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Speaker 1: Welcome to the weekend edition of the Fast five Business

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Speaker 1: News by Fear and Greed. I'm Michael Thompson and hello

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Speaker 1: Adam Lang.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Michael, Adam.

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Speaker 1: On weekdays, it's all about the Fast five, the top

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Speaker 1: five business stories in five minutes. On the weekend, we

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Speaker 1: still keep it to five minutes, of course, but we're

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Speaker 1: going to pick out the biggest business story of the week,

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Speaker 1: the most remarkable story, a sleeper story, one that's flying

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Speaker 1: under the radar a little bit, and then our favorite

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Speaker 1: business ish story. Let's jump straight into it. What was

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Speaker 1: the biggest story of the week.

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Speaker 2: All right, Michael. For me, it was the Australian Bureau

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Speaker 2: of Statistics revealing new figures this week that showed gross

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Speaker 2: domestic product rowse AMIGA zero point two percent for the

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Speaker 2: June quarter and just one percent for the entire twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty four financial year. Putting that into perspective, excluding the

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Speaker 2: COVID nineteen pandemic, this is the lowest annual gross rate

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Speaker 2: since the early nineteen nineties, and back then we were

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Speaker 2: crawling out of a recession. Even worse if you look

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Speaker 2: at it as our population how has grown, our economy

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Speaker 2: has not GDP PC Happena has declined for six consecutive quarters,

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Speaker 2: dropping by zero point four percent in the latest figures. Michael,

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Speaker 2: this is not just a slowdown, it's actually a per

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Speaker 2: capita recession. And it's no wonder that so many Australians

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Speaker 2: feel like they're stuck in economic quicksand.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely a big, big story for the economy this week.

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Speaker 1: There's also a lot going on in markets as well.

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Speaker 1: There were concerns about the US economy that hit Wall

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Speaker 1: Street during the week, float onto the local market here

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Speaker 1: wipe nearly two percent off the ASX two hundred in

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Speaker 1: one day. There's one big kind of standout though out

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Speaker 1: of the US, and that was the movement with chip

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Speaker 1: Maker and Video. The company recorded the biggest one day

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Speaker 1: tumble in value ever for a US stock, with shares

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Speaker 1: falling nine and a half percent in one day. That

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Speaker 1: is a drop of two hundred and seventy eight point

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Speaker 1: nine billion US dollars or about four hundred and fifteen

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Speaker 1: billion Aussie Just for perspective, that's more than one and

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Speaker 1: a half Commonwealth Banks, our biggest company. That was just

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Speaker 1: the drop in one day, just analysts really starting to

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Speaker 1: ask some questions about demand for AI outside of the

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Speaker 1: tech sector. A big, big move on Wall Street this week.

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Speaker 2: Adam, incredible numbers, Michael.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, certainly was let's speak of incredible. Let's move on

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Speaker 1: to the most remarkable story of the week. And for me,

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Speaker 1: it was all about property prices. And I know we

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Speaker 1: talk about property prices a lot, but this week we

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Speaker 1: saw a zero point five percent surge in national prices

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Speaker 1: in just one month. But it's not a consistent story.

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Speaker 1: You've got Brisbane growing, Perth growing, Adelaide growing, Sydney too

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Speaker 1: a little more slowly, but Melbourne is slipping. It went

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Speaker 1: backwards in August and now we've actually got the median

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Speaker 1: house price in Perth and Adelaide higher than the median

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Speaker 1: price in Melbourne. So it's not just a kind of

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Speaker 1: a tale of two cities anymore. It's not a two

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Speaker 1: speed housing market. It's a case of pretty much kind

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Speaker 1: of every city for itself right now, and it is

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Speaker 1: remarkable to watch.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, totally agree, Michael. For mine, the most remarkable story

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Speaker 2: of the week is Star Entertainment's spiraling corporate downfall. Last Sunday,

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Speaker 2: Stars executives held emergency meetings. On Monday, Star was suspended

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Speaker 2: from trading on the ax after failing to publish its

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Speaker 2: financial results, but the story didn't stop there. By Tuesday,

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Speaker 2: the situation had worsened as the United Workers' Union raised

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Speaker 2: the alarm about the future of eight thousand workers in

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Speaker 2: Queensland and New South Wales. On Thursday, Star confirmed it

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Speaker 2: was reviewing its liquidity and getting under bank pressure. But

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Speaker 2: meanwhile Star still hasn't published its financial year accounts, leaving

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Speaker 2: the company in complete flux.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it is a pretty extraordinary story that one the

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Speaker 1: sleeper story of the week. Can I nominate one for this?

