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Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, the first of April twenty twenty six. Welcome

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

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

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Speaker 1: need to know in just five minutes. I'm Michael Thompson

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Speaker 1: and good morning Sean Aylmer. Good morning Michael, Sean. Five stories,

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Speaker 1: five minutes. Let's get cracking storry number one. Sydney and

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Speaker 1: Melbourne house prices have gone backwards so far in twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty six, with more expensive homes falling most. Meanwhile, Perth

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Speaker 1: and Brisbane prices charge ahead, while regional Australia outperforms the

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Speaker 1: capital cities.

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Speaker 2: Across the country, totalities national Home Value Index row zero

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Speaker 2: point seven percent for March. That's two point one percent

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Speaker 2: over the first quarter of the year. At the national level,

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Speaker 2: that's a slow down from the December quarter, but the

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Speaker 2: full steer story is very specific to individual geographies. The

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Speaker 2: country's two biggest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, they're feeling the

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Speaker 2: pain most. Melbourne prices felled zero point six percent during

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Speaker 2: the quarter. They're off nearly one percent since a high

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Speaker 2: of late last year. Sydney's about zero point two percent

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Speaker 2: of the quarter off about almost half a percent since

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Speaker 2: its high last year. In both cities, it's been a

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Speaker 2: story not about interest rates but about supply. All these

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Speaker 2: homes are coming onto the market. That, according to Cotalities

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Speaker 2: research director Tim Lawless, means people have more choice, less

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Speaker 2: urgency to buy anytime they need, anytime they have to say.

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Speaker 2: It's just a better deal for buyers at the moment.

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Speaker 1: Okay, among the mid size capitals, Perth continues to boom.

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Speaker 1: We need to talk about Perth because it's median dwelling

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Speaker 1: value jumped more than seven percent during the March quarter alone,

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Speaker 1: twenty four percent over the past year. Surely this is

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Speaker 1: not sustainable, is it.

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Speaker 2: Well, Tim Lawler says no, the seven percent jumps worth

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Speaker 2: about sixty nine thousand dollars. That's unsustainable if that's going

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Speaker 2: to happen every quarter. It is being supported in Perth

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Speaker 2: by low supply. So Sydney and Melbourne, more homes coming

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Speaker 2: in the market, not the case in Perth. Brisbane's also

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Speaker 2: doing very well five percent for the quarter, nearly twenty

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Speaker 2: percent of the past year. Adelais Darwin Hobart all strong.

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Speaker 2: The other trend you mentioned, Michael strength in the bottom

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Speaker 2: end of the market, you see that mostly in Sydney,

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Speaker 2: the low quart ole house prices. So the bottom twenty

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Speaker 2: five percent, they're up two percent in the March quarter,

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Speaker 2: the top twenty five percent they're down two percent.

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Speaker 1: Wow. Okay, moving on to story number two. Now, Sean,

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Speaker 1: the Fair Work Commission has abolished junior rates in fast food,

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Speaker 1: retail and pharmacies, and that means that eighteen to twenty

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Speaker 1: year olds will now be paid the full adult rate,

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Speaker 1: pushing up the wages bill of some of the country's

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Speaker 1: biggest employers.

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Speaker 2: More than half a million young workers will receive pay

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Speaker 2: rises of up to forty two percent. The new rates

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Speaker 2: will be phased in over a four year period from December.

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Speaker 2: So you think big supermarkets, will is Cole's, McDonald's, Dominoes,

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Speaker 2: those fast food giants that they're all going to feel this.

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Speaker 2: Currently in eighteen year old's paid seventy percent of an

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Speaker 2: adult wage, nine year old's eighty percent, twenty year olds

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Speaker 2: ninety percent. I'll all go to that one hundred percent level.

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Speaker 2: The union involved, the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association,

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Speaker 2: argued that many young workers started when they are fifteen

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Speaker 2: and sixteen, so they should be paid like adults staring.

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Speaker 1: Number three surcharges on debit and credit cards will be banned,

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Speaker 1: and the cap on credit card interchange fees, which is

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Speaker 1: the feed that's paid by merchants to banks, will be

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Speaker 1: reduced from zero point eight percent to zero point three

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Speaker 1: percent of the value of the transaction from one October.

