Australia by Night with Stephen Cenatiempo Podcast: Recent Episodes
Australia by Night with Stephen Cenatiempo
Tonight Stephen gets the 8 golden rules of surviving the office Christmas party from Karen Gately from Corporate Dojo
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Are you across the story about Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor apparently reading a doctored document in Parliament suggesting Sydney City Council staff were spending stupid amounts of money on travel?
Apparently, the document vastly overestimated the amounts but not the substance of the claim that they’re wasting public money.
Well surprise, surprise, in an attempt to score political points, the Opposition reported it to Police. Isn’t that the waste of resources?
More importantly, they want the Minister to stand down. Of course, they do. What hypocrisy after they protected the likes of Craig Thomson and Sam Dastyari for as long as they did!
What’s more, now they’re making a big deal of the PM calling the NSW Police Minister to enquire about the investigation.
Is this the biggest beat up in political history, or am I missing something?
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Part 3 of 4 of Bill Bradley's drought crisis video series! Stephen caught up with him tonight for a chat.
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Well, it’s been 20 years since Australia held the republican referendum. Resoundingly, we voted no to ditching the Constitutional Monarchy that has served us so well since Federation. But a lot has changed since 1999.
Many of us have lost faith in the system. I’m not sure that has anything to do with the system itself but probably more the people in charge of the system at the moment.
The Royals are not the beacon of light they might once have been. The Queen remains a pillar of grace and integrity, but her kids and grand kids leave a bit to be desired. Look at her third child for goodness’ sake?
So is it time to revisit the debate?
I voted no last time and would probably vote no again. Last time I objected to the model and the people running the republican campaign. This time, I wouldn’t trust the current mob to get it right either.
If you voted no last time? Why? Was it the model? Was it the people pushing it? Because today, we have not only Malcolm Turnbull waving the republican flag, but also Peter FitzSimons, Anthony Albanese and Richard Di Natale! It hasn’t improved at all, has it?
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Australia By Night Techguide, with Stephen Fenech from techguide.com.au
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From the beginning, I didn’t hold much hope for the Banking Royal Commission. I thought it would be expensive, I thought it would be long and drawn out, I thought we already knew the banks were dodgy but most of all I didn’t think it would achieve any meaningful outcome.
My own bank, Westpac has proved me right.
After being found to have breached money laundering laws 23 million times. The bosses said “nothing to see here”. Even an hour before he finally resigned, CEO Brian Hartzer told his board he didn’t think the general public cared that his bank had, most probably unwittingly, facilitated paedophiles and purveyors of child pornography. How out of touch are these people?
What’s more galling is that old mate will walk away with a massive golden handshake to the tune of millions.
So, once again we’re left to ponder the question we’ve been asking since the Royal Commission began – when will someone go to gaol?
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Molk’s TV Talk with Steve Molk from TVBlackbox.com.au
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One of the arguments in favour of pill testing is that it puts young people in front of experts who can advise them that taking drugs is dangerous. Which of course flies in the face of those who support pill testing and their belief that you can’t just tell young people not to do something. But I do believe we need to get that message through somehow, because too many are dying unnecessarily.
I don’t want to get into a debate about pill-testing tonight, so I won’t take any calls on it. But I do want to talk about how to get through to kids who still seem oblivious to the dangers of MDMA or “ecstasy”.
There’s a report in the News Corp press today that examines the attitudes of young people towards drugs and the alarming number of them who think there’s no danger in taking this insidious stuff.
The easy answer is to say caveat emptor – in other words you take the risk, you pay the price, but surely that’s not good enough.
What I can’t understand is in this day and age with so much discussion around about the topic and so much coverage of the dangers of ecstasy, that there are some who simply just don’t know that taking MDMA, no matter how pure, can still kill you.
It doesn’t help when idiots ring programs like this and suggest that because they take drugs and haven’t died yet, it must be a safe practice. It’s like saying “I haven’t been bitten by a shark, so shark attacks don’t happen”.
Still, there must be an answer.
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Paddy Gerrard filling in for Stephen Cenatiempo.
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Paddy Gerrard filling in for Stephen Cenatiempo.
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It's time to catch up with Alex Tselios from thebigsmoke.com.au
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I was late to work this afternoon because I had to take a detour due to a fatal crash between a car and truck. I don’t know what caused the crash, but I certainly saw the worst of Aussie drivers while I was diverting around the crash site.
Yes, it was an inconvenience. Yes, it was hot and yes it put us all behind. But we were all in the same boat. That however didn’t stop the horn-blowing, the finger gestures, the aggressive overtaking. The sad thing is, it was no different to a normal day on the road and not even the knowledge that woman had lost her life changed the behaviour?
How often do we hear callers to this program whinge and moan about people doing a few kilometres under the speed limit? How often do we hear complaints about P-platers? How often do we hear complaints about “revenue raising”? On that note, I’m banning anyone who says “revenue raising” from the program. How often do we hear blame, blame, blame?
When will we start hearing from people accepting responsibility? When will we hear someone say, I calmly accepted the delay? When will we wake up to ourselves?
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It's time for another edition of Australia By Night techguide with Stephen Fenech from techguide.com.au
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Tonight, Stephen got updates from James Haig from QLD Fire and Emergency Services, and Anthony Bradstreet from the NSW Rural Fire Service.
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Coming from an ethnic background, I’ve been the subject of the odd racial slur, but it has never bothered me because I’m big enough and ugly enough to look after myself. I also identify as 100% Australian, so I find any racism directed my way a bit misplaced. Some of my older relatives however were subjected to real racism in their early years in this country, but overall, we’ve evolved beyond that and have become a truly cosmopolitan nation.
Having said that, racism in any form is disgraceful and we should all call it out and stamp it out when and where we see it. And that’s why it’s so infuriating when the privileged few play the racism card to distract from their own bad behaviour.
That’s why I’m angry about this William bloke from some American band carrying on like a pork chop on a recent Qantas flight. As grownups, we have to own our own behaviour and if we act like spoilt brats, then people like flight attendants will treat us as such.
