# Paul Murray Our Town: Belconnen | 26 October

An episode of [Paul Murray Live](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/376966263), 26 Oct 2025, 51 min.

Audio: https://p.podderapp.com/2544644999/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2fb3740d-3436-44af-8cc0-a91900716aa5/be3abd48-25e5-45a6-aede-ac2a00524a12/341570b5-9715-40bc-a555-b38200bad0f5/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=95971714-8fe6-4855-b1fe-ac2a00524a12

Our Town hits Belconnen as Paul Murray takes the show on the road with big guests, Albanese jets to Malaysia and South Korea for key summits. Plus, Labor pushes ahead with Australia’s first national environment watchdog. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Live from bel Conan, Canberra. This is Paul Murray live
[0:05] Speaker 1: our town today.
[0:07] Speaker 2: Australia, a beautiful part of Canball of course through the act.
[0:14] Speaker 2: We are in for a big night tonight here a
[0:16] Speaker 2: Southern Blass club in Jamison in particular. Thank you so
[0:20] Speaker 2: much for joining us at the room, joining.
[0:21] Speaker 1: Us on Telly.
[0:22] Speaker 2: Let's learn a little more about our national capital and
[0:25] Speaker 2: of course this bit of at bell Connon. Now for
[0:28] Speaker 2: those that have lived here a long time, we've been
[0:30] Speaker 2: visiting along. There was a time before the Lake Winning
[0:35] Speaker 2: well roughly about fifteen years ago. That's about the same
[0:38] Speaker 2: time as bell Connan joined the family of suburbs that
[0:41] Speaker 2: are in and around our nation's capital. Tonight we are
[0:45] Speaker 2: going to have a look at some of the pretty
[0:47] Speaker 2: obvious things to come and see and do here, including
[0:50] Speaker 2: this being a political show and a political channel. How
[0:52] Speaker 2: do we not spend a fair amount of time at
[0:54] Speaker 2: Old Parliament House, which also doubles now as the Museum
[0:58] Speaker 2: of Australian Democracy. People were fantastic showing us around. The
[1:02] Speaker 2: facility is exactly as you imagine it to be. And
[1:05] Speaker 2: even if it's something that you came and maybe five
[1:08] Speaker 2: or a long time ago, come back and actually have
[1:10] Speaker 2: a look at what they've done specifically with that building.
[1:12] Speaker 2: That everything from the National Film and Sound Archive where
[1:15] Speaker 2: I was able to work out this program is officially
[1:19] Speaker 2: in the record. So when they somehow dig up the
[1:23] Speaker 2: ruins after climate change, they will some find one little
[1:26] Speaker 2: file left. What were things like back in twenty fifteen,
[1:31] Speaker 2: Oh fat like with the bid was on the TV, okay,
[1:33] Speaker 2: but nowhere there in the history, all right now, also
[1:37] Speaker 2: another chapter you may will have heard in the past
[1:38] Speaker 2: couple of days, of course, So prime Minister and President
[1:42] Speaker 2: and let's be really honest, okay, and you know how
[1:45] Speaker 2: big a fan I am of the Trumpster and not
[1:47] Speaker 2: of the Prime Minister. I don't think Trump has any
[1:49] Speaker 2: idea who the Prime Minister is, and definitely doesn't know
[1:53] Speaker 2: who Kevin Rudd is, right, So trying to pretend that
[1:55] Speaker 2: he's up, he's down, he's in, he's out. There's a
[1:57] Speaker 2: little more worth talking about it today. And Kamala Harris,
[2:01] Speaker 2: of course, the one who perhaps the Prime Minister would
[2:03] Speaker 2: have dreamt of meeting more than, of course the President
[2:06] Speaker 2: of the United States. Guess what she's going to run
[2:08] Speaker 2: again in four years time. But first before we get
[2:13] Speaker 2: to the joys of Bell Connen.
[2:14] Speaker 1: And beautiful camera.
[2:15] Speaker 2: Let us have a look at some of the day's news,
[2:17] Speaker 2: including airbus Elbow is up, up and away yet again. Now,
[2:22] Speaker 2: of course, these are important, vital meetings for our country
[2:24] Speaker 2: and for anyone who ever says he goes on too
[2:26] Speaker 2: many of them. Shame on you, Like, how do you
[2:29] Speaker 2: say that, of course, when the President had no idea
[2:31] Speaker 2: who he or the ambassador was. When it comes to
[2:36] Speaker 2: the United States last week, how dare you mention that
[2:39] Speaker 2: the media played along and didn't tell us where his
[2:42] Speaker 2: overseas holiday was.
[2:43] Speaker 1: For a week before that?
[2:45] Speaker 2: How dare you say, when discussing Airbus Elbow that this
[2:49] Speaker 2: Prime Minister is enjoying plenty overseas when he doesn't do
[2:52] Speaker 2: much here, including speaking to an empty room at the
[2:55] Speaker 2: United Nations a personal favorite of mine, Airbus and airbus
[2:59] Speaker 2: out of course, just this year, remember when he spent
[3:02] Speaker 2: seventeen or thirty days out of the country. Well, of
[3:05] Speaker 2: course he had to bring booze to meetings with the
[3:07] Speaker 2: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at his place, because
[3:10] Speaker 2: you know, Barry McKenzie twenty first century, what.
[3:12] Speaker 1: A great look.
[3:13] Speaker 2: How dare you say this man travels too much. He
[3:16] Speaker 2: had to see Pandas in China. This man is a
[3:20] Speaker 2: busy beaver. This man had to address the Labor conference
[3:25] Speaker 2: in the United Kingdom. He had to wear the wrong
[3:28] Speaker 2: shirt at the Pacific Island Forum.
[3:30] Speaker 1: He had to.
[3:32] Speaker 2: Go to Papua New Guinea where we are going to
[3:36] Speaker 2: build one hundred million dollar renovation to the Papua New
[3:41] Speaker 2: Guinea in parliament. Of course, we're also paying for a
[3:44] Speaker 2: football team up there in the next little while. So
[3:46] Speaker 2: anyone who says this overseas stuff isn't vital to the
[3:49] Speaker 2: people of the suburbs of Australia than you.
[3:51] Speaker 1: My friends.
[3:52] Speaker 2: Of course, as always a part of the problem. The
[3:55] Speaker 2: latest of these, of course, is up, up and away
[3:58] Speaker 2: again off the Malaysia where he's going to be at
[4:02] Speaker 2: gibbifest that I don't know, White said, he different than
[4:04] Speaker 2: the other five hundred that he's had this year, South
[4:07] Speaker 2: Korea after that. But interestingly, perhaps there is a little
[4:11] Speaker 2: sign about how cocky the Prime Minister is, knowing how
[4:13] Speaker 2: secured in the job he is. After the federal election,
[4:17] Speaker 2: after a compliant media says, of course, for security reasons,
[4:20] Speaker 2: we want to say a detail of where you were
[4:22] Speaker 2: in your secret Micronesian holiday as opposed to every moment
[4:26] Speaker 2: of what was happening with previous prime ministers overseas.
[4:29] Speaker 1: We turn to that.
[4:30] Speaker 2: Far right wing section of the far right wing newspaper,
[4:34] Speaker 2: the Financial Review, and the rear windows section that's noticed
[4:38] Speaker 2: the prime minister's now got so many tickets to on
[4:42] Speaker 2: himself that he can give a few away to a
[4:44] Speaker 2: Taylor Swift concert. But he's still able to remain very
[4:49] Speaker 2: confident in himself. Why because he's doing something most prime
[4:53] Speaker 2: ministers don't do. In fact, let me follow the bouncing
[4:55] Speaker 2: ball here, albanis. He seems hyper attuned to what things
[4:58] Speaker 2: look like, and so for some time now he has
[5:01] Speaker 2: been winging to the traveling media about their insistence on
[5:05] Speaker 2: filming him getting on and off the plane. I mean,
[5:11] Speaker 2: this is tough stuff for the prime minister, right. These
[5:13] Speaker 2: are commonly known as a rival and departure shots. And
[5:16] Speaker 2: let's be honest, the reason people do this is because
[5:18] Speaker 2: there might be a Joe Biden falling up the stairs moment.
[5:21] Speaker 2: But still, you know, free flight. You're going around the world. Okay,
[5:24] Speaker 2: here he is walking in, walking off. Now we've heard
[5:26] Speaker 2: that on the past three trips the Prime Minister's complained
[5:29] Speaker 2: about having to wear a suit while getting on and
[5:32] Speaker 2: off the tax payer undered plane to the pandas to
[5:36] Speaker 2: the UK Prime Minister's office and now yet again off
[5:39] Speaker 2: to meeting with Asian leaders. And he's asked the media
[5:42] Speaker 2: why can't they just use fire footage? Well, you see
[5:45] Speaker 2: here miss the chance for the Prime Minister to slip
[5:48] Speaker 2: us over tit. No thank you again, that language is
[5:51] Speaker 2: in the Financial Review. I mean, how downgraat has that
[5:53] Speaker 2: got swearing.
