Sydney Now with Clinton Maynard – Full Show June 2nd
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On 2GV, this is Sydney Now with Clinton Maynard. Monday, June 2, 131873. It is Clinton Maynard with you. First week of winter. Now, the ferries are running. I can confirm the ferries are back up and running. This morning it was because of the fog. The ferries couldn't run across Sydney Harbour. Well, this afternoon, over the past hour or so...

It's because of whales. Whales stopped the ferries, but they're now running again. More on that in just a moment. What surprised me about the fog today was when we were growing up, we were always told if it was foggy in Sydney in the morning, and this morning was pretty super, it was pretty thick.

that we were going to have a bright, sunny, beautiful day. Well, looking out across the suburbs of Sydney's west at the moment, very cloudy, it's overcast. What happened to our bright, sunny day? It didn't happen. Coming up on the program, Susan Lee, the new opposition leader, probably has the hardest job in the country. Few give her much hope of winning the next election.

She has a warring coalition to deal with and there are still issues with her own backbench now that she's made changes to her shadow cabinet. And she's got to take up the fight for the Labor Party. Well, she'll be my guest after five o'clock, the first time she's been on 2GB since she was elected leader. The big issue in state politics this week is the future of the workers' compensation scheme.

And the fact, and there's legislation going to Parliament this week, the fact that if changes aren't made to the way psychological injuries are dealt with in the workplace, premiums for businesses are going to skyrocket. And they're going to put an enormous pressure on their budgets and the state budget as well. Our straight shooter, Craig Laundie, runs...

a significant business, and have an insight into these changes. We'll talk to him. Mark Guy joins me after five o'clock to review the weekend in footy, and we've got a good prize to give away today with the quiz, a $500 Winston with a Y voucher. That's in the quiz coming up at the end of the program. You are my eyes and ears when it's happening in Sydney now, so if you see something we need to know about, text me, 0460 873 873. Have your say, 131 873.

Well in Sydney right now I can confirm the ferries are running once again. There's been a lot of excitement on the northern beaches throughout the afternoon. You would have heard this with Michael McLaren. Listener Brian calling in after spotting a pod of whales at Manly. Have a listen. A bit of excitement here in Manly. Three humpback whales have come into the harbour and they've

Transport for NSW say the ferries had to slow down and there's been some delays as a result but the ferries are getting back to normal for the afternoon peak. This is a great sight. First Monday of June.

the first week of winter, and we have whale watching on the harbour. We have whale watching from Manly. Rob Harcourt is a marine biologist, a shark expert from Macquarie University, and joins us. Well, this is a bit of a surprise, or is it, Rob? Hello.

Oh, g'day, Clinton. Yeah, no, it's not that much of a surprise. The whales are all heading north to have their babies and have their one bit of romantic canoodling up on the Barrier Reef. And they do stop in harbours and estuaries on the way up. These guys just seem to have come into the busiest harbour on the east coast. Romantic canoodling. We are a family show, so just bear that in mind, Rob. So they migrate north to meet up?

That's right. So they all feed down in the Antarctic, in the really rich waters of the Antarctic every summer and then when the, it's

It's 24-hour daylight and there's lots of productivity going on. And then when winter comes, they flee north and they go up to the barrier reef to have their babies and it's when the males can all find the females because they're all up there in the same place. But they migrate up the coast and so they often stop in at different bays on the way up, sometimes for a rest. And if a female's

So while the female is swimming, making her way up, would she poke her head into the heads and realise, oh no, this isn't a great place, and then continue on a merry way north?

It could be or they might have just come in and had a bit of a rest. I mean there's a few of them, it wasn't just one. But when a female is going to give birth they often have what we call an escort which is another often another female or sometimes a male mate guarding who goes with them and then when they give their calf, when they have a calf, normally in the night we don't see them very often happening during the day. Then the other one will hang around to protect them from sharks and other predators.

The ferries have slowed down. For those that are on the waterways, if you do come across a whale, whether it's outside of the heads or even within the heads, what should you do?

Oh, look, don't change your gears really rapidly and don't race towards them. I mean, legally, you have to stay at least 100 metres away or if there's a baby with them, it's 300 metres away, which is a big distance. It's actually a lot further than you think, especially in the confines of the harbour. But reversing and driving around like a maniac is when they tend to get run over. They are very vulnerable to boats.

particularly when there's lots of boats. So go slow right down, no wake speed. And if you are heading towards them, go to neutral and just hopefully just drift away. Try and keep that, but you must keep at least 100 metres away. That's the requirement. If there's more than three boats, then it's 300 metres. And in the harbour, there's nearly always three. Good advice for it. Magnificent animals. Thank you, Professor.

It's entirely my pleasure, Clinton. Have a lovely afternoon. Professor Rob Hawcourt, who is a marine biologist with Macquarie University. So the ferries are running again. There might be some delays the next half hour or so because they had to slow down, but you can expect to see more whales over the next couple of weeks.

If it's happening in Sydney, you'll hear it on Sydney Now with Clinton Maynard on 2GB. 13 past three, the state government admits we aren't winning the war against illegal tobacco. We've been talking about this for several years on my programs, the fact that tobacconists have been operating, opening up left, right and centre in our suburbs, despite the fact smoking rates are at an all-time low.

Chris Minns has spoken about this today. And for the first time, he's actually pointed the finger at one of the reasons that you often identified as the cause of this, high tobacco excise. Now, he has been questioned about the way we police these tobacconists, in particular at the moment, in

It's the duty of NSW health inspectors, not the police. But Mr Minns for the first time conceded that may need to change. That would mean allocating police officers that are currently working on domestic violence cases, on youth crime cases, on major organised crime networks in NSW.

take them off those important inquiries and send them into tobacco regulation. And we may need to do that because I'm concerned as a constituent and as a father to see the number of high street premises being taken over by tobacco firms.

But I wonder whether we need to roll this back a couple of steps and look more closely at the federal government's massive excise on tobacco. I think that that's important. I'm not arguing with the public health benefits of putting an excise on tobacco. I think it's driven down the amount of people that use cigarettes in the community to around 10%.

But the massive increase has exploded the illicit tobacco marketplace. Now, that's the first time I've heard the Premier say that it's federal excise that's to blame here. Well, let's bring an expert in this matter in. James Martin is a senior lecturer in criminology who specialises in the black market, Deakin University. Thank you for your time, James. Do you believe the high excise on tobacco is part of the reason we've seen this explosion in illegal tobacco?

Oh, yeah, I think that's absolutely undeniable. Australians pay the most expensive cigarette prices anywhere in the world. A pack-a-day smoker who's buying legal cigarettes is looking at a yearly bill in the order of $15,000, and that's obviously an extortionate amount that many people simply cannot or refuse to pay. Does an excise work in any way? I would suspect that the health industry believes it has discouraged people from smoking.

Well, we don't actually have any conclusive evidence that it's accelerated the decline in smoking in Australia. Smoking rates in the pre-tax decade, so between 2000 and 2010, declined at the same rate as over the next 10 years from 2010 to 2019 when the price of cigarettes more than doubled. So, you know, I think there are real questions about whether the tax was working as intended, let alone all these very serious unintended consequences.

From your experience in this area, what do you think the best way would be to deal with the illegal tobacco problem? Well, I think there's two main things that the government needs to do, and it's great to see New South Wales Premier acknowledging the elephant in the room, which is the tobacco tax, that I think needs to be substantially lowered. But the other big one here is vapes. So vapes are the number one quitting aid in jurisdictions in which they're legal. We saw massive declines in smoking rates in New Zealand, in Australia,

from 2020 when they legalised vapes over there. And unfortunately, we've made vapes harder to get than cigarettes, which are responsible for the deaths of two and three every long-term users. So I think improving access to legal forms of nicotine, but particularly less harmful forms of nicotine is the key. Yeah, the issue with balance is causing part of the problem. Thank you for your time, James.

Thanks. Dr James Martin, who's a criminology lecturer at Deakin University. So that's the first time, firstly, Chris Minns has admitted that the excise is an issue here and that needs to be addressed. And very rarely we get politicians saying that because they're very worried about what the response will be from the health lobby. But also he said that in the upcoming budget that will be handed down in a few weeks' time, his government is going to have to look at providing the police with resources rather than New South Wales Health to actually police those tobacconists.

Be a part of Sydney Now with Clinton Maynard. Call 131 873. OK, the counting is continuing this afternoon in the seat of Bradfield and this has taken a turn. The Teal candidate Nicolette Buller is now in front. I'm just looking at the latest results that have come through. This is the recount. Nicolette Buller is in front of Giselle Kapturian, the Liberal, by 21 votes. Now, when counting wrapped up on Friday, Giselle Kapturian was in front by two votes.

And the AEC has indicated the counting won't be concluded most likely until the end of the week, possibly midweek. But I think you can take it as read. It'll be at the end of the week. This is the first time since the recount started that the Teal Nicolette Bull has actually been in front. And she's increased that lead throughout the day. What is happening is informal votes are being very closely examined.

And I'm told that votes that were deemed initially informal are now being declared formal because on closer examination by scrutineers, they are legitimate votes. Most of those votes, most of those informal votes that have been switched have actually been to the benefit of the Liberal Party. Some of those will have been to the benefit of Nicolette Buller as well. But this is the biggest lead she's had so far. Now, it's not yet over.

They're probably only halfway through this recount, but she does now lead by 21 votes. So if it was to be declared right now, Nicolette Buller, the Teal, would win this seat. Susan Lee, the new leader of the Liberal Party, will join me after five o'clock. And I'll certainly be asking the opposition leader from her information on the ground, because the political parties received some direct information from their scrutineers, whether she has some confidence that Giselle Kapturian can make a comeback. She must, because she has given her a job in the outer shadow ministry as well.

Plenty coming up on the program. If you'd like to have your say, 131 873 is our number. This is Sydney Now. A lot of feedback about what Chris Minns has said about tobacco excise and I'll come to that feedback in just a moment. The Prime Minister though today has responded to American demands for Australia to increase our spending on defence and this was sort of an issue during the election campaign.

On the sidelines of the Shangri-La dialogue meetings in Singapore, the US Defence Secretary has suggested to our Deputy PM, Richard Marles, that we should be increasing our spending to 3.5% of GDP. Now, that would amount to about an extra $40 billion a year. $40 billion our federal government doesn't have. Anthony Albanese has now responded. What you should do

in defence is decide what you need, your capability, and then provide for it. That's what my government's doing. We've provided an additional $10 billion of investment into defence over the forward estimates. What we don't do is do what the opposition did during the election campaign, where they announced an amount of money. They couldn't say where the money was coming from and they couldn't say what it was for.

