Latest / What the Flux / Aus Govt forces fees on Meta, Google and TikTok | Coffee gets way more expensive | Mosaic Brands shuts down more stores + a special guest
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: This is what the Flux.
- 0:06Speaker 2: I'm Brett and I'm Justin and it's Friday there, thirteenth
- 0:09Speaker 2: of December.
- 0:09Speaker 1: Jesse boy, there is nothing more stubborn than Australia's unemployment
- 0:12Speaker 1: rate Right now, new data shows Australia's unemployment rate has
- 0:15Speaker 1: actually dropped to three point nine percent, where it was
- 0:18Speaker 1: previously four percent. And now there are more doubts about
- 0:22Speaker 1: a cash rate cut in February next year.
- 0:24Speaker 2: It's never gonna happen. Never Bucks. This is our favorite
- 0:27Speaker 2: day of the week because we give away fifty bucks
- 0:29Speaker 2: to one Flux user who is super smart and super
- 0:31Speaker 2: quick in the Flux out That's right, it's our weekly
- 0:33Speaker 2: game Quick six where we give away fifty bucks for
- 0:35Speaker 2: the smartest and fastest person. So make sure you download
- 0:38Speaker 2: the app and turn your notifications on to win at
- 0:40Speaker 2: money today.
- 0:41Speaker 1: Three undisputable stories today, Juzzy boy, Let's do it for
- 0:44Speaker 1: our first Meta and Google will be punished by the
- 0:47Speaker 1: Australian government if they choose not to agree to new
- 0:50Speaker 1: content deals with media publishers. How the government really went there?
- 0:54Speaker 1: So tell me more, well, Juzzy boy, I need not
- 0:56Speaker 1: remind you what happened in twenty twenty one.
- 0:59Speaker 2: I do remember, but there was a major dispute between
- 1:01Speaker 2: big tech companies like Google, Meta and the Australian media outlet.
- 1:04Speaker 1: That's because Google and Meta was showing news articles from
- 1:07Speaker 1: Ozzie media outlets on their news tab.
- 1:10Speaker 2: And they weren't paying for it. But after lots of
- 1:12Speaker 2: arguments and empty threats and real threats, they both ended
- 1:15Speaker 2: up signing deals with large media companies in Australia.
- 1:17Speaker 1: Like Nine Entertainment News Corps, Seven West Media, ABC and
- 1:21Speaker 1: The Man.
- 1:22Speaker 2: These deals were believed to be worth up to two
- 1:24Speaker 2: hundred million dollars per year in total.
- 1:26Speaker 1: But just way earlier this year, Meta warned that they
- 1:28Speaker 1: won't be renewing their deal.
- 1:30Speaker 2: And be Man, I got news for you. The media,
- 1:31Speaker 2: publishers and the government were not going to give up
- 1:34Speaker 2: that easy yep.
- 1:34Speaker 1: Now the Labor Government has warned that Meta and Google
- 1:37Speaker 1: will be punished if they don't agree to new content
- 1:40Speaker 1: deals with publishers.
- 1:41Speaker 2: It sounds like a parent scolding their child. What does
- 1:43Speaker 2: this punishment look like, Well, good your room.
- 1:46Speaker 1: They're looking at charging social media companies financial penalty if
- 1:49Speaker 1: they don't try to negotiate the deals in good faith.
- 1:52Speaker 2: And here's the thing be man. These financial penalties would
- 1:55Speaker 2: be greater than the cost of actually forming a commercial
- 1:58Speaker 2: agreement with the Australian partners.
- 1:59Speaker 1: So pretty much pay up in good faith.
- 2:02Speaker 2: So what is the key landing here?
- 2:03Speaker 1: Sometimes the government feels the need to step in when
- 2:06Speaker 1: big companies hold too much power.
- 2:08Speaker 2: At first, the government went with the carrot approach yep.
- 2:10Speaker 1: They asked platforms to play nice and pay news publishers
- 2:13Speaker 1: fairly through voluntary deals.
- 2:15Speaker 2: And then man. Although it was tense, it worked for
- 2:17Speaker 2: a little while.
