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Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Christanamio.

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Speaker 1: It's Thursday, July seventeen, twenty twenty five. The Labor government

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Speaker 1: must ignore please by disabled Australians to slow down NDIS

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Speaker 1: reforms if it wants to keep the ballooning scheme in check.

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Speaker 1: That's the frank assessment of bureaucrats tasked with slashing NDIS

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Speaker 1: spending by twenty billion dollars. Chinese Premier Li Chang has

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Speaker 1: warned Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi against stripping a Chinese company

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Speaker 1: of its half a billion dollar port of Darwin lease.

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Speaker 1: For all the latest from the PM's trip to China,

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Speaker 1: visit the Australian dot com dot AU. A scandal enveloping

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Speaker 1: former Labour leader Mark Latham is growing and other MPs

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Speaker 1: are being dragged into the drama. Latham's former girlfriend made

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Speaker 1: shocking allegations of abuse against the Maverick, New South Wales independent,

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Speaker 1: claims he's vehemently denied. That's today's episode. A note before

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Speaker 1: we begin. This episode contains allegations of abuse and descriptions

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Speaker 1: of alleged violence. When Mark Latham was elected Labor leader

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Speaker 1: in two thousand and three, he was the youngest person

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Speaker 1: to hold the title in more than a century. In

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Speaker 1: the years that followed, he gained a reputation as a

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Speaker 1: maverick and a champion of outsider politics.

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Speaker 2: Now am I good?

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Speaker 3: Are you?

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Speaker 2: I'm very well.

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Speaker 1: His tenure at the top of Labor lasted for about

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Speaker 1: eighteen months, when in early two thousand and five he

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Speaker 1: resigned as leader and from Parliament. But the controversies kept coming.

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Speaker 2: I'm glad to hear it. I ended up in hospital close.

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Speaker 4: Leaders were focused on the economy today, but once again

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Speaker 4: about some former Labor leader still the line latch.

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Speaker 2: Working at the Channel nine.

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Speaker 4: I don't know anything about that mark, if you want

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Speaker 4: to work with Channel nine.

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Speaker 2: I've had as good a look at Ascot on page

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Speaker 2: eight of the Australian said, and I don't think she's

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Speaker 2: got six apol at all. He must have had the

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Speaker 2: biggles on because she's nott that good of thought. There's

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Speaker 2: a demonization of men here where if you listen to

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Speaker 2: a de Rosi battie, every man is a potential wife basher.

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Speaker 2: Every woman is potentially at risk.

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Speaker 1: He resurfaced as leader of the New South Wales branch

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Speaker 1: of Pauline Hanson's One Nation party in twenty eighteen. That

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Speaker 1: didn't last either.

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Speaker 2: Mark Latham has hit out at One Nation leader Pauline

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Speaker 2: Hanson after he was dumped as leader of the party's

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Speaker 2: New South Wales branch.

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Speaker 1: Last year. While sitting as a freshly independent member on

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Speaker 1: the New South Wales Legislative Council, he was ordered to

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Speaker 1: pay Sydney MP Alex Greenwich one hundred and forty thousand

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Speaker 1: dollars over a defamatory tweet, and just last month, New

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Speaker 1: South Wales Premier Chris Mins unloaded on Latham like this

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Speaker 1: and One Nation voting together.

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Speaker 5: Day after day after day to.

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Speaker 4: Platform one of the most shameful bigots in New South Wales.

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Speaker 1: Now Latham is at the center of serious allegations about

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Speaker 1: the way he conducts himself behind closed doors.

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Speaker 4: Mister Latham engaged in physical violence, including pushing me against walls,

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Speaker 4: forcing me out the door, throwing a plate at me

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Speaker 4: during an argument, and driving at me with his vehicle,

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Speaker 4: hitting me on the side mirror and causing a bruise.

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Speaker 4: This is a voice actor reading excerpts of documents filed

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Speaker 4: in court by Mark Latham's former partner Natalie Matthews. She's

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Speaker 4: a Liberal Party member and former Sutherlandshire Council candidate who

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Speaker 4: runs a global freight company. Matthew says she was in

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Speaker 4: an on again, off again relationship with Latham for all.

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Speaker 1: Most three years, and alleges that in that time Latham

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Speaker 1: engaged in a sustained pattern of emotional, psychological, sexual and

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Speaker 1: financial abuse, including forcing degrading sexual acts, pressuring me to

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Speaker 1: engage in sexual acts with others, demanding I call him master,

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Speaker 1: telling me I was his property, and repeatedly telling me

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Speaker 1: that my only value to him was for sex, to

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Speaker 1: demean and to control me. The thirty seven year old

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Speaker 1: said she feared Latham would expose intimate photos of her

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Speaker 1: if she resisted his demands or left the relationship, and

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Speaker 1: alleges he put pressure on her regarding her father's will.

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Speaker 1: She seeking an order that would prohibit Mark Latham from

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Speaker 1: coming within one hundred meters of her because of the

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Speaker 1: way he's allegedly behaved when they've broken up in the past.

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Speaker 1: She claims she has an ongoing reasonable fear of harassment,

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Speaker 1: intimidation and potential harm the Australians. Liam Mendez reported New

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Speaker 1: South Wales police are aware of Natalie Matthew's allegations against

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Speaker 1: Mark Latham, but they haven't pressed charges or taken out

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Speaker 1: any orders on her behalf. Here's Liam.

