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Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, the thirty first of July twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Fast five Business News by Fear and Greed,

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Speaker 1: where we give you the top five business stories you

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Speaker 1: need to know when just five minutes. Are Michael Thompson

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Speaker 1: and Good morning Sean Aylmer.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Michael, Sean.

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Speaker 1: We have five big stories to get through in five minutes,

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Speaker 1: so we better get cracking. Story Number one, Regional Express

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Speaker 1: has fallen into administration, with the Airlines Board agreeing to

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Speaker 1: ground flights between capital cities and focus on regional travel.

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Speaker 2: E Y will act as the administrator and Virgin Australia

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Speaker 2: has moved too quickly secure three leases of rare craft

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Speaker 2: from the flailing airline better known as REX. Virgin will

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Speaker 2: also step into fly Passages booked on flights at REX

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Speaker 2: canceled yesterday. After the board meeting last night, a statement

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Speaker 2: was released by e Y. It said Virgin Australia has

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Speaker 2: made an offer for REX customers with an existing ticket

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Speaker 2: on a flight canceled due to the administration process, the

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Speaker 2: opportunity to transfer their ticket free of charge to the

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Speaker 2: thirteen overlapping Virgin Australia services. REX and Virgin are also

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Speaker 2: exploring opportunities to support regional customers, which include Virgin Australia

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Speaker 2: selling Rex's regional services through code chair or interline arrangements,

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Speaker 2: and making Velossity frequent fly benefits available to Rex's regional customers.

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Speaker 2: In a separate statement, Virgin said it will support Rex's

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Speaker 2: employees who could apply for jobs at the airline, as

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Speaker 2: well as via code sharing and ticket selling agreements on

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Speaker 2: the remaining regional flights. Now yesterday the Prime minist was

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Speaker 2: asked about this. This was the head of the announcement

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Speaker 2: last night. He said that the government was speaking to

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Speaker 2: the airline but didn't really make it clear whether they'd

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Speaker 2: be providing any money or not.

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Speaker 1: Sean, this has really been quite the saga, hasn't it.

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Speaker 1: With the executive chairman Lim Kim High, who controls around

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Speaker 1: fifty percent of shares, being forced to step down last month.

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Speaker 2: The board, including a long time associate of mister Limb's,

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Speaker 2: was unanimous in its decision to replace him as chair

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Speaker 2: after asset queried related party transactions and Rex's acquisition of

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Speaker 2: Fly and fly Out operated National Jet. There's also been

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Speaker 2: a vote to spill the board members. Now only one

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Speaker 2: person hasn't been spilled and that's representative private equity firm PAG.

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Speaker 2: PAG invested in Rex in November twenty twenty and is

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Speaker 2: its main financier. It had the right to two board seats,

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Speaker 2: only has one at the moment, but obviously wants to

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Speaker 2: change the board away from the boardroom and unless, say,

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Speaker 2: its regional operations have been solid, but the decision to

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Speaker 2: buy nine Boeing seven three seven jets from Virgin when

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Speaker 2: that airline went into administration and then use them to

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Speaker 2: find the Brisbane Sydney Melbourne corridor taking on Virgin and

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Speaker 2: Quantas hasn't been successful. Plenty more to come on this one.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, there certainly is all right. Moving on to story

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Speaker 1: number two. Now, BHP will spend three point two billion

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Speaker 1: dollars to set up a joint venture with Canada's London

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Speaker 1: Family to buy Toronto listed copper minor Philo Corps, which

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Speaker 1: holds stakes in two copper projects, both in South America.

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Speaker 2: BHP might have lost the fight for Anglo American earlier

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Speaker 2: in the year, but clearly its appetite for copper remains now.