- 2:18Speaker 1: Yeah, over thirty deals were signed and the news industry
- 2:20Speaker 1: got more than two hundred million bucks annually to keep running.
- 2:23Speaker 2: But when companies like metad decided not to renew these deals,
- 2:26Speaker 2: the government switched to the old stick approach. Yep.
- 2:28Speaker 1: They've basically said play by our rules or pay up
- 2:31Speaker 1: in good faith.
- 2:32Speaker 2: And be man. We've seen similar things happen in Europe
- 2:34Speaker 2: with the link tax.
- 2:35Speaker 1: This required Google and Meta to pay publishers for snippets
- 2:38Speaker 1: of news articles shown in their search results.
- 2:41Speaker 2: In fact, in France, Google's paid over seventy six million
- 2:43Speaker 2: euros to publishers over the last three years.
- 2:45Speaker 1: So it ain't just the Australian government stepping in to
- 2:48Speaker 1: protect local publishers them.
- 2:51Speaker 2: As you know, Flux is all about helping ozsies make
- 2:53Speaker 2: smarter financial decisions, and when it comes to your pets,
- 2:55Speaker 2: that bills can hit hard, right when you least expect it.
- 2:59Speaker 2: That's why we're very excit today have Tian Drea, the
- 3:01Speaker 2: CEO of Nose Pet Insurance, join us on the pod.
- 3:04Speaker 2: Nose is on a mission to make caring for your
- 3:06Speaker 2: pets easier and more accessible and affordable with their vet
- 3:09Speaker 2: designed insurance plans. So Tian, welcome to the podcast.
- 3:12Speaker 3: Oh thank you guys very much for any very nice
- 3:14Speaker 3: to be here.
- 3:14Speaker 2: Let's start with the big one. I was reading this
- 3:16Speaker 2: stout the other day. Approximately fifty five percent of the
- 3:19Speaker 2: Australian population have some form of private health insurance, which
- 3:22Speaker 2: feels quite high, but less than ten percent of Oussie
- 3:24Speaker 2: pets are insured. So why do you think so many
- 3:27Speaker 2: pet owners are rolling the dice on their pets insurance
- 3:30Speaker 2: but not their own insurance. Yeah?
- 3:31Speaker 3: Yeah, look, in fact, the numbers are probably more stark
- 3:34Speaker 3: than that because those forty five percent of Aussies they
- 3:37Speaker 3: don't have private health insurance, are still governed by MEDICAREAH,
- 3:40Speaker 3: which is just the gabment bright insurance skin right, and yes,
- 3:43Speaker 3: less than ten percent of pets are covered by BET insurance.
- 3:46Speaker 3: I think people also make to other, in my view,
- 3:48Speaker 3: thinking errors when they get a pet. The first one
- 3:51Speaker 3: is they think vet bills aren't as big as they
- 3:54Speaker 3: could be, and then when they year about big vet bills,
- 3:56Speaker 3: they get it set up with a vets. The second
- 3:59Speaker 3: one in the pens on how old you are as
- 4:01Speaker 3: human when you get your pets. I'm gen X, and
- 4:04Speaker 3: a lot of my gen X friends when they get
- 4:06Speaker 3: a pet, obviously get this for my kids. My kids
- 4:09Speaker 3: are ready for this now. But look, if something really
- 4:12Speaker 3: goes bad, we will see the spet off to greener
- 4:15Speaker 3: pastures and we will not pay very high vat bill.
- 4:19Speaker 3: And that is a fallacy because in the vast majority
- 4:23Speaker 3: of cases people then end up paying the bill because
- 4:26Speaker 3: you get attached to the spet and the vet care
- 4:28Speaker 3: is available, and you spend the money even if you
- 4:31Speaker 3: don't have this. Yea.
- 4:32Speaker 1: And for all the pet owners who are listening intently,
- 4:35Speaker 1: what is one thing you'd say to convince them to
- 4:39Speaker 1: take the leap and get pet insurance.
- 4:42Speaker 3: I'm not really in the game of trying to convince people.
- 4:44Speaker 3: I think what we love is an informed consumer. So
- 4:48Speaker 3: what I would say is, I'd love people to go
- 4:50Speaker 3: and have a think about their ability to pay large
- 4:54Speaker 3: unexpected vet bills, re examine their emotional connection to their pets,
- 4:59Speaker 3: and also re examine how your family feels about the pet.
