Live from Bendigo. The thing this is Paul Murray Live, our.
Town, then Australia, I go.
We're now Aly tonight.
Welcome the most beautiful part of Victoria.
We are physically at the Central Debrah gold Mine.
We have spent a spectacular weekend in Bendigo. The people are wonderful, the buildings are beautiful, and tonight we are going to make television history because the Fat Controller is going to drive a tram. I will drive a tram tonight and we're going a very special guest. I'm looking forward to wall of this. This facility here, the sunset, by the way is absolutely glorious. Where you are, where we are right now, the chance he is to be able to go and see a gold mine as it was.
We are in one.
Of the tin sheds that have seen plenty of action over the years, and the good people of Bendigo have been nothing but kind and wonderful to us the entire time. So we're going to celebrate this city. We're going to sell break you guys, and we're gonna have a wonderful night together. But first, as always, let's talk about the news. And a strange thing happened this weekend. Now, no, I am not squeezing a stone to get one little more
drop of blood out of it. But remember what they said about the American election over and over again.
Presss play New.
Paul has Kamala Harris and Donald Trump locked in a dead heat.
Latest Wall Street Journal, Paul.
In Washington Post poll out this morning.
Harris up by four dead locked race. He tied.
According to most polls in the United States, this election is very close and could go either.
Way, and Bendigo was the result to tie. No, I didn't think so who won again? And how big big? I thought so, that'd be the case. Well trained, everyone, well done, you get a fishing, You get a fishing, you.
Get a fish. Well done. Well.
Of course, the people who were far more accurate than the polls, and I said this at the time as a person who spent way too much reading them, is let's have a look at the bookies. Now the bookie, the red line, of course is Trump. The blue line was Biden. Who was I think this is his heart rate. Actually he was dead for many months, and then they gave him a little packawhacker, and then he died again. And then of course Camala took over in the pantsuit and joy and love and all the rest of it.
And then she pissed a billion dollars against a wall and he kicked her ass.
Is that good education about politics?
Excellent?
Now?
As you can see, they were pretty clear. So I think you might know where I'm heading, because it won't surprise you that when we go on the road every now and then on the Friday or the Saturday night, after the chats have finished, after the politics has been discussed, there'll be a little bit of a pull out of some of those sports bet apps or the tab app or the lab brokesapp, and we'll be betting on dogs
in South Africa at two o'clock in the morning. But while we were doing so, we noticed what are the odds for the upcoming federal election? Is it a line ball or not? Well, remember, according to many of those to speak for a living, they say that Australia's definitely headed towards a minority government. They say that there's a most chance that Labor ends up being there because as I bored you before about the teals and all the
rest of it. But have a look right now, sports bet has the Coalition as favorites after the next election. Now that is an expectation that they will form government with a minority. But Labor is now starting to blow out. Now this is not me saying that jump on one or the other, but it is fascinating that the indicators that the polls are telling us ever so tight, but it'll fall Labour's way. These things tell us ever so tight,
but it all fold the coalition's way. That tab their tab app is exactly the same where they are saying by an even bigger margin they think that the coalition is going to get there or with greater certainty. Now again the way that all these bookies work, and certainly in Australia should remember one of these companies said that Shorten was going to win in twenty nineteen. They even paid out a couple of days before thinking that was
going to be the result. But a fascinating little look here, which means some of that outer analysis about Australian politics is maybe something we should be paying attention to. Let's not be surprised by what results end up turning up.
Let's look at what might be coming. And of course there is one person who has been saying by the Financial Review and he's a format labor senator that there could well end up in such a significant change after just one term of this mob that yes, Dunton and the Coalition, they'd take some deals they take plenty of labor. Labor would lose potentially to people.
Like the Greens. So we are on our way to not just.
A tight result, but according to the book, is a change of government after one term. Now, Bendigo, I know many people who vote here vote to opposite them this room, but how does this room feel about a one term elbow government? Might be the case which brings me to what I have been thinking about ever since the Trump election, and I've been slowly thinking about over months, which is what what is this next federal election going to be about?
Now we know what the issues are.
We know that the difficulties that people have had when it comes to cost of living becomes pretty clear. We know that on multiple poles, in multiple ways, we're told that the majority of the country things that we're headed in.
The wrong direction.
But as we have a look at the candidates that are going to be up and available for government, I want to credit it a very dear friend of mine who's been seeding this idea for a little while, but in the past couple of days he's poured as much fertilizer and impossible, and it's now starting to grow as my central theory of the case.
Which is.
Politics often is something that we talk about in relation to demographics like age or sex, or for some it'll end up being a religion or race. I certainly think that what we saw in the United States was a realignment of things where it was your economic circumstance that was the ultimate determinant of your vote.
Can I offer another.
