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Australia is seeing a surge in new housing starts, with the latest quarterly figures showing a welcome uptick in construction activity. But behind the boost lies a growing concern. Homes are taking significantly longer to complete than they did 15 years ago. “We’re seeing more commencements, but homes are taking far longer to complete,” says independent property researcher Cameron Kusher. Pic: Shutterstock Analysis of ABS data by the Master Builders Association shows the average build time for new detached houses has blown out by 40 per cent in recent years, from nine months in 2010 to nearly 12.9 months in 2024. While the latest ABS construction data activity shows an 11.8 per cent increase in dwelling commencements (47,675) over the March 25 quarter, dwelling completions were 4.4 per cent lower over the quarter (43,517). Independent property researcher Cameron Kusher says increasing construction times for new builds will make it difficult to meet the government’s national target of building 1.2 million new homes over five years. “We’re seeing more commencements, but homes are taking far longer to complete,” says Mr Kusher. “With current delivery speeds, it’s hard to see how developers can consistently build 60,000 new dwellings every quarter,” he said “There are a few things contributing to this. One is a labour shortage that’s leading to properties taking longer to be build, as well as things like poor productivity on site and scheduling issues and a shortage of materials. Labour shortage, poor productivity on building sites and shortage of materials are all contributing to long build times. Pic: Shutterstock “Another significant factor is that in some of the larger cities, such as Sydney and Melbourne, there is a focus on building higher-density housing, which takes a lot longer to complete than detached homes,” he said. In fact, the Master Builders Association’s analysis of ABS construction data showed the completion times for building new apartments had blown out by 80 per cent in the past 15 years, from 18.5 months in 2010 to 33.3 months in 2024. Mr Kusher says government and industry should be considering a raft of measures if it hopes to reach its lofty new building targets. Experts believe tax reforms, an increase in prefabricated housing, greater use of AI and technology and adjustments to building approvals should all be reviewed if the targets are to be met and Australia’s housing affordability issue addressed. “I think we should be looking at absolutely everything,” Mr Kusher says. “We should be able to deliver homes quicker than we used to and we’re not. Whether it’s more prefab homes or greater use of AI, we should be looking at all these things. We need to consider everything,” he said. Red tape setback Master Builders Association NSW’s head of corporate affairs Ben Carter said reducing the regulatory burden on builders would also expediate new home completion times. “A recent report by the Productivity Commission found that red tape is a key issue when it comes to meeting new housing targets, and the MBA concurs with that. “We have been saying that for many, many years now that the time spend on managing and complying with the regulatory requirements at council level is one of the most significant impediments to building more houses,” Mr Carter said “You can’t build more houses if the time it takes to meet regulations is getting increasingly longer. Our members are telling us they are spending more time than ever dealing with red tape, which means they are having to put more staff in their office and taking resources away from their building sites, which is also adding to building times,” he said. “You can’t build more houses if the time it takes to meet regulations is getting increasingly longer,” says Master Builders Association NSW’s head of corporate affairs Ben Carter. Pic: Shutterstock What’s the solution Damien Crough, the co-founder of prefabAUS, the peak body group for Australia’s offsite construction industry, believes prefabricated and modular homes have a key role to play in easing Australia’s housing affordability issues and reaching the new home build targets. “Prefabricated homes can be built significantly faster than a conventional home,” he says. “You are typically looking at 55 week according to the Master Builders Association data to build a conventional home in the suburbs compared to about 16 weeks for a prefab house,” he explains. Mr Crough believes an announcement by the Commonwealth Bank earlier this year, that it will introduce policy changes to simplify financing and the home buying journey for prefabricated housing, will lead to a significant increase in new prefabricated homes. “One of the major reasons prefab homes haven’t had significant penetration in the residential property market has been due to our finance and regulatory system which has been built around traditional building,” he said. “We believe CBA’s changes to their lending policies will boost penetration of prefab homes and help ease housing shortages,” Mr Crough said. He believes prefabricated homes are just part of the puzzle when it comes to