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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: Sean Almer. Hello Michael, Sean. On the weekends, we each

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Speaker 1: nominate the biggest business story of the week, the most

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Speaker 1: remarkable business story, a mystery category, and our favorite story.

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Speaker 1: This is a different show this week in light of

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Speaker 1: last Sunday's terror attack at Bondeau Beach, we are going

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Speaker 1: to focus very strictly on the business stories of the week.

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Speaker 1: Acknowledging though that the loss of fifteen lives at bondo

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Speaker 1: is going to change Australia forever.

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Speaker 2: Yes, Michael, and our thoughts are with the victims, their families,

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Speaker 2: everyone affected by last week's tragedy.

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Speaker 1: Well, with that in mind, Sean, what was the main

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Speaker 1: story this week?

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Speaker 2: Look, as far as I'm concerned, the midyear economic fiscal outlook.

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Speaker 2: That's basically the midyear budget update. Forecast higher inflation, slower

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Speaker 2: economic growth, lift in unemployment. Also lower than forecast deficit

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Speaker 2: thanks to a higher tax take surge in Texas and

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Speaker 2: income companies and superannuation accounts. Probably the highlight. Government's still

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Speaker 2: spending a lot of money. All in all, solid set

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Speaker 2: of numbers on the back of that higher tax take.

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Speaker 2: But the government's doing little rain in its spending and

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Speaker 2: that's the lost opportunity.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you might be right there. The other

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Speaker 1: story from an economic kind of standpoint was a dip

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Speaker 1: in consumer confidence. Maybe we just had a spike previously,

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Speaker 1: but things were starting to look up a little bit,

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Speaker 1: maybe a bit of optimism because of rate cuts and

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Speaker 1: the potential for more. No that the jump in inflation

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Speaker 1: and the potential now for rate hikes to come has

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Speaker 1: turned us into pessimists once again, Sean. And it also

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Speaker 1: suggests that the cost of living crisis is not over.

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Speaker 1: The Westpac Melbourne Institute survey looks as well at whether

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Speaker 1: people consider it a good time to buy major household

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Speaker 1: items or to buy property, and really people are not

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Speaker 1: seeing it as a particularly good time, perhaps a little

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Speaker 1: bit grim once again in the economy.

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Speaker 2: I think. Can I tell you my most remarkable story,

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Speaker 2: please do. The CEO of all Giant Woodside Energy Mega

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Speaker 2: Neil is going to take the top job at BP.

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Speaker 2: I reckon this is as good as it gets an

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Speaker 2: oil and gas, although she will be the third chief

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Speaker 2: executive of that company in five years. So tenure hasn't

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Speaker 2: been a good thing there first outside of the lead

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Speaker 2: BP and it's one hundred and sixteen year history. First

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Speaker 2: female kind of puts her in the same league as

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Speaker 2: people like Charlie Bell who aren McDonald's, Andrew Levers who

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Speaker 2: ran Dow Chemicals. Maybe Robin Denholmes, the chair of Tesla,

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Speaker 2: is trying to look after Elon Musk. She's probably in there.

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Speaker 2: Of course Ripert Murdock probably the top in terms of

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Speaker 2: success on the global stage. But congratulations to mego Nell.

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Speaker 2: Quite a remarkable, you know, for the woman from Western

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Speaker 2: Australia to end up on the world stage like she is.

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Speaker 1: That's a great story that one you mentioned Robin Denholme

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Speaker 1: and Elon Musk. It's been a heck of a week

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Speaker 1: for Elon Musk's businesses. We've got SpaceX cruising towards a

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Speaker 1: potential eight hundred billion US dollar IPO next year after

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Speaker 1: an insider share sale set the value of that company

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Speaker 1: near that whopping level. It would be the largest initial

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Speaker 1: public offering of all time. Just got to mention quickly

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Speaker 1: the reason for the IPO. They basically need to raise

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Speaker 1: funds to build a base on the moon, build AI

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Speaker 1: data centers in space and fuel the insane flight rate

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Speaker 1: for the Starship Rocket, which are basically Elon Musk's own words,

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Speaker 1: i'd suspect. The other big story for Elon this week

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Speaker 1: is the share price of Tesla hitting a record. It's

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Speaker 1: put the market cap of the company at more than

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Speaker 1: one and a half trillion US dollars. Really off the

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Speaker 1: back of driverless cars being tested in Texas with nobody

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Speaker 1: in them, so no one there even to grab the

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Speaker 1: wheel in an emergency. Big step taking Tesla closer to

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Speaker 1: that robo taxi dream. It has been a big week

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Speaker 1: for Elon Musk. Let's jump into our mystery category. Now

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Speaker 1: these are stocks as you thought were good at the

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Speaker 1: beginning of the year, but by the end of the

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Speaker 1: year you really wish you hadn't held them.

