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Firefighters’ union accuses Ibac of ‘four-year witch hunt’

As we reported earlier today, the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (Ibac) published a report uncovering five separate alleged instances where MFB employees – now working for Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) – accessed or disclosed information without authorisation between April and May 2018.

It said the staffers allegedly involved were motivated to misuse MFB information to further the interests of the UFU and its secretary, Peter Marshall.

But in a statement, the UFU said the report was a “four-year witch hunt”, which ultimately made no finding of corruption against the union or Marshall.

The union accuses Ibac of using “deeply intrusive practices such as extended phone tapping of all phone conversations not limited to those that were work-related, physical surveillance, raids, the seizing of property including personal items and legally privileged documents, and coercive hearings”.

It said Marshall was subjected to two days of examination by Ibac’s former commissioner, Robert Redlich, and “was not once presented with the accusations against him or the union and given no opportunity to answer them”.

Marshall called for an investigation into Ibac itself. He said:

There were regular leaks of confidential information that led to hundreds of news items since 2019. It is ironic that an organisation supposedly investigating the inappropriate use of information, took no steps to investigate the improper use of its confidential material to the media. No other coercive body has had anywhere near the same level of leaks.

Macquarie fined for ignoring suspicious energy market trades

Macquarie has been fined after ignoring repeated warnings from the corporate regulator that its clients were involved in suspicious trades in electricity markets, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission said today.

The trades occurred during a period of volatile energy prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Asic said that Macquarie breached market integrity rules on 50 occasions during 2022 by permitting three of its clients to place suspicious orders.

The regulator said the orders may have intended to “mark the close”, which is a trading technique designed to manipulate a favourable settlement price by making a large trade shortly before the market closes.

The Asic chair, Joe Longo, said:

The consequences of manipulating energy markets can have a detrimental flow on impact to supplier funding costs, and in turn energy prices. This can lead to higher energy bills for consumers who are already struggling with the cost of living.

The regulator said it contacted Macquarie on six occasions over concerns about volatility in energy markets or suspicious trading by its clients, but the investment bank failed to respond.

It has been fined $5m.

Macquarie was contacted for comment.

‘A week like no other’: AFL grand final fever is cooking in Melbourne

AFL grand final fever is cooking up in Melbourne today with the city’s annual four-day Footy Festival kicking off in Yarra Park.

The tourism, sport and major events minister, Steve Dimopoulos, joined the AFL CEO, Andrew Dillon, today to launch the festival. More than 250,000 fans are expected to flock to Melbourne for this week’s events.

For the first time, the festival will go into the night with live music and dinner served up by signature Melbourne restaurants Easey’s, Hella Good and Pinchy’s.

Dillon says:

Grand final week in Victoria is a week like no other. The build-up, the anticipation, and there are plenty of activities for fans to get involved, highlighted by the free Footy Festival starting in Yarra Park and the Toyota AFL Grand Final Parade on Friday.

Tasmanian school funding deal a long time coming, Wilkie says

The independent Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie has cautiously welcomed today’s announcement that the state and federal government have reached a deal to fully fund public schools by 2029, while noting it’s been a long time coming.

Since the Gonski reforms set up the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) in 2011, I have consistently advocated with successive federal governments to adopt 100% funding for public schools.

However, this is only a modest investment from the federal government. They are only increasing their funding for Tasmanian public schools by 2.5% to 22.5% and requiring the state government to cover the remaining 77.5%. Moreover under the agreement, schools will still not be funded to 100% of their SRS until 2029.

I’m sure most teachers and parents would hold concerns that this is far too long when our education system is struggling now. The truth is that this should have happened more than a decade ago.

Young woman accused of stabbing her grandmother granted bail

A young woman accused of attempted murder by stabbing her grandmother has been granted bail after her solicitor offered multiple conditions and mental health monitoring upon her release, AAP reports.

The 21-year-old allegedly attacked her 63-year-old grandmother on 17 May 2023 in a home they shared in the town of Beaudesert, south of Brisbane.

