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What's with Jacinta Allan's China charm offensive? · The Front

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, September seventeen, twenty twenty five. The former US
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  Speaker 1: Secretary of State says China is playing a great game
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  Speaker 1: in the Pacific. Kurt Campbell told the National Press Club
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  Speaker 1: on Tuesday Beijing is relentless in its interference in Australian
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  Speaker 1: initiatives in the region and could be behind a delay
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  Speaker 1: of a new security pact with Poppy New Guinea. Susan
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  Speaker 1: Lee will warn Australia is in danger of losing its
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  Speaker 1: Triple A credit rating if reckless spending goes unchecked. The
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  Speaker 1: opposition leader will make her first major economic speech on Wednesday.
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  Speaker 1: She'll commit to putting a handbrake on taxes. Those stories
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  Speaker 1: alive right now at the Australian dot com dot au.
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  Speaker 1: It seems like an odd troop to take the victor
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  Speaker 1: you're in. Premier is catching trains around China to talk
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  Speaker 1: up Chinese investment in projects like renewable energy and maybe
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  Speaker 1: even public transport, as well as her ambitions to bring
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  Speaker 1: in more Chinese students. There are all topics that make
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  Speaker 1: the federal government very nervous, so what's just into Alan
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  Speaker 1: really up to in China? Anthony Galloway joins us from
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  Speaker 1: a bustling Beijing railway station.
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  Speaker 2: We've just spent the last twenty four hours in Beijing
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  Speaker 2: after just into Alan, touchdown, and about to catch a train,
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  Speaker 2: a fast train to Nanjing, where you will visit a
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  Speaker 2: school and meet.
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  Speaker 1: This is The Australian's Victorian political editor, Anthony Galloway. He's
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  Speaker 1: at a train station in Beijing. Of course, he is
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  Speaker 1: with the state's labor premier.
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  Speaker 2: Just into Alan and then we're going to catch another
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  Speaker 2: fast train to Shanghai, so it will be a long day.
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  Speaker 1: Allan is whizzing around China in honor of a new
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  Speaker 1: strategy she's just released all about closer ties with China,
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  Speaker 1: including more international students and bigger investment in Victoria. She's
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  Speaker 1: already announced fast tracking a four hundred and thirty five
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  Speaker 1: million dollar solar battery program funded by a Beijing company,
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  Speaker 1: to be built in Victoria's northeast. Plus now there's talk
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  Speaker 1: she'll allowed Chinese investment in Melbourne's suburban rail loop. The
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  Speaker 1: timing is weird. Just a fortnight ago, Allen's predecessor, Daniel
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  Speaker 1: Andrews a fellow member of the Socialist Left faction, embarrassed
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  Speaker 1: the federal government by showing up at Shijingping's giant military
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  Speaker 1: parade when Australia's own ambassador had pointedly stayed away dentat
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  Speaker 1: and Welcome to Chona.
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  Speaker 2: Dan Andrews appearance at that controversial military parade has really
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  Speaker 2: complicated the optics for to Cina Allen's trip. Her entourage
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  Speaker 2: weren't happy with it because this trip was locked in
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  Speaker 2: months ago, and all of a sudden, her predecessor is
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  Speaker 2: appearing at an event very much endorsing China's geopolitical kind
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  Speaker 2: of moves in the region and the world. When Jacina
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  Speaker 2: Allen really wants to focus on things like education, boosting exports,
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  Speaker 2: and boosting Chinese investment into Victoria, so she wants to
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  Speaker 2: keep it about the economy, jobs. She doesn't want to
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  Speaker 2: be talking about any kind of controversial geopolitical issues to
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  Speaker 2: do with Beijing.
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  Speaker 3: It's an important opportunity to strengthen the relationship with China
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  Speaker 3: because it means focusing on jobs, jobs for working people
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  Speaker 3: and Victorian families, and that's exactly what we'll be doing
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  Speaker 3: this week while I'm in China.
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  Speaker 1: When Dan Andrews was starting up and down red carpets
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  Speaker 1: with Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong worn. It seemed like
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  Speaker 1: a bit of a throwback to a more innocent time
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  Speaker 1: when premiers of state in Australia thought that engagement in
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  Speaker 1: China on the economy or on anything else was a
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  Speaker 1: universally good thing. It's much more complex now, though, isn't it.
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  Speaker 2: It is much more complex. It's really stark. During this trip.
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  Speaker 2: I just get the sense from the Victorian premiere that
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  Speaker 2: she doesn't want to talk about any of those other issues.
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  Speaker 2: But I mean, the fact is under the Chinese system
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  Speaker 2: that they do like to intertwine the economy and national
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  Speaker 2: security issues. But that's not what Jacinta Allen wants to do.
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  Speaker 2: It gets complicated when she's talking about boosting the amount
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  Speaker 2: of Chinese investment into high tech industries in Victoria. So
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  Speaker 2: this China strategy that she released talks about things like that,
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  Speaker 2: talks about helping Chinese investors navigate the process of the
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  Speaker 2: Foreign Investment Review Board.
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  Speaker 3: I want to see Victoria as the first port of
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  Speaker 3: call for Chinese businesses to innovate and invest.
