Category: Australian News

Today’s parliamentary hearing into the ethics and professional accountability of KPMG leadership has reinforced the case for major renovation of the Big 4’s governance, regulation, surveillance and penalties. 

It has revealed further evidence of KPMG’s toxic culture of cover-ups, NDAs and large payments for whistleblowers’ silence, and weak accountability for wrongdoing.

KPMG is accused of sharing confidential client information to rig audit tender bids, using AI to cheat on internal exams, breaching audit independence, and mistreating and paying off whistleblowers who raise concerns. 

The Greens say KPMG leaders are gold class exemplars of greed trumping ethics at every turn. They have taken advantage of yawning regulatory gaps and revealed broken ‘self-government’ amongst the Big 4.

Greens finance and public service spokesperson Senator Barbara Pocock:

“The Parliament heard evidence today of a repetitive pattern of unethical behaviour by KPMG leadership. They have misled the parliament and the public, and drip fed us self-congratulatory whitewash and misinformation. 

“At the same time, they take taxpayers for mugs and milk us for hundreds of millions of dollars in government contracts.

“KPMG are hiding behind inadequate investigations from their legal friends. Some in the leadership appear to be so far down the rabbit hole of bad behavior and poor culture that too often they fail to understand where they went wrong. 

“KPMG leaders have played by their own rules with zero accountability. They have bullied whistleblowers, mistreated confidential information and failed basic tests of transparency and good governance. They buy political pull through donations and make sure they are at every political table of influence.

“Through scandal after scandal, KPMG have shown Australians their lack of integrity, coverups, dishonesty and pursuit of revenue at any cost. They have shown us they are not worthy of taxpayer dollars. 

“Australians are outraged. How many more scandals need to happen before Labor acts.

“The Big 4’s governance is a farce. They have lost their social licence and they cannot be trusted. Self regulation has failed. It is time for root and branch structural reform.

“Labor needs to put an end to their special treatment on board rules and regulation, tax, public reporting, professional liability and whistleblower protections. 

“The Government must review all contracts with KPMG and ban them from government work. They must break up and regulate the Big 4, and increase penalties for dishonest behaviour and ethical failures.”

Hearing livestream link and program

The last Coalition government ensured that GST distribution encouraged States to develop their economies and natural resources. We stand by that approach. We want States to grow the economy first, not start by reaching for the begging bowl. 

Western Australia isn’t in a strong fiscal position by luck. It dug, drilled and backed its own industry to drive the prosperity of the state. That’s the model every state should follow, not a target for punishment.

The Prime Minister should be encouraging every state to grow its own economy, not looking for ways to claw back what Western Australia has earned.

In 2024, Anthony Albanese stood in Perth and signed “NO CHANGE TO WA GST” on a journalist’s arm and said there were no circumstances under which he’d ever change Western Australia’s GST deal.

We know he betrayed the Australian people 50 times over not to introduce new taxes, so West Australians are now looking to see if he has had a “change of policy” on the GST too. 

The Prime Minister should immediately recommit to his 2024 promise, if not it will be confirmed he is once again playing his slippery and sneaky games. 

The Coalition will continue to follow the Productivity Commission’s work until the final report is released early next year.

The Minns Labor Government is backing Aboriginal communities to lead local solutions to prevent domestic, family and sexual violence, with up to $625,000 available for Aboriginal-led initiatives that harness the power of sport and active recreation to drive positive change.

The Aboriginal Sport for Respect Grant Program will support culturally grounded, community-led programs that use sport to address the drivers of domestic, family and sexual violence (DFSV), promote respectful relationships and help create safer communities.

Sport plays a powerful role in communities across New South Wales, bringing people together, building strong connections and providing trusted environments where important conversations can take place.

The Minns Labor Government is investing in Aboriginal-led organisations that understand their communities and are best placed to develop programs that are culturally appropriate, locally relevant and capable of creating lasting change.

The Program is open to Aboriginal-led organisations, as well as eligible sport, recreation and local government organisations that can demonstrate strong partnerships with Aboriginal communities.

Successful projects will use sport and active recreation to deliver primary prevention messaging and activities, helping challenge the attitudes and behaviours that can drive violence before it occurs.

