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Speaker 1: It's Monday, the twenty first of April twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 1: Welcome 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. A'm Michael Thompson

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Speaker 1: and good morning, Sean Aylmer.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Michael.

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

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Speaker 1: all about the election campaign hostilities. We're supposed to cease

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Speaker 1: over easter. That's fair to say that didn't really happen

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Speaker 1: to were twelve days out now from polling and one

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Speaker 1: day before postal voting commences. Prime Minister Anthony Albernezi and

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Speaker 1: Labor are really in the box seat.

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Speaker 2: The big polls from nine Entertainment, from The Australian's News

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Speaker 2: poll and elsewhere all put the most likely outcome a

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Speaker 2: minority Labor government that means Albanzi as Prime Minister with

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Speaker 2: the support of Greens and Independence. In fact, if anything,

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Speaker 2: the polls have Labour doing better than the coalition doing

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Speaker 2: the campaign and Alberanesi pulling away from Dutton as preferred leader.

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Speaker 2: But twelve days ago a long time in politics. With

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Speaker 2: postal voting off opening tomorrow most of the big ticket

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Speaker 2: announcements have been there will be bits and pieces coming

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Speaker 2: from both parties. Albinizi is likely to spend the last

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Speaker 2: days of the campaign pushing Labour's reforms around child care

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Speaker 2: and health wages. Tax reform, well, it's minimal reform, but

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Speaker 2: Labour's calling reform and dealing with the US in a

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Speaker 2: Donald Trump world. Darton will spend the next twelve days

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Speaker 2: talking more about energy defense. Expect to hear the line

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Speaker 2: about petrol prices being twenty five cents later cheaper under

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Speaker 2: the coalition, and expect to hear the question are you

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Speaker 2: better off than you were three years ago? We still

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Speaker 2: have school holidays and Anzac Day for the police to

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Speaker 2: contend with. But both sides are now going to be

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Speaker 2: focused on racing to the finish.

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Speaker 1: Indeed they will. I'm just storry number two. Now, rental

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Speaker 1: growth across the country are still tracking above pre COVID levels,

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Speaker 1: but the rate of change has slowed considerably.

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Speaker 2: So during the March quarter the pace of rental growth

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Speaker 2: was one point seven percent, which was driven by units.

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Speaker 2: Now for the full year it's a little under four percent.

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Speaker 2: Twelve months ago when we took this reading, or when

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Speaker 2: Court Logic took this reading. It was eight percent. It's

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Speaker 2: gone from eight percent to four percent. The growth in rents,

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Speaker 2: it represents what's happened in the last three months or so,

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Speaker 2: is that housing rents have really fallen quite a bit,

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Speaker 2: or the pace of growth of housing reents have fallen

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Speaker 2: quite a bit. Now. Since March twenty nineteen, national rents

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Speaker 2: have climbed about thirty eight percent. It's about one hundred

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Speaker 2: and eighty two bucks a week or nine thousand dollars annually.

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Speaker 2: This significant increase has prompted many households to change and adapt,

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Speaker 2: you know, larger households, that type of thing, particularly in

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Speaker 2: the capital cities. Around ninety nine thousand rental properties were

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Speaker 2: listed for rent nationally over the four weeks to six April.

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Speaker 2: That's about twenty percent below the historic norm for this

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Speaker 2: time of year, which explains some of the pressure on

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Speaker 2: prices still.

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Speaker 1: Ye Indeed, storing number three shown Bunnings, fresh from pushing

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Speaker 1: heavily into cleaning and pet products, is now dipping its

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Speaker 1: toe into the auto sector.

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Speaker 2: It's a category Bunnings had when it launched in nineteen

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Speaker 2: ninety four, but shifted out of it, leaving the sector

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Speaker 2: to groups like sort of super Retail Thinks super Cheap Auto, Babcore,

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Speaker 2: which has got Burston and Auto Barn. Auto products begin

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Speaker 2: appearing in Bunning's stores in March. By the end of

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Speaker 2: this month, there will be around four hundred. According to

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Speaker 2: the AFI. Investment analysts diffail on prospects for Bunning's Auto,

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Speaker 2: pointing out and in some categories they're cheaper, in others

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Speaker 2: a bit more expensive. Also, Bunnings doesn't carry some of

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Speaker 2: the bigger brand names at this point. That could be

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Speaker 2: a bit of a problem because shoppers tend to want options.

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Speaker 1: Story number four. BHP has won approval for New South

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Speaker 1: Wales's largest coal mine to remain open for a further

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Speaker 1: four years, with part of the site set to be

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Speaker 1: repurposed into a pumped hydro project. Amid concerns over job

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Speaker 1: prospects for two thousand workers.

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Speaker 2: The producer has been seeking an extension for the Mount

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Speaker 2: Arthur therm Or coal mine in New South Wales hunt

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Speaker 2: of Valley until twenty thirty. The facility has a two

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Speaker 2: thousand strong workforce now. Last week the New South Wales

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Speaker 2: government approved the extension to June twenty thirty, with BHP

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Speaker 2: adding a thirty million dollar community fund and appointing THEONA

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Speaker 2: to develop an initial feasibility study for the pumped hydro development.

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Speaker 2: According to the Australian, BHP said the pump hydro project

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Speaker 2: could provide daily power for up to five hundred thousand

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Speaker 2: homes across New South Wales to deliver one thousand construction jobs.

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Speaker 2: The amount Arthur Mind spans seventy kilometers. It's huge, eighteen

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Speaker 2: kilometers long at its coal phase, with BHP promising to

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Speaker 2: explore alternative land uses for the site and meet mid

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Speaker 2: fears over job cuts once the mine eventually shuts down.

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Speaker 1: All right, story number five And I know it's only Monday, Sean,

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Speaker 1: but this is a very early contender for my favorite

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Speaker 1: story of the week. This one had a bit of

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Speaker 1: discussion over the weekend. Astronomers have found signs of biological

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Speaker 1: activity on a planet one hundred and twenty four light

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Speaker 1: years from Earth, in what they call these strongest evidence

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Speaker 1: yet of extra terrestrial life.

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Speaker 2: There's life out there, Michael. Scientists used a space telescope

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Speaker 2: to detect specific organic molecules in the atmosphere of K

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Speaker 2: two eighteen B, a distant water covered planet that is

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Speaker 2: eight point six times bigger than the Earth and orbits

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Speaker 2: a red dwarf star. On Earth. Such molecules are only

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Speaker 2: produced by living organisms.

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Speaker 1: Now.

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Speaker 2: The lead astrophysicist from Cambridge University said, given everything we

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Speaker 2: know about this planet, a world with a notion that

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Speaker 2: is teeming with life is the scenario that best fits

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Speaker 2: this data. The research suggests that conditions on K two

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Speaker 2: A and B could mirror Earth's early oceans, according to

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Speaker 2: a story in the FD and the astronomer stopped short

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Speaker 2: of claiming definitive evidence of biological activity. But I'm going

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Speaker 2: to there's life out there, Michael.

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Speaker 1: I think there is, Sean. I think we're I think

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Speaker 1: we are united on that. There we go, the top

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

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Speaker 1: Thank you Michael. It is Monday, the twenty first of

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Speaker 1: April twenty twenty five. Remember to hit follow on the podcast,

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

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

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Speaker 1: to podcasts. I'm Michael Thompson and that was fast five

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Speaker 1: Business News by Fear and Greed. Have a great day,