The very best from 4BC Breakfast with Peter Fegan this week.

The Opposition has handed down their budget reply with a strong focus on energy prices, immigration, national security and health and education. Peter Dutton also has his reply to the PM's first campaign speech. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "My pledge is to make sure that we can have lower inflation, that we can help Australians get back into homes, that we can help with the cost of living pressures by fixing our energy system and by making sure that we've got a safer community and making sure we've got quality health care." "We manage the economy more effectively so we can pay for those essential services." "Labor has racked up an enormous amount of debt," the Opposition Leader continued.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has held a press conference at Parliament House to call the federal election for May 3.

Outback Queensland has experienced a year's worth of rain in just six days with the rain to continue to fall over the weekend. An emergency alert was issued this morning for the region with swift water rescue crews airlifted in from Charleville to help evacuate residents and the Premier also arrived in Winton last night. Queensland Premier David Crisafulli told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "There's predictions that the Thompson River will hit about eight and a half metres, that is uncharted territory." David Crisafulli also confirmed that he will be looking into getting Western Queensland a rain radar saying the current situation is "unacceptable."

Round 4 of the NRL kicks off tonight with the Rabbitohs taking on the Panthers and Darryl 'The Big Marn' Brohman joined 4BC Breakfast to give his thoughts and tips for this game and the rest of the round.

Farmers and residents in South-West Queensland are getting hammered by torrential rain which they didn't know was coming because there is no rain radar in the area. Murweh Mayor Shaun Radnedge told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "We've been advocating for the last six years that I've been involved, to the federal government of putting a rain radar in the western part of Queensland." "Now, the closest radar is Alice Springs, you have one in Mount Isa, one in Longreach and one in Charleville." "These areas that are getting impacted at the moment had no warning." "For those graveyards that we talk about and it's always cattle and sheep out in those areas, they're going to have huge stock losses because they've never had time to shift their stock," Mr. Radnedge said.

Though Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred has passed, some are still on edge as parts of Queensland are in for a wet few days. This has prompted sandbagging stations to reopen in Brisbane as the South-East braces for up to 100mm this weekend. Acting Assistant Commissioner from the Queensland Police Service Disaster Management Command, John Bosnjak told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "I'd be paying attention to the weather reports and to the disaster dashboards that most councils are running at the moment." "It's always be prepared, watch out for the weather reports, there is a likelihood of some pretty heavy rain coming in on Saturday, so just keep paying attention to the reports and like I said before, just make sure you act on what the authorities are saying," Mr. Bosnjak said.

There are reports of internal rumblings within the Coalition after a fiery party room meeting yesterday, where MP's were warned not to give away anything when it comes to policy. Leader of the National Party David Littleproud told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "The reality is that, effectively, there's a blackout for everybody bar the leaders, myself and Peter and the finance team to be out for the first 24, 48 hours." "Then after that, everyone else." "That's been a practice since I got into Parliament in 2016, there's nothing new in that," David Littleproud said.

Labor delivered its fourth budget last night with tax cuts, cost-of-living relief and $20 million to entice Australians to buy Australian headlining the document. Treasurer Jim Chalmers told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "It's a budget to build the future and to help people with the cost of living and strengthen Medicare." "It's all about making our economy more resilient in the face of all this global economic uncertainty and so that's what's motivated us here when it comes to this budget." "We've been responsible, we've gone for what's affordable and we've done that in the context where we have taken difficult decisions," Mr. Chalmers said. "We are making good progress in the Budget, we're making especially good progress in the economy more broadly." "We know that that doesn't always immediately translate into how people are feeling and faring in the economy and that's why the cost of living help is so important," Treasurer Chalmers said.

Tourism Research Australia data shows that New South Wales has now become the most popular domestic destination in Australia, knocking Queensland off its perch.

Serving Our People is a charity organisation that has opened a free supermarket right here in Queensland to help the less fortunate. Currently there are two stores up and running in Mermaid Beach and Logan with a third shop opening soon. Eligible customers can help themselves to 15 items per week of fresh produce, frozen meals, meat, household items, and non-perishables. The charity’s founder Yas Matbouly told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "I think we couldn't have timed it at a better time because a lot of homes were flooded." "A lot of homes lost power and lost all the food that they had in their fridges at that time." "At the same time, a lot of the homes that were flooded, obviously, they need cleaning supplies, they need generators, they need many other things, which we also provided at the People's Market in Beenleigh," Mr. Matbouly said.

