August 18, 2025 • 17 mins
Tuesday 19 August 2025
The business community unites as pressure ramps up on day one of the government’s economic reform roundtable.
And more, including:
- NAB admits to underpaying staff.
- The ASX hits another high - that’s six in six days.
- A former PM slams Australian bosses for their attitude to cybersecurity.
- A record fine for Qantas.
- Meta runs into problems with its AI.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to Fear and Greed business news you can use today.
The business community unites Today. The business community unites as
pressure ramps up. On day one of the government's economic
reform round table, National Australia Bank admits to underpaying staff
and a former Prime minister slams Australian bosses for their
attitude to cybersecurity, plus a record fine for Quantus, and
(00:29):
Meta runs into problems with its AI. It is Tuesday,
the nineteenth of August twenty twenty five. I'm Michael Thompson
and good morning Natalie McDonald.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Good morning Michael.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
The main story, Natalie. Pressure is building on the Prime
Minister and on the Treasurer to deliver at their economic
reform round table, which kicks off today in Canberra. It
feels like we've been talking about it forever, but it
is finally here. The business community has united to declaire
out and this is a quote. Economic rule book is
out of date, while the Productivity Commission chair says regular
(01:02):
tree hair balls have found their way into almost every
corner of our economy, which is a great line.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Isn't it. That really is But the roundtable, as you say,
it feels like we've been discussing this for whatever. I
will bring together twenty four leaders from business, at union's
politics and civil society, with invitees ranging from TILL independent
allegris Bender to Atlatan co founder Scott Farqua to address
Australia's stagnating productivity growth, which is prompt to concern that
(01:31):
younger generations may be worse off than their parents. The
federal position is going Depthy leader Ted O'Brien has been invited,
although he did warn over the weekend that the summit
may be quote engineered to rubberstamp labor policy. The summit
will focus on three themes resilience, productivity, and budget sustainability
with tax reform, including debates on artificial intelligence, tax reform
(01:54):
and cutting red tape. Day one will focus on international
risks and trade with conversations on skills, attraction, mobility and
capital investment, and will feature insights from RBA Governor Michelle Bullock.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
This is actually quite a scaled down round table. In
the past we've seen these kind of summits there are
potentially hundreds of people there, and the famous one back
in I think it was twenty and eight, the twenty
twenty summit that Kevin Rudd held where there were so
many people there from all walks of life, a lot
(02:26):
of celebrities. There were big name kind of celebrities and
sports people and business people and all of these coming
together with big ideas. There's only twenty four people attending this,
so it is quite small. What's on the agenda over
the next three days and what are they hoping to
kind of get through?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
The roundtable will consider proposals drawn from more than nine
hundred submissions collected through a Treasury consultation, plus insights from
more than forty smaller industry specific forums, in addition to
advice from the Productivity Commission you mentioned earlier. The business community,
a megagroup prising the Business Council of Australia, the Bank's miners,
(03:02):
tech companies, are calling for four key things. They are
reducing red tape by twenty five percent by twenty thirty,
improving planning a major project approvals, boosting investment and innovation,
and kickstarting productive tax reform that doesn't phrase costs for
consumers or businesses. The proposals, as mentioned have been as
varied as they have been many A new two tier
(03:24):
corporate tax system, a new national approach to using AI
in the classroom, a road user charge, and a legal
exemption to copyright laws for technology companies. Yesterday, Productivity Commission
Chair Daniel Woods spoke at the Press Club addressing some
of those regulatory hair balls. Again a great phrase the
red tape that she said is limiting our growth and
(03:45):
highlighting stamp duty as one area ripe for reform and
McKinnon poll of two thousand Australians shows strong public support
for immediate economic reforms. Fifty one percent back major reform now,
sixty four percent want consultation without waiting for the next election,
and only ten percent oppose action this term, which does
(04:06):
beg the question what will be done now? What will
be held until just before the next election cycle as
far as what can actually be done? But amazing that
the numbers show Australians want action now.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yeah, they want change. Did you know that Hugh Jackman
and Kate Blanchette were at the one? I mentioned that
Kevin Rudbin back in two thousand and eight, which makes
me think there is a severe lack of star power
in Canberra. Over the next three days. Where's Hugh is
he in the country?
