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Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from news Talk zed B.

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Speaker 1: Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: The Opportunity Party has unveiled a new leader. Her name

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Speaker 2: is qu Lay Wong. She's a sustainability focused consultant with

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Speaker 2: a business background, and the party has gone through a

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Speaker 2: bit of a rebrand as well. But Qulai joins us

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Speaker 2: on the line. Now, very good afternoon to you.

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Speaker 3: Good afternoon, thanks for having me.

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Speaker 4: Now, you I've got to ask you, what's the current

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Speaker 4: Opportunity Party's position on cats?

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Speaker 3: Ah? I think you know that was actually nine years ago.

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Speaker 3: I think we all just need to let it go.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, So so what is it?

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Speaker 3: It's old news as it doesn't really matter anymore, does

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Speaker 3: not veature in our policy platform. There's a lot of

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Speaker 3: good stuff out there for people to dig into.

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Speaker 4: Okay, So what's your okay?

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Speaker 2: All right, all right, ambivalent?

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Speaker 4: I just I just so you're not going to answer

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Speaker 4: that question.

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Speaker 3: Well, I've got a cat door in my kitchen. Does

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Speaker 3: that give you the information you need?

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Speaker 4: Okay? Hey, so your job was originally on Seek, wasn't it.

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Speaker 4: They put the job out on seek? How did you

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Speaker 4: get the job? Was it through seek or did you

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Speaker 4: seek it out?

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Speaker 3: I was actually on the newsletter mailing list. I wasn't

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Speaker 3: a member, but was, you know, watching the party and

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Speaker 3: keeping up with what they're doing. So I found out

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Speaker 3: about it that way and reached out pretty much straight

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Speaker 3: away to learn a bit more. Being a politician wasn't

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Speaker 3: always on my radar, but I definitely had come across

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Speaker 3: the need for more structural change in my professional career

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Speaker 3: and I thought this would be a really good opportunity.

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Speaker 3: Excuse the pun to give it a crack.

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Speaker 4: So you hadn't been a fan of the Opportunities Party

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Speaker 4: before the opportunity came up to be part of the

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Speaker 4: Opportunity Party, if you see what I'm saying.

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Speaker 3: I definitely followed them and I have voted for them previously. Okay,

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Speaker 3: I think like I think, like lots of Kiwi's, I

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Speaker 3: kind of observed politics a little bit from afar. It

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Speaker 3: doesn't always look like the most appealing industry to get into,

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Speaker 3: but I felt like this was really the time for

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Speaker 3: me personally, and it feels like New Zealand really needs

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Speaker 3: something like this as well.

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Speaker 4: As being the boss of the Opportunities Party. Is it

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Speaker 4: a paid gig and if so, who's funding your party?

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Speaker 3: So yeah, I'm really fortunate that this role is paid.

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Speaker 3: So we've got donations from members and yeah, I'm really

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Speaker 3: grateful because I don't think I would be able to

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Speaker 3: take twelve months out of work to do something like this.

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Speaker 3: So super grateful for that opportunity.

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Speaker 2: And so the big policy pitch that you're put forward

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Speaker 2: so far, it's around tax. Right, So you've talked about

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Speaker 2: this idea of the citizens income which will be paid

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Speaker 2: for via a land value tax. Is that right?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yep, So it's part of a package with the

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Speaker 3: land value tax and the flat tax rate.

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Speaker 2: And so how does the citizen's income work? Walk us

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Speaker 2: through that? How does it different from a universal basic income?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's similar, and that almost all adults get

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Speaker 3: paid an amount each week. It's a little bit different

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Speaker 3: from a universal basic income, and that we will have

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Speaker 3: a tapering off for really high income earners so they

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Speaker 3: won't receive it and that gets paid regardless, so no

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Speaker 3: more having to kind of fill informs all the kind

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Speaker 3: of bureaucracy and paperwork that goes with that. We believe

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Speaker 3: that the simplicity of a kind of broad citizens income

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Speaker 3: will remove a lot of that administration burden so that

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Speaker 3: we can actually put tax dollar tax dollars to good use.

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Speaker 4: And what's the motivation for this citizen's payment, What is

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Speaker 4: it solving, What are the problems that it solves.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so it really provides stability and security for all

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Speaker 3: New Zealanders. I mean, if you think about the one

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Speaker 3: hundreds thousands of people that have lost jobs in the

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Speaker 3: last couple of years, pretty much everyone I talk to

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Speaker 3: has been through some kind of redundancy process. There's nothing

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Speaker 3: really at the moment unless you know they've been able

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Speaker 3: to save and have a kind of rainy day fund,

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Speaker 3: something like a citizen's income. Make sure that we can

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Speaker 3: support those people through tough times that they don't have

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Speaker 3: to take just any job that comes along. They could

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Speaker 3: go and do some upskilling and maybe land another dream job.