Now, I wasn’t on this flight so I can only go by what I read, but what I’m reading between the lines is that old mate was asked to switch his laptop off before landing and refused, so he was given short shrift. As far as I can tell, he wasn’t treated badly because he’s African-American, but because he’s an entitled dickhead.
Now, after internationally naming and shaming the poor flight attendant who has very strict rules by which she has to abide, claiming that she was targeting “people of colour” on the flight, he now says he had noise cancelling headphones on and couldn’t hear her.
I don’t fly much. Pretty much, once a year. But even I know there are rules as to what you can and can’t do on a plane and the people who walk up and down the aisle attending to pain in the arse passengers are the ones who enforce those rules.
Good on Qantas for backing their employee and offering to help her sue this clown for defamation. It sounds like he needs to come down a peg or two.
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Paddy Gerrard filling in for Stephen Cenatiempo, tonight he spoke to Wayne Waltisbuhl from QFES for fire updates.
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More fire updates from James Morris from the NSW Rural Fire Service and Wayne Waltisbuhl from Queensland Fire and Emergency Services - QFES
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Triple M Hobart has a brand new Breaky host, Brian Carlton – The Spoonman, and Stephen got to catch up with him tonight!
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Fire updates from James Morris from the NSW Rural Fire Service and Wayne Waltisbuhl from QLD Fire and Emergency Services
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About 10 years ago, while I was studying my radio degree, I spent quite a bit of time with a group of old soldiers. In their day, they’d been fairly high-ranking members of the Australian Defence Force – their ranks were colonel or higher.
Too a man, they were all critical of our defence forces. Not so much the Government’s role and they certainly weren’t critical of the frontline troops. No, their fury was with people of their own rank – the “red hats” as they called them. Their assessment was that they were more interested in furthering their careers than looking after their subordinates.
Sadly, it appears they were right with Australia’s most decorated soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith echoing their sentiments – but he’s gone one further. He says he would recommend against young men and women joining the defence force.
What a sad indictment on our military that a man who gave his life to it, and in the most heroic manner winning our highest decoration for valour, now says, don’t join.
Former SAS Corporal Roberts-Smith has been treated appallingly. A hero in the truest sense of the word has been smeared as a war criminal.
He’s called for the top brass to be sacked saying they should be leading our military in way that the men and women who are serving this country deserve.
Hear hear.
We used to have great military leaders in this country. Sadly, the current batch have caught the same disease as our political leaders.
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Bill Bradley from Triple M Goulburn Valley updates us on the face of the drought crisis.
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I touched on this last night, but I think it warrants further discussion tonight. And let me preface my comments by saying it’s no secret that I have an immense dislike for The Greens and other political fringe-dwellers who offer nothing in the way of real solutions but only seek to capitalise on the misery of real Australians by scoring political points.
This week, The Greens have had a couple of cracks. Firstly, accidental Senator Jordon Steele-John accusing his political opponents of being arsonists – while Australia is being ravaged by bushfires, many started by real arsonists. Of course, no rebuke from his spineless leader Richard DeNatale.
But the real crime was a press conference called by on again, off again Greens MP Larissa Waters where women’s rights activist Sherelle Moody from the Red Heart Campaign suggested firefighters would return home from the fire grounds and abuse their partners. The inference was quite clear.
It was a vile slur against fair dinkum heroes – and it was a lie.
She was referencing a study conducted in the wake of the Black Saturday bushfires that showed there was a spike in domestic violence incidents in the wake of cataclysmic events. I don’t doubt that at all. It makes sense.
However, the lead researcher of that study Dr. Deb Parkinson from Monash University’s Accident Research Centre told Channel 7, and I quote “while there was a peak in domestic violence after cataclysmic events, we never narrowed it down to make any particular findings about fire fighters”
Did The Greens apologise? No, Larissa Waters doubled down saying “we note the research that violence increases during times of disaster”.
Although a day late and a dollar short, they’ve claimed they don’t support what Sherelle Moody said. One wonders why they put her in front of a microphone.
Domestic violence is a serious issue. Women die. To a lesser extent, men are victims too. Too use the issue as a grubby political stunt is nothing short of disgraceful.
Anyone who votes for these despicable people after this, needs to take a long, hard look at themselves.
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Stephen catches up with Greg Allen from the NSW Rural Fire Service for some updates.
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The Big Smoke with Alex Tselios from thebigsmoke.com.au
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2019 Cherry King Heath McInerney – ceremonial first box of cherries auctioned for charity
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Tonight, Stephen got more updates on the situation in QLD from Neil Francis, the QLD State Operations Coordinator for QFES.
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It will be of little comfort to those who have lost property, but it’s fair to say, we dodged a bit of a bullet yesterday. It could’ve been a lot worse and while the fire danger facing much of Australia is not over by a long shot, we can tentatively breathe a little easier.
The crisis also highlighted the best of Australian resilience. Countless heroes continue to fight fires and put themselves in harms way. Civilians continue to play support roles to those on the front line and I also want to pay tribute to my colleagues in the media for keeping their communities informed.
But clearly we don’t do a good enough job because fools and morons still defied the rules of a total fire ban. Some say they didn’t know! Well I guess that’s what happens when you live under a rock.
What’s worse, is that criminals, evil people apparently deliberately lit some of the fires that put many in danger.
We can only hope that the full force of the law crashes down on their cursed heads.
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Australia By Night Techguide with Stephen Fenech from techguide.com.au
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Tonight, Stephen talks to Neil Francis from the QLD Rural Fire Service and Greg Allen from the NSW Rural Fire Service, for more updates and information about today's catastrophic fire danger conditions, and what to expect tomorrow.
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Tonight, Stephen talks to Greg Allen from the NSW Rural Fire Service, to get updates and information about today's catastrophic fire danger conditions.
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Tonight, Stephen talks to Neil Francis from the QLD Rural Fire Service, to get updates and information about today's catastrophic fire danger conditions.