increasing new build times. “When you look at other industry sectors they are in their industry 4.0 eras but in construction, we’re typically at about industry 2.0. “There are a multitude of technologies from 3D printing and concrete printing and AI that needs to be leveraged if we are to increase productivity in the housing market,” he said. AI builders Matt Perrott, the cofounder of construction software company BuildPass said just like any other industry, digital tools have a key role to play in improving productivity and completion times. “Unfortunately, the result of our nationwide labour shortages and increased material costs, coupled with time-consuming approval and compliance obligations, has created a significant productivity slump,” Mr Perrot said. “But productivity driving AI-powered tools that streamline administrative, compliance, quality assurance and general project management is an easy lever construction professionals can pull to help tackle planning and delivery issues head-on,” he says. From centralised project management to real-time updates and automated compliance checks, Perrott says digital tools can eliminate

A proud American institution has opened its doors for the first time in Australia, offering something a little different to most US fast food empires. Auntie Anne’s famous pretzels, hotdogs and ice cream delights will be available to Sydneysiders from Saturday, with the first store opening its doors at Westfield Parramatta. And it isn’t likely to be the only one, with Popeyes, Jollibee and Firehouse Subs looking for store locations to bring over their popular goods for Australian consumers. Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Auntie Anne’s was started in 1988 when founder Anne Beiler bought a stand in a Pennsylvania farmer’s market. She started baking pretzels to help fund her husband’s desire to provide free family counselling services for their community. Her husband’s dream ultimately came true with the popularity of the now-international pretzels. A few US food giants are planning to come Australia. Credit: Auntie Anne’s/AAP Executive Director of Food, Beverage and Agribusiness Insights at ANZ, Michael Whitehead, isn’t surprised by the interest of the US fast-food chains. “Australians cannot get enough chicken in our fast-food restaurant — it has become the dominant meat,” he told 7NEWS. “We will see people flocking to it — trying it — and people from all demographics.” Popeyes chicken, which is known for its “mouth-watering crunch and juicy fried chicken bursting with Louisiana flavour”, is planning to rival Australian favourite, KFC. Red Rooster, Oporto and KFC currently dominate Australia’s takeaway chicken market. Popeyes’ potential expansion to the local market would be the latest US venture to hit Australian shores, following the likes of Wendy’s, In-N-Out Burger and Chuck E. Cheese. Currently, there is no information about where or when Popeyes is planning to open. Popeye is looking at store location in Australia Credit: Wikipedia Popular chain Jollibee is also planning to open in Sydney, with a potential location in Campbelltown according to Delicious. The Filipino fast-food giant offers burgers, named Yumburgers, with chicken. But something never offered by a fast-food giant before is its ready-to-eat spaghetti. Jollibee, the top fast-food chain in the Phillipines, opened its first restaurant in the United States in 1998. Credit: PA BEN/AAP Sandwich king Firehouse Subs, meanwhile, is blazing a trail into Australia with plans to open 165 locations across the country over the next decade. The first restaurant will open in south-east Queensland in late 2025, marking the start of the brand’s ambitious expansion into the Australian market. Iconic sandwich chain Firehouse Subs to open first Australian store in Queensland Credit: Firehouse Subs Read More

A new side hustle you probably didn’t know existed is helping people pocket thousands of extra dollars a year, just by inspecting properties for others. Sydney woman Rose Le Sebvrer has been attending rental inspections on behalf of others for five years, earning up to $1000 in a single week. The 58-year-old juggles these gigs part-time, alongside her regular work in strata insurance photography and evaluation. Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today She started during COVID when many overseas renters couldn’t enter Australia. Now, most of her customers are either interstate or overseas, or simply don’t have the time to attend inspections themselves. “My biggest day was when I did seven properties and made about $400 that day,” Le Sebvrer told 7NEWS.com.au. Rose Le Sebvrer has been doing this for five years, earning up to $1000 a week. Credit: Supplied She charges a minimum of $60 per property inspection, which usually takes about half an hour, but the price increases if more time is needed. One job in the Blue Mountains involved more than two hours of driving and paid $200. Her time is calculated from when she leaves for the property to when she finishes the comprehensive written report for the client. With her background in the property industry, Le Sebvrer knows exactly what to