Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to Fear and Greed business news you can use today.
The Albanezi government claims it can reach home building targets
after Treasury advice said it's unlikely. By Minister Anthony Alberzi
pushes Australia and China to work together on decarbonizing steel,
and bitcoin surges hitting a new record, plus the Bureau
of Statistics readies for the next five year survey and
(00:29):
measle cases surge in the United States. It's Tuesday, the
fifteenth of July twenty twenty five. I'm Adam Lang and
good morning Sean Almer.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Good morning a Danski. I do believe you're in Canberra today.
Fresh this morning, I would.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Imagine, so fresh and dark, very clear.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Skuys though, will you be going for your normal twenty
k run that you've seen to do in the morning,
so I hope.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
So meanwhile, let's get on with the main story this morning.
The Albanezi government has been told by the Treasury that
the budget cannot be fixed without raising taxes and cutting spending,
and that its housing target is unachievable.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
The advice, which the ABC obtained via a Freedom of
information request, came after Labour's re election and what was
the government's signature pledge to build one point two million
homes over five years to address the housing crisis will
not be met, it says treasure Jim Chalmers will need
to find additional revenue and spending reductions to meet his
objective of a sustainable budget. Improvements to the budget will
(01:29):
need to come from economic growth, additional revenue and spending reductions,
and tax should be raised as part of broader tax reform.
The advice doesn't recommend which taxes should be raised, but
suggests that Treasury canvasses in direct taxes and superannuation tax
as possible targets. It also appears to favor lower taxes
on companies to help boost investment, and on personal incomes
(01:51):
to encourage workforce participation and give workers a fair go. Now.
The information came from Treasury's Incoming Government Brief. It's called
it Goes to the Incoming Government after the election went
to mister Charmers and Housing Minister Clara O'Neill. Under freedom
of information rules, media outlet's normally get a heavily redacted version,
but basically Treasury appears to have mistakenly provided the ABC
(02:15):
with a fuller than normal version with all this information.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
That is stunning and much to our benefit. Seawn, it
was leaked yesterday. So what was the government's response.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Federal treasure Jim Chalmers said he was relaxed about the league.
He said the government had already said it needs to
do more to hit its housing targets. He reckons he
can achieve the target, or at least the government can
achieve that target. Charmers said the government broadly would like
to simplify the tax system. He wouldn't be drawn on
the GST, but it just seems, based on his comments
and things that the Prime Minister has said over the
(02:48):
past couple of weeks, the gst's off the table. Charmers
also said the government had conservatives assumptions on the price
of iron ore, assuming iron ore prices stay around that
one hundred US dollars a ton mark, which is where
at the moment, that should help the budget bottom line.
The treasure is heading to South Africa later in the
week for the g twenty summit. He said that global
(03:08):
economic conditions will be the primary influence on the local economy.
He also called the current state of affairs I'll quote
him extreme global economic uncertainty compounded by conflict and trade
tensions around the world end quote.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Sean Prime Minister Anthony Alberonizi, who is currently visiting China,
talked up the partnership between Ossie iron ore miners and
Chinese steelmakers yesterday, highlighting that Australian iron ore comprises about
sixty percent of all all imports into China.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
And that lead to a discussion about the need to
decarbonize steel making. Steel making value chains are responsible for
about seven to nine percent of global emissions, a big
chunk of what's going into the air. Albernez. He said
decarbonization of steel value chains presents an opportunity for Australia
and China to progress long term economic interests. The Prime
(03:57):
Minister mentioned Fortesqu's ambitious green Metals project, Hancock Prospecting's research
projects in the low carbon processing technology, and collaborations between
BHP RIO and Chinese firms. Mister Albernezi also agreed that
the strong economic relationship between China and Australia can improve
peace instability in the region. The PM will be meeting
President Jijing Pin today. That's at least the plan at
(04:20):
this point. Decarbonization and free trade are two main areas
of interest. He wants to discuss.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Sean alongside this. How did local markets perform yesterday?
Speaker 2 (04:30):
There's in pasx two hundred closed down ever so slightly
to eight thousand, five hundred and seventy points. The banks
were mixed so to the big miners, almost like the
investors are on school holidays. At the moment. It's a
pretty good day for the gold stocks. In the back
of the geo political uncertainty, Northern Star, Newmont and Evolution
Mining all rows. That same uncertainty hurt some of the
mid cap textoks, Zip Appen Block, they all fell.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Sean Bitcoin has not yet another record, pushing beyond US
one hundred and twenty thousand dollars a unit. This is incredible.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Yes, it certainly has plenty of friends out there. At
the moment, it's now training around one hundred and eighty
thousand Ossie dollars a unit. Pretty amazing. It's up nearly
sixty percent since it's low in April, eighty seven percent
over the past year. Overnight, the US House of Representatives
were set to debate a series of bills to provide
the digital asset industry with a national regulatory framework, which
(05:26):
advocates for the currency have long wanted. Helping is the
fact that Donald Trump has called himself the crypto President.
