Mornings with Graeme Goodings - 10 April 2026

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you. Welcome to this Friday, the tenth day of April, the second day of gather around. Did you go to the game last night? Did you get wet? Have you seen rain like that in Adelaide? I can't, well, I can there was about six eight years ago I remember going to a game. No, maybe he's even longer than that, where you barely see across the other side of the ground. It was incredibly wet, but the die hard fans stuck it out and we're back in their seats when the rain eased off. But yeah, it's impact of the game. I'm a high scoring game in the first half. After that it was a bit of a slog. What can the Crows take out of it? Four points a win and we move on. So there's lots more of gather around to come. If you have just arrived in town from Edi state or overseas, welcome to our fair city. Hoping it'll be a little bit finer for the next few days, and it has been for the last twenty four hours. Not typical of Adelaide weather by any means, but still we don't shirk if we get some rain in this part of the world. We take it and say thank you very much. I know our farm are enjoying it. On the show today, well, there's an emergency fuel crisis hearing for transport industry workers that's resuming today in Sydney. We'll find out from the tw National Secretary Michael Kaine what the purpose is of the meeting. We know that a lot of those in the transport industry are doing it really tough. Diesel prices have just gone through the roof that is impacting them dramatically. Some of them may just have to park their trucks. But we'll find out from that meeting from Michael Kaine a little bit later on. Then at nine point thirty this morning, we have the Federal Health Minister Mark Butler in the studio. If you have any questions, and I'm sure you do have for the minister, get ready. You can call in or call in ahead of time and ask us what you'd like to ask the minister. I've got a few pertinent questions to ask him about the NDIS and age care and the like a few other things too. But I'm sure you have your questions, so get them ready. Eight double two to three double DOUBLEO is the number to ring well. The Southeastern Freeway's reopened after a crash last night on the uptrack blocked all vanes caused peak period chaos. Now, although it's reopened this morning, speed restrictions are enforced around Krafers as repairs to the freeway are being made. Just another of many Essay or Se freeway incidents. Josh t the Liberal MP for Heisen and the Adelaide Hills, has been constantly concerned about the Southeastern Freeway. We'll have a chat with him a little bit later on. Also the Week in Media with Nick Hayes. What has been happening plenty. Speaking of media, community radio plays a vital role in fostering community connection. It provides accessible information where mainstream media often can't do. It just falls short. Kangaro Islands Kicks FM plays such an important role on KI, but it's battling for survival. We'll take a look at Chi's only radio station and what can be done to keep it on air. I want to talk about Daniel Medvedev. You're aware of Daniel Medvedev. If you're a tennis fan, you would know think he's ranked number six in the world at the moment, made tens of if not hundreds of millions of dollars out of tennis. Well, in a fit of peak, he smashed his rackets into the court seven times. Well some people say it was six times, others play it, say it was seven. Racket abuse. Just an amazing situation. If you didn't hear it, this is what happened.
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Speaker 2: Well, this is becoming a real headache now for ven Vedev, I couldness be the racket.
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Speaker 3: His throat with.
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Speaker 4: Real venom, And again and again.
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Speaker 3: It had becoming everybody come again, still come yeah? I think that's unusable.
00:03:56
Speaker 1: Daniel Medvedev acting like an absolute spoilt brat. Here he is in the privileged position of being gifted with the ability to play tennis at a level that ninety nine point nine nine nine percent of the population could never hope to achieve. There he is millionaire many times over. And he played a bad game at tennis and he smashed his racket. He's not the first tennis players to do it. Of course. What amazes me, though, is that you know they get away with it. Now it's called racket abuse. A warning for a first defense, then there's a point penalty, a game penalty, ultimately disqualification now you could solve the problem instantly. It would, and I don't think another tennis player would bother doing it. If you smash your racket of the ground, you just say the umpire says play on. You must play with that racket until at least the end of the game or the next four points if it was the last point of the game. So how many players would bother doing that? You know, in a fit of peak, smash your racket and you've got to keep playing with it. But no you get a point penalty. Big deal? What are your thought? It's eight double two to three double o double oh is the number to ring? Well? Still on a sporting note, and really to do with gather around, I want to talk about Andrew Pridam. Aware of Andrew Pridham. He is a former South of State and of course he actually went to Sydney, a very successful businessman, successful investment banker. He is the Sydney Swan's chairman. He had some comments about to gather around. He wants to see a gather round too. This is what he had to say.
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Speaker 5: So I actually think one thing that's really well worth exploring, and I've actually discussed it with Andrew Dillon and Craig Drummond in the past, would be for the Opening Round, for example, to become a second gather round. It could be a launch round for example, and it could be played in New South Wales and Queensland. All clubs could be involved. It gives that the primary objective of Opening Round as rigid launched the football in New South Wales and Queensland, where not only did fifty two percent of the population live, but it's also where the media is.
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Speaker 1: In the corporate sense.
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Speaker 5: That's very important in the Sydney market that the market knows that the season the start at the NR all start well before us. They're a formidable competitor. I think having a gather around where we could play at Alliance, for example, we could have Collingwood playing colling would play us and in a huge game they're timmy fantastic at Alliant's getting eighty thousand people. We obviously play at the scg enng and likewise at the Gabba and on the Gold Coast.
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Speaker 1: So should there be a gather round two. There's a bit of spide in what Andrews had to say, because Sydney was in the running to have gather around the original gather round one, but our premier came in and snuck it, pinched it from them. So there's obviously a little bit of peak in what Andrew Pridham had to say. Now, even though Andrew Pridam is from Adelaide, he took a swipe at his all hometown mentioning Sidney Sydney Harbor.
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Speaker 5: I believe Simon, it's not quite the Torrent River, but it goes all right. There's plenty to offer in Sydney. Anyone that's here Adelaid's great. It's every time I'm here at rains Sydney. It's twenty seven today, sunny, We've got lots of ovals. We've got a thing called the Harbor which is not quite the Torrent River, but it goes all right.
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Speaker 1: There's plenty to offer in Sydney, Andrew, Andrew, Look, he's a very funny man, there's no question about that. But he's obviously still smarting because they didn't get gathered around originally. But to say that, you know our twenty seven degrees in Sydney and it's always raining when he comes to Adelaide, Andrew, please Sydney Cricket Test Sydney Cricket Test, it always rains, often rained out, you know. Adelaide Test rarely, if ever rains, So you've got that wrong totally. We know you'd like to gather around there, but what are your thoughts about that? As for the premiere, he reckons any attempt to replicate gather around runs the risk of diminishing the unique nature of the event, and that would be a big mistake. I'd like to know your thoughts on that or any other subject we're talking about today. A double two to three double O double oh. Back to your five double.
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Speaker 6: A mornings with Graham Goodings.
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Speaker 1: Good morning to you at twenty minutes past nine, five double A on this Friday morning. Gg ree a second gather round? This would diminish our gather round. A stupid idea would ruin it for everyone. Thank you for that, Steve. Look, I think I can see the benefit of having a focus on football in the Northern States, but come up with a new idea. Yesterday would have been one of the very few days it wasn't raining or cloudy in Sydney. It's quite funny that Andrew Pridamers sort of said when he comes to Adelaide it's always raining. I just had a look at the statistics this year. It's rained more than every second day in Sydney. Now how many days I don't know. In Adelaide we've probably had it wouldn't have rained in on ten fifteen percent of days. In Sydney, it's about sixty percent of days this year. So yeah, Sidney has and when it does rain in Sydney. Might take last night out of the equation because that was exceptional the amount of rain. But they get an awful lot more rain in Sydney than we do. Hi Graham, what a lovely rain yesterday. Oh you have a question for Mark Butler. Yes, we will keep that in mind. Yes, the Minister for Health will be joining me in the studio at nine point thirty if you have any questions for the minister. The number to ring is eight double two to three double double. Oh. Well, shortly, an emergency fuel Crisis hearing for Transport Industry workers will resume in Sydney. Joining me in rs TW National Secretary Michael Kaine. Michael, thanks for joining us. What is the principal reason for the meeting?
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Speaker 7: Well, you know, the entire community is suffering with the increase in fuel prices. The increase in the extent of it absolutely unprecedented, and in the transport economy, the road transport economy, the consequences are devastating. We have a twenty one April debt cliff which is approaching. Why that date because many businesses in road transport have fuel terms three weeks after the month's end, that is the twenty first of April. On that day, hundreds of road transport businesses will be face seeing a fuel bill which is basically double the bill they had in February. That is something that cannot be sustainable in the medium term and in the short term. We need to make sure that transport businesses have confidence that they're going to get cost recovery for that fuel. Otherwise we're going to have the wheels of transport stop turning. So that's the reason for the application, that's the reason for the urgency. This is an unprecedented spike and we need to make sure that those at the top of the supply chain are stumping up for it so that we can keep transport going going.
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Speaker 1: So what does the union want to see happen.
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Speaker 7: Well, this is a unity ticket actually with employers. We've made this application together with the Peak Road Transport Employer Body, the Australian Road Transport Industrial Organization, and together what we want to see is an order from the Fair Work Commission that says simply this that those at the top of the supply chain, the miners, the manufacturers, the retailers, in other words, those that need their goods moved, and engage transport companies to get that done. They need to make sure that they review their contracts regularly, once or twice a month to make sure that those prices are reflected in transport businesses because what's happening is that transport is suffering under fuel fluctuating really rapidly, sometimes by the hour. Our application at the moment is for reviews to be on a weekly basis, review your costs on a weekly basis and then pass through whatever the fuel cost is. This is critical because fuel is about thirty to forty to fifty percent of the cost of doing transport and if we don't get that right, then we're going to have businesses going out backwards.
00:11:42
Speaker 3: Grom.
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Speaker 1: But how practical is it for weekly fuel price reviews and automatic cost adjustments.
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Speaker 7: Well, that is something that's been discussed at the moment in the Fair Work Commission, some parties are saying that reviews every two weeks would be more practical, you know, and we are absolutely understand that. But of course it's practical in a sense that everyone knows that if we don't provide the cost of doing business to transport companies, then how can we expect them to keep the wheels rolling. There are now, of course, hundreds and hundreds of companies that are under the literally under the pump, because they simply can't afford to pay for fuel. And nothing's more important in our massive island Graham than making sure our goods get from one side of the country to the other. It is the backbone of the Australian economy in many ways, and the urgency here reflects that.
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Speaker 1: So what has been the feedback so far from the big producers, the big people that you're doing business with.
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Speaker 7: Actually, the feedback so far has been quite positive. We've had since we made the application both Coals and Woolworths bring in their payment terms on fuel from one month to two weeks. We think that is significant. Coals and Wilworth have a relatively significant chunk of the road transport market, probably about twenty percent of it. That leaves about eighty percent all of those other clients, customers of the industry that we want to make sure reviewing regularly and passing on cost increases regularly so that we can keep things chugging along. You know, there are thousands and thousands of owner drivers, small businesses as well, gram many of these in South Australia, Western Australia, just single owners. Do they have their own truck, they're performing work. They're right at the bottom of the road transport supply chain. If we don't get money flowing down from the top, they're going to have very little chance of being able to recover their costs and that could have devastating consequences for them and their family and their business.
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Speaker 1: Has the transport industry ever faced anything as dire as this before.
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Speaker 7: Well, look, there was a different type of dyer I guess in COVID that was where there were challenges that were kind of more external in the sense of truckies having to figure out how they would navigate different regulatory systems getting across borders, etc. To keep our shelves stocked, our medical supplies going. That rose to the challenge rose to the challenge then, and with the assistance of these new laws in place, that the Fair Work Commission now has access to to impose binding obligations right up and down the supply chain. With those powers and deploying them properly, we think that we can rise to the challenge again, because really what this is about, it's just making sure that everyone pays their fair share and everyone has confidence that they are going to get paid for the cost of doing business. It's not too much to ask. And if we get the recipe right, we'll be okay. But if we don't, we're going to have a situation where the wheels of transport are going to grind to a halt.
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Speaker 1: Well, Michael, this crisis hearing is about to get underway in Sydney shortly. How soon would you see a resolution on How soon would you see that trickling down through the industry.
