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Speaker 1: Now thanks to Lynn who sent me some info on

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Speaker 1: this last week, a class action filed against Cohl's and

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Speaker 1: Woolli's Sydney based law firm GMP Law lodging the lawsuit

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Speaker 1: in the Federal Court and consumers who join in could

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Speaker 1: get refunds ranging from two hundred dollars to thirteen hundred.

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Speaker 1: Let's have a chat to Diane Chapman, who is Special

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Speaker 1: Council Class Action Division at Girard Maloof and Partners in Sydney. Diane,

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Speaker 1: good morning to you, our good morning. So this is

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Speaker 1: about holding the retailers accountable. Does it come on the

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Speaker 1: back of the federal action against the Big two?

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Speaker 2: Yes, that's right. So our claim is a consumer claim

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Speaker 2: which is seeking refund a refund for consumers the Federal

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Speaker 2: court a triple C claim is actually a penalty claim,

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Speaker 2: so the money actually goes back to any penalty will

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Speaker 2: go back to the government.

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Speaker 1: How will people need to prove their odor refund?

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Speaker 2: So a lot of people, there's about to steen and

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Speaker 2: a half million people in Australia who are part of

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Speaker 2: the Colson will Worth rewards card.

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Speaker 1: Scheme plan.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, so Colson will Worth we believe already have

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Speaker 2: the data on people's purchases and whether they're bought in

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Speaker 2: the sales and when and all of those details. So

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Speaker 2: we're going to try and get that information from Coals

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Speaker 2: and will Work so that we can actually see exactly

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Speaker 2: how much people may have lost and then we can

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Speaker 2: provide them a refund on the difference in the pricing.

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Speaker 1: Okay, is there a cost for people signing up?

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Speaker 2: No, there's no costs at all, and there's no that

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Speaker 2: they won't be able to pocket at all. So at

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Speaker 2: the moment, all they need to do is register. We're

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Speaker 2: not getting anyone to sign conditional costs agreements or anything

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Speaker 2: like that. They just need to register on the website.

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Speaker 1: Okay. So what they need their rewards card number presumably

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Speaker 1: or details from that and the way you go.

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Speaker 2: Not even that at this stage. So we're just asking

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Speaker 2: them if they are a cost or will Worth rewards

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Speaker 2: card member. So there are other people who may not

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Speaker 2: be part of the Cosmon and we're word rewards card program.

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Speaker 2: So what we're going to do is seek a statutory

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Speaker 2: declaration from those people who may either have receipts or

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Speaker 2: believe that they have suffered a loss in relation to

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Speaker 2: those programs. During that period.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so this is when the illusionary shall we say,

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Speaker 1: discounts were there where the price might This is the

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Speaker 1: allegation the price might have been bumped up and then

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Speaker 1: pulled down above what it used to be, and you're

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Speaker 1: being told it's on sale at a special price when

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Speaker 1: it's actually more than the original price.

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Speaker 2: Yes, that's correct.

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Speaker 1: Is this guaranteed this action? I suppose nothing in court

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Speaker 1: ever is But you seem confident.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, we're pretty confident if the A Triple C

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Speaker 2: is bringing a claim on behalf of the government, so

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Speaker 2: we basically piggyback that we do consider it's a good claim.

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Speaker 2: The A Triple C claim is a good claim, and

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Speaker 2: we feel that the people who have been wronged and

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Speaker 2: who are out of pocket are actually the customers, so

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Speaker 2: we'd like to see if we can get a refund

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Speaker 2: for them.

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Speaker 1: And between two and thirteen hundred, two hundred and thirteen hundred,

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Speaker 1: how have you come to those figures? Is it just

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Speaker 1: based on average spend or have you done well?

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Speaker 2: We think that the average period between the two supermarkets

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Speaker 2: is almost two years, So over a two year period,

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Speaker 2: a lot of people just shop the specials and then

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Speaker 2: they'll do their broader shopping. So a lot of people

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Speaker 2: do rely on those specials. So we've just look, we've

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Speaker 2: just given it an estimate, but we believe that. I mean,

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Speaker 2: some people will only be out of pocket a few

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Speaker 2: dollars and they might want to make a claim and

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Speaker 2: that's fine. But some families will be out of pocket.

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Speaker 2: We imagine several hundred dollars because that's how family shop.

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Speaker 1: And how did you get paid then, as in the

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Speaker 1: law firm, is it out of whatever money you keep

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Speaker 1: a certain percentage and the rest is divided out.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so that there's a couple of ways. Look, if

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Speaker 2: it goes to court, usually the costs are a porsche

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Speaker 2: of the settlement proceedings. But if it goes to a

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Speaker 2: mediation and settles or something like that, sometimes it can

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Speaker 2: be the settlement money's plus cost. So it just depends

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Speaker 2: on what the wash up is. And the federal court

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Speaker 2: always has to approve a settlement, and they do. If

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Speaker 2: they're not happy with the cost, they will let us know.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sure, so I imagine then that's a lot

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Speaker 1: of work for your staff because if you get for

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Speaker 1: argument's sake, let's say it's five thousand respondents to this.

