2GB Drive with Chris O'Keefe – Full Show August 16 01:49:48

On Sydney's 2GB, this is Drive with Chris O'Keefe. Good afternoon Sydney, what a stunning Friday it is in the Harbour City and thank God it is Friday. Kind of feels like spring is just within touching distance, doesn't it? Now on the show today I'll tell you about the local councillor who took her own council to court to fight a ticketless parking fine.

Yeah, she did. And guess what? She won too. It's a wonder this scheme is allowed to continue at all. I'll speak to Ash after 3.30. And we broke the news yesterday that the new Sydney Metro will officially open on Monday morning. Now, Josh Murray, the boss of Transport for New South Wales, he'll run us through what we need to know about the Sydney Metro.

Where does it go? Where do we get off? Where do we get on? Because this thing is going to be an absolute game changer for our city. But of course, there will be teething problems. And I want to know from you, 131873, what are our nursing homes like at the moment? Our city's nursing homes. Because the aged care visa scheme proposed by the Albanese government has been a complete flop.

I've also got $1,000 to give away. If you know the catchphrase that Ben gave you this morning, DD's Waterfront Group vouchers for your Sydney shout-outs and a stack of other stuff too. Right now, 21 degrees at Botany and 22 at Bardia. It's 8.30 past 3. 131 873 is that open line number. The text line 0460 873 873. Or you can email me drive at 2gb.com. Now, the governor of the Reserve Bank, Michelle Bullock...

She's delivered a not-so-happy Friday message to homeowners and people with small business loans. She's doubling down on her warning that forget about cutting interest rates. It is too early to start thinking about the Reserve Bank cutting interest rates.

So Michelle Bullock reckons inflation's just too high and it won't return to the bank's target until the end of next year. Now, Nine's national affairs editor is Andrew Proban and he joins me from Canberra. Andrew, g'day. Good afternoon. It's one of those things, I suppose. It's not unexpected, but it's still hard to hear it come out of her mouth.

Yes, Chris, absolutely. And there's also the market itself expects there to be an interest rate cut. It's basically priced one in by the end of the year. But she is, as you say, doubling down and saying that's unlikely. Now, it could be that she's trying to a bit of expectation management.

But listening to her today, she's pretty adamant. Now, one of the reasons for that is this uncertainty. There's a lot of uncertainty around the world. Of course, we've got things going on in China. We've got a US presidential election, which may or may not affect international trade. And then there is that bloody thing called inflation, which she says is

is way stickier than she had forecast along with the Reserve Bank in May. So trying to drag down inflation, which is giving us all real hip pocket pain, is her number one task. One thing I'd ask, Andrew...

I know the federal government, I think the Albanese government mostly, has been pretty successful in its bid to deflect criticism about Alboflation and their government being the reason for it. However, we've got a situation now where inflation in Australia is at 3.8%. New Zealand, it's at 3.3%. They've just cut rates. In the United Kingdom, 2.8%. In the United States, 3%. At what point are we asking Albo and his crew, hey, is it your fault?

Look, every economy is a bit different. I mean, New Zealand's enduring recession, so we don't want that. They've got higher unemployment. Obviously, Britain's going through another crisis of a different type. It's linked to Europe and the uncertainties there caused by Vladimir Putin. So we're lucky being this island nation of ours to some degree, but Anthony Albanese has...

with his government, tried to force the hand of the Reserve Bank with those energy rebates. They said last week they were seeing through that, that they weren't going to be looking at those energy rebates and they were going to look at the underlying inflation, underlying factors. And in fact, we heard in another inquiry today from an association representing Australia

and restaurants saying that some of them were experiencing energy bills increasing by 30% in the past year. So that energy bill relief, not only is it not dragging down inflation, it's not actually hitting the sides when it comes to those businesses

And this is not an uncommon story. We're also hearing today about a lot of insolvencies across the nation, and yet unemployment is pretty good. There are a lot of confusing figures knocking around in this time. Andrew, appreciate you coming on. Thanks so much.

Good on you, Chris. That's Nines National Affairs Editor Andrew Proban. Does a very good job, Andrew Proban. But Michelle Bullock, if you missed it, she says, don't think that interest rates will be cut anytime soon. They're not even thinking about it. 131873. Now, if you're looking forward to getting to North Korea, you can pack your bags. LAUGHTER

North Korea is reopening tourism after five years. So North Korea will reopen one city to foreign tourists in December, and that's nearly five years of border closures due to the COVID pandemic. So at least two China-based operators announced the tourists will soon be able to visit the mountainous northern city in North Korea of Samjeon.

Now, it sealed itself off, Kim Jong-un and the North Koreans, at the start of the pandemic. And they only started to scale back COVID restrictions in the middle of last year. And you couldn't get essential goods into North Korea, food shortages. And, of course, they were made worse by international sanctions. But...

It looks like North Korea will reopen to tourists. Unfortunately, we won't be able to go. I won't be able to go. The media and journalists on the banned list, and there is a whole bunch of other people...

professions who are banned from going to North Korea. But if you're desperate to check out Pyongyang, here it's nice this time of year, go and have a look at it. 131873. Well, big weekend track work alert has been issued by Transport for New South Wales and passengers are urged to plan ahead this weekend because trains will not run on the city circle and trains will not run between Central and Wynyard this weekend. So that's a drama.

Now, this will affect T1, T2, T3, T8 and T9 lines, and all of which will have different stopping patterns and timetables. You'll have buses replacing trains between Strathfield and Central on the T2 Inner West line. Saturday the 17th of August, buses will replace trains between Waterfall and Sutherland on the T4 Illawarra line. Tomorrow, too, buses will replace trains on the South Coast line between Dapdo, Port Kembla and Sutherland.

Tomorrow, buses will replace trains on the Southern Highlands line between Goulburn, Mossvale and Campbelltown.

where Sunday buses will replace trains between Bomaderry and Wollongong on the south coastline. So please, if you're thinking about getting on a train this weekend, make sure you do plenty of forward planning because just the fact that trains are not running on the city circle or between Central and Wynyard will cause all sorts of problems for efficient use of the Sydney Trains Network. Live local.

Now, if you've missed the story about Latrell Mitchell, he is being forced to face the South Sydney Rabbitohs board and effectively fight for his contract. Now, can someone explain to me, though, why Latrell Mitchell, how he could possibly deserve to have his contract terminated at South Sydney? How? On what grounds? What has Latrell Mitchell actually done that is so nefarious that

that he deserves the sack. Let's just work through the facts here, right? So Latrell joins the Rabbitohs in 2020. He joins from the Roosters on a one-year deal. Now, in 2020, Latrell Mitchell was fined $50,000 by the NRL after he broke lockdown protocols, the COVID lockdown protocols, with Josh Addo-Karr. You know what he did? He went on a weekend camping trip. And because he was on his farm, Latrell Mitchell gave Josh Addo-Karr a gun to shoot.

So he was charged by police and given a 12-month conditional release order after he pleaded guilty to giving a firearm to a person not authorised by a licence or permits. That's one thing he did, right? Big deal. Anyway, he's extended for two more seasons at South Sydney across 2021 and 2022.

He helped the club make the grand final in 2021, albeit he was suspended through the final series and the grand final. He played all three games in the New South Wales team that year. They won the series. He copped 10 weeks of suspensions for late tackles and the like, but he had a great 2022 battling injury and got Souths to one game short of a grand final and then went on to win a World Cup with the Kangaroos.

Off field, he was arrested and charged with Jack Whiten in Canberra, remember that? For wrestling in the street. Now that was a complete farce. That's something the police and the ACT should be ashamed of and they got it very, very wrong. The case collapsed in court and the charges were dropped. In 2023, Luttrell Mitchell was filmed sculling a beer on stage at a concert a couple of days before a game.

And at the start of this year, he was reprimanded for swearing on a Triple M radio interview. And now, of course, someone's taken a photo of him bending over at a table with a white substance on it. Now, each and every one of those things would not have made headlines, let alone gained attention by police or the courts, if it was not Latrell Mitchell. None of them. Let's just think about this for a second. Latrell went to his farm and his mate shot a gun on a private property.

Have any of you done that? Can you honestly hand on heart tell me you followed every strict single rule during the COVID period? If you say yes, you know you're lying. Again, Latrell Mitchell went to his farm and his mate shot a gun on a private property. Big deal. The next charge against his name, we've got him wrestling with Jack Whiten. Now the police gave false evidence to the court. That was proven.

The police apologised to Whiten for inventing the series of events. Whiten and Mitchell then wrestle outside a nightclub. Luttrell gets pepper sprayed for no reason whatsoever and Magistrate Jane Campbell declares all charges dismissed. Now, you cannot tell me Luttrell was not singled out because of who he was. What's the next thing? Luttrell drinks one beer at a concert. Next, he swore on the Triple N broadcast. Now, I thought that was silly and unnecessary. I said that.

But again, it's just swearing. And now you've got White Substance Gate, where we have this community-wide sham outrage. Now, whatever he's doing, is he hurting anybody but himself? And the faux moral outrage, you know, about something that goes on for better or worse hundreds of thousands of times a day across Australia. Now, there is no police charge. There is no police investigation. There is just somebody trying to stitch Latrella up.

Now, you can't possibly tell me what I've just read out there is a rap sheet that deserves someone's employment being terminated. It's all very marginal stuff, like embarrassingly marginal. And when you look at the facts like this, can we really come to any other conclusion than people are out to get Luttrell? Is it any wonder he feels like that's the case? Now, I've got a problem with the standard of his football. It's well below par.

I've got a problem with how injury prone he's become. I haven't got a problem with how he conducts himself off the field. None at all. Now, on the morning of White's substance on the table gate, Luttrell was in Dubbo. He told nobody about it. He made a special visit to Country Hope in Dubbo, which is a charity who help regional families with children diagnosed with cancer.

He hosted a footy club fundraiser at the city's local pastoral hotel. He attends the Indigenous Round Fixture at Apex Oval in Dubbo, where he sat and signed autographs and took photos with the kids and the families while supporting the local men's and women's teams for the Macquarie Raiders. Terrible bloke, Trell Mitchell, terrible. Absolutely, he deserves his contract torn up by Souths. I am sorry, but this is so wrong.

For the South Sydney board to demand Latrell Mitchell explain himself, in my opinion, is a disgrace. He needs to explain nothing. All he needs to do is get his body right so he can play footy to his best ability. But with all the BS that follows him around, I wouldn't be surprised if he just throws it all in. And that would be a crying shame. But can we just take a step back and look at the facts here?

Is Latrell Mitchell really some sort of devil figure, some pariah that everybody needs to criticise at every turn? In terms of his off-field antics, I think objectively the answer is absolutely not. It's 21 past three. It's 25 past three. 131873 is the open line number. Now, Australian swim superstar Ariane Titmuss, she claims that athletes were living in filth in the athlete's village.

So it was well documented that the cardboard board beds they were made to sleep on were appalling. And they were trying to make the Paris 2024 the greenest games in history and to cut down on luxuries like air conditioning, but it backfired because Paris hit a heatwave.

And then a whole bunch of teams had to rush in our air con. But Ariane Titmuss, she said this. Our bed sheets got changed after the first night we were there. And then they didn't get changed for the rest of the time we were there. So we were living in filth. We would have to lie about how many roommates we had so we could scab toilet rolls. We'd run out of toilet paper. And they'd only give us one for four days.

Titmuss said the cardboard beds didn't worry her. She took her own mattress over. So she took a mattress. Clever. That's why she's a gold medalist and a champion. And she reckons that the mattresses that were there were like fishing wire all tangled up. They were in three parts that went together. So they weren't even one big mattress.

Now, Australia's chef de mission, Anna Mears, spoke glowingly of the French hospitality during the Olympics. But maybe that was through rose-coloured glasses, at least according to Ariane Titmuss, 131873. Now, what do you make of this? 131873. So Peppa Pig, right? So Peppa Pig's this children's show, great children's show. It's been around forever. It's made out of the United Kingdom. So Henry watches it, right?

It's just like a little family of pigs that go about their sort of daily business. You've got daddy pig and mummy pig and all this sort of stuff. Anyway, so there's this mother in, I don't know, I think she's in the United Kingdom. And she said that her child is now banned from watching the child's cartoon. And she says that's because Pepper, which is a fictional character on the cartoon show, is not a good role model for children to watch.

So she says this, at the top of the list is the way the cartoon pig treats her family. And she says that Pepper fat shames Daddy constantly. She's not a very nice big sister. And Mum also doesn't agree with Pepper's behaviour towards her friends either. She's always rude to her friends. She whines every time she loses. And for these reasons...

Pepper Pig is a strong no from us. 131873, if you've ever banned your children from watching a cartoon or something, I remember mum was really reluctant to let us watch The Simpsons. When The Simpsons first came out, I remember it was like pulling teeth, trying to get mum to allow us to watch it. Six o'clock on a weeknight it was played on Channel 10, I remember.

And we could almost never, ever watch it. What do you reckon? 131873. If it's happening in Sydney, you'll hear it on Drive. On 2GB.

Heaps of texts here on Latrell Mitchell. Brett says, Chris, I think more importantly that Latrell should reconsider his circle of so-called mates he's surrounding himself with that are supposedly taking these photos. Good point. Grant says, Chris, every other player gets the same scrutiny. Why should he be any different? He's a public figure just like our wayward politicians. He's a role model. He needs to say what the substance was to clear the air in his name and get back to doing what he does best, play rugby league.

Well, Grant, I'm not saying that he's a saint. All I'm saying is I don't think he deserves to have his contract ripped up. I think that is well and truly overreach. Well and truly overreach. Cheryl says, hi, Chris. Where is Cheryl?

Chris, thank you very much for your support of Luttrell. He's a lovely young man and he cops so much flack from the media and so-called fans. It's lovely to hear you on the radio saying it how it really is. He doesn't deserve it. I'm a long-time Bunnies fan of 68 years, but I hate injustice. Now, I'm not saying he's not bringing some of this on himself, Cheryl. He certainly is, right? But I just think that every time he stubs his toe, it's got to be some sort of scandal just because...

It's Latrell Mitchell. Now, I don't think that same scrutiny is applied across the NRL or across sports. He's a huge figure in the game, sure, but for clicks and for headlines and all the rest of it, has what he actually has done in terms of his list of off-field misdemeanors, does it really even justify him having to

go and explain himself to the board, let alone have his contract ripped up. But my point is absolutely not.

In the newsroom, Josh Bryan. G'day. Good afternoon, Chris. The paper-based incoming passenger card for international travellers could soon be a thing of the past. The federal government has announced a trial of a digital declaration. It will start with some Qantas flights between Australia and New Zealand. The Reserve Bank believes inflation will remain high until 2026 and is signaling that rates are unlikely to come down any time soon.

this year. Ex-Home and Away actor Orpheus Pledge has been sentenced to seven months in jail over an assault on a woman in Melbourne and the used car market is tightening according to the latest figures. Listings down almost 6% in June, sales up more than 11% in sport. Interim South Sydney coach Ben Hornby wants his side to bring intensity to the end of their season despite being out of finals contention. We'll have more news in sport at four.

Thank you, Josh. 131873, just on the Peppa Pig issue. Jo's called in from Boweral. Hello, Jo. Hi, how are you going? Good, thank you. Good. What's happening? I was just listening. I'm driving down with my husband in the car and I was listening to your conversation about people banning Peppa Pig. Yes. Yes.

No, and I was just saying, I never thought I would be the parent to Dan, a child watching a cartoon. But recently I started listening to it and we've just done the same thing. What, you've banned Peppa Pig in your household? Yeah, this week. What's wrong with it?

I actually didn't pay much attention. I always liked her. And then a couple of people said to me, oh, you should listen a bit more carefully and the way Peppa speaks. And she's actually a bit of a brat and not a nice character. So I was like, oh, yes, I've banned the pig. You know it's a cartoon joke.

I know. I know. It's all good. It's all good. To be honest, she hasn't even missed it. We're on to Paul. Just go back to Bluey. That always works. Good on you, Joe. I appreciate your call. That's Joe in Boweral who agrees. Peppa Pig on the band list. 131873. Now, these paperless parking fines, I hate them. I hate them. But what about the local councillor who got a paperless parking fine

Took the fine to court, her own counsel to court, and won. How did she manage to do that? I'll speak to Ash next. I didn't realise I could stick with my industry super fund when I retired. Thankfully, I discovered if I stayed, I could set up a regular income, take money out when I wanted, and the rest can grow over time. Stick with your industry super fund in retirement. Visit compareyourretirement.com today.

Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Consider the fund's PDS and whether the product is right for you. It's 23 to 4. Now, we all hate parking tickets, right? We all hate them. And I've spoken at length about how I think the ticketless parking fines, I think they're unfair.

I don't think it's fair that you are not allowed to gather evidence to mount a defence to a parking fine if you're only told of that fine four weeks later when you receive it in the mail or on your Service NSW app or whatever.

Well, there is a Georges River councillor who took her own counsel to court over this exact same thing. Ash Ambihai-Pahar is that councillor and she's on the line for us. Ash, g'day. Hi, thanks for having me, Chris. You're very welcome. Now, tell us the story. Where did you get the ticket and or the ticketless parking fine, I should say, and what were the circumstances?

So like my story isn't unique. It was last year, it was a rainy day and my car, the front screen window was starting to fog up pretty bad. So when I put my air con, it made it a bit worse and it wasn't actually, you know, relieving the fog fast enough where I couldn't actually see through my window.

So I felt unsafe to continue driving. So I pulled over as it was a safe thing to do. Where were you? It was in Hursville. So I pulled over, put my hazards on. And when the window started to clear up, I noticed that was the pole. It had a no stopping sign, but it was bent completely in the other direction. So I was there for a few seconds. And then once it was safe for me to drive so I could see, I took off.

Now, about four weeks later, I get a fine in the mailbox. And I was trying to figure out where I was, check my diary. It's like, oh, yeah, I remember this. I was in Herschel because I pulled over because I couldn't see. Check my dash cam in my car. The footage is obviously overridden because it's four weeks later. And I was trying to get footage there to help substantiate my circumstances to challenge it. So I contested it, right, with revenue. How much was it? It was like nearly $240. Wow.

And so I tried to contest it and they denied it. So I took it to court and I was successful. But the problem here, Chris, is challenging it with counsel, writing a letter, getting what evidence you could get, you know, spending half a day at the local courthouse. I mean, who has the time for this? Like most people would have just paid the fine. And I don't think that's fair. We're in a cost of living crisis.

Not everyone can afford to pay a fine when they're denied an opportunity to actually collect evidence. You know, four weeks later, it's quite important to have the ticket issued in a timely manner. So how long were you pulled over for? Probably like 10 seconds, 15 seconds. Who was the ranger that pinched you for that? It was a George's River Council ranger, obviously. But when they drive by, it's like a 10-second footage. Oh.

So it's about three seconds footage. You can see my car. My hazard lights are on. You can see the white on my windscreen. So I get pinged for that. And when I tried to challenge it, they're like, oh, you know, you could have parked further down. I said, mate, I'm not driving anything further. It's not safe for me to drive further. Right. So that was the issue.

So Revenue New South Wales, you went to Revenue New South Wales and said, hey, look, I've contested this. They said, forget it, like they usually do. Just sent back the pro forma saying pay the fine. And you what? You went to ACAT, did you? No, I just went and took it further to the local court and challenged it. So how did you win?

So I gave my evidence of my version of events, right? Now, legally, the onus is actually on council to provide the evidence, right? But for me to substantiate my circumstances, I had to just give a statement, which was sufficient. But what I'm trying to say here, Chris, it's taken the amount of time to try and offset that $240 to justify what had happened,

it's not right. It's not fair. And for four weeks, for something to come in your mailbox to try and gather the information together to help substantiate your circumstances, it's not fair. Um,

Why are they doing drive-by ticketing? As a councillor at George's River, can you not raise the fact that rangers in their cars, driving by, pinching people who were there for five seconds, are not doing a community service? That is very ordinary behaviour on behalf of the ranger. Let's be completely frank about this. It is. Well, I think there's a broader issue here, Chris. There's

This ticketless parking system, so to speak, was introduced under the previous Liberal National Government, right? And this allows councils, not just about GRC, this is a broad issue in New South Wales where councils can issue fines without providing that immediate notice, a notification to the driver. I'm anti them. I hate them. And I agree entirely, except it's up to George's River Council whether or not they wanted to adopt the ticketless parking regime. Clearly that's something that you're fighting with your other councillors on, is it?