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Speaker 7: Well, the hearings commenced on Wednesday. There's a hearing today, there's a reserve day for Monday as well. If the Fair Work commiss thinks that it needs more evidence. We're still waiting on an emergency declaration from the Minister which would change the status of this application to one that would allow the Fair Work Commission to act even more quickly. We're hopeful, we're expectant that the Minister will make that declaration today or Monday and that will clear the path for the Fair Work Commission to put in place urgent orders. They have to undertake a short period of consultation after they put a draft order out, either this afternoon or Monday, but we would be very hopeful that before too many more days pass, the Fair Work Commission will require those at the top of the supply chain to review fuel prices, pass on those fuel prices so that flows down the supply chain. Transport operators can keep doing their work and Australians can keep getting their goods on their shelves.
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Speaker 1: Michael Kaine, thanks so much of your time today. Let's hope those talks go well. Twenty eight minutes past nine five double A reminder that after the nine thirty headlines we'll have Health Minister Mark Butler in this studio, so if you have any questions for Health Minister, give us a call now eight double two three double O. Darren says gather around in Adelaide is the only way to do it, adding a start round in Sydney will only kill the gather around here and missed the market over there as no one cares for AFL on the eastern coast. Not quite true, Darren, but I take your point. I'm all for the Adelaide Festival on a business point as i'm NRL only. Good on you, Darren, thanks for that. Yeah, look they've just come up. Just come up with another idea. There are other ways of doing it, but don't sort of make it like a pseudo gather round because it just won't work. Julie says, Sydney won't let it go. Sydney weather terrible recently, a lot of flooding there. GWS attendance numbers low. Bruce mcavanni said it would get lost there. Thank you for that, Julie. Back after news Headlines with Health Minister Mark Butler, five Double.
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Speaker 6: A Mornings with Graham Goodings.
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Speaker 1: Twenty eight two ten five Double A on this Friday morning. My pleasure to welcome in the studio Health Minister Mark Butler, Minister, good morning to.
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Speaker 8: You, morning Graham.
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Speaker 1: I think we're obviously people are going to ask questions about health and your portfolio that as a senior minister, I think we need to at least address the crisis facing us straight at the moment with fuel. We just heard in the news the Prime Minister is in Singapore. How well do you think the nation is handling the crisis?
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Speaker 9: And overall, well, this is as your listeners know, this is a global fuel crisis. Every country is dealing with the enormous impact of closing the Strait of hor Moos.
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Speaker 8: Twenty percent of.
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Speaker 9: The world's oil is locked up effectively behind this closure, and that's impacting every economy around the world. So excuse me, I mean, our focus has been very much on getting as much fuel end of the country as we possibly can and dealing with the price impact of this oil shortage. Now the Prime Minister is I think you said new Intro is in Singapore today. Singapore provides more than half of our petrol slightly less than that share of our diesel and jet fuel as well. It's a very important supplier of our fuel needs though, so talking to them, talking to other partners in the region. The Deputy Prime Minister was in Japan over the last few days as well, another important partner in energy. To make sure we get as much fuel into the country as possible. Has been as strong focus of ours. We've also provided an underwriting guarantee so to underwrite the risk that private companies face to try and grab fuel off the spot market, so they're doing that as well from relatively new sources.
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Speaker 8: Like Mexico North America.
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Speaker 9: There was a press conference yesterday about the impact that is having on Ampole and Viva that operate the refineries in Brisbane and Geelong as well. So doing everything we can do grab as much fuel as possible to get it into the country means that into the second half of May, we think we're pretty confident about the supplies we have, but like every country on the planet, we wake up every morning to work out what is happening in the Middle East and what prospects there are of a ceasefire holding, which is critically important, and then after that the straight of Hormo's opening so that oil can start to flow into the global economy again.
00:19:09
Speaker 1: As fuel prices rose, the government decided to cut the fuel excise in the half and I think we all appreciated that, but can that be counterproductive? I mean people start using more fuel and the impact on the economy inflation on the line.
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Speaker 9: We thought about that very carefully and we still thought on balance it was the right thing to do.
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Speaker 8: It saves about.
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Speaker 9: Twenty dollars or more for an average fuel tank, and we've seen those prices flow through, particularly for petrol, so you know, prices are down thirty to thirty five cents a liater from the peak that we saw a couple of weeks ago for petrol. The diesel market's a little bit trickier. Diesel wholesale prices shot up after the conflict much more than the petrol prices, so we haven't seen the same price reductions.
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Speaker 1: For diesel that we've seen for petrol. Just can interrupt it because everyone not everyone. I get lots of calls and texts from people saying, why isn't the diesel is particularly impacted. You know, fuel goes up, but nowhere near as dramatically is diesel. Is there a logical reason for that?
00:20:12
Speaker 9: Well, it's really about the wholesale price, so it's not about retailers. Although the a triple seed the Consumer Watchdog is watching the retail market very very closely to ensure that there's a pass through of all of this. But the wholesale market for diesel appears to have been hit harder by the global crisis than the petrol market. So there's also significant demand for diesel because a lot of the operations in mining and a whole range of other areas like farming, particularly in seeding season. Demand is still very strong for this, so that the diesel market has been.
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Speaker 8: Trickier for us.
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Speaker 9: But the important thing is that whatever the price is now or today, it would be thirty to thirty five cents to leader higher if we had not done what we did to cut fuel access to get the States on board pass back there win four games that they were seeing through their GST as well, so people are saving about twenty dollars a tank against what that'd otherwise be paying. But we completely understand that it's still painful out there for people, really painful for households, very painful for businesses, particularly if they're exposed to the transport market. And I heard you talking to Michael Kain earlier about that, which is why we need to see this conflict brought to an end. We need to see the energy market get back to a stable position.
00:21:31
Speaker 1: Obviously the government is fully committed to dealing with the situation. Now do you think after this and hopefully it's resolved fairly soon. There are lessons to be learned. Can we be better prepared for because you know the Middle East is always close to FLASHBOYD? Should we be better prepared?
00:21:47
Speaker 9: Well, we have more We have more fuel than we've had for fifteen years. When we came to government, we recognized our fuel reserves were too low. We took action to put in place a minimum stockholding responsibility for fuel companies so that we're better prepared now than we were at any other time in the past fifteen years.
00:22:08
Speaker 1: But it still doesn't reach I mean they suggest and thirty countries are by by the ninety day limit. We are known where near that and haven't been ever.
00:22:16
Speaker 9: No, that's right, and to do that would cost an enormous amount of money on the budget. But I think sure at the end of this global crossis we do have to take stock and have a think about our energy settings. I mean it certainly people in Adelaide would know. They'd remember the Port Standback refinery. There's been a big, big closure process of refineries in Australia over quite a period of time. Four of them were lost in the last decade, meaning that we've only got two refineries now in place. I mean in part that's a product of the fact that the crude oil supply we saw from Bass Strait for so many decades has started to decline. But of course we will at the end of this crisis have to take stock and see what lessons we learn. At the moment, we're focused on dealing with the impact of the crisis for households and for businesses, but there must be lessons for us to reflect on.
00:23:07
Speaker 1: We have the Health Minister, Mark Butler in the studio talking on other matters just at the moment. But if you have any questions for Mark Butler, now it's the time to call eight double two to three double double O. Marie. You've been waiting for some time.
00:23:17
Speaker 10: Go ahead, Oh hello, how are you good? Just finding up about the ratios in age care. I'm specifically talking about nursing homes. It's quite disrespectful, I think, and it's all to do with funding. I used to work in the age care sector and then I'm now in disability and I can't believe the difference between the ratio with the clients in age care. It's quite disrespectful. You run off your feet and I feel really sad. For these residents, because they've been taxpayers all their life and they've contributed to the country and they're in nursing homes where you know they've got staffing. That's really hard. It's just so disrespectful. I just and their families are paying big money for them to go into nursing homes and I just wish that that issue could be addressed.
00:24:11
Speaker 9: Well, thank you Marie for your call and for the work you've done over age care and the disabilities as well. I mean, we have actually, as you probably know, very substantially increased the staffing requirements in aged care. I think whenever I say to members of the community.
00:24:26
Speaker 8: That before we were elected there.
00:24:28
Speaker 9: Was actually no requirement to have a nurse in a nursing home, they are gobsmacked. And we introduced to reintroduce that requirement. And so now across every nursing home across Australia there is a registered nurse on duty twenty four to seven ninety nine percent of the time, and that's a big, big change. We've also, though, increased those staff ratio substantially. It's been a very big investment of taxpayers into that. A lot more staff in age care now delivering about from memory, about four million minutes of additional care every single day to age care residence. Now, you can always make the argument that there could be more, but we took advice on this after the Royal Commission about better staffing levels. We've made a huge investment into age care to get those staffing levels back up, and I think what that means is better care. It also means more one on one time between a care and a resident, even if it's just to sit down by their side and have a chat while they have a cup of tea. So this is something we've been very focused on, but I understand that some people would like to see it even better.
00:25:35
Speaker 1: Marie, thanks so much for a call. Just before we take another call from the text line. Bill says, approximately two months ago, the sixth of February, Mark Bundley came on fire DOUAA telling us we need to build three new age care facilities per week for the next ten years. My question is, in the eight weeks since the announcement home many new facilities have been built eight weeks at three new facilities per week, the answer should be twenty four Minister.
00:25:58
Speaker 9: Well, here's right. Eight times three is twenty four. I think what I said is we need to build or open a new age care facility every three days, so a little bit more than two per week, not three. But that still remains the case, and we need to do that for twenty years. And I was very honest, I think and clear we are not doing that right now, which is why I'm so focused on working with the provider sector, those people who do actually do the building on ways to make sure we can lift that construction rate. It's going the right way, but not nearly fast enough. And we're thinking through that very carefully right now as we speak. So thank you to Bill for reminding me of that. I want to be reminded of that as often as possible, because I think it's one of the most pressing challenges I feel that we have in my portfolio of health and aging and disabilities to make sure we have enough aged care homes for a growing number of people who are hitting that age.
00:26:55
Speaker 1: Let's take another call. It's another Marie. Two wells, Marie, go ahead.
00:27:01
Speaker 11: Get nervous. I'm sorry, I've never done this before. You'll be mister Butler. I Hade a fifty eight year old disabled daughter who's with NDIS at the moment, she's living in care. She was with us for fifty years and I had absolutely no help whatsoever for fifty years. And as we're getting older, well, she has to go into help. We're both not well ourselves now and we can't look after her, so she's in care. I just wonder why the NDIS is blaming all the people that are on it about wasting money when the NDS wastes so much money themselves. I've had so much trouble with funding for the last two months. Her funding actually ran out, and I must say thank goodness to Novita. They've actually still been looking after her and they've been covering the cost. Yesterday I was told that her plan has been rolled over. We have had a change of circumstance in for probably four or five months. Nothing's happened we have we haven't got any where with that. We actually went to the tribunal to get her some extra funding because she need when she needed to go into care. We didn't get. We did get sometime she is in care. We did get her SDA that she needed, which she already had, and then the NDAs took away from us without letting us know, I just want to know why the NDIS does not listen to parents and they listened to all the the people that were at UNI that don't know anything about disability.
00:29:01
Speaker 9: Well, Marie, thank you for calling it and telling us your story, your story, your family's story, is why the NDIS was set up in the first place. I remember working with the disability sector thirty five years ago, well before the NDIS, and hearing stories exactly like your families, where parents were were caring for a disabled child, not just for their childhood, but well into adulthood and getting very worried about what would happen as they age. I mean, that really was I remember very well, probably the biggest driver of the establishment of the NDAs in the first place, and it has changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and their parents and their families and their loved ones.
00:29:46
Speaker 8: So thank you for your story.
00:29:50
Speaker 9: But what worries me about your stories that you feel you're not being listened to, and in terms of your individual circumstances, if you feel that you're app location and your plan is not being dealt with properly, I encourage you to talk to your local member's office, your local MP's office, the NDIA, the agency has liaison officers who work with MP's officers to try and sort of clear some of the blockage that people too often experience in dealing with things like that. But to your broader point, Marie, I would be horrified if there was a sense among NDIS participants and their families that they are being blamed for what I think is a very serious issue. The NDIS has grown much faster than everyone thought it would. It is still growing, frankly a little too fast for.
00:30:41
Speaker 8: The budget to sustain.
00:30:43
Speaker 9: So we are going to have to look at ways in which we get some more discipline into the management, including the financial management of the scheme. That should not in any way reflect on the enormous advance that's been made for people with disability through the establishment of the NDIS.
00:31:01
Speaker 8: I was involved in that.
00:31:02
Speaker 9: I want to see it around for decades to come, and at the moment, the pressure on the scheme.
