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Speaker 1: It's Thursday, the nineteenth 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: when 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 John.

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

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Speaker 1: of Australia's biggest companies, BHP and Woodside Energy are getting

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Speaker 1: new CEOs and both of them are internal appointments the

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Speaker 1: big Australian. Let's start there. BHP has appointed Brandon Craig,

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Speaker 1: a fifty three year old South African born miners and

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Speaker 1: naturalized Ozzie has been with BHP for almost thirty years,

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Speaker 1: so he certainly knows the business. He's run the group's

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Speaker 1: wa iron Ore division currently it's Minerals America's president. That

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Speaker 1: means he's been looking after the group's potash and copper divisions.

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Speaker 1: He's a mining engineer by training. He's going to take

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Speaker 1: over on one July and his big job is going

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Speaker 1: to be expanding the miners copper prospects. That is a

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Speaker 1: big job.

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Speaker 2: That is a big job. Another person with a big

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Speaker 2: job Liz Westcott the new CEO of Woodside Energy. She's

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Speaker 2: been operator or acting in that job since Meg O'Neil

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Speaker 2: opted to join Global Oil Giant BP. Critical time for

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Speaker 2: Woodside oil and gas markets obviously in turnmoil over the

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Speaker 2: war in the Middle East. But Woodside's in the middle

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Speaker 2: of this big expansion, so it's got a six ten

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Speaker 2: and a half but into La Scarborough Gas project in

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Speaker 2: wa it's based to come on stream later this year.

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Speaker 2: Construction underway at as Louisiana LNG Terminals, a very big

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Speaker 2: job for Liz Westcott as well.

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Speaker 1: Just thinking about this Sean, there's been an incredible amount

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Speaker 1: of turnover at Australia's top companies. Is it a good thing?

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Speaker 1: Is it a bad thing? And why are so many

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Speaker 1: of them internal appointments?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so there's been turned over. The average CEO tenure

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Speaker 2: in Australia for a listed companies six years been the

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Speaker 2: last twelve months. So we've just talked about Woodside and

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Speaker 2: Badge pe Rio Wayne's Newmont Bluescope, Sonic Treasury, Wine Estates,

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Speaker 2: Endeavor Aria Starring Entertainment was another one. The list goes

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Speaker 2: on a few things going on there. We've sort of

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Speaker 2: shifted from post COVID phase to an AI energy phase.

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Speaker 2: Maybe that takes more skills. Maybe people who know the

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Speaker 2: business are better at taking over. Hence internal candidates. Also

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Speaker 2: in an inflationary world, we haven't seen that since the

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Speaker 2: GFC New world. That probably makes a difference. Active investors too, well,

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Speaker 2: they're out there to differentiate themselves. They're very active, as

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Speaker 2: in they put more pressure on management, and managers need

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Speaker 2: to perform. So that's probably all part of the reason.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, high pressure, gig I. We'll pass on that one,

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Speaker 1: thank you, Sean. Onto story number two. The Federal government

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Speaker 1: will today appoint a new fuels to coordinate the national

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Speaker 1: response to the global energy crisis that has threatened domestic

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Speaker 1: supply chains and led to these petrol and diesel shortages

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Speaker 1: in regional Australia and price spikes that we are all

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Speaker 1: experiencing right across the country. The appointment of a logistics

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Speaker 1: Coordinator will be proposed at a meeting of national Cabinets,

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Speaker 1: part of a broader domestic policy response to the conflict

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Speaker 1: in the Middle East also to be discussed. Extra incentives

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Speaker 1: for australias remaining oil refineries.

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Speaker 2: The PM said the government's preparing new measures to help

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Speaker 2: shield Australian households from the crisis in the Middle East,

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Speaker 2: that includes this new energy zar. In a speech to

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Speaker 2: the Australian Automotive Dealer Association, Alberizi said the crisis in

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Speaker 2: the Middle East was the third global shock this decade.

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Speaker 2: We basically have to operate in a new economic model.