That makes no sense. What we need is things that defend us in real terms and that's what we'll provide. The Prime Minister certainly no commitment there. Word on the street thanks to Tempur. A great night's sleep night after night. The difference is Tempur confirmation one northbound lane to the M1. The Pacific Motorway has now reopened.

just past that sign of a car crash that occurred at Morrissette. So all northbound lanes of the motorway, they had been closed because of that crash, but they're now open once again. The diversions have been lifted. 131873, let's get to some of your calls about tobacco excise. Hello, Nick.

there you go mate good nick oh yeah i just checked through before that um like i was using smoking the legal ones which will cost me 65 a day yep um i finally found a one of the illegal ones that um pretty much sell the same brand that's what i do but they come from the uk and

And I get a carton for $90. And so you go to a particular retailer, you make some sort of coded request behind the counter, do you? Oh, no. No, it's all open. You just go in and go, I want the carton of these, and they just give them to you. And this is the problem in New South Wales, that there are 12 New South Wales health inspectors, and the government is going to double the number of inspectors to 24. Wow.

But you walk through most suburbs, you'll see five or six tobacconists in the one suburb. So 24 inspectors won't do anything. Hello, Bruce. Yes, good afternoon, Clinton. Look, on these cigarette prices, look, for a packet of 25 cigarettes, I was in at Woolworths the other day and I noticed the prices there were $70 for a packet of Marlborough, the Marlborough van, $70 for 25 smokes, a lot of money.

And for a packet of 20 from the dodgy tobacco shops around the place, they're $20. I mean, that's a difference of $50. And if you're somebody who's been addicted to cigarettes for decades and decades, yeah, you're probably going to concede, I'm doing the wrong thing, I shouldn't be doing this, but...

It's a big difference. And that $50, it has to be the tax. I mean, these criminals are making a lot of money. It's just a crime. And if we don't start doing something about it, we're going to see a repeat of what happens in Melbourne, happened in Queensland on Friday, firebombings. We've seen a couple of them in Sydney this year, but nothing compared to what's experienced interstate in the turf war that's broken out in Melbourne and particularly parts of southeast Queensland over tobacco territory.

What's fuelling the drug crime in this city is cocaine, but tobacco is next. Hello, Larry. Hey, how are you? Good, mate.

Good, mate. I'm just going to call about... I'm just a first-time caller, so I'm a little bit nervous. Welcome, mate. Regarding the tobacconists, I'm curious on how they measure that smoking has decreased through excise going up and how do they not know or how do they not...

know that possibly the reason why they think it's gone down is because more and more people are smoking the illegal cigarettes. There's a really good point you make there, Larry, and we'll see if we can get some clarification from the authorities on that. Because if you are buying illegal cigarettes, you're not going to be part of the formal statistical data, I would think. Really good point. Thank you for your call, Perry. Thank you.

And good afternoon, Josh Bryant. Good afternoon, Clinton. The Premier wants the current federal excise on tobacco to be reduced, saying the massive increase in the cost recently is adding to the explosion of illicit tobacco sales. A car has driven through a church in the Illawarra, leaving one person with bruises.

minor injuries at West Wollongong. The FBI is treating a fire attack in the US state of Colorado as an act of terrorism after six people were set alight during a walk to support Israeli hostages. And three humpback whales have delighted onlookers appearing in the water near Manly Pier, briefly forcing ferries to slow down services online.

are now running as normal. InSport reports in England claim Tottenham will announce the sacking of Ange Postacoglu later this week. The Aussie manager led Spurs to the Europa League title, but also presided over their worst Premier League season in almost 50 years. We'll have more news in Sport at 4. Thank you, Josh. Mark Guy joining us after 5.30, talking sport, and that's likely to happen. Ange Postacoglu is expected to be sacked, despite the fact Tottenham won the Europa League triathlon

In all of Ange Postakoglu's career, he always wins trophies, particularly in the second year with his club, but he's going to get the punt nevertheless. 131873 is our number. Bindi Irwin has returned home. She was in the United States when she suffered appendicitis and was in hospital for some time, but she is back. Good afternoon, Peter Ford. Good afternoon.

Yeah, thank goodness she is. And I'm sure she's thrilled. I know her mum, Terry, certainly is. She's taken to social media. It's been obviously a troubling more than three weeks since she first left. It was meant to be a quick work trip, if you like, to go to Las Vegas to attend college.

the big gala, but then just hours before it, she took sips. She was airlifted from Las Vegas to New York, where not only did she have the appendix removed, but she also had 14 endometriosis lesions removed as well. Then she couldn't fly. They won't let you do a long flight after that sort of surgery. So she's had to basically wait and wait, and now finally she is back on home turf again. And she's going to make a full recovery, isn't she?

Oh, totally. Yeah, she's in good spirits. And I think, you know, obviously for Terry, it's been a difficult time to know where do you base yourself? You want to be with your daughter. You've got the business to run. You also got a child. And of course, you've got a grandchild because Bindi's a mum. So, yeah, it's been a rough time, but it's all ended up very well.

Hannah Gadsby has revealed her surprise friendship with Loretta Swift of MASH fame who passed away last week. Yeah, I thought this was kind of cute. I love these sort of random show business friendships. So over the weekend, Loretta Swift died. She was 87 years old. And that kind of plays with your mind a bit. I can't imagine that actually.

I know. Well, she's kind of frozen in time, isn't she? For those of us who grew up watching MASH and her as Hot Lips, you know, when she did other things after MASH, but nothing I don't think, you know, ingrained itself into our brains in the way that Hot Lips did. So it was sort of surprising to see that she was 87 years old. But Hannah Gadsby took to social media to reveal that

some years back Loretta Swift came to one of the shows in New York and came backstage to meet her and they struck up a very strong personal friendship and you know despite the age difference they got along famously and Loretta actually was a painter and did a number of paintings for Hannah of her dogs through the years so I just thought it was a sweet little story to show that

In show business, you know, sometimes opposites do attract. It's hard to believe Loretta was 87 years of age, I guess, and this is the reality of show business. We tend to remember people in their starring roles, and whether it was 30, 40 years ago, they're stuck in time because of that.

And most of them are quite happy to be stuck in people's minds looking a certain way. And many of them go to great lengths to make sure they continue to look that way. Good on you, Peter. We'll talk tomorrow. Thanks, Clinton. Peter Ford, 24 to 4. Late last year, the New South Wales government introduced Jack's Law. These are new knife laws targeting specifically young offenders. And under these laws, police can now use scanners.

to literally scan people they suspect may be carrying knives. There's been an operation that's been conducted in the Albury region. And over the course of Friday, 98 people were scanned using these new laws, handheld scanning devices the police have.

They arrested four people, four weapons and prohibited drugs were detected and charges have been laid and these four people will be before the courts. But this is an example where Jack's Law is so important because more and more people, sadly, particularly younger people, are arming themselves with knives. But the threat that these scanners, that police are going to be armed with these scanners themselves will at least help them fight back.

A little earlier, I spoke with a marine biologist about the pod of whales that has been spotted at Manly this afternoon. And it is now whale season. They're making their migration to the north. But it meant that the Manly ferry had to slow down. There's been some delays to ferry services. As a result, we understand the ferry's now back to normal. So I've had two messages from our listeners suggesting maybe we should have spoken to George Costanza.

about the whales. Cast your mind back to that very famous Seinfeld episode back in the 90s where George made out to one of his prospective dates that he in fact was a marine biologist and Kramer was playing golf and shooting golf balls, practising his driving on the coastline one day and actually he drove a golf ball that landed in the hole of one of the whales and because George was

so-called marine biologist, he was the one who had to save the day. So I started to walk into the water. From out of nowhere, a huge tidal wave lifted me, tossed me like a cork, and I found myself right on top of him, face to face with the blowhole. I could barely see from the waves crashing down upon me, but I knew something was there. So I reached my hand in, felt around, and without the obstruction... A hole in one, huh? LAUGHTER

I now know who we should be speaking to about whales, whale watching and sharks. George Costanza, the marine biologist. We'd be lost without organisations like the Country Women's Association. The CWA has just announced they're activating their disaster relief fund. Now, this is going to be financial support for people who've been affected by the Mid-North Coast and the Hunter Valley floods. Up to half a million dollars has been initially earmarked for flood recovery efforts. Up to $250,000 is also allocated to those organisations

who are affected by drought at the moment. And we should remember that despite the fact we've been talking so much about the floods on the mid-north coast and the Hunter Valley, there are so many farmers and districts across New South Wales that are affected by drought. And we're going to have a closer look at that on the program in the next couple of weeks as well. So good on the CWA. They will commit $500,000 to flood relief

recovery. Coming up after five o'clock, as I mentioned, I'll be speaking with Susan Lee, the new opposition leader. And part of the reason I'll be talking to Susan is because she's been on the Mid-North Coast today, having a look at the devastation herself. And it's

For politicians, I know they do like a picture opportunity, but it's actually important for them to have a look at the real damage. So when they're there lobbying for financial assistance, they actually know what they're talking about. 131873, a new tourism campaign has been launched today for Destination New South Wales and the state government. It's called the Feel New Campaign. And it's a little bit different. Now, when you think of Sydney, what do you think of?

I think of the Harbour Bridge. Think of the Opera House. And we have some wonderful other icons in our city as well and surrounds Manly Beach, as we've been talking about today, with the whales, the Royal National Park in the south, to the Blue Mountains, the Three Sisters. But this is going to be a campaign that will be a little bit different. It's not going to focus on our icons because there's been some new research that's found that many people, particularly domestically, they know that we've got the Opera House and we have the Harbour Bridge...

But they're not coming here because they don't think Sydney offers anything else. So I'm a little bit surprised by that finding. I'm going to play part of an ad for you that's going to be part of the campaign. Got that empty fridge feeling? Yep. Try this feeling.

So a bloke has just opened a fridge and there's a wet lettuce leaf inside it. This one. He's dissatisfied with it. Go on. Tuck in. Then he comes to Sydney and he has dinner in Sydney. It's not a sprint. And then he relaxes in Sydney and goes for a run. It's part of a marathon. Haven't felt that before. Oh!

So in the ad, you don't see the icons. You don't see the Harbour Bridge. You do see a bunch of people going for a run and you see a lovely meal at a restaurant. And apparently this is the way the experts have determined that we need to sell the city. I'm actually not so sure about that. Margie Osborne is the CEO of the Transport and Tourism Forum. She is an expert in this area. Margie, thank you for your time. Good afternoon, Clinton. What do you think of the campaign Feel Now?

