RBA readies for rate hike; PM touts AI control; $50b listing for ASX
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Why is the Reserve Bank expected to raise interest rates next week?
Welcome to Fear and Greed, business news you can use. Today the Reserve Bank readies itself for a rate rise. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Australia and other like-minded nations will work to control AI. And the verdict is in on Apple's new version of Siri. Plus, auction clearance rates drop again, and Australia is set to get a new large cap on the ASX as AI Group Firmus Technologies looks to list. It is Monday, the twenty-first of September 2026. I'm Michael Thompson and good morning, Sean Aylmer. Good morning, Michael. Sean, the main story this morning, Reserve Bank Governor Michelle Bullock, was in front of the Federal Standing Committee on Economics on Friday. And my word, she had plenty to say.
But the the bottom line of it all really is that the RBA is sounding very much like a central bank preparing to lift interest rates again. And we'll start with housing. Yeah. It's quite extraordinary that the messaging that came out of Canberra on Friday. Housing, for instance, one factor that economists have used to argue against a rate hike. Michelle Bullock was pretty sanguine about the drop in prices, basically saying that they're still substantially higher than six years ago, and the recent drops aren't that large in the grand scheme of things. The undersupply of housing will ultimately ultimately uh assert itself, meaning that falls in prices won't go on for too long. She said that that while artificial intelligence tools are expected to increase productivity in the future, this when we get onto the productivity question, the short term inflationary impact uh of this spending can't be ignored.
There was so much covered, right?
Yes, she was only really warming up. She didn't want to double down on the bad inflation news. Bullock said that the re-escalation of the conflict in the Middle East will see prices stay higher for longer, adding that the trade-off between inflation and unemployment had worsened. In other words, inflation can now be higher at the same time as unemployment is increasing, so a slowing labor market is unlikely. to prevent a rate hike. And then, in a very reserve bank way. She said things are getting worse, not better. I'll quote Michelle Bullock. At the time of the August board meeting, we assessed that the risks to the outlick to the outlook were skewed to the upside. Developments since then suggest that although growth in the Australian economy is slowing, some of these upside risks to inflation appear to be materializing.
What did Prime Minister Anthony Albanese say about international AI‑control frameworks?
There's a hard word, materializing. Is getting hard to argue, Michael, there there won't be another rate rise probably next week.
Yeah. So that that's really the main thing we need to take away from this, right? That there an interest rate hike is likely in eight days' time I suppose the other big question though is is that going to be the only hike this year?
Hmm. Probably not not on the basis of what she said on Friday.
Yeah.
Um, so if you go to the market economist, UBS UBS chief economist George Farinu, after listening to the governor, lifted his forecast of rate rise this year this year from one to two. Lucy Ellis, the chief economist at Westpac, used to be the chief economist at the Reserve Bank. She immediately brought forward her forecast of another rate hike to next week. all the big bank economists think there's going to be at least one, possibly two. The Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Board meets so next week, then in early November, and then in early December. There's even talk of three rate hikes on the back of what she said. Certainly one. Probably two. Let's hope
not three. Yeah. It's it was interesting Friday. Um Michelle Bullock has always been very cautious in her messaging and and being and just basically coming back to that standard line of we'll do what the data tells us and we won't make any decisions ahead of time and we won't kind of indicate necessarily where we're gonna go. Friday s seemed like a different person altogether, really. Yeah, it
really did. I totally agree with her. She was More candid than she normally is, I think.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why is the Reserve Bank expected to raise interest rates next week?
0:06–2:39
2
What did Prime Minister Anthony Albanese say about international AI‑control frameworks?
2:39–4:35
3
How are auction clearance rates trending and what does it mean for sellers?
4:35–6:33
4
Will Firmus Technologies’ $50 billion ASX listing become Australia’s biggest tech IPO?
6:33–8:37
5
What is driving the rapid growth of family offices and their $300 billion‑plus assets in Australia?
8:37–11:15
6
What are the key details of the US‑Denmark‑Greenland security deal and its geopolitical impact?
11:15–13:38
7
How does the new Siri AI upgrade improve functionality compared with earlier versions?
13:38–16:00
8
What insights did the Fear & Greed Q&A with economist Stephen Kakulis provide about the Fed’s recent rate hike?
16:00–17:49