What we learned, Friday 14 August
That’s another day of our live coverage done!
Before we go, let’s recap the day’s top headlines:
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KPMG has contacted the man who blew the whistle on its audit leaks scandal to apologise ahead of an inquiry into its failures today.
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Anthony Albanese and the US president, Donald Trump, spoke overnight, with the prime minister saying they had a “productive” and “substantial” call about a “number of global and regional issues”.
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Parents of children who took their own lives and who campaigned for the under 16s social media ban prior to its introduction have rejected claims the ban is not working or has failed, as they call for the government to increase the fines for non-compliance beyond the planned $99m level.
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Qantas has refunded hundreds of customers aboard an A380 jet that was delayed for days after mechanical issues stranded passengers in Johannesburg, South Africa, for two nights.
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Johnny Young, the singer-songwriter and producer who created and hosted the popular variety show Young Talent Time, has died aged 79.
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The organisation that manages Australian skies has defended its decision not to immediately report a fresh safety incident at Sydney airport when a Virgin plane aborted its takeoff.
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Victoria’s recently deposed Labor premier, Jacinta Allan, has announced she will leave politics at the next election.
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The shadow housing minister, Andrew Bragg, did not mean to suggest he supported substandard houses being built as part of his proposal to reduce nearly 2,000 pages of building standard requirements to 80 pages.
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Former CFMEU boss John Setka has been charged by Victorian police after an investigation into allegedly threatening and harassing emails sent to union administrators.
Thanks for joining us, have a lovely weekend!
Updated
KPMG deputy chief lawyer’s voice breaks as he claims colleagues ‘misleading if not deceptive’
KPMG’s top lawyer’s deputy has delivered emotional evidence to a parliamentary committee, saying his colleagues misled him when he tried to investigate leak allegations.
James McLelland, the firm’s deputy counsel, said he carried out an initial investigation on the instruction of the former chief executive Andrew Yates in late December 2024 and updated in June 2025.
The inquiry has heard excerpts from his investigation today. McLelland said:
I’m of the view that the work that I undertook was fundamentally undermined by the answers that were given, which were misleading if not directly deceptive, to the questions that I asked; and undermined by limitations in scope …
I’ve never had an opportunity to meet the whistleblower. I want to take the opportunity to say I am sorry. I am sorry I have been part of this.
His voice broke and he appeared to grow emotional as he spoke. The committee chair, Deb O’Neill, encouraged him to have a glass of water. She said:
There is a clarion sound of truth in what you’ve put on the record there.
McLelland described his reaction to reading the report written from his investigation for the first time yesterday:
I was angry, frustrated and hugely disappointed that that had occurred … The entire engagement and sequence of events for the firm would have been fundamentally different if those individuals, to my mind, had answered those questions honestly.
Partners at law firm Allens earlier today gave evidence that their own investigation found evidence contradicting the testimony of KPMG partners Eileen Hoggett, Paul Rogers and Kim Lawry.
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Bet365 apologises to senate after children wear gambling logos in charity race
Global gambling giant Bet365 has apologised to the senate after children were dressed in its branded clothing during a fundraising event at a local racecourse.
In April, the children were invited to take part in a running relay at Terang Racing Club. The winning team would receive $1000 from Bet365, which would be donated to a local sports club.
Footage of the event was broadcast on the Racing.com website. The footage shows children wearing racing bibs and caps with the Bet365 logo while taking part in the race.
At one point in the broadcast, the host is heard saying: “I look over (at one team) and the average age I reckon is about 13 or 14. What’s going on there?”
One parent at the racecourse objected to children being draped in clothing from the gambling industry and complained to ACT independent senator, David Pocock, who raised the matter with Bet365 during a parliamentary inquiry.
In a response tabled to the inquiry, Bet365 said it had not been aware of its clothing being distributed to children and would never have allowed this to happen:
Bet365 is sorry that this happened and would like the community to know that it has never and will never authorise or cause minors to wear Bet365 clothing or marketing.
Bet365 takes its legal and regulatory responsibilities very seriously and was shocked and embarrassed to learn that its branding had been used in this way.
Bet365 said the decision to dress the children in its clothes was taken by volunteers from the Terang Racing Club. The club has been contacted for comment.
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Search for missing NSW 18-year-old bushwalker enters second day
The search for a missing 18-year-old woman in Nattai national park in the Southern Highlands has entered its second day.
Lily Hooper was last seen leaving a home on Burragorang Road in Oakdale at about 8am on Wednesday morning to go hiking.
Her family has been unable to locate or contact her since and holds “serious concerns for her welfare”.
Her car was found near the Bonnum Pic Walking Trail in the national park.
Emergency services, including police, ambulance and Fire and Rescue NSW, continue to conduct air and land searches.
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Teachers union calls for greater scrutiny of Catholic schools amid Icac allegations
The union for independent schools teachers in NSW has called for greater scrutiny by the state government of independent Catholic schools, amid Icac allegations public funding may have been used for factional Liberal party work.
Dallas McInerney, the CEO of Catholic Schools NSW, the governing body for more than 600 schools in the state, has finished giving evidence to Icac’s inquiry into allegations of corruption in the NSW Liberal party. He is expected to return on Wednesday.
