What we learned today, Wednesday 24 January
And with that, we are going to put the blog to bed. Before we go, let’s recap the big headlines:
Labor MPs have unanimously endorsed changes to stage-three tax cuts, which the Coalition has vowed to repeal if elected.
Cyclone Kirrily is expected to start hitting the Queensland coast between Cardwell and Bowen this evening, the Bureau of Meteorology says.
Heatwave conditions are set to persist for large swathes of the country with a cool change not expected until later in the week.
The Woolworths CEO, Brad Banducci, says the company’s decision not to stock Australia Day merchandise could have been better explained.
Kim Williams, a former chief executive of News Corp Australia, has been named as the new chair of the ABC to replace Ita Buttrose.
The former Qantas boss Alan Joyce has stepped down as the Sydney Theatre Company chair.
The former TV host Andrew O’Keefe has avoided jail despite being found guilty of “violent and degrading” domestic attacks.
And Scott Morrison’s next job has been announced: the former prime minister is joining international advisory and consulting firm American Global Strategies.
Thank you for spending part of your day with us. We will be back tomorrow to do it all again.
Updated
Auditor general criticises budget blowout in parliamentary IT system
The auditor general has criticised a “significant increase to costs and multiple delays” in the federal government’s build of an expenses management system for parliamentary expenses, where the original budget blew out by nearly double.
The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) today released its performance audit of the Parliamentary Expenses Management System (PEMS), a much-maligned online system where politicians and staff lodge their travel and office bills.
The special minister of state, Don Farrell, said in a statement the system had “never functioned as intended”.
“Mismanaged since the former Government introduced it in 2018, this is one of the most embarrassing IT bungles in history,” he said.
The ANAO report found the budget to build the system had blown out to $74.3m as of June 2023, compared to the original budget of $38.1m. It said the Department of Finance was only “partly effective in implementing the PEMS project”, noting that progress reports from the department did not “support sufficient actions or decisions to keep the project on track”.
Many MPs and staff hugely dislike the system, which has been described by some as clunky and frustrating to use. The ANAO report says the system’s current capability “does not meet all deliverables as agreed in the business case”.
“There is a reliance on manual workarounds particularly for payroll services. Reporting functionality to meet legislative requirements was delayed. Parliamentarians and their staff were not sufficiently consulted throughout the project implementation to ensure the system was simple and easy to use,” the report said.
Farrell said he expected the finance department would address the recommendations of the ANAO report, which included calls for future projects to have better defined scope, deliverables and approaches.
Updated
