Bendigo Bank admits poor money-laundering controls
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 https://www.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 42 series for 2025 and today’s date is Friday November 28.
First, I’ll be talking to Matthew Forzan, the founder of Yoghurt Digital. He has nearly two decades of industry experience. He is a seasoned digital marketing professional with deep expertise in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Paid Search & Social Marketing, and User Experience. We’ll talk about the challenges in digital marketing and the role of artificial intelligence.
And I’ll be talking to Indeed economist Callam Pickering about Australia’s latest unemployment figures.
But first, let’s talk to Matthew Forzan
So what’s happening in the news?
Let’s start with Google — because after a couple of years of looking like it was stuck in neutral, the tech giant suddenly feels like it’s back in the race. Since ChatGPT launched three years ago, plenty of analysts — including some inside Google — said the company had fallen behind in AI. Not anymore. Google has rolled out its new Gemini 3 model, which has been getting strong reviews for reasoning, coding and for handling those quirky tasks that normally trip up chatbots. Investors are buying the story, too. Google’s cloud business is finally gaining real traction, demand is rising for its in-house AI chips, and a report that Meta is considering using those chips sent Alphabet shares jumping. Add in Warren Buffett taking a multi-billion-dollar stake, and Alphabet has added almost a trillion dollars in market value since October. Analysts are now calling Google the “sleeping giant” that’s finally awake — and part of that strength comes from its full-stack approach: it builds the apps, the models, the cloud and the chips, and it sits on one of the world’s largest data troves. For the first time since ChatGPT shook the industry, the narrative is shifting: Google may not be playing catch-up after all.
The Albanese government is gearing up for what could be the biggest public service cost-cut since the late ’80s. Departments have been told to find savings of up to 5% — on top of the usual efficiency dividend — because the cost of running the public service has blown out by 38% in four years, to $111 billion. If every department hits that 5% target, you’re looking at $5.6 billion in savings — and potentially around 10,000 public service jobs disappearing through attrition or redundancies. Defence alone would need to cut $2.6 billion. The government insists these aren’t “cuts” but “reprioritisation”. The unions aren’t buying it, and critics point out that the government campaigned on strengthening the APS, not shrinking it. But with deficits ahead and the NDIS putting huge pressure on the budget, Treasury insiders say departments will have no choice but to drop programs, delay IT upgrades or reduce headcount to make the numbers work.
Australia may soon have a world-first set of minimum standards for food delivery workers. DoorDash, Uber Eats and the Transport Workers’ Union have teamed up — yes, you heard that right — to ask the Fair Work Commission to set national standards for gig couriers. The proposal includes a minimum “safety net” rate of about $31 an hour from mid-2026, plus accident insurance and new dispute-resolution rules. Now, this isn’t a traditional minimum wage — the hourly rate won’t apply to downtime between jobs. But it does lock in clearer protections in an industry where 23 workers have died since 2017. If the FWC signs off, prices for deliveries may nudge up, but experts say consumers will likely accept that if it means fairer conditions. The bigger question is legal: the commission first has to decide whether couriers are “employee-like” — or actually employees. If it rules the latter, it could trigger a major court fight. Still, the deal marks the closest Australia has come to a proper safety net for gig workers — and it could set the tone for ride-share and parcel delivery next.
Let’s look at a big development in the aluminium industry. The Albanese government looks set to pump billions into keeping the Tomago aluminium smelter alive – and the vehicle for doing it is Snowy Hydro, the taxpayer-owned energy giant. Tomago, near Newcastle, is 40 years old and produces more than a third of Australia’s aluminium. It employs about 1000 people and is partly owned by CSR and Norway’s Norsk Hydro, but the majority owner is Rio Tinto. The problem is simple: the plant can’t secure affordable energy beyond 2028, when its current power contracts expire. And that’s a huge issue because Tomago is the single biggest user of electricity in New South Wales – it takes up around 10% of the entire state’s power supply. Rio has been signalling for months that the economics just don’t stack up. It even knocked back a bailout—thought to be worth more than $1 billion—because it didn’t offer a long-term fix. Last month, Tomago management began quietly discussing closure with workers. So there’s been a sense of real pessimism around the site. But over the past few weeks, the mood inside government has shifted. Senior Labor figures now think they can carve out a deal using Snowy Hydro as a kind of national energy backstop. The plan being circulated—still not formally approved by Cabinet—has two parts:
First, Snowy Hydro would guarantee Tomago cheap electricity from 2028. The price would be lower than the market, meaning taxpayers effectively cover the difference for a few years while new renewable supply comes online.
Second, Snowy Hydro would actually invest in new renewable energy projects specifically to supply Tomago long-term. For Rio Tinto, that’s far more attractive because it solves the underlying issue of energy security, not just the short-term cost problem. And the NSW government likes it because if Tomago eventually closed, Snowy-backed renewables would still feed into the grid.