The Program forms part of the NSW Government’s $38 million Primary Prevention Strategy 2024–2028 to prevent domestic, family and sexual violence.

Under the Strategy, up to $1 million over two years will be invested to establish, expand and strengthen Aboriginal-led primary prevention initiatives through sport and active recreation, with a particular focus on grassroots communities.

Grants of between $3,000 and $25,000 are available to support projects ranging from local grassroots initiatives through to established programs seeking to expand their reach and impact.

Organisations can submit multiple applications, with total funding capped at $25,000 per organisation.

The Office of Sport has also partnered with Aboriginal-owned cultural awareness agency YarnnUp to provide culturally safe support to organisations throughout the application process.

The Minns Labor Government is committed to working alongside Aboriginal communities and backing local organisations with the knowledge, relationships and experience to deliver meaningful change.

By investing in Aboriginal-led prevention and using the reach of community sport, the Government is helping build stronger, safer and more connected communities across New South Wales.

To find out more and apply, visit Aboriginal Sport for Respect Grant Program.

Minister for Sport Steve Kamper said: 

“Sport can play a key role in challenging norms and influencing behaviour and perceptions.

“The Aboriginal Sport for Respect Grant Program will support Aboriginal-led organisations and communities to address the drivers of domestic, family and sexual violence through sport programs.

“Importantly, the Program recognises the leadership, strengths, culture and knowledge within Aboriginal communities to deliver culturally meaningful and effective prevention programs.”

Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Treaty David Harris said:

“This program leverages the power of sport and cultural knowledge to partner with Aboriginal Community Controlled organisations to address the causes of domestic, family and sexual violence.

“We know the best way to close the gap is by Aboriginal people shaping and driving safer communities for Aboriginal people in partnership with Government and the Aboriginal Sport for Respect Grant Program is an excellent example of this.”

Minister for the Prevention of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Jodie Harrison said:  

“The Minns Labor Government is working to stop domestic, family and sexual violence before it starts.  

“Sport has incredible influence in our communities so the Aboriginal Sport for Respect Grant Program is an important initiative of our primary prevention strategy.  

“We want to see fresh ideas from grassroots organisations for Aboriginal-led prevention programs delivered where Aboriginal communities play sport and socialise, to change attitudes and behaviours that tolerate gendered violence, while also promoting healthy relationships and masculinity.  

“By empowering Aboriginal-led organisations to deliver community-based sport programs that promote safety, respect and inclusion, we can prevent violence and create a safer state for Aboriginal families.” 

Yesterday I decided to drop by the school/university protest against Pauline Hanson that was taking place outside the South Australian Parliament. I took the time to speak with some of the young people protesting. I largely feel sorry for the people who I met with. What was clear was that they were largely completely deluded and had been indoctrinated through an education system that we know for too long has been allowed to push a leftist agenda.

Though the protest was, on the face of it, about Pauline Hanson and One Nation, if you scratch beneath the surface, the true views and values of these protesters were fully on show. More often than not, the protesters hate the history and culture of the country in which they live. Despite benefiting from the advantages of being born an Australian, they’re very happy to denigrate its history, culture and values. They more often than not possess extreme, radical views when it comes to gender identity, and their desire is to live in a fragmented multicultural society. As is often the case, there was, of course, no acknowledgment of the glaring contradiction there is in simultaneously promoting highly progressive views on gender and sexual identity whilst also being sympathetic to radical Islam.

The thing is that we can’t just laugh all of this off. There is a serious point to what I encountered yesterday. Firstly, many of those at the protest in Adelaide were school-age children. They had bunked off school to attend the protest. There are increasing reports that very often teachers at these schools either turned a blind eye or actively encouraged children who should have been learning to attend a political protest. If there is evidence of teachers doing this, then it is of huge importance that robust action is taken against those individuals.

Secondly, the level of hatred and the threats of violence shown at some of these protests were chilling. I’ve seen multiple occasions of young Australians issuing death threats and threats of violence against Pauline and other leading members of One Nation. This is all deeply troubling.

It is important that we remember that the majority of those attending these protests were of school age. The vast majority of what they know and their worldview has come directly from their experience at school. Other than their home life, what they have experienced at school, from fellow pupils and their teachers, is all they know, other than what they see and experience in the online world. It has long been my view that the education system as a whole is indoctrinating many of our young people into a leftist worldview. If ever we needed evidence of this, it was all on show yesterday.

