Monday 27 January 2025
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton move into campaign mode ahead of a federal poll tipped to be as soon as April.
And more, including:
Plus don’t miss the latest episode of How Do They Afford That? - the six questions financial planners are asked. Get the episode from APPLE, SPOTIFY, or anywhere you listen to podcasts.
Today on Fear and Greed. Prime Minister Anthony Albanezi and Opposition leader Peter Dutton move into campaign mode ahead of a federal poll tip to be as soon as April, Australia's superannuation funds under pressure over helping people after they retire, and how New York is solving its traffic snarls. Welcome to Fear and Greed, daily business news for people who make their own decisions. It is Monday, the twenty seventh of January twenty twenty five. I'm Michael Thompson and good morning Sean Aylmer.
Good morning Michael.
Sean with the country on holiday. Today's there's a bit of a briefer show. We'll be back to normal tomorrow with normal length. We've still got interviews and things today. You've still got the week ahead with the Kook. Today it's relatively normal, just a little bit shorter. The main story, the main story though, today, Sean. Federal politicians are certainly in campaign mode. If there's any doubt about it, just just get rid of that doubt. They are in campaign mode, with both the Prime Anthony Albanesi and the Leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton, using every single opportunity to sell their wares.
And they need to because the polls show a very close race. The election is due before the middle of May, a little bit of talk around it being on twelve April. Certainly the decks being cleared in Canberra for a poll some point in the next few months. Both leaders of the respective parties used Australia Day to push their agenda. We can expect much more of that in the next three months. A then, Anthony Aberanese gave a major speech on Friday at the National Press Club. He then answered questions. He criticized Peter Dutton for not doing that now the National Press Club normally the Prime Minister and the Opposition leader turn up once or twice a year, do a big set piece and then ask then answer all the journalist's question. That's what Anthony Aberese did. Peter Dutton's not going to do it. The PM expanded on a number of subjects, including, of course, Donald Trump. When asked about the US president's decision to again exit the Paris Climate Agreement, mister Albernizis said Australia won't follow the decision in the US provides an opportunity for Australia, mister Alberanzi said, and could burst job prospects in the transition to renewable energy industries. He agreed to holding election debates before the next poll, and he said there'll be no referendums if Labor is re elected. He defended the party's record on anti Semitism. He said the government has made the right decisions in response to the October seven hamas terra of tacks on Israel, including calling out hate crimes and anti semitism at home, and Mister Alberanzi said he believes the worst of the international economic challenges are behind Australia, but he recognizes things are still hard for average families around the country. Of course, this week we get CPI Consumer Price Index figures for the December quarter, and whether or not we get interest rate cuts which would make things easier for families around the country, we'll probably get a pretty good insight into that this week.
Are you looking forward to the election campaign? Sean, Yeah, I know you're a bit of a political kind of junkie. Do you like election campaigns? To me, it kind of feels as though it's kind of just more of the same that we have had now for the last twelve months. It feels as though there's been such a long build up to this campaign and we're not of an in it yet, but we're kind of are, aren't we.
Yeah. I mean I don't overly enjoy campaigns. It's as a journalist just based to follow everything. I find it really hard. So much is going on, and when they're making announcements, you don't know whether it's a re announcement or a new announcement or this sort of thing. It gets very tricky.
And call promises and non call promises.
Remember that those ones?
Yeah, good fun local markets. How do they finish up on Friday?
Yes? And PA six two hundred or is almost half a percent closed at eighty four hundred and nine points. Was up just over a week. Sorry, I'll say that again. Michael was just over one percent for the week on Friday. The retailers did best. Premiere Investments, which of course got approval last week to sell most of its brands to Mayer. It jumped more than six percent. West Farmers raised more than three percent. After Goldman Sachs the investment bank upgraded its prospects. Harvey Norman rose around two and a half percent. The energy stocks were among the worst performers. Woodside dropped about two percent. It was a lackluster day ahead of long weekend. Really, the banks were mixed, the big miners were flat to positive, and Telstra was down touch.
Before we leave markets, Sean, there is a fair bit of blowback on the Dollar Trump and Dollar Millennia meme coins from within the crypto industry.
Yes, it's interesting. So they were launched ten days ago or so, just ahead of Donald Trump taking office. The coins have absolutely no economic purpose at all. Their value is totally based on the popularity of the individuals and the Internet met Now, at one point last week, Dollar Trump its market value was well over eight billion dollars. Dollar Millania it was about one point four billion dollars at peak. I think that's according to coin market Cap. The problem, according to crypto executives, is that all this froth and bubble basically undermines the credibility of the industry. And you know, we saw over the weekend, or started on Friday, then over the week and the value of Dollar Millennia and Dollar Trump just fell through the floor. So theyre worth a lot less than they were in the middle of last week. But you know, like this industry has been trying to build up its credibility and suddenly we get these two meme coins people buying them. People would have lost billion, well billions of dollars will have been lost in these coins. Someone bought them when they're worth a lot of money and not now, and that's really upset the industry. There's also the sort of conflict of interest issue that Donald Trump could benefit from the sale of the tokens as well too.
That too, But it's a really good point that really it is a credibility problem here, isn't it. And after an industry that has done so much to build its reputation and particularly was buoyed so much by a lot of the kind of the institutional investors coming on board and the big moves, particularly this time last year out of the US with the Bitcoin spot ets. Remember that that kind of gave the industry huge credibility that's kind of challenged a bit now before we go to the break, we've got an interview coming up after the show. A quick mention of that one. Amy Lomas, the chief economist at PwC Australia.