During the inquiry, the commission has heard from members of conservative Christian Liberal group the Reformers employed by Catholic Schools NSW that they spent working hours on factional efforts. McInerney repeatedly denied payments totalling $265,900 by Catholic Schools NSW to two registered lobbying companies controlled by the Reformers were really to fund branch stacking efforts.
About 80% of the funding distributed by Catholic Schools NSW comes from the state and federal governments, or about $3.8bn in 2024. In a statement today, the NSW/ACT Independent Education Union (IEU) said it was “deeply concerned by … [allegations] that public funding for Catholic schools may have been wrongfully spent on Liberal party matters”. Branch secretary Carol Matthews said:
Responsible school expenditure includes professional learning for school staff, development of curriculum materials, support for students with disabilities, and adequate pay and working conditions for staff who deliver quality education … However, similar scrutiny is not applied to organisations such as Catholic Schools NSW that receive funding on behalf of Catholic diocesan schools.
Regardless of the findings of Icac in this matter, there should be greater scrutiny of bodies such as Catholic Schools NSW, which receive public funding on behalf of non-government schools.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has ruled out an independent audit of the schools governing body while Icac’s inquiry is under way. McInerney stood aside from his role as CEO before hearings began, “to allow the work of Catholic Schools NSW to continue its important mission”. Catholic Schools NSW has declined to comment on issues arising from the inquiry before it concludes.
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Former CFMEU boss John Setka charged for alleged threats to union administrators
Former CFMEU boss John Setka has been charged by Victorian police after an investigation into allegedly threatening and harassing emails sent to union administrators.
Police said in a statement that a 61-year-old man from Footscray was arrested on Friday morning. Police said:
He has since been charged with using a telecom communications device to menace, using a telecom communications device to offend and two charges of commit indictable offence while on bail.
The man will appear at Melbourne magistrates court later today.Police will allege harassing and offensive comments were made online on Monday (10 August).
Setka was arrested in November last year and charged with seven counts of using a telecommunications device to menace, harass, and offend.
He was further charged on 25 February with using a carriage service to harass and committing an indictable offence while on bail.
Police will allege additional threats were made and an IVO was served on the man in July.
Setka was charged by officers from taskforce Hawk, which targets criminal behaviour linked to the construction industry.
He resigned as CFMEU secretary in July 2024.
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That’s all from me. Achol Arok will take it from here and round out the week. Take care.
Liberals declare undying support for WA GST deal
Michaelia Cash, the Liberal senator for Western Australia, says “over our dead bodies will they take a cent” from her home state, after a Productivity Commission report slammed the Morrison-era deal that has funnelled tens of billions of extra taxpayer dollars to WA.
The prime minister and treasurer have already flagged they have no intention of altering the vote-winning arrangements, which the PC recommended should be reversed.
But Cash, in a statement alongside fellow West Australian Andrew Hastie, MP, said “Anthony Albanese has proved time and again that his word can’t be trusted so anything he says in regard to WA’s GST share should be taken with a grain of salt”.
He lied to Australians about capital gains tax and negative gearing and explained it away as changing his position. There’s no doubt he will change his position on WA’s GST as well.
Hastie said:
Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers have repeatedly promised Western Australians they would protect this deal. We will hold them to that promise between now and the final report in December.
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Chalmers says WA must get its ‘fair share’ of GST
Jim Chalmers says Western Australia “must always get its fair share” of the $100bn GST pool, after the Productivity Commission in an interim report slammed the 2018 Morrison-era deal with WA as a multi-billion-dollar mistake that has only benefited the country’s richest state.
The treasurer made the comments in a statement after a meeting with his state and territory counterparts, where the government committed $460m as an incentive for states to streamline interstate rules around heavy trucking and health care providers such as nurses.
Danielle Wood, the PC’s chair, briefed the treasurers’ meeting on its GST interim report, which argues the WA deal should be unwound.
Chalmers said:
The Productivity Commission’s final report will be released later this year. Without pre-empting that report, the Albanese government has been clear that Western Australia must always get its fair share.
Roger Cook, WA’s premier, in a statement said “an attack on WA’s GST deal is an attack on all Western Australians”.
“Western Australia is the economic powerhouse of the nation. When WA does well, so does Australia,” Cook said, echoing comments from prime minister Anthony Albanese earlier today.
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Shadow housing minister ‘misheard’ question over whether low-income Australians should accept substandard houses
The shadow housing minister, Andrew Bragg, did not mean to suggest he supported substandard houses being built as part of his proposal to reduce nearly 2,000 pages of building standard requirements to 80 pages.
The NSW senator wrote on social media he had misheard the question, adding “houses built to this standard would be strong, safe and sound homes with all the basic amenity, such as insulation, plumbing, sewerage etc”.
I did not intend to agree that houses complying with the Basic Australian Standard would be ‘substandard’. They wouldn’t be.
Bragg’s address to the National Press Club this week proposed condensing the National Construction Code from nearly 2,000 pages to just 80 in an effort to get more “basic and safe” homes built by doing away with “optional extras” such as compulsory energy efficiency and accessibility measures.
