October 22, 2025 • 5 mins
Our Australian correspondent talks about a record hot October day in Sydney, Albo, Rudd and Trump in Washington, and a record crop coming off in WA.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
He's there. Ossie correspondent Chris Russell, based out of Sydney.
We're getting battered by wind here in New Zealand today.
Yesterday in Australia. Maybe this was a forerunner of what
we're facing. Chris Russell, you had your hottest October.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Day ever, that's correct, Sydney. Forty degrees in October. It's
just unheard of. And I was sticking hot on a
big wind. You know where we live. We live quite
close to the bush up here, right on the north
northwestern tip of Sydney. You know, we got as far
out of metropolis as we could get while we're still practically,
(00:34):
you know, being practical about access. But you know we're
always worry when you get that northern wind. And it
was a very strong wind. My pools full of leaves again,
and it was a hot wind. So forty degrees. Yeah,
it was very hot. And we're sitting hsc IF High
School Certificate over here, which is the big matriculation exam.
A lot of kids struggling maths yesterday, and yeah, I
(00:57):
think it was a bad day to have a hot
day like that. It's supposed to be a little bit
cooler today and over the weekend, but Monday it's returning
that hot weather again. So the climate, she's a changing Jamie.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Wow, Yes, I would agree with you, but Donald Trump wasn't. Wouldn't.
He's not a fan of climate change at all. Interesting
scenes this week in Washington with Trump seemingly having a
love feast with Elbow, but at the same time putting
the boot into Kevin Rudd. Now the pair of them
are narcissists.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yeah, they're both as Absolutely they're both narcissists. And but
you know, and Kevin Rudd is, you know, I think,
my view, the worst prime minister we've ever had, you know,
closely followed by Paul Keating, and he was appointed across
to be the ambassador. Crazy move in one sense. But
before he became the ambassador he made the comment that
(01:51):
he thought that Trump was the most destructive president anywhere
and the village idiot. So of course they got through
what was probably the most successful conference or meeting that
any world leader has had with Trump since he came
to power. I mean, he couldn't have been more successful.
Really from Australia's point of view, everything went our way.
(02:11):
We signed an eight and a half billion dollar agreement
they're going to invest in our rare earths and they needed,
of course, but our rare earth industry. Trump said that
he's going to accelerate our submarine program, including giving us
more submarines. We thought, and while we're hearing at the moment,
is the opposite, regardless of the actual inquiry that's going
(02:32):
on in the US Senate. So that was all good news.
Everyone was all lovey dovey. It was amazing. And then
one reporter said, as you will have seen on the
press over there, well what about mister Trump, what about
mister Rudd? And of course Trump says, oh yeah, and
what did he say? And the way we go then
and of course, and then Trump I think probably engineered
(02:52):
a little bit by saying was he here today? And
at that point albo is through Rudd right under the
bus by just flicking his hand to say yeah, across
the table. And then Trump made his classic comment, well
I don't like you, and I don't think I have
a will. Nonetheless, we came out of that meeting with
flying colors, and there's all sorts of minds now in Victoria,
Western Australia that we're looking to get some investment money,
(03:15):
which are now that money is going to flow on
a fast track basis, and we're going to break what
they're calling the microscopy of China, where they didn't have
all of the rare earths in there in their country,
but they certainly had anopoly on the manufacturing and processing
of them. And of course these are are worse a
(03:36):
lot of money. Thing like gallium is worth five hundred
and sixty thousand dollars per ton. That's a lot of money.
Five hundred and sixty dollars a kilo. Not a lot
of it, but it's a critical element for making a
lot of their missiles and a lot of the weaponry,
and of course for AI and batteries and so on.
So I think it's import far outweighs the value of
(03:58):
it in many ways. Jamie.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Yeah, well, obviously Trump wants something from you. That's why
the meeting was so friendly. Let's just finish if we
can on a record crop coming off in Western Australia.
I was there a couple of weeks ago looking at
the all black speeding the Wallabies or Whatn't go on
about that, Chris, But I think Perth, Western Australia had
had its wettest winter on record and the place was
(04:20):
screen as it was looking like Southland.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah, well look at has We're expecting the harvest a
record breaking twenty five million tons in Western Australia this year.
That'll be about forty percent of our total crop just
in Western Australia, most of it between Geraldton, which is
a couple of hundred klimeters north of Perth and the
right the bottom tip of Western Australia. Worth about seven
(04:44):
point eight billion dollars, which is a lot less than
it would have been worth, say two or three years ago,
because the world price for wheat in particular has dropped
due to a very big harvest in the Northern Hemisphere.
But nonetheless Western Australia is seeing the same. Please don't jink,
because it doesn't matter how valuable a crop is. If
you don't have any, it's not worth anything. And this
(05:04):
year they have crop, it is worth money and they're
now in the prices of getting it up, very different
to parts of Victoria and South Australia which are not
so lucky, and we're seeing quite a lot of their
crop actually being bailed for hay at the moment because
it's just not going to be worth harvesting. So so
far the spring weather has been ideal and everybody is
(05:27):
working to try and get all this crop off before
they get frosts or some other sort of jinxing or
damaging item which is going to wreck what will otherwise
be a really good year.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Jamie Chris Ross, thanks as always for your time from Australia.
