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finder.com.au Money Podcast #15: Wi-Fi frights and Amazon wars

Posted: 30 March 2017 3:49 pm

News

This week the podcast welcomes back our editor-in-chief Angus Kidman to talk about how #deviceban works, the possible launch of Amazon in Australia and The Block 2017. Plus, Marc and Liz talk with guest-host Jodie about rising home loan rates, money-making schemes on tinder and giant Canadian gold coins.

Listen or download the episode below

Male: Welcome to the Money Podcast, from finder.com.au, Australia's most-visited comparison site. The Finder Money Podcast is your weekly dose of finance and consumer news, tips, and tricks without the boredom.

Mark: Hey there. Take a seat. The podcast is starting. The Finder Money Podcast, to be precise.

Woman: What if people are already sitting?

Mark: Well, slouch. Slouch further into your seat. Podcast Episode 15. Welcome.

Woman: Woo.

Mark: Liz "The Biz" Barry and Jodie "The Dog Whisperer" Humphries.

Woman: The dog whisperer.

Mark: Adam is not in today, unfortunately, but he will be back very soon, as always.

Jodie: What are you talking about? I am Adam.

Mark: Jodie's a shape-shifter. That's it. That's all that's happened.

Liz: I hear no differences in their voices.

Mark: Yeah, you're right. You know.

Jodie: Just lose the American accent.

Liz: Yeah, that's right.

Mark: Jodie is one of the writers on the home loans team. She's also a "Block" expert, a "Blockspert.". So if you like the show, "The Block," you will like Jodie.

Jodie: Yeah. I'm the self-proclaimed resident "Blockspert" of Finder.

Mark: Yes. Yes. Well, not really self-proclaimed. Like, we have had fans. Would you call them fans?

Liz: If you call fans people just being like, "Where can I get those curtains that I saw four episodes ago, in this specific room."

Mark: Then yes.

Liz: Then yeah, you can call them fans.

Mark: We have an awesome episode planned, as always. Angus Kidman, the always entertaining Angus, is coming in later to talk to us about a whole lot of things today, really, but some of the highlights will be in-flight WIFI with Qantas, "The Block," the aforementioned "The Block," the device ban that just happened.

Liz: Yeah.

Mark: It's pretty interesting stuff.

Jodie: Yeah, I need to read up on that. I haven't paid any attention.

Mark: I purposely didn't read up. I was like, "I'm gonna let Angus school me today on that one."

Liz: There's just been lots of different information that's kind of come out about it. So I'm interested to kind of wade through all that with him, I guess.

Mark: Get to the bottom of it.

Liz: Yeah, get to...Really, that's basically the whole reason we're getting him in. Get to the bottom of this device ban.

Mark: It's not to help our users or our listeners. It's just literally, yeah, for Liz.

Liz: No. It's just for me. It's for us.

Jodie: We're very selfish here.

Liz: I'm just rocking up to the airport with like eight different laptops. I'm like, "Which one can I bring on? I don't understand."

Jodie: None of them, Liz. None of them.

Mark: Also, Amazon has announced that they're coming to Australia. So I personally want to pick Angus' brains and find out how that will work. You know? Does that mean that all items that are for sale on Amazon can now be shipped here? Yeah. So let's get to the bottom of it, Liz.

Liz: I actually wasn't ex...

Jodie: That will be interesting, actually.

Liz: Yeah. I actually wasn't excited for Amazon. I don't shop online. But last night, probably the first night ever, I wanted to order this...I've been listening to kind of whale noises before I go to sleep. I've found it's helping me get to sleep.

Mark: Whale noises? Whoa.

Liz: Yeah, it's because I downloaded this new sleep app. Right?

Mark: Really?

Liz: But I found I can't listen to it with my headphones. So I want to get this sleep headband, this wireless sleep band.

Jodie: Oh, I've seen that. I totally want one.

Liz: Yeah, but it's only available on Amazon. Well, that I can find. So last night was literally the first night, in about three years, that I was like, "I want Amazon in Australia. I want to get this sleep headband." Yeah.

Mark: Wow. A sleep headband. I'm like a big spender on sleep goods. Like, things that will make me sleep better, I will definitely spend money on.

Jodie: Same here. Same here.

Liz: Yeah.

Mark: Wow. That's incredible.

Liz: Yeah.

Mark: Well, maybe you need to speak to Angus then.

Liz: Yeah. Oh, I'm definitely gonna ask him about the whale noises.

Mark: It's very Homer Simpson-esque.

Liz: Oh, yeah.

Mark: I can picture him making those noises.

Jodie: You listen to whale noises. I listen to things like "The West Wing" and "Criminal Minds."

Mark: Jodie's more of a TV sleep aid.

Jodie: TV kind of sleep aid.

Liz: If I listen to TV, I get too involved and then I have to stay up.

Mark: Really?

Liz: Yeah.

Jodie: That's why I listen to shows I've seen a million times. I've seen "The West Wing" a million times. I can drop in and out and still know what's going on. I've seen "Criminal Minds" a million times.

Mark: That's a good point. Yeah.

Liz: Yeah, that's true.

Jodie: So I can just... Yeah, and, you know, I like "Criminal Minds" because then all the ideas for, you know, criminality for...

Mark: For murders.

Liz: So Jodie plans murders to help her get to sleep, basically.

Jodie: Basically.

Mark: So Jodie also...Her second job at Finder is planning...

Liz: Yeah, the resident murder...

Jodie: Murder expert.

Mark: Murder planner.

Liz: Murder-spert? Is that the Jodie [inaudible 00:04:31]?

Mark: Yeah, murder-spert. I think that's aft.

Jodie: Getting inside the mind of serial killers.

Mark: Well, guys, you know, I'd love to sit and chat here all day. I really would. You guys are very interesting, and I love you, but news has happened in the last week.

Liz: It has happened. Yeah.

Jodie: Really?

Mark: I think we should...Yeah, we should probably maybe mention one or two stories, perhaps.

Liz: Hundred-percent.

Mark: Yeah.

Liz: Yeah, so one of the news items that I came across...So I work, obviously, in the personal loans niche. So something that happened this week was basically a huge amount of consumer advocates marched on Canberra. That was the actual term that got used. Basically they just had a bunch of meetings in Canberra to kind of push forward this legislation that has been proposed to change payday loan laws. Yeah.

Mark: Interesting.

Jodie: People don't like payday loans.

Liz: I know. I'm so shocked.

Jodie: I saw the headline, and I was like, "Oh. Is that still going on?" Seriously, people?

Liz: Yeah, the funny thing is they've just been regulated so much, and these rules...Obviously they're regulating them more, but the rules that are proposed are just slight tweaks, in my opinion. They're kind of to cap the protected income amount. So basically when you apply for a payday loan, they look at how much income you're earning. Previously, if you were receiving Center Link [SP], they would say that the repayment amount couldn't be more than 20% of your Center Link income. They've actually...

Mark: Oh, interesting. Okay.

Liz: Yeah, so they've actually reduced that to 10%, but they said it applies to everyone. So now they want...

Mark: All forms of income now.

Liz: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So not just Center Link. So they want to push these rules forward. There's also some rules that are coming into place for consumer leases and things like that.

Mark: Interesting.

Liz: Yeah, so they're worried about delays and pushing forward the legislation and things like that. There's also been calls, obviously, from the payday-lending community and things like that, saying, "How much regulation is there gonna be until it's regulated out of the system?" I mean, really. You know?

Mark: That's really interesting because it is like a contentious form of loan for some people. But then for other people, it actually can be quite helpful, and they can pay it on time and everything like that.

Jodie: Yeah, it's their only access to...

Mark: Yeah, to credit. Right?

Liz: Yeah.

Jodie: To credit, because they unfortunately have had previous situations where they...Maybe something happened, like, they couldn't help, and, yeah, a payday loan is all they can access because a regular bank loan just...Their marks on the credit file are just...Yeah.

Liz: Yeah. I mean, the interesting thing is...So one of the most-used kind of arguments is there actually is a no-and-low-interest credit here. It's offered by an organization called Good Shepherd Micro Finance.

Mark: I've heard of them. Yeah.

Liz: Yeah, so they offer...So basically you either pay no interest or low interest on these loans, but the issue is that you can only use them for certain purposes. So you can use them to buy essential household items, or you can use them for medical expenses. But I mean, obviously, with that, if you're using them for something else, you're not gonna be eligible. So there still is a purpose for these short-term credit options. So yeah, that's all the discussion that's going on.

Unfortunately, with that, a civil act...A class-action lawsuit was brought against a radio rental this week at the same time. So that's not...It's not going well in payday loan land.

Jodie: Yeah, radio rentals is one of the bigger kind of offers of... Yeah.

Liz: Yeah. Yeah, it's part of [inaudible 00:08:03].

Jodie: Yeah, payday loans.

Mark: I did not know that. I would have thought they would have rented radios, but they also do that?

Liz: They do.

Mark: Oh, wow. That's so cool.

Jodie: They do rent out electrical appliances and stuff like that. But yeah, they also have the... It's kind of like cash converters. They kind of [inaudible 00:08:17].

Mark: Yeah, I know cash converters. Yeah.

Liz: It's kind of like rent-to-buy.

Mark: Right. Okay.

Liz: Yeah, but the issue is they charge you ridiculous amounts.

Mark: Wow.

Liz: Yeah, but the thing is, with these rent-to-buy schemes, it was largely...I mean, the cap...There were hardly any caps on these because payday loans were so regulated, and then these consumer leases weren't really regulated. That's some of the laws that are being pushed in now.

Mark: Interesting.

Jodie: You had a full, like, seven-bedroom house with these rent-to-buy things, and then just skip out and...

Mark: Take the first train to Mexico.

Jodie: Yeah.

Liz: Yeah, exactly.

Mark: Well, one thing that I noticed that has happened recently is the Australian Council of Trade Unions has pushed the fair work commission for a $45-a-week increase to the minimum wage in Australia, which I think is pretty interesting. Last year, they pushed for a $30 increase. They only got $15.80.

Liz: I was gonna say. Is it a big increase? That sounds like a lot.

Mark: Yeah. Yeah. They were saying that the minimum wage has been growing quite slowly in Australia. It only grew 1.9% in 2016, compared to 3.4% for the average wage. Yeah, the current minimum wage is $17.70-an-hour.

Jodie: I think people on minimum wage are living on the kind of line of...

Mark: Poverty line.

Jodie: Poverty line.

Liz: Oh, really?

Jodie: So I think that's why. Yeah, because it's not growing like...Like, for instance, our wages would be growing exponentially, for a reasonable rate, due to cost of living. Whereas minimum wage hasn't really done that.