Yesterday, Bragg was asked on ABC Radio National whether this meant low-income earners should accept substandard housing. He replied “yes, definitely”.
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Back to the Alan Jones trial
Alan Jones’s alleged victim became emotional in the witness box as he recounted how his boss allegedly kissed him in the lift for the first time after a drive from work to his harbourside apartment.
Complainant C told Downing Centre local court that when the lift doors from the parking garage under the apartment shut, “Alan came towards me and I thought he’s trying to kiss me here”.
“I remember dropping my head, making it inaccessible to kiss me and you’re trying to stop someone … I didn’t know what to do,” C told the indecent assault trial in Sydney.
Jones has pleaded not guilty to 20 indecent assault charges and two sexual touching charges in relation to six men.
Complainant C told the court today he dropped his head and moved it from side to side to avoid Jones’s kiss.
“It was a pretty tight space, he turned and faced me and advanced towards me,” C said.
C was crying and hung his head as he detailed how Jones allegedly kissed him for the first time.
“I didn’t want him to kiss me,” he told the court.
Judge Glenn Walsh asked C if he wanted a break but C said he was OK.
Jones walked out of the lift into his apartment after kissing C, the court heard.
The witness said Jones would often hold his face in a romantic way when he kissed him, but C never kissed the broadcaster back.
Asked if he consented to Jones kissing him on the lips and touching him on the face and the arm, he said no.
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KPMG paid $500,000 to second whistleblower as more step forward, inquiry hears
More whistleblowers have come forward to raise concerns about KPMG, a parliamentary inquiry has heard.
The inquiry started after a whistleblower flagged audit team leaks.
Senator Barbara Pocock has asked about another case of KPMG “silencing a whistleblower in an attempt to deal with allegations of wrongdoing by the firm,” this time in its tax division, as first reported by the Australian Financial Review.
KPMG’s former chair, Martin Sheppard, told the inquiry the claim was settled in late 2024, likely with a payment of about $500,000. He said there would have been a confidential deed of settlement, likely with non-disparagement provisions, but with no restrictions on further lawsuits or claims against other parties.
KPMG’s former chief executive, Andrew Yates, said the allegations mostly dated back 25 years. He said the whistleblower “was reluctant to provide information directly to the firm” so they shared information with law firm Allens instead. Yates said:
We did try and investigate but the passage of time had been so long that we were just unable to find information.
Pocock asked the firm to detail any other settlement agreements of this nature over the last decade, and explain why they were made and how much the firm paid out to settle issues.
Senator Deborah O’Neill later added:
There are many many more who are contacting us and they are talking about a repeat of the same behaviour.
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New home loans fall in June quarter: ABS
New lending to property investors fell sharply in the three months to June, according to ABS figures, which also showed a retreat in loans to first home buyers.
The major banks over recent days have all reported a slump in mortgage applications during the June quarter, in the wake of three RBA rate hikes and the budget’s investor tax changes that together have weighed on property prices.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics data show the number of total new home loans dropped by 5.4% over the three-month period.
Mish Tan, the ABS’s head of finance statistics, said “lending fell across all borrower types this quarter and returned to similar levels to this time last year”.
Investor loans led the decline, falling by 8.6% in the June quarter after a 4.7% drop in the previous period. The number of investor loans was 2.8% higher than a year earlier.
But in an early vindication of the government’s budget carve-out for investor lending to build new homes, loans in this category rose 4.4% in the quarter.
However, the number of loans to first home buyers dropped by 2.9% over the three-month period, to be flat over the year.
The number of new owner-occupier loans in total fell 3.3% in the June quarter and were 1.6% down on a year earlier – the first annual fall since September 2023, the ABS said.
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Where is Australia’s Count Binface?
We’re all waiting eagerly for the result in the UK’s Clacton byelection, where Reform leader Nigel Farage faces a record field of challengers (including an alien dressed as a bin and two Australians).
As the votes are counted veteran psephologist Antony Green found himself wondering: “why are there no Count Binfaces in Australia?”.
In a blog post this morning, he explains:
It sort of used to occur, but the law was tightened after several protest candidates representing the Abolish Child Support/Family Court Party adopted vvvveeerrrryyyy lloonngg names to contest the 1998 Federal election.
This included a candidate who appeared on the ballot paper as “Prime Minister John Piss The Family Court and Legal Aid” in John Howard’s seat of Bennelong.
Now candidates must use their names, or shortened versions, that appear on the electoral roll – much to the disappointment of “Brisbane performer Tamara Tonite [who was] complaining that her electoral enrolment change form had been rejected under her known-as drag name,” Green wrote.
One did slip through, though:
Ahead of the 2007 Federal election, some junior clerk doing enrolments allowed a Mr “Of The Above None” to register, allowing him to appear on the ballot paper in the seat of Gilmore at the 2007 election as “NONE, Of The Above”.
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Complainant tells court about first time Alan Jones allegedly touched him on the penis
Back in court, the judge has been told that the first time Alan Jones allegedly touched complainant C on the penis, C was driving the broadcaster from 2GB to his Circular Quay home and he felt “violated”.
