What we learned, Tuesday 28 July
Another hectic news day! That’s where we’ll leave our live coverage for today.
Before we go, let’s look at the day’s top headlines:
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The leadership of the trade union movement is set for a major shakeup after the secretary and president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions announced their surprise departures.
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Landmark hearings designed to test the Australian Taxation Office’s widespread use of private call centres started today, amid claims outsource workers are paid up to 40% less than their public service counterparts on the same phone lines.
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Jacinta Allan, now former Victorian premier, resigned from the position amid a leadership spill.
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The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has ruled out an extension of the fuel excise cut beyond this weekend as petrol and diesel prices surge again amid the war between the US and Israel against Iran.
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Ben Carroll became the new Victorian premier after being appointed leader of the Victorian Labor party. His first order of business was to call for a royal commission into the construction sector.
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Cheek media’s co-founder Hannah Ferguson has declared she’ll challenge the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, in his seat of Grayndler at the next election, due by May 2028.
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The Victorian opposition leader, Jess Wilson, confirmed that Moira Deeming has quit the Liberal party.
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CSIRO testing has confirmed deadly H5 bird flu in seven greater crested terns found at South Australian beaches.
Thanks for joining us, see you tomorrow morning!
Will a new premier save Victorian Labor?: Full Story podcast
Victoria has a new premier after the education minister, Ben Carroll, was voted in by the Labor party during a chaotic caucus meeting on Tuesday morning.
His predecessor, Jacinta Allan, stood down after a tumultuous few months at the helm of a government diving in the polls and struggling to fend off a rising One Nation ahead of November’s state election.
Victorian state correspondent Benita Kolovos tells Reged Ahmad how the day unfolded and whether a change in leadership can improve Labor’s chances at the ballot box later this year.
Listen here:
KPMG independent director becomes seventh audit leak resignation
KPMG has lost another independent director in the seventh high-profile resignation since the firm’s audit leaks were revealed.
Patty Akopiantz, who had sat on the KPMG board since 2021, has advised a parliamentary committee that she resigned her post at the end of June. In her letter, published by the committee today, she said she had no ongoing role at KPMG.
Akopiantz told the committee in mid-June she was unhappy with the firm’s approach to a number of issues in the audit leak scandal.
She had urged KPMG in 2025 to investigate leak allegations alongside fellow independent directors Jane Hemstritch and Mike Baird. Baird resigned in October 2025 and has told the committee he was “unhappy” with the investigation’s progress. Hemstritch is the only independent director left on KPMG’s Asia-Pacific board, with Baird’s replacement, Michael Ebeid, set to be elevated to chair.
KPMG’s chair, CEO, head of audit and three partners involved in the leak of Lendlease information have all resigned; one of those partners was sacked from the firm as well. Numerous staff members have been penalised for their roles in the leaks.
Akopiantz was an independent director, not a KPMG partner, and there is no suggestion of wrongdoing on her part. She also sits on the board of the government’s Climate Change Authority.
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Liberal ‘Reformer’ did factional work during Catholic Schools NSW hours, inquiry hears
Returning to the NSW Icac hearings, former Liberal staffer Dylan Whitelaw has told an inquiry he and a member of the Reformers carried out Liberal factional work while employed at school governing body, Catholic Schools NSW.
Whitelaw has described being offered a casual job in data entry at Catholic Schools NSW by the organisation’s chief executive, Dallas McInerney – who Whitelaw knew through the Liberal party – after finishing school in 2019. His colleagues included Robert Assaf, who is alleged to have solicited or accepted illegal donations to support the Reformers branch stacking efforts.
Whitelaw says it was a “running joke” between him and Assaf that Assaf “did very little Catholic schools work”. Asked if McInerney was aware, Whitelaw said: “I don’t know if he knew the details of everything that Mr Assaf was doing, but he definitely had broad knowledge.”
Counsel assisting, Juliet Curtin, asked him what proportion of work Assaf did for the Reformers. Whitelaw said his guess would that Assaf did “about 60/40, and 60% to the reformers, 40% to Catholic Schools”.
McInerney is alleged to have approved and arranged donations by Catholic Schools NSW to companies controlled by the Reformers. In a statement reported by the Sydney Morning Herald on 2 July, McInerney said he had offered to stand aside from his role “to allow the work of Catholic Schools NSW to continue its important mission”.
The inquiry has finished for the day. Whitelaw is expected to appear tomorrow again tomorrow morning.
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Two senior people in the NSW and national public services commission have disagreed on whether 2,000 public servants breached their obligation to remain apolitical when they signed a 2024 open letter condemning the “Australian government’s complicity in Palestinian genocide”.
The NSW public service commissioner, Kathrina Lo, told the royal commission on antisemitism during her evidence this afternoon that the letter was “a case where public servants crossed the line in New South Wales”. Lo said of the letter:
The actions there weren’t consistent with the legislated core values for the government sector and the requirements to remain impartial and apolitical. Another aggravating factor, if I could put it that way, is that public servants not only you know signed with their names, but they clearly identified the departments they work for.
But this was at odds with earlier evidence given by Joanne Talbot, the national deputy public services commissioner.
Talbot said the open letter was “highly concerning” and “it does border on being not apolitical” but she didn’t accept it was in its entirety.
Asked if it was a breach of the obligation to remain apolitical, Talbot said:
No, it would appear to be a breach of being apolitical, but it turns on… if people were working in a role where they actually were providing advice as well, for example, on foreign policy or on some specific aspect of that, and how senior employees are as well.
Talbot told the royal commission that public services employees can express personal views on political issues, “provided it doesn’t disrupt the workplace and is consistent with the APS values and code of conduct”, which includes the obligation to be apolitical.
The open letter, released in May 2024 and signed primarily by people working for state and federal government departments, called on the federal government to “immediately cease all military exports to Israel” and “cease providing reconnaissance support from the Pine Gap facility”.
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RBA says housing market should ‘settle down’
More on the RBA governor’s speech: Michele Bullock says she expects the slide in house prices will slow as the shock of the budget’s property tax changes fades.
House prices are set to fall in most capital cities this month, according to Cotality data. Demand for home loans is fading: Loan Market has reported the number of mortgage lodgments is down 18% from last June, with investor demand down 22%.
Bullock said the drop in homebuying meant less money would be circulating in the economy. She said:
The housing market is a bit of a litmus test in some sense. We are seeing commitments come off, we are fully expecting that credit is going to follow.
The credit thing, I think we do need to just be a little bit careful to watch how things pan out after all those other bits and pieces come in.
