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Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm christianamiod.

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Speaker 1: It's Monday, July twenty one, twenty twenty five. Queensland cattle

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Speaker 1: baron Paul Hatton has spoken for the first time about

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Speaker 1: the nineteen seventy eight death of his first wife, Julie.

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Speaker 1: He says the twenty two year old new mum died

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Speaker 1: by suicide after suffering from postnatal depression, and he claims

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Speaker 1: the case should never have been reopened almost half a

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Speaker 1: century after her death. Parliament will resume for the first

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Speaker 1: time since the election this week and the Prime Minister

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Speaker 1: is under pressure from the unions to boost productivity. New

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Speaker 1: data from News Poll suggests Labor is having a second honeymoon,

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Speaker 1: with core support for the Coalition at its lowest point

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Speaker 1: in forty years. Those stories alive right now at The

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Speaker 1: Australian dot Com dot a U, private investment firm of

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Speaker 1: Atlasian co founder Mike canon Brooks has paused new ventures

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Speaker 1: amid a lengthy divorce battle. Today, the fallout from the

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Speaker 1: breakdown of two of the billionaire's closest relationships.

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Speaker 2: Mike cannon Brooks and Scott Farquhar set up their it

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Speaker 2: company at Lassian fresh out of university. They're now turning

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Speaker 2: over fifteen million dollars a year at the ripe old

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Speaker 2: age of twenty six and twenty seven.

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Speaker 3: I don't think anything's been particularly mind blowingly tough, but

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Speaker 3: we've tried our best and we've done all right so far.

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Speaker 4: They may be young millionaires, but they're pretty casual about it,

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Speaker 4: and their take on the business world is about going

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Speaker 4: back to the basics, giving customers what they want.

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Speaker 3: These guys built a forty billion dollars tech company seven

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Speaker 3: thousand miles away from Silicon Valley. I think we feel

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Speaker 3: like we're still only at the start of our careers,

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Speaker 3: so hopefully we can justify this over the next twenty

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Speaker 3: five thirty years.

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Speaker 1: Ad Lasian is one of Australia's greatest tech success stories.

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Speaker 1: The software company was founded by Mike cannon Brooks and

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Speaker 1: Scott Farquhar in two thousand and two, and being a

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Speaker 1: tech company, it's steeped in law. The story goes that

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Speaker 1: a then twenty two year old Mike cannon Brooks sent

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Speaker 1: an email to his University of New South Wales computer

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Speaker 1: science classmates asking if anyone wanted to launch a startup

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Speaker 1: instead of taking a job at an established company. Farquha

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Speaker 1: was the only one to reply. In less than a decade,

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Speaker 1: they went from running their fledgling company on ten thousand

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Speaker 1: dollars of credit card debt to raising millions of dollars

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Speaker 1: of venture capital investment. Canon Brooks and Farquah managed at

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Speaker 1: Lasian as co founders and CEOs for more than twenty years,

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Speaker 1: something of a rarity in the business world. Between them,

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Speaker 1: they've won dozens of awards and rocketed up rich lists,

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Speaker 1: including the Australian's Richest two hundred and fifty, where they're

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Speaker 1: currently sitting inside the top five with a net worth

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Speaker 1: of about twenty five billion dollars apiece. And the pair

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Speaker 1: were so inseparable they were best men at each other's

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Speaker 1: weddings and famously bought mansions next door to each other

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Speaker 1: in Sydney's lavish Eastern suburbs. But when Scott Farquha gathered

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Speaker 1: with his nearest and dearest to celebrate his departure from

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Speaker 1: the company on Sydney Harbor last year, Mike canon Brooks

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Speaker 1: was notably absent. Here's John Stenzolt. He's the editor of

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Speaker 1: the list Australia's Richest two hundred and fifty.

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Speaker 3: Look, clearly, you know, these two guys, canon Brooks and

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Speaker 3: Farkhall were great mates once upon a time, they were

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Speaker 3: business partners. Clearly for a long time, they were neighbors

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Speaker 3: as well. All these things swelled together, and I think

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Speaker 3: there's a gradual sort of erosion over time of whether

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Speaker 3: it's trust or sort of feelings towards each other in

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Speaker 3: a business sense. At the end of the day, looked

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Speaker 3: they clearly didn't get along for all we've been told.

