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Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, the eighteenth of February 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: Morning Michael, Sean.

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Speaker 1: Our daily reminder of the fact that if you are

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Speaker 1: is going to disappear entirely in the next couple of weeks.

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Speaker 1: So please if you want to keep listening to the

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Speaker 1: past five just hit follow on the podcast and you'll

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Speaker 1: get it every day On with the Stories Storry Number one.

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Speaker 1: BHP has delivered a blockbuster half year resultant. For the

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Speaker 1: first time ever, Sean Copper has overtaken iron Ore as

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Speaker 1: the company's biggest earnings driver. It is a cracker of

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Speaker 1: a result and the Big Australians share price jumped five

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Speaker 1: percent yesterday. It's up thirty percent now in three months.

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Speaker 1: The underlying profit for BHP rowse twenty two percent to

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Speaker 1: six point two billion US dollars for the half here

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Speaker 1: and the interim dividend was seventy three US Censor share

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Speaker 1: way above the sixth three US cens to share that

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Speaker 1: the market had been expecting.

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Speaker 2: Big, big numbers, But the real story is what's driving

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Speaker 2: those numbers. For the first time, copper has overtaken iron

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Speaker 2: ore as beagp's biggest earnings contributor. The copper business it

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Speaker 2: still of actually includes gold and silver. That's a big

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Speaker 2: structural shift. When Mike Henry the Boss joined BHP six

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Speaker 2: years ago, seventy percent of earnings were from iron ore.

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Speaker 2: Now it's less than fifty percent.

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Speaker 1: There was a silver deal as well.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there was so all these ideas about pushing into

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Speaker 2: these future facing commodities. So you know, copper big for

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Speaker 2: AI buildouts, really big for electric vehicle, solar panels, that

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Speaker 2: type of thing. They're interested in keeping their hand in

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Speaker 2: silver as well well as gold as well as uranium.

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Speaker 2: So there was a big deal in the silver market.

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Speaker 2: As you said, they're basically going to a big upfront

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Speaker 2: payment from a Canadian group which will operate one of

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Speaker 2: its minds in Lima. It'll then get twenty percent of

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Speaker 2: the spot price that silver delivers from that. It just

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Speaker 2: shows that whole push by BHP into future facing commodities.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, fascinating business all right. Onto story number two. Federal

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Speaker 1: Liberal leader Angus Taylor announced his shadow cabinet yesterday. Not surprisingly,

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Speaker 1: he rewarded his supporters, though not all Susan Leave followers

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Speaker 1: got ousted. Tim Wilson will become the new shadow Treasurer.

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Speaker 1: Jane Hume, who's entitled to pick her portfolio as deputy leader,

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Speaker 1: will take on industrial relations and employment, productivity and growth.

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Speaker 1: You got Senator James Pattison going from Finance to Defense,

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Speaker 1: which was actually the portfolio held by Taylor before he

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Speaker 1: became leader. Patterson was a pretty important player in rallying

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Speaker 1: the support for Taylor to take over.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, just into the Empajema Price takes on small business.

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Speaker 2: Andrew Hasty's back on the front bench his industry in

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Speaker 2: sovereign capability today. Brian definitely Susan Lee person he used

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Speaker 2: to be the deputy leader. Well, he's retained his position

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Speaker 2: on the front bench. You look after foreign affairs and

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Speaker 2: Mikayla Cash will stay as Attorney General Shadow Attorney General

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Speaker 2: of course.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Story number three. The Reserve Bank released the minutes

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Speaker 1: from its February meeting. Yes, so this is the one

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Speaker 1: where they hiked rates to three point eight five percent.

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Speaker 1: You love it. When the minutes come out, you pour

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Speaker 1: over them. What did you learn?

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Speaker 2: A few things? Look, the decision was unanimous. We knew

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Speaker 2: that everyone voted for it, so it wasn't even a

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Speaker 2: close call. The minutes show that the board was concerned

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Speaker 2: that inflation has been broadly based. So all these items

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Speaker 2: above two and a half percent not so good. Also,

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Speaker 2: people starting to think that inflation is going to be

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Speaker 2: above two and a half percent inflation expectations. If you

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Speaker 2: think it's going to be more, you prepared to pay more,

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Speaker 2: So that's bad news. Key line is that members agreed

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Speaker 2: not possible to have a high degree of confidence in

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Speaker 2: any particular path of the cash rate. Do you know

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Speaker 2: what that means, Michael?

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Speaker 1: They're keeping the door open.

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Speaker 2: Yep, exactly right. Markets are priced in about a fifty

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Speaker 2: percent chance another rate hike in May.

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Speaker 1: Oh dear, okay, story number four. Sure, and the International

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Speaker 1: Monetary Fund has weighed in with some fairly radical advice.

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Speaker 1: You've got to say for Australia. It's annual health Check

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Speaker 1: says that Australia should lift the GST and use the

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Speaker 1: revenue to cut income taxes. The argument is basically that

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Speaker 1: the current tax mix is too heavily weighted towards en

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Speaker 1: come tax, which discourages work discourages investment, whereas a higher GST,

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Speaker 1: a consumption based tax, would be more efficient.

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Speaker 2: Yes, I think they're right on that one. The IMF

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Speaker 2: also flagged that the government's flagship five percent deposit scheme

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Speaker 2: for first time buyers actually makes housing affordability worse. It

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Speaker 2: pushes up prices. This is a suppla is shee on

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Speaker 2: a demand issue. Government's just adding to the demand problems.

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Speaker 2: Joseh Jim Chalmers pretty much cherry picked the positives. Called

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Speaker 2: it a powerful endorsement from the IMF of the government's

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Speaker 2: economic management. I'm not so sure about the one. The

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Speaker 2: IMF also worn about state government debt, particularly Victoria.

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Speaker 1: Last one sean story number five. It's business related. I

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Speaker 1: suppose it's an update on a story from last week,

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Speaker 1: when German newspaper Build alleged that male ski jumpers were

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Speaker 1: having hyaluronic acid injected into their penises to increase the

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Speaker 1: surface area of their suits, therefore allowing them to jump further.

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Speaker 2: We suspected fraud, but Michael we were wrong. USA Today has

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Speaker 2: published correspondence with a leading Pino plastic authority who's admitted

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Speaker 2: to having performed the procedure on an unnamed ski jumper.

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Speaker 2: Italian plastic surgeon Alessandro Latara says he's injected the asset

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Speaker 2: into more than three thousand penises during his decades long career,

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Speaker 2: and he carried out the procedure on a jumper who

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Speaker 2: told him he was experiencing embarrassment in the dressing room

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Speaker 2: after competition. Who knows whether that's right. Well, I don't

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Speaker 2: doubt the surgeon, but I wonder whether that's a real reason.

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Speaker 1: Three thousand that's a lot to have done though, Right,

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Speaker 1: what did you do today? Injected another dozen?

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Speaker 2: A lot of penises?

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Speaker 1: Michael, Here we go, all right? Top five business stories

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Speaker 1: in five minutes. Top four business stories on one story

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Speaker 1: that just managed to sneak its way in there, Sewan,

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Speaker 1: thank you very much.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Michael.

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Speaker 1: It is Wednesday, the eighteenth of February twenty twenty six.

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

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Speaker 1: to know if you can find our longer daily show

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

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Speaker 1: Michael Thompson, that was a fast fired business newspy FIA

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Speaker 1: and greed, have a great day,