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Speaker 1: This is what the flucks. I'm justin and.

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Speaker 2: I'm harsh deep and it's Friday, the twentieth of September.

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Speaker 1: We spoke about AI jobs taking over with Combank, and

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Speaker 1: now AI is added again. Get this. KPMG Australia aims

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Speaker 1: have halt its consulting work done by lower cost workers

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Speaker 1: and robots by twenty twenty six. That's nearly two thousand

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Speaker 1: jobs they expect to go to the bots.

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Speaker 2: Big claims from KPMG.

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Speaker 1: Three bottastic stories today.

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Speaker 2: Let's get into it for our first.

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Speaker 1: Australian CEOs are keen to pull the plug on work

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Speaker 1: from home and bring staff back into the office five

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Speaker 1: days a week. According to a new report from KPMG.

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Speaker 2: Nearly eighteen months since the pandemic officially ended, and companies

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Speaker 2: are still working from home. Tell me more about.

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Speaker 1: This, so cheet. We all remember that fateful week in

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Speaker 1: March twenty twenty when the pandemic officially hit Australia.

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Speaker 2: Hard, Most, if not all, white collar workforce companies sent

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Speaker 2: their employees home to work, and.

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Speaker 1: Since then working from home has become common practice so

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Speaker 1: pretty much every single corporate.

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Speaker 2: But a new survey by KPMG has revealed that seventy

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Speaker 2: five percent of Australian CEOs want their staff back in

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Speaker 2: the office for at least three days.

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Speaker 1: A week, and she it seems like their biggest gripe

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Speaker 1: is with productivity when staff work from home.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so sixty four percent of CEOs believe that productivity

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Speaker 2: has taken a hit since everyone started working from home, washing.

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Speaker 1: Walking their dogs, playing Xbox. In fact, tab Corp has

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Speaker 1: just ordered staff to return to the office five days

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Speaker 1: a week.

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Speaker 2: And Amazon in the US has also done the same.

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Speaker 1: Wow, five whole days of commuting small talk by the

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Speaker 1: water cooler and try to work out how to dress

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Speaker 1: again for work.

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Speaker 2: Talk about a corporate showdown.

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Speaker 1: So what is the key learning here?

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Speaker 2: The future of work is flexible, but the definition of

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Speaker 2: flexible is still up for debate.

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Speaker 1: She the pandemic accelerated a trend that was already in motion,

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Speaker 1: more flexible work arrangements.

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Speaker 2: And now that CEOs are pushing for a return to

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Speaker 2: the office, employees may have to push back even harder

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Speaker 2: to protect their flexible work arrangements.

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Speaker 1: But he's a thing. Ceo are looking to reward office

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Speaker 1: based employees with pay rises and promotions. According to the

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Speaker 1: KPMG report and.

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Speaker 2: Forty two percent of CEOs are prepared to say see

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Speaker 2: your leader to staff who refuse to return to the office.

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Speaker 1: So it's going to be an interesting few years as

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Speaker 1: CEOs try to push staff back into the office.

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Speaker 2: Which for many people now feels like a chore rather

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Speaker 2: than obligation of your employment.

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Speaker 1: Achi. Before we jump into our second story, we're very

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Speaker 1: excited to have Michael McCarthy from Moving Australia give us

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Speaker 1: a bit of a market overview and share some of

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Speaker 1: the key updates from the market this week. Michael, welcome

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Speaker 1: to the show.

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Speaker 3: Thanks Justin. It's great to be here.

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Speaker 1: It has been a big week in markets in Australia

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Speaker 1: around the world. Would love to get a bit of

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Speaker 1: an overview from you as to what some of the

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Speaker 1: things our listeners should be looking at.

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Speaker 4: Big news this week, of course, is that interstrate decisions

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Speaker 4: from the US Federal Reserve and it was unveiled. We

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Speaker 4: now know they've cut rates by half a percent fifty

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Speaker 4: basis points. Now, that's as big as anyone was expecting,

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Speaker 4: and so we were looking for a big reaction in

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Speaker 4: the markets because of that.

