's $2 million payout?

Released from prison in June last year after the conviction for murdering her four children was overturned. Oh, my God. Her compensation for spending 20. What's inside revealed today, $2 million. This is disgraceful. Now, she was imprisoned for more than 20 years, five years of which was spent in solitary confinement. She was finally freed in June 2023 after an independent inquiry found reasonable possibility that her children could have died from natural causes or a genetic mutation.

She has been paid $2 million compensation for wrongful imprisonment. That is grossly unfair when you consider that Brittany Higgins got a bit over $2 million before anything went to trial. The Australian taxpayer paid out $2 million in compensation to Brittany Higgins without anything being proven, without anything going to court. Kathleen Folbig's sent to prison for two decades and gets $2 million. It is just grossly, grossly unfair. And I'll have more to say about that down the track.

To have European countries and Australia march into that. March into that rabbit hole, just like that. Fall right into it and buy this canard is Disappointing. And I think it's actually shameful. Benjamin Netanyahu has slammed Australia for making a decision it has not made. Ied The Israeli Prime Minister has labelled it shameful that the Australian government will recognise a Palestinian state. But he's ignored a key fact. The government has yet to take this step.

I know that the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Foreign Minister Penny Wong have said that they want to recognise a Palestinian state and that they want Palestine and Israel to get along with a two state situation. No one's asked whether or not Palestine is happy to live with a two state situation. In order for Palestine to agree with that, the people who are the leaders of Palestine, west bank and Gaza is a terrorist group called Hamas.

There's a lot more to say about all of this and I'll cover some of that with David Littleproud in just a moment. Now, this isn't necessarily a news headline, but it's something a listener tipped us off about. A pigeon was trapped inside Pakenham Central Marketplace store for several days. Now the pigeon's okay, but centre management has come under fire for their very delayed response.

After days of community concern, the marketplace has now apologised and ensures a better internal process for future wildlife incidents. Remember the old TV cartoon series Kelsey Catch the Pigeon? I'm pretty sure it was a Hanna Barbera cartoon and it was huge. And it involved Dick Dastardly and Mutley. Yes. In fact, let's have a listen to the jingle. Remember this, you snickering floppy eared hound. When courage is needed, you're never around.

Those medals you wear on your waffing chest should be there for bungling in which you are best. So stop the pigeons. Stop the pige. Stop the pigeon. Stop the pigeon. Stop the pigeon. That's it. It was called Stop the Pigeon and it was a staple of afternoon TV cartoon watching. Kelsey, stop the pigeon. Stop the. Don't you put that in the recording.

Well, at the dropping of this podcast, we have now found out that the Prime Minister announced that Australia will recognise the right of Palestinian people to. To a state of their own. Now let's have a look at that. A state of their own Palestine or what it is at the moment. And let's look at. Gaza is run by a terrorist organization called Hamas. Now let's have a look at what Hamas did back in October 7, 2023.

Hamas, being a terrorist organization, led the deadliest attack on Israel in its history. Hamas killed about 1200 people and that included more than 360 young people at a music festival kidnapping people, including young babies. It was an unprecedented attack and it sent shockwaves across the country. Now, Hamas was voted into government by the Palestinians in 2006, and guess what, folks, There hasn't been another election since. And these people don't wear uniforms.

And I'll discuss this with David Little Proud shortly. And they fire rockets into Israel. And where they fire these rockets from and where the leaders of this terrorist organization hide are at schools and at hospitals and where civilians live. You got 1200 people and more than 360 young people at a music festival that were taken hostage. Israel has said return the hostages and they still haven't. And we are about to recognize Palestine, who is led by Hamas, a terrorist organization.

Good luck with that. I'll be discussing that with David Littleproud shortly. Time for your say. Andrew had this suggestion for a new welcome to Country. We acknowledge those with an enduring connection to this land, the first Australians who have cared for it for countless generations, those born of it and those who have come to share in its story. Together we stand on a country that is beautiful, generous and full of life.

May we honour its spirit, walk gently upon it and cherish the gifts it continues to give us all. I like that. I actually like that He's a thinker. I mean, we changed the words to the national anthem to we are from. From we are young and free to we are one and free. And I like that. Andrew, you're a thinker. Well done. Got this voice message from Tony. I just re. Listened to one of your previous episodes and you were asking about some of the best calls you had on the night shift.

Well, the one that springs to mind to me is Swampy when it was a man cave night and you were talking about the Barbie movie and Swampy went in the story about how he was terrified his sister and you know, the Barbie dolls strung up by the hair with the hills on the hills hoist. And I had to pull over when I was listening to her driving from Bendigo to Melbourne. But yeah, because I, I couldn't see. I had tears in my eyes from laughing at her.

And then you pushed it into what did you do on Cracker Night? And then you didn't finish it. Yeah. We've got to find Swampy. He was one of those rare characters who lived in regional Victoria, I think. Was he out of Geelong? Can't remember. Lived there with his. On a, on a. On a property out of town. He was a character. And we should get back onto the. The topic of Cracker Night. We'll do that. Maybe next.

Man cave got this voice message from Tobias, our public transport expert, regarding e bikes and scooters. I think the E scooters should be banned because they're a safety concern. A lot of people take them on public transport and it causes a lot of trouble when you've got three or four E scooters on a bus and then unfortunately a wheelchair is trying to get on.

So Transport for New South Wales are trying to ban E bikes and E scooters from public transport, which I agree that you shouldn't be taking an E bike or an E scooter on a train or a bus. But E scooter, E bikes need to stay around because people in regional areas like Dubbo and that that are on a low income that catch the local bus, the bus service doesn't run regularly, so people use their bikes.

What the government needs to do is bring out a list and say, hey, these are all the bikes that you can only legally sell in Australia. If a business gets caught selling one of these illegal bikes, the business should be penalised about the registration. I don't believe that's going to fix anything because I would say probably about 80% of people that are on these bikes are going to be pensioners. Okay, yeah, a couple of good points there. Maybe you could means test the registration.

Give free registration to whoever needs it. But the point of the registration is so that whoever's riding these bikes, if they break the law, they can be identified. I don't know about your figures about most people on these electric bikes. Elderly. Where I am here at my studio, there's a road that goes down to the local high school and there are streams of kids on these bikes. No helmets. They're on the road, they're going faster than the traffic and. And there's often two to a bike.

We covered this with James Ward from drive.com last episode, and if you missed it, here's just a little of what he had to say about electric bikes. If it's powered, it needs to be registered. If people were riding Kawasakis up and down the footpath, there'd be outrage. But because they're electric, you've got all these people. Oh, but they're great for the environment. No, they're not. You are going to get badly hurt if you come off that because you hit a bump in the road.

If somebody knocks you or whatever, you are going to get incredibly, incredibly badly hurt. Why? What are you doing? You look like a moron. So thank you for your response. Please keep Your comments coming, because we love them. Coming up, employment expert Graham Wynne. Time to talk employment issues with our good mate Graham Wynne, the owner of Superior People Recruitment. Lot to talk about today. Grey, Gray, you're in your car. I can see you've pulled over somewhere, have you? G'.

Day. I certainly have, yes. How are you today, Luke? I'm going very, very well. I want to talk to you straight away about Australians working from home. Graeme, I got a feeling that working from home is going to become the norm and I think we're going to see more and more people opting to work from home because they haven't got someone looking over their shoulder.

Well, they do, really, if work takes can tap into your computer and we've seen someone dismissed because of that, but it saves on travel time, it could save on fuel, it can save on public transport fees. You haven't got a. This is something that the millennial has thrown in. You ready for this, Graeme? Go for it.

She reckons that women who work in an office should be able to start an hour later than men because to look corporate, it takes a lot of time to do the makeup, the lippy, the hair and to. And to look presentable in an office. She reckons that women are going to save a fortune on makeup if they can work from home. And if they're forced to work in an office, they need an extra hour to prepare. Okay, I'll let you digest that.

Well, if you look at me, I clearly need more than an hour to make me look presentable. So, you know, with a face like this, so I should therefore qualify as well. But no, I think that's just. That's just laughable, that. Just laughable, that. But look at me, I'm working from home now and I've got a camera on me, but I've gone to no trouble.

The Premier of Victoria, Jacinta Allen, has used the Labor Party State conference to outline her government's plans to develop legal protections for employees who want to work at least two days a week from home. She says she intends to enshrine working from home rights into law next year before the next state election. Look, it's going to be a vote grabber, I reckon, Graeme, it will be a vote grabber, but I want your.

Reflection look, and I'll be honest, that's the only reason she's potentially doing this as a vote grabber. Victorian labor government are definitely on the nose down here in Victoria, so I think this is purely done as a vote grabber. I have a Major issue with it. Two things about it. Number one, we already have a process in place called Fair Work Australia.

So if there are issues around working from home that can't be resolved between employer and employee, they can go to Fair Work Australia and they will deal with it. Secondly, Federal government overrides state government. So should the federal government put a ruling in place at some stage that will override what Victoria do anyway? So what is the point in one state standing alone on this?

But my main issue with this is this should be left between employers and employees to decide, discuss, negotiate, resolve. Government should not get involved in telling a business how he has to operate. It's his own business or her own business. Government. I thought we lived in a democracy. If government start legislating things like this, we're moving towards communism and really it's just wrong.

Government should not get involved in this kind of process because as I say, we have a safety and with Fair Work Australia already, so why must government get involved? This is purely being done to catch votes. That's the only reason she's doing this. As I said at the beginning of our conversation, I think working from home is going to become the norm. I don't have a problem with it.

So long as KPIs are met, people are getting the job done, getting results, they're going to save a lot of money on all those things I've mentioned before. What are the problems with working from home? There are a number of problems with working from home, particularly small to medium business. There are infrastructure costs that they need to take on board, certainly to have people working from home. There's the mental health issue that people talk about.

If you're working from home and you're isolated, you're not having regular communication or contact with people, how does that affect your mental health? There's that issue as well. And the other issue which we've discussed before, since that South Australia person got a work claim having injury working from home. Employers therefore need to thoroughly investigate everybody's home office or workspace to make sure it's a safe working environment, if that's now classed as your office.

But does that also mean though that as a manager or a boss, can I just turn up at your house and have a meeting? Yeah, because that's the office. Yeah, it's the office, yeah. There are so many problems with this. And the other issue I really have with this is that not everyone can work from home. Some jobs you just cannot do from home. So we're creating a two tier structure here, A Working structure.

And in companies where some can work from home and some can't, I can see this causing a real rift between the employees, because those on a manufacturing line or emergency services or health workers or retail hospitality, they cannot work from home. So those that can will really be seen as having an unfair advantage, if you like.

But on the other side of it, if working from home says, well, hey, we're going to save all this money, can employers start offering a lower salary to those people working from home because. Of that, are you concerned also, and I've read this, that this could become a problem, that if you're, say, working with computers, let's say you're a graphic artist, or let's say you're even a podcast producer, Kelsey, and you can do it all from home, which she does brilliantly.

But could you then could your boss say, okay, well, let's renegotiate your wage because you're working from home. Guess what? I'll find someone in the Philippines that can do it from home as well. For a fraction of that is the biggest risk. If your job can be done from home, it can be done from the Philippines. Fact of life, simple as that.

And we saw the Commonwealth bank recently outsourced a number of jobs overseas because people working from home in the Commonwealth bank said, hey, we can save a fortune. Let's just outsource it to the Philippines. So that's the risk. If you want to work from home, your job becomes far more vulnerable. Because seriously, if it can be done from home, it can be done from. Anywhere, and you could be doing yourself a big disservice. Yeah, you got to think of these things.