include in each inspection report. She starts with an outside video showing the street view, including traffic noise, nearby coffee spots, and the ease of access to parking. Inside the property, she takes photos and videos of each room, noting issues such as mould, water flow, lighting, cupboard functionality and the condition of carpets. One Brisbane client used her service to inspect properties in Sydney and secured a place within three weeks. “She said for her to fly down each Saturday for the opens, what I charged was much cheaper,” Le Sebvrer said. Record surge in inspection services According to Airtasker, Melbourne has the highest demand for people attending rental inspections on behalf of others, followed by Brisbane and Sydney. April recorded the biggest year-on-year monthly spike on the platform, with demand for rental inspection tasks doubling. March saw an 86 per cent increase compared to the previous year, February rose 70 per cent, and January climbed 49 per cent. Ray White Eastern Beaches principal James Hayashi said relocation agents have been around for a long time but have become more common in recent years, especially in the high-end buying market. The increased demand has encouraged more people to take on these inspection jobs. Le Sebvrer said she was busiest in Sydney between 2023 and 2024, but demand has since eased as more providers have entered the market. Domain’s Chief of Research and Economics Nicola Powell said the rise of these services is easy to understand. “It makes sense to have a service like this in the rental market, especially for people who are time-poor or unable to attend inspections themselves,” she said. “Inspecting multiple properties can be very time-consuming, and if you’re moving from interstate or overseas, this kind of service saves you time and gives you access to an impartial person who can provide a property report on the rental.” “If a service gets somebody into the right home quicker, then I think the choice should be there for someone to be able to use.” Handy but risky For real estate agents, however, the picture isn’t entirely positive. A Sydney-based real estate agent, who prefers to be called Frank, said some agents, including himself, may prioritise applicants who attend inspections in person. “It’s definitely better if the renter comes to inspect the apartment themselves,” he said. “They’re the ones we’ll be dealing with in the end, after all.” Powell added that property managers also prefer prospective tenants to view the home themselves, ensuring it meets expectations before signing a lease. “The last thing they want is [for someone] to sign a lease and then try to break it because the property wasn’t what they thought it was,” she said. This side hustle is no doubt a useful option for those short on time or based overseas, but experts advise renters to attend inspections themselves where possible — not only to better understand the property but to boost their chances of securing the lease. Read More

A piece of housing history is up for sale. At close to 200 years old, Faversham House in York, 90 minutes east of Perth, is one of Western Australia’s oldest homes. WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Aussie home almost 200 years old hits the market. Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today The grand residence holds 15 bedrooms and 13 bathrooms, and is laced with old world luxury, including marble fireplaces brought over from England. It includes an opulent ballroom, a secret garden and servants’ quarters. Now on the market, it has been revealed what the keys will cost you — about $2.5 million. Entrepreneur John Henry Monger started building the property in 1836, but as the Monger family and fortune grew, so did the house. Underneath the property, in what is now the basement, is the original stone cottage. The floors have been upturned by modern owners, searching for any sign of the family fortune. “Something of the time period was to hide your valuable goods inside walls, inside door lintels, in the hems of curtains, things like that,” owner Eden Munro told 7NEWS as he prepares to offload the property. Faversham House in York is up for sale. Credit: 7NEWS The property is close to 200 years old. Credit: 7NEWS The property is being listed through Bourkes real estate. “Steeped in history and elegance, Faversham House was originally constructed by the Monger family to the highest standards of craftsmanship,” reads the listing. “Perched on an elevated 17,200 (square metres) with sweeping views of Mount Brown, this magnificent property offers a rare opportunity to own a piece of Western Australia’s heritage.” York was briefly known as Monger Town. It is rumored John Henry Monger walked to York after emigrating to Australia from England in search of opportunity. He built a general store then built his fortune off wool and sandalwood Read More

