Sydney Now with Clinton Maynard – Full Show July 3rd
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On TGV.

This is Sydney Now with Clinton Maynard. Thursday, July 3, Clinton Maynard here, 131873. What a difference 24 hours makes. It's days like this in Sydney that makes you really appreciate winter, I reckon. This time yesterday, rain, wind, the so-called bombogenesis. Now, sparkling sunshine, middle of winter, doesn't even feel cold, certainly if you're standing in the sun. 19 degrees across most of Sydney at the moment. It is beautiful. It's good afternoon to take your dog for a walk, but...

There is new research that's been released today that shows you could be injured doing so. I'm serious. You've probably heard of everything now. There's been a rise in the number of people who are injured while walking their dog. I'll bring you the details of that throughout the program. Also on the show, new buildings are being approved for Sydney CBD. And finally, they'll rival. They won't top, but they'll rival Sydney Tower, Centrepoint Tower. I cannot believe for a so-called world city, Centrepoint has been the tallest of our buildings for now more than 40 years. And I can't believe for a so-called world city,

Why would anyone complain about the response of the SES volunteers over the past couple of days with the weather that we've experienced? Some people have been complaining that they've been waiting too long for help.

Bear in mind the SCS is mostly made up of volunteers. We're going to talk about that with the former emergency services minister, our straight shooter on a Thursday, David Elliott. Todd McKinney and Jared Draper join me in studio. Stars of Cats, Todd, as you know, is such a character. They'll be in after five o'clock. Mark Guy's on the program, the start of the NRLW tonight. And I've got

Ampole State of Origin. Three tickets to give away. You've got to keep listening to win. You are my eyes and ears when it's happening right now in Sydney, so text me 0460 873 873. Have your say. 131 873. This is Sydney Now with Clinton Maynard on to GB. Well, in Sydney now, the weather is great. The SES has told us they've responded to around 4,000 incidents so far. In the last day, around 1,500 unhooked.

alone there have been more than 2,000 SES volunteers who've been working in the field. They've done a great job and just bear in mind most of them are volunteers. Their storm teams have been deployed all over the state as well. The ACT has been affected. The majority of incidents they've attended to fallen trees, power lines, damaged properties, vehicles as well and yes they've again performed flood rescues with drivers going into floodwaters.

there are still significant problems with power. Sam Sophie joins us from Ausgrid. Hello, Sam. Hi, Clinton. How many properties are without power at the moment?

Across the Sydney region, we're back to pretty much business as usual. There's only about 12 customers out at this point in time. Some of those are on Scotland Island and we need to get some specialist equipment in there to do that. Across the Central Coast, there's about 500 from the storm event that are still out and the crews are out there working at the moment and about 180 in Newcastle. Okay, and your colleagues at Essential Energy and Endeavour Energy, I know they're still working to...

repair power restore power to several hundred homes has it just mostly been as simple as fallen trees bringing down lines that's it yeah fallen trees with the wind and the wet ground destabilizes the trees and they've come down and impacted our power lines is there much and we did touch on this yesterday but just to recap for people who have been out without power now for potentially more than 24 hours what can they do about that in terms of recovering some of the cost

Yeah, so if they've got spoiled food or anything like that, they can go to our website and follow the claims process and enter their information into that. Okay. Look, it could have actually been a lot worse in Sydney in particular. Thank you, Sam. Not a problem. Thank you. Sam Sophie, who's the Group Executive Operations at Ausgrid. So look, if you have suffered a power outage over the past couple of days and you ain't in the Ausgrid network, look, similar situation for Essential Energy and Endeavour Energy. Go to their website, lodge a claim.

I received my power bill today, so you know you're going to get them every three months. Lodge a claim if you've been without power because you shouldn't be paying full freight.

It's 11 past three. The financial regulator has today issued a warning, and this is an important one to listen to. It's a warning about rogue insurance schemes. It's feared around a million Australians may have been affected through this, and potentially we may well have lost a billion dollars through rogue superannuation schemes. Alan Kirkland is the ASIC Commissioner and joins us. Thank you for your time, Commissioner.

G'day, Clinton. You are warning about pushy sales tactics. How is this working with these so-called rogue schemes? Well, what typically happens is you might see an ad on social media somewhere like Instagram that says, hey, do you want to review your super and see if you could be earning more on in returns? What then happens is if you click through, they'll ask you to provide your contact details, which will then be handed on to a telemarketer.

who will call you and I'll pester you until you eventually answer. And then once they get you on the phone, they subject you to really sophisticated sales tactics that ultimately become quite pushy. Somewhere along the way, they'll introduce a financial advisor and they put the pressure on you to move your super. And often it involves moving your super from what might be a pretty good fund on the whole into something that's high risk where your money can really quickly disappear.

So you would be moving to still a legitimate superannuation account, but it might not be the right one for you?

So we've seen two key ways this can play out. So sometimes people are given advice to set up a self-managed super fund. Other times they're told to move their super to a sort of platform product offered by funds like Macquarie, where then you've got a choice about where the funds are invested underneath. But either way, whether it's through an SMSF or through a platform, where we've got concerns is where people are then being advised to put their money in high-risk areas.

investments. These often involve things like overseas property development, where it's really hard as a consumer to understand exactly what's going on. And it's also really easy for your money to disappear. Look, I realise you don't provide direct financial advice, but for listeners who may be not financial wizards and don't pay particularly close attention to their finances and their superannuation, is your recommendation just to stick with the superannuation account that's effectively your default with your employer?

Well, a good step is to check whether that fund you're in is a good performing one. And the Australian Taxation Office has a Your Super Comparison tool that's available online. So if you're in one of those default funds that's been set up by your employer, you can check how it's performing. And if it's pretty good...

it's probably a good idea to leave your super there. But if you are considering moving your super, I guess our advice is that's a really high stakes decision. For most people, super will be one of your most valuable assets and you should be really cautious about making a snap decision to move your super when you're talking to someone on the phone that you've never met before. - Well, there's been, as you'd be aware, there's been research that's been released this week that shows, I think it's one in nine of us have never checked our superannuation account balance at all.

And that's right. I mean, a lot of people sort of see super as set and forget. They know that if an employer is doing the right thing, the money's going in on a regular basis. And to be honest, the way the super is set up, most people will be looked after if they leave it alone. So that's why it is risky once you start moving super around. As I said, it is a high stakes decision. And it's a really high stakes decision if you're getting a bit older and closer to retirement, because if you lose...

a chunk of your super, or in some cases, all of your super, you haven't got many working years to recover those funds. It can have a big impact on the quality of your life in retirement. Thank you for the warning, Alan.

Thanks, Clayton. Alan Kirkland, who's the ASIC Commissioner. Important advice from Alan. 14 past three, another day, another shooting in Sydney. This time it's Concord, a home targeted in Davidson Avenue. Very exclusive home. No one was inside at the time. A car detectives believe was the getaway car, was found a short time later. Now, you'll see the video on Nine News tonight. Ben mentioned this today on his show. The video shows the car, it's a Genesis, in flames.

It's rolling away because the crook's forgotten to use the handbrake. Obviously not too cluey, and the car's been destroyed. But police will be using it for evidence. The police are looking for two people seen on CCTV footage, and then just after 9 o'clock this morning, dozens of heavily armed officers have actually entered this home. Some of the cops were actually with battering rams, so they meant business.

Burwood Police Acting Superintendent Luke Scott says anybody who has any information about this shooting should come forward. Anyone that has seen a white 2021 Genesis in the area of Davidson Avenue Concord or Stewart Street Burwood to contact police. We're still engaging with the occupants of the residence in relation to what's been happening in their lives for this to occur at that residence. At this point in time I can't comment any further other than to say that

Acting Superintendent Luke Scott, The Telegraph is reporting this house is the home of a convicted drug dealer, a convicted cocaine dealer. In 2003, another property of this man in Maryland, so a long time ago, but another property had been shot up. Reportedly, there was a dispute with an underworld figure. The man's father was shot and later died.

The shooting war has been going on for now more than 25 years, clearly. The previous one involving, allegedly, this particular victim was in 2003. But we're reporting on this lately almost every day on this program. We'll reveal more at the moment about what's going on with the two 15-year-olds we reported this time yesterday. It is staggering what happened in this case. This is Sydney Now, 131 873.

18 degrees on the coast. It's also 18 at Bankstown in the moment. As you've heard there with Steve just in the traffic, New South Wales Ambulance say they're now on the scene at Erskineville Road, Albert Street, Erskineville. They're treating a female who's in her 60s. She's been hit by a car. It's believed she's suffering a head injury. Erskineville Road at the moment closed in both directions. Diversions are in place, but please avoid that area. There are still no trains running between Ingleburn and Campbelltown. Both directions on the T8 Airport and South Line.

There has been an incident there. It is my understanding there has been a fatality there on the train line. Trains have been suspended between Glenfield and Macarthur and now being altered to Ingleburn and Campbelltown as well. So replacement buses will be used throughout the peak hour. Because we are dealing with a fatality there, it may be some time before the services resume. So that is no train to the moment between Ingleburn and Campbelltown.

Sydney Now on 2GB. 21 past three. It was this time yesterday I brought you the news about the 15-year-old who'd been arrested. Charged with firing 28 shots into a house at Marylands. It occurred in March, but the kid was arrested yesterday. A mum and her four children were inside. Those kids under the age of five. A mother who police say is not part of the criminal world whatsoever. This is a case of mistaken identity, mistaken location.

A bullet when the 15-year-old allegedly opened fire narrowly missed the 5-year-old. And I was telling you about this, I was horrified, you were horrified about it. The kid, according to the police, allegedly hired by a criminal gang to open fire at a house with an automatic weapon. Jason Box, the commander of Task Force Falcon, told me the 15-year-old had been employed. Simply, it was about the money for him. He'd been employed by someone else to do it. They'd forgotten the right location, that was the problem. They're 15.

He's then accused of shooting up another home about a month or so later where a woman was inside. Another 15 year old was accused of assisting by driving the getaways cars and this is just horrific but the revelations about the case now that are being revealed are unforgivable. This is what's unforgivable, the 15 year old was on bail revealed by the Telegraph today. If the penny doesn't drop about the criminal justice system now it never will. The kid was on bail.

A woman and her four tiny little kids, asleep at 3:25 in the morning. They wake up to 28 shots being fired into their house. Both teenagers, according to the reports, have long criminal records. Both have faced court in recent months. The kid accused of opening fire

is charged with firearm possession from months ago, is charged with car theft, has been charged with break and enter, yet despite the protests of police both were given bail. Seriously? I am being serious. This is exactly what happened.

Do the magistrates listen to public opinion at all? No. Well, no, magistrates don't listen to public opinion. Why? Because they're not required to. It's actually not the way our justice system works. They're required to rule on law. But they're also required to take public safety into consideration when making bail determinations. And in this case, we, public, we've been failed. Whether it's the law, whether it's magistrates, whether it's the system, politicians are responsible for the system.

And politicians should be ashamed by this case. And more attention needs to be brought to it. A 15-year-old given bail on weapons offences and then accused of firing 28 shots into a house where a woman's inside who has nothing to do with the gang wars that are going on at the moment and four little kids are inside. And people these days are quick to take to the streets and protest about anything under the sun. Issues on the other side of the world in the Middle East. Climate change. Pay issues.

