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

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Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, October twenty nine, twenty twenty five. Lock up

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Speaker 1: your daughter's devices. That's the warning from Australian Federal Police

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Speaker 1: Commissioner Chrissy Barrett. She will today make a speech warning

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Speaker 1: parents that young men and boys are hunting, stalking and

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Speaker 1: grooming teenage girls online, forcing them to perform acts of violence.

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Speaker 1: A few questions about the Albanese government's ability to deliver

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Speaker 1: on its promise to fix housing. The flagship ten billion

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Speaker 1: dollar Housing Future Fund will be audited and treasuries design

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Speaker 1: of the scheme will be scrutinized. The fund was supposed

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Speaker 1: to build forty thousand new homes for low income workers,

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Speaker 1: but so far has built only the equivalent of about

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Speaker 1: eight houses. That story's life now at the Australian dot

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Speaker 1: com dot a you Tech success story Wise Tech weathered

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Speaker 1: allegations of sexual drama. Now it's being raided by the cops.

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Speaker 1: What's going on at Australia's most dramatic company. That's today's episode.

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Speaker 1: First it was sex.

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Speaker 2: I didn't hear from him.

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Speaker 1: I heard from his wife who told me in a

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Speaker 1: text message not.

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Speaker 3: To contact her husband ever again.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Mendez. I'm a journalist with the Australian.

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Speaker 3: Why have you resigned today?

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Speaker 2: I'm not talking. Are you concerned that that more women

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Speaker 2: are going to come out this night?

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Speaker 1: Then it was board chaos li chairman and three board

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Speaker 1: members of the software company wise Tech.

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Speaker 3: We'll step down this week due to disagreements over the

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Speaker 3: ongoing role of the founder, Richard White.

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Speaker 1: Now it's the fuzz us in.

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Speaker 2: Federal police and the Financial Services Regulator have rated the

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Speaker 2: offices of software giant wise Tech in Sydney. Officers executed

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Speaker 2: a search warrant to seize documents.

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Speaker 1: Wise Tech is a legit business founded by Richard White,

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Speaker 1: a former guitar technician and lighting engineer who grew a

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Speaker 1: billion dollar business out of his suburban Sydney garage. White's

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Speaker 1: a great example of the attractions of enormous wealth. He's

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Speaker 1: a charmingly scruffy kind of guy with a huge guitar collection,

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Speaker 1: who still lives where he grew up, in the unassuming

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Speaker 1: Sydney suburb of Bexley. But everywhere he turns there are uber,

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Speaker 1: glamorous women and drama. White is married to a woman

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Speaker 1: named Zena Nassa. Last year, he settled a messy financial

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Speaker 1: battle with another woman, Linda Rogan. A third lady named

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Speaker 1: Jenna Riches has gone public about their romantic entanglements, and

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Speaker 1: he was dragged into an ugly public dispute between politician

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Speaker 1: Mark Latham and his ex girlfriend. There were never any

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Speaker 1: allegations of criminality against White, but on Monday the dramas

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Speaker 1: turned from romance to shareholdings. Angelicas Snowden is a business

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Speaker 1: reporter with The Australian and she swung on to the

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Speaker 1: biggest story in business right now. It's what's going on

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Speaker 1: at Wisetich which was raided on Monday by corporate watchdog

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Speaker 1: ASSEK and the Australian Federal Police and what is allegedly

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Speaker 1: going on at Wisetich, Claire.

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Speaker 3: What we know has happened is Wistech's headquarters was raided

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Speaker 3: on Monday along with a number of other addresses. We

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Speaker 3: don't know where they are at this stage. We also

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Speaker 3: know that this is part of an alleged insider trading

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Speaker 3: investigation that the Federal Police and the Australian Securities and

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Speaker 3: Investments Commission are investigating.

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Speaker 1: Okay, let's have a look at insider trading first, what is.

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Speaker 3: That Insider trading is a criminal offense. Perhaps you're a

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Speaker 3: member of the public or an executive. You obtain information

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Speaker 3: that is not public and you use that information to

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Speaker 3: either buy or sell shares in a company. It's considered unfair,

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Speaker 3: which is why ASK the corporate watchdog is casting a

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Speaker 3: very very close eye on any allegations of this type.

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Speaker 3: It's been identified as one of the regulator's key enforcement

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Speaker 3: priorities this year.

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Speaker 1: Now, Wisetek's a really interesting company. It's a logistics business

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Speaker 1: based in Sydney, founded by a former guitar technician and

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Speaker 1: rody called Richard White, who's himself a very colorful character.

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Speaker 1: It's a public company, which means people can own shares

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Speaker 1: in it. They've released a statement revealing this raid. Why

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Speaker 1: did they do that?

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Speaker 3: They are obliged to do that. It's interesting to note, however,

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Speaker 3: they disclosed the raids about twenty four hours after they happened.

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Speaker 3: I've been told that the announcement to the market could

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Speaker 3: have occurred earlier.

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Speaker 1: And what's Wistek's saying about the allegations that are at

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Speaker 1: the center of the raid.