And there's also been a lot of documentation and a lot of employers saying that people that work from home are less likely to get promotions, bonuses, benefits, rewards. It's the ones in the office who'll get those. Yeah, interesting. This has got nothing to do with what we're talking about. I was having a chat with my daughter, who, as I keep telling everyone, yes, I'm very proud, but she's cabin crew for a large airline. And last month she was away for actually more than a month.

She was away for her wedding, her honeymoon came back and then had to go and had to fly to Johannesburg. And she was away for many weeks. They got their electricity bill and it was 650 bucks. It's normally 310 around there. And they weren't home. No one was living there for a month and two weeks. So she rang up Energy Australia. Guess who she spoke to someone in the Philippines. She said the language barrier was appalling. She couldn't understand what she was saying.

She said, okay, I'm gonna switch providers. Then all of a sudden someone came on the line that could speak fluent English and they got the bill, and they got the bill back to the previous 310. But I'm just saying. She said, where am I talking to you from? They said the Philippines. And she said the service was lousy. Yep. And look, I'll be honest with you. Australians don't like overseas call centres. We just don't like them.

And quite often by myself, if I ring up somewhere and it's an over, I'll just hang up and I'll find somebody local to talk to. And Australians, as a general rule do not like working with overseas call centres. We just don't. We're very different to the rest of the world. Some other countries cope with it, Australians don't. And that's been well documented as well. But. And I've got one client whose international company moved their entire worldwide call center to the Philippines.

Their Australian business dropped. So they put their Australian call center back in Australia, left the rest of the world in the Philippines and Australia business picked up again. We don't like these international call centers and we will find alternatives. So that's a risk for companies as well. And just on that one issue, Luke, if you're going to be working from home full time, you might save money going into driving into the city or your $10 coffee rather than make your own coffee at home.

But with power bills going up like they are, how much more are your is going to cost by working from home full time? Can you claim them on tax though? If home is work only a small portion. A small portion as compared to nothing before. True, but if your electricity bills double, you won't be able to claim half of it. So you are worth it. It's an interesting one, isn't it, Graham? It's an interesting one.

I want to talk to you about the Australian worker who was sacked after calling his non binary colleague he instead of they. Folks, this is a true story. A Perth man, 63, claimed wrongful dismissal. The case went to the Fair Work Commission following an incident in February in which he introduced his younger co worker at a leadership training course. Graeme, walk us through this. What's happened? This is fascinating, this one.

So basically at this leadership course he introduced this person as a he, but this individual who classed himself as non binary, therefore wanted to be called they. This was pointed out to the 63 year old, and he apologized and said sorry about that and that was it as far as he knew. However, a formal complaint was made to the management, an investigation was done and they asked the 63 year old to do a written apology, which he refused to do, so they dismissed him.

So he was taking this to fair work. His argument, I really do like his argument saying if legally a person has a right to be called by a pronoun, then I should have the same legal right to not call them by pronoun. So you can't have it both ways. I think it's a really good argument he had there. The end result was though, the employer and the 63 year old came to a settlement before it went through fair work.

So clearly that means generally he would have got a payout of some description, wouldn't have got his job back, obviously. But if they came to a settlement, it means the employer did not want this going through fair work because they were obviously concerned about what would have happened. But this is a fascinating one. Now lawyers are saying there is no legal right that you have to call a person by their pronoun. There's no law about that.

You don't have to, if you choose to be known by that, it doesn't mean I have to call you by that. There is no law about it whatsoever. So the employee, the 60 year old was quite correct. He doesn't have to call somebody by a they. He can use whatever he can call him he or a she or a him or her if he wants to. The only way that changes is if a company puts in their own policies to say you must use pronouns if people want you to. That's the only time it can be enforced.

And this company did not have that in their policies. So the 63 year old would have certainly won had this gone through fair work. Which is obviously why a settlement came to an arrangement with the employer and him. So what's the upshot? What happened? Well, basically a settlement was made. Obviously he didn't get his job back. But a settlement normally means the employer would have paid him out some money. Obviously that's what generally a settlement means.

So before it went to fair work, and by not going through fair work, the employer name is kept out of the press, etc. That's all kept out of the press. It doesn't take too long to Google who the company were. If you want to, I won't mention it, but certainly by not going through the whole legal process, the employer is somewhat protected. But the employee who was sacked would have clearly won this case. Because there's no law that says you must call someone by the pronoun.

That law does not exist. The world's gone mad. Well, it's interesting. I follow LinkedIn quite a lot as a workplace tool and a lot of people who put pronouns on their LinkedIn profile. It's been noted by a number of companies if they see pronouns like that, they won't employ the people. They just think, you're too high maintenance, you're too hard. So. But using a pronoun, some employers and recruiters say, hey, if you start using pronouns, you're a problem child. We don't want you.

Wow. World's gone mad. Bro. Oh, hang on. Can I, can I say bro? You can say bro. That's all right, Graham. We're always good to talk to you. The world's gone mad. I'm so glad I work from home and I'm glad. And I'm glad that I'm a bro. Absolutely. I'm with you there, Luke. Oh, crikey, Moses. Talk soon, Graham. Take care.

Kelsey, you had an interesting opinion on working from home and you reckon women should be given an extra hour because they need to prepare to come into the office as far as makeup's concerned and looking corporate. What are you talking about? Absolutely. I've always thought this.

I've always thought because women are held to a higher beauty standard, particularly when you are working in a corporate office or really just any client facing service role when you're speaking to people, men will not understand. But it will take 45 minutes to an hour to do both your hair and makeup. If you are blessed with curly hair and you have to straighten it or you have to style it for it to look presentable and neat, that takes more time.

Women have to wake up earlier than men to do all of these things. So I've always thought that women should be able to start later. So why do women need more time? Because it takes more time in the morning to do their hair and makeup. You have to remember that women are held to higher beauty standards than men and to achieve that, it takes time. Doing hair and makeup takes time. It's unfair that women are expected to start work at the same time when they are expected to look a certain way.

Coming up, leader of the national party, David Littleproud. Time for our regular catch up with leader of the national party, David Littleproud. He joins us again. Welcome back to Bonafide. Our listeners are loving your content, loving your honesty, and now you've been inundated with lots of questions. Is that okay? David, good morning. Good morning. Happy to take them. Okay, first of all, some current news. The war between Russia and Ukraine is there light at the end of the tunnel?

And, David, do you think it should involve Zelensky handing over parts of Kyiv, parts of Ukraine? He says no way. He will not give the aggressor any territory. Your thoughts? Yeah. And look, this war has gone on for more than two years now. And what we've got to understand was that Putin originally, as I understand it, invaded because he feared that NATO was going to welcome Ukraine to their family, which he believed would then mean that missiles would be pointed at Russia.

Now, the fact is that Ukraine hasn't joined NATO, and NATO has no intention now of inviting Ukraine to join them. You would have to say, why would you reward the poor behavior, the bullying behavior of Vladimir Putin? The reality is they are sovereign countries, both recognised borders. And the fact is, while there has been tensions over particular parts of that border, the reality is that Ukraine has been recognized by the international community and its borders were. So were Russia.

So, you know, I think Zelensky has every reason to push back against this. Now, whether there's pragmatism from his point of view and what parts of Ukraine that Putin would allow a ceasefire to take place on is a discussion they'd have to go through. But if you get back to first principles, these were borders that were internationally recognized. Putin was the aggressor. His original excuse was that NATO were going to invite Ukraine to join them, therefore he felt threatened.

If that threat's not there, then Putin doesn't have a principle in which to ask for more land. Yeah. I've spoken to Dr. Keith Souter about this on a number of occasions, and he says there's no way Ukraine will ever be invited to join NATO, because once they do become part of NATO, all the other NATO nations are then obliged by their charter to defend Ukraine. And that could really escalate things. Exactly.

And this is why I think it was a pretense for a land grab and for strategic assets that Putin wanted. Now, you just can't run around the planet taking things you want, and particularly with force. And you've got to remember that Zelenskyy actually did us a big favor. The fact that Putin didn't roll into Kyiv in a matter of a couple of weeks sent a very big message to our friends, particularly in China, that just rolling into a country isn't that easy.

And that makes you think twice about even trying to dominate a little country like Ukraine, whereas China has plans to take back Taiwan. I think it gave second thoughts to the world that it's not quite as easy as just rolling in as a bigger country and thinking you're going to take it over. So I think Zelensky, with the help of the rest of the world, those of democracy loving parts of the world have supported Zelensky and so too is Australia in making sure that we protect their borders.

And that sent a very strong message, I think also to other aggressors to think twice about how easy it is just to roll through. And that's the thing is that I think had Putin rolled through within a couple of weeks, it would have been a business model that would have been emulated potentially by China in wanting to roll through Taiwan. Yeah, but it's a fact, isn't it, that it's one thing to invade a country, but it's another thing entirely successfully occupy it.

Yeah. And this is the thing is, you know, I don't know intimately the local layer, the land in terms of particularly the inhabitants on those outer parts of the Ukraine and the history that we remember that it is part of the ussr, but the reality is that this were internationally recognized borders and you can't throw away the rules based order that the world has maintained peace and prosperity on since the second World War in particular.

So what we need to do is respect those and where there are aggressors, we need to stand up to them. And because if you don't then that validates their business model and it'll validate other bullies around the world to be able to roll through and to be aggressors and to actually cause harm in other parts of the world. And it's not easy, it's not something everyone wants to do.

But sometimes you got to grit your teeth and you got to say either you stand up now or this will lead to significant issues around the peace that we love and enjoy, not just in this country but in other parts of the world. If we can get to some more foreign policy news before I go to our listeners questions, we saw what they believe to be about 90,000 people march in protest to Israel's.

Some people are calling it genocide, others would say possibly the heavy handed approach to Gaza and innocent Palestinians being killed. And Penny Wong and the Prime Minister recently saying that Australia and the rest of the world should recognize Palestine as a state. Do you think that that's a good idea considering Hamas is still in charge? No. And that is the issue there is bipartisan support for a two state solution.

The issue is, is that the Palestinian state is being run by a terrorist organization who perpetrated an act on the people of Israel unprovoked on the 7th of October, 2023.

Now if that happened here in Australia, let's just get back to first principles again, that happened here in Australia, then the Australian people would, one expect us to go and hunt down this terrorist organization and eliminate them, to remove that threat to the Australian people, that's the government's responsibility, is to keep their people safe.

And secondly, if there were hostages, not to come back until we had done it, until we had regained those hostages, those Australian citizens, in this case Israeli citizens, that are still being held by a terrorist organization. So this is the reality of, I think we get caught up and I get this, people want to protest. That's your right here in Australia. But just understand the context of what this conflict and how it started. It was an unprovoked attack.

If this happened in Australia, then the Australian people would expect our government to hunt them down to bring back our citizens. And I'll tell you, there is actually a precedent for this even here in Australia. If you cast your mind back to the Bali bombings, Australia went and hunted down those perpetrators. In Indonesia, we left our shores and we found them and we hunted them down. Now, we respected the law of the land in Indonesia at the time, as imperfect as that is.

But the principle still comes back to the fact that if this act is perpetrated on your people and the threat still remains, you cannot change tact until you eliminate that threat. And while Hamas still exists in the Palestinian state and they have not laid down their arms, hand back those, those Israeli citizens, then how can you reward bad behavior by saying, yes, we're going to acknowledge the state of Palestine, you simply can't do it. There has to be a consequence.

