Alarm raised over ‘privacy dilemma’ of facial recognition technology at Coles and Woolworths.
Welcome to Talking Business, a podcast produced in Melbourne Australia, built on the traditional lands of the Kulin Nation. 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 29 in our series for 2026 and today’s date is Friday August 21.
First, I’ll be talking to Max Buontempo, managing director of Roma Foods which is scaling its retail and distribution footprints across Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, and Indonesia. He explains why South East Asia is a better market for Roma than Europe, the UK and the US.
And I’ll be talking to EY Regional chief economist Oceania Cherelle Murphy about the latest RBA decision on interest rates, Australia’s continuing inflation problem and why we can expect another hike later this year.
But first let’s talk to Max Buontempo
So what’s happening in the news?
Middle Eastern producers are quietly keeping global oil markets afloat — even as the Iran war makes the Strait of Hormuz one of the most dangerous places on earth. They’re running a huge “dark fleet” of ships that switch off their transponders, slip through Hormuz, and transfer crude to tankers waiting off Oman. Despite attacks on vessels, the trade is running hotter than analysts expected. People familiar with the shipments say flows are well above the estimated 4 million barrels a day. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright even said 9 million barrels a day crossed Hormuz last week — almost half of pre‑war levels. That’s why Brent has stayed in the $80–$90 range instead of the feared $150 spike. But it’s dangerous work. The UAE’s Adnoc says 23 of its ships have been attacked, with one fatality and 20 injuries. Oil spills are increasing. And Saudi Arabia may soon join the shuttle trade as its Red Sea route becomes riskier. The bottom line: Global markets are being held together by risky, clandestine shipping — and the human cost is rising.
Former Treasury Secretary Martin Parkinson has delivered a blunt warning: deep cuts to migration — like those proposed by the Coalition and One Nation — would damage the economy, worsen inflation, and push a heavier tax burden onto younger Australians. Parkinson says Australia already faces entrenched deficits and an ageing population. Cutting migration to levels like Pauline Hanson’s proposed 130,000 cap would shrink the workforce and leave fewer taxpayers to service rising government debt. He argues the debate has become simplistic — focused on house prices — while ignoring the economic reality that skilled migrants contribute far more in tax than they consume in services. Treasury data shows employer‑sponsored migrants contribute $557,000 net over their lifetimes, compared to the average Australian’s –$85,000. Parkinson’s view: Australia needs better‑targeted migration, not dramatically lower migration.
Coles and Woolworths have quietly tested facial recognition technology as retail crime — especially violent incidents — surges across Australia. They’ve already spent tens of millions on gates, cameras, and staff bodycams. Now they’re exploring facial recognition after Bunnings successfully overturned a privacy ruling and began rolling out the tech across New Zealand, with plans for 300 Australian stores next year. The idea is to identify repeat violent offenders, not track ordinary shoppers. Images with no match would be deleted. Critics say it normalises surveillance and risks bias, but retailers argue staff are facing unacceptable levels of aggression — including weapons. Victoria is the epicentre: Woolworths says the state accounts for almost half of violent incidents nationally. New Premier Ben Carroll has announced tougher policing and new workplace protection orders to keep offenders out of stores. Industry view: Facial recognition won’t solve retail crime alone, but it may become part of a broader toolkit.
While Coles and Woolworths have both quietly run early tests on facial recognition tech in their stores, nothing’s locked in yet, but it’s clearly on the table as they look for ways to tackle rising theft and violence against staff — especially in Victoria, where threatening behaviour and stalking incidents in retail settings have ticked up over the past year. The Privacy Commission isn’t thrilled about the trend, though. They’re making it clear that just because Bunnings won its recent legal battle to keep using facial recognition, that doesn’t mean it’s open season for every retailer. The Bunnings case was decided based on the specific violence and theft problems that chain faces — think tools and hardware that can double as weapons — and the Commission says that ruling shouldn’t be read as blanket approval. Speaking of Bunnings: after winning its appeal, it’s gearing up to roll the tech back out across all 300-plus stores early next year. Meanwhile Kmart — also owned by Wesfarmers — is still fighting its own version of this case, with a tribunal hearing set for early 2027. Public opinion, interestingly, leans pretty supportive — a retail crime survey found the vast majority of Australians are fine with using facial recognition specifically to flag people who’ve threatened staff with a weapon. On the political side, the Attorney-General’s office says facial recognition needs to be used responsibly as part of the broader privacy law overhaul currently in the works — though they’re staying cagey on whether new rules will specifically target this tech. The Opposition, meanwhile, is pushing hard for clearer national rules so retailers aren’t left figuring this out store-by-store. And not everyone’s rushing in — JB Hi-Fi says it’s watching but not using it (its Good Guys chain actually trialled and dropped it back in 2022 after a Privacy Commission probe). Super Retail Group, the Rebel Sport and Supercheap Auto owner, says facial recognition just isn’t a priority right now — they’re sticking with CCTV and security tagging instead.