Well, look, I actually think it's very clever. It's reflecting what is a global trend now. Right. People want secret getaways. You know, they go to lots of places and see the icons, but for many of them, they want to see how locals live. So it's about whether you want to do yoga on a kayak in the harbour, which is part of one of the campaigns, or whether you want to go on a secret and very beautiful jog around some parts of the city on...

or whether you want to go to a really great bar and hear live music on a Sunday afternoon. So it's really about offering people other options and rediscovering their city. So it's about domestic tourism. So for a lot of those people that are coming here, they might have seen the big...

the big things before. This is about reassuring them that there is so much more to do in Sydney. And that's a really fair point because I think some of that does get lost sometimes. The research from Destination New South Wales, their brand engagement monitor survey conducted just last month in April shows that 79% of Australian travellers have been to Sydney before, but we're currently ranked third in consideration of where we'd actually want Australians would want to go. We're not at the top of the list. Is that because Queensland's at the top?

Well, yes, it is the indefatigable Gold Coast. Everybody goes to the Goldie for a whole lot of reasons. And so I guess you don't go to the Gold Coast to look at an icon. You go to a Gold Coast to experience the beach, to go to the theme parks and have more of an experience. Yeah.

Yeah, you do. And I think that's all about what this campaign is about too. I think the other thing is it's about the livability of the city. If you step beyond the tourism outcomes, critically important as they are, this is also about making Sydney clearly be seen as...

as the kind of city you want to live in. Now, that's really important from the context of future investment in Sydney and New South Wales, bringing highly skilled professionals here that perhaps we haven't got enough of here in Australia, bringing them to Sydney and making them feel like it's an exciting place to live. I don't want to be too critical of the ad, Margie, because it's sort of easy to jump up and down about these things. But when I saw the ad for the first time,

What jumped out at me, so it features one, there's four ads. One of it's the bloke opens a fridge and there's just a wet lettuce leaf there. So he's interstate. He wants to experience something better than what his state offers. So he comes to Sydney. He has a lovely dinner and he goes for a run with the marathon runners. And see, to me, that could be done anywhere. You can have a nice dinner in Adelaide if you want it. You can have a nice dinner in Perth or Brisbane. So I would have thought we need to demonstrate how Sydney is different, how we bring something to the tourist experience. Well,

Well, what they've actually done is they've got a series of ambassadors who all give their sort of version of, if not a perfect day, their top three things to do in Sydney. And they're all wildly different. So there's a whole lot of options as part of the campaign. But I think the real issue here is it's about seeing the city change.

As you rightly point out, lots of people have been here before and there is so much more than the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, wonderful as they are. There's a lot more to do. And this is really just about highlighting those things. Now, the ad that has the limp lettuce leaf in the fridge, I think, is more about...

You know, you get home at the end of the day and you open the fridge door and go, oh, too hard. But it's really about emphasising the fact that there's so much to do in Sydney, you can just go out and get something wonderful to eat. Well, the argument always is that Melbourne has bigger sporting crowds than we do in Sydney because there's nothing to do there. So you just go to the football, where there's so much to do in Sydney. Wow.

Well, I think this is what we have to do, though, is remind everybody of all those wonderful things you've got to do in Sydney. I mean, Sydney is a city of villages, too, and we've all got our own secret best options of places we like to go and see. Those are the things that visitors want to do, too. Good on you, Margie.

It's my pleasure entirely, Glenn. Margie Osman, who's the CEO of the Tourism and Transport Forum. Have a look at the ads. You'll see them on the TV in the next couple of days. They'll mostly feature interstate, though. So it's about experiences. It's about what it's like to live in Sydney, not so much about seeing the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. And I understand the philosophy that most Australians know, that if you come to Sydney, you see the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge and Three Sisters and the Blue Mountains. I still think you want to show why Sydney's so spectacular, because we have an advantage over every other city

destination around the country that they don't have those icons. I mean, what's an icon of Melbourne? What's the icon of Brisbane? Yep, it's the weather in Queensland. It's not the weather in Melbourne, although the weather's not that great in Sydney today. If you were developing a campaign to encourage people to come here, to come to Sydney, what would you want to see? What would your selling point be? Would it be the fact that you can go and run a marathon or

Probably not, but that's what they've picked. 131873. A travel warning has been issued for Bali through Smart Traveller and Bali and other parts of Indonesia. This is because of concerns about water safety, drink spiking and methanol poisoning. There's been an update to Smart Traveller warning the dangers presented by unpatrolled beaches in Indonesia, noting Australians have previously drowned at popular tourist beaches with rough seas and strong rip currents.

Tourists are also being warned about leaving food and drink unattended when they're going to various venues around Bali, noting dangers posed by drink spiking and methanol poisoning. It has been recorded across Indonesia, including Bali and Lombok. Australians are also advised to ensure their passports are in good condition and to review local cultural and religious customs before they travel overseas. Drink spiking is an issue in Bali, but it is an issue across much of Southeast Asia.

If it matters to you, you'll hear it here. Sydney Now with Quentin Maynard until 6. This is another example of one of the ads of the new tourist campaign that has just been released. Got that beans on toast again, feel me? Right. So now there's a shot of somebody going to have a scuba drive with his fishes. That's it. Shake it out. Now someone's having dinner. Lovely dinner at a market.

Haven't felt that before. And so that's the tagline, haven't felt that before. It's the new advertising campaign to encourage interstate tourists to come here. And it does not feature our icons. You don't see the Harbour Bridge in the vision. And when it refers to beans on toast, this is a bloke who's bought with life. He probably lives in Perth. And the only food he can get at his place are beans on toast. So he needs to come to Sydney for a better feed. 131873. Anthony's in Kellyville. Hello, Anthony.

G'day, Clinton. How you going, bud? Good. Do you think that's a good advertising campaign? Would it encourage you to come here? I think it's terrible. Buddy, nobody's coming here. Nobody wants to come here. We're overpriced. We're overrated. Our city closes at 9 o'clock.

Unless you're spending big money to go out. It's unaffordable. Other cities in the world, such as Tokyo, are much better value for money. Now, I've only been to Tokyo Airport. I wasn't able to actually visit the city itself. My impression was Japan was very expensive. Is that not right? Absolutely not. I went last year. I'm going in 26 days. I just told the other gentleman, it's...

It was going to cost me $750 to get a minivan from Kellyville to the airport to take my family. Over there, it's cost me $210 to get from the airport to the hotel. It is affordable. The customer service is second to none compared to what we offer here. We're not an international city anymore. We might have been, but we're no longer, mate.

I certainly agree with you when you say that Sydney closes at nine o'clock and that is a complaint and Chris Minns talks about that all the time. I do think, and yes, I agree, Sydney's also expensive, but most international cities are hideously expensive. I was surprised the last time I went to London, I thought the food in London was going to be very expensive, but I'd say Sydney was a little bit more expensive.

But relatively, a lot of other things in Sydney are cheaper than most European cities and certainly some of the United States. Hey, good on you, Anthony. Thank you for your call. On the text line, Paul says, Margie Osman, she could make a heart attack sound like a pleasant experience.

Well, she's putting a positive spin on it. Tony says the advertising campaign sounds like a load of drivel. Barbara says what they should do is they should show people taking a ride on a ferry, showing our beautiful sparkling water. Well, in one of the ads, the ad that I just played did feature the bloke who wants the baked beans or doesn't want the baked beans on toast who lives in Perth. He's actually enjoying scuba diving. So it does show some of those sights.

And I completely understand the thought that the people who live in Adelaide or Darwin, they know that we have the Harbour Bridge. But, you know, it's such a selling point. I think we shouldn't actually ignore that we have those features. Until six, this is Sydney Now with Clinton Maynard on 2GB. Call now 131 873.

The new Sydney Fish Market will open soon, and that's going to mean a change to the name of the light rail stop. Now, currently, there is a light rail stop. It's just actually near the radio station here, and it's the Sydney Fish Market light rail station. Well, it's going to change its name to the Bank Street light rail station, but the Geographical Names Board today has announced they're seeking community feedback on...

Right.

rename Fish Market Light Rail Stop as Bank Street Light Rail Stop. That's because the Sydney Fish Market, as many people would be aware, is relocating later this year and we need to update the name of the existing light rail stop to avoid confusion for passengers.

Appreciate that, absolutely. But Bank Street light rail strut? I think that's a little bit dull. It's not like Bank Street is a well-known road across Sydney. It's not George Street or Pith Street. I would have thought we could have come up with something a little more creative. Coming up after the news, we're going to have a look at supermarket prices. Coals and Woolworths are engaged in a big battle at the moment. This is Sydney Now with Clinton Maynard on

on 2GB. 7 past 4, this news has just broken in the sporting world. Glenn Maxwell has announced he is quitting one-day international cricket. I mean, he's been a mainstay of the Australian team for years now. He's played ODIs for 13 years, made his debut for the Aussies back in 2012. He has scored almost 4,000 runs from 149 one-day internationals. He's 36 now, so obviously he's getting on.

But he's going to quit one day international cricket. I should point out, a fabulous player over the years, Glenn Maxwell. I should point out that he is going to continue playing 2020. And he'll probably play in the IPL until he's about 50 or 60. All the cricketers want to keep playing in the IPL because that's where all the money is. But certainly I think one of Australia's greatest one day international players of the past 20 years.

30 years. Marcus Stoinis and Stephen Smith have both also retired from one day internationals over the past year or so. So certainly changing face the Australian cricket team. Seven past four, the state government cracked the champagne late on my program on Friday afternoon. The transfer minister, John Graham, joined us to announce that the long-running industrial dispute with the combined rail unions has crippled Sydney's train network and finally come to an end.

And Mr Graham was on the show to trumpet the three-year deal that he'd arranged he'd come to with the combined rail unions for a 12% pay rise. Now, I say the combined rail unions because there's been several unions involved in this dispute for the last, well, effectively the last couple of years. And I actually asked the Minister, could he guarantee that there'd be no industrial action now for the next three years over the course of this agreement? He couldn't actually give that promise.

And given we're dealing with unions, I can understand why he couldn't actually provide that guarantee. Very wise, because, let's be honest, you can't trust them. Well, of course, after we finished up on air on Friday, over the weekend, it was revealed that the Electrical Trades Union is holding out on agreeing to this deal. Not the rail union itself, not the RTBU, the ETU.

Well, I've been in contact with the leadership of the rail union, the RTBU, over the weekend, and they are happy with this deal. What they're not happy with is the ETU. Because, excuse the pun, the ETU is threatening to derail the deal. So this isn't over. The matter's been back before the Fair Work Commission today. You see, the ETU is unhappy with the way maintenance and engineering employees are now categorised in the agreement. And please...

It's a demarcation dispute between the unions. It has nothing to do with us, the commuters. And we were given the impression on Friday that all this had been sorted out and there'd be no more suffering for us who use the trains. Well, no, that's not quite right. This is not over yet.