Mark: Bit more neglected. Yeah. Yeah, so that was an awesome story though. So I'll definitely drop the link to that story in our link page.

Liz: So should we all be going outside and asking our bosses for an extra $45-a-week? Is that how it works?

Mark: Yes, I think that's the message.

Liz: Excellent.

Mark: Please, do ask.

Liz: Good to know.

Jodie: My boss is across the table from me.

Liz: Yeah, Mark?

Mark: Yes. That's a non-contractually-binding agreement.

Jodie: Not at all. Go to Wally.

Mark: Wally is Jodie's beloved dog.

Jodie: And Finder's mascot because he's got a Finder shirt.

Mark: Yeah, that's right. He has a Finder shirt.

Jodie: [inaudible 00:10:23] Finder shirt. Yeah. So this is my first podcast. So I have to, like, look up news and stuff. But one thing that has been happening, and I did kind of do some research on it yesterday for another reason, is home loan rates are just continuing to...

Mark: Yes.

Jodie: Despite the RBA holding, like, lenders just keep dropping more and more rate increases, and they seem to be pushing investors, and interest-only loans seem to be the focus at the moment. They're the biggest focus. In the industry, APRA is looking at maybe tightening the reigns on investors again. They're getting pushed to tighten the reign on investor lending again. At the moment, banks have 10% growth kind of speed limit.

Mark: Right. Yeah.

Jodie: On investor loans. But yeah, there's push in the industry to....well, not in the industry, in the general public, to maybe kind of tighten that down to 5% because they just think there's too much investor money into home loans, and that's pushing up house prices, which is causing the massive housing-affordability issue.

Mark: Yeah, issues that we're seeing. That's interesting. So I think it's quite a few lenders that have been raising rates. Right?

Jodie: Yeah, I think...I counted them yesterday. The ones that we've been able to find is 24 lenders total.

Mark: Whoa.

Jodie: Yeah.

Mark: That's so interesting. I wonder if savings accounts rates are also following that at all, or if they're dropping, or what's happening with that.

Jodie: Yeah, I don't know. I'd have to...

Liz: Well, the interesting thing is, when they all came out and changed their home loan rates, they were changing business loan rates as well.

Jodie: Yeah.

Mark: Yeah, which is very rare. Right?

Liz: Well, when they can...So when the RBA changes...Sorry. Not when the RBA changes rates, but around that time of the month, and...You know, the banks either come out, and they say, "Yes, we're changing it," or, "No, we're not."

Mark: Yeah.

Liz: They sometimes announce business loan rate changes at the same time. So I guess they would just thought, "Oh. I suppose if we're changing rates randomly, we'll just tack on business loan rate changes."

Jodie: Yeah, it was like on the bottom of all the press releases I was seeing, and I was like flicking it to Liz. I'm like, "These guys changed. These guys changed. These guys changed."

Mark: That's very interesting. Yeah, they would do that.

Jodie: But it's interesting because, like, the big focus, especially when it relates to the RBA, the big focus is around home loan rates. But there's also a push now to get credit card rates, interest rates, more in line with the RBA cash rate and maybe adjust that along those lines, because it's a very low cash rate. So that's...But unfortunate...

Mark: There's room to wiggle.

Jodie: Yeah, there's room to wiggle. But unfortunately, lenders are coming out and saying, "Well, actually our cost of purchasing finance is making us raise our rates." It's like, "Well, not really."

Mark: You don't have to speak like that.

Jodie: That's how I imagine all the CEOs of the big banks speaking.

Mark: Why you talking funny?

Liz: But it's so strange because they came out, and they all did it, like...because who came out...It was all of the brands under Westpac, so this is St.George, BankSA, and all that, and then ANZ did it. It was all in the space of a couple days. It's like they all had some big secret meeting, like this smoking club. They're like, "Yes, let's send out the releases," and like...

Mark: Let's raise the rates.

Liz: Yeah.

Jodie: Because literally all last week, there was, like...Who was first?

Liz: Was that ANZ bank?

Mark: Wasn't it? I think it was maybe even Westpac. Wasn't it? Someone started off the whole...

Jodie: Westpac start...I think Westpac started it, and then...

Liz: I wonder if someone sent it out, and then they're like, "Did you see they raised it? Quickly get a press release together."

Mark: Did you see what they did over there at Westpac?

Jodie: Westpac started it.

Liz: Those jerks.

Jodie: Westpac started it, and then ANZ followed their...like, happened within 24 hours of them announcing, and then a few days later, everybody was then waiting for CBA and NAB change because when the big four start, all the big four follow. So then CBA and NAB changed, and then the rest of the Westpac group kind of followed and, you know, St.George, Bank of Melbourne, BankSA, all changed their rate, like, announced changes. Then on Friday, Westpac's changes were applicable for the ones they'd announced the week before. Then they snuck in and just changed their fixed rates and interest-only rates. They didn't announce that. That wasn't part of the original announcement. They just changed them.

Mark: Interesting.

Jodie: They just went, "Yeah, we're changing these anyway. So we'll just change these."

Mark: So [inaudible 00:14:45]. Interesting that you mentioned interest-only loans because I recently saw that there was an economist, Lindsay David. He actually suggested that banning interest-only loans could actually help housing affordability.

Jodie: Yeah, I saw that as well. Yeah, yeah.

Mark: Yeah, so he sort of said that, you know, 40% of all home loans are interest-only, which means that your repayment doesn't actually pay off the loan. It just pays off the interest that's due each month. So the loan amount actually isn't getting smaller during that period. He said that these kinds of loans were dangerous to the economy and that, you know, first-time-only grants and getting access to your super to put towards a house deposit isn't gonna really help. It's mostly this that will kind of help because he put...He said that there was...Yeah, it would take some speculative heat out of the market. So interesting.

Liz: Do you think it's only like a lot of...It's a lot of first-home buyers using interest-only loans. Or do you think it's mainly investors? Who's doing it?

Jodie: Most of them, I believe, are investors.

Liz: Oh, okay.

Jodie: I don't know that first-home buyers would use that because there's no real benefit to a first-home buyers. Like, yeah, okay. It's a smaller interest...It's a smaller repayment each month, but you're not paying down the big massive debt you're just taking on. You need to...You want to pay down that principle, as a first-home buyer.

Liz: But you're only in the first year when you're paying off LMI or whatever, you know, just to get a first-home buyer into the market. If they're paying off...

Jodie: That could be true. If they got...

Liz: Did I just solve the housing crisis?

Mark: Yes, I think you did. Call Canberra.

Jodie: But, like, investor...But investors, if they switch to an interest-only or if they opt for an interest-only loan, all that's tax-deductible.

Liz: Yeah.

Jodie: That whole repayment, that whole repayment, sorry, is tax-deductible. So I think that's why they kind of opt for that. I personally switched to an interest-only loan recently, when I refinanced, but that was because I did have a renter in the spare bedroom of my apartment. He moved out, and I was like, "I need to free up some cash."

Liz: Yeah.

Jodie: But I don't have a massive principle to pay off. So I had the...

Mark: Low risk.

Jodie: Yeah, I have a luxury of having that, which allows me to put in and just to interest-only for a little while. But yeah.

Mark: Interesting.

Jodie: There's some interesting suggestions out there on how to fix our housing affordability.

Mark: Yeah, we actually have an awesome piece.

Jodie: We have an awesome piece that, yeah, Adam wrote.

Mark: Yeah. We'll put the link in, actually. It's really good. It's all the different ways that housing affordability could be solved, according to different people within Australia.

Liz: Well, feel free to add in my suggestion.

Mark: Maybe we will be.

Liz: Housing expert, Liz.

Mark: [inaudible 00:17:22] suggestion. It's a sure-fire strategy.

Liz: Oh, yeah. That's right.

Jodie: I actually saw one after Adam put that live, that I shared with him, and it was like, "Do-it-yourself homes," so like IKEA home, basically, IKEA-style homes. You, like, put them together. They come in pieces, and you put them together, and you build them.

Mark: Cost $10.

Liz: I just feel like if you first got married and you had to build your own home, that would just lead to a lot of divorce. I didn't have trouble with a table.

Mark: It'd be like a test.

Jodie: Yeah, that's the test [inaudible 00:17:52].

Mark: Can you build your own home? Then yes, you deserve [inaudible 00:17:53].

Jodie: Isn't IKEA the test of any relationship?

Liz: Yeah, even just shopping there.

Mark: Just getting out of there is a test. Yeah.

Liz: Trying to leave.

Mark: Any other news tidbits that you would like to throw into the mix of this week?

Liz: Well, one little interesting thing that I just wanted to mention was...So I mentioned payday loans just before. So obviously Cyclone Debbie just happened in North Queensland.

Mark: Yes.

Jodie: I love Queensland. Sorry for all those people.

Mark: Yeah, very tragic.

Liz: Yeah, it was just awful. But something that banks do quite often is they announce relief packages, where they kind of stop repayments on loans, or they allow people to access [inaudible 00:18:33] deposits and things like that. So that got announced by the big four. But a kind of, I would say, surprise announcement was a payday lender, [inaudible 00:18:42] also announced a relief package, where they stopped repayments on all of their loans.

Mark: Oh, nice.

Liz: Yes.

Jodie: That's awesome. Yeah.

Liz: I just thought that was...Yeah, I just thought good guy payday lender. Right?

Mark: That's so cool.

Liz: Yeah. So we added that onto our relief package page. So everyone can go and check the details and, yeah, everything like that.

Mark: That's awesome. So we have a page that has all of the relief packages and...

Liz: We do. Yeah.

Jodie: It has all the details on them.

Mark: Yeah, so we'll drop a link to that [inaudible 00:19:07].

Liz: Yes, we will. Yeah. So if you've been affected by the cyclone, you can find out all of the details from all of the banks that are offering relief packages, including if you have a payday loan with [inaudible 00:19:15].

Mark: Yeah, that's so cool.

Liz: Yeah. Indeed.

Mark: Well, guys, I'm in the mood for a bit of a funny money news category, Liz and Jodie.

Liz: Well, aren't you in luck.

Mark: Yeah. Do we have any funny stories about money?

Liz: I came across something really, really funny. Well, I thought it was funny.

Mark: Please.

Liz: You can hear me laughing.

Jodie: Yeah.

[music]

Liz: So have you guys heard of an app? It's a pretty small app. It's called Tinder.

Jodie: I don't think I've heard of that.

Mark: Yeah. Is it something that allows you to start fires or...

Liz: Yeah, it is. Tinder. So basically this girl went on Tinder, and she decided that she wanted to use it in a different way than trying to meet potential bachelors.

Jodie: I saw this story as well.

