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Sex and the Super Retail scandal · The Front

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  Speaker 1: You can listen to the Front on your smart speaker
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  Speaker 1: every morning to hear the latest episode. Just say play
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  Speaker 1: the news from The Australian. From the Australian, Here's what's
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  Speaker 1: on the Front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Friday, August twenty three.
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  Speaker 1: Unions are turning on the Albanese government, with the powerful
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  Speaker 1: Electrical Trades Union to withhold more than a million dollars
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  Speaker 1: in donations to the Labor Party. That's after the government
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  Speaker 1: forced the construction union into administration following allegations of corruption
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  Speaker 1: and misbehavior. Aged care is about to get a lot
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  Speaker 1: more expensive after the collapse of negotiations in Canberra. Some
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  Speaker 1: self funded retirees entering a nursing home will have to
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  Speaker 1: spend forty thousand dollars more on the cost of care.
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  Speaker 1: There's a corporate sex scandal allegedly right at the top
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  Speaker 1: of one of our most significant retail companies, and they're
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  Speaker 1: fighting to keep it all secret. Today the moment Our
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  Speaker 1: Journal puts some very awkward questions to a CEO fighting
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  Speaker 1: allegations of impropriety.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Anthony.
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  Speaker 3: How are you.
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  Speaker 4: Good?
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  Speaker 1: This is The Australian's retail reporter Eli Greenblatt, and he's
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  Speaker 1: interviewing one of the most intriguing figures in Australian business today,
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  Speaker 1: Anthony Hereti, the boss of a company called super Retail.
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  Speaker 1: They've just announced some great annual results, which is why
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  Speaker 1: they've I suspect reluctantly granted Eli an interview, But Eli
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  Speaker 1: doesn't want to talk about the results, at least not yet.
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  Speaker 2: It's a record result and the dividends are up.
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  Speaker 3: But as I'm sure you can realize, there are other
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  Speaker 3: issues going on at super Retail which I need to
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  Speaker 3: ask you about, and then I'm happy, of course, to
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  Speaker 3: turn to the results.
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  Speaker 1: You can almost feel Anthony herity wincing.
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  Speaker 3: Allegations of really what looks like from the outside, a
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  Speaker 3: toxic workplace environment, bullying, harassment, other issues. I'm sorry that
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  Speaker 3: you know about and you've read about. What do you
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  Speaker 3: make of those comments and the scandal that's now swirling
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  Speaker 3: around super Retail group.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, I appreciate good answer the question. I can't comment
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  Speaker 4: on that that's subject to core proceedings in the statement
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  Speaker 4: of claim, be prejudicial to our positions. Start to answer
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  Speaker 4: those delegations in the public square.
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  Speaker 3: I'm sorry to answers, but I have to are you
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  Speaker 3: currently in a relationship with Jane Kelly.
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  Speaker 1: It's going to be the same answer, Eli, he said,
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  Speaker 1: it's going to be the same answer, Eli. Now, Eli
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  Speaker 1: and I have both interviewed a lot of CEOs. Take
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  Speaker 1: it from me, this is a toe curlingly awkward question
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  Speaker 1: to have to ask. But Eli doesn't flinch.
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  Speaker 3: But I mean, whether or not you're in a relationship
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  Speaker 3: with Jane Kelly. That's not a subject to coll proceedings.
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  Speaker 3: So that's a personal relationship. You can't comment on that.
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  Speaker 4: Oh Eli, I'm sorry, I'm not going to be disrespectful. Yeah,
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  Speaker 4: that is that issues attached to David claim is going
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  Speaker 4: to be an object to public hearing about it.
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  Speaker 1: If you didn't catch that, Anthony Heredy said, that's attached
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  Speaker 1: to a statement of claim that's going to be subject
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  Speaker 1: to a public hearing. We'll hear all about it in
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  Speaker 1: due course. Oh yes we will. In fact, this story
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  Speaker 1: is already going off in the boardrooms and newsrooms. You
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  Speaker 1: might not have heard of Super Retail, but you've heard
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  Speaker 1: of the brands it owns.
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  Speaker 2: Keep it running with Super Tibordo and the best performing oils.
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  Speaker 2: Whatever code of footy you're into, rebel sport. I've got
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  Speaker 2: your going.
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  Speaker 4: If this was a film, the jacket would probably start
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  Speaker 4: to rip at this point.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, but this is a macpack, Macpack, and.
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  Speaker 1: The story of what's going on behind the scenes is
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  Speaker 1: seriously wild. Eli've just been listening to your interview with
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  Speaker 1: Anthony Haggitty.