Australian tennis legend Sam Stosur has announced the birth of her second child, a daughter named Emmeline Grace. The 2011 US Open winner took to Instagram to announce the news on Wednesday night. “And beautiful chaos reigns once again,” she wrote. Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today “Welcome Emmeline Grace. Evie is beyond happy to have a little sister and we are over the moon. We love you so much little Emmy.” Stosur has been in a relationship with Liz Astling, who gave birth to Evie five years ago, since 2016. This time around the former world No.4 carried the child. The Queenslander retired from tennis after the 2023 Australian Open, following a mixed doubles loss alongside countryman Matt Ebden. She had retired from singles the previous year after a career which netted more than US$21 million in prizemoney. Stosur’s straight-sets US Open final win over Serena Williams came the year after her maiden grand slam decider at the French Open, which she lost to Francesca Schiavone. Read More

A freak tornado has left an incredible trail of destruction in one of Perth’s most prestigious suburbs, destroying multi-million dollar homes and leaving streets resembling war zones. Wild weather hit the city on Wednesday afternoon, in particular City Beach, where several homes lost their roofs and experienced other severe damage. Video footage shows the path of chaos starting at City Beach Oval and then into the suburb, with roofs off properties, trees strewn across the road and fences down. Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today WATCH THE VIDEO IN THE PLAYER ABOVE One City Beach family left without a roof on their multi-million dollar home. The family of four were at home on Kalari Drive relaxing on the couch when the wind gust ripped away the roof of the master bedroom making room for rain to pour onto the furniture. Perth was hit with hectic weather on Wednesday. Perth was hit with hectic weather on Wednesday. Solar panels which were attached to the roof flew onto the neighbours roofs and into their backyards. Fortunately, nobody was hurt. The family was looking for a hotel to book on Wednesday night and until the damage is repaired. “I heard a huge bang and I thought all the windows would implode,” one family member said. The ‘tornado’ captured near City Beach. Credit: supplied Another family living nearby on Marapana Road watched their backyard get crumpled by falling trees. “I was just sitting in the kitchen, and I was looking out into our backyard, the pool area and this whole lot of darkness just filled up the air,” the homeowner, who did not want to be named, said. “It was obviously dust and debris . . . it was pretty wild. Damage to a property. Credit: supplied “There was a lot of rain and a lot of wind, it was torrential, it was very heavy. “We went outside when it cooled down a little bit, and we’ve got trees from next door that have fallen in, we’ve got two other property’s fences caved in, we’ve got people’s chairs, people’s bins just come out of nowhere. “Our yard is demolished basically.” Video footage shows a cloud formation in the sky which appears to look like a tornado, however authorities are yet to officially confirm. The wild weather brought down many trees. Credit: supplied The damage left at City Beach’s Lentara Crescent was extreme. Big trees fell across the road, rendering it almost undriveable. A fence was completely torn from the side of one house and thrown towards the other side of the street. The roof of a carport was caved in, with bricks toppled onto the road and windows of the home smashed. State Emergency Service crews were seen at the home doing their best to secure what they could. A strong wind warning was in place on Wednesday night for the Perth coast. The trail of destruction left by a ‘freak’ tornado on Wednesday, The trail of destruction left by a ‘freak’ tornado on Wednesday, Swanbourne had experienced 20.2mm of rain since 9am on Wednesday, with a wind gust of 50km/h recorded just before 4pm. Meanwhile, wind gusts of 76km/h were recorded at Rottnest Island and 73km/h at Garden Island. Main Roads WA was warning motorists to take care on Wednesday evening with the Causeway flooded after Adelaide Terrace in the city. The Weather Bureau is forecasting a maximum temperature of just 14C in Perth on Thursday, with a chance of a thunderstorm near the coast in the early morning. Last year, a tornado caused major damage to dozens of homes when it tore through Bunbury. A car damaged in the wild weather. Credit: supplied Read More

Publishing has always had a taste for fakes and frauds, from forged diaries and fabricated memoirs to authors who invent entire identities to enhance the persuasiveness of their supposedly true story. Humans are the most deceptive species, and we are also the most gullible. We tend to trust what the people we believe in say about themselves until proven otherwise. In the past few weeks, millions of readers and filmgoers who were seduced by Raynor Winn’s hope-affirming, life-changing journey along The Salt Path have been left wondering if they too have been led up the garden path. Set largely on the picturesque Cornish coastline, The Salt Path is the bestselling, award-winning memoir of an ordinary English couple – Raynor and Moth (the latter a contraction of Timothy) – who find redemption after financial ruin and homelessness and bear witness to the miraculous recovery from a devastating illness via communion with the natural world. Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs in The Salt Path movie adaptation. Credit: Kevin Baker Earlier this month, journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou reported in The Observer that crucial autobiographical details in the book were fabricated, throwing doubt on Moth’s medical diagnosis, and on their claim about why they lost their home. Responding in a lengthy statement published on her website, Raynor Winn (revealed to be a nom-de-plume) refuted the allegations and accused the publication of pursuing a “highly misleading narrative”. Historically, Australia is a major player in literary hoaxes – from Ern Malley to Helen Demidenko and Norma Khouri – each scandal shaking readers’ faith in the memoir as a form and leaving publishers red-faced. We may remember the glory days of Australian literary hoaxes in the 1990s and early 2000s, even if many of the participants – authors, journalists and publishers alike – have moved on. Perhaps some readers likewise have chosen to forget. Sue Vice, who is professor of English literature at the University of Sheffield in Britain and author of Textual Deceptions: False Memoirs and Literary Hoaxes in the Contemporary Era, says the never-ending stream of contested memoirs tells us as much about ourselves and the culture we live in as it reveals about the mind of the hoaxers. “The nature and source of the authors’ embellishments casts valuable light on a host of issues, ranging from publishers’ priorities to historical stereotypes and readers’ expectations,” she says. Vice cautions against condemning out-of-hand memoirs shown to be flawed in some way. “Writing about the past is almost certain to generate what looks like fiction or invention, given memory’s unreliability,” she says. “I feel that what is striking and inspiring people who read memoirs remains in place even if small details turn out to be inaccurate or invented.” Raynor Winn and her husband, Moth Winn, at a screening of The Salt Path in May. Doubts have been raised about aspects of her memoir.Credit: Getty Images Australia’s best-known literary hoaxes show exactly what’s at stake when truth and invention collide. Some of Australia’s most respected literary figures no doubt came to regret their initial support of Helen Demidenko and the principle of freedom of literary expression when her 1994 novel The Hand that Signed the Paper was attacked for antisemitism and plagiarism. The book was the most decorated and biggest-selling first novel in Australian publishing history, gaining credibility with readers derived from the author’s supposedly authentic background as the descendant of Ukrainian wartime collaborators with the invading Nazis. It turned out, however, that the author’s real name was Helen Darville, and that her fabricated Ukrainian-Australian identity was a much bolder invention than anything featured in the Miles Franklin award-winning novel. Loading Darville’s imposture threatened to bring literary culture into disrepute, though it didn’t stop further hoaxes from occurring. The last big Australian memoir scandal was Forbidden Love, published by Norma Khouri in 2004. Forbidden Love reportedly sold hundreds of thousands of copies in Australia and elsewhere, purporting to tell the tragic true story of the author’s close friend Dalia, with whom she worked at a unisex hair salon in Amman, Jordan. The book claims that Dalia fell in love with a Christian man and was murdered by members of her Muslim family in a so-called honour killing. Investigations by Malcolm Knox and Caroline Overington, who at the time were colleagues at the Herald, revealed that Norma wasn’t who she said she was. Dalia may never have been anything other than a figment of the author’s imagination. Norma’s insistence that she was telling the truth inspired filmmaker Anna Broinowski to make Forbidden Lie$, a disarmingly candid feature-length documentary in which Broinowski accompanies Norma to Jordan and tries to establish that the story in the book is true, only to be left wondering if she has also been conned by this plausible yet enigmatic woman. In a historic parallel with the allegations recently made against Raynor Winn, it was revealed that Norma used a nom de plume and had a somewhat chequered past involving financial irregularities. Forbidden Love was published in the era of the War on Terror, when there was a heightened awareness of the very real and serious issue of honour killings. As with The Salt Path in a different context, Norma did not just capture the imagination of her readers – she touched our hearts. The dark secret of publishing is that the fakes and frauds we know about are only the ones that have been uncovered and publicised. According to The Salt Path, Raynor and Moth experienced the ultimate sea change after walking the South West Coast Path, a coastal hike of some 1000 kilometres that includes Cornwall. Readers were told that Moth, who was diagnosed with an incurable brain disease, went into remission after travelling the path. The remarkable recovery by Moth during the long walk is recounted by the narrator with spousal love and low-key lyricism: “Maybe it had been the lasagne, or the red wine, or the massage, or the thought of bacon, but Moth had got out of the tent that morning

