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Speaker 1: Today on Fear and Greed. The ASX hits a new

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Speaker 1: record high, just as the Reserve Bank cautions on hopes

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Speaker 1: for a rate cut. Prime Minister Anthony Albanezi treads a

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Speaker 1: fine line in trade talks with China's Gijinping and Bunnings

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Speaker 1: found to have invaded people's privacy via its facial recognition technology.

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Speaker 1: Plus more on the G twenty summit, the country's top accountants,

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Speaker 1: and why the regulator told superfund hester to compensate one

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Speaker 1: hundred and twenty thousand members. Welcome to Fear and Greed,

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Speaker 1: daily business news for people who make their own decisions.

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Speaker 1: It is Wednesday, the twentieth of November twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 1: I'm Michael Thompson and good morning, Sean Aylmer.

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Speaker 2: What an introduction. So much going on, Michael.

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Speaker 1: There is a lot coming up today, Sean. It is

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Speaker 1: a bumper edition. The main story this morning. The local

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Speaker 1: share market hit a new record high yesterday, climbing above

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Speaker 1: eight thousand, four four hundred points for the first time ever.

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Speaker 1: Quite the milestone really, meaning the market is up eleven

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Speaker 1: percent this year.

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Speaker 2: It peaked at eight four hundred and forty six points

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Speaker 2: before falling sharply in the final few minutes of trading

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Speaker 2: to close up nearly one percent to eighty three hundred

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Speaker 2: and seventy four points. Until about ten to four yesterday afternoon,

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Speaker 2: we thought it would have a close above eighty four

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Speaker 2: hundred points. Wasn't to be. The range of stocks trading

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Speaker 2: at or near record highs is broad. A few, certainly

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Speaker 2: not an extent or an exhaustive list, but a few

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Speaker 2: include Aristocrat Leisure, the gaming manufacturer, the gaming machine manufacturer, Brambles,

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Speaker 2: the pallet maker, come Off Bank, Computer Share, Goodman Group,

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Speaker 2: the industrial property group, Hub twenty four, which is a

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Speaker 2: wealth platform, retail a JB High five, Promedicus, which is

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Speaker 2: a medical company obviously an imaging company. Better put quantas

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Speaker 2: real Estateria that is wise Tech Global and zero. They're

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Speaker 2: both tech companies. It just goes to show the broad

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Speaker 2: range of companies doing well at the moment. A bunch

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Speaker 2: of other tech stocks are also near highs. That's been

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Speaker 2: the best performing sector all year. It's up forty four percent.

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Speaker 2: The biggest influence on the index is the banks. They're

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Speaker 2: up thirty six percent this year. Now, financials make up

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Speaker 2: about thirty one percent of the market, so when you

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Speaker 2: have a thirty six percent rise in the financials, then

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Speaker 2: you are definitely going to have a big jump in

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Speaker 2: the ax. The next biggest sector on the market is

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Speaker 2: basic materials at nineteen point three percent. That includes the

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Speaker 2: big miners. They'd really been the laggards. But imagine if

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Speaker 2: that don Ak Michael, imagine if HP and RIO taken

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Speaker 2: off stop ordinary, it would tiles away. Then healthcare is

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Speaker 2: about nine percent, industrials about eight point six percent, but

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Speaker 2: the financials at thirty one percent really are the big guys.

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Speaker 2: But the market is flying high.

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Speaker 1: It's great news for shareholders. I suppose the big question though, Sean,

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Speaker 1: you know I'm going to ask you this, can it

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Speaker 1: keep going?

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Speaker 2: Maybe maybe not perfect?

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Speaker 1: I love a definitive answer.

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Speaker 2: That's right. I mean Wall Street at lower taxes under

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Speaker 2: Donald Trump two point zero is helping confidence as our

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Speaker 2: hopes of rate cuts locally, That's what got the market,

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Speaker 2: has gotten the market going, the idea of rate cuts here.

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Speaker 2: They took something of a blow yesterday the Reserve Bank

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Speaker 2: Board minutes were released. They show that the Central Bank

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Speaker 2: is still worried that core inflation is too high, proving

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Speaker 2: very difficult to get that core or underlying inflation into

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Speaker 2: the two to three percent target band. The minutes share

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Speaker 2: that the board looked at cutting rates, they also looked

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Speaker 2: at keeping rates at this level for quite some time.

