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The new threat to Australia’s nuclear subs · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Christinamiot.
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  Speaker 1: It's Monday, August eleven, twenty twenty five. Electric vehicle drivers
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: could be hit with a road user charge sooner rather
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  Speaker 1: than later. Under a plan to boost productivity. Treasurer Jim
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  Speaker 1: Chalmers is finalizing the tax reform plans ahead of next
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: week's productivity summit. Childcare subsidies should be scrapped in favor
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  Speaker 1: of direct funding of centers. That's the push by think tanks,
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  Speaker 1: advocates and some government MPs who say the current approach
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  Speaker 1: isn't working. Those exclusive stories alive right now at the
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  Speaker 1: Australian dot Com dot au. The former boss of Western
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  Speaker 1: Australia's naval base is worried about what a plan to
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  Speaker 1: relocate a commercial shipping port could mean for the August
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  Speaker 1: Military Pact. Vinced Pietro says the move could make HMAS
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  Speaker 1: Sterling vulnerable to attack and disruption. That's today's episode. Earlier
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  Speaker 1: this year, former Western Australian Labor MP Kyle McGinn traveled
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  Speaker 1: to Washington, DC. He wasn't there in an official capacity
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  Speaker 1: and he paid for the trip out of his own pocket,
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  Speaker 1: but he met with senior Republican and Democratic lawmakers while
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  Speaker 1: he was in town. At those meetings, Kyle McGinn secretly
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  Speaker 1: handed out copies of a four page document that could
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  Speaker 1: have big implications for the Orcus Military Pact. That's the
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  Speaker 1: agreement between Australia, the UK and the United States to
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  Speaker 1: build nuclear powered submarines. The document, written by the WA
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  Speaker 1: branch of the Maritime Union of Australia, warned a long
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  Speaker 1: planned relocalate of the state's commercial shipping port could bring
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  Speaker 1: foreign vessels uncomfortably close to its military operations. WA Premier
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  Speaker 1: Roger Cook said he wasn't aware of the document or
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  Speaker 1: Kyle McGinn's moves in the US Capitol until The Australian's
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  Speaker 1: senior reporter, Paul Garvey called him to ask what he
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  Speaker 1: thought of it. Cook reassured Washington there was no need
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  Speaker 1: to be alarmed about the so called Westport Project and
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  Speaker 1: reiterated his government's commitment to it.
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  Speaker 2: Our transformative Westport Project which will see the Quanana Industrial
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  Speaker 2: District transformed and become a key export piece of economic infrastructure.
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  Speaker 1: Kyle McGinn, who's a former seafarer with links to the
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  Speaker 1: Maritime Union, retired from politics in May after he failed
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  Speaker 1: to secure pre selection for the federal seat of Bullwinkle,
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  Speaker 1: but his claims about the potential security risks of the
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  Speaker 1: state government's multi billion dollar port project have set alarm
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  Speaker 1: bells ringing for Australia's most esteemed military figures. Here's Paul Garvey.
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  Speaker 3: This report who is prepared by is pretty interesting. It's
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  Speaker 3: been written by the former commanding Officer of the HMAS
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  Speaker 3: Sterling Naval Base, Vince di Pietro, and also by Air
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  Speaker 3: Vice Marshal John Blackburn, who during his career held senior
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  Speaker 3: positions inside the Air Force. So these are people who
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  Speaker 3: have lived and breathed this stuff their entire careers. They've
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  Speaker 3: held very senior roles and they've now prepared this report
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  Speaker 3: diving into some of the security issues that emerge from
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  Speaker 3: locating West Australia's main container port just across the water
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  Speaker 3: from HMAS Sterling Naval Base. These authors have identified the
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  Speaker 3: risks that opposed to the Orchest Submarines and to HMAS
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  Speaker 3: Sterling of having this high volume of foreign commercial vessels
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  Speaker 3: moving through what is the one and only channel in
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  Speaker 3: and out of hm Sterling.
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  Speaker 1: Western Australia's main shipping port is currently located in Fremantle,
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  Speaker 1: about twenty kilometers southwest of Perth. Under the state government's plan,
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  Speaker 1: it'll move further south to Quanana, where an existing port
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  Speaker 1: already receives about eight hundred and fifty ships a year.
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  Speaker 1: They carry commercial products like grain and aluminium. It's a
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  Speaker 1: stone's throw from the Henderson Shipbuilding Yards, where orcust subs
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  Speaker 1: and a new fleet of Japanese Magami frigates will be maintained,
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  Speaker 1: and the h M Mayor Sterling Naval Base, where additional
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  Speaker 1: US nuclear subs will be stationed from twenty twenty seven.
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  Speaker 1: But the report by the Institute for Integrated Economic Research
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  Speaker 1: Australia found the Westport plan will double traffic traveling in
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  Speaker 1: and out of the port, and that could open us
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  Speaker 1: up to a very modern form of warfare known as
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  Speaker 1: containerized weapons systems.
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  Speaker 3: It's a phrase that I guess is new to me,
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  Speaker 3: are probably new to a lot of us, But basically
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  Speaker 3: it's shoving a whole bunch of military equipment into seats
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  Speaker 3: and trucks and using that as the means to infiltrate
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  Speaker 3: behind enemy lines, into foreign jurisdictions and then launch drones
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  Speaker 3: or other sort of weapons from those containers. That's what
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  Speaker 3: Ukraine used to attack those Russian Air Force bases earlier
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  Speaker 3: this year.
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  Speaker 4: After a year and a half of planning. The drones
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  Speaker 4: were sneaked across the border in wooden crates, packed on trucks,
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  Speaker 4: then driven to locations near air bases and launched remotely.