And unfortunately there are a lot of innocent people caught up in this, both Israeli and Palestinian, because the Hamas terrorist organization will use and has used innocent Palestinian citizens as human shields as well as make it difficult for much of the, the relief that, the humanitarian relief that's coming through made it a more complex environment there for things to happen. So, you know, let's just call this for what it is.

I get people want to, want to try and save the world, but there's also a practical reality and there's also a consequence to this. But just get back to the first principles of why this war started and what we are dealing with. We are dealing with people who would do us harm. Hamas hate our way of life here in Australia and so just appreciate that, that they have no, they have no love for the West. Whether that it's not just the United States, it's also its allies like Australia.

So let's call this for what it is. Until Hamas is gone, you are asking the Israeli people to go back to a life that has threats, has threats to its people that could be turned up and turned over in an instant, which we saw on the 7th of October 2023. Yeah, sure. And we did hunt down Bali bombers, but we didn't bomb Indonesia and have innocent people killed along the way, did we?

No, but just understand that's because unfortunately what's happened in this conflict is that Hamas hid in civilian populations. They didn't come and fight with uniforms on. They didn't run down and fight us with whatever uniform they wanted to wear. They actually hid in hospitals, they hid in the civilian population. Now if you want to get hold and you want to remove Hamas's leadership as well, who were hiding amongst it, then how else do you do it?

And this without more bloodshed, particularly from, if you're thinking of it from the Israeli point of view, why would you. And we would do this if we were in government, would we want to send our troops into street by street conflict if there was another way of removing where we could see significant builds up of Hamas? That's the hard thing about being in government. You make hard decisions and when civilians are involved, you've got to make that calculation as imperfect as it is.

And unfortunately this is the issue. There are whole millions of innocent Palestinian people caught up in this. There is a whole state of Israel caught up in this innocent people because of a perpetrated act of terrorism that are now in a bloodshed environment. But you cannot go back to what it was because you can, unless you can remove the threat. Otherwise it stays. Do you think most Palestinians want a two state recognition or do you think that most Palestinians want Israel obliterated?

And I'm going back to the march on the Sydney Harbour Bridge where I'm sure most people thought I'm gonna march here because I don't like seeing innocent people being killed in this conflict. But there was isis, there were ISIS flags, there was chants of from the, from the river to the sea, which we know is a war cry, the Jordan river to the Mediterranean Sea, indicating that a lot of Palestinians that march that day want Israel gone.

And this is the thing, is that in this great country, because of the principles that over 100,000 Australians have lost their lives defending and hundreds of thousands of more are prepared to put a uniform on to protect our democratic principles and principles of freedom. That you can go and protest, you should respect it. Now, I have no issues with people walking and marching across for a point of view.

So long as they go through proper process and they actually respect the state laws and the responsibilities and the public safety issues that the police have, I have no worries about them going and protesting on an issue. But when you inject hate into it with those sorts of phrases, you lose your social license to be able to do that.

And this is one thing I fear is that many Australians are marching and talking about these types of things, not understanding that those types of organizations like ISIS and many other in the Middle east would, would hurt them if they had their chance because they do not believe in our way of life. Now, I'm not wanting to tear down their way of life. I'm just asking them to. To contain that to their own society and not perpetrate that hate anywhere else.

Yeah, but this is where I think Australians just need to understand this is, this is an imperfect situation. And I feel for the innocent Palestinian people as much as I do for the Israeli people. But when you get back to first principles about the hate that's been perpetrated, then Hamas has to be removed. And when you march across the street, just understand, just understand what you're marching for. And it is an imperfect situation.

I don't think anyone has a high moral ground here, let's be honest. I don't think either side does. But in war, who does indeed? David Littleproud is with us. He's giving us his perspective on where we're at at the. At the moment, both overseas and here. Look, there are some questions from our listeners, David, that people wanted me to ask you. So some of my listeners are concerned with Australia's immigration numbers. They're saying we have a housing and rental crisis.

We can't house Australians, let alone people from overseas. Do we need to curb our immigration numbers is a question. Yeah, I think we do. We took to the election a reduction in permanent migration of about 25%. What we need to do is buy time for state and local governments to catch up, to build homes. That's really the only lever that federal government has with respect of a housing crisis supply.

And the failure of what we've got at the moment is a failure of state and local governments of all political persuasion. But what we can do is ease the pressure. What we can also do is prioritise those that are coming to this country to have the skills that we need. Unfortunately, what this government has prioritized is dog groomers and martial arts instructors over some electricians, some tilers, some roofers that might actually increase supply.

And so what you need to do is we're giving the greatest, we're giving the greatest gift we can give to any person on this planet. Ticket to Australia. So why wouldn't we pick and choose the people we want and how much we want? The other thing, the other big piece that we took to the election, which I still passionately believe in, is we need to look at international student numbers.

Just to give you a perfect example, Sydney University in 202324 made $1.4 billion from international students, yet they educated only 48% of their students from Australia. The majority came from overseas. Now, I'm not against them making money, but Australian universities are to educate Australian kids first and foremost. But to have that sort of money rolling around and then taking away the supply because these students have to live somewhere when they come here, it has a real impact.

Now, I think those Sandstone unis in particular have gained the system and they've hurt our economy in the sense that we've got people that can't afford homes or even to rent homes because we've increased the demand by in bringing these people in. We also had a policy around banning foreigners from buying residential homes for the first two years to also allow them to catch up. And there's also an issue that I think not too many people understand.

The average cost of a dwelling has gone up by over $60,000 because of what labor's done. We've now got a seven star rating system to build a home. It's just insane, the costs that we've added to housing. So just some common sense solutions. But primarily the biggest lever we can pull goes to the heart of that very question, is that yes, we need to have a better migration policy that's reduced but is targeted, that works for Australia. Another question from a listener for David Littleproud.

David, why is it that we don't make big companies pay their fair share of tax? Now, is that true? And if so, why don't we? Well, and this is the thing you gotta be careful is there's different taxes. And while the corporate tax rate is set, and obviously there's a whole lot of deductions, if you look at the mining company, mining companies, they'll actually pay the corporate tax and then they pay royalties on top of that to the States. So there is different layers of tax.

I think there's a need for a broader conversation. We're going to see this economic roundtable that Chalmers is bringing on. We should be mature enough as legislators to look at this. Do we have the most efficient form of tax model that this country has and should need into the future? Is the one we've got fit for the purpose of what we need into the future? I don't necessarily think it is. I mean, I also have an issue with particularly the average Joe who wants to work two jobs.

But as soon as you go over into the second job, you just get taxed at a higher rate because you've worked, you've decided to show some initiative, you decided to have a go in this, in this country. Yet we're gonna, we're gonna add it onto the last one and you're gonna pay a higher tax rate just because you want to do a bit extra. I actually think it should be the other way around. We should be rewarding the average Joe for saying, you know what, I want to get ahead in life.

I'm not, I don't own a company. I don't. I'm not blessed with millions of dollars in the bank account, but I'm going to have a red hot crack. Well, they're the sort of Australians that built this country and the sort of Australians that I think our tax system should reward and acknowledge. And I don't think we've got that at the moment. So I think there's a whole myriad of changes that we should be looking at in our tax model.

And we've said as nats, if Chalmers wanted to be bold, then we'd look at things in the tax and a whole range of tax. But you should look at it in totality, from not just income tax all the way through to stamp duty, even to excise. We've been big proponents of pausing the excise on beer. And I think we need to have a sensible conversation about not just beer on grog sold at pubs, but also cigarettes because all we're doing is fuelling a black market. So I think we need to look at it in totality.

I think we should be courageous enough to look at it, but we should have those guiding principles of looking after the little guy who wants to have a go. I want to talk to you about the plight of our farmers because a lot of farmers doing it particularly tough. We're either in drought or flood in this country. It's the way it is. Just ask Dorothea McKellar. However, there is a Labor's Agriculture productivity Roundtable.

And I just want you to explain to me about their new superannuation tax plan because there are concerns from farmers that this is going to target farms worth more than $3 million. It could possibly force farmers to sell the farm and not be able to say pass it on to their families. Your thoughts? Yes. So this is a principle we should all be worried about. For the first time ever in our country's history, this government is going to tax unrealized capital gains.

So that means you value an asset from one year to the next, the value's gone up and they're going to tax the increase in that asset value. Even though you haven't sold it, you don't have the cash flow. So when you look, think about this as farmers. So I used to be an old rural banker lending money to farmers. What many farmers used to do to try and get their kids into agriculture is that they would buy property in their self managed super funds.

And that was also a protection mechanism around future family disputes. So the super fund would hold these, hold these assets. Now if you got a farm and invariably most of them of any scale are above $3 million, what that means is every year the value of that property, if it goes up above $3 million, you pay a 30% tax on the increased paper value of that property. Now just understand we got a winter crop out here at the moment I'm looking at my own here as we sit.

If we planted, and I didn't plant this, but most people will be planting 600,000 to a million dollars. A proper cocky would be spending that on seed and fertilizer. Prepare and put a crop in the ground. If it doesn't rain and they walk away with zero, they have no cash flow to pay that increased tax. So you are basically sending them to the wall and saying, well you're relying on the weather, but that doesn't matter. But you can just cop this.

And what we're seeing already is some farmers already taking out of their super fund and transferring it across into other entities. But when you do that, when you transfer from one entity to another, it attracts stamp duty.

So they're paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in stamp duty because they know that Jim Chalmers and Anthony Albanese is coming after them because they fear they might as well pay that now rather than get to a situation where they don't have the money to pay the tax and the government comes in and sells them up. This is an absurd situation. But if you start on super, let me Tell you they'll go to other areas, they'll go to trusts, they'll go to even your investment homes.

This is a principle we should fight around taxing unrealized capital gain. You should never get to that stage. But it shows how desperate our country's become to just pay the bills. Yeah, because there's a lot of concern with farmers.

And I used to get farmers ringing me when I did that national Triple M show and they would say, oh, the latest form of child abuse is giving the kids the family farm because it's just so hard and we're being absolutely screwed by Coles and Woolies on the produce that we sell at the farm gate. And this tax problem that you're talking about, tell me, do you think the government should be offering interest free loans to farmers to try and help them along a bit?

Well, I think in times of disaster, and I think this is where we've got a huge drought down in Victoria, South Australia. It's got better in Tasmania, in western Queensland, my own electorate, I lost over 200,000 head of livestock just out in western Queensland. And on the mid north coast, you know, we saw farms decimate everywhere. What we did in 2019 when the drought was on is we introduced, we've got a drought line through the Regional Investment Corporation.

Normally it's five years interest only, five years repayment. It's a cost of funds that the government gets the money at plus the admin cost. So it's invariably a lot cheaper than a commercial bank. What we did is we said look, things are that bad, let's actually give you for the first two years of that interest only interest free repayment free period. So you pay nothing.

Now what that did was give cash flow because in times of disaster, whether they be drought or flood or fire, you need cash flow. And what they were able to do was refinance up to $2 million from their commercial bank and put it in the Regional Investment Corporation. And they didn't paint anything for the first two years. What happened was, and how this is so cheap compared to us giving out big grants of 50, $60,000 that saved them about $80,000 a year.

So some apparently saving nearly $200,000 over the two years. But what happens is because you put it in the RIC and the cost of funds are so cheap you capitalize that interest out after the interest free period across the entire book. And so it doesn't lift the interest rate still lower than the commercial bank. So when you go back to paying interest, it's actually A lot lower impact on your cash flow. But you've saved nearly up to $200,000 on your interest in that ensuring two year period.