Liz: So basically she would match with people, and then she would tell them to...well, ask them to send her $5, and they would say, "What for?" She would just say, "You'll see." She kind of wanted to see how many guys would send her $5. Once they sent her $5, she would end up blocking them, and then that was it.

Mark: Oh, okay.

Liz: She made a lot of money from it.

Mark: This is in Australia? Or the US?

Liz: I'm not actually sure.

Jodie: I'm not sure, but I did see that story as well, and I thought it was absolutely hilarious.

Liz: Yes.

Jodie: And then it went viral on Twitter, and people were like, "No, keep it quiet. Keep it quiet. I want to make some money. I want to get myself a car."

Liz: Yeah. She made $1000.

Mark: Whoa.

Liz: Yeah.

Jodie: Men are that stupid.

Mark: So is that 200 donations of $5 each?

Liz: Yeah, 20 men.

Jodie: One of them sent $10. I remember.

Liz: More than 20 men.

Jodie: Yeah, from memory...

Liz: That's about 100...

Mark: Oh, okay. So she didn't get $5 from everyone.

Liz: Oh, no. Sorry. It's $100. I read that wrong.

Mark: Oh, she was asking for $100 from each person.

Jodie: No, she was asking for $5 from each person.

Liz: I read it wrong. It's $100.

Jodie: It's $100 she made.

Liz: I read $1000.

Mark: She made $100. Okay. Okay.

Liz: Still, $100. I would be really happy with that.

Mark: That's for nothing. People just gave it.

Liz: Yeah, and I think if she didn't tweet it earlier, she could have just kept the scam going.

Jodie: Yeah, she could've...Yeah, she could've kept going, and then people have tried to piggyback off that and kind of do it themselves, but...

Mark: Well, I mean, really, is it a scam? Because she was just saying, "You'll see," and we're obviously seeing.

Liz: Yeah, we see now.

Mark: It was just a scheme.

Jodie: Yeah, it wasn't technically a scam. It was just like a smart way to...

Liz: She didn't promise anything. She just got the money. Really, it's $5.

Mark: Yeah.

Liz: No one's gonna be like...

Mark: I would've said, "Yes."

Jodie: I saw some of the screenshots from interactions she had, and one guy was like...She was like, "Send me $5, and you'll see what will happen or whatever," and he's like, "What's gonna happen?" She's like, "Send me $5, and you'll see." So he's like, "Okay. Sent." Then she just unfriend...

Liz: Yeah.

Jodie: Unmatched him. Whatever.

Mark: I wonder if she was taking the money on PayPal or some other...

Jodie: Yeah, that was it. It was PayPal.

Liz: It was PayPal. Well, really, the guys could just get it back. Right?

Mark: Well, they...I mean, she didn't really say, "You're gonna get, like, this product or this."

Liz: This is true.

Mark: So technically they just gave their money of their own freewill. Right?

Jodie: Yeah.

Liz: Well, they could just send the PayPal and be like, "I didn't see."

Mark: What? What am I meant to see?

Jodie: She didn't actually promise what they would see. She just said, "You'll see."

Mark: Yeah. That can mean anything. That can just mean like the...You'll see the headlines from this story. You know? Fool.

Liz: I could imagine, like, someone taking to her to court.

Jodie: Or you'll just not see me ever again.

Liz: I can imagine like a class-action lawsuit of people taking her to court and being like, "I didn't see," and they'd be like, "Well, what did you see?" Like, uh.

Mark: Define what it was.

Liz: Yeah, exactly.

Mark: Interesting.

Liz: Yeah.

Mark: Well, I have possibly the greatest funny money news story ever.

Liz: That is a big call.

Jodie: That's a big call.

Mark: It's a big call. I don't know. I think I should just leave. I'm not gonna be able to [inaudible 00:23:01] stand up to [inaudible 00:23:02]. Okay. But the Berlin Museum has a giant coin. It's like from a video game. It's a huge gold coin.

Jodie: So, like, from Mario.

Mark: Like a Mario coin. It's literally that size. It's 53 centimeters in diameter. So it's pretty big. It's solid gold. It's from the Canadian government.

Jodie: How sweet of them.

Mark: Yeah, I thought so too. They were really nice about it. I'll explain why later. But they produced, I think, 10 of these coins, and the Berlin Museum has a big coin collection. So obviously when you have a 53-centimeter-in-diameter coin, it gets stolen. So it just got stolen. This was yesterday. It weighs 100 kilos, this coin. It weighs as much as a fridge.

Jodie: How do you steal that? And, like, get it out of the museum?

Mark: Well, that's...Okay. So that's exactly right. It was in a bulletproof case, which was violently shattered, according to police. It was incredible that they even got it out of the museum. It's worth $6 million.

Liz: Oh, my gosh.

Mark: Yeah, it's worth...It's actually a $1 million coin. I didn't know those existed. Like, that's its face value.

Liz: Oh, wow.

Mark: It's a Canadian $1 million coin. It's worth $6 million in its weight in gold. Yeah, the police had an elaborate sort of what they thought had happened. Like, there's a railway near the museum, and they thought that was involved, and they were smashing away.

Jodie: "Oceans Eleven" style.

Mark: I thought, "George Clooney probably has that coin right now," or that other guy.

Jodie: Or Brad Pitt does.

Liz: They're rolling it down the street.

Jodie: Oh, the French guy that they went up against in "Oceans Twelve."

Mark: Yeah, the acrobatic guy.

Jodie: Yeah, yeah. That guy.

Mark: But I just thought that's an amazing story.

Jodie: I can't believe that.

Mark: Yeah. I didn't, A, know that there were giant coins in existence. It's like a $1 million note.

Jodie: Yeah. Didn't Mr. Burns have that? Trillion-dollar note.

Mark: Yeah. Yeah. Only one.

Jodie: I'll rely on the "Simpsons" knowledge because you're much more knowledgeable than me.

Mark: The Cuban solid. The socialist paradise of Cuba.

Liz: Yeah, he's like, "Can I have it back?" He's like, "Have what back?"

Mark: Exactly.

Jodie: Cuba is a paradise.

Mark: Jodie's actually been to Cuba. But yeah, and according to the Canadian government, when asked why they made the coin in the first place, their response was literally, "Because we can." They just made a coin because they felt like it.

Liz: But to be honest, what is that person gonna do with the coin? They can't spend it. It's not like you can take it to a vending machine or anything. You know what I mean? You're not gonna be able to take it anywhere. They're gonna sell it to some weird art collector who's gonna put it up at his house. He's like, "Oh, you know this is worth like $6 million. There's only..." How many did you say [inaudible 00:25:31].

Mark: I think there's like eight or ten or something like that.

Liz: Yeah. Like, what are you gonna do with it?

Mark: So true.

Jodie: Put it on Instagram.

Mark: Yeah. Turn it into a necklace, a 100-kilo necklace. But that's actually interesting because they mentioned in the story that, pretty much, it's impossible to sell this kind of coin because it's so rare and so big, but they said they're more worried about someone just melting it down.

Liz: Oh, no.

Jodie: Yeah, that's what's gonna happen.

Mark: So if you stole the coin, don't listen to that last bit. [inaudible 00:25:57].

Jodie: Yeah. That's what...That's the most likely thing to happen because the...It's gonna be really rare if you see like a $1 million coin come onto the market. Even the black market. People are gonna be like, "Uh. I don't know about this." So yeah, it'll be like melted down and made into gold bars.

Mark: Yeah, the shiny beautiful gold bars.

Liz: Someone's always gonna come along and just ruin things. Don't they? They get this cool coin and show it to everyone, and then someone's gonna come along and just be like, "I just want the gold melted down for myself."

Mark: Yeah.

Liz: It sucks.

Mark: At least do something else, like paint your house using the gold, or build a gold shirt, like that other guy did. I think it was...

Jodie: Paint your house gold?

Mark: There's a billionaire that has a golden shirt.

Liz: That's cool.

Mark: Yeah.

Jodie: Trump?

Mark: No, no. It's not, actually. I don't know who...I'll try and find it. But yeah, I just thought it was...It's an interesting...They made these coins, which are apparently for sale, or you can maybe...Governments or businesses or museums can buy them. So yeah, I don't know, Jodie, if you have some spare cash lying around that you want to maybe put towards an investment.

Jodie: I have a home loan. So no.

Mark: So no. Okay.

Jodie: I have a home loan and a puppy to look after.

Mark: Just testing.

Jodie: My story...I don't know if it's funny, but it was interesting to me. So there's this family in New Jersey who bought this house in like 2014. Ever since, they've been getting these random letters sent from this mysterious "The Watcher."

Mark: The watcher?

Liz: That sounds creepy.

Mark: Yeah, that sounds scary.

Jodie: It is. It's so creepy. They've tried to sell the house, but they couldn't sell the house. So the letters are like...There's like, "Have they found out what is in the walls yet?"

Liz: What?

Jodie: They will.

Mark: That's so ominous.

Jodie: It's like really creepy. They're like really creepy letters. It's like he was talking about how...This watcher person is talking about how, "My grandfather watched the house in the '20s. My father watched the house, and now it's my turn." So these people are really, obviously, freaked out. Yeah, as I said, they tried to sell the house, and it didn't work. So now what they're doing is they're suing against their local town to be able to demolish the house and subdivide the land, so that it's not one house on this block. There's, like, two, so that it's not the same house, because the guy's...The watcher person has been like, "Oh, I like what you've done to the house. It's all fancy."

Liz: Oh, my gosh.

Jodie: So obviously this creepy person has actually seen the house. Whether they're actually watching the house is yet to be known, but it's...

Liz: He's probably just a neighbor.

Mark: Yeah. He's like, "Nice house."

Jodie: How creepy is that? You buy this nice house, and you think, "Oh, yeah. I'm gonna live there with my family," and then you get this note, and you're just like, "Oh, someone's being silly." Then they just keep coming.

Liz: That is so weird.

Mark: That's so crazy.

Jodie: Anonymous notes.

Mark: So I wonder if they subdivide and build two houses, if he resorts to then watching both, or if he picks his favorite.

Jodie: Yeah. That's it.

Liz: He's like, "Come on, guys. You're making my job harder. Now I got two places to watch."

Mark: They just keep multiplying through the years. Like, they subdivide into three.

Liz: He's like, "Look. I had to hire someone."

Mark: This isn't fun.

Jodie: I have to subcontract because you've subdivided. I can't do all this watching, myself. Seriously, guys.

Mark: I only got two eyes. Wow. The watcher. That's really interesting. That sounds like a horror movie.

