Asic launches investigation into KPMG
Jonathan Barrett
The corporate regulator has launched a formal investigation into KPMG amid whistleblower claims the firm improperly used confidential information from a client to win other work.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission chair, Sarah Court, told Senate estimates today that the regulator was “trying to get to the bottom of the evidence”.
Court said: “We’ve now commenced a formal investigation this week in relation to KPMG and a number of the registered company auditors that sit within it.”
“I can assure you that Asic has been engaging proactively with KPMG and that level of engagement has intensified.”
KPMG’s Australian chief, Andrew Yates, stepped down last week after taking responsibility for the consultancy firm’s failure to properly respond to whistleblower allegations around the misuse of client information.
It is alleged KPMG improperly used confidential information from its client Lendlease to win audit work with other firms.
The allegations were first revealed by Senator Deborah O’Neill under parliamentary privilege in a speech to the Senate in March.
Asic, and many other agencies and state and federal government departments, use KPMG services.
KPMG has been contacted for comment.
Josh Butler
Albanese paints budget as an antidote to One Nation ‘grievance politics’
Prime minister Anthony Albanese says Australians may keep shifting to populist alternatives like One Nation if they feel left out of the economy, arguing the major structural tax changes in the federal budget were needed to rebalance the scales.
Albanese appeared at a Sky News forum in Sydney today, giving a speech and participating in a Q&A. Asked about the One Nation threat, with the right-wing party beating Labor in some opinion polls, he said he was alive to their rise.
If government stands still, the world will go past,
What we’re concerned about is if people think the economy isn’t working for them and they’re working their guts out and they’re not getting opportunity, I tell you what, they will turn to more simplistic, grievance-based politics, and that is the context in which my government’s saying, ‘No, no, we’re going to deliver real change for the better’.
Albanese said he wouldn’t criticise people thinking about voting for One Nation, acknowledging “frustration” for many people.
I’m critical of the leaders of that political movement (One Nation), but I’m never critical of voters. Voters are sending a message… that they don’t think that the economy is working for them, and they don’t want to work for the economy.
Teen may become first child in Victoria to face trial on terror charge
A teen who allegedly attempted to hijack a plane may become the first child in Victoria to face trial accused of planning a terrorism plot after his matter was uplifted to a higher court, AAP reports.
He was aged 17 when he allegedly carried weapons, including a shotgun, knives and a fake bomb, onto a Jetstar flight bound for Sydney in March 2025.
As the aircraft was in its final stages of boarding at Melbourne’s Avalon airport, with 173 passengers onboard and six crew members, he walked up the plane’s front stairs, a children’s court was told on Friday.
The teen, who cannot be named for legal reasons, allegedly told the crew he had a bomb and demanded access to the cockpit before it is claimed he began to assemble a shotgun, but was restrained before he could get any further.
Defence lawyers argued the teen’s case should remain in the children’s court as sentencing there would be adequate because of his mental health conditions, youth and lack of priors.
However, prosecutors claimed exceptional circumstances existed which warranted the matter to be uplifted to the county or supreme court, which a magistrate agreed with on Friday.
He is the first child to have terrorism offences uplifted to a higher Victorian court, and the first accused of preparing for and possessing items connected to planned terrorism, the magistrate said.
The teen, now aged 19, remains in custody and will return to a children’s court for a committal mention on June 19.
Graham Readfearn
‘That’s a bad combination’: why Australia may be in for a slushy snow season
There was optimism across Australian alpine resorts this week as their social media channels filled with footage of snow flurries that arrived just in time for the opening of the ski season this weekend.
“We couldn’t be more excited,” said the Instagram account of Perisher, the southern hemisphere’s biggest ski resort, in Kosciuszko national park in New South Wales, as hands swept the fresh snow from outdoor tables.
While the spectacular wintry scenes will bring enthusiasm, the outlook for the rest of the winter – and the coming decades – is not quite so positive.
With an El Niño looking likely to form in the coming weeks, the odds are stacked in favour of drier and warmer conditions though winter and spring.
Read more:
Asic launches investigation into KPMG
Jonathan Barrett
The corporate regulator has launched a formal investigation into KPMG amid whistleblower claims the firm improperly used confidential information from a client to win other work.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission chair, Sarah Court, told Senate estimates today that the regulator was “trying to get to the bottom of the evidence”.
