1 00:00:03,880 --> 00:00:06,440 Speaker 1: Welcome to ask Fear and Greed, where we take your 2 00:00:06,519 --> 00:00:09,639 Speaker 1: questions and do our very very best to answer them. 3 00:00:09,680 --> 00:00:11,960 Speaker 1: I'm Michael Thompson, and good afternoon, Sean. 4 00:00:11,760 --> 00:00:14,760 Speaker 2: Alma, Good afternoon, Michael. I agree we do have best 5 00:00:14,800 --> 00:00:15,600 Speaker 2: to answer them. 6 00:00:15,720 --> 00:00:17,680 Speaker 1: Yeah, last time I chimed in and I don't think 7 00:00:17,720 --> 00:00:19,160 Speaker 1: I helped the situation at all. 8 00:00:19,160 --> 00:00:21,160 Speaker 2: Well you did, you did? You did? Definitely. 9 00:00:21,239 --> 00:00:25,440 Speaker 1: Thanks, that's very kind. Great question today from Kara via Instagram. 10 00:00:25,960 --> 00:00:29,480 Speaker 1: You can jump onto Instagram or LinkedIn or Facebook or 11 00:00:29,560 --> 00:00:31,240 Speaker 1: our website Fear and Greed dot com, dot you and 12 00:00:31,280 --> 00:00:34,000 Speaker 1: send you questions through. Kara wants to know. She says, 13 00:00:34,159 --> 00:00:38,440 Speaker 1: you talked about Telstra upping mobile phone prices above the 14 00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:40,279 Speaker 1: rate of inflation and the fact that this is an 15 00:00:40,280 --> 00:00:46,000 Speaker 1: example of services inflation. Doesn't Telstra and this is really interesting, Sean. 16 00:00:46,520 --> 00:00:51,199 Speaker 1: Doesn't Telstra, as the country's biggest telco, have an obligation 17 00:00:51,520 --> 00:00:56,800 Speaker 1: to help the economy and not put more pressure on prices. 18 00:00:57,480 --> 00:01:00,520 Speaker 2: Oh and of course because we always we all use 19 00:01:00,560 --> 00:01:03,560 Speaker 2: mobile phones like we don't have a choice in that anymore. 20 00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:11,120 Speaker 2: Great question. The short answer is, maybe that used to 21 00:01:11,120 --> 00:01:16,560 Speaker 2: be the case, but it isn't anymore. Now. Let me 22 00:01:16,600 --> 00:01:20,800 Speaker 2: explain that Telstra actually doesn't have any responsibility to look 23 00:01:20,840 --> 00:01:24,360 Speaker 2: after Wese citizens. It used to it was owned by 24 00:01:24,360 --> 00:01:28,520 Speaker 2: the government, but now it's listed, it actually needs to 25 00:01:28,520 --> 00:01:32,800 Speaker 2: look after shareholders. Now it's not mutually exclusive. So looking 26 00:01:32,840 --> 00:01:36,480 Speaker 2: after customers and having a good marketing team and a 27 00:01:36,520 --> 00:01:41,000 Speaker 2: good pr actually can mean looking after shareholders because profits 28 00:01:41,080 --> 00:01:44,560 Speaker 2: might be better. So it's not really mutually exclusive, but 29 00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:47,120 Speaker 2: by the law they actually don't. They don't have to 30 00:01:47,120 --> 00:01:49,080 Speaker 2: give a toss about citizens, they do have to give 31 00:01:49,080 --> 00:01:53,960 Speaker 2: a toss about shareholders. This introduces that Michael, Oh, I'm 32 00:01:53,960 --> 00:01:56,320 Speaker 2: going to get excited. This is about microeconomic reform. 33 00:01:57,160 --> 00:02:02,280 Speaker 1: So you actually did genuinely do look excited by this? 34 00:02:02,400 --> 00:02:05,800 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. So like when I'm thinking this through, 35 00:02:05,880 --> 00:02:10,119 Speaker 2: this question through because there's been this microeconomic reform over decades. 36 00:02:10,160 --> 00:02:13,320 Speaker 2: Really it's allowed Telstra to not have to worry about 37 00:02:13,360 --> 00:02:17,079 Speaker 2: society and to worry more about returns. So I'll tell 38 00:02:17,080 --> 00:02:19,600 Speaker 2: you microeconomic reform. We don't talk much about it, but 39 00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:22,520 Speaker 2: it's very much. It has changed the way Australia works. 