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Speaker 1: It's Friday, the twentieth of March 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.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Michael Shawn.

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Speaker 1: Five stories, five minutes. Let's go. Story number one. The

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Speaker 1: National Cabinet has established a task force to coordinate the

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Speaker 1: distribution of fuel to areas of need and has raised

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Speaker 1: the prospect as well of rationing if the Middle East

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Speaker 1: conflict drags on on that Prime Minister Anthony Albenezi question

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Speaker 1: whether there was any need for the US and Israel

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Speaker 1: to continue hostilities against Iran given that the objective of

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Speaker 1: denying around the ability to develop nuclear weapons has been achieved.

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Speaker 1: The PM was critical as well of Iran's unprovoked attacks

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Speaker 1: on Gulf States, attacks which are disrupting oil and increasingly

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Speaker 1: gas supplies as well.

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Speaker 2: Shown Also yesterday, alban Easy nominated Anthea Harris, the former

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Speaker 2: head of the Austraian inn Regulated, to be the head

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Speaker 2: of a fuel task force. Each state and territory will

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Speaker 2: have a representative on that. He said, there were more

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Speaker 2: measures coming to address broader supply chain issues and called

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Speaker 2: on drivers not to take more fuel than necessary. Before

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Speaker 2: the meeting, New South Wales Premier Chris Minz said contingencies

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Speaker 2: for fuel rationing would be discussed. It certainly has hurt

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Speaker 2: the share market. The SMPA six two hundred closed down

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Speaker 2: one point seven percent yesterday to under eighty five hundred points.

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Speaker 1: And as the meeting progressed yesterday Sean, the competition watchdog,

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Speaker 1: announced an investigation into allegations of anti competitive behavior by

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Speaker 1: major fuel suppliers AMPOLVP Mobile and viv Energy.

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Speaker 2: Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Gena Cass

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Speaker 2: Gottlieb said the agency had received reports about concerning behavior

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Speaker 2: relating to diesel availability to independent wholesales and distributors servicing

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Speaker 2: regional and rural Australia. She said the HFC doesn't normally

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Speaker 2: publicly announce investigations, but given the significance of the issue

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Speaker 2: this time, they did.

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Speaker 1: Indeed. R In number two, the economy added nearly forty

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Speaker 1: nine thousand jobs last month Sean, but the unemployment rate

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Speaker 1: rose to four point three percent as more people looked

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Speaker 1: for work. The participation rate of the labor market, which

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Speaker 1: is the share of people in a job are looking

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Speaker 1: for work, jumped to sixty six point nine percent. And

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Speaker 1: while in January there was a surge in full time

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Speaker 1: jobs and a drop in part time roles, it was

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Speaker 1: the opposite in February.

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Speaker 2: Totally part time employment raise seventy nine thousand, well full

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Speaker 2: time employment was down thirty thousand. The Bureau Statistics said

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Speaker 2: there was a particularly sharp increase in part time employment

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Speaker 2: among those aged sixty five and over and fewer people

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Speaker 2: than normal retired. Not hard to extrapolate that to say

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Speaker 2: old restraints are finding times tough. Employment numbers jump around

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Speaker 2: a bit. The rule of FuMB is to keep an

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Speaker 2: eye on the unemployment rate. Four point three percent, still

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Speaker 2: well below what the Reserve Bank thinks is needed for

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Speaker 2: the labor market to be kind of in equilibrium, they

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Speaker 2: reckon should be about four point six percent. That means

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Speaker 2: at four point three percent, there are still inflationary pressures

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Speaker 2: coming through through. Notwithstanding that, the labor market does look

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Speaker 2: to be in a pretty good place at the moment,

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Speaker 2: and certainly not a reason for the Reserve Bank to

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Speaker 2: not hike interest rates.

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Speaker 1: Story number three, International airfares are on the rise, with

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Speaker 1: the head of Quantus International warning that they could end

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Speaker 1: up much higher as the carrier reviews ticket prices at

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Speaker 1: least once a fortnite. Speaking at the Destination of Australia

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Speaker 1: Tourism conference, Cam Wallace said that costs had risen more

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Speaker 1: quickly in the past few weeks than he had ever

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Speaker 1: experienced in his aviation career, and Cam.