But no one's protesting about this stuff. Isn't this the important sort of issue that we should be worried about? That the lives of innocent people keep being put in danger? That we saw just two and a half weeks ago, the lady in the kebab shop, who is, again, completely innocent, nothing to do with the criminal world, is shot?

The kid, he's in his early 20s, but the plumber who pulls up in his driveway late at night, reverses up the driveway, works for his dad, gets out of his ute, is shot dead. Again, police say case of mistaken identity. It's of course, it's a gang war that's being fuelled by cocaine, our insatiable appetite for cocaine and now illegal tobacco. The police do an amazing job to get people off the streets and then they go before the courts and they're given bail. And this is the result.

On the bail issue, Brad on the text line says the problem with holding the government to account is that when you raise these issues, the police minister often says it's a case of cop bashing rather than addressing the need for tougher laws. Well, this isn't cop bashing at all.

The cops are equally as frustrated as we are about the way courts operate. And the government, they have toughened up the bail laws for young offenders, but they're clearly not tough enough when we've seen what's transpired now over the past 24 hours. Coming up, Peter Ford and air supply to be immortalised in Hollywood. But firstly, news headlines.

And good afternoon, Josh Bryant. Good afternoon, Clinton. Police are slamming the actions of those responsible for a shooting at Concord where a home was peppered with bullets. A man who contracted bat lissavirus has now died as a result of the rare disease. It's the state's first recorded case of the rabies-like condition. A man's been charged with assaulting a 74-year-old in the basement of a unit in Sydney's Inner West.

leaving him with facial injuries. And Sydney Airport says it is boosting staffing levels across all terminals to manage what are expected to be record passenger numbers during the winter school holiday break. In sport, a double blow for the Broncos ahead of tomorrow night's NRL clash with the Bulldogs with winger Jesse Arthur.

as and prop Corey Jensen both ruled out due to injury. We'll have more news in Sport at 4. Thank you Josh. 18 degrees in the city, 18 degrees in Holsworthy as well. Now I will be giving away Origin tickets for the decider and Pulse State of Origin free. It's next Wednesday night. Don't call yet and you're going to need the clues that Lucy gave you a little earlier. But I cracked up listening to Ben this morning when he gave the clues for Mark Levy this morning because the Origin great was of course this man. There's got to be an investigation into this. This is

Jeff Toovey was the answer for Levy this morning. That has to be the greatest quote, I reckon, in rugby league history. 29 to 4. I've been predicting this for a while and we're now seeing it translate into the new vehicle sales. Sales of BYD electric cars are surging quite dramatically. Now, these haven't been publicly officially released yet.

But the information that's coming through today is that so far this year, 8,000 new BYD vehicles were registered in just June. It's a 350% increase on the same time last year. Now, BYD is a Chinese brand, and it's challenging Tesla. Well, it's more than challenging Tesla. It's effectively doubling Tesla's sales. The previous record for BYD was 4,811.

Tesla's reported sales in June of 4,589 and Tesla can be quite cagey with how successful they are with their sales. But BYD is effectively selling twice as many their cars than Tesla now. Mind you, not every single BYD is fully electric. The new Shark Ute is actually a hybrid.

But you see them everywhere already. Now, whatever you think about Chinese cars, whatever you think about electric cars, the BYD operations are ginormous. I saw a video a couple of days ago about their factory, and it is just like nothing you've ever seen in the automotive industry. They're aiming to be a top five vehicle manufacturer in this country, top five seller, within the next couple of years. They'll get there.

They mean business. And you watch. I reckon within 10 years, BYD will rival Toyota for market leadership. Today, news has come through about the death of Eileen Bond. Eileen Bond was such a big figure in the 80s because of her partnership with Alan Bond. Peter Ford joins us. She has been quite in recent years.

She has been, yeah. She really kind of slowed down. I think she's had some heart problems. But I was sad when I broke the news this morning, with the family's permission, that she had passed. She had a major stroke on Sunday night. You can hear a bit of background noise at the airport, and you can be guaranteed that as soon as you go on air, they'll start doing the boarding announcements. So sorry about that. I've been alive at Moss. But Eileen had a major stroke on Sunday night, died

died peacefully in her sleep last night and she was quite the character and I know I spoke to some people earlier today and they kind of stared at me blankly and I guess you had to be of a certain age and I guess you had to be there at the time to cast your mind back to that incredible day when Australia won the America's Cup and all the jubilation and you know she was obviously a part of that with Ellen Bond and

they will seem to be one of those great Aussie success stories. Now, how he'd started off as a sign writer and ended up becoming this incredible mogul in the media world, on Channel 9, of course, at one point, and in also the property development, all of that. Then, of course, with time, he became a far more controversial and divisive figure. But Eileen, of course, and he split up and...

she had to live through all of that kind of being dumped for a younger woman and he took off with a woman called Diana Bliss who about 13 years ago took her own life and then three years after that Alan died so it's been for me in my job it's been one of those kind of soap opera stories now that has gone on for a very very long time but Eileen in my dealings with her I did not know her personally but

but I always found it to be fun and interesting and she seemed to love life and she loved to drink and she loved to party and all those things that I don't object to. The pair, Alan and Eileen, left an indelible mark on Australian life. It was only... Now, when we won the America's Cup, I was only, what, six or something like that. But I still remember the time, even as a little kid. But I did watch a Netflix documentary. I think it was a Netflix documentary only a couple of weeks ago, which was very well produced. Would have been only released, I think, within the last year or so.

And it featured Dennis Conner, but it featured John Bertrand, but also really told the story of the Bonds and how really they were the, and if you just put aside everything that happened later with Alan's business career, they really were the driving force behind that.

Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, Eileen, she... Look, the West, Perth particularly, has produced some extraordinary over-the-top characters over the last 30 or 40 years. And she's right up there with the best of them. And I think she had a good heart and soul. I know she was a very devoted mother.

Now, this is a band many Australians have very fond memories of.

And that's the sound of air supply. You would have to say one of the biggest musical exports we have produced in this country. Oh, you're right, Clinton. And yet, bizarrely, whenever they do those lists of the great Aussie success stories, they so often get left off. And I don't understand why. They're still going. Russell and Graham are still out there doing shows. They're still churning out music. Of course,

Of course, those big power ballads, which you still hear the minute you turn on to a classics radio station, they were great songs, which they wrote and they still do perform. And anyway, today they announced the 35 recipients in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And it's a very diverse group of people, actually, a lot of younger people and a lot more than they normally announce. I don't know what the idea behind that is, but in amongst it all was air supply and

And once again, today, I'm not seeing much reporting of that. You know, why aren't we thrilled that one of our great Aussie success stories are in this very elite club now? I think it may come down to the generation that now is involved with putting media together. I mentioned when my producers mentioned the topics we were going to discuss to me today, and I won't embarrass her too much, but Emily said to me,

oh, and Peter wants to speak about a band called Air Supply. Oh, no! And I laughed. And, you know, maybe it's because...

In many respects, their music is still heard. Maybe it's not timeless in that it's very much of its era. Yeah. Yeah. I guess you had to live through it. But I think, I don't know what TGV's HR department's like, but, you know, I would insist on mandatory detention and make her listen to every one of the many air supply hits.

She might consider that punishment, Peter. It's true. Peter, we'll talk tomorrow. Thanks, Clinton. Peter Ford.

Emily's now dancing and she's just insisted to me she does know this song very well. She loves this song. But that may be the new policy of the 2GB HR department for all young staff coming through the station, that they have to listen to several Air Supply albums before they start work here. 100 million record sales. They had...

eight top five hits in the US in the late 1970s and early 1980s. So whether you're a fan of soft rock or not, Air Supply are truly Australian legends. Confirmation, as we had from one of our listeners, this now from Transport for New South Wales, trains are now running again between Ingleburn and Campbelltown. They had been cut on the T8 airport in South Lyme because there's been a fatality at Ingleburn a little earlier. Buses, though, are still being used to supplement the train services, but

You will need to give yourself a little extra time if you're travelling between Ingleburn, Campbelltown on the T8 this afternoon. 131873. Surely we can find some air supply fans in 2025. So they were huge in the early 1980s, particularly in the United States, probably bigger in the US than they were here. I reckon we've got to be able to find an air supply, a big air supply fan...

in 2025. So many of us these days get our food delivered. Instead of going out to a restaurant, we rely on a food delivery service. It might be DoorDash, Uber Eats, Deliveroo. I wanted to talk to a local restaurant owner. His name's Ross. He's one of the founders of Super Nash Brothers because, and they do some great Nashville-inspired chicken in Willoughby and Waitara, Waterloo. But Ross is like many restaurant owners who I'm hearing have real concerns about the way Uber Eats in particular operates.

Ross says they've just announced two new policies that take the cake. They are charging restaurants a fee to offer deals on their app. They've also introduced a restaurant success score that punishes restaurants for putting up their delivery prices higher than in-store. Now,

Ross is of the opinion that restaurants need to increase their prices because Uber charges so much commission for delivery. Ross joins me. Hello, Ross. Hi, Clinton. How are you? Mate, well done on your business. I know it's got a really good reputation, Super Nash Brothers. What's your big beef with these Uber changes?

Yeah, look, I mean, they charge 33% on any sale that we make through the platform, which is, I think it's reasonable. It's totally understandable. They're running a business. They need to make money, cover their costs. But it's these two new policies that they've just introduced. We received an email two days ago from them. The first one that you mentioned was they're now charging us to offer a deal on the platform.

That's something that we regularly do in our restaurants for customers. We know that we mark our prices up on delivery to cover costs, but we still want to try and give fair value to customers. So we regularly offer buy one, get one free offers or spend 30, get X free, and

That drives value for us. It drives value for the customer. But now we are going to get charged for doing that as well. So not only are we getting charged this 33%, if we want to offer a deal to try and drive sales or to drive value for the customer, we're now going to get charged through that too. That seems a bit rough because it's your business. You're the one running the business, setting the prices, deciding what your arrangements are. It shouldn't be the delivery company doing that.

No, that's exactly right. And, you know, it does very much feel like we're, you know, being pushed into a corner in this sense to, you know, not be allowed to cover our own costs, you know, a cost of which is, you know, introduced by them. So, yeah, we think it's a bit rough. What is the success score?

So the success score, it's made up of a number of different things. There's about six different items that make up the success score. Five of them I have no issues with whatsoever. It's around being on-time deliveries, on-time handoff to delivery drivers, food quality when it's received by the customer. They're all fair and reasonable metrics. But the one that really has got us upset is the fact that if we increase our prices,

we're actually going to be a detriment. Our scores are going to be reduced and therefore our visibility is going to be reduced in the app just for covering our own costs. Because I would think as a diner and somebody who may well seek a delivery, having some transparency about prices, how they compare to in-store dining is a good thing.

Yeah, I have no issue with it. And, you know, we're pretty transparent about our prices with our customers. You know, we did a big, long post on Facebook yesterday just to try and raise some awareness and, you know, be totally transparent that we do mark our prices up on Uber. But it's purely just to cover the commission costs because, you know, our business is built around in-store costs. And when we add delivery into it, it costs us almost 30% more to do that. So...

