The Country 16/10/25: Chris Russell talks to Jamie Mackay

Our Australian correspondent discusses the “Lucky State”, surging wool prices, an FTA with the UAE, and the prospect of an Aussie winning the US Dancing with the Stars.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
He's there. Elsie correspondent Chris Russell and Chrisoft just come
back from a couple of weeks in Perth and Adelaide,
and I must say, if Australia is the lucky country,
then surely Western Australia is the lucky state. Gee, there's
some money over there.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Yeah, there certainly is. I mean when you look at
the amount. They've been very smart too. In many ways.
I haven't been a big admirer for some of the
leadership over there, but the fact that they've kept a
reserve of things like gas available for Western Australians rather
than selling everything off overseas, means their energy price the less.
They ship about ten billion dollars worth of iron ore globally.

(00:39):
They're the biggest iron ore supplier in the world out
of Port Headland and Karratha up in the Northern up
in the north of Western Australia every month. That's amazing.
All the royalties from that. You just drive go down
that Swan River and look at the sheer opulence on
the sides of the river. It is a very rich state.
The crazy thing, Jamie, is that under of the arrangements

(01:01):
for the GST money being's handed out to the states. Here,
West Australia under a very old arrangement done under John
Howard gets a disproportionate amount of GST based on their
population still and yet they're the probably the state that
needs at the least they're running in surplus. Now that
nothing like the financial concerns of Victoria, New South Wales.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
What's behind the recent wall of price rise, because that's
the story I've been following in my absence from being
on air. Wall is suddenly worth something again?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yes, well, I've talked about it with Hamish while you've
been away. It's gone up two dollars in two weeks
a kilo, which we haven't seen that sort of price
rise for a long time now. My initial thoughts were
there was a combination of a very low flock here,
of course down below seventy million, and of course going
down lower as the federal government bans live sheep exports

(01:55):
out of the West, which will affect their ability to
get rid of cast for age US means that a
lot of people are going to go out of sheep.
But nonetheless, you know, I also thought it was due
to the extra demand for uniforms in China, they've suddenly
put a massive order for both their government worker uniforms
and the army. But in fact it looks like it

(02:16):
might be also a coincidence maybe, but certainly coincides with
a kind of secret meeting between Australian wool Innovation and
the Chinese bull buyers to say, look, you guys are
complaining about the fact you're struggling to get enough wall
to keep your woolen mills going, and yet you're not

(02:37):
paying enough money. And the week later the price went
up a dollar, and a week later that it went
up another dollar. Now you might say that's coincidence, and
it doesn't sound like something the Chinese would do because
they're always trying to screw another dollar out of everyone.
But nonetheless, that certainly happened, and maybe they've seen the
fact that if they want to have a supply of
high quality wall reliably produced in Australia, they've got a

(03:00):
pay producers, you know, at least their cost of production
and some to get them to stay in there, given
that they can make a lot more money out of
lamb and beef.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Jamie, Happy days for Ossie sheep farmers. Your new free
trade agreement with the UAE will bring an extra billions
for them.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yes, well, UAA is already our largest trade and investment
partner in the Middle East, and we've got rid of
tariffs now on things like frozen beef and sheep meat.
Alban Easy stopped off in the UAE on one of
his overseas trips and it's been now signed and more

(03:40):
than ninety nine percent of Australian exports will now go
into the UOE duty free, and that's going to boost
our income from there by about one hundred and eighty
five million in its first year alone. UAE is our
twelfth biggest market by volume, but it sits in fifth
spot for chilled beef and sicks for grain fed beef.

(04:02):
For lamb it's our third largest market and it certainly
means that we have about sixty eight percent of the
UAE market currently for sheep meat and we're certainly going
to make a lot more money out of that and
have continued benefits in dealing with them, and of course
their credit's always pretty good over there.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
Jomie, Hey, Chris Russell. Great to be back on air,
especially chatting to you. Enjoyed my time in the Lucky country.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Lovely to have you over here, Jamie. See you next week.