He lasted only a year as the co-host of the 2DayFm Breakfast Show alongside Em Rusciano and now he’s opened up on what really went on behind the scenes.
Harley Breen announced last November that he would be quitting the breakfast show so that he could focus on his stand-up comedy career.
And he’s stuck to his word as he currently embarks on the final leg of his stand-up show ‘Flat Out Doing Nothing’ having completed shows in Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane with Sydney next on the agenda. In a recent interview, however, he was willing to talk about his time on radio.
It certainly wasn’t a smooth ride with the show not receiving very good reviews or numbers early on and they didn’t seem to improve. There were also rumours that he and co-host Em Rusciano didn’t exactly get along.
Harley Breen believed there was a “weird part” to breakfast radio saying that “when you’re in it, you think that’s all anyone is thinking about, but it’s actually all you’re thinking about” and really, no one else cares.
Breen said that his time on radio was similar to what he had expected it to be and that he had never thought of staying around for a long time as it was never “a career goal”.
In a read between the lines sort of answer to whether he and Rusciano got along, he said that “we haven’t been hanging out for spritz’s in the afternoon” following his exit from the breakfast radio show.
This response comes despite the fact that Rusciano said at the time that she was “very sad” that he was leaving the show, “We’re great mates.”
In a direct response to the rumours surrounding their relationship, Harley Breen said that whilst they didn’t spend a lot of time talking off air, “I don’t really talk to a lot of people off air.”
Despite the failed success of the show, Breen said that he still enjoyed his time as it was a great opportunity to learn a new skill “and that’s always beneficial.”
“You have to be up early in the morning and you have to be on…comment on things…it trains you to be a sharper, quicker wit.”
Harley Breen touches on his year in radio throughout his new stand-up show but don’t expect to hear any heavy gossip on celebrities.
‘Flat Out Doing Nothing’ is on at The Sydney Comedy Store May 17 to May 20.
The A-League grand final, which took place on Saturday night, was won by an illegal goal. A mostly torrid night in the goal scoring stakes saw Melbourne Victory defeat the Newcastle Jets by a single goal, scored by Kosta Barbarouses in the ninth minute.
The VAR system, which is the soccer version of the video referee and which uses Hawkeye technology, failed in the half minute leading up to the goal. This meant that it could not be reviewed, and the goal was awarded. Unfortunately, replays after the game showed that the Victory goal was scored from an offside position.
The correct call would have been a penalty to Newcastle near the halfway line. However the offside was very marginal, and so the on field referee and lines people failed to pick it up. If there had been no referral system at all the goal would have stood regardless, so the glitch did not cause the wrong call to be made – it meant that a wrong call could not be overturned.
Predictably, the technology failure has sparked outrage – especially in Newcastle. What is the point, after all, of the A-League having a video review system if it can’t be used to check the only goal in a grand final?
It would be going too far to say that without the goal Newcastle would have won, as they could not score at all – legally or illegally. However, without it Melbourne would have likely played a more aggressive game plan which would offer more opportunities to their opponents. A penalty shoot-out could also have gone either way.
As well as being used in the A-League, the VAR technology will be used at the World Cup in Russia later this year. A similar failure in a crucial period there could have profound consequences for the tournament as a whole.
This was hardly the advertisement for the A-League that should have come from it’s theoretical biggest game of the season. It also does not inspire confidence in the VAR system heading into the World Cup.
The refugees on Manus Island that are not being resettled to the USA will remain in Papua New Guinea despite an offer to resettle a portion of them from New Zealand. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has stated that it is a “myth” that there are any other countries willing to take the refugees.
This follows a deal between the Australian government and the US Trump administration in 2017 under which up to 1,200 Manus refugees would be resettled in the United States. Despite this deal it is unknown if all owed protection is going to be accepted.
Those refugees who are not being resettled are set to remain permanently in Papua New Guinea as part of a 2013 deal made by the Rudd Labor government, unless there was another nation willing to resettle them.
In response to this, Labor has urged the Coalition to negotiate with other countries for the resettlement of the remaining refugees. However, Mr Dutton has doubled down in saying that this option was not realistic.
He said that when people spoke of “some mythical third country” they were referring to something that did not exist and would not exist. The government has been in talks with several nations since the deal with the US but without any progress.
Australia does however have a resettlement deal with Cambodia, but only 3 people have been successfully resettled there so far. Mr Dutton said his staff would continue to negotiate but he did not expect any progress.
He said that countries weren’t “jumping out of their skin” at the chance to resettles Manus’ refugees. Mr Dutton continues to deny the prospect of a resettlement to New Zealand, stating that doing so would resume people smuggling to Australia.
