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Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, the ninth of September twenty twenty five. Welcome

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Speaker 1: to the Fast five Business News by Fear and Greed,

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Speaker 1: where we give you the top five business stories you

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Speaker 1: need to know and just five minutes. A'm Michael Thompson

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Speaker 1: and good morning Sean Aylmer.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Michael, Sean.

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Speaker 1: Five stories, five minutes. Let's go with story number one.

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Speaker 1: The two big supermarkets, Coals and Woolworths, could owe up

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Speaker 1: to one billion dollars in remediation costs for underpaying workers,

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Speaker 1: on top of the more than half a billion dollars

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Speaker 1: they've already paid out. It follows Federal Court Justice Ni

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Speaker 1: Perham delivering his judgment in Coles's long running under payments

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Speaker 1: case late last week.

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Speaker 2: Now Cole so far has paid about thirty one million

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Speaker 2: dollars in remediation, It reckons it could be up for

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Speaker 2: another up to two hundred and fifty million dollars including

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Speaker 2: interests and non costs. Woolies it's paid about five hundred

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Speaker 2: million dollars in remediation so far, could be another three

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Speaker 2: hundred and thirty million dollars plus two hundred million dollars

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Speaker 2: in interest, superannuation and play roll. Takes talking big numbers here,

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Speaker 2: and they're just guestimates at the moment. According to the

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Speaker 2: fin review, there's a bunch of other issues the judges

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Speaker 2: yet to rule on. At a minimum, it looks like

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Speaker 2: this whole saga, which is then going since twenty thirteen,

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Speaker 2: will cost the big supermarkets more than one point three

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Speaker 2: billion dollars. These underpayment matters don't relate to staff working

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Speaker 2: checkouts or the loading bay, but to store managers and

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Speaker 2: department managers. Under long standing salary structures the two companies use.

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Speaker 2: The managers are paid above the rates required under the

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Speaker 2: award to offset any overtime they might do, such as

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Speaker 2: during busy seasonal times think Christmas and Easter.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the key to this, isn't it. Because it's

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Speaker 1: why retailers well beyond will these well beyond colds are

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Speaker 1: so worried because currently, for managers it all works out

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Speaker 1: in the end approach, But Peram's judgment requires that the

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Speaker 1: retailers account for and offset overtime after a period as

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Speaker 1: short as two weeks.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you can imagine the paperwork involved in

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Speaker 2: that one. There's all sorts of quirks as well. There

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Speaker 2: are class actions being filed already that could add to

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Speaker 2: the costs. The issue will hit the whole retail sector,

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Speaker 2: not just woolies and coals. In fact, the Australian Retailers

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Speaker 2: Association says there are nine hundred and ninety four different

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Speaker 2: pay rates across the sector. Keeping track of that is

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Speaker 2: really tough. This judgment looks to be reducing flexibility, increased

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Speaker 2: compliance requirements. We're going to hear a lot more about

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Speaker 2: this one.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, we certainly will. On to storry number two now.

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Speaker 1: Anthony Albernezi has put corporate tax reform on the table

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Speaker 1: and urged business leaders to back Labour's plans for its

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Speaker 1: twenty thirty five emissions reduction target, saying an ongoing era

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Speaker 1: of consensus is needed to take advantage of the economic

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Speaker 1: opportunities in a changing world.

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Speaker 2: In a speech to the Business Council of Australia's annual

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Speaker 2: dinner last night, the PM backed Australia is a destination

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Speaker 2: for data centers and labeled artificial intelligence as a productivity

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Speaker 2: opportunity as long as there are regulations to protect workers

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Speaker 2: and businesses from its risks and these he said last

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Speaker 2: month's Economic Roundtable achieved real progress on reaching consensus between

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Speaker 2: business unions and the government on immediate reforms to tariffs,

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Speaker 2: construction regulations. In Green Tape, he promised to consult with

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Speaker 2: Corporate Australia on tax deregulation, skills and AI regulation. He

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Speaker 2: also said his government's looking at fair and affordable tax

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Speaker 2: reform to incentivize greater business investment and capital deepening.

