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Speaker 1: Good morning, and welcome to the Daily Odds. It's Thursday,

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Speaker 1: the eighteenth of February. My name is Zara Seidler, and

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Speaker 1: helping me make sense of today's news is Sam Kozlowski.

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Speaker 1: Making news today more details on Britney Higgins's allegations.

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Speaker 2: New Zealand COVID cases, and.

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Speaker 1: Some good news about sea turtles and Texas.

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Speaker 2: Here's today's daily digest. Former Liberal staffer Britney Higgins has

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Speaker 2: issued a statement saying, quote the continued victim blaming Retrick

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Speaker 2: by the Prime Minister is personally very distressing to me.

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Speaker 2: She added that she's only been made aware of key

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Speaker 2: elements of her own sexual assault as a result of

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Speaker 2: coming forward publicly with her story. Details emerged yesterday that

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Speaker 2: security guards let Higgins and her colleague into the room

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Speaker 2: she was allegedly raped in, and that they undertook an

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Speaker 2: internal review into how the matter was handled at the time,

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Speaker 2: without this being known to Higgins.

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Speaker 1: Now over to the US, where President Joe Biden has

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Speaker 1: called an emergency in Tech Texis after a severe storm

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Speaker 1: hit parts of the state, leaving more than four point

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Speaker 1: three million.

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Speaker 2: People without power.

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Speaker 1: A facility storing eight thousand moderna COVID nineteen vaccines also

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Speaker 1: experienced a power outage, but thankfully the vaccines were relocated

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Speaker 1: to another facility before becoming unusable.

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Speaker 2: Across the Tasman now A New Zealand recorded two new

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Speaker 2: locally acquired cases yesterday. Nonetheless, Auckland's lockdown was lifted at

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Speaker 2: midnight last night, with the city to drop to alert

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Speaker 2: level two and the rest of the country is going

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Speaker 2: to alert level one. Restrictions will be reviewed on Monday

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Speaker 2: by Jacinda Ardern's government.

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Speaker 1: Sadly, the Barti party is over, with world number one

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Speaker 1: Ash Barty having crashed out of the Australian Open in

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Speaker 1: the quarter finals yesterday. It has now been forty three

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Speaker 1: years since an Australian male or female has come away

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Speaker 1: with a trophy from our home Grand Slam.

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Speaker 2: And here's some good news about Texan turtles. Remember our

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Speaker 2: earlier story about the wild weather in Texas will two

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Speaker 2: thousand sea turtles have actually been rescued off the coast

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Speaker 2: of Texas. The freezing sea temperatures triggered a hypothermic reaction

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Speaker 2: in the group of reptiles. They're currently defrosting in an

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Speaker 2: empty convention center, but they're going to be returned to

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Speaker 2: the ocean after the wild weather has passed. So the

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Speaker 2: big story this week has been the allegations from Britney

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Speaker 2: Higgins about the sexual assault in Parliament House. What do

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Speaker 2: we actually know about the workplace review ordered by Scott Morrison.

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Speaker 1: Look, at this point we don't know a whole lot.

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Speaker 1: It's still quite early in the piece. But when announcing

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Speaker 1: it earlier in the week, the PM said that the

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Speaker 1: review would work to identify ways that standards and expectations

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Speaker 1: could be further improved so that a situation that occurred

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Speaker 1: with Britney Higgins wouldn't happen again. He appointed a Liberal

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Speaker 1: MP her name Celia Hammond to lead the review, based

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Speaker 1: on her experience dealing with sexual assault at universities while

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Speaker 1: she was the vice chancellor at Notre Dame. Hammond has

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Speaker 1: said she hopes her review will in quote, open a

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Speaker 1: can of worms and we know if that's.

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Speaker 2: Actually what Brittney Higgins has called for.

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Speaker 1: Higgins wants this action to actually go a bit further.

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Speaker 1: She wants there to be an independence Complaints body set

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Speaker 1: up and a comprehensive review of the Members of Parliament

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Speaker 1: Staff Act to ensure that adequate protections for staff exist.

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Speaker 1: Labor and the cross Bench i e. Independence and Minor

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Speaker 1: Party members have backed Higgins's calls, and Anthony Albinezi, the

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Speaker 1: Opposition leader, has said quite clearly we need an arm's

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Speaker 1: length independent body that is able to investigate and provide

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Speaker 1: support to anyone in this building.

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Speaker 2: The Labour Party have mentioned they want an independent body,

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Speaker 2: but there's not a lot of detail out there. The

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Speaker 2: big thing for the Opposition is that any complaints mechanism

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Speaker 2: or oversight body should be separate and independent of the government.

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Speaker 2: Britney Higgins agrees with this and has said there should

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Speaker 2: be an independent reporting mechanism for all staff in Parliament House.

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Speaker 1: However, this mechanism ends up looking This week has been

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Speaker 1: a really significant one for women who work in Parliament.

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Speaker 1: For too long this behavior has gone unnoticed or unrecognized,

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Speaker 1: and now everyone is paying attention. Hopefully this is the

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Speaker 1: first of many conversations our country has about toxic workplaces

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Speaker 1: for women and especially in our country's most significant institutions.

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Speaker 2: That's all for today. We'll chat to you again tomorrow,

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Speaker 2: but in the meantime, don't forget to catch up on

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Speaker 2: the day's news on Instagram. At the Dahlios. It's where

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Speaker 2: over eighty thousand Australians get their news throughout the day

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Speaker 2: and we'd love you to become part of the tribe.