Wake Up Australia

Listen to Wake Up Australia with Michael McLaren, the Full Show Podcast here.

24/01/2019

On the 26th of August 1768, a young Yorkshire man by the name of James Cook embarked on his first epic Pacific voyage aboard the HMS Endeavour to observe the transit of Venus across the sun at the equator.  But there were further, more secret instructions to proceed south to chart the unknown great Southern land which we of course today call Australia.

Michael catches up with George & Paul regular Jim Haynes, who is an author & passionate Australia historian, to pick his brains about this fascinating man and instrumental part of this country’s history.

Listen to Wake Up Australia with Michael McLaren, the Full Show Podcast here.

23/01/2019

Former Labor Party national president Warren Mundine has declared he will run for the Liberals in the federal NSW seat of Gilmore announcing his candidacy as Prime Minister Scott Morrison intervenes on the preselection.

With sitting MP Anne Sudmalis retiring at the next election after facing her own preselection battle, Liberals in Gilmore had already chosen local real estate agent Grant Schultz to contest the marginal seat.

Mark Latham, political commentator & former leader of the Australian Labor Party joins Michael to discuss whether this is a winning decision for the Coalition.

The IMF has warned that the global economy is weakening at a "faster than expected" rate with the collapsing trade deals between the US and China and the UK and Europe posing significant risks.

Michael speaks to David Buckland, CEO of Montgomery Investment Management to discuss the warnings from the world's financial regulator that governments need to get debt under control.

Listen to Wake Up Australia with Michael McLaren, the Full Show Podcast here.

22/01/2019

With Australia facing a concerning shortage of sheep shearers, the wool industry has been looking for ways to streamline wool harvesting and have invested $10 million on research.

Jane Littlejohn, the general manager of research at Australian Wool Innovation Ltd tells Michael that a range of ideas have been floated including a project that would see fully automated ‘robot’s handling the process of shearing wool from a sheep and into a bale.

Leading energy heavyweight Trevor St Bakers has revealed this week a $6 billion plan to develop Australia’s first high efficiency, low emissions coal plant.   

St Baker makes the valid point that all of Australia knows we’ve got a shortage of reliable, dispatchable power with at least 1000 MW gap in Victoria… & New South Wales has a booming population but no spare energy capacity.

MP Craig Kelly, the Liberal Member for Hughes, joins Michael to throw his support behind the plan which would be the cheapest way to supply the essential firm generation needed for reliable power.

Listen to Wake Up Australia with Michael McLaren, the Full Show Podcast here.

21/01/2019

Dr Rebecca Allen from the Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing at Swinburne University of Technology explains to Michael the unusual set of circumstances that will combine in the early hours of Monday morning in the skies above the northern hemisphere, resulting in a phenomenon called a super blood wolf moon.