Anthony Macdonald

To abuse it's a real kick in the guts.

I'm sure, James, most people at KBMG probably go into work every day, do the right thing, tick and bash their way through the source material to verify numbers, do the controls testing, all the stuff that they're supposed to do.

They've all these education programs rammed down their throat about how important it is to treat client information correctly.

Then they have this going on higher up in the firm because it's all about winning work.

When you have stuff like this, it erodes trust.

And we need the trust to keep the whole sort of system going.

I mean, it keeps investors investing.

It keeps banks lending.

It keeps consumers consuming.

If trust breaks down in that, there's a cost to it.

And the cost will be a real money cost.

I mean, this is sanding the gears, as they say, when you get this erosion of trust.

So, it's hugely important that this sort of stuff, you know, when it gets called out by whistleblower, gets investigated properly and it gets absolutely investigated.

stamped out.

And I know that makes me sound like a Pollyanna who believes that all these firms should be gleaming and completely clean, but reality is we need them to be to keep their trust going.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well said, Anthony.

Yeah, it is.

I reckon we're still going to see confidence pretty down, down.

James, you've got the rate rises, the Iran war, petrol prices, the economy grinding, budget.