Jodie: Yeah. I know. That's what I thought when I first read the headline. I'm like, "Oh. It must be one of those horror movie houses where people are just going to check it out because it was in the "Amityville Horror" or whatever. But no, this is just a standard New Jersey house that, yeah, these people have bought and have now...

Liz: Oh, god.

Jodie: The house has a stalker.

Mark: Wow. So what's up with people?

Jodie: People don't have a stalker. It's the house.

Liz: That's even weirder.

Jodie: About the house. It's like, "What?"

Mark: That's the quickest way to freak someone out, I think. Just watch their house. You know what the funny thing is in Sydney? If that house was in Sydney, it would still sell for millions of dollars, even if that was happening.

Liz: I know.

Jodie: Yeah, even if it was creepy. Yeah.

Mark: No one would be like, "Can we demolish it?" They'd be like, "No."

Jodie: No, I want that house for $5 trillion.

Mark: Yeah. That's so interesting.

Liz: Yeah.

Mark: I had another one, actually. Can I squeeze the second funny money into the mix?

Liz: I think I'll allow it.

Mark: The gate master has said yes.

Liz: Yeah.

Jodie: Liz says, "Yes."

Mark: Okay, guys. Have you ever been too lazy to go shopping, but not too lazy to drive?

Liz: Oh, yeah. Wait.

Mark: Yeah?

Liz: If I...Wait. Say it again.

Mark: So have you ever been too lazy to actually go to the shops and get out and go shopping, but not too lazy to drive?

Liz: Yes.

Jodie: No, it's usually the other way around.

Mark: Too lazy to drive, but not too lazy to...

Jodie: Shop.

Mark: Okay. That's interesting. Yeah.

Jodie: If someone drove me to the shops, I would happily, like...For a little while, at least. Yeah.

Mark: Okay. So this is only gonna apply to 50% of the room, of the two people that I just surveyed, with my really vigorous scientific study. But Amazon, if you live in the US, disclaimer, is beginning to offer a delivery service for groceries, where you can order them online. You drive up to a pickup location, and then an employee delivers the groceries to your car, in as little as 15 minutes after ordering.

Liz: That is literally a service made for me because I'm...As soon as I get home, I put on pajamas. That's just my life. Or, like, clothes that you wouldn't leave the house in, like, weird, weird outfits.

Mark: It'd be frowned upon to leave.

Liz: Yeah. It's like people would be like, "Oh, my gosh. Who leaves the house like that? It's just odd."

Jodie: I've seen some weird outfits in your area, Liz.

Liz: Oh, yeah. But you know. This is on another level. So I can get into my car. You know? But I don't want to get out. So that is ideal.

Mark: It sounds like it'd be made for you then.

Liz: Oh, yeah.

Mark: Yeah, it sounds like a good idea.

Liz: Oh, 100%.

Mark: Yeah. Maybe you don't want to get out, but you want to, you know, still get your...

Liz: It also limits contact with people, which is great.

Jodie: Oh, I like that. Actually I like that angle.

Liz: Yeah.

Mark: That's true. I wonder if you have to say, like, "I want..."

Liz: A code word?

Mark: Yeah. Like, how do they know it's your groceries, and you're not just getting, you know, like, the grumpy old guy's on the street?

Liz: What if you had like a...They just knew your number plate or something like that.

Jodie: Yeah, it would probably be that. You probably have to give a number plate or show ID. There'd have to be some check.

Liz: But I saw this other thing with Amazon, how you had like a...They had a drone that drove to your house and had all your groceries in there.

Jodie: Yes, that works better. That works better for me. If I'm that lazy, that I don't want to go shopping, I'm literally that lazy that I don't want to leave my couch.

Liz: Yeah. I want it to come into my apartment.

Jodie: Yeah. Or on that...

Mark: This mechanical floating bot.

Liz: Literally.

Mark: Just delivers.

Jodie: It would...

Liz: Even if it drove itself, that would be fine by me. I don't need it floating. I'm not fancy.

Jodie: Yeah, I'm happy with a self-driving car.

Mark: I just don't want to do anything.

Liz: I just don't want to get up.

Jodie: Self-driving car turning up.

Liz: Yeah.

Jodie: See, that's what I...I've been sick a few times since being single, and I've discovered that that's one good thing for a partner, is when you're sick, and you need...

Liz: The only use I have for a partner is them to drive me somewhere.

Jodie: Not to drive me somewhere. But when you're sick, and you're just like feeling so crap that you just don't want to move, send them out to get the cold and flu medicine.

Mark: Yeah, chicken soup.

Jodie: The chicken soup and the oranges and the sweet treats just for fun and all that sort of stuff, instead of, you know, me almost passing out, walking down my stairs, and then having to get in my car and going, "Probably shouldn't be driving, feeling like this, but I have no other option."

Mark: Yeah, that's smart.

Jodie: I have to go get stuff.

Liz: You'll need to train Wally.

Mark: Yeah.

Jodie: Yeah, yeah.

Liz: To be like a service dog.

Mark: Yeah, you need...We need some kind of...

Jodie: Wally, go to the shops.

Mark: Yeah, some kind of collar which makes dogs extremely smart and able to talk.

Jodie: Yes.

Mark: Then he'd be like...

Liz: Hello, Jodie.

Jodie: That would be useful. I would love to be able to have Wally speak to me, and then I'd know like, "What the hell are you barking at, at 5:00 a.m.? Mom's trying to sleep."

Mark: All right, guys. Shall we get the Angus man in for a bit of a conversation?

Liz: Yes.

Mark: A bit of a convo?

Liz: Convo. Chat.

[music]

Mark: Welcome, Angus Kidman.

Jodie: Welcome, Angus.

Liz: What is on your T-shirt?

Mark: Yeah. What is your T-shirt?

Angus: Greetings. Well, my T-shirt is a tribute to the fantastic Luke [inaudible 00:34:30] from Twitter. So it's a picture of him when he was younger and more embarrassed. So big shout-out to Luke.

Liz: Oh, my god.

Mark: That's amazing.

Jodie: We're gonna try to make a moment out of it on Twitter because...

Angus: The moment has been made.

Jodie: The moment has been made? Okay. So if you find the moment on Twitter, please share, because...

Liz: Are we recording yet?

Mark: Yeah, we're recording. We will pop a link to the moment in the podcast notes. So you can [inaudible 00:34:53].

Liz: Yeah, because we really want to get this in...We want to, like, spread the word and really troll.

Mark: Angus, what's up? How have you been?

Angus: I've been good. I've been good when I haven't been manufacturing T-shirts and, yeah, otherwise causing controversy. Yeah. At this rate, I'm gonna be accused of cyber bullying by the end of the day.

Jodie: Angus is the king of manufacturing T-shirts. He has the best T-shirt collection, like, seriously.

Mark: That's right. Yeah, you do.

Angus: Yeah.

Mark: Well, you also have a lot of pop culture T-shirts.

Angus: Yeah, I do. I've got actual ones I've paid for, but then I'm a great fan of the...You do your own iron-on transfers for T-shirts. You just buy special paper peel, ink for your inkjet printer. You can print anything.

Mark: Is that how this was made?

Angus: That is how this was made.

Mark: Whoa.

Jodie: Yeah, I used to do that as, like, a young teen, tween.

Angus: We might write a Finder guide to that, how to produce your own T-shirts.

Mark: Yeah.

Liz: We need a video of you doing it.

Mark: Specifically how to troll. So a lot has happened since we last spoke to you, Angus.

Angus: Yes, yes. Yes. Yeah.

Mark: Last time, we were in a bit of a sort of phone frenzy. This time, we're in a bit of a plane frenzy. [inaudible 00:35:53].

Liz: Yeah.

Mark: Okay. There's been a device ban, and there's been some in-flight WIFI shenanigans. Shall we cal them?

Jodie: How does that work? If you can't take a device on the plane, how can you use the WIFI?

Mark: Oh.

Angus: Well, valid point, although the two stories, fortunately, don't actually intersect. So if we start with the device ban, as I suspect lots of people will know because this has been in the news a lot, there was this sudden arbitrary announcement that was made by the US, followed very quickly by the UK, that about half a dozen airlines from various parts of the Middle East...Anyone on those airlines was no longer gonna be allowed to have any large devices in their carry-on luggage. The biggest device you're allowed to carry on was basically a smartphone. Couldn't even carry a Kindle. Kindle was deemed to be too big.

Liz: Really?

Angus: No one knows what the danger was.

Mark: So harmless.

Angus: It's speculation that's around, "Okay. They might somehow be used to conceal a bomb." That's the essence of the theory. But as so often tends to happen this year, it wasn't clearly explained why it was happening. What's really weird is that the list of airlines is slightly different for the US and the UK. They didn't ban the same set of them. So it's an odd thing that no one can really understand. It doesn't...It hasn't impacted Australians hugely, just because it's about flights going into the US and the UK from those places. I went into a brief moment of panic because I've got a flight to London later on this year, and I was, yeah, flying with Qantas [inaudible 00:37:21] Arab Emirates, and I thought it could kind of overflow, but it...Emirates is not on the banned list for flying to the UK, although they are on the banned list for flying to the US. It's a...

Liz: Strange.

Angus: It's just strange and confusing.

Jodie: That's weird. Yeah.

Angus: It gives rise to a couple of sort of concerns and say...One is, "Okay. Well, what are you supposed to do?" A lot of people do need to travel with a laptop, especially for work. So now, it would seem that the only option you've got is to put it in your carry-on luggage. That's kind of scary. Sorry, didn't want to say carry-on luggage. I mean checked luggage.

Mark: Yeah.

Angus: That's the...Yeah, you can't...

Jodie: I don't want to do that.

Mark: Yeah, I don't want to be putting stuff in there.

Angus: Yeah.

Liz: I don't trust how well it's handled.

Angus: That's a nice way to put it.

Mark: Handled or thrown.

Angus: Even if it's not thrown, you think of those things where you go to the carousels, and it drops from a great height.

Jodie: Yeah.

Mark: Yeah.

Jodie: If you don't have...Depending on the type of checked luggage you have or how you...Yeah. Okay. You could put it in the middle and smush it around clothes and stuff. It could still damage the actual laptop.

Angus: Also, yeah, the...Baggage handlers don't have the best reputation, and there's a possibility that if they think there's a laptop in there, they're gonna steal it.

Jodie: Yeah.

Mark: Right. Yeah.

Jodie: They're gonna be like, "This is a security check."

Angus: Yeah. Yeah. Especially on flights to the US where that's pretty standard, like US domestic...Almost every time I fly in the US, I get the little note in my bag saying, "Hey. This was examined by Homeland Security." Well, isn't that wonderful? So we were curious about this. Obviously one of those things is...Okay. Well, let's suppose your laptop is damaged because you had to put it in hold luggage. Would it be covered by travel insurance? This was one of the questions.

