Bonafide with Luke Bona

Three heavy-vehicle licence assessors have been pulled from the NSW scheme and referred to police after a joint Transport for NSW/NHVR crackdown across Tweed Heads and Lismore. Rod Hannifey and Luke Bona ask what it means for every driver those assessors trained — and a listener writes in with an anonymous, unverified account of "brown paper bag" backhanders allegedly pushing safe local trucking contracts to cheaper, non-local operators.

Plus: a $100 million funding boost for the Great Western Highway's Blue Mountains rebuild, a $10,000 free training pathway launching for Cairns jobseekers, the NHVR's latest fatigue blitz results (6,100+ heavy vehicles checked, non-compliance on the rise), a Legal Win of the Week from Hughes Law's Belinda Hughes, and Rod's rant on logbook fines that treat honest paperwork mistakes as deceit.

Guests: Rod Hannifey (Truckie Tuesday co-host, National Road Freighters Association) · Belinda Hughes (Principal, Hughes Law)

(00:00) Cold Open & Intro
(01:04) $10,000 Free Training For Cairns Jobseekers
(03:30) $100M For The Great Western Highway
(06:27) NHVR Fatigue Blitz Results
(09:31) 3 Licence Assessors Referred To Police
(12:07) A Listener's Backhander Warning
(17:09) Hughes Law: Win Of The Week
(20:59) Rod's Rant: Weighbridge And Logbook Fines
(24:06) Sign-Off

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He's the last touring boxing-tent showman left in the world, and 74 years old hasn't slowed him down. Outback legend Fred Brophy joins Luke Bona and vice captain Adam McDonald in the Man Cave for the full story — jail time at Pentridge, a run-in with Mark "Chopper" Read, deliberately cutting off his own finger, and why he says he's still got a few more years left in him.

Also this episode: is it really the worst time in 56 years to buy a first home in Australia? Motley Fool Chief Investment Officer Scotty Phillips joins Luke Bona to explain why the deposit — not the mortgage repayment — is the real barrier for young buyers, and the case against early access to superannuation. Dr Rob Zammit on the world-first program racing to vaccinate Phillip Island's penguin colony against H5N1 bird flu. Legal eagle James Glissan breaks down the Sydney Swans investigation and the presumption of innocence, plus the latest on Erin Patterson's appeal against her conviction.

⚠ Content warning: this episode's Man Cave segment includes a guest's own account of jail time, a serious injury, and past self-harm, with strong, unbleeped language. Also discusses a Victoria Police investigation into an alleged incident involving Sydney Swans players (unconfirmed, no charges laid) and a separate criminal matter involving minors. Listener discretion advised.

Guests: Fred Brophy · Scotty Phillips (The Motley Fool Australia) · Dr Rob Zammit · James Glissan (Glissan & Associates) · Adam McDonald (Evans Hastings Auctions)

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Support: 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732 · Lifeline 13 11 14 (24/7)

This week's Truckie Tuesday: container logistics giant ACFS Port Logistics — the operator behind Coles, Kmart and Bunnings' freight — has collapsed into external administration owing the ATO an alleged $60 million, with up to 1,500 jobs on the line. Luke Bona and Rod Hannifey break down what it means for the industry, and Hughes Law's Belinda Hughes joins with her Legal Win of the Week: a trucking company client's 37 charges and $2.54 million in maximum penalties, negotiated down to 8 charges and $549,000, all before it reached court.

Plus: a postmortem on the Casino Truck Show, the physics of why a triple road train can swing its back trailer a metre sideways from the smallest steering input, the story of a 44-year veteran driver who just walked away from the industry over new heavy-vehicle fines, New South Wales' roundabout and U-turn rules explained properly, and Rod's question of the week for the NHVR's new CEO, Nicole Rosie.

Guests: Rod Hannifey (Truckie Tuesday co-host, National Road Freighters Association) · Belinda Hughes (Principal, Hughes Law)

(00:00) GME Sponsor Open & Intro
(00:51) Checking In With Rod From Dubbo
(01:16) A Postmortem On The Casino Truck Show
(06:49) A Listener's Dashcam Near-Miss
(09:45) Inside A Triple Road Train's Physics
(15:58) New Fines: Why A 44-Year Veteran Just Quit
(19:00) Listener Mail: Roundabouts And U-Turns
(30:04) ACFS Port Logistics Collapses
(35:57) Hughes Law: 37 Charges Down To 8
(42:14) Rod's Question For The NHVR's New CEO
(46:02) Sign-Off

❤️ Cheers to GME for making Truckie Tuesday possible!
Outfit your rig with the very best, Australian-made communication technology here: https://www.gme.net.au/au/

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Support: Griefline 1300 845 745 (Mon–Fri 9am–6pm, Sat–Sun 12pm–6pm) · Lifeline 13 11 14 (24/7)

Every year, 49,000 Australians are reported missing — most are found within weeks. 2,800 are not. True-crime author and Australian Missing Persons Register founder Nicole Morris sits down with Luke Bona to tell the stories behind the numbers: a crossbow murder on Sydney's northern beaches, the still-unsolved 2001 disappearance of Janine Vaughan, the 1978 case of Trudy Adams that stopped a generation of girls hitchhiking, and the hundreds of unidentified bodies still sitting in Australian morgues today.