Speaker 2 (04:34):
I don't know we'll track him down there. We'll send
him a on to Canberra.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
He might pop up now. Moving away from politics and
moving away from Canberra, National Australia Bank has admitted to
underpaying staff due to payroll system errors and it's not
a small issue. They have set aside one hundred and
thirty million dollars this financial year to address the issue.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Our review uncovered failures to recognize entitlements such as overtime,
penalty rates and long service leave. NAB has not disclosed
how many employees are affected, but said it is working
with the Fair Work Onwardsman and the Finance Sector Union.
Important to note, though, this is not the first time
that NABS faced a payroll scandal. A previous error cost
(05:17):
the bank two hundred and fifty million dollars between twenty
twenty and twenty twenty two, with underpayment stretching all the
way back to twenty twelve. The announcement came alongside nabs
dune quarter results, with cash earnings of one point seven
billion dollars down one percent due to higher credit impairment charges.
Revenue grew three percent, while expenses rows three percent, partly
(05:38):
due to remediation costs.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
It was overall a pretty reasonable day for the banks. Yesterday,
how did local markets perform?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
As a record intra day high for the sixth consecutive session,
the SMP airsex two hundred rowse twenty points or point
two percent to eighty nine hundred and fifty nine after
setting a record intra day high of eight thousand, nine
hundred and sixty three in a fairly turbulent session. Actually
that saw the BOSS swing multiple times between gains and losses,
investors focusing on what has so far been a stronger
(06:09):
than expected start reporting season, with about half of all
companies reporting a beat. According to UBS, The banking sector
pulled the market higher, with materials the main drag.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
All right, we're going to take a very quick break.
While we do so, why not head along to Fearangreed
dot com dot au and sign up for the free
daily newsletter. It lands in your inbox every morning by
six am with just the key stories you need to
know for the day. It takes about three minutes to read.
I'll put a link in today's show notes as well.
All you need is your email address and a way
you go. We'll be back in a moment with the
rest of the Day's Business News. Natalie Quantas has been
(06:48):
fined ninety million dollars, the largest workplace penalty in Australian
corporate history, for illegally sacking one eighth and twenty groundstaff
in twenty twenty during the pandemic.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Justice Michael Lee ruled the outsourcing was carefully planned and
aimed at undermining workers industrial rights. He was also critical
of former CEO Alan Joyce and the airline's attempts to
obscure decision making, in addition to noting Curren CEO Vanessa
Hudson's failure to testify, saying Quantas showed the wrong kind
of sorry, which I'm sorry. This just sounds like it
(07:21):
needs to be a country record, this.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Cou history song, the wrong kind of sorry. Well, the
thing is Justice Michael Lee just has a knack for
that kind of thing. He can deliver a line with
the best of them.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
And one of the things that we were sort of
waiting to hear about we spoke yesterday about the question
regarding who the payment will go to. Of the penalty,
fifty million dollars will go to the Transport Workers' Union.
Well forty million dollars is reserved for potential payments to
affected employees. Of course, this is an addition to the
sum that was already paid out to them previously. The
(07:53):
court also appointing a contradictor to manage competing claims.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Former Prime Minister Turnbull, who's been pretty quiet lately. You
would have thought that he would have popped up as
all the talk of the reform round table that he
might have been contributing at some point, but no, it's
been pretty quiet until now. He has now slammed corporate
complacency over cybersecurity, warning businesses that they, not government, are
(08:19):
responsible for protecting customer data.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
And I actually enjoy this from him, but you're right,
he does seem to have just emmersed certainly through the darkness.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Certainly gets some attention though when he pops back up
for sure.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
A report from security firm Cempress found fifty two percent
of cyber attaxica on weekends or holidays, when it teams
are understaff because it's the weekend. Alarmingly, one in three
Australasian companies was hit more than once in the past year,
with forty three percent of Australian victims even threatened with
physical harm. Turnbull said executives too often treat ransomware as
(08:54):
a mere cost of doing business, and criticize PM Anthony
Albernizi's suggestion that hacks happen quote all the time, saying
that such comments breed complacency. The former PM urged directors
to personally understand cyber risks, saying, if you're a business leader,
you have a duty to defend your company or your
inviting disaster. Honestly, I like this from him.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Yeah, no, it is. It is quite good, isn't it.