And what we also extended it to were small businesses. Small businesses that actually relied on agriculture, like your local machinery dealer or your local produce store that go up and down with the drought and that's a cheaper way that cost the Australian taxpayer less than $9 million because of the way that we capitalize the interest out. And they caught up with paying that interest later, it just gave them a holiday for two years, got them back up on their feet.

And with agriculture, once you plant a crop, you don't get the money straight away. You need to get into production cycles. And that just gave them the breathing space. So for less than $9 million, we actually wrote about $1.8 billion worth of loans off the big banks, took them off, put it in the regional investment Corporation, you multiply that by the interest rate at the time.

We probably put six to $7 billion back into rural economies because we put it back into farmers pockets who spend it in the local communities. We did that for the cost of the Australian taxpayer, less than $9 million. That's a pretty good program rather than us spending hundreds of millions of dollars in trying to prop people up in other ways.

And I just think it's something the government should look at because it's affordable for the taxpayer, but it has a huge impact, huge impact on farmers, but also the rural communities that rely on farmers having money to spend. David, another question from a listener. They're asking your thoughts on carbon emissions and us being charged a fortune for renewables when we could be getting cheap energy through coal and gas power stations.

The question also goes on also the fact that many other countries are still using and commissioning new coal and gas fired turbine stations and we are shutting them down. The question is why are we doing this if others aren't? Well, madness. And what we've got to understand is we should have a technology agnostic approach. I think the perfect example to look at how an energy grid works is Japan.

So Japan will get to about 24, 25% of their grid being nuclear, they'll get to about 30, 30 odd percent being renewables. Then the balance they're going to import Australian coal, Australian gas, they're going to burn it, they're actually going to capture the carbon and they're going to either bring that carbon on a boat back to Australia or to Malaysia and put it down a hole and they can say that they have zero emissions. And they can do that very cheaply.

And if we're giving them that coal and gas, why wouldn't we be doing that? In fact, carbon capture storage is being done with gas here in Australia. It's about to be started with coal. But why wouldn't we have a technology agnostic approach? And this thing about the reason you're paying more for your energy bill is because renewables aren't free. They are not, they are not the cheapest form of energy.

In fact, the only reason that they have been built at the moment is a thing called the Capacity Investment Scheme. And if you want to look it up, you'll get basically a broad based definition that says it's an underwriting mechanism of renewable companies to go and build renewable energy projects here in Australia. So what it does is it underpins a price.

So if Chris Bowen says renewables are the cheapest form of energy, why do we need as Australian taxpayers to subsidize it and give it an underwriting price for them to come and build it here? It's because the reality is there's a transmission lines and everything else along with it is in the cheapest form. And you're talking before the election, we understood it to be somewhere north of $20 billion. Bowen has only recently added to that, again the Capacity Investment Scheme.

So that means he's added billions of dollars more. Now, ultimately what that means is you've got to pay that back. So why wouldn't we have a technology agnostic approach to our energy? Have all of the above. Look at Japan. And if you want to look at an economy of the industrial scale, the size of Australia, look at what happened to Spain and Portugal about two months ago. They got to 77% renewables. Not the all renewables approach we're going to get to.

They got to 77% and lo and behold, they had a wind drought and sun drought and their whole grid fell over and they couldn't get it up and going quickly enough because they didn't have baseload power. You need a lot of baseload power. And when you think of Tomago, Tomigo, there's a story today that they're probably going to shut down thousands of jobs lost at Tomago because they can't get an energy contract that makes it viable.

So to keep Tomigo open every year you need 950 megawatts of coal and gas. If you go to renewables, you need 3 gigawatts. That's more than three times. And they don't have the batteries to be able to Last longer than 20 minutes or so to keep the thing going. So we are assigning ourselves to poverty if we continue down this path. So we need to be sensible about this. We can be sensible because we have all our resources.

I'm not against renewables, but there should also be a place for them because we're seeing the human toll of prime agricultural land being ripped up, which is your food security being ripped up and communities being torn apart. I've even seen families torn apart because of these industrial scale renewable projects. All for nothing. That's costing you more. So what we need is some common sense, some honesty.

And if Chris Bowen is honest, what he needs to do is tell us what the integrated systems project is, and that effectively is the total cost of our energy grid. And he's not prepared to do it. The cat was billed by Net Zero Australia. They said It'd be about 1 to $1.5 trillion by 2030. And by 2050, 50, 60, it was about 5 to $7 trillion. That's a lot of money to be spending. When you talk about our energy proposal we took to the last election, it was $330 billion.

That was nuclear, gas, coal and some renewables. I think we've lost the plot here, but ultimately you're seeing that every quarter in your energy bill. So you should see Anthony Albanese and Chris Bowen in that every time you open it up. A question. This is from the Millennial who produces this podcast. Are you ready for this? No. She has an inquiring mind and she saw an aerial view of the algal bloom outbreak in South Australia.

She read that there can't be a federal fight against this because it's only within or just offshore of South Australia. It's a state problem, not a federal problem. Your thoughts on this? The algal bloom problem in South Australia. That's nonsense. It's a national problem. And I'll give you another example. When I was water minister many years ago, we had issues in the Menindee Lake. We had a fish kill. We didn't step back and do nothing.

In fact, the federal government put in $70 million in rehabilitation and in other works to make sure it didn't happen again. So there is no reason why the federal government cannot step in and assist the state government on this. It is a matter of will. It is an asset of national significance. And so therefore, the federal government has a role to play. They are skimping it. And that's not just in terms of the environmental damage that's caused, but it's also to our farmers, our fishermen there.

They've lost incomes because of this and they're getting basically no support as well. And that's why I say a thing like that Ric line that I talked about earlier is something that could get them out of trouble straight away and give them some cash flow. But this is where you need to take ownership.

There is no reason why the federal government should not play a active role with the state government, not just in whatever remedial works, but also in terms of the financial support of those businesses that rely off that coastline. So absolute nonsense to the federal government skimping that they have no reason. They know it and they've let South Australia hold the camp. It's almost getting close to you having to leave me.

I appreciate the time you give us on the podcast and thank you for answering our listeners questions. Please keep them coming. If you've got a question for David Littleproud, leader of the nationals, Luke Bone, a radio guy. Mail.com. just, just quickly, how many acres have you got? Only 20, mate. Just a little loose and blue. Ah, you're a pretend farmer. Yeah. What crops are you putting in? Usually have a bit of loosen, but actually I'm never at home.

So the bloke, the neighbor who does it for me, he puts in a bit of wheat every now and then in winter just to, just to. To rotate through a little bit. So he throws normally some loose and a little bit of winter crop when he wants to rotate. When was the last time you got in the back of a horse? Not ago. Really? I go to holiday. Yeah? Yeah, we go out to Kanamala every year for a holiday at a property out there.

But normally bikes these days, mate, unfortunately the bikes are usually what we use out here or the side by sides, the quads. So I've got a quad and with just a sprayer on the back. But where most people are heading to the side by sides because of the safety issue out here. Do you think there should be a. Cause you're a farmer. Do you think there should be. Should be a relaxing pretend farmer?

Yeah. Do you think there should be a relaxing of our gun laws and should people who need guns for control of pests and other things. There's former Prime Minister John Howard saying we shouldn't relax our gun laws at all. Do you think we need to? I think we've got them pretty well Right. In most states. There's been some changes in individual states, but for primary producers there definitely is an ability to have different ranges of weapons.

I think what's happened, Bart, is that some of the states have made it harder. I mean, I know of a crocodile farmer up in Rockhampton that was having trouble getting his category H, which is a sidearm renewed by the Queensland Police Service. They said to him that he should have a shotgun. Well, if you're sitting in the back of a tinny bringing in crocodiles, the last thing I would want to be handling is a shotgun. I would rather. And missing and leaving great big dirty hole in the tinny.

I'd rather have a sidearm there. Even out in western Queensland, wild dog issue. I'm going to tell you the sidearm's important. So I think what we need to do is stick to the principle, what we had originally and state governments who have ideological views don't impose that in trying to make it harder, particularly for primary producers, whether they be sidearms or high calibre weapons that are required on properties, you can get them.

But unfortunately I think the states have eroded much of those rights of what was originally put in place. And I don't think we've seen any seen that in Western Australia at the moment. And one of the issues over there is there hasn't been, you know, the issue is not with the people who are licensed with these weapons, it's the people who aren't licensed who get hold of weapons in through the black market and the criminal criminal areas.

The farmer who's licensed invariably is doing the right thing. And I think that is one thing that we should police better is those that don't rather than try to regulate everyone out of it. That's what society has unfortunately become, whether it be guns or anything else. What we do is instead of policing and having a deterrent, a consequence for someone doing the wrong thing, a greater penalty.

All we do is we take the soft option and the lazy option as legislators who say, oh, we'll just add more regulation to it. And then those that are innocent and doing the right thing get their rights eroded because of a small minority. What we should do is clean up that small minority, make an example of them and have a consequence and a penalty for them for doing the wrong thing. There's always a lot to talk about. David Littleprab.

We always run out of time, but can we get you back in a couple of weeks? Happy to mate. Sounds great. Leader of the National Party, David Little Prout answering your questions. And please, please keep those questions coming in. Talk soon, David. Coming up, Martin Shaw, the president of Wounded Heroes. If you love coffee. Have we got Something for you, and you'll be able to help a fantastic charity when you purchase it.

I just wanted to get an update from my good buddy Martin Shaw, who was the president of Wounded Heroes. It's the charity that I'm an ambassador for. It's a charity that does a lot of good work and I'm very proud to be associated and have my name associated with this. And I've just got to give them a huge rap because they say that a charity that helps itself helps others better. And they've got this fantastic range of coffee. Now, this is the one that my family loves the most.

It's the Bravo Zulu medium roasted Irish cream whiskey coffee blend. And it is unbelievable. Now, I am not a coffee drinker. It's the best thing I've ever tasted, but my whole family love this and they have spread the word and hopefully there'll be people buying this coffee. You can either have it grounded or ungrounded, and it'll change your taste for coffee forever. But it's not just that blend. There's a few others.

But I thought I'd get Martin Shaw back into the podcast Man Cave studio to have a quick chat and an update. G', day, buddy. G', day, mate. How are you? Luki Martin. Cyril Shaw, as I live and breathe. How's Wounded Heroes going? How are we going? Pretty good, mate. Yeah, thanks for the plug on the coffee. I thought I'd throw in there. Also, we've now got that in pods. So those that don't have a coffee machine at home, but have a pod machine, they can buy the whiskey Bravo Zulu in pods.

Just did an espresso machine and you're way to go. So hang on, it will go in any espresso machine. We've got a Nescafe thing, I think, and Nikki's got it in the drawer. She's never brought it out. Yeah, just with the pods. Yeah, we can. You can buy the Whiskey Bravo Zulu in pods now. Okay, but what are the other blends? Oh, we've got gunfire, which is a rum blend. Gunfire coffee we launched earlier this year.

So the gunfire coffee, for those that don't know, In World War I, rum was actually issued as a ration to the troops in Gallipoli both in the morning for if you like Dutch courage. And of course, to get through the day. And of course, if they survive the day, they have a rum ration at night. So we try and link the gunfire coffee into.

Into the coffee position that we're looking at now around the community and then We've also got obviously our signature blend, which is a world class blend that Phil DiBella has given us. It's a wonderful blend. It's actually the coffee he drinks at home, so that's making a big headway as a normal coffee bean, if you like coffee bean blend. And then we've also got a whole heap of flavored coffees, including double choc fudge shortbread, gingerbread jelly donut, if you can believe it.