00:31:08
Speaker 8: Because of those cost.
00:31:11
Speaker 9: Those costs running essentially out of control, is I think putting at risk the sustainability of the scheme and all that it's achieved for your child, for your family, and hundreds of thousands of other families.
00:31:23
Speaker 1: Like it is funding for the endy going. Oh, it's likely to be cut in the upcoming budget.
00:31:28
Speaker 9: Well, again, I've been very honest and frank with people to say that National Cabinet, which is the Prime Minister and all of the premiers, agreed several weeks ago to reduce the growth in the NDIS. So it's currently growing faster than any other social program, faster than aged care, Medicare, the pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme, everything like that. Certainly they committed to getting that growth rate down to about five or six percent or slightly lower than that that would bring it into life with the growth we're seeing in Medicare, in aged care, so it's not cutting the scheme. It will continue to grow, but certainly trying to get the growth to a more manageable level is something that all governments have agreed to and is now my job and we're working through.
00:32:15
Speaker 1: That as part of the budget preparation. We have Health Minister Mark Butler in the studio. If you have a question, give us a call, not eight double two three double O double oh, the number five double A.
00:32:24
Speaker 6: Mornings with Graham Goodings.
00:32:29
Speaker 1: Nine minutes to ten five double A. And we have make local Health Minister in the studio Caesar Jenny Quinnon Hold, the line will take calls in a moment, but Minister, you have some announcement to make about bulk billing.
00:32:40
Speaker 9: Yes, Graham, as your listeners know regular listeners, you and I have talked to a number of times about the investment we're making to increase bulk billing for GP visits, very big investments that took effect on the first of November, and very pleased to say that the number of practices in South Australia that bulk bill all of their patients, all of the time has more than doubled in just those short few months. I'll be heading down to a clinic after we're finished that used to charge gap fees back in last October as recently as then and has since become one hundred percent bulk billing because of the investments we've made. So we all were reasonably conservative in this. We said that we think this will get us to a ninety percent bulk billing rate by the end of the decade, and in doing that, we projected that we'd have three six hundred general practices, about half of the total general practices in the country. Bulk billing by twenty twenty eight. We've already well exceeded that. We're well over that target for two years time, only three or four months into the investment, so it's going well. There's more to do. We want to see more practices come online. It's increasing every single week. But here in South Australia we are seeing a good increase in bulk billing.
00:33:58
Speaker 1: Sezer, go ahead.
00:34:00
Speaker 12: Oh, minister, Just a couple of questions. First one, private health insurance policies. I know there's a strain on the public health system. What's your idea on making premium a tax deductible so it's not a cost of the government, but it's a mediate effect of those that are supporting the private health insurance.
00:34:19
Speaker 9: Well, for some years, Caesar, the approach of government of both political persuasions to has been to pay a rebate to private health insurance members, so that pays quite a substantial share of their health insurance premiums every year. We spend, for memory, about eight or nine billion dollars a year from the Commonwealth to effectively subsidize the private health insurance premium. So it has the same effect of a tax deduction that's been in place since John Howard introduced it in two thousand and one. I think so for a quarter of a century. And I think it gives people who take the option to take out private health insurance.
00:34:59
Speaker 1: I think the right level of support. Good on, Yes, Caesar, thanks for call. Let's move on. Jenny at Edward's town, go ahead.
00:35:08
Speaker 13: Hello, I'm in so high Graham. I'm just bringing because my name is one hundred and one. Lived at home on her own and recently had a fall about a month six weeks ago, and she was on a level three package and we've been she's been assessed and we've got a higher package, which is great, but we're they're saying we have to wait eight up to eight months for the funding to come through, and she, you know, we can't sustain the current She need support morning and night, and my provider's saying that they can only come once a day Monday to Friday. We have to wait all this time. Well, I cared for her and run out of my own family.
00:35:56
Speaker 10: It's a lot.
00:35:58
Speaker 9: Yeah, Jenny, I'm so so sorry that your family has gone through that. I don't know the exact circumstances and the provider and whether that's a funding issue or a workforce issue. I might see whether I can get your details from the station if you're willing to at least some details, and we'll see whether we can follow that.
00:36:18
Speaker 8: Up with you.
00:36:19
Speaker 1: So, Jenny, Yeah, just hold the line and we'll put you back to my producer. Thanks Jenny Quentin, go ahead.
00:36:26
Speaker 14: Good morning, Minister Mark, and welcome to the beautiful world of gather Around in South Australia. How's you like in it?
00:36:33
Speaker 8: I'm loving it.
00:36:33
Speaker 9: I was down, I was down at the river earlier this morning with sunrise. There was already a huge sense of energy at about six thirty am. So it's going to be a great weekend.
00:36:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm here.
00:36:44
Speaker 1: Provider.
00:36:44
Speaker 8: Poor power went on Sunday night, of course.
00:36:47
Speaker 14: No, no, no, we want Gold Coast to win on but that's another story, hey, just with NDS. And one of the ways you can boast the money on that is to cut down on the roads of the big businesses and small businesses are the system. There was one business there a few years ago that they set up. Six years later they sold their business or a bigger company in the turn of something to students fifteen to sorry, ten to fifteen million dollars were their only income that they got for that business was NDIS unders How can that happen? How can somebody in six years sell a business but that sort of money income only coming from NDIS. That's where the costs blow out of things, not to do people like myself who have two kids on the spectrum and we not rely on But we're very grateful for the NDIS quit. That's my question to you.
00:37:41
Speaker 9: Yeah, thanks Quentin, and for your interest in this area, obviously a personal interest, but a broader interest in making sure this scheme works not just for your kids, but for the hundreds of thousands of people were set up to serve. And you're right, there were frankly, far too many frausters and shocks and frankly even pretty serious organized criminals who are attracted to this honeypot, and we've got to do better on cutting down on that fraud.
00:38:08
Speaker 8: We now analyze more.
00:38:10
Speaker 9: Payments every single day than the NDIS did in an entire year five years ago. I mean, they just were not the proper controls on fraud and integrity in this scheme that there should have been. We only passed new legislation through the parliament again last week and We're going to come back and do more in the Parliament over the course of the coming months. I'm sure, because this is a scheme that just does not have the controls on the use of taxpayer funds that it should. And at the end of the day, I'm worried, of course about the use of taxpayer funds, but I'm even more worried that participants aren't getting the services that they deserve because there's too much skimming off frankly by intermediaries, by providers, and we're determined to stamp that out, Quentin. I don't pretend it's going to be There are hundreds of thousands of providers, as you know, who aren't even registered. That wouldn't be acceptable in any other social program. We don't even know who they are, what their character is. So this is going to be a long piece of work, but it's right at the top of our list, I can assure you.
00:39:17
Speaker 1: Thanks for call, Quentin. Let's move on, Judith, go ahead, Are you there, Judith, Yes, go ahead, The Minister is listening.
00:39:27
Speaker 15: Yes, okay. Look, I've been with the Home Shair for quite a while, with my husband who has now passed away, with myself and the new system that the government has put in is an absolute train reck. As far as I'm concerned, my services are suck back by our heart. I've got people who are all around me at the moment who are just not getting the services they want, and something's wrong with the whole system.
00:39:58
Speaker 9: Well, Judith, firstly, I'm sorry for your loss of your husband, and I'm sorry that that has been your experience. We introduced this new system to ensure that there were more packages, that the packages were better, and that we're also able to make sure that more of that money went through to participants. A bit following on from the theme I was talking about with the NDAs, so, for example, really clamping down on the management fees that providers were taking from the package rather than spending as much money as possible on care. I'm very sorry that that has been your experience. We're monitoring the role out of this new system very closely, as you would expect, and if that has been your experience, I really encourage you and would value you sending us a note about this, talking to your local MP. I'm talking to all of my colleagues about this. It was time to have a new system that would better serve the interests of older Australians. I think this the end of the day is the right system to introduce, but if there are problems around its implementation that are in impacting people like you, Jedith, I.
00:41:02
Speaker 8: Want to know about it and I want to know how we can fix it.
00:41:05
Speaker 1: Due to thanks so much, we call minister, we're out of time. Thanks for dropping by it today, Thanks for having me again, and hopefully we can have you in the studio again. And they're not too distant future, see you say we've been speaking with the Health Minister Mark Butler. Will take a break for news, then after the news, the Festival of Footy. How's it going at Elder Park, five double A Mornings with Graham Goodings Past ten, five double A on this Friday morning, looking a lot better than yesterday. Cloudy but a few patches of blue sky. You're enjoying gather around so far it's look, I think it's wonderful. I love it, I really do. And let's face it's more than just a weekend of footy. It's a celebration of the best game on Earth, and really it's an annual gathering of passionate and loyal fans and whether you're going to one game, two, three, four or that doesn't matter as long as you're a part of the action in some way, and you can be part of that action at Elder Park where the Festival of foot is happening and seven News as Hayden Nelson is there at the moment. Hayden, good morning to.
00:42:06
Speaker 3: You, Wawning Graham.
00:42:09
Speaker 1: Much activity there. The weather's a little better than it was yesterday.
00:42:13
Speaker 4: With the case have just opened here at Elder Park and the weather's looking a little bit better today. I mean the sun's out at the moment. There is still a few drews and drabs of rained around the place, but nothing like yesterday where we just saw an inundation really throughout the day. I think they predicted one meal. It ended up being five to ten meals. But really a beautiful morning here. I've been at Elder Parks since about eight o'clock. We had the Sunrise crew here since the early hours. There was a bit of wind around, but it's starting to sort of die off and the sun is out and the crows are about to take to the center stage here at Elder Park. So there are plenty of local footy fans filing. I think you know, if you're walking around town today, you're going to see lots of different colored girl and you from all around the country, but certainly at Elder Park this morning, you're going to see a lot of crow spand and some of the names from last night. I just saw Roley still walk in, but I think you may even see Rashelley as well. Key some of the stars of last night was a cracker match turned out to be a thriller.
00:43:22
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what. They're smiling a lot more than they were last week.
00:43:27
Speaker 4: Certainly they can pull down the sack Nick signs, that's for sure. I think the pressure is now Michael poss more than anyone. Sure there's some of the great sort of stories heading in there, because you know, when you purchased your tickets last year, you don't know really how this early in the season things are going to look. But then tonight we've got Collingwood Freemantle. That'll be another blockbuster. I think Frio five of its past six games of adelaide Over has been decided in the last few minutes, you know, with ten points in it at the end, and Nick Daykos is back for Collingwoods. That's going to be a big one there for that side. There's also a few training runs around today, so these are the Captains runs, which I think are just a really great part of gather around as well. North Melbourne are up this morning. We've got the lines in the Barossa as well as sorry, the North Melbourne and the lines in the Barossa and then just like the interface you get they also have the Western Bulldogs, the Stuns and the Swans will be doing their training runs around Adelaide today and Richmond, you know, the Richmond team will being run them all at one thirty and there is a lot of Tigers fans around Adelaide at the moment, let me tell you, next to Crow's fans, I think they're the second most visible vans I've seen here for gather around Hollywood Crows not so much Port in town. But then again they're probably warming up for Sunday. I've still got a couple of days to go and Richmond fans have a lot of Tigers. Tigers supporters around now.
00:44:57
Speaker 1: Hayden tell us fans are pretty combative when it comes to the game. You know, the tilling and is throwing, you're like last night, you know, Carlton supporters, we're throwing at a Grow supporters and vice versa. How is it when people get out in the streets of Adelaide or at the footy festival, you know, how are they mixing? They were getting on pretty well.
00:45:16
Speaker 4: Hasn't taken them much for they fired up in a nice way. I think it's all a bit of back and forth, a bit of just it's just chat, a bit of you know. I just saw a West Bulldog support of walking down Chig William Road and he was ready to go. I mean he still he's still got to have another day to go until they played, but he was walking into Elder Park Go the Dogs Go. It was like he was on his way to the game. So I think it's all pretty pretty upbeat, and it's that great thing about gather around is that everyone is having a good time. They're all coming to have a good time, and no one's really coming to bear a hooligain. Everyone's here generally getting on pretty well. I had a Collingwood and a Dockers support it next to each other on camera this morning on sunrise and they were giving it to each other and then the camera goes off and they're hugging each other. I don't think we'll see much of that to not, I really not at all. That is that is sort of the nice side of things here and gather around exactly exactly now.
