$250b public servant bill; Microsoft Copilot backdown; Trump’s tough few days

$250b public servant bill; Microsoft Copilot backdown; Trump’s tough few days

News in brief

National Australia Bank has reported a drop in net profit for the full year to the end of September, though boss Andrew Irvine says there is good momentum at the country’s second largest lender. Its share price closed down more than three per cent.

 

Microsoft will refund millions of dollars to customers, after the consumer watchdog alleged it duped 2.7 million Australians into paying for more expensive software plans that included the Copilot chatbot, even if they did not want it.

 

Building materials group James Hardie was hit with a speeding ticket from the ASX yesterday, after its share price fell by as much as 17 per cent in early trading, to a five-year low. Hardie said the slump could reflect the company dropping off the MCSI Australia index.

 

It has been a rough few days for US President Donald Trump. Midweek, the voters of four different states voted in Democrat candidates for office just as the President’s approval ratings fell below 40 per cent. Then the Supreme Court appeared sceptical of Trump’s tariffs and the government shutdown became the longest ever, with most Americans are blaming the Republicans.

 

Lost songs of legendary rock singer Jim Morrison, that turned up in a house in remote Tasmania, have been returned to his family in the US. Labelled as “unreleased” or “never released”, the reel-to-reel recordings were found in the Huon Valley home of US music producer, the late John Haeny, according to The Australian.

Fear-o-meter

Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers yesterday said the Reserve Bank made it clear that federal government spending on jobs had nothing to do with the decision earlier in the week not to lift interest rates.

 

Garbage.

 

No matter how the government spins it, adding 36,000 new jobs in two years adds to demand. Maybe the jobs are necessary, but they add to inflationary pressures especially when productivity is so low.

 

State governments are the biggest employer, with nearly 2 million people paid by the states and territories. That is a lot of taxpayer dollars.

The Commonwealth government’s wages bill has grown fastest.

 

Canberra now pays 386,000 people $41 billion every year, 20 per cent more than two years ago. In contrast, average weekly earnings rose by 3.4 per cent last financial year, and 4.1 per cent the previous fiscal period.  

 

Most of the jobs are in public administration and safety (policing), education and training (teachers) and healthcare and assistance (nurses and carers). The country needs more of them. But don’t be fooled. They do add to inflationary pressure.

Fear & Greed Q+A today

On the outlook for interest rates, NAB's competition in the business banking market, the goal of being the 'Toyota of banking', and what it's like running a big bank:

 

"If I had to characterise it in a sentence, I'd say it's the best and worst job in the world at the same time. There's a lot of what I do that gives me real pride. I work with 40,000 incredible colleagues helping over a million businesses and over 10 million Australians to buy homes, buy businesses, grow businesses, save for their retirement. That's an incredible privilege. Obviously, it comes with stresses and scrutiny and responsibility. All leadership roles come with responsibility and, you know, that's something that I'm really clear on."

The country’s federal, state and local governments increased spending on public service wages to nearly $250 billion last financial year, up 16 per cent over the past two years with the Commonwealth workforce growing fastest. All levels of government have boosted their wages bill, in part due to pay rises and in part due to hiring more people. State governments are the biggest employer, making up 77 per cent of public sector employment, while Commonwealth government comprises 15 per cent and local government eight per cent.

Greed-o-meter

Industry	Employee jobs ('000)
Electricity, gas, water and waste services	66.4
Construction	9.2
Transport, postal and warehousing	79.3
Information media and telecommunications	16.5
Financial and insurance services	19.8
Rental, hiring and real estate services	7.7
Professional, scientific and technical services	39.6
Public administration and safety	880.6
Education and training	768.3
Health care and social assistance	668.7
Arts and recreation services	23.6
Other industries	17.6
All industries	2,597.3

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So where are all the jobs in the public service? Three sectors make up the vast majority of roles:

Listen to today's episode 🎧 

Source: ABS