Well, the other thing is in April this year, I put a notice of motion. Georgia's River Council, I'm actually proud they're making some changes though, because what we put to the councils who all agreed on it is that they will prioritise issuing on-the-spot

fines where it's safe and legal to do so. There are other councils across New South Wales which are not budging on this. I mean, this is a personal view of mine, not my council's. This is my personal view. We need to urge all councils to work in a collaborative way to find a solution to actually make it transparent and fair when it comes to notifying the issuance of parking fines. That's it. It's finding that balance on the issue.

I agree with you on one point. I disagree with you. I don't think there is a balance. I think the rangers should have to pull up. The rangers should have to get out. The rangers should have to take the photos and put the ticket under the windscreen wipers. Why has that changed? So what we've done at George's River Council is basically say where it's safe and legal to do so because, you know, my background is an industrial employment lawyer as well. You're looking at WHS concerns, which was something that was brought up. If it's not safe, don't book people. Correct.

Correct. And that's what we've done. Don't just drive past and book them. I find that just highly offensive. No, absolutely. And look, I think one of the challenges I have created as a councillor, I presume what the community expects of me is to make council accountable and transparent and fair, which is what I'm trying to do here. All right. Well, you've got a council election coming up in a few weeks. Are you one of the lucky Labor candidates that doesn't have a Liberal running against you?

Absolutely. You know, honestly, it is quite funny. Like, you know, before bed on Tuesday night, I actually thought it would be funny if the Liberals didn't lodge their paperwork on time, and here we are. But seriously...

This is quite embarrassing for the Liberal Party. How can people have confidence in the party if they can't get their paperwork done? But if we put politics aside, my personal view, I think it's very disappointing and it's actually quite sad for the Liberal candidates, the Liberal members and most importantly, the voters who've been robbed of their choice to vote for the Liberal Party. Ash, just get the Rangers to get out of the car and put the tickets on the win screen. All the best.

I'll keep trying. Thanks, Chris. She wins in court. Ash Ambihai Pahar. She's a Georges River councillor, and I reckon you might see her in Canberra at some point. There's a little bit of mail around that she might take Linda Burney's seat in Barton. That might be up to the Prime Minister, though. We'll see how that one plays out. 131873. Ticketless parking fines.

and rangers just driving past booking people if you're a parking ranger right now and you're listening to me please stop doing that it is very very ordinary behavior nobody appreciates it and you do your profession no services whatsoever quarter to four it's 11 minutes to four on ticketless parking fines and council rangers driving past people

and taking photos of their car just for a couple of seconds, just drive-bys and finding people. And because they're ticketless, you've got no idea that you're pinched. George is at Castle Hill. Hello, George. Mate, my story is I'm an Uber driver. And, mate, I can tell you we're fed up with these guys.

You know, I mean, Uber tells us to drop these people off at certain sections. We drop them off. And then I got, you know, one of those photos in the mail the other day saying you stopped at a no-stopping $302. No.

No. I mean, and it's just, it's all over Sydney, Chris. You can't stop anywhere. And then if you do go, you know, like I had a passenger the other day, I said, look, I can't stop you. It's a no stopping. I can't stop. I've got to go a bit further down. She wrote a negative review saying I dropped her off too far away from her destination. And people are doing nothing about it. Just quickly, George, on the no stopping that you got fined $300 or whatever it was,

So you drop someone off. Obviously, a ranger's driving past, takes a photo, see you later. He was behind me about 20 metres. It was at Manly Wharf, so he's right behind me. So there's a kiss and ride for two cars, and there were already two cars there. I just stopped off in the bus zone. There were no buses coming. The passenger gets out, and I saw the bloke take a photo of me.

And he never got out of the car? No, no, he was just there with his camera taking photos. And was he driving? No, I couldn't see him. He was right at the bus zone there, about 15 metres behind, just taking photos of people. And he was on foot, was he?

Yes, yeah, with one of those fluorescent council things. But, mate, every car that was stopping there, he was taking photos. Yeah, anyway. All right, George, I appreciate that. You can sit clearly frustrated. I would be too. Have a good weekend. Adam's at Ropes Crossing. Hello, Adam. G'day, mate. How are you, Chris? Love the show. Doing a great job, mate. Thank you. Thanks, mate. What's happening?

Recently, I got a phone in the mail. I knew about it at the time. I was dropping my pregnant wife off at Stratfield Station on the south side. Not to me would be the train station. They go there very often. However, I pulled in. I realized buses can go to the left. I went to the right.

I wasn't really sure where to go. I did pull up at a curve and I take responsibility in hindsight that it was the bus zone. However, I was less than five seconds stationary. The wife hadn't even opened up the door yet. And I saw...

ranger come out onto the road right behind me in a dangerous position and starting to take photos i saw this immediately i i did wind down the window i said look sir i realize i've made it i've made a mistake um i've just stopped here and i'm sorry i'll move on and and as they said i don't care mate you're in a bus so and see you later

I haven't paid the fine. A bit disappointing. As I said, I take responsibility that I was in the wrong position, but it was an honest mistake. Adam, you're dropping your pregnant wife off. You know, you should have just said to the ranger, hey, mate, my wife's pregnant. Thanks for your time. And normal human beings in a normal society would go, Adam, on your way. Seriously, I can't stomach this stuff. Adam, I appreciate your time. I've got a lot of calls here. You have a good weekend. I'm going to go to Anthony at Earlwood. Hello, Anthony.

G'day, Chris. How are you? I'm good. Thank you, mate. Yeah, so I had my little son. I had to rush him off, eight-year-old, to hospital one day at St George's Hospital there. Saw a car leaving, so I quickly ducked in and parked in a spot. Spent a few hours in emergency left. About four weeks later, I get a fine in the mail. Click on the link to the photo. Yeah, that's my car parked in a spot that apparently at 2.45 went from a parking spot to a no-stopping spot.

So I challenged it with council. I submitted the outpatient hospital report. I blacked out, obviously, what his condition was. And I got a response back from the council saying, unfortunately, at this stage, we can't acknowledge... Yes, you did have a medical emergency, but unless you can prove it was a life or death situation, we won't waive it.

So I thought, you know, I'll just challenge this in court. Took a day off work, rocked up to the Sutherland court. I actually had to plead guilty on it because the car was parked outside. Sure. But they let you off? The judge shook her head when I supplied the paperwork and said what happened and just said, see you later. Yeah, good. So you shouldn't have to waste the court's time, honestly.

What we worked on. And you know what? There was five cases in front of me, all the same thing where the judge just threw them out. Anthony, I appreciate you coming on, mate. You have a good afternoon and I hope your little bloke's doing a little bit better. Andrea's at Chatswood. Hello, Andrea.

Oh, hi, Chris. It makes me want to cry because I think we're all pretty good citizens. We don't tailgate. We don't do bad things. We're just quickly getting on with our lives and we're getting pinged for something. You know, I was just doing some similar thing. The Kiss and Ride, there was a bus parked all

all the way along that spot. My daughter was off to TAFE. She was rushing and I just pulled in in front of the bus. She got out. I was like three seconds. I get a thing in the mail saying parking illegally in an uploading zone. I didn't park.

Was it a drive-by? Did you see the ranger on the street or anything? No, I didn't see anything. Well, the thing is, I was concentrating on getting her out and then getting moving, you know, because I wasn't going to do anything bad. I just wanted to let her off.

All right, Andrea, I've got a couple of tickets to go and see Sunset Boulevard, Andrew Lloyd Webber's new production. I'll send them your way, okay? Fantastic. Thank you. You're very welcome. That'll hopefully ease the pain of the parking fine. It's at the Sydney Opera House this month, Sunset Boulevard.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's new production. Book your tickets now. Sunsetmusical.com.au. The news is coming up in a sec. On the other side of that, I want to hear your views on how our state's nursing homes are faring, especially when it comes to staffing.

I didn't realise I could stick with my industry super fund when I retired. Thankfully, I discovered if I stayed, I could set up a regular income, take money out when I wanted, and the rest can grow over time. Stick with your industry super fund in retirement. Visit compareyourretirement.com today. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Consider the fund's PDS and whether the product is right for you.

Now back to Drive with Chris O'Keefe on Sydney's 2GB. It's seven minutes past four. Thank you for your company on this Friday afternoon. 131873, of course, our open line number. Email me, drive at 2GB.com or the text line 0460873873. Coming up, I want to know what it's like

in our state's nursing homes because the federal government's plan to bring people in from overseas on aged care worker visas, well, it's been a bit of a flop, unfortunately. But has it made an impact on our nursing homes? Call me and tell me, 131873. And the new Sydney Metro, it's due to open first thing on Monday. What do we need to know? The Transport for New South Wales Secretary, Josh Murray, will join us.

Live on 2GB, have your say. 131 873. Well, this story is just, you scratch your head, don't you? So a female school teacher, Lanier High School. Her name's Taylor Lee Braley. She's 30 years old and she's been charged with having sexual intercourse with a teen under her care, i.e. a student.

touching a teen under her care and inciting a teen under her care to sexually touch her. And a second student, male student, has made a complaint against the teacher. So she's a PE teacher, Taylor Lee Braley, and she was further charged by police with soliciting accessing sex

and possessing or controlling child abuse material in relation to the same child. Now, she's already facing three serious charges in relation to the alleged sexual abuse of another of her students. They initially refused Taylor Lee Braley's bail on the new charges, but a court granted her bail again, Wollongong Local Court, under the same strict terms as her prior charges.

Now, she was arrested in pretty dramatic circumstances at school where she works. And the Department of Education subsequently issued a statement indicating that her employment, of course, has been suspended. She can't use social media. She's had to surrender her passport. Effectively, she's got house arrest and has to report three times a week to Wollongong Police Station.

But now another student has made a complaint against Taylor Lee Braley and more charges have been hoisted upon her by police. 131873. Well, travellers arriving in Australia will enjoy a bit of an easier experience. So they will be trialling digital incoming passenger cards online.