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The bushfire crisis continues across Australia today with 13 fires in NSW at Emergency Warning level with another 7 at Watch and Act. In Queensland another 4 fires are at Watch and Act level.
Meanwhile, our politicians are engaged in a race to the bottom. We have idiot Greens trying to score points, one seemingly claiming that declaring a “climate emergency” will miraculously put the fires out while another stupidly accuses anyone who disagrees with greens policy and supports coal, of being an “arsonist”. Great rhetoric while people’s homes are burning.
Then we have Barnaby Joyce, who has quite frankly reached his political use by date” suggesting that two people who died were probably Greens voters.
They’re Muppets, the lot of them.
Meanwhile the government is on track to meet or better the emissions target laid out in the Paris Agreement. A fat lot of good that has done!
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It's time again for Molk’s TV Talk with Steve Molk from TVBlackbox.com.au
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Tonight, Stephen talks to Neil Francis from the QLD Rural Fire Service, to get updates and information ahead of tomorrow's catastrophic fire danger conditions.
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Tonight, Stephen talks to Inspector Ben Shepherd from the NSW Rural Fire Service, to get updates and information ahead of tomorrow's catastrophic fire danger conditions.
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Tomorrow, much of New South Wales will face catastrophic fire danger conditions while Queensland and WA also face extreme conditions. It’s an unprecedented situation that will see firefighting resources stretched as brave emergency service personnel and volunteers work around the clock to prevent loss of life and property.
It’s time like these we see the best of Australia as the community comes together in a time of crisis.
Yet it doesn’t seem to prevent some fringe dwellers from using tragedy to score political points. Enter Greens MP Adam Bandt who couldn’t help but use the dire conditions to push his climate change agenda and blame the Government for not banning coal.
Forget the fact that had we shut down every emitter of greenhouse gasses a decade ago, we still wouldn’t have prevented this current situation.
Why? Because Bandt and his ilk have conspired to prevent proper preparation for these catastrophic conditions.
We’re all entitled to our opinions and politicians will always try to outscore their opponents – but there’s a time and a place. However, it takes a bit of integrity, decorum and common sense to figure that out. Greens unfortunately lack all three.
You know I’m no fan of Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, but I’m in 100% agreeance when he said “What people need now is a little bit of sympathy, understanding and real assistance, they need help, they need shelter, They don’t need the ravings of some pure, enlightened and woke capital city greenies at this time when they’re trying to save their homes.”
He’s hit the nail on the head.
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Stephen talks to Wayne Waltisbuhl from the QLD RFS about the current bush fire situation.
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Dick Johnson remembers legendary motorsport commentator, Mike Raymond who passed away today at the age of 76.
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Stephen gets updates from James Morris, from the NSW Rural Fire Service about the horrendous fire situation raging across NSW currently.
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The coronial inquest into drug deaths at music festivals has handed down its recommendations and quite frankly I can’t get my head around it.
Whilst I might not agree, I’m not surprised by calls to implement a pill testing trial despite as I understand it, evidence that it wouldn’t have saved any of the kids whose deaths instigated the inquest.
However, I’m absolutely baffled by the recommendation that these drugs should be decriminalised!
I like to think I’m a pretty smart bloke, but I cannot for the life of me fathom how making something that we know can and probably will kill you, legal! Are we seriously saying that this thing that is against the law because it is dangerous will suddenly become less dangerous if we legalise it?
Furthermore, calls to remove sniffer dogs from festivals is tantamount to telling police to turn a blind eye to crime! We wouldn’t consider such a call for any other criminal endeavour.
Somebody please explain it to me.
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Stephen gets an update from Greg Allan, a spokesperson for the NSW Rural Fire Service, about the situation in NSW.
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The Federal Government has announced yet another drought assistance package – the question is, is it any more useful than the billions of dollars they’ve announced already?
The crux of the package is a series of interest free loans to farmers and tax concessions. But when you’re already in debt up to your eyeballs, is more debt going to help? Sure, they’re interest free for two years, but when you’ve been in drought for nearly three years, chances of you generating an income in two more years is unlikely.
And what good is a tax cut if you can’t plant crops or take stock to market and therefore have no income?
The biggest question is, where are The Nationals? I can kind of understand that Scott Morrison doesn’t get it – he grew up in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney and only visits the bush when his staff carefully orchestrate a photo opportunity for him. But what excuse to The Nationals have? Overall, the Federal Government is doing a pretty good job except for its approach to the drought. Pretty clear which side of the Coalition is letting the side down.
Michael McCormack, Bridget McKenzie and David Littleproud are supposed to represent the bush. It makes you wonder if they sit around the Cabinet table with gags on.
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Tonight Stephen talks to Alex Tselios from thebigsmoke.com.au
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The old joke goes how can you tell if someone’s a vegan? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you. I know I have a crack at vegans from time to time but for the most part they’re harmless – that is except the vegan terrorists that break into people’s homes and storm restaurants etc. They’re not harmless but they are the minority.
Similarly, anti-vaxxers will tell you who they are and they ARE dangerous. Criminally so. It’s one thing to choose not to vaccinate your own children but to peddle the lies and propaganda that these people do is a serious hazard to the community.
When they target innocent individuals and use them to spread their lies, it’s time to say “no jab, no play” laws are not enough. It’s time to start locking people up and dare I say it, saving their children from them.
Listen to this story. News Corp has reported that a recovering cancer patient has been the victim of horrific trolling by anti-vaxxers who used his image to create a meme spreading fake medical information and viciously mocked him online.
What kind of sick, demented individual thinks this kind of behaviour is OK? Anti-vaxxers, that’s who.
Nikhil Autar, who has fought an aggressive form of cancer for the past eight years, told news.com.au the meme which used his image to imply being vaccinated made him unwell, was shared on Facebook recently.
The irony is that he’s a medical student and cancer vaccine researcher. He has been battling leukemia since he was 17 years old with multiple rounds of chemotherapy. Expectedly, his battle has affected his appearance.
