For the first time in 111 years, a President is planning to fire a sitting Fed governor—and of course, it’s the first Black woman, Lisa Cook.
Welcome to Talking Business, a podcast produced in Melbourne Australia. The podcast is available on the Acast site, my own website, the Apple Podcast store or wherever you go to get your podcasts. Or you can get it at the Business Acumen website at www.businessacumen.biz.
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I am Leon Gettler. My job is to review and monitor the week’s news in business, finance and economics. I bring it all to you, every week.
For the most exclusive access to leading economists and business leaders from around the world, subscribe or whatever your favourite podcast platform is to Talking Business from my website leongettler.com or whatever your favourite podcast platform is.
This is episode number 29 in our series for 2025 and today’s date is Friday August 29
First, I’ll be talking to I’ll be talking to Nicholas Woodward, the country manager of Pack & Send, the company that provides customised logistics solutions for businesses of any size and that has helped countless Australian businesses pivot and grow. We’ll talk about Pack & Send’s international growth as a franchisor, and the growing importance of e-commerce in the business model of parcel delivery.
And I’ll be talking to AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver about the latest profit reporting season
But first, let’s talk to Nicholas Woodward.
So what’s happening in the news?
President Donald Trump has said he will immediately remove Federal Reserve official Lisa Cook from her position, a major escalation in his battle against the US central bank. In an announcement made on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump informed her of his decision to remove her from the bank’s board of governors with immediate effect. He said there was “sufficient reason” to believe she had made false statements on mortgage agreements, and cited constitutional powers which he said allowed him to remove her. Neither Cook or the Federal Reserve has commented on the sacking, which the president announced late on Monday. Trump has put increasing pressure on the Fed – especially its chair Jerome Powell – in recent weeks over what he sees as the central bank’s unwillingness to lower interest rates. He has repeatedly floated the possibility of firing Powell. His decision to fire Cook, who is one of seven members of the Fed’s board of governors and the first African American woman to serve in the role, is believed to be unprecedented in the central bank’s 111-year history. It is also likely to raise legal questions, with experts suggesting the White House will need to demonstrate – potentially in court – that it had sufficient reason to fire her. The president had called for her resignation last week over the allegation of mortgage fraud, which was first made in a public letter from housing finance regulator, Bill Pulte, a Trump ally, to Attorney General Pam Bondi. The housing finance regulator called the letter a “criminal referral” and urged the justice department to investigate. It is not clear whether an investigation has been opened. Cook said last week that she learned of the allegations from the media, and the matter stemmed from a mortgage loan application she made four years ago before she joined the central bank. “I have no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet,” she said. “I do intend to take any questions about my financial history seriously as a member of the Federal Reserve and so I am gathering the accurate information to answer any legitimate questions and provide the facts.” If Cook or the Fed resist Trump’s decision to oust her, experts suggest it could trigger a standoff between the central bank and the White House. The Fed gained independence from the US government in 1951. Trump has expressed increasing animosity at Powell, calling him a “numbskull” and a “stubborn moron” because he did not support the president’s calls for rapid, large cuts to borrowing rates. But last week, Powell boosted expectation there will be an interest rate cut in September. Speaking to central bankers gathered in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, he also argued that the inflationary impact of Trump’s tariffs could prove temporary. The US dollar weakened against major world currencies in Asia trading on Tuesday as investors bet that Cook’s replacement would be likely to push more interest rate cuts.
Australia Post has immediately suspended most postage to the United States, with only the delivery of letters, documents and gifts worth less than $150 continuing. The postal service has taken the extraordinary step to halt many forms of postage to the US, as a Trump administration tariff on low-value parcels is due to come into effect within days. Australian businesses selling to American customers will be blocked from shipping to the US via Australia Post. The government-owned postal service joins other global carriers in taking this step, ahead of new levies beginning on Friday, August 29. It will continue shipping letters and documents to the US, along with packages that are declared as gifts and are worth less than $US100 ($A153).
And it’s finally happening. The long-promised overhaul of Australia’s broken environmental protection laws, cited by Ken Henry as the nation’s most pressing productivity challenge, will be brought forward by almost a year, piling pressure on business, miners, environmental groups and the Senate to reach an agreement before Christmas. Following discussions at last week’s Economic Reform Roundtable, the Albanese government has decided to put the legislation to parliament by the end of this year, not the second half of next year as originally flagged, in a bid to land the reforms that bedevilled its first term in office. Former competition tsar Graeme Samuel reviewed the Environmment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC) introduced by the Howard government in 1999. Samuel, who handed down his findings in 2020, declared the act an “abysmal failure” in that it was failing to safeguard against wanton habitat destruction and was also leading to protracted approval processes for mines, housing and other developments. Environment Minister Murray Watt, who was appointed by Albanese to negotiate a compromise between business and environment said: “It was clear from last week’s roundtable that there is very strong support – across business, environment and community representatives – for serious and urgent reform to deliver stronger environmental protections, faster and simpler project approvals and greater transparency in environmental regulation,” Watt, who was handpicked by Albanese after the election to take the environment portfolio from Tanya Plibersek and land the reforms, has done little else since but focus on the task, including about 45 stakeholder meetings. “In those meetings, I have consistently heard that we need to move quickly to reform these laws, as delays mean holding up investment and more environmental destruction,” he said. The basis of the reform recommendations is to streamline approvals into a single decision-making process based on national environmental standards, rather than dual state and federal processes. Put simply, it’s about being able to give a project application a quick yes or no.