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  Speaker 2: That kind of talk may set her on a collision
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  Speaker 2: course with Canberra, because obviously agencies in CAM a kind
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  Speaker 2: of reticence for Chinese investment into any kind of sensitive technologies.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a lot of concern at a federal level
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  Speaker 1: about critical infrastructure investments by China and about kind of
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  Speaker 1: anything that is adjacent to critical infrastructure. You know that
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  Speaker 1: that term is up for definition. I guess, so how
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  Speaker 1: much of what Jasinter Allen wants to do is actually
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  Speaker 1: going to be able to be achieved. Can she persuade
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  Speaker 1: the Foreign Investment Review Board to do something it's skeptical about.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, they can help explain it, but at the
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  Speaker 2: end of the day, you would think the Treasurer and
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  Speaker 2: the people that oversee the FURD process, with the advice
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  Speaker 2: of agencies like AZIO, will make their decisions regardless of
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  Speaker 2: anything that Victoria thinks. I mean. The other issue where
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  Speaker 2: Jasinter Allen is potentially out of step with Canber is
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  Speaker 2: she's saying it's all about education, education, education. She wants
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  Speaker 2: to boost the number of Chinese students studying at Victorian
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  Speaker 2: universities and vocational senses. But the Albanezi government has a
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  Speaker 2: cap of two hundred and seventy thousand that they put
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  Speaker 2: in base for twenty twenty five. Last month they announced
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  Speaker 2: in additional twenty five thousand placements, but that's only for
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  Speaker 2: universities who are one boosting student accommodation and two engaging
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  Speaker 2: in Southeast Asia, not China. So Canberra wants more students
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  Speaker 2: from Southeast Asia, probably less from China to kind of
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  Speaker 2: improve that balance, given there is already so many Chinese
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  Speaker 2: students studying in Australia, particularly in some of those Melbourne universities.
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  Speaker 2: So the key part of our strategy may be a
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  Speaker 2: bit out of alignment with where Canberra wants to have had.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Part of the Federal government's anxiety about student numbers
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  Speaker 1: is related to housing, which of course is their great
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  Speaker 1: undelivered promise from the previous election. You know, they promised
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  Speaker 1: to get housing affordability under control because they knew it's
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  Speaker 1: a massive issue, particularly in Sydney. They haven't got there yet.
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  Speaker 1: And the influx of migrants is one of the causes
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  Speaker 1: of housing price increase, of course, as all other population
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  Speaker 1: pressures are. Is that in Victoria though, I mean is
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  Speaker 1: housing hot enough in Melbourne where, of course the property
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  Speaker 1: market's very different. To make this something that Cinta Allen
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  Speaker 1: would be worrying about or not is the goal of
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  Speaker 1: propping up the education sector? You know, does it override
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  Speaker 1: that concern?
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  Speaker 2: It seems to override it for just center Allen. As
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  Speaker 2: you say, the property market in Melbourne's different story to
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  Speaker 2: say Sydney, but it's really heading up in Victoria the
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  Speaker 2: past few months. And I think that need to provide
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  Speaker 2: student accommodation stock is just as relevant in Melbourne as
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  Speaker 2: anywhere else.
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  Speaker 3: I will always say yes to international students and I'm
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  Speaker 3: not going to be deterred because it's so important. It's
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  Speaker 3: so important. It means jobs, it means opportunities, particularly for
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  Speaker 3: regional kids.
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  Speaker 2: She is really talking about regional Victorian universities, so that
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  Speaker 2: may be perhaps where she's heading, kind of changing that
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  Speaker 2: balance between less overseas students at Melbourne unis more in
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  Speaker 2: some of those regional campuses, so she could be heading there.
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  Speaker 1: What's your sense of her as a leader, Anthony in
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  Speaker 1: light of this trip. You know, she's potentially starting a
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  Speaker 1: fight with Anthony Albanezi. She's not happy about Daniel Andrews,
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  Speaker 1: but she's forged a head anyway. She's on this trip.
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  Speaker 1: Is she kind of you know, slightly unwilling guest of
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  Speaker 1: the Chinese government and having to make it.
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  Speaker 2: All look good.
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  Speaker 1: Or is this, you know, the just into kind of
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  Speaker 1: crash or crash through strategy?
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  Speaker 2: It seems a bit that way. I mean, it's hard
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  Speaker 2: to see what they want out of this trip except
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  Speaker 2: more of the same. To go back to the strategy,
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  Speaker 2: it's a lot more vague than the plan released by
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  Speaker 2: Daniel Andrews in twenty sixteen. It doesn't sign Victoria up
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  Speaker 2: to hard targets. It will be really hard to judge
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  Speaker 2: this strategy in a few years time about whether it's
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  Speaker 2: this success or a failure. So one is left wondering
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  Speaker 2: is a big reason why this trip is taking place
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  Speaker 2: more about politics? So her entourage includes five Labor MPs
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  Speaker 2: with the highest number of Chinese Australian voters. So is
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  Speaker 2: it really about hitching to Chinese Australians who were so
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  Speaker 2: crucial to State Labour's win last election heading into a
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  Speaker 2: November election in twenty twenty six reminding Chinese Australians in
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  Speaker 2: Victoria that the Liberal Party can't talk to these voters
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  Speaker 2: and that Labor really can. I thank you, okay, thank you,
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  Speaker 2: that's find so much me.
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  Speaker 1: Send me the audio just you can send it on WhatsApp.
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  Speaker 2: It was great, Thanks, okay, catch up for.
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  Speaker 1: And then he was gone. Anthony Galloway is The Australian's
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  Speaker 1: Victorian political editor. He's been in the job just a
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  Speaker 1: couple of weeks and he's already smashing out the scoops,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: including a story that brought down the president of the
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  Speaker 1: Victorian Liberal Party. You can check out his reporting anytime
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: at the Australian dot com dot au