But members of the anti-vaxxer community have taken his image and turned it into various memes, falsely claiming he is unwell because he was immunised.
Time to start locking these bastards up.
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Australia By Night TechGuide with Stephen Fenech from techguide.com.au
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Tonight Stephen talks to Bill Bradley from Triple M Goulburn Valley about the mismanagement of the Murray River.
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Well it’s become quite clear that our politicians have no answers when it comes to fixing Australia’s water crisis. Years of mismanagement, bureaucratic bungling and inaction has brought Australia’s agriculture sector to its knees.
Every man and his dog have declared themselves an expert on how to fix it and there have even been calls for a Royal Commission. I think we’ve gone beyond that. Simply because of the time it takes to carry out a Royal Commission, the time it takes to make its recommendations and then more time to implement whatever recommendations.
However, the real travesty is our governments, Federal and State, won’t even fix the things that everybody agrees are wrong.
It’s time for an immediate audit of all water in Australia. Why? Because we know that the Murray Darling Basin Authority is wasting water, and now we hear that coal mines are stealing it. I hear you say “but water theft has been happening for ages”. Yes, but it’s not always that easy to prove. In the case of one particular mine that is contributing to the crisis facing our farming land, it needs to stop.
I’m a big supporter of coal mining. But we must make sure it’s done properly and follows all conditions placed upon it.
The big question is, who do we trust to carry out such an audit? The five Governments involved can’t agree on anything and the independent regulator has proved to be useless. Who is left to fix this debacle?
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It's time for Molk’s TV Talk with Steve Molk from TVBlackbox.com.au
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People often assume that my opposition to the number of public holidays in Australia means I hate sport and more specifically, horse racing. I don’t. I love sport and I quite like horse racing.
Having said that, I still stand opposed to shutting down the country for a race.
However, I equally can’t stand the way the do-gooders are attempting to destroy an entire industry based on few isolated incidences of animal cruelty. But maybe I’m out of step here.
Have we indeed lost our appetite for thoroughbred racing? Has the veil been lifted from our romanticised idea of racing?
Tomorrow, we’ll all still stop what we’re doing in the afternoon and watch the Melbourne Cup, but has it lost its gloss?
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Stephen talks to Cassandra McLaren – One Day Closer To Rain. New portal for regional sellers to sell their homemade crafts.
Check out their Facebook page here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/285535182329659/about/
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Tonight, Stephen talks to NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro about the Murray Darling Basin Plan.
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Enough is enough! It’s time Federal Attorney General Christian Porter dragged his State counterparts into a room and read them the riot act over sentencing. I understand that we need separation of powers and our judiciary needs to stay independent, but when day after day we hear stories of manifestly inadequate sentencing, it’s time our representatives stepped in and started pulling some ears.
A Saudi student who filmed himself raping an 18 year-old girl won’t spend a day in adult prison, because- wait for it – he’s too small. Yep, Judge Michael O’Connell in the Victorian County Court sentenced this grub, who we let in the country to study mind you, to 3 years 6 months in a youth justice centre because he is “small in stature, [was] particularly immature, impressionable and likely to be very vulnerable in adult prison”. The judge’s words, not mine!
This creature didn’t seem to care about how vulnerable his victim was when he got her drunk and took her back to his student accommodation and had his way with her. And then we have the case of 32 year old mother Annabelle Deall who was run down by a speeding driver back in 2016.
Her distraught father has quite rightly labelled the 20 month sentence handed down to her killer as insulting.
In this case, NSW District Court Judge Sarah Huggett said no sentence could measure the value of the mother-of-four’s life. Too bloody right but that’s no excuse to let a bloke off with less than two years of a possible ten year maximum sentence. HE KILLED SOMEONE FOR GOD’S SAKE!
Judge Huggett went on to say the guilty driver Menour Belkadi had lived with the guilt of her death for three years. So had her poor family!
I’ve had it with this rubbish!
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Happy Halloween! Or as we used to call it at Catholic School, All Hallow’s Eve. It’s the day before All Saint’s Day when Christians remember those loved ones who have passed on and pray for them.
Like Christmas and Easter, the true meaning of Halloween may be lost on some people but unlike Christmas and Easter, it’s a fairly new phenomenon to celebrate the commercialised version of Halloween in Australia.
Whenever the subject of Halloween comes up, you can bet your house that some curmudgeon will repeat the boringly unoriginal retort “this is Australia mate, it’s not America” as if that unequivocally means kids, young and old SHOULD NOT dress up and engage in trick or treating or any other such folly. So we’re not American. So what? Can’t we have fun as Australians?
I personally don’t get involved in Halloween but that doesn’t mean I sit at home and seethe that others might dare have a bit of fun! HOW DARE THEY???
And of course, there’ll be the pseudo-intellectuals out there who just can’t wait to say “it’s not even really American, Halloween traditions originated from ancient Celtic harvest festivals, particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain” Again I ask, so what?
As one mate of mine who later in life find himself with two young sons said “I’ve been converted. The whole neighbourhood gets into it. People actually meet and speak to their neighbours!” How can that possibly be a bad thing?
Let’s talk about it tonight. What do you really have against kids having a bit of fun tonight?
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The Big Smoke with Alex Tselios from thebigsmoke.com.au
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Stephen gets an update for the current fires in NSW from Ben Shepherd from the NSW Rural Fire Service
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The law is the law whether we like it or not and a core principle of our legal system has always been that ignorance of the law is no excuse. So when I hear stories of employers underpaying staff or paying them incorrectly, it makes my blood boil. You’re entitled to a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. And I say that despite my objections to penalty rates and the minimum wage. Just because I don’t like the law, doesn’t give me the right to disobey it or ignore.
However, I do have some sympathy for small business operators who might make an honest mistake. Our labour laws are so complex and the red tape facing small business owners is so thick that you can’t help but think it’s amazing more mistakes aren’t made. And let’s face it, being good at your trade as most small business operators are, doesn’t automatically make you good at running a business.
