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Speaker 1: It's Friday, the twenty seventh of February twenty twenty six.

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Speaker 1: Welcome 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 Michaele Thompson

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Speaker 1: and good morning.

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Speaker 2: Sean Ailmer, Good morning Michael Shawan.

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Speaker 1: Five stories in five minutes, and hey, reminder once again

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Speaker 1: that if you are listening on Spotify and listening through

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Speaker 1: the your Daily Drive playlist, then please hit follow on

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Speaker 1: this podcast. Do it right now because that playlist is

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Speaker 1: about to disappear and we'll get harder to find the

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Speaker 1: Fast five. So please, if you want to keep listening

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Speaker 1: to us, hit follow on it today. Story number one

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Speaker 1: Sean Quantus has unveiled a record underlying profit of one

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Speaker 1: point five billion dollars for the December half that is

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Speaker 1: five percent higher than a year earlier. It'll buy back

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Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty million dollars worth of shares. The

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Speaker 1: national carrier said there is continuing strong demand for travel,

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Speaker 1: though the international outlook is a little bit problematic and

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Speaker 1: that sends at share price down nine point two percent.

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Speaker 1: Earnings from the international division fell six percent. Amid intense competition,

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Speaker 1: high operational costs, and weak demand.

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Speaker 2: For the US, It's been quite a turnaround on the

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Speaker 2: CEO Vanessa Hudson with a carrier's customer satisfaction scores having

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Speaker 2: rebounded staff engagements better. That's, of course, compared to twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty three, the last few months of Alan Joyce doing

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Speaker 2: that job. But as the share price reaction shows, there

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Speaker 2: is still plenty of work to do. Just a note there,

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Speaker 2: Quantus is up about one hundred and twenty percent since

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Speaker 2: October twenty twenty three, so it's done really well. More

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Speaker 2: to go. Jet Star, which Hudson used to run, had

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Speaker 2: a strong half. Basically they got new planes. People like

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Speaker 2: flying in new planes. Also, they're cheap and less fuel,

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Speaker 2: lower maintenance costs, generally better utilization. That was the standout

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Speaker 2: for Quantas.

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Speaker 1: So the risk of oversimplifying it than Sean is the

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Speaker 1: trick for Quantus domestic and international, just to roll out

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Speaker 1: new planes. Because you mentioned Alan Joyce, he famously underinvested

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Speaker 1: in new aircraft.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that is exactly it. They need new planes,

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Speaker 2: but they need them only for that because they're expensive. Also,

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Speaker 2: the international division is tricky. Fifty international carriers operating in Australia.

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Speaker 2: That's hard. Hudson is hoping that the Frequent Flyer program

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Speaker 2: will help on that front. She changed some of the

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Speaker 2: rules around status credits yesterday. But if they can get

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Speaker 2: newer planes on long haul international flights, the cost base

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Speaker 2: could be about twenty five percent lower.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Moving on to story number two. Now Sean the

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Speaker 1: local share market set another new record yesterday. Is a

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Speaker 1: bunch of better than expected results push the market higher.

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Speaker 1: The s and PA SAX two hundred rows zero point

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Speaker 1: five percent to nine one hundred and seventy five point

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Speaker 1: three points after earlier touching an intra day record north

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Speaker 1: of nine two hundred points. Tech stocks led the way

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Speaker 1: after Nvidia's big result on Wall Street yesterday morning.

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Speaker 2: Pretty remarkable how equity is going generally. The British foot

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Speaker 2: see one hundred the main index there new high yesterday

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Speaker 2: and the back of banks and miners doing well. Euro

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Speaker 2: Stocks five hundred, the top five hundred companies across Europe

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Speaker 2: also at a record level. Wall Street not quite at

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Speaker 2: a record, but not far off it. Equity markets are

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Speaker 2: on a tear at the moment, Michael.

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Speaker 1: Indeed, story number three, plenty of going on in politics, Sean,

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Speaker 1: particularly in the exciting world of tax policy. Yesterday, Federal

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Speaker 1: Treasurer Jim Chalmers wouldn't comment on whether the government is

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Speaker 1: considering dropping the capital gains tax concession for property investors

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Speaker 1: from fifty percent down to thirty three percent. But Sean,

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Speaker 1: you've got to say, the drums on that one are

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Speaker 1: getting louder.

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Speaker 2: Ah, Yeah, definitely. On ABC Radio National yesterday, all Charmers

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Speaker 2: would say is that he's considering options for the budget

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Speaker 2: and METI reports treasury's working up at option to cut

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Speaker 2: the concessional tax rate from fifty to thirty three percent,

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Speaker 2: looking at applying it retrospectively, which means if you have

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Speaker 2: a home loan now you'll get hit by it, come

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Speaker 2: off bank. Matt Common, he knows a little bit about

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Speaker 2: home lending. He came out and said he's not against

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Speaker 2: Regia seeing the discount, but it shouldn't be done retrospectively. Also,

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Speaker 2: while talking about Charmers, he said he's still negotiating with

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Speaker 2: the Greens to push through the new rules around super tax.

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Speaker 2: They went through the House last year, but still to

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Speaker 2: go through the Senate. Still near the Green support.

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Speaker 1: Story number four, Sean, consider yourself warned. Mobile phones around

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Speaker 1: the around the country will blast out a ten second

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Speaker 1: siren in late July as part of a national test

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Speaker 1: of Australia's new emergency warning system.

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Speaker 2: The one thirty two million dollar OS alert system will

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Speaker 2: come online in October, and of course we need to

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Speaker 2: test that. Monday July twenty seven, two pm Australian Eastern

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Speaker 2: Standard time, an alert will be sent to all compatible

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Speaker 2: mobile phones, which is the vast majority, and we're going

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Speaker 2: to have a ten second siren. Ouch have a thought, Well,

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Speaker 2: give some thought to all those puppy dogs out there.

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Speaker 2: They're not going to enjoy it.

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Speaker 1: They will not know what hits them. Okay, that was

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Speaker 1: story number four one last one shown Storry number five

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Speaker 1: A serious one here. The US Justice Department withheld documents

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Speaker 1: from files related to Jeffrey Epstein that alleged Donald Trump

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Speaker 1: sexually assaulted a minor. More than fifty pages were discovered

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Speaker 1: to be missing from the files that contained notes from

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Speaker 1: several interviews the FBI conducted with a woman in twenty

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Speaker 1: nineteen who claimed she was abused by Trump and Epstein

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Speaker 1: decades earlier, when she was about thirteen years old.

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Speaker 2: Revelation came as to other high profile men, took steps

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Speaker 2: to limit the fallout from the files. According to The

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Speaker 2: Finn Review, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said he'd resigned

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Speaker 2: from his prestigious teaching role at Harvard University, and billionaire

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Speaker 2: Microsoft founder Bill Gates apologized to staff at his philanthropic

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Speaker 2: foundation for drawing them into the scandal.

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Speaker 1: Okay, there we go to the top five business stories

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Speaker 1: in five minutes. Thank you very much, Sean.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Michael.

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Speaker 1: It's Friday, the twenty seventh of February twenty twenty six.

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Speaker 1: Remembered hit follow on the podcast. As I mentioned at

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Speaker 1: the start of the show, and if five minutes isn't

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Speaker 1: enough for you, you can find our long on a daily

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Speaker 1: show called Fear and Greed wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Speaker 1: I'm Michael Thompson and that was the past five business

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