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Speaker 2: Suan I thought the ax Limited be an Aka purchase

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Speaker 2: at the beginning of the year.

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Speaker 1: I was wrong.

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Speaker 2: Down twenty two percent over the year.

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Speaker 1: Now.

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Speaker 2: It's had years of persistent technology problems, especially around its

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Speaker 2: settlement infrastructure. This year though, there's been outages, ongoes, ongoing

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Speaker 2: delays and errors with his back end system. That not

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Speaker 2: this year, but previously they had planned a blockchain replacement

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Speaker 2: for Chess that was canceled. It's had right offs, technical failures,

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Speaker 2: it's costing money centnaments against the company, as I said,

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Speaker 2: down twenty two percent over the past year. Now, this

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Speaker 2: week ACIK unveiled a review of it basically called for

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Speaker 2: stronger independence and governance, an extra one hundred and fifty

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Speaker 2: million dollars capital charge, and a commitment to strong leadership.

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Speaker 2: As you said, I thought it was good at the

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Speaker 2: beginning of the year, but by the end you really

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Speaker 2: wish you hadn't held ax.

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Speaker 1: The other one Treasury Wine Estates Shawn, the owner of Penfolds,

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Speaker 1: having a shocker down nearly sixty percent over the past year.

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Speaker 1: A sharper than expected slow down in global wine demand

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Speaker 1: has hit it hard, having reign in its expansion in

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Speaker 1: China and the US, two of its biggest markets. In

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Speaker 1: the US, in particular, earnings were below market expectations by

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Speaker 1: more than fifty percent. Is having to cut shipments of

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Speaker 1: seven hundred thousand cases of wine across those two markets,

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Speaker 1: just trying to stabilize prices. It has been a terrible

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Speaker 1: year for Treasury and it looks like it will win

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Speaker 1: the title of worst performing ASX two hundred company for

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, which is not exactly an award that

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Speaker 1: you'd like to receive, Sean.

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Speaker 2: Look, Mike, I think we both agree on our favorite

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Speaker 2: story over the year.

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Speaker 1: Look, this is one out of the White House, Sean.

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Speaker 1: The chief of Staff Susie Wilds the first woman to

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Speaker 1: hold the role, and that is a big job and

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Speaker 1: a tough job. She's given a series of unusually frank

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Speaker 1: interviews to Vanity Fair. Frank and unusual because she doesn't

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Speaker 1: normally speak, but she said President Donald Trump is using

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Speaker 1: his position to settle scores with opponents, and he wants

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Speaker 1: regime change in Venezuela. She commented on a bunch of

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Speaker 1: different people, including Vice President j d Vance, saying he's

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Speaker 1: a conspiracy theorist. The budget chief Russell vort is a

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Speaker 1: right wing zealot. Elon Musk is an odd, odd duck.

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Speaker 1: I don't think anyone would really disagree with that. She

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Speaker 1: said that there were some internal disagreements over Trump's trade tariffs,

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Speaker 1: a lot of bits and pieces. She's described the profile

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Speaker 1: as a hit piece, but she hasn't backed away from it.

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Speaker 1: She didn't dispute its content, She just added more context

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Speaker 1: to her comments the White House is Rarey behind her praise,

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Speaker 1: her loyalty and leadership, but there's a fantastic little insight

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Speaker 1: into the White House and what happens behind the scenes. Sean,

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Speaker 1: I sure was all right. There we go five minutes

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

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

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Speaker 2: Thank you.

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Speaker 1: Michael, don't forget to hit follow on the podcast. I'm

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Speaker 1: Michael Thompson and this is the Fast five Business News

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Speaker 1: by Fear and Great