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Speaker 1: It's Friday, the twenty ninth of August 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: where we give you the top five business stories you

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Speaker 1: need to know in just five minutes. Are Michael Thompson

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Speaker 1: and Good Morning Natalie McDonald. Good Morning Michael, Natalie. Five

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Speaker 1: stories to race through in just five minutes. Let's go

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Speaker 1: a story number one. After a turbulent few years, Quantus

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Speaker 1: it seems as back and flying high, posting its second

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Speaker 1: biggest profit ever and sending shares up more than nine

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Speaker 1: percent to a record twelve dollars and thirty eight cents.

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Speaker 2: Net income jumped twenty eight percent to one point six

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Speaker 2: billion dollars for the year to June, with underlying earnings

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Speaker 2: of just shy of two point four billion dollars, boosted

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Speaker 2: bye strong travel demand and fleet upgrades. Jet Style delivered

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Speaker 2: a standout performance, carrying a record sixteen million passengers domestically

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Speaker 2: and lifting underlying earnings by fifty five percent. Corporate travel

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Speaker 2: is bouncing back close to pre COVID levels, the airline said,

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Speaker 2: proving business meeting are still face to face as the

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Speaker 2: national carrier expects domestic and international travel growth to continue

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Speaker 2: through the end of the year.

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Speaker 1: It's been an awful lot of brand damage done to

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Speaker 1: Quantus in recent years, and this also became a bit

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Speaker 1: of an exercise in almost an employee relations internally SEEO

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Speaker 1: Vanessa Hudson acknowledging past mistakes and saying the company will

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Speaker 1: quote learn from the fallout of its unlawful outsourcing of

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Speaker 1: ground handling what a.

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Speaker 2: Lead in to results season. Quantus has had that court

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Speaker 2: ruling regarding the unlawful firing of eighteen hundred ground staff,

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Speaker 2: resulting in a ninety million dollar fine and one hundred

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Speaker 2: and twenty million dollars in compensation, CEEO Vanessa Hudson saying

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Speaker 2: lessons are being applied to improve governance. Condus also announced

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Speaker 2: a new employee share plan as it seeks to capitalize

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Speaker 2: on share price gains There are up more than thirty

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Speaker 2: four percent since the start of the year to improve

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Speaker 2: industrial relations, giving twenty five thousand staff one thousand dollars

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Speaker 2: in shares annually.

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Speaker 1: Moving on to story number two, Now and Ozzie's hunting

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Speaker 1: for bargain in a really a cost of living crunch

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Speaker 1: have fueled a bumper result for West farmers with strong

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Speaker 1: demand Kmart and Bunnings lifting earnings across the group.

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Speaker 2: Kmart's profits rose nine point two percent over the past

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Speaker 2: year because who doesn't love their Ancho range, while Bunnings

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Speaker 2: added three point eight percent, reflecting the retailer's focus on

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Speaker 2: value and productivity and cost control. Office Works did lag slightly,

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Speaker 2: posting one point nine percent growth as it continues to

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Speaker 2: transform its technology and service offerings. All up, West Farmers

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Speaker 2: reported a statutory net profit of two point nine billion

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Speaker 2: dollars for the twelve months to the end of June. Also,

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Speaker 2: change in leadership, Chairman Michael Cheney will retire and be

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Speaker 2: succeeded by Ken McKenzie next year. Mackenzie was BHP's chairman

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Speaker 2: until last year. Shares finishing the day pretty flat, though

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Speaker 2: at ninety two dollars.

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Speaker 1: Story number three one from politics here Treasurer Jim Chalmers

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Speaker 1: has announced the removal of five hundred nuisance import tariffs,

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Speaker 1: aiming to lift costs off Ozsie businesses.

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Speaker 2: The Treasurer is saying that many of these tariffs on

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Speaker 2: things like tires, TVs, air conditioners, are and wineglasses costs

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Speaker 2: more to follow than the revenue they bring in, calling

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Speaker 2: their removal and no brainer. The latest cuts are expected

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Speaker 2: to save businesses millions. In fact, thirty two million dollars

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Speaker 2: a year on tires alone, thirteen million dollars on TVs,

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Speaker 2: half a million on air conditioners, and nearly four hundred

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Speaker 2: thousand on those wineglasses. The government will consult on the

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Speaker 2: full list before finalizing it in next year's budget.

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Speaker 1: Story number four, How about this. I have a three

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Speaker 1: hundred staff in A and Z' retail division are being

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Speaker 1: made redundant. But some of them found out the wrong.

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Speaker 2: Way, definitely, so an automated email telling them to return

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Speaker 2: their laptops went out before managers could actually tell them

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Speaker 2: the news. Queue confusion, panic, and an urgent all staff

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Speaker 2: call with psychologists on standby. The restructure is part of

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Speaker 2: new plans to slim down management layers and reshape the

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Speaker 2: bank's culture, with McKinsey brought in to advise. ANZ has

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Speaker 2: apologized and staff were reassured they'd be treated with dignity.

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Speaker 2: But it hasn't got off to the best start.

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Speaker 1: No, it's not a great start. Last one Story number

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Speaker 1: five chet GPTEA maker open Ai is setting up shop

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Speaker 1: here in Australia for the first time. A new office

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Speaker 1: is being established in Sydney.

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Speaker 2: The company said that surging local demand and partnerships, including

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Speaker 2: that new deal with Commonwealth Bank, made having at a local

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Speaker 2: base pretty essential. It's planning to start small with a

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Speaker 2: round ten staff by the end of the year, but

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Speaker 2: it is still looking for a local boss. Open Ai

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Speaker 2: says weekly active chatchpt users in Australia have grown two

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Speaker 2: and a half times in the past year, placing the

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Speaker 2: country among the top ten globally for developers using its tools.

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Speaker 2: The company wants to work more closely with Australian businesses

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Speaker 2: and research and policymakers, as camera really wrestles with how

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Speaker 2: to regulate AI while encouraging innovation after open ai projected

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Speaker 2: that the technology could add one hundred and fifteen billion

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Speaker 2: dollars to Australia's economy by twenty thirty.

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Speaker 1: All right, there we go, the top five business stories

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Speaker 1: in five minutes. Thank you very much, Natalie, Thank you Michael.

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Speaker 1: It is Friday, the twenty ninth of August twenty twenty five,

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Speaker 1: and remember follow on the podcast. And if five minutes

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Speaker 1: is just too short for you, but it's not long enough,

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Speaker 1: you can find our longer daily show called Fear and

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Speaker 1: Greed wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Michael Thompson and

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Speaker 1: that was the Fast five Business news by Fear and Greed.

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Speaker 1: Have a great day.