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Speaker 1: Banks expect the changes could cut their revenues by six

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Speaker 1: hundred and sixty million dollars a year. Following months of discussions,

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Speaker 1: the Reserve Bank has put aside the concerns from major

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Speaker 1: banks and small businesses to proceed with cutting the transaction

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Speaker 1: fees from October. However, the RBA has maintained the existing

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Speaker 1: cap for commercial cards.

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Speaker 2: So the Reserve Bank says it's just more transparent. Banks

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Speaker 2: have argued the lower cap will force them to increase

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Speaker 2: credit card interest rates, lift fees, dilete the value of

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Speaker 2: frequent fly points attached to credit card purchases. But that's

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Speaker 2: what the Reserve Bank's talking about. They shouldn't be people

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Speaker 2: shouldn't be subsidizing those sorts of products, So it wants

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Speaker 2: really transparent credit card market. At one point six billion

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Speaker 2: dollars in card payment search charges each year, that'll be

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Speaker 2: saved by consumers, though it may ultimately be recouped via

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Speaker 2: higher prices, which would push up inflation ever so slightly.

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Speaker 1: Story number four. Telstra will be forced to remove a

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Speaker 1: one million square kilometer area from maps promoting its mobile

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Speaker 1: phone coverage after the federal government set a limit on

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Speaker 1: the signal strength that companies can claim works for calls

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Speaker 1: and texts. After rivals Optus and TPG, Telecoma Jones Vodafone

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Speaker 1: raised doubts about Telstra's expansive coverage claims in Regional Australia,

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Speaker 1: Communications Minister Annika Wells asked the regulator to set an

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Speaker 1: industry standard that would be reflected on these maps.

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Speaker 2: So from June thirty two, cooters will have to publish

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Speaker 2: maps showing their four G five G signal. It'll be

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Speaker 2: good moderate basic no coverage. According to SURI. In the

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Speaker 2: fin review, they cut off signal strength for no cover,

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Speaker 2: whach has been the subject of a fierce dispute between

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Speaker 2: Telstra and its rivals. Under the final decision, Telstra will

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Speaker 2: have to remove an area the size of New South

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Speaker 2: Wales from its so called coverage area. Telstra, of course,

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Speaker 2: is by far the biggest mobile coverage area nine to

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Speaker 2: nine point seven Australians, it says are covered by its

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Speaker 2: mobile network. Now story number five, Michael, I'm going to

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Speaker 2: introduce it because it's all it's your story. We are

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Speaker 2: getting our first trip to the Moon, first time in

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Speaker 2: fifty three years. The space launch system Artemis two set

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Speaker 2: to blast off. Is it tonight later on?

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Speaker 1: Michael, It should be tonight, Fingers cross, it happens tonight, Sean.

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Speaker 1: This is There will be three Americans and one Canadian

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Speaker 1: on board. Since the Apollo era ended in nineteen seventy two,

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Speaker 1: humans haven't gone near the Moon. Artemis two will hopefully

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Speaker 1: change that. We're not going to be seeing a moon

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Speaker 1: landing happening. That will come later, I think. And the

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Speaker 1: US wants to be on the Moon by twenty twenty eight,

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Speaker 1: China by twenty thirty, so there's a bit of a

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Speaker 1: space race going on. This one's just a fly by

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Speaker 1: travel them out around the Moon and back again. It's

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Speaker 1: a ten day mission. They'll splash down in the ocean.

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Speaker 1: The blast off is Wednesday evening US times, Thursday overnight

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Speaker 1: for US, So hopefully within the next twenty four hours

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Speaker 1: we'll be seeing this happen. If the weather's bad. There'll

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Speaker 1: be more opportunities in coming days. The first six days

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Speaker 1: of April are all pretty good. Should have happened back

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Speaker 1: in February. There's been a few technical problems, but fingers crossed.

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Speaker 1: Everything all smooth now for a successful launch. I'm very excited, Sean.

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Speaker 2: You won't get much sleep in the next few days.

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Speaker 1: Michael, I shall not never go the top five business

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

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Speaker 1: It is Wednesday, the first of April twenty twenty six.

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

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

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Speaker 1: called Fear and Greed whereever you listen to podcasts. I'm

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Speaker 1: Michael Thompson and that was the past five business news

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Speaker 1: by Fear and Greed. Have a great day.