Australia’s Productivity Commission has just wrapped up a major review of the trucking industry, and the headline recommendation is pretty striking: let bigger, heavier trucks run around the clock. The backstory is that truck productivity has basically been flat for the last twenty years, after decades of steady gains up through the mid-2000s. And given trucking makes up about 5% of GDP and employs over 270,000 people, that stagnation is a real drag on the broader economy — which itself has been struggling with weak productivity growth. The trigger for the report’s electric vehicle push was the recent spike in diesel prices tied to the US-Iran conflict. That’s pushed the Commission to lean hard into electric trucks as part of the fix — they’re cheaper to run, quieter, and greener. And because they’re quieter, the report argues there’s no real reason to keep the overnight delivery curfews a lot of councils currently enforce, some of which block diesel trucks from places like supermarkets between 10pm and 6am. On the freight capacity side, the Commission wants to raise the weight limits trucks are allowed to carry, since modern electric prime movers can handle it — and they reckon that alone could add up to $2.7 billion to the economy, even after accounting for extra road wear. Cutting the red tape around route permits and driver training could unlock another $2 billion or so. There’s also an international comparison worth mentioning: in China, over a quarter of new trucks sold are now electric, up from just 7% three years ago. In the US, Tesla’s Semi is gaining traction with companies like Walmart and Pepsico. But in Australia, despite EVs and hybrids making up nearly half of new car sales, electric trucks are still under 2% of new truck sales — so there’s a big gap to close. The report’s now heading to federal, state, and territory governments to decide what actually gets implemented.
AUSTRAC’s uncovered a massive mortgage fraud problem — hundreds of brokers, lawyers and accountants have been referred to police and regulators. The scam: people funnelling money out of China through fake companies and dodgy paperwork to make it look like legit Aussie wealth, then using it to buy property. What started as a roughly $1 billion issue at CBA has ballooned to over $4 billion across the big five banks. AUSTRAC’s now writing to 143 lenders demanding tighter controls, and the boss says arrests are already flowing from real estate agents flagging suspicious deals too.
One Nation wants to slash the tobacco excise by 75% and freeze it for three years — and surprisingly, a bunch of mainstream economists are on board. Why? Because sky-high taxes have pushed 80% of cigarettes sold in Australia into the black market, tanking tax revenue from $16 billion to just $4 billion. The logic: cut the price gap with illegal smokes, and you choke off organised crime’s profit motive. Health groups hate the idea, warning cheaper legal cigarettes means more smokers, especially kids.
Big week in Canberra — the government got its NDIS overhaul through parliament, aiming to shave $37.8 billion off the scheme’s ballooning cost. The trade-off: opposition support for NDIS reform in exchange for fast-tracking fixes to the “widow tax” and other budget bill stuff-ups. States now have until 2028 to stand up cheaper alternative support for kids under nine with mild conditions — and the government’s basically told them their word is on the line, since Queensland’s already dragging its feet.
