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Speaker 1: You're listening to Amma Mea podcast.

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Speaker 2: Good morning from gadagal Land.

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Speaker 1: I'm Taylor Strano and welcome back to the Quickie for

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty six. The Year of the fire Horse is

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Speaker 1: already off to a speedy, spicy start, So we've gathered

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Speaker 1: the best and brightest experts to forecast what may be

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Speaker 1: ahead for the next twelve months, from politics to cosey

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Speaker 1: lives and the latest in tech and AI. Just what

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Speaker 1: should we actually be paying close attention to? Our experts

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Speaker 1: have all the details before we get there. Kler Murphy's

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Speaker 1: Got You News headlines for Monday, January twelve.

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Speaker 3: Thanks Taylor. The deadly Victorian bushfires are expected to burn

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Speaker 3: for weeks. Police confirmed on Sunday that human remains had

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Speaker 3: been found near a fire affected road at Gober, a

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Speaker 3: remote area east of Seymour. There yet to be identified,

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Speaker 3: but were discovered one hundred meters from a car that

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Speaker 3: was caught up in the Longwood fire that moved through

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Speaker 3: on Friday. In the area, paddocks are also littered with

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Speaker 3: the remains of animals and livestock that couldn't make it

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Speaker 3: to safety. Roughi County Fire Authority Captain George Ney told

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Speaker 3: AAP that half of the small town's residents had lost

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Speaker 3: either their homes or a structure, and that the local

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Speaker 3: primary school also burned to the ground. More than three

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Speaker 3: hundred and fifty thousand hectares have burned and more than

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Speaker 3: three hundred properties have been lost in Victoria since summer

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Speaker 3: heat waves spurred out of control bushfires late last week.

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Speaker 3: Prime Minister Anthony Albernezi and premierges Into Allen visiting Bendigo yesterday,

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Speaker 3: announcing funding relief for residents hit hard by the fires.

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Speaker 3: Those in communities most impacted can claim a one off

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Speaker 3: disaster recovery payment of one thousand dollars each for adults

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Speaker 3: and four hundred dollars per child as part of a

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Speaker 3: nineteen point five million dollar package. A ten million dollar

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Speaker 3: program to help distribute fodder to farmers in need will

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Speaker 3: also be rolled out. Meanwhile, repairs are underway after a

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Speaker 3: tropical cyclone batted the far north coast of Queensland, forecasters

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Speaker 3: warning the threat is not over as a state eight

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Speaker 3: braces for more devastating floods after days of intense build up.

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Speaker 3: Ex Tropical cyclone Kogi ran out of powers it crossed

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Speaker 3: the Queensland coast downgraded to a tropical low. Cyclone warnings

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Speaker 3: have now been canceled, but residents in the Far North

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Speaker 3: still face the threat of major flooding as heavy rain

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Speaker 3: continues in the region. The chair of the Adelaide Festival

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Speaker 3: and several board members have now resigned in the midst

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Speaker 3: of the controversial decision to ax Palestinian Australian author Randa

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Speaker 3: Abdelphatar from the Adelaide Writers' Festival. The board made the

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Speaker 3: decision to remove her from the line up, saying due

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Speaker 3: to comment she had made about Israel in the past,

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Speaker 3: it was culturally insensitive to continue to program her at

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Speaker 3: this unprecedented time so soon after Bondai, referring to the

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Speaker 3: December Terra attack, where fifteen people were killed as gunmen

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Speaker 3: targeted a Jewish celebration. In response, up to ninety percent

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Speaker 3: of the invited guest writers have withdrawn from the event.

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Speaker 3: In protest. South Australian Premier Peter melanowskis back the board's decision,

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Speaker 3: telling the ABC that Abdelphatar had advocate in writing explicitly

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Speaker 3: against the cultural safety of those who believe in Zionism.

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Speaker 3: Abdolfatah said it was obscene and racist to associate her

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Speaker 3: with the atrocity at Bondai, and that she can't believe

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Speaker 3: that she is a Palestinian who's witnessed her people's livestream

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Speaker 3: genocide for the past two years, has to say publicly

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Speaker 3: that she had nothing to do with the Bondai attack.

