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Speaker 1: It's Monday, the twenty fourth of February twenty twenty five.

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

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

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Speaker 1: need to know in 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 Shawn.

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Speaker 1: Five stories, five minutes. Let's go. Story Number one's a

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Speaker 1: big one. Reserve Bank Governor Michelle Bullock appeared before Parliament

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Speaker 1: on Friday and warned that if there were too many

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Speaker 1: rate cuts, inflation pressures could re emerge and that would

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Speaker 1: undermine three years of hard work.

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Speaker 2: She said, the Board is cautious about the prospect of

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Speaker 2: future rate cuts and the Bank isn't committed to any

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Speaker 2: particular course of action. The Central Bank is targeting an

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Speaker 2: inflation rate of two and a half percent. She was

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Speaker 2: quite insistent on that. She also talked about services inflation.

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Speaker 2: It's been out of control really but it's suddenly just

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Speaker 2: the world not suddenly, it is slowly starting to get

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Speaker 2: back under control. We saw that at the end of

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Speaker 2: last year. Ms Bullock said Donald Trump's tariffs will be

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Speaker 2: a negative for economic growth in Australia, but the effect

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Speaker 2: of inflation is less clear or the uncertainty surrounding the

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Speaker 2: Trump administration's policies could they damage the global economy.

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Speaker 1: She also pointed to low income renters being the cohort

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Speaker 1: hardest hit by the effective cost of living pressures during

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Speaker 1: the past couple of years.

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Speaker 2: So they've been hit with big increases in rent plus inflation.

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Speaker 2: She talked about that group often being forgotten. MS Bullock

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Speaker 2: said the jobs figures out last week, which had a

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Speaker 2: big jump in full time employment, underscores the need to

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Speaker 2: be cautious on rates. She's also committed to keeping cash

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Speaker 2: in the economy, been in a bit of a debate

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Speaker 2: about that one. What she also did for the first time,

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Speaker 2: she conceded the Central Bank under her predecessor, Philip Low,

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Speaker 2: was late to the party when it came to interest

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Speaker 2: rate increases. She doesn't want to be late to the

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Speaker 2: party when it comes to cuts.

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Speaker 1: On to story number two now, Sean and Medicare will

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Speaker 1: be a centerpiece of the upcoming election campaign, with Prime

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Speaker 1: Minister Anthony Alberanezi promising to spend about eight and a

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Speaker 1: half billion dollars over four years to boost payments to

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Speaker 1: doctors who don't charge out of pocket expense for patients.

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Speaker 2: Bulk billing is back, Michael at Release. That's what the

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Speaker 2: ALP wants is huming is reelected. They was to lift

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Speaker 2: the rate of bulk billing doctor visits from about seventy

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Speaker 2: eight percent today to ninety percent by twenty thirty. Tony

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Speaker 2: Abbott tried to wind back Medicare when he was Prime Minister.

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Speaker 2: The Coalition is seen as less friendly towards Medicare. So

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Speaker 2: that's the problem for Peter Dutton, the Opposition leader, given

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Speaker 2: that there's an election in the next couple of months.

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Speaker 2: Yesterday he came out very quickly and matched Labour's bulk

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Speaker 2: billing pledged. He also matched the ALP's five hundred and

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Speaker 2: seventy three million dollar pledge for a women's health package.

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Speaker 2: He supported the government's one point seven billion dollars for

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Speaker 2: public hospitals and threw in an extra half a billion

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Speaker 2: dollars to boost the number of psychology appointments that can

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Speaker 2: be claimed under Medicare. The Opposition is working very hard

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Speaker 2: to not look like it's against universal healthcare.

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Speaker 1: On just story number three. It was the first proper

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Speaker 1: weekend of auctions this year Sean and it is absolutely

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Speaker 1: incredible what an interest rate cut can do. The national

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Speaker 1: preliminary clearance rate came in at seventy two point one percent.

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Speaker 1: That is the best since July last.

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Speaker 2: Year, and they're almost three thousand auctions, so easily the

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Speaker 2: busiest of this year. The preliminary clearance rate in Sydney

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Speaker 2: was seventy four percent, seventy two percent in Melbourne, Adelaide

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Speaker 2: and canber rates were pretty solid. Brisbane was a touch week.

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Speaker 2: That's two weeks of plus seventy percent clearance rates. Now,

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Speaker 2: prior to that, we'd spent about six weeks saying is

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Speaker 2: the market soft. Well, when buyers get a hint of

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Speaker 2: a rate cut and then they see the rate cut,

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Speaker 2: they get a lot more excited and start buying.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, certainly do. Story number four Goosman Igomez, which was

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Speaker 1: the biggest float of twenty twenty four, has reported earnings

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Speaker 1: higher than expectations for the six months to the end

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Speaker 1: of December, but sean it didn't prevent a sell off.

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Speaker 2: It didn't. The same store sales were up nine percent,

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Speaker 2: in part due to the popularity of the twelve dollars

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Speaker 2: chicken meal, high breakfast turnover and more delivery orders. Also

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Speaker 2: helping its eleven twenty four to seven outlets. However, the

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Speaker 2: group didn't provide four guidance investors like forward guidance, and

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Speaker 2: sales fell and losses widened at its five US stores.

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Speaker 2: By the closed, Goodsman's share price was down fourteen percent.

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Speaker 2: Goodsman's an expensive stock relative to something like Dominoes. Much

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Speaker 2: of the company's valuation depends on future growth, especially in

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Speaker 2: the US. Investors are just getting a little bit concerned

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Speaker 2: that the expansion plans in the US could falter. That

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Speaker 2: prompted the selling pressure on Friday.

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Speaker 1: Last one story number five and we've saved the most

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Speaker 1: extraordinary story for last Sean. Over the weekend, the Trump

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Speaker 1: administration sent emails to US federal government employees, which is

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Speaker 1: basically the equivalent of the Australian Public Service, telling them

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Speaker 1: to detail their work accomplishments from the previous week or

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Speaker 1: risk losing their jobs.

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Speaker 2: They came shortly after Elon Musk, the billionaire head of

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Speaker 2: the Trump Administration's Department of Government Efficiency, posted on the

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Speaker 2: social media site x that not responding to the mL

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Speaker 2: request would be viewed as a resignation. According to Reuter's,

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Speaker 2: Musk issued his post just hours after President Donald Trump

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Speaker 2: posted on his own social network truth Social the DOGE

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Speaker 2: should get more aggressive in its attempts to downsize and

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Speaker 2: reshape the two point three million strong federal workforce. It's

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Speaker 2: unclear what legal basis Musk has to terminate federal workers

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Speaker 2: if they failed to respond to his request, and what

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Speaker 2: would happen to employees that can't detail confidential work for example.

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Speaker 2: Then there are other bureaus. They the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

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Speaker 2: They receive the email for three weeks, have been told

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Speaker 2: not to perform any tasks. Now they've got a list

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Speaker 2: of tasks they've performed in the last week. Crazy, Michael, Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Just a little bit. There we go the top five

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

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Speaker 1: It is Monday, the twenty fourth of February twenty twenty five.

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

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Speaker 1: show called Fear and Greed, where if you listen to

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Speaker 1: podcasts by Michael Thompson. And that was the fast five

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