BtN: Episode 19 Transcript 21/07/15
Coming up on Behind the News.
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The volcano that stopped holiday plans in their tracks.
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Find out about the tiny spacecraft that has achieved the impossible.
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And we get an exclusive look behind the scenes at the Ashes with a kid that
calls the Aussie coach dad.
Hi I'm Nathan. Thanks for joining us. First today:
Greece in Trouble
Reporter: Matthew Holbrook
INTRO: We're heading to Greece where money problems have been causing
massive problems. The issues have been going on for ages but last week things got
really heated when the Prime Minister there accepted a deal with some other
countries of the European Union that would see Greece receive another massive
loan. But that sounds like good news, right? So why were the Greek people angry
about it? Well it's all to do with something called Austerity. Here's Matt along with
some kids from Greece to explain.
CRISTINA AND ZOE: Hello, I'm Cristina, this is my friend Zoe, and we live in Athens.
These girls love living in Greece, but things have been tough here for a while.
CRISTINA: It's a lovely country it’s really amazing, but the time we live now, it is in
the worst period probably. We don't have that many opportunities in Greece now
because there are not many jobs.
The problems all started a while ago when Greece spent too much, and ran out of
money. To keep things going, it had to borrow a lot from some other European
countries. But eventually it came with some strict conditions. Conditions that have
upset a lot of people in Greece.
The main condition they're angry about is austerity. That's what it's called when the
government has to cut spending drastically so that one day it can pay the money
back. But in Greece, austerity's led to a rise in taxes, fewer jobs, and less pay. This
family says it hasn't been easy.
STERGIOS' DAD: Our income has decreased a lot, up to 50%, and at the same time
taxes have increased a lot.
STERGIOS: There are lots of families that we hear about that live by only one salary,
or from the money of a grandfather, because no-one in the family finds a job.
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And over the past few years, Greece has been asked to agree to tougher and
tougher austerity measures in exchange for more money. As the austerity cuts have
got tougher, Greek citizens have got angrier. And now, many would rather reject
Europe's loans, so austerity can end. But that would mean Europe wouldn't get back
the money it's owed. And that could be bad for the whole European economy. So in
many ways Europe really wants Greece to take the money.
Greece's parliament has now agreed to Europe's loan, and the tough conditions that
go with it. But over time, Greece will be asked to pay much of this money back. And
if it can't, this situation could come up again. So Greece's future and the future of
kids who call it home is still a bit uncertain.
But whatever happens in this country financially, these guys say Greece will always
be the country they love.
CRISTINA: Even though it’s amazing, it has beautiful nature, beautiful seas, the
islands are beautiful. I love Greece.
The Wire
To other news now and an Aussie politician is in a bit of trouble over a helicopter trip.
The speaker of Federal Parliament, Bronwyn Bishop, chose to take a $5000
taxpayer funded private helicopter flight to a Liberal Party event when driving there
would have only taken an hour. She's agreed to repay the cost and a loading on top
but has refused to admit that it was wrong.
PM Tony Abbott has said the Speaker is now on 'probation' but the Opposition say
she should quit the prestigious role.
The Australian Government has launched a new hundred million dollar program to
encourage kids to get active. It'll give thousands of schools around Australia the
chance to run extra sport classes before or after school and even bring in
professional coaches to help out. Stats show one in four kids are now obese so the
Government thinks it'll be a good way to help them stay fit and have fun too.
And finally, remember our story on Minecraft?
STUDENT: "Maybe the toads and frogs should be near a duck pond so do you think
there should be a duck pond?"
These kids at Linden Park Primary School took part in a competition to create the
best national park using Minecraft and guess what they won! Their prize is an
excursion to a national park plus they might even get some of their Minecraft dreams
turned into reality!
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Volcano Safety
Reporter: Nicholas Maher
INTRO: Over the school holidays thousands of Australian families had plans of flying
to Bali to escape winter here at home. Well that was right up until a volcano erupted
and ruined everything. All flights in and out of Bali were cancelled for nearly a week.
But how can a volcano on the ground stop flights way up in the air? Nic found out.
NICHOLAS MAHER, REPORTING: During the holidays, Paige and Max were
expecting to find themselves on a plane to Bali.
Instead, they found themselves stuck at home unpacking.
MAX: Well I'm just devastated. I'm so upset because this would've been my first
overseas trip.
PAIGE: It's just so disappointing. I was absolutely devastated about it.
MAX: I couldn't believe it. I'm just like no, I can't believe this. Stop, nope.
It was meant to be a family adventure with their dad Steve and their Mum, Ash.