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Speaker 3: US President Donald Trump says no more Venezuelan oil or

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Speaker 3: money will go to Cuba, and has suggested the communist

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Speaker 3: run island should strike a deal with the US instead

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Speaker 3: before it's too late. Venezuela is Cuba's biggest oil supplier,

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Speaker 3: but no cargoes have departed from Venezuelan ports to the

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Speaker 3: Caribbean country since the capture of Venezuela's President Nicholas Maduro

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Speaker 3: by US forces earlier this month. Meanwhile, Venezuela and the

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Speaker 3: US are progressing on a US two billion dollar deal

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Speaker 3: to supply up to fifty million barrels of Venezuelan oil

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Speaker 3: to the United States, with the proceeds to be deposited

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Speaker 3: in a US Treasury supervised account, a major test of

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Speaker 3: the emerging relationship between Trump and interim President Delsi Rodriguez.

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Speaker 3: Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said in a post on

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Speaker 3: x On Sunday that Cuba had the right to import

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Speaker 3: fuel from any suppliers willing to export to it as

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Speaker 3: they continue under a strict US oil embargo. He also

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Speaker 3: denied that Cuba had received financial or other material compensation

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Speaker 3: in return for security services provided to any country. Thirty

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Speaker 3: two members of Cuba's armed forces and intelligence services were

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Speaker 3: killed during the US raid on Venezuela. Cuba said those

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Speaker 3: killed were responsible for security and defense, but didn't provide

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Speaker 3: details on the arrangement between the two longtime allies. Arena

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Speaker 3: Sablenka kissed both biceps so she took out the title

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Speaker 3: at the Brisbane International overnight. The world number one took

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Speaker 3: out the match in straight sets, speeding Marta Kostuk to

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Speaker 3: defend the title, her fifth from seven consecutive finals appearances

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Speaker 3: in Australia. Some are saying her bicep kissing was in

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Speaker 3: response to Costjuk suggesting last year that some players have

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Speaker 3: a higher level of testosterone and sa Bolenka was much

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Speaker 3: bigger than her, much taller and much stronger. Sabolanka described

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Speaker 3: the comments as excuses back when they were made, and

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Speaker 3: said last night those kisses were aimed at her coaching stuff.

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Speaker 1: Thanks Clare. Next, from politics to pop culture? What's on

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Speaker 1: the agenda for twenty twenty six? Welcome to twenty twenty six.

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Speaker 1: Can you still legally say Happy New Year when it's

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Speaker 1: jan twelve?

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Speaker 2: Who knows?

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Speaker 1: Look, we're less than two weeks into the year and

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Speaker 1: already so much has happened. Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman

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Speaker 1: made it official, their divorce being finalized after nineteen years

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Speaker 1: of marriage. Bossie actor Sarah Snook taking out a Critic's

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Speaker 1: Choice Award for all her fault. US President Donald Trump

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Speaker 1: detaining the Venezuelan president on drug trafficking charges, also taking

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Speaker 1: control of the country's oil trade. My Minister calling a

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Speaker 1: Royal commission into anti Semitism and social cohesion, and the

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Speaker 1: Golden Globes are happening like right now? We know we've

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Speaker 1: already set up for a busy year ahead. But what

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Speaker 1: do the experts think we should be paying close attention to.

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Speaker 2: Let's start with politics.

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Speaker 1: Amy Romikez is the chief political analyst at the Australian

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Speaker 1: Institute and contributing editor at The New Daily. Amy, I

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Speaker 1: want to talk about the recently announced Royal Commission. After

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Speaker 1: weeks of rejecting the idea, the Prime Minister has finally

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Speaker 1: announced it will happen.

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Speaker 4: Why do you think he changed his call. I don't

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Speaker 4: think he had any other choice. I don't necessarily think

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Speaker 4: that this has been a groundswell from the public. I

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Speaker 4: don't think that it's really hit the public consciousness. But

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Speaker 4: there was such a unity between the media and the

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Speaker 4: political classes that I think it got to the point

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Speaker 4: where not calling the Royal Commission would have been a

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Speaker 4: bigger problem for the government than actually calling a Royal Commission.

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Speaker 4: And when I say problem, I don't mean that having

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Speaker 4: a Royal Commission is a problem in on itself, but

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Speaker 4: it is going to raise some very uncomfortable moments for

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Speaker 4: Australian society, and this Royal Commission in particular. Unlike previous

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Speaker 4: ones which look at institutions and what change can be

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Speaker 4: made in power structures, this one, while looking at the

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Speaker 4: events leading up to the abhorrent Bond Eye terror attack,

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Speaker 4: is also going to put a lens on society and

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Speaker 4: that's going to be pretty uncomfortable I think for a

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Speaker 4: lot of people. No matter where you sit on the

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Speaker 4: political spectrum or indeed on the Israel Palestine issue.