Court said: “We’ve now commenced a formal investigation this week in relation to KPMG and a number of the registered company auditors that sit within it.”
“I can assure you that Asic has been engaging proactively with KPMG and that level of engagement has intensified.”
KPMG’s Australian chief, Andrew Yates, stepped down last week after taking responsibility for the consultancy firm’s failure to properly respond to whistleblower allegations around the misuse of client information.
It is alleged KPMG improperly used confidential information from its client Lendlease to win audit work with other firms.
The allegations were first revealed by Senator Deborah O’Neill under parliamentary privilege in a speech to the Senate in March.
Asic, and many other agencies and state and federal government departments, use KPMG services.
KPMG has been contacted for comment.
Teen showed no radicalisation before police HQ terror attack, coroner finds
A teenager showed no signs of radicalisation before carrying out a religiously motivated killing outside police headquarters, a coroner has found.
NSW Police civilian employee Curtis Cheng was gunned down in October 2015 while leaving work by 15-year-old Farhad Khalil Mohammad Jabar in an act of religious extremism.
Farhad was then killed by a special constable after he fired more shots at the police headquarters.
Despite his association with persons of interest to terror investigators in the months leading up to the shooting, there was no evidence Farhad held violent extremist beliefs before the attack, deputy state coroner Derek Lee found on Friday.
Police found material on the Year 10 student’s phone linked to Islamic State but Farhad had only accessed much of the material in the month leading up to the shooting, Lee said.
He noted evidence from teachers and classmates, who said Farhad was a very religious and hard-working boy at school but did not attempt to impose his beliefs on others.
The coroner said:
He regularly attended Parramatta mosque … and had considerable knowledge of the Qur’an.
He did not involve himself in any conflicts.”
-Australian Associated Press
Listen: The case for Aukus, with defence industry minister Pat Conroy
The Albanese government’s announcement that Australia will now receive three used US Virginia-class submarines, rather than two used and one new, has put the spotlight back on the Aukus commitment.
One of the strongest advocates for the $368bn agreement is defence industry minister Pat Conroy and he hits back at its critics – including the Labor MP Ed Husic.
Speaking with political editor Tom McIlroy, the minister for Pacific island affairs also discusses this week’s visit by new Solomon Islands prime minister Matthew Wale and responds to speculation that Tony Abbott could run as the Liberal candidate in Conroy’s seat of Shortland at the next election.
Listen to the latest episode of our Australian Politics podcast for more:
Stark warning on future of Australian children’s TV
Australia’s once-thriving children’s television industry is facing collapse despite a legacy of producing Hollywood stars and shaping generations of young people.
RMIT University research published on Friday reveals the industry remains under pressure due to a significant drop in investment paired with rising production costs.
The sector has helped shape culture for decades through programs such as H2O: Just Add Water, Round the Twist, Blinky Bill, and more recently Bluey, launched in 2018.
Lead author Jessica Balanzategui believes screen policy settings are failing to support the local stories young audiences need.
Commercial broadcasters have retreated, streamers are not commissioning new children’s programs, and public institutions are being left to carry an increasingly heavy load.
The report reveals there has been a 97% drop in commercial children’s television investment since a 2020 decision to remove commercial quotas.
Production costs are also leading to significant strain, with the average cost of producing live-action children’s drama tripling over five years to $2.82m an hour, while the volume of new first-release programming has fallen.
– Australian Associated Press
With that, I will pass you into the safe hands of Ima Caldwell.
NSW to spend $192.5m over three years to protect and restore state’s ecosystems
Lisa Cox
The New South Wales government will increase its annual funding for the protection and restoration of the state’s imperilled ecosystems by $50m a year – a fourfold increase and a rare win for an environment budget.
The government will spend $195.2m – $65m a year – over three years on the state’s Saving our Species program. Funding for the program had been due to expire this year and was previously set at $15m per year. The government says the boost will fund ecosystem-wide actions to help not just individual species but also the habitats and natural systems they depend on.
The Minns government has committed a further $26m for delivery of its nature strategy, which will set targets for nature recovery across NSW.
