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Speaker 1: And we have been talking at links this morning about

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Speaker 1: the petrol prices. We know that they will busted over

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Speaker 1: the two dollar mark yesterday for diesel and unleaded. Joining

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Speaker 1: me on the line is Anthony Hill, the CEO of

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Speaker 1: the aa n T. Good morning to you, Anthony.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Catie.

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Speaker 1: Anthony. What is the cause of this fuel hike at

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Speaker 1: the moment? I know some people will have a bit

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Speaker 1: of an understanding, but talk us through it.

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Speaker 2: Yes, Look, I think I mean a couple of weeks

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Speaker 2: ago when we were chatting it was certainly a supply

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Speaker 2: issue as the globe has been opening up after the pandemic,

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Speaker 2: a major all supply issue. But I think more recently,

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Speaker 2: obviously since the what's going on between Russia and Ukraine,

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Speaker 2: that certainly has sporal things out of control a bit.

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Speaker 2: And we've now seen the Brent crude all up to

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Speaker 2: over a dollar thirty barrel and one hundred and thirty sorry,

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Speaker 2: one hundred and thirty barrel, which is one hundred and

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Speaker 2: seventy nine Australian And when we look at that, only

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Speaker 2: back in December there was seventy dollars a barrel, so

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Speaker 2: there's been a significant increase there and I think there's

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Speaker 2: been some political band happened just in the last twenty

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Speaker 2: four hours with President Joe Biden of the US announcing

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Speaker 2: their banning of Russian oil and gas imports and putting

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Speaker 2: it into perspect of Russia is the second largest exporter

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Speaker 2: of oil globally, and of course they're they're threatening to

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Speaker 2: push the pricing up even further by cutting supplies to

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Speaker 2: Europe in retaliation to the sanctions that have been put

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Speaker 2: on them. So it's looking a bit ugly coding.

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Speaker 1: It is certainly sounding that way. So what is it

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Speaker 1: all going to mean for us as consumers?

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Speaker 2: Well, I think this obviously has a significant flow on

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Speaker 2: to supply chain and obviously families. So it's ultimately so

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Speaker 2: you know, we will see transport costs increasing that will

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Speaker 2: be pushed to the end consumers they might be wearing

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Speaker 2: that cost. I actually think, you know, it's probably not

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Speaker 2: the end of it when you look at when you

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Speaker 2: look at that I think it was one hundred and

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Speaker 2: thirty three of barrel this morning that potentially, with all

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Speaker 2: this crisis is going on, it's going it could I

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Speaker 2: would suggest, it's going to increase further, pushing prices up

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Speaker 2: even higher.

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Speaker 1: How high could we go here?

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Speaker 2: Well, I haven't I didn't check this out this morning,

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Speaker 2: but anecdotally I heard that, you know, it was over

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Speaker 2: in New Zealand. It was like it was like four

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Speaker 2: dollars four dollars a liter in New Zealand. With conversion

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Speaker 2: rates and everything is that needs to be worked out.

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Speaker 2: But I think, honestly, you know, there's every chance we're

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Speaker 2: going to see this get up to the two dollars

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Speaker 2: fifty march. I would say in the coming week if

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Speaker 2: there's if there's no reprieve, and speak quite honest, I

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Speaker 2: just don't see. We're struggling to be able to point

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Speaker 2: out any practice globally that's going to providing a sort

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Speaker 2: of short term relief at the moment.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it makes it so incredibly difficult for families. You know,

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Speaker 1: that impact at the hip pocket. I know that, you

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Speaker 1: know that a lot of us just try to juggle

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Speaker 1: everything from week to week. It's going to have an

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Speaker 1: impact for so many in so many ways.

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Speaker 2: It is. And we'll be releasing a report shortly, the

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Speaker 2: Affordability Index again, and you know the last report was

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Speaker 2: pretty horrific and fifteen percent of a typical families and

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Speaker 2: your salary goes towards running a vehicle, and I would

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Speaker 2: say that's going to look at increasing further now, obviously

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Speaker 2: taking into account the new costs. And yeah, so I

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Speaker 2: think look, we've seen Alan Joyce from Quantus yesterday just

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Speaker 2: announcing seven percent price increases on air is because of fuel.

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Speaker 2: So it's going to have a flow on effect and

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Speaker 2: ultimately also potentially an issue around tourism and the lights.

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Speaker 2: You know, those that were thinking about doing the driving

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Speaker 2: holiday might be sitting back thinking twice. You know, So

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Speaker 2: it's due to the costs.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, Anthony. Do we have any real idea here

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Speaker 1: how long this could all last? I mean, I know

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Speaker 1: we don't know what's going to happen with Russia invading Ukraine.

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Speaker 1: That is something that neither you or I've got any

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Speaker 1: idea about in terms of how long that'll last. But

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Speaker 1: are there other options here? When it comes to the oil.