Bullock did not attribute much of the lending slump to banks’ decisions or interest rate rises, saying they had only been “a bit” restrictive. She said it was all on the demand side, and she predicted demand would recover:
It’s going to depend, certainly in the housing market, on how soon people get their confidence back. ... I expect that things will settle down. People will get used to the new rules. Hopefully the conflict overseas will die down, and they’ll get a bit more confidence. Prices might lower a bit. People might feel more confident to come back into the market.
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Two pedestrians left in critical condition after crash in south-west Sydney
A man and woman remain in critical condition after being struck by a vehicle in Sydney’s south-west suburb of Lakemba.
Emergency services responded just before 1pm on Tuesday, after a woman believed to be in her 30s and a man believed to be in his 60s were injured.
Both pedestrians were treated at the scene before being taken to separate hospitals.
The 82-year-old male driver was also treated at the scene and taken to hospital for mandatory testing.
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Markets think an RBA rate hike in August is now less likely
Markets are betting against an interest rate rise in August after the Reserve Bank governor said Australia’s economy was still slowing.
Michele Bullock has just said the RBA’s next move, at its 11 August meeting, is still an open question. She told a lunch in Sydney:
We are seeing the economy slow. We are seeing consumption slow. And we have seen the housing market slow more than we were expecting.
Core inflation is expected to be above 3% until late 2027, which Bullock said was a “long time”. She said:
What it’s going to come down to is whether or not the board thinks that interest rates are ... going to bring inflation down sustainably, within a reasonable time period.
Markets are interpreting Bullock’s speech as a sign interest rates are not likely to rise again soon. Bonds and the Australian dollar have dropped and the ASX saw a bounce since her address at 1pm AEST.
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Justice for Palestine says legal challenge against Queensland ban on slogans ‘an important precent’
Justice for Palestine says its high court challenge against Queensland’s ban on the common pro-Palestine slogan “from the river to the sea” could set an important precedent for other states.
More than 30 people have been arrested since the ban went into effect in March. The Guardian revealed that the group had filed a high court challenge against the legislation yesterday.
Michael Bradley, a barrister and partner at Marque Lawyers, said the NSW government has been considering a similar ban and a successful challenge would stop them in their tracks:
This is the first time that a government has gone this far trying to criminalise specific words. So it’s not a type of case that the high court has had to deal with before.
We say, this [ban] is way outside the bounds of what the implied freedom in the constitution allows, but certainly [a challenge] would send a very strong signal to governments that that limit is there.
All seven plaintiffs – three of them previously arrested under the legislation – attended a Tuesday afternoon press conference. The lead plaintiff, Remah Naji, said the case was about the right to protest what she said was the crimes of Israel. She said:
I want to be able to say ‘from the river to the sea’ without fearing of getting arrested.
The deputy premier, Jarrod Bleijie, was asked about the challenge earlier today. He said it was a “hypothetical” and said he stands by the legislation:
We put the laws in place to take guns out of the hands of criminals and terrorists, and to also protect the Jewish community members in Queensland.
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Consumer watchdog defends decision not to ban unsolicited sales
Catriona Lowe, an ACCC deputy chair, said the regulator acknowledged that consumer groups considered a ban to be the most effective response, but:
We consider our targeted proposals to strengthen existing safeguards will protect consumers from harm, particularly when coupled with new laws banning unfair trading practices.
The proposed approach preserves the selling channel for the minority of consumers who value it.We have also recommended that the effectiveness of the recommended measures is subject to review within two years of implementation to see if compliance and outcomes have improved.
ACCC finds unsolicited sales practices widespread, unwelcome and could be ‘manipulative’
The ACCC says in the past six months, 60% of consumers it surveyed were subject to telemarketing, 41% had been approached in a public place such as a shopping centre and about 30% had experienced door-to-door selling.
Solar panels and energy devices were among the products frequently bought through unsolicited selling, with many consumers who bought such devices spending more than $1,000, the ACCC says.
Two-thirds of respondents said they had felt pressured when contacted in unsolicited sales without their permission.
About 40% of those who had made a purchase in the past two years had regretted it, and 60% had experienced problems with their purchase.
Respondents said salespeople were often pushy, refused to take “no” for an answer and manipulated consumers, according to the ACCC.
Consumers who made a purchase after an unsolicited sales approach in the last two years reported that only 70.9% of salespeople identified themselves, 54.1% of salespeople provided a written copy of the agreement and 63% of salespeople informed them of the termination period.
However, the ACCC says some smaller businesses in the solar devices sector claimed that up to 80% of their business is generated from unsolicited selling and they would not be in the market without these sales channels.
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ACCC finds unsolicited sales practices misleading consumers but stops short of ban
The consumer watchdog says businesses that use unsolicited sales – such as door-to-door and telemarketing – are frequently engaging in high-pressure tactics, breaching existing safeguards and misleading consumers.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has stopped short of banning these kinds of sales practices, and instead has recommended recommends increasing penalties for breaches of consumer safeguards, a new “opt in” approach for consumers targeted by unsolicited sales practices and “clarifying existing rules”.
The ACCC makes the recommendations in a report it released earlier today, based on its sweep of the sector, which follows a “designated” or “super” complaint made by the Consumer Action Law Centre in 2025.
That complaint, the first of its kind under new powers for certain business and consumer groups introduced by the Albanese government, compelled the ACCC to review the issue and respond within 90 days.
It led to an investigation by the ACCC which found that unsolicited selling was widespread and often unwelcome.
Court fines Harvey Norman and Latitude over misleading promotion
The federal court has ordered Harvey Norman and credit provider Latitude pay a combined $55m in penalties over an advertising campaign offering “60 months interest-free” purchase terms for household goods.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (Asic) launched the legal action over concerns the advertisements masked that consumers were required to take out a credit card offered by Latitude to purchase products and pay service and establishment fees.
Harvey Norman will pay $35m in penalties, while Latitude will pay $20m, according to the court order. They must also display “corrective advertising” on their homepages for 90 days.
The Asic chair, Sarah Court, said:
The substantial penalties and the corrective advertising orders imposed on Harvey Norman and Latitude is a significant outcome for consumers and sends a strong warning to the market about the importance of truthful and transparent advertising.
A spokesperson for Latitude said the company “accepts responsibility for its conduct and apologies to its customers”.
Harvey Norman was contacted for comment.
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That’s all for me, it’s been a busy day so far. Achol Arok will take things from here. Take care.
Angus Taylor won’t give ‘running commentary’ on Icac after mention
The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, has responded after his name was raised in today’s Icac hearing, with a spokesperson for the federal Liberal leader saying he would not give “a running commentary” on the issue.
