G'day, Scarn onm and welcome to another episode of Scarn on, your bite sized piece of information from Australia in an easy to understand and clear manner qith all the context you need to know what's going on in Australia. On this week's program, our explainer is talking about the women's Premier League or the women's in Indian Premier League, professional 2020 tournament. And why this is so important for women's sport. We're also talking about controversies with the Perth Mint, the largest distributor of gold in Australia. In politics, we're talking about the Orcas Alliance, an international strategy and potential purchases of submarines. In finance, we again look at interest rates and controversy surrounding the interest rates in Australia. In sport, we conclude the women's T 20 World Cup and we talk about Australia and India in on going test series.
It was revealed earlier this week by the ABC program Four Corners that the Perth Mint has been involved in some criminal activities or alleged criminal activities. The Perth Mint is Australia's biggest seller of gold, and one of the biggest exchanges and vaults of gold in the world. The exchange or the Perth Mint and its exchange has been selling gold to known criminals and drug syndicates. They have been able to launder their money, getting rid of their illegally gained money by buying gold with no questions asked as to how they came about getting their money. There have also been other controversies with the Perth Mint. It has been exposed that the gold bars that they are selling are actually not the required quality. So they have been selling gold bars that do not have the gold content that they say they have. And so this has rightly angered big purchases of gold, such as the Chinese government. The Perth Mint is no stranger to controversies. In the past it has been involved with different corrupt dealings from police and underground underworld figures, most notably with the Mikkel Berg affair in the 80s with theft of gold was blamed on two innocent brothers known as the Middleburg brothers.
The orcas alliance has been in the headlines in Australia this week, the orcas alliance is an alliance between the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. To a lesser extent, it also includes Japan, and India. This is a strategic response to China's growing influence in the Asia Pacific. China and India have some border disputes. And obviously, China, in the East in the China Sea, with its saber rattling and war mongering with Taiwan is also a reason for this strategic alliance. Underneath the lights in this, in this regard, is a deal to purchase nuclear powered submarines in Australia is a signatory to various Non Proliferation treaties, which means that Australia can't have nuclear based weapons. But there are some caveats to this. And so Australia is exploiting these to potentially get nuclear based submarines. This follows decades of agreement between both parties that they won't have nuclear based weapons in Australia. And so this is quite controversial. It has obviously angered the Chinese government as well, because they see it as a direct threat to their interests in the region.
Interest rates have again risen by point two five of a percent. It seems like every time I'm doing one of these I'm talking about interest rate rises and cost of living increases. And it certainly is is on the minds of most Australians. This is now starting to be seen in some anger directed at the Reserve Bank of Australia. There have been some protests outside the Reserve Bank building by students protesting against the increased costs of living and the shortage of rental availabilities that are found in most cities. In most, in some cases, it is actually seen as a rental crisis with some of the lowest vacancy rates that Australia has ever seen. That could also be an ongoing problem with Australia's housing market going forward, because some people have had Home Loans mortgages with fixed rates at a very, very, very low rate. But these will transfer to a variable rate sometime this year. There's something like a million or 2 million mortgages that might do this. And so it is possible that Australia's housing market has a huge disruption sometime this year.
To sport and since we last recorded, the Australian T 20 Women's team has won the World Cup, they defeated South Africa in the final in quite convincing fashion. South Africa upset England in the semifinals, but were no match for Australia in the final. It was just another day at the office for the Australian women's cricket team, who are now regarded as possibly one of the strongest women's teams sporting teams in the world. At the moment, certainly the strongest cricket team in the world at the moment and certainly the strongest Australian national team. At the moment. They're extraordinarily hard to beat, and they have talent in all positions. In all places. It's possible that they could even have two teams that were dominant on the world stage at the moment. And Australia's men's cricket team has recorded an upset win in the third test in India indoor. This was against the grain the previous two test matches had been won quite easily by the Indian cricket team. But there was controversy with the standard of the pitch. And the conditions of the pitch meant that the test match only lasted three days and was quite advantageous to the bowlers of which the Australian team got the better conditions and so they were able to win quite convincingly. The fourth test is being played in Gujarat, in one of the biggest stadiums in the world. The stadium there holds 130,000 people and is actually named after the current Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Australia's North is still experiencing very heavy rainfall in many areas in Northwest Queensland, in the Gulf country. Hundreds of millimeters have fallen and rivers and creeks are swollen and creating dangerous conditions in various parts of the north east of Western Australia in the Kimberley region. They are also cut off due to floodwaters. And this flooding could last for several weeks, with many towns and small isolated communities having to be evacuated to Darwin in the Northern Territory as well. So it looks like a fairly rough couple of weeks ahead for many communities in the north of Australia.
And now to this week's explainer the Women's Premier League or the Women's Indian Premier League, which is currently being held in India. It is the largest professional women's cricket tournament in the world. And this tournament is important because it marks a turning point in professional women's sport. For three weeks of work. These women can earn more than a year salary just for playing cricket. It's something that they have never been able to do before. The players were auctioned off and the players with the highest dollar value were recruited to various teams. The highest value player Ashley Gardner, is set to earn over $500,000 in her three weeks work. So it is extremely, extremely lucrative, and this competition is likely to get bigger. Over the next few years, there are currently five teams involved, but that will surely expand. So professional athletes in the...from the female sports are looking at this as perhaps a way of being able to be a professional athlete into the future. It's likely that female cricket players are going to be perhaps the second highest paid professional women's athletes in the world, perhaps only behind female soccer players or maybe even female basketball players. But because India has over a billion people, and it is the most popular sport in India. The amount of potential dollars in this market is huge and unparalleled. So this is a huge opportunity for women looking to be involved in professional sport. So that's it for today on this week's episode of Scarn On, your bite sized piece of information in a clear to understand with all the context you need to help you understand what's going on in Australia.
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