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Speaker 3: And it ends up really with Mike cannon Brooks of

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Speaker 3: emerging really as the king with Scott Farquay leaving.

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Speaker 1: When Farquay left at Lassian, he said it was to

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Speaker 1: make time for more noble pursuits.

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Speaker 5: The forty four year old says he'll dedicate more of

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Speaker 5: his time to philanthropy and helping to further the technology industry.

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Speaker 5: He isn't stepping away entirely, though, he'll remain on the

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Speaker 5: company's board as a special advisor.

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Speaker 1: But John and The Australian's chief business correspondent Perry Williams

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Speaker 1: reported things haven't been good inside at Lasian for a while.

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Speaker 3: I think anytime you have co founders, it can be difficult.

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Speaker 3: Right inside the office. There's a lot of tensions swirling

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Speaker 3: around with people underneath Mike and Scott, and it was

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Speaker 3: almost a case of which side are you on? Are

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Speaker 3: you on team Scott? Are you on team Mike? Mike

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Speaker 3: being the more gregarious character and more sort of outspoken,

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Speaker 3: probably internally but clearly externally too. Clearly they're both very, very,

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Speaker 3: very clever, but the relationships or the personalities were not

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Speaker 3: always going to last. And I think that's what's happened.

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Speaker 1: The other thing, driving a wedge between Australia's most famous

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Speaker 1: tech bros, those multimillion dollar mansions.

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Speaker 3: It's almost like a billionaire's fairy tale in a way.

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Speaker 3: We're going to live next door to each other. We've

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Speaker 3: grown this business together. There's a gate between the houses.

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Speaker 3: The kids will play together. It didn't quite add up

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Speaker 3: in the end so far. Quha spent about three years

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Speaker 3: working on this plan to revamp, literally overhaul what was

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Speaker 3: an aging mansion. They were going to spend thirty seven

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Speaker 3: million dollars. Now, I think anyone who's ever done a

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Speaker 3: renovation that number is probably going to blow out, so

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Speaker 3: but it was still huge. They announced it or they

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Speaker 3: leak it to the press say they're going to put

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Speaker 3: into council three weeks later is quietly withdrawn. What we've

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Speaker 3: been told and what others have been told as well,

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Speaker 3: it was due to enable ease sort of objections. Now, look,

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Speaker 3: the only person over the fence was Mike cannon Brooks

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Speaker 3: and his then wife any canon Brooks, so clearly there

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Speaker 3: was issues. They've denied this publicly before. They were trying

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Speaker 3: to play it down to us on background and stuff

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Speaker 3: like that, but clearly something happened.

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Speaker 1: John and Perry sources say there's no love lost between

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Speaker 1: Scott Farkwhai's wife Kim Jackson and Annie cannon Brooks either.

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Speaker 3: There's so many people that we have spoken to have

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Speaker 3: said that there were tensions between the wives. Now, I

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Speaker 3: don't think that was the primary reason for Farquha going

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Speaker 3: one way and canon Brooks going the other way in

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Speaker 3: that Lassian sense, but it mustn't have helped both of

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Speaker 3: the wives different characters. So Kim Jackson was in a

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Speaker 3: rock band, became an investment banker. Annie cannon Brooks, fashion designer,

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Speaker 3: then has now gone on to sort of chase some

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Speaker 3: of her passions in an investment and philanthropic sense they're

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Speaker 3: clearly different people, right. Look, there's been attempts to play

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Speaker 3: this down over time. You know, there's a sense that

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Speaker 3: perhaps there is respect between each other, particularly from any

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Speaker 3: towards Kim when it comes to her investment sense. I

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Speaker 3: don't think that they were our best friends ever. Put

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Speaker 3: it that way.

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Speaker 1: Is this a moment of reckoning for it, Lassiean, do

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Speaker 1: you think John in terms of the way it operates

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Speaker 1: or will this be business as usual?

