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Speaker 1: In Australia see Price Morning to you, good Adad. I

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Speaker 1: was watching Elbanezy trying to defend himself yesterday by saying

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Speaker 1: everything had been declared, and I thought, that's not answering

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Speaker 1: the question, mate, and you know it. And then he

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Speaker 1: started raising Dutton and private planes and stuff. What is

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Speaker 1: it about him that he doesn't have the this somehow,

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Speaker 1: in some way is going to come back and bite

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Speaker 1: me in the bum in a major way.

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Speaker 2: Not sure I can even answer that question. Watching that

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Speaker 2: same train repress conference yesterday, I just could not believe it.

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Speaker 2: I mean, he was being asked direct questions. Did you

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Speaker 2: ever bring up Alan Joyce and asked an upgrade? He

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Speaker 2: then waffled on about two flights that were completely different

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Speaker 2: from the ones that are causing him trouble. The ones

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Speaker 2: that are causing him trouble are private flights on holidays,

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Speaker 2: got nothing to do with government business. That's point number one.

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Speaker 2: So the flights that everyone wants to know about, And

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Speaker 2: a simple question, did you directly lobby Alan Joyce the

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Speaker 2: sego to get an upgrade or you know the way

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Speaker 2: how this all works, but you go by an economy

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Speaker 2: ticket if you've got contacts within the airline, you hope

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Speaker 2: that you can possibly get a vacant business class or

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Speaker 2: an international flight that's first class seat Albanies. He wouldn't

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Speaker 2: answer that question now, he could have just said no,

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Speaker 2: because I imagine the way this would have worked, certainly now

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Speaker 2: that he's PM, would be that someone in his office

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Speaker 2: ring someone in contiss and that's the way that works.

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Speaker 2: But the problem he has is he was either Transport

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Speaker 2: Minister under Kevin Rudd and Juliet Gillard, and then he

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Speaker 2: was opposition transport spokesman, went in opposition and then he

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Speaker 2: was Transport Minister again, then he was Prime Minister. So

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Speaker 2: that's different from Joe blow the public getting an upgrade

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Speaker 2: because he has influence over what the airline can and

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Speaker 2: can't do and over airline policy. And this all comes

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Speaker 2: back to that decision last year that not many people

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Speaker 2: could understand when Katar tried to get more flights into

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Speaker 2: Australia and they were told the current government, headed by

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Speaker 2: Anthony Albanize that no, we're not going to let you

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Speaker 2: do that. We don't think that the competition requires it.

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Speaker 2: So he hasn't answered the questions. Peter Dutton, I mean

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Speaker 2: Peter Dutton's now said oh well he should you turn

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Speaker 2: himself into the Anti Corruption Commision. Well he's not going

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Speaker 2: to do that. And Anthony Abanize, as you said yesterday,

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Speaker 2: went on about Peter Dutton flying on Gina Rhinehart's private jet. Well,

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Speaker 2: Anthony Albanezi flew to a place very close to where

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Speaker 2: I'm sitting right now on trucking magnet Lindsay Fox's private

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Speaker 2: helicopter have a barbecue with Dan Andrews, the then premier.

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Speaker 2: So he's in a world of pain. Interestingly, I woke

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Speaker 2: up earlier this morning thinking about your Prime minister, who

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Speaker 2: of course would know all about this because he ran

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Speaker 2: an airline, correct and can you imagine how many people

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Speaker 2: used to bring up Prime Minister Luxe and then say

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Speaker 2: can I have an upgrade? Mate? He would be laughing

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Speaker 2: his head off about all of this.

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Speaker 1: Do you get to see it's a weird thing. I'm

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Speaker 1: sure you're following the starma thing in Britain as well,

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Speaker 1: where they you know, he's getting free suits and his

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Speaker 1: wife's getting dresses and they're picking up free glasses, reading glasses,

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Speaker 1: and it's like it doesn't happen here. It's like you

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Speaker 1: just don't get that sort of thing, and it's just

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Speaker 1: it's sort of foreign to us. It's too you know,

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Speaker 1: you're in an exalted position at the best of times.

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Speaker 1: To think you can ring somebody up and say put

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Speaker 1: me at the front of the plane, mate, and that

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Speaker 1: not come back and haunt you as seems astonishing to me.

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Speaker 2: Particularly when you often run the line that you know,

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Speaker 2: how remarkable it is that I'm Prime Minister, given I

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Speaker 2: grew up in social housing in Western Sydney with a

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Speaker 2: single mom who had no money. This is not the

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Speaker 2: first time that Anthony Abanue has had this sort of issue.

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Speaker 2: I mean, and you know, you don't have to go

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Speaker 2: back what three weeks and he's entitled to buy a

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Speaker 2: four point three million dollar beach house. But we're in

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Speaker 2: the middle of a housing crisis, in the middle of

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Speaker 2: a cost of living crisis. So I don't know, maybe

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Speaker 2: when you do come out of you know, a not

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Speaker 2: so privileged background, he was hardly underprivileged, and you're a

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Speaker 2: professional politician for thirty five years, maybe it just goes

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Speaker 2: to your head. I don't know.