“I’ve never had a man touch me on the penis before,” he said. “I am not gay.”
Sometimes Jones would touch it and sometimes he would rub it, C told the court, “moving up and down on the outside of my penis”.
After two weeks of reaching across and touching his leg in the car while he was driving, Jones progressed to regularly touching his penis, C said in court.
“It was not dissimilar to when he was touching my leg, it was any day he wasn’t on the phone or asleep, but if he was awake and alert it was more than likely he was going to touch me.”
The prosecutor Georgina Wright asked: “Why didn’t you say anything?”
C told the court: “I was scared. My boss’s hand was on my penis. If I told him stop, I don’t know what would have happened. You had to cop it.”
Complainant C became visibly emotional as he was giving his evidence. The trial continues.
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Sacked KPMG partner tells inquiry she doesn’t recall printing confidential info
The KPMG partner who was sacked for her role in the leaks scandal is asking the firm why it expelled her, saying she does not remember printing confidential documents.
Eileen Hoggett has been fined by KPMG, barred from practice by the accountants peak body and is being investigated by the regulator. She has told a parliamentary committee she did not recall printing or storing Lendlease’s confidential documents, a key allegation, adding:
I’m not here to defend or minimise the fact that the documents were printed and put in my locker but I am not aware that the documents were distributed widely or used to win new work.
Hoggett’s passive phrasing that they “were printed” drew further questioning, where she admitted she was the only person with access to her locker other than her personal assistant. She said her PA would only let others access her locker with her authority.
Senator Barbara Pocock read out a May 2023 email Hoggett sent to her personal assistant:
I think we confidentially allow him to look at the printed version in my locker when he’s back in Sydney. He needs to do it sensitively without letting too many people know.
Hoggett said the person mentioned is the director of the Lendlease document. KPMG has said this email was the reason Hoggett was expelled when it came to light in July.
Hoggett said the new chief executive, John Sams, rang her while she was out walking one morning, giving her “no opportunity to be heard or to have any discussion” about the expulsion. She said she didn’t understand why:
I did expect a different process ... that’s why I’m trying to ascertain from the firm the basis of my expulsion and to also understand my rights as a former partner.
Updated
Complainant tells court Alan Jones started ‘love bombing’ him with texts
In the Alan Jones trial, his former driver has told the court the broadcaster became very friendly and eventually started “love bombing him” with early-morning text messages such as: “Good morning darling … I hope you have a beautiful day, big hugs.”
“I would feel the need to respond in kind,” complainant C said.
C told the court that Jones started to talk about his penis in text messages, after C had said his own nickname should be “Donkey”.
“The messages were far more sexually explicit. It was like being bombarded, live love bombing,” he said.
C said one day Jones put his hand on his knee and squeezed it, and C gently tapped it away. It made him feel “uncomfortable”, the court heard.
Jones has denied 22 charges of indecent assault and sexual touching in relation to six alleged victims. The trial before judge Glenn Walsh continues.
Updated
Alan Jones trial continues
In the Alan Jones trial, complainant C has said that when he drove Jones to his Fitzroy Falls farm, the broadcaster was very friendly with him and he felt he was almost flirting with him.
C told the court:
I’ve got Alan joking with me, he’s interested in me [and] we were having a conversation more than we would [ordinarily].
He was far more friendly to me; he was far more engaging, very jokey.
When they arrived at the property and Jones showed him his bedroom, the broadcaster lingered for too long, making C feel uncomfortable, he told the court.
The complainant said:
He took me in, it was a queen-sized bed, it was a big room.
It was a very big guest room, and he sort of pulled the blanket down and said this is where you are mate.
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Sharp says ‘multiple lines of defence’ prevented airport incidents escalating
Sharp sought to assure the public that aviation and Sydney airport were still safe and there were multiple “lines of defence” that prevented the three incidents from escalating into catastrophe.
He said:
I can understand concern when you get a run of these incidents and we certainly take it seriously …
I will say in all three instances, there was a layer of defence that kicked in and prevented an escalation. Now, we find in a lot of our investigations, it’s very rarely one single point of failure. For it to progress through to an actual accident, multiple things need to go wrong. In all three cases here, a line of defence prevented an escalation.
That line of of defence was actually multiple lines of defence in that we had aircrews onboard the aircraft identifying the situation and taking action.
But we also had air traffic control – in the case of the two Qantas planes that came in close proximity, it was also recognised by air traffic control, albeit after when it perhaps should have been, but equally in this one, this latest one that was reported to us, air traffic control cancelled the take-off clearance around the same time as the pilot onboard realised there was a potential conflict.
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Sydney airport near-miss distance ‘quite substantial’, Airservices CEO says
Airservices Australia’s Rob Sharp said the threshold for reporting the incident wasn’t met, in their view, because the air traffic controllers immediately rescinded the clearance on the plane, the aircraft remained stationary, and a Qantas aircraft was approaching the runway but still 1.3km away and “the distance of 1.3km is quite substantial”.
Sharp said:
So, based on that criteria, it didn’t meet the mandatory reporting requirements from our perspective. However, we’re quite open to reviewing the data that surrounds it; if there’s improvements to be made, we will make them. But that was the review decision at the time.