40 00:02:22,880 --> 00:02:26,440 Speaker 2: There's kind of big picture micro economic reform, which is 41 00:02:26,600 --> 00:02:30,000 Speaker 2: sort of I think it's a contradiction in terms microeconomic 42 00:02:30,040 --> 00:02:32,840 Speaker 2: reform being big picture, but things like the removal of 43 00:02:32,880 --> 00:02:35,280 Speaker 2: tariffs and protectionist policies. The big one was the car 44 00:02:35,320 --> 00:02:38,240 Speaker 2: industry a few decades ago. Ultimately that led to the 45 00:02:38,280 --> 00:02:41,799 Speaker 2: dismantly of car manufacturing in Australia. But given cars are 46 00:02:42,160 --> 00:02:44,960 Speaker 2: much cheaper to build in other places, that's not bad. 47 00:02:45,040 --> 00:02:47,000 Speaker 2: It's a good thing. We're paying less for cars. Now. 48 00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:52,800 Speaker 2: There's microeconomic reform around corporatization and privatization and government business monopolies. 49 00:02:52,800 --> 00:02:54,600 Speaker 2: I mean Telstra is a big one there. Comwealth Bank 50 00:02:54,639 --> 00:02:58,200 Speaker 2: that's another good example. There's also been deregulation of industries. 51 00:02:58,320 --> 00:03:02,920 Speaker 2: Quantus is an example there, but generally they much smaller 52 00:03:02,960 --> 00:03:05,880 Speaker 2: bits and pieces of a reform which have almost been 53 00:03:06,040 --> 00:03:08,760 Speaker 2: as important. In fact, there probably have been more important 54 00:03:08,760 --> 00:03:11,840 Speaker 2: than This comes to this Telstra question because the law 55 00:03:11,919 --> 00:03:16,640 Speaker 2: now requires telcos to allow customers to keep their numbers 56 00:03:16,760 --> 00:03:21,320 Speaker 2: when they change providers. That's actually microeconomic reform right then 57 00:03:21,360 --> 00:03:23,880 Speaker 2: there's much more competition in the market. So I remember 58 00:03:23,960 --> 00:03:26,080 Speaker 2: changing my provider fifteen years ago and I had to 59 00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:28,880 Speaker 2: get a new number. Nowadays, though, if I change my provider, 60 00:03:29,320 --> 00:03:32,160 Speaker 2: I can take my number with me. So if Telstrap 61 00:03:32,160 --> 00:03:35,840 Speaker 2: puts up its prices as a customer, I have every 62 00:03:35,920 --> 00:03:39,520 Speaker 2: right to change providers and I can keep my phone number, 63 00:03:40,040 --> 00:03:43,240 Speaker 2: the one that I've had for years. That's good for me. 64 00:03:43,320 --> 00:03:45,480 Speaker 2: It's also good for Telstrop because it doesn't have a 65 00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:50,280 Speaker 2: moral obligation to actually look after me or anyone else anymore. 66 00:03:50,880 --> 00:03:54,560 Speaker 2: Another example of this microeconomic reform is what's called open 67 00:03:54,600 --> 00:03:57,520 Speaker 2: banking in Australia. Since twenty twenty, you can give permission 68 00:03:57,560 --> 00:04:00,120 Speaker 2: for third parties to access your savings in credit day, 69 00:04:00,160 --> 00:04:03,160 Speaker 2: to give them information about your mortgage, personal owe, joint 70 00:04:03,200 --> 00:04:05,600 Speaker 2: bank accounts, etc. The theory is that this should make 71 00:04:05,640 --> 00:04:08,240 Speaker 2: it easier to find a better lane or change banks. 72 00:04:08,280 --> 00:04:10,960 Speaker 2: Actually hasn't quite worked out that way. I think the 73 00:04:11,040 --> 00:04:13,680 Speaker 2: jury is still out on that particular microeconomic form. But 74 00:04:13,720 --> 00:04:18,480 Speaker 2: bring this back to Telstra. Because we've had this microeconomic reform, 75 00:04:18,600 --> 00:04:22,239 Speaker 2: it means we can keep our phone numbers. So therefore 76 00:04:22,480 --> 00:04:26,520 Speaker 2: the question is doesn't Telstra have some sort of moral 77 00:04:26,560 --> 00:04:31,560 Speaker 2: obligation because of high inflation, to not push up prices. 