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Speaker 3: So Natalie Matthews has been very reluctant to speak publicly,

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Speaker 3: but she's consented to being identified in these reports by

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Speaker 3: The Australian. Natalie Matthews has been to police about half

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Speaker 3: a dozen times before this story came out this week.

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Speaker 3: She has been a meeting with legal representatives and she's

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Speaker 3: preparing to go back to the police to try and

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Speaker 3: essentially tell her side of the story to the police

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Speaker 3: and possibly see to have Latham either charged or have

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Speaker 3: an AVO served on him by police. But previously the

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Speaker 3: police have not been provided with sufficient evidence essentially for

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Speaker 3: them to lay charges.

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Speaker 1: Mark Latham has vehemently denied the allegations made by his

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Speaker 1: ex partner.

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Speaker 3: At first, when I spoke to him, he did not

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Speaker 3: want to speak, He didn't want to hear about the allegations.

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Speaker 5: He didn't want to see the order.

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Speaker 3: I had a copy of it with me, and afterwards

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Speaker 3: he sent a couple of text messages essentially saying that

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Speaker 3: the claims were absolute rubbish.

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Speaker 5: He downplayed the level.

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Speaker 3: Of the relationship that they were in, and I've seen

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Speaker 3: a lot of evidence that goes against his claims that

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Speaker 3: they were in just a situationship. We published in The

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Speaker 3: Australian on Wednesday that Miss s Latham had proposed to

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Speaker 3: Miss Matthews and there was a ring involved, and I've

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Speaker 3: seen correspondence between Miss Matthews and a friend where she

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Speaker 3: announced that engagement.

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Speaker 1: On Wednesday, Latham addressed the allegations on Chris Smith's two

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Speaker 1: SM radio program.

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Speaker 2: Well, the big news is I had a private life.

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Speaker 2: I had a sex life that I've got to say

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Speaker 2: was fantastic.

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Speaker 1: He was fired up because sexually explicit text messages allegedly

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Speaker 1: sent by Lathan while he was on the floor of

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Speaker 1: the New South Wales Parliament had been made public. Voice

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Speaker 1: actors are reading some of the tamer texts from the

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Speaker 1: trove released. The others are considerably more racy, naughty. It

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Speaker 1: was oops, made it back for the first vote after dinner.

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Speaker 4: Other activities best one you are quite amazing, Mike. Dopamine,

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Speaker 4: serotonin and oxytocin.

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Speaker 5: I needed that, Thanks, bab, You're amazing.

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Speaker 2: If I'm the only Christian, I'm the only person in

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Speaker 2: Australia who are in a work environment, is engaged in

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Speaker 2: a bit of playful sex talk with their partner, then

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Speaker 2: oh by everyone a lottery ticket tomorrow.

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Speaker 1: Latham also had this to say about the allegations made

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Speaker 1: by his ex.

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Speaker 2: She tried to get a AVO with the police and

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Speaker 2: in the current environment, if you miss out with the

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Speaker 2: police failing to issue an av O, I think that

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Speaker 2: tells you a lot about the substance of the matter.

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Speaker 2: Just about all the things she's complaining about, she initiated

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Speaker 2: in consensual arrangements. There are inaccuracies, there a lack of context,

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Speaker 2: so it's pretty slap happy journalis. I don't know how

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Speaker 2: they publish that stuff with the inaccuracies.

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Speaker 1: The Australian, of course, stands by our reporting. Coming up

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Speaker 1: why the allegations against Mark Latham could be a headache

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Speaker 1: for the New South Wales premiere as controversy sworld On Wednesday,

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Speaker 1: Premier Chris Mins said the alleged conduct of Independent MP

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Speaker 1: Mark Lay on the parliamentary floor is not on The

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Speaker 1: Premier said he'll pursue motions to officially condemn Latham, but

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Speaker 1: hasn't asked him to stand aside because he suspected the

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Speaker 1: Maverick MP would do the opposite, But that might not

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Speaker 1: be the end of it for the New South Wales Parliament.

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Speaker 1: Here's Lea Mendez.

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Speaker 5: There is a lot more to this story.

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Speaker 3: There's a trove of messages that have already been released.

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Speaker 3: Some of these messages are very sexually explicit in nature,

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Speaker 3: and they also alleged to have been sent. In fact,

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Speaker 3: mister Latham is admitted that a lot of these messages

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Speaker 3: were actually sent while he was on the floor of

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Speaker 3: the New South Wales Parliament. The interesting thing here is

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Speaker 3: that there is reference in some of these messages to

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Speaker 3: other members of Parliament in a sexual manner. So it's

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Speaker 3: going to be interesting to see where this goes. It's

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Speaker 3: certainly not the end of the story here. I think

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Speaker 3: the can of worm's poss we might have only just

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Speaker 3: been opened, and the result a lot more to come.

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Speaker 1: The matter will return to the Downing Center Local Court

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Speaker 1: later this month. Liam Mendes is a reporter with The Australian.

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Speaker 1: If you need support, contact one eight hundred respect for

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Speaker 1: twenty four to seven counseling and advice. For all the

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Speaker 1: latest from this story, and for all the nation's best news,

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Speaker 1: sport and politics. Visit the Australian dot com dot au