We did touch on reporting season earlier when we're talking
about NAB and the record run that reporting season has
really offered the local sharemaker. What was it six consecutive
days now of intra day highs. Let's take a look
at some of the other key numbers from yesterday.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
A two Milk delivering a record annual sales of one
point nine billion New Zealand dollars, up thirteen and a
half percent on the prior year, while net profit rose
twenty one percent. The company is eyeing an expansion into
China with the purchase of a manufacturing facility in New
Zealand for two hundred and eighty two million at New
Zealand dollars, shares finishing the day more than three percent
(09:54):
higher at eight dollars twenty three. Lend Lease this is
a great story. Back in Black returned to a profit
of two hundred and twenty five million dollars in the
year to June from a loss of one point five
billion dollars the previous year. Shares up six percent to
five dollars in ninety two. Meanwhile, Bluescope Steel fell more
than three percent to twenty three dollars forty eight after
(10:15):
it's full year net profit tumbled to eighty three point
eight million dollars from eight hundred and six million dollars
a year ago.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
That it is such a massive drop in profit there,
and I know that a big chunk of it was
due to a write down in one of its US businesses.
But it also had a lot to say about the
cost of energy, saying that that is a massive drag,
particularly on a company like that, because it is such
an energy intensive process, the manufacturing of steel. So a
(10:46):
few more details behind that number, because that is just
such a massive decrease in their in their profit.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
And it does it stands out when as we were
saying earlier you know, ubs talking about the fact that
most companies are coming through with a beat, and if
you're a company that isn't able to offer to that investor,
that to investors, you're going to feel it. But lastly,
Digito Infrastructure reported full year underlying earnings before interest, taxes,
depreciation and amortization of ninety nine million dollars. The figure
(11:14):
considered a slight miss, but enough to send shared Luer
finishing the day off more than fourteen percent at two
dollars seventy five.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Now, just quickly, Australia is lagging behind global peers in
adopting the four day work week, with Unilever and Booper
both abandoning trials despite evidence that it can boost productivity,
reduce burnout and improve well being. This is a second
second week in a row now that we've talked about
the four day work week. It feels like there's an
(11:42):
agenda here.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
And I remember when all of this these trials were
actually put in place. This was part of a really
big sort of global movement and considered the beginning of
the end of the five day workweek. But trials in
the UK showed companies reported revenue growth and a sixty
five percent drop in six days, while Belgium legislated shorter
weeks in twenty twenty two. Yet local update has been
(12:06):
pretty patchy. Unilever and Booper, as you mentioned, both ditching
the model, calling it to rigid. Smaller firms have had
some success by adopting flexible versions, allowing staff time off
around workloads and refining policies regularly. HR experts are saying
that without deeper cultural change, a mandated four day week
risks being another sort of one size fits all fix,
(12:28):
a kind of sizzle no substance measure. The Australian Council
Trade Unions, however, as you say, pushing the idea at
this week's Productivity Summit, and we have seen the idea
raised a couple of times in the lead up.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Now just one more before we get to international news.
A real world case of expectations versus reality when it
comes to how much Australians are expecting to inherit. With
gen z in for a fairly rude.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Awakening, Nearly half of young Australians in their twenties expect
to inherit over half a million dollars. That's almost double
the sum expected by people age fifty to sixty four
and only about twenty thousand dollars less than the amount
anticipated by those age forty to forty nine. That's according
to stats from Colonial First Date. Over the next twenty years,
(13:14):
an estimated five point four trillion dollars will be inherited
as baby boomers and the Silent generation pass on property
and superannuation, but experts warn that rising living costs and
expensive age care could leave less to pass on. Plus
and this really surprised me. Only about thirty eight percent
of Australians actually have a will in place, and so
(13:35):
that's definitely going to add to the uncertainty.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yeah, certainly will oh oh no, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
That was terrible.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
See, if it was right there, it needed to be
said for the taking. Indeed, Okay. Turning to international news now,
and hundreds of thousands of Israelis staged nationwide protests demanding
an end to the war in Gaza and the release
of hostages still held by Hamas.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Demonstrators flooded Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, blocking major highways and
holding signs urging international pressure, including calls for US President
Donald Trump to intervene. Families of hostages warned that Israel's
looming military offensive could put their loved ones at greater risk.
With fifty hostages still in Gaza and only twenty believed
to be alive. Prime Minister Benjamin Ettannyahu condemned the rallies,
(14:21):
saying they emboldened Hamas and risked an endless war, while
President Isaac herzog urged the international community to pressure Hamas directly.