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Speaker 1: You'd have to go through all of them, wouldn't you

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Speaker 1: to work out how much they're own.

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Speaker 2: Well, actually, at the moment, we have about sixty five

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Speaker 2: thousand people registered.

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Speaker 1: Here we have thinking I'm generous and saying five, So

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Speaker 1: let's say it's one hundred thousand at the end. Then

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Speaker 1: I mean that's a heck of a lot of work.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So we have some specialist software which manages our

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Speaker 2: group members. It's new software and it can deal with

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Speaker 2: many millions of people potentially. So there are other class

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Speaker 2: actions that I know that that platform is actually dealing

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Speaker 2: with another class action with a couple of million people

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Speaker 2: on it, and we actually believe it's going to come

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Speaker 2: down to basically an algorithm that we can you know,

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Speaker 2: Cols and Walwaft already has all of that data, so

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Speaker 2: it should be able to be dealt with in some

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Speaker 2: electronic way.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, how about that? So all you need is a

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Speaker 1: rewards card with Coals and Woollies or whatever they're called

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Speaker 1: for each of them, and away you go.

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Speaker 2: Just register absolutely, and you can register for Coals and

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Speaker 2: for war Worth if you are a rewards card member

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Speaker 2: for both.

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Speaker 1: All right, if people just have receipts. Is that any

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Speaker 1: good to you? Is that or do you need to have? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so they're not necessarily members, but for whatever reason have

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Speaker 1: kept all the receipts and they haven't faded it everything else. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, all they need to do is provide us the

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Speaker 2: receipts and that's absolutely fine as well. We can deal

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Speaker 2: with those. And as I said, there are people who

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Speaker 2: won't be Colson Walworth's Rewards card members, so and they

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Speaker 2: may believe that they were, they were subject to that

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Speaker 2: pricing at the time, and they can sign a statutory declaration.

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Speaker 2: So and if there's any money left over from their

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Speaker 2: settlement that isn't going to be distributed to any of

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Speaker 2: the group members, we're actually going to there's there's proposed

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Speaker 2: there's a claim in the in the statement of claim

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Speaker 2: to ask that that money, rather than going back to

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Speaker 2: causal war wars, actually be given to to a charity

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Speaker 2: such as food bank or something like that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, where do people go to register is a key question.

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Speaker 2: So if they go to the gerardma Loof and Partners website,

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Speaker 2: that that will take take them through from there. So

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Speaker 2: just gerardmloof and Partners dot com dot dot net soda you,

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Speaker 2: I think.

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Speaker 1: It is okay, Girard Maloof, m A l o U

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Speaker 1: s Girard Maloof and partners and just google that that

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Speaker 1: should come up, I would imagine anyways, So, and the.

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Speaker 2: Registration process is really easy. It just asks you whether

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Speaker 2: or not you are a cause and will words reward

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Speaker 2: card member. You don't need to input that data at

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Speaker 2: this day. So we're just waiting for the matter to

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Speaker 2: progress and for the next hearing and all of that,

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Speaker 2: and then as we are able to progress the case,

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Speaker 2: we'll seek more information from people, but we don't want

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Speaker 2: everyone to have to do a whole lot of stuff. Now,

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Speaker 2: we're just going to see how things go.

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Speaker 1: All right, excellent, Diane, Thank you for your time. Hope

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Speaker 1: it goes well for Gerard and Maloof and all the

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Speaker 1: people that you might have up to one hundred thousand,

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Speaker 1: I imagine maybe more.

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Speaker 2: Hopefully, I think that'd be great. So, you know, if

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Speaker 2: people want to claim their refund, obviously we're very happy

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Speaker 2: for them to do that, you know, propose as long

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Speaker 2: as we have you know, a successful claim and you know,

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Speaker 2: we wouldn't have filed this and gone through all of

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Speaker 2: the trouble of getting everything organized. If we didn't think

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Speaker 2: it was a good claim, we really do.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I suspect you're going to have, you know, a

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Speaker 1: lot of people. Thank you for your.

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Speaker 2: Time, all right, terrific, Thanks so much.

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Speaker 1: Diane Chapman, special counsel at Gerard Maloof and Partners. So

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Speaker 1: g E R R D as you'd expect Girard to

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Speaker 1: be Maloof m A l o u F Matloof and Partners.

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Speaker 1: So just google that Gerard Maloof and Partners. You'll find

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Speaker 1: it and uh away you go.