As the Guardian’s Penry Buckley reported, Icac today heard that chief executive of Catholic Schools NSW, Dallas McInerney, planned to solicit a $10,000 donation from Angus Taylor to support the efforts of a conservative Liberal group, which is now being investigated by the state corruption watchdog.
Dylan Whitelaw, a former Liberal staffer described as an associate of the Reformers, was shown a message in which he allegedly wrote that “Dallas has told me he got the commitment from Angus, the 15k injection plus a 3k monthly donation!”
Approached for comment, a spokesperson for Taylor said “the Leader is not a party to the matters before the commission, nor has he been approached”, adding:
These matters should be allowed to run their course free from political interference or commentary. As such the Leader will not be providing a running commentary on any matters before the commission. Donations and fundraising activities are declared in accordance with the rules and are a matter for the Party.
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Origin heard hack threat three weeks ago but dismissed it as not ‘credible’
Origin Energy has revealed it was aware of a threatened hack but dismissed it as not credible three weeks before telling customers.
The energy retailer’s chief executive, Frank Calabria, has just spoken to media. He said Origin received emails from someone claiming to have accessed customer records on 2 July. The company did not determine it was a credible threat as there was no proof of data being accessed.
Calabria said Origin only received proof customer data had been accessed on 22 July, last Wednesday, at which point it announced the hack.
The company today confirmed about 900,000 customers’ records had been accessed. A “significant” proportion of those had been former customers, Calabria said. The company will tell customers whose data has been accessed in the coming days.
He said the data appeared to have been accessed from “historical data” and Origin had worked to secure its system to prevent similar incidents. He said the company did not believe any information had been put on the dark web.
Calabria declined to answer a series of questions, saying:
It is a criminal matter which is under active investigation and given that we are constrained by the level of information we can provide at this time.
Those questions related to: when the breaches had occurred; whether Origin staff had been identified as having a role in the breach; whether a ransom had been sought, paid or was being considered; and whether the leak risk was “live” or resolved.
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Deadly bird flu confirmed in seven local South Australian birds
CSIRO testing has confirmed deadly H5 bird flu in seven greater crested terns found at South Australian beaches.
But the federal government said analysis was still under way to establish whether the disease was spreading between local birds.
One of the terns was found at Port MacDonnell, one at Cape Jaffa and five were found around Southend Jetty near Beachport.
There have now been 27 confirmed cases nationally, 10 in greater crested terns – a common local seabird – in South Australia.
Before the cases in terns found in South Australia, all detections of the disease in Australia had been in migratory birds.
A spokesperson for the agriculture department said:
All of these have been wild seabirds found in coastal locations. Further laboratory analysis will be undertaken to help determine if there is evidence of local transmission.
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Australian Bureau of Statistics reports 4.1% increase in divorces in 2025
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released its annual report on the marriages and divorces for 2025, showing a 4.1% increase on divorces from the previous year, with more than 49,000 granted.
The median age of divorce also rose to 47.3 years for men and 44.4 years for women, with the average duration of a marriage also increasing to 13.4 years.
There were over 118,000 registered marriages in 2025, a 1.7% decrease from 2024. Victoria had the largest decrease with 5.5%; Queensland, Western Australia and the ACT also registered fewer marriages.
The most popular date to get married was 25 October, with over 2,000 marriages taking place on that day, followed by the 22 November with 1,527.
Saturday remained as the most popular day to get married, with over 52,000 marriages taking place, followed by Friday with 22,000.
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New process being developed for Jewish patients and staff to raise complaints
A new process is being developed for Jewish patients and staff to raise complaints if they experience antisemitism in the health system, the royal commission has heard.
Rabbi Mendel Kastel, the chief executive of Jewish House and a chaplain at a number of hospitals, is the first to give evidence today in the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion.
Kastel said of the new system he is helping to design:
At the moment, it’s looking like that it’ll be a separate protocol where people will initially raise it … with a more senior staff member.
There’ll be a form that people will fill out, which will then go to the leadership of the hospital and the [local health district], and be overseen by the ministry.
He said an antisemitic video that allegedly featured two nurses from Bankstown hospital had raised fears in the community. But beyond this incident, he said there is largely “a very good culture within New South Wales health”.
After the Bankstown nurses, I must say that I was nervous to go there myself. I didn’t know what to expect.
But I went to Bankstown hospital, and the warmth and the kindness was just fantastic across the board. [It] didn’t matter what religion, which culture, everybody was welcoming.
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Catholic Schools NSW chief executive allegedly planned to ‘shake down Angus for 10k’, corruption inquiry hears
The chief executive of Catholic Schools NSW, Dallas McInerney, planned to solicit a $10,000 donation from Angus Taylor to support the efforts of a conservative Liberal group being investigated by the state corruption watchdog, an inquiry has heard.
Dylan Whitelaw, a former Liberal staffer described as an associate of the Reformers, who have been accused of soliciting or accepting illegal donations to support moves to shift the party to the right, is under questioning from by counsel assisting the commission, Juliet Curtin.
Whitelaw has been shown a screenshot from a message from McInerney, sent to a group chat including Whitelaw and members of the Reformers. In the message, McInerney allegedly says:
I have breakfast club with ministers this Thursday morning, who can I get an update from? Re SCD [state council delegate] progress in the last six to 12 months. I want to shake down Angus for 10k.
Asked if “Angus” refers to Angus Taylor, Whitelaw says: “I would assume it’s Angus Taylor”.
Whitelaw is shown another message in which he allegedly wrote that “Dallas has told me he got the commitment from Angus, the 15k injection plus a 3k monthly donation!”.
Whitelaw says he does not recall sending the message, nor does he recall Taylor making a financial contribution to the Reformers. Taylor is not accused of any wrongdoing. In a statement reported by the Sydney Morning Herald on 2 July, McInerney said he had offered to stand aside “to allow the work of Catholic Schools NSW to continue its important mission”.
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Less than 1% of homeowners in negative equity, says RBA
The Reserve Bank governor has said the housing slowdown is still “modest” and confined to small pockets of the market.
Michele Bullock has told an economists’ lunch in Sydney the RBA was surprised by the size of the slump in house prices, which she attributed to lower confidence and policy change in the budget.
But Bullock said the price declines were concentrated in Sydney and Melbourne. Even in those cities, prices were still back where they were in early 2025.
On top of that, most borrowers are not in negative equity, meaning they still have homes worth more than their loans, she said. Bullock said:
Notwithstanding the price falls, negative equity remains very limited, affecting less than 1% of borrowers.
Negative equity was much more common in 2019, RBA data shows. Of the small group in negative equity, an even smaller share have insufficient income to cover their loan repayments and essential expenses, Bullock said.