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Airservices CEO on Sydney airport near-miss: ‘we don’t think the threshold for reporting was actually met’
Airservices Australia’s chief executive Rob Sharp has been speaking to media just now about the near-collision between two planes at Sydney airport last Sunday.
He said:
VA555 was approaching to take-off; a qualified, experienced controller advised clearance, but immediately cancelled that clearance.
The controllers were under what’s called an endorsement process, so they weren’t trainees, they were experienced and regular endorsement process.
So there was a qualified controller who was also supervising.
The aircraft remained at the beginning of the threshold for the runway and the commentary that’s been around on reporting in this instance – I just want to flag we do take our reporting requirements very seriously. We work closely with our regulators and very openly. In this particular case, however, we don’t think the threshold for reporting was actually met …
But we will work closely with the ATSB because there are some data points that still need to be resolved and clarified and we look forward to any learnings that emerge from that particular incident.
You can read more about the incident here:
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Optus to keep KPMG auditor despite ‘flagrant breach of duty’
Optus will keep KPMG as its auditor even though the firm broke its promises and leaked its documents to its Telstra team, a parliamentary inquiry has heard.
KPMG staff working on Optus’ audit shared confidential documents with colleagues who were pursuing, but eventually did not win, the contract for competitor Telstra.
Stephen Rue, chief executive of Optus, has told the inquiry KPMG promised its data and files would be accessible only by KPMG’s Optus team and that its Telstra team would not include any staff from its Sydney-based Optus team, working separately from Melbourne. He said:
My understanding is those assurances were not followed.
On top of the leaks, KPMG planned to have some of its Sydney-based partners work with Telstra if they had won the bid, Rue said. He said KPMG only told him about the confirmed leaks in “vague” terms in a phone call on 29 May.
Optus’ chair, John Arthur, said the leak was a “flagrant breach of duty” and an “egregious breach of professional responsibilities”. But he said the company decided to stick with KPMG as auditor as its financial year had already begun, on 1 April.
Arthur said Optus had changed the processes and personnel working on its accounts and boosted its focus on culture. He said:
We have what I would now describe as a much more rigorous control environment around our audit, which we will be watching like a hawk.
Jacinta Allan to quit politics
Victoria’s recently deposed Labor premier, Jacinta Allan, has announced she will leave politics at the next election.
In a statement today – posted to her social media pages along with a picture of her at 25 years old – Allan announced she would not recontest the seat of Bendigo in November.
Allan said:
In my first speech to Parliament, I said I wanted to be a representative who cared about people and listened to them … I finished that speech with a promise:
‘I intend to make a difference.’
Today, almost 27 years later, I have announced that I will not recontest the seat of Bendigo East at November’s election.
But I look around the place I have called home my entire life and know that, together, we did make a difference.
Allan listed what she saw as her achievements during her time in politics, and said:
Politics has changed a lot since this photo was taken.
So have I …
And when I leave Parliament, I’ll leave the same way I arrived.
A daughter of Bendigo. A daughter of workers. A proud Labor woman.
Still believing in equality. Still believing in public education and public health. Still believing in the dignity of work.
Still believing government can - and must - make people’s lives better.
And still believing politics, at its best, is very simple:
Care about people. Listen to people. Speak up for people. Make a difference.
Twenty-seven years ago, I promised I would.
And I am proud that I have.
Thank you, Bendigo.
You gave me the honour of my life.
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KPMG’s own documents suggest yet another breach of client trust, inquiry hears
A parliamentary inquiry has heard another KPMG client, Dexus, is worried the firm used its confidential information to win another contract with Dexus.
The real estate and infrastructure company had KPMG running its internal audit in 2023 and 2024, but the firm applied for and won Dexus’ external audit in 2024. A whistleblower alleged KPMG used confidential internal work to achieve that.
KPMG’s lawyers’ investigation in December 2025 found that KPMG staff believed they had told Dexus they were using internal knowledge to pursue the external contract.
Warwick Negus, chair of Dexus, spoke to the inquiry today. He said while KPMG’s own investigation suggested otherwise, KPMG’s leadership had told him that confidential information was not used in the tender process. He said:
It would have been completely inappropriate for the information to go in that direction. …I think our actions made it relatively obvious that this was not on.
He said Eileen Hoggett, the KPMG bidding partner, wanted to join Dexus’ internal audit committee meetings but Dexus rejected that as an “obvious conflict”.
Negus said KPMG’s lawyers did not interview Dexus about the issue. He told the committee:
The initial reaction is why didn’t you come and talk to us? .. Why wouldn’t you ask for our perspective on these things?
Young Talent Time's Johnny Young has died aged 79
Johnny Young, the singer-songwriter and producer who created and hosted the popular variety show Young Talent Time, has died aged 79.
Young’s family announced his death in a statement on Friday, saying that Young died “following a brief battle with pancreatic cancer”.
The statement read:
Johnny was the creator, host and producer of the much loved television show Young Talent Time. He wrote and produced many iconic hit songs including The Real Thing and Smily.