Following on from these protests, it is important that any leads suggesting that certain teachers and schools encouraged these protests are actively investigated and that, if evidence is provided, action is taken. One Nation is the only Party committed to eradicating leftist political indoctrination from our education system. As it stands, we have large numbers of young people leaving our education system hating Australia, its values and its culture. Our aim should be the opposite. We should aspire to have generations coming out of our education system proud of Australia and what it represents.

So yes, there was a slightly amusing side to some of what I saw yesterday. But there was a very serious side as well. We should all care about how the minds of our young people are being shaped and often poisoned by our leftist educational establishment.

More than 500,000 Cheaper Home Batteries have now been installed under the Albanese Labor Government’s program – helping households and businesses store cheap solar, cut power bills and take pressure off the grid.

Australia already has the highest uptake of rooftop solar in the world, with more than one in three Australian households having solar on their roof.

The Cheaper Home Batteries Program is helping households get more out of that investment, by making it cheaper to install a battery and use more of the energy they generate at home. 

More than three quarters of batteries installed under the program have been in outer suburban and regional communities.

The milestone was marked today at a local solar and battery installer in Castle Hill – a suburb in the postcode with the highest number of Cheaper Home Batteries installed anywhere in the country – underlining that this is suburban families, regional households, local tradies and small businesses taking up the program. 

Some of today’s strongest battery electorates were nowhere near the top of the rankings before the policy began, particularly in Western Sydney. Mitchell, for example, ranked 108th nationally in 2024. It is now the third-highest electorate in the country for battery uptake.
  
The Australian Energy Market Operator’s most recent quarterly report found that home batteries are reshaping demand in our grids, with batteries supplying household use after sunset, reducing the evening peak and putting downward pressure on bills for everyone, whether they have solar and a battery or not. 

The milestone also reflects the work of thousands of local installers, small businesses and energy workers across the country delivering cleaner, cheaper power in suburbs and the regions.

The number of accredited battery installers in the country has doubled to 8,846 since the program commenced.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese

“Australian households have led the world on rooftop solar, and now they are leading the world on home batteries too.

“This is about helping families store the cheap solar power they generate during the day and use it when they need it most.

“Half a million cheaper home batteries mean more households permanently cutting their bills, taking pressure off the grid and helping build Australia’s clean energy future.”

Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen

“This is a huge milestone for Australian households, Australian tradies and Australian small businesses.

“Cheaper Home Batteries is doing exactly what we said it would do: helping households cut bills, store cheap solar and take control of their energy use.

“Every battery installed means another household getting more value from their rooftop solar, and another job for the local installers and small businesses delivering this rollout across the country.”

The Greens join today with millions of Australians celebrating David McBride’s release from prison after he today became eligible for parole.

Greens Senator and Justice Spokesperson David Shoebridge said: 

“My friend David McBride has paid a terrible price for paying the truth. It’s a price no whistleblower should ever be made to pay again. 

“The Albanese Government has had the power to free David since they got elected and refused to act. 

“Labor’s Attorney General consented to the ongoing prosecution of David McBride and government agencies pressed for a serious jail sentence for him. 

“Labor, just like the Coalition before them, wanted David McBride silenced and together they had him locked up for more than two years.  

“David walks out of prison today and he holds his head high, having spoken the truth and faced the full force of the state.

“While David is free, the laws that put him in jail are still standing. 

“The Australian Greens are committed to ensuring no more whistleblowers are prosecuted for the crime of telling the truth. 

“What happened to David is a case study in why we need real whistleblower protections and how urgent these are. 

“Until the laws are fixed, the persecution of David McBride will stand as a warning to every public servant who might one day consider speaking up. 

“When I have visited him in prison during his more than 2 years locked up, David’s commitment to truth has been unwavering and I know he took immense comfort in the support he has in the community at large.

Thank you David, you went to jail so we could all know the truth.”   

The Australian Greens are demanding that Australians get a stake in the country’s largest aluminium smelter after the Labor federal and state governments today committed billions of public dollars to keep Tomago afloat. 

A public stake would ensure Australians get to share in the wealth from our own resources and give workers the security they deserve, so that their futures aren’t tied to the whims of a multinational corporation. 