78 00:04:31,680 --> 00:04:36,960 Speaker 2: It's absolutely not, because I can quite easily walk. I 79 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:40,000 Speaker 2: can quite easily get an Optis or Votaphone or Aldi 80 00:04:40,120 --> 00:04:44,400 Speaker 2: or somewhere like that for my phone services. Telstra's obligation 81 00:04:44,520 --> 00:04:46,320 Speaker 2: is to make a return for shareholders, and we've seen 82 00:04:46,320 --> 00:04:48,279 Speaker 2: its share price go up the last couple of days 83 00:04:48,560 --> 00:04:51,360 Speaker 2: as a result of these reforms, so I don't think 84 00:04:51,360 --> 00:04:52,880 Speaker 2: it has that responsibly anymore. 85 00:04:54,080 --> 00:04:55,880 Speaker 1: It's a good point that you make, and you mentioned 86 00:04:56,680 --> 00:04:59,200 Speaker 1: Aldi just there as well, because otherwise you would say, yeah, okay, 87 00:04:59,200 --> 00:05:01,440 Speaker 1: I could walk, I could go to Optus, I could 88 00:05:01,440 --> 00:05:03,880 Speaker 1: go to Voterafone. But everyone has put their prices up 89 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:07,040 Speaker 1: this year and buy some kind of fairly significant leaps. 90 00:05:07,320 --> 00:05:10,080 Speaker 1: But then are there's a second tier of providers there 91 00:05:10,120 --> 00:05:13,440 Speaker 1: in Australia that essentially piggyback off these primary providers. You've 92 00:05:13,480 --> 00:05:16,719 Speaker 1: got like your Ali and your Amasim, and you belong 93 00:05:16,880 --> 00:05:19,480 Speaker 1: and you're more mobile than things which which actually higher 94 00:05:19,720 --> 00:05:23,240 Speaker 1: essentially or use the networks of Telstra and of Optus, 95 00:05:23,320 --> 00:05:24,760 Speaker 1: and you can just kind of pick and choose and 96 00:05:24,920 --> 00:05:28,920 Speaker 1: substantially lower prices. So there is that kind of competition 97 00:05:28,960 --> 00:05:31,279 Speaker 1: within the industry, isn't there because. 98 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:34,800 Speaker 2: Of microeconomic reform? That's exactly right. So it's a great 99 00:05:34,839 --> 00:05:39,680 Speaker 2: question because it kind of intuitively makes sense. But Telster's 100 00:05:39,720 --> 00:05:41,799 Speaker 2: not owned by the government anymore, It's owned by shareholders, 101 00:05:41,800 --> 00:05:43,520 Speaker 2: So it actually doesn't have to look after us. 102 00:05:43,960 --> 00:05:45,880 Speaker 1: Know what, Sean, I think that is a great question, 103 00:05:45,920 --> 00:05:49,080 Speaker 1: and you know, I'm also particularly impressed with my own 104 00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:51,880 Speaker 1: contribution that I don't think I stuffed it up today. 105 00:05:53,160 --> 00:05:55,440 Speaker 2: Don't You didn't stuff it up earlier in the week either, 106 00:05:56,000 --> 00:05:56,600 Speaker 2: I know, but. 107 00:05:56,640 --> 00:05:58,080 Speaker 1: You know one of those times where you're just like 108 00:05:58,440 --> 00:05:59,680 Speaker 1: when you get to the end of it and you're like, 109 00:05:59,720 --> 00:06:01,640 Speaker 1: I don't know if what I just said made any 110 00:06:01,680 --> 00:06:06,560 Speaker 1: sense whatsoever did? And today I'm even more confident of that. 111 00:06:06,640 --> 00:06:09,240 Speaker 1: So thank you Kara, thank you me as well, and 112 00:06:09,320 --> 00:06:10,240 Speaker 1: thank you Sean. 113 00:06:10,200 --> 00:06:12,159 Speaker 2: Thank you Michael, and especially thank you Kara. 114 00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:15,000 Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, if you have a question that you would 115 00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:17,039 Speaker 1: like us to answer, if you like, in particular Sean 116 00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:22,520 Speaker 1: to answer, then jump online, send it in via LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, 117 00:06:22,720 --> 00:06:26,240 Speaker 1: or at Fearangreed dot com dot au. Don't forget to 118 00:06:26,279 --> 00:06:28,359 Speaker 1: hit follow on the podcast. I'm Michael Thompson and this 119 00:06:28,440 --> 00:06:29,440 Speaker 1: to ask Fear and Greed.