Over the weekend Queensland paramedics had over 180 jobs that were sourced and on Monday morning there were still 150 jobs outstanding. The average number of Triple Zero (000) calls during March is 3300, with Friday experiencing a surge of over 3700 calls, indicating that there is a major issue here in Queensland. Health Minister Tim Nicholls told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "The ambulance service cancelled non-essential training, offered overtime to the workforce and redirected neighbouring districts who weren't experiencing the surge into Metro South and Metro North particularly to answer those calls."

The Coalition is backing a plan for a public service hiring freeze along with cuts to return staff numbers to pre-pandemic levels. Shadow Minister for Finance and the Public Service Senator Jane Hume told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "Our concern is that the public service has blown out in size dramatically under this government." "There's 36,000 new public servants, that's a 20% increase in just three years." "I don't think that a bigger public service necessarily delivers better public services," Senator Hume said.

From January next year the price of medicines listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme will be capped at $25 per script and that's regardless of who wins the upcoming federal election. The Labor Federal Government has made the pledge and the Coalition has agreed to match it. Federal Minister for Health Mark Butler told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "We have one of the best medicine systems in the world." "It delivers Australians the best medicines available anywhere on the planet at affordable prices, but getting them through the system is taking too long." "We all agree it should be better," Mark Butler said. "I think there are patients out there who are waiting for medicines to be approved and who are either paying top dollar for them or even worse, might not be getting the therapies that they wanted and needed." "And to that extent, as the Health Minister, of course, I am sorry for that and we want the system to work better," Mr. Butler continued.

Power prices will be one of the biggest issues at the upcoming Federal Election. Labor is promising a $150 rebate and the Coalition has their nuclear plan, but will either of these options actually get your energy bill down. Senator Bridgette McKenzie told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "It's all about supply and demand, if you get more of more energy, more electricity into the grid, prices will come down, that is a function of the laws of economics." "We are absolutely clear that we will be getting more gas into the system, increasing the supply of energy, which means, obviously, the prices come down," Senator McKenzie said.

Australians are in for a nine per cent rise on power bills soon despite Labor promising to cut energy costs by $275. Now, Anthony Albanese is offering another energy promise with small businesses and all households to get $150 taken off their electricity bills. Which means around $1.8 billion in energy rebates would automatically be applied to every residence and one million small businesses around the nation on a quarterly basis from July 1. Peter Fegan said on 4BC Breakfast, "We are sick and tired of high energy prices, we are sick and tired of being told bills will come down.." "Just get it right because we have had enough."

Over a quarter of a million Australian veterans experience difficulty adjusting to civilian life after leaving service. Salute for Service is a veteran-led organisation which is dedicated to supporting current and ex-serving members of the ADF. Salute for Service COO Marc Diplock told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "We're finding quite a number actually coming over into the Salute program, because we don't only just look at the transitioning... we look at a holistic approach." "We're looking to support the family, the children, we look at things like financial assistance, independent career coaching and career mentoring as well," he said.

The very best from 4BC Breakfast with Peter Fegan this week.

The Australian Crime and Corruption Commission released a 400-page report into Coles and Woolworths which revealed that there was no clear evidence the supermarkets had engaged in price gouging.  However, Coles and Woolworths' profit margins have increased since the pandemic making them some of the world's most profitable supermarkets. Peter Fegan said on 4BC Breakfast, "I fully understand the ACCC says there's no clear evidence that there was price gouging, and I need to respect that decision." "But what is the point of all of this if we are no better off than where we were before we started?" "Overall, we should all feel pretty disappointed with the ACCC once more," he continued.

Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor was interrupted by Rising Tide activists just hours after Peter Dutton's speech was also disrupted by the same protestors. This follows Jim Chalmer's pre-budget address also being interrupted by Rising Tide protestors. Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "Everyone in this country has a right to free speech and to protest, I believe that very strongly." "Press conferences are an important part of our democratic process, it's how journalists get to ask me and other politicians questions and hold us to our account," the Shadow Treasurer said. "But there are radical activists like this bloke who just don't believe in that process and that's bad for Australia." "It's bad for Australians, it's bad for our democratic process," Mr. Taylor continued.