Greens spokesperson on Transition & Regional Development, Senator Penny Allman-Payne:

“We can’t trust private companies with our workers, our resources, or our climate. 

“Labor should be putting Australians first by protecting our workers and using every opportunity to turbocharge the renewable energy transition.

“The fate of workers should never be left in the hands of corporate boards. As soon as they’re able to, those corporations pull the rug out from underneath communities and run away with the profits.

“The big-business parties seem to love anything that privatises the profits from Australian resources. They endlessly funnel public funds into propping up the dying projects of multinational corporations, often the same corporations driving the climate crisis, with no return on investment for the everyday Australian.”

The Greens will move to close a loophole that is stopping Australians from accessing voluntary assisted dying through telehealth by introducing the Equal Access to Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill today.

At last month’s ALP National Conference, Labor committed to having a conscience vote on removing the barriers in federal law to accessing end of life care via telehealth for all Labor MPs and Senators.

Greens communications spokesperson and Senator for SA, Sarah Hanson-Young:

“Australians should have a right to speak with their doctor via the phone when they need and want to.

“This change is about offering compassion and dignity to Australians managing their end of life care. It’s a simple reform that will remove an outdated and harmful barrier to ensure terminally-ill Australians can equally access medically supported voluntary assisted dying.

“It’s simple: using your phone to speak to your doctor, to seek medical advice and vital healthcare should be legal and available to everyone, equally.

“As someone who grew up in a regional area, I know all too well how difficult it is to get in to see a regular doctor let alone access specialist care. Giving people the opportunity to use telehealth to help inform and provide advice and care when people need it the most is the right thing to do.

“This is an issue crippling many families in regional Australia, leaving them without even the right to discuss what type of medical care they wish to choose.

“Australia has the strictest safeguards around using Voluntary Assisted Dying, and these safeguards will continue whether a patient sees the doctor in person or via Telehealth. The issue here is a number of Australians are being left to suffer in pain unnecessarily because the law is out-of-date and needs a simple but important fix.

“No Australian should be denied compassionate end-of-life healthcare because of where they live.

“I urge my parliamentary colleagues across the parliament to avoid any further delay and the needless suffering that would continue if this bill is not passed.

“The sooner we pass this bill and make it law – the sooner we can give Australians who are suffering and in pain the option to make their own choice about their end-of-life care. Dying with dignity and having access to appropriate and safe healthcare should not be dependent on what postcode you live in.

“It is inhumane for this parliament to stand between a patient and their doctor.”

Average Weekly Earnings data released today confirms that Australians are going backwards, despite Labor’s desperate attempt to claim otherwise.

While the headline figure shows average weekly earnings increased by 2.4 per cent over the year, once you account for inflation, Australians have gone backwards.

In real terms, the average Australian worker is around $1,200 a year worse off than they were just 12 months ago.

That is the reality Australians are living with: wages going up on paper, while the cost of living rises faster.

And Labor’s claims are even harder to swallow when you look at where wage growth is actually occurring.

Average weekly earnings in the public sector grew by 4.1 per cent over the past year – more than twice the 2.0 per cent growth recorded in the private sector.

So much for Labor’s claims that its policies are delivering stronger wages across the economy.

Labor can celebrate higher pay packets all it likes, but when inflation is running ahead of wages, those pay rises are simply being eaten away by the rising cost of living.

The fact is, Australians are poorer under the Albanese Government.

After more than four years of Labor, Australians are still facing cost of living pressures and their living standards are going backwards.

The Prime Minister promised Australians would be better off under Labor. It’s another broken promise. 

Only the Coalition has a plan to fix the economy and restore living standards to help Australians get ahead.

On behalf of the Government and the people of Australia, I extend my sincere condolences on the passing of former Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, H. E. Mr Zhu Rongji.

Mr Zhu oversaw milestone achievements in the development of China’s modern market economy, including accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001, which unlocked prosperity for so many Chinese people.

During his term as Premier and his career as a senior official, Australia and China saw an expansion of our strong and complementary economic partnership. Mr Zhu worked together with Australian counterparts, including during his visit to Australia in 1992, to help anchor economic growth within a more secure and stable region.

Our thoughts are with Mr Zhu’s family and the people of China.