Batting down the hatches here in New Zealand today with
the wind and I hope it calls off of it
in Sydney.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah, thanks Jamie,
He's there. Ossie correspondent Chris Russell, based out of Sydney.
We're getting battered by wind here in New Zealand today.
Yesterday in Australia. Maybe this was a forerunner of what
we're facing. Chris Russell, you had your hottest October.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Day ever, that's correct, Sydney. Forty degrees in October. It's
just unheard of. And I was sticking hot on a
big wind. You know where we live. We live quite
close to the bush up here, right on the north
northwestern tip of Sydney. You know, we got as far
out of metropolis as we could get while we're still practically,
(00:34):
you know, being practical about access. But you know we're
always worry when you get that northern wind. And it
was a very strong wind. My pools full of leaves again,
and it was a hot wind. So forty degrees. Yeah,
it was very hot. And we're sitting hsc IF High
School Certificate over here, which is the big matriculation exam.
A lot of kids struggling maths yesterday, and yeah, I
(00:57):
think it was a bad day to have a hot
day like that. It's supposed to be a little bit
cooler today and over the weekend, but Monday it's returning
that hot weather again. So the climate, she's a changing Jamie.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Wow, Yes, I would agree with you, but Donald Trump wasn't. Wouldn't.
He's not a fan of climate change at all. Interesting
scenes this week in Washington with Trump seemingly having a
love feast with Elbow, but at the same time putting
the boot into Kevin Rudd. Now the pair of them
are narcissists.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yeah, they're both as Absolutely they're both narcissists. And but
you know, and Kevin Rudd is, you know, I think,
my view, the worst prime minister we've ever had, you know,
closely followed by Paul Keating, and he was appointed across
to be the ambassador. Crazy move in one sense. But
before he became the ambassador he made the comment that
(01:51):
he thought that Trump was the most destructive president anywhere
and the village idiot. So of course they got through
what was probably the most successful conference or meeting that
any world leader has had with Trump since he came
to power. I mean, he couldn't have been more successful.
Really from Australia's point of view, everything went our way.
(02:11):
We signed an eight and a half billion dollar agreement
they're going to invest in our rare earths and they needed,
of course, but our rare earth industry. Trump said that
he's going to accelerate our submarine program, including giving us
more submarines. We thought, and while we're hearing at the moment,
is the opposite, regardless of the actual inquiry that's going
(02:32):
on in the US Senate. So that was all good news.
Everyone was all lovey dovey. It was amazing. And then
one reporter said, as you will have seen on the
press over there, well what about mister Trump, what about
mister Rudd? And of course Trump says, oh yeah, and
what did he say? And the way we go then
and of course, and then Trump I think probably engineered
(02:52):
a little bit by saying was he here today? And
at that point albo is through Rudd right under the
bus by just flicking his hand to say yeah, across
the table. And then Trump made his classic comment, well
I don't like you, and I don't think I have
a will. Nonetheless, we came out of that meeting with
flying colors, and there's all sorts of minds now in Victoria,
Western Australia that we're looking to get some investment money,
(03:15):
which are now that money is going to flow on
a fast track basis, and we're going to break what
they're calling the microscopy of China, where they didn't have
all of the rare earths in there in their country,
but they certainly had anopoly on the manufacturing and processing
of them. And of course these are are worse a
(03:36):
lot of money. Thing like gallium is worth five hundred
and sixty thousand dollars per ton. That's a lot of money.
Five hundred and sixty dollars a kilo. Not a lot
of it, but it's a critical element for making a
lot of their missiles and a lot of the weaponry,
and of course for AI and batteries and so on.
So I think it's import far outweighs the value of
(03:58):
it in many ways. Jamie.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Yeah, well, obviously Trump wants something from you. That's why
the meeting was so friendly. Let's just finish if we
can on a record crop coming off in Western Australia.
I was there a couple of weeks ago looking at
the all black speeding the Wallabies or Whatn't go on
about that, Chris, But I think Perth, Western Australia had
had its wettest winter on record and the place was
(04:20):
screen as it was looking like Southland.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah, well look at has We're expecting the harvest a
record breaking twenty five million tons in Western Australia this year.
That'll be about forty percent of our total crop just
in Western Australia, most of it between Geraldton, which is
a couple of hundred klimeters north of Perth and the
right the bottom tip of Western Australia. Worth about seven
(04:44):
point eight billion dollars, which is a lot less than
it would have been worth, say two or three years ago,
because the world price for wheat in particular has dropped
due to a very big harvest in the Northern Hemisphere.
But nonetheless Western Australia is seeing the same. Please don't jink,
because it doesn't matter how valuable a crop is. If
you don't have any, it's not worth anything. And this
(05:04):
year they have crop, it is worth money and they're
now in the prices of getting it up, very different
to parts of Victoria and South Australia which are not
so lucky, and we're seeing quite a lot of their
crop actually being bailed for hay at the moment because
it's just not going to be worth harvesting. So so
far the spring weather has been ideal and everybody is
(05:27):
working to try and get all this crop off before
they get frosts or some other sort of jinxing or
damaging item which is going to wreck what will otherwise
be a really good year.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Jamie Chris Ross, thanks as always for your time from Australia.
Batting down the hatches here in New Zealand today with
the wind and I hope it calls off of it
in Sydney.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah, thanks Jamie,
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