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Speaker 1: So what happens now then, Amy, I mean, it's like

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Speaker 1: a bit of a how long is a piece of

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Speaker 1: string question, because it could wrap up very quickly. They

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Speaker 1: have said that they want it to be a pretty

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Speaker 1: short commission, but what's your take on that.

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Speaker 4: They can want it to be a short commission, But

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Speaker 4: that doesn't mean that that is what happens. I mean

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Speaker 4: is the commissioner who ultimately decides the destiny of a

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Speaker 4: Royal commission. And if Virginia Bell, the commissioner, decides that

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Speaker 4: she needs more time, she will write to the government

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Speaker 4: and say that she needs more time, and so then

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Speaker 4: it becomes the government has said no to the commissioner

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Speaker 4: who is overseeing this very important issue. Also, just because

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Speaker 4: a commission might get wrapped up, that doesn't mean that

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Speaker 4: you have a report. Once the report comes down, it

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Speaker 4: doesn't mean that the government responds to it. It could

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Speaker 4: take forever for the government to release the report. When

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Speaker 4: it comes to recommendations, we have recommendations from Royal commissions

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Speaker 4: that have been sitting in government cupboards for decades that

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Speaker 4: have not seen the light of day, including the Bring

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Speaker 4: Them Home Report about deaths and custody and things like that.

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Speaker 4: We have not enacted every single recommendation of a Royal Commission,

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Speaker 4: particularly if it is politically uncomfortable, and so a Royal

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Speaker 4: Commission is not a solution, but it does give an airing.

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Speaker 5: To some of these concerns.

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Speaker 4: It's just now going to be about how the government

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Speaker 4: navigates what is coming up in the Royal Commission, how

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Speaker 4: it deals with that and the court case that is

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Speaker 4: going on for the Bondai attack at the same time,

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Speaker 4: how it deals with the sensitivities around security agencies and

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Speaker 4: police and potential failures there.

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Speaker 5: What role did the State of New South Wales institutions

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Speaker 5: play in all of this.

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Speaker 4: There's a lot of different political issues that this Royal

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Speaker 4: Commission is going to have to navigate that is not

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Speaker 4: going to necessarily be solved by a report or recommendations

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Speaker 4: or the government even agreeing to everything. Even if the

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Speaker 4: Government agrees to every single recommendation handed down in some

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Speaker 4: future Royal Commission report, it does not mean that the

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Speaker 4: issue is over or indeed that everybody is happy.

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Speaker 5: So, yeah, how long is a piece of string?

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Speaker 1: Indeed, looking out across the rest of Australia, there's actually

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Speaker 1: a couple of state elections happening this year as well.

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Speaker 1: One in South Australia. The Premier, the Alanowskis will be

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Speaker 1: contesting his seat amongst the rest of the parliament, and

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Speaker 1: also in Victoria as well. I want to touch quickly

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Speaker 1: on South Australia. Now, Peter Melanowskis is one of those

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Speaker 1: people who really championed and campaigned for the under sixteen

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Speaker 1: social media ban that's now come to fruition. Do you

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Speaker 1: feel like he's relatively safe in this election.

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Speaker 4: I don't think that there's anyone who thinks that Labor

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Speaker 4: is not going to win the election in South Australia.

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Speaker 4: Peter Melanowskis is still exceptionally popular as a leader. The

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Speaker 4: opposition has had to change leaders. They haven't managed to

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Speaker 4: get any momentum. They've tried to raise an issue about

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Speaker 4: youth crime that hasn't really taken hold. In South Australia.

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Speaker 4: There has been an issue that's come up with the

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Speaker 4: Adelaide Festival disinviting a Palestinian Australian author, and Peter Malanowskis

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Speaker 4: has backed in that decision by the festival, which has

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Speaker 4: raised some issues and there will no doubt be more

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Speaker 4: fallout from that as more authors including myself, withdrawal from

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Speaker 4: the Writer's Festival, and then there's also the wider Adelaide Festival,

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Speaker 4: which is like one of the biggest parts of their

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Speaker 4: social calendar, which will probably feel some heat from this.

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Speaker 5: That doesn't mean, though, that Peter.

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Speaker 4: Malinowskis is going to suffer politically at the election because

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Speaker 4: of this, mostly because there is no opposition in South Australia.