Johnny leaves behind his wife Marisha, sister Cornelia, daughters Anna and Fleur, son Craig (dec.), seven grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
The family respectfully asks for privacy during this difficult time. Details of a memorial service will be announced soon.
Young Talent Time, which originally aired from 1971 until 1988, launched the careers of several Australian singers including Tina Arena, Debra Byrne and Dannii Minogue.
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Jim Chalmers appoints new RBA board member
Melinda Cilento, the chief executive at the Committee for Economic Development of Australia, has been appointed as a member of the Reserve Bank’s interest rate-setting board.
Jim Chalmers made the announcement this morning, with Cilento taking the spot left vacant by Ian Harper – a longstanding board member and one of the country’s most distinguished economists.
The treasurer in a statement this morning said Cilento “is a highly respected economist with broad and deep expertise and experience”:
This appointment will help ensure the board has the right mix of skills and perspectives.
Cilento has led CEDA, a public policy think tank, since 2017.
She was a commissioner at the Productivity Commission, deputy chair at the Business Council of Australia and is a former Treasury and International Monetary Fund official. She has also held positions in the private sector, including as a non-executive board member at Woodside Petroleum.
Cilento joins a nine-member board, which includes the RBA’s chair and deputy chair, the Treasury secretary and six independents.
Her appointment is for five years.
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Alleged victim of Alan Jones was required to iron broadcaster’s underpants, court hears
The Alan Jones trial has heard one of Complainant C’s tasks as Jones’s driver was to do household chores at his Macquarie Street apartment after the breakfast show ended at midday.
Complainant C’s tasks included ironing Jones’s underpants and handkerchiefs, collecting wine and cooking, the court was told.
C said he was given instructions by Jones’s butler on how to perform these tasks.
He told the court he was given the smaller items to iron:
If I stuffed it up it wouldn’t have been the end of the world.
The complainant said he was given instructions to deliver flowers to an Olympic diver several times before the diver won a gold medal.
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Alan Jones trial: Complainant had to make soft-boiled eggs and bread soldiers for Jones, court hears
The court has heard complainant C was required to make Jones a tray with soft-boiled eggs and Burgen bread soldiers every morning at 6.30am. If he subsequently left the empty tray for too long, he was berated by the broadcaster, C said.
“It was pretty aggressive – ‘Get this out of here’ sort of thing,” he told the court.
C said it was his dream to work at a radio station but he didn’t want to be a butler or a chauffeur.
“Alan had a kitchen in his office and I had to make soft-boiled eggs and Burgen bread … and cut it into soldiers,” C said. “I took it in on a tray and had a cloth napkin on my arm.”
C got a job as Jones’s driver for $40,000 a year but didn’t sign a contract because Jones said contracts were too confusing for young people, the complainant told the court.
“I just wanted to work in radio,” C said. “It was a dream to work at that radio station and to be able to say I worked with Alan Jones was as good as it gets for a young kid who wants to work in radio.”
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Albanese touts ‘extraordinarily safe’ aviation record in Australia
Prime minister Anthony Albanese is speaking again in Sydney this morning, where he was just asked about a series of incidents, including another reported yesterday, at Sydney airport.
Albanese said:
There needs to be immediate reporting of any incident and following of any investigation; any measures which have to be taken need to be taken.
My electorate, of course, basically borders Sydney airport, and people who use aviation expect to do it safely. We have an extraordinarily safe record here in Australia. It’s important to make that point.
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Alan Jones trial continues
The second alleged victim to give evidence in Alan Jones’s indecent assault trial has entered the witness box in a closed court at Sydney’s Downing Centre local court.
The man, known as complainant C, has told the court he started working at 2GB in the mid-2000s when he was 18 years old after he finished school.
He said he wrote an email to broadcaster Ray Hadley and asked if there was any work available, and he invited the school leaver to meet with him.
“He offered to pay me out of his own pocket for three months,” C told the court, and he later secured full-time employment at the radio station.
Jones’s defence barrister, Gabrielle Bashir SC, has argued during the trial that some of the complainants were egged on to complain about Jones by media rivals.
They included, Bashir alleged, shockjock Hadley, who worked at 2GB alongside Jones.
Jones has pleaded not guilty to 22 indecent assault and sexual touching charges. The trial continues.
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Qantas refunds passengers stuck in Johannesburg for two nights after A380 issue
Qantas has refunded hundreds of customers aboard an A380 jet that was delayed for days after mechanical issues stranded passengers in Johannesburg, South Africa, for two nights.
Flight QF64 was initially due to depart South Africa on 10 August en route to Sydney, but shortly after it left the gate the aircraft returned due to a mechanical issue. Passengers were told to disembark and spend the night after a spare part needed to be flown in from Dubai. By the time the part came in, it required extra work to make the plane safe to fly, resulting in a two-night stay for those travellers.
A replacement plane ultimately ventured to Johannesburg to pick everyone up, and the group returned to Sydney yesterday evening.
All passengers were offered either $200 in compensation or 20,000 frequent flyer points, and were told upon landing back in Australia they would also be refunded for the leg from Johannesburg to Sydney, less taxes, as well as an Uber home.