Austin (season two) ★★★★ There is much to rejoice about Austin, ABC’s Australian and British comedy drama co-production, returning for a second series. An original show! Made (partly) here! More of actor Michael Theo in the title role! Ingrid (Sally Phillips), Austin (Michael Theo) and  Julian (Ben Miller) continue their adventures in season two of Austin. Big-hearted, intelligently humorous and laced with goof, the first series followed Austin (Theo, Love On the Spectrum), an autistic man, connecting with his biological father, Julian (Ben Miller, Professor T, Paddington), a bestselling – though recently cancelled – author. Their new relationship brought profound change for father and son (and greater family and associates) amid revealed secrets and semi-chaos. Series one ended with DNA results and a cliffhanger – is Austin actually Julian’s son? The answer comes swiftly in series two’s opening episode. I won’t give it away, suffice to say that Austin, Julian and a raft of returning and new characters (this show bursts with singularly distinctive roles) are front and centre across eight new episodes, all set, as in series one, between Canberra and London. Austin, now living in North London with Julian, his stepmother Ingrid (Sally Phillips, Bridget Jones, Miranda) and his stepsister Florence (Ellie McKay, Miss Austen), has written a book about England’s capital, and Julian, pivoting careers, is helping to publish it. Mel (Gia Carides) and Bill (Roy Billing) are a terrific double-act in season two of Austin.  Austin is given a literary agent, Greta (Claire Lovering, Gold Diggers) a posh zeitgeister with ironic knee-high socks and untrammelled confidence, whose influence on her client brings fame and a character change. Julian – cognisant of the philandering and narcissism that has driven Ingrid to reconsider her marriage – is doing his uneven best to stop acting like a total prig. He and Ingrid’s bestselling children’s book character, Big Bear, is optioned for a TV adaptation, to be produced in Australia. Julian’s professional reputation – still rank from accidentally reposting a tweet from a white supremacist – means Ingrid is appointed creative lead. Julian’s efforts to be a good dad and husband are overshadowed by his vanity and jealousy of Ingrid’s new role. Austin’s jamboree of screwball, humour with heart and dry repartee is painted in big and subtle strokes. This can make the plot’s mood feel jumbled – notwithstanding an overall pace in scenes that made me yearn for slower, less wordy sections of character development and interaction – but beautifully peculiar wit shines throughout. Greta (Claire Lovering) is Austin’s (Michael Theo) new overbearing agent in season of Austin. Austin’s dialogue, written in consultation with Theo and delivered with his distinctively even-handed panache, is brilliant. “I want to talk to you about the ungovernable power of sexual attraction,” he says at one point, alluding to a possible romance. “Excuse me, I’m going to urinate and obtain some snacks,” a declaration of poetic exactitude before leaving the room. Theo is endlessly watchable – give him a TV chat show. Loading Miller and Phillips’ quip-soaked parley is buoyed by their natural comic abilities, although you do wonder what Ingrid continues to see in Julian. The welcome return of Gia Carides and Roy Billing as Austin’s mother and grandfather, respectively, continues a lovingly honed Dad and Dave-esque double-act, and there’s excellent guest star work from Rodger Corser, Katrina Milosevic and Natalie Abbott. British character actor Phil Davis (Sherlock, Whitechapel) also makes a scene-stealing appearance. The loving and intricate creativity of Austin’s creators, writers and cast is clear. The second series could take a breath occasionally, but it’s good to have it back. Austin (season two) premieres at 7.30pm on Sunday, July 27, on the ABC. Most Viewed in Culture Loading Read More

Patience Evans (Ella Maisy Purvis) is a young English woman who works in relatively untroubled isolation in the criminal records department of police headquarters in York. A wiz with data, she loves puzzles and finds it easier to relate to animals than to people. Shrinking from physical contact, she habitually moves around town in headphones as she finds all sorts of sounds – traffic noise, conversations – unsettling. At home and at work, she cocoons herself in distinctive environments fashioned to suit her needs. Austin Hogan (Michael Theo) is a young Australian man who’s worked as a forklift driver and loves trains – although he prefers to call them railways. He studies national flags, favours deerstalker hats and folds origami cranes when he’s stressed. He discovered a London-based branch of his family when author Julian Hartswood (Ben Miller) was identified as his biological father. Patience and Austin are the title characters in a couple of very different series. But the British crime thriller Patience (ABC) and the Australian-English sitcom Austin (ABC) share a common feature, and it’s