This is not to downplay that this would be stressful for those affected. But it does indicate that financial stability risks are contained, and borrowers, in aggregate, have built up considerable savings buffers over recent years.
Updated
RBA ready to lift interest rates again, says governor
The Reserve Bank governor has warned she is ready to lift interest rates “further if needed” as fuel prices surge again.
Michele Bullock has said inflation is “still too high” as high fuel costs this year are forcing up more prices, with construction and new home costs on the rise.
But spending in the economy is still holding up, putting pressure on the RBA to consider hiking rates again, Bullock has told an Anika Foundation lunch in Sydney. She said:
The Board is prepared to act as required to achieve its mandate, including by increasing the cash rate further if needed.
Household spending is slowing but hasn’t been hit by high fuel prices, in part because of the fuel excise cut. Business investment is stronger than expected, thanks to datacentres, and the jobs market is still tight, she said. That means:
Some further easing in the growth of demand is likely to be required if we’re to bring inflation back down sustainably to target. A key question in the period ahead is whether the tightening in monetary policy earlier in the year is sufficient to achieve this.
Before the speech, markets were betting on a 30% chance of another rate hike on 11 August, judging it was more likely the RBA would wait and see if this year’s hikes have done the job.
Change ‘starts today’, Carroll says
Carroll is casting his leadership as a new era for Labor politics in the state.
“It is clear that Victorians want change,” he said. “That change starts today.”
He said he will focus on supporting the Victorian business community, working in concert with the police commissioner to fight crime and to address cost-of-living concerns.
When pressed about his shift in support for Allan, Carroll said “circumstances changed”.
I was approached by a delegation who asked me to stand for leader. This delegation had already visited the premier and informed her that they wanted change. I’m going to be that change. …
The circumstances changed … a delegation came to see me and asked me to be leader.
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New Victorian premier Ben Carroll to call a royal commission into the construction sector
Ben Carroll is speaking now, alongside his new deputy premier, Gabrielle Williams.
He said his first action as premier will be to call a royal commission into the construction sector. Carroll said he would also establish a special prosecutor to work in parallel with the royal commission.
He added:
Let me make one thing very clear: I am not Daniel Andrews. I am not Jacinta Allan.
I will do things differently, because different times require a new approach.
Updated
We’re expecting a press conference from newly minted Victorian premier Ben Carroll any moment. Stick with us for updates.
Microsoft sought to exclude Bing and LinkedIn from paying for news
Documents released by the treasury department under freedom of information law reveal that Microsoft had argued last year to exclude its Bing search service and LinkedIn platform from being included in the Albanese government’s news bargaining initiative.
The federal government announced in April that platforms including Google, Meta and TikTok will be required to make commercial deals with Australian media outlets or they will be forced to pay a dedicated 2.25% levy on local revenues.
It followed an extensive consultation process with tech companies and media.
According to the documents published yesterday, in March 2025, Microsoft argued against including its search platform Bing on the grounds that it is just 4.7% of the Australian search market and “applying the incentive to small search engines like Bing will harm their ability to compete with Google as the dominant search engine”.
For LinkedIn, although the company has gone to great lengths to woo journalists to post on the platform – including training 507 journalists in Australia and offering them free yearly LinkedIn subscriptions – the company argued because most people in Australia access LinkedIn on desktop computers, it shows that “members primarily access it for professional purposes rather than casual browsing or social interaction”.
The company said that its “significantly smaller active userbase” compared to sites like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, and “low time spent on the LinkedIn mobile app would suggest that LinkedIn has a minimal use in news”.
Microsoft described news consumption on LinkedIn as an “ancillary activity”.
Nine newspapers reported in April that LinkedIn was expected to be excluded from the news bargaining initiative scheme when it goes ahead.
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Kellie Sloane backs in shadow cabinet member named during Icac hearing
Returning to Kellie Sloane: the NSW opposition leader has called for “procedural fairness” to be observed after a member of her frontbench – the shadow finance minister, Eleni Petinos – was named during Icac corruption hearings.
The inquiry heard a phone call featuring fugitive property developer and prohibited donor Jean Nassif, in October 2021, in which he allegedly claimed he had paid for the removal of the building commissioner, David Chandler.
He also allegedly claimed that “the fair trading minister is gonna to be one of my girls”.
The inquiry heard that two months after the call, the then Liberal premier Dominic Perrottet appointed Petinos as state minister of fair trading in a cabinet reshuffle.
In July 2022, Chandler handed in his resignation after an investigation into his conduct that had been requested by Petinos, which later cleared him of any wrongdoing.
Sloane, who says she checked in with Petinos yesterday, says:
The allegations were made, and [counsel assisting] herself said that it is yet to be determined whether this was serendipitous, whether it was just wishful thinking by Nassif, and these were opening statements.
It’s going to be impossible for me to make a running commentary of the matters of Icac and there is procedural fairness that should be accorded to all.
Perrottet and Petinos – who is currently on maternity leave – are not accused of any wrongdoing.
The inquiry continues today, with Michael O’Hara – a hotelier and Tudehope’s former business partner – finishing his evidence, followed by former Liberal staffer Dylan Whitelaw.
Updated
Ben Carroll has been sworn in as Victorian premier
Ben Carroll was just sworn in as the next premier of Victoria at the state’s government house. He took the oath of office, saying he would at all times discharge the duties of his office.
NSW Liberal leader says Icac hearing ‘intensely uncomfortable listening’
The NSW Liberal leader, Kellie Sloane, described the first day of watchdog hearings into historic allegations of corruption in her party as “uncomfortable listening” and backed in members of her shadow cabinet named during hearings.
Yesterday, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) began the first of eight weeks of hearings as part of Operation Rosny. In her opening statement, counsel assisting, Peggy Dwyer SC, said evidence would show how a group of young Liberal power brokers known as the Reformers allegedly solicited illegal donations to support branch-stacking efforts to move the party to the conservative right.
Sloane, who was not an MP at the time of the allegations, has told 2GB the hearing was “intensely uncomfortable listening”.
Yeah, look, the whole thing was intensely uncomfortable listening. I wish Icac the very best in rooting out any corruption. At the moment, these are allegations and opening statements. We’ve got eight weeks. So we just have to listen to this. But, you know … my job is not to be distracted by this.
Two current members of Sloane’s shadow cabinet were mentioned yesterday, including the shadow attorney general and Liberal leader in the upper house, Damien Tudehope.
The inquiry heard that multiple people named in allegations had connections with Tudehope, including some who had worked as staffers in his office. His son, James Tudehope, is not named in allegations but has declined a request to give evidence having moved to New Zealand.
