‘PM deserves pay justice too’: union leader
Henry Belot
A union leader campaigning for public servants to be paid more by the federal government says the prime minister is vastly underpaid.
Earlier today, Guardian Australia reported on 11 public servants being paid more than $1m, which is significantly more than the prime minister’s base wage of $622,000. One public servant was paid more than $1.5m.
Jeff Lapidos, who leads a branch of the Australian Services Union that represents Tax Office staff, has spent more than a decade fighting for better pay and conditions. He has also seen significant job cuts.
When asked about the Future Fund salaries, Lapidos said he did not believe in common salary levels across the public service. He said officials should instead be paid for the value of their work.
After inflation, the value of ATO employees’ salaries has fallen by 9.55% over the last 13 years. This is disgraceful exploitation by successive Coalition and Labor governments.
The ASU is campaigning for pay justice for all ATO staff. The prime minister deserves pay justice too. His office is vastly underpaid.
The prime minister’s salary is set by an independent remuneration tribunal.
Key events
Julian Hill backs Chris Minns’ comments on pace of migration
Assistant citizenship minister Julian Hill has backed comments made by the NSW premier, Chris Minns, about the pace of migration into Australia post-Covid.
During an appearance on Kylie Sandilands’ show, Minns said he believed “too many people came into the country in too short a space of time” in the years after Covid.
Speaking on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, Hill said he had not seen the specific comments but “broadly” agreed with them, while adding there were “a couple of nuanced points”.
Post-Covid – remember when the government was elected in 2022 coming out of Covid – we have the lowest unemployment in our country for over 50 years and employers right across the country, whether cafes, farmers, businesses were screaming out for warm human bodies who could be workers.
That was the big reason why net overseas migration peaked a bit too high post-Covid is the border reopened and fell a bit too slowly because fewer people were leaving.
A series of changes since coming to office to get net overseas migration down from a peak, it has fallen by about 50% and it needs to fall a bit further to get back to a sensible balance and give housing a chance to catch up.
Ima Caldwell
Daylight saving starts this weekend. Here’s what you need to know.
It’s that time of year again: clocks will move forward one hour on Sunday in many parts of Australia as daylight saving time comes into effect.
Here’s all you need to know – and how it will affect you:
Medibank facing dual court actions over data hack
Federal court justice Jonathan Beach heard evidence on Friday to help decide whether two separate cases against Medibank will be held jointly or as separate trials, AAP reports.
The health insurer is facing both a class action by affected customers and civil penalties brought by the privacy watchdog over the 2022 hack.
After Medibank declined to pay a ransom, personal data was leaked on the dark web under malicious file names, including boozy, STD and psycho.
A lawyer for the class action argued it was in the interests of justice to hear the cases together. Wendy Harris KC said.
The technical issues here overlap and intersect at multiple stages … in terms of the architecture of Medibank’s cybersecurity systems [and] the control deficiencies in them.
Neil Young KC, who is representing Medibank in both matters, called the class action a “total mess”, saying it went well beyond the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s case in its allegations of cybersecurity failures.
There are many new allegations of breach.
In order for us to address those new allegations, that’s going to require time.
Beach adjourned the matter until 16 October, in part to allow the class action party to consolidate its statement of claim.
‘PM deserves pay justice too’: union leader
Henry Belot
A union leader campaigning for public servants to be paid more by the federal government says the prime minister is vastly underpaid.
Earlier today, Guardian Australia reported on 11 public servants being paid more than $1m, which is significantly more than the prime minister’s base wage of $622,000. One public servant was paid more than $1.5m.
Jeff Lapidos, who leads a branch of the Australian Services Union that represents Tax Office staff, has spent more than a decade fighting for better pay and conditions. He has also seen significant job cuts.
When asked about the Future Fund salaries, Lapidos said he did not believe in common salary levels across the public service. He said officials should instead be paid for the value of their work.
After inflation, the value of ATO employees’ salaries has fallen by 9.55% over the last 13 years. This is disgraceful exploitation by successive Coalition and Labor governments.
The ASU is campaigning for pay justice for all ATO staff. The prime minister deserves pay justice too. His office is vastly underpaid.
The prime minister’s salary is set by an independent remuneration tribunal.