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Speaker 3: If you also think about people who you know, we've

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Speaker 3: got a lot of amazing entrepreneurs and innovators in this country.

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Speaker 3: It gives them a little bit more breathing space and

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Speaker 3: time to maybe turn that idea into a business as well.

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Speaker 3: So I think there's a lot of great benefits for

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Speaker 3: different pockets of society, which is exciting.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, you say that it could be a motivation for people,

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Speaker 4: But isn't the biggest complaint people or criticism people have

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Speaker 4: of the idea of universal basic incomes is that it

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Speaker 4: takes motivation away from people. Won't eighteen year olds just

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Speaker 4: delay life while they sit on the UBI?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and look like we're a country of fairness. Kiwis

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Speaker 3: like feness and that is totally a value that is

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Speaker 3: important to us as a party as well. But I

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Speaker 3: think we also have to look at the current system.

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Speaker 3: I mean, the way that works is people are actually

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Speaker 3: disincentivized from looking for work. If you're receiving a benefit

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Speaker 3: and you go out and get some part time work,

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Speaker 3: the way our tax system works at the moment is

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Speaker 3: you could be taxed up to ninety percent on that work,

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Speaker 3: so you're maybe effectively taking home a few dollars an hour.

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Speaker 3: I think if I was an eighteen year old at

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Speaker 3: the moment, I wouldn't be very motivated to go out

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Speaker 3: to get a second job. I from taking home five

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Speaker 3: dollars an hour.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I guess, But I mean that's the time to

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Speaker 4: be poor, isn't it when you're young? And I get that,

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Speaker 4: But also I guess the question is then who pays

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Speaker 4: for it?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's why this is part of a three

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Speaker 3: pronged tax reset. The land value tax that we're proposing

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Speaker 3: would offset the cost of the citizens income. And what's

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Speaker 3: I think interesting to note is the citizens income would

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Speaker 3: replace both the jobs that could benefit and superannuation. So

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Speaker 3: the challenges we're talking about, which are very topical as

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Speaker 3: a country right now, how are we going to pay

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Speaker 3: for the increase in cost of super? This is a

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Speaker 3: potential solution to that.

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Speaker 2: Right, So, reaching or breaching the five percent three shold.

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Speaker 2: I know you genuinely believe you can do that, but

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Speaker 2: that is an incredibly hard ass, right. I mean, there's

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Speaker 2: been multiple iterations of the Opportunities Party, it's now called

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Speaker 2: the Opportunity Party, but the best it's ever done is

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Speaker 2: two point seven percent. So realistically, how do you think

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Speaker 2: your chances are going to go to breach that five percent?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I'm not kidding myself. I know that

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Speaker 3: this is you know, it's a hard ask, It's a

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Speaker 3: very big mountain to climb, but it definitely for me anyway,

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Speaker 3: feels like the time has never been clearer that we

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Speaker 3: need a party that is offering something new, I can't

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Speaker 3: see the inspiring visions coming out of the current political landscape.

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Speaker 3: So we're really backing the fact that we've got an

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Speaker 3: aspiring vision that we are making this campaign all about

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Speaker 3: connecting with kiwis and helping them, you know, understand what

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Speaker 3: this means for their everyday lives. And we'll you know,

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Speaker 3: we'll have some awesome candidates throughout the country representing our message.

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Speaker 3: I'm hoping that maybe me stepping into this role inspires

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Speaker 3: other people that have not thought about politics to maybe

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Speaker 3: get involved. And yeah, I mean, it's only one hundred

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Speaker 3: and fifty thousand votes, not that much.

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Speaker 4: So would you put money on your making it and

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Speaker 4: would you drop a cool hundred or a cool thousand

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Speaker 4: on you making it to the five percent threshold?

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Speaker 3: I'm backing one hundred percent, all.

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Speaker 4: Right, so a thousand is yeah, I mean, okay, all right,

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Speaker 4: But no word on the cats.

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Speaker 3: I mean, I'm definitely you know, I've sacrificed a few things.

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Speaker 3: I will be sacrificing a few things over the next

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Speaker 3: twelve months to do this work. But I wouldn't do

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Speaker 3: it if I didn't truly believe and if I didn't

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Speaker 3: think it was worth it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well a q Lee, all the very best to

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Speaker 2: you going forward. I'm sure we'll be chatting to here

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Speaker 2: a bit more as the election approaches, but all the very.

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Speaker 3: Best, awesome, thanks so much.

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Speaker 2: That is Qla Wong, the new leader of the Opportunity Party.

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Speaker 4: She's she's already quite a good politician because she wouldn't

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Speaker 4: answer the cat's question. Yeah that's the first question.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, your name. It was an easy one.

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Speaker 1: For more from News talks'd b listen live on air

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