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Speaker 2: It already has a five cent stake in one of

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Speaker 2: the projects, something called Philo del sol and it wants

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Speaker 2: to be part of the nearby Jose Maria mine. It's

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Speaker 2: a long term player. Both mines of five thousand meters

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Speaker 2: above sea level. There's no infrastructure in the region. In fact,

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Speaker 2: calling their minds is probably a little ambitious because production

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Speaker 2: is still expected to be years away. But the idea

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Speaker 2: is that the JV partners built infrastructure which can be

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Speaker 2: shared by both sites, and BHP will own a large

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Speaker 2: chunk of the assets. BHP's share price closed down one

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Speaker 2: point four percent yesterday.

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Speaker 1: Story number three. He's a been of good news for

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Speaker 1: the wine sector Seawan, with data from Wine Australia showing

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Speaker 1: a surge in exports to China since the abolition of

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Speaker 1: tariffs in late March.

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Speaker 2: Since exports restarted, sales that China has surged from about

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Speaker 2: eight million dollars in the twenty twenty three fiscal year

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Speaker 2: to four hundred million dollars last financial year. Almost all

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Speaker 2: of that increase would have occurred in the June quarter.

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Speaker 2: Wine worth at least twenty dollars a bottle drove the increase.

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Speaker 2: Wine Australia says it is probably restocking as much as

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Speaker 2: retail sales and consumption of domestic and imported ones in

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Speaker 2: mainland China is less than a third of what it

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Speaker 2: was six years ago. There were five ndred and seventy

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Speaker 2: four Australian companies exporting to mainland China last financial year,

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Speaker 2: up from one hundred and fifteen the previous year, but

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Speaker 2: still well below the two thousand odd pre the imposition

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Speaker 2: of those duties.

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Speaker 1: Story number four. Building approvals tumbled six and a half

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Speaker 1: percent during June, following a rise in May, demonstrating really

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Speaker 1: that the construction sector is still in the doldrums sure is.

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Speaker 2: The monthly result was below expectations. The full and total

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Speaker 2: approvals was mainly driven by New South Wales, which fell

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Speaker 2: nineteen percent to under sixteen hundred homes, the lowest recorded

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Speaker 2: figure for the state since January twenty thirteen, amid shortages

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Speaker 2: of materials in labor. Private sector dueling approvals excluding houses

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Speaker 2: in June fell to the second lowest monthly level since

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Speaker 2: January twenty twelve, a twenty two percent year on year.

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Speaker 2: Four came amid challenging conditions for apartments due to high

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Speaker 2: construction costs and interest rates. Not much good news in

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Speaker 2: that sector all right.

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Speaker 1: Last one sewn Story number five Canberra has warned Australians

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Speaker 1: in Lebanon to leave immediately amid escalating military action and

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Speaker 1: constier that flights may actually be hard to find as

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Speaker 1: airlines scale back.

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Speaker 2: The advice on the government's Smart Traveler site yesterday says

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Speaker 2: the security situation could deteriorate rapidly throughout Lebanon with little

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Speaker 2: or no notice. Some airlines have already postpaned or cancel flights.

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Speaker 2: Further cancellations and destructions could occur. Alternatively, airlines could just

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Speaker 2: hype their prices for any remaining flights. Daily military action

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Speaker 2: has increased in southern Lebanon, including rocket missile fire, as

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Speaker 2: well as the air strikes out of Israel. It comes

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Speaker 2: as Opposition leader Peter Dutton departed Australia from an official

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Speaker 2: visit to Israel. US diplomats are racing to avert a

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Speaker 2: full blown war between Israel and the Iranian backed Lebanese

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Speaker 2: movement has Blah after an attack on the Israeli occupied

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Speaker 2: gold and killed twelve people at the weekend. Israel and

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Speaker 2: the US have blamed his blaff the rocket strike, though

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Speaker 2: the group has denied responsibility.

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Speaker 1: All Right, there we go. The top five business stories

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Speaker 1: in five minutes. Thank you Sean, Thank you Michael. It

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Speaker 1: is Wednesday, the thirty first of July twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 1: and that was the Fast five Business News by Fear

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Speaker 1: and Greed. Have a great day.