We've put these issues to Uber and I've actually just been handed a response from Uber. So this has just come to me now. They say, we've introduced the Merchant Success Score, which is the measure we're talking about now, to help merchants better understand their performance.

So they're actually doing you a favour there, Ross. It's all about helping you. Yeah, well, look, they already had it, to be honest. It's just now that we're being punished for it. So we already had the insight. It's just now that if we don't toe the line, our visibility is going to be reduced. Yeah, well, it says here, stores with higher scores will unlock benefits like more visibility opportunities, recognition in the app. So basically, if you use the app...

A store that has this high score is going to be quite prominent on the app where if your score doesn't receive that big score, it's going to be disappearing within the ether.

That's correct, yeah. Okay, they say now on that offer fee, when you want to offer a good offer, they say we've updated our offers tool to give restaurants more flexibility and insight with no upfront costs. Just results you can track. Restaurants are only charged when a customer redeems that offer. Restaurants who achieve a high merchant success rating are eligible for a waived or reduced offer fee.

Well, yeah, look, that's interesting, Clinton, because they sent the email out with all the information with no actual further information around what the fee was going to be. So we've been running with it for two days now and we've actually been given no clarity around that until this call right now. OK, well, Ross, tell me this. Now, I've just got a message here from Leslie and Leslie's been quite brutal recently.

in the language, tell Uber to get stuffed. Can you, can you, in the way, and I know it's very competitive in the restaurant industry at the moment. If you were to say, okay, we're not going to have Uber deliveries, we'll rely on the other delivery services. Could you get by?

No, it's not feasible. Look, you know, the other delivery services are good. DoorDash are great. They're much more willing to work with restaurants around structuring menus and helping fund promotions and all that sort of thing. But, you know, they make up about 8% of our delivery revenue. MenuLog make up under 1%. Hungry Panda under 1%. The rest is either all through Uber or through our own direct channels as well. So that's what we're doing right now to try and counteract this.

We're pushing people to our app and our website. Our technology partners at Bottle, who we've been working with for a number of years now, have made it really easy for us to take deliveries online and to facilitate delivery ourselves. So we're going to be pushing customers as hard as we can into that. Okay, you do that. Good on you, Ross. Thanks so much, Clinton. Appreciate it. Ross Kemp, he's one of the founders of Super Nash Brothers. They are Nashville-inspired fried chicken, Waitara, Willoughby and Waterloo.

The way he's set up businesses, and you know the way restaurants work these days, they're very much reliant on Uber. Now, I'm getting a lot of feedback on this issue about why restaurant owners just don't say we won't use Uber. But for that to be effective, you'd have to get all the restaurants basically in your suburb to agree to do that. They've got so much market power. I mean, do you get your food delivered via Uber or one of the services, or do you actually go to the restaurant yourself, like as in getting your car and

Give them that direct service. It's probably cheaper that way. Let me know. 131873. It's five to four. Last summer, we spent a lot of time on my programs talking about the Rising Tide organisation, one of these climate change activist groups who spend time blocking the port of Newcastle where coal ships leave. And then they have other groups associated with them like Extinction Rebellion.

who believe they should block coal trains in the Hunter Valley, putting the lives of people on the railways at risk. It revealed today that the Rising Tide organisation is hosting training camps to coach their activists on how to protest ahead of their next attempt to block Newcastle Port. The Police Minister Yasmin Catley has been critical of this.

But in the end, this is another issue when it comes down to what happens in the courts. New South Wales State Government a few years ago dramatically increased the penalties that are available for magistrates and judges to issue those who take part in protests that affect ports and other major infrastructure like tunnels. And we saw it a couple of years ago when some of these freaks were climbing up cranes and they would bring ports to a halt by doing that.

We saw the case of the woman who chained herself to a steering wheel of a car and then blocked the Sydney Harbour Tunnel. Well, in response, the government did increase the penalties. Not once yet has a magistrate actually used the maximum sentence that's available. Not once. So no wonder the Rising Tide organisation thinks, look, it's going to be all right to go ahead and conduct a training camp because we'll keep getting away with it.

Sydney Now on 2GB. And on bail, talking about teenage bail issues. Particularly the revelations that the two 15-year-olds arrested over the shootings yesterday, the two 15-year-olds both have lengthy criminal histories, and the 15-year-old responsible allegedly for firing 28 rounds into the home at Maryland's, where a woman and her four children were asleep, that 15-year-old was already on bail for a weapons offence.

Well, a message here from one of our listeners, and I won't name our listener because they work in youth detention.

Right.

Okay, lots of feedback on the issues of Uber Eats and the way they operate. And I've got quite a consistent theme to our messages here. Elizabeth says, I have a novel idea, Clinton. I buy my food and I cook at home. Other listeners are telling us, so here's what you could do. You could actually get in the car and drive to the restaurant and pick up your own takeaway. Joe's in Balgala. Hello, Joe.

- G'day, Clinton, how are you? - Good, Joe. - I've got a restaurant and I have continuous problems with a lot of these Uber drivers. Like the previous caller said, he'd be cuddly without it, but sometimes with the money that we pay, drivers rock up, not even dressed appropriately, no bag, customers ring me and complain, "Jarrett, my food's cold. "I didn't order a cold pizza or order a cold pasta." And you just keep telling these drivers to come,

And would it be viable at all for you just to say, look, I'm not going to use Uber, I'll use DoorDash or just organise my own deliveries?

Well, that's what we do. We get our own drivers, and when people want delivery, they ring the store, and we get it delivered. Yeah. Hey, good luck with your business, Joe. I know it's really tough in the restaurant trade at the moment. From one of our listeners on the text line, I always pick up from the restaurant. It is cheaper for me because there's no service and delivery fee. It is then better for the restaurant because they don't have to pay commission. It's also quicker, and it's faster. Dave says, I don't use Uber for my food. Why would I trust someone with my food?

without myself. They might take a bite. Seriously. And 30%? They're kidding with the charge they offer. Eric says, instead of Uber, leave them. Employ your own delivery drivers who will supply their own scooters. Make an arrangement directly with them. Okay, we are finding air supply fans.

Greg says, I'm of the generation who grew up with air supply, and I believe past generations made better music. Air supply, though, is proof that not all generations... All generations can actually make bad music. Oh, Greg, that's a bit rough. How about this one? This is from Wes Fang, Upper House MP. Wes says, I'm a huge air supply fan. My dad was a massive fan growing up. Reminds me of when Dad was putting the records on. But then again, I'm also a fan of Barry Manilow. News is next.

This is Sydney Now with Clinton Maynard. On to Gen Z. Seven past four. I think it's time to get serious about developing skyscrapers in Sydney. I've been talking about this for a while. Finally, Sydney City Council is doing something about it. But I think it's an embarrassment that Sydney Tower, Centrepoint Tower, has been the tallest building in Sydney now for more than 40 years. We're going to have a look at that issue in just a moment. The sad news revealed this afternoon by New South Wales Health.

that a man in northern New South Wales aged in his 50s has died in hospital as a result of lisavirus. We told you about this yesterday afternoon that he had contracted it. He's the first person in New South Wales to contract that lisavirus. It is a very rare disease. It is closely related to rabies.

It is transmitted from infected bats to humans via bat saliva. The virus enters the body if somebody has been bitten by a bat or they're scratched by a bat. In a statement that's been issued by NSW Health, they say, we express our sincere condolences to the man, the family and friends for their tragic loss. They're still investigating exactly what has transpired. It is believed that he had the interaction with the bat now several months ago.

But 100 people over the past year have sought treatment, have sought medical assessment after they were bitten or they were scratched by a bat. This is the first case of the actual virus. So those 100 people have done the right thing. But it's something important to bear in mind because we have a lot of bats in Sydney. A couple of years ago, I was sitting in my lounge room watching a movie with my wife on a Saturday evening. The back door was open and a bat flew straight into our living room.

then flew up to our upstairs. We ended up trapping it in our walk-in wardrobe. I don't know anything about bats, I must admit. I certainly wouldn't want to be bitten by one, but I wasn't aware that the Lysivirus that's carried by the bats could prove fatal. So this is an important warning for all of us, that if you do come into contact with bats, if you were bitten by a bat, if you were scratched by a bat, please go and seek some medical treatment.

Sydney Now on 2GB. Nine past four. A few weeks ago, we broke the story about dozens of new electric buses being off the streets in Sydney because of significant reliability problems. These are buses made here in Western Sydney, and they're in St Mary's, by a company called Custom Denning. And that's a company that's providing employment for local people, which is a good thing. And it is a positive that the state government is trying, is trying to encourage local manufacturing.

But it's pretty tough for them because we don't have much of a base. We only have some small companies that can build buses here. Now, the government's made a big song and dance about buses that are being built on the south coast in Nowra. When I say built...

That's an exaggeration. They're being fitted out. And even to say they're being fitted out, it's their buses from China and the finishing touches are being put on them on the south coast. And it's been revealed just a few days ago that some of the people who are employed to actually fit out the buses come from the local jail. Nevertheless, the government is trying to develop a local bus industry, but it's not easy because the base is so small.

But the problem we revealed on this program was that clearly Sydney is not ready to completely convert our bus fleet to electric, and for numerous reasons. And that is the ambition. The ambition is that all buses in Sydney will eventually be EVs. They'll all be electric. Now, in this particular case, all 72 of the Element One electric buses need new batteries because they fail. And I've been contacted by many people now in the industry over the last couple of weeks, including drivers,

who've been behind the wheel of electric buses that have effectively stalled at a set of traffic lights and they can't be restarted. And they tell me it's a worry, like as in a safety worry when they're stuck there at a set of traffic lights. Well, these 72 buses, the whole fleet, it won't be back on the road until next year in full because they need new batteries that come from Europe. It's been suggested to me this week that the cost of the new batteries is being covered by us.

The Transport for New South Wales is paying for the new batteries, the taxpayer, because they haven't been fully covered by a warranty. So we've ordered the buses, they're built here using parts from all over the world, including batteries from overseas. The batteries then fail, but we then have to pay for new ones.

Well, I've put this to Transport for New South Wales, and this is what they say. They say,

So my simple question for Transport for New South Wales is, are we the taxpayer, Transport for New South Wales, paying for the new batteries because they failed and were no good to start with? The cost of the retrofit program is commercial in confidence. So that's not exactly a clear answer, i.e. they won't tell us. So we could be covering it. It could be Custom Denning. It may be Custom Denning is now chasing the manufacturer for the money out of Europe. Look, whatever the answer to that question is, I mean, first, we shouldn't be covering the cost. We bought the buses, right?

They're only ordered, what is 2022, have been delivered in the last 12 months. They shouldn't be failing already. And you go and buy yourself a Kia, it's covered by warranty for eight years. You go and buy an electric car from China, it's covered by warranty for eight years. So we shouldn't be covering the cost. But nevertheless, whatever the truth is, we'll find out eventually. But the bigger issue here was the conversion of the fleet to buses is that we're not ready for it. As we revealed earlier in the year,

Yes, there are some depots in Sydney that have solar panels and they can charge their buses with renewable energy. Wonderful. That's great. And don't get me wrong, being on an electric bus that's quiet, it's probably more comfortable than a diesel bus. But some, as we reviewed on this program, some electric buses in Sydney are charged using diesel generators. They're generators that are actually sitting at the depots. We have photo evidence of it.