And they've been quite popular. You buy those. What we generally do is people will buy the main bean, just the standard bean and then the flavoured coffee. Just buy them in the half a kilo. You've shown the kilo there, Luki, but because you drink so much coffee, your family. But the half kilo then allows you to try the different flavors. And we have a little special on.

If you buy the 1 kilo signature coffee and then just a flavoured one, it's a bit cheaper if you want to just have a little bit of play with and show off to your mates and friends. So you go onto woundedheroes website woundedheroes.org au woundedheroes.org au Kelsey will provide the links. We've actually got a shop for the coffee, so it's Coffee 4 Heroes, the numeral CoffeeForHeroes shop and that takes you directly to the shop.

Explain where the money goes for those who are new to this and meeting you for the first time. Explain Wounded Heroes and what you're hoping to achieve and what you do. Yeah, well, look, as you know, Luki, for the benefit of the listeners that haven't met us together. So we started in 2007 our charity space. We're not an RSL, we're actually a national charity that are open 24 7.

So we're the only charity in Australia, apart from the government lines that are open 247 for veterans and families in immediate financial crisis, homeless or at risk of homelessness around Australia. So what we're talking about immediate is that once we have a veteran referred to us, we can do a food voucher within 10 minutes to their mobile phone. What we call that is hope because we're not necessarily the first call, so they don't have to explain themselves to us.

As long as we know they're a veteran, we can get a food or fuel done to them, you know, within that sort of 10 minutes to 30 minutes. Emergency accommodation, the same thing generally will work forward on that. And for the benefit of your listeners, as you know, Luki, we are. That's all we do. We don't do the case management, we don't do the ongoing.

We just get the veterans and families out of trouble that are facing that homelessness or domestic violence, as there is in the community, there's in the veterans space as well. And we are very heavily involved with all of those, all of those groups. And, and for us, last year, which I've mentioned before to you, we looked after just over 4,200 veterans and families around Australia in that immediate support and we're on track for doing the same as well. So that's pretty much what we do.

You asked about, for your listeners, for the benefit of listeners, about where their money, any public donation that is supplied, provided to wounded heroes generously by the public. 100% of every public donation is donated back into and use for our charitable purpose of supporting veterans and families. It doesn't go into administration, it goes directly to the veteran and family in need. And as you know, Luki, it's cash is power.

So we're always looking for donations, but we're also very respectful that if a. If one of your listeners wants to donate a dollar to us, we're very respectful about that dollar because you don't have to donate it to wounded heroes. You've got a lot of other charities out there. 60,000 on us out there. So what we want to do is to prove to the public, which we do through transparency, of where their money goes.

And that's pretty much, Pretty much what I've got to say around that space, around honouring the money that's being donated to us and using it for the right purpose, which is expected by the public. Mate, you know I love you and you've got me for life. Yeah. Where's it come from? How'd you get it? How did this come about? We caught up with a guy called Phil Dibella. So Dibella Coffee, he owns about 11% of the coffee market in Australia.

So he supplies the Gloria Jeans and Cafe 63s amongst others around Australia. And I approached him for a donation because he's. I think he sold his business in 2017 for $47 million. And he suggested to me that whilst he could possibly give me a donation, he thought he could give us another way to sustain our organization. So we're the only charity coffee in Australia, Luki, that all the money that we make on the coffee sales goes directly back into our charitable purpose.

So you have a lot of veteran organizations and coffee organizations that will donate a percentage of profit to a charity. We're saying this is actually a charity coffee. And I guess knowing where the funds of generating that income from the coffee sales. Look, we're only early days. We obviously are looking for massive of support and which you've been providing to us too Luke, is that to try and get our message out there connecting the coffee.

But what I really like about this, and I know you're not a coffee drinker per se, but for those that. I am now, I am now for. Those that are interested in a really top quality blend. So we just haven't got a crappy blend. We've got a really, really strong world. It's won a Golden Bean Award coffee. So as you know, if you have a bad coffee, you don't generally will buy it again. So we're very proud of the quality that we've got.

And then of course as we're running that program, we launched it on Remembrance Day last year. We're talking, we have a social program which includes yourself, Luke, as you know obviously Facebook. We're going out to corporates and to the Defence Force and seeing if they'll support the coffee. Which we're getting some great outcomes with that and also which I think you'll be interested in Luki, because I'm sure you get contacted by many charities and community groups looking for support.

So we've created a community affiliation program with the coffees. So we have community groups that are all poor. We're all trying to find that $1 a way to sustain ourselves. So I've created a program where community group can join us on our Coffee for Heroes program with their own link. And then if their supporters or members want to buy coffee through that link, 5% of every coffee sale goes back directly to that community group. So at the end of July, just gone.

We've written checks for just over $2,100 to about six different community groups that have joined that program. It's about $300 each if you like. And that's $300 that they've just they're doing by someone buying coffee. And it's a residual ongoing income for those members. So we're talking to if you like junior soccer clubs that have got say 800 mums and dads at the. The kids can go home.

They're always looking for money for a kit, et cetera, off the socks or shoes or boots so they can have this ongoing regular income for us. And I'm really proud to say to you that last weekend before last I was up in Darwin for the national conference for the Police Legacy Around Australia. And the police legacy has signed up for that affiliation program. And I'm really delighted to say we're actually labeling our coffee with their logo. So it's actually police legacy logo.

They're just a fantastic people. And so just signed up with New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Police legacy. So again, they're always looking for ways to raise funds and sustainability, and I'm really proud of that, of that program that we're starting to run and get out there. What if there are coffee shops, professionals, cafe owners that are interested in buying this and selling it to their customers?

I went to our local coffee place where I go, rain, hail or shine, I go and get Nikki a soy chai latte in the middle of winter. This is how dedicated I am, all right? And I said, listen, a very good friend of mine, I'm an ambassador for wounded heroes. Could you look them up? They've got this fantastic coffee. He said, look, we are contractually locked in with a deal that we have with our provider. They also provide machines. They provide our cups, they provide our coasters.

We're kind of locked into a deal. Is that going to be a problem? Look, it's not our target to Target Cafe. No. Okay, I was just trying to help. I was just trying to help. But to answer your question, we've signed up three coffee shops in the last four, five weeks where they have had those contracts. You're absolutely right. But with the DiBella organization, we're actually able to get those machines. And they say they provide free machines if we buy their coffee.

But it's a mathematical equation, right? So we've got organizations now, and including when I'm up in Townsville at the moment, including a big one up here that are looking to swap out their contracts have come up, Luke. So it might be talking to your coffee shop saying, hey, listen, when that contract comes up, would we be able to then at least have the opportunity to talk to them about that? Yeah. All right, well, look, it's only a small little hole in the wall up here.

And by the way, I'm off the hook because now she's gone off the soy chai lattes because there's too much sugar, she reckons. And so now this is it. This is it. Okay? This is the one she likes. It's Bravo Zulu. Yeah. Whiskey. Bravo Zulu. So Bravo Zulu, in military terms, their Zulu, it means good job. Whiskey, Bravo. Okay? Irish cream, whiskey, coffee blend. That's the one that is consumed here. Martin Shaw, I love you, mate. You know that? You've got me for life. Whatever I can do to help.

Folks, I want to make it really clear this is not an ad. It's just that Nicky just loves his coffee so much. And I saw the packet and I thought, I've got to get Martin back on just to give wounded heroes a push because it's such a good cause and it's the only official charity I'm attached to. So, Martin, before you go, what's new and exciting in your wounded heroes land? Well, Luki, you and your listeners will be one of the first to hear publicly.

You know that we run a cafe and an op shop up in Bundamba in Ipswich in Queensland as part of our sustainability model. And over the last four years, we've perfected that model. I do want to point out to you that I'm really, really good looking after homeless veterans. What would I know about running a cafe or an op shop? But we've actually perfected the model, made our mistakes through continuous improvement.

And as at the 1st of August last Friday, we've taken this, we've duplicated this model and we've brought it up to Townsville. So we're about to open a veterans center here in Townsville. And it's quite a larger place, but again, it's about community connection. So we looked in within all the War Widows association, we working with the rsl, the Salvation army up here.

And if we can get this right, Luki, and next time you travel, because I know you don't travel that far, we find that we are really making a wonderful connection here in towns. It's obviously a garrison town. A lot of military up here. Yeah. And the support we've had and up here. So again, all of this stuff that we do, the coffee, the op shop, the cafe, and coming up into Townsville, let's always remember what we do.

We're just trying to raise money so that we're not relying on government or even the larger corporates to sustain us. We can self sustain ourselves. And that's basically the reason that I've had a dream eight years ago to come to Townsville. And sometimes dreams do become reality. Martin Shaw, always good to catch up. Good to see your smiley face and give my love to your wonderful wife. By the way, this guy punches above his weight. You shouldn't eat his missus.

And he knows it and he knows it it and he knows it. Good to catch up. We'll catch up again soon. All right, brother. Thanks, mate. And coming up, Rod, Hanafi and Truckee Tuesday. Got your diesel running head out on the highway missing all the roadkill. Another Truckee Tuesday in the gate. When you're changing, problems do not break. Check me in my prime time for Truckee Tuesday and the road warrior Rocket Rod Hanafi joins us again from his palatial king size bed in Dubbo.

What are you doing in bed? You're never in bed. G'. Day. That's true. G', day, bonafiders. And to you, to the team at the top. The team at the top. How's your week been? It's been a very frustrating trucking week. All right, take us through it. What's happened? Well, I was due to get the truck back, so we know it went in for surgery, got a new block and it was due to be done Monday. So I'd had three weeks away, two weeks in another truck and a week away in Townsville as we discussed.

So they said, oh, it'll be ready Monday morning. Then it was Monday afternoon. Then we didn't have anybody going that way. Then I had an option of picking it up at midnight or 4 o' clock and I said, bugger me, how about midnight? Then I got over there early, finally got there at midnight to pick it up, turned the truck on, it started, turned the lights on, they all went off. Oh. Bugger. Words to that effect. So making phone calls, dragging people out to fix it.

They'd squashed a wire in the bull bar which I had suggested they should keep an eye on. Got the truck home in the early morning, a few hours sleep, got up in the morning, truck wouldn't start. Oh no, these were flat. Oh, mate, it gets worse. So drag it out to work, get batteries in it, head off, got another driver with me to go and pick up one of our other trucks, drive it, being crook, we head off, made it 5k out of Dubbo, truck shut down.

So we thought, geez, maybe when they put the new batteries in. And it's a fairly complicated process, it's not just like a car, Luke, it's got, got wires and there is four batteries and they're in a box. And it's a fairly complicated process, I might say. I won't take me two hours. And it took him two and a half to three. So we're running late, we're out, we're broken down. Came out, thought we found a problem, fixed it, drove down the road, broke down again, another mechanic came out.

By this time we've rang the people where I'm going, the load, said, look, got a problem, going to be late. Anyway, he came out that fixed it, thought we had it fixed, finally got to the loading point and he says, oh, there's six or seven in front of you now. You might not get loaded till three in the morning, so go to bed. Of course, about 30 seconds after I got to sleep, the phone rang. Oh, come on, get down here and get loaded down.

And I had a time slot I was supposed to eat in Melbourne that had gone out the window. I did make a big effort. I drove through till about up past five in the morning and I thought, well, I'm not going to make it, I'm going to run out of hours, I'm going to bed. Went to bed. The Melbourne depot didn't know what had happened during the night, the Dubbo depot did.

So of course they rang me to find out where I was and what I was doing and woke me up, then got to the change the delivery point again, thought the problem was fixed, took off down the road, truck shut down again and I mean, driving along, the accelerator would just disappear, there would be a light on the dash and within about probably 15 or 20 seconds the engine would shut down. So I've had trouble before with fuel in, in the past.