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Speaker 1: Hmm okay. Story number three. Corporate Australia has made a

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Speaker 1: significant shift away from promoting its commitment to progressive social issues,

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Speaker 1: with the latest annual reports of big companies cutting references

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Speaker 1: to policies aimed at bolstering diversity inclusion and environmental sustainability.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, this is really fascinating analysis shase. Fifty four of

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Speaker 2: the eighty one largest companies that have issued annual reports

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Speaker 2: this year have cut mentions of diversity ESG that's environmental,

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Speaker 2: social and governance and DEI diversity equity inclusion, according to

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Speaker 2: the Australian Tolerated Operated Transurban, for example, big player in

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Speaker 2: the US, where President Donald Trump's anti woke declarations have

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Speaker 2: influenced other corporates well, Transurban mentions ESG eight times this

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Speaker 2: annual report last year's forty times A Query Group, another

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Speaker 2: big player in the US DEI Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,

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Speaker 2: not mentioned once in his twenty twenty five report, after

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Speaker 2: being referenced twenty four times last year. Another example of

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Speaker 2: reliance worldwide corporations Plumbing Group Plumbing Manufacturer did not make

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Speaker 2: any mention of ESG in this year's report after seventeen

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Speaker 2: references last year. A bit of a trend big companies

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Speaker 2: in the US Meta Amazon, Walmart doing it now The

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Speaker 2: Australians are following story number four.

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Speaker 1: Australians could soon be entitled to prompt airline refunds and rebookings,

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Speaker 1: as well as food and accommodation when flights are delayed

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Speaker 1: or canceled under a new aviation consumer protection scheme unveiled

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Speaker 1: by the federal government.

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Speaker 2: Transport Minister Catherine King says the draft reforms would create

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Speaker 2: enforceable standards for airlines and airport words, with cash compensation

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Speaker 2: still on the table if airlines are at fourth. A

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Speaker 2: new aviation ombudsman has also been suggested to handle unresolved complaints.

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Speaker 2: The proposal comes after years of passenger frustration, including quantus

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Speaker 2: selling tickets on already canceled flights and the collapse of

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Speaker 2: both Rex and Bonds of last year.

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Speaker 1: Last one story number five. Australia's social media age band

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Speaker 1: kicks in on December ten. Australians under sixteen or be

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Speaker 1: banned from using major social media platforms including TikTok, Instagram,

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Speaker 1: YouTube and Facebook. We've been talking about this for a while,

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Speaker 1: but Sean experts are warning that the new law could

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Speaker 1: be undermined by VPNs virtual private networks, which allow users

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Speaker 1: to mask their identity and their location online.

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Speaker 2: A quarter of Australians already used them, and download spiked

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Speaker 2: overseas when similar age restrictions were introduced to Cybersecurity experts

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Speaker 2: say tech giants had the ability to detect and block

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Speaker 2: VPN use, but are failing to act. Communications Minister Anika

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Speaker 2: World's warned of platforms they face fines up to forty

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Speaker 2: nine million dollars if they don't comply. The government's age

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Speaker 2: Assurance trial found there is no single solution, but platforms

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Speaker 2: need to use a bunch of tools to stop under

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Speaker 2: sixteen year olds accessing these sites. Meanwhile, parents are being

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Speaker 2: urged to educate children about the new laws and the

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Speaker 2: risks of using unreliable VPN services, which have been linked

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Speaker 2: to data leaks.

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Speaker 1: All right, there we go the top five business stories

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Speaker 1: in five minutes. Thank you Sean, Thank you Michael. It

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Speaker 1: is Tuesday, the ninth of September twenty twenty five. Remember

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Speaker 1: to hit follow on the podcast, and if five minutes

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Speaker 1: isn't enough, you can find our longer daily show called

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Speaker 1: Fear and Greed wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Michael

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Speaker 1: Thompson and that was a fast five business news by

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Speaker 1: Fear and Greed. Have a great date.