And then more of these EV buses are going to be ordered, hundreds of them. Now, Custom Denning, the company in St Mary's, they're bidding for some of these contracts and they need the contracts so they can actually have bigger scale to make it a more efficient business. But looking at this from the outside, to me, it appears that we are not ready for electric buses in full in Sydney.

13 past four. You've got to view 131873. I'll tell you what we are ready for. Seriously, what I think we need. I think we need taller skyscrapers in Sydney. Now, I have concerns about overdevelopment in our city. Yes, we've got a shortage of housing and we need to do something about that by creating more housing supply. But I think a lot of us are very concerned about living in suburbs that are just full of apartment buildings, full of apartment towers. I think there's got to be room to use the CBD in a better way.

Now, whether that's skyscrapers that have more office facilities, more office space, and I know since COVID there has been a drop in demand, or whether it's actually apartment space in the CBD. Now, it wouldn't be cheap. It's not going to be first home buyers buying apartments in the city. But I think it verges on embarrassing. Actually, it is embarrassing that the tallest tower in Sydney remains Centrepoint Tower. Wonderful building. But it opened in the early 1980s. So it's now been the tallest in Sydney for more than 40-odd years.

Well, news today, and this is good, I believe, that two new towers have been approved for the CBD. So, Dexus, they're a developer. They have had approval for a $3.1 billion tower complex. It'll reach 305 metres at the corner of Pitt and Bridge Streets, northern end of Circular Quay. And then there's another proposal for a tower that tops 319 metres. It's for Lendlease at an adjacent site at O'Connell Street.

And that one's expected to go to public exhibition shortly. Now, these two towers will rival Centrepoint Tower. They won't actually be taller. They'll be taller than Crown at Barangaroo, which is Crown. So Centrepoint Tower, Sydney Tower is a tower, not a building. Crown at Barangaroo is the tallest building. That's 271 metres. So these two will be taller than that. Sydney Tower, Centrepoint is 309 metres. So they're getting up there.

Paul Nicolau is the Executive Director of Business Sydney. G'day, Paul. Totally agree with you, Clinton, and good afternoon. Sydney needs these developments. Yeah, thanks for joining me. And I think there is an issue of whether there's a sufficient demand to fund them. Don't get me wrong there. And since COVID, things have been tricky in the city. But we keep talking about Sydney being this world city. Can you really be a world city when you've got a building, a tower that's been the highest since 1983? Yeah.

I totally agree with you, Clinton. I mean, you know, Sydney should not be afraid of development. These types of developments bring thousands of jobs, promotes business, helps to bring the CBD alive, which is exactly what we need. Is there the demand for it, though? Because the numbers have obviously got up since COVID. We know a lot of people work from home. So office space, there's probably demand for office space isn't the same as what it was.

No, it's not. But there is a demand because people want to bring their staff into newer buildings. And that's what we're seeing. We're seeing a lot of businesses moving into newer buildings and there's a demand for that. And it's really important because we need to allow companies like Dexys and Meriton, Charterhall and then Leeson, Stocklands and the others to invest. And this is a confidence booster for Sydney. And we've got to congratulate the Lord Mayor and the Council for

for bringing about this change, because if we didn't, Sydney would falter and we can't allow it to happen like what's happening in Melbourne, unfortunately. Why do you think it has taken so long for some towers to actually rival Centrepoint? Why has it taken 40 years? Well, I think what's happened is we've had COVID, we've had, you know, the economic climate hasn't been that crash hot, but what we're now seeing is a lot more confidence in Sydney

and the CBD in Sydney. You've got a government that's really moving heaven and earth in relation to housing, which is very important. We've got a whole range of new things that have come into play, like the metro. We've got a new fish markets. We've got the best restaurants, cafes, retail.

pubs, clubs, hotels in Sydney and across Australia. And this is a great, massive confidence which we desperately need in our Sydney. And, you know, we've got the best harbour, we've got the best parks, green space, and, you know, everyone wants to invest in Sydney, which is great news. Do you think there is the capacity, and obviously you represent business, but do you think there is the capacity to start addressing the housing crisis through apartment developments, more apartment developments in the CBD? Obviously that's not going to help first home buyers, for instance, but...

Well, no, you're right. But it's not only just the CBD. It's also North Sydney. It's also Parramatta. And people want to live in the cities. And this is where the opportunity now sits. And when you've got developers, you know, which we mentioned before, Lendlease and Meritons and so on,

you have the confidence to do it then we should be encouraging them to proceed without having too much red tape or bureaucracy stopping them from doing it because if we are going to solve the housing crisis then we need to ensure that there are homes that are being built for downsizers to consider moving into the city and be closer to where the infrastructure is especially transport hospitals and other facilities if the numbers add up i think why not good on you paul

Good on you. Thanks, Clinton. Paul Nicolau, the Executive Director of Business Sydney. So over to you. What do you think? Do you think we need more high-rise in the city? I have deep concerns about the government's policies for more apartment high-rise in the outer suburbs. Now, I know we've got to do... We can't put our heads in the sand and go, you know, we don't have a housing crisis. Young people can't afford to live in Sydney. We're not going to be doing anything about it. So we do need to do something. I don't disagree with that. But the more large apartment developments you have in the suburbs, the more transport infrastructure you need.

the more roads you need, the more metros you lead. If you develop more in the CBD and if people who work in the CBD also live in the CBD, there's probably, and yeah, they're probably still going to have a car, but they aren't going to travel as much because if they're working there and they're living there at the same time, well, problem solved. So maybe they won't need to be a two-car family. I think it's something we actually need to encourage.

I'd have no problems if we have a CBD that has a skyline that is dominated by towers that are as tall as Centrepoint. Do I want to see those towers in Hornsby? No. Do I want to see those towers in Penrith? Definitely not. But I think in the CBD, I think that's the place for it. But look, tell me I'm wrong. If you don't agree with me, let me know.

Maybe you think it's a good idea. 131873, 20 past four. This information just coming to hand. A 15-year-old boy has been taken to the Sydney Children's Hospital. He is critical after falling from an e-bike. Police have been called to Brough Avenue in Arncliffe.

They'd had a call that somebody had fallen from an e-bike this afternoon. They arrived there to discover a 15-year-old boy with serious injuries. He's been treated on the scene by the paramedics. He's now been taken to the Sydney Children's Hospital at Randwick. He is in a critical condition. Look, if you happen to have been in the area, if you know any information, it is Brough Avenue, Arncliffe, just before three o'clock, so not long ago. If you do have some information, give the police a call on Crimestoppers 1800 333 000.

Our thoughts with the boy's family, he is in a critical condition. I have been focusing on electric buses and the issues with batteries over the past couple of weeks, and that came to me via a tip-off. And a lot of bus drivers have actually been in contact with me about these problems. And you can get in contact with me, word on the street, Temper, a great night's sleep, night after night. The difference is Temper. Send me an email, 2GB.com. And I've got a fair bit of feedback about this because we've got more questions about these EVs.

And it's not clear with the batteries that need replacing in 72 buses produced by Custom Denning, and this has all been confirmed to me over the past couple of weeks, the batteries need to be replaced because they've failed. Now, Albie raises the question,

that these buses are driving all day. They are recharged every day, perhaps twice a day, not sure. But batteries usually have recharge cycles. Perhaps they were worn out given how often they're used. Well, not in this case, that they are designed to be used in the way that a bus operates. They're specifically buses for batteries, batteries for buses. Roz asks a good point, has a good point here. The other issue with those electric buses is the battery's actually on the roof. If it did catch on fire...

the passengers would have only a very short time to get out, especially if it was full of passengers. And some drivers themselves have actually expressed some concerns to me about the location of the batteries. What are your views on more high-rise in Sydney? 131873, would you like to see taller towers, Dean?

G'day, Clinton. Look, we don't need more high-rise towers within the CBD, nor within a 50km radius of Sydney. You cannot build cheap housing within the CBD, nor within a 50km radius. The land value is too expensive. No, it's not going to be cheap. Don't get me wrong. This is not going to solve...

the housing crisis for first home buyers. But maybe if you encourage people at the top end who want to downsize, for instance, and if we did that through stamp duty concessions, if they're selling their suburban homes and they wanted, a lot of older people would like to live in the city, for instance. If you encourage them through stamp duty concessions, maybe they'd be interested in buying that.

Yeah, look, I live in a complex myself in Botany and it's the stamp duty that rises and rises with insurance each year that put people off. I'm in a townhouse right now and I'm trying to move into a semi so I can stop paying strata. Yeah, oh, no doubt strata's a big issue as well. Hey, good on you, Dean. Emmanuel in Cars Park. Hello, Emmanuel. Hey, Cleveland. How are you? Good, my friend.

Just with the high-rise issue, I'm with that previous call. I disagree with the high-rise in the city. Yep. There was an article published a week ago in the Financial Review. Lemley sold a property there at One Sydney Harbour, a penthouse apartment for $141 million. Four? That's for one apartment. Yeah, right.

But if you have a lot more supply in the city, that's going to reduce the price pressure. But I do get your point. The price is going to drop now down. It's going to be that $141 million apartment is going to become $60 million as well. So, okay, Emmanuel, do you want more high-rising cars parked?

Well, again, it's got to be on hubs where there's transport. Exactly, yeah. Okay, so if it's on those corridors where there is public transport, then, like Craig, for example, all these apartments and these areas, they're inundated because they have that transport facility. Yeah.

You need that. And again, you will not be solving, and you said it as well, you're not going to be solving any housing crisis by chucking in units on Pitt Street or Circular Quay. That's not going to happen. I just find it bizarre that we're 45 years down the track since Sydney Tower opened and it's still the tallest building. But it's a simple construction. Well, build another tower. There's nothing in between those little floors down the bottom where Westfield is. Correct. Why not build another tower? Why not build another tower?

We need some more stuff on the postcard. Hey, good on you, Emmanuel. This one from one of our listeners. Why would you find it embarrassing, Clinton? Countries such as the French, Paris, are not building high-rise. They preserve their historic buildings. That's right, but Paris is such a different city. We're a hodgepodge in that we have very modern buildings and then we have preserved – well, you look at the rocks, Macquarie Street. We have preserved historic buildings.

But there are so many centres now around the world, whether it's Dubai, whether it's Manila, KL, New York, that just leave us for dead on that issue. But thanks for your opinion. 131873, our number. Glenn's making the point on the text line 0460873873. The new casino tower is taller than Sydney Tower and they pay an annual fine for being taller. No, that's incorrect, Glenn. It's not taller. It is slightly shorter.