The states and territories stand to lose up to $18 billion in extra funding for their hospitals over five years if they refuse to sign up to a new plan to stop children with mild autism and other minor developmental issues from accessing the National Disability Insurance Scheme which already costs more to run than the aged care system and Medicare and which is forecast to cost more than the Age pension. Under a deal with the states signed in 2023, children with mild issues, for whom the NDIS was not designed, were supposed to be shifted to state-provided foundational supports by July 1, 2025, in return for $13.2 billion in extra hospital funding between 2025 and 2030. But no state signed up, and that deadline was missed. So last week Health minister Mark Butler announced a new national foundational supports scheme known as Thriving Kids, towards which the states must contribute 50% of the cost. It will begin on July 1 next year, and be fully operational a year later. However, due to increasing medical costs and the passage of time, the $13.3 billion in extra hospital funding between 2025 and 2030 has now blown out to about $18 billion between 2027 and 2032. Chalmers told the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday the extra hospital funding was still contingent on the states playing ball with the Commonwealth to alleviate the burden on the NDIS. “As always with Commonwealth state financial relationships, there’s a bit of back and forth about how we deliver, but that agreement was struck,” he said of the December 2023 national cabinet deal on the NDIS.
French giant Lactalis will become the largest dairy company in Australia with the purchase of Fonterra Cooperative Group for $3.4 billion. Fonterra has agreed to the sale of its global business to Lactalis, including its operations in Australia, Oceania, Sri Lanka and the Middle East. Fonterra owns well-known brands Western Star butter, Perfect Italiano and Mainland cheeses. That will now be owned by the French. Lactalis is already the largest dairy company in the world. Its chief executive Emmanuel Besnier said combining with Fonterra would allow the company to grow in key markets. “With this acquisition we significantly strengthen our strategy across Oceania, South- East Asia and the Middle East,” he said. Fonterra and Lactalis need further regulatory approvals in Australia and overseas for the sale to go ahead. Fonterra’s dairy farmer suppliers in New Zealand will also vote on the acquisition later this year. The sale is expected to be complete in early 2026.
The Insurance Council of Australia is warning insurers to proceed with caution on the roll-out of AI. AI is already being used by insurers to predict natural disasters, help staff analyse claim documents, and streamline interactions with brokers. And at results briefings this month, Suncorp said it had more than 100 AI models in development and would discuss plans to roll some of them out at an investor day in late October. Insurance executives envision a near future where a customer takes a smartphone picture of their crashed car or burnt out house and submits it via an app for assessment by artificial intelligence software, which will either automatically pay out the claim or reject it without human intervention. Yet while the potential time and cost savings from such technology are clear, the Insurance Council of Australia is urging its members to work carefully when they use AI. “End-to-end automation is exciting, but it also comes with the risk of getting bad consumer outcomes,” says ICA chief executive Andrew Hall. “If we rush and break trust, it will set us back because the instinct [for government] will be to regulate.”
It’s the final week of the profit reporting season. Supermarket giant Coles Coles unveiled a 1.8% lift in sales to $44.49bn as net profit fell 3.5% to $1.079bn. Woolworths, the nation’s largest retailer has posted a 17.1% fall in normalised net profit to $1.39bn. Fruit, baked beans and juice company SPC Global suffered a loss of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation level of $3.5 million for the 12 months ending June 30, compared with $10.6 million a year earlier. For the year ended June 30, medical gloves and surgical gown manufacturer Ansell’s statutory net profit rose to $99.2 million, up 17.7% from $84.3 million a year earlier. Queensland export terminal Dalrymple Bay Infrastructure delivered a 17% rise in interim profit to $43.1 million. Chorus said it was back in the black with a net profit after tax of $NZ4 million, compared with a $NZ9 million loss in FY24. Reece’s net profit after tax dropped 24% to $317 million from $419 million in FY24. NIB net profit after tax for FY25 rose to $198.6 million from $181.6 million in FY24. Campervan group Tourism Holdings, which is dual-listed on the NZ and Australian stock exchanges, reported a full-year loss in 2024-25 of NZ$25.8 million compared with a net profit after tax of NZ$39.4 million a year ago. Investigations software provider Nuix reported a net loss after tax of $9.2 million for the year, compared to a profit of $5 million in the prior year. Adore Beauty delivered record EBITDA of $8.1 million, up 67.8% on the prior year. Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has reported a statutory net loss after tax of $97.1 million for the year to June 30. WA lithium miner Pilbara Minerals has posted a statutory loss of $196 million. Aussie Broadband reported NPAT of $32.8 million, up 24.5%. Navigator Global Investments has reported a 26% increase in full-year adjusted earnings of $US114 million($A177 million). Endeavour’s Group net profit fell 15.8% in the past 12 months to $426 million. ASX-listed alternative asset manager Regal reported a 24% decline in normalised net profit after tax to $44.81 million over the half year. Abacus Group reported a statutory net profit of $26.9 million for the 12 months to June 30. Mining tech giant Imdex reported an underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of $126m which was below its figures for FY24. Online marketplace Kogan.com has slumped to a net loss of $39.465m for fiscal 2025. Lindsay Australia posted an underlying EBITDA of $81.4 million, down 11.7%. Normalised EBITDA was $33.264m, down 10.0% on FY24. Peoplein posted a 10% decline in normalised EBITDA of $33.3 million. Gold miner Ramelius Resources reported a full-year net profit of $474.2 million, more than doubling last year’s result of $216.6 million. Cinema and hospitality group EVT has delivered a full-year net profit after tax of $33.4 million, up from $4.82 million in FY24. Medical device manufacturer Polynovo announced a full-year net profit of $13.2 million, which was 151.2% higher than the $5.3 million profit in FY24. Software provider Infomedia booked a full-year net profit of $22 million, up 6% year on year. Southern Cross Media’s underlying net profit rose to $15.1 million, marking a $10.6 million increase from the previous financial year. AUB Group posted a 17% rise in underlying net profit after tax to $200.2 million for the 2025 fiscal year, up from $171 million a year earlier. Reported profit rose to $180.1 million from $137.1 million. West African Resources booked a $215 million profit after tax in the June half, up 133%, underpinned by strong gold sales and higher prices. G8 Education reported statutory net profit after tax of $22.5 million for the half year ended 30 June 2025, up 12.4% on the prior comparable period, with operating EBIT rising 2.8% to $40.5 million. Fortescue Metals reported a net profit after tax of $US3.4 billion ($A5.2 billion) for the past financial year, down 41% on the previous year. Nanosonics EBIT almost doubled to $17.8 million, with profit after up 59% to $20.7 million. Petrol and diesel supplier Viva Energy, which owns the Shell-branded network of petrol stations, reported that its net profit on a replacement cost basis, the figure most closely watched by the market, dropped to $62.6 million in the six months ended June 30, from $192.1 million a year earlier. Johns Lyng net profit fell from $63.3 million to $54.1 million. Helloworld Travel lifted its profit by 4.1% to $33.2 million in the 2025 fiscal year. Scentre Group, operator of Westfield centres in Australia and New Zealand, reported a statutory profit of $782 million, an increase of $177 million. Australian business technology solutions leader Data3 reported that its gross profit was up 7.3% to $289.7 million. Digital lotteries reseller Jumbo Interactive saw its full-year net profit fall 7.3% year on year to $40.2 million. Tyro Payments has posted a statutory net profit after tax of $17.8 million, down from $25.7 million the year prior. Bus and ferry operator Kelsian Group has delivered a year-on-year decline in net profit of 6% to $54.49 million. Ingenia Communities underlying profit was up 33% to $126.1 million. EBOS Group’s net profit fell 20.8% to $NZ215.1. Meridian Energy recorded a net loss after tax of $NZ452 million, compared to a net profit after tax of $NZ429 million in FY24. Sigma Healthcare’s EBIT was up 32% to $767.9m. Troubled pizza chain Domino’s Pizza has swung to a loss of $3.7m – its first as a listed company. Flight Centre posted an underlying profit before tax of $289.1m for the 2025 financial year, down 9.8% on the previous year. Tabcorp’s net profit after tax before significant items jumped 76.8% to $49.5 million, while statutory profit recovered to $36.6 million from a $1.36 billion loss in FY24. Neuren Pharmaceuticals reported a first half profit after tax of $15 million, up from $8 million in the same period last year. Wisetech’s net profit after tax rose 17% to $US200 million. Worley Group’s underlying earnings rose 10% to $823 million. Homewares retailer Adairs Group’s earnings before interest and tax declined by $6.8 million, down 36.6%. Nine Entertainment’s profits were $194.4 million, down 10%. Counterdrone technology group Droneshield swung to a net profit of $2.1 million, compared with a $4.8 million loss a year earlier. Fashion jewellery retailer Lovisa posted a net profit of $86.3 million, up 4.8%.Cash Converters reported a 41% rise in full-year net profit to $24.5 million.
And that’s it for this week.
And next week, I’ll be talking Marc Washbourne, the co-founder of ASX listed tech company, ReadyTech and its software innovations like JobReady which matches job seekers to find positions and its student management system.
And I’ll be talking to RMIT economist Sinclair Davidson about the outcomes of the government’s tax and productivity roundtable. .
For the most exclusive access to leading economists and business leaders from around the world, subscribe to Talking Business from my website leongettler.com or whatever your favourite podcast platform is.
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Looking forward to the next episode of Talking Business next week.
