Business News - WA
At Close of Business podcast September 19 2024
(upbeat music) All the latest business news from WA, deliver daily. At close of business, news briefing. Good afternoon and welcome to the Our Close of Business podcast. I'm Sam Jones and I'll be reading a Thursday headlines. Premier Roger Cook has conceded not all businesses will be happy with his government's decision to ease gas export restrictions, but insists it is the right move for the state. Mr. Cook this morning confirmed the move to free up export for 20% of new and expanded production from onshore projects in the Perth Basin through to the end of 2030. The move will allow project developers to tap more lucrative international LNG markets through to the end of 2030, before requiring them to supply 100% of their output domestically. The domestic deadline will coincide with the state's plan to lean more heavily on gas as an electricity source, following the retirement of coal-fired power. Mr. Cook said the change would be a win for the state, allowing greater certainty for developers to push ahead with investment decisions in the lucrative onshore basin near Dongra. He said the government's modelling indicated the state would remain in gas balance for the coming five years, despite projections from the Australian energy market operating in December, that WA would enter shortfall from 2026. And on to real estate now, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission is investigating a developer linked to WA projects for alleged improper use of investor funds. Harvey Madison, capital director David McWilliams, is being pursued by the corporate watchdog in the federal court for allegedly using investors' money for gambling activities. Harvey Madison is developing several apartment and land subdivision projects nationwide, including a 10-dwelling NDIS project in Fremantle and an apartment building in Coogee. According to the company website, the two WA projects are due for completion next year. ASIC documents show that Harvey Madison's capital is registered in Southport, Queensland, and Mr. McWilliams lives in surface paradise. In a statement issued today, ASIC said it had begun urgent civil proceedings against company director, David McWilliams, and several of his companies that offered investment opportunities for purpose-built NDIS-compatible property development schemes across Australia. And finally, Australia has recorded another month of strong jobs growth in August, with the data reducing the prospect of interest rate cuts in the next few months. The national unemployment rate was 4.2% in August, according to the seasonally adjusted data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. WA's unemployment rate was 3.9%, equaled South Australia and the ACT. Analyzing the data, ComSec Economics said in their employment growth beat economists' forecast for a third straight month in August, with jobs growth exceeding 30,000 for a fourth consecutive month. Following the release of the jobs report, money markets paired the chance for a first monetary policy easing in December to 62% from 75% before the data. HSBC Chief Economist Paul Bloxam said the latest data once again suggested that job creation in Australia is strong. That's all for today's headlines. You can read more at businessnews.com.au. Coming up on the podcast, Isabel Vieira and I discuss changes to the consumer data right. Celebrate business leaders, entrepreneurs, and trailblazers with business news events. With our flagship event series bespoke online events, webinars, book launches, and Gala Rewards programs, our forums showcase the policies and issues affecting Western Australia within industry and government. Our events are your platforms to engage and connect with the Western Australian business community. Visit businessnews.com.au/events for more information. Welcome back to the At Clothes of Business podcast. I'm Isabel Vieira and today I'm joined by Sam Jones. Sam, how are you going? I'm good. Thanks, Izzy. How are you? Good. So, Sam, for the latest edition of the business news magazine, you've written about reforms to consumer data right legislation which passed Parliament recently. To start off with, can you tell us, you know, what is consumer data right? Yeah, so the consumer data right is essentially the Australian government's response to our, I guess, moving to a digital economy and the amount of your data that's available to pretty much everyone. It's sort of a look at how we can share data in the most cyber-safe way, I guess, but also how to benefit consumers in this, you know, data-driven economy. So, what the CDR is for short, it was introduced in 2019 originally and it basically gave you the right to have control over your data. And it gives you, I guess, the right to share this data with certain institutions for your own benefits. So, an example of, you know, the original implementation of the consumer data right was an app like We Money. We spoke to Dan, the CEO of We Money. But an app like We Money where you can sort of plug in, okay, look, this is my login details for my mortgage. They will take a look at your financials and basically say to you, hey, look, you're paying, you know, 7%, you could be getting 6.5% with this provider. Do you want to switch over? Now, the original implementation of the CDR, that's as far as it goes, they tell you you could get a better rate here. It's basically you're sharing your data to compare your rate in terms of mortgage or your energy bill, and then telling you you could be getting a better rate. Now, the reforms which have just come in, the action initiation reforms as they're called, it's the next really big step in consumer data right, because what it means is when you share your data with an institution like We Money, instead of them just giving you a comparison for you to then go off and do the paperwork yourself, you can actually say, okay, you've shown me this rate, I want that rate, go and do it for me. And the way that Dan describes it, it's almost like Uber for, you know, your mortgage. It makes switching your mortgage as easy as ordering an Uber, because you use these apps, they tell you, this is a better deal. Do you want to switch to it? Yes, I do. Done. And they go and do the paperwork for you. Now, at the moment, that's only in banking and in energy. So you can switch energy providers, gas providers, that sort of thing. But it is eventually going to be rolled out across almost any industry that you can think of. You can think about health care, your health insurance, that sort of thing. You might look at one company and think, oh, I'm getting charged quite a lot. And one of these CDR accredited apps will look at your financials and say, hey, there's a much better deal here. So it's really, it's about taking control of your data, providing your data in a more secure way, because while there is the consumer side of this, there's also a much safer, I guess, structure for sharing data that's arisen from this, rather than just, hey, here's my locking details to my bank, which is obviously fraught with issues. So people like Dan from We Money, what's the advantages for them on that side of things? For institutions like We Money, well, I mean, they're sort of part of the open banking system. So their whole business model is almost built on this legislation really taking off. And there's quite a few institutions like that. Now, We Money would still be around without this legislation, but it definitely enhances their offerings. So it's quite big for quite a few people. Yeah, there you go. And so what's the future of consumer data right look like? Sure, so eventually we'll be rolled out to a bunch of other industries, as I said before. Look, banking and energy only make up around 4% of our total data as a country. So there's still 96% of the data that's not regulated or used by the consumer data right. So, as I said before, rollout to health care, rollout to all different types of things, really, anything. Anywhere that you currently see, I guess, a comparison website, this could be rolled out to those sorts of industries to get you a better deal. And I mean, the significance of this really in my eyes, the most significant thing is this is really going to help people that aren't financially literate get a better handle on things in the midst of a cost of living crisis. I mean, if you get someone that really doesn't know anything about their finances, that has a mortgage or has bills to pay off, instead of them having to read pages and pages and pages, a fine print to find a better deal, tap a button and you're away. There you go. Well, brilliant. Well, thanks for that, Sam. And listeners can check out the full article in the latest edition of the Business News magazine or check out online today at businessnews.com.au. Sam, thanks for joining us. Thanks, Izzy. The latest business news, deliver daily. Subscribe and rate the show wherever you listen to your podcasts. For all the latest business news, visit businessnews.com.au. [MUSIC PLAYING] [BLANK_AUDIO]