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  Speaker 4: The mission personally overseen by President Voladimir Zelenski.
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  Speaker 3: Israel successfully used similar techniques in Iran. So they're arguing
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  Speaker 3: that you could see a scenario where and otherwise inauspicious
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  Speaker 3: see tana on a commercial vessel could actually contain military
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  Speaker 3: equipment which could be used to then attack the Orcus submarines,
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  Speaker 3: or are also just used to actually basically sink the
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  Speaker 3: commercial vessel itself, which if it's in the right position
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  Speaker 3: inside that channel, could well and truly block the only
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  Speaker 3: exits and entry point into Cobur and Sound for large
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  Speaker 3: vessels and the Orchest submarines. Coburn Sound is the point
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  Speaker 3: through which all the refined fuel comes into Perth, so
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  Speaker 3: there'd be a massive impact in that regard. It's a
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  Speaker 3: key export point for some raw commodities and so on
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  Speaker 3: as well, so they being economic impact in not being
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  Speaker 3: able to export those materials through that avenue. And then
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  Speaker 3: once Westport is in place, that would also be where
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  Speaker 3: all the containers come in and out of Western Australia.
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  Speaker 3: So you could see quite quickly a major disruption to
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  Speaker 3: the economy, to the daily lifestyle of Western Australians too,
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  Speaker 3: if suddenly fuel is cut off and the supply of
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  Speaker 3: goods into Western Australia is shut down in that sort
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  Speaker 3: of way. So it's a real vulnerability and it all
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  Speaker 3: just comes down to that fact that there's just that
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  Speaker 3: one shipping lane in and out of this area that
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  Speaker 3: really seems to be the Achilles Heel that this pair
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  Speaker 3: has identified.
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  Speaker 1: There's been a lot of concern about continued Chinese ownership
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  Speaker 1: of the Port of Darwin for very similar reasons. Paul, So,
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  Speaker 1: is this really about Chinese shipping vessels?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, look, there's not mentioned explicitly China, but the inference
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  Speaker 3: would be that that would be where the potential greatest
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  Speaker 3: risk would be. But I think really it makes the
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  Speaker 3: points that any non Australian flag vessel could be potentially
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  Speaker 3: a risk here. And if we think about this containerized weaponry,
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  Speaker 3: it could envisit a situation where that equipment could board
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  Speaker 3: any foreign vessel at any port potentially bound for Perth,
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  Speaker 3: bound for Westport, and wind up within a kilometer or
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  Speaker 3: two of a significant nuclear submarine base that's integral to
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  Speaker 3: the military, not just the Australia, but also to the
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  Speaker 3: US and the UK. So you can see quite quickly
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  Speaker 3: how you can get to a points here where there's
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  Speaker 3: an opportunity for an afarious foreign power to cause some
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  Speaker 3: real disruption to not just the military but also to
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  Speaker 3: the economy of Western Australia and Australia.
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  Speaker 1: August didn't exist when Westport was conceived, and that means
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  Speaker 1: it's not immediately clear what risk assessments have been done
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  Speaker 1: in relation to the move.
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  Speaker 3: The big one here is just actually what systems will
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  Speaker 3: be in place to screen containers coming into this facility
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  Speaker 3: that they don't pose that potential security risk there, And
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  Speaker 3: you think about how that would be done, that's quite
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  Speaker 3: a difficult thing. That's putting a lot of trust into
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  Speaker 3: the port of origin to either do that or find
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  Speaker 3: some means of doing that out at sea before the
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  Speaker 3: ships themselves into that port. So you can see that
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  Speaker 3: would be quite a complex challenge and it's one that
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  Speaker 3: these authors say that both the federal and the state
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  Speaker 3: government need to actually properly and publicly address.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up what America makes of Australia's shipping plans. Elbridge
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  Speaker 1: Colby is the United States Under Secretary for Defense Policy.
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  Speaker 1: That means he has the ear of Defense Secretary Pete
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  Speaker 1: Hegseth on matters of foreign policy like China's growing influence
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  Speaker 1: in the Pacific. He's conducting a review of the Orchis
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  Speaker 1: Pact to ensure it's fit for purpose.
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  Speaker 5: I think UCAS is really important, it's really valuable. I
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  Speaker 5: think the question will be in the implementation. I mean
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  Speaker 5: there's a lot of moving parts. Because it would be
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  Speaker 5: great if they're more American submarines, more Australian submarines that
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  Speaker 5: are more highly capable. That is a win win. But
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  Speaker 5: we can't sort of take it for granted and pocket
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  Speaker 5: the gains like we've already achieved that.
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  Speaker 1: So are possible security threats to vital military bases on
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  Speaker 1: his mind. Here's Paul Garvey.
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  Speaker 3: Look, I wouldn't know if this is particularly on his mind,
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  Speaker 3: but there are plenty of parties out there that have
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  Speaker 3: a dim view of ORCUS and every utterance in this regard,
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  Speaker 3: gives those critics and skeptics some more ammunition for their cause.
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  Speaker 3: So in that sense, the timing of these issues being
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  Speaker 3: raised certainly isn't helpful to UCUS. If you're a US
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  Speaker 3: decision maker looking for reasons to question this deal and
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  Speaker 3: potentially unwind or exit, then there's a good few pages
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  Speaker 3: worth of arguments put forward here by these two authors today.
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  Speaker 1: Paul Garvey is a senior reporter with The Australian. You
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  Speaker 1: can read all his reporting, as well as the nation's
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  Speaker 1: best news, sport, politics and business right now at the
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  Speaker 1: Australian dot com dot au