Channel Seven's UK bureau chief Ben Downie joins live from London to unpack the tragic academic scandal dominating British headlines — a Cambridge professor's resignation, and his death days later, and the very real question of who's to blame. Former National Party leader David Littleproud breaks down NSW's sweeping new gun laws in the wake of the Bondi attack, and weighs in on Pauline Hanson's latest Mardi Gras comments.

Then it's Truckie Tuesday with Rod Hanafi: a national truckers' apprenticeship push, the extraordinary story of driver-advocate Sharon Horne, and a live legal fight with Hughes Law over a trucking company shut down overnight.

Guests: Nicole Morris (author, Australian Missing Persons Register) · Ben Downie (Channel Seven, UK) · David Littleproud MP · Rod Hannifey (Truckie Tuesday) · Sharon Horne · Belinda Hughes (Hughes Law)

⚠ Content warning: this episode discusses real missing-persons cases, murder and abduction (non-graphic, historical), a recent death by suicide, and gun violence in a policy context. Listener discretion advised.

00:00:00 Welcome to episode 134
00:01:43 Luke's off to Vietnam
00:05:09 Coming up this episode
00:11:49 Pauline Hanson wants to scrap compulsory super
00:16:20 Sam Pang wins the Gold Logie
00:17:13 NSW's gun buyback begins
00:18:33 Listener mail
00:24:23 Ben Downie live from London
00:44:28 Nicole Morris — Australia's missing
00:45:06 49,000 go missing a year. 2,800 stay missing
00:45:33 Peter Rolfe and the murder of Stephen Dempsey
00:51:22 Janine Vaughan — missing since 2001
00:55:49 Trudy Adams — the disappearance that ended a generation's hitchhiking
01:00:59 Hundreds of unidentified bodies in Australian morgues
01:04:24 Christopher "Mr Rentokil" Flannery and Australia's hitmen
01:17:58 David Littleproud on NSW's new gun laws
01:28:44 Pauline Hanson on Mardi Gras
01:37:39 Truckie Tuesday begins
01:45:20 An angry driver's voicemail
01:50:06 Sharon Horne — trucking's mental health advocate
01:51:12 The crash that changed everything
02:15:08 Belinda Hughes — a trucking company shut down overnight
02:23:19 Rod's rant of the week
02:26:02 Sign-off

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❤️ Cheers to GME for making Truckie Tuesday possible!
Outfit your rig with the very best, Australian-made communication technology here: https://www.gme.net.au/au/

Support: Lifeline 13 11 14 (24/7) · 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732 (24/7, pending Decision 6)

She's home for one night between flights, and Senator Pauline Hanson isn't pulling any punches. Luke Bona sits down with the One Nation leader for a full solo interview, starting with yesterday's nationwide student walkout against her and One Nation — and her blunt response to it, including a secret recording of a teacher she says abused students in class, which she says she's about to release.

From there: whether she could genuinely become Prime Minister off the back of One Nation's poll surge, how she'd handle Donald Trump one-on-one, the AUKUS tightrope between the US and China, Albanese's awkward melon moment with Japan's PM, her friendship with Gina Rinehart, the real cost of Nauru, overtime tax reform, a push for a national truckies' apprenticeship scheme, and the fish and chip shop she ran for a decade before politics.

Guests: Senator Pauline Hanson (Leader, Pauline Hanson's One Nation)

⚠️ Contains a protester's sign quoting strong language (not repeated in these notes) and a brief, non-graphic reference to self-harm in immigration detention.

00:00 Welcome back, Senator Hanson
00:34 The National Union of Students walkout
01:29 The high school protest sign that went viral
04:53 Are the kids being led, or thinking for themselves?
05:19 "I'm going to release it" — the secret teacher recording
06:11 Marked down from an A to a C- for writing about Hanson
07:26 Should classrooms run CCTV?
10:11 Could Hanson become PM? The poll surge to 26%
11:26 Targeting Coalition seats at the next election
14:07 Her relationship with Matt Canavan
15:33 Albanese's melon gaffe with Japan's PM
19:12 How Hanson would handle Donald Trump
21:20 AUKUS, China and Australia's "two masters"
25:16 A national truckies' apprenticeship scheme
28:23 Overtime tax and the true cost of Nauru
31:31 On Gina Rinehart: "no one buys me"
34:20 Left school at 15 — Hanson's first job
41:26 A legend: Fred Brophy's boxing tent

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🎙️ Get Involved
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