[5:54] Speaker 1: In a newspaper good than me?
[5:57] Speaker 2: Because having landed on Thursday, following his line at home
[6:00] Speaker 2: from Washington, guess what he was wearing a T shirt
[6:04] Speaker 2: and he went, bugaret, I'm still going to wear the
[6:06] Speaker 2: T shirt when I come off the plane because wearing
[6:08] Speaker 2: the suit just pisces me off. Perhaps we should start
[6:13] Speaker 2: the no King's rallies here in Australia. This man is
[6:16] Speaker 2: very comfortable, very comfortable going all around the world doing
[6:20] Speaker 2: it on your dollar, representing everyone here, there and everywhere,
[6:23] Speaker 2: and just getting rid of the inconvenience of wearing a
[6:25] Speaker 2: suit while he gets on and off toto one now,
[6:28] Speaker 2: So I stand by the Abbas Albo line here despite
[6:33] Speaker 2: the fact that apparently he does not care for it,
[6:36] Speaker 2: doesn't think it's true, doesn't think that it rubs well
[6:38] Speaker 2: with the normal people. Again, he has turned up in Malaysia,
[6:41] Speaker 2: as I mentioned tonight, he was actually there after Donald
[6:45] Speaker 2: Trump turned up in Malaysia tonight, and unlike Donald Trump,
[6:49] Speaker 2: there was no dancing from our prime minister. This was
[6:52] Speaker 2: the Trumpster in Malaysia. Jeff, can you take a wide
[7:08] Speaker 2: shot of the audience here, give me some Trump dancing?
[7:09] Speaker 1: Everyone? Show me how you doing? Show me do you
[7:11] Speaker 1: do a little trumpy? All right?
[7:12] Speaker 2: That's good, excellent, good to see as my mum wasn't
[7:16] Speaker 2: moving at all in the front row. They're fair enough.
[7:19] Speaker 2: Somebody who's never met me was participating. The one who's
[7:22] Speaker 2: known me my whole life case hight not doing that's sunny.
[7:25] Speaker 2: I'd love your mum always with us on in our
[7:27] Speaker 2: town now. Also talking about the Prime minister and just
[7:30] Speaker 2: I mean, it is frustrating for him. The media is
[7:32] Speaker 2: so unfair to him right now. As I told you,
[7:36] Speaker 2: media relationship during the election campaign was giving him the
[7:39] Speaker 2: free pass. The hunt was on for all things to
[7:42] Speaker 2: do with the disaster, and of course the result.
[7:45] Speaker 1: Of the election went the way that it did.
[7:48] Speaker 2: The media, of course, last week were just acting more
[7:51] Speaker 2: like stenographers for the greatest prime minister of all time
[7:53] Speaker 2: with their descriptions of how successful the meeting was with
[7:56] Speaker 2: the man who.
[7:57] Speaker 1: I still believe does not know who he is, certainly
[8:01] Speaker 1: who Rudd is. But again you remember the media.
[8:04] Speaker 3: The Prime Minister ready to go face to face with
[8:07] Speaker 3: Donald Trump, Prime Minister Anthony Alberanezi and Donald Trump for
[8:10] Speaker 3: the Prime Minister Albanesi a.
[8:11] Speaker 2: Warm welcome to our prime minister in Washington.
[8:16] Speaker 1: A triumph.
[8:18] Speaker 2: Well, this media that, as we know, when they want
[8:20] Speaker 2: to get into a process story of who knew what
[8:22] Speaker 2: and when they become Canberra Columbos, they can pick up
[8:25] Speaker 2: the magnifying glass and follow up and down the halls
[8:29] Speaker 2: to find out who knew what and when. But this
[8:31] Speaker 2: is the very same media who remember, agreed to say
[8:34] Speaker 2: nothing about what the Prime Minister was doing on his
[8:36] Speaker 2: holiday for seven days.
[8:37] Speaker 1: Now again, do I give a stuff whether it was
[8:40] Speaker 1: on holidays or not.
[8:41] Speaker 2: No, But the idea that for national security reasons we
[8:44] Speaker 2: didn't know anything about the trip bullshit, it was just
[8:47] Speaker 2: because you don't want to displease the dear leader. Well,
[8:51] Speaker 2: today new stories started to appear about exactly what was
[8:54] Speaker 2: happening during his week away. Pictures of this and pictures
[8:57] Speaker 2: of that. Isn't that a perfect example of how it worked.
[9:00] Speaker 2: Do not displease the machine, and the machine will toss
[9:03] Speaker 2: you a few crumbs. You put the crumbs in the
[9:05] Speaker 2: right combination, you will continue getting the crumbs from the
[9:08] Speaker 2: Prime Minister's office. But interestingly, that only thing that was
[9:12] Speaker 2: memorable of the back and forth in Washington last week was,
[9:15] Speaker 2: of course the former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. And I
[9:19] Speaker 2: know this room is very supportive of him as the
[9:21] Speaker 2: ambassador to the United States, and we all know what happens,
[9:25] Speaker 2: boom boom. Well we're after the first moment and then
[9:30] Speaker 2: him all being forgiven. Trump in the past couple of
[9:32] Speaker 2: days was usd and again now says that he's not
[9:35] Speaker 2: forgetting because again he doesn't know who these people are, right,
[9:39] Speaker 2: So he has two settings, right, there's the love setting
[9:42] Speaker 2: or there's the ass kicking setting, right, and you either
[9:45] Speaker 2: fall into one of these or the other, which meant
[9:47] Speaker 2: yet again, we still talking about this as many days
[9:51] Speaker 2: after and I'm starting a new week of shows talking
[9:53] Speaker 2: about what we talked about last week.
[9:56] Speaker 1: I think he said long.
[9:57] Speaker 2: Came, he goes something bad. You know where they're when
[10:00] Speaker 2: they say mad about me.
[10:01] Speaker 4: I don't forget.
[10:05] Speaker 2: Now when the Prime Minister was asked about the awkward
[10:08] Speaker 2: exchange inside the meeting and the President still changing his position, Dore,
[10:14] Speaker 2: I see each way elbowing his position about Kevin Rudd.
[10:17] Speaker 1: This was the Prime Minister blaming the media.
[10:21] Speaker 5: Do you need to sub Kevin right out?
[10:25] Speaker 2: No, Frankly, it says more about the journey than it
[10:29] Speaker 2: does who asks the question, than anything else.
[10:32] Speaker 6: I was in the room.
[10:33] Speaker 5: It was fine.
[10:37] Speaker 1: Don't you like the way that this works?
[10:38] Speaker 2: Now again we're taking fun, We're taking the piece for
[10:42] Speaker 2: having some fun. But I believe this should be a
[10:45] Speaker 2: relatively adversarial relationship between those who cover something and those
[10:51] Speaker 2: who are doing the reporting. Why because they are the
[10:53] Speaker 2: people who are the only people who can look at
[10:55] Speaker 2: leaders in the unkle bs each and every day. But
[10:58] Speaker 2: when unlimited overseas travel, he's only ever a triumph when
[11:05] Speaker 2: you stay quiet about the holiday in exchange for the
[11:07] Speaker 2: ongoing access from the media, when you don't ask the
[11:10] Speaker 2: one question that may well embarrass the Prime minister because
[11:12] Speaker 2: it is one on the minds of millions of Australians.
[11:15] Speaker 1: That's how access works. Now.
[11:17] Speaker 2: This is not the first prime minister to invent it,
[11:19] Speaker 2: but he's certainly probably the best of this century at
[11:22] Speaker 2: perfecting it. And people know that you don't want to
[11:26] Speaker 2: upset the machine on.
[11:28] Speaker 1: Bigger and wider issues.
[11:29] Speaker 2: This is why I've talked about that triangle of dependence, right,
[11:32] Speaker 2: how you end up with well, hang on, how.
[11:33] Speaker 1: Does Victoria keep sending the same people back all the time?
[11:36] Speaker 2: Because you work for the government, you are dependent on
[11:38] Speaker 2: the government when it comes to the handout, or if
[11:40] Speaker 2: you're in private sector, your biggest customer is the government.
[11:44] Speaker 2: But for act example there and rather than turning around
[11:46] Speaker 2: saying ang on, this issue is not the question. The
[11:48] Speaker 2: issue is that there was the information there for the
[11:50] Speaker 2: question to be asked. And of course Andrew Coleel is
[11:54] Speaker 2: big enough to stand up on his own two feet.
[11:55] Speaker 1: But I thought a little example worth showing you about.