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Speaker 2: Has been in the industry for a while. I got

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Speaker 2: to tell you prices at this point are only up

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Speaker 2: five percent at the national carrier. But given jet fuel

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Speaker 2: prices are up one hundred and fifty percent flights and

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Speaker 2: European roots are more than ninety percent full, well you

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Speaker 2: can imagine prices are likely to rise more. It came

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Speaker 2: as Tourism Australia research showed that more than eighty percent

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Speaker 2: of operators have said they've had bookings canceled in recent weeks,

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Speaker 2: and half of that is based on the war fuel

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Speaker 2: counts for about one quart of expenses of carriers and

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Speaker 2: airlines around the world introduce these fuel surge charges to

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Speaker 2: cover the higher cost. I'm afraid it's something we're going

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Speaker 2: to have to live with for a little while now.

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Speaker 1: Indeed, story number four Sean, the city housing the world's

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Speaker 1: largest gas export plant in Qatar, has been targeted in

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Speaker 1: the war in the Middle East. Rafan Industrial City was

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Speaker 1: the subject of missile attacks that came as Israel and

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Speaker 1: the US bombed a key Iranian gas field. It triggered

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Speaker 1: a surge in oil and gas prices and also a

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Speaker 1: bit of a split between the US and Israel. US

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Speaker 1: President Donald Trump distanced himself from the Israeli attack in

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Speaker 1: Iran and said no further attacks of that nature would

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Speaker 1: take place. He then said the US would destroy iran

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Speaker 1: South pars gas field if the country continues striking the

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Speaker 1: energy infrastructure of its Middle Eastern neighbors.

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Speaker 2: I mean, it's a bit of a mess at the moment,

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Speaker 2: really is, and we don't know where it's going. Katar's

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Speaker 2: foreign ministries that Iran had now crossed all red lines

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Speaker 2: attacking civilian infrastructure in Qatar Ua in Saudi Arabia. Saudi

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Speaker 2: Arabia reserved the right to take military action if necessary,

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Speaker 2: following it on golf countries, while vessels near the straight

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Speaker 2: of Hormors have also been attacked, and not in the

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Speaker 2: straight up Homors near the straight off Homus. A report

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Speaker 2: suggests that Trump administration is considering deploying thousands of troops

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Speaker 2: in the Middle East as the US decides what to

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Speaker 2: do next.

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Speaker 1: Can we lighten things up a little bit? For story

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Speaker 1: number five? The Australian has released its list of richest people,

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Speaker 1: and for the first time in eight years, the combined

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Speaker 1: wealth of the top two hundred and fifty Aussies has fallen.

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Speaker 2: Twenty five million twenty five billion dollars Michael mostly because

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Speaker 2: the value of Mike cannon Brooks and Scott far Quha,

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Speaker 2: those two at Lassian fellers down thirty five billion dollars.

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Speaker 2: That's because the share price of it Lassan is down

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Speaker 2: more than fifty percent since a year ago. They were

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Speaker 2: four and five on the list now tourm and thirteen,

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Speaker 2: Jana right Hart iron Or number one, ninety three year

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Speaker 2: old Harry Triggerboff number two, then cardboard box Manufactury King

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Speaker 2: Visit Industries, Anthony Pratt following him, Clive Palmer, Cambaduo, Melanie Perkins,

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Speaker 2: Cliff Obrecht. Nichola Forrest, former wife of Ford Escues Andrew Forrest,

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Speaker 2: is at seven. Her former husband Andrew is at eight.

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Speaker 2: But there are two newcomers to the top ten one.

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Speaker 2: At number nine is Wall Street infrastructure guru Mike Durrell

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Speaker 2: and at ten media Barren turned mining services and building

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Speaker 2: materials magnate Kerry Stakes.

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Speaker 1: All right, there we go to the top five business

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

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Speaker 2: Thanks Michael.

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Speaker 1: It is Friday, the twentieth of March twenty twenty six.

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

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Speaker 1: minutes isn't enough. You can find out long their daily

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Speaker 1: show called Fear and Greed where if 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 Greeds. A great day,