It's Thursday, the 18^th of September 2025. It has been a frantic and unusual 24 hours in federal politics. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed a joint communique with PNG to pursue a mutual defence treaty, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley gave a major economic speech, and Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the Liberal Party is being run by a “weird collection of cookers and crackpots.” Meanwhile Donald Trump berated an Australian journalist, threatening to complain about him to the PM.

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News in brief

The Reserve Bank has almost declared victory in the war on inflation with the central bank’s chief economist Sarah Hunter saying the organisation is close to achieving its dual goals of a strong jobs market and stable prices.

BHP will cut 750 jobs in its coal business, mothball a mine, and may shut a skills and training academy as part of a cost-cutting drive. The decision was called un-Australia by the Queensland government, where many of the jobs will be lost.

The Middle Eastern oil giant, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, has dumped its $30 billion takeover of ASX-listed Santos - a deal which would have been the biggest cash takeover ever. Abu Dhabi National Oil Company’s foreign investment arm, XRG, and its bidding partners last night said they had withdrawn their bid, ending months of negotiations.

Climate change fuelled soaring summer temperatures killed an estimated 16,500 people in European cities this summer, pushing overall heat deaths to more than three times what might otherwise have occurred.

Virgin Australia has started welcoming dogs and cats on board flights between Melbourne and the Gold Coast. The pets will have to weigh less than 8 kilograms including a pet carrier that slides under the seat in front. Introductory fares on sale from $149 a pet and the airline says it has received “overwhelmingly positive” feedback.

Fear-o-meter

You can never declare complete victory over inflation but yesterday the Reserve Bank’s Sarah Hunter came close to doing so. “We think, we hope, that we’re pretty close to getting inflation back at target. It’s almost there,” she said.

With inflation now falling, the RBA has lowered the cash rate three times to 3.6 per cent and financial markets predict at least one to two more moves by mid-2026.

With the unemployment rate at 4.2 per cent, Hunter said the jobs market was also “pretty close to full employment,” despite isolated areas of excessive strength, including construction markets in Brisbane and Perth.

She also said that after several years of financial stress caused by high inflation and rising interest rates, the average household was past the worst of the cost-of-living pain.

After years of economic pain post COVID, finally the economic news is positive.

Fear & Greed Q+A today

On the story behind US tech giant Oracle, and its 81-year-old founder Larry Ellison - who last week briefly became the world's richest person after Oracle's shares climbed 43 per cent share in one day:

"It's hard to separate him from Oracle, [the] big driving force behind the company since day one. And I think it's a little bit like how we think of the story of Tesla and Musk these days. Interestingly, he's got actually a very good relationship with Elon Musk, but he's sort of known as the Maverick. This latest pivot to AI is something that he's driven. He's been the one pushing for the massive investments in data centres and cloud infrastructure. 

And I think the fact he's still so hands-on and driving these deals shows he's a huge part of the story. He also owns still about 40% of the stock. So his wealth and that incentive to keep the company successful is... tied to Oracle's performance."

Greed-o-meter

Super funds have continued their strong start to the financial year, with the median growth fund up 1.3pc in August, according to Chant West.

Source: Chant West

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