[11:58] Speaker 2: What it is like to even intense rock the boat
[12:01] Speaker 2: and about how they punish you. All Right, let's get
[12:03] Speaker 2: onto celebrating bel Connor and making our way around our
[12:06] Speaker 2: nation's capital. This is a magnificent part of Australia. Again,
[12:10] Speaker 2: it's been around since the nineteen sixties, as was the
[12:12] Speaker 2: beginnings of things like the Lake which was officially locked
[12:16] Speaker 2: off on at that particular time.
[12:18] Speaker 1: Up and down the highway you can see where we are.
[12:20] Speaker 2: Where you go north, you gotta yas Unsurprisingly you can
[12:24] Speaker 2: drive a long way through the night when it comes
[12:25] Speaker 2: to Melbourne. There's lots of fun things to do while
[12:28] Speaker 2: you were here each and every time. Also, the makeup
[12:31] Speaker 2: of the suburb worth having a look at as well.
[12:33] Speaker 2: Here about the average ages that about one hundred thousand
[12:36] Speaker 2: people live here.
[12:37] Speaker 1: Thirty six is the average age.
[12:38] Speaker 2: And I've not born in Australia, most likely in this suburb,
[12:42] Speaker 2: likely to have a connection back to China.
[12:44] Speaker 1: Now again, just down the road.
[12:46] Speaker 2: Is Capitol Hill and is the old Parliament House. Now,
[12:50] Speaker 2: this is a building you may will have seen as
[12:52] Speaker 2: a kid, but it's one you must go back to
[12:54] Speaker 2: as an adult.
[12:55] Speaker 1: And one of the biggest bits in history to ever happen.
[12:58] Speaker 2: In that building is the subject of an new documentary
[13:00] Speaker 2: Hure on Sky News. Now, mate Chris Human will be
[13:02] Speaker 2: here to talk about it in the meantime. A little
[13:04] Speaker 2: more about a building of which you think you may
[13:07] Speaker 2: know everything about.
[13:09] Speaker 3: Okay, it's been in camera except for the most part
[13:12] Speaker 3: in the political journalists.
[13:14] Speaker 2: It's been a mind bending experience.
[13:16] Speaker 7: And on the steps of Parliament House, a sack GoF
[13:19] Speaker 7: Whitlam responds to a proclamation.
[13:21] Speaker 1: GoF Whittler, mobbed are the steps of Old Parliament House.
[13:28] Speaker 1: We'll get to all of that in a second.
[13:29] Speaker 2: We all know Old Parliament House fifty years ago, believe
[13:33] Speaker 2: it or not this year since the dismissal. But one
[13:35] Speaker 2: part of Old Parliament House that you probably haven't seen
[13:39] Speaker 2: is the space I'm in right now, This beautiful garden,
[13:41] Speaker 2: a quiet space where members of the House on their
[13:45] Speaker 2: side or Senators on this side were able to meet
[13:49] Speaker 2: away from the public. This was where the informal business
[13:52] Speaker 2: of the Parliament could be done. It's a place you
[13:54] Speaker 2: normally don't see on a school tour, so I wanted
[13:56] Speaker 2: to show it to you before the more traditional parts,
[13:59] Speaker 2: which have got on heck of an upgrade over the
[14:00] Speaker 2: past few years, as Old Parliament House has now become
[14:03] Speaker 2: the Museum of Democracy, and our mate Sam is going
[14:06] Speaker 2: to show us around.
[14:09] Speaker 8: And welcome to our House of Representatives chamber.
[14:13] Speaker 2: So Prime Minister's Menzies hawk last one in here.
[14:20] Speaker 8: The trajectory of the country was forged in this room,
[14:22] Speaker 8: and that's something that shouldn't be forgotten as you enter
[14:26] Speaker 8: this space. You know the laws that we live by
[14:30] Speaker 8: today came from writing.
[14:32] Speaker 2: Here is a politics nerd. Most body sensors are going.
[14:39] Speaker 8: Ben Chiffley one of our most famous prime ministers in
[14:42] Speaker 8: the post war era. He was concerned that the media
[14:46] Speaker 8: wasn't giving the parliament affair shake. So in nineteen forty
[14:49] Speaker 8: six you'll see at the back of the chamber we've
[14:51] Speaker 8: got the ABC Broadcasting.
[14:52] Speaker 1: Booth which was installed. Wow.
[14:54] Speaker 8: And the intention behind the ABC Broadcasting booth was that
[14:57] Speaker 8: you would then have some entity within this Parliament which
[15:02] Speaker 8: could actually record word for word what was being said
[15:05] Speaker 8: and transmitted to the people in real time.
[15:09] Speaker 2: Now, Sam, I haven't seen this office chair at office
[15:12] Speaker 2: works A one of one.
[15:17] Speaker 8: This was quite literally sent over to Australia, almost like
[15:21] Speaker 8: what you get from IKEA in a flat pack. It
[15:24] Speaker 8: is a replica of the Speaker's chair in the House
[15:27] Speaker 8: of Commons in Great Britain and it really exemplifies the
[15:31] Speaker 8: ties that we have to Great Britain. The Prime Minister's
[15:37] Speaker 8: Office is one of the newer rooms inside of this building.
[15:40] Speaker 8: It serviced the last three prime ministers who worked here
[15:43] Speaker 8: GoF Whitlam, Malcolm Fraser and Bob Hawk. It's got all
[15:46] Speaker 8: of the important objects as prime minister that you need,
[15:49] Speaker 8: and a cigar box, an ashtray and a telephone which
[15:53] Speaker 8: would have been able to dial any member of the administration.
[15:58] Speaker 8: Have here the word for word retelling of everything that
[16:03] Speaker 8: took place inside of our Senate Chamber for the years
[16:06] Speaker 8: that this building was in operation, including our Senate estimates
[16:10] Speaker 8: as well between nineteen twenty seven and eighty eight, all
[16:13] Speaker 8: recorded in these books here.
[16:15] Speaker 2: How long did it take to get these smoke smell
[16:17] Speaker 2: out of this building?
[16:18] Speaker 1: Because from nineteen twenty seven, I imagine very very long
[16:21] Speaker 1: time these were originally white walls.
[16:24] Speaker 2: Have a look at this our very own copy of
[16:28] Speaker 2: the Crown jewels.
[16:33] Speaker 8: This is Saint Edward's crown, the coronation crown which is
[16:37] Speaker 8: placed on the monarch's head during their coronation. The reason
[16:41] Speaker 8: we have these crown jewels displayed here in this room
[16:46] Speaker 8: is because in this space here, as part of the
[16:48] Speaker 8: President of the Senate Suite, the Queen would have stayed
[16:52] Speaker 8: when she came to open up the Parliament in the
[16:54] Speaker 8: Senate Chamber.
[16:55] Speaker 1: So actual Royalty.
[16:57] Speaker 8: This room, this room, we mean, would have gotten ready
[17:00] Speaker 8: or rock going into the center chamber.
[17:04] Speaker 2: You just dropped an information bomb on my head that
[17:06] Speaker 2: I did not know, which was that this building was
[17:10] Speaker 2: never meant to still be standing there.
[17:12] Speaker 8: Yes, exactly right, this building when it was officially opened
[17:16] Speaker 8: in nineteen twenty seven, the architect had a very strict
[17:20] Speaker 8: budget of two hundred thousand pounds were around twenty three
[17:23] Speaker 8: million dollars, and so when this building was designed, given
[17:27] Speaker 8: that budget constraint, it was always supposed to be temporary.
[17:30] Speaker 8: And so this was a glorified demountable.
[17:32] Speaker 1: I'd like to say, I.
[17:33] Speaker 2: Don't remember my school demountables being this good. Thank you
[17:42] Speaker 2: very much, Sam for that beautiful tour inside. But of course,
[17:46] Speaker 2: the history making moment, the one that we are fifty
[17:49] Speaker 2: years celebrating in just a few days time, this exact spot,
[17:54] Speaker 2: these stairs.
[17:55] Speaker 8: Looking out onto a crowd of thousands of people massing
[17:59] Speaker 8: here at the front of Parliament House, the moment that
[18:03] Speaker 8: the Whitlam government was dismissed from power of the eleventh
[18:06] Speaker 8: of November nineteen seventy five.
[18:08] Speaker 7: Well, may we say God save the Queen.
[18:15] Speaker 6: Well, cause nothing will say with the governor general.
[18:19] Speaker 2: But it's also a reminder and in all the seriousness
[18:22] Speaker 2: of the next few weeks as we remember it, that
[18:25] Speaker 2: even when this titanic moment of Australian political history was
[18:29] Speaker 2: taking place, someone was taking the peace.
[18:37] Speaker 1: Look serious, it certainly is. I quite agree, certainly it's
[18:41] Speaker 1: extremely serious.
[18:44] Speaker 2: I do just love that this very significant moment has
[18:48] Speaker 2: taken the kids in it. Keep your applause going from
[18:51] Speaker 2: a mate Chris Yulman as well, of course part of
[18:53] Speaker 2: the family here at Sky News.