None of these excuses exist when it comes to corporate leviathans raking in billions in profits. Enter Woolworths who have been found to have underpaid staff to the tune of $300 million.
NOT GOOD ENOUGH!
Woolies has access to all the expertise it needs to get its processes right. In other words, whoever runs their payroll and HR departments doesn’t have the pressure that a small business owner has – they only have one job and that’s to pay their fellow employees what they’re owed.
So, while unionists will throw around terms like “wage theft” when a celebrity chef underpays staff, it rings a bit hollow given the sweetheart deals companies like Woolworths are allowed to get way with due to union negotiations.
For a big supermarket chain to underpay its staff by $300 million is criminally negligent. But who will pay? The answer is probably no one. They’ll say sorry, they’ll repay the money and maybe cop a fine.
Where are the calls for gaol time like there was for a certain TV chef?
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Australia By Night Techguide with Stephen Fenech from Techguide.com.au
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Stephen talks to James Morris, a spokesperson for the NSW Rural Fire Service for updates on the fires in Port Macquarie.
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It’s a question I have asked many times and I’ve yet to come up with an answer, other than we are largely to blame for the problem.
The question is, how do we get our political leaders to look beyond the next election? How do we encourage them to have a long-term vision?
The problem is, we the people don’t look beyond the next election ourselves! We constantly complain about the lack of vision but God-forbid that vision should involve short-term pain for long-term gain or even worse, the greater good!
Troy Bramston in The Australian today interviewed former Victorian Premier, Jeff Kennett 20 years after he left office.
Kennett quite rightly asks “where have all the leaders gone?” but is leadership today as simple as it was 20 years ago? Kennett had a singular style of leadership in essence he said to his electorate “you hired me to do a job, now get out of the way and let me do it. If you don’t like how I did it, then tell me at the next election” Eventually, Victorians told him they’d had enough and elected Steve Bracks. Are we willing to do the same today? Why not?
Jeff Kennett offered a five-point manifesto that he thinks our current leaders need to adopt and it goes as follows;
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Achieving a greater understanding of, and respect for, our indigenous heritage, providing recognition in the Constitution and facilitating the establishment of an indigenous voice to parliament;
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Dealing with climate change by transitioning to more renewable energy use in a responsible way without putting industry, employment and family security at risk;
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A long-term energy policy that provides security and affordability, prioritises exploration and exploitation of our natural resources, and develops initiatives such as a gas pipeline across the continent;
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A national water policy that includes building dams to collect and move water around the country to productive lands while opening up new lands, and encouraging better recycling; and
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A national agriculture policy that expands production and facilitates Australia being a food bowl for Asia.
Is he on the money? If so, are we willing to get out of the way and let it happen?
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It's time for another edition of Molk’s TV Talk with Steve Molk from TVBlackbox.com.au
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Tonight Stephen talks to former assistant commissioner Clive Small, head of TaskForce Air, the investigation into the backpacker murders that caught Ivan Milat
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Well, if you ever needed that final piece of evidence that local government has had its day, let me tell you a story about Newcastle City Council.
You may have seen the pictures on social media of a telegraph pole sticking up out of the middle of the road. Yep, it’s as dangerous as it sounds, but how did it happen?
Well, Council decided to curb and gutter the street corner where this power pole stood. Now rather than curb and gutter around it or get Ausgrid to reposition it, they decided to work around it – leaving it standing a few feet out into the middle of an intersection.
Of course, Council is blaming Ausgrid and Ausgrid is blaming Council and the local residents are none the wiser as to when this road hazard will be removed.
It’s a bit like a crew marking lines on a road and going around a dead kangaroo rather than moving it.
Guaranteed the cost of moving this pole now will be considerably higher than it would’ve been had it been done by sensible people and you guessed it, rate payers or energy users will pay for it.
Until we radically revamp our governmental structures, this kind of rubbish will keep happening.
As I always say, councils want to stick their noses into everything these days, but roads, rates and rubbish, their core business, they still can’t get right.
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You know, I’m not sure what’s more petty and ridiculous – thousands flocking to Ayers’ Rock on the last day before it’s closed to climbers, or the Aboriginal elder who has placed a curse on them.
I get that you might be disappointed that you can no longer climb the rock if it was indeed on your bucket list, but whilst I disagree with the ban, it is what it is. Deal with it. However, I suspect that the majority of people who climbed or attempted to do the climb today were simply thumbing their noses at the traditional owners. As I said, petty.
As for placing a curse on their heads? Give me a break. It’s one thing to ask others to respect your religious beliefs, it’s another to actively target others because of your beliefs.
As I’ve said before, I think such a ban sends a dangerous message of division and creates a two-tier society. You can’t achieve equality that way. But equally, not being able to climb Uluru is not going to make a lick of difference to anyone’s life.
We all need to pull our collective heads in.
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Well what a surprise! Two staff from Melbourne’s so-called “safe-injecting room” have been arrested amidst drug trafficking allegations.
Who would have thought that if you create a place where official policy is to turn a blind eye to illegal activity and create a captive audience of drug addicts, drug dealers would be attracted to it like moths to a flame?
The problem with these safe injecting rooms is not only by definition, they condone the use of insidious illicit drugs, nor is it that it creates a focal point for illegal activity. It’s that it has a wider and bigger impact on the rule of law.
When you open the door and excuse one form of crime, you effectively erode law enforcement’s ability to police other crime.
In New York City, they called it the “broken windows” theory. That is, if you let something as seemingly insignificant as vandalism slide, then criminals will see it as an invitation to commit bigger and more brazen crimes.
Is there any wonder we have raised a generation so prepared to push the envelope?
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It's time for another edition of The Big Smoke with Alex Tselios from thebigsmoke.com.au
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I think it’s fair to say that we’ve lost the plot, because now, not only do we have teenagers and primary school kids telling us how the world turns, but pre-schoolers are in on the act!