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Speaker 2: They want to see more than one quarterly or good

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Speaker 2: quarterly result on inflation, so they say that's two good

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Speaker 2: CPI figures. That pretty much pushes out a rate cut

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Speaker 2: beyond April next year, because April thirty is when the

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Speaker 2: March quarter data is released. The Reserve Bank needs two

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Speaker 2: good figures now. The most recent underlying rates three point

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Speaker 2: five percent. Governor Michelle Books made pretty clear that isn't good.

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Speaker 2: Therefore we need another two good pieces of inflation news.

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Speaker 2: So on that logic, we really can't have a rate

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Speaker 2: cut before May next year.

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Speaker 1: Well, you're a bad news Barry, aren't you? Like you

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Speaker 1: just you said the word good so many times? Is

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Speaker 1: that I'm like, oh, building for some good news and

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Speaker 1: then you just bust out.

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Speaker 2: Now not till May.

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Speaker 1: Let's look again at markets then, specifically yesterday, that's kind

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Speaker 1: of zero in here the stocks that did well or

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Speaker 1: otherwise I suppose as well, yesterday zero in.

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Speaker 2: I like that zero did do well. The tech stocks

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Speaker 2: were the outperformers, taking Nex up three point one percent.

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Speaker 2: Telco and Energy and industrials also did well. Best of

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Speaker 2: the lot was a group called Technology One. It so

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Speaker 2: it's more than ten percent after the enterprise software company

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Speaker 2: said net profit for the year ending thirty September was

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Speaker 2: up fifteen percent. Among the large cabs, there was a

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Speaker 2: Woodside in Santos, both high on the back of a

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Speaker 2: jump in oil prices. Newmont, which is listed here. Canadian

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Speaker 2: Group bought local gold producer Newcrest. It urged after a

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Speaker 2: degree to sell a mine in Canada. The other news

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Speaker 2: out yesterday, KMD Brands, owner of cap Mendu and Ripkel,

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Speaker 2: had its annual General Meeter meeting. Very cautious on consumer sentiment,

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Speaker 2: said conditions remained challenging. It was down a couple of percent.

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Speaker 1: Hey, Sean, just quickly on the topic of AGMS. Yesterday

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Speaker 1: for anybody who missed it, the Ask Fear and Greed

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Speaker 1: Bonus episode, because we put these out on Tuesdays and

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Speaker 1: Fridays at midday, and yesterday we answered a question from

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Speaker 1: a particularly disgruntled listener by the name of Phil, who

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Speaker 1: has really got got to be in his bonnet about

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Speaker 1: AGM's at the moment and so it's worth coming back

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Speaker 1: and having a listen to it, because it's just all

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Speaker 1: about what is the value of an AGM in an

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Speaker 1: age where some of the big super funds are so influential,

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Speaker 1: and whether there's any any even any point in kind

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Speaker 1: of having an AGM for small investors to head along

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Speaker 1: and have their say as well. And it was just

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Speaker 1: you did a great job at at calming fill down.

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Speaker 1: I think sure.

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Speaker 2: I thought you did a great job at revving him up.

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Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, pointing out that he was a bit angry.

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Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I really did. But go and check that

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Speaker 1: one out. It's a good explainer and if you've got

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Speaker 1: your own question for us fear and greed, then feel

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Speaker 1: free to to send it on through and put a

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Speaker 1: bit of attitude into it. We love it as well,

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Speaker 1: just like Phil just quickly, much going on in international

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Speaker 1: market Sean all.

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Speaker 2: Street close Hi yesterday the stand up was Tesla up

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Speaker 2: more than five percent on hopes that the incoming Trump

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Speaker 2: government will support a push for self driving cars. There

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Speaker 2: are also reports that Donald Trump's social media company, Trump

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Speaker 2: Media and Technology Group, is in advanced talks to buy

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Speaker 2: a crypto trading venue called backed bakkt it's currently owned

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Speaker 2: by the Intercontinental Exchange. The Intercontinental Exchange otherwise known as ICE,

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Speaker 2: owns New York Stock Exchange. That's a very big organization,

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Speaker 2: and it's looking at selling backed to Donald Trump's company.

