It's Wednesday the 6^th of August 2025. NBN Co will partner with US tech giant Amazon to offer satellite broadband to regional Australia, phasing out its ageing Sky Muster satellites over the coming years. Communications Minister Anika Wells said the change would bring high-speed “city quality” broadband to 300,000 rural and regional premises from the middle of 2026. It also brings a new, government-endorsed competitor into the market.

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News in brief

The local share market closed at a record high yesterday, rising 1.2 per cent to 8770 points. It was the biggest one-day gain in two weeks. It was a very strong day for cyclical stocks – those that tend to reflect interest rate expectations. That was on the back of ongoing optimism about a rate cut in Australia and in the US.

Household spending rose half a per cent in June, and is steadily picking up across the economy, with people spending more on goods, like car and electronics, but less on services.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese might have the biggest social media following of all federal politicians, but it is the independents and right-wing pollies that are winning the fight for Australian social media dominance.

Tesla’s board has approved the award of 96 million shares worth about $US30bn to Elon Musk as part of a new pay deal after the billionaire chief executive threatened to leave the electric-vehicle maker if he was not given more control.

BP has made its biggest oil and gas discovery in 25 years after drilling a successful well in a field off the coast of Brazil, in a boost to the energy group as it refocuses on fossil fuels.

Fear-o-meter

The federal government’s decision to sign up to Amazon’s start-up satellite service is both bold and important. Elon Musk’s Starlink dominated the space in regional Australia.

While it’s new territory for Amazon, providing satellite communications services across vast areas is a focus of the company, as part of its Project Kuiper. After all, its business model – shopping online and streaming shows – relies on connectivity.

The deal announced yesterday will introduce real competition into the market. And that’s a good thing for consumers.

Elon Musk’s Starlink is a great service for the bush. And it is pretty much the only service for the bush.

The big telcos have signed up to satellite deals already, with the likes of Starlink. Amazon entering the regional market, alongside the NBN, introduces a new, serious player not just for the bush, but for the telcos as well.

Business By Numbers

The top 3 numbers to know for the week, brought to you by Xero

300,000: The number of rural and regional properties expected to benefit from the satellite internet deal between NBN Co and Amazon.

8770 points: The ASX's all time closing high yesterday.

$45 billion: The value (in Aussie dollars) of Tesla shares awarded to Elon Musk in order to keep him at the EV maker.

Fear & Greed Q+A today

On whether market volatility is just noise to look through, or whether it's different this time around:

 

"We've got to go back and remember that in 2018, we had a trade war, albeit it was a bilateral trade war for the most part between the US and China... And let's not lose sight of the fact that from 2018 through to just recently, markets had almost doubled. So even though things feel different this time, we'd almost argue that if you take a long enough lens, things are actually eerily similar, albeit starting points are obviously different.

 

But we've had multiple Middle East conflicts over the last 15 to 20 years, probably longer than that... Yes, the RBA cash rate at 3.85 per cent feels high, but you go back prior to 2012, and 3.85 would feel very, very low.... Yes, AI is transformative, it's disruptive, but so was the mobile phone, so was the internet, so was migration to the cloud. 

 

So there are a lot of things and a lot of starting points that potentially make today different, but there are also a lot of similarities that I think make today's investing environment no more uncertain than what it has been over a very, very long period of time."

Greed-o-meter

The election campaign saw Australian politicians embracing social media like never before - and some have amassed much larger followings than others. The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have compiled a list of our most-followed politicians, with a couple of surprises.

Source: Nine Newspapers

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