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Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.

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Speaker 1: It's Monday, October twenty one. Why bother with democracy? That's

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Speaker 1: the frustrated call from former ACT Chief Minister Kate Carnell

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Speaker 1: after the Act elected Labor for a seventh term of government,

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Speaker 1: the Greens vote collapsed and Independence triumphed. Australia would get

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Speaker 1: to avoid punishing tariffs if Donald Trump is reelected because

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Speaker 1: of our growing defense relationship with the United States. That's

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Speaker 1: the call from influential Conservative leader Kevin Roberts, the architect

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Speaker 1: of a controversial manifesto called Project twenty twenty five. You

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Speaker 1: can read that exclusive story right now at the Australian

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Speaker 1: dot com dou He was acdc's guitar technician, then he

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Speaker 1: became a tech titan. Now billionaire Richard White is at

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Speaker 1: the center of untested allegations about his amorous ways. Today,

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Speaker 1: why this ten billion dollar man is fighting to stay

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Speaker 1: on the stage. Richard White is a different kind of billionaire,

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Speaker 1: now one of the nation's wealthiest people. Richard White, former

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Speaker 1: ACDC guitar.

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Speaker 2: Technician, now boss of software company Wise Tech was.

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Speaker 1: It started out as a roadie, a guitar technician in

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Speaker 1: the glory days of Australian rock, and is now rich

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Speaker 1: enough to buy any instrument. He likes a.

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Speaker 2: Cloud guitar used by Prince Sonny's Purple Rain tour, worth

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Speaker 2: around half a million dollars.

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Speaker 1: White is worth around ten billion dollars and part of

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Speaker 1: his appeal is that he makes becoming a billionaire sound

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Speaker 1: pretty simple.

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Speaker 3: I started as a very young I was working with

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Speaker 3: my grandparents' business as a dishwasher, and then I worked

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Speaker 3: with my father as a refrigeration mechanic. I became a musician.

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Speaker 3: I repaired musical instruments. I built lighting. Once I started

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Speaker 3: with computers, I started building lighting control systems at Electronics,

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Speaker 3: and then technology distribution and then systems integration.

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Speaker 1: He's a regular on the speaking circuit, particularly on UNI campuses,

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Speaker 1: where he's a passionate advocate for better STEM education to

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Speaker 1: help Australia put itself at the center of global tech.

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Speaker 3: And then finally, about twenty two years ago, I founded

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Speaker 3: this business. This business was founded on my credit card,

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Speaker 3: which had a credit limit of about five thousand dollars,

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Speaker 3: so it's not that much money. It's within reach of

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Speaker 3: anybody that wants to put effort in.

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Speaker 2: He's a larger than life character.

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Speaker 1: Eric Romston is The Australian's associate editor.

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Speaker 2: He's an older tech billionaire, so you mostly think of

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Speaker 2: them as Atlasian's or ear Mark Zuckerberg's. He's been in

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Speaker 2: the same business for thirty years. As we buy more

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Speaker 2: and more things online, we've got to get those things

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Speaker 2: from A to B around the world, and his business

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Speaker 2: is integral to providing the backbone to that and that.

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Speaker 2: It took a while. It was a bit of a

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Speaker 2: slow boom when it listed on the ASEX, but it

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Speaker 2: became prominent and it was only in the last four

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Speaker 2: or five years it's really really exploded.

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Speaker 1: Richard White grew up in the working class suburb of

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Speaker 1: Bexley near Sydney Airport and when he hit the big time,

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Speaker 1: he bought back his childhood home as well as a

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Speaker 1: bunch of neighboring places and moved back in.

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Speaker 2: It's real and it's him. He's very approachable. He's been

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Speaker 2: really big on the skills shortage in Australia. He's got

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Speaker 2: a quite a cohort of Ukrainian young tech wizards that

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Speaker 2: were and that have worked for him for many years.

