$475m Robodebt settlement; PM ‘never will’ meet Putin; Chinese car surge

$475m Robodebt settlement; PM ‘never will’ meet Putin; Chinese car surge

News in brief

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has distanced himself from former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews, who posed for photos with the leaders of Russia and North Korea at a military parade in China this week. The PM says, “My position is very, very clear, which is we did not send any government representative because it wouldn't have been appropriate”. He went on to clarify, "I haven’t, and never will, meet Vladimir Putin. I haven’t and never will meet the leader of North Korea as well.”

 

Australia’s green bank has locked in its biggest-ever clean energy investment with a $3.8 billion federal loan for the Marinus Link, a 345-kilometre undersea cable connecting Tasmania’s hydro dams to the mainland.

 

Macquarie is becoming a major player in Australia’s home loan market, winning almost 40pc of all new mortgage business in July. The bank added $3.2 billion in new loans, growing more than six times faster than the big four.

 

Qantas is getting its first wardrobe makeover in more than a decade. The airline has tapped Australian designer Rebecca Vallance, who’s dressed British royalty and Hollywood stars, to create its new uniforms.

The Trump family is diving into crypto again. This week, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump launched not one, but two new ventures: American Bitcoin, a mining business, and WLFI, a new token where President Donald Trump is “co-founder emeritus.”

Fear-o-meter

Rachel Waterhouse, CEO of the Australian Shareholders' Association (ASA), explores how investors responded to a volatile earnings season:

 

"Retail shareholders have expressed confidence in the sharemarket’s likely performance over the next 12 months. More than 60% of respondents to the ASA Investor Sentiment Survey said they were somewhat or very confident, with only 15% expressing doubts.

 

These results show how investors are responding to a perceived increase in transparency and accountability from publicly listed entities. Companies such as Lovisa, Adairs, and Sigma are gaining support thanks to clear commentary and openness about results. This is in stark contrast to Woolworths, where poor performance has been compounded by the absence of a cohesive recovery story.

 

Shareholders understand that companies face headwinds. But without a clear strategic narrative, backed by a tangible response plan, confidence is likely to falter. Results matter, but so does transparent, forward-looking communication, where leaders own their problems and show that they have a credible strategy to address them.

 

For many retail investors, the combination of earnings pressure and governance concerns has reinforced frustration that company disclosure and context are not always in line with market reactions. Modest misses at CSL triggered outsized share price movements. James Hardie’s results fell well short of expectations, leading investors and analysts to question whether the risks had been communicated clearly and early enough. Woolworths has pointed to external pressures such as competition, supply chain disruption and rising costs, rather than acknowledging management’s role in its performance slump."

Fear & Greed Q+A today

On the importance of universal childcare, after the federal government commissioned a report into reforming the system:

 

"There's two economic reasons for investing in early childhood education and care. One of them is the education and development of children.

 

The second... is because it is critical infrastructure that enables parents to participate in the paid workforce. This is in the economic interests of individual households who... rely on paid work to feed, house, care for their children, to raise a family. But it's also good for the economy because the more that parents are working, the bigger the revenue pile is for the government.

And obviously, there's a lot of conversation at the moment in Australia around productivity, and unleashing the full participation and productivity, particularly of mothers in Australia, is a really significant economic opportunity. 

 

But all of the benefits only come when the early education is of a high standard and when it is totally affordable and accessible to all parents. And they're the two sort of defining features that we believe a new funding model should ultimately be delivering on."

It’s Friday, the 5th of September. The federal government has agreed to pay an additional $475 million in compensation to victims of the Robodebt scheme - the automated debt recovery system that unlawfully pursued welfare recipients for money they didn’t owe, pushing many into hardship. A royal commission later slammed it as “crude and cruel.” Attorney-General Michelle Rowland says the payout, if approved by the Federal Court, is “just and fair” and will cover more than 450,000 Australians, as part of the largest class action settlement in Australian history.

Greed-o-meter

Rank	Marque	Volume	Share
1	Toyota	20,791	20.7%
2	Ford	8,002	8.0%
3	Kia	7,402	7.4%
4	Mazda	6,814	6.8%
5	Hyundai	6,322	6.3%
6	BYD	4,877	4.9%
7	Mitsubishi	4,551	4.5%
8	GWM	4,488	4.5%
9	MG	3,927	3.9%
10	Chery	3,305	3.3%

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Australians purchased 100,539 new vehicles in August 2025, marking the second strongest August result ever recorded. For the first time, four Chinese brands - BYD, GWM, MG and Chery - are in the national top ten.

Listen to today's episode 🎧 

Source: Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries