Former RBA board member Warwick McKibbin says Australia’s income tax rates already too high.
Instead of tinkering with CGT, the government should cut tax & shift burden to consumption — think GST.
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 businessacumen.biz
I am Leon Gettler. My job is 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 to Talking Business from my website leongettler.com or whatever your favourite podcast platform is.
This is episode number 16 in our series for 2026 and today’s date is Friday May 22
First, I’ll be talking to Penelope Barr, a former career executive and portfolio careerpreneur who now coaches people about how to avoid burnout.
And I’ll be talking to Dr Christian Gillitzer from Sydney University’s School of Economics about the tax implications of the Budget.
But first let’s talk to Penelope Barr
So what’s happening in the news?
So the big sticking point in global energy markets right now is the Strait of Hormuz — and nothing has really moved. Iran says once the conflict is over, ships can flow freely again, but here’s the catch: nobody can agree on how to end the conflict. Trump just came back from two days in China with Xi Jinping. They both nodded along that the strait should be open — but walked away with nothing concrete. Meanwhile, Iran is making clear it wants to keep a hand on the wheel in that waterway even after any deal is done. The economic pressure is real. Brent crude is up about 50% since the war started. Iran’s grip on Persian Gulf shipping has basically frozen oil exports from the region, which hands Tehran enormous leverage at the negotiating table. The US has hit back with an oil export blockade on Iran and sanctions on Chinese companies buying Iranian crude — though Trump’s now hinting he might ease those sanctions. Pakistan is trying to play peacemaker, but analysts are blunt: talks are deadlocked, and a return to open conflict looks increasingly likely.
So, let’s talk about President Trump and a comment that’s been making waves this week. When asked whether the economic pain Americans are feeling might push him to end the war with Iran, Trump said — and I’m paraphrasing here — “Not even a little bit. I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation.” Pretty blunt, right? Now, this landed at a pretty rough moment. Inflation just hit its fastest pace in three years. Gas is over $4.50 a gallon. Grocery prices jumped more than they have in nearly four years. And a new CNN poll found that 77% of Americans — including most Republicans — think Trump’s policies have made their cost of living worse. The political fallout was immediate. Democrats called it proof that Trump is disconnected from everyday Americans. Even his own VP, JD Vance, tried to walk it back — saying it was misrepresented. But Trump went on Fox News and doubled down. Called it “a perfect statement.” Now, Trump has always leaned into being a billionaire — that was part of his brand. The argument was always: he’s so rich, nobody can buy him. But there’s a difference between flaunting wealth and telling people you don’t think about their financial struggles — while gas prices are through the roof. With midterms coming up, Republican strategists are quietly nervous. Trump’s not on the ballot, but control of Congress is. And while all this was playing out at home? Trump was in China, posting banquet dinner videos — lobster, roast duck — and came back wanting to build America a ballroom. Quite a week.
A quieter but genuinely significant story out of Melbourne: an Australian steel mill has crossed a milestone that nobody’s managed to hit here before. InfraBuild’s Laverton plant, out in Melbourne’s west, is now drawing more than half its power from a wind farm. First time that’s happened at an Australian steel mill. Now, steel is one of the hardest industries to clean up. The old way of making it — burning coal in blast furnaces — is enormously carbon-intensive. But Laverton uses electric arc furnaces instead, which melt down scrap metal — old cars, fridges, building materials — and if you run those on renewables, you cut emissions dramatically. InfraBuild wants to be at 100% renewable for both its Melbourne and Sydney mills by 2030, and the CEO says they’re a couple of years away at most. The next challenge is the bits of the process that can’t run on electricity — like reheating steel — where they’re looking at biomethane as a cleaner alternative to natural gas. Worth noting: InfraBuild is part of British billionaire Sanjeev Gupta’s empire, which has had some serious financial turbulence. But the company says it’s ringfenced from those problems — and is actually planning to expand production significantly by 2028.
And finally, the budget tax debate is getting louder. Treasurer Jim Chalmers has unveiled a package he says will raise more than $80 billion over a decade — through changes to negative gearing, capital gains tax, and trusts. The political pitch is simple: property investors have had an unfair advantage over first home buyers for too long. But the critics are coming out swinging. Former Reserve Bank board member Warwick McKibbin’s line is basically: we’re fiddling while Rome burns. His argument is that Australia’s income tax rates are already too high, and instead of tinkering with CGT, the government should be cutting income taxes and shifting the burden to consumption — think GST — instead. The startup and venture capital sector is also alarmed, worried that taxing investment gains more heavily will push entrepreneurs offshore to the US or UK. Chalmers says he’s listening to those concerns. Politically, it’s a tough sell. A poll found that only 31% of Australians aged 18 to 34 — the very people the policy is meant to help — actually think the changes will make housing more affordable. And with Labor also offering just a $250 annual tax offset while income tax keeps climbing, the opposition is framing this as a government that won’t pull its own belt in.
Australia’s biggest banks are in an AI arms race — but this time, it’s to protect themselves. Commonwealth Bank and Westpac are now using OpenAI’s latest cybersecurity model — called GPT-5.5-Cyber, or “Daybreak” — to probe their own systems for weaknesses. The idea is simple: use the same powerful AI that hackers might use, before the hackers do. Meanwhile, Anthropic — the other big AI player — has a rival model called Mythos that’s considered even more capable, but they’ve locked it down to just 40 US companies at Washington’s request. That hasn’t stopped them briefing Australian regulators though — the Reserve Bank, Treasury, and around 170 critical infrastructure operators have all had a look at what Mythos can do. And the regulators are rattled. APRA wrote to banks last month explicitly naming Mythos as a heightened cyber threat. ASIC’s commissioner put it bluntly — and I’m paraphrasing here — the clock is at a minute to midnight. NAB’s technology chief Patrick Wright probably summed it up best. He said they’re essentially hiring AI to pretend to be a criminal and try to break into their own systems. And he’s under no illusions — he said this is just the warm-up. So the bottom line? The same AI making banks more secure is also making them more vulnerable — and the race is very much on.
