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Speaker 1: Welcome to the weekend edition of the Fast Five Business

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Speaker 1: News by Fear and Greed. I'm Michael Thompson and Hello

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Speaker 1: Sean Aylmer.

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Speaker 2: Hello Michael Sean.

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Speaker 1: On weekdays, it's all about the Fast five of the

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Speaker 1: top five business stories in five minutes. On the weekend,

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Speaker 1: we still keep it to five minutes, but we are

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Speaker 1: going to pick out the biggest business story of the week,

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Speaker 1: the most remarkable business story, a sleeper story, one that's

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Speaker 1: kind of flying under the radar a little bit, and

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Speaker 1: our favorite business story. Let's jump straight into the biggest

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Speaker 1: story of the week. What was it?

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Speaker 2: Oh? Was the economic growth figures. The annual pace of

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Speaker 2: economic growth has fallen to one point one percent, the

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Speaker 2: slowest rate in more than thirty years outside the pandemic.

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Speaker 2: On a per capita basis, growth went backwards again. That's

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Speaker 2: five quarters in a row. For the March quarter, the

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Speaker 2: economy grew by zero point one percent, So we're running

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Speaker 2: at like a one percent pace annually. Normally it's somewhere

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Speaker 2: between two and a half and three percent. The economy

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Speaker 2: is very very weak household savings. This week, we also

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Speaker 2: had Michelle Bullock in front of cened Estimates. This week,

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Speaker 2: she said that she would increase or decrease interest rates

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Speaker 2: during an election cycle. It's not a the politicians, it's

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Speaker 2: about inflation. Big story, Michael.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, certainly is Another one this week, though, Sewan, definitely

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Speaker 1: worth a mention, was the decision by the Fair Work Commission.

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Speaker 1: They increased the minimum wage by three point seventy five percent.

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Speaker 1: It's equivalent to about thirty dollars extra per week being

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Speaker 1: used for a lot of people. Two point six million

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Speaker 1: workers affected by this, either on the minimum wage directly

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Speaker 1: or on an award that's linked to it. It also

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Speaker 1: affects the businesses that will be paying these higher wages.

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Speaker 1: The thing about this, though, was that the Fair Work

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Speaker 1: Commission seem to have done almost the impossible and satisfy

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Speaker 1: pretty much everyone. Unions wanted higher, but they were pretty

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Speaker 1: happy with what they got. Employers wanted less, they were

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Speaker 1: pretty happy with what they got. Economists were happy because

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Speaker 1: they say it shouldn't add to inflation. Small business a

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Speaker 1: little bit hesitant about the impact it's going to have

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Speaker 1: on their members, but overall a pretty good decision, it seems.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, overall, I think you're right there, Michael. What about

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Speaker 2: your most remarkable story?

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Speaker 1: Oh, the most remarkable story I think is one that

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Speaker 1: just kind of it makes you shake your head. But

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Speaker 1: talking about the ndis the National Disability Insurance Scheme. It's

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Speaker 1: a complicated topic because it's worthy, it is necessary. Important

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Speaker 1: scheme is it provides for people with a disability, gives

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Speaker 1: them the help that they need through funding and the

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Speaker 1: assistance to get those services in support. But it's also

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Speaker 1: really expensive. It costs around forty two billion dollars this

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Speaker 1: financial year, with forecasts for major major growth into the future.

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Speaker 1: The problem is, though, we learned this week about just

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Speaker 1: how much it is being brought to criminals manipulating participants

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Speaker 1: in the ndis using the money to buy drugs, holidays, cars,

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Speaker 1: that type of thing. The allegations came from John Dardo,

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Speaker 1: who is the Integrity chief of the National Disability Insurance Agency.

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Speaker 1: That's the group that oversees this, So if anyone's going

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Speaker 1: to know about this kind of thing, he would. He

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Speaker 1: said to a Senate committee this week that at least

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Speaker 1: five percent of the scheme spending isn't on genuine needs.

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Speaker 1: So that's about what two billion dollars of taxpayers money

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Speaker 1: that should be helping people with a disability. Going to criminals.

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Speaker 1: It is pretty extraordinary. And the warning that he issued

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Speaker 1: is he said that it might be hard to hear,

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Speaker 1: but it's outrageous that somebody can come in and claim

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Speaker 1: ten twenty fifty thousand dollars without a description. He said,

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Speaker 1: we do not have enough judiciary to process the cases

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Speaker 1: we have in the pipel in the country. If we

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Speaker 1: were to prosecute these, it is pretty damning. The whole

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Speaker 1: thing is remarkable.

