Michael is joined by Andrew Cox, CEO the Invasive Species Council, who has urged the NSW government to take drastic action to cull brumbies.

 

"This is a disaster. The park is being ruined by feral horses. We're seeing unprecedented damage," he told reporters in Canberra.

 

Mr Cox is calling for humane and effective measures to slash the wild horse population.

 

"The damage is indisputable. The park is being wrecked. The wetlands are being wrecked. Our catchments of three major rivers are being wrecked," he said.

 

"We're losing threatened species that could become extinct if the out of control horse numbers are allowed to continue."

Listen to the full show podcast with Michael Mclaren

Michael is joined by Bernard Carlon, Executive Director of the Centre for Road Safety, about the thousands of motorists caught using their phone while driving during week one of the NSW Government’s mobile phone detection camera program.

 

From Sunday 1 to Saturday 7 December, 3,303 drivers were caught breaking the law by fixed and mobile trailer-mounted cameras at various locations across the state.

 

Mr Carlon says independent modelling shows the latest addition to the Government’s road safety program could prevent around 100 fatal and serious injury crashes over five years.

 

“We need to see a steep behavioral change from motorists to save lives. While drivers caught on camera get a warning now, NSW Police will continue to issue fines for illegal mobile phone use as part of their regular operations,” Mr Carlon said.

 

The mobile phone detection camera program will progressively expand to perform an estimated 135 million vehicle checks on NSW roads each year by 2023.

John Winter, CEO - Australian Restructuring Insolvency and Turnaround Association, joins Michael to talk about ‘phoenixing’, a practice in the building industry where under-capitalised companies intentionally go into liquidation to avoid paying creditors and workers’ entitlements.

 

Costing the economy up to $5 billion each year, Mr Winter said phoenixing has been "endemic" for decades.

 

"It's become a learned behaviour in the property market because it's gone on for so long (and) because nobody has really been prosecuted to any great extent," Mr Winter said.

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Professor Jenny Hocking, award-winning biographer & Emeritus Professor Faculty of Arts Monash University, joins Michael to talk about the disappearance of Harold Holt which occurred on this day in 1967.

 

Harold Edward Holt was the 17th Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1966 until his presumed drowning death in 1967 and leader of the Liberal Party during that time.

 

After just under two years in office, Holt disappeared while swimming at Cheviot Beach Victoria in rough conditions. He loved the ocean, particularly spearfishing, and had holiday homes at Portsea Victoria and Bingil Bay Queensland. 

 

His body was never recovered, and he was declared dead in absentia with his disappearance spawning numerous conspiracy theories.

On the verge of relinquishing his position at the helm of the Australian War Memorial, Michael speaks to Dr Brendan Nelson AO, former Liberal member for Bradfield & minister in the Howard Government who is also the former Australian Ambassador to Belgium, NATO & the European Union. 

 

Dr Nelson has led the Memorial through the centenary of the First World War including completion of the renovated First World War galleries; 128,500 attendees at the 2015 Anzac Centenary Dawn Service and a breathtaking display of 62,000 knitted poppies on the Memorial grounds for the centenary of the armistice.

 

Recognising the need to make the Memorial relevant and meaningful to the 100,000 young veterans our nation has created over the past twenty years, Dr Nelson introduced the Afghanistan exhibition, subsequently expanded to fill every available space.

 

With Council Chairman, Mr Kerry Stokes AC, he successfully advocated on behalf of that generation for a major investment by government in creating additional gallery space for their stories to be told.

 

Planning for this $500 million investment over a decade is now well advanced with construction beginning in 2020.

Listen to the full show podcast with Michael Mclaren

Listen to the full show podcast with Michael McLaren

Listen to the full show podcast with Michael Mclaren