I had a road train on, going up a hill, it would lose power, it would miss and spit and fart. And as soon as I spoke to someone, they said, ah, the fuel filter, we'll check that. Because I just had a service done and they hadn't put the seal back on properly. But this time it was not really the first time wasn't under load, so it didn't indicate that we thought we'd had an electrical problem because the batteries had been done.

And finally bloke came out from a related business to the one that had done all the repairs and he said they didn't put the filter on properly and it was virtually sucking air, but so slight you couldn't see it. Normally I've had the filter on and they forgot to put an O ring on and then leaks fuel. So you know there's a problem, you can pick that up really easily. And mate, they fixed it and got me going.

But of course I lost half a week's wages, the company lost the truck, we missed two time slots. It's funny, I was coming out of Melbourne night before last and I've been on the phone to a mate. Another mate went the other way and called me up. He said, how you going? So bugger of a week, blah, blah, blah, and give him a quick rundown. And virtually as the first phone call finished, the second bloke Rang and he said, oh. He said, you didn't sound quite so chipper as normal.

And I said, no, no, I said, look, it's. And one of the blokes in Melbourne had said, oh. He said it was my truck and I broke down on me three times, ought to set fire to it. I said, oh, well, I was certainly getting pretty frustrated, pretty disappointed. And again, it's been off for three weeks. It's had major surgery, it's. It's come back, supposedly all good to go and that's taken the gloss off it.

But I've got to say, Luke, I was at that DC unloading in Melbourne and the fork, he said, looking at the back of the trailers while I was there, he said, oh, you, Rod? And I said, oh, which one? He saw the rod on the radio, he said, oh. He said, those employers of Luke, he said they should go and make children. So can you infer. Yes, I know. I meant. He said, yes, I do. And, and he.

Look, he didn't listen to a lot of Truckee Tuesday, but he used to listen to your show as he finished off heading into work early in the morning and he was pretty disappointed. I did have. Another bloke wasn't aware of the podcast, so I've educated him and another bloke who said, oh, g', day, Rod, how's it going? Blah, blah, blah, and said he was enjoying reading about me. And I thought, I thought he must have been a radio man, but he wasn't.

He was reading the column in a Driver and listening to something else. So, look, a couple of nice little things I have heard back from one Road Authority. I did ring Vic Rhodes and asked, put in a suggestion about a. A left turn arrow at, near our depot in Melbourne and they rang back. So we've looked into that and you'll be asking for extra time. We can't do it. I said, well, no, I'm not and I want you to reassess that again.

So we have another go getting that one fixed and I have got an email from Transport for New South Wales who are giving a bit of promotion and doing some more work on the green reflectors. So a couple little positives, but yes, during the week it just got a little disheartening. Okay, now we've got a bit to get through, but I just want to stay with you on this topic and I bet Kelsey's probably thinking the same thing. This truck that kept breaking down, it's not yours, it's your boss's, correct?

Yes. Okay. You've Done everything you can to earn your wage and it's not your fault that you lost half your wages. Do truck drivers get compensated when it's their machinery that breaks down? Now, if you're an owner driver, you cop the lot and that's one of the risks you have when you're an owner driver. But if you do drive for a boss and they provide you with a truck that cannot perform its task and it's got no. There's absolutely no fault of the driver, what happens there, mate?

It depends on the situation. Now, of course, it wasn't work's fault either, it was the third party. And I did actually say, you should send them the bill. Of course they will turn around and say, no, no, you know, all care, no guarantees, all care, no responsibility. No responsibility. That's the one I was after. I did list all of my breakdowns on my worksheet and I said to my boss, I said, well, here's what's happened for the week. Of course, they've lost out even more.

You know, they've lost the truck for half of the week. So whether they go and talk to those people and say, well, you're responsible, good luck with that. So, look, they'll meet me somewhere in the middle. Lucky I. I've got a bit of an arrangement, I've got a few holidays up, I'll probably top up a little bit out of that and they'll top up a little bit as well. Well, but it does depend on the arrangement you have with your employer.

Again, I was in the truck the whole week, so I still get living away from home allowance, even though it wasn't quite as enjoyable a week as normal. And it depends on who. Who you can blame. If there's a customer that messes us around, we get held over and they can charge the marriage. And I suppose, Luke, I'm avoiding what you ask, but one of the biggest issues that we have and the. The driver that rang me the second time had been to a site and sat there for six hours.

Yeah, because they let another truck go in front for him to load in 27 minutes. Yeah. And the marriage is one of the biggest things in the industry. Now, breakdown doesn't happen all that often and you take the good with the bad and I'll meet them in the middle, same as I hope they'll do with me.

But if you go to places and they say you be here at 3 o', clock and of course at 6 o' clock you're still there, and they say, be there in the morning and you say, well, mate, are you going to pay me for the time I've sat here?

They did try and bring it in in the States, they tried to bring in a law that if you sat at a site for more than an hour and you'd been compliant, done everything you should have done, that they would have to pay and that would make an enormous difference because that lost time you can't get back. No. You then sometimes asked, you know, oh, you'll still be there in the morning. No. What do you mean, no? Well, you've sat me here for six hours. Oh, that's not my problem, mate.

You've got to be there. And of course if you don't, well, we're gonna lose the contract, we're not going to pay you. All those things come up and that puts more pressure on the driver. It doesn't say they tried to bring it in in America, but those that have so much power over the transport task, over the logistics industry, got it quashed. And it's something that in. We've spoken about the closing the loopholes bill. They've got 30 day payment terms in that.

There are some other things being there and I'm hoping that that demurrage thing is one of those that's going to be addressed in the near future. Geez. Another. Yet another reason not to become a trust. Lucky it must be. Look, it is. You had that young bloke on last time and. And he's been at it four years and, and of course we had our mate send a poem in and I've had a listen to that and there's some heartfelt bloody passion in there and I did, mate, thank you. Speak to Mr. Cornell.

I've sent him a. A message trying to come up with something there. Oh, good. And I guess, yes, we'll see how that goes. And I must say, I was listening to Mr. Tarvey's 100 Top Tips and he was saying that he was so poor when he was a kid, they had to go to KFC to lick other people's fingers. And I'd never heard that before, so that was probably the best laugh of the week. That's very. See, we deliver here, we deliver here on Bonafide.

If you own your own prime mover, you're responsible for all of that, aren't you? What are the pros and cons of being an owner, driver or working for a boss? It's funny that you should say that. Was reading during the week there was a survey released, that study taken A few years ago, I think they were saying that it was 60 something percent of people at that time were small businessmen, owned their own truck.

Now again, I've only read this once and I haven't gone and verified it yet, but they're saying that that percentage has dropped substantially, that more people are working for bosses. It's partly in the old days you bought a truck and you worked for all different companies. You might do a load for brambles one day and manix the next and somebody else. Sometimes you were a painted subby. So if you worked for that company, you had to paint your truck in their colors.

Yeah. And then they guaranteed an amount of work but you couldn't work for anybody else. That has pretty much disappeared except for a few companies. And you could operate, do your own business and be compliant. But I think in the very early days when you and I spoke, back in those days, if you were an owner driver, you worked 100 plus hours a week to survive. Yes, you can't do that legally. You couldn't do it safely all the time then or healthily. That's changed for the good.

But the compliance level is so high. The cost of buying a truck, $500,000 just for a prime mover. And the fact that we are under such scrutiny now, we want to be safe. I don't know a single truck driver that goes to work to risk his own life or that of anybody else. Now we're human, we make mistakes and yes, we know that fatigue is a factor and people still get pushed. We've just discussed it. You know, get held up, still be there in the morning. No, not going to happen.

Those threats are made and you've got to work your way through that. But it is, there's. Owner drivers have said that there's been so much pressure on them and there are still some terrific blokes out there and you know, they do a magnificent job and they do what they can.

But the overseas pressure, not just from drivers, from overseas companies that are coming into Australia and you've got the gig economy, you've got Amazon and the like forcing pressures on the industry and then you've got blokes that don't wanna live in a truck for a week and be like I went through, you know, on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, waiting for someone to come and fix it. Those pressures are there and yet we need truck drivers, Luke. We cannot survive without them.

Yeah, I know. Wow. I'd like to ask a question. Any owner drivers that are listening to this podcast. Can you write to us lukeboneradioguymail.com or send us a voice message. Are you happy to be an owner driver? Is it worth it? Are you making money? Are you killing yourself to make a dollar? Would it be easier if you worked for a boss and it was his or her responsibility to have that truck running and if it breaks down, you wait and they send someone to fix it?

The pros and cons of being an owner driver. I want people to share their stories that you own your own prime mover. How much did it cost you? Was it 500,000? Is it a reliable truck or would you rather answer to somebody else and have a lot of that pressure and responsibility lifted from your shoulders? I'd love to hear the stories. Rod and Luke. It's about being your own boss. Like a lot of people go into small business, whether it's a cafe or a shop or whatever it might be, it certainly is.

It's the same in our industry. And there's been that talk, particularly with the closures in the last few months. And there's been another one again a couple of weeks ago that was announced and it's whether because of that ease of getting in. So, you know, if you, you go win the lotto and they say, how do you make a million dollars out of trucking?

You start with 10. So if you go and buy a truck and a lot of blokes will buy an older one, they'll do it up, make this a beautiful looking tract that's won an award at one of the truck shows that the bloke bought secondhand, did it all up himself and he's doing well out of it, good luck to him, but you can buy an older one and do it up. But then if you go and buy one and you think, oh, I'm just going to go and you know, cart freight and she'll be good and I'll do it cheaper than you, mate.

Then the industry gets dragged down. It's hard to get cost recovery and yes, if you're successful, you've got a contract, you've got consistent work, you can do well. You can't work those hours you did before. You've got to be compliant now because we watched to such a level of scrutiny and you can do well out of it. But I'm pretty sure that most of the blokes out there will say it's getting harder and harder to survive. The cost of the gear, the cost of compliance and the cost of maintenance.

If you can do your Own. If you're a mechanic, you've still got to be able to prove that you're qualified enough to do that work. So in the old days, you break down, you'd pull up the side of the road, three blokes would pull up, they'd give you a hand, make blokes, replace gearboxes and did bearings on the side of the road.

Wow. But as a driver, we've discussed if I blow a tire, technically, unless I have been trained and qualified to change that tyre, I'm not supposed to, I might leave the nuts undone, I'm not allowed to adjust the brakes. So those things have all had an impact and they're making it harder on owner drivers. I've just quickly looked up some statistics from the National Retail association and the Small Business Australia.

And if you could look at being an owner driver as owning a small business, it's estimated around 60% of small businesses in Australia fail within the first three years of operation. Furthermore, up to 20% of new small businesses may fail in their first year. Approximately 60% of small businesses do not survive past the third year. And beyond five years, the failure rate continues, but it gets to 50%.

So after five years, if you've worked out what you're doing right, what you're doing wrong, the failure rate drops by 10% to 50. Scary stuff, isn't it, mate? It is. And the fact that in the past you were still a driver like me, you're still hanging onto the wheel, but on top of that, you have to run the business.

You had to organize the loading, the repairs, all of that, you know, your wife generally became by default a part of the business because she'd be doing the invoicing at home and sending out the bills and. And a lot of the time, you know, the woman was unseen behind the desk at home, looking after the kids, bringing up the family. In that poem there that, that you put up last week, he says at one stage, he comes home and the little girl says, there's a man at the door, Mummy.