Well, thank God for that. Having to fill out those paper forms, those paper cards, every time you come back into Australia, where have you been? Okay. What are your quarantine requirements? Have you got, you know, soil on the bottom of your boots? Have you been in contact with anything with potential biosecurity issues? All that's fine, those questions to be answered. But do we really have to be filling out paper forms in 2024?

Well, no. Now, thankfully, Transport, the Tourism and Transport Forum and its CEO, Margie Osmond, has been pushing this. So a pilot program has been announced today to replace the paper cards with a digital Australia travel declaration. It's a fantastic first step. So the pilot, hopefully, that'll make it work and we can roll that out across the board. So...

I think it's part of the Trans-Tasman Seamless Travel Group. So initially for Qantas passengers arriving from New Zealand later this year, we'll be part of the pilot and you can see that it will be, it'll work okay, won't it? So you can probably take it to the bank that that will be expanded across the board. 131873. Well, Aussie breakdancer Ray Gunn. You know my views on Ray Gunn. No one has to have a go at it personally.

She just wasn't up to the standard of an Olympic performance. Okay? It's just as simple as that. Nothing bullying about it. She just wasn't good enough. She shouldn't have been there. 131873. Anyway, she's posted a video to Instagram addressing all the negativity she's copped online, and unfairly, she's become a bit of a lightning rod for conspiracy theorists. But Ragan, she's finally had her say.

Hi everyone, Raegan here. I just want to start by thanking all the people who have supported me. I really appreciate the positivity and the

I'm glad I was able to bring some joy into your lives. That's what I hoped. I didn't realize that that would also open the door to so much hate, which is frankly been pretty devastating. While I went out there and I had fun, I did take it very seriously. I worked my butt off.

preparing for the Olympics and I gave my all, truly. I'm honoured to have been a part of the Australian Olympic team and to be part of Breaking's Olympic debut. What the other athletes have achieved has just been phenomenal.

In regards to the allegations and misinformation floating around, I'd like to ask everyone to please refer to the recent statement made by the AOC, as well as the posts on the Ausbreaking Instagram page, as well as the WDSF Breaking for Gold page. Well, that's Ray Gunn. All of this could have been avoided, right? If someone just went up to her and said, listen, I know you love breakdancing.

I know you want to be a part of it. Yep. I know you're a professor at university or a doctor at university. No one's having a go at you. You can come and join the Olympic team, but you can't dance because I'm sorry, you're just not really quite up to Olympic standard. Did you see some of the people break dancing at the Olympics? It was the contrast as to why Ray Gunn

has become a bit of a laughingstock, unfortunately. And somebody in her circle had to have pulled her aside and said, Ragan, it's not happening for you. I'm sorry. Please be a part of the Olympic team by all means. But you can't dance. Inside Word on everything Sydney. It's Drive with Chris O'Keefe on 2GB. Well, have you or someone you know been abused or neglected in aged care?

We saw it with the Royal Commission into aged care that this is so common, quite frankly, it makes you sick, doesn't it? And the Royal Commission found that substandard care and abuse pervades the Australian aged care system. It is getting a little better, but one of the major issues, three years since the final report was released by the Royal Commission, is staffing. Staffing is a major, major problem.

Now, the Albanese government set up a scheme whereby aged care workers would be granted special visas to bring people in from overseas to staff our nursing homes properly. Guess how many visas have been granted? 418. You know what the predicted shortfall for aged care workers will be by the end of this decade? 110,000. We've got a situation where 40% of aged care residents in Australia...

are malnourished and one of the reasons for that is we don't have enough staff working in our nursing homes. Now a number of groups are calling for some bipartisan support to introduce a new rights-based aged care act and it would entrench basic human rights and dignity for older Australians into law but more importantly prioritising their needs and well-being. Well Craig Gere is the CEO of Older Persons Advocacy Network and he's on the line for us. Craig, g'day.

Good afternoon. 418 visas with a shortfall of 110,000 doesn't seem like enough. Look, I do think that we need to keep working for getting people into this workforce in aged care, but all governments should be appointed for anything that they're doing and everything they're doing to try and attract people into the workforce. I mean, there has been a wage increase for the aged care workforce recently,

There is now nursing staff 99% of the time on site 24-7. So those things the government should be appointed for. But yeah, we need to keep bringing people into aged care. We need to train people appropriately to work with older people. But you highlighted it there. It's about the rights and respect for older people. And that's what we're seeing needs to be done with a rights-based act.

I'm always a little bit sceptical of rights-based acts and motherhood statements to go along with it and enshrining ideas into law rather than actions into law. How can we ensure by putting a rights-based aged care act in place it's going to make any practical difference to our aged care residents?

Yeah, look, and I think it's valid to be sceptical, and I was there at Parliament House with 10 other organisations today calling on for a multi-partisan, bipartisan approach to getting this Act to move forward. But the powerful words to me today was the words from Rosemary, who's 84, come down from Kempsey on the north coast to come and speak to the parliamentarians. And she said, I shouldn't just have to sort of always...

fight for having my voice heard. And she's got a pretty good experience, but she just said it's the level of the power imbalance that sits there between an aged care worker and someone that's receiving aged care in an aged care home. She said she's the one that's calling for it

because she wants it done in her lifetime and she wants it done so that other people who may not be wanting to be as vocal know that they're going to get the respect and dignity. Once you put that into legislation, it's much easier to have those conversations and encourage that culture change that we know all people want in aged care. I still don't know what it's going to do.

Practically. It means that people can actually have conversations to say to the provider, my rights aren't being upheld. You need to do better. It means also that the complaint system is framed around that. So when something goes wrong, we actually want to restore people's experience of aged care. I understand. So as someone who's had many family members in aged care, right, as people get older, dementia sets in,

They can be quite difficult. So how do we ensure complaints just don't become vexatious and we get a situation where the aged care workers feel like they're getting nowhere and they're getting beat up on and then they go, you know what, throw their hands in the air, leave the industry and now we're square one again.

Yeah, yeah. So our organisation provides free, confidential, independent support to aged care recipients, and we saw 44,000 cases last year. And so to me that says we've got to do better, but that also means we need to value the workforce as well. So this doesn't come without investing in the workforce. It doesn't come without people understanding the

the value of the aged care worker and the training that we need to do with them as well. But we need to keep moving forward with this reform. Older people deserve it. Okay. What about one of the big problems? And, you know, we just said how it is here on this program. One of the big problems in our aged care system is that some of our aged care workers have very poor English and you've got older Australians in there who've lived there their whole lives and they get frustrated when the communication breaks down. How do we overcome that?

One of the things we've been talking to in the peak body called ACPA is actually getting some training out there for older people as well and for the families. It needs to be a balance. We need to respect the rights of workers as well. We'll always support that. But

But there is a need for appropriate communications. One of the top issues that comes through from the cases of people we're supporting is that the communication is not quite right there as yet, and we need to keep working out what's sitting behind that, and that's why we're working with the peak body on that. All right, Craig, thank you for coming on. Enjoy your weekend. Thanks. That's Craig Geer from the Older Persons Advocacy Network. You tell me, 131873...

Do you think sort of a Bill of Rights, effectively, in the Aged Care Act would make anyone's life better? 0460 873 873. Or do you think it'd complicate it somewhat? I think the key to this is getting more aged care workers, making the whole system financially viable, and then if you've got more staff and the thing's financially viable, the patients will likely...

get better treatment. It's much better than it was sort of three or four years ago. I've seen it firsthand, but still, we've got a long, long way to go. 131873. It's 24 minutes past four. I've just received a statement from the Liberal Party of New South Wales in relation to their bungle with the nominations. Of course, that story that we broke yesterday

On Wednesday afternoon has blown up in a big, big way. Like we said, it would. Now this is what the statement says. The New South Wales Liberal Party is taking immediate action to address the recent failure of the former state director to ensure the lodgement of nominations for Liberal endorsed candidates for the 2024 local government elections. What occurred this week is simply not good enough.

We recognise the frustration and disappointment this has caused to our candidates, members in the broader community, and we're moving forward with a comprehensive plan, I love a comprehensive plan, to ensure this never happens again. Effective immediately, all nomination fees will be refunded in full to those Liberal-endorsed candidates impacted by the failure. And to prevent this from ever happening again, we are reviewing our process to thoroughly investigate what went wrong.

We're fully committed to implementing all necessary changes to strengthen our process. And this situation has underscored the need for us to do better. And we are determined to do so. The state executive has appointed party affairs manager Wilson Chessel as an interim acting state director until close of business on Monday, the 26th of August to conduct tomorrow's Epping by-election pre-selection. And then they're going to look for a new state director, a new CEO.

While what happened is a setback, it will not define us. Yes, Winston Churchill. The New South Wales Liberal Party remains focused on serving the people of New South Wales by contesting the upcoming elections, just not the council ones, and working to get New South Wales and Australia back on track. What a terrible statement. You may as well have just said, we're going to refund your nomination fees. Sorry about that. Anyway.

I'm looking for, if the CEO, if something this bad happens, right? Just like with Qantas. Alan Joyce had to go. So Alan Joyce goes. And then eventually the chairman has to go. So Richard Goita goes. In this instance, Don Harwin is the chairman. Don Harwin should go. I'll be completely frank. I've had a lot to do with Don Harwin over the years. I don't know him personally. I've just watched his work. Nothing he has done has ever impressed me.

He's just been okay. Sort of just, you know, in and around being the president of the upper house. And look, I don't know what he achieved as president, as a minister. He didn't achieve much. And people say he's got this amazing brain for the branches and the booths and the electoral maps and everything. Well, I haven't seen it. Has anyone in the Liberal Party seen it? Because I think he's just pulling the wool over everyone's eyes, in my opinion.

I just, I don't think his body of work is all that impressive. Now, just on the aged care situation in our country's nursing homes, Helen's at St. George. No, Helen's not there. She's just hung up. Bernadette at Glenhaven. Hello, Bernadette. Hi, Chris. How are you going? I'm good, thank you. How are you? What's your story?

Well, actually, my husband and I own and operate an in-home care service. And one of the things that we know to be true is that communication is absolutely imperative when you're providing service to these older Australians. Okay.

Now, it may be that they might be culturally diverse and then therefore we need to find a person that can meet those needs and that language. So I'm just feeling a bit bemused when that fellow who's supposed to be advocating for our older people are suggesting that we educate the client.