Nothing’s signed yet, but the government is clearly working hard to avoid losing an industrial giant that’s central to the local economy and to Australia’s aluminium output.
Now to Victoria, where EnergyAustralia is preparing a major transformation of the old Yallourn coal power station in the Latrobe Valley. Yallourn has been running for more than a century and is scheduled to shut in 2028. Instead of simply walking away, EnergyAustralia is planning to turn the site into a huge low-carbon energy and data hub costing more than $5 billion. The idea is to create what they’re calling the Yallourn Energy Security Precinct – a mix of gas generation, large-scale batteries, and solar power. The company says the site is perfect for redevelopment because it already has transmission lines, access to water and plenty of space. Chief executive Mark Collette says the 1480-megawatt coal plant is too old, unreliable and expensive to keep running in a grid increasingly dominated by renewables. But he does see a future for fast-start gas generation and big batteries to back up solar and wind. The first stage of the precinct includes a gas plant that could supply up to a gigawatt of power—enough for around 750,000 to a million homes—and an eight-hour battery of a similar size. The gas plant would come online in the middle of the next decade. EnergyAustralia is also talking to data centre operators about using the site. Data centres need reliable power, space, water and cooling infrastructure—and Yallourn ticks a lot of those boxes. The challenge is getting enough fibre-optic capacity into Melbourne, but the company still thinks the location is promising. Experts say the plan makes sense. Gas will be needed as coal retires, at least until long-duration storage becomes widespread. The Australian Energy Market Operator expects around 15 gigawatts of gas generation will be required nationally over the next 20 years to back up renewables. So the opportunity is big. So, while there’s still a lot of planning and approvals to go, Yallourn looks like it’s set for a second life—and possibly another 100 years—just not with brown coal.
Today on Talking Business, we’re also diving into a major call to action from one of Australia’s most influential business figures — Fortescue founder Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest. He’s urging the Albanese government to crack down on Russian-origin oil slipping into the country, warning that loopholes in our current sanctions are effectively empowering tyrants and undermining Australia’s foreign policy. Forrest didn’t mince his words. He said no Australian family filling up at the bowser should have to wonder whether their money is helping bankroll Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. As he put it, “Allowing tainted fossil fuels to seep into our economy is not just a policy failure; it is a national vulnerability.” Strong language — and it’s clearly designed to prompt political action. His comments land at a sensitive moment. Australia’s Ukrainian community is already pressuring the government to align with other nations pushing back against US President Donald Trump’s proposed plan to end the war — a plan many fear would be far too favourable to Russia. And Forrest isn’t just talking — he’s been a major supporter of Ukraine since the start of the invasion. Through the Minderoo Foundation, which he co-founded with Nicola Forrest, he’s contributed $30 million to de-mining programs and recovery work in Ukraine. He’s also been using his profile to advocate for Ukraine at international business and diplomatic forums. The scale of Australia’s indirect contribution to Russia’s oil revenue is bigger than most people realise. According to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, Australians bought $3.8 billion worth of petrol and diesel refined from Russian crude — mostly in India — between early 2023 and mid-2025. And because the oil is refined outside Russia, it slips through Australia’s sanctions regime. Forrest’s view? These loopholes make sanctions “useless”. He wants Australia to adopt an approach similar to the European Union — which has moved to block petroleum products refined from Russian crude, even if they come through third countries. The UK has made similar commitments. Foreign Minister Penny Wong has cautiously welcomed the moves by Europe and Britain, although she’s noted there are still big questions about how such rules would actually be enforced.
Then let’s kick off with a developing trade dust-up between Canberra and Washington. Behind the scenes, senior Trump administration officials have been leaning hard on Australia’s ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd. The issue? The Albanese government’s plan to force big American streaming platforms—think Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video—to boost their spending on Australian content. Rudd’s been contacted directly by Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and a senior official from the US Trade Representative’s office. And the tone hasn’t exactly been friendly. We’re talking veiled threats of new or higher tariffs if Australia goes ahead with the mandate. Why the sudden pressure? Well, lobbyists for the big US tech and entertainment giants have been urging President Trump to “punish” Australia. They argue Canberra is targeting US companies across the board—from the proposed content quotas, to the world-first social media ban for under-16s kicking in next month, to efforts to make Meta pay for Australian news content. And, just to add fuel to the fire, the officials reportedly reminded Rudd of a presidential order issued earlier this year threatening tariff retaliation against countries that “unfairly target” US firms. What exactly is the government trying to do? The new laws would require streaming platforms to invest either 10% of their local spending or 7.5% of their Australian revenue into Aussie-made drama, documentaries, arts, education and kids’ programming. For Netflix, that works out to roughly $100 million a year. These are obligations Australian broadcasters like Seven, Nine and Ten have followed for decades. And Canberra insists the rules are consistent with the US-Australia free trade agreement—an agreement the Trump administration itself has sidestepped by placing tariffs on some Australian exports. Parliament was expected to vote on the legislation this week, so this could escalate quickly.