Theory though, that I think in many ways this election is going to be about do you want the state to control your life or do you want to control your life on what sorts of issues do you want to be left alone? And what sorts of things do you want to be trusted as a parent or as a grandparent. Now again, traditionally Australia can have a conversation about collective responsibility, which traditionally has been of the left and personal responsibility, which has been of the right.
But this is something different.
When I talk about that sense of control, think about between now and the election, and certainly the past three years since our election, about the types of politicians who want to ban something or change something, or limit something, or overthund something or restrict something, And then think about the world before these people existed, say in twenty twenty two,
or let's even go back to twenty ten. We don't have to get in the way back machine and get out the Swan lager and pretend that we've just on the America's cup in nineteen eighty three. We can have this conversation about our twenty first century, which is about your want to control your life. And it's not a conversation about oppression versus freedom. It's about your right to
make decisions about your life. Now. At times, I've disappointed plenty of people with my views on all sorts of different issues, but I always turn around and say on say things like gay marriage or euthanasia, like your choice to say no shouldn't rule out somebody's ability to say.
Yes, and vice versa.
All right, we want a system that says, while I'm not planning on using this system or that system, i want the availability of somebody who wants to go and do it, to go and do it. But as soon as the state starts turning around and saying look at this fork in the road. We're going to take away choice. We're going to tell you there's one choice that needs to be made over others. And I think that's going
to be a massive factor at this election. The first signs of people in and around this issue is going to be particularly men between thirty five and fifty five. These are men who have been brought up in a left wing education system. These are people who may will have paired off into partnerships or started to have children.
They may well have entered the workforce, owned their own business, had an ABN, paid the taxes, filled out the forms, and you can see that they are starting to track in a very different direction than where they were even three years ago. Now again, for the smart asses that are watching or the people that are thinking, oh, he's just trying to pull a Trump, there is no way that you pull a Trump. In the Australian system, we don't vote for a single person. We vote for local MPs,
we vote for parties. There's the control of the Senate. But I will be fascinated to see at this election about the types of policies that are put in front of us, because I'm not entirely sure that Australians are desperate to hear that there's a government planning to spend more money than they did last time on a problem that will only be exactly the same as a well
was before they threw more money. I have a feeling that we're going to have an attraction to politicians who are going to say, hey, we're going to try to get out of your way. Imagine that is a thirty three day election campaign where you don't have an announcement a day, you have a promise every day which I'm
going to get out of the way. I'll do my best to within responsible targets, pull back on a whole collection of things like regulations, which brings us to why it's so important that we have fought as hard as we have and talked about it for as long as we have. But you will have heard the news today, Bendigo that the plan to censor the Internet is dead,
finally dead. Now. As you know, the plan for all of this was that the government wanted to decide that you should only be allowed to post things on your social media that are approved officially by the government, the stamp of truth from the same people who, of course always tell us that down is up and left his right that all sorts of things don't quite make the sense that they used to. Here in part was that media excited today about this stupid plan finally hitting the wall.
A bill aimed at cracking down on misinformation and disinformation on the Internet has been pulled by the federal government.
Labor has dumped its controversial misinformation bill.
The Albanezy government has scrapped its controversial misinformation bill.
That they all look so disappointed, don't they. Yes, but it's happened right. Why Because as we've.
Shown you all the way through, and I explained to everyone last week, the numbers just weren't there in the Senate. However, the final blow comes from the Greens who say it didn't go far enough, and that blew. I'm with you, and that is back to that central conversation I was saying about how much control versus how much freedom. It's not just in this case the Labor Party who put forward decision when it comes to misinformation. Remember Jackie Lamby said it didn't go too far. It didn't go far
enough on some levels. The Teels didn't think that it went far enough, and the Greens didn't think that it went far enough, and all of that's on the ballot paper,
and everyone should remember that. Everyone should remember that at one of the most fundamental choices of our time, there was a very significant chunk of Australian politics who may well end up deciding the next federal government because they are the ones with the power in a minority government, who wanted to go harder, wanted to go further.
Of course, there were those who fought it.
Hard and hard from day one, Pauline Hanson in Won Nation, Ralph Babbott and the United Australian Party, eventually, of course, the Liberal Party. But we all knew the second that we first saw this that this was not okay. Never forget that Labor didn't let it get defeated in the Senate. They pulled it before it could get defeated. And in part,
remember what one of their key motivations were. What was that word they used over and over again when the sixty forty support for the Voice became sixty forty hell no, including here in lefty Victoria.
What was that M word they said, over and over again?
Misinformation? Misinformation, misinformation, the.
Misinformation which is there so misinformation.
