• Alf Wheeler on the Zeoform story
    Jan 22 2026

    Host: Tina Perinotto
    Produced by: The Fifth Estate
    The Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.au
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    41 mins
  • Parnell Palme McGuinness on unpacking thoughts from a ‘diversity hire’
    Jan 13 2026

    Parnell Palme McGuinness, as a former consultant for the Liberal Party and conservative-leaning columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, McGuinness jokes she’s the “diversity hire” for those left-ish leaning papers. These days, she’s also a senior fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies, a place where we would expect to find very few commonalities.

    Host: Tina Perinotto
    Produced by: The Fifth Estate
    The Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.au
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    1 hr and 18 mins
  • Kaushik Chakraborty on trends on infrastructure
    Dec 11 2025

    Infrastructure work is going regional – in water, sanitation, roads and bridges – says Kaushik Chakraborty senior vice president, Asia Pacific & Japan with Bentley Systems in this podcast. It’s part of the big global drift out of cities and into towns and smaller cities that was bolstered by Covid. The trend is reversing the previous super trend that had captured demographers for decades.

    Host: Tina Perinotto
    Produced by: The Fifth Estate
    The Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.au
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    1 hr and 5 mins
  • John King on steel, windows and technology for 8 star homes
    Dec 4 2025

    John King from JGKing Homes Steel, timber, windows and technology to build home. John runs a successful home building business in Ballarat that’s been going for 40 years and employs 350 people.
    What’s different about it is that it uses steel construction that it fabricates to specifications, and it also manages to produce 8 star NatHERS homes without many issues and virtually no extra costs. The secret is high quality windows and window frames materials that break the thermal bridge, that allows about 50 per cent of the heat or cold in regular homes. In this podcast, he shares his secrets and views of steel versus timber.

    Host: Tina Perinotto
    Produced by: The Fifth Estate
    The Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.au
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    50 mins
  • Martin Loosemore on making a difference through construction
    Dec 3 2025

    Martin Loosemore, professor of construction management is known for his Community of Practice for social procurement, which he started with his colleague Dr Suhair Alkilani at the University of Technology Sydney.

    Host: Tina Perinotto
    Produced by: The Fifth Estate
    The Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.au
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    45 mins
  • Dave Higgon: The power of social procurement to change lives
    Dec 3 2025

    After 30 years Dave Higgon reckons he’s the longest serving employee relations manager in Australia. He started his career as a bricklayer for his father, before taking up small subcontracting work on the New South Wales north coast and into Queensland. In the early 80s, Higgon became an organiser for the Building Workers Industrial Union, where he developed a strong interest in social justice issues, then joined Multiplex, where he “inherited” responsibility for dealing with social procurement.

    Host: Tina Perinotto
    Produced by: The Fifth Estate
    The Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.au
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    50 mins
  • Nathan Hage on transforming Zinc Apartment
    Jul 10 2025

    Nathan Hage is neither a developer nor an energy expert, nor anything else you might think would be crucial to retrofitting a group of 45 flats in Sydney’s inner south with solar and EV charging. He works in logistics, but the one qualifier that he firmly holds is that he’s a resident of the Zinc Apartments, and perhaps through his enthusiasm, the job fell to him to manage this ambitious project.

    Host: Tina Perinotto
    Produced by: The Fifth Estate
    The Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.au
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    46 mins
  • Amanda Steele on pathways to success in sustainability
    Apr 10 2025

    Amanda Steele is group executive, head of property for ISPT, a business with a strong sustainability profile in the built environment.

    In her current role, Amanda is in the leadership team; but in the past she’s had direct sustainability roles at Stockland and CBRE and before that under the mentorship of our current Governor General Sam Mostyn when they were both at insurer IAG.

    In this podcast, Amanda talks about the drivers of ESG, the success of ISPT’s retrofit of 500 Bourke Street in Melbourne, and the challenges that we can expect as the rollback of globalisation and political upheaval in the climate battle continue.

    Host: Tina Perinotto
    Produced by: The Fifth Estate
    The Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.au
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    37 mins