Yes, that’s right, a Northern Sydney preschool would have us believe that a rather enlightened group of three to five-year-olds have autonomously launched a campaign to have the Aboriginal flag fly on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
The day-care centre has issued a press release titled “Children with Empowered Voices who will Change our World!”
Give me a break!!!
I’m yet to be convinced older kids are capable of the type of independent, critical thinking required for activism, but I’m positive toddlers aren’t!
The biggest things plaguing these young minds should be whether they want yoghurt or an apple or whether they want to watch Dora or The Wiggles.
Feeding them with anything more is quite plainly, child abuse!
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It's time for another edition of Australia By Night Techguide with Stephen Fenech from Techguide.com.au
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Why do they do it? I’m referring to reality TV contestants. Of course, the answer is probably because they want to be famous. They want to be recognised or find a shortcut into a TV or radio career.
The fact so few make it doesn’t seem to deter them, but neither does the obviously carefully orchestrated portrayal of them as a caricature of themselves.
So it was bound to happen sooner or later than one of them would sue a network for the way they were made to look.
A former contestant on Seven’s House Rules has sued for being made out to be the “villain” of the show…and she won! The network has been forced to pay compensation for psychological injury! The host of the show, Johanna Griggs even left the show over the treatment of contestants.
But should the contestant have known better? Surely going in, you have to realise that you’ll be edited to with an inch of your life and be made to look exactly how the producers want you to look.
However, at some point, I believe it will get more serious than that with one particular show seeing contestants driven to emotional despair by paid psychologists. The consequences will eventually be dire.
I wonder if this recent legal result against Seven will be the catalyst for a very different reality TV experience moving forward.
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Molk’s TV Talk with Steve Molk from TVBlackbox.com.au
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I want to start tonight by saying a big thank you to you.
On Saturday night, the Australian Commercial Radio Awards took place in Brisbane and for the second year in a row, Australia By Night was named the best networked program in Australia.
A show like this thrives on your participation and interaction and as we always say, without you the show just wouldn’t be the same.
So, from the bottom of my heart, to Donna and BJ and Big Jay and Emma and all the regular callers and to all of you at home who tune in and let us share a part of your life each night, thank you.
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I know we all wish the major parties would work together for the betterment of Australia and that’s why calls for a bipartisan “war cabinet” to tackle the drought won’t work. Because they won’t and can’t work together.
As Gemma Tognini from The West Australian commented on Sky News, “the spirit would be willing, but the flesh would be weak”. In other words, putting them all in a room together won’t fix the political divide. We already have a room called the parliamentary chamber and they can’t agree on anything there.
The reality is a bipartisan plan to combat the drought is very much needed and our politicians can already achieve that without creating another body and another talk fest.
We know what needs to be done.
We need to ensure farmers aren’t forced to destroy or sell valuable breeding stock so we can protect our genetics.
We need to build more dams and water infrastructure and we need to cut through the red tape stopping that from happening.
Both of those things need legislation to pass through the State and Federal Parliaments. Bipartisanship will make sure that happens. And it needs to happen quickly.
Then we need shovels in the ground. Putting politicians who don’t like each other in a room together won’t make any of that happen.
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We talked earlier in the week about the result of the Bathurst 1000 Supercars race. Shell V-Power has been summonsed to a hearing over Scott McLaughlin and Alex Premat’s win in the great race after team mate Fabian Coulthard was accused of deliberately holding up the rest of the field.
Most people have an opinion on the situation and mostly not based on fact. People seem to forget that rules are what they are and not what you think they should be. But enough about that.
What really grinds my gears, pardon the pun, is that Fabian Coulthard has received death threats over the situation!
You expect the online trolls to hurl abuse at him. That seems to be par for the course these days. If you’re a gutless grub who for some ill-informed reason doesn’t like something, then you lash out with vile language and abuse from the comfort of your anonymous basement. We talk about it all the time.
But to threaten someone’s well being or life because they won a race that you weren’t even in? Get over yourself!
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It's time for another edition of The Big Smoke with Alex Tselios from thebigsmoke.com.au
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Whenever we discuss a problem or issue facing Australia, it’s usually a matter of minutes before someone suggests that the way to fix every problem is to A) cut foreign aid spending or; B) cut politicians wages.
I’m sick to death of repeating how little our foreign aid budget is in the overall scheme of things, and that’s despite my calls last night for a three-year moratorium, so I’m not going to say any more about that.
But again we had a comment on our Facebook page in response to the drought crisis that said “Slashing the politicians wages would be a start”.
Now let’s talk some facts. Total remuneration for our Federal politicians is approximately $73 million per annum. Million not Billion. In comparison, welfare costs nearly $200 BILLION!
If we’re generous and assume that State and Territory politicians cost about the same as their Federal counterparts, and they don’t, that would equate to a total of about $438 million per year. All up.
Even if you stopped paying them altogether and you divided the money equally amongst every Australian, it wouldn’t even buy us a BBQ chook each!
So, I get that everyone is angry about the response to the drought, albeit often misdirected. But let’s at least think before we speak, or type, and be a bit realistic.
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Scarcely a night goes by that we don’t talk about the impacts of the drought, the crisis facing our agricultural sector and the threat it poses to our food security.
It’s time for Government to bite the bullet and launch a massive, National bailout. Now you might think that’s at odds with my usual position that farmers need to be treated like any other business, but we’ve now reached a point where the big difference kicks in.
This drought has gone on so long that we’re now at risk of losing our valuable genetics – that is, our breeding stock because the cost of feeding and watering animals has become prohibitive. It has ceased to be about what some might call handouts to individual farmers and more about safeguarding future agricultural output.
I don’t buy into this Agenda 21 rubbish that the Government is deliberately trying to send Aussie farmers broke because if we lose our breeding stock, the land won’t be any use to foreign investors either.
So, what we need now is a massive, immediate investment into firstly saving valuable breeding stock and of course, the old chestnut of drought mitigation. We need to see bulldozers in the ground, not just talk.