Mark: That's very interesting.

Liz: Actually mentioned this last week. Yeah.

Angus: Yeah. Yeah.

Liz: [inaudible 00:38:56].

Angus: No, actually turns out...The initial thing was we weren't sure. It turns out that actually...No. Certainly if you've got Australian travel insurance, and it's got device coverage, you would be covered.

Liz: Oh, good.

Angus: They're obliged to do it. So it certainly wasn't clear. So I'm glad to give people that update and say, "Hey. Actually, you know what? As long as you've got suitable travel insurance, it's definitely worth checking your policy because some of them have a specified amount for electronics."

Mark: Yeah.

Angus: When I booked mine recently, I made sure that they had enough in there. So just in case something happened just in the ordinary course of traveling, it would get replaced. So that kind of...Yeah. That has been sorted. The other thing is you're now starting to see the airlines come up with inventive ways to deal with the problem, because most of these are like the big national flag carriers. They're not a ton of small, weird airlines you've never heard of. So they've got various different solutions they've come up with.

So Emirates are now offering a thing where you can basically hand over your laptop when you check in, and they put it in a special separate padded crate, where they're putting them altogether, and then hand them back to you at the other end. So you know that it's traveling safely. So that's a good improvement. The only concern I had was that what...Yeah. How are you gonna tell your laptop from everybody else's laptop? You know? There are a lot of Think Pads and a lot of Macbook Airs out there.

Liz: Surely you'd have a little token, or they'd put it in a specific section of that crate, and you...Like, a manila envelope gets marked or something.

Jodie: Yeah, you put it in some other...

Angus: I suspect it'd be like baggage tagging, probably. Like, they'll give you a tag. They'll give you a thing, and then you'll have to match it up. But I thought that was one nifty little solution. Someone else was...Eddie Hat [SP], I think, is saying, well, for its business and first-class passengers, they're handing out iPads to them on the plane. So they can use that with their on-board WIFI.

Mark: Whoa.

Angus: But that's...Which is nice, but again, is only for the business and first-class passengers.

Jodie: The people that pay premium.

Angus: Yeah, we don't know how long this ban is gonna stick around. It doesn't seem likely it's gonna come to Australia. You know, so fingers crossed. But it's still weird. It's a very, very strange thing. You imagine that you feel [inaudible 00:40:38]. You've booked yourself a nice expensive business-class flight on a fairly luxurious continental airline, and someone says, "Oh, by the way, you can't take a laptop on board." It's super annoying.

Jodie: Yeah.

Mark: Yeah, that's crazy. So was it in response to something?

Liz: Do you think it...

Mark: Sorry, Liz.

Liz: No, go ahead.

Angus: Nothing that we know of. Of course, it's because we're not supposed to be told about this, for operational reasons. But yeah, we're not aware of any specific thing that's really triggered this.

Jodie: It's only for flights that are coming from or transiting through particular countries. Is that correct? Or is it across the board?

Angus: It's flights [inaudible 00:41:07] go to the US or the UK, so anything that's going from particular countries, particular airlines. If you're on a US airline, flying out of the same place, they're not...Yeah, you're fine.

Mark: Oh, really?

Angus: Yeah. It's airline-specific and country-specific, in that way. So yeah, it doesn't seem in...Yeah, the only presumption you can make there is that they...There's an assumption that those US airlines are gonna be better at screening the passengers. Based on my experience of US airlines, I don't think it'd be good at screening anything here.

Mark: Wow.

Angus: So yeah, so that's [inaudible 00:41:38] ties in with the fact that, yeah, all these airlines have started rolling out on-board WIFI. A large percentage of the global airlines now have that.

Jodie: Especially the top ones.

Angus: On-board WIFI is not as useful if you can't take your laptop. It's not completely useless because you've still got your phone.

Jodie: Yeah.

Mark: Yeah.

Angus: So you could sit there. You know? If you want to take [inaudible 00:41:54] little phone screen. That's not as much fun as looking on a tablet or an iPad.

Liz: That's what I was gonna ask. I mean, do you think they're gonna up their entertainment packages on the flight?

Angus: Possibly we might see...I mean, entertainment packages on these are mostly pretty good, and most of these airlines do have seat-back screens. So you do have... Most of them have a really reasonable [inaudible 00:42:12] 500 hours on Emirates. You know? The chances are you're gonna find something you haven't watched, but I think people very rapidly got used to that notion of, "Oh, we got control of what we're watching."

Mark: Yeah.

Angus: Yeah, you just don't/won't have that option on those airlines. So yeah, it's not ideal. But as grumpy old man, I can recall when on-board entertainment was you hope that you were near where the screen came down above you.

Mark: Yeah.

Angus: And you had the choice of one movie, and you couldn't pause it.

Jodie: That's old-school.

Angus: So if they came along during a crucial plot moment to ask whether you wanted the pork or the chicken, then you were really in trouble. It would always be something G. Yeah.

Jodie: Yeah, [inaudible 00:42:46] take care in case there's kids on the plane.

Angus: Yeah. And even when we started getting seat-back screens, which was a big improvement, the initial round of seat-back screens was still showing stuff on a cycle. So you had to dive in at the right point. And honestly, those initial seat-back screens probably were smaller and lower resolution than the phone that I've got right now.

Mark: Yeah.

Angus: So it's all relative.

Mark: Is seat-back screens a standard feature of every flight, basically? I can't really remember not seeing one.

Angus: It's a standard feature of any major carrier. You won't necessarily see it on the budget carriers, because they're doing things where they want to cut down. Some budget carriers, you either get nothing, or quite often, they will go the tablet route, that you rent them. So certainly Jet Star, Air Asia have both gone down that path.

Jodie: Yeah, and Virgin something. No, not Virgin. So when I was...

Angus: Pick an airline, any airline.

Jodie: No. When I was flying from Toronto to Havana, it's like Air Canada Blue. It's like the lower version of [inaudible 00:43:45].

Angus: Air Cuba.

Jodie: And they...Yeah, it was a case of you rented the iPads. Whereas on an Air Canada standard flight, you have the seat-back.

Angus: Yeah. So it has rapidly become the standard, and it might stay that way for a while. Airlines like the idea that you bring your own devices. I mean, we've seen this very much domestically with Qantas and Virgin. Both of them have in-flight entertainment streaming, using WIFI. So you can watch stuff. The idea is you have their app, and you watch it on your device.

Jodie: Yeah, you download their app.

Angus: Lots of people, I've found, are just as happy with that. So ultimately, for airlines, that's a good cost-saving measure because instead of...It's very expensive to maintain those in-flight entertainment systems. They tend to go wrong.

Jodie: They break a lot.

Angus: Yeah. I've been on a lot of flights where they've had to, like, reboot, and it takes 10 minutes. You know? Yeah. So if they can get rid of those and just stream entertainment, it's in their interest, but this ban kind of makes...pushes that off by a few years, I guess.

Mark: Wow. That's interesting.

Angus: Yeah.

Mark: So in terms of the WIFI, the in-flight WIFI on Qantas...So what are the plans for that? What's happening with that?

Angus: Like I said, Qantas announced last year that they were gonna start introducing WIFI on all their domestic flights, which they hadn't had before, and as someone who spends half his life on planes, I was super, super excited about this.

Liz: Domestic. Awesome.

Angus: Yeah. So what they decided...The first interesting thing is they said it would be free for all passengers. I've used in-flight WIFI a lot in the US, but you invariably have to pay for it, not much. You pay like $10 maybe for a couple hours of flight, and that's usually worth doing, but this was gonna be free. So everybody on board would be able to use it. In order to deliver it, they were actually gonna use Sky Muster, which is the satellite that the NBN built and launched, which is used to deliver broadband into really remote and rural areas.

Liz: Parts of Australia.

Angus: So that all seemed very, very exciting, and they've done some testing. They ran some testing earlier this year. They said, "Oh, you can get pretty good speeds here. This thing is kind of happening." Then it was all supposed to...This week was supposed to be the big sort of media launch for it. It's not officially gone onto a lot of planes until further on in the year, but they basically booked a charter flight. They were gonna put lots and lots of journalists, including myself, on this plane. It was gonna fly out of Sydney. We would all get a chance to test the WIFI, see how it was going. Alan Joyce, the CEO, was gonna be on board. He was gonna say a few words. I had this plan to do a Facebook Live video. It was all gonna be very, very exciting.

This was...Then what happened is basically about 24 hours before it was gonna happen, we get an email saying, "Oh, [inaudible 00:45:58] there's actually some performance issues with our [inaudible 00:46:00]. So we've canceled the flight."

Liz: That doesn't sound like Qantas at all.

Angus: And it's interesting. It did kind of got...It got beefed up into, "Oh, my goodness. Qantas just canceled its WIFI launch." It hasn't done that. It canceled its WIFI media event and is continuing to kind of do this testing to sort of see if it can get it to work. So I was talking to Finder's broadband boy genius, Ken, about what was...

Mark: Boy genius.

Angus: ...what was going on. Then it's...There seems...There's issues. Like, satellites send out specific beams to sort of go down to a particular place, and it seems like some of those are getting interrupted in a weird way. There's sort of some technology issues. Some of it, I think, comes about...When this was announced that Qantas was gonna have this sort of, essentially, free, unlimited service while you're on-board, a lot of people were actually on Sky Muster as customers for NBN, were really annoyed because they're like...Well, they're stuck with all these weird download limits. If you're on Sky Muster, you still get that strange peak/off-peak thing we used to get with broadband, where you have this amount of data, but some of it, you could only download between like midnight and 7:00 a.m.

Mark: Yeah, that's weird.

Angus: Sky Muster still has that, just because they have to manage the performance, but the satellite is never quite as good as actually having [inaudible 00:47:03].

Mark: Yeah.

Angus: So everyone...All the people were freaking out and going, "Well, how come they get access to this? This is gonna ruin our service even more." NBN said, "No, that's not happening. There's a clear priority list. We always have to serve customers on the ground, before we serve Qantas." I mean, that's a good idea. I think that makes sense, but it makes me wonder. Maybe that's one of the performance issues too. They've realized that suddenly...Yeah, if they start flying over an area where a lot of people are busy watching Netflix or whatever, then maybe things are just getting a bit messed up there as well.

Mark: Wow. So if too many people are streaming "Gremlins" on the ground...

Angus: Yeah.

Mark: Sorry, in Qantas. That could affect people on the ground, or vice versa.

Liz: Vice versa.

