Listen to the full show podcast with Luke Grant filling in for Michael Mclaren

Dr John Greenfield, Acting Director of Geoscience Information at the Geological Survey of NSW, to find out about the largest ever airborne electromagnetic (AEM) survey of the NSW Central West which is underway as researchers work to help locate groundwater and new mineral deposits bringing hope to farmers and supporting the long-term future of mining in the region.

 

Deputy Premier and Minister for Regional NSW John Barilaro this week met with the pilots and crew undertaking the survey at their current base in Nymagee, 100 kilometres south of Cobar.

 

Mr Barilaro said the team is making great progress on the three-month survey, which will cover more than 19,000 km2 and measures the natural electrical properties of soils and rocks to a depth of 400 metres.

 

Dr John Greenfield said the sensor, towed by a high-performance helicopter flying at a height of about 60 metres, works much like the metal detectors people use at the beach.

 

“The transmitter in the sensor sends out an electromagnetic signal that interacts with the soil, rocks and water below, with the strength of the return signal providing an indication of what might be located below,” Dr Greenfield said.

 

“It’s highly technical, high resolution data but the electromagnetic fields generated are similar in amplitude to power lines so won’t cause any harm to people or livestock.”

Dr Keith Suter, Managing Director of the Global Directions Think Tank, to discuss the White House announcing that U.S. forces in northeast Syria would move aside and clear the way for an expected Turkish incursion into the neighbouring nation.

 

While the U.S. move is a gift to Erdogan's government, it will be seen as a stark betrayal by the Kurds who have fought alongside U.S. forces for years to defeat ISIS.

Listen to the full show podcast with Clinton Maynard filling in for Michael Mclaren

The reserve bank recently reduced interest rates with the banks passing those cuts on in part with the aim to get the economy moving.

You get the economy moving by saving money on mortgages and you would hope that that makes mortgages actually more attractive to people trying to enter the home loan market. 

Clinton Maynard is joined by property and Mortgage expert Trent Fleskens to discuss an issue that many people are going to extraordinary lengths to prove they can afford a home loan… whether they can afford it or not.

Listen to the full show podcast with Luke Grant filling in for Michael McLaren

Leith Van Onselen, Macrobusiness - the 'Unconventional Economist', joins Luke Grant to talk about the RBA’s claim that the rise in older people in the workforce is behind the anaemic growth in Australian wages.

RBA governor Philip Lowe said in a speech last week that the surge in participation was a “positive development,” but it also meant it had become “quite difficult to generate a tight labour market with the flow-on consequence that wage increases remain subdued.”

For example, the higher number of people in the workforce has meant that even though the economy has created about 600,000 new jobs in the past two years, the unemployment rate has more recently been edging up, in part because of all the extra available workers.

Luke Grants talks to David Littleproud MP, Federal Minister for Water Resources, who is currently in Inverell with Treasurer Josh Frydenberg at the beginning of a three-day drought tour of Queensland and northern NSW.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has promised an extra $100 million for drought-affected communities, with Mr Frydenberg flagging that new dams are on the agenda as part of the Federal response.

Listen to the full show podcast with Luke Grant filling in for Michael Mclaren

Luke Grant is joined by Dr Paul Preisz, Director of emergency at St Vincent’s Hospital, about a major parliamentary report that finds Sydney’s lockout laws should be scrapped in the CBD but remain in Kings Cross.

Dr Preisz said he was pleased the lockouts would remain in Kings Cross but expressed concern about alcohol-fuelled incidents elsewhere in the CBD.

“We’ve had no deaths in our emergency department related to incidents in Kings Cross in the same way we saw those laws came into being so we would hope they would not change the laws,” he said.

“Kings Cross was the most extreme example of an environment where critically we had to change something but the same features and factors were present in all of those other areas so it’s our view we would see similar dangers.”

Under the current legislation, bars & nightclubs clubs in the city, Darlinghurst & Kings Cross areas must deny entry to new customers after 1.30am and serve last drinks by 3am.