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Speaker 1: Amazing this COVID report. I mean, it's not a surprise,

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Speaker 1: but what one what are they going to do with it,

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Speaker 1: and will they learn any real lessons? And two do

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Speaker 1: they have any confidence that in the next pandemic anyone's

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Speaker 1: going to follow any instructions at all?

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Speaker 2: Well, the question, the answer to all those questions is no.

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Speaker 2: It will end up in the bottom drawer of some

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Speaker 2: minister's office. Interestingly, the PM yesterday didn't was not the

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Speaker 2: person who released it. It's an eight hundred and eighty

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Speaker 2: eight page report. Mark Butler, the Health Minister, was the

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Speaker 2: man who came out and talked about how you know,

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Speaker 2: during the pandemic we weren't ready for it. It was

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Speaker 2: called a forensic assessment. I don't know that it was

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Speaker 2: that forensic. Interestingly, when they commissioned it, they did not

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Speaker 2: ask the people running this investigation into the COVID response

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Speaker 2: what they thought of things like state boarder closure, shut

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Speaker 2: down of schools and playgrounds. But the report itself came

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Speaker 2: out and said, well, that was not a thing to do.

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Speaker 2: It's eight hundred and sixty eight pages. I should say

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Speaker 2: you noted this report that they closed schools which quote

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Speaker 2: had a significant impact on the mental health of children,

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Speaker 2: despite and there's no real criticism in there. Interesting, they

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Speaker 2: are no names about the politicians like Daniel Andrews, like

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Speaker 2: Anastasia Palache, like Mark McGowan in wa no criticism of

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Speaker 2: the way they handled it. What we wanted to know was,

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Speaker 2: you know, should they have been telling us that we

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Speaker 2: couldn't go out of our house at after nine o'clock

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Speaker 2: at night? You can only walk for an hour and

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Speaker 2: with one person. I mean, you know what it did

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Speaker 2: for me when I started reading the assessment of it,

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Speaker 2: it just took me back.

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Speaker 1: Ninemenes Go agree more. Well, the person who ran our pandemic,

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Speaker 1: of course, got a Dame hood out of it, and

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Speaker 1: is now sitting at Harvard wandering around the world collecting

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Speaker 1: twenty thirty thousand dollars every time she speaks publicly about it.

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Speaker 1: And you still have you still got mandates on you know.

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Speaker 2: Well this came out coincidentally on the day that report

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Speaker 2: came out. So you've got the son of bushfires season

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Speaker 2: about to start, and dozens of unvaccinated firefighters are Can

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Speaker 2: you believe this still banned from going to work three

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Speaker 2: years after being stood down without pay, Now that's just extraordinary.

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Speaker 2: Thirty nine operational firefighters and ten other staff who work

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Speaker 2: at Fire Rescue Victoria are still prohibited from working because

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Speaker 2: they're unvaccinated. I mean, that's just ridiculous. It's the last

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Speaker 2: public service agency in Victoria to do that. But when

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Speaker 2: you trust, when you need firefighters, who now asks you

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Speaker 2: if you're vaccinated or not? Exactly?

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Speaker 1: Hey, listen, I mentioned Heralds to you last week who

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Speaker 1: went into administration, the well known clothing shop Mosaic brands

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Speaker 1: who run they're here as well, of course, and they're

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Speaker 1: Runningkaties and Millers and Non d and all that. So

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Speaker 1: they got three thousand employees, they're into administration. What's your

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Speaker 1: assessment of retail in Australia generally? Are you in trouble?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? I think so. In those two cases are the

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Speaker 2: ones that highlight it most, and that's you know, that's

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Speaker 2: the mid range of clothing retail. So it's not the

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Speaker 2: top more. Harold's at the top end, but what you

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Speaker 2: just mentioned there those other stores are very much mid range.

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Speaker 2: And so it just shows that the economy is still

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Speaker 2: very shaky. People are not going out updating their wardrobe.

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Speaker 2: They can't afford they can't afford to pay their electricity

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Speaker 2: in gas bill. So it comes as no surprise. And interestingly,

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Speaker 2: Jim charmers and the Treasurer Alas Dodger's questions about that, says, oh, well,

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Speaker 2: you know, economy's going okay, we've got a budget surplus.

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Speaker 2: Well that doesn't do any good for anyone who can't

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Speaker 2: afford to put food on the table.

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Speaker 1: Exactly all right, might go, well, see you next week.

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Speaker 1: Appreciate it very much. Steve Price out of Australia, by

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Speaker 1: the way, just before we leave their Maya, speaking of retail,

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Speaker 1: yesterday signed a nine hundred and fifty million dollar They

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Speaker 1: also they're bullish. They bought a bunch of Solomon lou

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Speaker 1: Solomon Loo's famous as a businessman apart from anything, but

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Speaker 1: probably best known here for Peter, Alexander and Smiggle. But

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Speaker 1: he also also known here had just jeans, JJ's Portman's

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Speaker 1: Jackie Dotty. That's the stuff. He's sold to Mayer for

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Speaker 1: the total deals nine hundred million. He collects AD two million,

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Speaker 1: but they give him shares, and by getting the shares

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Speaker 1: he ends up on the Meyer board, which I suspect

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Speaker 1: is where he wanted to be.

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Speaker 2: For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast listen live to

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Speaker 2: news talks. It'd be from six am weekdays or follow

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