[18:54] Speaker 1: Love you to see you, sir. Now you've got a
[18:58] Speaker 1: documentary coming up about that very day. Looking forward to it.
[19:02] Speaker 2: But I want to talk about Canberra first. Right, your
[19:04] Speaker 2: bloke has worked here, lived here. How have you seen
[19:07] Speaker 2: it change over the years or is it just more
[19:10] Speaker 2: buildings around the same amount of roundabouts?
[19:12] Speaker 3: Yeah you could say that. Well, look the first time
[19:14] Speaker 3: we came here was nine to sixty four.
[19:15] Speaker 1: My dad was in the army.
[19:16] Speaker 3: We moved every two years, so sixty four to sixty
[19:19] Speaker 3: six we were here.
[19:20] Speaker 1: Last time.
[19:20] Speaker 3: It's noted in Canberra nineteen sixty six.
[19:22] Speaker 1: I remember it.
[19:23] Speaker 3: I was there. We made a snowman. Then the city
[19:26] Speaker 3: finished at O'Connor. Now, people who don't know Camber no
[19:28] Speaker 3: Belconnor was really just being built at that stage. The
[19:30] Speaker 3: lake had only just gone up, So the city's changed remarkably.
[19:33] Speaker 1: In that time.
[19:34] Speaker 3: And look, there are a lot of faults with Canberra,
[19:36] Speaker 3: but what I always say to people is without Canberra
[19:38] Speaker 3: there would be no Australia. We will not federate unless
[19:41] Speaker 3: there is a choice between Sydney and Melbourne.
[19:43] Speaker 1: They could not decide.
[19:45] Speaker 3: They settled on that fact that they'd have to have
[19:47] Speaker 3: a different city and that is this one. So if
[19:50] Speaker 3: you love your nation, then this is part of the nation.
[19:52] Speaker 3: This is the heart of the nation where our democracy beats.
[19:55] Speaker 3: Whether you like the government or dislike the government, this
[19:57] Speaker 3: is where it all happens.
[19:59] Speaker 1: So again for me is a sort of I agree,
[20:01] Speaker 1: I agree, comput there is that.
[20:02] Speaker 3: And by the way, you send them all here, they
[20:04] Speaker 3: don't live here, come from your electricity. That's true, and
[20:07] Speaker 3: we only have a few of them.
[20:08] Speaker 1: That's a good point.
[20:09] Speaker 2: But also like I remember as a supernerd right when
[20:12] Speaker 2: I was in year five and had the chance to
[20:14] Speaker 2: come and do the excursion like everyone else, I was
[20:16] Speaker 2: a type of supernerd who was very aware of where
[20:20] Speaker 2: the flag should be and what means this and why
[20:22] Speaker 2: this embassy and what I love about going back into
[20:25] Speaker 2: that building this weekend is again those reminders about the
[20:30] Speaker 2: cathedrals of democracy that are here. That yes, often we're
[20:34] Speaker 2: blown away by the personalities or we get too fired
[20:37] Speaker 2: up about the issues, but the idea that in the
[20:40] Speaker 2: precinct you can look one way and that's the War Memorial,
[20:42] Speaker 2: and then that's the High Court, and that's the art precincts.
[20:45] Speaker 2: There's a very definite sense of the importance of those institutions,
[20:50] Speaker 2: not just a collection of them. Being in the place
[20:53] Speaker 2: that we've decided to be the capital.
[20:56] Speaker 3: All the elements of our democracy come here, the judicial system,
[20:59] Speaker 3: the parliamentary system, and of course our government system. Old
[21:02] Speaker 3: Parliament House is a great monument in the city, but
[21:04] Speaker 3: again I remember it was bought it up for years.
[21:06] Speaker 3: We are pretty bad sometimes at preserving our history. It's
[21:10] Speaker 3: great that the Museum of Stralian Democracy is there and
[21:12] Speaker 3: that we do have school kids going through there, and
[21:14] Speaker 3: that they're learning about how their system of government works.
[21:17] Speaker 3: And when you add it all up, and again we
[21:19] Speaker 3: have our arguments about who we would rather be in government,
[21:22] Speaker 3: and they get quite passionate. But one of the things
[21:24] Speaker 3: I'll say about that Whitlam dismissal. I was a fifteen
[21:28] Speaker 3: year old school boy would come back to Canberra in
[21:30] Speaker 3: nineteen seventy one. This would be Dad's last posting. I
[21:32] Speaker 3: remember the day that happened. It's the school cleared out.
[21:35] Speaker 3: Showing my journalistic impulse, I thought, well, well, I go.
[21:37] Speaker 3: I didn't think I'm in Canberra or go to Parliament House.
[21:39] Speaker 1: And I went home watching it on television.
[21:41] Speaker 3: Well, it was better on TV, but I was certain
[21:44] Speaker 3: there would be violence. But in the great tradition of
[21:47] Speaker 3: Australian democracy, there was no violence. Bob Hawk had a
[21:49] Speaker 3: big hand in the fact that there was no violence.
[21:51] Speaker 3: He told people to be calm. He did not want
[21:54] Speaker 3: a national strike. And the fact that we have a
[21:56] Speaker 3: constitutional crisis where a prime minister is dismissed and the
[22:00] Speaker 3: greatest satirists is standing on the steps with him on
[22:03] Speaker 3: that day. Only in Australia does a constitutional crisis come
[22:05] Speaker 3: with a punchline.
[22:06] Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent, well said, well said, well said?
[22:09] Speaker 2: I mean also about the building, right, and obviously I'll
[22:12] Speaker 2: pivot to the doco. But what I love about the building,
[22:15] Speaker 2: I think it's really important. I was thinking about this
[22:17] Speaker 2: a lot this weekend. Is that because our modern history
[22:20] Speaker 2: is a couple one hundred years, we don't spend a
[22:23] Speaker 2: lot of time talking about the importance of the buildings.
[22:25] Speaker 2: We talk about what's happened in them, as opposed to
[22:27] Speaker 2: when you go to some wonderful church on the other
[22:29] Speaker 2: side of the world, you don't talk about what happened
[22:30] Speaker 2: in it.
[22:31] Speaker 1: You talk about the building. Right.
[22:33] Speaker 2: I love that in Old Parliament House there is wood
[22:35] Speaker 2: from every state. I love that because there wasn't a
[22:37] Speaker 2: significant timber industry from South Australia. The granite is from
[22:41] Speaker 2: South Australia, that building in particular. And yes, there's another
[22:44] Speaker 2: story about what's up is about that concept of being
[22:48] Speaker 2: one and you know.
[22:48] Speaker 3: Paul is small and it's intimate, and it says something
[22:51] Speaker 3: about a way that Australia was. Then I had the
[22:53] Speaker 3: privilege once of sitting next to Day and Patty Mensis
[22:55] Speaker 3: at a dinner and I said, I have to ask
[22:57] Speaker 3: you this question because Mensies and Chiffley were really very
[23:00] Speaker 3: good friends. I said, I got told this story years
[23:03] Speaker 3: ago about the fact that the Prime Minister's phone number
[23:07] Speaker 3: so on the desk of the Prime Miniseu. His direct
[23:09] Speaker 3: line was one digit different to the butcher's at Manica,
[23:13] Speaker 3: and on occasions women would bring up Chiffley would answer
[23:18] Speaker 3: and say, this is Smith and Smith I want six sausages,
[23:21] Speaker 3: two chops, and apparently Chiffy.
[23:23] Speaker 1: Would write it down and then wringing the butcher and
[23:26] Speaker 1: then ring the butcher. Wow, that's awesome.
[23:29] Speaker 3: Now, she said, it still sounds too good to be true.
[23:32] Speaker 1: I don't care. It's a great story.
[23:33] Speaker 3: Dame Patty Menzies told me that was true.
[23:35] Speaker 1: That is a great story.
[23:36] Speaker 2: And so when you have the effort, have all of
[23:39] Speaker 2: the resources and your free hand to tell the story
[23:43] Speaker 2: of the dismissal of golf with them about everything that
[23:46] Speaker 2: leads up to it, from you know, Joe changing the
[23:49] Speaker 2: parliamentary affiliations of people that end up into.
[23:51] Speaker 1: The Senate, to the who said what did what?
[23:54] Speaker 2: All the rest of it give me the chance to
[23:58] Speaker 2: report on daily events, to be able to sit back
[24:01] Speaker 2: and look at something as complicated as this through the
[24:04] Speaker 2: lens of time.
[24:05] Speaker 1: What's that experience like for you? It's great?
[24:06] Speaker 3: And look the other thing too. A Sky is doing
[24:08] Speaker 3: this because Sky is serious about politics too, and we're
[24:11] Speaker 3: not taking a political side. In this documentary we are
[24:13] Speaker 3: telling what is absolutely a cracking.
[24:15] Speaker 1: Yarn in Australian politics.