So, Mike Cannon-Brookes — the Atlassian billionaire — is in the middle of a pretty messy workplace scandal, and it involves his private office, not Atlassian itself. Here’s the setup. Multiple staff members made formal complaints about bullying inside what’s called Cannon-Brookes Services — his private office. That triggered an independent investigation by law firm Kingston Reid in late 2024. They went through tens of thousands of Slack messages, conducted interviews, recovered phone messages — the works. And their conclusion? That a significant portion of the alleged conduct falls within the definition of bullying, and that the workplace had become what they called a “psychosocial hazard.” That’s the legal term for a workplace that’s genuinely harmful to mental health. A key figure named in the report is Faye Stirling — Cannon-Brookes’ executive assistant. She’s part of what sources describe as a group of so-called “assassins” who wield power inside his office. The law firm reportedly considered whether her role should be reviewed, or even whether she should be terminated, based on what they found. She’s still employed. Now here’s where it gets interesting. Cannon-Brookes was handed the report — and reportedly did not react well to it. And then… nothing happened. No action taken. But wait — there’s a second report. Cannon-Brookes’ own lawyers at Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer did their own review and reached the opposite conclusion: no evidence of misconduct, no further steps required. So you’ve got two law firms, two reports, two completely different findings. Make of that what you will. There’s also a broader question here about the lines between his private interests and Atlassian. Stirling and other Atlassian employees have reportedly handled media for his personal property deals, his attempted AGL Energy takeover, and even conducted job interviews for his private investment vehicle Grok Ventures. That’s the entity behind the $40 billion SunCable renewable energy project in the Northern Territory. And separately — and this is a subplot worth watching — Cannon-Brookes’ estranged wife Annie is now at the centre of a legal action, with CBS suing a former company secretary who allegedly downloaded confidential files at her request. All of this comes as Atlassian itself is going through significant upheaval — 1,600 jobs cut, its president gone, its CTO gone, now its chief marketing officer heading for the door. And the co-founder Scott Farquhar, who reportedly didn’t even invite Cannon-Brookes to his farewell, is still on the board but very much at arm’s length. It’s a lot going on for a company that used to win “Best Place to Work” awards.
So here’s a story about a senior Australian Border Force official who’s been found to have acted corruptly — and it cuts right to the heart of why the country’s been struggling to get on top of the illicit tobacco trade. The man at the centre of it is George Andreopoulos — a veteran law enforcement officer who used to lead a secretive special operations unit at Border Force. This was an elite team, set up in 2017 specifically to fight tobacco smuggling. Think high-level informants, underworld intelligence, that sort of thing. Well, according to the National Anti-Corruption Commission — the NACC — Andreopoulos was leaking classified information to someone he had business dealings with in the tobacco industry. Not a great look for the guy running the unit designed to catch those exact people. The smoking gun — no pun intended — was a classified report he’d accessed and sent to his personal iCloud. It detailed how smugglers use a technique called “swapsies” — basically building legitimate-looking import profiles before switching them to contraband. Investigators found he then discussed this very technique with his business associate around the same time. Not a coincidence, according to the NACC chief. The NACC boss Paul Brereton concluded that Andreopoulos abused his office, and he’s now referring the matter to federal prosecutors for potential criminal charges. The whole saga also killed off the special operations unit — it was shut down in 2021 — leaving Border Force without that intelligence capability right when it needs it most. Andreopoulos, for his part, maintains he’s done nothing wrong.
Now, onto a story that has everything — a high-profile business figure, a lewd photo scandal, the AFL, and now a defamation fight playing out in open court. Luke Sayers — former president of Carlton Football Club and once head of his own consulting firm — is being sued for defamation by his estranged wife, Cate Sayers. And the Victorian Supreme Court got into the messy details this week. Cast your mind back to early last year. An explicit photo was posted to Sayers’ X account. The AFL launched an investigation. Sayers provided a statutory declaration saying he believed his wife was responsible. The AFL cleared him of wrongdoing. Now Cate Sayers is saying that declaration was full of false claims — including the allegation that she had mental health conditions and was refusing her medication. She says none of that is true. Her barrister also told the court that Luke hired a PR firm — one staffed by former Daniel Andrews allies, interestingly — to manage media coverage. That firm allegedly helped his adult daughters put out a public statement backing their father. Meanwhile, Luke’s barrister says he had a legal duty to respond to the AFL inquiry and did so in good faith. He also wants the whole case moved to the Family Court, which would keep it out of the public eye. Cate’s side says that defeats the whole purpose — she wants public vindication if she wins. Both will have to give evidence and face cross-examination, so there’s plenty more to come on this one.
And that’s it for this week.
And next week, I’ll be talking to Chris Weston, markets spokesperson at Pepperstone Crypto. As a new entrant in the Australian crypto market, Pepperstone says the market is due for a price reset, backing stronger regulation, calling for greater transparency, and pushing down costs for everyday traders. At a time when cost of living pressures are front of mind, it’s a conversation your listeners will immediately connect with: who they can trust, what they’re really paying, and how the system needs to change.
And I’ll be talking to Independent economist Saul Eslake about the Budget.
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