Sloane tells 2GB she stands by her comments that Tudehope, who is not accused of any wrongdoing and has stood aside from shadow cabinet during the inquiry after being called as a witness, is “a man of integrity”.
Updated
Moira Deeming quits the Liberal party
And in some other news down at Spring Street, the Victorian opposition leader, Jess Wilson, has issued a short statement confirming Moira Deeming has quit the Liberal party:
This morning I received the resignation from the Parliamentary Liberal Party from Moira Deeming.
Deeming was spotted on the crossbench in upper house question time.
She was disendorsed as a candidate for the party by the Liberal state executive earlier this month after she had accused fellow Liberal MP Matthew Guy of grabbing her “violently” in a headlock. She later claimed she misunderstood the meaning of headlock.
Police investigated the reported incident and concluded there was “no offence detected”.
She had taken legal action against the party president, Brian Loughnane, which initially sought to prevent the party from disendorsing her, but withdrew the action just hours before the meeting.
Updated
Carroll ‘honoured and humbled’ to be elected next premier in Victoria
Ben Carroll has posted a video saying he’s “honoured and humbled” to be elected as the next premier of Victoria.
He said his decision came amid polling showing a surging Liberal-One Nation wave in the state. He went on:
Yesterday, they asked me to put my hand up. … This was not an easy decision, but the stakes at this election are too high.
Only Labor can stop the risk of a Liberal-One Nation government that will hurt working people. But it is clear that on key issues that matter to Victorians, our government needs to go in a new direction. … As premier, I will deliver that new direction.
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Carroll and Williams en route to government house to be sworn in
Victorian parliament has begun sitting but Ben Carroll and Gabrielle Williams are on their way to government house to be sworn in as premier and deputy premier.
Allan supporters Lily D’Ambrosio and Steve Dimopoulos, the latter of whom made a tilt for the deputy position, have said they will get behind Carroll.
Leaving the two-hour long meeting of MPs, Dimopoulos said: “Caucus always makes the right call.”
D’Ambrosio said:
We are here united behind Ben Carroll and, of course, his deputy Gabrielle Williams.
Updated
Hannah Ferguson throws down the gauntlet to Albanese to run in seat of Grayndler
Cheek media’s co-founder Hannah Ferguson has declared she’ll challenge the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, in his seat of Grayndler at the next election, due by May 2028.
The popular commentator and podcaster made the announcement via social media, and said the inner west deserves better representation.
Ferguson had told the National Press Club last year she would run for the Senate, but says she reconsidered:
Towards the end of 2025, I realised that the more conversations I was having the more the question came up: why not Grayndler?
Ferguson says when she was born in Marrickville in 1998, Albanese had already represented the area for two years. She grew up in different parts of the country – from south-west Sydney to Orange but now calls the area home once again.
She says she intends to step away from Cheek Media at “some stage next year” to campaign full-time and ensure the company remains independent.
This is not about headlines or clickbait, its about hearing directly from people in my community who feel underrepresented. The political system is broken. The major parties are answering to vested interests, not the communities they’ve been elected to serve … I am not here to play politics, that is just another reason Australians are fed up with the political party machinery.
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Ben Carroll appointed as Victorian Labor leader
Labor MP Juliana Addisonhas just announced that Ben Carroll has been appointed leader of the Victorian Labor party.
It appears Sonya Kilkenny has stepped down.
Addison says:
I am delighted to announce that we have a new premier of Victoria. Ben Carroll has been unanimously endorsed by the State Parliamentary Labor party as our next premier of Victoria. I am also delighted to announce that Gabrielle Williams will be our deputy premier. I want to thank our former premier Jacinta Allan, an extraordinary person who has contributed so much to the parliament of Victoria. Personally, as a regional woman, to have her as our premier is something I’m incredibly proud of.
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Applause heard from Victorian Labor party room
Loud clapping is being heard from Labor caucus room, which has to wrap up in the next five minutes given parliament kicks off at 12pm.
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‘This will have been a very difficult day’: Albanese on Allan
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has paid tribute to the former Victorian premier Jacinta Allan – who has just stepped down this morning ahead of a leadership challenge – saying he has “worked closely with her” for decades.
Speaking in Western Australia while announcing plans for the country’s first new oil refinery in decades, he said:
Jacinta is someone who I think is a very decent human being, someone who’s motivated by her passionate belief in the lifestyle and in education, health, transport of Victorians.
She’s someone who can be proud, I think, of her achievements over a long period of time, and I wish her well for her future. This will have been a very difficult day.
Politics can be … a very tough business.
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Gabrielle Williams now deputy leader and interim leader of Victorian Labor
Transport infrastructure minister Gabrielle Williams has secured the deputy leadership of the Victorian Labor party, sources have confirmed.
In an unexpected turn of events, she will also be interim leader of the party until nominations close for leader. This is because Sonya Kilkenny has put her hand up to run against Ben Carroll.
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KPMG sacks former executive who allegedly stashed client info in locker
KPMG has told a parliamentary inquiry that its former chief operating officer kept confidential client information in her locker, after repeatedly denying the allegation.
The firm has admitted to two breaches of client confidentiality but denied a third by Eileen Hoggett. The new KPMG chief executive, John Sams, wrote in a Friday letter to a parliamentary inquiry that Hoggett had denied keeping Lendlease audit information in a locker in the KPMG Sydney office. KPMG had found that she had, he said. Sams wrote:
The substantiation of this allegation reflects the importance of ensuring concerns are thoroughly and objectively investigated … I regret the way aspects of this matter were handled in the past. It is unacceptable that it has taken this long for the truth to come out, and that it has come to light in this manner.
Sams has had Hoggett sacked from the firm, a KPMG spokesperson said.
The regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, has told the inquiry it is formally investigating Hoggett and former colleague Paul Rogers over their behaviour in the Lendlease audit. Neither of the former KPMG partners has commented publicly on the allegations.
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‘Just doing my job’: heated discussion in Victoria Labor caucus
Victorian Labor’s caucus meeting is going a lot longer than we had anticipated given Jacinta Allan stood down as leader before a spill brought forward by her deputy, Ben Carroll.
We know the attorney general, Sonya Kilkenny, has put her hand up for the leadership but sources say she has the support of about 15 MPs – while Carroll has the support of 40.
Sources in Carroll’s camp say they’re currently trying to negotiate an alternative that would prevent Kilkenny standing to prevent a ballot of rank and file members that would take six weeks.
It appears heated in there – there’s shouting, including from one person who we can hear from outside has said: “I’m just doing my job.”