Now, another issue that you've got to get to and inevitably talk about is the economic scenario cost of living. We all know how painful cost of living it can
be and is for plenty of people right now. We know it when it comes to people that are trying to pay off a house, find a house to rent, people who are of course, you know, people everyone who has to go to the shops to buy inconvenient stuff like food or of course power prices which were supposed to be down by two seventy five permanently by next year, right,
never forget that at the upcoming one. Well, what about this from the analysis of the numbers that are around at the moment from the Bureau of Statistics, the coalition who did it. But still our living standards are the worse since nineteen fifty nine. Right now, I eat your ability with the amount of money that you make each week, month or year, and your ability.
To pay for life in Australia, it's the worse since nineteen fifty nine.
Now, okay, you're immediately going, hay, what about the nineties with seventeen percent interest rates? And what about that thing
in the seventies and that thing in the nineties. It's about that overall package, though, about how much money is coming in versus how much money is going out, and households are suffering the worst decline in living standards since the nineteen fifties, with a fall in real disposable income eclipsing that of the last four recessions, including the ones of the nineteen seventies or even the COVID pandemic.
The analysis of the.
Official government statistics shows that the current cost of living crisis has hit households twice as hard as the nineteen oh one and nineteen eighty two to eighty three recessions, and significantly more sharply than any period dating back to nineteen fifty nine. There might be a size nine boot that is coming for those that are currently in power.
I've got a feeling it might be steel capped, and I might have a feeling that it will kick the Prime Minister so hard in the ass that he'll ask for an upgrade, because you'll be that high in the air, and we certainly know when it comes to an upgrade elbow.
This bloke loves an upgrade.
But can I talk about somebody else who loves the sweet life as well?
This is the.
Gender equality ambassador. Did you read about this today? Where this gender If you've never met this person, they love spending other people's money telling us how bad everything is.
Have a look.
Hello.
I'm Stephanie Copus Campbell, Australia's new Ambassador for gender equality. I'm incredibly honored to take on this role as the lead international advocate for Australia's commitment to gender equality and the human rights are women and girls and persons of diverse gender identities.
What anyway this person, in their time representing us on all of that stuff, has spent how's this thirty five thousand dollars on taxpayer funded trips around the world, including to multiple conferences where, of course they turn around and
collectively always conclude that Australia is the worst ever. Talk about other people's money, other people's priorities, and don't forget what this Prime Minister has previously turned around and said is to be his priority after this election, which is, among other things, for us to host an international climate conference. I think the Australian people might be somewhere else and
we'll be with them the whole way along Bendigo. This is a beautiful place and let's celebrate it for the rest of this hour, including the opportunity for us to jump on a tram. And yes, the big fella drives a tram here. It is some trams in Bendigo.
Rolla take.
Bendigo has got so many beautiful buildings and features and things like this fountain, which was first put up in eighteen eighty one, and the best way to see them is to travel on a bit of history yourself. Let's write a tram is about trans and Bendigo.
How far does it go back?
So it's a pretty amazing.
Story, So I take it back to eighteen ninety the first of a tram and Beni was actually a batue powered tram, so ahead of that time. Amazing And that's as about as school as the sexy as that story. Guests balled nineteen seventy two when they try to shut.
Down the trams here in Bendigo up silu.
Public hour raisor trends were getting pulled off the drags here.
So why does Bendigo to love its tramps?
I mean, if this is beautiful, but why do you think that Bendigo I loves its trands?
Without saying too cliche has other DNA. So we think about Bendia, you think about gold and trams, and you know, we look at the vistas of our beautiful city.
And you know, the trams and the story and.
Connectivity, and yeah, there's a quite I think, a romantic part of it. And I grew up here and I can't have a picture of Bendigo without having a tram rally.
Down the mainstream. I love you.
It is infectious your enthusiasm for it.
So this tram is this one that has written these lines for a long time.
Is it from somewhere else? Built from scratch? Tell me about what we're running in now.
So we're riding on trendom in nineteen the California Combination trams about early World War One, so about nineteen sixteen. This tram so started its life in Melbourne. And then we got a lot about trams secondhand here, so probably.
In the thirties and forties that came to here and we.
Were stoked to have it.
Here because yeah, it's a pretty even it was the secondhand it's a pretty special tram. And I look at the detail of the woodwork, the finge in the lights they used to build things.
Well back in the day.
And that's what that's one of the many reasons why people want to write them and love them, is that I mean, as you say, everything from the leather straps, the leather seats, as you say, through to the brass, give us an idea.
About what it takes to keep these things on the line.
Yeah, So we part of our organization, so.
We run the trams. Trams are really expensive things to run, so which we.
Lose money running into at tram each year. So the way we offset that we created a social enterpriser or on manufacturing divisions.
Who has the biggest smiles, kids that have never been on them, or people who remember them from a long time ago.
Oh, a bit of both. And I think that's what makes trams special.
