On The Call

AI giant Anthropic is circling Australia, with reports suggesting it is looking to secure a massive amount of data centre capacity Down Under. That has kicked off a cycle of debate about what companies will build those data centres, whether copyright reform will be needed, and the biggest question of all: is this good for Australia? We discuss: The leaked request for proposal which revealed Anthro...

KPMG's whistleblower scandal has snowballed into a reckoning for the Big Four. A number of senior executives have resigned. Lendlease has ended its 68 year old relationship with the firm. Government departments, including the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Australian National Audit Office have put their contracts with the firm for its own whistleblower service under review. Now, Assistant Treas...

The latest Capital Brief/DemosAU poll shows the Coalition's primary vote has collapsed 5% in a single month, putting the Liberal party closer to the Greens than to One Nation. Meanwhile, Labor's CGT and negative gearing reforms have passed the Senate after a deal with the Greens. We discuss: The Coalition's freefall and why Angus Taylor is struggling to cut through. One Nation's so...

Labor revealed its long-awaited CGT carve-outs for startups and small businesses minutes before Capital Brief went live with this conversation. Meanwhile, complexities arise around Canva's path to IPO as its first investor puts forward the bear case. We discuss: The nuts and bolts of the CGT carve-out announcement. What the Innovative Business CGT Concession will mean for startups, VCs and ESO...

This week, Newspoll had One Nation jumping ahead of Labor on the primary vote, confirming what the exclusive DemosAU and Capital Brief poll first revealed last month. Meanwhile, frustration over the government's capital gains tax reforms continues to mount. We discuss: One Nation's polling surge and why both Labor and the Coalition have been slow to respond. Tony Abbott's new role as P...

The collapse of Dashdot — one of Australia's most prominent buyer's agencies — raises a bigger question about whether the property market is hitting an inflection point. Meanwhile, Anthropic files for a blockbuster IPO in a trillion-dollar race with SpaceX and OpenAI. We discuss: Dashdot's collapse being a significant signal of a turning property market. The role of negative gearing  a...

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's giant pixelated head looming over CBA chief executive Matt Comyn at the bank's inaugural AI summit is a somewhat honest depiction of Australia’s place in the global AI economy at present. While CBA wants to lead Australia’s AI race, technology giants are still the ones wielding the power. Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the federal budget the big four banks and Macqu...

The backlash to Labor's federal budget — and its capital gains tax changes — have not slowed down since last week's episode. If anything, it has heated up. The startup sector has been particularly vocal, and Labor ministers are feeling the heat. We discuss: Where the loudest opposition is coming from. Why Labor seems to have misjudged what the response was going to be. The consultation pro...

Labor’s federal budget is one of the most significant in years regarding tax reform. The government is betting big on housing affordability by proposing an overhaul to negative gearing and capital gains tax — a decision that’s faced heavy criticism from the startup and VC sector. We discuss: The core elements of the federal budget. The surprising attention given to startups in the budget announcem...

It was a big week for banks. NAB, Westpac and ANZ posted their half-year earnings this week, projecting a rosy outlook as the RBA struck a far more sombre tone with its latest rate decision. Commonwealth Bank was also in the news after Apple’s submission to a parliamentary inquiry into digital wallets, where the tech giant singled out the bank as being ‘self-serving’. Meanwhile, at the Macquarie A...

With the federal budget less than two weeks away, surging inflation and a war-driven energy shock are forcing the government to rewrite its budget narrative in real time. Meanwhile, Senator Tim Ayres backs ‘balanced’ immigration, defends the National Reconstruction Fund and targets hyperscalers for more AI deals We discuss: CPI at 4.6% and what it means for the budget Why "resilience" is...

Canva has launched Canva AI 2.0 in the design giant's biggest transformation yet. Meanwhile, healthcare company Cochlear saw its share price crash 40% on an earnings downgrade. We discuss: Capital Brief's scoop on Canva's IPO timing Canva's AI 2.0 and the end-to-end design pivot The death of seat-based SaaS pricing Is Canva building AI or just wrapping it? Cochlear's 40% single...

The latest Capital Brief/DemosAU poll shows Australians want the government to keep its distance from US President Donald Trump as the Middle East conflict deepens. The poll shows that 47% of Australians disagree with the statement that the US was a "reliable military ally", compared with 28% who agreed and 25% who did not know. Meanwhile, corporate regulators APRA and ASIC have urged co...

The US-Iran war entered a chaotic new chapter following the unravelling of a short-lived ceasefire, with Israel striking Lebanon and Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz once again. Meanwhile, AI infrastructure company Firmus raises $750 million at an $8 billion valuation as it barrels towards its highly anticipated IPO. We discuss: The collapse of the US-Iran ceasefire. Market reaction and oil price...

This week Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei signed a memorendum of understanding with the Australian government during his tour in the country. During the trip Amodei spoke to a roomful of politicians in Canberra, telling them that the technology his company builds could upend labour markets supercharge cyberattacks, and arrive faster than any government is equipped to handle. Meanwhile Canva has moved t...

This week Capital Brief revealed that Canva has acquired Melbourne-based digital out-of-home advertising startup Doohly for $30 million. The Australian design software giant is accelerating its push into broader marketing technology ahead of its well anticipated IPO. Meanwhile One Nation's result in South Australia has become a warning shot for the major parties. We discuss: Canva's Doohly...

Furniture retailer Koala has announced a $68 million IPO on the ASX - a scaled-back but closely watched float. Meanwhile, Atlassian's mass layoffs have rattled staff and raised deeper questions about the company's future amid the SaaSpocolypse. We discuss: Koala's IPO pricing Why the float was shelved last year and why they're pushing ahead now The scarcity of consumer brand stocks...

With the war in Iran intensifying, markets continue to swing wildly. This week saw $90 billion wiped off the ASX as oil prices jumped. While the market has since rebounded, investors are left guessing whether US president Donald Trump will hold firm or blink. Meanwhile, Capital Brief and the Tech Council of Australia co-hosted an event at Parliament House on digital regulation. Assistant productiv...

Amid intense geopolitical instability - a war in Iran, oil prices surging and markets destabalised - the Australian government is pulling together its May budget which is expected to tie together its ambitious plans with a fresh nation building agenda. This week we saw a glimpse of what that might look like. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wrote an Ideas piece for Capital Brief on why Labor is bac...

On The Call is a weekly live conversation with the Capital Brief newsroom on the stories driving the agenda in Australia’s centres of power. Host Harshdeep Kaur sits down each week with our journalists to dissect what we’re watching and why it matters, and answer questions from our subscribers, live.

One Nation is on the brink of overtaking Labor on primary votes, according to the latest Capital Brief/Demos AU findings.  In the same week, Australia’s first major AI-related job cuts landed as a viral “AI doomsday” blogpost rattled Wall St. Host Harshdeep Kaur is joined by editor in chief John McDuling and ideas editor James Hennessy for this week’s conversation. We discuss: What the latest Capi...