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Speaker 3: But the problem is it looks like everybody who wanted

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Speaker 3: to buy has already bought, and the immediate reaction I

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Speaker 3: think for a lot of investors was very disappointing. We

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Speaker 3: actually saw the US markets come off after the announcement

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Speaker 3: was made, and we saw a very slow start for

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Speaker 3: Asia specific trading after the decision, so possibly not what

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Speaker 3: a lot of people were expecting. One of the few

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Speaker 3: big beneficiaries was gold it hit another record high, but

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Speaker 3: so far the Australian share market, the US market, a

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Speaker 3: lot of those other ones have been trading near their

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Speaker 3: all time highs have failed to go on with it.

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Speaker 2: And Michael, do you reckon this decision is going to

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Speaker 2: put some pressure on the RBA?

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Speaker 3: Now, Well, that's the number one question I think vests

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Speaker 3: and traders, because we've got a case now looking at

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Speaker 3: the data that they could go in different directions. Now

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Speaker 3: that's a big change. For fifteen years since the GFC

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Speaker 3: in two thousand and eight, we've seen central backs all

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Speaker 3: around the globe singing from the same song sheet. Now

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Speaker 3: it looks like the numbers are showing they might go

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Speaker 3: in different directions. So we could see the situation where

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Speaker 3: save Australia and Japan are tightening by this central banks

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Speaker 3: while the US drops its rates, and that would be

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Speaker 3: the first time for a lot of investors they've seen

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Speaker 3: anything like that.

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Speaker 1: For our second story, Harvey Norman has been hit with

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Speaker 1: a class action over allegedly selling worthless extended warranties to customers.

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Speaker 2: Oh yakes, that upbeat Harvey Norman jingle may become a

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Speaker 2: bit more somber. So what's happened here? Does?

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Speaker 3: Well?

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Speaker 1: I shot? We all know Harvey Norman as the white

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Speaker 1: goods and home retailer that started up back in nineteen

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Speaker 1: eighty two.

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Speaker 2: Since that, they've become a go to for electronics and

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Speaker 2: furniture in Australia, with one hundred and ninety two stores

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Speaker 2: across the country and.

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Speaker 1: Almost eighty other stores across seven other countries.

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Speaker 2: But now a class action has been brought against Harvey Norman,

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Speaker 2: Domain and Joyce Maine.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. The lawsuit alleges that Harvey Norman sold extended warranties

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Speaker 1: to tens of thousands of customers over the past six years.

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Speaker 2: These warranties cost anywhere between ten percent to forty percent

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Speaker 2: of the product.

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Speaker 1: Price, and Harvey Norman has made hundreds of millions of

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Speaker 1: dollars off these extended warranties.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so what's the issue here, Well.

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Speaker 1: The class action is alleging that the extended warranties actually

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Speaker 1: didn't provide any value to customers, and they claim this

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Speaker 1: is misleading and deceptive conduct because there isn't really an

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Speaker 1: extension on their warranty.

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Speaker 2: So what's the key learning here?

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Speaker 1: Misleading conduct occurs when a company gives consumers false impressions

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Speaker 1: about their products or services.

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Speaker 2: And Australian consumer law aims to protect all the consumers

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Speaker 2: from this type of behavior.

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Speaker 1: You SEEHG. Having Norman's been selling a warranty that offers

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Speaker 1: the same protection already provided by the law.

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Speaker 2: So they're alleging that customers are effectively paying for a

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Speaker 2: protection they already have and Half.

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Speaker 1: Norman are the only retailers to full foul of Australian

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Speaker 1: consumer law. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Remember how the good guys were hit with a major

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Speaker 2: fine over their promotions offering store credit.

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Speaker 1: I do, and there was that little catch the consumers

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Speaker 1: needed to redeem the credit within seven to ten days

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Speaker 1: or it expired. Oh yeah, so HG. This is a

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Speaker 1: timely reminder for businesses of the importance of transparency and

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Speaker 1: definitely not over promising.

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Speaker 2: Especially when dealing with legally protected consumer rights.

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Speaker 1: For our third and final story, Instagram is introduced teen

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Speaker 1: accounts with restrictions in place to make the platform safer

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Speaker 1: for young people.

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Speaker 2: Sounds like the days of lying about your age to

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Speaker 2: make a Facebook account might be making a comeback. Or

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Speaker 2: what's the story here? Does?

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Speaker 1: Well, we know who Meta is. They're the owner of

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Speaker 1: Facebook and WhatsApp and Instagram and threads. They've got over

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Speaker 1: three and a half billion uses across their platform.