Angus: Vice versa. It should be people on the ground doing it then. Yeah. But the reality is you're always gonna have dropouts during a satellite service. Like, when I've used them in the US, occasionally you just don't get connection. It's like using your mobile phone in your car. Sometimes you just know it's gonna drop out. The thing is no one's gonna be able to complain about it. It's free.

Mark: Right.

Angus: If you paid for it, then you might have [inaudible 00:48:01] "Hey. I paid for this, and it was terrible."

Jodie: Maybe the aliens will get involved in...

Mark: They're getting good WIFI.

Jodie: Maybe that's why the satellite beams are freaking out, because the aliens are trying to stream "Gremlins."

Mark: Yeah, exactly. Reruns of "Gremlins." Great movie.

Jodie: Yeah, they want to see how to come down onto Earth but [inaudible 00:48:18] gremlins.

Liz: I would never expect free WIFI on a plane to be any good. If I got any connection, I'd be like, "Oh, my. This is amazing."

Mark: I was just going to say.

Jodie: It's like free WIFI in a hotel. You're like, "Yeah, I'll use it," but you don't expect it to be as good as when you're at home.

Liz: I do have expectations in a hotel. But, you know, you're literally flying in a plane.

Mark: Yeah, in a tube.

Liz: I'm amazed that I'm up in the air.

Jodie: Yeah, okay. You expect the stuff in a hotel to be decent, but not the same level as what you get like at home or something, because you've got multiple people working off this like...You've got so many people. Whereas at home, it's just you, basically.

Angus: When you're at a conference, there's always the classic thing that happens with the hotel WIFI, which is at the end of the day, it's 5:00. Everyone gets back from the conference, and suddenly the WIFI performance just falls off quick, because instead of three people being on there, there's 300. I've been through this so many times.

Jodie: It's like when the WIFI craps out here.

Mark: Yeah.

Jodie: We're just like, "Who's downloading? Who's streaming something?"

Mark: Yeah. I remember when I traveled through Europe, WIFI is such a premium, because obviously a lot of travelers don't use roaming and things like that. Then restaurants that advertise free WIFI get bombed, and you see like, you know, everyone goes in there. The WIFI just craps itself up. I was staying at a hostel in London, and there was like a ticketing system for the WIFI. So you had to grab a ticket, and then you had like 15 minutes. That ticket was valid for 15 minutes.

Jodie: Like the deli counter.

Mark: It was literally like, "One WIFI, please."

Angus: Just to say, you literally started there with that story with, "When I was in Europe," and I was immediately reminded of the "Friends" episode where Joey comes up with the story about, "I was backpacking in southern Europe. I was at the shores of Mount Tibidabo."

Liz: Great episode.

Jodie: Well, that's like when I was in Cuba. So Cuba has only recently gotten these sorts of things because, obviously, the trade ban with the US. They have public WIFI spots. There's not really a great amount of private WIFI or anything like that. Phone coverage is limited, and there's public WIFI spots. You go to an area, and you see a bunch of people standing around, looking at their phone. You're like, "There's a WIFI hot spot here." You jump on. It's just literally dial-up speeds, because...Like, you might get peaks of really...like, going really decent, but it's lit...Most of the time, it's dial-up speeds. Coming from a Western country, where we have WIFI everywhere and our phone coverage...We have like 4G phone coverage and things like that. It's like getting on my phone over there and just like...I'm really impatient.

Angus: Well, let's hope that those locations are also where all the Pokemon GO hot spots are.

Liz: Exactly.

Jodie: I didn't check Pokemon GO when I was over there. I was more focused on trying to work out where to find certain things.

Angus: Rookie error, Jodie.

Mark: We know how Angus would spend his time in Cuba.

Jodie: I had, like, limited time, and the speeds were too slow. I was just like, "I just need to find where this one museum is," and then couldn't find it anyway and got...

Angus: So you might as well have looked for more Pokemon.

Jodie: Got distracted and went to a pub.

Mark: [inaudible 00:51:15] Pokemon. Okay. So Angus, we were speaking earlier before, and we're keen to see what you know about the Amazon launch that's happening.

Angus: That was is it...The Amazon launch remains endlessly interesting. So we've been in rumors for a long time that Amazon are going to launch into Australia into a bigger way. Currently there is an Amazon Australia site. You can buy e-books for your Kindle, and you can stream the Amazon Prime TV service, and that's it. But they've been...

Jodie: Yeah, I always get kicked over to that when I try to go from something.

Angus: Yeah. Yeah, there's been lots of rumors that Amazon were gonna expand, that they'd start offering things like their fast, free delivery, that they'd have much wider range of things actually priced for Australia, that they'd cover all the categories that you can't buy from Amazon U.S. [inaudible 00:51:54] buy electronics because they just say, "Oh, we won't ship outside of certain locations." We know this is happening, if only because we've seen them advertising jobs for it. Amazon themselves have been extraordinarily cagey about confirming what's gonna happen with their Australian plan.

So what happened is that, yesterday, a story popped up on Fairfax Media, quoting an Amazon executive, saying, "Oh, yes. This is our plan. We're gonna be there by 2018." So everyone got very excited about this. Actually turns out that the guy used, that they quoted, used to work for Amazon, doesn't anymore. So I'd written a story about this yesterday and get an email from Amazon PR, saying, "Actually that dude doesn't work for Amazon. Could you adjust your story, please?"

Liz: That's so funny.

Jodie: Faulty reporting by Fairfax.

Angus: Shocking. But again, everyone's interested. Everyone's looking for that kind of moment of confirmation. People have been exploiting it in all sorts of ways. There has been scam emails going around, saying, "Hey. We're celebrating the launch of Amazon Australia." So you know. And you're gonna get a free $200 gift voucher. Just click here. So of course, don't click here.

Mark: That's actually happening, the scam email.

Angus: Yeah, the scam email has actually happened. You can read that up on Finder. We've written about it. So yes.

Liz: But it's pretty obvious that they're gonna come.

Angus: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Jodie: It's just about when.

Angus: Yeah, it's just about when, and it is about how much scale they need to get, because Amazon in the US...They really will send you everything, and they have like two [inaudible 00:53:09] major cities, and they've gone to Amazon Fresh. So I think it will be a long time before we see that stuff here. Yeah. Maybe they'll set up a distribution center. A lot of things...If you order books through Amazon US now, there's a fair chance they'll come to you from Hong Kong. They've already got fairly well-organized global distribution. So they will come here. They will expand. I think that's certain. But, you know, after this experience, I'm gonna be even more...Until I see a press release coming out from Amazon or a statement to, you know...

Jodie: That effect.

Angus: US stock exchange. I'm not really gonna take any of these things too seriously. We'll keep an eye on it. Yeah, there's little bits...There's enough evidence to know they're gonna do something.

Liz: Yeah.

Angus: But exactly what they're going to do remains to be seen.

Mark: Interesting. So it's not actually official. It's not official. It's not an official announcement.

Angus: Yeah. It's an unofficial announcement by a previous official who is no longer official.

Liz: So he probably had seen plans that they were gonna come out, and because he didn't work there, he was probably like a bit more blase about the whole thing.

Mark: Yeah.

Jodie: Yeah, when he was working there, they were probably already planning it, and they probably had set a date for, like, 2018. But who knows how those plans have shifted since he left the company.

Angus: Yeah. It's hard to tell. Amazon do some weird things. So they've launched the Prime Video of the Year. They did that, essentially, because lots and lots of people wanted to watch the "Grand Tour," which is basically the show that the guys from "Top Gear" made up.

Liz: Are doing now because they can't be on "Top Gear" anymore because Jeremy Clarkson got axed, and they were like, "We're not staying on the show if Jeremy's not on. I'm like, "Well..."

Angus: Anyway, so [inaudible 00:54:37] but the odd thing is that it's a very, very small [inaudible 00:54:39]. If you look [inaudible 00:54:40] Amazon Prime, it's tiny compared to what's on Netflix or Stan, and even for the shows they produce themselves. You would think the shows they produce themselves are the one thing they should be able to put out immediately. We still get them later than the US, and I don't understand why.

Jodie: That's depressing.

Liz: That's weird.

Jodie: It's online. How hard is it to just, like, push it everywhere? Like, Netflix International do that.

Angus: And look. Especially with your own stuff. There's a reason why shows in different countries have different rights structures. But when they've made their own ones, you sign people up for a global, "Hey. We're putting it out there right from the start." So I do feel like maybe, given how poorly that's organized, maybe 2018 is still getting ambitious. So we'll just have to see.

Mark: Yes. I think it's really interesting because I think, oftentimes, in Australia, we overestimate how important we are in the global scheme of things, like, in terms of markets and stuff. Right? We're tiny compared to even states in America, like individual states. So yeah. I've wanted Amazon to be in Australia for so long. But now I'm thinking, you know, well, we're a small fish.

Liz: Well, there's quite a few big retailers that are coming to Australia now. Is it T.J. Maxx? Is that what they're called?

Jodie: T.J. Maxx from the UK.

Liz: Yeah, but I just feel like it's just gonna flood the market. I'm quite happy sitting here with, you know...Obviously I wanted "Top Chef" and everything to come to Australia, but now there's so many, and I'm like, "Everyone's coming here." I just feel like the market's gonna become flooded. I mean, you know, obviously we're becoming this global economy. But how soon until just when every retailer is everywhere? Then Australian businesses don't have, you know, don't have time to...

Angus: What you're really worried about is that you won't be able to get a Suzanne Gray anymore.

Liz: I'm so scared.

Jodie: See, I'm waiting for "Prime Arc" [SP] to come from the UK, but I don't think it will happen because the...Just like...With like "Top Chef" [inaudible 00:56:24] and things like that, that have come out, I think they've kind of come out via Asia a bit. You know? "Prime Arc" is like...The key thing about "Prime Arc" is everything's so cheap. I don't know that we'd be able to get the same sort of pricing in Australia as they can get in the UK.

Liz: I don't think cheap, cheap prices are good, considering how the clothes are made and...

Jodie: Yeah, I know.

Angus: The thing with...I mean, actually I do believe "Prime Arc" will be cheap here because the vast majority of their clothes will actually be made in China, and they'll be closer to us. Realistically the challenge with "Prime Arc" is because they are...It's about basics. They are super cheap. Honestly, in Australia, that's K-Mart. They've got that particular market sewed up.

Jodie: Yeah, they do.

Liz: K-Mart, my one true love.

Angus: Recently described as the silent assassin of Australian retail.

Jodie: Yeah.

Liz: Wow.

Mark: Why is that?

Jodie: It is. It's taking out like...

Liz: Yeah. K-Mart is amazing. You go in there, and you're like, "Oh, I need all these things."

Mark: I was there last night. It was amazing.

Jodie: Yeah, it's fighting Big W quite well.