Everyone kind of has some connection and this trams or trains kids always.
They're like a magnet.
Are again someone's stopped.
I always got some romantic story about.
Some tram anywhere in the world and kind of brings them back to those memories.
Now, of course I'm fully licensed and accredited.
Can I drive it? Of course.
We'll give you a goram God, love you, thank you. It was fun And I'm now fully accredited and mum, I've got a backup career now, so that's good.
Finally a real job to fall back on.
Matthew Evans is a man who's represented this area in lots of different ways. He looks forward to doing so in the Federal Parliament the next federal election.
Both the Liberal.
Party and the National Party are running, of course against the current Labour MP here. But Matt I wanted to say, firstly, gaday and welcome to you mats everybody, how are you?
Thanks?
Very good?
All right?
Did Cob dippit in mayor? Before we get into the overt politics. Is a place that is special? What makes bin to Go special? Why is it a place that you've decided to plump the family?
Well, I think if you look at the people in this room, it's the people, and it's the community. And my wife is the Bendigonian and we decided that when we first moved to Bendigo that this is the place that we wanted to raise our family. Great communities, great families that run massive, wonderful small businesses as well, great economic economy as well. But the thing I love about
is just the community. I'm involved with a couple of sporting clubs, the Golden Square Football netball Club and the Straffield say Jets in the cricket they're just wonderful people.
But it's the people of not just bending over.
Central Victoria that just make it all worthwhile.
And you've sat on council before, you've been a diperty there before, backwards and coming forwards when they want to tell you what they really think.
Yeah, absolutely, it's always about sticking to the three hours, but also just managing rate, pays money responsibly, but also in many respects just representing the.
Community as fully. There's some amazing things.
That we did at local government to serve our community, particularly coming out of COVID, But like all things, you've just got to put the community first.
This seems like a place that again from breakfast in the morning to the late nights like it's a place that's bubbing a buzzing. Right, meant, plenty of trainees in the past few days who you know, doing pretty damn well, all sorts of people, right. Give us an idea though about some of the people who struggle on the edges or the places where people need a little bit of help.
Yeah, I think for.
A lot of regional communities and that's probably similar but in particular to Bendigo. But right across central Victoria and communities like Cassamine and Kaitan, even up as far as Rochester, there are a lot of families that are really struggling, a lot of businesses that are struggling. And when we talk about these headline topics of cost of living and the impacts on inflation, when you actually chat to people
about those impacts. For example, earlier this year, I was in Molden, the first notable town, and the business there spoke about the thirty percent increase in the cost of.
And that was just on bacon alone.
But then the next thing was what they tried to do to not pass that cost.
Onto their customers.
Because mold it's a small town, it's a proud community, but they're the sorts of people that do feel the cost of living crunch.
How important is.
It that when somebody does represent the community or gets a chance to go to Melbourne for state politics or canbra for federal politics, that they're willing to not just stand up and to give the speech, but to stand in front of the biggest names from the biggest city and say no, we're not going to cop this because big swedes of regional Victoria are being basically steamrolled by the state government when it comes to things like the
renewable energy roll out. What's your promise to people in this room or maybe watching that You're not just going to turn up in the local paper wings here, but you're going to be able to look say a prime minister in the Ia or not on my watch.
Well, one of the things I've learned on local government is that local government is the closest level of government to the people, and that in the four years they had that opportunity to do that, it's underscored.
The most important thing and.
The thing that I can absolutely promise is that I will put the community first, because if you do not put the community first, you get turfed out. And I feel that, as we've seen on your program tonight already, are the consequences when you do not put the community first and what matters really to them first and foremost on the agenda.
I don't want to put words in your mouth, so please disagree if you wish, But what about my thesis at the start of the show about this idea that for many people, I don't think it's going to be about the announcements of the day and the promise of the next three years.
What about do you feel.
Any change in the Australian political population that for many things the best promise you can make is I'll get out of the way.
I do agree with that, certainly.
I think a lot of people are more values based these days, particularly amongst young voters as well. But right across the board, and I think again it underscores that point that if you're focused on what really matters to people and just say, look, at the end of the day.
My community is the most important thing.
What happens in our community, and also if something's playing out federally or even globally, and we've seen that in other contexts as well, the consequences if you lose touch of your community and what actually has an impact on that. I think that's the lush pretty quickly, absolutely so. And again I think a lot of us and even my my Nationals colleague as well, you know, we're pretty much on common sense politics and very much put in the
community first. And I guess right across the board, what we've heard is that when you're worrying about other things that are not the bread and butter issues.
You know, it leaves people behind.
Yes, I don't imagine going to be suggesting a change to the constitution anytime soon about any.
As you were distracting on that for a year or so. Thank you so much, Matt.