But Ash got in the way.
No, not their mum Ash.
This Ash! It's all coming from Mount Raung, an active volcano here on the
Indonesian island of East Java, right next to Bali. Mount Raung has erupted many
times over the past few weeks and that's caused massive clouds of ash to spew into
the sky.
That ash forced more than 10 thousand people out of their homes and as it drifted
towards Bali's main airport, airlines had to cancel their flights too leaving Max and
Paige stuck at home.
But why does it matter if a little ash is floating around? How could that stop a big jet?
Well if you look closely at the powdery ashes that come out of a volcano, it actually
looks like tiny shards of broken glass. And when they hit a plane at high speed they
can do a fair bit of damage. Plus, plane engines are really, really hot. So when ash
gets sucked it, it melts inside there and gets stuck. That looks like this, and back in
the 80s it nearly caused a crash when a British plane flew through a cloud of
volcanic ash. Luckily everyone was okay but since then airlines have become a lot
more careful about flying through ash clouds, even though cancelled flights cost
them a lot of money!
Once the ash clears, airports are allowed to re-open to passengers. But that doesn't
mean all airlines will resume flights straight away. It's up to each airline to determine
when they think it's safe enough to travel again. So, some might start earlier or later
than others as we saw in Bali.
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That doesn't mean that some were being unsafe. It's just that the others were being
extra careful by waiting a little longer. That might have frustrated some people, but
these guys Adam and Jeremy saw a silver lining to this volcanic ash cloud because it
kept them stuck on holiday!
ADAM & JEREMY: So what happened was, we've been in Bali for one week and the
day before we went to go back we found out flights have been cancelled. It means
we get to do extra stuff in Bali and it's a fun place to be.
Despite missing out on their holiday because of the ash, Paige and Max say that
ultimately it was for the best.
PAIGE: I suppose it's for our safety that we can't fly over there at the moment
because we don't want to crash.
MAX: So they’re just doing it for our safety and it's just the way of nature.
Well Max and Paige, at least there is always next year.
Quiz 1
Okay, let’s test you on your volcano knowledge now.
What is the name given to the red-hot molten rock below the Earth's crust?
Is it Magma
Lava
Or Redstone
The answer is Magma
You might have been thinking lava but that's the name given to the same stuff when
it comes out of a volcano.
Visiting Pluto
Reporter: Eloise
INTRO: Now the world has seen the dwarf planet Pluto in greater detail than ever
before. It's all thanks to a little spacecraft called New Horizons, which left Earth
nearly a decade ago on a mission to explore the furthest reaches of our solar
system. Here's Eloise with more.
It was the moment an icy, far off land was brought into focus. A tiny spaceship called
New Horizons managed to show us Pluto like we'd never seen it before.
DR ALAN STERN, NEW HORIZONS PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: There are rare
times when you get to do something that's larger than life, and the exploration of the
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farthest world, that humans have ever explored. That sounds like science fiction but
it's not, today, we flew by Pluto.
Pluto was discovered back in 1930, by an American astronomer called Clyde
Tombaugh. He was checking out the images he'd taken of the stars, and realised
one of those specks of light kept moving. It was a new planet, that they called Pluto.
Not that it stayed a planet. Compared to the others, Pluto's pretty small, so scientists
eventually downgraded it to a dwarf planet.
But one thing scientists knew for sure is that Pluto's seriously far away.
REPORTER: Let's say the Earth is this basketball. Our moon would be a tennis ball
around seven and a half metres away. And Pluto, that would be a golf ball, and it
would be much further. Keep going, keep going, stop! Well, it would be over 80
kilometres away.
But how could scientists ever hope to explore something so far away? Enter New
Horizons. It was launched by NASA in 2006, on top of a rocket. Its destination: Pluto.
Amazingly, it's only the size of a piano, and it’s the fastest craft NASA has ever built.
New Horizons’ been hurtling through space at almost 60,000 kilometres per hour. It's
a journey that would take 6,000 years by car. New Horizons has done it in nine
years.
In 2007, it passed Jupiter and tested out its cameras by taking this impressive shot.
This year, New Horizons sent its first images of Pluto back to earth. At first, the pics
were pretty hazy, but as it got closer, the images got clearer and clearer. And finally,
on the 14th of July this year, it made it into the history books.
DR ALAN STERN, NEW HORIZONS PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: So fasten your
seat belts, New Horizons has arrived at the Pluto system.
Australia actually played a really big role in the whole mission. It was the first place
to receive the data, using this dish, the largest in the Southern Hemisphere.