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Speaker 2: That's over seventy seven percent of Internet users who have

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Speaker 2: at least one Meta account, a lot of whom are

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Speaker 2: young people.

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Speaker 1: Now ac she Meda's been under the spotlight for a

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Speaker 1: little while now for how its platform impacts younger people.

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Speaker 2: You might have remembered just three years ago, leaked documents

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Speaker 2: showed that Meta knew that Instagram was harming the mental

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Speaker 2: health of teen girls.

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Speaker 1: Then last year, over thirty US state sued Meta for

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Speaker 1: allegedly exploiting young people with its marketing tactics.

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Speaker 2: And just recently, Australia announced that it's planning a social

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Speaker 2: media ban for teenagers.

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Speaker 1: And now HD Medics announced that Instagram uses under sixteen

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Speaker 1: will automatically have their accounts restricted.

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Speaker 2: That means accounts made private they can only be contacted

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Speaker 2: by friends, as.

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Speaker 1: Well as sensitive like violence or cosmetic surgeries.

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Speaker 2: They're also blocked, and this new step has forced Meta

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Speaker 2: to reckon with the ethical cost of its business.

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Speaker 1: So what is the key learning here?

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Speaker 2: Social media companies are caught in a social dilemma between

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Speaker 2: the growth of their platforms and the safety of their users.

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Speaker 1: You see, on the one hand, engagement is core to

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Speaker 1: how social media companies like Meta earn their revenue.

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Speaker 2: More eyeballs on the platform equals more ads, equals more revenue.

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Speaker 1: But on the other hand, social media companies are facing

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Speaker 1: more pressure than ever from regulators to protect their users.

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Speaker 2: Which is forcing them to make decisions that go entirely

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Speaker 2: against their business model.

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Speaker 1: And let me tell you one thing, it's hitting them

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Speaker 1: where it hurts, i e. Their core demographic. That's right.

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Speaker 2: Last year, Instagram made most of its AD revenue We're

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Speaker 2: talking four billion US dollars from users aged between fourteen

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Speaker 2: to seventeen.

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Speaker 1: And now they're restricting that exact demographic. But with so

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Speaker 1: much scrutiny on the harm these platforms are causing, they're

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Speaker 1: kind of left with no choice but to take the

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Speaker 1: route of less engagement is better than no engagement at all.

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Speaker 1: We loved having Michael McCarthy from Moon, Australia on the

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Speaker 1: pod today and before we left we asked him a

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Speaker 1: couple of cheeky questions about which stocks have been trading

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Speaker 1: highly on the movie platform across the NASDAG and the

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Speaker 1: AX over the past week.

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Speaker 3: BHP is the top of the pops for Australian stocks

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Speaker 3: on the list, although it only comes in at number eleven,

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Speaker 3: which is interesting. That's a big change in behavior. A

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Speaker 3: lot of a lot of investors start with Australian stocks

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Speaker 3: and spread out from there, and the fact that we're

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Speaker 3: seeing so many investors looking around at other stocks is

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Speaker 3: good news. Pal Andeer has been up there Ford Askeu.

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Speaker 3: Of course. One of the trading favorites Rivian Automotive. Now

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Speaker 3: we've talked about those less than exciting businesses. There's one

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Speaker 3: for you, auto parts, but a business that needs to

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Speaker 3: keep running whether there's a recession or whether things are

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Speaker 3: going well, and it looks like investors have focused on those.

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Speaker 3: And another one is a long term favorite. It's dropped

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Speaker 3: right down the list number eighteen today. But Drone Shield

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Speaker 3: it's been a favored trading stock, and of course it's

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Speaker 3: one of the top perform films on the AIX this year.

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Speaker 3: It still remains in favor and there's still enough activity

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Speaker 3: to keep ticking over even though the themes in the

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Speaker 3: market seem to have moved away.

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Speaker 1: A little box out. If you want to kick off

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Speaker 1: the weekend on a high with fifty bucks in your

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Speaker 1: front left pocket, there is only one simple way. It's

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Speaker 1: being the fastest and the smartest in our weekly quiz

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Speaker 1: Quick sticks to make sure to download the Flux app

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Speaker 1: and have your notifications turned on.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for listening and we'll see you on Monday.