00:46:20
Speaker 16: I know.
00:46:21
Speaker 1: One of the highlights down at the festival the foot is the zip line and many people using it this morning. Or you've just said the gates have just opened.
00:46:29
Speaker 4: The gates has just opened. There's a few people will finally in. It's all The best part I think about this Elder Parks a footy festival is it's all free, so no one's on the zip line just yet. I haven't attempted the zipline. I've been covering gather arounds for four years now. I still haven't got up on the zip line.
00:46:46
Speaker 3: Come on, I was going to ask you gram I won't.
00:46:50
Speaker 4: I'm trying to avoid it. They almost got me up there yesterday, but it was actually it was actually when I went to do it, when I was going to drive down and do it, they said, oh, sorry, the rain stopped it. We can't do the zip line. And I was like, oh no, sorry.
00:47:05
Speaker 1: Well I had visions of you jumping on the zip line and we do the cross as you're going across the Torrens. I mean, that would be sensational.
00:47:13
Speaker 4: If you're up for a gram, I'll come with.
00:47:16
Speaker 1: Well, I'm stuck in the studio. Sadly, Hayden, I'm stuck in the studio. If I wasn't, i'd be there in a flash. Believe it or don't.
00:47:25
Speaker 4: There you go, there you go. Maybe you can givince me over the weekend. We've got a couple of days. It's up on the Torrens. That's the best part anyone, you know, if you're willing to see it, with the height and the cues and you can jump up on the zip line. And then there's also just other great sort of skills tests around the place as well, and as I said, these player talks as well. I mean, it's actually really interesting to sit down. They had Max Gorn speaking yesterday for Melbourne and it just said some really other sort of just interesting stuff because they were the first cab off the rank here and there's no sort of script you can ask them whatever.
00:48:03
Speaker 1: Fantastic thing and you're saying that the Crows are pretty much on stage at the moment.
00:48:08
Speaker 4: They are in about ten minutes they're all filing in at the moment.
00:48:11
Speaker 17: They're having a chat.
00:48:12
Speaker 4: I think they're grabbing a coffee at the moment.
00:48:16
Speaker 1: And they've been pretty good spirits after last night.
00:48:19
Speaker 17: Yeah they are so.
00:48:20
Speaker 4: I mean they may even get to go watch a game or two now and join them. Yeah yeah, unlike you know, sort of Freemantle. I mean they've been here for a week now. Say they go to nine them and then they got by one point last week and they've probably been laying light around town. I don't think they went back to person and been here or week training.
00:48:39
Speaker 1: Let's not talk about free men. Let's not talk about free men.
00:48:43
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, yeah, good on.
00:48:44
Speaker 1: Your Hayden, good to chat. Enjoy yourself down at Earlda Park. So Crows are down there at the moment. If you're in the vicinity, slip down to Elda Park for the Festival of Footy and celebrate with the Crows. Eight double two to three double o double oh is the number the ring. Steph says. I am not a Lion supporter, but I think it's terrible that the reigning premier is do not play at the best ground in the state. Surely they have earned the right. That's a good point, Steph, that is a good point. You would think there would be. You know, even if you're not a Lion supporter, as you've said, you're not, well, you all have an interest in the team that was the premier of the year before because they were the best. So yeah, it would have been good to see them on Adelaide Oval. Hopefully they'll be there next year.
00:49:27
Speaker 6: Five Double A Mornings with Graham Goodings.
00:49:31
Speaker 1: It's twenty past ten. Five Double A. Andrews says, what I love most about gather Around is the different team colors at any game. If it were any other round, people would be telling you that you're at the wrong game. And Joe says, as you just said, gg Ozzie Rules is the best game on earth, Thank goodness. Rugby Union is the game they'd play in heaven. Well, I'd guess I wouldn't be getting to see too many games of rugby if that was the case. Rugby Union, Good on you, Jay, thanks for that. Let's take a call Prish, Good morning on in Graham Graham.
00:50:04
Speaker 18: I only caught the tail end of Mark Butler, so sorry.
00:50:09
Speaker 19: If I'm not aware of everything he.
00:50:11
Speaker 18: Said, but I've just wanted to say that I think he's I'm just playing the debacle that's been created.
00:50:23
Speaker 16: Now.
00:50:24
Speaker 18: My mum's ninety three and she's lived with me for five or six years now, and she was on a home care package and it was managed by Uniting Communities, and everything was going well for all these years, with my help of course, because I'm there. But since this new Support at Home has come in yesterday after the day before, after a meeting I had with Mum's coordinator and its manager, it looks very much like to me they no longer want to manage Mum's money. And this has come about because all the new Support at Home has done is take away one of their management fees, so they're not getting as much money. Plus now they have to retweek the whole budget to include that money. And what they've done to mum. In our case, they have doubled, it's not tripled some of the costs and it's their doing, but they have completely blown mum's budget, which is a was on a Level four and that's about sixty something thousand a year, which gets spent very quickly when you're paying cares and all that sort of thing. But they now virtually told me, yes, the day before your day to put mum in the home. They insinuated Mum needs to go in the home, and there is no home, there are no beds. I'd have to consider into hospital.
00:52:13
Speaker 1: I thought the NDII was created to keep people out of home so they can stay living at home.
00:52:18
Speaker 18: Well, this is the age care system, not the NDI is the NDAs is a whole nother problem. My son, who has disabilities cannot even get equipment anyway. That's another story with Mark Butler. I think what he needs to do is get.
00:52:35
Speaker 20: Out issue the community and talk to people who are suffering because of this new system and find out what the providers are now doing for people. And essentially they're saying, oh, it's possible. Now you're going to have to find thousands of dollars out of your own money because we cannot make this budget working more.
00:52:58
Speaker 1: I mean the ludicrous situation that the government has lost control of. There's no question about that, Trish, and they're just trying to find a solution to it. And I think they're a long way from that.
00:53:08
Speaker 18: Ah, it's a complaint and out a mess. And yes I've written to my minister. No response except in acknowledgment but no answers, and I've written to Canberra, still nothing and so we're sort of out there. We thought almost a lot of us have been just chopped off because of this new system, which is completely flawed.
00:53:30
Speaker 1: Well, Trish, I can assure you that the Health Minister or his office will be listening to this program. We will pass on your call and your plight because it is all too frequent story. I mean, we could run the show end to end with sorry, similar to yours. And the government needs to do something about it. And the runaway costs and health are absolutely crazy. The NDIUS is totally out of control from what fifteen years ago, it didn't exist. NDIS is providing a wonderful services, no question about that, but what is its budget now? Fifty billion dollars approaching that just a crazy, crazy situation that the country just can't sustain. Phil, good morning.
00:54:14
Speaker 19: Just a quick comment about the fuel going back a few weeks ago, we're at but diesel, we're at about three dollars thirty three thirty and then the government dropped the excise a bit cut for GSD. Look at back to three dollars just coming through Elizabeth and it's back to three to thirty again.
00:54:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know what to say. I don't know what to say.
00:54:45
Speaker 19: Yeah, I know someone's someone's having a good Yeah.
00:54:51
Speaker 1: Well, I mean people are always saying, why is it the diesel is more expensive than petrol, because once upon a time diesel was cheaper.
00:55:00
Speaker 19: Well, that's right, it's a cheaper product to define it as.
00:55:06
Speaker 1: Well, and that's that is that is the.
00:55:08
Speaker 19: Case refining chain way before.
00:55:12
Speaker 1: It's right, It takes it's a lot easier to refine. But the point is, and what we're told is the fact that diesel is in such high demand that around the world that it can the wholesale price is just greater. They their own price, and they can effectively name their own price. Now, this is a situation that unfortunately, where we're pawns in the game. And we had Mark Butler in the studio saying confirming that the Prime Minister was in Singapore stitching up a deal to ensure our fuel surprise. And that's all well and good, But it's a bit of a case after the horse has bolted, isn't it. I mean, why do we get ourselves in this situation? You know, because we do not produce our own you know, we have two refineries that produce less than twenty percent of our needs. We don't have any oil that we can tap into. All it looks like we might get some out of Queensland. But yeah, look where babes in the woods in this game. Unfortunately, philm I did say to Mark Butler that you know now is not the time, but surely we'll have learned lessons from this to better plan for the future, and one of those would be to abide by the IA standard of ninety day fuel reserves. Now, if you've got ninety days in storage, there's going to be less likely a knee jerk reaction. When you've got twenty eight days thirty day storage. People are meet, you're going to say, oh, we're heading for a crisis or heading for a disaster. We better stock up, we better fill the jerry cans. If we had ninety days supply, people might not react so dramatically. Maybe the lesson has learned, Maybe we've learned it the hard way.
00:56:45
Speaker 6: Five Double A Mornings with Graham Goodings.
00:56:50
Speaker 1: Were you caught up in the Southeastern Freeway Mayhem last night? The freeway has reopened this morning after the crash on the uptrack had blocked all lanes, causing peak period chaos. Speed restrictions I believe are still in force around Crafers as repairs to the freeway continue. Well, it's just another of many se preway incidents that impact thousands of commuters almost on a daily basis. Josh Tigue is the liberal menp for Hyson and the Adelade Hills, and he's been constantly aware of the problems and has been championing improvements. He joins us now, Josh t good.
00:57:23
Speaker 21: Morning, Good morning, Graham, Good morning to all of your listeners, and thanks for having me on the program, including I hope to share some up to date information about what happened. Gram, as you just summarized just now what we all experienced on the freeway starting late afternoon yesterday and then into the early hours of this morning, was a very serious incident. And for those familiar with the freeway, at the beginning of the downhill stretch just over to the peak where the freeway converts from three lane to two under the Crapers interchange bridge, B double trucks coming to strife and ended up jackknifing facing back the other way and blocking the whole freeway. That happened at quarter past four yesterday afternoon, you know, just on peak traffic for that side of the freeway. And so the practical concerns for my constituents, those who use the freeway every day to get to work, to do all that necessaries, was that people weren't told leased as much as they could have at that time or through the evening that they really needed to use Greenhill Road and stay right off the freeway through that peak period and then information updates and so on along the way, and for freight it's just the same. I was on the road at about quarter past nine in the deluge, the darkness and the heavy rain, and I've never seen anything like it. Graham, a lineup of trucks, all very orderly. I have to say that those drivers of those bea doggle trucks were all behaving in a very orderly ways, but lined up in the left lane from the collgate right up to the Craters interchange, just one after the other, and they were all just as we all were, having to be diverted through Crace's main street to avoid the incident. And it meant obviously that there was an enormous delayed hours long in many cases for people who were unfortunate enough to find themselves on the freeway.
00:59:55
Speaker 1: Sadly, we're going to have these incidents, I mean the trucks will crash. What can we do to circumvent this? I mean what needs to be done to make the commuter trip more reliable and more regular and less incident or more incident free.
01:00:11
Speaker 21: Well, the improvements that can be made are overdue to be completed now, so overdue because freeway users have been enduring very substantial works that have invested in gantries and speed advice and all the rest that have been installed over the last several years that have made it more and more of a managed motorway.
01:00:42
Speaker 1: But the.
01:00:44
Speaker 21: Practical piece to really make that effective that hasn't yet been done. And state labor government has got the money there in the budget to do it, but it's just taken far too long. That is, to install the capacity for what's been described as contraflow. So when you've got a freeway blockage like this that lasts for in this case at least eleven hours from late afternoon into the earl out of the morning, arrangements can be made quickly to get the traffic over onto the other side of the road where you know it's basically empty, and you can get them traffic moving by using the freeway more effectively. Now, you know, the irony of all this is that we've seen regularly use of the freeway having to do exactly that to facilitate roadworks better part of everything, and so it can be done.
01:01:44
Speaker 1: So you're saying, logistically, this is quite feasible.
01:01:47
Speaker 21: Oh it's not only feasible, but it's budgeted and promised by the government. And when we saw over the summer there was a run of weeks where this happened, you know, once a week at least, you know, a minor collision between a couple of cars that then just completely blocks up the freeway too easily. And the spotlight was right on this work to achieve contraflow, and we had the then minister the Labor government since change ministers again, and the then minister was saying, oh, well, no, we're getting on to it. It will all happen. But you know, we're all saying, hey, come on, it's taken far too long. And those of us who are living in the hills driving every day, as well as the trucks that need to navigate it. Know that this has been far too long coming.