It is the tallest building in Sydney, but it's not the tallest tower. Centrepoint is actually still higher than what is the Barangaroo Tower that the pack has developed. I can confirm that. It's certainly a little shorter. And the new towers that have now been effectively one step of approval, they'll actually be taller than the Barangaroo Tower, but they won't be quite as tall as Centrepoint Tower. Let's check our news headlines. ♪

And with the latest in the newsroom, Josh Bryant. Good afternoon again, Clinton. A 15-year-old boy has been taken to hospital with serious injuries after falling from an e-bike at Arncliffe. The federal government says it's not aware of any Australians on board a ferry which has sunk near Bali with 65 people on board. More than $330 million worth of methamphetamine has been found hidden in a shipment of tiles brought into Australia. Three people have been arrested and unresponsive.

Eileen Bond, the first wife of colourful businessman Alan Bond, has died at the age of 87. In-sport veteran Hugh Sinclair has been given the honour of leading the Waratahs against the touring British and Irish Lions on Saturday night. The match will be Sinclair's last before he retires from professional rugby. We'll have more news in the sport at five. Thank you, Josh. 17 degrees in the CBD. It's 16 degrees in Liverpool at the moment. 131873 is our number.

So we've asked the question, are there still air supply fans in 2025? Because it appears that the younger staff of 2GB aren't really aware of air supply's work, despite the fact they've sold 100 million records worldwide and now getting a star on Hollywood Boulevard. Kay on the text line says, I love air supply.

Greg says Air Supply are still fabulous. Saw them in concert a few years ago. So there are some Air Supply fans out there. Yes, Air Supply is still doing very well. MUSIC PLAYS

With eight US top five hits back in the early 80s, late 70s, Air Supply probably don't care if they haven't had a hit for 40 years because I reckon they're probably doing quite well as it is. There's been some research that's been released that indicates no shoes in the house rule should be thrown out.

Do you have that rule at your place, that you don't allow people to wear shoes in their house? I was reading about this today, that there are suggestions that people who suffer from ADHD or are diagnosed with ADHD should actually wear shoes in their home. Psychologists are saying that by wearing shoes, it is a creative tool to help people who do suffer ADHD recover.

confront their issues. It gives them some direction, apparently, in life. It is a mental cue for them to get moving in the morning if they put their shoes on as soon as they get out of bed. So what are the rules in your house? Do you actually wear shoes in house? In our, it's no-go. No, we don't have shoes. We could have the king and queen over our joint. They leave their shoes on at the door, off at the door. Don't worry about that. No shoes in our house. But what happens at your place?

OK, lots of feedback on the issues of more high-rise and some towers in Sydney. Tim is in Cherrybrook. Hello, Tim. Hannah is brilliant.

She's very, very good. You just started up on the way home. I'm in the Cherrybrook precinct, which was 15 years ago was allocated to be high-rise. Now, 15 years ago, I worked it out that there's over 20 people living on 10 acres of land in my block. We're all empty nesters. I live in a four-bedroom house with three of them rooms have been empty for over 12 years, as do all of my neighbours.

Now, this has been going backwards and forwards between New South Wales Planning and Hornsby Council for the last 15 years. No wonder we have a housing crisis. Yeah, too much red tape. Good on you, Tim. Appreciate the feedback on that. Daniel is also in the north-west in Castle Hill. Hello, Daniel.

Hey, mate. Yeah, I reckon we should build, baby, build. I mean, I think we're a new city in comparison to cities in France, say, with lots of historical value there. I mean, I think we should just get rid of the red tape, build, build.

get on the world stage and, yeah, like start acting like a first world nation again. I agree if it's in the right spot. And I think the CBD can be the right spot as long as the numbers add up. I'm just concerned about some of the outer suburbs. Hello, Mike.

G'day. Now, high-rises around these hubs is a solution, but it's not the total solution because... I'll give you an example. Canterbury Railway Station is absolutely inundated with high-rises, you know, 12, 14 storeys or something. But prior to that, there used to be factories there all around that railway station, so people used to come there to work, whereas now you've got...

extra number of people there, but no jobs. So less jobs and more people. So it's got to be a balance. So it's good actually having factories around some of these transport hubs as well. You've got to have one and the other. You can't have just...

or high rises. Otherwise, you know, could you imagine the extra number of people, thousands more that have moved into the Canterbury area and how many jobs have moved out? So, you know what, that's probably going to be down the track. Yeah, 100%. It's got to be a balance with all of this. Thanks for your feedback, Mike. And this one on the text line, the last thing Clovemore wants is high rise residential. You see, they'd attract the wrong kind of voters for her.

Straight shoes in just a moment. But on this research that indicates that if you do have ADHD, it's wise to wear shoes in the house. It gives you some direction. Paul says shoes in the house, shoes in the wardrobe. It is disgusting. John, shoes in the house, yes or no? Mate, absolutely. I have ADHD. If I take my shoes off at the door, everything that I was going to do, just out of the brain, gone. And my wife is exactly the same. Really? Why do you think it works that way?

I have no idea. Maybe it's just the transition from work mode to home mode. The brain just doesn't do it. If it works for you, more power to you. Rule in our house is that the shoes are off, but maybe we're going to have to review that depending on who visits our home. On Sydney Now... Can't handle the truth! The Straight Shooters.

We've got some big issues to discuss with David Elliott this afternoon. But firstly, is shoes on or off in the house? We're pretty liberal, you'll be surprised to hear, at our place. Downstairs, you're allowed to wear your shoes. But, mate, I was a soldier. I wore my shoes to bed. My boots are on just in case I have to do a run or something. But upstairs, I think you'd be struggling to get away with it.

Right, now, this just blows me away. We have been through what could have been a much worse weather event in the last 24 hours, but there's been more than 4,000 jobs attended to by the state emergency services, 2,000 SES, mostly volunteers, have been out in the field in the last couple of days, I think doing an extraordinary job. I think we should be so grateful for the work our SES and our RFS do in times of natural disasters. But you've discovered that there are actually complaints being lodged

about SES volunteers and their timeliness? Yeah, well, it happens, unfortunately, whenever there is a major event like this. And, you know, there's 10,000 of them out there, 10,000 SES volunteers. Many of them wear two uniforms. They jokingly call themselves cross-dressers, but sometimes they're in the RFS and the SES. And, yeah, they go to work in the morning, and if the buzzer goes off, they have to get home, get changed, get their kit on, and then get deployed to a job at SES.

I was talking to a few of them over the last 48 hours and they're getting complaints that they were late. People don't understand that these people are volunteers. They're at home looking after kids. They're in the workshop. They're at an office. And when the buzzer goes off, they have to go home, get changed, and they don't get paid. So don't abuse them. I mean, you shouldn't be abusing emergency services workers anyway. But one that is literally putting their life on the line for nothing is

It's quite extraordinary. And it does bring out a very ugly side of people's character when they complain about something that's funny. People can react in a bad way when they're under pressure and under extreme stress. That's understandable. But think about the time they're giving up, but also the distance they may travel. During the Lismore floods now several years ago, I was up there as a reporter.

And I think I was on Grafton one day, I'm walking through the streets of Grafton, and I bumped into a relative of mine. He's from the Central Coast. And I said, what are you doing here? I said, well, I'm with the SES. Yeah, not unusual. They get pre-deployed whenever the Bureau of Meteorology suggests that there's going to be a major weather event of which the local SES units will need support. So that's not uncommon. But again, you think about this person has walked away from their family, gone into danger.

I've been trying to, I mean, for every hour they're on deployment, they're probably in two hours worth of training at their, at no cost at all. And they've been volunteers. So I think it's a timely reminder this week that they are volunteers. I mean, I speak with a little bit of passion because I looked after them for five years as, as, as their minister and, and,

you know, I think when you're in that sort of position, you get very protective of them. But they, you know, they are full compliments to the previous government and the current government. They're probably the best resourced SES in the country, if not the world. Their storm trucks, which have been rolled out progressively the last five years, literally save lives. But

But, you know, it's a timely reminder. People need to realise that these volunteers are there for your benefit, not their own reward. In government, or are you aware of governments in the past, have they ever been able to put a financial estimate on

that if we didn't have SES volunteers, if we didn't have RFS volunteers and we needed to have a larger paid service to respond to those sort of disasters, what it would actually cost the taxpayer? Yeah, there was modelling. There's been modelling and it is in the billions. I mean, when you consider that the RFS has got 70,000, 80,000 members, the SES has got 10,000 members...

You've got the, you've got Surf Lifesaving with 80, 90,000 members, St John Ambulance over a thousand members, Volunteer Rescue about the same figure. If we had to pay all of the volunteer emergency services in New South Wales, the bill would send the state bankrupt.

And listen, I use that to my benefit when I used to manipulate Treasury to get more money because I'd say to them, listen, if we don't equip these people, they'll walk away and you don't want to have to raise a full-time standing SES and pay them. The Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority has a very important role in Sydney and New South Wales. We have seen what's happened with casinos in the past few years. We have to ensure that, and we do know there's a big problem gambling issue in our city. Yep.

But I see there's quite a falling out effectively between the state government and this body. Clinton, I mean, in my 40 years of political activism, I can't remember, and 12 years in parliament, I can't remember a bureaucrat, Caroline Lamb, the Independent Liquor Gaming Authority, having called her industry...

was just absolutely disgusting. She made the suggestion that through poker machines vulnerable people are being raped and pillaged. Absolutely. And I mean if she's wanting to make the poker machines illegal do it. But

But she's going to have to make, you know, she's going to have to also put restrictions on horse racing and internet gambling and all the rest of it. But that's not the point. And I speak as a former deputy CEO of the Australian Hotels Association, as a director of a club. My son pulled beers at a pub to get himself through university. I'm a big, I'm a passionate supporter of the hospitality industry. But this woman is charged, this woman is charged to be the independent regulator without fear or favour.

without fear or favour. So if she's going to stand up and say, the industry that I'm regulated have got to stop raping people or pillaging people, she's clearly not going... She's clearly not acting without fear or favour. You believe there's a bias there? There's a huge bias. And you know what? There are people out there in the industry that are doing the wrong thing. But what will happen now that she's made these comments is that if they're charged by ILGA...

They'll just go to the Supreme Court and say this woman acted with malice. This woman acted, she was vexatious. She has a preconceived bias against our industry. Do you think that we've got the balance right at the moment?

Regulation of problem gambling. No, no, no. I have said from time immemorial that we need to have facial recognition technology and we need to make sure that loved ones can stop their family from going into gambling venues. I think I've spent enough time in Veterans Affairs to know that the only people that can really help you is your family.

So instead of being a self-exclusion, because that just doesn't work, instead of restricting poker machines because it just sends people online, I think that we should be setting up the facial recognition technology like they've got in Los Angeles. And anybody that has got a problem with gambling, their next of kin, their loved one, their spouse can go to the state and say, here's a photo. I want a restriction on every single gambling venue in the state, from a race course to the casino to the Balcombe Hills Bowling Club. That person cannot go into that gaming area.

And if we do that, we are physically going to be restraining people from going into gambling areas. Now, unfortunately, it's not going to stop them from going to a paper shop and spending $50 on scratchies, but it is the best way of stopping problem gamblers. It's the only way in my mind of stopping problem gamblers. Yesterday, I had the story about, unbelievably, some parents now using AI to read to their children. Well, how about this one? AI in IVF.