About cultural diversity. I'm lost for words. I'm absolutely, as my mother would say, thanks for nothing and what a joke. Well, Bernadette, I don't understand it either. Look, and ultimately everybody just wants nursing homes that are well run, well staffed and giving proper care with dignity and

to older Australians. It's really that simple, isn't it? Now, I would have thought that he's done with a well-financed home, well-paid staff and plenty of them. Yeah, look, Chris, there is a real issue in this country with aged care support workers coming in from other countries and they just don't have the same experience or quality

be the human rights approach to people. And in some countries...

in some cultures, if you are to put your person in a nursing home, that family member, that's a real, that's a big shame. I understand. I had a situation with my grandmother, right? My recently departed grandmother. And she had care from a Filipino lady by the name of Hazel. And Bernadette, I hand on heart, could not say, Hazel is the saint on earth. She is the most beautiful human being. And I

I could not rave highly enough about her, just her kindness. And I just think, I know what you're saying, but we've just got to be careful about painting everyone with the same brush.

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. But generally speaking, and I've been in this industry for 20 years, there just seems to be a trend. But when you're talking about individuals, absolutely. We've worked with Indians, Nepalese, Sri Lankans, Russians, South Americans, Filipinos, Egyptians.

Italians, like we've had the whole gamut of support workers and

Some of them have got great skills and a really big heart. And, you know, Chris, it's not just a job, it's a vocation. Of course it is. It's hard bloody work. You just can't put someone into this role because it's a really, really, really hard job. Hey, Bernadette. Your daily tasks are hard. I've got to move on. I'm just going to run up to the news. But I've got a couple of tickets to go and see Sunset Boulevard, Andrew Lloyd Webber's show coming your way, all right?

Oh, that's brilliant. No, you're very welcome. You're very welcome. Keep doing the good work that you're doing. 131873.

In the newsroom, Josh Bryan. G'day. Hello again, Chris. A Sydney high school teacher who's accused of sexually abusing a student has now been charged with further offences accused of having sex with a second teenager. Investigations are underway after a body was pulled from the water in Sydney's south. Police are investigating the discovery at Sans Souci. The New South Wales Liberal Party says it will refund all nomination fees for endorsed candidates who now won't be able to run at the upcoming council elections

because the party missed the nomination deadline. And former Home and Away star Orpheus Pledger has been released on bail pending an appeal after being sentenced to seven months jail for assaulting a woman in Victoria. In sport, Panther star Nathan Cleary won't need immediate surgery and the club hopes he'll be fit to play finals after he left the field with a shoulder injury in last night's loss to the Storm. We'll have more news in sport at five. Thanks, Josh. Helen is in the St George area. Hello, Helen. Yes.

Hello, Chris. How are you? I'm well, thank you. Helen, what's your story? I've only been in this industry for two years, but my mother has been in aged care and so has my auntie. I think that the people that are coming in from overseas are wonderful at what they do as personal care workers.

The dignity is all there. There is not a problem. The paperwork is enormous and the paperwork that they keep giving them really take them away from the floor and spending that time they need to have with the residents. And that's all because it's so evidence-based. We have to cover everything.

They are absolutely smashed. I'm actually leisure and wellness, and it's the system that is also the problem because they've actually broken down our department and have decided that the personal care staff can actually do the activities, and these personal...

not everybody can do interactive activities with residents. I mean, we go and we study this. I mean, I'm not a DT, but so we're struggling. I have to actually design things to suit the person that's doing it. And that might be something as basic as snakes and ladders, but I can't,

do sometimes very much more. And it's the funding, because the funding is going to the personal care staff. There's no funding in the recreational, and we are the mental health people there.

Helen, that's a problem. They need more of you and they need to be paid more. Like it's just as simple as that. And I know the government reckon there's 110,000 aged care workers that they're short. Well, you know, they've got a visa system where 418 have come in. We need to encourage Australians to do the work.

It's such a hard job and I'm thankful that you do it, Helen. I'm sure our society is thankful you do it, but honestly, I don't envy you. I'm just glad you do do it. Have a lovely weekend. I really appreciate you calling in. I didn't realise I could stick with my industry super fund when I retired. Thankfully, I discovered if I stayed, I could set up a regular income, take money out when I wanted and the rest can grow over time. Stick with your industry super fund in retirement.

All right, 22 to 5. Now, after a false start, the Sydney Metro officially opens Monday morning. Forget the false start. We're on. So a $21 billion train line that now connects Tallawong and Rouse Hill to Sydenham through the city. Imagine if I told you that 20 years ago, that that would be possible.

So you've got new train stations at Crow's Nest on the Pacific Highway, Victoria Cross, which is in the heart of North Sydney. The train will then go under the harbour and it pops up at Barangaroo. So there's a station right at the northern end of Hickson Road at Barangaroo. It then goes on to Martin Place and you'll have an opening to the Martin Place train station at Castle Ray, Hunter and Elizabeth Streets and one opening to Martin Place on Castle Ray and Elizabeth Streets.

The next is Gadigal Station, and that's almost on the corner of sort of Pitt and Park Street, right opposite the Criterion Hotel, if you know the pub there, just up from Town Hall. It then goes to Central Station. There'll be a platform for the Metro at Central Station and on to Waterloo on Botany Road and Raglan Streets, which is opposite the Abbots Hotel near the Waterloo Housing Commission Towers, and then finishes up at the existing Sydenham Station.

Well, what else do we need to know? Because this is going to be a game changer. There will be teething problems, but this is a hell of a piece of infrastructure. Josh Murray is the head of transport for New South Wales, and he's on the line for us. Josh, g'day. Chris, how are you? I'm not too bad. So what time's the first train Monday morning?

I believe it's 4.48 is about the time frame leaving Sydenham. That's the first one that will go under the harbour and through those new stations at the first time. Around 4.30, a train will be leaving Talawong and they'll cross over on the north shore, those first two trains on

on Monday morning will cross on the North Shore round about Crows Nest Way. So we anticipate there'll be plenty of people lining up all the way along the North West route through Chatswood and into the city and out to Sydenham to jump on that train in the early hours of Monday morning. So if I've been getting on the North West Metro for years and years and years and say if I get on it, I don't know, Bella Vista and I'll now be able to get off at say Martin Place, how long does that take?

Well, it's about 30 minutes through from there, a bit longer than that, but 25 minutes from Castle Hill to Martin Place. Quick, isn't it? So it absolutely is. And it's not just the pace of it, Chris. It's that you're sitting there in an air-conditioned, fully Wi-Fi'd room.

brand new train carriage and it will bring you straight through the best part is to it's every four or five minutes depending on the time of the day no need for a timetable turn up it'll be there turn up and go jump on and you'll be whisked through so we really do see this as a game changer in terms of convenience for people no changing trains too so if you're on the existing northwest has been some questions about whether they have to change trains no forget it

No, what we actually think is we'll see people on the T1 Northern line coming through down on the heavy rail to jump off at Chatswood, even if you've been on the line all the way down from Hornsby, jump off at Chatswood and maybe onto the Metro for the last stretch because you'll cut a few minutes off your journey. I've just got a text here from Marilyn. Can you please ask Josh in relation to the Metro, where...

When the Wynyard station will be open, it appears all the stations in the CBD are opening, but not Wynyard. I work at Wynyard. It would appear I have to walk the length of Martin Place or up from Barangaroo Metro to get off at my normal station. Wynyard's not part of the Metro, is it?

No, Wynyard's not, but the closest... Well, no, Wynyard's not, so Martin Place is the closest one there. Gadigal is maybe the one that your caller's referring to, which still has a number of surface works going on outside and works going on for the commercial tower above the station. So there's a little bit of scaffolding and some barriers up, but people will still be able to get in. I was at Gadigal earlier today.

The staff are super excited and the construction crews that are in the zone, they know that they've got a job to do as well on Monday. They'll clean that up and they'll make sure everyone gets in safely. Are we concerned about anything? I know we had the Roselle Interchange. We're very excited. That was a debacle. We're not expecting the same this time around?

We've thrown everything at this, Chris. We'll have teams stood up from the very early hours of Monday morning in terms of operational supervision. Obviously, people are working across the weekend. This is an absolute integration task. So it's not just MPs

MTS, who are the operator of the line, and Sydney Metro, who runs it for the government. But this is involving everyone at Sydney Trains, our bus companies, the ferry integration at Barangaroo. Everyone's making incremental changes to make sure this works. We know there'll be some teething problems. Opening a new station, you'll get dust in a door. You might get an escalator or a lift that stops.

All of these things happen when you're opening something for the first time and you're putting people into the mix and we want to make sure that everyone gets the best experience. But I expect a smoke alarm panel might go off at some point and we'll check all of those things, but we will have hundreds of additional people

ready to go and we've run 13,000 services under the harbour along that alignment all those stations that you talked about 13,000 over recent months the staff have been practicing their jobs since mid-May in the stations they are ready to go and they're very excited to see passengers start to come into the tunnels. As we all are you had a couple of extra weeks to practice.

John says, John asks, hey, we're moving on from that. Josh, don't worry about it. It's just good news today. John says at Camp C, hi, Chris, can you please ask Josh when the Bankstown line will close with the Metro opening?

That's a key part of this. It's not going to be until we are certain about the reliability of the brand new service. So the government and the minister have made that very clear to us. We would anticipate... We always said it would be between July and October, depending on the operational status of Metro. We will test that out and we'll start to communicate with the communities there. But my very clear message is...

On Monday, everything on the T3 Southwest line stays the same. And then we will start to engage as to what the timeframe will look like for the shutdown and the conversion of the T3. Now, I should say that if your listeners Google Southwest Link, they can get all the information on that Sydenham to Bankstown change and when it will happen. We have a specific website set up there.

And also we have a community information session that is coming up on the 24th of August at Marrickville Town Hall. So we'll have teams there all day that can meet with people and explain how it's going to work. Gerard's called in from Pendle Hill. Gerard, you've got a question for Josh? I have. Can you ask him if the new Metro trains are going to have guards on them? Josh, guards on the Metro trains. Are they going to have them or not?

No, the new Metro trains do not have guards on them. They do not have a driver. They will have customer service staff around the stations and on the trains as we get into this first element of running. MTS is making sure they have hundreds of additional people ready to help all of our passengers and give them the best experience they can. We expect a lot of people will have questions, but no, the trains are designed not to run with staff on them.

