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Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, the twenty sixth of August twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Fast five Business News by Fear and Greed.

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Speaker 1: Will we give you the top five business stories you

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Speaker 1: need to know in just five minutes. Are Michael Thompson

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Speaker 1: and Good Morning Natalie McDonald's Good Morning Michael Natalie. Five

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Speaker 1: stories in five minutes. Let's go story number one. The

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Speaker 1: boss of plumbing supplies Giant Reese has offered really a

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Speaker 1: masterclass in transparent leadership a wide ranging investor call after

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Speaker 1: profits tanked twenty four percent and the share price fell

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Speaker 1: sixteen percent.

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Speaker 2: The forty minute call with investors was described as swinging

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Speaker 2: from emotional to frustrated to help was an even paranoid

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Speaker 2: Does he laid bare what the future looks like for

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Speaker 2: the troubled company Once revered amongst fund managers, Reese's domestic

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Speaker 2: outlook is being impacted by structural cost pressures and productivity

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Speaker 2: challenges worsened by ongoing remote work. The bottom line, Reese

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Speaker 2: is struggling to get workers into the office, and if

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Speaker 2: productivity doesn't change soon, all options are on the table.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Reese has been a share market darling for a

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Speaker 1: long time. Now its share price did peak last year.

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Speaker 1: The CEO very open in that call yesterday, but it

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Speaker 1: does go beyond issues with the domestic market to a

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Speaker 1: problem with the US, where it's been trying to expand

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Speaker 1: since it acquired a company back in twenty eighteen.

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Speaker 2: Reese's one point nine billion dollar US acquisition Moscow was

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Speaker 2: meant to be a growth driver, but high mortgage rates

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Speaker 2: and aggressive competition have steymied profits. Wilson described the US

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Speaker 2: unit as a price taker, battling cheap arrivals, leaving him

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Speaker 2: frustrated and uncertain. Sound familiar, though it's impossible not to

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Speaker 2: draw comparisons with James Hardy. It had a massive share

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Speaker 2: price dropped last week after a poor result linked in

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Speaker 2: part to a weaker US market and its fourteen billion

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Speaker 2: dollar purchase of US decking company AZK. But unlike James Hardy,

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Speaker 2: chief executive Aaron Ata re CEO, Wilson is making no

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Speaker 2: effort to dress up what is an ugly result.

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Speaker 1: Story Number two Labor is fast tracking its big promise

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Speaker 1: to help first home buyers, but economists warn that the

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Speaker 1: early advantage could quickly be swallowed up by higher property prices.

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Speaker 1: The government's five percent deposit scheme, which lets buyers purchase

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Speaker 1: a home without paying lender's mortgage insurance, is now going

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Speaker 1: to start in October, which is three months earlier than planned.

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Speaker 2: Unlike with earlier versions, there are no caps on places

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Speaker 2: or income limits, and price thresholds are being lifted sharply.

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Speaker 2: In Sydney the maximum jumps from nine hundred thousand dollars

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Speaker 2: to one point five million, in Melbourne from eight hundred

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Speaker 2: thousand to nine hundred and fifty thousand, and in Brisbane

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Speaker 2: from seven hundred thousand to one million dollars. Prime Mister

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Speaker 2: Anthony Albernizi says the scheme will make a significant difference

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Speaker 2: to affordability, helping people move from paying someone else's mortgage

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Speaker 2: into their own home, but critics say the scheme is

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Speaker 2: likely to inflate prices.

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Speaker 1: Now it's starting number three one of it. This is extraordinary.

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Speaker 1: One of Australia's top compliance training company, SafeTrack, is under

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Speaker 1: police investigation, accused of spying on staff working from home.

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Speaker 2: SafeTrack allegedly use software to secretly turn employee laptops into

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Speaker 2: listening devices, recording up to ten hours a day of meetings,

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Speaker 2: private conversations and even family discussion, the company CEO admitting

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Speaker 2: the surveillance went on four weeks. SafeTrack claims workers consented

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Speaker 2: under its surveillance policy, workers refuting this and claiming some

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Speaker 2: were sacked. After raising concerns Victoria police, regulators and unions

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Speaker 2: and now probing the case, which has already led to

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Speaker 2: one worker receiving compensation for anxiety and depression.

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Speaker 1: Story number four optimism, not intelligence, may be the strongest

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Speaker 1: predictor of career success, with research showing that happy employees

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Speaker 1: perform better, earn more, and receive stronger evaluations than their

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Speaker 1: less positive peers.

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Speaker 2: The comments follow a series of studies. For instance, a

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Speaker 2: nineteen ninety five study of MetLife salespeople found the most

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Speaker 2: optimistic recruits sold up to eighty eight percent more than

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Speaker 2: the most pessimistic. Meanwhile, a twenty twenty one study of

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Speaker 2: nine hundred thousand US soldiers found the happiest were more

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Speaker 2: likely to win performance awards, even at more than those

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Speaker 2: with the highest skills or IQ. Happier people tend to

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Speaker 2: be more ambitious, more creative, more collaborative, and more resilient.

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Speaker 1: Last one, Story number five is Europe's swelters under heat

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Speaker 1: waves and wildfires. Tourists are increasingly swapping the Mediterranean for

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Speaker 1: what they call cool caations.

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Speaker 2: In Nordic countries Norway, Sweden, Denmark, they're all seeing record

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Speaker 2: arrivals driven by climate concerns, sanctions, rerouting cruise ships, and

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Speaker 2: growing interest in Scandinavian culture, not least of all because

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Speaker 2: I keep telling everyone to visit Copenhagen. But come the crowds,

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Speaker 2: come the problems over tourism, environmental damage and tension between

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Speaker 2: residents needs and tourism revenue. Governments are pushing back by

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Speaker 2: rolling out tourist taxes, sustainability schemes, and even planning zero

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Speaker 2: emission rules for ships.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, there was a ship that wanted to get into

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Speaker 1: the harbor at Oslo and they said Norway.

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Speaker 2: Oh that's that's really bad.

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Speaker 1: That was terrible. I'm sorry. That's it. The top five

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

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Speaker 1: It is Tuesday, the twenty sixth of August twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 1: Remember to hit follow on the podcast, and if five

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Speaker 1: minutes isn't enough, you can find our longer daily show

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Speaker 1: called Peer and Greed where if you listen to podcasts,

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Speaker 1: I'm Michael Tom and there was the past five Business

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Speaker 1: news by Fear and Great, had a great day,