Australia has dropped to eleven in the World Happiness Report with countries like Costa Rica, Israel and Mexico all ahead of the Great Southern Land. Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast has launched a campaign to return Australia to the top 10 saying he doesn't like the country's current ranking and that Australia should be number one.

The latest JFK files have been released by President Donald Trump, which includes a surprising link to Australia. Among these documents is a once top-secret exchange between the head of ASIO and top US officials before the assassination. Veteran journalist, investigative author, and the editor of the JFK Facts blog Jefferson Morley told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "What was finally released was simply that the CIA and the Australian services had a close relationship and they were working together, which anybody who knows about US-Australian relations would know that, of course, that was the case." "But a lot of what we see here is just over-classification, we call it, just withholding information that there's no good reason to withhold it," Mr. Morley said.

Darryl 'The Big Marn' Brohman has submitted his tips for round three of the NRL which is packed with blockbuster clashes and historied rivalries. The Storm are taking on the Panthers, Suncorp Stadium is hosting the Queensland Derby and the Eels and the Bulldogs are facing off as well.

The country is staring down a potential trillion-dollar debt, and the federal budget will reveal where Australia stands.  Yellow Brick Founder, Chairman, and mastermind behind Wizard Home Loans, Mark Bouris, told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "Let's hope...the Treasurer actually discloses to us and puts us in the full picture, like complete transparency, how much money you're actually going to spend and show us what you've taken out of the budget and put on the side." "So that we know whether this is actually a surplus or actually a deficit and can we afford it." "Ultimately, you can't keep spending money that you don't have," Mr. Bouris said.

Jim Chalmers pre-budget speech in Brisbane was interrupted yesterday by protestors from the anti-coal group, Rising Tide. One of those protestors Paul Gabbert told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "it happened, it worked. And I think it's an important part of our democracy that we can question leaders in government around what their policies are and their lack of action on whatever issue it is."  

Queensland’s best bowls and surf clubs have been awarded with The Sands Bowlo, located in Sandgate, taking out the top gong thanks to it's 'vibrancy'. Other standout venues included Caboolture Sports Club, Club Services Ipswich and the Mooloolba Surf Club. Clubs Queensland CEO Kelly Egan told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "So we had 330 nominations from 70 different clubs, an outstanding effort and it's an opportunity to reward what they do." "When you talk about community clubs, you're talking about $560 million a year being put back into communities by grants and facilities management and employment." Mr. Egan said.

Last week an 18-year-old youth offender was sentenced to probation for stabbing an army veteran in an incident that was described as a “retaliatory ambush” and "chilling" by the judge. Deb Frecklington has now stepped in a search for some justice in this case. Queensland Attorney-General and Minister for Justice and Integrity Deb Frecklington told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "This teenager was charged under the former laws and he was sentenced under the former laws as his right." "Under the new laws, this kid would have been sentenced as an adult as he should have been under the new laws." "In this case I'm very bothered by it and that's why I'm seeking that advice on the appeal." "His behaviour outside of court, people were rightfully very shocked by that, I mean, I thought it was disgraceful," Mrs. Frecklington said.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has revealed that the rebuild after ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred will cost Australia $1.2 billion. However, some are saying that Labor is using the disaster as a cover up for their reckless spending. Leader of the National Party David Littleproud told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "I'd be interested to see the modelling on this from Treasury." "Treasury's been weaponised before by Jim Chalmers." "If you remember when we were trying to help the the hospitality industry who had lost 165,000 jobs in getting some FBT support for lunches to get people back out into the hospitality sector, he said it was going to cost $10 billion because Treasury had modelled it." "Now, I think he's trying to soften us up for what's coming in the budget and it's not good news," Mr. Littleproud said.

The Reserve Bank of Australia and the Federal Government are about to make a major change to Australian currency by removing Queen Elizabeth II from the five dollar note. It will be replaced with what has been described as “the enduring, emotional, spiritual and physical connection of First Nations people to the Country."