- 5:02Speaker 3: All of us have a plan A, which is everything's
- 5:04Speaker 3: going to go fine, my pet's going to be very
- 5:06Speaker 3: healthy forever. But what's your plan be? And then the
- 5:09Speaker 3: third one is actually weighing up the peace of mind
- 5:12Speaker 3: that you can gain from having a pet insurance policy
- 5:16Speaker 3: in place. Yes, we love pets. Yes it's a woman
- 5:18Speaker 3: fuzzy thing to talk about, but in the end, it
- 5:21Speaker 3: is insurance and it is a financial mitigation mechanism. And
- 5:25Speaker 3: I think that people or too, when they do their
- 5:27Speaker 3: annual financial planning, consider, you know, their big financial exposures,
- 5:32Speaker 3: including their pet, and then go and decide whether it
- 5:35Speaker 3: makes sense.
- 5:36Speaker 2: Awesome, Thank you so much, Tian. I think so many
- 5:38Speaker 2: people don't understand or don't realize the potential consequences of
- 5:42Speaker 2: not having pet insurances. You've got a pet, and we're
- 5:45Speaker 2: very excited to be partnering with Nosepet Insurance. Flux Adam.
- 5:48Speaker 2: If you use the code at plus thirty five at
- 5:50Speaker 2: Nose dot com dot Au, you will get thirty five
- 5:53Speaker 2: percent off your first six months with Nosepet Insurance. That's right,
- 5:56Speaker 2: Thank you, justin for our second story. Copy Prices have
- 6:00Speaker 2: jumped to a record high after a dry spell in Brazil,
- 6:04Speaker 2: and it's likely to spike up the price of your
- 6:06Speaker 2: morning cup.
- 6:07Speaker 1: Not what caffeine addicts like you need to hear, Jesse, boy,
- 6:11Speaker 1: tell me more.
- 6:11Speaker 2: Okay, so be man. Pretty Much every cup of coffee
- 6:14Speaker 2: that you drink is either Arabica or robust.
- 6:16Speaker 1: And the majority of these coffee beans are produced in Brazil.
- 6:19Speaker 2: But now Vole Cafe, one of the largest coffee traders
- 6:22Speaker 2: in the world, has dropped its coffee production forecast for
- 6:24Speaker 2: twenty twenty five significantly.
- 6:26Speaker 1: We're talking a drop from forty five million bags of
- 6:29Speaker 1: beans down to thirty four million bags of bean.
- 6:31Speaker 2: Or a twenty four percent drop in coffee bean.
- 6:33Speaker 1: Now does the boy, We know you're grumpy without your
- 6:34Speaker 1: morning coffee. So why is this the case?
- 6:36Speaker 2: Well, there's been intense weather in Brazil that's ruined the
- 6:39Speaker 2: production of coffee beans.
- 6:40Speaker 1: And not only that, crumple stilt skin drier conditions in Vietnam,
- 6:43Speaker 1: and then heavy downpours have hurt production in Vietnam as well,
- 6:47Speaker 1: and as.
- 6:47Speaker 2: A result, the price of Arabica coffee have increased by
- 6:50Speaker 2: eighty percent so far this year.
- 6:51Speaker 1: And you better believe this is going to hurt the
- 6:53Speaker 1: price of your mourning coffee.
- 6:55Speaker 2: You said it enough, So what is the key landing here?
- 6:57Speaker 1: When the price of raw materials increases, eventually consumers will
- 7:00Speaker 1: need to bear the costs.
- 7:01Speaker 2: We've all heard the term chain reaction. You know, a
- 7:04Speaker 2: series of events where each is caused by the previous one.
- 7:07Speaker 1: So josey boit cafes really have three options right now.
- 7:10Speaker 2: Option one keep the price of their coffees the same
- 7:12Speaker 2: and lose their profit margin.
- 7:13Speaker 1: Don't think anyone will be doing that one.
- 7:15Speaker 2: Option two increase the price of coffee to cover their
- 7:18Speaker 2: costs and maintain the same margin.