increasingly evident on TV: the eponymous characters and the actors playing them are autistic. That’s a notable shift: in decades past, neurodivergent characters were more likely to be marginal diversions, maybe seen as odd or labelled as crazy or eccentric, perhaps used as light relief. Another quality Patience and Austin share – also increasingly evident – is that, in both productions, the protagonists’ neurodivergence is depicted more as an attribute than an affliction. In Patience, which is adapted from the French series Astrid et Raphaelle (not available here), her ability to process volumes of information and to identify patterns that others miss bring her to the attention of Detective Inspector Beatrice Metcalf (Laura Fraser). Austin is back, with Ingrid (Sally Phillips), Julian (Ben Miller), Mel (Gia Carides) and Austin (Michael Theo).Credit: Austin, having discovered his connection with Julian in the 2024 debut season of the comedy, has been welcomed into the Hartswood family. His earnest, unflinchingly honest nature proves a disarming foil for Julian who might – or might not – be his dad, a connection that the first episode of the new season throws into doubt. Julian can be sly and opportunistic, inclined to skate around the morality of a situation when some benefit to him is involved – the kind of behaviour that Austin wouldn’t contemplate. Patience and Austin approach things differently from the neurotypical types around them, and both shows identify the ways in which this can be an asset. However, Patience, being a drama, spends more time dealing with the challenging side of the condition – such as self-doubt, anxiety and isolation – while the comedy portrays Austin as more of a blithe spirit sometimes challenged by circumstances. Over recent years, increasing numbers of neurodivergent characters have appeared on-screen, particularly in crime series. Sometimes their conditions are specifically identified, sometimes their behaviour only suggests that they’re on the spectrum. That’s the case with Saga Noren (Sofia Helin) in the Swedish-Danish thriller The Bridge (Stan). She’s a gifted detective who doesn’t work well with others: she’s brusque without intending to be impolite; she misreads social signals; she doesn’t understand humour. She also absorbs information, whether she’s playing poker or surveying a crime scene, differently from those around her. Kaitlin Olson is terrific as Morgan Gillory, a cleaner-turned-sleuth in High Potential. Credit: Along comparable lines, in the mystery comedy-drama Monk (Foxtel), Tony Shalhoub plays a private detective with obsessive-compulsive disorder who’s also plagued by myriad phobias. Once, he was a San Francisco policeman, but his mental-health spiralled after the murder of his wife, and he works for the department as a consultant. Loading In style and tone, Monk was something of a precursor to High Potential (Disney+), which has been adapted from the French-Belgian series, HPI (Acorn, AMC). In it, Kaitlin Olson stars as a single mum and night-time cleaner of homicide-division offices who scans the whiteboard, sifts through rubbish bins and solves cases that confound the daytime detectives. With her dangly earrings, micro-skirts and lollipops, Morgan doesn’t immediately generate confidence from other cops: some of them are predictably sceptical until her talent shines. But the beleaguered head of the squad recognises Morgan’s, well, high potential, and engages her as a consultant. Beyond the lead characters in a range of productions, neurodivergent characters are also more frequently appearing as members of ensembles, such as Quinni (Chloe Hayden) in Heartbreak High (Netflix) and Rose (Leah Byrne) in Dept. Q (Netflix). Neurodivergent protagonists often have a champion, a steadfast supporter, friend, parent or mentor who recognises their gifts and learns to understand their differences. In part, that’s the role of Detective Bea in Patience, as it is of protective father figure Dr Aaron Glassman (Richard Schiff) in The Good Doctor (Amazon Prime, Stan, Netflix, 7Plus). Adapted from the Korean series Good Doctor (Netflix), it stars Freddie Highmore as Shaun Murphy, a surgical resident at a California hospital who is autistic and has savant syndrome. Chloe Hayden plays Quinn “Quinni” Gallagher-Jones in Netflix’s Heartbreak High.Credit: As Austin and this hospital drama indicate, the presence of neurodivergent protagonists isn’t confined to crime shows. For example, there’s the Korean comedy-drama Extraordinary Attorney Woo (Netflix), in which rookie lawyer Woo Young-woo (Park Eun-bin), who has Asperger’s syndrome, brings her skills to legal battles. Woo is wide-eyed and sweet-natured, with a special interest in whales and dolphins, her understanding of human behaviour often stemming from her observations of marine animals. It’s a trait she shares with Sam Gardener (Keir Gilchrist), who’s fascinated by penguins in Atypical. Robia Rashid’s beautifully calibrated comedy-drama (Netflix) has autistic teenager Sam negotiating the complications of family life as he’s navigating the minefield of adolescence and high school. Robia’s series is funny, touching and illuminating as it examines the challenges for Sam and his family. Freddie Highmore as Dr Shaun Murphy in The Good Doctor.Credit: It’s as though TV fictions have evolved to a stage where a recognition of neurodiversity, and inclusion of it, is