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Speaker 2: But he's also been quite passionate about supporting them the

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Speaker 2: whole way through the past few years. He's got a scholarship.

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Speaker 2: It's called Urn and Learn, and it gives three hundred

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Speaker 2: thousand dollars or thereabouts to one hundred people, so that's

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Speaker 2: quite a large sum to support them through university looking

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Speaker 2: for engineering. There's a skew towards women to get women

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Speaker 2: into technology, and the people who receive the scholarship also

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Speaker 2: get work at wise Tech, So it's a fair deal.

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Speaker 2: Or you get your training, you get your high skilled job,

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Speaker 2: and you get your UNI fees paid.

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Speaker 1: So that's who Richard White is and that's why it

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Speaker 1: was a big deal when a story broke that he

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Speaker 1: was caught up in a federal court case with a woman,

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Speaker 1: Linda Rogan, who claims White sought a sexual relationship with

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Speaker 1: her in exchange for investing in her beauty company. Those

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Speaker 1: allegations are before the court and are yet to be tested.

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Speaker 1: White isn't commenting, and it's important to note that he's

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Speaker 1: not accused of doing anything illegal or harming Miss Rogan

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Speaker 1: in any way. She's claiming that after they met to

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Speaker 1: discuss business, they ended up in a sexual relationship. Rogan

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Speaker 1: says White bought her a mansion worth thirteen million dollars,

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Speaker 1: and she says she bought ninety one thousand dollars in

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Speaker 1: furniture to put in it. But then after White's girlfriend,

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Speaker 1: Zena Nassa found out about Rogan's existence, Rogan says she

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Speaker 1: was kicked out of the house. White has lodged a

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Speaker 1: bankruptcy application against Rogan and she's fighting it. And then

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Speaker 1: another woman, Jenna Riches, came forward to The Australian.

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Speaker 4: So it started to become more like I guess sexual

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Speaker 4: a bit like over time and it kind of progressed

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Speaker 4: more and more to us sharing into it pictures.

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Speaker 1: Jenna Riches said she approached White over linked in for

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Speaker 1: advice on her business. She says they're professional communications and sexual.

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Speaker 4: He greeted me with a bunch of flowers and I

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Speaker 4: looked inside and there was a sex toy in that.

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Speaker 4: So that was quite I thought, wow, okay, not very

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Speaker 4: like gentlemanly.

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Speaker 1: Again, this woman says it all went sour when Zena

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Speaker 1: Nassa found out.

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Speaker 4: I didn't hear from him. I heard from his wife,

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Speaker 4: who told me in a text message not to contact

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Speaker 4: her husband ever. Again and they've been together for four

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Speaker 4: years and they have a baby together, and that was

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Speaker 4: just completely shocking for me. I guess some people think

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Speaker 4: that they're above everyone else, and yeah, it's very disappointing.

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Speaker 2: It comes down to somebody in a position of power

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Speaker 2: or with lots of money providing business advice, and then

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Speaker 2: the relationship quickly turned pretty intense and it became a

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Speaker 2: sexual relationship. This is where it gets complicated if we

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Speaker 2: stand back a bit, so we spoken the top about

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Speaker 2: Richard White and his company, Wise Tech. He is his company.

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Speaker 2: He's so dominant around his company.

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Speaker 1: He built it.

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Speaker 2: Up from nothing. He's everywhere around it, he knows everything

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Speaker 2: about it, he's driven it. He just launched a big

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Speaker 2: strategy just before all these allegations emerged. So he's so

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Speaker 2: tied up with this company. Now there's a dilemma for

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Speaker 2: the company itself or the board of the company. Richard

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Speaker 2: White is the CEO, but also happens to be the

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Speaker 2: thirty three percent shareholder. He's a single, big a shareholder

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Speaker 2: of this forty four billion dollar company. He has quite

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Speaker 2: a lot of power there. So if we step back,

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Speaker 2: if this was a bank boss, retail boss, or a

