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An Australian warrior’s secret to happiness · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Kristanamio.
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  Speaker 1: It's Monday, August eighteen, twenty twenty five. The government's hotly
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  Speaker 1: anticipated economic roundtable kicks off in Canberra on Monday. Prime
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  Speaker 1: Minister Anthony Albanesi said his focus is on lowering taxes
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  Speaker 1: and long term reforms, while Treasurer Jim Chalmers said he
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  Speaker 1: and the PM are on the same page when it
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  Speaker 1: comes to boosting productivity and balancing the budget. Australians are
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  Speaker 1: worried about Donald Trump's tariff war, but China's military might
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  Speaker 1: not so much. That's according to new data from Newspoll.
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  Speaker 1: The survey also suggests people are mostly happy with the
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  Speaker 1: performance of Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi, whose approval rating is
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  Speaker 1: back in positive territory for the first time since twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty three. Those exclusive stories alive right now at the
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  Speaker 1: Australian dot com dot a U. What does it mean
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  Speaker 1: to be happy and how can you be happier? According
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  Speaker 1: to the experts and some of Australia's most iconic figures,
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  Speaker 1: it's actually astonishingly simple. Today we're putting a smile on
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  Speaker 1: your dial with the Australian's new Happiness Project.
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  Speaker 2: A because I would never hand wash.
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  Speaker 3: Life is too short.
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  Speaker 1: This is The Australian's Fiona Harari. She's a feature writer
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  Speaker 1: for the paper's health section and she's got one of
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  Speaker 1: the best laughs in our Sydney newsroom. See coffee is
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  Speaker 1: a food group and sleep is optional or d I try,
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  Speaker 1: but the Tim Tams keep finding me.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Tim Tams, But Tim Tams make you happy. Let's
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  Speaker 2: be honest. This is what it's all about.
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  Speaker 1: Together, We're doing The Australian's Happiness Calculator. It's live now
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  Speaker 1: at the Australian dot com dot au where you can
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  Speaker 1: try it for yourself. Okay, click here for your happiness score. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: your happiness score is nine point six eight, which is
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  Speaker 1: just over three points above the average Australian happiness score.
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  Speaker 1: So you got nine point six eight. I got nine
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  Speaker 1: point three four.
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  Speaker 3: So I'm a tiny bit happy.
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  Speaker 1: I'maginally happier than me. Tell me what are your secrets.
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  Speaker 3: Today?
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  Speaker 1: The Australian is launching the Happiness Project. It's a deep
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  Speaker 1: dive into what it means to be happy, how we
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  Speaker 1: can improve our happiness and how it's linked to our health,
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  Speaker 1: wealth and relationships.
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  Speaker 2: And I have to say every single person that I've
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  Speaker 2: mentioned this series two has smiled and said, what a
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  Speaker 2: lovely idea. So it's possibly reflective of the state of
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  Speaker 2: the world that we need some more happiness.
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  Speaker 3: But I'm just very happy that we're spreading around.
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  Speaker 1: I did the quiz on a day when it was
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  Speaker 1: bucketing with rain, when I had to call the bank,
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  Speaker 1: and when I'd run out of milk for my morning coffee.
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  Speaker 1: But I was pleasant surprised to find that soggy sneakers aside,
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  Speaker 1: I've got a lot to be happy about. Fiona does
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  Speaker 1: too well.
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  Speaker 2: I hardly slept last night, yet I'm apparently remarkably happy,
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  Speaker 2: So I'm very pleased to hear this.
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  Speaker 1: FA's spoken to a handful of iconic Australians for the
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  Speaker 1: Happiness Project, starting with former Governor General and Army Chief
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  Speaker 1: Sir Peter Cosgrove.
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  Speaker 2: I wanted to talk to a range of well known
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  Speaker 2: Australians from different backgrounds, in different ages to understand what
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  Speaker 2: happiness meant to them. Do you have to reconfigure it
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  Speaker 2: as you get older and are we making it too complicated?
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  Speaker 2: And yes, in many cases we are making it too complicated,
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  Speaker 2: but really it's pretty obvious that if you have happiness
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  Speaker 2: in your life, life is just a lot better.
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  Speaker 1: You spoke to people who are in a lot of
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  Speaker 1: different age groups, did you find that they had vastly
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  Speaker 1: different views on happiness or was there a common theme.
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  Speaker 2: I've got four people that I've spoken to at length
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  Speaker 2: about happiness, and each story was quite different. The things
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  Speaker 2: that make them happy, what they still needed in their life,
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  Speaker 2: how they scored their life out of ten in terms
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  Speaker 2: of happiness, what was lacking, and the different things that
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  Speaker 2: they had in their lives that gave them true happiness.
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  Speaker 2: And honestly, it's not rocket science. It's very often family
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  Speaker 2: friends are loving, long term partner pets.
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  Speaker 3: The things that.
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  Speaker 2: We know can enrich your life are the things that
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  Speaker 2: seem to bring the people in this series a lot
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  Speaker 2: of joy.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up. What one of Australia's most eminent military figures
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  Speaker 1: knows about happiness. Long before he would become Australia's twenty
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  Speaker 1: eighth governor, General, so Peter Cosgrove witnessed the ravagers of
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  Speaker 1: war in Vietnam, where he was commander of a rifle platoon.