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Speaker 2: Totally remarkable. Just a quick mention for the banking sector,

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Speaker 2: Commonwealth Bank it a new high this week. Its share

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Speaker 2: prices up thirty percent of the last year. Not even

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Speaker 2: the best performer of the big banks, NABS up thirty

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Speaker 2: eight percent, Westpac thirty five percent, a ands X twenty

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Speaker 2: eight percent. That's despite all these things going against the bank.

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Speaker 2: Their profit margins are down, loan arrears are high. That

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Speaker 2: means customers are falling behind in payments, not significantly but

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Speaker 2: a little bit. Banks also are very, very expensive at

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Speaker 2: the moment the economy is slowing. Bank analysts have cell

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Speaker 2: recommendations on the major banks, yet they just keep going.

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Speaker 2: Truly remarkable.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it really is all right. Have you got a

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Speaker 1: sleeper story for us?

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Speaker 2: Yes, this is the title of Chinese interest trying to

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Speaker 2: skip into Australia and dominate our mineral supply. Northern Minerals

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Speaker 2: mindes disprosium and turbium. They're used in batteries, magnets, defense equipment,

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Speaker 2: stuff like that. A Chinese businessman called Wu Tao brought

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Speaker 2: a nine point nine percent stake in the company, then

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Speaker 2: tried to op it to nineteen point nine percent. He

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Speaker 2: was knocked backed by the Foreign Investment Review Board. Now

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Speaker 2: he's accused of getting associated or related parties to buy

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Speaker 2: for him. When the buying began last year, the CEO

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Speaker 2: of Northern Minerals reported it to the Foreign Investment Review Board.

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Speaker 2: Shareholders then attempted to remove that ceo. Now, Federal Treasury

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Speaker 2: Jim Chalmers has ordered companies associated with mister Wu to

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Speaker 2: sell down their stakes. There's also been a leak of

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Speaker 2: data from that company. There was a shareholder meeting this

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Speaker 2: week in which mister Wu, the Chinese businessman, tried to

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Speaker 2: get on the board. He failed. At the end of

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Speaker 2: the day, it looks like Jim Chalmers has used his

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Speaker 2: power to prevent a surreptitious attempt by Chinese interest to

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Speaker 2: grab control of a promising minor. Quite an amazing talent.

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Speaker 2: Makes you wonder how many more of those sorts of

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Speaker 2: things are going on out there.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it is pretty extraordinary. Can I nominate a favorite

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Speaker 1: story of the week? Sean?

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Speaker 2: Please do all right?

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Speaker 1: I think you'll love this one. The Mona Gallery in

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Speaker 1: Tasmania is about to exhibit an album that is so

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Speaker 1: rare and so valuable that only a few people have

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Speaker 1: ever listened to it now. The album is called Once

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Speaker 1: upon a Time I'm in shoo Lynn. It was recorded

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Speaker 1: in secret by the Wu Tang clan and produced over

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Speaker 1: a period of six years.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: They made one single two CD copy and then they

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Speaker 1: deleted all of the original master files. They wrapped the

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Speaker 1: album up in a legal agreement that says it can't

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Speaker 1: be commercially exploited until twenty one to three, which is

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Speaker 1: a long long time before someone can bust out the

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Speaker 1: CD burner and make another copy of it. In the meantime,

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Speaker 1: there's one copy, just one. It's in a special nickel

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Speaker 1: silver casing. It's going to be at Mona for just

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Speaker 1: over a week and there's a limited number of tickets

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Speaker 1: available week and listen to a curated thirty six minute

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Speaker 1: mixed from the album, played from a personalized Wu Tang

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Speaker 1: PlayStation one. This thing has had an incredible journey to

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Speaker 1: get here. It's been sold at auction multiple times, been

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Speaker 1: seized by the US Department of Justice and then sold again,

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Speaker 1: and now it's wound up at Mona. It's going to

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Speaker 1: be treated like a work of art.

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Speaker 2: What a story, cracking story.

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Speaker 1: There we go, five minutes and pretty much everything you

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Speaker 1: need to know in the world of business.

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Speaker 2: Thank you Sean, Thank you Michael.

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Speaker 1: We'll be back on Monday morning with the top five

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Speaker 1: business stories in five minutes. Don't forget to hit follow

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Speaker 1: and join us online on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook, and X.

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Speaker 1: I'm Michael Thompson and this is the fast five business

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Speaker 1: news by Fear and Greed