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Speaker 1: It's Thursday, the twelfth of March 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: where 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, Morning Michael Shawn. Five stories,

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Speaker 1: five minutes. Let's go a story number one. Two of

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Speaker 1: the four big banks now expect interest rates to rise

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Speaker 1: next week, while professional investors are pushing up bond yields,

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Speaker 1: which reflect rate expectations, to their highest level in more

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Speaker 1: than a decade. National Australian Bank and Westpac now expect

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Speaker 1: to lift in the official cash rate both next week

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Speaker 1: end in May, taking it back to four point three

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Speaker 1: five percent, equal to its highest level in thirteen years.

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Speaker 1: That would feed through to mortgage rates and amounts charged

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Speaker 1: on business loans and credit cards as well.

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Speaker 2: The shift on rates came after Reserve Bank Deputy Governor

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Speaker 2: Andrew Howeser said it would be bad for everyone if

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Speaker 2: the Central Bank didn't act decisively. Bond market's now pricing

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Speaker 2: in a four and five chance of a rate hike

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Speaker 2: next week. Before houses comments, a less than fifty percent

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Speaker 2: was baked in three year bond nils have hit four

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Speaker 2: point four to nine percent. It's just investors think that's

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Speaker 2: the average of the cash rate over the next three years,

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Speaker 2: much higher than where it is now. Speaking on the

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Speaker 2: conversations podcast, How's That said, inflation was now expected to

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Speaker 2: rise above the Reserve banks four point two percent forecast

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Speaker 2: for June. If that's the case, the central Bank is

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Speaker 2: likely to take action to not only slow inflation, but

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Speaker 2: also restrict inflation expectations.

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Speaker 1: Hauser also noted that with oil trading at elevated levels,

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Speaker 1: the highest since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in twenty twenty two,

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Speaker 1: and the RBA doesn't want a repeat of the twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty two to twenty twenty three scenario when the cash

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Speaker 1: rate went from zero point one percent to four point

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Speaker 1: three five percent, the fastest pace of increase ever from

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Speaker 1: the central Bank. He went on to say, Sean, and

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Speaker 1: this is pretty clear, right, Failing to raise rates to

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Speaker 1: the level they need to be and allowing inflation to

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Speaker 1: get out of control is a clear problem.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, that's what you call hawkish central bank commentary.

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Speaker 2: The Reserve Bank clearly wants to stamp on any further

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Speaker 2: Outbak of inflation, and as NAB Chief economist Sally Old

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Speaker 2: put it, senior Central Bank officials are inclined to view

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Speaker 2: the Iranian conflict as an infationary shock might be temporary,

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Speaker 2: but it's still a shock. The impact of higher oil

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Speaker 2: prices will flow through to the economy.

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Speaker 1: Onto story number two. You mentioned the Iranian conflict. The

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Speaker 1: Australian diplomatic missions in Tel Aviv, in Abu Dhabi and

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Speaker 1: Dubai have all been shut down due to threats posed

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Speaker 1: by missile and drone attacks. Foreign Minister Pennywong said the

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Speaker 1: government's number one priority is keeping Australian safe.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean lots going on around the Middle East.

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Speaker 2: We had Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke saying yes, so

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Speaker 2: that one person from the Iranian women's soccer team who

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Speaker 2: had sought asylum, she changed her mind. So we initially

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Speaker 2: had five members and another two. One has asked to

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Speaker 2: go home. Therefore there are six people seeking asylum and

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Speaker 2: they have been granted asylum already. Tay RAN's experienced some

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Speaker 2: of its heaviest air strikes for a while, with electricity

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Speaker 2: cut in many neighborhoods, and the Middle East conflict, of course,

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Speaker 2: hitting oil and gas prices, but also supporting the Ossie

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Speaker 2: dollar yesterday went towards seventy two US cents. It's actually

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Speaker 2: at its highest level against the yen in thirty five years.