Coal Australia is calling on the Queensland government to reduce the state’s punitive coal royalties since the new GST split means the Sunshine State gets less from the Federal Government because we are taking more from the mining companies. Former broadcaster and Coal Australia CEO Stuart Bocking told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "Queensland is now the only state to have its allotment of GST funding slashed." "By 2028 the total share of Queensland GST gone will be $5 billion." Mr. Bocking said. "How does that work for Queensland?"

Butch Wilmore and Suni William have been stuck in the orbiting lab of the International Space Station for nine months. A Space X capsule yesterday delivered a crew of four astronauts to the ISS in a crew-swap mission which means Butch and Suni will finally return to Earth.  Australian National University Astrophysicist Brad Tucker told Sofie Formica on 4BC Breakfast, "It's something like six months in space, the equivalent of 20 years worth of bone density loss." "They will come back down, not with bones of a late 40, early 50 year old, but of a bones of a 70 year old and that doesn't really go back," Mr. Tucker said.

The Commonwealth Grants Commission has released their latest proposal for how GST will be split amongst the states. Debt-laden Victoria has done really well out of the proposal increasing their cut to $26.15 billion while Queensland is set to lose $2.4 billion, shrinking the Sunshine State's cut to $16.6 billion. Queensland's downgraded credit rating, the recovery from Cyclone Alfred, and Brisbane hosting the Olympics have placed significant pressure on Queensland's economy. Queensland Treasurer David Janetzki told Sofie Formica on 4BC Breakfast, "Queensland will drop $2.4 billion next year, but in the same breath, Victoria is going to stand to gain $4 billion next year and even New South Wales gets $1.3 billion."

The 2025 F1 season got underway in Melbourne over the weekend with a less than ideal outing for the Australians on the grid. Technology and Car expert Trevor Long told Sofie Formica on 4BC Breakfast, "If you look at Oscar's misfortune spinning on the second to last turn his teammates did the same thing." "They both suffered the same thing but Oscar's just simply went further off and that's what caused him the grief so it's a game of chance." "It's a game of luck and unfortunately Oscar it wasn't that he went off," Mr. Long said.

The very best from 4BC Breakfast with Peter Fegan this week.

Celebrity Chef Adrian Richardson dropped by the 4BC Breakfast studio to answer all the listeners cooking questions and to deliver some helpful tips to up your game in the kitchen.

Federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has called for the Energy Minister Chris Bowen to be sacked for his handling of energy in Australia. Shadow Minister for Home Affairs & Cyber Security Senator James Paterson told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "What more does Chris Bowen need to do to get sacked?" "I mean, he and the Prime Minister promised before the last election, electricity bills would be $275 cheaper and yet we now know that people in Queensland are paying up to $1,000 more for energy than Labor said they would," Senator Paterson continued.

Queensland Disaster Recovery Minster Anne Leahy has been criticised for being missing in action during ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred. Shadow Minster for Disaster Recovery Nikki Boyd told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "Obviously, she's in Parliament at the moment, but for the last week we haven't seen hide nor hair of Anne Ley." "I think this is really concerning, not only is she the Disaster Recovery Minister, she's also our Minister for Fire and for Water."

Independent Senator Jacqui Lambie is no stranger to strongly voicing her opinion and speaking openly about issues she is passionate about. Several current key topics include Trump's tariffs, former PM's and fundraisers. On Trump's tariffs, Senator Jacqui Lambie told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "What we need to do is work out our plan in the future." "Are we going to sit there and not retaliate? That's the question... or are we actually going to put our foot down?" Senator Lambie continued.

Darryl 'The Big Marn' Brohman has given his tips on 4BC Breakfast for round 2 of the NRL which kicks off tonight with the Knights at home against the Dolphins.

One pub manager on the Sunshine Coast has turned to social media after being fed up with spiralling youth crime in his community. Damien Strong, General Manager of The Creek Tavern in Buderim recently had a group of young criminals steal from his pub's bottle shop. After being 'fed up' with youth crime in his community, he turned to social media to try and apprehend the young offenders and received overwhelming support.