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Speaker 1: Speaking of the Prime Minister story number three, Australia's well

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Speaker 1: positioned to avoid a recession notwithstanding the energy crisis, according

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Speaker 1: to Anthony Alberizi, with growth the strongest in three years.

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Speaker 1: Still he will be announcing new measures designed to shield

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Speaker 1: Australia from global uncertainty in coming days.

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Speaker 2: Count wait. Rather than waiting for the twelve May budget,

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Speaker 2: the Prime Minister said announcements would be brought forward. His

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Speaker 2: comments came out at Treasure Jim Chalmers said no one

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Speaker 2: his forth casting recession true charmers also out of the

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Speaker 2: wood in Middle East. It was the key uncertainty. Didn't

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Speaker 2: say much about tax reform, particularly couple of gains tax reform,

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Speaker 2: but I think that is bubbling along in the background,

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Speaker 2: I reckon well, he did say they're working up some

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Speaker 2: options ahead of the May twelve budget. I think we'll

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Speaker 2: hear something about it.

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Speaker 1: Then, Yeah, it won't be too surprising if it does

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Speaker 1: pop up now. Story number four. The Prime Minister also

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Speaker 1: yesterday confirmed that the airbase that houses Australia's Middle East

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Speaker 1: headquarters was struck by an Iranian projectile yesterday morning.

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Speaker 2: He also well, Australia also got to mention from Donald

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Speaker 2: Trump when the US President was listing countries he wasn't

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Speaker 2: happy with for not sending military support to the Middle East.

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Speaker 2: He mentioned NATO, Japan, Australia and South Korea. He then

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Speaker 2: went to say he no longer desires or needs our help.

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Speaker 2: There you go. Also, Iran confirmed that the country's national

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Speaker 2: security chief and head of the palam Paramilitary Force were

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Speaker 2: killed in fighting, and the Trump administration's countered terrorism chief

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Speaker 2: resigned in protest over the war.

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Speaker 1: Last one, story number five The world of container shipping.

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Speaker 1: Sean has been love talking about it. Well, it's genuinely

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Speaker 1: quite interesting, isn't it, Because it's been turned upside down

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Speaker 1: in recent weeks, with carriers adding thousands of dollars in

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Speaker 1: extra charges and they're even dumping containers that far flung ports.

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Speaker 1: This is according to shipping groups and removal companies and

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Speaker 1: consumers are probably the ones that will have to pay

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Speaker 1: the extra cost, right, yes, so, the.

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Speaker 2: Effect of closure of the Straight of Homas following the

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Speaker 2: Iranian strikes and all the attacks in that region has

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Speaker 2: triggered cancelations, congestions that safeports all sorts of things. According

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Speaker 2: to the ft the larger shipping groups including MSc, MERSCAS

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Speaker 2: another one of the big ones, they've told customers they

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Speaker 2: reserve the right to invoke a nineteenth century rule that

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Speaker 2: allows them to leave containers at the nearest available port

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Speaker 2: at their client's expense. What's that mean, Well, containers due

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Speaker 2: to go to the Middle East of finding themselves being

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Speaker 2: dropped in India, others for Saudi Arabia, well we'll just

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Speaker 2: drop them off in the UAE, and basically the company

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Speaker 2: has to pick up additional storage costs and import charges.

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Speaker 2: Pretty amazing. That's on top of the fact that shipping

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Speaker 2: container costs are up four times on certain roots thanks

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Speaker 2: to war risk, insurance costs and fuel surch charges.

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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: Thank you, Michael.

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Speaker 1: It's Thursday, the nineteenth of March twenty twenty six. Remember

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Speaker 1: to hit follow on the podcast. That is very important,

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Speaker 1: and if five minutes just isn't enough, you can find

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Speaker 1: our longer daily show called Fear and Greed wherever you

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Speaker 1: listen to podcasts. I'm Uncle Thompson and others are fast

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Speaker 1: five Business news by Fear and Greed. Have a great day.