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Speaker 2: That certainly helped bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin pushed ninety

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Speaker 2: two six hundred US dollars yesterday. It's about one third

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Speaker 2: higher than when Donald Trump was elected. The US dollars

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Speaker 2: come off a bit and that's helped the Aussie it's

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Speaker 2: back above sixty five US sense.

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Speaker 1: After the show, You've got a really interesting conversation coming

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Speaker 1: up with William lou from Wilson Asset Management.

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Speaker 2: Sure, we do all about global stocks. We talk about

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Speaker 2: what's happening in China, in the US, in Europe and

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Speaker 2: if you're an Australian investor, how do you get exposed you

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Speaker 2: to it?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, great one, it's coming up after the show. Stick around.

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Speaker 1: We'll be back in a moment with the rest of

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Speaker 1: the day's business news. Sean Prime Minister Anthony Alberesi says

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Speaker 1: that all Chinese tariffs and other restrictions on twenty two

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Speaker 1: billion dollars worth of Australian goods will be removed after

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Speaker 1: he met with President jijiin Ping at the G twenty

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Speaker 1: conference in Brazil.

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Speaker 2: Yes, good news. Anthony Alberesi said that he'd improved relations

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Speaker 2: without compromising any of Australia's national interest. Very fine line

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Speaker 2: that one, because at the meeting, Mister she discussed Australia

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Speaker 2: providing greater foreign investment access to Chinese interests. This is

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Speaker 2: the pointy end of the trade debate for Australia. The

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Speaker 2: tariffs and restrictions imposed under Prime Minister Scott Morrison were

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Speaker 2: in part because of Australia's efforts to safeguard its sovereignty

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Speaker 2: and security via foreign investment restrictions. Remember those bands on

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Speaker 2: the Chinese telco Huawei. That's really what it appears she's

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Speaker 2: asking Albanesi to water down. In short, China will buy

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Speaker 2: more Australian stuff if Chinese enterprises are allowed to invest

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Speaker 2: in this country. Ahead of the meeting, Mister she acknowledged

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Speaker 2: the improvement in relations between the two countries. He added

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Speaker 2: that great care is still needed. Mistrailbniz he pushed mister

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Speaker 2: Shei on china support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine and

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Speaker 2: reiterrated our position on Taiwan and South China Sea. He

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Speaker 2: also mentioned Huang heng Jun, who has been given a

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Speaker 2: suspended death sentence for espionage.

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Speaker 1: Super fun giant HESTER will be forced to compensate more

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Speaker 1: than one hundred and twenty thousand members that had their

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Speaker 1: retirement savings in parts stranded in unlisted property assets whose

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Speaker 1: values really tumbled in the early days of COVID nineteen.

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Speaker 2: Bit technical, stay with me, but it's really fascinating. APRA

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Speaker 2: Strain Credential Regulation Authority said Hester's procedures for revaluing assets

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Speaker 2: were deficient and in one case, a member lost seventeen

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Speaker 2: thousand dollars in one week because the superfund had failed

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Speaker 2: to revalue in a timely manner. Takes a bit of

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Speaker 2: explaining this one. APRAA wants funds to revalue up and

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Speaker 2: down unlisted assets in a timely manner. So if you

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Speaker 2: invest in BHP, you know exactly what it's worth. If

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Speaker 2: you invest in an unlisted asset, you don't. Not just

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Speaker 2: property here, but we're talking private credit, private equity, infrastructure.

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Speaker 2: Revaluing is really important for the super funds because collectively

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Speaker 2: they are in about six hundred and fifty billion dollars

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Speaker 2: in unlisted assets. In this case, hest revalued made a

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Speaker 2: downward adjustment to five investment options that were invested in

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Speaker 2: unlisted assets. It didn't adjust other investments with exposure to

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Speaker 2: the same assets until a week later. So if a

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Speaker 2: member shifted from an adjusted option to a none adjusted

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Speaker 2: option within that week, that'd immediately be worse off. That's

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Speaker 2: where one member lost seventeen thousand dollars. The OPRA is

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Speaker 2: on a bit of a g had to get these

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Speaker 2: big super funds to be very accurate in the value

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Speaker 2: of their members' funds as they go, and that's what

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Speaker 2: this is all about.

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Speaker 1: Goodness may it has to be particularly unlucky to have

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Speaker 1: shifted over within that period.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you.

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Speaker 1: Do feel for that member. The next story, Sean, I'll

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Speaker 1: be interested to see what you make of this story.