“Hang on hang on, one at a time”, we can hear Jacinta Allan saying from outside the caucus room. She is chairing the meeting.
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Origin Energy hack hits 900,000 current and former customers
Origin Energy has found about 900,000 current and former customers’ records have been accessed in a data breach.
Australia’s largest energy retailer said today it was contacting and supporting customers whose information has been accessed. Origin’s chief executive, Frank Calabria, said the company was still reviewing the incident, revealed last week. Calabria said:
To our customers, I am sorry. We don’t take for granted the trust customers place in Origin and our safeguarding of their information … We are working with cybersecurity and forensic specialists to ensure the incident is contained, and we’ve taken a number of steps to secure our systems.
Calabria warned customers to watch out for suspicious activity and a heightened risk of scams. He said Australian government agencies had been notified, adding:
Importantly, this is a criminal matter that is subject to an ongoing investigation by the relevant authorities, and given this, we are constrained by the level of information we can provide about the incident at this time.
The company last week dismissed reports it had reached a deal with its hacker to avoid data leaks. After The Australian published claims from a person claiming to be behind the hack on Friday, an Origin spokesperson said:
Origin notes there is considerable media speculation in relation to the data security incident we are actively managing. Our investigation is ongoing, and we currently have no further updates.
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Sources say Kilkenny making play for Victorian leadership, but could be effort to snag deputy role
Sources in Labor’s caucus meeting currently under way say the meeting is taking longer than expected as the attorney general, Sonya Kilkenny, had nominated for leadership against Ben Carroll.
However, one source has interpreted the move as a play for the deputy role, which several MPs have said was being eyed by Gabrielle Williams.
Kilkenny and Williams are both from the left faction, but the former is a supporter of Allan while Williams was among a grouping within her faction to break ranks to support Carroll.
Two MPs have noted that Kilkenny’s move is the very same Carroll used on Daniel Andrews back in 2023 to secure the deputy role.
More on that here:
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Canavan welcomes oil refinery scoping study, but calls for safeguard mechanism to be scrapped
Matt Canavan says he’d “love” to see a new oil refinery built, but perhaps predictably, says it can’t be done unless the government scraps its “carbon taxes”.
By carbon taxes he means the safeguard mechanism that requires big greenhouse gas emitters to reduce their emissions and offset any excess emissions over a set limit. The scheme was created by the former Coalition government but ratcheted up by Labor.
Canavan told News 24 earlier this morning the two remaining refineries in Australia will pay more than $100m in “carbon tax fees by the end of this decade”.
I’d love to see a new oil refinery built, but to do that, we’ve got to get rid of Labor’s carbon taxes. This is not going to happen. We’re not going to get a new oil refinery in this country while this government imposes a massive carbon tax on existing refineries, and new ones would be subject to the same.
Canavan says that the current two oil refineries still exist in Australia “thanks to the work Angus Taylor did” as energy minister under the Morrison government.
But five oil refineries have closed in Australia since 2012 – four of them under the Coalition’s watch.
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Allan arrives at last caucus meeting
The premier, Jacinta Allan, has arrived to her final caucus meeting as leader to rousing applause. Flanked by her loyal supporters including attorney general Sonya Kilkenny, health minister Harriet Shing, finance minister Steve Dimopoulos and energy minister Lily D’Ambrosio.
Her deputy, Ben Carroll, who will now be elected Labor leader unopposed, arrived with Gabrielle Williams, who is being touted for the deputy role, as well as members of both his right faction and Allan’s left.
Wong rules out extension of fuel excise cut
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has ruled out an extension of the fuel excise cut beyond this weekend as petrol and diesel prices surge again amid the war between the US and Israel against Iran.
Speaking to ABC Breakfast this morning, Wong said the government would continue to look at ways to relieve households of financial stress but there were no plans to extend the halving of the fuel excise beyond this weekend.
What we are focused on is ensuring continued fuel and fertiliser coming into Australia, and we are calling, as so many in the international community are, for there to be ceasefire negotiations and an end to this conflict, which has caused so much global turmoil …
Currently, the plan is for the fuel excise to step down. As you know, it’s come down, it’s halved, and the intention is for that to discontinue as of this weekend.
The federal government announced a three-month halving of the fuel excise from April, slashing the 52.6c a litre tax temporarily to 26.4c a litre. It is set to expire on 2 August.
The news comes as the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, visits Karratha in Western Australia’s Pilbara region to announce a $4m early stage feasibility study into the construction of what would be Australia’s first new oil refinery in 60 years.
Read more:
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Allan says her endometriosis and childbirth experience ‘defined what I believe government should do for working women’
A bit more about Allan’s comments on women’s health, and her time as a female political leader:
“I have lived with endometriosis and I almost lost my daughter at birth,” she told assembled media as she announced her resignation as premier just earlier.
These experiences not only defined who I am, they defined what I believe government should do for working women.
She went on to list some of her government’s achievements:
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Opening 15 women’s health clinics across the state.
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Rolling out the green whistle for free pain relief.
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Access to the contraceptive pill at the chemist without having to pay to see a GP.
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And the country’s first virtual emergency department.
If you’re a woman making your start in politics, let me say this to you today: please don’t look at what I have experienced this week and think ‘Stuff that, I don’t want to be involved.’
Look at the support I have experienced over my career and think, ‘I can make a difference here too.’
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Allan asks to be remembered for work supporting women and girls
Allan said:
If I want to be remembered for one thing, it’s this: I led a government … I led a government that listened to girls about their health.
… I am proud to be Victoria’s second female premier, and there have absolutely been moments when it’s been hard and it’s been personal. But the chance to make a difference was worth it …
If you want to make a difference in politics, you have to get up and fight and I am a fighter. I have always fought for my family’s Labor values.
She said she was “more than ready” to fight again in November, issuing a warning on One Nation’s surge in the state.
That remains the biggest risk at this election, a One Nation-Liberal coalition government that will cut $40bn from our hospitals and from our schools.
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Allan ‘proud’ of building up regional Victoria
Allan is listing a string of achievements and her love of Melbourne and regional Victoria:
Melbourne’s a great city. It’s the best in the world, multicultural and proudly so …
But if you ask me what sets Victoria apart, it’s our regional cities. And I am so proud to call one of them home.
Labor governments have built up the regions. And today, it means that my kids have the opportunity in their community that I didn’t have when I grew up in Bendigo. That’s what I’m proud of.
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‘This gig has been tough’: Allan
Allan says she is “immensely proud” of her time in office, which has lasted 1,036 days:
Let’s be honest – this gig has been tough … I leave immensely proud of what we have achieved these past three years.
