Union to proceed with $9m wage theft claim against Monash University
The National Tertiary Education Union will proceed with a multimillion-dollar wage theft claim against Monash University in federal court, after the university’s second attempt to dodge repaying staff in the Fair Work Commission failed.
A full bench of the commission on Thursday rejected Monash’s appeal against deputy president Bell’s decision in June, which dismissed the university’s application to retrospectively change its enterprise agreement.
Monash University wanted to change the agreement to mean that any scheduled student consultation delivered within a week of tutorial or lecture delivery would be paid for as part of the lecture or tutorial rates.
The union argues that the current provisions require staff to be paid separately for these consultation hours.
The Full Bench’s decision paves the way for the NTEU to pursue an estimated $9m in wages the union alleges Monash is liable for in federal court.
NTEU’s national president, Alison Barnes:
This is the end of the road for Monash’s extraordinary attempt to dodge a wage theft claim.
Retrospectively allowing an employer to change an enterprise agreement would have been a dangerous precedent for all Australian workers.
Casual staff at Monash will get their overdue day in court over these incredibly serious wage theft allegations against Monash.
The Greens’ defence spokesperson, David Shoebridge, has responded to the report that Donald Trump allegedly discussed potentially sensitive information about US nuclear submarines with an Australian billionaire, Anthony Pratt, three months after leaving office.
A spokesperson for Trump told ABC News the former president “did nothing wrong, has always insisted on truth and transparency, and acted in a proper manner, according to the law”.
Shoebridge said in a statement this afternoon:
Under the Morrison and Albanese governments, Australia has been tying itself closer and closer to the US.
With the very real prospect of a future President Trump or worse, we should be seriously considering how this impacts on our national interest.
Advocates condemn ‘shocking’ request by WA police for ABC footage
Some of Australia’s biggest civil society groups, charities and climate change organisations have condemned the Western Australian police’s court application for footage of the ABC’s upcoming program about climate protesters.
The joint statement said:
It is shocking that the ABC’s Four Corners has been ordered by WA police to hand over all footage of peaceful protesters recently filmed for a program on climate activism. It is an alarming overreach and undermines press freedom. Protecting sources is an ethical obligation of journalists and must be respected.
Across the country the right to protest is being undermined. This will have a chilling effect on journalists and peaceful protests, and is fundamentally undemocratic.
We stand with ABC journalists, and urge the ABC to protect its sources and continue its public interest journalism on the climate crisis and the role of peaceful protests in calling for change.
The NSW Greens MP Amanda Cohn has hosted a drag story time event at state parliament after similar events in Sydney and Melbourne were targeted by homophobic threats.
Cohn, the party’s LGBTQ+ spokesperson, said the events, in which storytellers use drag to read books to children, were inclusive and should be held freely at local libraries across NSW.
“By hosting drag story time at the parliament we are demonstrating its safety and importance.
“Parliament house can feel like an alienating place for the queer community – today we are sending a message that diversity and self-expression is welcome.”
Our Drag Story Time at Parliament House is underway with the wonderful Cassandra the Queen and Woody the Cowboy and the kids are loving it! pic.twitter.com/CJmqW9yYAu
The report shows Australians are losing billions of dollars more to poker machines than they were before the pandemic, with researchers attributing the sharp increase to “desperation” during a cost of living crisis.
Harris has sought to highlight some of the approaches the NSW government is taking to address gambling harm. Here’s a section of his statement:
We know there are people experiencing gambling harm in our community, and the impact this has on individuals and their families.
Our first budget delivers $100m in harm minimisation initiatives, including funding for the NSW Office of Responsible Gambling to provide support to people affected by gambling harm through ten GambleAware services across the state as well as working to prevent harm before it occurs by investing in education and awareness raising.
We know there is no single solution to address harms from gambling, which is why we are implementing a range of gambling reforms that will take time to see an effect.
One of our key election commitments was to reduce the number of gaming machines in NSW. We have already done this, by lowering the state cap on gaming machine entitlements by more than 3,000.
Australia’s richest poetry prize won by Wiradjuri poet Jeanine Leane
Assoc Prof Jeanine Leane, a lecturer at the University of Melbourne, has scooped the David Harold Tribe poetry award presented by the University of Sydney for her “poignant and aching” poem Water Under the Bridge.
The $20,000 prize is awarded every five years for an original unpublished poem on any theme, and is Australia’s richest poetry prize for a single poem.
Water Under the Bridge was described in the judges’ citation as “a taut, layered and lyrical poem about legacy and inheritance”.
Leane, a Wiradjuri writer, teacher and academic from south-west NSW, said it was a “tremendous honour to win”.