At this point, there is nothing to stop the ETU taking industrial action from July, unless this is now sorted out. Now, I'm hopeful it will be sorted out before the Fair Work Commission. The government is desperate to settle it, and the rail, tram and bus unit itself, it's done with it. It wants this all over also. But if you cast your mind back to January, we had an incident in January where the entire Sydney Rail Network ground to a halt in the morning. We had been told in the lead-up to this particular dispute, and the RTBU had said,

told all and sundry that they were going to begin an industrial campaign where trains in the outer suburban network would be slowed down. And Howard Collins from Sydney Trains was on the program. I had the union on the program the day before. They all insisted, look, yes, this industrial action is taking place, but it would only cause minor disruption. Well, lo and behold, the next morning, no, the whole of the rail network completely shut down.

Do you know why it shut down? There was a problem, I think it was at Bondi and then there was another at Homebush, but there was an electrical problem. And that electrical problem couldn't be fixed because the ETU wouldn't fix it. So now we're facing that again, that yes, an agreement has been reached with most of the unions involved in this dispute, but not the ETU, which means what's to stop them taking industrial action, for instance, next month?

Unless this is sorted out in the next couple of weeks, well, nothing. Now, I think they're going to be desperate. The government will be desperate and Sydney Trains Management will be desperate to get this sorted out. As a rail union official told me yesterday, to quote him, he said, this is insanity. He was talking about his own union movement. The quote is, this is insanity. The rail union covers 8,500 workers. The ETU covers 860. So it's roughly 10%.

And potentially they're going to hold up this deal. And it's not right. It just can't happen. Because while there are 8,500 railway workers under the RTBU and there are 860 ETU members, there are more than a million of us, us the passengers, us the passengers who pay for our Opal fares, us the passengers who pay for our taxes and have been screwed around now for more than a year because of the way these unions are behaving.

Well, at least the RTBU has come to the party and they've agreed to this deal. At least the state government and Transport for New South Wales has finally arranged this deal. And yet they'll get a pay rise that's actually bigger than what was originally intended, but much smaller than what the RTBU was asking for. To think the ETU, that only represents 860 workers, could derail the whole thing.

It's a load of garbage. We should not be treated like this anymore. The travelling public should not be putting up with this anymore. And the state government needs to sort it out and needs to sort it out quickly. 131873 is my number. Now, our reports are this afternoon the trains are actually running OK.

And hopefully this dispute with the ETO will now be resolved in the next couple of days because we can't put up with it any longer. Now, Coles has announced today they're dropping the prices of hundreds of their products. The supermarket giant has also announced a change to their flybys scheme. This is actually part of what looks like a war breaking out between Coles, Woolworths and Aldi also. Because it was only a week or so ago, Woolworths made a similar pledge that they were cutting the prices of 400 lines.

Coles says from Wednesday, customers will save on 307 winter essentials, household staples, including meat, bakery items, items that you need to stock your pantry with, dairy as well. So the supermarket war's holding up, and that's good for us, the customer. Barry Urquhart is a consumer behaviour expert with Marketing Focus and joins us. Hello, Barry. What do you think's behind this, Barry? Hello, Mr. Clinton. What do you think is behind this change?

Oh, what's behind it? I think that to a large extent it's nothing to do with market forces or consumer behaviour. It is all to do about the political imperatives. And it's up until May 3, foremost in the lexicon of the political arena and the campaigning was about the injustice of the supermarkets with price gouging, with the supplier suppression,

And, you know, all of a sudden the nationals are starting to say, let's have divestment. The spotlight is very much on retail in general, supermarkets in particular. And so consequently, because they are the political hot potato, Coles, Woolworths and to a lesser extent Aldi have responded to that accordingly. So even though the election's over and it's been won by the Labor Party, you think that the supermarket giants are still feeling that pressure?

Well, the spotlight's still on them. They're very, very sensitive. Consumers have started to speak less about, you know, the cost of living crisis. But it is a reality that every time they go to the supermarket, there is a reinforcement drip, drip of, you know, less money, less discretionary purchases and pressure on their living standards. So consequently, that's the sort of thing that is working. So they're trying to win the hearts and minds of people.

But I would say step back, look at history, and in all probability, this will not be a successful campaign by either Coles or Woolworths because prior to February 2020, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic,

pandemic, we had, and you will recall it too with your listeners, $1 liters of milk, $2 loaves of bread, $8 hot chickens, and various low prices of eggs. Now, that didn't work. Well, let me tell you what the consequences of those specific price-driven campaigns really resulted in. One, the

They sold more products. Two, consumers did not spend more money. So consequently, you did not have an increase in revenue. In that, margins were squeezed, profit went out the door. And so in a very short period of time, the supermarket said, this is not working because we're not getting more customers, they're not shopping more regularly, and they're not loyal. So it is the sort of thing where it's, as in this instance, it attracts headlines, but

but it doesn't improve the bottom line. When they cut prices like this, so for Coles, it's 307 products for 12 weeks. For Woolworths, it's something like 400. Do they then increase prices for other perhaps not commonly purchased products to try to make up the difference?

In a generalised statement, no. I think that's, again, an emotional drive, which is very good media situations. But it's not verifiable on the shelves in the supermarkets and that sort of... Look, there is no question about it. Come Easter...

the price of Easter eggs went up. But then again, chocolates were in very short supply, or the basic product of chocolates. And so very quickly, all you had to do was to say, well, I won't buy my Easter eggs this year until the last five days before Easter because they're going to buy up on stock. They're not going to be selling the merchandise with a 50% and 60% price increase. And lo and behold, surprise, surprise, what happened five days out from Easter? Bang, 50% off Easter eggs. So consumers are smart. Now, this is the sort of thing...

Clinton, that, you know, let's talk about that because I, when I read this, I thought, no, I can't believe that they're addressing this to the consumers because I thought, this will only apply to people who have got a graduate degree in the STEM studies with a major in mathematics. Yes.

307 products over 12 weeks commencing on the 4th of June with an average 90%. What happened to Tony Abbott being criticised about his three-word policy? Stop the boats. Let me give you three successful, long-sustaining, brilliant campaigns in retailing but out of America. Macy's.

Three-word policy. Satisfaction guaranteed, period. Wal-Mart, the biggest and the most successful supermarket and retail chain in the world. Three words.

Every day, lower prices. That's what consumers want. Consumers walk the shelves of Coles, Woolworths and to a less extent Eldon, and they're used to seeing signs half price. Half price is a lot better than an average of 19% or an 80 or 10% improvement on the points accumulated by flybys. Now, let me put that on. That sounds attractive.

10 times the usual fly-by points to qualify for a $10 off your bill. The average return that you get from your fly-bys or loyalty programs like the reward program is about 2%. Multiply that by 10, it's about 20%. That's hardly an exciting discounting strategy that is going to attract...

and compel consumers to prefer and become loyal to any one particular brand of supermarkets. The research Coles has conducted with their own customer base shows that 36% of their customers, so it's more than one in three, are actively seeking out specials. So more people are looking for cheaper products. In your experience, and given that we are going through still an inflationary environment, even though inflation's come down, do you think that's accurate?

Oh, yes, I think it's probably understated. I would put it to you that we have gone from discount savers to economist savers. Supermarket shoppers today are smart shoppers. Before they go shopping in close to 72% of instances, they go online, they see what the prices are, determine what the brands are, look at the outlets and then go out

there and buy. Now, that's replaced window shopping so that when they go out, regardless of what their postcode is, they are very, very sensitive about price and value and proposition. So I think that if Coles and Woolworths really want to understand the consumers, let's put price in. And you and I have spoken about this over the years. Price is the fourth most important thing in the determination of

of where people buy. I've just written an article. I get syndicated by 49 trade and industry magazines around the world. And I've just written an article about value. Here is the message to the board and the management team of both Coles and Woolworths. If you want to be valued, offer value. Every day, lower prices consistently across the board rather than... Well, here's the point.

They have actually reduced their product range from $35,000 in the full range supermarket down to the metro stores of about 24,000 products. The consumers are saying, I don't care whether it's $400 worth or $307 with coals. When I go shopping and I go in my major shopping that I typically go two or three times a week...

I'm not interested in whether it's $307 or $400. I want the less than 50 products that I'm going to buy, all of them to be at a discounted price. Consistently lower prices. I appreciate your insight. Thank you, Barry.

Thanks, Clinton. Barry Urquhart from Marketing Focus. So for Coles, it's 307 products down for just 12 weeks, and they are staples by an average of 19%. For Woolworths, it'll be in the vicinity of 400. But what do you prefer? Do you like to see those one-off savings or consistently, as Barry explains, consistently lower prices? You can share your experience with me, 131873.

And we've got the latest Josh Bryant. Good afternoon, Clinton. 22 people in Nigeria have been arrested in an international sting-on-stick sextortion scammers, including two who are believed to have been linked to the suicide of a 16-year-old Australian. Erin Patterson has been called to give evidence in her murder trial in Victoria, accused of poisoning her in-laws with a meal containing death-capped mushrooms.

The Prime Minister won't be drawn on whether Australia will further increase its defence spending amid pressure from the United States to do so. And the latest data from the Anti-Scam Centre says there's been a 28% increase in financial losses to scams despite a drop in overall reports.

In sport, Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell's retired from one day international cricket to focus on Australia's campaign to win the T20 World Cup next year. We'll have more news in sport at five. Thank you, Josh. 17 degrees on the coast, 15 degrees in Campbelltown at the moment. Quite overcast across much of Sydney at the moment. Look, hopefully those skies clear up.

up for tonight because the Aurora should be expected to be seen across much of Sydney again tonight. I don't know if you saw it last night, I missed it, but there was a wonderful pink glow on

off Sydney's beaches, and you could see this all the way from Cooma through to Tamworth. This is quite a spectacular sight. It's a solar storm that's raging on the aurora, but if the overcast conditions continue this evening, you might not be able to see that. I just want to cross to Simon. Simon's in Lidcombe with a bit of a drama on the roads. Hello, Simon. G'day, Clinton. I've got a car break down. He's on St. Hill. He's facing northbound just before Parramatta Road.

Okay, so you're on Parramatta Road. Sorry, you're just near Parramatta Road, are you? Yeah, I'm actually on St Hilliard going towards Parramatta Road. But he's actually just about 500 metres from Parramatta Road on St Hilliard. Okay, is he causing any delays there yet? Oh, yeah, because he's blocking two lanes. So he's really down to one lane.

Oh, right. Well, was he merging between two lanes at the time or something, was he? Well, I think you... I spoke to the guy. He said he had a bit of road... There was some road rage and the guy's taking his keys. What? I don't know. And he's also asking for a tow. He's asking me if I could organise a tow. Hang on. So, hang on. The driver of the car, somebody's taking his keys when he's stuck. Yeah.