Protest organizers backed by unions and businesses said Sunday's mass
mobilization was only the beginning. Around the same time, though,
the Indonesian military conducted an air drop of aid into
(14:41):
Gaza as part of an international effort coordinated by Jordan.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
The incredible pictures of the plane and the parachutes and
everything coming out the back of the plane. Now we
mentioned this at the top of the show. Missus multi
billion dollar push into artificial intelligence is running into a
few problems. Months on from launching the meta a app as
a standalone rival to chat jpat, users are complaining that
(15:05):
the tech is glitchy, that it is impersonal, and it
is inconsistent.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Reporting by Bloomberg shows that, unlike competitors, the app includes
a discover feed of AI generated images and texts, but
posts are often appearing days old, undercutting its relevance in
private chats. The system has been found to fabricate details
and conversations don't carry across metas platforms, from Facebook to
Instagram to WhatsApp. A Reddit thread titled who hates Meta
(15:32):
ai has drawn tens of thousands of up votes. Meta
says this is only the beginning, and the updates are
coming as Meta invests heavily in AI talent and infrastructure.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Yeah, that's certainly not the only one though. When we
have open Ai, which obviously developed chat jpat and they
rolled out the new chat JPT version five a week
and a half ago, and in doing so kind of
switched off some of the older versions. But people wanted
the old version because it was a more personal conversational style,
(16:04):
and so chat GPT and open Ai had to listen
to the feedback that customers gave and had to switch
it back on. So clearly it feels like it's one
of those technologies it's just moving so quickly that there
are going to be these teething problems along the way.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
And it shows that, Yeah, the bigger organizations they have
to listen. It's a case of competition. If Meta ai
isn't delivering, then people will go to open ai and chat.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
GPT, YEP, order, deep sk or any one of the
other ones that are all out there trying to do
the same thing. Okay, Up next is the Fear and
Greed Q and A. Today your guest is Elizabeth Broderick AO,
who is the former Sex Discrimination Commissioner and an extremely
accomplished individual talking about Equal Payday which is today, and
(16:48):
exploring why there is this gender pay gap and most importantly,
what we can and what we need to do in
order to close that gap. So that is coming up
straight after this on the Fear and Go playlist on
your podcast platform or at Fearangreed dot com. Today you
thank you, Natalie, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Michael.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
It is Tuesday, the nineteenth of August twenty twenty five.
Make sure you're following the podcast and please join us
online on LinkedIn, Instagram, x TikTok and Facebook. I'm Michael
Thompson and that was Fear and Greed. Have a great day.
Welcome to Fear and Greed business news you can use today.
The business community unites Today. The business community unites as
pressure ramps up. On day one of the government's economic
reform round table, National Australia Bank admits to underpaying staff
and a former Prime minister slams Australian bosses for their
attitude to cybersecurity, plus a record fine for Quantus, and
(00:29):
Meta runs into problems with its AI. It is Tuesday,
the nineteenth of August twenty twenty five. I'm Michael Thompson
and good morning Natalie McDonald.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Good morning Michael.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
The main story, Natalie. Pressure is building on the Prime
Minister and on the Treasurer to deliver at their economic
reform round table, which kicks off today in Canberra. It
feels like we've been talking about it forever, but it
is finally here. The business community has united to declaire
out and this is a quote. Economic rule book is
out of date, while the Productivity Commission chair says regular
(01:02):
tree hair balls have found their way into almost every
corner of our economy, which is a great line.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Isn't it. That really is But the roundtable, as you say,
it feels like we've been discussing this for whatever. I
will bring together twenty four leaders from business, at union's
politics and civil society, with invitees ranging from TILL independent
allegris Bender to Atlatan co founder Scott Farqua to address
Australia's stagnating productivity growth, which is prompt to concern that
(01:31):
younger generations may be worse off than their parents. The
federal position is going Depthy leader Ted O'Brien has been invited,
although he did warn over the weekend that the summit
may be quote engineered to rubberstamp labor policy. The summit
will focus on three themes resilience, productivity, and budget sustainability
with tax reform, including debates on artificial intelligence, tax reform
(01:54):
and cutting red tape. Day one will focus on international
risks and trade with conversations on skills, attraction, mobility and
capital investment, and will feature insights from RBA Governor Michelle Bullock.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
This is actually quite a scaled down round table. In
the past we've seen these kind of summits there are
potentially hundreds of people there, and the famous one back
in I think it was twenty and eight, the twenty
twenty summit that Kevin Rudd held where there were so
many people there from all walks of life, a lot
(02:26):
of celebrities. There were big name kind of celebrities and
sports people and business people and all of these coming