Over 800,000 litres of crude oil from a tanker has been spilt at the Port of Brisbane at about 5pm yesterday afternoon. Queensland Fire and Emergency Services have estimated it could take over a week to clean-up. QFES Chief Superintendent Steve De Pinto told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "It's not that common, but it does happen from time to time and the design of those facilities are designed in such a way to manage issues like this." "There is some possibilities that are being explored, but there's no ship involved and this is a land-based tank." "We've got some drone footage that shows a couple of possibilities, but look, I can't really speculate," Chief De Pinto said.

Peter Fegan has raised the issue on 4BC Breakfast of people driving through flood waters in light of several incidents in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Alfred. Despite everyone knowing that if it's flooded, forget it, the Queensland Police Service had to risk their lives on multiple occasions over the weekend to save drivers that did not listen.  

Donald Trump's administration has ruled out tariff exemptions for Australia which means along with the rest of the world, we will be subject to a 25 per cent tariff increase on steel and aluminum exports from this afternoon. Shadow Minister for Trade and Tourism Kevin Hogan told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "The Quad includes countries like Australia, Japan, India and the US, the AUKUS includes the UK, Australia and the US." "Every member of those groups have been over to meet Trump." "They're all developing a personal rapport with him and a relationship with him. Albanese has not seen him or attempted to see him once." "He's had, from what I can gather, only one meaningful phone conversation with him in four or five months since he's been president." "They're an important economic partner, we had this issue of tariffs and now Albanese's missing in action, I think he has been very weak on this issue," Mr. Hogan said.

Katie Fuller was one of the several staff from 2GB that travelled to 4BC to help with the Special Cyclone Coverage and Peter Fegan has tried to convince her to stay here in the River City.

Small business is the backbone of the Australian economy and every time a natural disaster hits most of them are impacted. The Business Chamber of Queensland is calling on the government to provide support to both the small businesses here in the South-East and in North Queensland. Business Chamber CEO Heidi Cooper told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "What we're also seeing as well is businesses that have been impacted in a really significant way through loss of trading, loss of revenue, loss of productivity, not being able to run their business during this time and they just simply cannot continue to absorb this cost." "Many of them continue to have operating costs while they simply were not able to trade," Mrs. Cooper said.

As the effects of Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred begin to ease, attention has turned towards the clean-up and returning to life as normal. Brisbane City Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "We have had less rain in the last 24 hours than projected... so a fantastic outcome there." "And it's looking like not much rain today as well so that will really help us get back on track." "We've got most council libraries open, 20 libraries open, most council pools open, most community halls open." "We've got the ability now that the worst of it's over to gear up that recovery effort," Lord Mayor Schrinner said.

Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred has wreaked havoc across South-East Queensland and Northern New South Wales, but the worst has past and clear sky are on the horizon. That means the clean up will begin and so will the restocking of supermarket shelves, but how long will it take for shops to refill all their empty aisles. Fleur Brown from the Australian Retailers Association told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "The supermarkets in particular are absolutely working around the clock on solving the problem." "There's just some factors outside of their control that they can't force staff to come in when they may have transport safety issues or they may have their own property damage or childcare constraints, so that's another factor in all of this," Fleur Brown said.

With the worst of Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred in the rearview mirror, Energex crews are hopeful they can speed up the process of restoring power to the remaining 110,000 or so South-East Queensland residents who are still without electricity. Energex Spokesperson Danny Donald told Peter Fegan on 4BC Breakfast, "If you just Google energex.com.au outage finder and have a look for your suburb and if it's got an estimated fixed time above it, which the overwhelming majority do, that's when we aim to get you back up and running."

It is still raining for the majority of South-East Queensland which means no power for thousands, flash flooding, road closures and a whole lot of uncertainty. The road to recovery has well and truly started, but it could be heavily affected by the continuing rain and the multitude of rivers threatening to overflow. Queensland Premier David Crisafulli told Peter Fegan on 4BC's Special Coverage, "Make sure you know if you're at risk, if you've got an evacuation plan, know where higher ground is."

Flooded roads and bridges, but bin collection and buses back to normal. Brisbane City is flooding yet again due to heavy rain, almost 500mm since Wednesday, but residents have been reassured it will not be a repeat of 2022 thanks to better preparation and communication. Brisbane City Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner told Peter Fegan on 4BC's Special Coverage, "There's always ways we can improve and I know the Premier has some views on that as well but everyone was working together there was a great sense of cooperation."