It’s Thursday the 3^rd of July 2025. The personal data of more than 6 million Qantas customers may have been stolen in a cyberattack, with a hacker convincing a staff member from one of the airline’s call centres to grant access to its systems. The carrier said 6 million customers’ names, email addresses, phone numbers, birthdates and frequent flyer numbers were accessed, while credit card details, financial information and passport details are not in the system. The hack is believed to be part of a co-ordinated attack on airlines globally.

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News in brief

Disappointing retail sales and building approval figures have increased the chance of a rate cut next week and also bolstered prospects of a bunch of reductions later in the year. Retail spending in May was underwhelming, at best, rising just 0.2 per cent, much lower than expected.

The local share market finished at a record close yesterday with the S&P/ASX200 finishing up 0.7 per cent to 8598 points. The economic news and hopes of a rate cut sent share prices higher. Interest rate sensitive sectors like real estate did best.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong says the Quad leaders have agreed on an initiative to diversify supply chains for critical minerals, which are largely controlled by China. Foreign ministers from the Quad countries – Australia, India, Japan and the US – met in Washington and discussed China’s grip on the production of rare earths, which has given Beijing leverage in its trade talks with the US.

Billionaire businessman Jack Cowin will take on executive duties at Domino’s Pizza, where he holds 27pc of shares, after the chief executive of the business quit less than a year after being appointed. Mr Cowin, who is 82 years old and also owner of Hungry Jacks, says there is no fundamental problem with the company’s strategy.

King Charles has decided to scrap the royal train service that dates back to his great-great-great grandmother, Queen Victoria, because it is no longer cost-effective. The first royal rail carriages were commissioned in 1869 and in 2025, it is made up of nine carriages that can be coupled to commercial locomotives. But it was used just twice during the past financial year, with the two journeys together costing almost £80,000 ($167,000).

Fear-o-meter

The hack at Qantas, numerically, is huge. Potentially six million passengers. Fortunately the information likely stolen does not include credit card details and other more valuable data (at least more valuable to the hacker).

So what to do now?

Many Australians will be targeted. If you are a customer and have enabled multifactor authentication, which asks you to verify your log-in via email or telephone, you are definitely safer.

Experts say the first thing to do if you think you are affected is change your password. Qantas will always send a prompt to your phone or email if you log in on a new, unknown device or computer. Also, making sure your details are up-to-date and correct is important.

Be alert to scammers. Increasingly they are using AI to impersonate voices and local accents, making foreign cyber criminals more believable. Qantas is advising its customers to look out for unusual communications claiming to be from the airline and to be cautious about emails or calls asking for personal information or passwords.

Who's talking today?

An Aussie in the US, working for a startup that uses robots to build houses:

 

"One of the things that really struck me moving to the US is just the size of the opportunity... They're building 1.5 million homes every year in this country. And the vast majority of those are single family built from timber. So very, very big market, very big opportunity. And similar to Australia where builders have thin margins, it's a tough industry, construction. 

 

They're looking to save wherever they can. We've had to cut costs and I don't think anyone would disagree that the quality of housing in Australia hasn't been improving and in order to build more houses we need to innovate and this is the key here. It works. We're competing in a very strong market but we're saving builders money and we're saving developers money and giving homeowners a better product."

Greed-o-meter

Yesterday ANZ became the last of the big four banks to predict an interest rate cut when the RBA board meets next week. But it also got in early with a cut to its fixed home loan rates, reducing rates by 10 to 35 basis points across all 1 to 5 year terms. Looking at a two year fixed term, it's now the cheapest of the big four - but still not the market leader. That title goes to lender Easy Street.

Source: mozo.com.au as at 2 July 2025, lowest fixed rates offered by the Big 4 Banks + market leader for owner occupier, principal & interest home loans at $500,000 (exclusions apply)

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