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Westpac hits out at KPMG ‘drip feeding’ alleged audit leak details
Westpac has made its first public criticism of KPMG, accusing the firm of “drip feeding” details to clients affected by its alleged audit leaks at a parliamentary inquiry into the scandal.
KPMG partners in 2023 leaked board papers from a client, Lendlease, to colleagues who were pursuing and eventually won Westpac’s lucrative audit contract.
Law firm Allens investigated some of the alleged leaks and concluded the information was “not particularly sensitive”, in a December 2025 report. More leaks have since been confirmed.
Michael Ullmer ran the big four bank’s audit selection. He told the inquiry this morning Westpac was not told about the breach until the scandal became public in March and did not get a full explanation of the allegations on 13 May in a process of “drip feeding” information.
Even then, KPMG told Westpac the allegations had not been substantiated. He said:
We go back to KPMG each time, and there’s a drip feeding of information coming out, and so from within Westpac there’s been this escalating concern and strength of our engagement with KPMG.
Ullmer said he subsequently learned KPMG “may have” told Peter Nash, a former KPMG chair and chair of Westpac’s Board Audit Committee, in May 2025 of unsubstantiated allegations, but Nash did not escalate this at Westpac.
Nash resigned from Westpac in July. Ullmer said he believed Nash had failed to discharge his obligations, because he kept a “range of social engagement and connections with KPMG throughout this [audit tender] process”.
Westpac has previously said Nash declared his conflicts of interests and the process was “carefully governed”. Nash has not commented publicly.
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Queensland police help deliver baby girl in station’s driveway
Quick-thinking officers have helped safely deliver a baby girl in the back seat of a car parked at a Queensland police station, AAP reports.
Police were returning to the station on Tuesday when they were flagged down by a panicked father in a red hatchback, alerting them his 22-year-old heavily pregnant partner was in the late stages of labour.
The couple had been on the way to Logan hospital when they realised they weren’t going to make it and pulled into the Browns Plains station in Queensland.
Officers swooped in to assist, rushing over to the car parked in the station’s driveway.
Constable Jenna Ziviani, with assistance of an ambulance operator on the phone, helped deliver the baby within seven minutes. Paramedics then arrived shortly after and took the family to the hospital.
Both mother and baby are happy and healthy, recovering at home.
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Parents call for penalties for social media companies to be increased
Parents of children who took their own lives, who campaigned for the under 16s social media ban prior to its introduction, have rejected claims the ban is not working or has failed, as they call for the government to increase the fines for non-compliance beyond the planned $99m level.
Speaking at an inquiry into the Albanese government’s legislation to give the eSafety commissioner more investigatory powers and boost the fines for breaches for non-compliance with the ban legislation, parents such as Wayne Holdsworth, father of Mac and founder of SmackTalk, called for the legislation to pass.
Holdsworth compared the ban to other society changes such as seatbelts, and said it would take three to five years to bed. He said Australia should consider fines of up to $500m to make the companies take it seriously.
He said:
The tech giants monetise our children … and it is not in their commercial interest to restrict children’s access to these dangerous platforms.
So that implies that their driver is money, obviously.
So we must target their driver to get them to comply, target their money, their bottom line, their share price. They’ve shown that they do not have a moral compass, but it’s a badge of honour for them.
The inquiry will later hear from eSafety, the communications department, Meta, Google, TikTok and Snap, as well as digital rights groups.
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Why do Victorian Liberals want a weekly red bin collection?
“Under a government I lead, your red bin will be collected every single week.”
These were not the words of a candidate running for local council but the leader of the opposition in Victoria. Roads, rates and rubbish have traditionally been the domain of local government but, at this year’s state election, bins have become a political talking point.
We’ve rummaged through the claims to sort the trash from the treasure.
Read more:
Is Australia’s buy now, pay later boom at an end?
Afterpay has never turned a profit in Australia. Last month, it spent millions to take over a Sydney Olympic Park arena.
The company says Afterpay Arena will be the first venue where Australians can “buy now, pay later” for their event tickets, merchandise, dinner and even alcohol.
The deal to take the naming rights from a traditional lender, Qudos Bank, is the latest evolution for a sector that has rapidly expanded over the past decade. But as growth slows and players leave the market, is the buy now, pay later (BNPL) boom over?
Read more here:
Albanese says he always does a ‘range of interviews’ amid criticism over melon comments
Albanese was just asked about a series of events for which he’s faced heavy criticism in the media, including his appearance on a comedy podcast that prompted an apology over his remarks on Kylie Minogue and his recent comments about a gift of melons from Japan’s prime minister.
Albanese said of the podcast comments, referred to as “melon-gate”:
I reiterate the fact that the interpretation that some have put on it was not correct. … I do a range of interviews … you can look at these things in hindsight.
In modern media, I talk to a range of people, many of whom I don’t agree with.
The issue of the relationship with Japan though, the relationship has never been stronger.
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Albanese says gambling inducements are ‘over the top’
Albanese said gambling inducements are “over the top and need to be wound back”.
The government is hopeful about getting its gambling reforms past parliament next week. The prime minister said:
Look, we’re working constructively across the parliament to put in place these reforms. They are important.