Yeah, now that's a pretty extreme outcome. I've got another mate that I rang. He's on his way to a driver's funeral now. It's a dangerous industry. It's the most dangerous in Australia that I'm aware of. We've done our little bit now. If we taught car drivers how to share the road with trucks when they got their license, we'd save some of their lives and some of ours. And yet in the media, it's trucks are overrepresented in crashes because there's less trucks than there are cars.

But of course, they don't compare apples with apples, Luke. A car does 20,000 a year. We do 200,000. And that simple level of exposure, the time you're on the road and the fact that people do make silly mistakes. And we've quoted the figure and it doesn't matter whether it's 71 or it's 86 or it's 92.

The majority of fatal crashes between cars and trucks are the fault of the car driver simply because they didn't know any better, they made a mistake, or we didn't teach them to share the road with trucks. Truckee Tuesday. Rod Hanafi is with us. Please give us your feedback. We thrive on it. Lukebonerradioguymail.com you mentioned the poem that we got from a truckee last week, and you've told me that you enjoyed it. I just wonder, Kelsey, if we can play a little bit more.

They are our nation's truckies worth their weight in gold but look upon a truckie's face you'll see how hard it's told. Treated like no harsh criminals and scum. A cash cow to the government and a whipping boy for some. But I set for you this challenge. And to this I say good luck. Name for me three things that never see the back of a truck before you tell me. Air, blood, water, heart or brain. Tell me, what good are they starving. Hunger, Pain. The food we eat, the cars we drive.

Our houses and our clothes, our infrastructure, everything. We're all down to the garden hose. They can't move themselves from our factories and ports. Upgrade the rail network. Cost too much from law reports. So that leaves us with road transport and a task mammoth in size. But without our nation's truckies, even that would see demise. And our truckies keep on going despite the personal cost, the dangers that mean every day another one is lost.

The death rate is ridiculous, an absolute disgrace. It should make the companies and government hide their face. Every day we say goodbye. A husband, father, son or mate, wife, mother, daughter on the job all met their final fate. But that is only half of it. There's so much more to tell. The broken lives and broken homes and truckies going through hell. The time that these guys spend away eats at the very core the body's waiting for them when they get back through their front.

So, Rod, you've listened to the poem. Good stuff. Should be put to music. Yeah, well, yeah, that was the intention of contacting Matt. Now, Cornell. Yeah, you Go. Yep, you go. Back in our industry, I suppose that the most loved and, and popular Truckee song was Slim Dusty Lights on the Hill.

Now even in that it's about an accident where the Truckee dies because he's done the right thing, he's avoided the bus on the top of the hill and, and that song, you know, was, was very widely known and I even wrote to Slip at one stage and sent him a suggestion. I got a letter back from Joy saying I was trying to put too much in one song. John McCann. Yep. We've got Travis Sinclair that we spoke of a little while ago.

He rang into Truckee Tuesday once and we've spoken of a song in America by Tony justice called Brothers of the Highway. Now that's a bloody beautiful video that goes with that and it does have some of the passion but as an industry and even in our mate's poem at the end he says, you know, we're not recognized, we're treated badly, we don't ask to be put on a pedestal but we just want a little bit of empathy and understanding because we want to get home safe every trip.

Rod, we got this voice message from Mal. Let's have a listen. Great look at Rodney. Just want to reply to Rodney's question about what we should be teaching car drivers. And I've always teach car drivers. My answer would be blind spots. And I've just got a quick story. I was driving up Parramatta Road on a Friday morning, big hour, little flowcon tri drive with a quad axle, 56 ton, something like that. Driving up there and watching the little. Red car in front of me and.

I just, just feel a bit of a bump like I said, you know, around and nobody paying any attention to me. So I just kept going and hit the Sunday and I got my allocation work for the next day and Washington says, oh, did you have an accident on Friday? You know, we told you I'll just bring it down and we'll have a look at the, the cameras, the three cameras in the truck. These little green cars come up inside of me on the left hand lane. Started in a little, little hole from the car in front was.

And I've just pushed it. Rod, would you like to respond mate? I'm sure that you might recall a few years ago there was a video of a truck driving down the road with a car sideways across the front of it. There's been a few like that. There was a bonnet, a truck. So big monitor truck, little car stuck out the front, blokes driving down the highway. There's been a couple like it and it's simply because the car has tried to push into a gap that wasn't there. I've had it probably twice.

Bloke overtook me over double lines and then pushed in between me and the caravan in front when someone was coming the other way. And, and people just do stupid to save two seconds. And in those instances where he's talking about it there. Yes, we do have blind spots. They're very big in front of the truck to the left hand side. Our mirrors are fixed, they're large. It's not like in the car.

You've got your rear vision mirror in the middle that you can look out the back window and you've got a little bit better sight. You could look out the side window in the car and you can see a car or a motorbike or something beside you. But when you're up in the truck down to that left hand side, virtually from the front wheel back is a very serious blind spot. I've got what's called a daylight door.

So it's got a bit of a drop down section and a little hole in the door with a window and a mirror outside. But again even between there you, there is a blind spot in front of that mirror. So we shouldn't have people trying to push in in front because we, we've talked about the sticker on the back that says do not overtake turning vehicle. That's one of them. Others have if you can't see driver well and that's it.

That's even the point, Luke. It says if you can't see the mirror but in a B double you've got double articulation. You turn around a corner to the left, you can clearly see the mirror but you can't see the driver. The driver can't see you. So why can't we teach something as simple as that? If we taught car drivers to be aware of that when they get a license and it's really gotta be done in a video.

Luke, we know now that kids rely on video, they play the games and we've discussed, you know, my views on that. I think we teach too many bad things but to simply tell them is not enough. They have to see how it works, they have to be visual. You got to implement it implanted in their brain. And if we did that one simple thing when people got a license. Now I've raised with you years ago there was only one truck question in the hundred that you sit for for your license.

Yeah, I jumped up and down. I wrote for every state in Australia, they increased it to two. Now, you can say that was a success. I would tend to disagree. But something as simple as that, if it was taught to young people, it was shown in a video, we would save lives, we would save angst, we would save crashes. And yet I still cannot get the authorities to support that. And you really wonder why? Maybe we need to get onto your senator from WA again and keep pushing. I see.

Glenn did put out a video. One of the rest areas that got funding out of our heavy vehicle Rest area Steering committee is underway out at Roma. He put up a video saying that they're actually in there digging. I believe there are two others that have started. So to those that thought we were going to solve that problem overnight again, get real. But we are trying. Yeah, we. We really need to get Senator Stirl back on, don't you reckon? Oh, absolutely, mate. We can do that. He does do trips.

He's involved in WA with a couple of runs there, taking things up to people in isolated communities in the north. And of course, he was a union organiser. He drove trucks back then. And to my understanding, he is the only MC licence holder in the Australian Parliament. Yeah. Now we need to get him back on. Very good point. We'll write that down. Please leave us any feedback. It's a really important topic when a young Australian goes for their driver's license, their Ls and then their Ps.

How many questions pertaining to road safety and trucks should be included in that exam? What are your thoughts? It's gotta be more than two, hasn't it? And well done with two. You got 100% increase. Yes. One of those things where you think, well, that was good, but it just wasn't good enough. And it wasn't for lack of trying. It wasn't. We've got a voice message from Nathan. Let's have a listen. G', day, guys. Nathan here again. Good to hear a good Truckee Tuesday. Keep up the good work, guys.

Keep up the good work. Rogers. Yeah, without you, mate. Yeah. Without the voice, who would fight for us? The riddle. I'm gonna say the Nullarbor flames. That's all I can think of. Anyway, guys, keep up the good work. Keep on chugging. Oh, we didn't get to hear his horn because we. We wanna. We wanna hear your horns as well. What did he say? Nullarball play? Yes, and I was leaning that way. Hang on. We'Re gonna wait. This is called a hook to keep people. Just repeat the question.

I Start where the flies outnumber the folk Pass red hot roads and eucalyptus smoke I head south by east Then north once more I pass where the Nullarbor meets the shore I am not a shortcut though some think I am I'll chew up your diesel and jam up your plan I look like the way I've got signs and a name but follow me far and you'll cruise and you'll curse just the same what am I? And we'll give you the answer a little bit later.

Rod, once again this perennial question is being asked, should speed limits for trucks be increased? Let me go on. The speed limit for trucks is a complex issue with valid arguments on both sides. Raising or lowering the speed limit could have both positive and and negative impacts on safety, travel times and operating costs. Many jurisdictions limit trucks to a maximum speed of 100 kilometres per hour or less.

And there are valid reasons for this, including the increased risk of crashes and severity of those crashes at higher speeds. There are arguments for maybe on some roads under certain conditions raising that speed limit. And some people are even saying 130 kilometres an hour. Rod Hanafi, your thoughts mate. I've seen that and that article specifically, as I understand it, related to cars. It didn't mention trucks. Two things.

I'm currently involved in a program trying to lift road train speed limits. Now in Victoria in Western Australia and Northern Territory you are allowed to drive a type 2 road train. So three trailers long, 100 ton gross, 53 and a half meters at 100 kilometres an hour. And I have done that in both those states and the roads can support that in certain places. That talk of 130 I believe is for cars. And yet you say every state in Australia limits trucks to 100.

I have in the past considered asking that that be raised to 110 only on four lane divided roads. And the concern I actually have, Luke, we currently have most of our roads in Australia are 100 freeways. 110. Then you've got all the other limits. Now at one stage the Newell Highway, a section of it from, I think it was from Narrabri, might have been further south to south of Dubbo, was brought back from 110 to 100. And even the police were not consulted.

There was somebody in New South Wales or as RTA then decided that they were going to be a road safety crusader and they were going to cut the speed limit from 110 back to 100. Now even the police argued at the time, one, we weren't consulted. Two, you have a lot of trucks running the Newell highway who can do 100 kilometres an hour on the flat sections.

And then it meant that a car driver to overtake them, even on a long, flat, safe, empty bit of road would be breaking the law to overtake the truck. Now eventually there was a furore and I got stuck in one queue, Luke. I think there was about eight cars and, and we know that cars don't all do a hundred and I was only looking yesterday there was a video on some bloke sitting in his car saying, I'm doing a hundred, these trucks are overtaking me.

Now they're overtaking by about an extra 1km an hour. So it's not like they were zooming past and doing 110. But in that section of the Newell, the police said you have created a problem because you would get cars would sit behind a truck and then someone who wouldn't sit behind a truck about five or six back would try and overtake five or six cars in a truck and it created a bigger problem.

Now there is a term called traffic friction and that means if you have different vehicles traveling at different speeds, then of course as one catches the other, unless it's a four lane divided road, which is where I said it should be, maybe on the Hume. Unless it's that then someone is going to want to overtake the other. Now in the past we had different speed limits for caravans too, Luke. They used to be limited. Yeah. Now that changed. Now it's as per manufacturers.

So you can still go and buy your BMW tow car and put a van on it. But the manufacturer's recommended towing speed for a certain weight may be 90 km an hour. Not everybody knows that, nor do they understand it. But look, if they increase the car speed to 30, the one concern I have is that would increase that traffic friction. I'd certainly like to see road trains able to do 100 because most blokes do it anyway and they're safe and capable of doing it.

And I suppose the one thing you go back to, Luke, there's a thing put out by NTI National Transport Insurance. Every two years they do a big study of truck crashes and trends and those sorts of things. One of the things they found in one of the first ones was that a majority of accidents occurred in the first leg out of the week. So, you know, you weren't quite prepared or you didn't have enough sleep before you went, something happened, went wrong.