Bella-Rose Currie Shields has been in custody for more than 16 months, including five months in a secure mental health ward, and on Tuesday applied for bail in the supreme court in Brisbane.

Justice Thomas Bradley handed down his decision on Wednesday and said the seriousness of the charge against Shields called for a large number of bail conditions.

In my view, the risks associated with the applicant’s release on bail can be ameliorated to an acceptable level … she has demonstrated that her continued detention is not justified.

Shields’ solicitor, Natalie Keys, had previously told Bradley her client’s mental health had improved while in custody.

She’s certainly doing well. She’s obtained employment in the kitchen. It’s a position of trust using knives and that’s not done if there’s still a substantial risk.

The Greens have had a not-so-subtle dig at the federal government over reports in Nine papers today that it had requested Treasury modelling on negative gearing and capital gains concessions policies.

The prime minister today said the federal government intended to fix housing supply by getting its existing legislation through the Senate. But he fell short of explicitly ruling out any changes to negative gearing.

Ibac uncovers ‘problematic workplace culture’ at former Metropolitan Fire Brigade in report on alleged leaks to union

Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdog has uncovered a “problematic workplace culture” at the former Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB), during which confidential information was allegedly leaked to the United Firefighters Union (UFU) and its secretary, Peter Marshall.

The Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (Ibac) on Wednesday released its investigation into the allegations of leaks, dubbed Operation Turton.

It uncovered five separate instances where MFB employees – now employed by Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) – allegedly accessed or disclosed information without authorisation between April and May 2018, amid the long-running firefighters dispute.

This included accessing email accounts of executives and a PowerPoint presentation that the investigation stated was subsequently shared by Marshall with the then minister for emergency services, Lisa Neville.

Ibac said those involved in the alleged leaking of information were “largely driven by a desire to further the interests” of UFU and its secretary:

These incidents were facilitated by a workplace culture where employees did not trust management and did not believe them to be acting in the best interests of the organisation or its employees.

Parts of the UFU and Marshall’s response to Ibac’s findings were included in the report. They said the report was “not suitable or appropriate to be published” and “was not realised or credible, but unsubstantiated and one-sided”. They said the incidents at the centre of the report were “trivial”.

Ibac did not accept this view and made four recommendations to FRV to address what it said were “long-standing and systemic corruption risks”.

Perhaps we’ll get a big core inflation drop for August, but the RBA is really holding out for the quarterly CPI figures. These land on 30 October, handily in time for the RBA’s next rates meeting on 4-5 November.

After Bullock stated the board did not “explicitly” consider a rate rise this week (we think for the first time since March), markets shifted their bets. Investors reckon there’s about a one-in-four chance of a rate cut in November and about a two-in-three prospect of one in December.

A “Santa” rate cut present, in other words, may yet be under that Christmas tree.

Anyway, watch out for those CPI figures right here at 11.30am AEST, sharp.

CPI to drop to three-year low but will the RBA ignore?

The Reserve Bank governor, Michele Bullock, tries to avoid “forward guidance” on where interest rates will be in the future but she doesn’t seem to mind offering a bit of statistical soothsaying.

In a slightly awkward timing sequence, the RBA dropped its latest verdict on interest rates a day before the release of data on the subject the central bank is most fussed about: inflation.

The ABS’s monthly consumer price index will almost certainly show a steep dive in the headline number at least. Economists expect the annual pace will slow to 2.7% from 3.5% in July.

That sounds good (and would be the largest month to month decline since May 2023), bringing CPI down to its lowest since August 2021’s 2.5% rate. Expect rental price growth to slow and fuel prices to drop.

The RBA, though, views the headline rate as volatile and subject to one-off or “temporary” changes, such as big energy rebates from governments.

For that reason, it focuses on the “trimmed mean” or core inflation. In July that came in at 3.8% and anything lower than that (which is likely) will put it at the lowest since at least March 2022 – before the RBA rate hikes began.

But the RBA wants to see that measure drop within its 2%-3% target range and look like staying there before it can confidently embark on interest rate cuts, as Bullock made clear yesterday.