Sydney features large in David Williamson’s earliest memories. Aged three-and-a-half, the Melbourne-born-and-bred playwright was visiting an uncle with his family, and remembers “sitting in a backyard on a very bright, sunny day, surrounded by bougainvilleas and subtropical flowers.” “The fact my first memory was in Sydney obviously imprinted something on me about the exotic nature of the city: the colours, the brightness, the greenness of the grass,” he says. ‘Sydney was a bit more about showing yourself off in public:’ David Williamson. Credit: Steven Siewert He contrasts this with Melbourne’s winter and summer brownness, while another early memory was gazing from a ferry at a harbour that “seemed a deep translucent green, not blue”. Hence, the title of his iconic 1987 play Emerald City. Although Williamson is eternally grateful to the Melbourne theatre companies that launched his career, he was less enamoured of that city’s critical response. “When the plays were done in Sydney, it was a totally different reaction,” he explains. “John Bell did a terrific production of The Removalists, and John Clark did a great production of Don’s Party, and I have to say that the talent at their disposal was probably greater, when you consider that I was playing the removalist in Melbourne, and Chris Haywood played him in Sydney. “The critics were terrific, and they recognised the genre. The Melbourne critics thought The Removalists was an earnest play about police violence, that didn’t succeed because the characters weren’t three-dimensional. Whereas Sydney immediately saw it as a darkly satirical play about appalling Australian male behaviour.” Loading Williamson also wearied of his left-wing Carlton circle dimly viewing financial success, whereas in Sydney, making money seemed “a legitimate pursuit”. He acknowledges Sydney’s shady history of “beleaguered convicts and corrupt prison guards, but,” he insists, “it was a vibrant and very Australian city. So I thought to myself, ‘Why do I have to put up with these Melbourne dinner parties where people start abusing me that I’ve sold out because my plays were being done in the state theatre companies, and because I might be making roughly as much money as a suburban GP?’” He, his writer-wife Kristen and family moved to Sydney in 1979, arriving in time for John Bell’s production of Travelling North. They settled in Birchgrove, initially in a house without a harbour view, and then in 1987, the Emerald City year, in one that did. “In Emerald City,” he says, “there’s a line that nobody questions the meaning of life in Sydney: it’s getting yourself a harbour frontage – and here I was at exactly that time, buying myself a harbour frontage. The press had a bit of fun with that: here’s Williamson satirising those poor souls who spend their lives chasing water frontages, and he’s done that himself. My only defence was the Woody Allen defence – that a satirist is always prey to the same impulses he satirises – which I thought was a pretty neat way of trying to get out of it!” David Williamson at his then-home in Birchgrove in 1993.Credit: Michele Mossop In Emerald City, he has Kate (based on Kristen) contemptuously viewing Sydney as teeming with crooks and hucksters, with money paramount. In the event, Williamson and Kristen enjoyed exciting lives here for the next 20 years, and Sydney quickly became the setting for his plays, including Sons of Cain, about the corruption in NSW Labor (“which got me into a lot of hot water”) before Emerald City satirised a competitive marriage in a fast-moving metropolis. “It was like ships passing in the night,” he says of their hectic lives. “Kristen would be off to work at The National Times at seven in the morning, and socially, we had to go to different functions. One time, we hadn’t seen each other for quite a while, and we’d been invited to the same cocktail party, and suddenly, I saw my wife there, and said, ‘Oh, I haven’t seen you for a while. How are things going?’ So we caught up with each other, not at home, but a bloody cocktail party. ‘I felt terribly self-conscious, and small talk wasn’t my strongest forte’ David Williamson “Sydney was a bit more about showing yourself off in public, which I was never very good at,” he says. “Being six foot seven-and-a half [two metres], no one in the cocktail room could miss me. I felt terribly self-conscious, and small talk wasn’t my strongest forte.” By 1997, Sydney’s glamour and excitement were outweighed by noise, pollution, traffic and parking hassles. So the Williamsons moved to Noosa, a long-term holiday destination of theirs, where they could write while leading less stressful lives. By having a Sydney flat, they maintain friendships and connections, and so the circle is complete: back to the old Melbourne adage of Sydney being a nice place to visit, but… Emerald City: Ensemble Theatre, until August 23. 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