Well, that's what he said to me, yeah, because I'm in a truck, so he's just over the side door to let me know. And he was asking for a towey to get him out of off the road to the side. And he mentioned that he had a row raised and somebody's taking his keys, apparently. He's got no power steering, apparently. Well, he can't drive the car without keys either. Simon, thanks for letting us know about that. We'll actually check that with the police. So St Hilly's Road, Lidcombe, just before you're coming onto Parramatta Road, you've got someone in a car there,

who has no keys. Very difficult to drive your car without any keys. We'll speak with the police about that because from what Simon's telling us, who's a truck driver, there was some sort of road rage incident and the bloke has lost his set of keys. Quite bizarre.

You want to know what's happening in Sydney? Stay tuned to Sydney Now with Clinton Maynard on TGV. 25 to 5, a little earlier on the program, I was talking about the new tourism campaign that's been launched for New South Wales. And this is a campaign that doesn't feature our icons because it's trying to encourage people from interstate to come to Sydney.

And based on the research that's been conducted by Destination NSW, they've found that, well, people in the state, they've already seen the Opera House, they know all about the Harbour Bridge, so they're not going to come to Sydney for those icons. They need to come to Sydney to have an experience. Well, interestingly, a list has been released about beaches around the world, and this has actually found that two of our most famous beaches in Sydney are on the list of the most disappointing beaches across the globe.

The list of the top 20 most complained about beaches worldwide. Now, number one is Waikiki, followed by Hawaii, of course, followed by Venice Beach. But there are two Australian beaches, two Sydney beaches that are actually on this list. Bondi. Bondi Beach is ranked ninth most disappointing beach in the world.

Manly Beach is the 20th most disappointing beach in the world. How could Manly be one of the most disappointing beaches in the world when we had the pot of whales? Well, that was really around Manly Cove a little earlier in the harbour. Manly has scored up 47.4% because it has a high dirty score. Apparently there's a lot of concern about dirt in the water, dirty water, but also overcrowding and noise disruption.

But Bondi is even worse. It has an overcrowding percentage of 75.9% and noise disruption as well. So Bondi and Manly on the list of the 20 most complained about beaches in the world. On Sydney Now. You can't handle the truth. The Straight Shooter. The biggest issue in state politics this week is going to be the future of our workers' compensation schemes.

And that's because it's blown out. The reason it's blown out is because of claims for psychological injuries in the workplace, mental health issues. And it's the Labor government that actually wants to address this. And they want to make some significant changes where there'll be different tests that judge psychological industry. In fact, there could be a whole separate system to deal with this particular problem. And I wanted to talk to Craig Laundie, who's our straight shooter on Monday, about this one because...

He's in the world of business and small to medium business, but also he's a former Liberal MP. And there's a lot of pressure right now on the Liberal Party. Hello, Craig. G'day, Clinton. How are you? I'm good. The reason I say there's a lot of pressure on the Liberal Party is because as we go to air right now, there is a Shadow Cabinet meeting on. And during the Shadow Cabinet meeting, which is led by Mark Speakman, they are discussing legislation that's going to go to state parliament. This is Daniel Mookie, the Labor Treasurer's legislation.

We'll go to Parliament this week to make changes to the way workers' compensation, but particularly the way mental health claims are treated. The reason for this is, and this has been an issue for some years though, iCare being financially unsustainable. This is the main workers' compensation insurance body in New South Wales. So Daniel Mookie's had a look at it and he basically wants to change the way mental health is dealt with.

They say, the government says, if these changes aren't approved by Parliament, it will lead to a dramatic increase in premiums for businesses. It will hurt the taxpayer as well, that funds obviously public claims. At the moment, now, my information is that no decision, as we go to air right now, has been made by the Liberal Party and the Nationals about whether they'll support this legislation or not.

Now, when you think about it, it would be very much a Liberal Party core philosophy to support this change. It's like I'm living in a parallel universe. I mean, we've just come out of a federal election where they got delivered a message loud and clear, and you have a state opposition Liberal National Coalition government saying,

that are looking at turning their back. And let's put some numbers on this, Clinton. There's been a 26% increase in workers' comp insurance premiums over the past three years. And it is forecast that the next three years, if the system is left unabated, there will be 36% increase. And it's just how you could not... And every major employer in the country...

is calling on the Libs and the Nats who are... Those people are the Libs and the Nats core constituents. Now, if you don't run a small business, you don't work in the management of a medium-sized business or a large business, you probably don't have a clue about this, but workers' compensation premiums are paid by every business. It's compulsory to have workers' compensation insurance. So if the premiums go up,

That's going to increase the costs of every single business in our state, which is going to be passed on to our listeners. It's passed on. And this system is so bad, Clinton, in its design, that when you incur the cost...

it's added to your premium for the following three years by the insurance company. So this is a cost that is borne four times by business, once a year, once at the start, and then for the following three years. And no one gets that. And the drama I've got is the people sitting around the shadow cabinet table today, this afternoon, and the parallel universe thing, it's the Labor Party that is making sense yet again on a key economic issue.

uh issue that should be bread and butter for the libs and the gnats i've got a quote here from mark speakman held a press conference mid-afternoon and he was asked about what the position would be of shadow cabinet on this he said we will do our very best this afternoon as a shadow cabinet and tomorrow in a joint party room so the liberals and nationals meet on the first day of parliament for the week tomorrow to dissect the issue and announce our position

So they haven't come to a position yet. Which is crazy. And they're hiding behind the fig leaf that this is being foist upon them. Everyone knows this system has been broken. No one's been prepared. It was broken when they were in power. 100%. And they weren't prepared to do anything. Here's a Labor government. Daniel Mookie is Treasurer, prepared to do something.

But they're also saying, oh, they want an inquiry. Here's an idea, Clinton. They are the opposition. They sit in the lower house and the upper house. If you don't like what's been presented to you in the last week, make amendments. Use the parliamentary process to make it better. And maybe that's what they're discussing right at the moment.

moment maybe broadly they'll support but but with amendments now just to clarify well in today's AFR Damien Tudor Hope who was the shadow treasurer is talking about an inquiry an upper house inquiry and you know what look the Labor Party loves an inquiry right they call reviews and inquiries the drop of the hat but the Liberals aren't going to help themselves by doing that now just in case you haven't followed this over the last sort of couple of months because it's not

It's not particularly a sexy issue, but why I'm raising it is because if the premiums go up dramatically for business, it will affect all of us because we all interact with businesses and buy their goods and services. So it will mean things will go up in price.

Where the big increase in payouts is occurring is for psychological injuries. Now, I'm not downplaying mental health concerns whatsoever because most of us now have some sort of connection, whether it's with their own families or our loved ones who have dealt with these issues. It's a big grey area. It is difficult to judge. I don't want to downplay that. But there has been a dramatic increase in claims made through the workers' compensation scheme for people suffering these mental health injuries in the workplace. Now...

Your family, as we know, runs pubs. Pretty big, big organisation. I've no doubt you would have employees who have made claims for your insurance premiums, for your insurance coverage...

about mental health issues. Employers Mutual, and let me give some lived experience with how this system is being gamed. Employers Mutual is our employer. They recently pursued an ex-employee of ours who we were performance managing because she wasn't doing the job the way we wanted it done.

It wasn't aggressive, abusive. It was, hey, these are the way. These are the parameters. She then went on and claimed stress leave. She was on stress leave for an extended period of time. And just coincidentally, fortunately, I happened to learn that you wouldn't believe it, three suburbs away, she's working, running a hotel for my cousins. But I thought she was on stress leave. She was, collecting a cheque from us.

every week. Now, the employers mutual, at our request, they didn't want to pursue this. We made them pursue it because it would have stayed on our premium for three years. Now, it was sheer good fortune that we happened to find out she was working somewhere nearby. But,

But there is a prime example. And what did she claim? And this is the part, very technical, but Section 11A of the Act. It's where you cannot effectively performance manage your staff because the first thing they do is put up their hands. And we don't have all afternoon. I'm sure your listeners that have businesses out there will be dialing in between 5 and 6 and giving you their own lived experience.

But, you know, it has to be a fair income system, robust, that looks after absolutely the mental health of people, you know, in workplace environments. But it can't do that at the expense of throwing employers on the scrap heap. And where this is difficult is that, and again, I'm not trying to dismiss mental health issues, but if somebody breaks a leg in the workplace, it's actually really clear they've slipped on the banana that's been left on the kitchen floor. They've broken their leg.

If somebody is bullied in the workplace and then suffers a mental breakdown, it's actually really difficult to prove. So there's

There's no doubt these issues do exist in the workplace. We all know this is what happens. This has happened for generations. And we know we take these issues seriously now. But we also need to modernise the system so we can actually assess those problems fairly and so we're not ripping ourselves off. Because in the end, we're all ripping ourselves off because we end up paying more. We pay. But the other thing, Clinton, is these people...

at the time that are gaming the system are ultimately not thinking longer term. I mean, once you have this issue sitting against you as an employee, who do you think is going to hire you post this? I mean, you're basically unemployable because the insurer would be saying to the employer, no, we're not prepared to insure her because there's a pre-existing condition.

The system's broken and it just defies belief that the party of small and family business in this state is going to kick it down the road to an inquiry. If you don't like it, read it, come up with the amendments that are, I would hope, further strengthening 11a and make the system long-term sustainable. Peter on the text line says the government is causing him stress.

Yeah. You might be able to make a claim, Pete. Yeah, Pete, good luck. We'll cover that tomorrow because it will be an issue in state parliament tomorrow. Chris Minns today, I think he's become the first politician to actually make the obvious point, but politicians don't like making it, that the high excise on cigarettes, on tobacco, has led to the growth in the black market of tobacco. Now, again, obviously running pubs and clubs or pubs, you see smokers and they go to their specific area smoking, smoking.

What's your experience? I have, and I find this hard to believe, but I have a great friend of mine that is still a smoker.

And recently I asked her about this and she said, oh, yeah, no, I go, I used to pay the full freight, but I now go to the tobacconist and I said, have you got any cheaper options? And she's paying $17, $18, $19 for a pack of cigarettes. What is it? It's illegal chop chop. I mean, you can't have this. If you want to have excises at that high, you have to be fair dinkum and police it.