Liz: Oh, yeah.

Angus: Big W isn't that...is losing money. It's got really bad. More to the point, perhaps in the retail sense, is that K-Mart has been doing very well. Target, which is owned by Westfarms so they're owned by the same group. Target is doing really badly. I went into a Target recently, and they're trying to turn into K-Mart. Target always had to be that tiny bit more up market. I went in there the other day, and I thought, "This is the K-Mart template, and not done well." It was a very depressing experience.

Liz: Yeah.

Jodie: I think Westfarms is actually doing something because...I don't know if this is still happening, but I remember, like, late last year, my sister-in-law went absolutely mental, shopping in Target, because Target had great kids' clothes, good quality, that sort of stuff. She really likes them for the kids. Her and her mom went crazy, shopping at Target, because they've heard that Target did...

Liz: Wait. Your sister. So you mean your mom?

Jodie: No, my sister-in-law.

Liz: Oh, I was like...

Jodie: My sister-in-law. So they went crazy because they'd heard that Target is discontinuing selling clothes.

Angus: There was a rumor to that effect. There was another rumor to the effect that Target might essentially get closed down and re-branded as K-Mart so [inaudible 00:58:20].

Mark: Oh, wow.

Angus: But obviously that would involve a lot of rationalization because there are plenty of shopping centers that have both of them.

Liz: Yeah.

Mark: Yeah.

Jodie: That happened with By Low [SP].

Angus: Yeah. Yes. Again, all part of the Westfarms group. So it seems clear. I mean, yeah, it's expensive running a store like Target. Is that what we're talking about? Target. Because yeah, there's lots of floor space. It's actually...They typically have signed very long leases for shopping centers. So if they decide...Like, if Target was massively unprofitable, you end up with these huge empty spaces. It can be really hard to find any store that wants to fill them in. There's a...

Jodie: Besides Mya [SP], David Jones, Big W, which is generally already in that shopping center.

Angus: Yeah, and if they know...The thing is if they decide it's an unprofitable location...There was a Target not far from near where I live and where Mark lives, for many years. When it closed down, nobody could find a store to go in there, and now it's the biggest $2-junk shop you've ever seen.

Liz: Really?

Angus: It's incredible. It's incredible.

Jodie: Yeah, that happens in [inaudible 00:59:14]. Like, there's a couple of shops down in the street that are like massive, massive spaces like a Target-sized space. And, you know, there was like Go Low [SP] in there, and then there was a [inaudible 00:59:26]. I think now there's a massive reject shop in there, and it's just like because that's all that will fit in that space, unless they sub...unless they cut up the shop, which is possible, but there's only certain stores that can fit into that sized space.

Mark: Yeah. I think K-Mart definitely is great for all those kinds of things. I like their flat pricing as well. No cents to worry about. You know? It's just like $5.

Liz: You're not scrapping around to find your 10-cent coins to buy that...

Mark: My coin bag.

Liz: ...to buy all that furniture.

Angus: It's all K-Mart branded. Like, yeah, they just don't sell. Everything in there is like...

Liz: Yeah.

Angus: About the only thing you can get in there that's not theirs is the limited selection of books and CDs and movies that they sell.

Mark: Some lollies.

Jodie: Electronics as well. They have some.

Angus: Most of their lollies are their lollies too.

Mark: Really?

Jodie: Yeah.

Angus: Yeah.

Mark: Wow. I don't know how I feel about K-Mart-branded twisties, specifically.

Jodie: It's just like home-branded like [inaudible 01:00:25].

Angus: I'm sensing an upcoming taste test for the podcast.

Mark: Oh, yes.

Jodie: Oh, my gosh.

Mark: I still actually really feel like Veggie Mart after chatting with Graham, all those episodes ago.

Liz: Oh, totally. Yeah.

Mark: Yeah.

Jodie: Veggie Mart's the best. Wally likes Veggie Mart.

Liz: Ew.

Mark: Okay, Angus. Well, we don't have forever with you, unfortunately, but I did want to ask you, before we wrap up. "The Block."

Jodie: Woo-hoo.

Mark: So we were talking about this. We were talking about this in the last episode, and we were talking about this before you came. So this year's "Block" is a bit different. So they...

Liz: That happens every year though. They're like, "Oh, a twist on this year's 'Block." I'm like, "Okay. Well, what's happening?"

Jodie: This one's, like, massively different because where they're putting it is, at the moment, an empty block.

Angus: Literally an empty block.

Jodie: Literally an empty block. It's got nothing on it.

Mark: So what's gonna be put there? Because otherwise, as Adam said in the last episode, if it's not about renovation, it's not really "The Block."

Jodie: It's not "The Block." Yeah.

Angus: The suggestion seems to be that they'll put basic pre-fab houses on the block. So there will be...Because they want a degree of things being similar. They have to start off being similar, so they can compare. So what you're gonna get is basically you're gonna get a kit home, and then you're gonna try and turn it into a $2 million extravaganza. It's gonna...Which is an interesting twist. You know? But to be fair, in many cases, previously, while they have had a building, they've often had to completely gut the building and refit it before it was even fit for the contestants to go in. That was certainly the case with last year's "Block" [inaudible 01:01:48].

Jodie: Last year's was definitely that because it was a soap factory. So they had to literally strip everything out and then build...The contestants had to help kind of do this in a way.

Angus: Do some of that.

Jodie: Do some of it, but not a lot of it. But they had to build like the scaffolding to turn this massive soap factory, which is basically empty space, into...

Angus: Into actual sort of [inaudible 01:02:08] apartments.

Jodie: ...actual six apartments.

Angus: I got to actually go and do a media tour of that building. It was a late stage in the construction, but something that was much more obvious when you went through it like that than when you ever saw it on television was how many other workers were there, doing all that transformation work that wasn't really connected to what the actual renovation and decoration was. So in one sense, it feels different, and it's different because we started with an empty space. But in the end, you're still gonna end up...They're still gonna have like four places. Yeah, and it gives them some nice big visual moments with shipping in the houses. I mean, it's gonna be even more annoying for the neighbors than "The Block" normally is.

Jodie: Well, they've already got little notes, and they've got...The producer's private mobile number was sent...was given on these little notes that were dropped in the neighborhood letterboxes, saying like, "We're gonna try and limit how much we disturb you. We're gonna stick to the rules and stuff around noise restrictions and power-tool use and..."

Angus: But we know they won't. We know at some point, there's gonna be an episode where someone gets fined. Right?

Jodie: Oh, every one. Always.

Angus: Foreman Dan is gonna get in and bang some heads.

Jodie: And there's gonna be hatred between the teams, and someone's gonna be out with their little mobile phone, filming, to make sure that they have the right...like they have the proof. Then they'll take that to Foreman Keith or Foreman Dan the next day and say, "Look what happened last night."

Angus: You can't wait. Can you, Jodie?

Jodie: It's gonna be fun.

Mark: Then 2018's "Block" has already been decided.

Angus: Yeah.

Mark: [inaudible 01:03:34] last year.

Angus: Yes, yes. So yes. We know that they're going [inaudible 01:03:37] hotel. So it's interesting. That's the first time in a while that we've had so much advanced notice, but it takes them a long time to find the sites for these things because it takes a long time to film it.

Liz: Yeah.

Angus: We're still not gonna see this until the second half of the year. We have several other terrible reality shows to get through first.

Jodie: Yeah, they're gonna...So for this year, they're gonna start filming on April 24th, I think.

Angus: Thereabouts.

Jodie: Around that. And then...Yeah, we won't probably see it air until, yeah, July or August.

Angus: At the earliest, I believe. Basically the last quarter of the year is typically when we [inaudible 01:04:10].

Mark: Very interesting.

Jodie: And then with [inaudible 01:04:12] announcement, that was a really, really weird kind of thing because they like to keep the locations like a secret. Because if you watch the start of any season of "The Block," and you have the contestants turn up, and they're just overwhelmed with whatever they have to deal with. That's what they want, is that kill shot, that surprise, that killer shot of all the contestants going, "Oh, my god. I didn't realize what I was getting into."

Angus: It's [inaudible 01:04:36]. Here's a conspiracy theory though. Maybe with the fact that they've got it lined up means that they'll either aim for shorter gap, or they'll aim for the two-a-year. There was a point. There's a couple of years where they did two "Blocks" in the year.

Jodie: There was a point. Yeah.

Mark: Yeah. That was a thing. Right?

Angus: The only thing that would make me think maybe they won't do that is like...The reason you do it is because, you know, you've got a big TV schedule to fill, but nine is doing the right at the moment. Lots and lots of people watch "Married at First Sight." Lots of people are gonna watch "The Voice."

Liz: I don't know why.

Mark: Unfortunately.

Angus: Lots of people are gonna watch "The Voice." So yeah.

Mark: I saw the guy from "Married at First Sight," across the road.

Liz: Which one?

Mark: I think Anthony.

Liz: Oh, my god.

Angus: Did you propose?

Liz: Oh, my god. I do not want to propose to Anthony.

Mark: Yeah, he was just at the cafe just around the corner.

Angus: [inaudible 01:05:16].

Liz: Can you give me the location? So I can go back there.

Mark: Yes. Okay.

Jodie: The other thing that might prevent "The Block" from doubling up this year is the [inaudible 01:05:25]...They need to re-home all the current residents.

Angus: It's more doubling up next year on...They could just roll straight for filming this one. They could...Yeah. They still got six months to move all the residents.

Jodie: Yeah.

Angus: So they might roll it out. It's a possibility. But on the other hand, maybe it's just a tick box that's nice. Maybe they'll really shock us, and they [inaudible 01:05:43] after that and hope everyone's forgotten, and they'll insert yet another house. We haven't heard of that.

Jodie: They could. They could. They could easily, between now and whenever they have to start looking for another property. They've got plenty of time, and it's not like Melbourne's not flush with properties on the market.

Angus: Conspiracy theory number two. The [inaudible 01:06:01] purchase order on the block where Jodie lives, and you're gonna get kicked out.

Jodie: Well, you know, I won't get kicked out. I'll just work with the teams.

Mark: It's for the greater good.

Jodie: Yeah.

Mark: For the greater good.

Liz: Two "Blocks" in one year is really aggressive though.

Angus: Yeah.

Jodie: But they have done it before.

Liz: Yeah, I know, but it was...I remember because I used to...I watched "The Block," like a couple of seasons, and I think I watched one of them one year, like that year where they did two, and then there was another one. I was like, "Oh, I'm blocked out, guys."

Mark: I blocked too far.

Liz: Yeah.

Angus: You're experiencing blockage.

Liz: Yeah. Oh, wow.

