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Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, the seventeenth of February twenty twenty six. Welcome

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Speaker 1: 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 in just five minutes. I'm Michael Thompson

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Speaker 1: and good morning Sean Aylmer, Morning Michael Sewan. Five stories

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Speaker 1: in five minutes. Before we get into it, though, a

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Speaker 1: reminder that if you're listening on Spotify and are listening

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Speaker 1: through the Daily Drive playlist, that playlist is going to

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Speaker 1: disappear very very soon. So if you want to keep

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Speaker 1: listening to us, please hit follow on the Fast Flight

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Speaker 1: time Follow indeed, and that way you will keep hearing

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Speaker 1: us every day. With the top five stories in five minutes.

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Speaker 1: Story number one, the competition Regulator's case against supermarket giant Coles,

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Speaker 1: kicked off yesterday. This is happening in the federal court.

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Speaker 1: It's a landmark legal action which will really test what

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Speaker 1: is defined essentially as a discount from retailers. The hriable

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Speaker 1: See is alleging that Cole's deliberately use promotions to disguise

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Speaker 1: big price rises in a bid to maintain returns. The

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Speaker 1: actions meant that shoppers got them pression that hundreds of

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Speaker 1: products were getting cheaper when actually they're getting more expensive.

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Speaker 2: The Watchdog is alleging that Coal's mid misled shoppers. It

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Speaker 2: was day one of the ten days of hearing. The

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Speaker 2: case has major ramifications obviously for Coals for Woolies Aldi

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Speaker 2: the hriable C as well Woolies will face the federal

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Speaker 2: court later in the year in a similar claim.

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Speaker 1: Let's just talk about dog food for a second, sean

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Speaker 1: because it pretty much explained the hriable C's case. Here,

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Speaker 1: a one point two kilogram bag of Nature's Gift dog

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Speaker 1: food have been sold for four dollars, right, four dollars,

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Speaker 1: for two hundred and ninety six days before February seven,

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty three. Then, for a period of just seven days,

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Speaker 1: alleges the Ateable C Coals increased the price of that

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Speaker 1: product by fifty percent to six dollars. I went from

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Speaker 1: four dollars to six dollars. On the eighth day, Coals

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Speaker 1: began offering that product for sale at a price of

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Speaker 1: four dollars fifty But that's actually more, obviously than what

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Speaker 1: customers had been paying for all but seven of the

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Speaker 1: previous three hundred and three days.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and the Cols has come out and I mean

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Speaker 2: we haven't heard from Colds, but they've argued previously that

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Speaker 2: price increases were largely put in place on request from supplies.

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Speaker 2: The hable c saying, well, it's not about you and

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Speaker 2: your supplies. You've got your relationship. We are worried about

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Speaker 2: you misleading customers. And if you're saying that dog food

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Speaker 2: is on sale, well we reckon. It's misleading. This has

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Speaker 2: all sorts of implications, not just economic, but political, because

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Speaker 2: we know Polly's love a pylon. They love a pylon

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Speaker 2: on the big supermarket chains.

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Speaker 1: Going to your fund to watch yeah, pr disaster all right.

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Speaker 1: Story number two. JB High Fi's share price jumped seven

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Speaker 1: and a half percent yesterday after the electronics retailer announced

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Speaker 1: a big jump in sales during the December half to

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Speaker 1: more than six billion dollars. What will we're buying? Mobile phones,

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Speaker 1: small appliances, games, computers, fitness products. JB Hi Fi also

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Speaker 1: owns The Good Guys, and it's sales rep sharply as

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Speaker 1: people spent money on white goods. It is interesting. One

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Speaker 1: comment made by CEO Nick Wells was that customers should

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Speaker 1: expect to pay more for smartphones and laptops because the

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Speaker 1: AI led boom is going to push up demand and

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Speaker 1: prices for memory storage.

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Speaker 2: Another couple of interesting things yesterday online sales now about

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Speaker 2: eighteen percent of the business. Customers are getting savvy. So

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Speaker 2: the big sales periods with Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and

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Speaker 2: then after Christmas, not before Christmas, the Boxing day sales.