Of course, Bitcoin's renewed momentum has also spilled over to
smaller tokens, with ether, XRP and Solana au rising.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
If you want to keep on top of all of
these stats and the information on cryptos, sign up to
the newsletter now go to our website. Sign up. You'll
get that newsletter in your inbox every weekday. We'll be
back in a moment with the rest of the day's
business news. Sean. The first census questions on sexual orientation
(06:05):
and gender will be sent out to sixty thousand households
as part of a practice version of the twenty twenty
six nationwide serve.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
The Bureau of Statistics said the homes have been chosen
to take part in a census on August five to
make sure the real event runs without incident. Now the
real event is next year. It will include questions so
that the test event will include questions which hopefully run
in the real event, and they include things about sexual
(06:33):
orientation and gender for people over at sixteen. The abs
SAT homes in Melbourne Perth, as well as locations in
Regional Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia were chosen
for the voluntary test run. The Census is a nationwide
count of household information is conducted every five years. Basically
provides a snapshot of Australia's population and helps inform government
decisions about spending, resource allocation and policy development.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Sean bidders for Abacus Storage king I've upped their offer
for the group by almost fifteen percent to two point
two billion dollars.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Tell us about that, Well, it's enough to convince the
ASX listed company's board to open the books to the
bidders now. Those bidders are led by a South African
businessman and a Wall Street listed company. In April, Abicus
rejected a dollar forty seven security bid, saying it's port
Foiholio is valued at dollars seventy three. The latest offer
is about a dollar sixty five. I think it closed
last night at about a buck fifty six or thereabouts.
(07:27):
Apicus owns two hundred and ten self storage sites in
Australia and New Zealand. Adding to the intrigue, another storage
operator ASX listed National Storage rate actually owns nine percent
of Abicus. It owned just under five percent when the
bid was made in April by the offshore guy's National
Storage Up. It's increased to nine percent. We're going to
(07:48):
hear a lot more about this one.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Sean Diversified minus South thirty two has put its production
guidance under review, flagging an unquantified expense on its Moses
aluminium smelter in Mozambique.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
The problem here is getting energy to the mine. So
electricity is supplied to MASL under an agreement due to
expire in March next year. Historically, the majority of the
electricity for MASL has been generated in Mozambiak by a
hydro electric power generation which is majority owned by the
Mozambacon government. Negotiations on that seem to have stalled. They're
(08:23):
looking obviously South thirty two wants affordable power after March
next year. It just seems that he's not confident that
negotiations as they stand again to get it that way.
Therefore made that warning. Yesterday. South thirty two share price
for more than five percent Sean.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Yesterday there were quite a few bits and pieces of
corporate news around Drone Shield will invest a thirteen million
dollars sum in a major new research, development and manufacturing facility,
and that is triple the size of its current facility.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
That pushed its share price up as much as twelve
percent yesterday to a record high. Retailer City Chic Collective
said it will make a profit for the last financial
year after losing money the previous year, but the forecast
bottom line disappointed at investors. Its share price closed down
one percent, and some technologies upgraded its underlying profit outlooks,
sending its share price up eleven percent. Coal minor Bowen
(09:14):
Cochin resumed trading on the AX after a three week
suspension sparked by growing concerns about its liquidity. Its share
price closed up four percent, and finally, mcquarie Technology Group
said its Data center arm had entered into an option
to purchase a parcel of land for a new data
center campus in Sydney. It's share price jump ten percent,
the best of the top two hundred yesterday.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Sean It's been another big twenty four hours. In international news,
the fallout from Donald Trump's announcement of tariffs on the
European Union continues with a German Chancellor, Friedrich Mertz saying
thirty percent tariffs would hit exporters in Europe's largest economy
to the core.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Mertz is hoping to find a negotiated solution in coming weeks.
He said. If the tariffs are introduced, they will overshadow
domestic policy in Germany's government may you need to postpone
parts of its own policy efforts. The European Union will
extend the suspension of trade counter measures against the US
until August one, in the hope that further talks will
(10:12):
kind of come to some sort of arrangement between the
EU and the US. However, according to Italy's foreign minister,
the EU has already prepared a list of tariffs on
US goods if the two regions fail to reach a deal. Meanwhile,
Bloomberg is reporting that the EU will step up its
engagement with other countries hit by US tariffs. Both Canada
and Japan are included in those plans.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Shwn measles in the US, the number of reported measles
cases in the US has reached a thirty three year high,
with nearly thirteen hundred confirmed infections across the country, marking
a new milestone in the outbreak of the highly contagious
and vaccine preventable disease.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
The John Hopkins University data shows measles cases have been
reported in thirty eight states and the District of Columbia
this year. At least three people have died from the illness.
One hundred and fifty five others were in hospital. A
vast majority of the measle cases ninety two percent, wherein
people who were either unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown,
(11:09):
according to the Center for Disease Control. The outbreak comes
as anti vaccine sentiment in the US and elsewhere has
grown in recent years. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior
had previously spread misinformation about childhood vaccinations and had minimized
the outbreak. He later endorsed the measles months and rubella
vaccine as the illness spread, saying in a post on
(11:30):
x that it is the most effective way to prevent
the spread of measles.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Sean immediately after the show, we'd love everyone to keep
listening for your chat with Jocelyn Martin, who's the managing
director of the Housing Industry Association.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Very timely because it comes on the back of the
discussion between Jim Chalmers and the Treasury advice about whether
or not Australia can reach that one point two million
homes over five years starting from this year this calendar year.
Join basically says no, we can't, and we go through
some of the reasons we can't, but what could make
it difference and she's very frank upfront about what the
(12:04):
government needs to do and what the industry needs to do.
So it's certainly well worth.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
A listen, frank and direct.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
We need that we do, Adam, We do always. Thank you, Sean,
Thanks Adam.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
It's Tuesday, the fifteenth of July twenty twenty five. Make
sure you're following this podcast. Join us online on LinkedIn, Instagram, Pecks,
TikTok and Facebook, and please have a great day.