The mind boggles, Clinton. I mean, I didn't have to worry about IVF, thankfully. Nine months after I got back from peacekeeping, my first child was born. I found out that all I had to do was walk past Nicole in the corridor and she fell pregnant, so we were very lucky.

But I want more. I mean, Ben English only gave us 400 words on that story. I'm going to demand a full page spread, if not a lift out. I want to know, are we going into a situation where there will be charges at the bubblers at primary schools? Are we going to have a situation where nurseries are going to be full of R2D2s? I mean, I'm fascinated. But listen, anything that's going to help families have children that want children is wonderful.

But, you know, I think of Brave New World 1984 and I just don't understand how this thing is going to work. But I'm fascinated with it because this is one of those situations, particularly in a Western democracy, where the lawmakers and the faith leaders and the moralists are all going to be able to mix up and have their argument. And of course, then the parliament has to make a decision. But I was delighted to see this week.

Mark Speakman announced that there's going to be a shadow minister and then a minister for artificial intelligence. And I think that's a long time coming. Do you reckon they might have an artificial intelligence opposition leader at some point? Is Spico in trouble here? Could he be replaced by AI? I bite my tongue now. He's a very intelligent man. Of course he is. But could we replicate him? Could we have two Mark Speakmans? We could. That might work better. Two Mark Speakmans. Just lastly, I actually read an article today about the Labor Party and Albo.

And it was suggesting that Albo is actually more conservative than the conservatives at the moment because he's been in power now for more than one term. And if you look back at Bob Hawke's and Paul Keating's financial revolution in the 1980s, they did far more in the first 18 months than Albo's gone anywhere near doing in three years.

I touch on that in my column tomorrow, The Telegraph, because it's the happy financial new year, pay up. You think about the beginning of the Hawke era where they deregulated the banks, they floated the dollar, they had the wages and income accord. They also, of course, invited foreign banks in. I look back at Bob Hawke with a little bit more of a...

a love for the reform that went on there. I don't think he could say by any stretch of the imagination that he was more conservative than John Howard because Howard brought in the GST, which let's not forget Keating and Hawke wanted to do, but got thrown out. But yeah, tomorrow's column is going to be looking at some of those economic, economic, and of course, why the,

One of the biggest economic reforms was in 1966 when, tongue in cheek, I say Bob Menzies dumped the pound, shed the pound, and it made sense. We'll read about it tomorrow. Thank you, David. Straight Shooter for a Thursday afternoon. David Elliott.

This is Sydney Now with Clinton Maynard on 2GB. The sun's gone down across Sydney, but thankfully the rain has certainly gone away. The wind has eased as well. Still damaging surf up and down the coastline, and that big swell is expected to last well into tomorrow. The Weather Bureau says you should avoid the surf if you can, no doubt. Surfers, though, will be enjoying that. Police are still investigating what occurred in Arncliffe this afternoon. A 15-year-old boy has appeared to have fallen from an e-bike

When police were called to the scene, Bow Avenue, they found the boy with serious injuries. Paramedics were quite quickly on the scene and they've tended to him. He was rushed to hospital via the New South Wales Ambulance Service to Sydney Children's Hospital in a critical condition.

Now, police need some help to figure out exactly what happened with this boy who's been on an e-bike. If you're around Bow Avenue in Arncliffe at about 2.45 this afternoon, give the police a call. Crime Stoppers 1-800-333-000. It's seven past five. A man in northern New South Wales aged in his 50s has died in hospital today. This man has died as a result of the bat licevirus. He is the first person in this state...

to die from this particular virus. It is a deadly virus that is carried by bats. Kareera Glasgow is from the Health Protection Unit of New South Wales Health and joins us and has some information about this particular virus because really not many people are aware of how this works. Hello Kira. Hello Quinton. Thanks for joining us. This is a sad situation that's now occurred. It came to light yesterday that the man was in hospital but he has passed away today.

Yeah, look, it's an incredibly sad situation and my heart goes out to the man and his family as well. Look, it is a really incredibly rare disease. We do like to assume that all bats in Australia can carry this virus, which is why we always put out the message to please stay away from bats.

There are certainly some things that everyone can do to stay safe. And if people are worried about bats and especially trapped or sick or injured bats on their property, we're really asking everyone to please just call the experts, which are our wildlife rehabilitators. They are trained, they are vaccinated, they're protected, and they're really the best people to call. The man himself had sought treatment some time ago. It wasn't that he was bitten by a bat yesterday, was it?

No. And look, I don't really want to go into the details of the case. What we do know about Lysivirus is that it is a family, from a family of viruses that's related to the rabies virus. What we know from rabies virus overseas is that it can have a very incredibly wide incubation period from only a few days to many, many, many years.

So it really doesn't matter when someone has been bitten or scratched by a bat. The most important thing to do is to straightaway seek that medical attention. So it can actually be quite complicated and lengthy what we ask people to do, which is why the safest thing to do is to not touch bats in the first place. But if you are bitten or scratched by a bat, what we ask you to do is to wash the

the wound very thoroughly for 15 minutes straight away with soap and water. The soap is the most important part. It sort of collects with the saliva, which is the most important infectious part of what comes from a bat. Wash that away for 15 minutes and then apply an antiseptic with antivirus action. That is something like betadine or something with 70% alcohol, even though that would sting quite a bit. I've

I wouldn't recommend that. Betadine is definitely the better way to go. Allow that to dry and then seek a consult with your doctor straight away. They can give you a risk assessment and you might require a course of vaccines, which might take up to a month to deliver. So it's not necessarily that you go to a hospital emergency department. You can see a GP or just go to a standard medical centre.

Look, you can do both. You can do both. If you can only get into an ED that night, certainly turn up there. They can assess the wound for you and start the process by which you can get access to immunoglobulin and RIG and vaccine. But if your GP is open, it might be easier to get in there. But the most important part is do that 15 minutes of washing and apply the antiseptic and seek medical care, which everyone is fastest and easiest for you. Thank you for the information, Keira.

Great. Thank you very much. Kira Glasgow, who is the Health Protection Director of New South Wales Health. So it is a serious disease. This is the first occasion somebody has contracted and died from the Lysa virus, the bat Lysa virus in New South Wales. Over the past year, 100 people have required medical assessment after they've been bitten or scratched by a bat. So if you do come across a bat, then please just don't go and touch them. You're simply the best.

That is your cue to call and poll. State of Origin Game 3, Accor Stadium, July 9th. So next Wednesday, it's less than a week. It is now officially a sellout. Yep, it's a sellout. But we have the last tickets for you in town. This is your chance to be there live with Blues Clues. Hopefully you were listening to Lucy Zelich on afternoon. She gave away some Blues Clues about an Origin legend.

If you know who our legend is, you'll be the first caller. We're going to take the first call today. 1-300-722-873. You win a double pass to Origin 3. 1-300-722-873 for Blue's Clues. OK, let's find a winner for Blue's Clues. We've got a double pass to give away to State of Origin 3. Hello, Leslie. Hi.

Guess what? I'm so excited. You haven't won yet. What you've got to do is you've got to tell me who our legend is. Were you listening to Lucy Zelich a little earlier? No.

I was, and I've been sitting working on spreadsheets all day, listening to 2GB, writing down the clues and Googling to try and figure out who these players are, because my son is going to be over the moon. Well, I hope you got it right, given you put all that work in. The clues are I played 27 games for New South Wales between 1987 and 1988, splitting my time between fullback and wing. I'm a Sharks legend, having played 328 games for the club.

And dressed in my budgies, I figured prominently in the iconic Tina Turner Simply the Best TV ad in the 1990s. I reckon I know who it is. Who is it, Leslie? It's Andrew Eddinghausen, the famous ET. The greatest shark of them all with Paul Gallen. What a legend. Hey, congratulations.

Thank you so much. My son's just had a son and he's, you know, Penrith Panthers haven't lost since he was born and he'll be so excited. Oh, fantastic. And the Blues, it's a decider, but playing in front of 80,000 people, it's a sellout. They're going to win on Wednesday night.

Thank you so much. Congratulations. And how about that? Our legend's Andrew Ettinghausen. How apt. Now, we're giving away tickets again tomorrow morning. Yes, Ben Fordham is going to give away tickets tomorrow morning, but you need these clues for Benny. Okay. It's another legend. I played 16 games in New South Wales between 2018 and 2025. I'm a four-time NRL Premiership winner.

I'll be wearing the number 7 for the Blues this Wednesday night in the decider. That's a clue. I'll be wearing the number 7 for the Blues this Wednesday night for the decider. So if you know the answer, keep listening. Ben tomorrow will ask for you to call.

We've got double passes to give away, so keep listening. There'll be more with Levy, Lucy tomorrow and me tomorrow afternoon. But if you want to win tomorrow morning, you need these clues. Ampoule State of Origin, nothing like it. 40 years ago this month, one of the most successful musicals of all time opened here, opened at the Theatre Royal in Sydney. Well, you'll know that music. It is Cats. It's Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats. It does not get much bigger.

And just a few years later, after its debut here in Australia in 1985, one of my guests in studio made his debut in Melbourne, performing in Cats. Well, Cats is back, Theatre Royal, and the stars of the show join me, Jared Draper and Todd McKinney. Gentlemen, thank you for coming in. Pleasure. Thanks for having us. I didn't want to make you feel old, Todd, but you were a child star. You don't have to do that. It just happens. You were a child star.

So 1987. 1987 I did it, yes. It was actually my second show, second musical. I started with an Andrew Lord Brewer show called Song and Dance and then that finished and then I did something for the STC and then they asked me to do Cats and yeah, so I did it for a year and I was the acrobatic cat. The Cats cast is sort of split up into the young groups which are called kittens, surprisingly enough,

And then us. Then the others. Well, now we're the others. Back then I was the kitten, but now I'm the others. And I was the acrobatic cat, so I acrobated all over the stage.

And I looked a lot better in Lycra in 1987 than I do now. Gerard, were you born? I suspect not. Oh, don't! I actually wasn't. I was born in 96. Right, so we're talking 10 years earlier. So you were well into your career then. We were just saying outside before we came in, so I play two characters in this version. I play an old aristocratic fat cat in a fat suit in the first half, and then the second half I play an old...

theatre cat who just reminisces about his days in the theatre and I have to change my makeup in the show twice so while these guys are finishing act one I'm down in the dressing room putting on more lines and becoming the old cat and I realised last night for the first time the best way to do it is I just have to smile and I get my paintbrush and I just colour in the crevices like seriously and that's how I put on my makeup for the old guy

So you're not playing the same characters, given you just explained as two parts, effectively, the cast? Well, the cast in general is sort of the younger kids. Well, I'd say the average age of the cast would be about 25. Yeah, something like that. I bumped the average up a little bit. But there's not many of us in the older group. But yeah, so it is kind of split up. But the dancing is so intricate and so hard and so sort of...

fascinatingly awkward in the show because we're being cats that you kind of need people in their 20s to pull it off. Yeah, totally. Odd question. What do you have on your feet? Jazz shoes. Old 1980s jazz shoes. Like slippers. Like jiffies. You're both wearing lycra suits. Yeah. With a lot of support under them. I'll tell you.