And there's no federal or, you know, and the state doesn't have the resources. They're frontline policing anyway. And Chris Minns has made the point today. At the moment, it's up to New South Wales Health. They have something like 12 inspectors. They're going to double it. But Chris Minns has said, look, in the budget, we are looking at whether we now transfer that policing power to the police force itself. And Clinton in the Fair Dinkum Department, again,

a lot of these politicians have never run a business, but how hard would it be to walk in as a government employee, be it state or federal, and say, can you explain to me, show me the invoices on how you got this tobacco that's sitting on your shelves or in the back storeroom? I mean, it wouldn't be rocket science, would it? It wouldn't be. I mean, we have proceeds of crime legislation where we confiscate criminals' cars, houses, jewellery, you name it, and we do it through forensic accounting. This isn't...

Complicated accounting. You don't need forensic accounting. No. There's a shop I drive past on a regular basis. It has a flashing sign saying vapes. Yes. They're not allowed to sell vapes. You've got to go to a pharmacist. That's what I'm saying. It defies belief. I mean, this is a frustrating segment this afternoon because the world is... We're living in a parallel universe. Well, let's lighten up. It was on this day, 1986, Queen's A Kind of Magic was released. It's a kind of magic. Great song. Magic. Magic. Magic. Begs the question, Craig...

What is the one album that you would never stop listening to? Look, I knew this was coming and you grow up, your formative years and you're older. I mean, is it Robbie Williams live at Nebsworth? But look, I just couldn't go by my mum, my dad playing Hot August Night live at the Greek on repeat in those formative years and I've become a Neil Diamond fan. Neil Diamond. Here he is.

Good Lord! Good Lord. Well, see, I might change the pace here. What have you got? I'm sort of into melancholic music, to be honest. That's really changing the pace. Favourite album of all time is Jeff Buckley's Grace. Oh, yeah.

And that's his version of Leonard Cohen's Hello You. There are some tracks on the album that are a little more up-tempo. I think it's 30 years this year since that album was released. Of course, he passed away because he went for a swim in the Mississippi River with his boots on. Yeah, never a good plan. Which is not ideal, hey? Thanks, Craig. Good on you, Clinton. Craig Laudy, our straight shooter for a Monday afternoon. This is Sydney Now with Clinton Maynard.

First week of winter and very dark around Sydney just after 5 o'clock. Make sure your lights are on in the car. 131873. Simon called us a little earlier in the program about a broken down car on St. Hillier's Road near Parramatta Road. Very busy at this time of the day. And unfortunately, the car is blocking two lanes. Now, Simon spoke to the driver and the driver said somebody took his keys. It was a road raid incident. We've just spoken to the police off their...

They don't have any reports of keys being stolen. They've suggested perhaps the keys have been misplaced. Perhaps the keys have been lost. Our traffic crews and transport crews are now on the scene that are diverting traffic around that car. A six-teen age boy has now been charged over the brawl we told you about a few weeks ago in the northern suburbs. This occurred at Northbridge. It was a Saturday night a few weeks back in the first week of May. It was a community fireworks event.

And a brawl broke out involving a stack of teenagers. Officers were told a 17-year-old boy was assaulted by a group of teens. He had suffered facial injuries, was taken to Royal North Shore Hospital. Five teenagers have been charged so far. Well, another teenage boy has been arrested today. A 16-year-old was arrested at Roseville, taken to Chatswood Police Station. He's been charged with a fray and common assault. He has been given conditional bail. He'll appear before the Children's Court on the 24th of June.

You're listening to Sydney Now with Clinton Maynard on 2GB. Call now 131 873. It's eight past five. I think the job of opposition leader, either at a state or federal level, when one of the two major parties has had a thumping at an election, the job of opposition leader after that election I think is one of the hardest in the country. It is particularly difficult when commentators give an opposition very little chance of winning the following election.

It's even harder when the leader of an opposition that is a coalition ends up splitting when that coalition splits only a few days into the job. Well, hats off to Susan Lee. She has managed to bring the coalition back together and she now faces the even bigger challenge of taking on a stronger Labor Party with a bigger majority in federal parliament. Well, today, Ms Lee has toured parts of the flood-devastated mid-north coast and Hunter Valley, which we broadcast from last week. We were broadcasting from Taree last week.

And well done to Susan Lee for making that visit. She's in Raymond Terrace at the moment. Because I think what is critical...

is that politicians in particular don't forget about the flood victims. And too often for us in the city, it's easy once we move on, and there are other stories to talk about, it's easy to forget about the suffering that our fellow Aussies do go through in these natural disasters. And it's important for politicians to actually see the extent of damage. And Susan Lee has done that today, and she joins us on the program. Thank you for your time, Ms. Lee. Thank you.

It's a pleasure, Clinton. It's great to join you and your listeners. I know you've only been in the job, obviously, for a couple of weeks and there's been plenty of attention on the dramas that you've been dealing with. But well done for checking out what's occurred in the north of our state in New South Wales. What have you seen today?

so important that I do and so important that everyone who has the privilege of representing any part of this great country takes the time to get out listen learn understand and then advocate so what I saw in Taree was small businesses that were just devastated I also checked in on Port Macquarie and I'm here in Raymond Terrace but the small businesses in Taree are just just

Is the government doing enough?

Look, I don't want to point the finger needlessly at the government, but my job as opposition leader, our job as an opposition is always to hold the government to account. We have to be the strongest possible opposition to do that. There are levels of disaster recovery payment. Everyone is waiting for grade C and D to be announced. And this sort of comes and goes between the New South Wales and the federal government.

And what people said to me today was, you know, we're sick of the excuses. It's these people, no, it's those people, no, we're waiting for this to happen. Can we please just get it done and get some more help? Because even that help isn't going to solve everyone's problems. But if it's a payment and you're a small business and, you know, you just don't know how to pay the bills that are coming into your household...

This money is needed urgently. So one of the takeaways for me is to go back to the prime minister and his emergency services minister. I'm not going to automatically assume they're doing the wrong thing, but I'm going to ask the tough questions, Clinton, because these people need help.

We've got newly elected Alison Penfold. She's our member of parliament there. She hasn't actually had her seat officially signed off and she's everywhere supporting this community and working incredibly hard. And she said to me today, I'm getting pretty cranky because I need some action.

I saw that and I felt that myself. What do you think we do though long term in these areas which are prone to flood? And Taree suffered floods in 2021, not on the scale of Lismore, but they did suffer floods. So many areas are going to be deemed uninsurable. Do you think we need some sort of government intervention for some particular parts of our country that are prone to natural disasters to have some sort of government insurance scheme?

We need every level of government working constructively together to do this. And I'd like to see what I saw following the Lismore floods, which I saw soon after we came into opposition in 2022. And that is an approach by New South Wales, which was under us as Liberals, that

puts a fund in place, puts a process in place, recognises everyone can't automatically move back into the same location. They may not want to. It may be too flood prone for the future and actually has a well-structured response. So you're not simply just covering a loss and waiting for a disaster to happen again. We do have to do better. Look, I have to say that that is happening. That

is the approach to natural disasters that the country is moving to with emergency management, resilience, recovery. I'm always watching with all this stuff, Clinton, to make sure there's not too much bureaucracy and red tape tying it all up in knots. When people need help, they need it straight away and they can't wait. And we need to get beyond Band-Aid. So look, on to some other issues. You were being criticised for demoting women from the right, the right of the party, in your shadow cabinet, in your shadow ministry.

If I can just deal with a couple of them. Jane Hume, did she do something to upset you? Was it the work-from-home policy, the way she handled that during the campaign? Not at all. And she and others are enormously talented, women and men, in my party room. And I spoke to all 54 of them before I announced the shadow ministry and I made it clear that everyone has a role to play. She will be a senator for Victoria going forward. Others will have carriage of...

Policy, debates and many important issues. I often say it doesn't matter where you sit in the House of Representatives or the Senate, you can make a difference. Have you spoken to her though since she was effectively demoted? Because I mean, she spoke on television late last week and says she's straightening up her tiara and getting on with it.

I've spoken to the colleagues many times and... Not colleagues, Ms Hume, though. Well, I certainly spoke to her and we had a detailed conversation around the time of the announcement of the shadow ministry, as you would expect me to do, and I spoke to her before that and I spoke to all of the colleagues before that. And the important thing here is that I said, as opposition leader, I would do things differently. It's a new parliament, it's a new term of government...

I selected a front bench to meet the challenges that we will face. But that is not in any way to take away from the skills, the talents, the tenacity of every single member of my party room. Because, Clinton, being in opposition, you've got to have everyone on the field. It's not a sort of hierarchical top-down exercise. We all have to listen from the grassroots up and everyone has to play their part.

So, you know, we're here to work hard for the Australian people, every single one of us. Was Jacinta Price, I know she still has a role, but it's effectively she's been demoted to the outer ministry, outer shadow. Was she demoted to pacify nationals who were angry about her defection to the lips?

Not at all. I mean, she has a really important role. She proved herself as an amazing communicator and we would all remember her during the voice campaign. I was delighted to welcome Jacinta into our Liberal Party party room. She now has a role in defence industry and personnel working with Angus Taylor and this is...

critical area for this country for the future we're not doing defense well under the albanese government we have to do it better and my team including jacinta angus phil thompson will actually really get this right for the future of our country on defense there's the story today that the americans through the meetings that have been conducted in singapore say that we should be spending three and a half percent of gdp on defense which would be a 40 billion dollar a year increase uh

The Prime Minister has responded to that. He's given no commitment. Should we increase spending to 3.5% GDP?

We should be increasing our defence spending Clinton because people like Serangis Houston who completed the Defence Strategic Review, organisations like the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, these are really, really, really smart individuals with great analytical minds. They tell us to, not by the way because the Americans tell us, but because it's in our national interest to do so. And we're not spending enough right now to defend ourselves.

A couple of final questions for you and appreciate your time while you're travelling through the flood zone in Raymond Terrace. I've just seen the latest information from the AEC on the count for Bradfield. I'm intrigued to know whether you've been given any further detail from the Liberal scrutineers on the ground. Giselle Kapturian is now behind Nicolette Buller by 25 votes in the recount. Do you have any further information?

I don't. It's the recount that we all see at the same time, Clinton. Giselle is an outstanding candidate, a brilliant woman, and would be incredibly welcome in our party room. I do hope she gets there. I have everything crossed. It's very, very close. The gap is actually growing. I've got to ask you this one.

And I can understand what your response is going to be, but are you a placeholder? I've got a message from Michael here. Michael says, look, Susan Lee, Michael's a former Liberal voter, is going to be Australia's Liz Truss, won't be around too long. And unfortunately, often after big election defeats, that's what happens to some opposition leaders. Will you still be there in three years' time?