Environment minister Penny Sharpe said:
There’s no point protecting a regent honeyeater unless you’re also protecting the woodland it lives in, and that’s exactly what our plan does. This investment marks a new era for conservation in NSW. For the first time, we are taking a holistic approach by protecting entire ecosystems, not just individual species.
Greens environment spokesperson, Sue Higginson, said the increase was “a very welcomed announcement, and direct investment in frontline services and boots on the ground at a landscape scale is a move that has been called on for decades”.
She said more ambition was still needed to address the state’s extinction crisis, including work to “fix the failed biodiversity offsets system, fix our land clearing laws, end native forest logging, and expand our national park system to 30% of land and water by 2030”.
Andrew Messenger
Queensland’s crime and corruption commission to investigate police financial mismanagement allegations
A damning report on Queensland police finances has been referred to the state crime and corruption commission by the police commissioner. The inquiry was tabled in parliament yesterday.
Police minister Dan Purdie said on Thursday that it revealed “shocking instances of financial mismanagement and governance failures in the Queensland Police Service” under the former Labor government:
The executive level team (of the Queensland police) at that time were focused on other things and not on supporting the front line … The report is a bombshell review, and it is damning, and it exposed the extent of the former Labor government’s financial maladministration of the Queensland Police Service.
With a series of systemic issues identified, which would have led to an estimated $400m deficit if left unchecked by the end of this financial year, which has led to the referrals to the crime and corruption commission.
The report found that as many as 600 unsworn civilian positions had been created without a budget, by using unallocated funding for sworn officers, and that its board of management was likely not aware they existed. It recommends substantial funding cuts and a reallocation of about 40% of its sworn “non-operational” positions to the frontline in the next 18 months, representing about 280 officers.
“Matters raised in the review have the potential to impact public confidence and trust in our administration practices, and as such, aspects of the review have now been referred to the crime and corruption commission,” commissioner Brett Pointing said on Thursday.
Senior police refused to give details of the referral on the basis that doing so might prejudice a potential investigation. Pointing said he made the CCC referral himself.
New South Wales bans Nazi chants and slogans
Laws providing police and courts additional powers to crack down on extremism, including banning Nazi chants or slogans, have passed parliament in New South Wales (NSW).
The bill amends the Crimes Act to ban conduct which invokes imagery or characteristics associated with nazism, with proponents up for a year’s imprisonment or $11,000 fine.
Committing the offence near a synagogue, Jewish school or the Sydney Jewish Museum carries a maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment or a $22,000 fine. The state will also allow police to require a person they believe is committing any offence at a public assembly to remove their face covering.
Attorney general Michael Daley said:
These reforms give our law enforcement and courts greater powers to crack down on extremists who promote abhorrent Nazi chants and slogans.
These views are unacceptable and have no place in NSW and we are holding those who espouse them to account.
NDIA spent $170m in three years on legal fees fighting participants
Cait Kelly
The government has spent $66m this financial year to fight NDIS participants appealing decisions about their packages, up from $60m the previous year and $44m the year before that, Senate estimates has heard.
Asked how many cases were submitted to the ART, NDIA deputy CEO Matthew Swainson said:
So, in the 25-26 year to date, that’s to the end of March, we had 6,998 matters received. In the 24-25 financial year, we had 7,137. In 23-24, we have 4,044 new cases received.
We resolved 1,979 applications in the last quarter. 96.9% of those were resolved prior to a hearing.
There will be a more detailed breakdown of the legal costs after lunch.
Nick Visser
Alrighty, Caitlin Cassidy is going to take the blog over for an hour, then it’ll be Ima Caldwell with the goods.
More than 100,000 cockroaches worth $200,000 seized from NSW breeder in record-breaking bust
I feel terrible sharing this story, but my colleague Lisa Cox has a doozy:
More than 100,000 live, exotic cockroaches have been seized from a commercial breeder in New South Wales in a record-breaking bust linked to the pet trade.
Biosecurity officials seized the animals, which have a commercial value of up to $200,000, from a commercial breeder in Bathurst in the state’s central west this week.
The captured cockroaches included dubia cockroaches and Madagascar hissing cockroaches – one of the world’s largest cockroach species.
Read more, if you dare:
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