And if there's an issue, Josh, a security issue or the like? Staff can get to those trains. There will be staff on trains, on and off, and they will move around stations. But all the trains can be operated remotely and they can be operated by staff if they need to be. There you go, Gerard. That's Gerard from Pendle Hill. Final one, Josh. I know that Central Station and the ones in town, people might be leaving the office sort of middle of next week and thinking, I might give this thing a whirl. If I go to Central Station...

or say Martin Place, the existing train stations, will it be straightforward as to where I need to go to get on the new service?

Absolutely. It's well signed, posted, so your listeners would have started to see. We've got the big orange T. There's now the blue, the turquoise blue M, and just follow that through the stations. At Central Station on that great big open new area with the running track style design, Platform 11 and 12 off to the right-hand side, you go straight down, you'll be on the Metro tracks.

In terms of Martin Place, it's an even bigger, more cavernous expansion, and you'll actually enter a new cavern that is next to the main Martin Place entrances, and you'll be taken into where you can access the platform. So it's very easy to find, and it is marked by that big blue turquoise M. Josh, I really appreciate you coming on, and I'll be controversial and say I think you're doing a very, very good job. Thanks for your time. Thank you, Chris. That's Josh Murray, the transport specialist

Secretary for the Department of Transport, 131873. Now, what do you reckon? Will you use the Sydney Metro? $21 billion. Hell of a train line. Hell of a piece of infrastructure. And well done to the former coalition government for having the vision and having the you-know-whats to get all the finances ready to rock and roll to get us where we are today.

I've just got a text here from Bill who says, all trains stopped on the Western Line due to a police operation at Cabramatta. Now, we checked that out, Bill, with the police, and we've been told, yes, there is a police operation happening at Cabramatta right now.

And we are awaiting a proper statement with a little bit of information from police to see what happened. But we can tell you, though, Bill, that trains on the Western Line are operational. But something is clearly going on at Cabramatta Station. But once the police tell us what it is, we'll bring it to you. 131873. Now, Cathy Freeman and her husband, James Murch, have announced their split after 15 years of marriage.

She's 51 years old now, Cathy Freeman, and her husband is 49. And they released a joint statement today. And they said that they were parting ways, but will continue co-parenting their 13-year-old daughter, Ruby. So as per the Herald Sun, they say, after 15 years of marriage, we have unfortunately separated.

We will continue to co-parent and this is our greatest priority. We continue sharing a professional and working partnership through Estrella Sports Management. Given this is a personal matter, we would greatly appreciate you respecting our privacy and won't be making any further comment.

So, Cathy Freeman, she was married first to Alexander Bodeca from 99 to 2003. She dated actor Joel Edgerton for a while. They split in 2005, and then she married James Murch in 2009, and they've been together ever since. Sad news. You don't like to hear that when people split, do you? 131873, fact of life now, though. Anastasia Palaszczuk has landed herself a new job.

She is a non-executive board member of Australia Post. So she's been appointed to the Australia Board Post as a non-executive director. And Anastasia Palaszczuk will be paid $107,000, according to the Remuneration Tribunal determination. And she'll take on the role following Mr Tony Nutt. He completed two terms. Tony Nutt, of course, former Liberal Party guy. Anastasia Palaszczuk.

Now the Labor guys are in, she gets the Guernsey. That's how it works, doesn't it? Anyway, she's probably credentialed. She did run Queensland for, what, between 2015 and 2023. I think she can probably offer a thing or two to the Australia Post board. 131873. Five o'clock news coming up very shortly with Josh Bryant. John from Helensburg has just sent me a text. 0460873873.com.

Chris, I thought I'd heard it all, but why are you being so nice to both Josh Murray and you've even had a good word for Anastasia Palaszczuk? What's got into you?

Oh, well, maybe my old age. I'm becoming a little bit more philosophical. I don't know. 131873. After five o'clock news, I've got $1,000 to give away. If you've got the catchphrase that Ben Fordham gave you this morning, so there's a grand to give away. I've got five $100 vouchers to the DD's Waterfront Group for your Sydney shout-outs. So get your Sydney shout-outs ready. We'll do them after the news. And I've got $1,000 to give away.

I'm going to take you to the best wine you can get anywhere in Australia. They've just won Best in Show at the Royal Wine Awards.

All I wanted in retirement was to feel confident with my money. So I picked an income account with my industry super fund. Now I take enough for day-to-day things, splash out when I fancy, and the rest can grow over time. Stick with your industry super fund in retirement. Visit compareyourretirement.com today. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Consider the fund's PDS and whether the product is right for you.

Now back to Drive with Chris O'Keefe on Sydney's 2GB. It's seven minutes past five. Thank you for your company on this Friday afternoon. And thank God it is Friday, Sydney. 131873. You can text me 0460873873 or email drive at 2GB.com. Isn't it nice?

to look out the window at 5 o'clock on a Friday afternoon and see a little bit of blue sky and sun out. Yep, we are heading towards spring and summer, and I say bring it on. I've got $1,000 to give away, mind you, if you've got the catchphrase. And, of course, five $100 vouchers to the DD's Waterfront Group for your Sydney shout-outs. The breaking news you can trust. It's Drive with Chris O'Keefe on 2GB.

Well, a property developer who admitted to his role in an inferno that raised a $24 million waterfront mansion, well, he's been jailed. This story in the telly by Steve Zemeck. Steve Nassif, 71 years old, has gone to jail after he was arrested in December of 2022 over his role in an arson attack

that levelled a Northwood heritage-listed mansion. You remember that beautiful big mansion in Northwood on the Lower North Shore? It went up in flames. So it took a team of 50 firefighters more than an hour to put out the blaze, and the flames were like 20 metres high. It was a six-bedroom home.

And it was owned by a property developer, a Chinese property developer by the name of Owen Chen. Now, he's not accused of doing any wrongdoing. He bought the house for $24.1 million in 2021. And Steve Nassif and his then 19-year-old accomplice, Adams Bett, mounted their first arson attempt back in August of 2021. Now, the court was told they bought more than 56 litres of petrol from

Before Bette entered the house, but at the last minute, he backed out of the plan to burn it down. But they ultimately went through with it, what, 12 months later, September 3, 2022, and Steve Nassif acting as the getaway driver while Bette lit the fire.

So this time it was 36 litres of petrol in a red plastic jerry can. And then Bette entered the house and sparked the blaze. And within 10 minutes, there were 30 triple O calls and it was unrepairable. A $24 million mansion. Beautiful home it was. Now, he got no money, Bette, for lighting the fire, nor was he threatened.

And Nassif was captured on CCTV driving his camper van away from the scene before it was found at his Blue Mountains home where he was arrested. And it is still unknown why Steve Nassif wanted to burn this home down. Nobody knows. And the judge said today that the motivation was unclear. But regardless, he's off to jail, Mr Nassif, 131873.

Well, we're getting married less, Australians. There were 1,000... Sorry, 118,000 marriages registered and almost 58,000 divorces granted in 2023. This is new data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. But marriage numbers have dropped 6.9%. And the record high was 127,000 in 2022. In New South Wales...

We're getting married much less. 13% we dropped. 13% fewer marriages in 2023 compared to 2022, where divorces, they're down 1%. Very small drop. 1% divorces, 50,000 in 12 months. 1-3-1-8-7-3. Now, have you checked your fire alarm lately? Speaking of fires, it's so important to stay on top of fire safety at your home.

especially if you are an older Australian, because the stats say you are the most at risk. So one in three people who've died in a residential fire in the last five years were over 65 years of age and almost half were over 50. So Superintendent Greg White is from Fire and Rescue New South Wales and they've launched a new program to keep our seniors educated about fire safety. He's on the line. Superintendent, thanks for coming on.

Thanks, Chris. Great to talk to you tonight. Why is that the case? Why is senior citizens, older Australians, more likely to die in a fire? Well,

Well, there are many reasons why that might be the case. It could be mobility related. It could be that they are hard of hearing and they might not hear the smoke alarm. They might not be able to get up to check their smoke alarm, change the battery, keep it clean. And that's why Fire and Rescue offers our free fire safety visit program where we can...

check the smoke alarm, talk about fire safety, making sure that people have escape plans and that they know what to do in case of a fire. What is it? What little things, you know, leaving heaters on, that sort of stuff?

Well, actually, we attended over 55 Lifestyle Village a couple of weeks ago and we gave a fire safety presentation. And one of the participants was talking about how they were cooking porridge. They got distracted by someone at the door. We're talking to the person at the door and the pot stopped.

created a whole heap of smoke inside the house. So, you know, fire in the kitchen, being distracted, not keeping things a metre from the heater. Electric blankets are also a really nasty issue if they're not maintained properly. They're not as popular, electric blankets, anymore, are they?

Well, 18 months ago, not even 18 months ago, 12 months ago, we had a fire that destroyed a home in Wattle Grove started by electric blanket. Right. People leave them on. And if you fold the electric blankets up, they've got tiny little filaments in the electric blanket and they can short out and start a fire. So how do people get in contact with you guys to come out and check that their fire's safe?

Well, there are a couple of different ways. You could contact your local fire station and ask for a free fire safety visit. You could go to our website, fire.nsw.gov.au forward slash visits and request one through there. Or you can contact our head office on 9265 2999 and they'll take your details and we'll do a free safety visit

Anyone who lives in an over 55s lifestyle village will come and give you a fire safety talk and demonstrate what happens if you put water on a fat fire in the kitchen, but with the explosive ramifications of that. Superintendent, thank you so much for coming on. It's really important work you're doing.

Thanks, Chris. Have a good weekend. And to you. That's Superintendent Greg White from Fire and Rescue New South Wales, 131873. Now, just before we get into Thank God It's Friday, I've just got a text here from Paul. Chris, a big thunderstorm and lightning over Narellan Vale, Australia.

And Oran Park, even Mount Annan. Well, Paul, I'm just having a look on the Bureau of Meteorology rain radar. So there's no rain really around Sydney or the Illawarra or the central coast in the Hunter Valley at the moment. But there's a nasty little storm cell that's got its, you'd probably say it stretches from sort of Boweral as far north as just west of Bankstown Airport.