Giving up, Thank you all this trying to as well. Thank you so great And it could take back when more plenty to celebrate, including the great regional women who make this place great.
We want to see from bending.
Then to go heritage attraction.
They are the ones that help.
Us out when it comes to the transit hinto of the.
Central debt gold mine.
Now, the Shine Awards is this awesome thing that has been happening now for the best part of I think seven years now, and it's our dear friends at Harvey Norman getting together with The Weekly.
Times finding and celebrating women.
In regional Australia. He's just some of those who deserve your attention. The Shine Awards make us proud to be Australian. Since twenty seventeen, the Shine Awards, presented by The Winkly Times and our friends at Harvey Norman.
Have been celebrating incredible.
Women in our regions who make a difference in their communities. These awards look at a nominees courage, dedication, passion, belief, spirit, and grace to celebrate what makes our country work. Who are these wonderful women well? Along with many others, these are just some of those that had been highlighted this year.
Danny Mason Kinder is nominated for her courage.
She took great personal tragedy and turned it into something to help others. After the tragic loss of her twelve year old daughter, Billy, Danny channeled her grief into establishing the be kind of foundation.
There was something about Billy, and you know, my dad always used to say that Billy she was an old soul, you know, maybe she'd been here before. She just got people. She was really kind, really empathetic. She'd actually just got a scholarship to high school based on her writing ability. And she used to write poems and stories and forever had a book in her hand. And she'd often come to me and her dad and say, you know, I'd
like to write a book. What shall I write about? So, as you can imagine, after Billy died, it became a really big thing that she hadn't written her book. So we collected up all her poems, stories, and her artworks and we put them into a beautiful book which is called Hope. Hope was a keepsake for the family and a memory. And then what happened was we ended up
selling over eight thousand copies. And then what happens we had parents and people coming back to us saying that Billy's words had instigated conversations with their children that they didn't normally have.
The b kind of Foundation makes interactive well being programs and workbooks using Billie's writings, helping children, especially in rural areas, cope with the challenges of things like bullying, loneliness, and mental health issues.
We want to empower and inspire children to believe that they can make a difference. And you know the same with Billy. She's a twelve year old school girl, just like them. And if Billy can make a difference, so can they. One little boy he was using the work book. He was in grade three, and I asked him if he liked it, and he said, I really like it. He said, because timee we use it, then when we go in the playground, everyone is nice to each other.
Katrina Ogden is another fantastic example toward us. She's nominated for her dedication. Katrina has been organizing fundraisers through the Sharing for Kids with Cancer event for teen years now.
It originally started back year back in twenty fourteen. One of our local families their young daughter who was three at the time, Laurie. She was diagnosed with a tumor on her kidney and some spots in her lungs. So Laurie's Auntie decided to do a fundraising event down there to raise some money and my husband was long with some other sharers decided to put their hands up for a day of sharing, and one of the local farmers farmers here, Bill Barlow, brought the day and it went
from there. So then we started a little one there and it just it's obviously just got bigger and bigger and bigger every year. We have raised a lot of money. We probably raised probably closer to six hundred thousand dollars.
Kylie Dennis is nominated for her passion with fourteen's experience as a police officer. Kylie uses her skills to identify and expose scammers. This make sure that vulnerable Australians are not losing their hard earned savings to these online predators.
In twenty twenty three, I received a phone call from my mum and she had indicated that she was was dating somebody and I sort of looked at that photo and thought there was something sort of not right there, and so I did a bit of an investigation. I found out that she was actually a victim of a romance scam, and then I started looking into it and sort of realized that there was so much out there.
I went online dating myself and created a fake profile, and then I identified that there were so many fake profiles within that online dating platform that I didn't.
Think that anyone else was doing it.
So then I went, well, what can I do to help victims and victims' families? So I created two face investigations.
It's a lot of work, but for Kylie it's worth it because she's helping people.
It's okay to admit that you've been a victim of a scam. Let's talk about it, you know, make the phone call five minutes, we can have a chat about it. And that's sort of trying to continually educate people are still at home not wanting to admit to the fact that maybe they could be a victim of a scam. So tomorrow is how do I get those people to ring me? So it's just that continual. It's like just building a wall. I just put one more brick down, one more brick down.
There are so many strong and powerful women in our regions. The Shine Awards is the perfect way to showcase them and share their inspiring stories to the next generation of women who will lead the world.
I say to anyone, grab a notepad, write everything down, and what's in your belly will be successful.
Just keep going.
If you've got that passion, you won't stop.
If using Billy's words and Billy's way being, I can save one child, then I guess that's everything to keep going.
I suppose until we're not allowed to do it anymore. We really enjoy it. It is a lot of work to put for the day, but we all love it and it's a great day.