I'm actually wearing Spanx. You know when you... Modern football jerseys, if you watch footy shows, when they're taking their jerseys off, they have to get the trainers and they stretch them to take them off. Is it sort of the same with a catsuit? It kind of is, to be honest. Yes, it kind of is. The lacquer, you could wring it out and it would not...

No, it'd be very nice. Tell me about the physicality of it, Jared, because Anthony Warlow was in the studio a couple of months ago talking about his latest production. It was just telling me about the physicality of his roles and night after night and then on a week. We spoke to him on a Friday, so he was doing a matinee on a Saturday night the next day and physically he was just telling me how demanding it is. Yeah, it is. It really is, especially a show like this. I mean, there's all different kind of styles of dance as well, but just the nature of the show too...

You're a cat, so our physicality automatically changes too. So we're kind of tensing different muscles in our necks to kind of stay alert. So everything is always engaged. So when you leave the theatre and you just get on with your... We go home and have a bowl of milk. I do.

I do. But when you're walking around, do you find that physically you're almost adopting that cat stance? I actually haven't consciously noticed anything, to be honest with you, but...

I'm sure there are, you know, little tidbits that have crept into my daily life. I think I'm just trying to make it through the day without falling over, to be honest, because I'm very sore. Jared yesterday before the show was just going through his list of ailments. I know. But the whole cast was like that. For me, in my experience over the last 42 years, the two hardest dance shows would be West Side Story and Cats.

It's that hard. And this is only just the start of your run. You're in the Sydney season at the moment. You've got Adelaide later in the year and Perth and Melbourne. So we have a range here. It's daunting. I felt like yesterday when I was listing off my ailments, I was like, we've got to do this for quite a long time. But I guess that's the game, the nature of the business. You work out the routine that works for you in each different gig that you do. And it's a lifestyle change too to take on this job. You're essentially...

athletes that are performing their task every day. So we're kind of competing at the Olympics every day. It's a really good comparison. So many elite athletes will tell you after they play a game of football on a Friday night, they won't get to sleep until three, four o'clock in the morning because their body is so wound up. Is it similar for you, Todd? It's exactly the same. It is. Yeah, it is. Winding down is...

part of the process and working out how to do it without using crutches like alcohol. Yeah, yeah. Which is a bit of an issue in our industry because otherwise if you want to try and sort of wind down naturally with no cup of tea, nothing, just go straight home, you can look at the clock and it could be 2 o'clock in the morning. And then if you've got a 1 o'clock matinee the next day on a Wednesday, you're then doing two shows on seven hours sleep, which is not enough. Right.

It's not for the faint hearted. You've got to take that on as part of the gig. You know, it's a discipline. I'm intrigued by what you just said there about alcohol. We think of, say, the rock and roll world, sex, drugs and rock and roll and the nature of performing a gig, coming off stage at 11.30 at night and then going back to a hotel room, winding down. That's why rock and roll stars get into the...

They do. Are you telling me in the stage world there are some similarities? Well, I think it's just an easy crutch, isn't it? It's an easy wind down. But it's also a bit of a trap because then you can't do this show with a hangover. Because of the physicality of it. The physicality and the sweating. Yeah, especially this show.

And also the vocals. I mean, you've got to be rested. You have to have the right sleep, and an alcohol-induced sleep is not the right sleep, for your voice, for your pipes to work. And so you learn all that stuff as you go along in your career. You're a bit more Teflon-coated when you're younger, but certainly as you get older, you've got to look after yourself. Honestly, people would have no idea that there are those similarities between that and the sporting world. Definitely is. And we have to do it in Lycra with a smile on our face. Definitely, yeah.

We've been so used to seeing you on stage, yes, for years, but screen as well and telly, and we've worked in radio years ago together as well, Todd. But you seem to have been so busy in recent years on stage. Since COVID, we're now going back a few years, but has stage in this country had a real resurgence?

Absolutely. It has. And I think also for parents who wanted to take their kids out and get their kids off screens and get their kids socialising again, and theatre provides that. And I've definitely seen a resurgence. There's so much on. We're just all in the industry. We're in Cats, so we can't audition for anything else at the moment, but there's a lot out there auditioning. So I think after COVID, it really gave it a boost. People were ready to get out again, and that's great.

hung over you know that's that's carrying on which is great i mentioned on the show late last week that you were coming up and would be on the program this week and i received a lovely email that i want to read to you from from one of our listeners here on 2gb this is from stephanie she lives in the blue mountains says can't wait to hear the interview i've seen toddy many shows huge fan i saw cats yesterday afternoon at the theater royal and as usual it was awesome absolutely awesome

And she's going to go back as well. But she also raises this one. And she'd love to hear from our audience on this one. She did notice some people rustling chips and drinks in the audience. And she thought, look, this is a bit rude for people to do this. And this just doesn't happen just at the Theatre Royal. This is in theatres all over the world. When you're on stage and somebody maybe whips out a phone or they pull out their candy and

They're rustling up the Smith's crisps. How do you react with that? Well, I think with this one it kind of aids what we're trying to do. We come out as cats and essentially the audience are in our territory. I don't think that's the case at all. You don't! I think they put their chips back in their bag. And I think the theatre owners have something to say about it. They should sell those things in Pringles packets, which aren't noisy. The chips. I don't mind it. I'm going to...

Did you know what? When I was doing... I did the musical Barnum a couple of years ago, just in a Melbourne season of it. And in that show, my character gets caught between his lover and his wife and his mistress. And the way they've staged it is I have to walk on a tightrope. So I had circus lessons for months leading up to it because I have to walk from one side of the stage to the other on a tightrope. And as I stood on the little platform to walk across...

This lady decided to get her chips out, right? Now, it takes incredible focus for me not to fall off the wire, right? I trained for months and I put one foot on the wire and I went, no, I can't do it. She was right in my eye line at the other end of the wire and so I just stopped and I said, now is a really bad time for you to eat chips.

Anyway, she laughed. And then I had a lady in my one-man show who was in the front row that was just on her phone. She clearly got dragged there by the rest of the family, didn't want to be there. And she was just scrolling. And so I was in the middle of my song and it was annoying me. Her face was lit up so I couldn't look at anybody else because the light was taking my focus. And I've got to think in that show because it's just me and my band.

And so I literally kept singing and I walked off the stage down to the front and I took her phone and I put it on the piano. I said, you can get it at the end of the night. So I don't like it. But I get it. See, they think they're sitting in the dark.

So they forget while they're watching us in the glow of the light, we're actually watching them. Well, there was someone the other day watching the football the entire time while... On their phone. Yeah, while some of us were out in the audience interacting with them, they were watching the football. Yeah.

Actually, I walk through the audience and I hit a phone out of someone's hand. So you hate it. As a cat. So the phones are a different story, I think. I think they're more distracting. Compared to the chips, yeah. The food itself is one thing, but the phones, I understand that. I would take a phone. Cats is playing at the Theatre Royal in Sydney where it did make its debut in 1985. You can book tickets, catsthemusical.com.au. Todd, Jared, thank you so much for coming in. Thank you. Jared Draper, Todd McKinney, the stars of Cats.

We can turn double somersaults, bounce on the top, swing through the trees. We can balance our bottles, evangelicals do, gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen-gen

And we've got the latest Josh Bryant. Good afternoon, Clinton. The federal government says banning men from the childcare system is not the right way to keep young Australians safe after a call from an abuse survivors advocacy group. Police aren't ruling out further arrests as they investigate 360 kilograms of methamphetamine found hidden in mosaic tiles brought in from the Middle East.

A man has now died after contracting the state's first recorded case of bat-lissa virus and Australia's newest cohort of senators are in Canberra learning how to do their jobs in Parliament. They've been attending Senate school, taught about parliamentary procedure and receiving briefings from government agencies.

In sport, the Blues are vowing a fast start in next week's State of Orange and Decider after being forced onto the back foot early in Perth. We'll have more news in sport at six. Thank you, Josh. 17 degrees in the city, 14 degrees in Penrith. This news has just come to hand. I can confirm the 14-year-old boy who has fallen from an e-bike in Arncliffe has died in hospital. Emergency services were called to Brough Avenue in Arncliffe just before three o'clock to report the boy had fallen from the e-bike.

The emergency services tried to help him at the scene. He had suffered serious injuries and the paramedics were there quite quickly. They took him to the Sydney Children's Hospital where initially he was listed as critical, but we have just confirmed it with police. The 14-year-old boy has died. There will be a full report prepared for the coroner. 131873, when you see things around Sydney we need to know about, give me a call. Matty, there's some dramas where you are in Gregory Hills.

Yeah, does it look like the people who were inside the car they've got out?

I think so because there's a few people already standing on the side there. I was like, what's going on here? And then, yeah, it's a little small hatchback looking thing. Is the fire brigade there yet, Matty? Not when I'd driven past. Okay, thanks for letting us know about that. That's Camden Valley Way northbound. Gregory Hills is a car on fire there. A Finance Update.

It's a sad finance update tonight with Deb Knight because this is the final time we'll be talking to Deb in this segment because from seven o'clock tonight, the final edition of Deb Knight's Money News will go to air. Hello, Deb. Hello to you, Clinton. Yes, it is sad. And look, I've loved being involved with you on this show and previewing Money News. Of course, our Money News listeners are phenomenal, but I'm not going far. I'll still be within the Knight family. You'll see me on the TV reading the news during the day and a current affair on Saturday nights. And

I'll probably call in 131873, let you know what's going on if I spot something out and about in Sydney. We've had so much kind feedback from the listeners in the last 24 hours, as you no doubt since the announcement has been made, have also had. People have loved you presenting on 2GB and in Money News in the last couple of years. Your ratings have been extraordinary. You're a number one program.

And it's a time slot that is a challenging time slot when people are eating dinner, getting ready for their kids to bed. And I know that's been a challenge for you as a mum as well, but you've done a fabulous job with it. And it's testament to the work that you do, Deb. It's also an indication of where we are as a society at the moment. The money news doesn't have to be about where the ASX is finished for the day, as important as that is.

It's about everything that affects us. Yeah, well, cost of living, you know, businesses, individual households, the lot. So, you know, I'm not an expert. I've never claimed to be on finance matters, but I think I've asked the questions that our listeners have wanted to be asked about how you can manage your money better, how you can ensure that you get the most bang for your buck when you do work hard. So I've thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

So talking to the ASX, how did we finish up today? Well, it could have gone out on a high for me after the record we had yesterday. It looked like it was going to, but then it fell. The ASX 200 rebounded a bit. It ended up just falling. It was pretty much flat down, just two points to $8,595. But the dollars held on to the gains that it had from earlier in the week.

