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Speaker 1: Good morning, everybody. Welcome to the Daily OS. It is Wednesday,

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Speaker 1: the sixth of April. Will the election be called today?

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Speaker 1: That is the question I texted Zara this morning. It's

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Speaker 1: the question I'll probably text Sara tomorrow morning. Zara. Today

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Speaker 1: on the Deep Dive, we're going to be talking about

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Speaker 1: Scott Morrison and the allegations of racism leveled at our

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Speaker 1: Prime minister in the last week or so. But first

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Speaker 1: kick us off with the latest findings from the IPCC.

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Speaker 2: This new report by the IPCC didn't say anything different

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Speaker 2: to the previous ones. It just said that the world

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Speaker 2: needs to harve emissions by twenty thirty to limit global

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Speaker 2: warming to one point five degrees celsius. The main finding

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Speaker 2: was that emissions must peak before twenty twenty five, and

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Speaker 2: that's really really soon, and then it must fall by

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Speaker 2: forty three percent by twenty thirty and reach net zero

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Speaker 2: by twenty fifty.

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Speaker 1: To some economics news now and the Reserve Bank of

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Speaker 1: Australia announced Australia's cash rate will remain at zero point

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Speaker 1: one percent and that's where it's been sitting since November

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty. In the statement issued yes today by the

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Speaker 1: Governor Philip Lowe. The RBA said ongoing supply side problems,

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Speaker 1: Russia's invasion of Ukraine and strong demand as economies recover

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Speaker 1: from the pandemic are all contributing to the upward pressure

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Speaker 1: on prices.

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Speaker 2: The Victorian government has introduced legislation that will allow adoptees

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Speaker 2: to put both of their birth parents and their adoptive

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Speaker 2: parents on their birth certificates. Current laws only allow the

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Speaker 2: listing of adoptive parents. The Victorian Attorney General said the

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Speaker 2: change to birth certificates was intended to try repair the

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Speaker 2: damaged caused.

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Speaker 1: And today's good news. We've brought you this update from Sweden,

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Speaker 1: from Norway, it's now the UK's turn. More than sixty

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Speaker 1: companies in the United Kingdom will participate in a four

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Speaker 1: day working week trial in what will be the biggest

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Speaker 1: pilot scheme of its kind. Joe O'Connor, the chief executive

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Speaker 1: of Four Day Week Global, said workers have emerged from

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Speaker 1: the pandemic with different expectations around what constitutes a healthy

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Speaker 1: life work balance. At pretty much every press conference in

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Speaker 1: the last seven days, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been

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Speaker 1: asked questions about whether he is racist or not to

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Speaker 1: explain this story from the very beginning. We need to

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Speaker 1: talk about the electorate of Cook. We need to talk

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Speaker 1: about pre selections, stat decks and Prime Minister Morrison's character Zarra.

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Speaker 1: Take us all the way back to two thousand and five.

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Speaker 1: I was in year five, you're in year three. What

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Speaker 1: happened then?

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Speaker 2: Okay, So if we're going all the way back to

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Speaker 2: two thousand and five, there was a big event that

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Speaker 2: took place. It was the Cronulla Riots and they occurred

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Speaker 2: in the place that was to become Scott Morrison's electorate

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Speaker 2: of Cook.

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Speaker 3: It started out as a show of numbers by locals

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Speaker 3: wanting to protect Cronulla, but by midafternoon it had turned

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Speaker 3: into scenes not seen before in Sydney, angry mobs fueled

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Speaker 3: by alcohol turning on individuals because of their ethnic background.

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Speaker 2: Now, that was a news report from the eleventh of

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Speaker 2: December on what became known as the Cronulla Rite. Over

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Speaker 2: five thousand, mostly Anglo Australians assembled at Cronulla Beach to

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Speaker 2: quote reclaim the beach from outsiders. Violence erupted as the

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Speaker 2: crowd attacked people of Middle East in appearance, sparking two

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Speaker 2: further days of riding. Now, if we're to go two

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Speaker 2: years forward to the lead up of the two thousand

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Speaker 2: and seven federal election, so bear with me. Scott Morrison

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Speaker 2: was running for this aforementioned seat of Cook but he

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Speaker 2: had one main opponent for the Liberal Party pre selection nomination. Now,

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Speaker 2: keep in mind that the major parties only ever nominate

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Speaker 2: one person per seat to run. This is called pre selection.