01:02:37
Speaker 1: So you're saying so effectively this could be fixed with a stroke of a pen at no cost to the taxpayer.
01:02:43
Speaker 21: Well, no, it needs it needs work to be done. There's more than just the stroke of a pen. It needs the work to be done. But the money's there in the budget. The work just needs to be prioritized and done, and we just keep hearing promises from the government but no action. The other point to be made, Graham, is the other really serious infrastructure improvement, the Greater Adelaide freight bypass. And I mentioned earlier that I was observing this great, big, long line of b double trucks, all assembled, walking, moving at walking pace up the hill last night. Now they, if they're properly advised, can take advantage of a Greater Adelaid freight bypass and get away from the freeway all together and not rejoin until murray Bridge. But the work to invest in the truro freight route, the necessary infrastructure via sedan and so on, needs to be prioritized. And we know, you know, state labor is focused on metro all the time. We've got to make sure that this state labor government and the state Fed and the federal labor government actually get on with the work of investing in what is a national freight route which really could have been put to better use last night for those for those heavy trucks that found themselves jammed up on the freeway as well, there's.
01:04:13
Speaker 1: No question that diverting heavy vehicles a bypass would take the pressure off the Southeastern Freeway. But in the interim, if you know, that's probably a long term project. Can any more be done regarding the Southeastern Freeway or we're just looking at band aids.
01:04:29
Speaker 21: Well, this contraplow measure I think will make a significant difference on a night like last night. And the other practical point, as I say, we're all very practical and responsive to advice in the hills, and so if we if we've had the means akin to akin to what happens when there's a fire emergency, Graham that you know, there's sometimes an interrupting of the broadcast or the capacity to send a direct message to people to say, hey, use Greenhill Roads, you know, don't get on the freeway. This was one of those circumstances in which it was of no use at all to go via Eagle on the Hill, because you know you'd be re entering the freeway before the point of the collision. Sometimes using Eagle on the Hill is a means of avoiding an incident, but this was one of those ones where a completely different route was required and commuters including you know, members of my community who have reported having been stuck in the tunnel for hours, and others coming home from shifts to a hospital, people who called in on the radio this morning, who spent hours on the freeway at a standstill, who would have very readily responded to advice to say no go Green Hill Road, take another measure. This is going to be an incident that will last for hours and hours, and so you know, and that in turn can be of assistance to those doing that extraordinary important emergency response work to get the freeway back up and running as quickly as it can be got back up and running trying circumstances.
01:06:10
Speaker 1: Now, you've been a long term advoctate for a third lane on the sections of the freeway between Harndorf and Sterling.
01:06:16
Speaker 21: Absolutely and particularly between Harndorff and Bridgewater, and that's an example on the way back towards Adelaide, and that's an example of the response to priorities. We know the RAA has identified where the key choke points are on the freeway and now that we're finally seeing the Bedune interchange being built at Harndorff, that will make that interchange workable, including for additional public transport. We really need to see those priority areas of the freeway seeing the investment that they need. And third lane between Handorf and Bridgewater is one of the areas that we committed to ahead of the election and the government's got to act on that as a matter of priority.
01:07:07
Speaker 1: Now when we look at that area, I mean the Southeastern Freeway was sort of a wide elephant before it began because nobody realized how that area Mount Darker area was going to grow and it is inadequate for the population. There is a major proposal to develop the more around the murray Bridge area, which would increase the growth there. This is only going to make the problem worse.
01:07:31
Speaker 21: Well, your listeners will recall not so long ago, in the first year or so that I was a member for Hysen, we invested in the construction of third lanes between Craters and Stirling again responding to that greater priority. I said at every turn during that work, which is long, complete and brilliant improvement, that that was all about improving safety for commuters driving through that stretch of the hills and ready for the time when there will be far less heavy freight on the freeway. So I think, Graham, to your point about increased population, we've got to make sure we invest in the alternative Greater Adelaide freight bypass so that the freeway, which is a hugely important piece of infrastructure, can all the more be available for commuter traffic and better still, those express bus services that can take advantage of the freeway and remove so many cars from the freeway day to day. And hence our commitment to greater park and ride facilities including it for done, and that needs to go all the way back. If there's one thing more that I'd say, Graham again, your listeners, my neighboring town just outside of my district at Mount Barr that is growing, and murray Bridge, we very much welcome the investment and growth there. It's got to be towards the situation where people are living and working in these growth areas so that it's not just a dormitory situation where.
01:09:16
Speaker 1: People are daily commuting to the city.
01:09:19
Speaker 21: Leaving, heading out in the morning, coming back at night. We've got to say, well, if we've seen growth in these towns Now Barker and murray Bridge especially, then let's make sure that there's a hub and a heart of activity there so that you know it's the whole picture, not just the commuter town.
01:09:36
Speaker 1: Josh Tig always good to talk. Thanks for your time today. Remember for Heysen Josh Tig with the issues in and around the fastest growth area in the state at Mount Barker, then murray Bridge. The plans what the current population is around twenty three thousand. I think murray Bridge it's expected to reach thirty five thousand. It'll make it the biggest regional center in South EASTRATA. All well and good, and that's terrific, but it's connected by the ribbon that is the Southeastern Freeway, which is largely inadequate for the job. Back shortly five Double A Mornings with Graham Goodings and we've just been speak speaking with the member for Heis and Josh Tigue about the mayhem on the Southeastern Freeway last night Joe Sockarch, the Minister for Infrastructure and Transports, called them Minister, good morning.
01:10:27
Speaker 22: Hi Graham, look good to be with you, and just thought i'd give you a bit of an update in respect to some of your very reasonable concerns about yesterday's disruption. I think your reflections about this being somewhat a difficult and unavoidable matter is spot on. Just to give your listener some some context, no amount of traffic diversion at the site last night would have been able to immediately alleviate the very regrettable disruption to traffic. There was a significant diesel spill as part of this incident, and that of course meant that both sides of the freeway, the uptrack and the downtrack were disrupted. And it's a bit of a strange one that we saw this incident occurring on the uptrack in a pretty quiet time of the afternoon, and we're very happy to see that there were no injuries as a result. But in respect to the upgrades, we've got a two hundred million dollar package that will be beginning this year that will involve a fully managed roadway as well as some countraflow treatments that will allow for the more contemporary diversion of traffic in some incidents. What I would say, Graham, though, is that we need to get the traffic that the managed roadway done first, and this is a safety issue. What we can't afford to do is to have the movement of traffic on in and out of a very very busy up and down track without this being fully managed. And that's happening. It's fully funded. The two hundred million dollar project will begin this year, and I appreciate that we always want to get these things going asquick as who possibly can, but it will be occurring this year, and sadly though, it'd be one of those incidents that I couldn't guarantee your your listeners that if there were to be a diesel spill or a similar disruption, that there might not be some short term disruption for the trailers up and down.
01:12:16
Speaker 1: Is there any way that people can be notified earlier that the freeways closed, then they can go via Green Hill Road or Upper Stirt Road.
01:12:23
Speaker 22: Yeah, it's a really good point. You're raised, and I've spoken to a number of people yesterday and this morning. Where we can do better. We'd like to do better we will do better. I've asked the department to take a very close look at this. We do have signs and warnings before people are going on to those ways through our overhead gantries which do give some forewarning. But as part of this significant upgrade that we're doing this year, if we can apply better and more signage and always learning from incidents like this, we absolutely will do that.
01:12:57
Speaker 1: When the Southeastern Freeway was first proposed to the population center, Mount Barker didn't have anywhere near the population it does now. It would be in hindsight it's fair to say that the Southeastern Freeway was undermanaged or underprepared. We were. It is not effectively big enough. Now there are proposals for a major expansion at Mount Gambia population not sorry Mount Gambia. At Mount where am I talking about? Sorry, I've lost.
01:13:23
Speaker 22: My thread now I think I think murray Bridge, murray.
01:13:26
Speaker 1: Bridge, murray Bridge community. Yeah, it's growing dramatically. There are great plans for murray Bridge that will increase the population. That was going to put even more stress on the Southeastern Freeway. What can you do about that?
01:13:40
Speaker 22: Well, We've got a few things, and I'm really pleased to raise murray Bridge because it's a great community and it's a really growing community, and I want to give credit to a really progressive council there as well who are doing a lot to bring vibrancy and people to their community. A lot of people that will be living in murray Bridge but will actually not be commuting on a daily basis into work in in the city. That's a really important piece of this is it. I think at times there can be an assumption that people who are living out of Adelaide metro area either once or must or through work to commuting into Adelaide. It's often not the case, and particularly in murray Bridge where we're seeing industry grow, we want to see more people thriving, living and working in that region. But also one of the really important matters of which we have committed a very significant funding too and continuing to work with the Commonwealth and respect to business cases and hopeful final delivery is freight is the higher productivity Network and that means that we would be working collaboratively at a whole of government level and particularly at a whole of nation level to continue the most productive routing of our freight. And that means that we would be seeking, through the business case, to be moving some of that freight, those heavier trucks off the Southeastern Freeway and through other routing.
01:15:00
Speaker 1: But surely that should be a national priorities. I mean, there's no question this is a major thoroughfare, It's a major route between the Eastern States and the Western States or western of Adelaide. Surely this should be front of the house for the federal government.
01:15:16
Speaker 22: Yeah, we very much believe so as well, and we've had some progressive, productive and positive engagement with the Commonwealth government.
01:15:23
Speaker 1: In respect to this day.
01:15:24
Speaker 22: Believe in this project as well, and I agree with you there should be a national priority. But if I come back to the first principles and some of this really unfortunate disruption yesterday, Graham, is that notwithstanding the fact that we could be investing heavily on a ten factor more in different types of treatments and options, incidents regrettably do happen, and a one where a number of factors combined yesterday would likely still lead to temporary disruptions. And what we have to do as a government and as communities and working across our networks is to mitigate against those risks and when they do occur, is to provide the most supportive and seamless movement of traffic around them so that commuters suffer as little disruption as they possibly can.
01:16:08
Speaker 1: Minister, thanks so much for calling in. Joe Sock, Arch Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. On the Southeastern Freeway, when it was built, it was a wonder and the highs and tunnels fantastic when you think back to the days of the Devil's Elbow and the like, it was a real breakthrough. But nobody at the time envisaged the growth that we'd find in the Mount Parker region and that's wonderful too, and people commute on a daily basis, but the Southeastern Freeway is regularly overstressed and then you have an accident, which we have all too often, and then we have major problems. Bill says freight bypass when twenty thirty five, twenty forty, Yeah, this has to be a priority. And it's interesting that Danny says High Graham, what is the priority for Australia high speed rail to connect Sydney and Newcastle or national storage for gas and fuel? Good on your Danny, they are good points and that really annoys me when we heard the minister float this not that long ago. Building a high speed rail costed at ninety billion dollars between Newcastle and Sydney, ninety billion with a bee for servicing at the moment forty five thousand people. Now, I would suggest that around that number travel along the Southeastern Freeway on a daily basis, and that is growing probably more rapidly than Newcastle Sydney for rail commuters. And it could be built, or another freeway, a bypass could be built way less than ninety billion dollars. But maybe South Australia doesn't rank all that highly on the federal scale. What are your thought? It's eight double two to three double double O andrew says. If it's serious, just close the freeway so people including trucks can make alternate arrangements. There is Greenhill Road also Upper Sturt Road most people would take if they are advised of the severity of delays. Closing the freeway is all you need to know.
01:17:59
Speaker 8: That is true.
01:17:59
Speaker 1: And the problem is, of course, if all the vehicles are banked up behind an accident just occurring, they've got nowhere to go. So this contraflow would seem a logical way and Josh t talked about it, the Minister talked about it. Yes, plans are underway. Two hundred million dollars is available for it. That is part of it. So a contraflow where you use the other side of the freeway that is virtually empty because it's the opposite end of the day, and that would overcome a lot of the problem when there is an accident on the dwntrack of freeway. Why is there never a warning on Adelaide Road in Mount Barker to say accident on freeway, find alternate route. Never would make sense, wouldn't it. Jay says I could save the country nine million liters of fuel per week to poort all the one hundred and seventy thousand illegal immigrants, would solve the inflation, interest rates, housing and renting issues. Just a thought. Firstly, they need to close the freeway, not leave it open. Yeah, lots of people with thoughts on the freeway. If you were caught up in the mayhem yesterday, last night, maybe this morning, give us a call, tell us about I'd like to hear from you. Eight double two to three double O double Oh is the number. We're going to take a break for news. Then Nick Hayes will join me in the studio. We'll take a look at the weekend.