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Speaker 1: Hardware retailer Bunnings has been found to have invaded the

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Speaker 1: privacy of what is estimated to be hundreds of thousands

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Speaker 1: of customers through the use of intrusive facial recognition cameras

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Speaker 1: at sixty three stores across Victoria and New South Wales.

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Speaker 2: An investigation by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

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Speaker 2: found Bunnings had disproportionately collected sensitive information from its customers

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Speaker 2: through the use of those cameras. According to a story

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Speaker 2: in the Australian Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind said the deployment

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Speaker 2: of facial recognition technology was most disproportionately interfering with the

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Speaker 2: privacy of everyone who entered Bunning stores. Bunnings defended its actions,

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Speaker 2: with managing director Mike Schneider claiming facial recognition technology was

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Speaker 2: only used to protect its team and other customers from

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Speaker 2: villan aggressive behavior. Mister Schneider claimed that Bunnings had processed

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Speaker 2: and deleted the majority of data collected from the facial

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Speaker 2: recognition cameras in point zero zero four one seven seconds.

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Speaker 2: Bottom line in this I don't want Bunnings to be

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Speaker 2: using to be recognizing my face as I walk in,

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Speaker 2: even if they do delete it immediately.

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Speaker 1: No, they see you walk in and just go. This

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Speaker 1: guy's going straight for the WD forty. That's what they

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Speaker 1: do when they see me. It's the only thing I

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Speaker 1: ever seem to buy their WD forty and with a

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Speaker 1: snipper cable.

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Speaker 2: But I can't go to Bunnings and not spend at

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Speaker 2: least one hundred dollars like I want to go and buy.

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Speaker 2: You know, WD forty is probably fifteen bucks. Yeah, walk out,

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Speaker 2: spend one hundred and fifty two.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot of WD forty.

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Speaker 2: It is.

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Speaker 1: Hang on, you're buying other things as well. Sorry, So

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Speaker 1: this image of you just walking out with his armful

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Speaker 1: of cans going, there's got a lot of squeaks in

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Speaker 1: his house. Oil giants. Oh God, just embarrass myself, oil giants.

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Speaker 1: Santos will boost returns to shareholders once it's major projects

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Speaker 1: in Alaska and the team or seed come online.

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Speaker 2: Yes, that should be twenty twenty six. The company will

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Speaker 2: return sixty percent of free cash flow to shareholders. At

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Speaker 2: the moment, returns about forty percent. This all emanates from

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Speaker 2: pressure from institutional investors who just aren't happy with the

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Speaker 2: oil and gas group. This ongoing speculation about corporate activity.

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Speaker 2: Remember last year they explored a merger with Woodside, which

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Speaker 2: didn't go anywhere. This talk and Middle East Grip's interested

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Speaker 2: in buying Santos got a couple of big projects coming online,

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Speaker 2: but the Brussel gas project and the team we'll seed

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Speaker 2: you in the September quarter next year. The Packer oil

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Speaker 2: project in Alaska in the first half of twenty twenty six.

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Speaker 2: The share price was up yesterday on the news, but

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Speaker 2: it still is at its lowest level since early twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty two.

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Speaker 1: The Packer oil project, right, I don't know why, but

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Speaker 1: about two months ago I found myself on YouTube watching

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Speaker 1: videos about that oil project. It is spectacular, some of

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Speaker 1: these videos that they're time lapse videos and you just

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Speaker 1: see it just appearing out of nowhere in just this

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Speaker 1: snow covered terrain. And you know what I'm going to do.

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Speaker 1: I'm actually going to put a link to one of

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Speaker 1: those videos in the newsletter which is going out today,

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Speaker 1: the Fear and Green newsletter. Head onto Fear Andgreed dot

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Speaker 1: com dot are you and sign up if you want

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Speaker 1: to see these videos. Obviously there's other stuff in the

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Speaker 1: newsletter as well, but I'm going to do it for

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Speaker 1: the VIDs. The afr Sean has released its list of

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Speaker 1: the top one hundred accounting firms, and while the Big

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Speaker 1: four of struggled the next level of companies the next

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Speaker 1: lot down, they're the ones benefiting.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, plenty of turmoil in the sector over the past

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Speaker 2: twelve months, especially PwC, which actually went from one to

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Speaker 2: three in this ranking with its revenue down twenty five percent.