together with big ideas. There's only twenty four people attending this,
so it is quite small. What's on the agenda over
the next three days and what are they hoping to
kind of get through?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
The roundtable will consider proposals drawn from more than nine
hundred submissions collected through a Treasury consultation, plus insights from
more than forty smaller industry specific forums, in addition to
advice from the Productivity Commission you mentioned earlier. The business community,
a megagroup prising the Business Council of Australia, the Bank's miners,
(03:02):
tech companies, are calling for four key things. They are
reducing red tape by twenty five percent by twenty thirty,
improving planning a major project approvals, boosting investment and innovation,
and kickstarting productive tax reform that doesn't phrase costs for
consumers or businesses. The proposals, as mentioned have been as
varied as they have been many A new two tier
(03:24):
corporate tax system, a new national approach to using AI
in the classroom, a road user charge, and a legal
exemption to copyright laws for technology companies. Yesterday, Productivity Commission
Chair Daniel Woods spoke at the Press Club addressing some
of those regulatory hair balls. Again a great phrase the
red tape that she said is limiting our growth and
(03:45):
highlighting stamp duty as one area ripe for reform and
McKinnon poll of two thousand Australians shows strong public support
for immediate economic reforms. Fifty one percent back major reform now,
sixty four percent want consultation without waiting for the next election,
and only ten percent oppose action this term, which does
(04:06):
beg the question what will be done now? What will
be held until just before the next election cycle as
far as what can actually be done? But amazing that
the numbers show Australians want action now.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yeah, they want change. Did you know that Hugh Jackman
and Kate Blanchette were at the one? I mentioned that
Kevin Rudbin back in two thousand and eight, which makes
me think there is a severe lack of star power
in Canberra. Over the next three days. Where's Hugh is
he in the country?
Speaker 2 (04:34):
I don't know we'll track him down there. We'll send
him a on to Canberra.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
He might pop up now. Moving away from politics and
moving away from Canberra, National Australia Bank has admitted to
underpaying staff due to payroll system errors and it's not
a small issue. They have set aside one hundred and
thirty million dollars this financial year to address the issue.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Our review uncovered failures to recognize entitlements such as overtime,
penalty rates and long service leave. NAB has not disclosed
how many employees are affected, but said it is working
with the Fair Work Onwardsman and the Finance Sector Union.
Important to note, though, this is not the first time
that NABS faced a payroll scandal. A previous error cost
(05:17):
the bank two hundred and fifty million dollars between twenty
twenty and twenty twenty two, with underpayment stretching all the
way back to twenty twelve. The announcement came alongside nabs
dune quarter results, with cash earnings of one point seven
billion dollars down one percent due to higher credit impairment charges.
Revenue grew three percent, while expenses rows three percent, partly
(05:38):
due to remediation costs.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
It was overall a pretty reasonable day for the banks. Yesterday,
how did local markets perform?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
As a record intra day high for the sixth consecutive session,
the SMP airsex two hundred rowse twenty points or point
two percent to eighty nine hundred and fifty nine after
setting a record intra day high of eight thousand, nine
hundred and sixty three in a fairly turbulent session. Actually
that saw the BOSS swing multiple times between gains and losses,
investors focusing on what has so far been a stronger
(06:09):
than expected start reporting season, with about half of all
companies reporting a beat. According to UBS, The banking sector
pulled the market higher, with materials the main drag.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
All right, we're going to take a very quick break.
While we do so, why not head along to Fearangreed
dot com dot au and sign up for the free
daily newsletter. It lands in your inbox every morning by
six am with just the key stories you need to
know for the day. It takes about three minutes to read.
I'll put a link in today's show notes as well.
All you need is your email address and a way
you go. We'll be back in a moment with the
rest of the Day's Business News. Natalie Quantas has been
(06:48):
fined ninety million dollars, the largest workplace penalty in Australian
corporate history, for illegally sacking one eighth and twenty groundstaff
in twenty twenty during the pandemic.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Justice Michael Lee ruled the outsourcing was carefully planned and
aimed at undermining workers industrial rights. He was also critical
of former CEO Alan Joyce and the airline's attempts to
obscure decision making, in addition to noting Curren CEO Vanessa
Hudson's failure to testify, saying Quantas showed the wrong kind
of sorry, which I'm sorry. This just sounds like it
(07:21):
needs to be a country record, this.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Cou history song, the wrong kind of sorry. Well, the
thing is Justice Michael Lee just has a knack for
that kind of thing. He can deliver a line with
the best of them.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
And one of the things that we were sort of
waiting to hear about we spoke yesterday about the question
regarding who the payment will go to. Of the penalty,
fifty million dollars will go to the Transport Workers' Union.
