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Speaker 1: Today's biggest news from The Australian. I'm Christinamiot with the

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Speaker 1: Front's afternoon headlines. John Sedka, the former boss of the

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Speaker 1: powerful Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees union, was arrested and

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Speaker 1: charged by police at his Melbourne home on Wednesday morning.

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Speaker 1: They allege Setka threatened and harassed an administrator appointed by

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Speaker 1: the government in mid twenty twenty four to oversee the

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Speaker 1: union's operations. That happened after it was revealed the construction

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Speaker 1: industry had links to outlaw biky gangs and organized crime.

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Speaker 1: A police task force targeting criminal behavior in the sector

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Speaker 1: was also established to investigate the allegations. Victoria Police Assistant

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Speaker 1: Commissioner Martin O'Brien said they won't tolerate intimidation and harassment

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Speaker 1: of people who are just trying to do their jobs.

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Speaker 1: Setka was charged with seven counts of using a device

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Speaker 1: to menace, harass and defend. He'll appear at the Melbourne

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Speaker 1: Magistrate's Court on January thirty. The hotly anticipated first Ashes

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Speaker 1: Test is just over a week away and the Australian

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Speaker 1: men's cricket team have been dealt a potentially devastating double

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Speaker 1: blow pace bowler Josh hazel Wood and reserve Sean Abbott

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Speaker 1: were assessed for hamstring injuries in a Sheffield Shield match

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Speaker 1: at the SCG on Wednesday. Test captain Pat Cummins has

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Speaker 1: already been ruled out of the first Test due to

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Speaker 1: a back injury. Members of the Liberal Party have descended

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Speaker 1: on Canberra for a do or die party room meeting

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Speaker 1: on net zero. They're bitterly divided over whether they should

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Speaker 1: persist with a net zero emissions goal or dump it

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Speaker 1: from their policy platform altogether. The party's conservative faction presented

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Speaker 1: a united front on Wednesday morning, while in battled party

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Speaker 1: leader Susan Lee arrived alone. Check out those stories live

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Speaker 1: right now at the Australian dot Com dot a U

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Speaker 1: and come back to the Front first thing in the

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Speaker 1: morning for a look at Donald Trump's ultimatum to the

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Speaker 1: BBC over its editing of one of his speeches.