01:19:18
Speaker 6: Media five Double A Mornings with Graham Goodings.
01:19:22
Speaker 1: It's six past ten, five double A, six past eleven daylights. We just changed daylights aaving here just then we're very slow here, good daylight saving the man you here laughing. It's none other than Nick Hay's from Media Stable.
01:19:37
Speaker 17: Nick.
01:19:37
Speaker 3: Good morning, good morning, Good morning, Graham. What a week.
01:19:40
Speaker 23: It has been a shortened week, obviously, with the easter break last week and gather around just kicking off last night and school holidays starting today.
01:19:48
Speaker 1: It's all happening.
01:19:49
Speaker 3: It's all happening.
01:19:50
Speaker 1: I thought you'd come in and your your white and blue, your scarf, you know, your roue boys.
01:19:55
Speaker 23: It was a good, good Friday, very good fridayy with that. Yeah, but I'm a bit nervous about this week's came up at the Barossa. I'm heading up there to watch watch North Melbourne v.
01:20:04
Speaker 3: Brisbane. Actually quietly, quitely, a little bit buoyant. I think I think we might actually give the Ruffle a few of them. Yeah, I don't know. I'm just feeling good about it. But so what a week.
01:20:16
Speaker 23: Though, I mean just even locally in the media, gather around definitely everything that we're talking about, and it's not just us talking about it, it's the whole country.
01:20:24
Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
01:20:24
Speaker 23: And there's also a CEO of the AFL who's running around and our premier that are discussing whether they can keep this long term or not.
01:20:31
Speaker 1: And then we've got the Sydney Swan's chief, Andrew Pridham saying he wants a piece of it. Yeah, gather around, two hands off. Yeah. Well it's interesting though, because Sydney had gave a round stitched up yes, and the premiere snuck in from under yep and pinched it. So I think they're still a bit narked about that.
01:20:51
Speaker 23: There's something that says to me that to tell the premier, look, let's just actually let's let the AFL make the decision. Let's actually pull out of the negotiations, because this seems to be the place for it to be. I've got a lot of friends and family here. This is the only reason they come. They don't come to see me, they're coming for the gather round.
01:21:06
Speaker 3: So it's wonderful to have so many people.
01:21:09
Speaker 23: The city's vibrant, alive, unusual weather we're having, but you know it's not typical for ours.
01:21:14
Speaker 1: To make the Vicksfield at home. Well, I kind of feel it.
01:21:18
Speaker 3: It's going to even up a bit of the footy as well.
01:21:20
Speaker 23: True, and look, it's a great time to be The whole country is looking at us, and I hope that we before the end of the gather around that the Premier has locked away a deal for a long term deal.
01:21:33
Speaker 1: I mean, there's no better place for gathering. We know that everyone can see that, even doesn't matter who you are, you'd have to concede it's the best place. I just don't want us spending more of taxpayers money than we need to. I know there's money involved, but we shouldn't have to be shelling out a whole lot more because this is this is great for the AFL as well as it's great for Adelaide.
01:21:52
Speaker 23: Absolutely, and I think if anything, it's better for the AFL. It's going to put a greater emphasis on the future of the game because the infrastructure and everything like that is you speak of money, eighty million dollars was spent by the South Australian government, whether you know, not just in cash but in benefits there for the AFL for three years. Is that the kind of price we've got to pay for the next lot? I don't think so. I don't think we should. But look that negotiation is going to take place. But gee, we put on a good show. It's an exciting weekend, got to say.
01:22:23
Speaker 1: Certainly as well. Let's say, look at the international stage, number one ranking, the man making news. Do we need to say Donald Trump?
01:22:29
Speaker 3: Donald Trump?
01:22:30
Speaker 17: Yes?
01:22:30
Speaker 23: Look, I mean, you know, I don't know, Graham.
01:22:33
Speaker 3: I'm really getting confused with this.
01:22:35
Speaker 23: And you know, we've even got former prime ministers coming out having a crack at Anthony Albanezia, our Prime minister, for not getting involved or not showing support for the United States.
01:22:44
Speaker 3: But how can you show support for Donald Trump? Honestly?
01:22:47
Speaker 23: I mean, this is the way that he has been using language, where he's been using social media and threatening like that. I just don't know who stands up next to Donald Trump.
01:22:57
Speaker 3: No one is.
01:22:59
Speaker 1: Would you say things like, you know, destroying a civilization and things like that. I mean people say, oh he does that. It's just a negotiating tool. But you can't lead on a world stage.
01:23:09
Speaker 3: Yes, correct.
01:23:10
Speaker 23: You can't just say that words are powerful words are just as powerful as the nuclear bombs that he's got there. I don't know anyone that can sit up there and stand with him, So I'm getting a little frustrated by that. I'm actually quite proud of our Prime Minister the way that he has been dealing with this, in that he hasn't just jumped on board and gone blindly into all of this because in actual fact, we didn't know. We don't know what he's going on behind the scenes.
01:23:34
Speaker 1: We were never consulted. This is the thing he's sort of saying, oh, look we you know, NATO and all these countries should fall into line with him. He has to consult and say, look, this is what we're planning, and it's all behind closed doors and we don't know anything about it, but the government you know about it. Then to sort of say, well, you know, there's a war on join us boys, and this.
01:23:52
Speaker 3: Cease fire it cease fire that's still firing.
01:23:54
Speaker 23: I mean, what is happening. So look, that is definitely the number one issue that is not here in Australia. That's globally where we are concerned. It's still an.
01:24:04
Speaker 3: Issue there for fuel as to whether we're going.
01:24:06
Speaker 23: To get fuel delivered, and people are just sort of waiting on that, and the stock markets are they're actually just behaving the way the language is being used exactly and what he's being said. So the minute he says it's over, the stock market goes up. The minute they start firing again, it goes down. So he's playing a stock market more than he's playing with sort of global diplomacy.
01:24:28
Speaker 1: Somebody's probably making an awful lot of money about it. Oh God, inside of trading on the line.
01:24:33
Speaker 23: And do you want to go another conspiracy theory here, Graham, Please, we don't talk about the Epstein files anymore. We don't talk about Epstein files. Sorry, Sorry for all the conspiracy theorists out there. That's another one to that.
01:24:45
Speaker 1: Surely can't go away, can it. I mean, three million dollars, three million documents, three million documents, yeah, some of them video, some of them pictures, lots of text, lots of emails.
01:24:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, visibility report.
01:24:59
Speaker 23: It's dropped down to number ten, which for the last six months it's been at number two or number three here, so it has come off, but that'll never disappear.
01:25:09
Speaker 1: Something that is big news, Ben Robert Smith. I mean that has effectively divided the nation. It has.
01:25:15
Speaker 23: I'd love to hear from your audience how they feel about it, because there's a lot of mixed emotions and feelings towards this. Is he a war criminal or not? The courts will decide that this is going to play out for a long long time. But this week, you know, without any doubt it was all set up. Ben Robert Smith, a Victoria Cross winner, was arrested on a plane when he landed in Sydney. You don't get media on the tarmac of an airport very easily. To have police there, to have all the media set up ready to go, this is well planned. This is going to be a media story for a good twelve eighty months, two years, because that's how long it's going to take. The way the media has been dealing with it, very different, very different positioning the question. Yes, but I think depending which media you do tune into, they're going to have their different opinion and position on it. And also interesting political and those billionaires out there have all got their different views on it as well, so they're making the news about how they feel about it. It's just interesting because we don't want to have a Victoria Cross Winner being declared a war criminal a national hero. He's a national hero now. But at the same time, we don't want our national hero to be a war criminal exactly.
01:26:30
Speaker 1: And that is the point. And people are prejudging and making up their minds and we don't know, We do not know either way. But it must make anyone who is thinking of going into the forces being there for their country thinking, well, you know, if I've put a step wrong under pressure, and you cannot begin to imagine the pressure, you know, someone faced with terrorists attacking them, throwing hand grenades, guns, firing guns.
01:26:58
Speaker 23: Absolutely, you put your life on the line for the and and sometimes and if this does play out the way that it does, it it's going to affect enlistment. It's going to affect And we're not far away from Anzac Day when we actually celebrate not the not war, we celebrate.
01:27:14
Speaker 3: Those that have given their lives for our freedom.
01:27:16
Speaker 1: Good point.
01:27:17
Speaker 3: And that's going to have an effect on that day.
01:27:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, it certainly will. Yes, the Ben Robert Smith, somebody is on Trump, Peter, says Graham all as criticism of Trump's words, what about the language from Iran about death to the USA and Israel and that are other countries. But that's okay. They're the bad guys and that's what we expect from them, says Peter.
01:27:38
Speaker 23: Well, Peter, it's it's we've got to you know, when they go low, we go hi. You know that classic statement from leaders there. I don't think we need to do this. This, this kind of threat is not This is not diplomacy. This is this is just an egomaniac playing out on his own thing. And people are suggesting that this is the smartest move going around. I don't know about that.
01:28:00
Speaker 3: I do think so.
01:28:01
Speaker 23: I think the smartest mood is to just let diplomacy play out and do it properly, as opposed to those sort of games that we're playing on social media.
01:28:10
Speaker 1: Donald Trump has a lot of support, Robert says, complaining about d Trump's use of language, Well, how far of forty five years of diplomacy using nice words advanced Iran and the support of terror, Perhaps some hard words were needed. See when you start saying, you know, we'll wipe out a civilization now, all right, that you can say, oh, well, that brought about the ceasefire, so called seasfire. What happens when the ceasefire breaks down totally, does Donald Trump resume with his decision to destroy our civilization? I mean, you know, it's.
01:28:40
Speaker 23: You know, the one thing that we are waiting for right now is just waiting out Donald Trump's presidency.
01:28:44
Speaker 3: He can't come back after this next one.
01:28:47
Speaker 1: He's trying, you know, he's trying to change the Magna cart What will they change the constitution?
01:28:55
Speaker 23: No, that won't happen. And look, and that's the other thing. I think there's as much unrest in the Unided States as well as to his involvement with this war and the way that it's gone about as well. So you know, we can go and support Donald Trump and think that we're getting we're getting somewhere, but we're just not. And even in the US, the people aren't happy about it either. So it's a global issual issue there for him.
01:29:17
Speaker 1: Emily is saying, I like this rare voice of reason. Who's that directed to?
01:29:22
Speaker 23: Might be a colleague of mine that's texting him, But no, that's that is it is, it's reason. It's we've got to be smarter about this, and we're not seeing smart politics or diplomacy going going on globally here.
01:29:35
Speaker 1: Final word on NASA, a new entrant to the top ten with the what's been happening in space?
01:29:40
Speaker 23: Yes, well we've been a little bit to take a little bit of the distraction away from all the negative news that's flying around there. Yes, we're up there in NASA's up and about a flight that's going the longest flight it's ever human beings have ever been on. I think even Donald Trump got up and said it was beautiful. That's the longest flight, longest flight ever never been done before. No, it's it's happened about and it's exciting. We could be putting people on the Moon and that'll we haven't done that since the Sickwell sixties.
01:30:07
Speaker 1: Now it's hard to believe the how long ago it was, and sadly I can remember it very well.
01:30:12
Speaker 3: A little bit before my time, but not far off.
01:30:15
Speaker 1: Great moments. Nick, thanks for dropping by. I hope your footy team.
01:30:18
Speaker 3: Does well at the.
01:30:21
Speaker 1: Back to Shortley five Double A Mornings with Graham Goodings Double A This Friday morning, tenth day of April. Footy is in the air. Gather round as in the air. It's all happening Adelaide at the moment. But I think most of us have fond memories of football, not just at the highest level s ANFL and AFL and THEFL and the like. Suburban footy, country footy a vital part without the football at the social level, football at the highest level probably would not exist well. Sadly, over the years, country football clubs have been forced to amalgamate or just disappear all together. And unfortunately it's happening all over again. The Androsson Football Club held a critical community meeting just this week, Jack Coon as the president, he joins us, Now, Jack, good morning to.
01:31:10
Speaker 16: You coome On in Graham.
01:31:12
Speaker 1: How are you look well? Thanks? But not such good news for the andross And Footy Club.
01:31:16
Speaker 17: No, unfortunately not mate.