[24:17] Speaker 3: In nineteen seventy two, it was time, but it was
[24:19] Speaker 3: only just time. Whitlam doesn't win by that many and
[24:22] Speaker 3: he inherits an old Senate and then in fact the
[24:24] Speaker 3: Premier of New South Wales and the Premier of Queensland
[24:26] Speaker 3: change the affiliation of people in that Senate. There is
[24:29] Speaker 3: an election again in nineteen seventy four. Whitland wins by
[24:31] Speaker 3: even fewer numbers and Snedden gets rolled and Fraser comes in.
[24:34] Speaker 1: It's the clash.
[24:35] Speaker 3: It is a very Australian story that the clash of
[24:38] Speaker 3: three extraordinary personalities, two giant men, Fraser and Whitlam physically
[24:43] Speaker 3: giant men, rhetorically giant men. And then there is course
[24:48] Speaker 3: Sir John Kerr. And when Whitlam appointed Kerr, he didn't
[24:50] Speaker 3: realize that he had the one person in the country
[24:53] Speaker 3: who is an absolute expert on the constitutional dismissal of
[24:58] Speaker 3: well in this case of premier. He had studied what
[25:00] Speaker 3: had happened to the Premier in New South Wales, Jack Lang,
[25:02] Speaker 3: who got dismissed, and so he knew that stuff inside
[25:05] Speaker 3: out and he always thought he might need to use
[25:07] Speaker 3: those powers, so that's in the back of his mind
[25:10] Speaker 3: from the time that Whitlam appoints him as as Governor General.
[25:13] Speaker 1: So it is a great story.
[25:14] Speaker 3: And of course Whitlam brings an enormous amount honor himself.
[25:18] Speaker 3: Like you know is they were hopeless on the economy.
[25:20] Speaker 3: They were raped by different sets of scandal. The Attorney
[25:24] Speaker 3: General raided Asio try and get your head around, So
[25:28] Speaker 3: that's a great yarn too. And then we have this
[25:30] Speaker 3: Pakistani loans dealer kem Larney. It's trying to raise four
[25:34] Speaker 3: billion dollars worth of money to buy back.
[25:36] Speaker 1: The Australian resources industry.
[25:38] Speaker 3: Or you couldn't make this stuff up.
[25:39] Speaker 2: It's crazy. It's a great documentary. Obviously up very soon
[25:43] Speaker 2: here on the eleventh exactly or removing on the eleventh couple, yes, okay,
[25:46] Speaker 2: now you'll be able to see it with Chris inside.
[25:49] Speaker 2: This is a conversation with an old member of the
[25:51] Speaker 2: Sky family but a radio journalist at the time, Lee Hatcher,
[25:54] Speaker 2: about the experience of being there.
[25:56] Speaker 1: This is part of what you'll see in the documentary.
[25:59] Speaker 7: He burst through the door and said, excuse the language. Shit,
[26:03] Speaker 7: GoF sacked and we took off down to King's Hall,
[26:09] Speaker 7: where people would usually saunter and calmly kind of whisper
[26:13] Speaker 7: the last political gossip. On this day, people were shouting,
[26:17] Speaker 7: people were running, and we got confirmation that it was right.
[26:25] Speaker 1: So was it?
[26:26] Speaker 3: What was it like when Gough came through those doors?
[26:29] Speaker 7: Well, there were hundreds of people out here who'd spontaneously
[26:34] Speaker 7: arrived from all round can because they'd heard that this
[26:37] Speaker 7: thing had happened.
[26:39] Speaker 1: So I had to be there.
[26:40] Speaker 7: So there were people all over the place here.
[26:47] Speaker 2: So vital that the people that were active participants, or
[26:51] Speaker 2: obviously even the active participant observing through Lee.
[26:54] Speaker 1: But good stuff.
[26:56] Speaker 2: To see anything else inside the doco that you want
[26:58] Speaker 2: to hook us into, it's just a cracking yarn.
[27:01] Speaker 3: It tells the story, which is a unique in Australia's
[27:04] Speaker 3: political history, of the dismissal of Prime Minister by the
[27:06] Speaker 3: Queen's representative in Australia Palace had nothing to do with it.
[27:10] Speaker 3: It was all down to the three players here.
[27:12] Speaker 1: Good stuff.
[27:12] Speaker 2: You can see it on the eleventh of November here
[27:15] Speaker 2: on Sky News and Chris again just to tell you
[27:17] Speaker 2: about how lovely a bloke he is. As soon as
[27:19] Speaker 2: he sits down. He says, I feel bad that I've
[27:21] Speaker 2: got my back to the audience. So so he was
[27:22] Speaker 2: thinking about you the whole time. Thank you, great man.
[27:25] Speaker 2: Don't you thanks your money? You can see him of
[27:28] Speaker 2: course we've paid again. Tomorrow year in Steiny's could break
[27:32] Speaker 2: back with more. This is our sound.
[27:33] Speaker 1: Thanks to good people.
[27:33] Speaker 2: For Harvey, thank you so much talking about commedies. You're
[27:44] Speaker 2: in Canada. Hopefully I'm having a nice old time. I
[27:46] Speaker 2: do appreciate with v here now of course leaks Harvey Norman.
[27:50] Speaker 2: We're able to do this journey around the country. We'll
[27:53] Speaker 2: be coming to a chuka in Victoria next month. But
[27:56] Speaker 2: it does give us an opportunity to be able to
[27:59] Speaker 2: be introduced to some pretty special people around the country.
[28:02] Speaker 2: One will join me at the desk at a moment
[28:04] Speaker 2: or two's time. And also some local heroes very much
[28:07] Speaker 2: worth celebrating. Well we'll talk about them in a moment
[28:10] Speaker 2: or two's time. But again, something that we are.
[28:13] Speaker 1: We should be very proud of in Australia.
[28:14] Speaker 2: Is the success that happens on the international stage, particularly
[28:18] Speaker 2: with things like the Olympics and the Paralympics. And part
[28:21] Speaker 2: of the preparation is making sure that people don't just
[28:24] Speaker 2: have the skills, but the confidence and at times the
[28:27] Speaker 2: support to get to live their dream. This is part
[28:30] Speaker 2: of those that are doing so ahead of the Winter
[28:33] Speaker 2: Paralympics next year. We love our sport in Australia. It
[28:38] Speaker 2: doesn't matter if it's in the pool or on the snow.
[28:40] Speaker 2: We love it and we especially love it when we
[28:43] Speaker 2: are great at it and get ready for another great
[28:45] Speaker 2: moment in Australian sporting history at the twenty twenty six
[28:49] Speaker 2: Milano Cortina Winter Paralympic Games. They're just five months away
[28:54] Speaker 2: in March next year in Italy and Harvey Norman are
[28:57] Speaker 2: beyond proud to continue championing the extraordinary achievements of Australian
[29:02] Speaker 2: athletes alongside Paralympics Australia.
[29:06] Speaker 9: It's been a really good lead into the Games. Our
[29:10] Speaker 9: team is growing, the program is growing. Winter sport is
[29:13] Speaker 9: maybe not what everyone thinks of when they think of Australians,
[29:16] Speaker 9: but it's great to see some really great talent coming through.
[29:19] Speaker 9: We have the likes of Ben Tudhope who's looking to
[29:23] Speaker 9: go to his fourth Games now and got a bronze
[29:25] Speaker 9: medal down to potentially Liana who will be seventeen, our
[29:30] Speaker 9: youngest on the team, trying to make our first games.
[29:32] Speaker 9: We'll have all our athletes on TV being able to
[29:35] Speaker 9: watch and tune in live, which is amazing. The time
[29:38] Speaker 9: zone is actually pretty good winter sports and early events,
[29:42] Speaker 9: so they do it early morning, which means it's likely
[29:44] Speaker 9: primetime back here in Australia for athletes to tune in,
[29:48] Speaker 9: and then the opportunity to support them through donations, through
[29:52] Speaker 9: buying a virtual seat through helps us to create that
[29:55] Speaker 9: environment to deliver what's needed to our athletes. The priorities
[30:00] Speaker 9: for us where the team behind the team. We really
[30:03] Speaker 9: try and create an environment for our athletes to do
[30:05] Speaker 9: their best, whatever that best may be, whether it's a
[30:09] Speaker 9: metal performance, whether it's a top ten, or maybe it's
[30:11] Speaker 9: just to compete at their first Paralympic Games.
[30:15] Speaker 2: I can't imagine what it would be like to train
[30:17] Speaker 2: for the international stage like our Winter power athletes are
[30:20] Speaker 2: doing right now. It sounds like hard work, but someone's
[30:24] Speaker 2: got to do it, and these athletes are incredibly inspiring
[30:27] Speaker 2: for me, but especially for our future generations.
[30:31] Speaker 5: I'm absolutely honored to be selected to be the ten
[30:34] Speaker 5: captain for Milano. Kortina I've got a great groups for
[30:37] Speaker 5: athletes and i can't wait to lead them into the Games.