Mr Dutton pointed to a Malaysian operation which stopped a people smuggling ring over the weekend, stopping 131 refugees headed to either Australia or New Zealand. Mr Dutton said that New Zealand was now a new hot spot for people smugglers and resettling Manus refugees there would signal that they had been successful as people can migrate to Australia easily from New Zealand.
In response, Labor’s Bill Shorten has said that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull should take the New Zealand offer and that it should not be seen as an invitation to asylum seekers.
In a brave confrontation, Kate Langbroek’s son has questioned, on Hughesy We have a Problem, why he isn’t allowed a smart phone.
Kate Langbroek’s 14-year-old son demanded to know why he wasn’t allowed a smartphone despite all of his friends having one. And she certainly wasn’t impressed when Dave Hughes simple gave him one right there on the show.
She discussed how she and her husband had had a proper conversation regarding the matter and came to the conclusion that “this is the worst age to give a teenage boy a phone” explaining that it gives them easy access to photos and pornography.
Langbroek’s sun Lewis was on the show and told panellists that he received a flip phone on his 14th birthday but desperately wanted a smartphone so that he could “fit in”.
Dave Hughes ultimately decided that he would solve the issue himself by giving Lewis a smartphone for himself. However, Langbroek certainly was not happy about it.
She went on to discuss the fact that everyone seems to fear not having a phone as it will make them feel left out. She questioned why it was such a big deal being different in today’s world and why we couldn’t just accept things as they are.
She continued to say that there was no reason to give children something because “it makes you feel better about not being a proper parent”.
As Hughesy handed over the smartphone to Kate Langbroek’s son Lewis, she said that he would simply “f**k it up for us” by doing so. Hughesy immediately questioned that language that she was using and Lewis was quick to respond saying that if they had a swear jar at home “I’d have a phone already”.
People took to social media to express their views and it was interesting to note that there was certainly a mix of responses.
The High Court of Australia has set the day after the budget as the day they will rule on the parliamentary eligibility of Labor’s Katy Gallagher which may set precedent for how the situation will be handled for another 4 federal politicians.
The former chief minister of the ACT has also been caught out in the dual citizenship saga.
Ms Gallagher had previously made the argument that she had taken all of the reasonable actions to renounce her citizenship in the United Kingdom prior to the 2016 Federal election but had allowed her case to go to the high court after what she said were attacks by the Coalition government.
She has signed a declaration for the ACT Legislative Assembly which said that she had met all the requirement for becoming a senator when she had bene put forward to replace Kate Lundy. Gallagher’s lawyer argued that Ms Gallagher shouldn’t be penalised because of red tape delays in the United Kingdom’s public service which prevented her from getting her citizenship renounced prior to the election.
The Commonwealth has argued against this claim and has said that Ms Gallagher did not practise due diligence.
The Labor party will likely watch the judgement in the case of Ms Gallagher’s case as other opposition MP’s fall under the same citizenship doubts.
Speculation says that if Ms Gallagher is disqualified from parliament she may get a nomination as Labor’s candidate for the newly made ACT Lower House electorate. During the dual-citizenship saga five sitting parliament members were disqualified.
This was followed by the resignation of 4 parliamentarians after the High Court judgement. A new parliamentary committee is looking at whether the constitution should be changed to reflect the multicultural nature of Australia’s government so as to avoid legal loopholes that have created the citizenship saga.
Instagram offers so much potential to get your brand or your business brand out there. And here are five tips to Instagram like a pro.
1. Make your content exclusive
You can use the direct feature to share some content with only a few select users. You can share photos with fifteen users or less and they will be able to comment on the photos just like they would with a regular post. You can delete these photos and they will not show up in searches.
You can use this feature by choosing Direct when you get to the ‘Share To’ page. You can find this link by looking at the top of the page next to ‘Followers’. You can then select which users will see these photos by typing their username in the ‘To’ field. Click on Send and don’t forget to check your messages by clicking on the tray icon at the top of the homepage.
2. Don’t answer to all your messages
You might be tempted to block your friends who are always sharing pictures of their meals, selfies or pictures of sunsets. However, you can simply ignore these friends so that you do not offend them by blocking them.
You can ignore the direct posts from a specific user by clicking on the tray icon at the top of the Instagram homepage. You will see a horizontal button with three dots on the iPhone or a vertical button with these same three dots if you are using an Android phone. Select ‘Ignore all posts from this user’ to stop receiving their Direct posts.
3. Make tagged photos of you invisible
You can see the pictures you have been tagged in by checking the ‘Photos of You’ section available on your profile page. You can hide the pictures you want to keep private so they will not appear on your page. Increasing the number of views can really help, consider buying Instagram views to help play the algorithm and increase visibility.
All you have to do is tap on the photo you would like to hide. You will see your Instagram username appear. Tap on it and a menu will appear. There is a ‘Hide from my profile’ option you can select. If you don’t want to be tagged in this photo, you can access the ‘More Options’ menu and tap on ‘Remove Me from Photo’.
