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Speaker 1: You can listen to the Front on your smart sneaker

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Speaker 1: every morning to hear the latest episode, Just say play

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Speaker 1: the news from the Australian. From the Australian, here's what's

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Speaker 1: on the Front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Thursday, July eighteen.

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Speaker 1: Australia is accepting Israel's explanation for the airstrike that killed

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Speaker 1: aid worker Zomi Frankom in Gaza. FRANKLM and your colleagues

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Speaker 1: from the World Central Kitchen charity died instantly on April

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Speaker 1: one in what the Israeli Defense Force said was a

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Speaker 1: tragic accident. The Albanese government sent former Defense chief Mark

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Speaker 1: Binskin to investigate the deaths, and today The Australian reveals

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Speaker 1: Binskin will recommend new protocols for international aid organizations working

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Speaker 1: in war zones. The Greens want Labor to overrule the

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Speaker 1: Reserve Bank of Australia if it tries to hike interest

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Speaker 1: rates again. That story is part of the Australian series

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Speaker 1: on the Small Party with Big Ambitions, and it's live

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Speaker 1: now at the Australian dot com dot au. If you

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Speaker 1: live in the Bush, you're probably listening to the Front

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Speaker 1: via satellite like Elon Musk's Starlink network, which has become

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Speaker 1: a crucial part of Australia's food belt. In today's episode,

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Speaker 1: we'll dive into the big issues for the Bush, including

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Speaker 1: patchy internet and why you might be eating mince for

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Speaker 1: dinner tonight. I'm willing to bet you're cooking dinner at

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Speaker 1: home much more often these days, and I reckon you've

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Speaker 1: cut back on takeaway coffee times are tight and at

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Speaker 1: the supermarket we're buying stuff in tins and stuff on special.

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Speaker 1: But here's the twist, many Australians are also buying more

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Speaker 1: expensive supermarket products. Here's Cole's chief commercial officer and A Croft.

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Speaker 2: Definitely a trendom frozen in bulk as customers become ready

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Speaker 2: savy around how they shop.

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Speaker 1: Croft is speaking at the Australians Global Food Forum, a

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Speaker 1: gathering of farmers, manufacturers, retailers and investors we hold every year.

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Speaker 2: But we are seeing customers trading into the premium tes

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Speaker 2: so there's nodar as customers are eating more at home

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Speaker 2: that premium section across lots of our brands coming through

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Speaker 2: and with seeing that and our calls fine us up

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Speaker 2: kind of twenty percent.

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Speaker 1: At the independent supermarket chain IgA Richies. They call it

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Speaker 1: the mincemeat Index.

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Speaker 3: We're finding out mid sales beef min's chicken mince is

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Speaker 3: through the roof, and that's an indication that people are

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Speaker 3: trading down, perhaps from a steak and instead buying the

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Speaker 3: cheaper cuts of meat.

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Speaker 1: This is the boss of Ida Richies, Fred Harrison. He's

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Speaker 1: talking at the food to our retail reporter Eli greenblat

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Speaker 1: but I don't.

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Speaker 3: Think people are making a lovely specific meal five nights

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Speaker 3: a week. I think people are making big batches of food.

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Speaker 3: We know now our pasta sales are through the roof,

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Speaker 3: and the ingredients are going the pasta sources, et cetera,

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Speaker 3: And people are making big batches and might put in

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Speaker 3: the fridge or the freezer and use that two or

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Speaker 3: three times through the week.

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Speaker 1: And that twist again. We're buying a nicer kind of mints.

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Speaker 3: It is a little bit more of the premium intwo,

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Speaker 3: not just the cheapest means some of the premium minss.

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Speaker 3: But that category is going strengths to strength.

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Speaker 1: So we're shopping more. But we are not loving the

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Speaker 1: supermarkets right now. Allegations of price gouging and excessive market

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Speaker 1: power have coals and woolies under pressure, but the retailers

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Speaker 1: are suffering with the cost of living too, as manufacturers

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Speaker 1: push up prices and the cost of fuel and energy

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Speaker 1: saws and so are suppliers. Jeff Kennett is the former

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Speaker 1: Premier of Victoria and now chair of the original Juice Company.

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Speaker 4: Right now, the public are looking around more than ever

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Speaker 4: before for value, and that's tough on all the supermarkets,

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Speaker 4: small and large. But there is a point which the

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Speaker 4: public says, I'm not going to pay more than this

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Speaker 4: price for a liter and a half of juice. So

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Speaker 4: we're getting squeezed. One end. The public understandably is squeezing,

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Speaker 4: as is the end, and I'm drinking more whiskey.