Well forty million dollars is reserved for potential payments to
affected employees. Of course, this is an addition to the
sum that was already paid out to them previously. The
(07:53):
court also appointing a contradictor to manage competing claims.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Former Prime Minister Turnbull, who's been pretty quiet lately. You
would have thought that he would have popped up as
all the talk of the reform round table that he
might have been contributing at some point, but no, it's
been pretty quiet until now. He has now slammed corporate
complacency over cybersecurity, warning businesses that they, not government, are
(08:19):
responsible for protecting customer data.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
And I actually enjoy this from him, but you're right,
he does seem to have just emmersed certainly through the darkness.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Certainly gets some attention though when he pops back up
for sure.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
A report from security firm Cempress found fifty two percent
of cyber attaxica on weekends or holidays, when it teams
are understaff because it's the weekend. Alarmingly, one in three
Australasian companies was hit more than once in the past year,
with forty three percent of Australian victims even threatened with
physical harm. Turnbull said executives too often treat ransomware as
(08:54):
a mere cost of doing business, and criticize PM Anthony
Albernizi's suggestion that hacks happen quote all the time, saying
that such comments breed complacency. The former PM urged directors
to personally understand cyber risks, saying, if you're a business leader,
you have a duty to defend your company or your
inviting disaster. Honestly, I like this from him.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Yeah, no, it is. It is quite good, isn't it.
We did touch on reporting season earlier when we're talking
about NAB and the record run that reporting season has
really offered the local sharemaker. What was it six consecutive
days now of intra day highs. Let's take a look
at some of the other key numbers from yesterday.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
A two Milk delivering a record annual sales of one
point nine billion New Zealand dollars, up thirteen and a
half percent on the prior year, while net profit rose
twenty one percent. The company is eyeing an expansion into
China with the purchase of a manufacturing facility in New
Zealand for two hundred and eighty two million at New
Zealand dollars, shares finishing the day more than three percent
(09:54):
higher at eight dollars twenty three. Lend Lease this is
a great story. Back in Black returned to a profit
of two hundred and twenty five million dollars in the
year to June from a loss of one point five
billion dollars the previous year. Shares up six percent to
five dollars in ninety two. Meanwhile, Bluescope Steel fell more
than three percent to twenty three dollars forty eight after
(10:15):
it's full year net profit tumbled to eighty three point
eight million dollars from eight hundred and six million dollars
a year ago.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
That it is such a massive drop in profit there,
and I know that a big chunk of it was
due to a write down in one of its US businesses.
But it also had a lot to say about the
cost of energy, saying that that is a massive drag,
particularly on a company like that, because it is such
an energy intensive process, the manufacturing of steel. So a
(10:46):
few more details behind that number, because that is just
such a massive decrease in their in their profit.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
And it does it stands out when as we were
saying earlier you know, ubs talking about the fact that
most companies are coming through with a beat, and if
you're a company that isn't able to offer to that investor,
that to investors, you're going to feel it. But lastly,
Digito Infrastructure reported full year underlying earnings before interest, taxes,
depreciation and amortization of ninety nine million dollars. The figure
(11:14):
considered a slight miss, but enough to send shared Luer
finishing the day off more than fourteen percent at two
dollars seventy five.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Now, just quickly, Australia is lagging behind global peers in
adopting the four day work week, with Unilever and Booper
both abandoning trials despite evidence that it can boost productivity,
reduce burnout and improve well being. This is a second
second week in a row now that we've talked about
the four day work week. It feels like there's an
(11:42):
agenda here.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
And I remember when all of this these trials were
actually put in place. This was part of a really
big sort of global movement and considered the beginning of
the end of the five day workweek. But trials in
the UK showed companies reported revenue growth and a sixty
five percent drop in six days, while Belgium legislated shorter
weeks in twenty twenty two. Yet local update has been
(12:06):
pretty patchy. Unilever and Booper, as you mentioned, both ditching
the model, calling it to rigid. Smaller firms have had
some success by adopting flexible versions, allowing staff time off
around workloads and refining policies regularly. HR experts are saying
that without deeper cultural change, a mandated four day week
risks being another sort of one size fits all fix,
(12:28):
a kind of sizzle no substance measure. The Australian Council
Trade Unions, however, as you say, pushing the idea at
this week's Productivity Summit, and we have seen the idea
raised a couple of times in the lead up.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Now just one more before we get to international news.