If removing all the photos you have been tagged in would take too much time, you can adjust your settings so that you have to approve photos you are tagged in. Tap on ‘Photos of You’, access the settings menu at the top right corner and choose the ‘Add Manually’ option.
4. Use filters even when you don’t post on Instagram
Instagram filters allow you to improve your photos. You don’t have to post pictures after using a filter. You can save filtered photos without posting them by using your phone’s airplane mode.
Select the airplane mode and go to Instagram just like you would post a picture. Tap ‘Share’ and you will see an error message since your phone cannot upload a picture while in airplane mode. You can then wipe off the photos that weren’t shared and they will still be saved to your phone gallery. If you took a picture without switching to airplane mode, minimize the Instagram app and turn on the airplane mode. Go back to Instagram and tap on ‘Share’.
5. Don’t use geotags
Instagram uses a geotag feature to display information about where pictures were taken. You can see your ‘Photo Map’ to see the different locations where you have been taking pictures. You can remove photos from your ‘Photo Map’. Go to the map and tap on ‘Edit’ in the top right corner. You can then select the photos for which you do not want to share geotags.
You cannot add a geotag after removing it. You can also choose to never use geotags so that your Photo Map does not show anything. This option is available during the review process.
If you have been in SEO industry for a while, you probably are aware that it is an ever-changing industry. Webmasters and Organizations rely on it for visibility and credibility of their businesses.
It’s a known fact that Google is the kingpin around these parts and it has completely redefined SEO over the last decade. Being a blogger, it is your priority to keep your blog in the good books of Google to avoid a penalty.
I have made an effort below to mention the 6 important things which you can follow and implement to fly under Google’s radar and keep your sites safe.
Things which you need to follow to keep Google happy
1. Write for the user, not the search engine:
I know you have heard this like a million times but this statement still hits the nail on the head.
You have already won half of the battle if you avoid stuffing your article with keywords, include images, format your post properly with appropriate headings, paragraph breaks and use a friendly tone overall.
2. Don’t ignore your metas:
Photo: Google search screenshot
Just like The Flash doesn’t ignore his share of meta humans, you shouldn’t ignore your meta tags! Sliding that poor analogy aside, the meta title and description tag are really important, both from search engine and user perspective.
You should aim to write a catchy title including your keyword phrase in the first part of the title without fail and arouse curiosity with the help of the meta description (don’t bother stuffing it with keywords unless it flows with the context).
3. Internal linking is your trump card:
It is not surprising if nobody wants to link to your money pages (guides with affiliate links, lead pages etc.). Here’s where the internal links come into play. If you are aware of the basics of SEO, then you know that link juice that comes from an external page flows into your internal pages as well.
You can use this to your advantage and create an excellent informative article or useful tool and then internally link to your money page from it. This indirectly helps your money page to rank.
4. Build authority sites instead of micro niche sites:
In the olden days of SEO, micro niche sites were highly popular. Many people would start a niche site covering a very small niche and keeping a closed environment and it worked pretty well as Google wasn’t that cruel with the updates.
Fast forward to today, one penalty hits your niche site and you are back to square one. This is where authority sites come into play.
With this model, you can cover an extensive portion of a broad niche as you go, which naturally requires you to keep the site updated with new and engaging content.
This point complements the points 3 and 4 above. If you are building an authority site (which you should), a silo structure will help your site reach new levels both in terms of user engagement as well as SEO.
For example, if you are building an authority site around basketball, you can make use of separate silos for subcategories like basketball shoes, basketball, basketball gloves, basketball hoop, etc.
This helps you target multiple micro niches in a single site and leaves a room for expansion.
When using a silo structure, you need to make sure you are tightly packing a silo without any leaks (for example, everything about basketball shoes should go under the basketball shoes silo and internal link only to the other articles which belong to the basketball shoes category).
A complete explanation of silo structure is beyond the scope of this article, so I advise you to visit this excellent resource.
6. A fast website goes a long way:
Google’s website speed test. Photo: Screenshot
According to latest usability research, users begin to drop off a site when its response time is longer than 2.5 seconds.
We have smartphones to thank for that as people who are on the move want good information and they want it now! Here’s a little checklist for you to follow:
Avoid installing plugins when the task can be achieved by a simple edit of the code.
Use a caching plugin like WP Rocket or W3 Total Cache and minify HTML and CSS files. That will help improve your loading speed to a great extent. You can also try concatenating JS files if it doesn’t break the layout of your website.
Always optimize your images and trim it down to the size you intend to use on your website (unless your blog is about wallpapers). TinyJPG.com is an excellent tool for this.
Don’t use any plugins which shows traffic stats on your dashboard as they are known to take a toll on your server. Use Google Analytics instead.