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Speaker 1: Story number three sean one time Maverick MP Matt Canavan

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Speaker 1: has been elected leader of the Federal National Party, immediately

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Speaker 1: calling for more Australian farming, more Australian manufacturing and more

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Speaker 1: Australian jobs.

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Speaker 2: And that's pretty much the Canavan blueprint. He said, we

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Speaker 2: needed to go hyper Australian for our country. We need

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Speaker 2: more Australian babies, more Oussie humor, more Ossie jokes, as

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Speaker 2: well as more barbecues fueled by fossil fuels. Canavan of

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Speaker 2: course led the push inside the National to dump its

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Speaker 2: support for net zero emissions and his pro coal. He

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Speaker 2: won the ballad of a National MPs. He'll replace David

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Speaker 2: little Proud, who quit the top job. Surprisingly on Tuesday,

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Speaker 2: it was a one point was rumored that Canavan might

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Speaker 2: join Barnaby Joyce at One Nation. Yesterday Canavan said quite

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Speaker 2: the opposite. He'll be leading the fight against labour. One

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Speaker 2: Nationales will target One Nation and its leader Pauline Hansen

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Speaker 2: of the party's lack of substance and ponchon to grow division.

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Speaker 1: Storing um before. The Federal government will pump two hundred

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Speaker 1: million dollars into ASX listed cloud, cybersecurity and telecommunications company

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Speaker 1: Macquarry Technology Group to help keep Australian data on shore

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Speaker 1: as well as create jobs in technology and artificial intelligence.

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Speaker 2: Mcquarie Tech owms data centers that support many government agency

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Speaker 2: clients and the National Reconstruction Funds investment aims to help

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Speaker 2: the Department of Defense and others accelerate the use of

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Speaker 2: sovereign cloud services and AI. Tim Air as the Minister

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Speaker 2: for Industry Innovations, that the investment gives Australian businesses the

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Speaker 2: conference to harness AI while making sure critical digital infrastructure

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Speaker 2: and information remains on shore. Really really important that it

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Speaker 2: stays on shore. The National Reconstruction Fund established in twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty three as a fifteen billion dollar mandate to invest

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Speaker 2: in companies and projects that diversify and transform Australia's industry

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Speaker 2: and economy. Tex Chief executive David two d pretty happy

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Speaker 2: about the whole thing. Gives a company more financial flexibility

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Speaker 2: and share price rose yesterday.

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Speaker 1: Last one, sorry, number five body maker. This one Sean Amazon,

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Speaker 1: Amazon owned Zooks. It's a hard It's Zox right. It

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Speaker 1: looks it could be zoo X. It could be Zooks.

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Speaker 1: I think it's Zooks. It wants to put a very

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Speaker 1: specific kind of robotaxi on US roads. It is a

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Speaker 1: robo taxi without a steering wheel, without a break, without

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Speaker 1: an accelerator, without any pedals at all Sean. The company

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Speaker 1: has asked US regulators to allow it to deploy purpose

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Speaker 1: built vehicles that do not look or drive like a

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Speaker 1: traditional car.

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Speaker 2: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration set it's seeking public

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Speaker 2: comments on Zooks. Zooks's had the plural of Zooks is

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Speaker 2: the hard one. Zuks's plan to deploy up to twenty

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Speaker 2: five hundred robo taxis. If it gets the green light,

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Speaker 2: it strengthens the case that robo taxi operators can move

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Speaker 2: beyond retrofitting existing models towards dedicated fleets. That matters because

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Speaker 2: US built the built vehicles cheap in a manufacturer at scale,

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Speaker 2: simple to maintain, easier to optimize for passenger turnover. The

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Speaker 2: question is whether the regulators can keep up with the science.

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Speaker 2: We'll have to see about that one.

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Speaker 1: Indeed, all right, there we go the top five business

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

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Speaker 1: It is Thursday, the twelfth of March twenty twenty six.

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Speaker 1: I'm Michael Thompson and that was the Fast five Business

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