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  Speaker 2: Oh it was awkward, Yes, it was, wasn't it.
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  Speaker 1: These are not the kinds of interviews you normally do
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  Speaker 1: with CEOs, are they.
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  Speaker 3: No, it's not the type of questions I normally ask
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  Speaker 3: when speaking to a CEO about his personal life, relationships, bullying,
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  Speaker 3: and harassment. But that's what's happened a super Retail to
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  Speaker 3: overshadow what was actually very good results for the financial
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  Speaker 3: year because of this kind of scandal swirling around the company,
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  Speaker 3: swirling around the CEO in particular since April. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think he was expecting you to ask those
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  Speaker 1: questions or would you have been hoping that he would
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  Speaker 1: get away with talking about the prices of wrenches and
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  Speaker 1: basketball hoops?
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  Speaker 4: Yes?
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  Speaker 2: I think he, and I think he was prepared.
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  Speaker 3: He's got some pretty experienced and high priced pr people
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  Speaker 3: advising him, and I think they knew that.
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  Speaker 2: Although there is some interest in how his stores are going.
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  Speaker 3: Most of the answers were look like, can't comic because.
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  Speaker 2: Before the courts, which is true, it is before the courts.
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  Speaker 3: But I think there were some isshes he could talk
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  Speaker 3: about he decided not to, but he did point to
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  Speaker 3: the very good results Super Retail had, I think as
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  Speaker 3: evidence to say, well, we're not distracted.
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  Speaker 2: Management's not distracted, but getting on with the business.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, yes, there was a moment when he said
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  Speaker 1: to you, look where on the tools and this is
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  Speaker 1: the proof.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, yes, and those numbers do speak for themselves. So
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  Speaker 3: I think if there was any issue or concerned about
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  Speaker 3: a consumer backlash because what's going on, it hasn't happened.
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  Speaker 2: The consumer is restrained. There is a cost of living.
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  Speaker 3: Crisis, but their retail operations seem to do be doing
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  Speaker 3: pretty well. They've got positive sales growth, and that's across
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  Speaker 3: categories that are fairly discretionary.
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  Speaker 1: Who is Jane Kelly and why does it matter whether
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  Speaker 1: or not Anthony is or was in a relationship with her.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, I mean it's becoming a bit like a soap opera,
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  Speaker 3: or as one invest to called it a few weeks ago,
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  Speaker 3: it's a bit like married at first sight. It is
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  Speaker 3: a bit of a train wreck. Jane Kelly was the
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  Speaker 3: former head of HR for Super Retail Group, so a
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  Speaker 3: very powerful, very important position, very important executive on the team.
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  Speaker 3: And there are allegations, and these are untested allegations which
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  Speaker 3: are going before court, that she was in an undisclosed
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  Speaker 3: relationship with the CEO.
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  Speaker 2: And that was not disclosed to the board.
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  Speaker 3: That creates a whole lot of corporate governance problems, given
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  Speaker 3: the importance of HR, given the importance of Jane Kelly's role,
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  Speaker 3: given her oversight somewhat of the CEO and his oversight
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  Speaker 3: of her, that they were allegedly in a secret relationship.
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  Speaker 3: Now this has all come out because two of the
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  Speaker 3: most senior female executives at Super Retail ex executives, one
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  Speaker 3: the former chief legal officer, very important position, the other
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  Speaker 3: one a co company secretary, became whistleblowers.
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  Speaker 2: One of them was sacked. They've then launched action.
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  Speaker 3: They launched action in the Fair Work Commission where they
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  Speaker 3: made a string of allegations that the CEO, mister Eggerty,
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  Speaker 3: and Jane Kelly were in an undisclosed affair that allegedly
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  Speaker 3: the CEO misdus the company travel budget to further that affair,
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  Speaker 3: that there was harassment and bullying going on, there was
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  Speaker 3: staff complaints, nothing was done, there were whistleblower complaints, nothing
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  Speaker 3: was done. That the board was told allegedly of this
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  Speaker 3: affair between the CEO and the head of HR, nothing
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  Speaker 3: was done. And that also what came out a few
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  Speaker 3: weeks ago that allegedly that when Jane Kelly, the former
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  Speaker 3: head of HR, took a redundancy, that the CEO intervened
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  Speaker 3: personally to help her get a better redundancy package than
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  Speaker 3: maybe she could have got.
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  Speaker 2: But when she was made redundant, she was.