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Speaker 1: Here's a little example from IgA Richie's Fred Harrison says

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Speaker 1: on July one, twenty three, the company's costs in Victoria

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Speaker 1: rose by four million dollars in government charges overnight. That

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Speaker 1: was an increase in payroll tax, a mental health levy,

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Speaker 1: and work cover. That's just one.

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Speaker 4: State governments are screwing the private sector. They're screwing them.

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Speaker 4: Why is it always the poor bloody supermarkets for actually

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Speaker 4: delivering the farmer's product, employing the people paying the taxes

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Speaker 4: and charges who have been whipped to death.

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Speaker 1: And here's another challenge staff.

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Speaker 3: We're finding people want to come in and perhaps work

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Speaker 3: in the store, but they don't want any responsibility, so

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Speaker 3: to get management, whether it be store management or deli

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Speaker 3: managers or produce managers. I just want to come in

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Speaker 3: work nine to five, had no hassles, don't want to

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Speaker 3: take on responsibility. Getting leaders is one of the biggest

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Speaker 3: problems in Australia at the moment.

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Speaker 4: And they want to serve in a supermarket from home,

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Speaker 4: don't they thank you?

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Speaker 1: Supermarkets are so unpopular right now that there's a strange

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Speaker 1: double act the Coalition and the Greens both want the

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Speaker 1: power to force the powerful duopoly Coals and Woolies to

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Speaker 1: break up. It sounds good, right, more owners, more competition,

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Speaker 1: hopefully lower prices and better deals for workers and suppliers.

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Speaker 1: But and across from Coal's totally like she doesn't think

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Speaker 1: it would work.

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Speaker 2: We're run eight hundred and fifty super markets across office

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Speaker 2: see their whole national footprints, and I think we have

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Speaker 2: a very large fixed cost base. And if that was

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Speaker 2: seven hundred and fifty supermarkets, it actually wouldn't make a

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Speaker 2: meaningful difference to our cost base, and therefore it would

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Speaker 2: really impede our ability to fractionalize those costs across our

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Speaker 2: business and to drive greater efficiency, and therefore, as a

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Speaker 2: result of that that could or may lead higher prices

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Speaker 2: for customers.

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Speaker 1: Ida Richies has a different take. Asked if they could

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Speaker 1: buy supermarkets in say, regional Queensland if Coals or Woolies

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Speaker 1: was forced to sell them off. Fred Harrison said this.

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Speaker 3: Look in the instance of Richie's, we probably could. However,

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Speaker 3: it's not quite as simple as the government saying you've

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Speaker 3: got to offload one hundred stores or slow these landlords involved,

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Speaker 3: and landlords have made decisions and borrowed money and have

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Speaker 3: commitments and cap rates that are important to them, and

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Speaker 3: a lot of these Coals Wooly stores pay significant rents

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Speaker 3: that independents are necessarily in a position to mat set rent.

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Speaker 1: Fred Harrison poses another solution, draw a line in the

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Speaker 1: sand and accept the deewopoly as it is for the moment,

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Speaker 1: but then plan for a future which gives shoppers more options.

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Speaker 3: In other words, instead of having Woolish Coals on every

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Speaker 3: second or third street corner, what we could possibly do

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Speaker 3: before a new site is approved, whether it be a

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Speaker 3: greenfield site or an acquisition, is to a competition test

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Speaker 3: and say, okay, in that market a five kilometer radius,

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Speaker 3: say a metro, how many woolies or coals are there

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Speaker 3: there now? And is there an independent or good independent

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Speaker 3: in that area or an only I think the more

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Speaker 3: independence to get out there, the better it's going to

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Speaker 3: be for competition in the long run.

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Speaker 1: After the break, why frustrated farmers have turned to Elon

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Speaker 1: Musk's Space program to get reliable internet. The Global Food Forum,

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Speaker 1: sponsored by Visi, is part of how the Australian gets

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Speaker 1: into the contest of ideas from the city to the sticks.

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Speaker 1: Check us out at the Australian dot com dot au

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Speaker 1: and we'll be back after this break. Starlink, if you've

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Speaker 1: heard of it, you might know this is one of

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Speaker 1: the businesses owned by the world's richest man, Elon Musk.