The problem is addiction and when someone has an addiction, if there are inducements that are encouraging that addiction, that’s a bad thing. There’s nothing wrong with people having a punt on a Saturday … the problem is if it’s an addiction.
He said he welcomes the “constructive discussions” the parties have had so far.
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Albanese says he had ‘productive’, ‘substantial’ call with Trump and Aukus still ‘full steam ahead’
Anthony Albanese is speaking in Canberra after he held a “productive” and “substantial” call with Donald Trump. He said the pair spoke about a “number of global and regional issues”, including the conflict in the Middle East and recent developments in the Pacific.
Albanese said the pair spoke about the Aukus submarine deal, which “remains full steam ahead”.
We agreed it was a project that is and will continue to deliver benefits for the United States, for Australia, and for the United Kingdom.
He said he raised the issue of tariffs, asking the president to consider full exemption or at the very least no increase of those in effect.
I always put forward Australia’s national interest during these discussions.
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Cherry-Evans confirms NRL exit
Daly Cherry-Evans has given himself every chance to book-end his NRL career with a second premiership, after confirming 2026 will be his last in Australia, AAP reports.
The Sydney Roosters star announced on Friday he would finish in the NRL at season’s end, before moving to the English Super League for a one-year swansong at Hull FC.
His exit will bring the curtain down on one of the NRL’s most storied careers, after making his debut at Manly in 2011 before his shock Sea Eagles exit at the end of last season.
At the age of 37, Cherry-Evans is the second-most capped player in NRL history and has a string of records including the most 40-20s ever kicked, most golden-point winners and most field goals in the NRL era.
He also captained both Queensland and Australia, helping lead the Maroons to three series wins and also claiming a Clive Churchill Medal in 2013.
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The prime minister will speak about the call in a few minutes, at 7.30am, Canberra time. We’ll bring you details from the presser soon.
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Albanese and Trump speak overnight
Anthony Albanese and the US president, Donald Trump, spoke overnight, the prime minister’s office confirmed.
Albanese is expected to say more about the call early this morning from Canberra.
The call comes a day after US defence official Eldridge Colby gave an endorsement of the Aukus nuclear submarine pact. Australia and the US are also discussing concerns about Trump’s latest round of trade tariffs and the ongoing Iran war.
More to come soon.
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Good morning, and happy Friday. We’re back to regular news today after another week in parliament. Nick Visser here – let’s get to it.
Parliamentary committee urges reform of whistleblower laws
The Labor-led parliamentary committee investigating KPMG’s audit leaks has put pressure on the Albanese government to reform laws that could have protected the scandal’s whistleblower.
The committee, which includes five Labor MPs, on 9 July asked Anthony Albanese to urgently fix whistleblower protections. On Thursday, it published a 30 July letter from Albanese’s assistant minister, Patrick Gorman, acknowledging the concerns and saying Treasury was reviewing tax and corporate whistleblower laws.
The committee also shared its submission to Treasury’s review, in which it said Australian law failed to protect the whistleblower and was “largely ineffective in deterring misconduct”.
The laws had issues that were “long standing, well known, and have been well-ventilated over many years”, demonstrated most recently by the KPMG whistleblower’s difficulties, the submission reads.
The committee said it had made dozens of recommendations in the past decade, unanimously backed by members across the political spectrum, and noted “the ongoing importance of all the recommendations made by the committee that have not yet been implemented by the government”.
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KPMG apologises to whistleblower as inquiry looms
KPMG has contacted the man who blew the whistle on its audit leaks scandal to apologise, ahead of an inquiry into its failures today.
The whistleblower was a KPMG employee who sent an email raising alarm in May 2024, in which he claims he was covered by Australia’s legal protections.
In a letter published by the inquiry committee, Mike Ebeid, KPMG’s new chair, offers a series of mea culpas.
Ebeid told the whistleblower that KPMG still believed not think his email was protected by Australia’s complex whistleblower laws. Ebeid said the firm had still treated the issue as if it were being raised as an official whistleblower issue and would not challenge the matter if a legal case was brought against it.
Ebeid has also admitted the firm did not ask its lawyers to investigate “every aspect” of the whistleblower’s allegations, meaning it did not look into some of the ethical issues now being examined.
He said KPMG had in April 2026 wrongly claimed it had “not substantiated” allegations of internal leaks because investigations by December 2025 had found confidential information was being shared.
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Man dies after house fire on NSW south coast
NSW police have declared a critical incident investigation into the death of a man who allegedly barricaded himself inside a home and started a fire.
Emergency services attended a unit on the state’s south coast at about 1.15pm on Thursday, after reports of concern for the man’s welfare.
Authorities were forced to gain entry to the unit and extinguish the fire.
The 57-year-old man was treated for his injuries at the scene but could not be revived.
The man has yet to be formally identified. A report will be prepared for the coroner.
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Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Nick Visser with the main action.
KPMG has reached out to apologise to the man who exposed its audit leaks scandal before an inquiry into its failures today, while Labor MPs want the government to do more to protect whistleblowers. More coming up.
NSW police have declared a critical incident investigation into the death of a man who allegedly barricaded himself inside a home in Bomaderry and started a fire. More details coming up.