[30:41] Speaker 5: And ten captain comes with a few responsibilities.
[30:45] Speaker 4: I'll be fronting the team really quiet emotions and lower
[30:49] Speaker 4: emotions around partment the games, so I'll be set with
[30:54] Speaker 4: try and keep things on a level and absolutely we
[30:56] Speaker 4: can do do well and do Australia proud.
[30:59] Speaker 10: I was drawn into para biathlon because I'd never done
[31:02] Speaker 10: it before. To be honest, I hadn't actually heard a
[31:05] Speaker 10: lot or knew much about biathlon as a sport or
[31:08] Speaker 10: cross country schime. So the uniqueness of the sport and
[31:13] Speaker 10: the fact that we've actually not had any Australian athletes
[31:16] Speaker 10: for twenty years is what really drew me in and
[31:19] Speaker 10: it keeps me motivated to bring the sport back to Australia.
[31:22] Speaker 10: A typical training day for me would be getting up
[31:25] Speaker 10: nice and early to get a half hour to an
[31:28] Speaker 10: hour session in in the morning. Then I head off
[31:31] Speaker 10: to work and I'll take a half an hour out,
[31:35] Speaker 10: say lunchtime to do some stretching and a little bit
[31:37] Speaker 10: of mobility, and then in the afternoon I do my
[31:40] Speaker 10: heavier sessions and some intervals and I'm very fortunate as
[31:45] Speaker 10: a vision impaired athlete, I can actually train with my
[31:48] Speaker 10: rifle in my hallway out home.
[31:50] Speaker 4: Apparently Australia is super important supporting US athletes as we
[31:56] Speaker 4: set our ambitions and goals to go to the Games.
[31:58] Speaker 4: Without them and all the work that goes on behind
[32:00] Speaker 4: the scenes, events like this don't happen.
[32:03] Speaker 5: So are very grateful for all this core they've given us.
[32:06] Speaker 10: The physical and mental demands of competing at this level. Look,
[32:13] Speaker 10: I do a fair bit of meditation and I have
[32:16] Speaker 10: great support around me at home and at my full
[32:19] Speaker 10: time job, so I'm very lucky in that I get
[32:23] Speaker 10: a lot of time to do what I need to do. Too,
[32:26] Speaker 10: bigger the good athlete that I am.
[32:28] Speaker 2: It's so important to me that Australian children of all
[32:31] Speaker 2: ability have the opportunity to participate in sports and the
[32:35] Speaker 2: resources to grow into elite athletes, and to know that
[32:38] Speaker 2: that's happening in our nation makes me so proud.
[32:42] Speaker 10: The support from Paralympics Australia has meant a lot. As
[32:46] Speaker 10: a winter athlete, the financial burden of so much trouble
[32:51] Speaker 10: every year for us has been difficult, and the exposure
[32:57] Speaker 10: and the support from other Athletes has been fantastic in
[33:01] Speaker 10: the last couple of months meeting everybody and I'm getting
[33:04] Speaker 10: our names out there and exposure for the sport with
[33:07] Speaker 10: it being a sport that Australia hasn't done an athlete
[33:10] Speaker 10: for twenty years.
[33:11] Speaker 4: Any young athletes out there want to join parasport, feel
[33:15] Speaker 4: free to reach out to Para Prolamins Australia and darkse
[33:19] Speaker 4: and Pathway to achieving your goals Together.
[33:23] Speaker 2: Harvey Norman and Paralympics Australia are fostering a culture of
[33:27] Speaker 2: inclusivity in Australian sport and I love it. So make
[33:31] Speaker 2: sure you turn your Telly's on, turn them up to
[33:33] Speaker 2: eleven in March next year and get behind our Ossie
[33:37] Speaker 2: athletes Go Australia.
[33:39] Speaker 4: Me and the whole team are leaving note stone unturned
[33:42] Speaker 4: and we're really going to be pushing to get some
[33:45] Speaker 4: good results. I'm hoping to go out there and do
[33:48] Speaker 4: my best and I know the rest of the team
[33:49] Speaker 4: is on the same track.
[33:53] Speaker 2: Yeah, good luck to all of them. Cannot wait to
[33:54] Speaker 2: see what they have to do after parts next year. Now,
[34:00] Speaker 2: whenever we get to roll into town. A great idea
[34:02] Speaker 2: that Harvy Woman has come up with is that the
[34:04] Speaker 2: locals of those areas go into their local Harvey Norman
[34:07] Speaker 2: and nominate a community organization doing something special and the
[34:13] Speaker 2: store puts up two.
[34:14] Speaker 1: Thousand dollars vouchers.
[34:15] Speaker 2: Now, I just want to give a massive shout out
[34:17] Speaker 2: to Anthony and his team at the Belconnen store because
[34:22] Speaker 2: they were able to offer two thousand dollars vouchers to
[34:25] Speaker 2: the Canberra Blind Society, the Belconnon Men Shed and the
[34:31] Speaker 2: lovely blokes to meet with them too, and in the
[34:34] Speaker 2: Australia Bhutan Association in Canberra. Again, thank you to all
[34:38] Speaker 2: of them, and give Anthony and Harvey Norman a round
[34:40] Speaker 2: of a pause for their help to those organizations that
[34:43] Speaker 2: make Belconhum great. Now I want to introduce you to
[34:48] Speaker 2: a very special Australians, the retired Major Dirk Norwire.
[34:54] Speaker 1: I get it right before right there we go, nor
[34:57] Speaker 1: do we there we go? My apologies.
[34:59] Speaker 2: He serve twenty one years in the Australian Aviation Corps,
[35:02] Speaker 2: he flew in Afghanistan, Iraq and team or lester and
[35:06] Speaker 2: he joins us. Now, thank you, I apologize for the mispronunciation.
[35:09] Speaker 2: Perfect before you can confirm right, I just pugged it
[35:11] Speaker 2: up on the air, not that it matters, all right.
[35:14] Speaker 1: Now, let's get to this year.
[35:16] Speaker 2: One of the helicopters that was very significant in your
[35:19] Speaker 2: life now hangs at the Australian War Memorial. What's it
[35:23] Speaker 2: like to have had service and to have service that
[35:27] Speaker 2: future generations will be able to see through this piece
[35:29] Speaker 2: of technology that's at the War Memorial. Well, it's obviously
[35:33] Speaker 2: very special and it's not hanging because it's pretty heavy aircraft.
[35:35] Speaker 1: It's nearly twenty three tons, so it's on the ground.
[35:39] Speaker 1: But it's as all the objects are in the War Memorial.
[35:44] Speaker 2: It's telling a story about Australians serving their nation in
[35:47] Speaker 2: various conflict around the world. That particular aircraft is just
[35:51] Speaker 2: telling one of those stories. I think we've actually got
[35:53] Speaker 2: some of these pictures hopefully that we can see here, which.
[35:56] Speaker 1: Is talk us through what we can see here.
[35:58] Speaker 2: That's C squad and fifth day as Regiment prior to
[36:01] Speaker 2: deploying to Afghanistan. That's my family and me in the
[36:05] Speaker 2: back of the Shanook that I flew in Afghanistan. That's
[36:08] Speaker 2: our squadron in Afghanistan.
[36:10] Speaker 1: There are my.
[36:11] Speaker 2: Two boys in the Shanook during COVID because Matt Anderson,
[36:17] Speaker 2: the director of the war Memorial, being a lovely man
[36:19] Speaker 2: that he is.
[36:21] Speaker 1: My parents were elderly and I wanted them to hear
[36:23] Speaker 1: the stories of what I did.
[36:25] Speaker 2: The official history is still not released, so I asked
[36:28] Speaker 2: Matt if he could help us out, and he gave
[36:30] Speaker 2: us a personal tour of the annex and the war memorial.
[36:33] Speaker 2: Those pictures were of our family in the back of
[36:35] Speaker 2: the shinook that I flew in Afghanistan. And when we
[36:37] Speaker 2: were driving home, my dad was saying to me, was
[36:40] Speaker 2: the director of the Warmore Memorial giving us a toy?
[36:43] Speaker 1: Surely he's too busy for something like that. Because I'm a.
[36:46] Speaker 2: Veteran DA that's what we get. We get the good treatment.
[36:51] Speaker 2: It also all comes with painful memories. And tell me
[36:54] Speaker 2: about your mate Mitch who So, Mitchell Judd was my
[37:00] Speaker 2: god son and my best mates are from the army.
[37:03] Speaker 1: His son Mitch joined the Army.