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  Speaker 3: Immediately then rehired allegedly as a consultant to advise who
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  Speaker 3: the next chairman of the company should be. And the
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  Speaker 3: problem with that, Claire, is that you've then got the
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  Speaker 3: situation again allegedly untested for the moment before the court,
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  Speaker 3: that the woman who was claimed to be having an
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  Speaker 3: affair with the CEO was then advising the chairman who
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  Speaker 3: should be the next chairman, that chairman being the boss
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  Speaker 3: of the CEO.
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  Speaker 1: Back to Eli Anthony and the very awkward interview.
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  Speaker 3: What do you make in the allegations that this relationship
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  Speaker 3: was hidden from the board that members of your executive
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  Speaker 3: team complained about her behavior and nothing was done. She
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  Speaker 3: was protected because of the relationship that you intervened personally
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  Speaker 3: to give her a better redundancy than she deserved when
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  Speaker 3: she left.
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  Speaker 4: Again, no out.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, in the.
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  Speaker 1: Company harrdy just keeps on blocking and just keeps on grilling.
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  Speaker 3: But it must be a distraction. It must be I
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  Speaker 3: don't know in some ways. Look, I don't know, embarrassing, hurtful,
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  Speaker 3: I don't know. But you know, these allegations are out there.
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  Speaker 3: They're in the public domain. The ones I've mentioned, also
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  Speaker 3: allegations of harassment and buying excessive workload. It's a high
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  Speaker 3: turnover in some of your executive departments.
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  Speaker 1: No comment from Anthony Herety, Yeah, I think it's probably
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  Speaker 1: fair to draw from his lack of comment and the
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  Speaker 1: fact that these proceedings are under way that super Retail
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  Speaker 1: Group is defending this though, would you agree?
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  Speaker 2: Yes? Absolutely?
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  Speaker 3: They Actually Super Retail came out and in a way
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  Speaker 3: out of themselves in April.
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  Speaker 2: This is when the scandal began.
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  Speaker 3: Well, we first learned about it because in April Super
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  Speaker 3: Retail made an announcement to the ASX revealing that they
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  Speaker 3: were now the subject of a potential legal case that
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  Speaker 3: could cost up to fifty million dollars and that these
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  Speaker 3: allegations were being made and they listed those allegations. So
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  Speaker 3: this has been playing out in the public square for
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  Speaker 3: a few months and they deny it. At the time
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  Speaker 3: in April, the company Super Retail said they investigated these
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  Speaker 3: claims and found there was nothing in them. So the
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  Speaker 3: CEO has kept his job. The company keeps ongoing and
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  Speaker 3: they're going to defend the action and are fighting the
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  Speaker 3: action in court even today where they appeared before Justice
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  Speaker 3: Michael Lee in the Federal Court.
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  Speaker 2: So they're denying it and they're defending it.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up a surprise reappearance from a superstar judge. We'll
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  Speaker 1: be back after this break. I spoke to Eli on Thursday,
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  Speaker 1: just after he'd stepped out of a Federal Court hearing.
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  Speaker 1: You were covering that hearing along with lawyers for News
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  Speaker 1: Corporation that's the parent company of The Australian. What were
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  Speaker 1: our lawyers in there to argue?
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  Speaker 3: Yes, this is a kind of a side part of
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  Speaker 3: a very lengthy and complex story, but also an important
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  Speaker 3: part of the story.
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  Speaker 2: So there was so.
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  Speaker 3: Rebecca Farrell was the former chief legal officer for super
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  Speaker 3: Retail Group, very important role, the most important kind of
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  Speaker 3: legal officer within the company.
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  Speaker 2: She was sacked earlier this year.
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  Speaker 3: She claims to be a whistleblower and she made many
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  Speaker 3: of the allegations that we know about today now.
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  Speaker 2: She issued to the court a few weeks ago her.
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  Speaker 3: Statement of claim about one hundred pages where she listed
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  Speaker 3: the history of her allegations, what happened inside super Retail. Now,
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  Speaker 3: as non parties the media, we can access that statement
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  Speaker 3: of claim, and we did attempt to access that statement
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  Speaker 3: of claim, but there were parts of that statement of
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  Speaker 3: claim that were redacted, that were blacked out that we
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  Speaker 3: couldn't see. And this revolves around this allegation that Super
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  Speaker 3: Retail Group, after some weeks of negotiations, entered into a
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  Speaker 3: settlement with miss Farrell over her allegations, over her whistleblower statements,
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  Speaker 3: and over her eventual departure from the company. Now, the
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  Speaker 3: details of what's in that settlement offer we can't see
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  Speaker 3: are being blocked from us for the moment, and the company,
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  Speaker 3: suber Retail, doesn't want to see what's in there. So
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  Speaker 3: our lawyers were in court today and they were in
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  Speaker 3: court last week arguing before Justice Michael Lee, and yes
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  Speaker 3: that's the same justice who presided over the Britney Higgins case.