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Speaker 1: It might be a bit of a different story in

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Speaker 1: Victoria though, Justinta Allen also heading to a state election,

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Speaker 1: she had a really busy year in twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 2: They handed down the Women's Paint Inquiry.

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Speaker 1: They also did a lot of other things like saying

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Speaker 1: that First Nation's Treaty and introducing similar laws to what

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Speaker 1: we've seen in Queensland with the adult time for violent

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Speaker 1: crime for children. There's a couple of polarizing and different

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Speaker 1: policies that she brought to the forefront. Where do you

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Speaker 1: think this will land Victoria's election?

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Speaker 4: Justin to Alan's biggest problem isn't necessarily anything that Labor's doing.

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Speaker 4: It's the fact that she's leading a tired government. Labor

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Speaker 4: have been in power for so long. In Victoria, they've

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Speaker 4: changed leaders. Daniel Andrews obviously was a very popular leader,

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Speaker 4: very charismatic to a lot of people in Victoria, which

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Speaker 4: just inter Allen has not carried on. She doesn't have

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Speaker 4: that same charisma or populist feel to her as a leader.

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Speaker 5: There's still a long time.

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Speaker 4: To go before that election, but I do think in

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Speaker 4: Victoria it's one to keep an eye on because labor

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Speaker 4: is worried there because of how long they've been in power,

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Speaker 4: because things are starting to get a little bit more

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Speaker 4: difficult for them to get their messaging out. The test

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Speaker 4: will come when it's time for the coalition in Victoria

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Speaker 4: to start rolling out some of their policies, and whether

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Speaker 4: or not what's happening in the federal sphere, which tends

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Speaker 4: to be dictated a lot more by the conservative wing

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Speaker 4: of the coalition, feeds into what's happening in Victoria, which

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Speaker 4: historically has pushed back against those conservative bends.

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Speaker 2: This had a very busy start to the year.

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Speaker 1: He's seized the Venezuelan president on drug trafficking charges, assumed

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Speaker 1: control of Venezuela's oil trade. The Secretary of State is

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Speaker 1: meaning to discuss maybe purchasing Greenland later this week as well.

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Speaker 1: Is this the start of Trump's world domination? Should we

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Speaker 1: be worried about it?

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Speaker 5: It's so mask off now there are no international rules.

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Speaker 4: And while you know, you can mount many an argument

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Speaker 4: to say that there hasn't been international rules for some time,

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Speaker 4: including what America has historically done in South America, you know,

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Speaker 4: in decades previously.

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Speaker 5: This is blatant in a way that I.

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Speaker 4: Think is shocking to even seasoned foreign affairs watches.

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Speaker 5: We use this language.

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Speaker 4: He sees the president of Venezuela that is not legal

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Speaker 4: under international law or anything. He effectively kidnapped the president

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Speaker 4: of Venezuela to hold him to account under American laws

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Speaker 4: in America that is uncharted territory, handing over Venezuela's resources

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Speaker 4: to American companies. It's just now, this Greenland situation is

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Speaker 4: a massive problem for Europe because Trump has effectively been

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Speaker 4: maneuvered into the position where if he doesn't do something

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Speaker 4: on Greenland, he will look weak, which we know is

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Speaker 4: one of Trump's really big triggers. The man does not

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Speaker 4: want to look weak. The United States has also withdrawn

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Speaker 4: from about thirty three international organizations around the UN which

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Speaker 4: a lot of people who know more about this stuff

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Speaker 4: than me are saying, is the end of the international

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Speaker 4: based rules order. It's not so much that America has

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Speaker 4: pulled out of these committees and these organizations. It's that

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Speaker 4: America is telling the world what its priorities are and

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Speaker 4: its priority is America only first?

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Speaker 5: Always?

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Speaker 2: What about our money?

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Speaker 1: Did you make yourself a new year's resolution to become

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Speaker 1: financially fit? Maybe this is the year you buy your

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Speaker 1: first home or pay off a big debt. With the

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Speaker 1: first inflation figures now out and the ongoing cost of

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Speaker 1: living struggles still relevant for many of us, how's the

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Speaker 1: economy shaping up in twenty twenty six? Let's ask economist

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Speaker 1: Chris Richardson. Okay, Chris, let's start with inflation. We saw

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Speaker 1: recently that the rate has dropped three point four percent,

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Speaker 1: down from three point eight percent. Is that a sign

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Speaker 1: of economic healing?

