Western Australia

So in Queensland, for example, if you have the seniors card, you could have any income and effectively any assets and get a $500 rebate off your electricity and gas.

And similarly in Western Australia, people who have got a fully paid off home and perhaps a really healthy superannuation portfolio are able to get thousands of dollars of concessions which are paid for by the state government.

And so we think that all states should have a really good hard look at their current policies to see where they could potentially make savings, because we think that there's obviously significant pressures on state budgets.

And we've done some analysis to suggest that, for example, New South Wales could save $300 million by better targeting, more than $250 million in Victoria.

I do go to Thailand in a couple of days now, which is very exciting, back to Thailand, which, for those of you who don't know, is currently where we have relocated, I guess you could call it.

So we're from Perth, WA, Australia, but we have, Spent the last few years traveling all around the world, really.

And we're currently based in Thailand.

So I'll be heading back there next week.

Um, Heeney, Warner.

Will Warner go now to Western Australia? I don't know.

[laughs] I'll probably have to keep Heeney, but, you know, we gotta be careful what we say, say because apparently I'm not allowed to even talk about the Sydney Swans players after- [laughs] ... last time.

What a joke.

And have you got trials underway here in Australia or overseas? And what are they showing you?

Yeah, we've got lots of trial work that we've been conducting this year and for a number of years, but it's really ramped up this year and it's all over the country from Western Australia through South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and up into Queensland.

So It's a very extensive trial program.

Next year will be even bigger as we start to bring in our customer groups and key agronomists and consultants for them to have a closer look at it before we're able to launch.

And that's also making it a lot harder for companies potentially to bring niche products to the Australian farmer as well.

So there's a lot involved in trying to make sure that the agrochemical industry in Australia is well supported.

And at the moment, I've probably got a bigger concern around the the fact that we're losing manufacturing here in Australia and in particular in Western Australia and the Western Australia listeners today will recognise the closure of the manufacturing plant by New Farm in WA and how critical that's been to make sure that we have product and we've only got to look at the the fuel issues and the fertilizer issues that we've got if we're completely reliant on chinese supply coming into the australian market that's a greater concern too and at the moment you know we don't give any cross subsidy like the chinese government does to the industries that bring commercial chemicals into australia i mean they get a nine percent rebate essentially any chinese manufacturer which puts any australian manufacturers behind the eight ball right from the get-go so you know i've got concerns around getting products to farmers, but I've also got concerns around our ability to be able to maintain a strong and vibrant chemical manufacturing sector here in Australia as well.

Andrew, great to have you on The Country Hour.

What Wyler needs to see is that their sale process concludes and then that new owner just does what they say they're going to do and if that all happens then you know by the end of the decade this town will be in a really strong position.

Western Australia's child protection policies are being scrutinised after a group of up to 15 Indigenous children were found living without adult care in public housing in Australia.

in South Headland.

One of the children was just five years old.

Police reports say the home was dirty and unhygienic.

Western Australia's Department of Child Protection is reported... to have known about the situation for at least nine months.

Western Australian Senator Michaelia Cash told Channel 9 the issue needs to be addressed urgently.

Our kids in particular, our Indigenous kids, they need adults and the government to do the right thing by them.

Have a listen to the audio yourself.

Teacher from Western Australia wrote to me and said the whole curriculum has changed.

We're not teaching Australian history about civil rights, about, you know, what's happened in the past.

We're actually all leaning towards this Aboriginal, um, you know, teaching that Aboriginal culture and language.

I'm trying to work out how the CommBank team have come to this conclusion, right?

Mm.

So they've said Queensland has now overtaken Western Australia to become the nation's top performing economy.

I'm, look, my short-term memory's not quite what it used to be, but I could swear only a few days ago I read, in fact, probably spoke about Queensland being downgraded-

We have 41 days' worth of petrol on hand in Australia, for example, and these are the figures that I provide every weekend.

Western Australia's child protection policies have come under intensified scrutiny after a group of up to 15 Indigenous children were found living without adult supervision in a public housing home in South Hedland.

One of the children was just five years old.

An investigation by the Weekend Australian newspaper revealed the children had been left to fend for themselves for up to a week at a time.

And it's, it's been generated from the Prime Minister's office when he's come out.

They got a absolute shellacking in Secret Harbour in WA, and panic buttons were all hit.

"What are we gonna do?"

Mm.

Um, and that's just a thing for us is just being a good basketball player and, yeah, I think he fits that description pretty well.

Was there a championship winner in, in Perth before you made the move to Melbourne and then across to the States? Was there a, a, a pull to get back to WA with my man, the Real Deal, John Rielly, uh, as coach? [laughs] He could probably use someone like you.

Or-

[laughs]