01:31:18
Speaker 16: Unfortunately, off the back of last season we had a lot of Adelaide based players, which are a big group of mates, leave to go back to local clubs within the amateur league in Adelaide there and this had.
01:31:32
Speaker 17: A bit of a follow on effect with a few local players deciding not to play or playing elsewhere. Put us in a bit of a position at the moment where were allowing numbers for this coming season.
01:31:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, so how many players do you need effectively to run a team?
01:31:49
Speaker 17: To run one team. Obviously, you need twenty one to be able to select.
01:31:53
Speaker 1: In one team absolute base number, yeah, just to go on the field.
01:31:58
Speaker 6: Yeah yeah, Yeah.
01:31:59
Speaker 17: So obviously we have an A grade and a B grade out here, so you're obviously looking at forty odd plus numbers, and then you know, getting injuries in the likes throughout the year, people on holidays, people working away, those sort of scenarios, you sort of really need to have sort of fifty plus players registered on your list to be able to fit those still those two teams.
01:32:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I guess you've got some young fellas who are still in the area who just not going to be able to play a game.
01:32:29
Speaker 17: Yeah, that's correct. So unfortunately, off the back of that meeting and discussions with the league only having twenty six players registered at the start of the week this week and going into that meeting that we have with the community on Wednesday night, we've unfortunately had to make the decision that we won't be able to field a B grade this coming season. So that obviously puts you know's a bit of a twofold scenario there where you know there's going to be potentially some younger players or some people that will potentially miss out, you know, planing throughout the year. Yeah, but also in that twenty eight we've got a lot of older players too that potentially at the back end of their career that are quite happy to you know, make sure that they're available when needed, but you know, obviously happy to have some younger players step up and yeah, try to fill the a grapes this season.
01:33:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, So no thoughts of amalgamating with another club.
01:33:28
Speaker 17: Obviously, We've got a lot of options ahead of us. I think at this stage where you know, the intent behind the community beating was to make sure that we gave the community as much information as possible and gave everybody an opportunity to step up and make sure that those options may not be needed in the future, which is obviously our key our key driver here is to make sure that we can put continue to put teams on in the park in the future. They're definitely options down the track, but at this stage where yeah, definitely focus on getting a team on the park this year and hopefully recruiting more throughout this season to be able to make sure that we can strengthen up the numbers for next year. We're also very close to Rex Mineral's mind, which is only located ten minutes down the road from us. So we're hoping that that will create a bit of a boost to the community when they start to ramp up operations and employ the more and potentially bring more into the community and surround the areas.
01:34:31
Speaker 1: I hope amongst the miners there might be some footy players.
01:34:34
Speaker 17: Yeah, yeah, well, I mean we hope. So I suppose at the end of the day, the original numbers that we're hearing coming from that team is anywhere else to four hundred people that they're going to be required to start the construction down there. You know, even if that's five or ten percent of that, you know, it kind of pull on the boots at some stage or another. That's that's going to make a huge different to us being able to keep moving forward in the future.
01:35:04
Speaker 1: Well, I'm sorry to hear what's happening, Jack, but all the best for the future and the Andross and Futty Club. Hopefully into the future you can feel a big grade team along with the A grade. But I mean, you know, let's face it, country putty is the lifeblood of a lot of country towns. I mean, it's the meeting point for so many people, you know, the mums and dads and the kids and all get around and meeting every week and train and go to training and celebrate the wins and commiserate with the losses. It's a vital part of the Aussie way of life, particularly in the bush. Let's go out to Newton Barry. You've got some news on the traffic for us.
01:35:40
Speaker 24: Yes, I was caught up in the through a business. That's not We had to divert to the left. Massive amount of vehicles. Now, one thing someone might have mentioned to electric vehicles and that there were banked up for a couple of hours and that there I've seen three electric vehicles they had there were lights turned off and the completely stopped so they ran out of battery.
01:36:27
Speaker 1: There's the thought, isn't it if you caught up like that and you're running well on battery power, what do you do?
01:36:34
Speaker 18: Right?
01:36:35
Speaker 24: And what happened? I was a passenger. We're invited to a party, like a going away party. One of the girls was off to Darwin and there's a barbecue and I was a passenger there and I was looking to my left and that and people got out of their car and they're trying to push one of these electric vehicles. Were that's impossible. I'm a great supporter of electric vehicles, but I thought I must report it to you, you know, with with the you know, bankupt problems, any accidents and that there he gets stuck in a situation like that. And there was another vehicle that was abandoned. There was he just obviously ran out of petrol and the vehicle was just left.
01:37:31
Speaker 18: Uh.
01:37:32
Speaker 24: And the other surprising thing and uh, I had to, you know, think about this. H One of the ladies had to relieve herself. So she opened the front door and the back door to have a Wii.
01:37:54
Speaker 1: You know, too much information good on any about it? Interesting point though about it. Evs that if you're running low on power and mind, you're same with a petrol car. But if you're out in the bush somewhere and you run out of petrol, you either flag someone down who can give you a bit of petrol if they're carrying some spare, or you can walk to the next service station or get a lift to the next service station come back with a Jerry cannon fill up. If you have a car that is an EV and the battery runs flat. It's not like the RAA can just turn up and say we'll top up your battery for you, or can they That's something we need to find out for another day.
01:38:35
Speaker 6: Five Double A Mornings with Graham Goodings.
01:38:38
Speaker 1: Twenty eight to twelve, five Double A. Later this half hour we'll have a chat with Stacy Lee to see what she's got on the program this afternoon, but something she will have on the program this afternoon. If you love your food and who doesn't be listening to Stacy Lee just after three when Chris Charmer from Jarmer's Kitchen joins her for food Y Friday. Thanks to Smeg and Pals, are you building or renovating? Your first choice should be visiting the Smeg showroom at Debnity Debney Distributors Taste. The difference with Smeg and Pals radio is that the lifeline and lifeblood of so many people. We know that behind the friends and fans that we have listening to five Double A. But there's another level of radio. It's community radio that is all around the nation and particularly in rural and remote Australia. Community radio serves as a vital lifeline. It bridges the tyranny of distance where commercial radio often fades, helps preserve the local identity is there in an emergency. Provides such an important service. And while in some respects you could say that commercial and community radio are sort of at loggerheads and in competition with one another, I don't see it that way. I think community radio has a vital role to play. So when you hear of a community radio station struggling to exist, I think it's time to talk about it. We're talking about five Kicks FM ninety point seven. The radio heart beat of Kangar Island. Joining us now is David Hale's David, Good morning to you.
01:40:05
Speaker 25: Good morning Graham.
01:40:06
Speaker 15: How are you look.
01:40:07
Speaker 1: I'm well, thanks, and we'll set the records straight here. David and I go way back. We started working together. What was it channel channel ten? Were we then or seven? I can't remember.
01:40:15
Speaker 25: I think it was just on the changeover. I started there in about eighty three.
01:40:19
Speaker 1: Yeah. Wow, gee whiz, that's giving that's giving our age a way, it isn't it.
01:40:24
Speaker 6: Yeah.
01:40:25
Speaker 25: I was just counting it before we started, and I thought, wow, it's been a while.
01:40:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well you've moved on. You've done so many other things. You've been a cinematographer and an editor and you name it. They won't even go to all the places that you've been. But I know that you have a passionate love affair with Kangar Island and you've moved from Adelaide and you're actually living there permanently.
01:40:44
Speaker 25: Now I am Graham. I am a very nice area here called American River, nice beaches and whatnot, and it's totally lively, Like it's lively here today it's a bit windy. Graham.
01:41:00
Speaker 1: Now, how did you get in cahoots with the KICKSFM, the local community radio station.
01:41:09
Speaker 25: Well, another guy at American River who runs the cafe, he's ex Channel nine, the opposition. Graham and I used to go down there and get snacks and we started talking and he said, oh, look at the radio station. They're looking for somebody to do some editing. So I said, all right, I'll give him a call and you know, perhaps I can put a few products together for them. And when I met up with the then chair of the radio, Christine, I was telling her that I was ex media like with seven, and I also was an ex Telecom Australia technical officer, and she said, oh, we haven't got a technician, so I adopted editing and technician roles for the radiot to help things along a bit. Like it's just progressed over four years, Graham, like, I went on the committee. I was there for a couple of the years, got quite a few sponsors back and quite a few new ones.
01:42:16
Speaker 1: You're also on air, I believe.
01:42:18
Speaker 25: Oh yes, I do a show every Tuesday morning at eleven talk Back Tuesday here on the island. Crats will dig into that a bit deeper, because it's funny with radio these days that people want to text in not talk.
01:42:34
Speaker 1: But oh yes, we have that issue. So tell us how important is community radio to the people of k I.
01:42:44
Speaker 25: Well, it's important to everybody in the community because it's a central point where information can be disseminated from. And we are like a family, so we talk to everybody. You know, just about everybody you can go up to on the island. If you know them, you're an islander, that's it, and you can talk to them. But I think it brings a lot of people that are possibly lonely to a common point, like as you know, down the west end of the island here it's very rural. I think We're rated about R four or something on the rural scale, which is remote. And you know, after the fires and twenty twenty or a lot of people had hardship and that, and you know, the radio station was something that they had gathered around and get their voice heard amongst our local community. And post the bush fires, we've also made a decision at committee level that we will engage in emergency broadcasting, so when the CFS put out alert, we do too.
01:44:01
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, I mean there's no other commercial radio or other outlets like that. So you know, five Kicks FM is vital for the community and it's vital that it continues to exist.
01:44:12
Speaker 26: Yes, it is.
01:44:13
Speaker 25: And Graham, look, some of the radio stations, including us, because of the topography of kanger On, that's all hills and valleys. You can't get all the radio stations here. You probably get AM radio stations, but FM depending on where you are to be a stretch. So of course we stream online as well, so that as long as people have got mobile data access they can access the radio station. We're doing everything we can to as get to as many people as possible.
01:44:49
Speaker 1: So where do you get your funding? Well, there was.
01:44:55
Speaker 25: A bit of a let's say ambiguity about that. And I contacted the South Australian Community Broadcasters Association and they set us straight on where we can get stuff. It was all through sponsors, so we didn't realize that all of these grants were open to us, so our income went up and down with our sponsorship levels. Now, of course, on Kingara Island there's only a limited number of businesses that can afford to sponsor, and what happens is they might come with you for a year or two, but then it's somebody else's turn to get the money, right, so they drop off from you and you're back in trouble again. And it's been when I first come into the station, they were almost on zero dollars. So you know, Pat and I threw some money in, and lots of the committee members have thrown money in over the years to keep it going, whereas we shouldn't have to do that certainly. So when we learned about the grants, we've started applying for a few. All our equipment gram is like thirty years old and I'm holding it together with shoestrings, sailing wire and sticky tape.
01:46:23
Speaker 1: If anyone could do it, you could, Yeah, well, thanks for that.
01:46:27
Speaker 25: I'm glad you're so confident in me. But yeah, we really need to look it updating. So we're trying to get some grants for that and to pay our electricity in our rent.
01:46:43
Speaker 1: Which is always going up. So you've started, you've started a go fund me campaign to help you. So fund me. What do people need to do to if they want to make a contribution.
01:46:53
Speaker 25: So if they go to go fund me and they look for Kangaroil on community broadcasters'll be able to go to the go funding page and make a donation or they can set up five dollars a month or whatever. And a quick link to that is on our website at five kix fm dot org. On the front page there's a donate button and you can either go through GoFundMe or straight to our bank account.
01:47:22
Speaker 1: Excellent, and we can hear here on the mainland. We can go to your website and stream it.
01:47:28
Speaker 25: Yes, that's right. We get people from all over the world gram so it's a boost from tourism as well. Like when Christine and I do our talkback Tuesday and people text in. We've had people from Germany, from Holland, Japan and passing comments, you know, and asking questions. So it's a bit of a boost for Kangaroo Island. Two for its financial aspects if people come to the island.
01:47:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I certainly hope people who can, because I mean times are type. It's tough at the moment all as you well and truly know. But if people can see it to just make a donation of a few dollars to the GoFundMe for five Kicks FM and keep up the good work.
01:48:10
Speaker 25: We'd appreciate it very much.