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Speaker 2: It's basically the process by which a political party chooses

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Speaker 2: an individual to become the candidate that's then endorsed by

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Speaker 2: the party for a particular election. So in this pre

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Speaker 2: selection race, Morrison's main opponent for the seat was Michael

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Speaker 2: tok and he is a Lebanese Catholic man. Toke and

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Speaker 2: another Liberal have signed statutory declarations alleging Morrison used Toke's

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Speaker 2: ethnic background to convince Liberal members not to support him.

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Speaker 2: The stat decks were reported in the Saturday paper and

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Speaker 2: the nine newspapers over the weekend, and that's why we're

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Speaker 2: talking about it now. That's why this story is in

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Speaker 2: the news. In his declaration, Toak accused Morrison of telling

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Speaker 2: party members to vote against him and I quote solely

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Speaker 2: on the rationale that my family heritage was Lebanese. He

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Speaker 2: was adamant and explicit that a candidate of Lebanese heritage

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Speaker 2: could not hold the seat of Cook. Now remember this

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Speaker 2: is occurring just years after the Cronulla Riots and that's

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Speaker 2: still fresh in everyone's minds. Toke actually won an initial

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Speaker 2: battle between the pairs, so between him and Scott Morrison,

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Speaker 2: eighty two to eighty. But this victory was overturned and

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Speaker 2: that was allegedly caused by Morrison. Liberal Party member Scott

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Speaker 2: Chapman said in another stat Deck that Morrison told him

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Speaker 2: there would be a swing against the Liberal Party in

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Speaker 2: Cook and I quote again because of mister Toke's the

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Speaker 2: leb Banese background, and that there was a strong rumor

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Speaker 2: that Michael tok is actually a Muslim. Morrison, of course

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Speaker 2: went on to win the preselection. He then won the

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Speaker 2: election and eventually became Treasurer and now as we know him,

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Speaker 2: he became Prime Minister. Toke subsequently dropped out of politics.

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Speaker 1: I just want to pick up on a term that

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Speaker 1: you've mentioned, their statutory declaration or stat deck you're referring

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Speaker 1: to it as can we focus in on that for

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Speaker 1: a minute. What exactly is a stat deck?

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Speaker 2: The definition of a stat deck is really important here

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Speaker 2: because it has formed the basis of much of the reporting,

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Speaker 2: especially the Saturday Paper and the Sydney Morning Herald. So

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Speaker 2: this story has been ongoing for obviously a number of years,

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Speaker 2: but both reporters from both outlets managed to get these

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Speaker 2: pieces across the line because they had signed stat decks.

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Speaker 2: So a stat deck is a legal document. It contains

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Speaker 2: a written statement about something that is true. So it's

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Speaker 2: a document that can be used in court and it's

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Speaker 2: classified as reliable evidence. It must be witnessed by a

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Speaker 2: witness like a justice of the peace. And most of

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Speaker 2: us have come across stat decks when we're getting a

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Speaker 2: new passport or some other form of legal document. Morrison

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Speaker 2: himself made some comments over the weekend about statutory declarations.

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Speaker 3: People make all sort of statements and they'll sign them.

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Speaker 2: It doesn't make them true, And then he actually offered

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Speaker 2: to sign one himself if it would help people believe

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Speaker 2: his side of the story that he did not tell

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Speaker 2: party members to vote against TOK because he was from

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Speaker 2: a Lebanese background.

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Speaker 3: Yes, of course I would.

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Speaker 4: So we'll see that no one's asking for one, and

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Speaker 4: I'm not going to court over these matters. I'm not

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Speaker 4: bringing any actions.

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Speaker 2: I stand by exactly what I've said here in the

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Speaker 2: public domain.

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Speaker 1: So overall is Morrison denying these allegations.

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Speaker 2: Strongly, really really strongly. At that same press conference, the

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Speaker 2: Prime Minister hip back at quote malicious and bitter race

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Speaker 2: claims by his former rival. Liberal frontbenchers jumped to the

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Speaker 2: prime Minister's defense. Here's what Josh Fridenberg, Rustin and Barnaby

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Speaker 2: Joyce had to say.

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Speaker 4: Jamal Riffi, who is one of Australia's leaders of the

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Speaker 4: Australian Muslim Lebanese community, has said about Scott Morrison that

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Speaker 4: he doesn't have a racist bone in his body. I

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Speaker 4: don't think there's been any Prime minister who has done

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Speaker 4: more for the multicultural communities of Australia.