A real world case of expectations versus reality when it
comes to how much Australians are expecting to inherit. With
gen z in for a fairly rude.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Awakening, Nearly half of young Australians in their twenties expect
to inherit over half a million dollars. That's almost double
the sum expected by people age fifty to sixty four
and only about twenty thousand dollars less than the amount
anticipated by those age forty to forty nine. That's according
to stats from Colonial First Date. Over the next twenty years,
(13:14):
an estimated five point four trillion dollars will be inherited
as baby boomers and the Silent generation pass on property
and superannuation, but experts warn that rising living costs and
expensive age care could leave less to pass on. Plus
and this really surprised me. Only about thirty eight percent
of Australians actually have a will in place, and so
(13:35):
that's definitely going to add to the uncertainty.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yeah, certainly will oh oh no, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
That was terrible.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
See, if it was right there, it needed to be
said for the taking. Indeed, Okay. Turning to international news now,
and hundreds of thousands of Israelis staged nationwide protests demanding
an end to the war in Gaza and the release
of hostages still held by Hamas.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Demonstrators flooded Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, blocking major highways and
holding signs urging international pressure, including calls for US President
Donald Trump to intervene. Families of hostages warned that Israel's
looming military offensive could put their loved ones at greater risk.
With fifty hostages still in Gaza and only twenty believed
to be alive. Prime Minister Benjamin Ettannyahu condemned the rallies,
(14:21):
saying they emboldened Hamas and risked an endless war, while
President Isaac herzog urged the international community to pressure Hamas directly.
Protest organizers backed by unions and businesses said Sunday's mass
mobilization was only the beginning. Around the same time, though,
the Indonesian military conducted an air drop of aid into
(14:41):
Gaza as part of an international effort coordinated by Jordan.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
The incredible pictures of the plane and the parachutes and
everything coming out the back of the plane. Now we
mentioned this at the top of the show. Missus multi
billion dollar push into artificial intelligence is running into a
few problems. Months on from launching the meta a app as
a standalone rival to chat jpat, users are complaining that
(15:05):
the tech is glitchy, that it is impersonal, and it
is inconsistent.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Reporting by Bloomberg shows that, unlike competitors, the app includes
a discover feed of AI generated images and texts, but
posts are often appearing days old, undercutting its relevance in
private chats. The system has been found to fabricate details
and conversations don't carry across metas platforms, from Facebook to
Instagram to WhatsApp. A Reddit thread titled who hates Meta
(15:32):
ai has drawn tens of thousands of up votes. Meta
says this is only the beginning, and the updates are
coming as Meta invests heavily in AI talent and infrastructure.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Yeah, that's certainly not the only one though. When we
have open Ai, which obviously developed chat jpat and they
rolled out the new chat JPT version five a week
and a half ago, and in doing so kind of
switched off some of the older versions. But people wanted
the old version because it was a more personal conversational style,
(16:04):
and so chat GPT and open Ai had to listen
to the feedback that customers gave and had to switch
it back on. So clearly it feels like it's one
of those technologies it's just moving so quickly that there
are going to be these teething problems along the way.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
And it shows that, Yeah, the bigger organizations they have
to listen. It's a case of competition. If Meta ai
isn't delivering, then people will go to open ai and chat.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
GPT, YEP, order, deep sk or any one of the
other ones that are all out there trying to do
the same thing. Okay, Up next is the Fear and
Greed Q and A. Today your guest is Elizabeth Broderick AO,
who is the former Sex Discrimination Commissioner and an extremely
accomplished individual talking about Equal Payday which is today, and
(16:48):
exploring why there is this gender pay gap and most importantly,
what we can and what we need to do in
order to close that gap. So that is coming up
straight after this on the Fear and Go playlist on
your podcast platform or at Fearangreed dot com. Today you
thank you, Natalie, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Michael.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
It is Tuesday, the nineteenth of August twenty twenty five.
Make sure you're following the podcast and please join us
online on LinkedIn, Instagram, x TikTok and Facebook. I'm Michael
Thompson and that was Fear and Greed. Have a great day.
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