Now, for a second departure from my usual position, I’m calling for a three-year moratorium on foreign aid spending. I’m not saying scrap it all together, but for the next three years, we spend the money on this drought crisis – even if the drought breaks in that time. That’s about $12 billion. $12 billion buys a lot.
So given this is what’s been on my mind in recent times, you can imagine how I reacted when I saw reports today that some Federal Labor Party muppet has called on the Prime Minister to INCREASE our foreign aid spending? What country do these clowns live in? What planet? Do they not read the papers or see the news?
It’s true that foreign aid spending has been slashed in recent years but now’s the time to redirect it into our own crisis rather than throw more away!
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It's time again for Australia By Night Techguide with Stephen Fenech from Techguide.com.au
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Wages are stagnant in Australia at the moment. We all know that. Unless you’re a corporate CEO or a public servant, chances are it’s been a while since you’ve seen a pay increase.
The age-old argument between businesses and the unions has been around productivity. In other words, if you want more money, find a way to be more productive. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t.
However surely, we have to agree that some unions take it way too far. Case in point the CFMMEU. One of Australia’s most powerful and certainly most militant unions wants Brisbane construction workers to down tools and go home if the temperature hits 28 degrees. AND THEY WANT TO STILL GET PAID!
Are we kidding???? You’d only have to work 3 months of the year!
Unions in decades past have made great strides in workers rights and conditions, but when some shiny-arsed union delegate comes up with this kind of rubbish, surely this union has run its course.
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It's time for Molk’s TV Talk with Steve Molk from TVBlackbox.com.au
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We all know the outrage machine is out of control but when did we become outraged an Australian Prime Minister attending a sporting event involving an Australian national team or God-forbid, having a beer!!!
We use to clap like trained seals whenever former PM Bob Hawke sculled a beer at the cricket – yep we thought it was fantastic to see a bloke in his eighties drink irresponsibly – but when the current PM has a beer with the Australian Rugby League team, we go into meltdown!
Let’s not forget the match he attended in Fiji was the Prime Minister’s 13 for goodness sake!
There is plenty to legitimately criticise Scott Morrison for – not the least his insistence on calling himself ScoMo but attending an international sporting contest is not one of them.
There’ll be those who parrot the phrase “why isn’t he back here doing his job?” but of course we all know travelling internationally and representing Australia is part of his job. They’ll cry “why isn’t he doing something about the drought?” despite recent announcements of billions of dollars towards water infrastructure. And let’s not forget it’s not the only thing he has to worry about.
Rightly or wrongly, Australia is a sporting mad nation. Some might have a problem with that and maybe we need to tone it down a bit, but so long as we insist that we “deserve” a public holiday for sporting events, we also have to accept that our Prime Minister will get involved in sport.
How can we expect our politicians to get serious about their jobs if we don’t get serious about the things we whinge about?
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You know I don’t like reality TV show so I haven’t seen any of The Bachelorette, but apparently one of the contestants has been dumped from the show having been labelled “misogynistic, crude and highly offensive”
The bloke’s name is Jess Glasgow and he’s a councillor on Noosa Council. You’d have to admit that a sitting councillor deciding to appear on a reality TV show is pretty dumb and it’s probably no surprise that it’s come back to bite him.
The Mayor of Noosa, Tony Wellington has called on him to resign because of his behaviour. Really? Resign from Council because of how you behaved on a reality TV show?
I don’t know whether this bloke is a good councillor or not. Let’s face it, good ones are pretty few and far between, but even if this bloke is a misogynist or even if he’s crude or highly offensive as the Mayor says, does it really affect his ability to make sure the rubbish gets picked up or the potholes get fixed?
When are we going to stop this absolute rubbish about sacking anyone we don’t like?
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Do we put too much stock in so-called “political promises”?
How often do we hear people complain about broken promises and even some silly suggestions that politicians be held to every single word they say during an election campaign with punitive measures?
Why do we ignore the fact that circumstances change, obstructive senates get in the way and needs arise that may not have been evident before we went to the polls?
Which begs the follow up question, how important is a budget surplus? We know the Rudd/Gillard years saw the money in the bank run dry and the journey towards a huge debt began.
The current Government has outlined a pathway to a surplus that will see said debt paid off. It was a core promise of its election strategy.
But how the Prime Minister has hinted he may sacrifice the holy grail that is the surplus in order to help rural towns get through the drought.
So often we hear people scream “we should be helping the farmers” all the while having no idea what “helping the farmers” actually means.
But will we be so keen to help the farmers if sacrifices need to be made elsewhere? Will we complain about broken promises if the surplus is used to “help the farmers”?
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It's time to talk about all of the big issues facing the world with Alex Tselios from thebigsmoke.com.au
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When did we lose the ability to get along with people we might not agree with? When did we become so angry and hateful?
We talk around the edges of this issue all the time but it was highlighted this week by an occurrence in the United States. Talk-show host Ellen Degeneres was filmed sitting next to former President George W Bush at an NFL game and the internet lost its mind!
Degeneres is a gay, Hollywood liberal, Bush is a conservative, former Republican President. How can they possibly sit next to each other??? More incredulous, apparently THEY’RE FRIENDS!!! How can this be??
Well, here’s how Ellen responded.
As you know, I sit firmly on the right side of the political divide. However, and you might want to sit down for this, I have friends who are well and truly on the left! We’ll never agree on a lot of stuff. But we can still have respect for each other. We have some robust discussions and some fiery debates – but it’s never personal.
Why can’t we all just get along? As Ellen says, why can’t we be kind to each other?
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Fire updates from Paul Best - District Manager at NSW Rural Fire Service
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It's time for Australia By Night Techguide with Stephen Fenech from techguide.com.au
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Are we too sensitive? I suppose it’s hard to argue that we’re not but where do we draw the line?
ABC Chair Ita Buttrose says the media is too PC and she’s right, but is it the price we pay for the erosion of good manners and decorum?