Yes, I will. Clinton, it's the greatest honour of my life to have been selected in a ballot in my party room to be the leader of the Liberal Party. I've been in Parliament 25 years and I've often been underestimated. I flew aerial mustering planes in Western Queensland in my 20s and no one thought I could do that and I...

picked up 800 fleeces a day running up and down the board in a shed near St George in Western Queensland too in 40 degree heat and no one thought I could do that. And I studied when my three children were small on the family farm and took my baby to work in a capsule so that I could get the qualifications needed to support my family. And I don't mind if people underestimate me. That's their business. I'm here to do a job. But most importantly, I'm here to do the job that we need to do as a tough opposition and

to hold the government to account and work very hard every single day for the communities like the ones I'm visiting today. I'm just getting so many questions from our listeners coming in, so I won't take up much more of your time. But Craig asks, can you ask Ms Lee about net zero? Will you cancel net zero?

We have to get energy policy right. So there's two things. We have to play our part in reducing global emissions, but not at any cost and certainly not at the cost of a stable, reliable energy grid. And so when will you make a decision on that future policy for net zero? We'll take our time. We'll work through the policy. It's three years to an election. So we're going to get this right. Just lastly, Mr Dutton, I know you've been gracious in your praise to Mr Dutton throughout the last couple of weeks, but he has suffered a significant loss leading the coalition in the last month.

What is one significant thing that you would do differently to Peter Dutton in the next term? We're going to have a detailed review and find out what went wrong, where and how, and how to do better. So I do want to say that first, Clinton, because it's not the case that we all know the answers immediately. But I said that the modern Liberal Party needs to respect...

modern Australia, reflect modern Australia and represent modern Australia. So we have to meet people where they are. And everywhere I go, I talk to people. I listen to them. I ask them what they're thinking. And that feeds into the policy development, which means we will get it right next time. I hope Liberal Party supporters give you a go. Thank you for your time, Susan.

Thank you so much. Susan Lee, who is the new opposition leader. If you've got some thoughts on Ms Lee so far, how she's performed, let us know. 131 873. 23 past five. When you see something on Sydney's roads that we need to know about, send me a text message 0460 873 873 or give me a call. Angela's done just that. Hey, Angela, what have you seen? I was just coming home from

from Ashfield going down the back of Enfield and I was overtaken by quite a few police cars, some undercover, and they're all heading to a street just running parallel to Coronation Parade. I think it's Talimba Street. Okay. And there's a whole congregation of them at the end of that street just before you get to George's River Road. Okay. In a big hurry. Okay, so it's just behind Coronation Parade, which is going to be pretty busy, isn't it? That's right. So that's near the Flower Power? Yeah.

Yeah, not far from Flowerpile. I was driving past Flowerpile when the first one overtook me. They're going down Burwood Road, just all in that area around Enfield. Oh, OK. My producer has just been in contact with the police. They've confirmed there is an operation now underway in Enfield. We don't have any more details.

But obviously, if there's about six police cars headed there, it's reasonably significant. So there is a police operation underway in Enfield. Hey, thanks for letting us know about it, Angela. 131873. I'm getting lots of messages still about albums that if there was one album left that you'd listen to for the rest of your life, what would it be? Because Craig Laundie, just before five o'clock, nominated Hot August Night from Neil Diamond. I'll come to some of your nominations a little later. But just after my discussion with Susan Lee, some feedback here from Steve. G'day, Steve.

What do you make of Susan Lee? Are there particular policies that you think she needs to be strong about? Yep.

industrial relations but if she wants to become a Labor light and try and win the Greens vote and stuff like that, she'll fail. No, and look, there's no point doing that because they're not going to win the far left but the argument is they probably need to return to the centre. Matt says, and thank you for your call, Matt says, I think Ms Lee needs to have a conversation with Matt Canavan about references to net zero. She does not have three years. She needs to start making her mind up now. Peter's in Monavel. G'day Peter.

G'day, Clinton. Susan, unimpressed. She did nothing for James Brown here. But when you were talking about workers' comp earlier, this is what the Liberals let it go on and now Labor. This is federally and the state government. Every bit of super, I'm a small business. Every bit of super I pay myself and I pay my own. I'm self-employed, a proprietary limited employer.

The state government classes it as wages and I have to pay the eye care tariff on that. The premium for workers' comp, yeah.

No one can get that. Why isn't she doing something about that? That's an additional cost. Well, it is. And that's something that the state Liberal Party needs to start addressing. And so they've had a cabinet, a shadow cabinet meeting this afternoon. And then there'll be another meeting tomorrow with the nationals because there's legislation is going to go before state parliament this week to start trying to deal with that. But I know it's a complex issue that involves the feds as well. Twenty six past five.

And Josh Bryant with the latest. Good afternoon, Clinton. WA Senator Dorinda Cox has announced a surprise defection, leaving the Greens to join Labor. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirming she'll be admitted as a Labor member tomorrow. A sixth teenager has now been charged over a brawl in Sydney's North Shore last month, which left a 17-year-old with facial injuries...

Doctors are issuing a fresh warning about the run-it-straight trend where people run at each other at high speed to replicate high-impact tackles. Fans were spotted taking part in the activity during the Manler game at Brookvale over the weekend. And a global study has found working with a personal trainer can have a major effect on your risk of developing a new or recurrent cancer. Researchers followed colon cancer patients for 17 years...

Finding structured exercise reduced the cancer risk by 28% and also improved survival rates. In sport of huge blow for the Blues and the Warriors, confirmation prop Mitch Barnett has ruptured his ACL and will be out for the rest of the season. We'll have more news in sport at six. 15 degrees in the city, 13 degrees in the west. The ferries now running on time. Yes, they've recovered after they had to slow down because of the three humpback whales that were discovered near Manly.

A finance update. Deb Knight hosting Money News from 7 o'clock tonight. Hello, Deb. Hello to you, Clinton. How good that we have whales frolicking in the harbour. Just phenomenal. First week of winter, they're making their migration north. Apparently the marine biologists I spoke to earlier in the program, this is what they do, they pop their head in to see if it's maybe a quiet spot.

So she's popped her head in, decided, no, this ain't a quiet spot. I'm going to continue north. Yeah, wise move. The Whale Highway getting busier by the day. How did the markets fare today? The markets were down today. Off the back of the tariff announcement from Donald Trump where he slugged the steel and aluminium imports 50%, the wave of tariff fear impacted markets, including our own. The ASX 200 started lower. It stayed there. It closed off by 0.2%, 20 points lower to 8,414.

Energy was the worst sector. It was down 1.4%. The oil price also went backwards. And the tariffs didn't help our dollar either. It's dropped back from last week. It's now worth about 64.7 US cents. AI use is getting serious. The Business Council released a report today on how Australia can actually make it to the top of the AI tree. Yeah, it's interesting because AI, artificial intelligence, we know is being held up as the answer to our productivity problems, the big revolution in technology that it does offer.

But the business council's warning that we need to make sure we don't bring in really tight rules and regulations. They argue that if we act out of fear, we could shut down the kind of experimentation that could fix a lot of the productivity problems that we're trying to solve in the first place. So they're warning the government to really ensure that the mandatory guardrails that they consider, because the government's yet to make a decision on AI rules and regulations,

Bear in mind that we need to ensure we don't hold business back, but we need to also regulate to some degree. We can't let it go free fall because it could lead to other problems as well. Now, this is a good topic. IMAX is releasing plans to win people back to their cinemas, the big screen, because streaming services may be seeing people make a decision to stay at home rather than go to the cinema.

Well, that's right. And IMAX, we've already got the great IMAX cinema in Sydney. There's four IMAX cinemas around the country already, but they want to expand it to nine by 2027. They're not cheap, the big IMAX cinemas. They're four times the size of the average cinema screen. They're about $1.5 million each, the IMAX cinema screens. But IMAX is...

and the other rivals of the same view, Hoyts and Village, they've also opened big screen cinemas, that if you offer this big experience with big pictures, big sound, as well as the whole enticement of people, you pay big dollars to see an IMAX movie as well, that you'll be more likely to go along and see those blockbuster films than sit at home on the couch and watch it on the streaming services. But I guess you've got to offer something more, don't you? Because in this day and age where you've got, say, an 80...

inch TV at home. A lot of people do these days. They do, yes. It's enticing just to stay home. But, you know, we're of the same vintage. We recall back in the 80s when the VCR was launched, everybody said this will be the death of the cinema. And it wasn't. People still liked to go out. And pity the people who got the beta.

The Betamax. The Betamax, hey, that old debate. I must admit, I haven't been to the movies probably for nine months or so. And I thought about taking the family a couple of weeks ago, just actually to do something on a weekend. When?

Went through what was on. There wasn't much on, so I didn't end up doing it. But I just put the ticket prices on. It was going to be more than $100 before popcorn or anything just to take the three kids. And that's it. You want to ensure that it is worth the bang for the buck for the cinema experience. And IMAX is hoping that they will ensure that they can get bums on seats, literally, because people going to cinemas is on the decline, not just here in Australia, but all around the world. Obviously.

IMAX Formula One movie is being released this month. That'll get you to the cinema. I'm going to go to see that on IMAX. Yeah, good one. Deb Knight will be hosting Money News from 7 o'clock tonight. Hello, Deb. Thanks, Clinton.

On Sydney Now, a weather update. We'll be here to help in unexpected weather. NRMA Insurance, a health company. Well, you will find it starts to get very chilly at this time of the day now for the next few months. 15 degrees at the moment in the city. It is 13 degrees in the western suburbs. It will remain dry this evening, though, but it is cloudy. So if you're looking...

Maybe to spot the aurora. You might not see it this evening. Tomorrow, partly cloudy day. There is the chance of showers by the evening, maybe even a late storm late. 20 degrees at the top for tomorrow. For Wednesday, cloudy with a shower or two and 16. Mostly sunny, though, by Thursday. Partly cloudy on Friday.

Sydney Now with Clinton Maynard. If it's happening in your city, you'll hear it on Sydney Now 2GB. I've been looking forward to talking to MG Mark Guy this afternoon because I'm back in business with the tips. Hello, MG. Hello, Clinton. Happy Monday, my friend. How are you, buddy? Well, I'm good because I tipped five out of seven this week. Yeah. Celebration. Well done, buddy. That's nice. I'm back. Yeah, I got five as well, I think. Because I tipped your mob. I tipped Penrith against Parra.

Good game. It was actually a really good game yesterday afternoon, wasn't it? The whole round was good. Just a bit of breaking news. It has been confirmed and some devastating news that Mitch Barnett has ruptured his ACL and will be out for the rest of the season. So that's bad news for the Warriors because he is the co-captain. And bad news for the New South Wales Blues. They've got probably three to pick from. Toy Gamono,

Terrell May or Calum Antonghi from South Sydney will take his spot. So devastating news for both the Warriors and the Blues, mate. Big news in cricket today. Glenn Maxwell is retiring from one day's Nationals. Yeah, the big show. What an entertainment machine he is. 36-year-old. He's effective immediately. He says he'll still be available for T20s with the World Cup limited next year. But he's a bit of Glenn Maxwell at his best. It's on their feet.