But one of the other factors that they've shown up, fatigue is certainly critical. But outside of that driving to the conditions is one of the major crash factors. Now that means that if you are coming into a corner and you're at full noise and the road cambers off, well, you can see that, you can see the road, you know that you're in a high vehicle, you know that you can't just go around every corner flat.

If it's raining, you know the road is slippery at it's a bit wet, you know, you backed off a little bit. It's about when you are in traffic, you allow that bit of room which, as we've discussed, every car driver wants to fill and take away where we leave the braking distance. But if everybody drove to the conditions and it's not just about the vehicle or the road, it's your own condition too, isn't it Luke? It is.

Let's have a quick look at some of the arguments for potentially raising truck speed limits. You would have reduced travel times. Now if you had reduced travel times, therefore that kind of comes under the umbrella of improved efficiency. Could that reduce the cost of transporting goods and then possibly be passed on to the consumer? Would our goods be a bit cheaper if they were transported faster and more efficiently? I'd nearly go the other way.

The one thing I'd say, and we've argued in the past, is when back in the day we had 90 kilometer an hour speed limits for trucks. That increased your time on the road and your level of fatigue. Now again, I've got young sons, a couple of them have got very nice cars and they say sitting at 100 on the highway is boring and you fall asleep. And the argument, we go back to those days of owner drivers, back in the days when we did have some quick tracks, you had to be on the ball.

You, you weren't just sitting there like you're driving a lounge chair down the road, you were concentrating because if you didn't, you come unstuck really quick. So there's arguments on both sides, as you say. I'm looking to reduce traffic friction. I don't think the 130 is ever going to work for trucks in America. They were about to introduce a speed limiting law. The last video that I saw means that got knocked on the head and it depends on what state you're in.

Over there, some allow 65, some allow 70, some states even allow 75 mile an hour and you'd be getting what, 120 something kilometres an hour. Of course, as we do here and over there, it does tend to work. They do have crashes. There's no doubt. But they also use the same argument I did five minutes ago, Luke. And part of it is we don't teach car drivers to share the road with us. Yeah. And I think the main argument for maintaining the speeds is safety.

And if you have a crash at a lower speed, the results are gonna be a bit different, aren't they? It is an interesting one. It really is. I'd like your feedback, folks. Should speed limits for trucks be raised to maybe 110 on certain roads? Or do you think maintaining it where it is is where it should stay? I'd love to hear. Or. And can we bring the 90k for road trains up so that we're not having to overtake other road trains in bigger vehicles? That's the other one. Right.

It's funny you should mention about being a little uncomfortable and that adding to concentration. When I took a group of listeners to India a few years ago, ten years ago, most of our travel rod was on buses, coaches. And the group I took, we took up three. Three large coaches. They were pretty flash. They were, you know, they were good quality. But the driver has a sidekick, and the sidekick gets out on highways and has to pay the very dodgy tolls that just pop up.

Next thing you know, there's a police car with lights flashing. You've got to pull over and hand over cash. It's actually not on the registered toll. It just happens. And his sidekick jumps out and does all that and helps him. Yep. But the driver and his sidekick are in a completely separate compartment, completely glassed off from the passengers. And this is what our tour guide told us.

And if there's anyone out there in bona fide land that can verify this, if you've ever been in the trucking industry in India, we were told that the drivers in their fully encased little box do not have air conditioning. The reason the policy was that they wanted the driver to feel uncomfortable. And we were told as a group that since they introduced that the accident tolls went down, that the drivers were uncomfortable and forced to concentrate a little harder. I don't know if that.

If that holds any water with you, Rod, but that's what we were told. And, Luke, you've only got to talk to a driver that's been out there for a long time when it gets cold and you turn the heater up and you get too comfortable. Yes. That can, if you're not aware, make you drowsier. Certainly if you're sitting there freezing and shivering, it's not the best either. You've got to find that perfect medium. And of course, the other side, air conditioning when it's hot, you know.

But I've seen some drivers of late, Luke, wearing headphones now, some companies are outlawed it. I believe it is dangerous because you can't hear what's going on around you. You can't hear a siren coming up behind you for an ambulance or someone blowing the horn that you're about to run over. And I can't see why blokes, you know, have to have a set of headphones on. You can't have them for your phone, you know, you might have one ear covered.

But simply wearing headphones in a truck, to me is stupid. You know, whether you want your crystal clear stereo to be nice, that's one thing, but if you can't hear what's going on around you, I think that there's a detriment that way. And we can't teach common sense, Luke, We've discussed it. We can't outlaw stupidity. All we can do is try and say, if you give this some thought and let's go back to Charles Tarbert, you know, his ideas, he's got really good business sense, he's been successful.

And if you can't learn or what's the other one, Luke? The day you stop learning is the day you die. And if you don't want to learn, well, then you're not going to make it as anything, are you? That's right. Interesting. In New South Wales, being deaf does not automatically disqualify you from getting a driver's license. Now, this is not commercial driving. I'm not sure about commercial driving hearing, but it is not a general prohibition for a private vehicle operation.

Being deaf, yes, There is a level for truckies that we must meet. And I had my medical last week, mate. They tested me hearing there, obviously, sight, everything else they do that's a part of it. If you're virtually putting those headphones on, you're making yourself deaf in one way to what's on around you, not anything else. And even many years ago, mate, there was a driver who only had one. He went through a very, very rigorous process to prove that he was capable.

And it's about skill level, it's about your ability to deal with those factors, drive to the conditions. And we know that some people shouldn't be parents and some probably shouldn't be drivers, Luke, but we can't fix that either. Can't fix that either. Just moving on to some news. The National Road Transport Association, Nat Rhodes calling on operators to highlight the issues they're having in recruiting and retaining truck drivers.

Operators are now being urged to have their say on the truck driver crisis. Rod, it's been there for a long time. It's getting worse. We started off that way, Luke, as to why would you go and do the job, but somebody has to. In the past, it was demanding, but you got a passion for it, like our mate did with the poem. You know, he's obviously done it. He's got a passion, passion for it. It gets in your blood. And it has an enormous impact on our lives. That's not recognized how we do it better.

And some of the companies have gone to doing changeovers. So if you run up and down the Hume, a bloke who leaves Sydney, he will drive to Takata, he'll do a changeover and go back home. He's in his own bed that night. He doesn't have to sleep in the truck. And it's efficient that way. But you must have a sufficient volume, Volume of freight to be able to do that. For those blokes like me that live in the track, you can't really solve that problem because we are a very decentralized country.

America's got a lot more people and it's got, you know, similar space, but it's got a lot more towns in between. You've got a small gap between one town and another, except in some certain places. But any route in Australia, like Sydney to Melbourne to Brisbane, you start running Perth and Darwin, you can't do those in a couple of days, and the freight's still gotta move. And we've had people ring in and say to you, it should all go on rail.

And mate, we had 27 rail gauges in Australia at one time. Had they done that properly? And they have a really good rail network in America, but they still need trucks. They still need trucks to put it on the train and to take it off the train. And here we are, the most efficient. So we've got to find a way to make sure that blokes get paid sufficiently to do the job, that we have the facilities. And I've got to say, Luke only had a discussion with a bloke in the office yesterday.

How the hell are we supposed to stay fit and healthy when you can't get good food on the road? With a few exceptions, we can't access a supermarket to buy stuff, to buy healthy food because we're in a B double and that side of it. I think outside of the fact that you and I have been complaining about A lack of rest areas. And we've got more trucks and less rest areas. The way that roadhouses are closing earlier and not being available and not having decent food in so many places.

And yes, Covid was probably the biggest single factor that affected them because there was no traffic on the road. Only us. And many of them didn't cope. I don't know where we go there to keep us going and to keep the country moving. Mate. One last thing. Those upgrades we were talking about on the Bruce highway, they've begun. It's a $9 billion program. It's the Bruce highway safety package. So the work's begun. Rod. Mate, I haven't been up there for a couple of weeks.

Cause I've had that time off. They had been doing a lot of work up there. It's not like they'd done nothing. But it did have a terrible crash rate. People did die. It's good that they've now got that money. And the committee. And I've got access to one of the gentlemen on the committee. I've spoken to them about rest areas. We're hoping to have input into that. And it's good to see. But Luke, in the last week, back on the road for the first time, potholes.

Even my son saying last night he hit a pothole somewhere the other day and he's now got a cracked rim on his car. And whilst they're our roads, they're our asset. They belong to the Australian people. But if we don't maintain them, then you're going to have people turning around and saying, well, we should all Drive at 60km an hour across the whole of the world. Because there might be one pothole, you know, 57 kilometers down the road that you might hit and have an accident.

And people talk about lower speed limits in certain places. And I've got no problem with school zones. I've got no problem with. With roadworks when there are roadworks there. But these people who turn around and say that dropping the speed limit fixes everything obviously don't live in trucks and they don't have to travel the distances that we do. So we've got to have a say to get a fair outcome for all.

Yeah. We went on a little road trip recently and our gps, very handy, it says pothole ahead and it tells you 500 meters. It counts down. And then as you go past it, it says, it asks you still there or gone? And you. And you push the screen. But that relies on people's input, so. It does. Yeah. Yeah. And I looked into that. You spoke of it. I looked into that and I'm going to contact them and find out whether they actually follow that up.

Because it's one thing to know it's there, it's another to report it and get it fixed. So I'm gonna chase them up to see if they do that as well. Yeah, well, where we went, there were potholes everywhere and they were reported and we kept an eye out and it was really handy. But it does rely on other users of this particular gps. I'll tell you what it is. It's waze. W A Z E. Waze. Users need to contribute to it. So that's how it works. They do. And let's hope that they actually pass it on.

And if they don't, I'm gonna ask them why not? Yeah, that's a really good question. We'll do that next time. Okay. Rocket rods. Roadside riddle. Now, do you remember the question? It was a very detailed generated question. And I had a thought. We've had one bloke there make a comment. Are you going to do a drum roll or are you going to say. And the winner is. Hang on. Inserting drum roll now. And the. Thank you, Kelsey. That was, by the way, Kelsey, just keep rolling.

Have you heard Rod's sound effects? He's got an unbelievable. Rod, what were some of your sound effects that we used to do? What was the truck noise as you going down the hill? The Jake brake. Down through the gears. Down through the gears. That's very good, Rod. Anyway, drumroll again. Thank you, Kelsey. And the answer is. Nullarbor. Nullarbor. It was. Yes. Yes, it is a very long straight road. Of course, the 90 mile straight across there. Longest straight road in Australia, 146.6km.

But I think you asked at one stage, mate, where was the longest road in the world? In Saudi Arabia. Isn't it 240km? I can't remember now. There you go. But you did so very well done. Right, now we need another riddle for next week. Rocket rods. We do rocket rods. Can you make it a bit simpler? Just ask it one buggy question, not six. Rocket rods. Roadside riddle for this week is what. Is the Name of Route 39? What is the name the highway name of Route 39? Route 39, the new highway.

Okay, that's a lot easier. Please send us your feedback. Lukeboneradioguymail.com Send us your voice messages. You've heard how it's done. It's very, very simple and rocket. Rob, I hope you have a better week than you had last week. I hope you actually get out there and earn some wages. Yes, me too, mate. Me too. Safe travelling to Walleye and we'll do it again next week. Well, thank you so much for bearing with us again for episode 43, Kelsey. Unbelievable. Episode 44 is just around the corner.

Stay safe. I love yous all in the words of Jeff Vannick. Oh, and my thought for the week, Kelsey, you know what a day without sunshine is like night.