01:48:12
Speaker 1: Thank you, Roy, Thanks very much. That's David Hales from five Kicks FM ninety point seven community radio. I have a real affinity for community radio. I just think it is so important and it's produced some pretty good people that have started off in community radio to end up in commercial radio. But you know, it's all people donate their time. There's no money in it for people broadcasting on are There's no money in it for people like David Hales who stitches it all together, all the technical aspects of it and makes it work and it provides such a vital service because, as I said, on kangar Island there is no other radio station. Yeah. Sure, they can largely pick up stations here in Adelaide, but they're not providing any community input are they. I mean, we do stories on Kango Island from time to time that interest us and interest you. But in terms of just the day to day gritty, you know, when roads are closed or it's bushfire alert or some sort of warning, it's all down pretty much to the community radio station. So if you can help five Kicks FM go fund me campaign, go to the go funding and then look for South Australian community radio. Support them be a good thing. Eight double two three double double. Oh Allan, you've got some thoughts on community.
01:49:22
Speaker 27: Radio, I sure have, Grayham like yourself. I spent some time in commercial radio quite a few years, and on top of that, in this century, I've spent something like eight years in community radio. No longer involved. I got railroaded out. Grinity radio stations tend to be a little bit despotic towards this staffing, and it's staffing is that well paid volunteer h What there needs to be is, indeed a volunteer wage doesn't have to be a full time wage. Four people involved in community radio and indeed bolnteers in all other volunteer organizations is because, as the government says Albo and his boys, the boys from Brazil, they often say things like what would we do without the volunteers for Christ's sake? So that's that side of things. But your friend then David, was very very good. He outlined the pitfalls or community radio. The good the community community radio does do, but it is taken for granted. Sure they do get money from the federal government through AKMA and other places in the Community Broadcasting Association. But the point is community radio it's personnel are terribly underfunded with thin air.
01:50:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, you speak will make a lot of sense to Alan. I think community radio is vital and don't undersell it. And there are people that can make a contribution, and you don't have to be on air. You can provide music and records, or you can be an office worker or just help out in so many different ways. So yeah, community radio is great if you're a fan of community radio. I know a lot of people are as I say there's commercial radio, that we are community radio. It all provides a vital service.
01:51:10
Speaker 6: Five Double A Mornings with Graham Goodings.
01:51:14
Speaker 1: One of my favorite songs. Every time you walk in the room, Ah anyway, not a music station, Hi Graham, why not have three gather rounds a year in Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne? Greg, No way, let's not devalue. What is so wonderful three gather rounds a year? Well, Sydney, it'll be lost. Let's face it, they have something else. Don't have a gather around Melbourne. Melbourne effectively has a gather around every week. What they'd be on average what five or six games in Melbourne every week? So it would mean absolutely nothing to have all eighteen teams playing in the weekend and the weekend in Melbourne, So it would serve no real purpose. Sydney too big, it would swallow up. Brisbane too far away. Per Perth would be a great place to hold a gather around, but once again it is way too far away. For every conceivable reason, Adelaide is the exact best place geographically, philosophically. We love our footy, everyone loves coming to Adelaide's got so much to offer. We do it better than anyone else. So yeah, Greg, I know what you're saying, but no to gather around. This is what Andrew Dillon had to say about the opening Roalm, which has caused some consternation.
01:52:23
Speaker 2: Andrew prudem he's come up with an idea for Opening Round to be a second gather Round.
01:52:27
Speaker 3: What do you think of that one.
01:52:29
Speaker 26: Andrew's got plenty of ideas. I think you know, Opening Round has its detractors, but what it has done is shines a light on footy up in New South Wales and queensand earlier in the year to what we have had previously, and so we've seen it. On the back of that, Bick increases in membership, Bick increases in attendance for all of those four teams and also viewership up. So he kicks a number of boxers. But we're always listening to feedback from fans.
01:52:54
Speaker 1: Come on, just make a decision about gather Around. That's what we want to hear. Probably be if there's going to be an announcement, I would say Sunday night the Port game, the premier will walk out center stage in front of fifty thousand people and say we've got it for another five years. That's what we want to hear. Stacy Lee's on after one today.
01:53:09
Speaker 28: Stacey, Hello, how are you good?
01:53:11
Speaker 1: Thanks? We've reached Friday. How did that? How quickly did that happen.
01:53:14
Speaker 28: I know, I know, another short week this week.
01:53:16
Speaker 29: I thought the whole point of Opening Round though, was that it was meant to be in those Eastern States, Sydney and Queensland because it happens while the NRL's Magic Round is on.
01:53:27
Speaker 28: So there's not any footy being played in those states.
01:53:30
Speaker 1: Now it's not well gather and Magic rounds on, it's when usually the NRL is playing in Las Vegas. Yes, so there's no NRL games happening in the Northern States.
01:53:39
Speaker 28: Is that not Magic Round? No, they're different things.
01:53:41
Speaker 29: Okay, yeah, so they're all they're in Vegas, so there's no footy being played THERERL footy. So that's why those games are played there.
01:53:49
Speaker 28: That was the whole thing.
01:53:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a good thing. But have the games there, but also have games in the Southern States.
01:53:56
Speaker 28: Because doesn't that defeat the purpose of it?
01:53:58
Speaker 1: Well not if you're focusing in have the first like four games, you know, the two games in Brisbane, two games in Sydney, you know, Thursday night, Friday nights, and have other games there because the whole balance at the moment is you can go three weeks and your team hasn't play the game of footy, and you know some games of Adelaide played three games in the time that Hawthorn hadn't played any.
01:54:19
Speaker 29: Yeah, and they were by I mean it just five weeks at the start of the season.
01:54:23
Speaker 28: Doesn't make sense.
01:54:23
Speaker 29: But to me it makes sense to move that first round and let's not call it opening around, just all a rounds one and add an extra round on the end. But it wouldn't make sense to have all of the games with all the teams in Sydney and Queensland.
01:54:38
Speaker 28: Why wouldn't we do that.
01:54:40
Speaker 1: Because you wouldn't probably get too many people from anywhere else around the Straatea going to Brisbane to see Fremantle play to see Adelaide play.
01:54:50
Speaker 29: Well then that would that would then just tell the AFL that it's that Sorry I'm trying to say that. Wouldn't that then tell them it's not a success, that it's gather around should be only held here?
01:55:05
Speaker 6: Yeah?
01:55:05
Speaker 1: Well, but even the AFL know that gather around is best placed here. For every conceivable reason, gather around belongs in Adelaide. We do it better logistically, I mean distance wise. I mean, the biggest bunch of supporters are out of Victoria and they all can't afford to fly around the nation. But they can't afford to jump in the car with you know, three or four of their mates or their family and drive across you know, the eight our trip. So it's just we're in the.
01:55:31
Speaker 28: Right spot totally.
01:55:33
Speaker 29: So I don't really understand why this idea of having a gather round in Sydney and Queensland is a sticking point for South Australia, you know, gather around for lack of a better term.
01:55:42
Speaker 28: If they're going to do that for opening round and people won't turn up, isn't that a good thing for us? Yeah, it's not for a negotiation.
01:55:49
Speaker 1: Oh look, it's a gather around time. Oh now we're going to have another gather around there. Oh now we're going to have another. All of a sudden, it just loses it's it's significance. It's all of a sudden. There are lots of gather rounds, you know, let's have gather around every six months, you know. I think why it's important is because there's only one. You have some other way of doing it, some other way of promoting football, whether it be just a clash of the two Brisbane teams playing the Queensland teams playing each other, the two Sydney teams playing each other, to highlight the game, or you know, just come up with another idea. I mean the AFL pinched magic round yeah and called it gather around. That's worked really well. There are other ways of promoting the game. I just think it would the value gather around as we see it. The premier thinks that too, Yeah, because they've got to gather around. We've got to gather around.
01:56:37
Speaker 29: So what the Melbourne its something different? But this is you know, we disagree on it. I reckon let them have it. If Sydney and Brisbane want to have a few games for round one or all the games for a Round one, let them do it.
01:56:48
Speaker 28: And then people won't.
01:56:49
Speaker 29: Turn up and it'll be seen to be a failure and gather around will become even more important.
01:56:52
Speaker 1: Yeah. I don't think the AFL want to be seen to be attached to anything that's a failure, but who knows anywhere? Moving on, what have you got for us?
01:57:01
Speaker 29: Oh, this afternoon we are going to be hearing from the Health Minister Blair Boyer. He's got the new ramping statistics, so they'll be announced very soon and we'll have him on the program. Joe Hildebrand is talking federal politics. I'm sure we'll be talking about fuel excise. And did you hear Chris Bowen's clash with Channel seven journalist Liam Bartlett this week?
01:57:23
Speaker 3: Yes?
01:57:23
Speaker 1: I did.
01:57:24
Speaker 28: It was very awkward, look hijacked to press conference.
01:57:28
Speaker 1: It was interesting though that I mean Chris barn didn't want to answer a question. He wanted to move on. If the press gallery really wanted to get them answer to something, the next journalists could ask the same question. They never do that. They never do that.
01:57:42
Speaker 29: Well, the journals didn't care about his question because I've had that at press conference as before, being a political journal for a number of years. When you're at a press conference and someone random rocks up and then they're just hammering whoever the talent might be, and you're thinking, I'm actually trying to ask legitimate questions here, not trying to make a statement.
01:58:01
Speaker 28: Was it was very frustrating Speaking.
01:58:03
Speaker 1: Of Chris Bowen's clashed with Liam Barton.
01:58:06
Speaker 8: Keep a critical that's a comment, not a question. Why I'm holding a press conference.
01:58:13
Speaker 2: I've held a presence of questions.
01:58:15
Speaker 8: What do you sell.
01:58:16
Speaker 2: I hold a press conference every day. This is the first time you've turned up.
01:58:22
Speaker 1: Able to deflect to my colleagues. What are you about?
01:58:27
Speaker 8: You?
01:58:27
Speaker 2: I don't think taking questions from a wide diversity of journalists.
01:58:30
Speaker 8: What do we got?
01:58:31
Speaker 2: You know, fifteen in the room is not being available. I've been holding a press conference every day over easter. You've you've chosen to come to this one.
01:58:41
Speaker 1: Good on you.
01:58:41
Speaker 2: That's your perfect run because to chase you down, you've come up. You've come to a press conference. Congratulations. Other journalists have been at every press conference I've held.
01:58:50
Speaker 1: That's the Energy minister Chris Bowen with the journalist Liam Bartlett and so awkward, Yes it was, and yeah, so there you go. What do you think of it? But Chris Baron is right. He has been holding news conferences each day. He held one today to let us know the state of the fuel situation.
01:59:07
Speaker 29: So I'm sure we'll talk about that and then the big one Graham Footy Friday afternoon. And Chris Jarmer's salted cucumbers have gone viral?
01:59:16
Speaker 8: Is that right?
01:59:17
Speaker 29: Roaming BT on the AFL coverage last night. He was walking around the Crow's change rooms eating the salted cucumbers.
01:59:23
Speaker 28: He was talking to text.
01:59:25
Speaker 29: He interviewed Chris about the food that he cooks for the boys.
01:59:28
Speaker 1: That is, you know, as is known, I'm a director of the club, so I get to go down into the rooms, which is a privilege. And when the Crows win. Up until this show, I don't know what's happening this year. If the Crows win a game.
01:59:39
Speaker 28: It's prawn's not anymore.
01:59:42
Speaker 1: Chris Chalmer does prawns or did prawns?
01:59:44
Speaker 23: Yeah?
01:59:44
Speaker 18: He did.
01:59:44
Speaker 1: It was too difficult.
01:59:45
Speaker 28: I think it was too much pressure.
01:59:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, particularly in close finishes. I mean, you know, what are you going to do when there's two points the difference was five minutes to go, you know.
01:59:56
Speaker 6: Yeah.
01:59:56
Speaker 1: But Chris Jalm has been a legend around the club, There's no question about that, and I think the players look forward to getting down to the rooms to see what he's got to offer.
02:00:03
Speaker 29: So I'm hoping he brings in some of his salted cucumbers as a start a dish today Friday, because then his other dishes cooking is his famous Wilschnitzel.
02:00:10
Speaker 1: Oh, yes, legendary, legendary stuff.
02:00:13
Speaker 28: Can't wait.
02:00:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, always enjoy Fridays. Good on Stacy Thanks Graham, Stacy Lee coming up this afternoon after one o'clock. That's just a bit about it for us. Enjoy the rest of Gatheran. Thank you so much for your company for this past week. Thank you to my producer Sam Daddo. We'll be back to Monday and back on Monday and do it again