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Speaker 2: mining boss. Usually the board would say, look, this is

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Speaker 2: starting to become a reputational issue. We agree that it's

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Speaker 2: a legal process that needs to be followed through, but

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Speaker 2: if starts impacting or distracting their performance, we're going to

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Speaker 2: ask you to stand aside to clear the air.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, in rugby league terms, that would be called a

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Speaker 1: no fault standout. So you know, you've been accused of something,

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Speaker 1: nothing's been proven, but we're going to stand you assigned

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Speaker 1: until we get some clarity on these Richard White seems

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Speaker 1: to be resisting that, and there's a real question of

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Speaker 1: fairness there isn't there, Eric, especially when he's not actually

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Speaker 1: being accused of committing a crime.

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Speaker 2: The reputation is a really big thing in business today.

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Speaker 2: It's the way that investors scrutinize. He owns thirty three

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Speaker 2: percent of the company, but the sixty seven percent balance

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Speaker 2: of that is owned by outside investors. And these are

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Speaker 2: big serious names. These are names like Australian Super these

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Speaker 2: are names like the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund owns it

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Speaker 2: and back, Yeah, they're back. There's other investment funds, so

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Speaker 2: big serious names are in there. So they would be

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Speaker 2: increasingly going, look, this is starting to become a distraction.

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Speaker 2: Not only for the company. There's a reputational issue, but

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Speaker 2: also he's becoming distracted, like when he turns up to work,

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Speaker 2: can he really follow through on the strategy? Can he

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Speaker 2: really do this and that? So this is a way

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Speaker 2: of just saying, look, take some time out. You're not

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Speaker 2: being accused of anything, but we want some air and

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Speaker 2: you want some air around this as well.

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Speaker 1: Coming up, will Richard White step back from the company

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Speaker 1: he built? Well, I've got you. The Australian's annual Innovators

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Speaker 1: List is out the ripping stories of our brightest sparks.

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Speaker 1: Check it out by searching innovators on our website, The

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Speaker 1: Australian dot com dot au. We'll be back after this break.

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Speaker 1: Do you think he will stand aside ultimately?

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Speaker 2: Look, it really depends how the case evolves. He's now

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Speaker 2: made some noises that he's not going anywhere. This is

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Speaker 2: where the tension is starting to build up. Though we

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Speaker 2: understand inside the boardroom they would prefer that he at

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Speaker 2: least gives the company some oxygen, at least takes some

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Speaker 2: time for himself as well, because it's quite important. So

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Speaker 2: he's digging in. He's saying no, I'm pushing ahead. But

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Speaker 2: what happens if he walked out onto the street and

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Speaker 2: got run over by a Sydney bus tomorrow down in Bexley?

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Speaker 2: What does that mean for the company. So we don't

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Speaker 2: know who's standing there behind him. And it's something that

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Speaker 2: we call in business a key man risk or a

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Speaker 2: key person risk. And if the company is so built up,

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Speaker 2: it's so ingrained, it's so reliant on one single person

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Speaker 2: when they leave, there is a concern that the company

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Speaker 2: could not collapse, but it just completely is lost and

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Speaker 2: that really erodes value. So that's what these other sixty

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Speaker 2: seven percent sharehoders are now asking. How tied up is

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Speaker 2: Richard White with the value of the company. How reliant

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Speaker 2: is a company on him? Is this becoming too risky?

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Speaker 2: Is it becoming too much of a hot potato for

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Speaker 2: me to invest in this company? They're the questions that

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Speaker 2: they're asking.

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Speaker 1: Eric Johnston is The Australian's Associate editor. The King and

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Speaker 1: Queen are here and today Charles and Camilla are off

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Speaker 1: to Canberra for visits to the War Memorial and Parliament.

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Speaker 1: If you're keen on the Royals, you can head to

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Speaker 1: the Parliamentary fore Court at ten past two for a

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Speaker 1: chance to shake their hands