Albanese says the government will “take on” big businesses to tackle cost-of-living concerns, when prices are artificially deflated or increased.

People out there are under financial pressure and they’re looking for value … so when they go into a supermarket and see ‘special’ or ‘prices down’ they trust that is the truth.

It’s not the truth if the supermarket has increased the price by $1.50 and a month later put it down by $0.50 … that is a breach of trust, it’s a breach of faith, Australians are rightly angry about it and my government is taking action.

The prime minister says it is “extraordinary” that under the Coalition there was only a voluntary code of conduct, trusting businesses to act appropriately.

Asked if Albanese would rule out changes to negative gearing, he replies:

What our government is considering is fixing housing supply by getting our legislation through the Senate.

He refuses to confirm whether Treasury has been asked to do any modelling on it, seeming to imply they float around at whim.

Treasury I’m sure do a range of proposals, policy ideas … I want a public service that is full of ideas.

PM does not rule out negative gearing changes

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is speaking live in Launceston now, hailing a new urgent care clinic he has announced for Tasmania to avoid overcrowding emergency units at hospitals.

Straight away, he is asked about those Nine reports on negative gearing.

I’ve seen those reports and what we do is we value the public service … I’m sure the public service are looking at policy ideas, that’s because we value them.

We have our housing policy, it’s out there for all to see … it’s currently being blocked by a No’alition of the Liberals, the s and the Greens.

Twelve Singaporean soldiers injured during training accident in Australia

A training mishap during military drills in Australia ended with 12 Singaporean soldiers in hospital, according to Singapore’s defence ministry, which blamed the incident on an armoured vehicle that “rear-ended” another.

Thousands of Singaporean troops have been dispatched to Australia for Exercise Wallaby, one of the city-state’s largest overseas training exercises.

Singapore’s ministry of defence said a Hunter armoured fighting vehicle had “rear-ended another while moving back to base” at Australia’s Shoalwater Bay training facility on Tuesday night.

The ministry said 12 “servicemen sustained non-serious injuries and they have been transported to the hospital”.

They are currently being treated or recovering well.

Singapore’s army called for a “safety pause” so that it could “remind drivers to maintain proper distance”.

The unilateral war games take place under a longstanding agreement between Australia and Singapore, which lacks the landmass to train its military at scale.

– AFP

Schools funding deal ‘delivering for young Tasmanians’ – premier

The premier of Tasmania, Jeremy Rockliff, said additional funding would flow to Tasmanian schools from 2025 – with up to $300m more funds going to the public system to the end of the decade.

We have been transforming Tasmania’s education system over the past decade, and this funding partnership is the next step in delivering for young Tasmanians.

The education minister, Jason Clare, described it as a “massive day” for public education in the state.

New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, the ACT and South Australia are still holding out for the federal government to increase their funding share by 5%, not 2.5% as is currently proposed. We’ll see if today’s decision moves the dial.

PM hails ‘landmark agreement’ on Tasmania school funding

Meanwhile, we have more details on the announcement this morning that Tasmania has reached an agreement with the commonwealth on school funding.

Both governments have signed on to the Albanese government’s proposed funding agreement for all public schools in Tasmania to 100% of the schooling resource standard (SRS), making Tasmania the third state or territory to adopt it.

Remaining states have until the end of the month to sign on, or fall back on the past agreement. Currently, the commonwealth provides 20% of the SRS for Tasmanian public schools. This will now increase to 22.5% by 2029.

The Tasmanian government will increase its contribution to 77.5% of the SRS by 2029, to cover the remaining 2.5% gap. Currently, no public schools in Australia, except for schools in the ACT, are at the full and fair funding level.

Anthony Albanese said he wanted to make sure that “every student in Australia, no matter where they live and learn, receives every opportunity”.

Today’s landmark agreement means every public school in Tasmania will be fully and fairly funded. This is a national priority that can only delivered when the commonwealth and state and territory governments work in partnership.

That’s why my government has put $16bn in extra funding for public schools on the table – the biggest ever increase in commonwealth funding to public schools.