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Speaker 1: It's Thursday, the twenty seventh of March 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. When it's five minutes, I'm Michael Thompson

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Speaker 1: and good morning Sean Aylmer.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Michael, Sean.

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Speaker 1: Five big stories to get through in five minutes. Let's

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Speaker 1: go a story.

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Speaker 2: Number one.

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Speaker 1: Underlying inflation has fallen to its lowest level since late

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty one as price pressures come out of the

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Speaker 1: housing market, sparking hopes Sean of another cut in interest

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Speaker 1: rates in coming months.

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Speaker 2: Price pressures in the housing market receded, pushing the underlying

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Speaker 2: level of inflation to two point seven percent headline rate

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Speaker 2: to two point four percent according to the Bureau Statistics.

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Speaker 2: And the headline rate's lower because it includes the impact

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Speaker 2: of the government's seventy five dollars a quarter energy rebate.

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Speaker 2: But the Reserve Bank doesn't take that sort of stuff

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Speaker 2: into account. It just wants to know what the trend is,

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Speaker 2: and the trend is down. The trend in this case

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Speaker 2: is our friend. Much of the downward pressure at the

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Speaker 2: moment is coming from the housing sector rents, for example,

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Speaker 2: the cost of building a new home. The pace of

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Speaker 2: growth is just much lower than it was. The monthly

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Speaker 2: measure isn't as broad as the quarterly measure can be

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Speaker 2: fairly volatile. But three months in a row the underlying

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Speaker 2: rate has been within the Reserve banks preferred two to

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Speaker 2: three percent target, and the data points to the March

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Speaker 2: quarter underlying rate the big one falling into the target

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Speaker 2: band as well. The headline rate's been in the band

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Speaker 2: for about seven months now.

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Speaker 1: I think what we all want to know, though, Sean,

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Speaker 1: what does it mean for interest rates? We had a

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Speaker 1: cut in February, obviously, and there's an RBA board meeting

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Speaker 1: next week. Is there any chance of a second cut?

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Speaker 2: Always a chance, but probably unlikely. Where I think we

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Speaker 2: are at the moment, inflation is trending lower. That's a

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Speaker 2: good thing. Reserve Bank will be mindful of the negative

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Speaker 2: impacts of the growing global trade war. It will also

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Speaker 2: be worried about the inflationary impact of the growing global

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Speaker 2: trade war. I doubt there'll be a rate cut next week,

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Speaker 2: but next month we find out about tariff's from Donald Trump.

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Speaker 2: In quarterly inflation, then we'll have a much better indication

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Speaker 2: of where we're at.

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Speaker 1: Okay, moving on to story number two. Now, the country's

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Speaker 1: largest superannuation fund, Australian Super has sold about five hundred

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Speaker 1: and eighty million dollars worth of wise Tech Global stock,

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Speaker 1: saying the group's governance fell short of expectations.

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Speaker 2: Ozzi Souper has been an investor in weis Tech since

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Speaker 2: twenty sixteen, would have made a lot of money from it.

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Speaker 2: Over the past two a month or so, there's been

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Speaker 2: allegations swirling around founder, major shareholder and CEO, around relationships

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Speaker 2: with staff and other women. It came to a head

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Speaker 2: earlier this month when three independent directors quit the company,

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Speaker 2: including its chair White, and installed himself as executive chair.

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Speaker 2: Now Ozzi Super has come out said it's been a

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Speaker 2: strong supporter of the business, but good governance is essential

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Speaker 2: to delivering value and I quote as a long term

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Speaker 2: active manager, our role is to allocate members retirement savings

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Speaker 2: to the companies we think are most likely to create

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Speaker 2: value over at the years to come. The inference being

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Speaker 2: poor governance doesn't mean good value. Other large super funds

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Speaker 2: invested in weis Tech included where Super, Rest, Insignia Financial,

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Speaker 2: and Hester. They're now going to come under pres to

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Speaker 2: sell down.

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Speaker 1: Story number three. The day after the budget, Sean was

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Speaker 1: mostly about politics not economics, with the government pushing to

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Speaker 1: legislate its budget cuts this week.

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Speaker 2: The legislation for the seventeen point one billion dollar income

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Speaker 2: tax cut, which is about ten bucks a week when

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Speaker 2: fully implemented, passed the Lower House yesterday with the support

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Speaker 2: of the Greens in independence. The coalition voted against the bill,

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Speaker 2: calling it a cruel hoax, and now Opposition leader Peter

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Speaker 2: Dunn looks like he opposes tax cuts. The legislation was

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Speaker 2: due to go to the Upper House last night. If

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Speaker 2: it passes and then to the Albanize will probably call

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Speaker 2: an election pretty quickly and say Peter Dunn doesn't want

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Speaker 2: to cut taxes. Federal Treasurer Jim charm has made the

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Speaker 2: most of it yesterday, saying to vote against the legislation

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Speaker 2: is to stand against cost of living relief. Peter Dunton

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Speaker 2: gives his budget response tonight. He could well announce tax

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Speaker 2: cuts on his own if elected. Certainly he's likely to

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Speaker 2: focus on energy policy and other cost of living relief.

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Speaker 1: Story number four. I reckon this is really interesting, Sean.

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Speaker 1: One of the rights of passage as a political journalist

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Speaker 1: is to cover a federal election care andaign, and most

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Speaker 1: of the access has always been given to the Canberra

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Speaker 1: Press Gallery. Makes sense, but membership of the gallery will

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Speaker 1: no longer be a prerequisite to catch the labor media

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Speaker 1: buses around the country.

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Speaker 2: In fact, content creators will be able to join the trail,

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Speaker 2: the election trail for a single day at a time.

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Speaker 2: According to the Finn, it will help the ALP push

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Speaker 2: out its campaigning to audiences that don't follow the news closely.

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Speaker 2: Already we've seen Anthony Abernezi Npeter Dutton for that matter,

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Speaker 2: appearing on podcasts much more than their predecessors. Social media

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Speaker 2: influencers and financial content creators were invited to the media

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Speaker 2: lockup for Tuesday's budgets, so it's actually already happening. It

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Speaker 2: costs media companies hundreds of thousands of dollars to send

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Speaker 2: reporters on the road with the political parties. The inference

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Speaker 2: here is that for these day trippers, so to speak,

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Speaker 2: the ALP will pay for them, which is what's upset

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Speaker 2: some of the traditional media companies.

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Speaker 1: Last one story number five, the parent company of retailer

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Speaker 1: Jeans West, has gone into voluntary administration and plans to

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Speaker 1: closed stores, putting six hundred jobs at risk.

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Speaker 2: It's the second time Hong Kong owned Harbor Guidance Proprietary

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Speaker 2: Limited has put Jeans West into administration. Happened five years ago.

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Speaker 2: Harbor Guide has brought it out now it's back in

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Speaker 2: the fifty three year old chain was founded in Perth.

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Speaker 2: It focuses on cheap jeans and T shirts. Grew to

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Speaker 2: about one hundred and fifty stores now it operates about ninety.

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Speaker 2: Its main competitors, Just Jeans and JJ's was sold to

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Speaker 2: Mayer recently. Adds to the retail failures we've seen recent months. Katie's,

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Speaker 2: Non eyb Rivers, Rockman's, Miller's now Just Jeans.

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Speaker 1: All right, there we go to 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 Thursday, the twenty seventh of March twenty twenty five,

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Speaker 1: remembered hit follow on the podcast and if five minutes

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: by Fear and greed, have a great day,