Good next goal. And believe me, most remarkable thing you'll probably ever see in cricket. Staggering. Absolutely mind-blowing. What a win. And he should not have to walk off the park. He should be carried off. That was his 201 against Afghanistan to win the game. Now, he played with a broken leg, didn't he there? Oh, was it cramps? He was stuffed, basically. That's why he said he should be carried off the field there, Ian Smith.

Yeah, and all his shots were so unconventional that he was hitting sixes with the back of the bat. It was one of the most phenomenal things you'll ever see in your life, and I don't think we'll ever see anything like it. But he's been a wealth of entertainment over the last 13 years, and he's still available for the Red Bull, but unfortunately I think that boat sailed, but we might still see him at the TNR.

at the T20 World Cup next year, buddy. Yeah, I'd say so. And you keep playing IPL because that's where all the money is. Very late last night, I received a text message from our colleague John Stanley from the night show here. And he said to me, I think in jest, there's nothing on TV. Well, he missed this. Drama everywhere you look. No dramas for Oscar Piastri, who wins his fifth grand.

That is Oscar Piastri. He is potentially our next world champion, I reckon, MJ?

I think he's just a joy to watch and a joy to hear. He's a very humble young man. So that's his fifth for the year. Where does that compare to some of our greats, like Alan Jones's and Mark Webber's? So he's now won a total of seven Grand Prix. I think he's one behind Daniel Ricciardo, two or three behind Mark Webber, who's his manager. But if you compare it to previous Australian world champions...

The only other Australians who've won five GPs in a year were Alan Jones and Jack Brabham. Both won the world championships in those years.

Oh, yeah. He's how good is he? He's a breath of fresh air, isn't he? I love him. He's such a good bloke. You know, I'm quite a fan of the sport, Mark, but what jumps out about this bloke is how cool he is and calm. He doesn't overreact. And where that's critical is because where they get it under a lot of pressure, you keep your head or then you perform well. Now, his main opponent's within his team, Lando Norris, who's actually prone to making mistakes. The other bloke is the four-time world champion, Max Verstappen.

He's got one point. He's got one point. Well, so Max Verstappen, he was playing roller derby out there. He thought he was in dodging cars. He thought he was in Happy Days of the Malachi Crunch.

Hey, just before I get on to the big drama you're facing at the moment, Kerry asked an interesting question here on the text line, MG. She is saying, is it fair that Lockie Galvin is able to accrue a Dally M points when he played for the Tigers? And given they were lower down the ladder with probably fewer star plays, he might have been gathering a lot of points and then goes to the Bulldogs where he's playing in a star-studded team that's the top. Is that all fair? Yeah.

Oh, look, when it goes to the Bulldogs, as you say, or as Kerry says, it's a star-studded team. So points will be a lot harder to get for him because he's got, you know, five or six other blokes in the team who are higher calibre than him. Yeah.

It might be hard to win points playing for the Dogs. Yeah, 100%. Did you see the subtle swipe he had at Benji and the Tigers on his interview? I did. Just for those Tigers fans, put him in the bank round 22. Tigers take on the Bulldogs at Conbank Stadium. Do you know what stuck out of me with the interview that he did for the Bulldogs website?

His haircut. Goodness me. He looked like Jim Carrey at a Dumb and Dumber. He's on $750,000 a year. You'd think he could afford a barber. He did. Oh, hello. Are you going to Austria? It's not a good look.

Like, he's got great parents. Mum, Dad. That's the look these days. It all happens at the back, nothing at the front. Now, I'm very concerned, MG. You're not feeling too well. Mate, I'm like half of Sydney at the moment. I've had a big week last week, up to the origin and back, and then had a plan for an 18th birthday. And then I mingled on a dance floor with 118-year-olds on Saturday night, and I think I might have caught something off one of them.

Oh, you've picked up COVID or something, have you? Oh, I don't know. I've just spoken to Benny, our producer, and I told him that I've got no taste and I've got the aching bones all over, so I'll get one of them tested. I didn't think COVID was still a thing. No, it's still a thing. I know a couple of people have had it the last couple of weeks. Yeah, I'll get one of the tests tomorrow and I'll let you know, buddy. Do we need some remedies for you, MG?

Well, I already... Look, one of my old ones is I put Vicks on my feet and put socks over them when I go to bed tonight. I still remember when I was a little kid getting the Vicks from mum. It was so ticklish. Oh, on the chest? Yes. I didn't like it. It works. It works. So you're looking for someone to apply some Vicks? Yes, please. 131873. Let's talk. Have you got some...

Cold and flu remedies for MG will take your calls. MG, we'll talk tomorrow if you're well enough. Good on you, buddy. Love you, mate. 131M... Vicks just makes me laugh.

Do you remember the VIX when you were a little kid? Do they still use VIX? I haven't had VIX for years. Do adults have VIX? Not sure. Okay, time for Clinton's quiz. You know how this works. I need two contestants. If you'd like to play the quiz this evening, 131873, good prize. We've got a $500 Winston blinds voucher. You can upgrade and save with Winston with VIX.

with a Y. Get 25% off motorised blinds, curtains and awnings. Book now, winston.com.au. But I have a $500 Winston with a Y voucher to give away. If you'd like to play, 131873. This news is breaking. Police have just told us a man has been arrested after a body was located at a home in Sydney's south-west.

Just in the last half an hour or so, the emergency services have been called to a home on Kembla Street, Croydon Park. They received a call, a concern for welfare call. Police have inside the house found the body of a man. That man has not been identified, but it's believed the man is aged in his 50s.

It appears the man had been stabbed. A 32-year-old man has been arrested at the scene. That man has been taken to Burwood Police Station. A crime scene has been established. There's now an investigation. So at this point, no charges have been laid. Very little is known about what's occurred, but this has just happened in the last half an hour. A body has been found inside a home, Kembler Street, Croydon Park. There had been a call about a concern for welfare.

A man who's believed to be aged in his 50s has not yet been identified. A man has been stabbed to death. A 32-year-old man has now been arrested. 131873, random fact of the day for the 2nd of June. It was on this day a very famous Australian brand changed its name. Look at me, I'll be all I need to.

That's right, Vegemite actually dumped its name on this day, 1927. They decided that it would be in their best interests, the makers of Vegemite at the time, to call the spread Parwil. Didn't go too well, Parwil, P-A-R-W-I-L-L, so they decided it would be wise to change it back to Vegemite.

Time to expand your minds. You may begin 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. Let's play the quiz for a Monday evening. We have a good prize to give away this evening. It's a $500 voucher for Winston's Blinds. Winston with a Y. 25% off motorised blinds, curtains, awnings as well. Book now, winston.com.au.

We're going to play this one all week as well. Guy joins us in Pimble. Hello, Guy. Hello. Guy, I hope you've got your thinking cap on. And Kiralee in Rockdale. Hello, Kiralee. Hi. You can go first, Kiralee, okay? Fantastic. Your 30 seconds starts now. True or false, the Raiders defeated the Roosters yesterday in the NRL? True. Correct. Which famous Australian bush ranger was known for his armour?

Ned Kelly. Correct. I think they all had armour. Cosmo Kramer is a character from which TV show? Seinfeld. Correct. Which Australian state is the smallest in terms of land size? Tasmania. Correct. I thought that was actually pretty easy and you got it right eventually, Kiralee. You've got four. You're doing well. All right, Guy, your 30 seconds starts now. Which three colours are on the Irish flag?

Red, sorry, orange, white and green. Correct. Glenn Maxwell is associated with which sport? Cricket. Correct. Was the first skateboard manufactured in 1959 or 69? 59. Correct. At what Grand Prix did Oscar Piazzeri last claim a win? Yesterday. Have a go. The Spanish Grand Prix last night. Bad luck, Guy. Kiraly, you're a winner.

We're going to send you out a voucher for Winston blinds. You can book now, winston.com.au. Winston with a Y. 25% off motorised blinds, curtains and awnings. Congratulations, Kiralee. Thank you.

We've been taking calls about albums that you could not live without. I've had a couple of nominations for this one. Claudine says the album would be The Joshua Tree by U2. It's up there with me as well. Carmel says two albums I'd choose, Morrison Hotel from The Doors and also The Eagles' Greatest Hits. Oh, that's a... Can you include Greatest Hits? I guess so. Mark says, well, what about this? Album of a lifetime. It would have to be Rumours by Fleetwood Mac. Oh, the girl only, hey, only.

Ooh, good suggestion, Mark. Rumour's probably the biggest Fleetwood Mac album of all time. So MG is a little bit sick and he's going to use some Vicks and I wondered whether adults actually use Vicks. Well, they certainly do. Josh says, I'm 48, still use Vicks whenever I'm sick or have bad sinus. Graeme says, I use Vicks every night. It's great for my sinus problems. A man who loves Vicks...

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It seems it is still popular to have a Vicks rub all over your chest when you're a bit sick. What, in the shape of a V, like they used to with Dad? I don't go that far, mate. Those nasal sprays are pretty... Are they nasal sprays? Yeah, they've got the Vicks name on them. Yeah, yeah. Look, I actually have the Vicks throat lozenge occasion. Yes. That works. Yeah, they do the job, mate. They do the job. What about your ears? Yeah, look, they had a crack. It's actually a good game. It was a good game. Good, tough Western Derby. They had a crack. They weren't good enough. Didn't take their chances. The Panthers, have they turned the corner? That's the question. Lindsay Smith's coming on.

their front rower to talk about that and their upcoming clash with their old teammate Jerome Luai, which would be a great clash there at Combank Stadium. So the Panthers, they're off the bottom of the ladder. Lindsay Smith could find himself in contention for a Blues jersey because Mitchell Barnett, unfortunately, is out with an ACL. So he's missed the rest of the season.

We'll also have New South Wales Swifts coach Bryony Akel on the show. They're 8 from 8 in Super Netball. The Swifts, they are flying. And Craig Gabriel will join us from Roland Garros to talk about the French Open Day 9 and Aussie in action tonight. Just before you go, Horsey, you are a very stylish looking man. Wonderful haircut. What did you make of Lachlan Galvin's haircut? Yeah, there's some great memes around with Jim Carrey from Dumber Dumber at bat.

It's fantastic. But that's what the kids like these days. Horsies coming up with Wildwood of Sports. The latest from the AEC, Nicolette Buller is now 28 votes ahead of Giselle Kapturian in the recount for the seat of Bradfield. Don't forget Deb Knight with Money News from 7 o'clock tonight before John Stanley at 8. Thank you for your company over the past few hours. We'll do it all again tomorrow. That's Sydney Now.