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Speaker 1: International correspondence with Ends and Eye Insurance, Peace of Mind

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Speaker 1: for New Zealand Business. Murray old Ossie corresponders with US hems,

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Speaker 1: very good afternoon, Heathers. Still not track this guy down, No,

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Speaker 1: and look, conditions are dreadful. It's raining, absolutely bucketing down

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Speaker 1: down there. It's very very cold. There's a cold front

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Speaker 1: whipping through wins, you know, strong enough to blow a

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Speaker 1: dog off a chain. And it really is very tough going.

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Speaker 1: And the follow they're looking for. I mean, you've got

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Speaker 1: literally hundreds of police, you got dogs, you've got helicopters,

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Speaker 1: you've got coppers on motorcycles. I dare say police on

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Speaker 1: horseback as well. It's that sort of country if you

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Speaker 1: can imagine the toughest part of the West Coast, in

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Speaker 1: the down South or maybe the Coramandel, and it's that dense.

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Speaker 1: And here's the thing. The guy they're looking for, he's

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Speaker 1: des philby You also known as Desi Freeman. We get

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Speaker 1: it because he is a man who was He's not

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Speaker 1: a fan of the law. He says he got sovereigns,

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Speaker 1: does not obey police, does not recognize governments. He knows

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Speaker 1: this country very very well. He's been living in a bus,

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Speaker 1: very primitive, off the grid with his wife and two children.

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Speaker 1: They are accounted for. They went to see police I

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Speaker 1: think Tuesday, not a Wednesday morning. So he's been on

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Speaker 1: the run, of course ever since he shot well, the

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Speaker 1: allegation is that he shot dead the two police officers

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Speaker 1: and wounded a third. And he knows the area very

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Speaker 1: very well. He's a good bushman, knows the country, can

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Speaker 1: live out in the in the rough, in the field,

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Speaker 1: so that you know, this hunt will go on until

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Speaker 1: they find him. Do we know yet what the police

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Speaker 1: were turning up to talk to him about. Yes, it

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Speaker 1: was in relation to allegations of some sort of underage

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Speaker 1: child sexual activity. That the allegation is he was involved

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Speaker 1: with this in these sexual offenses against at least one

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Speaker 1: child under the age of sixteen. So we don't know

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Speaker 1: anything further beyond that. That's what was released, right, you know,

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Speaker 1: in the immediate aftermath of this, of this tragedy down there.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it really is a hell of a shock wave,

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Speaker 1: not just through Victoria. I mean, you know, it doesn't

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Speaker 1: happen every day and day, right, the two police officers

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Speaker 1: doing their jobs get shot dead and they don't go home.

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Speaker 1: It is very, very shocking, and people have responded accordingly.

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Speaker 1: You know, to be down there in Victoria, you basically

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Speaker 1: you just can't believe what's happened. I mean, you heard

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Speaker 1: just Center Allen there. She's absolutely shocked the call. Yeah

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Speaker 1: too right now, See Britney Higgins has lost her defamationation.

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Speaker 1: She has You know, this is just a slow motion

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Speaker 1: drama that's played out of the men. She was attacked

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Speaker 1: six years ago in the office of Linda Reynolds, who

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Speaker 1: was a minister in the Morrison government. She was attacked

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Speaker 1: by Bruce Lherman, her colleague. They were both staffers for

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Speaker 1: miss Reynolds, and that was definitely proven. It was found

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Speaker 1: to the satisfaction of the Federal Court last year that yes,

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Speaker 1: she was raped by Lherman. But the the thing here

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Speaker 1: is that Britney Higgins and Brittney Higgins then alleged in

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Speaker 1: a series of social media posts that basically her boss

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Speaker 1: and the boss's chief of staff, both women, basically tried

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Speaker 1: to persuade her to play it down. The suggestion was that,

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Speaker 1: you know, look, let's not take this too far. Okay,

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Speaker 1: we've got the federal election coming up and so on. Well,

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Speaker 1: Forlinda Reyndolds, who was the Minister of the Morrison. That

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Speaker 1: was absolutely intolerable. She said, under no circumstances would I

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Speaker 1: walk away from what happened to that young woman. Never

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Speaker 1: and the same for a female chief of staff. You're kidding.

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Speaker 1: Neither of us did anything of the sword, and that's

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Speaker 1: now been proven. She sued Higgins for defamation and has

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Speaker 1: been and has been vindicated in the Supreme Court in

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Speaker 1: Western Australia. Basically, what happened, I mean Higgins was raped, yes,

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Speaker 1: and the Federal government in a one day hearing paid

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Speaker 1: her two point four million dollars is without getting any

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Speaker 1: evidence whatsoever from Senator Reynolds. And so she's now going

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Speaker 1: after the Commonwealth saying, well, hang on a second. All

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Speaker 1: that did, all that did was reinforcing the public eye, Heather,

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Speaker 1: that I'd done wrong. And what now is going to happen.

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Speaker 1: It's a minimum three hundred and thirty five thousand Australian

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Speaker 1: dollars and damages that they have to be paid by

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Speaker 1: Higgins toward too rentals, but her legal bill, Heather could

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Speaker 1: be in the order of one and a half to

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Speaker 1: two million dollars. They have to have sold their house

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Speaker 1: in France that they bought with that payout, and you know,

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Speaker 1: the saga just drags on and on and on. But

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Speaker 1: a comprehensive victory for Linda Rendols and her chief of

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Speaker 1: staff is going through a separate avenue. But she also

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Speaker 1: is going to be claiming some sort of compensation. That's

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Speaker 1: the apparently what's going to happen. Thanks for talking us

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Speaker 1: through that. It's Murray Old's Australia correspondent. For more from

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Speaker 1: Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news Talks. It'd

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Speaker 1: be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on

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Speaker 1: iHeart Radio