Change starts with us, and I think we all can and we all should be the solution. And these mental health statistics, it doesn't have to be this way, you know, if we all were a little kinder, spoke more with more kindness, and actually active and role modeled with kindness and empathy and compassion. I think our younger generation would have a better chance at, you know, dealing with the world as it is today.
Every one of them is spectacular. Every one of them is about to be honor. Penny Fowler is divorce at the Week three times and.
See along with their different Katie Page and the good people of Harvey Norman helped judge you win the awards each deary, and I'm pleased to say the wonderful Penny Fowler joins us now, Penny, can you believe eight years since you and Katie Page got together with this fabulous idea to celebrate the women of regional Australia. Love you to see you and congratulations on the awards going into their eighth year.
Thank you so much, Paul.
It's really lovely to see you too.
I cannot believe eight years it's gone by so quickly. The Weekly Times and having Norman when Katie and I first got together and thought what can we do to shine a light on rural and regional women around Australia And the thing that's been going eight years. We've shon light on over a thousand women from all over and every year we've had these amazing stories about these amazing women who do making difference in their communities.
What do you think sets the awards apart from others, particularly it's focus, I suppose on rural women.
But what sets it apart.
Well, I really feel a lot of these women are the unsung heroes of their communities. I think women are not necessarily recognized as much in remote communities and regional communities, and I sort of I feel that they're always doing these amazing things behind the scenes or the overcoming adversity or tragedy, and they.
Go through so much.
And I think often in these communities, you know, around regional Australia and rural Australia, women are the backbones of the communities and they're sort of the silent achieves in some way. So I just think this is really unearthed the whole of these amazing women and their stories and what they're doing to make a different So I think
that's what makes it different. And I also think utilizing the weekly Times, that national footprint, the help of the Australia and all of our news masters to amplify all these stories, and then to have Harvey Norman and you know, Katie who's an amazing promoter and supporter of women and tell stories throughout the communities. I think it's really nice
and I also love the categories that we have. I think that's sort of unique to you know, I've got grace, belief, courage, passion, dedication and the last four years we've had a Youth Winner and some of these young people things they're doing is incredible to.
Yeah, they're both inspiring and frightening at the same time because this next wave of people coming through, they are ten foot tall, stronger and more confident than many of us would ever have dreamed of being. Give you give me an idea about some of the criteria that goes into this, because as always the list is so impressive this year no different. What are some of the criteria about who you decide to recognize?
Well, I think what happens is we have a really amazing team at the Weekly Times who go out and get nominations and we actually amplify that all around, including you, Thank You, Fall and your show, Sky News, The Australian and they're under those different categories and so that when what happens is people nominate and send in stories and we go out and uncover the stories, and then we have a judging panel and we sit around and we go through all these and we try and work out
look to be honest, that all winners, in my mind, all the fins, the winners, all the people are amazing and so it's really difficult to sort out and actually work out who's the overall winner. And so we just go down and if you look at I think some of the stories about people overcoming adversity, people whose children have died and they've gone on to make a difference, people who you know, like Sharon I went in last year, she overcame diversity, She's got her own indigenous food business.
I mean, she's incredible. Emily Riggs from South Australia. The year before she was a young girl who lost her mother and she's got her own wool brand.
So I think, what the criteria.
There's no set criteria, I don't think, but it is people and women who are making a difference. But it's also you know, people who are doing making great successes in rural communities and regional communities in their businesses. So I think it's recognizing these outstanding achievements of theirs.
What would be something that all of these women have in common.
What's something that you would suggest is the commonality amongst all of the people who are up and about.
All the people having about I think all these women, well, I think they're all inspiring.
I all.
I think most of them, in fact, all of them that I I've come across or had the pleasure of meeting, are very humble and very gracious and just very They're just really devoted people.
They've devoted to.
Their families and if they don't have their families, so their work to their communities. And I really feel that that makes them different. So, I mean, obviously the other thing they all have in common is they're women.
So I think the.
Go go, go fight, fight, fight, all of that.
Yes, So I sort of feel like that's sort of a bit of you know, but I mean it is that in all these stories, and they always have these amazing stories too, I think. And so whether they're you know, working for the Royal Flying Daughter Service, or they're starting their own business, or they're overcoming tragedy.
And if you think all things.
Have been going on around the fires, the floods, all the natural disasters have had over the last years too, I think these people, I just think they're really naturally their instinct is to give back to their communities and make a difference.
You mentioned that there's you know, it's impossible obviously for everyone to end up as the ultimate winner, but all of them are winners for their recognition, but more importantly for what they do in their lives. What do you think the rest of us can take from these women's achievements. What's the sort of stuff that we should be learning from what these women are doing?
