Murray Olds: Australian Correspondent on the inquest into the Bondi Junction stabbing, NRL's Welcome to Country cancellation and the beginning of a trial for alleged mushroom poisoning

An inquest into the Bondi Junction stabbing incident today heard from the police officer who shot dead the attacker.

Amy Scott said she thought Joel Cauchi was going to kill her before she shot him.

It’s been revealed that Cauchi hadn’t been treated for acute schizophrenia for five years.

Australian Correspondent Murray Olds joins the show to discuss the details, the start of a trial for alleged mushroom poisoning and the NRL’s Welcome to Country cancellation drama.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Murray Old's Ossie correspondence with US. Now, hey Maras very
good afternoon. So this coppers shot the attacker at Bondi Junction.
What they say, well, it's pretty extraordinary stuff to be honest.
The inquest opened yesterday. We heard in the opening address
basically the man who carried out this attack, a forty
year old guy called Joel Couci, hadn't been treated for

(00:22):
acute schizophrena for five years. The Queensland authorities basically told
him to self determine if he needed any medication, and
he just went off the radar for five years, living
rough in Sydney and looking up dreadful stuff on the
internet about stabbing attacks and mass murder and the like. Anyway,
on that Saturday afternoon, those who know Sydney, the Eastern

(00:43):
suburbs Westfield, Bondai Junction very very big center, and it
was packed and Joel Couchi's arrived, pulled out a knife
and just gone crazy for three minutes. Six people dead,
ten others are very badly injured. Amy Scott is a
New South Wales police inspector. She was nearby when she

(01:05):
had this. All the units, all the units Eastern suburbs.
Any car, we're getting multiple calls about multiple stabbings. Get
to Bondai junction. She's gone straight there. See only a
few minutes away in the patrol car. Anyway out the
front there's everyone's pouring out of a center because this
guy's going crazy. On the fifth level. She's pulled over
by two French guys and a third fellow and they

(01:27):
say we know where he is. She says, right, follow me.
Out comes the weapon. They go roaring inside up the escalators,
and within a moment or two, she's face to face
with his Joel catchy fellow. Now she's looking at him,
he's looking at her. Behind him, she can see a
baby's pram and a couple of women, one of whom's

(01:48):
hiding behind a pot plant. She mouths to one of
the women, run, run, run, and this guy turns around,
looks at the police officer. She's an inspector, pretty experienced socides.
I'm going to charge right at her at the police inspector. Well,
bang bang, bang, three shots and he's down. He's fatally injured.
So all of this in a matter of minutes. And

(02:10):
if I'm not just telling you this, it's like a
movie hitter or it's like something on television, but it's real.
This guy was not treated. Acute mental illness on the
streets spun out and there all these people died, all
these people very very badly wounded. Now he's dead. And
this woman herself, she acknowledged when she began she began

(02:31):
giving evidence, acknowledged the pain and the trauma, all the
hurt that the people involved had suffered. And she actually said,
you know what I'm suffering as well. She's got something
like PTSD or something along those lines. Apparently, so as
you would expect, I guess. So that looked much more
evidence to come. But it's pretty harrowing stuff, it must
be said. Yeah, and then you've also got the trial,

(02:52):
Day one of the trial of the mushroom Chef. That's right,
Aaron Patterson. She's fifty years old. Everyone knows they are.
Nearly two years ago, four people turn up at her
place for lunch, her ex in laws and the sister
of one, and that the sister's husband. Four people sitting
down for a beef Wellington lunch, and three of them
die from it. Now she's accused of three counts of murder.

(03:14):
She's denied it, of course, and in all this time
the prosecution getting itself ready for this case five to
six weeks they say it's going to run today. Procedural
really heather Around one hundred and twenty locals. The trials
being held out in East Gippsland, east of Melbourne. Around
one hundred and twenty locals were summoned for jury duty.

(03:35):
A large pool was whittled down via a random ballot.
Now fifteen jurors. You've got the twelve and the jury
plus three alternates and the jury panel will get some
instructions we understand from Justice Belle in about twenty minutes
from now. So this represents the start of the trial.
And I can tell you there's global interest in this

(03:56):
in this case right around the people are just fascinated
by it. Have they got international news crews there as far?
Look I heard that this morning. I've not been down there.
I don't know. I heard it on one of the
news bulletins that you know, BBC parenties down there. You've
got I mean everything in Australia is represented, but I
understand the BBC's there as well. Yeah, that's fascinating. Okay,

(04:17):
Hey listen, does it sound to you like the NRL
is standing by these welcome to country ceremonies. One if
you look at the playing roster you've got, You've got Maldi,
you've got Polynesians, you've got you know, every shade of
of of of color under the sun. You're not going
to drop that. It's part of the DNA of the
of the National Rugby League. And it was last Friday

(04:38):
when Peter Dutton was asked about this idiot who booed,
this right wing neo nazi who booed the Welcome to
country at the ANZAC dawn service in Melbourne. He said,
it's disgraceful. Of course that welcome the Country should take place,
but it flip flopped on Monday said no, no, no, I
think it's it's well overdone. It's well overdone. And look
I don't think any of the people, servicemen and women

(05:01):
like it very much either. Well hello this morning and
come out and said well yes we do, Peter, thanks
very much. And the NRL with the Magic Round that's
coming up this weekend up in Brisbane. The NRL says, listen,
of course it's part of our program, but it's always
going to be part of our program. So many of
our players are indigenous, so many of our players. It
means a lot to them. Is it such a big deal.
They're simply saying, welcome to Indigenous country. We've been here

(05:24):
for sixty five thousand years. And that's been the problem
with Peter Dutton's campaign. He gets sidetracked on these kind
of cultural war issues about being woke and all the
rest of that nonsense. If he'd stuck to cost a
Living from the start, he might be able to have
a bit of chance for success on Saturday that he's
currently looking at. Yeah, interesting stuff, Murray, thank you very much,
really appreciate it. Murray Old's our Australia correspondents. For more

(05:47):
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