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has found itself in some serious hot water this week. The board’s dealing with a major crisis after Deloitte uncovered widespread weaknesses in the bank’s systems for detecting and preventing money laundering and terrorism financing. Now, here’s how it all unfolded. Back in August, the bank brought in Deloitte to run an independent investigation. Why? Because they’d spotted some suspicious transactions at one of their branches—activity that looked a lot like money-laundering patterns. They reported it straight away to Austrac and the police. But when Deloitte dug deeper, things looked much worse than a one-off issue. Their report found that the bank’s problems in identifying and managing money-laundering and terrorism-financing risks actually stretched across the organisation—and went all the way back to August 2019. According to Bendigo Bank’s statement to the ASX, Deloitte found weaknesses in a whole range of areas: how the bank assesses ML/TF risk, how it conducts enhanced due diligence, how it oversees those risks, how its transaction-monitoring systems work, and even how it rates customer risk. One of the big findings was that the bank’s transaction-monitoring program didn’t properly cover many key indicators of money laundering or terrorism financing. The board isn’t sugar-coating any of this. They say they’re “very disappointed” and they’re committing to fixing all the issues to make sure the bank complies with the law. They’ve also warned that they don’t yet know what the final costs or consequences will be, but they’ll keep the market updated as required. And of course, Bendigo Bank says it’ll continue working closely with the regulators—Austrac, APRA and ASIC—as this all plays out.
And finally today, a sobering snapshot of Australia’s worsening housing affordability crisis. A new report from property research firm Cotality shows the average Australian household now needs to use 45% of its pre-tax income to service a new mortgage. Five years ago, that figure was just 26%. Sydney, as always, leads the misery. To buy a house there, the average household needs to devote 68% of its income to mortgage repayments. Even units require almost 40%. What’s driving this? Home values have surged roughly 50% since the start of the pandemic—supercharged by cheap money, huge borrowing capacity, and too few houses being built. In the same period, household incomes rose just 20%. That’s pushed the national home-value-to-income ratio to 8.2, the worst on record. Rents have soared too, up about 53% in five years. The average renter now spends 33% of their income on housing, with regional Queensland the toughest market—almost 40% of income goes to rent outside Brisbane. What’s crucial here is that immigration didn’t cause this surge. In fact, home prices rose 25% in 2021—the fastest since the 1980s—even though net migration collapsed to just 9,000 people. Demand from existing households—and a flood of investor activity—played a much bigger role. And that investor activity is heating up again: lending to property investors jumped nearly 19% over the past year. Housing affordability is now the second-biggest issue for voters, behind the broader cost-of-living crunch. And for younger Australians, it’s even more urgent.
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So to summarise, Google has roared back into the AI race. Gemini 3 is winning strong reviews, Google Cloud and its in-house AI chips are surging, Meta is considering using those chips, Buffett has taken a big stake, and Alphabet has added nearly $1 trillion in value since October — the “sleeping giant” is awake. Canberra is preparing the biggest public-service squeeze in decades: departments must find up to 5% in savings after costs jumped 38% to $111bn, implying $5.6bn in cuts and roughly 10,000 jobs lost through attrition. DoorDash, Uber Eats and the TWU want national minimum standards for gig couriers — a ~$31/hour safety-net rate from mid-2026, plus insurance — pending a ruling on whether workers are “employee-like”. The federal government is working on a Snowy Hydro–backed rescue for the Tomago smelter, guaranteeing cheap power and investing in new renewables to keep a third of Australia’s aluminium output alive. EnergyAustralia plans a $5bn clean-energy and data precinct at Yallourn, with 1GW fast-start gas and an eight-hour battery. Twiggy Forrest wants Australia to block Russian-origin fuels, warning current loopholes undermine sanctions. The US has threatened tariff retaliation over Australia’s planned streaming-content quotas. Bendigo Bank faces major AML failings uncovered by Deloitte. And housing affordability has collapsed: a new mortgage now consumes 45% of household income — 68% in Sydney — with prices up 50% in five years and rents up 53%.
And that’s it for this week. And next week, I’ll be talking to PMI’s Head of Australia and New Zealand David Trott. We’ll talk about PMI’s extensive work developing project professionals across the Asia-Pacific.
And I’ll be talking to RMIT economist Sinclair Davidson about how Australia can boost its productivity and lift it from the doldrums..
For the most exclusive access to leading economists and business leaders from around the world, subscribe to Talking Business from my website or whatever your favourite podcast platform is.
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Looking forward to the next episode of Talking Business next week
