Oliver Peterson: Australian correspondent on Tropical Cyclone Alfred barrelling towards Brisbane

A category 2 cyclone is set to hit Australian shores, with its outer edges sending heavy surf and high tides to Queensland's beaches.

Tropical Cyclone Alfred is expected to send rain and strong winds to Brisbane when it makes landfall, and authorities are warning residents to be prepared.

Australian correspondent Oliver Peterson says it's looking likely that the AFL season opener set to be played at the Gabba on Thursday will be cancelled.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
International correspondence with NS and Eye Insurance, Peace of mind
for New Zealand business. So Australia we go now, Oli
Peterson six per perth Life presents a only good afternoon.
Good afternoon, Ryan, You've got a cyclone set to hit
Brisbane later this week. How bad do they reckon?

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Pretty bad. It's so bad in fact that the opening
round of the AFL season, which is meant to be
played at the Gaber on Thursday night, could be canceled.
So all the fanfare, the build up for the season
and they may have to postpone the match. Decision will
be made on Thursday, which has got all the Geelong
Football Club team and supporters pretty upset because they want
to know whether or not they need to go to Queensland.

(00:35):
As you and I speak right now, David Cruci fully,
the Premiere of Queensland, is on his feet and he
is telling it parts of Queensland and New South Wales
now brace for significant rainfall severe wins. Exactly when it's
going to hit is not known at this stage, but
it's still a fair way off the coast. It could
be a Category two or three, but coming down so
far the coast, you know, it's going to hit Brisbane.

(00:57):
Like at the moment, the eye of this thing is
somewhere between Brisbane and Mariucci or a little further north.
But this time of year, like we're into March, obviously, Ryan,
you don't hear about cyclones hitting that low if you're
like in Australia at this time of years. So there's
obviously a lot of precautions being taken, a lot of
people being notified as early as possible as possible. But

(01:19):
of course this is going to build and intensify and
we should know more in the next twenty four hours.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
All right, Ollie. The federal government now they're still going
with the health handouts, the Federal government promising fifty more
urgent care clinics.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah, and they're saying that they're hoping that every single
Australian can be seen by a doctor within twenty minutes.
That's the aim of these fifty new urgent care clinics
that have cost US six hundred and fifty million dollars.
Seems actually as though there might not be enough money
to build those fifty new urgent care clinics. But straight
away the Royal College of Australian GPS have said, why

(01:53):
why do you want to go and build additional facilities,
Why not pumpty into hospitals?

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Why not also put that.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Funding towards the medical centers that we already have, which
have to shut at six o'clock or seven o'clock at
night and keep them mompent until ten or eleven or twelve.
I mean, that seems to make a bit more economic sense,
doesn't it Ryan that you might get doctors doing night
shifts in clinics that are in the suburbs so that
people go, I'm not going to the emergency department. I
know that there's a major clinic in my area that
I can go to that's the infrastructures already, they've been

(02:20):
there for a decade or two. SEEGP that way, that
seems to make a bit of sense. I think the
racgp's got a good idea here. But this is going
to be and so it should be an election for
overhealth because from my point of view, it's the number
one issue that we are fighting with at the moment
in this country, apart from costa living, and our health
standards are just not up to scratch in a country
that we live in. I know it's similar for you

(02:42):
in New Zealand at the moment, Ryan, but you just
expect more.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, Hey, what's happened to the former Australian of the
Year who's had been battling cancer.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
This is really sad. Professor Richard Scollier, who was a
joint Australian of the Year in twenty twenty four for
his incredible work at the Melanoma Institute of Australia, he
has just discovered that his brain cancer is growing back. Now.
He undertook an experimental trial and he was happy to
use himself for one of a better term as a
guinea pig with some of the work that was being

(03:11):
done through the Melanoma Institute to try and stop the
growth of his brain cancer, and until late last week
he had some success. Now the brain cancer is back.
He's undergoing surgery today. He has been very very candid
about this and believes that he will probably be dead
within three to six months. And that is just a
horrible turn of events because I had the great privilege

(03:31):
of interviewing him here in Perth last year and he
would be one of the most inspiring people that you
have ever met. And obviously somebody who has dedicated his
entire life to try and find a cure for melanoma.
It looks like brain cancer is going to take his
life as well, which is just incredibly.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Sad, very sad. Indeed, Oliver, thank you for that. Oliver
Peterson six pr PERS Live presenter with.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Us for more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drave.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
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