I inherited a rising crime rate. My team and I toughened bail laws … Crime is now falling for the first time since Covid. I inherited a budget deficit …
Making life easier and more affordable became my mission.
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Victorian premier Jacinta Allan to step down
Jacinta Allan, the Victorian premier, will step down amid a leadership spill.
After speaking with my colleagues overnight, I’ve made the difficult decision to step aside.
Should Ben Carroll emerge as our next Labor leader and Labor premier, he will have my congratulations and unqualified support.
I am making this because it’s the right thing by the Labor party, and by the Victorian people.
More to come …
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Key Jacinta Allan supporter says premier will not contest leadership spill
We’ve just heard from a key Allan supporter who says the premier Jacinta Allan will not contest the leadership spill bought against her by deputy Ben Carroll.
She’s due to address media any minute.
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Jacinta Allan to address media
Jacinta Allan is expected to speak at a press conference in just a few moments, at 9.30am Melbourne time.
We’ll bring you live updates.
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Colin Brooks arrives at Victorian parliament
Colin Brooks – one of the six ministers who told the premier yesterday she no longer had their support – has just arrived at parliament. Asked if he’d be supporting Ben Carroll in the spill, he said:
I’ll be voting for integrity in the Labor party and a royal commission.
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Queensland won’t adopt new AusAlert system until next year at the earliest
Queensland won’t adopt the federal government’s new AusAlert system until months after the planned nationwide rollout of the system in October.
The state’s minister for fire and disaster recovery, Ann Leahy, told ABC local radio this morning the “earliest” the state could adopt the new system would be April next year.
The state says the new system won’t work in some regional areas, because it doesn’t use fixed landline phone lines.
“In October we will be right in the middle of our fire season, so we will be continuing with the existing system,” Leahy said.
The earliest we could go across to the AusAlert would be in April next year, because we simply know we have people trained to use the existing system.
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Greens senator says it was a ‘good day’ after court upholds finding Pauline Hanson engaged in racial discrimination
Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi said it was a “good day” yesterday after a court decision to uphold the finding that One Nation leader Pauline Hanson engaged in racial discrimination when she tweeted that she should “pack your bags and piss off back to Pakistan”.
Faruqi spoke to RN Breakfast this morning, saying:
It was a good day yesterday for people of colour, for Muslims, and for migrants in this country. And, you know, this is a win. And I have always said that this case was taken to court on behalf of everyone who has been told to go back to where you came from …
It is a strong form of racism. It is a statement that undermines people’s sense of belonging and treats them as a second-class citizen. And it has a massive impact.
Faruqi said she would be “prepared” if the case is taken to the high court, saying Hanson was “welcome to do that”.
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‘She has my full support’
The energy minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, is another key backer of Jacinta Allan and says that hasn’t changed:
She has my full support … We have a caucus meeting as we always do, and the premier is committed to her job. And as far as I’m concerned, she’ll continue in that role.
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‘Personal loyalty’ always important, former Victoria health minister says
Former Victorian health minister Mary-Anne Thomas, who earlier this year announced she would resign at the November election, says she will not support a spill this morning:
Personal loyalty has always been very important to me, and if there is a spill motion this morning, I will not be supporting it.
She went on:
Jacinta Allan has served this state with real leadership. She’s always had the people of Victoria at the heart of everything that she does, I’ve known Jacinta for a very long time, and I have a great deal of admiration for her.
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Ben Carroll arrives at Victorian parliament
The deputy premier, Ben Carroll, who is challenging Jacinta Allan for the Victorian Labor leadership in a few hours time, has arrived at parliament and made a brief statement to reporters:
I will have more to say later. Right now, my focus is on talking to my colleagues.
Read more about Carroll here:
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Some early remarks before the Victorian leadership spill
Minister Steve Dimopoulos – a key supporter of Allan – refused to comment on the spill as he arrived:
I’m going to respect all of the process and respect the processes means not commenting before the process.
Asked about the mood within the caucus, he said: “I think the party has been good and sorting things out this is what today will be.”
He said he still supported the premier:
The premier’s always had my support but there’s a process today that will work that out.
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Labor MPs begin arriving for leadership spill
Labor MPs have begun arriving at Victorian parliament this morning for a caucus meeting where the premier, Jacinta Allan, will be challenged by her deputy, Ben Carroll.
Among them are the environment minister, Enver Erdogan, who has told reporters on their way in that there is a “case for change”.
Pressed on what needs to change, he says:
I think we know some of these issues have been aired publicly, but I think we need stronger action on crime and corruption in the state.
Asked whether there needed to be a royal commission into allegations of corruption on Big Build construction sites, he replied: “Yes.”
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Grave fears for missing baby as ocean search resumes
The search for a missing baby has resumed after the bodies of a mother and her toddler were pulled from the ocean below rugged cliffs off South Australia’s Limestone Coast,
Police are scouring waters off Port MacDonnell in a desperate search for the child after receiving a call to an abandoned car left with its engine running near Cape Northumberland about 11.15am on Monday.
Officers spotted the bodies of a woman and small child in the ocean a short time later.
They have been identified as a 36-year-old woman from Compton, near Mount Gambier, and her toddler.
Officers from the Water Operations Unit, CFS and SES volunteers will help with the search. Predicted bad weather could hamper search efforts on the water on Tuesday, but police said they would still conduct searches of the coastline on foot and using thermal imaging drones.
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ACTU president says now is the ‘right time’ to leave
Michele O’Neil, the president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, said it’s the “right time” to leave after she announced her departure alongside ACTU secretary Sally McManus.
O’Neil told RN Breakfast:
We thought about this and we just think that it’s time for renewal. The union movement is in good shape. We’ve seen changes in workers’ rights that have made a big difference in workers’ lives. We’ve seen the union movement starting to grow for the first time in decades. And next year will be the 100th anniversary of the ACTU. So we think it’s time for a new leadership team to come in.
She went on to say her time at the body had made her “very, very lucky” and a new team coming in after a successful era would be “the best thing for workers” and the “best thing for the union movement”.
“And that’s why we came to the decision,” she said.
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Paterson continued …
We have a debt heading towards $200bn in this state. We have teachers out striking in the streets because the state government and Ben Carroll can’t secure a pay deal. We have holes in the roads. You need a majority government to fix those problems, and you need someone with a plan.
Ben Carroll announced on Monday he would challenge the premier, Jacinta Allan, for the leadership on Tuesday. Paterson noted that Carroll was in cabinet as deputy premier to Jacinta Allan and before that as a cabinet minister under Daniel Andrews, at the same time allegations against the CFMEU of corruption and criminal offences arose.