CSIRO SPOKESMAN GLEN NAGLE: That's no mean feat. It's never been done this
way before.
But while we have seen some amazing shots come through this dish already, it's
going to take about 16 months for the spacecraft to beam back all of the data it
collected about Pluto and its moons.
So now, New Horizons mission has finished, but its epic journey hasn't. NASA's
hoping to use New Horizons to explore the Kuiper Belt, an area of the solar system
beyond the planets, that's never been explored before.
So this little spaceship will be continuing its great big adventure.
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Quiz 2
Okay, quiz time again now. An 11 year old girl came up with the name for the dwarf
planet Pluto. Did she name it after:
A cartoon dog
The Greek god of the underworld
Or a chemical element?
The answer is the Greek god of the underworld.
Pluto the cartoon dog and Plutonium the chemical element both got their name from
the dwarf planet. Okay.
Inside the Ashes
Rookie Reporter: Ethan Lehmann
INTRO: The Australian cricket team is currently taking on England in the Ashes
series. It's one of the big sporting rivalries and recently Australia lost the first match.
Next we'll tell you whether they managed to turn it around in the second test. But first
here's a very special behind the scenes report from Ethan Lehmann Aussie coach
Darren Lehmann's son.
ETHAN, REPORTING: Hi BtN! My name is Ethan Lehmann and you might already
know my dad Darren Lehmann. He's the coach of the Australian cricket team. But
right now he's over there behind me training the boys to hopefully bring home the
Ashes!
But what are they? Well let me show you.
ETHAN: Here’s what Australia and England spend heaps of time fighting over - a tiny
urn full of ashes! Weird huh?!
It's kept in the Lord's cricket museum in London.
And it all started as a joke 133 years ago.
Australia beat England in England for the first time, so a journalist published a notice
in the paper saying that English cricket was dead and should be cremated and the
ashes sent to Australia.
Later that year, England's captain said they would go to Australia, win and bring
home those Ashes. And while he was there a lady from Melbourne gave him this
Ashes urn as a funny present, but it ended up becoming the famous symbol of the
whole competition!
You might have seen copies of it held up after a series win. The real urn is so old it
stays at Lord’s. Winners get to take home a crystal trophy instead.
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ETHAN: Now let me show you around the ground here.
Lord's Cricket Ground is known as the 'home of cricket'. And this spaceship looking
building is the media centre.
ETHAN: This is where hundreds of journalists, camera operators, TV producers and
presenters send stories out all over the world.
Now, did you know all the cricket rules we follow back home in Australia are made
right here?
ETHAN: It's in this very boardroom that some really important people meet up to
decide what goes into this little book - the Laws of Cricket!
Inside the change rooms there are boards filled with the names of all the great
Aussie cricketers who've played here. On game day this room is filled with gear!
ETHAN: So Dad what do the players bring on game day?
DARREN LEHMANN, AUSTRALIAN COACH: Obviously they've got to bring their
whites to play, their training gear for warm-up etc, and then they bring all their gear,
spikes, bats, gloves, pads, helmets, anything you can name, protective equipment
and a whole heap of little things they like to take with them.
ETHAN: So whose bag is this?
DARREN: Well this bag's our captain's, Michael Clarke. So he likes to pack a lot of
things with him. He actually packs about 20 pairs of gloves, you can see his
sweater’s there, his shoes; he's the neatest guy we have on tour. He has his
backpack with his music in there, has probably 8 or 10 bats set up, his whites, then
obviously his baggy green. This one is probably about 30 test matches old. He
swapped it when he got the test match captaincy. He had his other one for 80 test
matches and it was all frayed, bit like Steve Waugh used to change his. But now you
have to sign a stat. dec. to actually get a new baggy green; to say you've lost it or
need a new one.
ETHAN: Before dad coached, he played for the Australian team and here he is after
hitting the winning runs in the 1999 Cricket World Cup. I'm really proud of him.
ETHAN: What has it been like to play and coach cricket your whole life?
DARREN: It's been a lot of fun. It's a very enjoyable sport as you know. The only
thing I don't like is that I get to miss you too much and all of my other three kids. I'm
always away from home. To play it's been a very enjoyable experience for me, and
now, dare I say it, I love coaching more.
ETHAN: So what do you love most about the Ashes series?
DARREN: Good question. I think it would be the history, and the tradition of the
Ashes. Whether you’re in Australia or England, obviously it's every 2 years and every
4 years abroad, for us it's a big thing coming to Lord’s, it's the home of cricket. We
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get the chance to meet the Queen, I think it's the Prince this time. But the Ashes
itself, it's the biggest test series you can play in as a player, or be involved in as a
coach.