So I'm just having a look at it now. I'll zoom in, but it's quite red. So it's a nasty little storm cell there and it's go through sort of Appen, out to Waterfall, Stanwell Park, and then west into Camden,

Narellan, Narellan Vale, Oran Park, as you said. So if you're in that area, you're going to see, I reckon, a little bit of thunderstorm activity. But it's not like it's widespread or anything like that. It's just quite a nasty little storm cell developing in our southwest. G-G-I.

And now on 2GB Drive, thank God it's Friday. Yes, thank God it's Friday, Sydney. And it's time for your Sydney shout-outs. All thanks to our great mates at the Dee Dee's Waterfront Group. Good health and good business. Great people, Con and Kerry. 131873, who deserves a special mention in your life?

Because thanks to the great folk at DeeDees, I've got five $100 vouchers to DeeDees Waterfront to give away. So give us a call. Local business. Is it an important anniversary? Is it a birthday? You know the deal. Who deserves a big pat on the back? If you get on air, you win a $100 voucher to a DeeDees Waterfront Group restaurant. It's all thanks to the DeeDees Waterfront Group. Good health and good business.

You're listening to TGIF. Thank God it's Friday on Sydney's 2GB. Now, before we get to your shout-outs, my shout-out is first. The Sydney Royal Wine Show. They announced their 2024 winners today. Now, it's run by the Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales, same guys that organise the Easter show. And the best wine in show went to Bream Creeks,

2023 Pinot Noir. Yummo. Now, it's a Tasmanian wine, but we'll give it a shout-out anyway. It's the youngest red wine to win the award in over 20 years and the first Pinot to win since 2016. Now, Rafe Nottage is the general manager of Bream Creek Vineyard, and he joins me on the line. Rafe, g'day. G'day. It's great to be with you. That's an outstanding effort. Tell us a little bit about the Pinot.

We're an established Tassie vineyard and wine brand, and we're best known for our Pinot. That's sort of our flagship wine. Our 23 came from a low-yielding vintage, so plenty of lovely fruit density and richness there, a bit of spice, integrated tannins, great finish. We liked it, and so did the judges. You know, I've always wondered about Pinot Noir. Do you put it in the fridge or not? Do you chill it a little bit or not?

Oh, it depends on your taste. If you're in Darwin, probably. If you're in Tassie, you just leave it on the counter. Put it outside. Yeah, you might want to try to put it in sunshine. No, just about 16 degrees. Okay, 16 degrees. Yeah, as much as you can tell. What's involved in going to the Royal Wine Show?

Look, you've got to obviously enter your wines, pay the exhibit fees, stand off the exhibits, and hope that your wine will stand out in a very tough class of other wines. And how do you calculate that for yourself, given there would be outstanding wines that you're competing against? Look...

I think you've got to, if you rate what you do, I think you've got to be prepared to mix it with the best. We've always entered the Royal Shows, and yeah, you don't win every year, but we entered two ones this year. Obviously, the estate that you talk about did really well, but the Reserve got a gold medal as well. So it's a great result. You've got to be in it to sort of benchmark yourself. Yeah, sure. Were you confident with the Pinot Noir?

I was hopeful. It did win the best P&O trophy at the Royal Queensland Wine Show about a month earlier. So it did have a bit of a backing, you know. When you guys... Here's something else I've always wondered about winemaking, and just indulge me for a second. So you've got the 2023 vintage. You said it was low-yielding. You put it all together. You know, it goes through the process, and you have your first taste of that vintage. Do you know then and there it's going to be a good one?

We like to think we do. We like to think we do. You know, there's a lot of work goes into it. A lot of work goes into the fine tuning at the end. We've been lucky, well, lucky or unlucky that the last few vintages in Tassie have been low yielding, which means that while the quantity has been pretty low in terms of the number of bottles, the

The vines haven't been very stressed, so the quantity that's come out has been really good. The volume of flavour has always been excellent. So we've been pretty happy, pretty happy. Well, Rafe, thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate it. And congratulations to you and all the team at Bream Creek.

fantastic thanks for having me on chris you're very welcome that's ralph nottage the general manager of bream creek vineyard in tasmania it's about 45 minutes out of hobart so if you can get your hands on the 2023 bream creek pinot noir it's just one best wine at the sydney royal wine show

Righto, your turn now. 131873. If you want a $100 voucher, the DD's Waterfront Group, give me a call. 131873. Your Sydney shout-outs next. It's 25 past five, and thank God it's Friday. Time for your Sydney shout-outs. We're going to start with Michael at Greystanes. G'day, Michael. Hey, Chris. How are you? I'm good, thank you. Michael, who's your shout-out for?

Well, it's our daughter. My wife and myself are very proud of our daughter. She has just a week ago returned from the Olympics where she was the dietician with the Australian sailing team. And, of course, she has left behind when she went overseas a very, very young daughter and a very, very young son as well as a husband. And we're just so exceptionally proud of her.

of her, one, getting that opportunity to do what she did, but secondly, of course, to be working with these elite athletes. And fortunately, we actually saw her on the coverage on TV when we won the gold medal. That's awesome. And she got very, very wet and very, very soaked. So we're just very, very proud. I think she's very deserving of a rap. What's your daughter's name? Her name's Samantha. Samantha. Well, well done to Samantha. Out of interest, Michael, what does a sailor eat to win a gold medal?

Well, that's a very good question. I'm not 100% sure, but I know that there was a bakery in Marseille where the sailing was, and baguettes were very, very popular, that's for sure. Good on you, Michael. $100 gift voucher to DD's Waterfront Group coming your way, and well done to Samantha, the head dietician for Australia's Olympic sailing team. No wonder they're proud. Wonderful. 131873. Peter's at Bankstown, aren't I, Peter?

Hey mate, Chris, how you going? I'm well thank you mate, who's your shout out for?

The housing industry of New South Wales. I attended the Apprentices Awards last night at Castle Hill RSL and it was wonderful to see young trades go through and we shortage of trades in New South Wales and it was wonderful to see a lot of people get awards, young achievers in the building industry get awards. So I want to give a shout out to the housing industry in New South Wales. That's good. Any good stories there, Pete? Did it take you back to your days when you were an apprentice?

No, I wasn't an apprentice. But no, some of the stories are unbelievable. You know, there are really good young people that went through and the stories are great. And there were women, young women and young men. It was great. Good stuff, Pete. Well, well done to the housing industry of New South Wales. And Pete, there's a $100 voucher coming your way to the DDs group. Good on you. Jane's at the Hunter Valley. Hello, Jane.

Hey there, how are you? I'm good, thank you, Jane. Who's your shout-out for? My husband, Craig. Craig Wilkinson. We had to bury his mum yesterday. She had a stroke last week and mixed emotions. It's his birthday today, 2050. Oh, I'm sorry, Jane. That's so sad. How is he?

Yeah, he's doing okay. Funerals are, you catch up with people that you haven't seen for a long time and lots of laughs and a few tears, lots of reminiscing. It was nice, but at the same time, it's a sad day. It's very, very sad. I'm so sorry to your husband, Craig, Jane. I'm sorry to your family too. It's just such a hard time in anybody's life and

His 50th birthday. Well, you know, I'll give him a birthday gift. There's a $100 voucher coming your way. Hopefully, Jane, you can come down to Sydney and enjoy it and just get away for the weekend, all right? Sure. Yeah, no, thanks very much. No, you're very welcome, Jane. That's Jane there in the Hunter Valley. Jeez, that's hard when people have to do that. We all have to do it, but it doesn't make it any easier. Kerry's at Hornsby. Hello, Kerry. Oh, hi. How are you going? I'm well, thank you, Kerry.

Good. I'd like to give a shout out to a young girl today. I went to Mitsubishi Pennant Hills to get my car serviced and I paid her in cash. She's probably only about 19. Her name is Paige. And about 15 minutes after I'd left, she rang to tell me that I'd overpaid her $50. Really? What a great generation. Yeah. I've got the flu, so I probably miscounted it as I gave it, but I thought I was right. Yeah. That's awesome. I'm so proud of her. I'll be half of her family. Pennant Hills, Mitsubishi, hey? Yeah.

Yeah, and her name is Paige. I had a look at the paperwork. And Paige is obviously very honest, Kerry. Very honest, well brought up. Would have you done the same thing?

Oh, yes, definitely. So do I. I would have been too afraid of the consequences. Me too. I would have thought it was a prank. I would have been driving around thinking the police are about to put handcuffs on me. Hey, Kerry, $100 voucher coming your way. That's a great story. And well done to Paige and all the people at Pennant Hills Mitsubishi for doing the little things right, being honest. Trent at Reevesby. Hello, Trent.

Where are you thinking? Have you nailed it yet?

Yeah, we did. Only today did we sign a contract for the Waterview pad at Homebush. Oh, beautiful, Trent. That'll be absolutely sensational. I've been to a couple of events there and they do a wonderful job. Hey, Trent, $100 voucher going your way because you're going to have to sit down at one of the DD's group restaurants, have something to eat, and you've got to plan out more of the wedding because...

It keeps going and it keeps going and it keeps going right up until the day that you finally say I do, but trying to promise you it'll be the best thing you ever do. So enjoy it and congratulations to you and your fiance for getting married. I'm a big proponent of marriage. I know it's not for everyone, but it's the best thing I ever did, honestly. And, you know, Henry's a beautiful addition to our world, but without Vonnie, I don't get Henry and marrying Vonnie, I think was...

Something that I've always cherished and I think made me the man I am. There you go. I digress somewhat, but it's true. A news update. Pick your favourite Kia from the award-winning Kia Sportage to the street-grade delivering Kia Seltos for Kia's most powerful car ever, the all-electric EV6 GT.

Josh Bright in the newsroom. G'day. Hello again, Chris. Transport officials admit there will likely be teething issues for the first day of operations of the new Metro line on Monday, but say there will be extra staff on hand to help if anything goes wrong. A Sydney lawyer is understood to be investigating a possible class action against the NSW Liberal Party on behalf of candidates who won't contest the council elections because of a bungle missing the nomination deadline. A Sydney high school teacher who's accused of sexually abusing a student

has now been charged with further offences and a new digital declaration replacing paper customs forms will be trialled for international travellers flying on some flights between New Zealand and Australia. In Sport, round 24 of the NRL continues in about half an hour's time with a sell-out clash between the Sea Eagles and the Warriors. We'll have more news in Sport at six. Thanks, Josh.