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  Speaker 3: Our lawyers were arguing before the Justice that given our
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  Speaker 3: court strong belief in open justice, that we should be
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  Speaker 3: able to see those redacted paragraphs, that we, the media
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  Speaker 3: and the public should be able to see what was
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  Speaker 3: in that alleged settlement, what were the details of that
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  Speaker 3: deal that was done, and so that's what we'll for
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  Speaker 3: in court today. Eventually, after an hour or so, it
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  Speaker 3: was decided by Justice Michael Lee that he would lift
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  Speaker 3: the suppression that non parties the media could see what's
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  Speaker 3: in that settlement. However, that's been frozen for the moment
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  Speaker 3: until October first, as Super Retail perhaps seek to appeal
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  Speaker 3: that decision because they're fighting that.
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  Speaker 1: Justice Michael Lee made it clear during the very famous
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  Speaker 1: Bruce Lamban versus Network ten and Lisa Wilkinson case that
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  Speaker 1: he believes in open justice. He had the whole trial
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  Speaker 1: streamed live on YouTube. All the documents were put online
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  Speaker 1: as soon as they were tended. It's interesting that you
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  Speaker 1: say there's a possibility that super Retail is going to
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  Speaker 1: appeal today's decision. Do you think they might be buying
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  Speaker 1: time and there's going to be some sort of settlement here.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, they could be, and it does give them time,
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  Speaker 3: and the lawyers would know, of course what's going on
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  Speaker 3: in that and the negotiations, because meanwhile, the court case
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  Speaker 3: of Rebecca Farrell, the former Chief Legal Officer versus the
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  Speaker 3: Super Retail group goes on and will go into stages
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  Speaker 3: of document discovery and lodging more documents with the courts.
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  Speaker 3: So it does give the lawyers time. Super Retail is
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  Speaker 3: running up a very large legal bill fighting this suppression
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  Speaker 3: order over it's really a page of wording in that
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  Speaker 3: statement of claim, you know, it's maybe a dozen points
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  Speaker 3: in that settlement alleged settlement. So why are they fighting at?
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  Speaker 3: What is in there that they don't want us to see?
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  Speaker 3: That's what we want to know, and I suppose the
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  Speaker 3: more they fight it, the more we are fighting that
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  Speaker 3: we want to see it.
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  Speaker 1: Management misbehavior is definitely the theme of the moment ELI.
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  Speaker 1: Even today, there are scandals raging in hospitality in our
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  Speaker 1: own sector, media of course, in politics about the way
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  Speaker 1: employees are treated by their bosses. What about retail and
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  Speaker 1: the sector that you cover so closely, Is this a
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  Speaker 1: sector do you think where there is there are you know,
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  Speaker 1: throwbacks to kind of old fashion behavior that wouldn't be
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  Speaker 1: tolerated these days. Speaking generally, of course, and not about
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  Speaker 1: super retail.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, speaking generally and not about super retail. Absolutely it
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  Speaker 3: is a problem, and you know, we saw it during
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  Speaker 3: COVID where people would get very angry in the supermarket
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  Speaker 3: aisle and a checkouts and abuse a lot of staff.
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  Speaker 3: A lot of them are young women, and it is
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  Speaker 3: a very female dominated industry, especially at that kind of
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  Speaker 3: service and where you're dealing directly with consumers, with shoppers,
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  Speaker 3: so there's a lot of abuse there, and there is
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  Speaker 3: unfortunately a lot of instances of bad behavior within organizations
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  Speaker 3: where you do have a lot of women at the
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  Speaker 3: lower ends of the corporate hierarchy, but at the higher
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  Speaker 3: ends quite male dominated. We've seen a few cases play
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  Speaker 3: out in public and in the courts where this has happened,
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  Speaker 3: and it is shocking for everyone to see because you know,
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  Speaker 3: retail is a very large employer and it is awful.
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  Speaker 1: Eli green Black is a senior business reporter with The Australian.
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  Speaker 1: The case continues. Thanks for joining us on the front
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: this week. Our team is Kristen Amiot Leat, Sam mcglow,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: Jasper League, Georsh Burton, Tiffany Demack and me Claire Harvey