“Water under the Bridge lays bare the intergenerational traumas and ongoing resilience of Aboriginal women through a nonfiction narrative poem that was both difficult and cathartic to write,” she said.
Her poem was chosen from a record 522 entries and will be published in Overland magazine.
We reported earlier about a light plane crash near Gundaroo, and we now have a bit more information.
In a statement, NSW police said there had been at least one fatality:
Emergency services are at the scene of a fatal plane crash near Queanbeyan.
Officers from The Hume and Monaro Police Districts responded, along with the Rural Fire Service (RFS) and NSW Ambulance, to a property on Hadlow Drive, Gundaroo, 35km north of Queanbeyan, just before 3pm today, after reports an aircraft had crashed and caught alight.
RFS have extinguished the blaze and police have established a crime scene.
Officers from Monaro police district are conducting inquiries into the incident, including confirming how many people were on board at the time.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) have been notified and will attend the scene.
Successful voice referendum would improve international standing, minister says
The federal government minister Pat Conroy says Australia’s international standing is affected by how the country treats Indigenous Australians.
The head of the Pacific Islands Forum, Henry Puna, told the Guardian this week that he respected Australia’s right to make its own democratic decision in the voice referendum, but “it would be wonderful to see Australia vote yes, because I think it’ll elevate Australia’s position, and maybe even credibility, on the international stage”.
Conroy, the minister for international development and the Pacific, was asked about these comments during an interview with ABC TV this afternoon.
Asked whether a no vote would harm Australia’s reputation in the region, Conroy said:
This is a decision and a question for the Australian people and they are making a decision right now in pre-polling and on October 14 when all Australians will vote and hopefully they will vote for a yes to voice to parliament.
I’d make the point that what matters with international standing is how we treat Australians. How we improve life for Indigenous Australians does affect our international standing, so a voice to parliament, which will meaningfully improve living conditions for Indigenous Australians, will improve our international standing and that’s a good thing.
Ultimately it is a decision for the Australian people.
Pressed on whether China would seize on a no vote, Conroy said it was not useful to “engage in hypotheticals”.
Australian rainfall 70.8% below average in September – driest on record
For Australia as a whole, September rainfall was 70.8% below the 1961–1990 average, the driest September on record (since 1900), the BoM’s Drought Statement showed.
Sydney skyline at sunset in mid-September. Photograph: Mark Evans/Getty Images
In the statement the BoM said:
Rainfall in September was below average for most of the southern two-thirds of the country.
For the five months since May 2023, areas of rainfall deficiency have developed in all states and territories, with large areas in south-west Western Australia, and along much of the south-east of Australia.
September soil moisture was below average (in the lowest 30% of all years since 1911) for much of Australia, away from the north and central inland areas.
For November 2023 to January 2024, below median rainfall is likely to very likely (60% to greater than 80% chance) for much of western, northern and southern Australia, with small areas of northern New South Wales having a slightly increased chance of above median rainfall.
PwC Australia and former chief to face Senate grilling next week
PwC Australia’s senior management and the firm’s former chief executive, Luke Sayers, will appear before a senate inquiry into consultants next week as the fallout from a confidentiality breach continues.
In my discussions with Sayers, I communicated that we had come across various concerning emails, across a number of issues, and I suggested that he look through those emails provided to us, to find concerning emails.
Hirschorn told the inquiry he expected PwC Australia to launch an internal inquiry. That didn’t happen until early 2023 when the matter became public.
I did not personally review the tens of thousands of documents and emails which PwC provided to the ATO as part of these processes, nor do I recall that being suggested to me by the ATO … I regret that I did not know about the breach of it earlier as I would have taken firm action.
When the allegation was first made, Sayers said he “did not recall” being asked to review the internal emails and said he was not aware of the confidentiality breach while serving as chief executive. Here’s what Sayers said at the time:
Last week, PwC Australia admitted the firm should have launched a rigorous internal investigation after the ATO raised its concerns in 2019. The discrepancy between accounts is likely to be examined by the inquiry.
Former NSW ALP ministers Ian Macdonald, Eddie Obeid and Obeid’s son to stay in jail
Ex-Labor minister Eddie Obeid will stay behind bars after a court rejected a bid from him, his son Moses and co-conspirator Ian Macdonald to have their convictions overturned, AAP reports.
From left: former NSW Labor minister Eddie Obeid, his son Moses Obeid, and former Labor minister Ian MacDonald. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP
In 2021, the trio were found guilty of conspiring to commit wilful misconduct in public over a rigged coal exploration licence tender after a lengthy investigation by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption.