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Speaker 3: Wistech is saying it understands no charges have been laid.

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Speaker 3: It has said in its statement that the documents police

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Speaker 3: were seeking were regarding alleged trading in wise Tech shares

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Speaker 3: by Richard White and three Wise Tech employees during the

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Speaker 3: period of late December to early January this year.

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Speaker 1: Okay, now that brings us to the juicy part. Most people,

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Speaker 1: if they know anything about wis Tech, know that late

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Speaker 1: last year Richard White, the founder who's a big personality

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Speaker 1: in Australian tech. He's a real advocate for homegrown tech businesses.

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Speaker 1: His campaigned very strongly for women to get jobs in tech.

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Speaker 1: Allegations were raised last year publicly that he had met

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Speaker 1: some women on LinkedIn and offered them business advice or

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Speaker 1: tips or perhaps mentoring in exchange for sex. Where did

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Speaker 1: all that end up in terms of what Richard White

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Speaker 1: was alleged to.

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Speaker 3: Have done, Perhaps I could start with Linda Rogan. In

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Speaker 3: the middle of last year, a Sydney based entrepreneur, Linda Rogan,

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Speaker 3: sued mister White in the Federal court. She was seeking

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Speaker 3: to have a bankruptcy noticed set aside he had tried

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Speaker 3: to bankrupt her overclaims that she was seeking ninety thousand

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Speaker 3: dollars worth of luxury furniture for her house. What emerged

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Speaker 3: was Richard White had allegedly bought Linda Rogan a thirteen

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Speaker 3: million dollar mansion in Sydney as part of an arrangement

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Speaker 3: where they would have sex and he would provide her

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Speaker 3: with business advice. Following that court case, a number of

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Speaker 3: other women came forward alleging very similar things happened to

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Speaker 3: them with mister White, including the business advice in exchange

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Speaker 3: for sex. Packed wise TEC's board began an investigation. Two

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Speaker 3: law firms, in fact, were asked to investigate these claims,

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Speaker 3: and in February this year, parts of our report into

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Speaker 3: that investigation were released. It did find mister White had

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Speaker 3: misled the board twice over his intimate relationships with some

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Speaker 3: women who had overlapped in their time with wis Tech.

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Speaker 3: But ultimately mister White stepped back from his job and

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Speaker 3: resigned from wis Tech for a period of several months.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, he stepped back a CEO, accepted a new title,

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Speaker 1: which was founding CEO that came with a million dollar salary.

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Speaker 1: But it seemed like the board of Wistech, you know,

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Speaker 1: wasn't really coping. Several members of the board resigned. Now

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Speaker 1: there are allegations that it was during that period when

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Speaker 1: he was ostensibly standing back, that he traded these shares.

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Speaker 1: If he did do that, what would be the problem

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Speaker 1: with that?

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Speaker 3: If he did do that, that was during what's called

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Speaker 3: a blackout period. This is a period where key personnel

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Speaker 3: of a company are not allowed to engage in any

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Speaker 3: selling or buying of shares, and that is in large

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Speaker 3: part to prevent alleged insider trading from occurring.

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Speaker 1: Coming up where to from here. It's a really interesting

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Speaker 1: example of something they call founder risk, isn't it, Particularly

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Speaker 1: in startups where the founder is a big character. Often

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Speaker 1: they're an entrepreneur, they're a visionary. Sometimes that comes with

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Speaker 1: colorful behavior and a dramatic life, but their presence is

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Speaker 1: integral to the success of the business. In this case,

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Speaker 1: he built it from nothing to a forty bill dollar company,

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Speaker 1: and when he stepped back, the share price fell. It

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Speaker 1: seems to me like any way he handled this it

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Speaker 1: would have been bad for Wisetich because just not having

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Speaker 1: him there as the boss, the shareholders didn't like it.

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Speaker 3: Yes, Indeed, I think it's fair to say that over

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Speaker 3: the last twelve or so months, the company has performed well.

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Speaker 3: You know, we've had an AI boom. It's certainly performed

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Speaker 3: well off the back of that. However, we have observed

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Speaker 3: in periods where the court case and those other allegations

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Speaker 3: were occurring, there has been dives in the share price

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Speaker 3: and indeed, on Tuesday about five billion dollars has been

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Speaker 3: shaved off Wisetech's market value as a result of subsequent allegations.

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Speaker 1: It might be a good time to buy and if

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Speaker 1: you've got any cash lying around, perhaps what do we

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Speaker 1: think of the next steps from here?

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Speaker 3: It's an interesting question ask doesn't take these actions lightly.

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Speaker 3: Insider trading is the most serious offense according to the

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Speaker 3: Corporations Act. It tracks a penalty of fifteen years jail

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Speaker 3: for individuals who are found guilty of insider trading. Weistek

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Speaker 3: only used to get great publicity, but it seems that

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Speaker 3: the drama is here to stay now.

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Speaker 1: Angelica Snowden is a business reporter with The Australian. This

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Speaker 1: is a big story and you can read all our

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Speaker 1: reporting and analysis right now at The Australian dot com

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Speaker 1: dot au