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Speaker 2: Would you say?

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Speaker 6: Well, it is a good sign, but it is not

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Speaker 6: of itself enough to guarantee that we won't have further

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Speaker 6: problems in twenty twenty six, And you've.

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Speaker 5: Started with exactly the right question.

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Speaker 6: Inflation is the key to how families will feel through

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Speaker 6: this year in the last couple of years, as inflation

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Speaker 6: took off, your wage did not keep up prah, so

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Speaker 6: your spending power dropped. But there are a couple of

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Speaker 6: other problems as well. The tax man taxes inflation basically,

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Speaker 6: as the dollars in the bucket go up, even if

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Speaker 6: you're not getting the same venue that you used to,

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Speaker 6: they make a bigger cut, so you've been paying more

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Speaker 6: in tax. And the other thing is, of course, the

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Speaker 6: Reserve Bank hates inflation and it sticks up interest rates.

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Speaker 6: So the big hit to living standards in recent years

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Speaker 6: was because inflation put on a sprint. You should really

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Speaker 6: really hope that we gradually glide to the sweet spot

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Speaker 6: from here.

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Speaker 1: So I feel like on that note there, you've mentioned

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Speaker 1: interest rates, and whenever we talk about inflation, people are

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Speaker 1: desperate to know which way they're going to go. Well

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Speaker 1: yet to hear from the next round of what the

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Speaker 1: RBA is going to do with interest rates? What's your

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Speaker 1: prediction up, down, holding steady.

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Speaker 6: The key to what the Reserve Bank does will be

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Speaker 6: the inflation numbers released at the end of this month

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Speaker 6: and when it meets at the start of next month,

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Speaker 6: that will tell you whether they raise rates or not.

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Speaker 6: They're unlikely to be cutting them at the next meeting.

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Speaker 6: I am still pretty hopeful that infrastrates do not go

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Speaker 6: up in twenty twenty six. There's a chance that they

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Speaker 6: could go down. To be fair, though, there is a

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Speaker 6: bigger chance that they go up. When I say up

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Speaker 6: a quarter percentage point, half a percentage point, hopefully no

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Speaker 6: more than that.

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Speaker 1: Chris, the words cost of living have become part of

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Speaker 1: the collective consciousness ever since the pandemic hit a few

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Speaker 1: years ago.

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Speaker 2: What will all.

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Speaker 1: Of these things have an impact on the cost of

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Speaker 1: living in twenty twenty six.

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Speaker 5: It's been a grind.

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Speaker 6: Our standard of living has gone down because our cost

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Speaker 6: of living has gone up. And you know, a lot

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Speaker 6: of that was the inflation fight that I mentioned, and

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Speaker 6: it's going to continue to be a slow fight against

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Speaker 6: inflation from here. The recovery in your living standards is

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Speaker 6: going to be pretty slow through twenty twenty six. Wages

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Speaker 6: might run just a little bit ahead of prices, and

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Speaker 6: the government's got a very small tax cuts coming in

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Speaker 6: the middle of the year, basically only handing back what

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Speaker 6: inflation is eating up. At the moment, chances are you

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Speaker 6: will mostly be treading water. Some things more expensive stuff

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Speaker 6: like electricity. Where the subsidies go away, something's cheaper, in

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Speaker 6: part as the Australian dollar rises, a few inputs took

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Speaker 6: it cheap.

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Speaker 2: And finally AI.

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Speaker 1: Whether you've embraced it, got it running all your life

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Speaker 1: admin or have fallen victim to buying some skincare thanks

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Speaker 1: to too good to be true images online, the technology

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Speaker 1: has well and truly made itself at home across the

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Speaker 1: globe and our devices, but beyond the AI slot were

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Speaker 1: being served on TikTok and the convenience of clearing our

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Speaker 1: email inboxes. What's the next big evolution for AI and.

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Speaker 2: Should we be worried about it?

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Speaker 1: Futurist unders Sawman Nilsen has been following it closely and

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Speaker 1: as what do you see as the biggest opportunities for

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Speaker 1: AI this year, both in our personal lives and professional lives.

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Speaker 1: I feel like most people have adopted it already in

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Speaker 1: one way or another.