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Speaker 1: Because I think this could be one of the best

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Speaker 1: sleeper stories I've ever heard. Yeah, it's a cracker go ahead,

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Speaker 1: because you think about kind of Australia's most recognizable companies.

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Speaker 1: You've got some big ones around that eighteen to twenty

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Speaker 1: four billion dollar mark cut of Santos and sun Corp

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Speaker 1: Group and Cocklear and send a group of Jones Westfield

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Speaker 1: Shopping satds. They've all been around for a long time.

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Speaker 1: Right this week we have heard the incredible story of

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Speaker 1: a private company really flying under the radar, growing to

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Speaker 1: the equivalent size in just nine years, then snapped up

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Speaker 1: by US investment giant Blackstone. In a deal worth more

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Speaker 1: than twenty three billion dollars. It's the story of air Trunk,

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Speaker 1: the great Australian success story really that nobody outside of

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Speaker 1: the tech sector has heard of or really paid that

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Speaker 1: much attention to data center business writing, the surgeon demand

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Speaker 1: for cloud based storage and the AI boom. It now

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Speaker 1: takes its place among the biggest deals in Australian corporate history.

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Speaker 1: Not bad for a nine year old business and very

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Speaker 1: very well played. Indeed, to Robin Cooter, the founder of

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Speaker 1: the business, who saw the opportunity, backed himself and is

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Speaker 1: now a billionaire. What a story.

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Speaker 2: It's a river, Michael, And what did you find for

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Speaker 2: the sleeper story this week, Adam Michael. For me, it's

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Speaker 2: the signs that we're seeing that could lead to an

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Speaker 2: election announcement. What we've seen in Wa is a bit

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Speaker 2: of a cash splash. Earlier in the week from Prime

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Speaker 2: Minister Anthony Albanizi, then Jim Chalmers becaused a political skirmish

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Speaker 2: when he described the Reserve Bank interest rate settings as

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Speaker 2: smashing the economy. And then on Thursday, Bill Shorten announced

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Speaker 2: it after seventeen years, he plans to retire from federal

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Speaker 2: politics in February twenty twenty five. Now, many in the

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Speaker 2: Canberra media gallery immediately took this move as a signal

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Speaker 2: that the election won't be held before Christmas and is

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Speaker 2: more likely to occur in March next year. Let's wait

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Speaker 2: and see.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, indeed, Adam, I think you and I might be

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Speaker 1: united on our favorite story of the week. Why don't

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Speaker 1: you take us through it?

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Speaker 2: Okay, it's telcos competition and the benefits that could flow

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Speaker 2: to customers. Michael, My favorite story of this week is

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Speaker 2: the game changing one point six billion dollar deal between

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Speaker 2: Optus TPG. It's an eleven year network sharing agreement backed

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Speaker 2: by the A Triple C that could significantly reduce Telstra's dominus,

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Speaker 2: particularly in regional Australia. So what does this mean? TPG,

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Speaker 2: which owns Votaphone, will now triple its access to mobile sites,

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Speaker 2: allowing it to cover more than one million square kilometers.

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Speaker 2: That's up from just four hundred thousand for Optus. This

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Speaker 2: deal is a massive five G win, expanding its regional

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Speaker 2: sites from fifteen hundred to over twenty four hundred five

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Speaker 2: g's by twenty thirty. And what does that mean for customers?

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Speaker 2: Simply put, there'll be more choice and most likely cheaper prices.

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Speaker 2: Good news for all of us. Michael.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, said Adam. All right, there we go, five

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Speaker 1: minutes and pretty much everything you need to know in

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Speaker 1: the world of business. Thank you very much, Adam, Thank

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Speaker 1: you Michael. We'll be back on Monday morning with the

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Speaker 1: top five business stories in five minutes. Don't forget to

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Speaker 1: hit follow and join us online on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn,

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Speaker 1: Facebook and X. I'm Michael Thompson. And that is the

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Speaker 1: past five business news by here and great