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Speaker 3: You've got to remember that Scott is still on the

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Speaker 3: Atlassian board. He's got an advisory role towards Mike. Now,

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Speaker 3: who knows what sort of advice Mike is taking from

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Speaker 3: Scott given what was happening in the preceding years. He's

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Speaker 3: still had a really big shareholding, So there is that

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Speaker 3: maintaining of the skin in the game and also the

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Speaker 3: presence in the boardroom. But I think that investors, from

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Speaker 3: what we've been told, prefer to deal with that. One CEO.

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Speaker 1: Coming up Mike cannon Brooks's side hustle HiT's the Skids

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Speaker 1: about a year before Scott farquh depart of the tech

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Speaker 1: company he founded with his unique classmate. Another of Mike

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Speaker 1: cannon Brooks's relationships came to an end.

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Speaker 2: Billionaire and Atlasian co founder Mike cannon Brooks and his

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Speaker 2: wife Annie Will reported lease oparate.

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Speaker 3: The pair married in twenty ten inm.

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Speaker 1: Now, the long delay in settling the high profile divorce

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Speaker 1: is causing problems for canon Brooks's climate focus to private

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Speaker 1: investment group Grock Ventures. Here's John Stenzholt Well.

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Speaker 3: Grock Ventures was his private investment company set up really

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Speaker 3: with the proceeds that canon Brooks has made from Atlassion,

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Speaker 3: whether it's been the float or the selldown of shares

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Speaker 3: over time. They made a pledge a few years ago

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Speaker 3: to spend one point five billion dollars on various environmental

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Speaker 3: or green causes. You know, there's been the Ahl Energy

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Speaker 3: buying of shares where Mike wants to pursue more of

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Speaker 3: a green sort of ideal for that company. But effectively

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Speaker 3: Grock has been frozen or it's been stopped from making

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Speaker 3: any major deals in about the last two years. We've

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Speaker 3: been told. So really since the split was made public

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Speaker 3: between Mike and Andy, Grock has got a bit quiet.

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Speaker 3: There's been executives leave, there's been a lack of new

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Speaker 3: investments that have happened. So really it's in a bit

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Speaker 3: of a holding pattern from what we understand.

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Speaker 1: Which is of course saved the forty billion dollar sun

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Speaker 1: Cable Energy project from administration. It was to send solar

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Speaker 1: power from the Northern Territory to Singapore. What does the

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Speaker 1: future of that venture look like now, there's been.

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Speaker 3: A lot of controversy swelling around that project for some time.

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Speaker 3: It has got a lot of approvals right Northern Territory government,

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Speaker 3: Singapore government. But what's happened in the last few months,

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Speaker 3: which we've also reported on separately, is that sun Cable

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Speaker 3: has gone to the market to try and raise about

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Speaker 3: one hundred million US dollars from various investors or potential

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Speaker 3: partners for the project, but there's been lukewarm reception at best.

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Speaker 3: Now we've reported that executives from sun Cable itself and

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Speaker 3: workers there have been made redundant or have left in

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Speaker 3: recent months too. So it's got the similar issue to

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Speaker 3: GROC is that no one quite knows what's happening with it,

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Speaker 3: where it's going, and how firm its future plans are.

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Speaker 3: So I think there's a lot of doubts staying to

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Speaker 3: swirl around it. It needs a lot of money to

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Speaker 3: keep going the market is what's telling us, and it's

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Speaker 3: clearly what's telling sun Cable is that the plans are

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Speaker 3: very very ambitious. Now, forty billion dollar projects, you know,

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Speaker 3: don't come along every day. It's going to be one

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Speaker 3: of the biggest ever. But if you think of building

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Speaker 3: a cable from somewhere in the Northern Territory to Darwin

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Speaker 3: is very ambitious. But then to build another one under

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Speaker 3: sea to Singapore is another question. Altogether, there are still

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Speaker 3: big doubts over that project.

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Speaker 1: John Stanzelt is the editor of the List Australia's Richest

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Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty. You can read his reporting with

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Speaker 1: Perrywilliams at The Australian dot com dot au