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Speaker 7: Yeah. I think twenty twenty five in many ways was

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Speaker 7: the year of AI agents being super hyped. So we

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Speaker 7: started developing AI agents to help us with our work,

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Speaker 7: to help us with filing for center Link, support for

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Speaker 7: childcare subsidies and doing all of these menial tasks in

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Speaker 7: our life that we no longer want to do. I

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Speaker 7: think the big promise of AI is really now coming

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Speaker 7: into fruition right, which is to help liberate ourselves from

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Speaker 7: the menial and the mundane in work and at home

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Speaker 7: and actually focus more on the meaningful and the humane.

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Speaker 7: The great news is that now AI speaks human. It

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Speaker 7: used to be that you had to be computer scientists

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Speaker 7: or have a software engineering degree to be able to

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Speaker 7: sort of get under the hood. Now if you have

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Speaker 7: a voice, if you can type, if you can have

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Speaker 7: digital access, you can now interface with artificial intelligence, which

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Speaker 7: should augment all of our human instincts and our human

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Speaker 7: abilities this year, in twenty twenty six, and I think

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Speaker 7: that's super exciting. Back in nineteen hundred, ninety eight percent

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Speaker 7: of US households, we're still using a scrub board to

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Speaker 7: do their laundry, right, very very menial, time consuming task,

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Speaker 7: and in fact, fifty eight hours were spent per household

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Speaker 7: in the United States doing household chores every week thanks

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Speaker 7: to the dishwasher and electrification and the washing machine. In fact,

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Speaker 7: the University of Pennsylvania economists Jordan Greenwood says that those

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Speaker 7: household machines are responsible for fifty percent of the female

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Speaker 7: participation rate that we see today in the American labor force,

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Speaker 7: So machines have always liberated both women and men. As

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Speaker 7: a single dad, I welcome the days when we have

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Speaker 7: AI robots in the home doing even more sophisticated tasks

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Speaker 7: than what the dishwasher and the washing machine have enabled

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Speaker 7: so far. So I'm an optimist.

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Speaker 8: Yes, there are concerns about artificial intel diligence and AI

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Speaker 8: toys and teddy bears that say naughty things to kids,

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Speaker 8: or the fact that you know, any kid can open

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Speaker 8: up a chat GPT account today and we might get to.

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Speaker 7: Those concerns as well as we as we chat further tailor.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot of talk at the moment about AI colleagues.

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Speaker 1: Now this won't apply to every profession, not everybody works

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Speaker 1: in a corporate or an office environment, but for those

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Speaker 1: of us who have started to head back to work

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Speaker 1: and they may be seeing those words bandied around as well.

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Speaker 1: Can you put to rest our fears that these AI

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Speaker 1: colleagues are going to take our jobs?

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Speaker 2: What's the deal?

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Speaker 7: I don't think they'll take our jobs, but just like

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Speaker 7: none of us want to stand around with a scrub

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Speaker 7: board doing our laundry in the home. So there are

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Speaker 7: many tasks in our workplace that are sort of the

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Speaker 7: workplace analogy to working with a washboard. We all do

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Speaker 7: things in a very inefficient manner in the workplace, and

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Speaker 7: having AI agents and actually doing those menial and mundane

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Speaker 7: times will be a blessing for all of us. And

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Speaker 7: I think we all need to prepare ourselves that the

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Speaker 7: future workforce is going to be a combination of human

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Speaker 7: intelligence and artificial intelligence. In fact, that MADERNA responsible for

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Speaker 7: one of the vaccines that many of us were injecting

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Speaker 7: during the pandemic. They've now in fact collapsed the IT

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Speaker 7: Department and the Human Resource Department into one department under

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Speaker 7: one chief People and Digital Officer because they recognize that

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Speaker 7: there's no distinction between HR and IT anymore. It's just

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Speaker 7: work right. So we'll all be working with AI agents

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Speaker 7: and I think we should all welcome that. So I

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Speaker 7: think that's what we'll start seeing this year as well,

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Speaker 7: AI agents representing humans and professionals conversing with patients and

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Speaker 7: clients as well.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for taking some time to feed your mind with

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Speaker 1: us today. We'll be back with more news updates for

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Speaker 1: your afternoon coffee breaks, so make sure you're following.

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Speaker 2: The Quickie wherever you get your PODCAS casts.

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Speaker 1: The Quikie is produced by me Tabor Strano, Ilaria Brofi,

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Speaker 1: and Clare Murphy, with audio production by Lou Hill.

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Speaker 3: Mumma Mea acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters

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Speaker 3: that this podcast is recorded on