PEWC has released its twenty eighth annual Global CEO Survey four tho seven hundred CEOs across one hundred and nine countries, about one hundred and sixteen Australian CEOs in that talk about all things around economic growth, artificial intelligence, a fantastic way of tapping into what CEO's got.
GLOBEI you're thinking, yeah, it's a good conversation. It's coming up after the show. Stick around for that one. Stick around as well. We've got more to come. We'll be back in a moment with the rest of the day's business news. Sean Penny Wong is under pressure over her role as Foreign Minister, with Opposition leader Peter Dutton saying she has quote trashed Australia's relationship with Israel.
He came as a petition called for Senator Wong not to lead Australia's delegation at this week's event in Poland commemorating Deliberation of Auschwitz, which has gained about ten thousand signatures in three days. Meanwhile, late last week, one of Australia's most prominent Jewish figures, West phil founder Frank Lowey, called on the federal government to lead by example and fulfill its duty and obligation to stamp out anti Semitism, which is staining Australia's identity as a fair country. According to mister.
Lowey, Australia's pensions industry has been widely celebrated for building a four point one trillion dollar nest egg for the country's workers. It's been less successful, though, sean in helping those savers actually manage their cash once they retire.
Real problem the superannuation system is lagging behind many other wealthy countries because it isn't providing enough guidance on how to spend money in retirement. According to a Graaton Institute report, that is causing people to be anxious. There's going to be two and a half million retirees over the next decade. Mostly Australians have done a great job saving for retirement, but mostly we don't know how to spend it once we've finished work. The report says. The super system is in effect becoming a bigger and bigger inheritance scheme. About you, Michael, I'm not going to leave my kids anything. Well, I hope not. I really get the point. I mean. In July this year we go to what twelve percent compulsory super and so we're going to have a lot of money when we're tire. And the Gratton Institute recommends retires be encouraged to use a portion of their pension that savings to buy a government annuity, a financial product basically that guarantees income for life. But even if you I mean, you can do that and spend all your money on an annuity, maybe that's what you want to do. But even if the recommendations from financial advisors is that part of your funds goes to an annuity and the other path goes to investments, it's just it's really hard to know when you're going to die and so how much to spend. Now, some Australian funds are beginning to offer some of these products, but we've got a long way to go. According to the Gratton Institute, this.
Is going to be a really good test to see which of your children listen to fear and greed, as to which one confront you over breakfast this morning, going.
On on a public holiday.
Okay, you're all right, you can say whatever you want, knowing that they are not going to hear you. Rio Tinto Sean has warned the first quarter iron ore shipments from WA's Pilbur region will be lower than expected after a cyclone dropped a month's rain in twenty four hours and flooded its port infrastructure. What's the name of this cyclone again, I've I've forgotten.
Tropical cyclone, Sean, my favorite. A railcar dumper that offloads iron ore from trains to port operations has been put out of action for a month after the cyclone inundated Kratha with two hundred and seventy four mills of rain on one day earlier last week. Min has warned that the closure will affect its first quarter iron or output. Mind you, it's still going to shift, you know, about three hundred and thirty million tons for the full year, but they're a bit of delay in those shipments.
Turning to international news now, Sean, I love this story. This is really interesting. New York, like many cities around the world, has enormous traffic snarls, but a new congestion toll seems to be working, with cars appearing to move faster around Manhattan.
So they're moving faster along Manhattan's bridges and tunnels. Since the city implemented its long debated congestion pricing plan on five January. According to report in the Financial Times, morning rush hour speed from New Jersey through the Holand Tunnel, a main route under the Hudson River, into Manhattan, has almost doubled to twenty eight miles an hour. That's, you know, lay forties. That's not bad for peak hour. It's confared to a year earlier. Evening speed over the Manhattan Bridge to Brooklyn has increased from thirteen miles an hour to twenty three miles an hour. Not bad. Motors to charge four dollars fifty to fourteen dollars forty to enter the congestion zone. A car's nine dollars, so it's not cheap, so you've got to think about it if you're taking your car onto Manhattan. New York joins London, Milan, Singapore, and Stockholm in a small club of big cities with congestion pricing. Traffic in London, which introduced its program in two thousand and three, was one of the early ones, dropped by fourteen percent in its own in the first year. Cities of experience drops some more than twenty percent, so the financial incentive seems to be working.
Sean coming up next is Fear and Greed The week Ahead, featuring our resident economist Stephen coulculis definitely worth a listen today because one of the main things that he is talking about, obviously is the inflation data coming out on Wednesday and his prediction as to what that will mean for interest rates and what the Reserve Bank will be wanting to see from this data in order to actually get a rate cut, perhaps as early as February and after that Amy Lomas, the chief economist at PwC, as we mentioned earlier, So plenty of good listening for your public holiday coming up in the Fear and Greed playlist on your podcast platform or at Fearangreed dot com dood are you, thank you, Sean, Thank you.
Michael.
It is Monday, the twenty seventh of January twenty twenty five. Make sure you're following the podcast and please join us online on LinkedIn, Instagram, x TikTok and Facebook. I'm Michael Thompson and that was Fear and Greed. Have a great day.