[37:05] Speaker 2: In two thousand and eight and left in twenty eighteen,
[37:08] Speaker 2: so about ten year service. He served with five Roar
[37:11] Speaker 2: in Afghanistan, and he suffered a lot of hip pain
[37:17] Speaker 2: and shild of pain as a result of his military service,
[37:20] Speaker 2: and he got himself on to painkillers, which led to
[37:26] Speaker 2: an opiate habit, which led to eventually him dying in
[37:30] Speaker 2: the States in January of twenty twenty three of a
[37:34] Speaker 2: fentanyl overdose. He left behind a four year old daughter,
[37:39] Speaker 2: and he left behind his sisters, some of whom are
[37:42] Speaker 2: with us here in the crowd, and a shadow to
[37:44] Speaker 2: his sister up the back as well. I'm sure you
[37:46] Speaker 2: look presentable and wonderful and telling.
[37:48] Speaker 1: And of course his mum and dad.
[37:50] Speaker 2: But it's we don't think Mitch took his own life.
[37:55] Speaker 2: We don't know that for a fact, but it's the
[37:58] Speaker 2: suggestion is that he didn't. But it's not the point.
[38:01] Speaker 2: The point is that he was on the drugs. He
[38:04] Speaker 2: couldn't break that cycle, despite the amount of efforts from
[38:06] Speaker 2: his family, his friends and in fact Eva, who were terrific.
[38:11] Speaker 2: And it's just, I guess, an example of how young
[38:16] Speaker 2: men and indeed young women who have served can go
[38:19] Speaker 2: off the rails and how tough life can be when you.
[38:22] Speaker 1: Get back well.
[38:23] Speaker 2: And also, you know, we've spent a lot of time
[38:25] Speaker 2: talking about the lead up to the Royal Commission itself
[38:31] Speaker 2: and every little detail and chapter and verse about all
[38:34] Speaker 2: of those recommendations, right, and the politicians they turn around
[38:37] Speaker 2: and say, well read it, will do our best, And
[38:39] Speaker 2: we haven't really heard much since his story is one
[38:44] Speaker 2: of those that is your post service life, right.
[38:49] Speaker 1: There's the physical issues.
[38:50] Speaker 2: There's the way you deal with those physical issues, and
[38:52] Speaker 2: then all of the complications that are there. How do
[38:56] Speaker 2: we learn from what happened to Mitch about how better
[38:59] Speaker 2: to take care of people.
[39:01] Speaker 1: Like well, I guess you got to talk about it.
[39:04] Speaker 1: You've got to tell the story. We obviously remember him
[39:06] Speaker 1: at Anzac Day for a kickoff.
[39:09] Speaker 2: I don't know whether you've got the images there, but
[39:11] Speaker 2: we've got we When Mitch's funeral was on here locally,
[39:17] Speaker 2: I may have been a little bit inebriated and I
[39:19] Speaker 2: text Matt Anderson when we're at the pub late at
[39:21] Speaker 2: the night of his wake, and said, mate, a bunch
[39:24] Speaker 2: of Mitch's mates from five Rir coming in the memorial.
[39:27] Speaker 2: Can you come and say get aired them? And Maddick
[39:30] Speaker 2: actually came and met those veterans and gave them a
[39:33] Speaker 2: personal tour of the Afghanistan display because they were Afghanistan veterans.
[39:38] Speaker 2: And before we went, he said, have you've seen the
[39:40] Speaker 2: tea wall? And we all went, what's the tea wall. Well,
[39:42] Speaker 2: it's representative of the concrete tea walls from Afghanistan. And
[39:47] Speaker 2: someone had come up with the idea of anyone who'd
[39:49] Speaker 2: served in the Middle East area of operations. Oh, yes,
[39:51] Speaker 2: there's Neil to write their name on their tea wall.
[39:55] Speaker 2: And Neil, my friend, Neil Mitchell's dad said to Matt,
[40:00] Speaker 2: it be okay if I put Mitch's name on the wall.
[40:02] Speaker 2: And Matt said, of course. So that's a picture of
[40:05] Speaker 2: now putting Mitch's name on the tea wall. And the
[40:09] Speaker 2: thing that's quite remarkable about that is that there are
[40:13] Speaker 2: tens of thousands of names on those walls, and they
[40:16] Speaker 2: go for meters and meters and meeters.
[40:20] Speaker 1: Neil was trying to find.
[40:20] Speaker 2: Somewhere to write Mitch's name and he looked down and
[40:23] Speaker 2: he saw Rip big Ez.
[40:24] Speaker 1: I don't know if you've got that close up, but
[40:27] Speaker 1: ripb guys.
[40:27] Speaker 2: Now big Oys was Private Sam Osborne, who was Mitch's
[40:30] Speaker 2: best mate in five rur and Sam was killed in
[40:33] Speaker 2: a single vehicle accident about twelve months after he got
[40:36] Speaker 2: back from Afghanistan. And Neil saw rop be Goals and went,
[40:41] Speaker 2: that's the spot Mitch's got to go right next to
[40:43] Speaker 2: him very well, so well. Thank you for being a
[40:46] Speaker 2: good mate. I know how important it is to remember
[40:49] Speaker 2: your mates. Thank you for the service to your country,
[40:52] Speaker 2: the ability for people to know that when they see
[40:55] Speaker 2: that wall, the emotion that sits behind it.
[40:57] Speaker 1: Thank you for coravening you the wire's pot. Thank you.
[40:59] Speaker 1: I really appreciate it. Thank you right now.
[41:01] Speaker 2: I'm also going to make it really clear, but the
[41:04] Speaker 2: is ongoing superior for as many people as possible who
[41:08] Speaker 2: need it. Open Arms are free counseling and treatment program
[41:11] Speaker 2: and suicide prevention training that is one one hundred zero
[41:15] Speaker 2: doable one zero four six for defense personnel and their
[41:19] Speaker 2: families to have access to mental health services. This information
[41:21] Speaker 2: all coming from the Department of Defense one one hundred
[41:24] Speaker 2: and six to eight zero three six. And of course,
[41:26] Speaker 2: as always that mates it Lifeline twenty four to seven.
[41:29] Speaker 2: They are there thirteen eleven fourteen. The christis support and
[41:32] Speaker 2: suicide prevention heal.
[41:33] Speaker 1: Thank you a man. I do appreciate it all right.
[41:35] Speaker 2: Streak and love and thanks to everyone whos served our country.
[41:37] Speaker 2: We very much mean it more and Embudi is here.
[41:40] Speaker 2: As we start to turn our attention to the sport
[41:43] Speaker 2: of del comft homis welcome back here to Canberra.
[41:53] Speaker 1: Are we having a lovely time now? Stewart? Correct?
[41:56] Speaker 2: Yes, all right now we want to talk canber Raiders
[41:59] Speaker 2: because we're not talking about to the end of this season,
[42:01] Speaker 2: although they had every right to go all the way through.
[42:03] Speaker 1: To the GF.
[42:03] Speaker 2: Who thinks the Raid is going to win the comp
[42:05] Speaker 2: next to you though? All right, just so that might
[42:08] Speaker 2: be the case now. Of course, what is Goo Stadium
[42:11] Speaker 2: now is formerly Bruce Stadium, been around for a while
[42:14] Speaker 2: before that Seaford Oval that is that is the official
[42:18] Speaker 2: first home ground, the super old school home ground of
[42:21] Speaker 2: the Raiders.
[42:22] Speaker 1: What was that like?
[42:23] Speaker 6: It was a very small ground, but it was a
[42:25] Speaker 6: very good ground. It had a nice grass area over
[42:28] Speaker 6: across from the stand and you've got a nice crowd
[42:31] Speaker 6: in there at times and when it filled out, you've
[42:33] Speaker 6: got a really good.
[42:34] Speaker 1: Cheer going around.
[42:36] Speaker 6: When it went out to Bruce, we sort of lost
[42:38] Speaker 6: the cheer because it was too big and not enough people,
[42:41] Speaker 6: but then the cheers come back, Viking collapse and all.
[42:44] Speaker 6: But would you be somebody who wanted a new stadium
[42:46] Speaker 6: for the Raiders?
[42:47] Speaker 2: So you're happy with what we got Bruce looks.
[42:51] Speaker 6: To be a reasonable stadium. There's several good ovals we've
[42:56] Speaker 6: got in Canberra, but Bruce.
[42:57] Speaker 1: There's nothing wrong with Bruce. Want it's a new stadium
[43:00] Speaker 1: for the Raiders.
[43:01] Speaker 2: Anyone who says move on to other issues, Paul Fine.
[43:06] Speaker 1: Fair enough, thank you, I do appreciate it.
[43:07] Speaker 2: This is our look at Bruce Stadium, which has much
[43:11] Speaker 2: of a history, not just a rugby league, rugby union
[43:13] Speaker 2: and even big time music too. Nalie Simpson finds the gap.
[43:24] Speaker 3: Simpson's gotta saved by fighter.
[43:33] Speaker 2: What do the Raiders, the Brumbies, the Wallabies, the Matilda's
[43:37] Speaker 2: and Johnny Cash have in common.
[43:39] Speaker 1: They've all called this place home.