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  Speaker 1: He received a Military Cross for his service in nineteen
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  Speaker 1: seventy one and oversaw East Timor's transition to independence in
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  Speaker 1: the late nineties. Cosgrove was appointed Chief of Army in
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  Speaker 1: two thousand and later as the Chief of the Australian
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  Speaker 1: Defense Force. After a long and storied military career, he
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  Speaker 1: was appointed as Governor General by former Prime Minister Tony
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  Speaker 1: Abbott in twenty fourteen. Now in his seventies, Sir Peter
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  Speaker 1: Cosgrove is, by his own account, one of the happiest
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  Speaker 1: blokes around.
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  Speaker 4: So that's the sort of happiness in my own life. Kids,
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  Speaker 4: my military career, promotions, military missions that have gone well,
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  Speaker 4: opportunities which made me think how did I get here?
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  Speaker 4: That sort of thing has brought me to a stage
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  Speaker 4: where I'm content, and within that contentment, I'm pretty happy.
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  Speaker 1: Here's Fiona Harari.
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  Speaker 2: He just kept referring to his wife Lynn, Lady Cosgrove,
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  Speaker 2: who he just adores and talks about how lucky he
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  Speaker 2: is to have had such a loving, long term relationship
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  Speaker 2: and that really is one of the keys to his
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  Speaker 2: enduring happiness.
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  Speaker 4: When I first met that young woman, we were both young,
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  Speaker 4: I was so happy. I thought, I've found this wonderful person.
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  Speaker 4: I hope we can make a go of it, and
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  Speaker 4: we have.
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  Speaker 2: They've lived in an astonishing twenty eight different homes over
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  Speaker 2: the course of their forty nine year marriage, obviously, from
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  Speaker 2: government house in camera to some less than salubrious digs
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  Speaker 2: around the world, and he says that every home they've
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  Speaker 2: lived in has been filled with love. She's been there
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  Speaker 2: for him, he's been there for her. That has given
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  Speaker 2: him great joy. And the reason I really wanted him
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  Speaker 2: in this series, and I was so grateful when he
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  Speaker 2: said yes, was that here is a man whose career,
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  Speaker 2: his long career, has ostensibly been in the he's had
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  Speaker 2: to send troops away to war, and I wondered, how
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  Speaker 2: do you find happiness in that situation.
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  Speaker 3: He's a remarkably chirpy, happy.
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  Speaker 2: Man at seventy eight, and he said it is a
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  Speaker 2: mystery to him.
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  Speaker 3: It's not clear to him.
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  Speaker 2: Why he escaped being left with trauma in the way
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  Speaker 2: so many of his contemporaries have been. But he does
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  Speaker 2: say that having a loving relationship has been a really
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  Speaker 2: crucial part of cushioning some of the terrible things that
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  Speaker 2: he's had to see and do in his military.
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  Speaker 1: Career spanning almost two decades. The Vietnam War was a
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  Speaker 1: deeply divisive conflict that caused huge rifts back home. Around
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  Speaker 1: sixty thousand Australians served in Vietnam, where more than five
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  Speaker 1: hundred were killed and thousands more were wounded. Many troops,
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  Speaker 1: most of them men, returned to Australia deeply traumatized and
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  Speaker 1: some were shunned for answering the call of duty.
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  Speaker 2: War is bleak and one of the questions I asked
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  Speaker 2: him was have you ever been in a situation where
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  Speaker 2: happiness seems to be absent?
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  Speaker 3: And automatically he said yes.
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  Speaker 2: During the Vietnam War, his team were about to be discharged,
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  Speaker 2: their tour of duty was over and they're about to
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  Speaker 2: head home and this should have been a joyous time
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  Speaker 2: for the men in his command. But at just before
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  Speaker 2: they returned home, one Australian military person killed another and
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  Speaker 2: he said that was the occasion in his life where
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  Speaker 2: it was just utterly devoid of happiness.
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  Speaker 3: It was just a terrible time.
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  Speaker 2: Conversely, I asked him, have you found happiness in unexpected places?
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  Speaker 2: And he automatically said yes, in each team or when
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  Speaker 2: he was there around the time of independence. The joy
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  Speaker 2: and happiness that he saw on people's faces when in
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  Speaker 2: fact the help that they were promised was actually there
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  Speaker 2: and that life was going to be better.
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  Speaker 3: Was a beautiful thing to see.
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  Speaker 2: And he said also watching Australian's rally together to help
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  Speaker 2: the locals was a really joyous thing.
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  Speaker 4: And when we were getting on the ship, they were
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  Speaker 4: cheering us to the echo us, patting us on the back.
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  Speaker 4: And I thought, this is wonderful because nobody else has
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  Speaker 4: got this moment at the moment. I'm the fellow who's
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  Speaker 4: just absolutely absorbing every moment, and I thought, this is
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  Speaker 4: probably the crowning event of my military career. And boy
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  Speaker 4: was I happy.
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  Speaker 1: You said that Peter Cosgrove and his wife have lived
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  Speaker 1: in all manner of places, many of them within Australia.
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  Speaker 1: He's been close to our communities sometimes at really really
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  Speaker 1: hard times for those communities.
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  Speaker 3: Does he think we're happy? He thinks we're very happy.
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  Speaker 2: He was really happy to report that happiness was well
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  Speaker 2: and truly thriving out in the community, just at really
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  Speaker 2: grassroots levels. The kindness that he sees in people and
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  Speaker 2: general contentment that he sees out there is a really
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  Speaker 2: lovely thing to hear about.
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  Speaker 4: Mm hmmm.
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  Speaker 1: Fiuna Harari is a feature writer with The Australian. You
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  Speaker 1: can check out the Happiness Project and calculate your happiness
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  Speaker 1: score right now at the Australian dot com dot au