Jodie: We could really keep going with the block puns. Angus is full of them. That was very useful when I was writing the recaps last year, a lot of block puns.

Mark: But yeah. So Jodie and the team will be writing all the coverage for "The Block," and we'll keep you updated.

Angus: It will be "Block" around the clock.

Jodie: I think there was discussion of me actually doing a live for the room reveals at least. So I'll be, like, on a Sunday night, sitting on my couch.

Mark: We will be trying some new things this time around.

Jodie: Yeah, testing some things out. See how you people want to read.

Angus: Definitely.

Jodie: All that.

Mark: Well, yeah. Thank you, Angus, so much for joining us again. It's always good to have you here.

Liz: Yes.

Angus: As our listeners will know by now, it's very hard to shut me up once I go.

Mark: We should just have an Angus hour.

Jodie: Yeah, and we all know that as well, from meetings with Angus. Okay. Yeah.

Mark: But it's now time to answer the question of the week, from last week.

[music]

[singing] How does this lady make me go crazy, without even a sound around to pick up the pieces? Sunlight through...

Mark: So the question of the week, from last week, was, "What was the dodgiest thing that you've done to get out of a fine or other financial commitment?" So we had some good ones this time around. We had Amy tell us about when she was a freelance...freelancing as a writer. She would use her status as a writer or blogger or journalist, whatever it was at the time, to try and get reduced or waved fees for different services. She did it successfully for some air fares one time, with a travel agent, and she basically...Her and her friends called it "pulling out the J card."

Liz: That's amazing. I want to use that.

Mark: Yeah, me too.

Angus: So unethical.

Jodie: You can't.

Liz: So we actually had another one from Kelly. So this one's about jury duty. So both my parents got out of jury duty notices by saying they can't speak English, even though they both can.

Mark: That's an awesome one. No one likes jury duty.

Liz: I know. Yeah, getting out of jury...Well, I actually got called up for jury duty this year. So I was Googling a lot of these. People told me to just be...like act really racist or wear ridiculous outfits, or my mom told me to wear something really professional because they don't want someone with an opinion to go on...like a really haughty opinion to go on the jury.

Mark: Really?

Liz: Yeah, but it turned...So I ended up just going and waiting my turn in the thing, and then it turns out the...

Jodie: Jury got full without you?

Liz: Well, the court proceedings didn't go ahead that day. So they said that my jury duty was completed, without me doing anything. Then I just got to watch one of the presidential debates for four hours, and then I went back to work.

Mark: Oh, nice. That is so cool.

Jodie: Yeah, that happened to me. I had a...It has to be about five years ago now. So I'm probably due for another round. Although, I have moved in that time. So this was when I was still living out west. So I went to the [inaudible 01:09:47] courthouse. Yeah, just literally sat around, watching CNN, which was on the TV, and just reading and sat around. So the cut-off to get paid from the jury duty on that day is like 1:00 p.m. It was like 12:30. They come around and say, "We don't need you today."

Liz: That's when they did it for me too. Apparently you get lunch and everything, and they sent me out before they could give me lunch.

Jodie: Yeah, they sent me out before all of that, and I'm like...

Mark: That sucks.

Liz: Right?

Jodie: They're like, "Oh, it's okay. You don't need to come back for another three years or whatever."

Angus: So then you just had to go and donate blood so you could get some free food.

Liz: Yes.

Jodie: Yeah, I just went home. Well, I do have another one here from Reece, and it's about parking fines. So they've gotten out of two separate parking tickets from two separate private garages, by calling up the agency and crying.

Mark: Crying is always a good one, I think, I feel. Crying...Yeah, it has potential to really get you off the hook of a few things.

Jodie: Yeah, and they were a teenager at the time. So you know, like, nobody really wants to make a teenager...Well, okay.

Angus: Speak for yourself.

Jodie: Yes. I'd have to disagree with that. I wouldn't be too hurt if I made certain teenagers in this world cry. But yeah, so that's an interesting one. I've never actually used emotion to get out...Although, I tend to be very lucky and not get those sorts of things.

Angus: Last fine I can remember would have been for like late library books. I just waited until they had the amnesty, and they cleared them.

Mark: They have library fee amnesty?

Angus: Yeah, they have library fee amnesty every so often. Yeah.

Mark: Just so they get back their precious books.

Angus: Yeah, sometimes. Yes.

Mark: Wow.

Liz: Their precious books.

Mark: I didn't even know that.

Angus: When were you last in a library, Mark?

Mark: Really, really long time ago.

Jodie: Yeah, I don't do libraries. I can't handle the smell.

Angus: Shame on you all.

Mark: I do read, but I just prefer to do the private auction.

Jodie: I read as well, but...Yeah, I like to buy my books or have my multiple e-readers. Pick an e-reader, and put the book on there.

Mark: Yeah.

Jodie: But yeah. Yeah, the last fine I had was not actually...So I got a speeding ticket, but I wasn't driving my car. So I did a...

Mark: It was Wally. Wasn't it? [01:11:52]

Jodie: I did a road trip down the coast with some friends. So a couple of my...Me and one of my other friends aren't the strictest, to the letter, like, speed limit people. So we were possibly going a bit over the speed limit. Then it was our third...But it was our...

Angus: Possibly.

Jodie: But it was our third friend who actually got the speed ticket, and she was literally sticking to the speed limit the whole time she was driving, but it was just this one time. She happened to go past a speed camera, and she was going over the limit. We're just like, "How the...How did that happen?" We were going like maniacs the whole time we were driving, and the one time you're speeding, and you get a ticket.

Mark: Done.

Jodie: So yeah. But luckily she had...She's from Ireland. So she had an Irish license. So she's like, "I'll take the fine because then I don't get the points." Then I don't get the points because she doesn't get...The points aren't transferable to an Irish license. So she took the fine, and then we just split the actual cost of the fine.

Angus: So the moral of the story is drive with Irish people.

Jodie: Drive with Irish people. Yes.

Liz: The luck of the Irish.

Angus: Where's Graham when we need him?

Jodie: Right.

Mark: Okay, guys. Well, thank you so much for giving us your response to the question of last week. And now, it's time for the question of this week.

[music]

Liz: Okay. So the question for this week...We were talking about Amazon maybe coming to Australia. So what we want to hear from you is what brand do you want to see brought to Australia.

Mark: Whoa.

Jodie: Oh.

Mark: There's actually...There's a brand of...This is gonna sound so weird. There's a brand of cricket protein powder, protein bars, which apparently are really good. Yeah, it's just too expensive. It's too time-consuming to get them over here. I love...

Jodie: It doesn't sound weird from you, Mark. Trust Mark to bring out the protein factor. I was like...My head was going, "Nutter Butters, Nutter Butters, Nutter Butters," which is a US candy kind of.

Mark: Candies will probably come on the list.

Jodie: It's like two graham crackers with peanut butter in between. It's like so good.

Liz: What's a graham cracker?

Jodie: Cookie?

Mark: American.

Jodie: Again, that's American.

Angus: It's really obvious, what has to come over here, actually. I'll throw this in [inaudible 01:14:14] In-And-Out Burger.

Jodie: Oh, yeah.

Liz: Oh, yes. In-And-Out. Let's get In-And-Out.

Mark: Even like a Carl's Jr.?

Angus: Carl's Jr. actually has operations in Australia, in a handful of locations.

Liz: Really?

Mark: What?

Liz: Oh.

Angus: Yeah, [inaudible 01:14:24] New Zealand, and then expanded over here. So there are a couple of Carl's Jr.s out there.

Mark: In Sydney?

Angus: I think there's one...It might be on the central coast.

Liz: It is on the central coast, I think.

Jodie: Yeah, I think they're in really random places.

Angus: I've sorted out [inaudible 01:14:34].

Jodie: Yeah. Speaking of burgers, Wahlburgers. Have the Wahlburgs come out here and bring their signature burger brand.

Angus: We don't need those stinking Wahlburgs.

Jodie: Why not? Then we could get some New Kids On The Block happening, some Mark...

Mark: Yeah, it's in Central Coast.

Jodie: Some Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch.

Liz: It's only an hour and a half.

Mark: Yeah, it's not too far for a good burger. Liz, what do you want to most see come over to our shores?

Liz: I just think like a lot of British candy.

Mark: Right.

Liz: They've got some really killer candy.

Jodie: You can't find it at the candy shop.

Angus: [inaudible 01:15:08] the British don't...

Liz: I probably could, but I just want it everywhere so I can be like, "Oh."

Angus: It's British. It's not candy. It's lollies.

Liz: Apologies. British lollies, British sweets. I was thinking American candy, and, yeah, I got confused. British sweets. You're right.

Jodie: British sweets.

Mark: So please, give us your responses to the question of the week. We'll drop all the notes and helpful hints and links mentioned in this episode.

Liz: You want any hints?

Mark: Hints for life on our notes page? Thank you, Liz and Jodie and Angus, again, for being the awesome hosts that you are. We'll catch everyone again next week. Thank you for listening. Thanks for listening to the finder.com.au Money Podcast. Head over to www.finder.com.au/podcast to find the show notes for this episode and more great episodes. The Finder Podcast is intended to provide you with tips, tools, and strategies that will help you make better decisions. Although we're licensed and authorized, we don't provide financial advice. So please consider your own situation or get advice before making any decisions based on anything in our podcast. Visit finder.com.au to learn more about how we're regulated, to compare your options, or to access our terms and conditions.

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Notes and links mentioned in this podcast

4:35 - news item 1 - Consumer advocates march on Canberra
8:30 - news item 2 - ACTU has pushed for a $45 per week minimum wage increase
10:11 - news item 3 - Home loan rates are continuing to rise
14:36 - news item 4 - Interest only home loans ban [notes]
17:54 - news item 5 - Pay day lender relief packages for Cyclone victims
19:30 - funny money 1 - Tinder money making scheme [notes]
22:24 - funny money 2 - Giant coin stolen from German Museum [notes]
26:39 - funny money 3 - New Jersey house is being stalked by ‘The Watcher’ [notes]
29:41 - funny money 4 - Amazon groceries shipping program trial [notes]
33:55 - Angus enters the studio wearing a great t-shirt [link]
35:41 - The flight device ban [note]
44:00 - Free Qantas Wi-Fi [notes]
50:50 - Amazon launch in Australia
1:00:13 - The Block 2017
1:07:04 - Question of the week responses
1:12:26 - Question of this week

Question of the week: What is the dodgiest thing you’ve done to get out of a fine or other financial commitment?

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finder.com.au Money Podcast #15: Wi-Fi frights and Amazon wars

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Question of the week: What is the dodgiest thing you’ve done to get out of a fine or other financial commitment?

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