Alright, I've got $1,000 to give you right now. Right now, that is your cue to call. 1-300-722-873. Competition line, please. 1-300-722-873. You would have heard Ben Fordham give you the catchphrase that you need for this afternoon. Call me now. 1-300-722-873 and there's $1,000 coming your way.

And now, a weather update.

Well, 17 degrees in the city and 17 in our west. There is a little thunderstorm in the southwest around sort of Narellan and Camden, so just be aware of that. Temperatures tonight will dip to 13 in the city and 11 in the west. Tomorrow, slight chance of showers. Tops of 21 degrees in the city tomorrow and 20 in our west. A finance update. Enjoy impossible-to-ignore savings across the Mercedes-Benz SUV range.

Well, checking the finance, the ASX is up. It's in a big way. The markets have had a great day. So the ASX is up 1.34%. All odds is up 1.31%. And one Aussie dollar buying 66.32 US cents. All right, I've got Keith here. Keith's at North Curl Curl. Hello, Keith. Hello, mate. How are you? Are you looking forward to a big weekend with another grand in your pocket?

Mate, that will certainly assist. What is the catchphrase, Keith? Catchphrase, I'd say, is nutbush, mate. Well done, Keith. Do you do the nutbush, Keith? You wouldn't want to see it, mate. Honestly, you would not want to see it. Why not? I might be compared with one of our Olympians. Yeah.

You are quick. I'm trying not to downgrade the hood. That's all right. Well, with $1,000, Keith, what are you thinking over the weekend?

I'm thinking, I don't know. I have no idea, mate, but it'll certainly assist. Well, enjoy, Keith. $1,000 coming your way with the catchphrase today. Nutbush was the answer. What do you need for tomorrow? Sydney Metro. Not tomorrow. Monday morning. Sydney Metro is the catchphrase you need to win $1,000 with Ben Fordham. But, Keith, I reckon he could do the Nutbush.

You would have heard this with Ben Fordham this morning, but Anthony Albanese's cabinet has signed off on the $600 million plan to give Papua New Guinea an NRL team. Now, you know that I've got problems with this. I do.

I just think, you know, it can be fine. It's all about soft power and it's cheaper than buying submarines. I get all that. I get the argument for it, right? And do I think that Papua New Guinea, in a perfect world, should have a team that competes in the National Rugby League? Of course I do. Do I think it's practical? No, I do not. And I would like to see somebody explain to us, in no uncertain terms, how they think this is going to work.

For both the people who love the National Rugby League, the players who are going there, the families who are playing out of Port Moresby and everything else. Anyway, it looks like...

it's taken another step forward because with Christopher Luxon, the New Zealand Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese said that his government was working through those issues of establishing a team linked to the Papua New Guinea and added the move was more about sport, namely the economic development of Australia's northern neighbour. Yeah, and just because they've got a footy team doesn't mean they're not going to take the money from China. We'll give them 600, China will come in and

Propose a soccer team for a billion. I don't know. 131873. Well, a confronting homeless camp in Parramatta's CBD. It'll be fenced off, according to the Daily Telegraph, because there are some disturbing accounts emerging of drug use in full view of the public. So there's some rough sleepers who've taken to the spot near the Bernie Banton Bridge at Marsden Street in Parramatta.

And they're there seeking shelter. And they've got old items, portable clotheslines, chairs, that sort of stuff. But Parramatta Council saw the issue highlighted this week. And Councillor Michelle Garrard shared a woman's social media post. And the woman went along for a run on the Parramatta River on Sunday. And she found several people camping at the site. And she witnessed an older man injecting a teenager.

And she was unsure if police could take action. Anyway, it's been fenced off that area. Uh, unfortunately there's 1400 homeless people in the Parramatta state electorate. 24% of them are sleeping rough. So they need somewhere to go. You can't just, you know, if they're finding a spot under the bridge, they're finding a spot under the bridge. And you know, with homelessness comes drug abuse and drug addiction. It's just really, really sad. Um,

However, it's got to be a balance, right? And if they can get emergency accommodation and get them somewhere safe and the treatment that these people need, well, that is a better outcome than just leaving them fend for themselves. Now on Drive... Good old Charlie Brown. ..the fight against scams never stops. To defend you, Australian banks have joined forces with a major investment in new technology. Australian banks are working to protect you.

Well, who would have thought that Telstra and Optus would have to extend the closure of their 3G network? Well, to give us all the details, Charlie Brown, host of 2GB's Life and Technology, joins us. Charlie, g'day. Hey, Chris. End of October now. It's going to be that they switch off, they being Telstra and Optus. It was meant to be August, end of August, and that was extended from end of June for Telstra and end of September was always the date for Optus.

The thing is that these cellular networks, they can actually see what devices are connected to them. They can see whether they're 5G, 4G. They can see how calls are being made on what part of the network, how often, what kinds of devices. And clearly, they can still see that 3G devices are connecting to the network. So people still haven't

left the network with new devices or updating software or whatever it is they need to do like they have been requested to do by the network providers. So they're extending till the end of October.

Do you think that'll be the final extension? I think so. Usually, okay, I've got a bit of a theory why they're doing it. I think it's the concern that too many devices using 3G are still connected, but also the concern that, just say, Chris, somebody is trying to ring triple O.

and they're not able to and it comes back once investigations have been done that they were on, their device was trying to call and was only calling across the 3G network, for example. And something happened to somebody. We don't want that, right? We don't want that. So I think that what the networks are doing is saying, look, we're very close. We're going to give people just a little bit more time to make sure one,

the network is not needed at all. And two, everyone has a happy cellular network transition to 4G and 5G and goes off from there. Did this public safety awareness, do you think it's enough? The problem is... Or do you think people are still going to slip through the cracks regardless of whether it's extended or not? Of course. We're talking about millions of devices. So if you go over a fraction of a percent...

of devices connected to the network and there's a fraction of a percent of devices that will still only call on 3G networks after they shut down, of course there could be some left over I think I've got to say the networks have done a pretty good job, they've

tried SMSing people they've tried interrupting phone calls that they've dialed like if you dial out on a phone that is 3G only they will now interrupt the call before connecting it saying hey this is a 3G only phone you need to move to a 4G they're trying everything but there's still going to be some that are left over what's on the show tomorrow

We're going to talk about the next generation of home electronic cleaning products plus the rollout of the artificial intelligence PC. What is coming now? We'll talk to the guys from HP about what's going on. You're a good man, Charlie. We'll be listening. That's Charlie Brown with Life and Technology tomorrow morning at 8am right here on 2GB.

Time to give away a bit of free fuel, all thanks to Shell V-Power. Call the open line 131873. That open line number, 131873. The Jewel for Fuel, 200 bucks of it. Up for grabs. We'll play it next. On 2GB Drive, let's Jewel for Fuel. All right, we are Jeweling for Fuel, thanks to Shell V-Power. Our contestants this evening, I've got Fran at Narrabeen. Hello, Fran.

Hello, how are you? I'm really well, thank you, Fran. And I've got Carina at St Helens Park. Hello, Carina. Hi, Chris, how are you? I'm really well, Carina. Do you want to start for us? Sure. All right, don't be nervous. Just go for it. Your time starts now. What's the Australian equivalent of the FBI? Pass. ASIO. Tanya Plibersek is the Federal Minister for what? Pass. Environment. Who plays Dr Frasier Crane in the sitcom Frasier? No. No.

Pass. Kelsey Grammar. Tony Hawk is associated with which sport? Skateboarding. Well done. Which chocolate brand originally advertised a glass and a half of milk in every bar? Cadbury's. Well done. You got two. Oh. I'll give you... They were hard ones. Fran, you ready? Yes, thank you. Three will win it. Your time starts now. The Rams, with a nickname for a Super League era rugby league team in what city?

Pass. Adelaide, according to today's ABS statistics, are more or less people getting divorced in Australia? More. Less. In what year was Australia federated, 1900 or 1901? 1901. Correct. What is the capital of New Zealand? Auckland. Wellington. Touchdown, end zone, quarterback. Are all terms relating to what sport? Sorry, I didn't hear the first part. Touchdown, end zone, quarterback. All terms relating to what sport?

American football. Well done. It's two each, two apiece, Fran and Katrina. So this is, Karina, sorry, this is how it's going to work. You've got to say your name and once you've said your name, that is your buzzer, and then you can answer the question and you take home the $200 of petrol. You ready? Yeah, thanks. All right, here we go. Are you not entertained is a classic quote from which movie? Russell Crowe's in it. It was based in Rome. Yeah.

Radiators, Fran. Fran, Fran, you got it. Radiators. There you go. Fran, $200 of free petrol coming your way. Karina, well played. It is the duel for fuel, ladies. Enjoy your weekend. Thank you for playing, and we do it every afternoon here on Drive.

And now, a preview of what's coming up on Wide World of Sports. Mark Levy's got Wide World of Sports coming up next. He's had a week off, well-deserved week off, and now he's back out at Levy. G'day. Hello, Chris. Yes, happy Kennedy night. I just didn't know it was on. Apparently, I'm up for an award. I didn't see your name on the list, mate. Well...

It was nice to get an invite. I'm here at the football, giving my guts. You're working, you're working. Fair dinkum. Anyway, you did it. Is anyone going from 2GB to the Kennedys? I don't know, I'm not, mate. Can we move on? Anyway, if there's a table, nice to get an invite. Whoever's handing out invitations, fair dinkum. Oh, there's a good idea. Only worked my backside off for two weeks during the Olympics. Give my guts on the football. Can't get an invite to the Kennedys and I'm up for an award. That'll do me.

Oh, dear, oh, dear. Is the footy on tonight? Yeah, footy's on. Brewster's Parramatta. And in and amongst that, I'll let you know whether I've won an award at the Kennedys. Oh, right-o. Well, see you, Chris. See you, mate.

He's not happy, Mark Levy. Not happy at all. That's Mark Levy with Wide World of Sports coming up next. That's it from me. It's been a really great week. DriveItToGB.com if you've got anything you'd like us to investigate. For Ben Fordham on Monday, the catchphrase you need is Sydney Metro. Sydney Metro. Have a good weekend.