Well, I really feel what we should be learning is everyone can make a difference in what every way they can, and so you know, there's a lot of people who I think in life, giving back into your community, being part of your local community, helping others is something that we can all learn from all these women. And these women are exceptional in their stories are inspiring, but so so many people's stories, and I think that it's just that being involved in your local community and really try
and giving back to your local community. I think, particularly in rural and regional Australia, you know, we sometimes they don't get as much attention as they should, and so I feel like that's sort of what the real learning is for everybody. There are so many amazing people and you can do whatever you do, whatever a little bit you do to give back. I think it really makes a difference.
Bloody oth Penny, thank you so much. I love you all the best for the holiday period. Congratulations to you everyone in the Weekly Times of course, Katie Page and everyone in Harvey Norman.
I love the Shine Awards. All the best, mate, We'll talk to you soon. Thanks so much, Paul, all the best to Penny, to Katie, to their respective teams. Thank you so much.
To Harvey Norman.
Of course.
The reason we're able to celebrate all the.
Different parts of the country is because of their support. Thank you to everyone who deals with us in these shows. Over at Harvey Norman, thank you for supporting that wonderful Australian institution as well. Quick break back with more. It's time to go deep and dark into a gold mine. We do so next in Bendigo here are Paul Murray Live. We ten called Deborah gold Mine in Bendigo. You're able
to come and have a look at it now. What is incredible, including where we are right now, is that you can still see all of the buildings everything from the blacksmith all the way through to all different things that were part of the community that send people down the mines for as long as it did. Thousands of tons of gold have come out of places like this. Is many more in this particular region. And rather than me banging on about it, let me show you Golden
Bendigo synonymous. But tell us about what's unique about the experience I'm about to have.
Wow, we're going sixty one meters underground, so it's about the same as a twenty two story building, which is a fair old tick down underground. We're heading into an original gold mine operated for fifteen years from nineteen thirty nine to nineteen to fifty four, so you can actually see what it was really like when the miners were experiencing it during our gold ruck.
And way back then, how long was a shift when you were working on eight hours?
Eight hours underground couldn't come up for any reason until the very completion.
Of your shift.
All right, well, what are we about to see today?
We're going to see some drills, Okay, the hard work I had to get the gold out of the ground. Will see some gold because there's still is gold down there in the war which is really cool. We get to see the original shafts where they had their lunch, the whole work.
But first, the coolest lift in Australia.
Okay, if you want to beningese a little bit, you can.
If you want to let a little squeal.
You're building this side now, are you ready?
You go?
Three two one? Well, Paul, welcome to the crew room.
This is beautiful. What a lunch What a lunch room. It's just the lunch rooms.
To think of the big blokes smoking and eating a pasty that have sat.
Here having a great time, having a great time, not doing their hard work, eating some food like they should be. Got thirty minutes for lunch here at Central Debra only time you could stop.
Work all day. How many blokes could they fit in here?
It doesn't look like that many, but how could they They.
Squeeze in pretty tight.
Okay, you could probably have eight crews in here, which is about sixteen blokes if you really wanted to sixteen. If they weren't sitting on the seats, they were sitting on the ground. As long as there wasn't a part all they were pretty happy just to stop working.
All up and down the mine.
There are these things obviously holding everything in place. And I've just asked how big is the thing you've got to bang into the wall? Answer that big? See how long is this six foot six foot? You've just got to bang it into the wall. And how much does each plate hold in place?
For people? That are the tourists today, not the miners of.
Yester, holding about seven tons of rock in place per plate?
She wiars, eureka or not? Really, that's fool's goal. You want to see real goal over here?
Tell us what we're looking at now, right, So we've got gold still in its original state, still here in the courts old times never found this reef. That means I get to show it to you real cool. What we're looking at is the small yellow blobs there inside of the courts doesn't look like very much. And this little cluster here just below that gold label about fifteen hundred bucks worth of goal. Well, Paul, we advertise deep, dark and dirty, so we better experience the darkness.
We turn these cap lands off to see how.
Dark it is down here for you four right, oh, Paul, rock down here really really hard. Can't use pick axes or anything like that. We need to use these big bad pneumatic drills. Each shift mine would have to drill between fifteen and twenty holes. Each hole's taking about ten to fifteen minutes to drill, So you're using these drills for about two hours every time you come to work.
All right, time for me to earn my keea. Oh, thank you so much? What to day pleasure? Paul, Thanks for coming.
That was cool? All right, Well you can take the softman's option.
You've hardened me up.
I'm taking the ladder.
Have fun.
Does any one think that I actually took the ladder?
You know who's care you go and the team but great as well as James over at the trans Remember it's the Bendigo heritage attractions that link all of it, and you.
Can come and see this with your own eyes.