Achol Arok
Good afternoon! l’ll be here to take the reins.
Nick Visser
That’s all from me. Achol Arok will take things from here and guide you into the weekend.
ANZ ends relationship with KPMG
A big four bank is ending its relationship with its auditor of nearly six decades in the latest fallout from a whistleblower scandal, AAP reports.
KPMG has been ANZ’s auditor since 1969 and while the partners who worked on the audit have regularly rotated, the bank is looking for a new firm.
“A tenure of this length is no longer considered appropriate and has been under consideration by the board for some time,” ANZ said in a statement on Friday.
ANZ will begin a competitive tender process to select a new auditor beginning with the 2028-29 financial year.
The tender process will wind up in April and KPMG won’t be eligible to participate, the bank said. KPMG earned $21.4m for auditing and reviewing ANZ’s accounts in 2024-25, with its total fees, including non-audit services, coming to $29.6m for that financial year.
Shoebridge says party members will get input into leadership changes
Josh Butler
New Greens leader David Shoebridge says ordinary party members will have input into the next leadership decision, pledging a “conversation” to occur across branches and membership.
The Greens’ party room chooses its federal leader, which is the same as the Liberal and Nationals, but unlike Labor, which has a party room and membership vote. Shoebridge said this week, in announcing his leadership tilt, that he supported membership having a say; Mehreen Faruqi, who was unsuccessful in her leadership candidacy, said after the party room vote that she wanted members to have input.
In a social media video this afternoon, with the caption “your say on Greens leadership”, Shoebridge said: “You absolutely should have a say in the leadership for the Greens”.
“The good news is Steph [Hodgins-May] and I are gonna make this happen,” he said.
Shoebridge didn’t commit to any specific type of model, but said it would be “a conversation we’re going to have right across the Greens. Every state and territory, hundreds and hundreds of branches, thousands and thousands of members, because members want to be engaged in this.”
Shoebridge committed that the change would happen “before we make the next decision on the federal leadership”, which under Greens rules, happens after every federal election – so, in other words, in this term of parliament.
City of Yarra mayor cleared of assault allegation at election party
A prominent mayor has been cleared of punching a community activist who had gatecrashed his election after-party, Australian Associated Press reports.
The City of Yarra mayor Stephen Jolly, 64, said he was relieved to be acquitted of unlawful assault after Melbourne magistrate Jill Prior handed down her decision on Friday.
Jolly, whose council includes Carlton North, Collingwood and Richmond, fought the charge at a contested hearing, denying he intentionally struck activist Estella Burrows in the face on 1 November 2024.
Burrows and two other masked protesters had gatecrashed Jolly’s election after-party at a Collingwood venue, holding a banner and using a megaphone to accuse Jolly of abuse.
It was alleged Jolly punched Burrows to the face as he and other attendees forced the group to leave. The mayor denied intentionally hitting Burrows and separately argued he was acting in self-defence.
The magistrate on Friday determined Jolly did strike the left side of Burrows but she could not be satisfied he did so intentionally.
It was possible Jolly had been trying to disarm the group of their megaphone or he was reaching forward to move them away, the magistrate determined.
As a result, she found Jolly not guilty of the unlawful assault charge.
Outside court, Burrows told reporters she was disappointed but not surprised at the decision, claiming the justice system only worked in the favour of powerful white men.
This crocodile just predicted the winner of the NRL grand final
Elvis the saltwater crocodile has his prediction for the winner of the NRL grand final: the Newcastle Knights.
The Australian Reptile Park gave Elvis the choice between the Knights and the Sydney Roosters (in the form of two pieces of meat dangled from sticks).
We’ll see if his prophecy comes true.
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Death row inmate Christa Pike survives two lethal injections in Tennessee – The Latest
The convicted murderer Christa Pike, sentenced to death, has survived two lethal injections and was taken to hospital.
Pike, 50, has spent three decades on death row after she was convicted of the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995. She would have been the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in 200 years.
A last-minute appeal to stop the lethal injection was overturned by the supreme court, but the state governor, Bill Lee, has suspended executions in Tennessee for the rest of the year.
Lucy Hough speaks to the attorney and anti-capital punishment campaigner Clive Stafford Smith about the case in The Latest.