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Speaker 5: You're going to use call someone basically a racist and

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Speaker 5: they're not. You're actually using racism as your weapon, and

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Speaker 5: you know that's that's I don't think we need an

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Speaker 5: election that's around that.

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Speaker 2: The country's Assistant Treasurer, Michael Suka, who is of Lebanese descent,

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Speaker 2: tweeted on Sunday that no member of Parliament had shown

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Speaker 2: more support, care and respect for the Australian Lebanese community

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Speaker 2: than the Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

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Speaker 1: So I know you said before that this story was

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Speaker 1: published by the media outlets that ran it over the

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Speaker 1: weekend because of the strength of the stat decks. But

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Speaker 1: I'm still not fully clear about why we're talking about

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Speaker 1: this now on what could be the eve of the election.

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Speaker 1: What happened in Canberra in the last week to bring

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Speaker 1: all of this to the surface fifteen years on.

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Speaker 2: It's in part because of Liberal Senator can Shedder, fear

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Speaker 2: of Antie Wells. This is the senator who stood up

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Speaker 2: in Parliament last week. You would have seen this blistering

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Speaker 2: speech where she slammed Scott Morrison. She described him as

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Speaker 2: an autocrat and a bully who has no moral compass

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Speaker 2: and not fit to be the prime minister. Before we

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Speaker 2: go on, it must be acknowledged that this senator has

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Speaker 2: lost her pre selection bid and will not be contesting

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Speaker 2: the next election, so she will no longer remain in Parliament.

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Speaker 2: But in this final speech she referred to these stat

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Speaker 2: decks that we had mentioned earlier and said that Morrison's

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Speaker 2: campaign against tok all those years ago had destroyed a

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Speaker 2: good young man. Morrison has suggested that the senator's comments

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Speaker 2: about him were made because she was quote disappointed by

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Speaker 2: the outcome of her pre selection battle.

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Speaker 1: So Morrison strongly denies these allegations. It sounds fear of

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Speaker 1: Antie Wells strongly affirms them. Where are we at right now?

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Speaker 2: We are just days away from an election being called.

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Speaker 2: This is indisputably an unwelcome distraction for the Morrison government.

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Speaker 2: The PM is being asked about these allegations at almost

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Speaker 2: every press conference and he continues to emphatically deny the

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Speaker 2: claims that he is a racist.

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Speaker 1: I absolutely reject that as malicious slurs.

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Speaker 2: It is outrageous, absolutely outrageous. I've dealt with it time

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Speaker 2: and again. It of course has also opened up discussions

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Speaker 2: across the country about race relations in this country and

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Speaker 2: the way that ethnic minorities are treated in this country.

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Speaker 2: The Ten network tracked down Michael Toke as he was

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Speaker 2: boarding a flight to Sydney and asked him whether he

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Speaker 2: stood by his comments.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely yes, And what do you make of the Prime

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Speaker 1: Minister's deny? It not very credible.

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Speaker 4: Do you think he's lying?

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Speaker 2: I think it's pretty obviously.

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Speaker 1: Do you think the Prime Minister's racist?

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Speaker 2: Well?

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Speaker 1: It's hard not to, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: And finally, if we zoom out a bit here, it

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Speaker 2: certainly seems like Morrison's character is becoming a major part

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Speaker 2: of our election discourse. Just yesterday, a departing Liberal member

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Speaker 2: of the New South Wales Parliament leveled her criticisms against

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Speaker 2: the Prime Minister, a man in her own party, and

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Speaker 2: expressed sheer disappointment at the way that things have been handled,

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Speaker 2: particularly around the floods. This, taken together with other departing

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Speaker 2: Liberal members statements and earlier statements by Barnaby Joyce that

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Speaker 2: were published, are certainly painting a picture that the Prime

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Speaker 2: Minister would rather not see. It's very clear, even from

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Speaker 2: before the election being called, that Labor is going to

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Speaker 2: use this as its key weapon against the Prime Minister

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Speaker 2: and against his government, and it'll be interesting to see

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Speaker 2: whether this resonates with everyday voters.

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Speaker 1: An interesting election battle it is shaping up to be.

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Speaker 1: To keep track of all election issues and topics, I

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Speaker 1: highly recommend listening to the No Silly Question podcast is

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Speaker 1: where we go a little bit deeper into the big

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Speaker 1: election issues, or follow us on Instagram at the Daily Oz.

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Speaker 1: We will speak to you tomorrow