The Ashes is made up of five games and each goes for about five days, so I don't
get to see all of them. But since I was born I've been lucky to travel the world
watching dad play and coach cricket.
ETHAN: I hope you've enjoyed this Ashes report. Enjoy the rest of the series!
Presenter: Thanks for your report Ethan! So how did Australia do in game 2? There's
only one way to find out.
The Score
Australia has thrashed England at Lord’s on the weekend to level the Ashes series!
After the Aussie's strong first innings, England were left to chase a ridiculous target
of 509 runs! And they crumbled to be all out for just 103.
The next match will start on the 29th of July.
Surfing champ Mick Fanning got a big fright when a shark attacked him during a
comp in South Africa. Fanning wasn't hurt, but was understandably pretty shaken up
after the shark knocked him off his board.
MICK FANNING: “I'm happy to not even compete ever again, to walk away from that,
I'm just so stoked.”
Officials cancelled the event, and split the prize between Fanning and his opponent.
And if you've ever wondered what half a billion dollars worth of soccer talent looks
like. This is it! Real Madrid is just one of the big name soccer clubs in Australia right
now.
They're here to play some blockbuster exhibition matches and fans have been
coming out in big numbers to watch their heroes in action.
Some AFL stars even stopped by the Madrid training as Cristiano Ronaldo and his
teammates gave the Aussie game their best shot.
Women’s League
Reporter: Nicholas Maher
INTRO: Finally today, a state Aussie Rules football league is aiming to make history
by launching a new women's comp that will run alongside their men's one. The
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league is one step below the AFL and it's hoped these new competitions will give
female players a pathway to bigger things. Here's Nic with more.
NICHOLAS MAHER, REPORTING: For these girls, playing footy in the AFL is a
dream they're working hard to achieve.
PAIGE: I play footy because it's a challenging sport and it has a good skill set.
KAILA: I play footy because I can take my aggression out on the field instead of my
brother all the time.
KAYLA: I have a brother that plays, but I'm better than him.
But at the moment, they don't have as many opportunities as the boys to play at an
elite level.
HANNAH: I definitely think there should be a women's league because I want to
continue this and I don't want to just stop after the under 18s.
KAYLA: They’re leaving the girls out when the girls are just as good as the boys.
But the South Australian National Football League is hoping to change that!
It's the top footy competition in South Australia, just a step under the AFL.
And next month they'll be launching the first ever state league competition for girls!
KAYLA: It's really good because I don't have to play in the boys’ team anymore, no
offence boys.
There will be an under 14s and an under 16s league and the clubs have been
holding open sessions to encourage more girls to get involved.
PAIGE: I think that's awesome. Girls really need to get out there in any sport,
especially footy because it’s shown to be just a boys sport but I don’t reckon it should
be.
EMMA GIBSON: The girls are loving it. It's been so awesome to see the enthusiasm
the girls have had. Even yesterday we had a come-and-try session where it started
raining, and it was raining quite heavily and the girls actually whinged that I took
them inside, so they wanted to get out and dirty in the rain. So the enthusiasm has
been great.
By creating a junior league at a state level, it's hoped these girls will learn some
important skills and eventually make it to the AFL!
The AFL started a women's competition a couple of years ago in 2013.
There's even a special draft where clubs pick from some of the best female players
in Australia.
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But at the moment, it's just the Melbourne Demons and Western Bulldogs who have
teams.
The AFL's hoping to launch a full competition by 2017.
KATIE BRENNAN: I just think it's the next step for the AFL as well such a massive
market and you hear how much it’s growing in all different states from youth girl level
all the way up to the women's competition. I just think it's the next step for AFL girls
and it’s very exciting for all us girls.
For these guys, that's some pretty exciting news for the future of the game they love.
PAIGE: It would be awesome, if it means you can continue on, have it as a sport for
your whole life if you want to, you can go far in it and it's just awesome to have a girls
team.
Ask a Reporter RVO
Okay now just before we go I want to tell you about something new we're starting
this term. Have you ever watched one of our stories and wanted to ask the reporter
for more info? Well now you can.
Each week, BtN will hold a live Q and A with one of our reporters about their story in
that week's show. It'll be streamed online for you to see on your smartboards at
school.
And you can submit a question to us live by tweeting it to us using the hashtag
#AskaReporter.
This week's topic will be on Greece. So if you want to get involved, go to our website
to find out everything you need to know!
Closer
Right that's it from us for this week. See you on Friday for our first #AskaReporter!
Bye for now!
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