Australia's southeast is battling a heatwave, intensifying the risk of bushfires.
Some parts of the state of Victoria are forecasted to reach 45°C this week, as firefighters still grapple with current bushfires.
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Yes, some timas so to say a very good morning, Murray Olds kid, Murray hand a second, where have I got you?
There?
Haven't got your Let's try that again.
Very good morning.
There we are, we got you there, Murray Hi. Hey, great series win by the Ozzy Man's cricket team over India.
Short, you know, on the back of what the Kiwis were able to do in India. India came here, you know, really fired up. They were humiliated in their own country by the Kiwi's three nil and they came to Australia full of fire and brimstone and they won big time. At first, won by about three hundred runs. So the Australian cricket fans are thinking, oh gosh, okay, it looks like we're and they get pumped this summer and in the end the Australians won three to one after a fantastic Boxing Day test. I'm sure you saw the crowds. I mean there were nearly eight hundred thousand people saw this test series across the summer and that's the best in almost one hundred years since there were three England teams came out about one hundred eight years ago in the nineteen teens, nineteen twenties, a big your pardon. So it's been an incredibly popular series and it came down to the Sydney Test. If India had managed to win, it would have been an Indian draw over the series, which would have allowed them to retain the Gabiska Boarder Trophy. But Australia won in Sydney yesterday by I think six wickets, remember that's right. So what that's done is basically give Australia's men's cricket team every trophy in the world that have been competed for. You've got the Hadley Trophy from New Zealand, will beat the Kiwis over in New Zealand. And now Australia's qualified for the final of the World Test Championship against southamb Africa and that's going to happen I think lords in June this year. So there's been a lot of excitement about Australian men's cricket. That's the new generation, but it's a pretty old generation too. There's only one player in this side under thirty young nineteen years old Sam Constance, very exciting young player. Indy has got a couple of great young players as well, both twenty one. I think, so look the futures there. We're just having a look at it, having a little glimpse of it, but there's got to be more refreshment. I think of the Australian team certainly there's a lot of old fellas there and as time as some new blood.
Any heroes and villains that stand out for you.
Murray, well, look Verrat Coley was fantastic. I mean he was the villain and the hero, scored a century in Firth and then really he failed to fire a shot and look he's captain grumpy. It reminds me a bit of an Indian Allen Border. Border was famously furious, always on the field, grumpy and starly. And you know it was Coley who really sparked things with his the way he bumped into the young opener Sam constas well. He's a guy who's revered in world cricket bumping into this young tyro who's just nineteen, and rather than back down, Constience has given him a godful hello. You know he's doing that to Coley. Well he did, and so for the rest of the series the Indians were trying to put the young guy off his game. It didn't work because the young sam conscious had a great series in the Test matches for which he was picked. So it's been look a remarkable series for Australia. Scott Boland only played three Tests but he got about twenty three wickets at thirteen the average of thirteen. So look, very exciting summer and you know, just waiting now on rugby union to start again in rugby league.
And right into it, Peter Dutton, he's undergoing a makeover to show his softer side.
Yes, all right, look it's it's fair to say that. Look, Anthony Alberanezi remains more personally popular than Peter Dutton, the Liberal Party leader. He's the opposition leader. But in terms of two party preferred, which is the way we have it over here, the Opposition is a decent way in front of Labor and we have to go to an election between now and May at the latest. So what's going on taking Peter Dutton into the makeover shop. He's gone down, you know, to to get some new makeover treatment. So you know, it's the softer Queensland copper. He's the babyfaced police officer that Peter Dutton was when he left Store went into the Queensland Police. It's not this head kicking Tony Abbott clone who was really terrorized Labor in the last twelve to eighteen months. He's really taken the fight up to the Labor government of Anti Alberanzi, who's looked rattled, he's looked a bit like we're rat Coli when he's got a from Young Constance, so he's We're starting to see some new television ads. Here's Peter Dutton, You're holding a baby. Here's Peter Dutton padding a puppy. You know, all this sort of makee ap and stuff. You're going to see the same from Labor. It's going to be no different. But there's a lot of stake. Here's the thing though, for Peter Dutton has to win about seventeen or eighteen seats back to form government. That's going to be a very big ask. So we're looking more likely at a minority government Labor and the Greens perhaps enough to deny Dutton and company the government ventures. So looks fascinating little period ahead, but there must be an election within five months. May is the cutoff.
Fire Fighters have got some more challenges with bushfires in Victoria.
They sure have, and it's also that hot weather has spread up into New South Wales. But here's the decent I mean, they lost a chunk of Victoria the size of Singapore, that's how much was burned out, you know, around Christmas time. But now over the weekend just gone, we've seen a number of spot fires or major fires, I should say, not spotfires, but decent sized fires. And central Victoria, the central Goldfields area, well, they were trying their besting in on top of things yesterday. And the good news is there's to be a cooler change arriving from the southern Ocean that's going to bring some patchy rain across much of Victoria today. We understand maybe up at the New South Wales as well, just to take some of the heat out of it. And the temperatures have been you know, mid to high thirties. It's been a real handful dusty, windy conditions. And most of the people fighting these fires, I should point out a volunteers looking after their own communities. It's a hell of a job. But it's a job that seems to arrive every summer with increasing frequency and ferocity. So you know, we're far from out of the woods at this point. It's able to start a January. There's going to be a lot more fires between now and the start of winter.
Hey, just backtracking to the sports side of things. You're saying looking forward to the league and the unions. There some more cricket commitments we can get excited about. Or is the big show over?
No, no, no, because Australia is off to Sri Lanka and that's to be a Test series without the Australian Camppan he's staying behind, his wife's having above him. So there's you know, the Sri Lankan cricket side, but it's not the same as England or India, and all the keywas you get really excited about that, But then it's a way up to the UK and later this year the Ashes is here. That's the oldest rivalry in cricket. That's Australia be England. That's going to happen later this year. So I mean, if you want to play cricket, there's so much cricket around the world. It's on the whole time time. But I don't know about you. I'm an old fashioned guy. I'm an old fashioned purist. For me, test cricket is the only form of cricket that really works. It couldn't give a rats about World Cups and whatnot if you've got a five day test. We saw in Melbourne, the boxing day test, and that's for me, is lips smackingly good.
Well, it's the technology as well, the cameras that get right in there, and the breaks and the celebrations, the drones and the flying cameras. The coverage is a phenomenal, isn't it, Murray. It's just amazing.
It's extraordinary. You know, the new technology keeps getting rolled out. The first Olympic Games ever went to was thirty odd years ago, and you know it was I'm just trying to remember. I don't even think we're mobile phones around there. I really don't remember, but I remember running out two different phone boxes different events around the world. These days. As you say, I mean there's so much high tech new stuff. Yeah, that's around. It is extraordinary. You get you know, what's that great line from the Billy Birmingham. You know, the cameras are so good. You can see the guy changing his mind.
That's great, good, great to talk to.
Murray. There we go.
That's Murray Olds from Australia. We'll be back shortly with the Met Service talking about what we've got to expect on next couple of days. News Talk's ad B Summer Breakfast. It's just gone ten to seven.
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