Once upon a time we were more resilient, less sensitive and didn’t even know what political correctness was. But we also knew it wasn’t Ok to abuse people and troll them. We didn’t become anonymous heroes and keyboard warriors.
So, while we all complain about political correctness gone mad, is it too late to turn back the tide? Have we made a rod for our own back?
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It's time for another edition of Molk’s TV Talk with Steve Molk from TVBlackbox.com.au
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Is it too easy to obtain Australian citizenship or do we make it hard for people?
The Federal Opposition is complaining that the waiting time for migrants to obtain citizenship after applying has blown out to 410 days – despite the number of applications dropping by 100,000 over the past year.
A little over a year seems a small price to pay for the privilege of Australian citizenship.
However, critics say the waiting time risks our economy losing much needed skilled workers.
Herein lies the problem. Why do we sit back and complain about that rather than question why we can’t get Australians into these key positions we’re filling with foreigners?
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Do we finally have a Prime Minister that will stand up to foreign interests for the sake of Australia?
Scott Morrison has taken what has been described as a veiled swipe at the United Nations via an address to the Lowy Institute.
Following on from his address to the UN where he criticised "internal and global" critics of Australia's climate change policy, he went one further last night saying he did not want to see global organisations like the UN getting overly involved in the governance of independent nations. Music to many ears I would have thought.
He said the world works best, when the character and distinctiveness of independent nations is preserved within a framework of mutual respect," which he said includes respecting the electoral mandates of their constituencies.
Our Prime Minister said "We should avoid any reflex towards a negative globalism that coercively seeks to impose a mandate from an often-ill-defined borderless global community and worse still, an unaccountable internationalist bureaucracy.” Strong words.
Finally he said "It does not serve our national interests when international institutions demand conformity rather than independent cooperation on global issues,"
However Deputy Opposition Leader Richard Marles responded today saying he was concerned about the Prime Minister's message because "The sort of almost nationalistic talk that we hear at the moment in the speech last night, but also that we heard from the US President a few weeks ago. I actually think is not the right tone in this moment in time."
Who’s right? Let’s talk about it tonight.
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Tonight, Stephen spoke with Lou, about The Australian Man Cave
TAMC, is here to support men in dealing with their changing environments. Challenges are identified on the social, economic and mental levels (including abuse, use and PTSD).
http://www.theaustralianmancave.com/
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Tonight Stephen spoke to Adam Shand about his new podcast – Packer’s Gold
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After last night’s rant about online trolls, it appears we’ve learnt nothing. I’ve lost count of how many comments I had to delete from our page. Mostly by trolls trying to act tough in the face of me taking a stand.
But the abuse levelled at the wife of an AFL player because he wants to switch teams to be closer to family because they have an autistic child Is beyond the pale.
Tim Kelly has requested a transfer from Geelong back to his home town of Perth so he can better care for his three kids, one of which gas special needs.
Some absolute, low-life grub has posted on his fiance’s Instagram page that she should, and I quote “take your fat, ugly kids home and leave Tim here”.
Make no mistake about it, if you are the kind of person who posts this kind of diatribe, you’re a grub. You’re a low piece of filth.
And that’s all I’ve got to say about that.
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Molk’s TV Talk with Steve Molk from TVBlackbox.com.au
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It’s quite coincidental that today is the International Day of No-Violence because I’ve decided to take a stand. Not against physical violence but what I’m calling psychological violence.
If you’re a regular listener, you can pretty much guess that I’m talking about the abuse thrown around by gutless, internet trolls. The keyboard warrior that develops a spine when sitting behind the safety of a computer screen.
The impetus for this stand I’m taking is the horrid abuse that has been directed at television personality Erin Molan. I don’t know Erin from a bar of soap. I wouldn’t even particularly call myself a fan as such. But some of the vitriol directed at her via social media by gutless basement dwellers of late is extraordinary.
I know Erin’s dad. He’s a decorated soldier. He’s raised his kids the right way. However, even if that wasn’t the case, there is no excuse for some coward to spew bile at a young mother via social media.
It was also in the news today that a Tasmanian councillor made the drastic decision to resign on live radio because of online trolls.
Until now, I’ve copped a bit of abuse on our Facebook page and I’m OK with that because I’ve got broad soldiers and I understand how pathetic these people are. Up until now, I’ve simply deleted comments that were abusive or laced with profanity. That all stops tonight.
If you want to have a go at me, go for your life and call 13 27 10. Roll the dice if you’ve got the guts. But if you decide to abuse me, Chloe or any other listener or contributor on social media, you will be immediately banned from our page and from the program. No second chances. I’ll also be calling trolls out whenever and wherever I find them.
We all whinge about the lack of manners people have these days, so let’s do something about it.
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It's time for another edition of Australia by Night Techguide with Stephen Fenech – techguide.com.au
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EVIDENCE DOESN’T LIE: NEWCASTLE HAS NAILED THE BALANCE BETWEEN NIGHTLIFE SAFETY AND ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL VIBRANCY
Tony Brown - Newcastle community advocate and spokesperson for the NSW Alcohol Policy Alliance
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How do we get the message through to some industries about workplace safety?
It’s been revealed that almost half of NSW building sites have dodgy scaffolding and there’s no reason to think that other states aren’t in a similar situation.
We’ve seen a number of deaths on building sites in recent months and while accidents will always happen, one death is still too many – especially when it’s preventable.
But who is responsible? Particularly with scaffolding, there’s a handover procedure. The supplier signs off to say the scaffolding has been installed properly and then leaves the site. How can they be sure someone else won’t tamper with it?
Whose job should it be to check it? Obviously, the head contractor has overall responsibility for workplace safety, but what about the foreman on the ground? Is he or she checking often enough?
Is the individual tradie responsible for checking his or her equipment at the start of each day or should the authorities be roaming around checking work sites?
The only certainty is that we can’t go on in 2019 with young people especially, dying while at work.
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Tonight Stephen talks to Dale Ryder from Boom Crash Opera - Triple M presents These Here Are Crazy Times 30th Anniversary tour.
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