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Speaker 2: Will also said at a cautious note, he just said, look,

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Speaker 2: with interest rates rising, tough competition going to be a

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Speaker 2: bit tough for the next six months.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Story number three one from the world of politics

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Speaker 1: Shaw new federal Liberal leader Angus Taylor has given his

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Speaker 1: first set speech since taking the top job on Friday.

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Speaker 1: He focused on improving standards of living with a focus

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Speaker 1: on home ownership and expanding childcare outside a universal system.

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Speaker 1: He also threw in higher defense spending and reshaping immigration

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Speaker 1: around Australian values, as well as and I quote, strengthening

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Speaker 1: education by focusing on core knowledge not in doctrination. He

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Speaker 1: also promised to go to the next election pledging tax cuts.

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Speaker 2: And he didn't shy away from the idea that Susan

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Speaker 2: Lee had planned to release a migration policy that been

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Speaker 2: immigration from higher risk geographies like the Southern Philippines. It

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Speaker 2: was a big speech. I loved a bit of rhetoric.

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Speaker 2: He did a world yesterday. Australians is seeing a once

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Speaker 2: confident nation beset by uncertainty, nation adrift on the sea

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Speaker 2: of troubles, and a nation not in control of its destiny.

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Speaker 2: What a great speech writer.

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Speaker 1: Oh good to have a politician with a sense of theater.

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Speaker 1: Sure Story number four Australia's biggest steelmaker, blue Scope, which

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Speaker 1: recently rejected a thirteen point two billion dollar takeover bid,

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Speaker 1: has more than doubled its half year dividend and said

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Speaker 1: there'll be higher payouts at the end of the year.

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Speaker 1: The bid from the Stokes Families, SGH and US Group

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Speaker 1: Steel Dynamics has certainly triggered a bit of action at

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Speaker 1: blue Scope. New chief executive Tanier Archibald says she is

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Speaker 1: targeting a three dollar per share return to shareholders this

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Speaker 1: calendar year.

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Speaker 2: I mean that's a diffident yield of more than ten

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Speaker 2: percent if you bought it before the takeover bid, which

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Speaker 2: about twelve thirteen percent. That is a massive dividend yel

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Speaker 2: for a big company. Archibald said. The one hundred and

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Speaker 2: eighteen percent, jumping net profit on the back of just

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Speaker 2: a four percent rise in revenue, reflected the benefits of

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Speaker 2: a diverse range of businesses. Bluescope share price fell three

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Speaker 2: percent yesterday.

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Speaker 1: Last one Sean story number five. Former UK Prime Minister

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Speaker 1: Tony Blair made a better politician than a husband and

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Speaker 1: has never bought his wife, Scharib Blair flowers. That's according

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Speaker 1: to Shari Blair herself. The former PM's wife of forty

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Speaker 1: six years, said Blair was unromantic. This is in a

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Speaker 1: Channel four documentary about his time in the top job.

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Speaker 1: Asked about their relationship, Sharib Blair, who was a human

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Speaker 1: rights lawyer so she doesn't mince words, says he's an

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Speaker 1: amazing politician. As a husband and as a human being

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Speaker 1: that's a different matter, but that's really between me and him.

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Speaker 2: Oh dear. She went on to say that Tony romantic.

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Speaker 2: He's never bought me flowers, for example, and now he says, well,

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Speaker 2: if I bought you flowers, you'd be very suspicious, which

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Speaker 2: is probably true, oh dear. In the documentary, Blair also

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Speaker 2: revealed that his approach to politics was inspired by watching

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Speaker 2: Schindler's List, not one of the most uplifting movies I've seen.

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Speaker 1: No, it is not there. We go the top five

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Speaker 1: business stories in five minutes. Thank you, Sean.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Michael.

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Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, the seventeenth of February twenty twenty six. Remember

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Speaker 1: to hit follow on the podcast. And if five minutes

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Speaker 1: isn't enough, you're going to find our longer daily show

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Speaker 1: called Fear and Greed wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm

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Speaker 1: Michael Thompson and that was the fast five business news

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Speaker 1: by Fear and Greed. Have a great day.