[43:41] Speaker 2: What used to be Bruce Stadium is now go Io
[43:44] Speaker 2: Stadium and it has played host to some of Canberra's
[43:49] Speaker 2: biggest and greatest sporting achievements, ones that matter for club
[43:53] Speaker 2: and some, as I say, that matter for country. This
[43:56] Speaker 2: is a truly special place that's been around since the
[44:00] Speaker 2: nineteen eighties. Every chair can tell a story, every point
[44:04] Speaker 2: of view.
[44:05] Speaker 1: Here a very cool memory.
[44:07] Speaker 2: Let's have a look at a sporting institution, Goo Stadium.
[44:16] Speaker 11: Welcome to the home of the Camera Raiders, the home
[44:19] Speaker 11: dressing sheds of our Errol team.
[44:22] Speaker 1: This is pretty amazing. Yeah, it's an awesome place.
[44:24] Speaker 11: Got plenty of great memories and moments and great players
[44:29] Speaker 11: that have been in this dressing shed.
[44:32] Speaker 2: This is it, as you say, I mean everyone from
[44:35] Speaker 2: the legends of the eighties, the nineties through to the day.
[44:39] Speaker 2: And what I love about the way that you've put
[44:41] Speaker 2: the dressing room together.
[44:42] Speaker 1: Is that those great players of the past.
[44:46] Speaker 2: Including yourself, great leaders here are absolutely front and mind
[44:50] Speaker 2: of the current generation who are very good, are very good.
[44:55] Speaker 12: Yeah.
[44:55] Speaker 11: There's something that we really pride our club on is
[44:58] Speaker 11: understanding who's warn the before you and you can see
[45:01] Speaker 11: that you each one of the lockers here. Not only
[45:03] Speaker 11: is it the current players.
[45:08] Speaker 1: Who's here to look at this?
[45:10] Speaker 2: When you look at yourself when you first walked into
[45:13] Speaker 2: this joint, did you ever think that you would have
[45:15] Speaker 2: left a legacy that would have resulted in captaincy or achievement,
[45:20] Speaker 2: and then that a future player would go, I want
[45:22] Speaker 2: to be like him. Yeah.
[45:24] Speaker 11: Yeah, it's a dream come true to be able to,
[45:26] Speaker 11: you know, to play in the NRL and to play
[45:28] Speaker 11: at the Camera Raiders.
[45:42] Speaker 2: As a fan, we think of these rooms as sacred spaces,
[45:46] Speaker 2: as a player.
[45:47] Speaker 11: Are they We certainly try and make that it's one
[45:52] Speaker 11: little space. I mean, there's there is still cameras everywhere
[45:54] Speaker 11: that we're having the modeling, but it is a chance
[45:57] Speaker 11: for them just to be by themselves before you know,
[46:00] Speaker 11: they go out on the field for their moments. It's
[46:04] Speaker 11: quite interesting when you watch players in those moments just before.
[46:07] Speaker 11: Everybody's got their own little routine rituals.
[46:09] Speaker 1: That they do.
[46:10] Speaker 11: Some have got the music blaring, some are you know
[46:12] Speaker 11: that quiet moment there somewhere in the corner, having a
[46:16] Speaker 11: solent moment of prayer, whatever that might be.
[46:21] Speaker 1: For everyone at home.
[46:22] Speaker 2: What's this moment like when you're on your way out,
[46:25] Speaker 2: you're pumping yourself up.
[46:27] Speaker 1: What's this like?
[46:27] Speaker 11: Yeah, that's rule that when you hear the two minute bell,
[46:30] Speaker 11: the warning there, you know it's getting close, but you know,
[46:33] Speaker 11: coming out, it's a pretty crazy moment. Crowds cheering, getting
[46:37] Speaker 11: ready for the Viking Club, which is really really.
[46:40] Speaker 1: Important to us.
[46:41] Speaker 11: But yeah, it's a really special moment. And for these guys,
[46:45] Speaker 11: all the preparation and everything that they do, this is
[46:48] Speaker 11: their showtime.
[46:49] Speaker 1: This is when they go and do their business.
[46:54] Speaker 2: This also would be the moment where a winter sport
[46:57] Speaker 2: played in Canberra. You're starting to actually notice that it
[47:00] Speaker 2: is quite wintery and you have played here in the
[47:03] Speaker 2: snow personally.
[47:04] Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right.
[47:05] Speaker 11: Two thousand up against the West Tigers. Yeah, it was
[47:09] Speaker 11: a pretty crazy moment. And actually before us the reserve
[47:11] Speaker 11: Gray game, the conditions were even worse.
[47:13] Speaker 1: I thought they were going to call it off for sure.
[47:15] Speaker 11: Remember guys who were looking around as surely can't go
[47:18] Speaker 11: I'm playing that And anyway that it all happened. We
[47:22] Speaker 11: went out there and played. I remember my first touching
[47:25] Speaker 11: that game actually dropped the ball.
[47:26] Speaker 1: But we had the had the had the garbage snow.
[47:30] Speaker 11: We had the garbage bins with warm water on the
[47:33] Speaker 11: sidelines because it was unlimited interchange back then warm the
[47:37] Speaker 11: hands up and go back out and so you could
[47:39] Speaker 11: feel in your fingertips again.
[47:40] Speaker 1: Now it's ice bars. Yeah, it was just a warm bin.
[47:49] Speaker 2: Unbelievable rugby league, famous, world famous, this beautiful horn. Now, Alan,
[47:56] Speaker 2: you're actually the first bloke to ever breathe life into
[47:59] Speaker 2: this clarion call of sport.
[48:02] Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I was.
[48:03] Speaker 11: I was fortunate enough to be able to do that
[48:04] Speaker 11: in twenty sixteen up against the Shark.
[48:09] Speaker 12: All right, well let's give it a go.
[48:31] Speaker 2: It's almost like I actually made that sound. Thank you
[48:34] Speaker 2: very much to Alan Andrew. The club a wonderful time,
[48:38] Speaker 2: a wonderful part of this ladies sporting past, but obviously
[48:41] Speaker 2: Indod's future as well. All right, quick break back with more.
[48:43] Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching. Thanks to the good
[48:45] Speaker 2: people of Harvey Norman. It's our town on the road
[48:48] Speaker 2: showing you the best company in the world. How welcome
[48:58] Speaker 2: back here too, the Taper Southern US Club in Jameson.
[49:01] Speaker 1: Are not I far from the Kronhum which of course
[49:04] Speaker 1: is in Campbell in the act.
[49:06] Speaker 2: Did a good night tonight?
[49:07] Speaker 1: Everyone join us.
[49:08] Speaker 2: Lovely to see you all right, your chance to wave
[49:10] Speaker 2: to be on TV right now, by the way, Thank
[49:13] Speaker 2: you very much for coming out.
[49:14] Speaker 1: Thank you very much for supporting us, supporting what we do.
[49:17] Speaker 2: And obviously celebrating your magnificent part of Australia. As I said,
[49:20] Speaker 2: we're off to a chuka in Victoria, which we're very
[49:24] Speaker 2: much looking forward to to being at now. Most importantly
[49:28] Speaker 2: you know this because you live it each and every day.
[49:31] Speaker 2: The reality is is that regardless of whether we are
[49:34] Speaker 2: on the coast of West Australia, the very bottom of Tasmania,
[49:38] Speaker 2: the tippy top in Darwen, or anywhere else in between.
[49:41] Speaker 2: The story is the same of its people, normal people
[49:44] Speaker 2: who want normal families, who want normal safety, but also.
[49:48] Speaker 1: All who know that we are in the greatest country
[49:50] Speaker 1: in the world.
[49:51] Speaker 2: These shows are an opportunity for us to celebrate it.
[49:54] Speaker 2: Thank you for us to celebrate it, and to remind
[49:58] Speaker 2: you that the best place to go on holidays is
[50:01] Speaker 2: in Australia. And again, if you have come to Canberra
[50:05] Speaker 2: way far back in the school excursion days, bagger that
[50:09] Speaker 2: come back and enjoy what is a beautiful, first rate
[50:12] Speaker 2: twenty first century experience and everything from food to accommodation.
[50:17] Speaker 2: You can do everything from five star luxury to caravan
[50:21] Speaker 2: parks all in between. Right also all of the incredible
[50:23] Speaker 2: things to do as a family as well, and I
[50:25] Speaker 2: mentioned it before, but there are so many little museums
[50:29] Speaker 2: people would forget about, and make sure you're coming to
[50:31] Speaker 2: spend a whole week, but more importantly, just meet the people.
[50:33] Speaker 1: They're always awesome.
[50:34] Speaker 2: Thank you very much for jotting us tonight, Thank you
[50:36] Speaker 2: so much for watching us at home, and we'll see
[50:38] Speaker 2: me tomorrow for more for my life USLS next to
[50:41] Speaker 2: many guys,

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