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Speaker 1: It's probably the business rather than Tesla or Twitter that

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Speaker 1: makes Masks so influential. Starlink is a satellite internet provider

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Speaker 1: fired by Masks SpaceX rockets.

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Speaker 2: One confession and with a pad that go free back

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Speaker 2: so it.

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Speaker 1: Mask's big innovation was to create reusable rockets which can

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Speaker 1: launch into space, set satellites into a low orbit, and

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Speaker 1: then return to Earth to be deployed all over again.

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Speaker 1: On the grim battlefields of Ukraine, Russian and Ukrainian soldiers

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Speaker 1: alike are buying Starlink boxes so vacant connect to the world,

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Speaker 1: and in the Australian Bush, anyone who wants reliable Internet

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Speaker 1: is also buying a starlink box. They are about three

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Speaker 1: hundred and sixty dollars and then you pay around one

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Speaker 1: hundred and forty dollars a month to connect. Starlink says

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Speaker 1: it has more than two hundred thousand customers in Australia.

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Speaker 5: We've had Starlink for quite a while. I still have

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Speaker 5: my Mbian Skymaster. I'm big on having a bit of

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Speaker 5: security and redundancy.

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Speaker 1: This is Georgie Somerset. She's a farmer and a grazier

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Speaker 1: and she's one of those powerful country women who was

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Speaker 1: turned speaking up for the bush into her lifetime's calling.

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Speaker 5: But our businesses have become very reliant on being connected.

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Speaker 5: So it's not a it'd be nice to have mobile coverage.

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Speaker 5: It's actually we rely on it for telemetry and observations

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Speaker 5: and things like that now. And when we we saw

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Speaker 5: one of the satellites failed last year, that's directing our tractors.

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Speaker 5: That's our data and our planting and our harvesting data,

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Speaker 5: you know. So we're this is not a nice to have,

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Speaker 5: it's a actual business operations one I one to have

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Speaker 5: connectivity now.

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Speaker 1: She's on the board of the ABC, a director of

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Speaker 1: the National Farmers Federation and the general president of ag

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Speaker 1: Force Queensland. For many farmers, local internet providers just aren't

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Speaker 1: cutting it. Sales of the NBN satellite services have been

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Speaker 1: in rapid decline, the number of connections falling almost twenty

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Speaker 1: percent in the first quarter of this year alone. Starlink

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Speaker 1: says it delivers between one hundred and two hundred and

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Speaker 1: fifty megabits of download per second across Australia. That's up

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Speaker 1: to twice as fast as four G. While Georgie's keeping

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Speaker 1: her Skymaster service, many others are not. It's not just

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Speaker 1: connecting to the internet, which is fraught. Some regional areas

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Speaker 1: could lose their phone in coming months. Telstra will shut

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Speaker 1: down their three G services, also known as their next

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Speaker 1: G networks, in August. Optus isn't far behind with their

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Speaker 1: three G networks to shut down in September. While most

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Speaker 1: of Australia moved off the three G network to four

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Speaker 1: G and five G long ago, some regional areas still

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Speaker 1: don't receive those signals. For some this goes beyond being

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Speaker 1: able to make a phone call or send a text.

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Speaker 1: Older automated farming equipment which uses the three G network

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Speaker 1: will also become obsolete. Georgie Somerset says the cost of

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Speaker 1: living crisis in the Bush is a little different.

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Speaker 5: And I think it's interesting when you hear that they

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Speaker 5: talk about sort of twenty percent of people are chasing

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Speaker 5: the specials. You often don't have that privilege of chasing

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Speaker 5: the specials when you only go into town once every

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Speaker 5: couple of weeks.

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Speaker 1: Are you seeing changes in the ability of families to

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Speaker 1: remain on the land, to remain producing food.

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Speaker 5: I'm not saying a diminution of that at the moment,

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Speaker 5: but what I think will see is probably more families

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Speaker 5: doing the labor, so less labor units required, which then

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Speaker 5: can have a flow through in rural communities, and when

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Speaker 5: those families go, it has a flow on to schools

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Speaker 5: and things like that as well. It's a tricky Conundrum, an.

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Speaker 1: Artwork by the Australians cartoonist Johannes Leek, has prompted Green

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Speaker 1: senator at Marine Feruki to threaten legal action. To see

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Speaker 1: the cartoon and read Why Feruki is Upset, join ours

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Speaker 1: subscribers at the Australian dot com do AU