And the profit reporting season continues. NAB’s quarterly profit rose 4% to $1.83 billion. Judo Bank’s statutory net profit after tax for FY26 rose to $111.1 million, up 29% on last year’s $86.4 million. Mining giant BHP posted $US9.83 billion ($A13.83 billion) in net profit after tax for the year ended 30 June, up 9% year on year. Real estate investment trust Region Group posted $268.8 million in statutory net profit after tax for the year ended 30 June, up 26.5% year on year. Bluescope Steel increased its net profit in 2025-26 by 857% to $802 million from $83.8 million a year ago. The a2 Milk Company reported that net profit fell 5.8% to $NZ207.5 million for the year to June. Diversified property manager GPT Group posted $400 million in statutory net profit after tax for the six months ended 30 June, up 21.6% year on year. Lendlease swung to a net loss of $749 million in the 2026 fiscal year, down from a gain of $225 million a year ago. Rail haulage group Aurizon’s annual net profit rose 19% to $362 million. JB Hi-Fi reported its net profit 6% higher at $489.9m. Audio visual networking group Audinate posted a $19.62 million net loss after tax for the year ended 30 June, more than the $6.38 million loss in the preceding year. Growthpoint Properties swung to a statutory net profit of $90.1 million for the year ended 30 June, from a $124.6 million loss a year ago. Mining technology company IMDEX has reported record full-year NPAT of $79 million, up 44% year on year. Financial services software provider Iress has reported an 85% uplift in statutory net profit after tax of $32 million for the first half of FY26. L1 Group’s full year underlying net profit nearly doubled to $188.8 million. Cochlear has posted a 22% fall in full-year underlying net profit to $322 million, Challenger has reported a statutory net profit of $506 million for the year to June, more than double the $192 million reported in the prior corresponding period. Reliance Worldwide reported net profit of $US6.3 million ($A8.9 million) for the year ended June 30. Plasma giant CSL swung to a full year statutory net loss of $US2.99 billion from a $US3.1 billion net profit a year earlier. Oil and gas business Amplitude Energy posted a net loss after tax of $27.2 million, smaller than the $41.3 million loss reported in the preceding year. HealthCo Healthcare and Wellness REIT narrowed its net loss to $49.7 million in fiscal 2026, down from $89.3 million a year ago. Hub24 reported a statutory net profit of $102.2 million for the financial year, up 51% on the prior year. Underlying net profit was up 40% to $137.3 million. Sims’ net profit more than tripled in the 2026 financial year to $289.1 million, from $83.1 million in the prior year. Fintech EML Payments has more than halved its net loss to $19.7 million for fiscal 2026, down from $53 million a year ago. Diagnostic imaging company Pro Medicus posted $265.3 million in net profit after tax for the year ended 30 June, up 130.3% year on year. Mirvac has recorded an operating profit of $508 million for the 2025-26 financial year, up 7% on the year before and in line with consensus. Fletcher Building has recorded earnings before interest and taxes of from continuing operations before significant items of $414 million for FY26, up $85 million, or 26%, on the year before. Wagners has recorded net profit after tax for FY26 of $40.6 million, up from $22.7 million the year before. Kitchen appliances supplier Breville Group posted $138.1 million in net profit after tax for the year ended 30 June, up 1.7% year on year. Listed homewares and furniture retailer Temple & Webster’s annual profit fell 62% to $4.3 million in the year to June. Gold miner Evolution Mining posted an all-time high net profit of $1.48 billion for fiscal 2026, up from $926 million last year. Internet and NBN provider Superloop’s underlying earnings before interest, taxation and amortisation have jumped to $122.7 million, up 33% on the year before and exceeding the top-end of guidance. Real estate investor BWP Trust posted $408.3 million in net profit after tax for the year ended 30 June, up 53.8% year on year. Critical minerals producer Iluka Resources has swung to a $24 million net loss for the six months ended 30 June, after posting a $92 million net profit after tax last year. Stockland reported a 20.2% jump in full-year net profit to $994 million. Whitehaven Coal’s full-year net profit fell to $385 million, down from $649 million a year ago. The Lottery Corporation’s Statutory net profit fell 22% to $284.6 million. Santos reported an underlying profit of $397 million. Healthcare company Healius reported a loss of $415.6 million.
And that’s it for this week.
And next week, I’ll be talking to Alice Needham, co-founder and director of Wagalot Brands, an innovative company turning surplus produce from Prahran Market (meat and vege) into dog treats and meal toppers – helping reduce the 7.6 million tonnes of Australian food waste produced each year.
And I’ll be talking to Indeed economist Callam Pickering about the latest jobs figures.
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.
If you like Talking Business, please leave us a review with Apple podcasts.
Remember, we are independent media – there are only a few of us left – and it’s all written in my voice. Informative and conversational.
The Talking Business podcast has a global audience 36,500 and we are chasing 50,000. We’ll get there with your help so please pass Talking Business to friends, colleagues and family.
Thank you in advance.
In the meantime, you can find me on Facebook, Twitter — or X as it’s now known — Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. Any comments and views from all of you to help Talking Business will be gladly received.
If you want to contact me, email me at leon@leongettler.com. I answer all emails.
Also in my spare time, I have a copywriting business. If anyone needs newsletters, blogs, articles or advertorial, email me.
Looking forward to the next episode of Talking Business next week.