Avoid loading rich media like videos unless they are in the viewport of the user by opting for conditional loading.
Wrapping up:
There you have it guys, the six things which I believe every webmaster/blogger needs to follow if he/she wishes to keep Google happy. Please leave a comment below if you have any questions or any arguments to share.
I always welcome constructive criticism and would love to hear what you have to say.
Shaun Micallef has told of the time that he was encouraged to drop two of the jokes he had written as part of his Logies monologue.
It has been almost 15 years since Micallef was the host of the Logies but he has now revealed that he was encouraged to remove two of the jokes he had included in his Logies speech. Shaun Micalleff was the MC for the evening and was, and still is, considered one of the funniest men in Australian.
However, it has now been revealed that not everything that the funny man writes down makes it to the show. Shaun Micalleff said that he had planned to run a joke that saw him running into anti-gambling campaigner Tim Costello at the Crown Casino. Micallef explained that the joke was that he “said to him, ‘How did you go?’”.
Shaun Micalleff explained that he thought that the controversy around that joke was concerned with “Channel 9’s relationship with Crown Casino” saying that at the time it was slightly awkward.
The second joke involved recreating a scene from the Untouchables in which Robert De Niro wanders with a baseball bat around a table of executives. He said that had then planned to “smash the s**t out of a watermelon” that acted as someone’s face.
Reflecting on that time now, Micallef says that he is glad that it never made it to air stating “I didn’t know what I was thinking, this was a really stupid idea.”
Hosting the Logies has been titled as a “poisoned chalice” with many people receiving poor reviews for their efforts regardless of their reputation. Shaun Micallef said that he was actually lined up to host again following his successful stint in 2001 but the TV station, “god bless them”, decided to go with someone else.
Shaun Micallef is currently starring is Mad As Hell but is also set to host the next series of Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation.
Tonight the Waratahs – the best rugby side in Australia – will take on the Blues – the worst in New Zealand. With the match being played at Brookvale Oval, this is the perfect opportunity to get a win against a New Zealand team.
An Australian rugby team hasn’t beaten a New Zealand one in Super Rugby since the Waratahs beat the Chiefs in May 2016. The Blues, however, are a hugely understrength side at the moment, with injuries playing havoc with their roster and preventing them from forming a settled side. They have plenty of individual attacking brilliance, but the set plays and defensive cohesion are not there.
Conversely, the Waratahs will have a full strength side with Israel Folau back from injury. They have individual attacking genius coming out of their ears, combined with a number of offensive threats. They will expect at least parity at the set piece, and will back their fitness to allow them to come back if they go down early.
Having the bye last weekend is also in the Waratahs favour. This will be the first of four consecutive games against Kiwi sides, and since they generally play a similar style the New South Welshmen will have been able to prepare well. This will be an ideal introduction before the toughest rugby games on the planet – New Zealanders at home.
That said, the Blues will not be the easy beats that their record this season suggests. They will be desperate not to be the first New Zealand Super Rugby team in 2 years to lose to an Australian side. They also have the potential, if their attack clicks, to outscore the Waratahs – something not many sides can say. If the score starts to resemble a basketball game the Blues have a chance.
The Waratahs will need to focus on their defence and on not giving the Blues a chance. It can be difficult not to be sucked into a fast tempo New Zealand game, but the Waratahs know that they will be able to score plenty of points either way. They should be able to win this one, probably by double digits.
The Federal Environmental Department is set to lose 1/3 of its staff that actively work to reduce Australia’s accelerated rate of extinction, for which we are sadly a world leader. The cuts have come during a national review of threatened Australian species that revealed at least 1/3 of 548 species were not being actively tracked.
The report found that the issues that caused the lack of tracking would be made worse by these job cuts. Experts have described the cuts as particularly disastrous for the fate of many threatened species in Australia.
Documents that have been given to staff at the Department of Environment and Energy reveal that at least 60 full-time staff would leave the conservation and biodiversity division in the new financial year.
With barley more than 200 staff at the department, these cuts represent about 1/3 of the jobs there. The document revealed that the reason for the job cuts was because of a budget cut to those divisions.
The Department’s spokesperson, when asked to clarify any relation to the upcoming federal budget, said that the Department of Environment and Energy would “publish its budget position” in the following week.
He revealed that the job losses had been a result of a combination of program cuts and pressures from “across the portfolio”.
The conservation and biodiversity divisions that the jobs are being cut from are responsible for coordinating listings of endangered and threatened species as well as making plans for recovery and actions against invasive species.
Although the documents show that there will be a shuffle of responsibility to manage those areas, the lack of staff will be a shot of bad news for the species that are already threatened at the moment.
The cuts to the Department follow what many economists have said is a Federal divestment from environmental policy as it takes a back seat to policy designed to stimulate the economy.
