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Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, the twenty fifth of March twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Fast five Business News by Fear and Agreed,

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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 Alema, Good morning, Michael Shawn. Five stories,

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Speaker 1: five minutes.

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Speaker 2: Let's go.

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Speaker 1: Story Number one, Building supplies group James Hardy will buy

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Speaker 1: outdoor decking and railing company Azek in a fourteen billion

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Speaker 1: dollar cash and script deal and shift headquarters off the

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Speaker 1: asx onto. The New York Stock Exchange.

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Speaker 2: Chief executive Aaron Erta, who's been running James Hardy for

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Speaker 2: a little over two years, said the combination of companies

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Speaker 2: made sense since, in fact, he said, one plus one

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Speaker 2: equals three. In this instance, it's a one stop shop,

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Speaker 2: or it will be one stop shop for building contractors

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Speaker 2: and home renovators, wall clanning and cement, fiber board, as

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Speaker 2: well as outdoor living products. James Hardy generates about seventy

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Speaker 2: five percent of its four billion US dollars in then

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Speaker 2: your revenue from North America. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised

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Speaker 2: under this deal. AASEEC shareholders will end up twenty six

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Speaker 2: percent of the new company the primary listing the New

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Speaker 2: York Stock Exchange. As you said, secondary listing on the AX.

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Speaker 2: Local investors were not thrilled. James Hardy's share price felt

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Speaker 2: fifteen percent yesterday. The concern is it's paying too much money, Sean.

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Speaker 1: There seems to be so many deals in the building

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Speaker 1: material sector lately.

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Speaker 2: Sure has been. In the past twelve months. Chip rock

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Speaker 2: and brickmaker CSR was bought by a French group. Irish

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Speaker 2: group CRH bought cement maker Adbury. Borrel was acquired by

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Speaker 2: Kerry Stokes's SGH Group. Three companies gone from the ASEX

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Speaker 2: in the last twelve months. It's also another example of

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Speaker 2: a larger listed ASX stock leaving the exchange, or at

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Speaker 2: least as primary listing. That happened to gold Digger New

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Speaker 2: Crest last year when it was acquired by Newmont. In

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Speaker 2: recent years, also for different reasons, after Pay's left, Sydney

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Speaker 2: Airport's left. Currently, the debate being debated about Rio Tinto's

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Speaker 2: duel listing, whether it should stay it will stay. But

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Speaker 2: this debate about companies leaving the ASEX is and it

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Speaker 2: has implications for investors all.

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Speaker 1: Right on the story. Number two. Now, Sewan, it is

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Speaker 1: budget day in Canberra, and there's a little less enthusiasm

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Speaker 1: this year, simply because most people seem more excited about

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Speaker 1: the election that's coming up, and maybe even Donald Trump's

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Speaker 1: tariffs too.

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Speaker 2: I'm still excited, Michael.

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Speaker 1: You are absolutely beside myself.

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Speaker 2: What do we know so far? One point eight billion

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Speaker 2: dollars to cut one hundred and fifty dollars from power

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Speaker 2: bills in the second half of this year, eight and

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Speaker 2: a half billion dollars to increase bulk billing incentives, six

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Speaker 2: hundred and eighty nine million dollars to reduce the cost

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Speaker 2: of all scripts, a two year freeze in the excise indexation,

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Speaker 2: increases on draft beer, money for housing, money for roads

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Speaker 2: in Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales. Money for defense,

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Speaker 2: though perhaps not quite as much as expected. We'll tell

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Speaker 2: you all more about it this time tomorrow morning.

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Speaker 1: Indeed, we will storry. Number three. There isn't an election

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Speaker 1: campaign going on, at least not officially at the moment, Sean,

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Speaker 1: but it certainly feels like there is.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's true. Yesterday there was a landmark agreement between

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Speaker 2: the federal government and Queensland over school funding means every

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Speaker 2: public school student across the nation will receive a fully

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Speaker 2: funded education. Queensland has really been the holdout ever since

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Speaker 2: the Gonski reforms more than ten years ago. After months

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Speaker 2: of back and forth negotiations, the federal government's agreed to

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Speaker 2: deal with Queensland to lift the Commonwealth's contribution from twenty

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Speaker 2: percent of the Schooling Resource Standard to twenty five percent

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Speaker 2: by twenty thirty four, more money for Queensland. Basically. For

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Speaker 2: its part, the coalition yesterday said it would return the

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Speaker 2: federal budget to surplus if it wins government, or, as

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Speaker 2: Finance spokesperson Jane Hume said, restore fiscal guardrails.

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Speaker 1: Story number four is also political. Sean independent and highly

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Speaker 1: popular teal MP Monique Ryan is in a bit of

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Speaker 1: hot water after video merge of her husband Peter Jordan

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Speaker 1: removing campaign posters for her Liberal opponent, Amelia Hamer.

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Speaker 2: It's pretty funny, it's worth chasing the video. So Monique

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Speaker 2: Ryan won the Melbourne seed of coup Young, once a

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Speaker 2: blue ribbon Liberal seat. She beat Joss Friedenberg at the

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Speaker 2: last election. The video shows Jordan running down the street

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Speaker 2: with a poster under his arm He and Ryan have apologized.

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Speaker 2: I just loved Peter Jordan's comment and I quote I

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Speaker 2: believe the sign was illegally placed, but I should have

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Speaker 2: reported my concerns to counsel.

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Speaker 1: Probably all right. Last last one, Sean Story number five,

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Speaker 1: Disney's live action version of the classic fairy tale Snow White, which,

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Speaker 1: incredibly Sean is almost the most controversial movie of the

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Speaker 1: year so far, has topped the North American box office

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Speaker 1: chart despite a bunch of underwhelming reviews.

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Speaker 2: So talk about eighty seven million US dollars globally during

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Speaker 2: this evening weekend. About half of that came from North America,

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Speaker 2: according to the BBC, below expectation for a film that

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Speaker 2: reportedly costs two hundred and seventy million dollars. The reworking

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Speaker 2: of the nineteen thirty seven feature length animation had seen

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Speaker 2: like a shurefire hit before running into a series of

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Speaker 2: controversies ahead of it release that included some criticism of

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Speaker 2: the casting of Rachel Zegler, who is of Colombian descent,

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Speaker 2: as the heroine. Has also backlash about Zegler's pro Palestinian

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Speaker 2: comments on social media and about pro Israel comments on

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Speaker 2: social media by Israeli actress Gal Gado, who plays snow

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Speaker 2: White's stepmother, the Evil Queen, throwing Zegler's comments about the

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Speaker 2: movie being about a stalker and the ongoing debate about

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Speaker 2: whether there should have been dwarfs in the film at all.

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Speaker 2: In fact, Disney reclassified them as magical creatures, and snow

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Speaker 2: White has become a flashpoint for the woke and anti

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Speaker 2: woke movement.

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Speaker 1: All right, there we go, the top five business stories

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Speaker 1: in five minutes.

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Speaker 2: Thank you Sean, Thank you Michael.

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Speaker 1: It is Tuesday, the twenty fifth of March twenty twenty five.

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

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Speaker 1: Fear and Greed whereever you listen to podcasts. I'm Michael

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Speaker 1: Thompson and that was the fast five business news by

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Speaker 1: Fear and Greed. Have a great day.