Now he might performatively call a royal commission tokenistically, now that he’s become leader, but that’s not out of sincere concern about corruption. That’s out of sincere concern about the polls and what that means for Victorian Labor.
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James Paterson won’t rule out Victorian preferences for One Nation
Victorian Liberal senator James Paterson has not ruled out the possibility of the Victorian Liberals giving its preferences to One Nation in the forthcoming state election.
But he said Jess Wilson should hold off making that decision until closer to the time.
“This party should wait and make that decision in an informed way,” Patterson told the ABC’s 7.30 program.
It’s usually done on a seat by seat basis, and it’s usually only done after the candidates have been selected, because in the past some parties, particularly minor parties like One Nation, have had great difficulty screening their candidates to make sure that they are people who are acceptable to stand.
Paterson, whose wife, Lydia Paterson, is deputy chief of staff for Wilson, said the Victorian Liberals were seeking to govern in their own right, without forming a coalition with One Nation.
“They need majority government if they’re going to turn this state around,” he said.
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Resources minister says government still hasn’t ruled ‘anything out’ on fuel excise cut extension
Madeleine King, the federal resources minister, said the government remains concerned about the impact of fuel prices on Australians, but wouldn’t commit to any extension of the fuel excise discount, which is due to expire later this week.
King spoke to RN Breakfast, saying the government hadn’t ruled “anything out” and was continuing to work on fuel security. She went on:
I know that time is coming right at us. But as we all are aware, this conflict in the Middle East and appears to be sadly spreading just continues to cause instability in that global energy market and those oil prices.
… But the government is very much aware of the pressure increase in fuel prices does put on Australian families. And we have taken action in the past and we’ll continue to monitor how these prices do affect people and seek to deliver that kind of relief as best we can.
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Good morning, Nick Visser here to take over the day’s breaking news. Let’s get to it.
ATO’s ‘same job, same pay’ hearings begin
Landmark hearings designed to test the Australian Taxation Office’s widespread use of private call centres starts today, amid claims outsource workers are paid up to 40% less than their public service counterparts on the same phone lines.
Nathan Brunne, a former worker on the ATO phone lines employed by the private equity-backed Probe Operations, initiated the “same job, same pay” claim in the Fair Work Commission, and is being supported by the Community and Public Sector Union.
Brunne will argue that the pay gap widens at more senior call centre roles, with team leaders at outsource operators paid about $31 an hour compared with more than $52 at the tax office, according to pre-hearing submissions.
Probe has indicated it will oppose Brunne, while the ATO has not taken a formal position.
Brunne is relying on the Albanese government’s workplace reforms, designed to stop employers using labour hire firms to pay workers less than direct employees doing largely the same work.
The hearings are expected to focus on how much the job functions and systems overlap between the ATO and its three outsource call centres, run by Probe, the US-listed Concentrix Services and the British multinational Serco.
If the application is successful, the call centres would be forced to pay the same rates as ATO staff covered by a public sector agreement, potentially making the outsource model unviable for the tax office and other government agencies.
The hearings are being held in Victoria and are expected to conclude next week.
Taxpayers to bankroll feasibility study into first Australian oil refinery in 60 years
Taxpayers will bankroll an early stage feasibility study into a new oil refinery in Western Australia under the Albanese government’s long-term strategy to shield the country from future international oil shocks.
The commonwealth and the WA government will spend $4m to scope out what would be the first large-scale petrol refinery to be built in Australia since the 1960s.
The project itself would be constructed and funded by Perdaman, the large multinational behind a $4.5bn fertiliser plant in the Pilbara.
The international oil shock caused by the Iran war exposed how reliant Australia is on overseas suppliers for petrol and diesel, with roughly 90% of fuel products shipped into the country.
There are just two local refineries in operation: Ampol’s Lytton refinery in Brisbane and Viva Energy’s facility in Geelong.
The federal government’s $10.7bn fuel security package, announced in May, included $10m to support feasibility studies into potential projects.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and WA premier, Roger Cook, will announce funding for the scoping study after visiting Perdaman’s urea plant.
In a statement, Albanese said:
The longer war in the Middle East goes on the greater the impact on Australia will be, and my Government will continue to do everything we can to shield Australia from the worst effects – and set us up for the future.
The early stage support for a new oil refinery will likely face pushback from environmentalists, who have criticised the federal government for doubling down on petrol and diesel rather than using the oil shock to reduce Australia’s reliance on fossil fuels.
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PM salutes 'giants of the labour movement'
In a statement, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, described Sally McManus and Michele O’Neil as personal friends and “giants of the labour movement”.
He said:
Working families are in a stronger financial position today than they would otherwise be because of the tireless advocacy and strong leadership of Sally McManus and Michele O’Neil.
Sally and Michele secured incredible successes for working people in their eight years together leading Australia’s union movement – the first all-female leadership team in the Australian Council of Trade Unions’ 99-year history.
It is fitting that Sally and Michele announce they’re stepping down from their respective positions at a time when there have been significant wage increases in critical and long-undervalued sectors, the gender pay gap is at a record low and union membership is growing for the first time in decades.
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ACTU leaders step down after eight years at the top
The leadership of the trade union movement is set for a major shakeup after the secretary and president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions announced their surprise departures.
The ACTU’s secretary, Sally McManus, and its president, Michele O’Neil, revealed on Monday night they would be stepping down after eight years together.
The first all-female leadership team in the ACTU’s 99-year history, the influential pair have played a major role in shaping the Albanese government’s workplace agenda.
They successfully campaigned for the right to disconnect law, same job, same pay protections, wage theft criminalisation and ensuring minimum pay, insurance and safety standards for gig economy workers.
The ACTU recently began targeting Pauline Hanson in a clear sign the union movement now considers One Nation – rather than the Coalition – the biggest political threat to Labor and economic risk for working people.
McManus will depart next month while O’Neil will help the new secretary settle in before leaving before the end of the year.
In a farewell video posted to social media on Monday night, the pair said it was time for renewal.
McManus said:
Union membership is growing and workers have over 47 new workplace rights. But, of course, there are still big challenges with cost-of-living pressures, AI and billionaires who have too much wealth and power.
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Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog.
Anthony Albanese has described Sally McManus and Michele O’Neil as “giants of the labour movement” after the surprise announcement that they will stepping down from their roles as secretary and president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions after eight years. More coming.
Hearings designed to test the Australian Taxation Office’s widespread use of private call centres starts today amid claims outsource workers are paid up to 40% less than their public service counterparts on the same phone lines. More details shortly.
And the Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, faces a leadership challenge this morning – we’ll be bringing you updates on that as things unfold.
I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Nick Visser with the main action.
