Damian Barrett

I don't think I gave a score on the blot, did I?

I should have.

I don't think you did.

The statement was it's comforting to see the NRL also having conflicts of interest in media, which we will discuss next week on the main body of the sounding board as part of the wider show.

And that was the scorecard for DrinkWise.

If you're choosing to drink, choose to DrinkWise.

Question time on the Sounding Board for DrinkWise.

If you're choosing to drink, choose to DrinkWise.

We'll start with an email question from Alex who writes, I recently discovered that Victorian Treasurer Jacqueline Symes graduated in law from Deakin University while Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers holds a PhD in philosophy.

Neither has any formal financial qualifications or professional experience in finance prior to entering politics.

It raises the broader question of how individuals without extensive financial or economic backgrounds come to hold such critical positions in parliament.

Why don't ministerial positions offer higher remuneration in order to attract candidates with deeper expertise and stronger private sector experience relative to what we currently have?

Trusting

such underqualified career politicians is, in my view, the key reason why we find ourselves in the current mess we're in.

I reckon that's a ripping email from Alex, aren't you?

And I'm just trying to find it myself.

What page is that on?

It's on page six.

Have you jumped the page on the question?

No.