Another thing while you're in Bendigo is to celebrate its connections with the Chinese community, including an artifact that links back to our federation. The Yeu One Gardens here in bendigaren a perfect symbol of a community that's been here for a long time now. For many people, you may not think about the Chinese community and Bendigo as being interlinked for a long time, but they have been from the goal rushes of the eighteen hundreds all the way through to today.
It's a vibrant community.
But also it's a community that has gone from being an absolute outsider to now an absolute heart of a community. And one of the ways that they have integrated themselves with the community over the years is through cultural celebrations. There's a spectacular museum here that has everything from dragons from nineteen oh one to the ones they parade each
and every Easter. All right, we're here with Hugo. He is the most passionate man about dragons in all of ben To go lovely to see you what an incredible collection.
What are we looking at here?
Okay, So this is the sun Lung Gallery at the Golden Dragon Museum. We've got two gallery spaces. Sun Lung is primarily where we keep our dragons, and you can see Diagum Lung on the right in the background, and then sun Lung on the.
Left in the background. But because we're so pressed for space, we have all sorts of objects.
We've got their regalia, their banners, their lines, and then some of our very wonderful.
Collection all in the one space.
So we have the three Imperial processional dragons and therefore regalia from nineteen oh one to the present day.
Well, this is lung and lunging can need means dragon. He is from nineteen oh one. He is the oldest complete imperial processional dragon in the world.
Now, there are older elements around the world and even closer to Bendigo, but this is the oldest complete imperial processional dragon long. We have photos of being part of the parade in or the parades in Australia's Federation in nineteen oh one, and we believe that he is the last remaining element from those parades.
You've got to come here, You've got to see it.
To be in this room is phenomenal, and please meet this bloke.
Go on, you go, thank you, thank you. Wow.
That was awesome, Peggy, if you go and everywhere else would say those new things just fantastic ladies and gentlemen. Here in Bendigo and everyone watching at home a very special guest.
Sannah's here where to be padlu with be next and pullmery lifey Santa give me a candle. Hey, very aw.
Then you go over here with Santa Hella.
Now, of course, so one of the things you get to do when you come here is to do a little bit gold.
Pen we do, Paul, and I've been doing this. Do you want me to show you how it's done?
Please?
What we do?
Paul?
As you're putting a bit of dirt into your trough in your pen of the trough, and you're going to swish this really fast, okay, And we're washing away the dirt Paul, So I got to keep it in the wall. That's probably a bit fast, not like a washing machine. And your gold is going to settle at the bottom. Is there any gold deer?
Paul, there's no gold, no gold deal. Let's have another go, no idea?
What am I looking here?
Here we go, We'll have another go.
What are you okay? Swishing away? Swish, swish, swish? Hang on? What have you found the.
I think there might be some gold here, Paul, breaking news Santa past for everyone else's Christmas.
Let's have a look, Paul. You hard to see in the light here you have a look?
M M.
I'm worried about Santa's glasses now fogging up here? Paul?
Can we see?
Let's if you Paul here.
We need to help me Santah.
Well, here we go, hell, have a look.
Is that is that? What I think it is?
I think it is goodness?
Me?
There we go?
Is that is that? God? Now that's a stone.
That's a stone.
That's a stone stone Santa. Okay, no, cood, no, no, we're gonna keep going.
We're going to keep going.
All right, the Royal report.
You're going to wait, okay, because there's a chance, there's still a chance at any moment now that we're going to find Come on, we can do this here say and I believe in you.
I believe you.
I don't know why we're focused on your pan not mine, because it's random.
Here we go.
Okay, what about that one?
That is gold?
Ladies and gentlemen go, there we go.
Now, now we've got a hand that back?
How did that happen?
He's got to hand that back for the tale.
It's done.
Okay, you got to hand that back then, Yes, all right, well done, Paul, give it up, Boring, well done.
Thank you to everyone here in the.
Very Christmas God love your sat up.
All right.
That is our show from Bendigo. That is our show when it comes to our town for the year. I want to thank everyone involved in our production. Their names won't mean an awful lot to you, but they mean everything to me. Can you give a round of applause to the people who.
Make all of this happen. Thank you James and recor helped us out behind the scenes. Of course, without normal paor Murray Live all year. Thank you to Harvey Norman.
Without you, without your focus and your help each and every month, this show is impossible and the most important thing I always have to say. And don't worry, We're around for another couple of weeks with the normal show. Please see Australia when you get a chance this summer. Getting the car pointed in the direction, and just one hour this way, two hours that way, go to a different state, go to a place youvan't been for a while, and the first place on your list.
Bendigo.
All right, Bendigo, first mention my name and pay full price. That's our show from Bendigo. That's out down. Thank you very much for watching. We'll see you again tomorrow night from.
The man Cave for plenty more. Paul Murray Life can always send me an.
Email to Forward Sun News dot com dot au.
Goodnight from then they go. Sanna