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Speaker 2: Of course, a senior partner. Some years ago, senior partner

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Speaker 2: of PwC had leaked information that helped clients avoid tax.

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Speaker 2: The top spot this year went to Deloitte, then EYPWC

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Speaker 2: and at number four KPMG. The next five they were booming.

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Speaker 2: Even if they're not household names, get used to it.

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Speaker 2: You might hear more of them. Bdo find x RSM Australia,

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Speaker 2: Grant Thornton and Picture Partners.

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Speaker 1: Turn into international news now. Germany and Finland say they

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Speaker 1: are deeply concerned about a severed undersea communications cable between

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Speaker 1: the two countries, saying it raises suspicions of possible Russian sabotage.

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Speaker 2: It's a twelve hundred kilometer fiber optic cable. It was

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Speaker 2: cut on Monday morning in the Baltic Sea close to Sweden.

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Speaker 2: Now a Swedish Telco set of communications cable between Sweden

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Speaker 2: and Lithuania. It's also damaged. NATO nations at the moment

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Speaker 2: are on edge around infrastructure in the Baltic Sea. Ever

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Speaker 2: since the still unexplained explosions of the nord Stream gas

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Speaker 2: pipelines between Russia and Germany in twenty twenty two, Germany

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Speaker 2: and Finnish foreign ministers put out a joint statement. They

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Speaker 2: said securities under threat not only from Russia but also

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Speaker 2: other malicious actors were in all sorts of trouble if

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Speaker 2: some of these big infrastructure plays are damaged. Now. Having

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Speaker 2: said all that, there was also part of the note

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Speaker 2: saying that it could have just been a ship, or

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Speaker 2: an anchor or.

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Speaker 1: A crab, with particularly.

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Speaker 2: Strong clause moving on, Moving on.

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Speaker 1: G twenty nations have called for taxation on the super rich,

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Speaker 1: measures to alleviate poverty and a ceasefire in Gaza Sean.

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Speaker 2: This was in a statement after the first two days

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Speaker 2: of the meeting in Rio Digeneio. The host Brazil has

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Speaker 2: been pushing for a two percent tax on worlds of

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Speaker 2: billionaires to generate more than three hundred billion dollars to

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Speaker 2: help alleviate poverty and climate change. That did have support,

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Speaker 2: though Argentina, whose prime minister or whose president is a

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Speaker 2: great supporter of Donald Trump, Argentina withdrew support for that resolution.

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Speaker 2: That denied a consensus. They did agree though, that they

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Speaker 2: does need to be trillions of dollars, not billions of

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Speaker 2: dollars to finance climate change.

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Speaker 1: And finally, just quickly, Hong Kong's High Court yesterday sentenced

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Speaker 1: forty five pro democracy activists, including an Australian man, to

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Speaker 1: jail terms of up to ten years in a landmark

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Speaker 1: national security trial.

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Speaker 2: The decision further damages the city's one strong democracy movement

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Speaker 2: and has drawn international condemnation. According to Bloomberg, a total

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Speaker 2: of forty seven pro democracy activists were arrested and charged

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Speaker 2: in twenty twenty one with the conspiracy to submit subversion

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Speaker 2: under a Beijing imposed national security law. They faced sentences

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Speaker 2: of up to life in prison now. In the end,

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Speaker 2: these sentences ranged from four years to ten years. The

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Speaker 2: Australian gentleman Gordon Ung was jailed for seven years and

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Speaker 2: three months. The sack called organizer of the forty seven

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Speaker 2: pro democracy activists received ten years.

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Speaker 1: Michael, all right, up next is the Fear and Great

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Speaker 1: Daily Interview. Your guest today William Lou from Wilson Asset Management,

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Speaker 1: all about investing on international markets. Really interesting conversation. It

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Speaker 1: is coming up in the Fear and Greed playlist on

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Speaker 1: your podcast platform or at Fearangreed dot com dot au.

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Speaker 1: Thank you, Sean, Thank you, Michael. It's Wednesday. The twentieth

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Speaker 1: of November twenty twenty four. Make sure you're following the

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Speaker 1: podcast and please join us online on LinkedIn, Instagram, x

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Speaker 1: TikTok and Facebook. I'm Michael Thompson and that was fear

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Speaker 1: and greed. Have a great day.