- 7:20Speaker 1: I cannot be eight dollar coffees even in good faith.
- 7:23Speaker 2: Or Option three choose to use cheaper quality coffee beans.
- 7:26Speaker 1: So you might get a more bitter cup of coffee.
- 7:29Speaker 2: Either way, be man, this is not a good outcome,
- 7:31Speaker 2: especially since the majority of cafes in the world use
- 7:34Speaker 2: these Arabica beans.
- 7:35Speaker 1: For our third and final story, The parent company of
- 7:38Speaker 1: women's clothing brand Katis will shut down all of its stores,
- 7:42Speaker 1: alongside eighty more from its other brands like Millers, Rivers
- 7:46Speaker 1: and noney Bee.
- 7:47Speaker 2: Retailers getting hit real hard, left, right and center. Here
- 7:50Speaker 2: be man, so tell me more so Joyboit.
- 7:52Speaker 1: Mosaic Brands is the parent company of a bunch of retailers.
- 7:54Speaker 2: We're talking nony Bee, Rivers, Katies, Miller's, Rockmans, and a
- 7:57Speaker 2: whole lot more.
- 7:58Speaker 1: And although these brands may not be where you shot direct,
- 8:02Speaker 1: they have been a seriously large company.
- 8:03Speaker 2: We're talking four thousand staff with seven hundred stores across
- 8:06Speaker 2: Australia at its peak.
- 8:07Speaker 1: But Jaseiebait. When COVID hit, they got whacked with a
- 8:09Speaker 1: one hundred and seventy million dollar loss and really haven't
- 8:12Speaker 1: been the same ever since.
- 8:13Speaker 2: Yeah. Back in October this year, Mosaic Brands fell into administration.
- 8:17Speaker 1: Now the administrators have shut down all Kadie stores and
- 8:19Speaker 1: eighty other stores across the Miller's, Rivers and nonyb brands
- 8:23Speaker 1: and b Man.
- 8:24Speaker 2: This is a big move because the Katie's brand's been
- 8:26Speaker 2: around for more than seventy.
- 8:27Speaker 1: Years and Jazie woit. This also means the loss of
- 8:30Speaker 1: almost five hundred jobs.
- 8:31Speaker 2: And b Man. This restructuring of the business is all
- 8:33Speaker 2: about getting Mosaic Brands back on its feet.
- 8:36Speaker 1: To then sell off the different parts to different buyers.
- 8:38Speaker 2: So what is the key learning here?
- 8:40Speaker 1: Administrators are the clean up crew for struggling businesses.
- 8:43Speaker 2: Yeah. Their main role is to stabilize the current operations
- 8:46Speaker 2: of the business and.
- 8:47Speaker 1: Protect whatever value is left so ultimately they can sell
- 8:50Speaker 1: it off and maximize returns for creditors and shareholders.
- 8:53Speaker 2: And be Man. When Mosaic Brands went into administrations their administrator,
- 8:56Speaker 2: which was KPMG, their first task was to assess its financial.
- 8:59Speaker 1: Health and then to make tough decisions like shutting down
- 9:02Speaker 1: poor performing stores and brands like Kadies.
- 9:04Speaker 2: But be Man, just because the company goes into voluntary administration,
- 9:07Speaker 2: it doesn't mean it's all over red.
- 9:09Speaker 1: Rover now, app here's an inspirational story for you, Juzzy boy.
- 9:11Speaker 1: Virgin Australia went into voluntary administration in twenty twenty one
- 9:15Speaker 1: and was purchased by Bain Capital and.
- 9:16Speaker 2: Since then it has gone from strength to strength.
- 9:19Speaker 1: Yep, Virgin Australia even returned to profitability in fy twenty
- 9:22Speaker 1: three with more than five hundred and nineteen million dollars
- 9:25Speaker 1: in earnings.
- 9:26Speaker 2: So this at the end for Mosaic brands, just the
- 9:28Speaker 2: new beginning maybe issues. Flux Sam, if you've been listening
- 9:32Speaker 2: to the pod this week, you are the perfect candidate
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- 9:44Speaker 1: Thanks for listening and we'll see you on Monday.