It's now buying 65.7 against the greenback. The price of sirloin steak and ribeyes can retail for $350, but it's not the price our farmers see. No, there's a big difference between what you pay for at the high-end restaurants in Sydney. And look, we've been recently...

the state capital of the world. We've got some phenomenal restaurants selling the best steak money can buy, quite literally. But the producers of that product, they don't get the money at the farm gate that goes through so many hands. So I'm going to speak tonight to a cattle farmer near Casino in the heart of northern New South Wales who's come up with a way of...

the many clips on the ticket before her produce gets to the consumer and all credit to her because they take on a lot of risk. They take on a lot of cost as well and they're just so good at what they do. So they need to make sure that they can...

get the most out of that wonderful product. And at the other end of the spectrum, Macca's has made some announcements today. Yeah, Macca's, the local CEO of Macca's has said that he plans on opening between 30 and 50 more Macca's stores right around the country over the next year. So a lot of golden arches. He says there's value to be made still in that fast food restaurant sector all around the city and all

all around Sydney and around Sydney. So there are still some locations that don't have a Macca's. There are still locations that don't have a Macca's. So, yeah, he wants to grow, solidify. And when they first opened Macca's in Australia back in 1971, burgers sold for just 20 cents. Well, it was raised in the program during the week that the price of a small cheeseburger meal is $8.95. Right. The price of a Happy Meal, which includes a cheeseburger, is $5.95. And you get the small chips and the small drink as well. So it was suggested to me, well, don't bother with the...

The cheeseburger, you get the happy meal. And one of our listeners rang up and said, now what you need to do, what you need to do is you get the McSmart meal. Because the McSmart meal, you get the cheeseburger, and they are proud sponsors of ours, but this isn't a sponsored spot. You get the cheeseburger, the fries and the drink. I love that you know the entire menu off by heart. And then with the McSmart meal, you can get yourself an extra cheeseburger or a sundae or some nuggets. Well, you can still get the ice cream for 50 cents. That's right. But the boss of McDonald's today has come out today and confirmed that

They're putting a price freeze on the McSmart meal for 12 months. There you go. So the McSmart meal for the next year is locked at $6.95. It is the McSmart meal for good reason. Deb, congratulations for what you've done on 2GB. We will miss you from Money News. We'll miss you from the station. We will look forward to seeing you on 9 News right throughout the day. Fantastic. Good on you, Clinton. Thank you. The wonderful Deb Knight presenting Money News in the final time tonight from 7 o'clock.

And now, a weather update. OK, it should remain dry this evening. Beautiful day across Sydney. It's been lovely right now in the city. 17 degrees, much cooler in the western suburbs in Penrith. It's 14. Tomorrow, we are looking at a sunny day. Dangerous surf conditions, though, continuing atop of 18 degrees. For the weekend, partly cloudy on Saturday and 19. A possible shower on Sunday, 21 degrees. To start the new week, cloudy on Monday, mostly sunny by Tuesday of next week.

Sydney now on 2GB. Time to talk some sport with the fabulous Mark Guyer. Hello, MG. Hello, Clint. That was a lovely send-off for our very own Deb Knight. Well done, buddy. Oh, we're going to miss Deb, and she's just done such a fantastic job on the Money News show in the last couple of years. Yeah, I agree. She's a great lady, and she will be missed. Now, the NRLW season gets underway at Shark Park tonight. That's right.

Yeah, it does. What a juggernaut to think that this was a months-long competition about eight years ago. It's turned into an 11-week competition with 71 games and participation is through the roof, sponsorship is through the roof, viewership is through the roof. So it is. Tonight's game, we see Sharks, who finished fourth last year, taking on the Eels. They're both teams who are expected to make some finals. I should point out, though, MG, we didn't just finish fourth on the ladder. We made the grand final.

Yeah, you did. We were being flogged at half-time. We made the most miraculous comeback in the second half and almost won. You did. You did. But unfortunately, you didn't take the whole thing home. Well, that's the Sharks, other than 2016. I know.

That's what we do. We fall over at the last hurdle. Just a few. I've got about three or four girls to keep an eye on in this NRLW this season, which is going to be fantastic. Don't forget, there's 12 teams now. We welcome the Bulldogs and the Warriors. Obviously, the Warriors haven't been here for five years.

due to the COVID pandemic hit it. And so that kind of basically went by the wayside, but they're back. Number one player in the game at the moment is Olivia Koenig from the Roosters last year. She had a breakout year, included a Deleon medal and a Royal Premiership. And she was in the New South Wales team to beat Queensland. So look out for her.

And Tamika Upton, who's gone from the Knights to the Broncos, the most feared attacking weapon in the NRLW. She'll be looking to get the Broncos back on the dais. And probably the most visible of all NRLW players is Isabel Kelly from the Roosters, the New South Wales skipper. She's probably the most, as I said, most recognisable woman in the

NRLW and is an elite centre for the Roosters and New South Wales. So can't wait to see these girls strutting their stuff over the next 11 weeks, Clinton. Can't wait. Yeah, the Eels and Sharks tonight on nine. There's no men's game on tonight because of origin, so it's a shorter round. Talking about the men's game, Mal Meninga has found a captain. Well, somebody he would like to captain, the Western Perth Bears. Yeah, it's quite left field. No one really saw this coming, but it's Jacob Preston who's currently playing his stride

his trade for the Bulldogs. He has played lower grades at the Bears in the New South Wales Cup. So there's a picture of him online today in his Bears jersey. And I tell you what, he could do worse. He's a hell of a player. He's been part of the New South Wales squad in the first two games as an extended member. And he's big, he's strong, he's got a good offload, he's fit. And he's part of a...

a winning team at the moment. He's only 23 or 24, so he's got age on his side. Yeah, look, he's probably a natural leader as well. So for Mal to come out publicly and say that, that kind of means that they're going to throw a big check his way, I would say, and try and lure him away from the doggies. But Gus Gould might have something to say about that. Certainly will. It's been a bit of a busy day in league because...

There was a rumour as well that Benji was tackling his players. There was a rumour that... That's the thing that happens. Poor Benji. Apparently it was Adam Dewey. Apparently Benji lines up in the opposed sessions. Oh, Benji. Benji. I know. Everything is magnified and

When you lose six in a row. And that happens. And especially when you're hearing that Willie Peters is in line to take your job. Winning will stop all that. Winning will stop all the outside. Tigers have been better this year than they were last year. They might still finish down towards the bottom, but they've been better.

Yeah, they will. Also, South Sydney coach Wayne Bennett, he stands behind the expensive English import Lewis Dodd, who's rumoured to be on about $750,000 per year. I think he's played one or two first-grade games yet. Wayne Bennett says that I'm going to watch him grow. I suppose it's kind of like saying the coach has the full support

port of the board. So maybe we mightn't see young Lewis Dodds in the South Sydney jersey yet next year because they've just signed a kid from the Dragons who apparently goes pretty good. Not all English imports who come to Australia flourish. I suppose if you go to Canberra you do because

their climate is a lot more consistent than ours is to the Pommie one. So maybe Lewis should have went to the Raiders instead of the Rabbitohs. That's the exact reason. All right, MG. I've got to get a big night's sleep, okay? I need a big night's sleep. Now, I heard all about this, buddy, and well done. Congratulations. I'm proud of you, my little friend, because you beat... I'll be whiting today. Ping pong.

Yes, you advance to the quarterfinals to take on Wild Water Sports' own Adam Hawes, which follows this show. So this could be... When he comes in for a little preview of the show tonight, don't eyeball him. Don't look at him. Hang on, hang on. So...

So, Horsey defeated Levy, and Levy's tactic was to withdraw all communication between the two of them. Levy went silent, ghosted him, didn't work for Levy. So, I think I should have been friendly with Horsey. Okay, well, you know what? Be yourself. You're a friendly bugger. Be nice. I want to know, what's your pre-game meal tonight? What are you going to do? Oh, carb load. Carb load.

Carb loading, then I'll be having energy bars in the morning with a few Red Bulls and Coke. And tell me, are you going to get in some balls in the morning? Are you going to have a little practice run or a bit of Forrest Gump? Mate, I'm having a McSmart meal from McDonald's, let me assure you that. MG, we'll have a full report tomorrow.

Good on you, mate. The legend, MG. Word on the street, it's thanks to Tempo. A great night's sleep, night after night. The difference is Tempo. If you see something around Sydney, let me know about it. Oh, this information's just come to hand from one of our listeners. Polair has been flying around Bankstown South, wondering what they might be doing there. We'll try and find out. This is staggering. We are now being warned to take extra care when we go for a walk with our dog.

And that's because research has indicated that there is a huge financial cost in injuries suffered by people when they go walking their dog. According to the journal Injury Prevention, which is very popular, I understand, in the UK...

There have been five studies which puts the financial cost of wrist and hand injuries linked to dog walking as high as $48 million. I'm serious. $48 million a year is spent helping people, and this is all over the world, but suffering injuries when they go for dog walks. Physiotherapists say they're treating the owners for significant soft tissue injuries, broken bones. So why does this happen?

Apparently, very strong dogs can often shock their owners. So you're walking through a dog park or you're going to walk along a street. Your dog sees another dog, gets overly excited, tries to bolt across the street to go and say hello. Suddenly the owner is shocked. Their hand is pulled or the lead becomes twisted around their fingers and they suffer broken bones. They suffer ligament damage.

Apparently it's often with larger dogs and strong dogs. So the warning today is from the journal Injury Prevention. Take care when you're walking the Fido. Time to expand your minds. Do you maybe gain your questioning? On Sydney Now. Questions, questions, all I get is questions. It's very important you pay attention. I know how smart you are. Answer the question. Get it right. Clinton's Quick Quiz. It's quiz time. Let's give away some tickets to go and see the F3 Polo. F3polo.com.au. Hello, Aaron.

Hello, mate. How are you? Good, mate. We'll get straight into it. Your 30 seconds starts now. Jana Pittman is a doctor, athlete or both? She's both. Correct. What show did Brian Wilshere host on this radio station 2GB for decades? Pass. Knights. Who was the New South Wales Premier before Mike Baird? Pass. Barry O'Farrell. Where did the Sydney Swans originally come from?

North Melbourne. South Melbourne. Look, you're on one, Aaron. We've had winners on one before. Hello, Michael. G'day. Michael, your turn. Your 30 seconds starts now. Who famously played Charlene on Neighbours? Pass. Kylie Minogue. How many letters in the alphabet? 28. 26. Are the Rolling Stones from the US or UK? UK. Correct. True or false? Australia has active volcanoes.

True. False. Correct. You're on two. You're the winner. Just. Hey, well done, Michael. We're going to go and send you a double pass to go to the F3 Polo. If you want to buy tickets, check it out.

A preview of what's coming up on Wide World of Sports. For the most Australian Kia ever developed. Kia's first ever ute, the Kia Tasman. Book a test drive. Find out more at kia.com.au. The ping pong king, Adam Hawes, hosting Wide World of Sports after six o'clock. Yeah, we're going head to head tomorrow. I'm not falling for these mind games either. I think you're a bit of a shark. Big show coming up. Before this week, I hadn't played ping pong for 22 years. We'll join the club, mate. So we'll see how we go.

Millie Ellett will join us from Nine to talk about the NRLW season launch tonight, the Sharks v the Eels. Liam Martin from the Blues will join us to talk State of Origin. Chad Warner from the Swans will talk a bit of SCG turf. That's been in the news. And Mark Bosnich will talk all things Premier League. Coming to Nine and Stansport. Horsie coming up after six o'clock. Don't forget Deb Light's last edition of Money News coming up from seven o'clock tonight.

Fordo with your chance to win those Origin tickets from my clues tomorrow morning. Yes, I'll be playing ping pong against Horsey. Looking forward to that. That's Sydney Now.