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Speaker 2: Not this stage. I mean, we really have no control

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Speaker 2: over it at all. There's certain countries in the world

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Speaker 2: that really control the oil, and there is major supply

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Speaker 2: issues at the moment. So I don't think in the

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Speaker 2: short to medium term we're going to see any relief

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Speaker 2: at all of anything, we may see it escape while

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Speaker 2: the whole Russian and Ukraine incident's happening. So I think that's, yes,

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Speaker 2: not great news, but said, I just don't see anything

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Speaker 2: globally that's going to give us that relief at this

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Speaker 2: point in time.

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Speaker 1: Now, is there anything to suggest, because it does seem

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Speaker 1: as though from what I can gather, the terminal gate

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Speaker 1: price it went up significantly yesterday and then pretty much

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Speaker 1: straight away obviously at the BOT it followed. So there's

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Speaker 1: nothing to suggest at this point that anybody's trying to

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Speaker 1: rip us off, is there.

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Speaker 2: No. We're monitoring that. So we watch the margins very

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Speaker 2: carefully at the retail at the pump, so we'll certainly

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Speaker 2: advocate if we see that going in the wrong direction,

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Speaker 2: and you'd hope that you know, the retailer isn't going

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Speaker 2: to do the right thing at a time like now

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Speaker 2: with the escalation of pricing, that they'll keep that within reason.

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Speaker 2: Obviously they've got a business still to run. But we

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Speaker 2: watch that daily. I've got no team there that the

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Speaker 2: monitoring this and will flag if we see and certainly boys,

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Speaker 2: if there's we see any any major increases in that area.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, do let us know I know, like I said,

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Speaker 1: it's just having an impact. It's going to have an

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Speaker 1: impact on so many in so many different ways, and

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Speaker 1: I think it sort of makes us all realize how

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Speaker 1: heavily on we are on you know, on on our

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Speaker 1: fuel in different capacities at this point in time as well. There's,

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Speaker 1: like you said, really no change in sight in the

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Speaker 1: near future, but we'll all keep a very close eye

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Speaker 1: on us.

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Speaker 2: It is it's unprecedented what we're seeing tob I mean,

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Speaker 2: I think across Australia it's pretty much over the two

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Speaker 2: dollar mark. We'll certainly by the end of this week

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Speaker 2: we'll be across the two dollar market nationally. We haven't

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Speaker 2: seen that before, So this is there really is unprecedented.

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Speaker 2: And you know said out about control. But my suggestion

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Speaker 2: would be, you know, even yesterday there was there was

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Speaker 2: a difference in price locally, I think, you know, from

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Speaker 2: from a dollar ninety five to two dollars seven. So

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Speaker 2: use the my fuel in t app before you fill

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Speaker 2: up to the station that's obviously offering the treatish price

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Speaker 2: at the time. Use any discount pouches that you can

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Speaker 2: that you can get your hands on at this time,

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Speaker 2: and obviously go out conservatively.

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Speaker 1: Hey, we did catch up with Senator Rex Patrick a

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Speaker 1: little bit earlier this morning. He's obviously calling upon the

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Speaker 1: federal government with this fuel excise. I'm assuming that that

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Speaker 1: would make it differences.

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Speaker 2: It would, but I think if you look at the

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Speaker 2: if you look at the numbers, if you were to

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Speaker 2: cut pure excise by half the twelve months, it's it's

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Speaker 2: about six billion dollar impact on the budget. So the

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Speaker 2: pure excise does go towards improving roads and infrastructure. So

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Speaker 2: if we if we're taking it away here, it's going

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Speaker 2: to impact elsewhere. And I think, particularly with what's going

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Speaker 2: on the coast the moment with the floods and the lights,

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Speaker 2: need to be significant investment into repairing the roads. And

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Speaker 2: you know, we've got we've got a lot of work

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Speaker 2: to do in our own jurisdiction as well in that

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Speaker 2: area to improve and we saw that a couple of

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Speaker 2: months ago down on the border with the road issues

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Speaker 2: we had with flooding it and the lights. So you know,

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Speaker 2: by doing that, you know we don't it's a set price.

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Speaker 2: The excise is set so it doesn't fluctuate with the

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Speaker 2: with the Bowlder price. So I think by by I

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Speaker 2: wouldn't support that. Yeah, you know, we need, we need,

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Speaker 2: we need a lot of infrastructure done.

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Speaker 1: Hey, before I let you go, I know that you

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Speaker 1: said that. You know, this isn't something that we've seen

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Speaker 1: right around Australia before. We've never had our petrol prices

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Speaker 1: above two dollars in the territory in Darwin before, have we.

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Speaker 2: No, that's right, that's right, it's correct. Yes, I said

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Speaker 2: it is unprepredated, and yes it's not good and it's

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Speaker 2: certainly hits the hip pocket of families. But yeah, at

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Speaker 2: the moment, it's a bit of a wait and see,

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Speaker 2: a bit of a crystal ball to where it's going

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Speaker 2: to end up, Katie. But yeah, I think that we

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Speaker 2: can probably expect them further increases in coming weeks.

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Speaker 1: We'll all keep a very close eye on it. I

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Speaker 1: really appreciate your time this morning, Anthony. Thanks for having

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Speaker 1: a chat with me.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Gay. I hope that's a better news next time

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Speaker 2: we talk.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, let's hope. So good on you, Anthony. Thank you