9:00AM - 11:00PM AEST Senate, Economics Legislation Committee (Senate Estimates)
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At The Australian Financial Review AI Summit last week, Industry Minister Ed Husic suggested corporate tax reform, investment allowances or other incentives should be considered in the context of boosting investment in technology such as robotics and automation.
Treasury boss backs the young to navigate housing mess
When the Taxman comes knocking
Senate consultancies report delayed again
Taskforce Iris - Jade Hawkins - Early release of super scammers cop prison time
Tax officers’ union takes exception to ATO bid to appropriate TOIL
Media Dragon in 1982 AD
Mexico has elected its first female president. Claudia Sheinbaum inherits a polarised, violent country looking for hope
Practitioners ‘taken by surprise’ by breach reporting requirements, says CPA
The TPB has assured tax practitioners that it will take a transitional approach with the breach reporting requirements with many feeling uncertain about the upcoming obligations.
Tax Practitioners Board chair Peter de Cure said the breach reporting obligations that will soon apply to registered tax practitioners from 1 July have already raised a multitude of questions from practitioners.
De Cure said practitioners want to know what would constitute a ‘significant breach’ and the circumstances around when they would be required to report either themselves or other practitioners to the TPB and their professional associations.
In an address at CPA Australia’s Public Practice Retreat in Lorne, Victoria, de Cure said the TPB will take a a “risk-based approach when deciding to commence a formal investigation, and that a preliminary analysis will be undertaken on all reports in the same way current complaints are investigated”.
He also warned against practitioners making frivolous, vexatious or malicious claims against other practitioners, noting that such behaviour itself could go towards a breach of the Code.
The TPB chair also explained that the board will be taking a transitional approach to enforcing compliance, focusing first on consultation, education and building awareness, and improving compliance, supervisory and regulatory systems.
CPA Australia members at the event noted the challenges they’re facing, including the uncertainty around when and what to report, how the TPB will handle a report, and whistleblower protections.
CPA spokesperson Gavan Ord said practitioners have been “taken by surprise” by the last minute insertions into the legislation and have genuine concerns about how they are supposed to adopt these changes, particularly when there are such serious consequences for non-compliance.
“CPA Australia members already comply with the Australian Professional and Ethical Standards (APES) which include standards on ethical obligations, non-compliance with laws and regulations (NoCLAR) and quality control for firms,” said Ord.
The Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) has put agencies and their chiefs on notice and is preparing to invoke strong new investigatory powers to ferret out breaches of the Australian Public Service Code of Conduct by launching probes off its own bat.
As the dust settles on the Pezzullo affair, where the former secretary of the Department of Home Affairs was removed after being outed for brazenly playing politics with a key Liberal powerbroker, APSC chief Gordon de Brouwer has revealed the APS disciplinarian is preparing to take pro-active remediation steps rather than wait to be called in.
De Brouwer told a recent Senate estimates hearing that the APSC was “planning integrity reforms to the Public Service Act, including strengthening performance processes for agency heads and statutory officers and creating own motion investigation powers for the Public Service Commissioner”.
Public service chief invokes APS investigation powers
Services Australia has ‘turned the corner’, says Hazlehurs
Appearing in Senate estimates on Monday, Services Australia confirmed Julianne Stewart has secured a government contract worth about $300,000 a year, which is in its second year. The arrangement came to light after the tender was published on the government’s AusTender website.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Services Australia said “speechwriting is a specialist skillset” with “accomplished and high calibre writers” difficult to find.
“An external recruitment exercise was undertaken in July 2022 but there were no applicants found suitable commensurate with the level,” the spokesperson said.
“To meet the increased demand, a number of labour hire panels were approached to secure speechwriting services, however, the specialist skills and expertise required were unable to be sourced through panel providers.”
One of my first speeches for President Obama was a near-disaster... He'd only been in office a few months. He'd ordered a review of the country's cyber defenses, our policy experts conducted a thorough review, and it was my job to read their report and draft the remarks in which the president would announce his recommendations. I circulated the draft and waited for any edits. When it came back from the experts, I was stunned. They had crossed out almost everything I'd written. I'd written, "Just as we do for natural disasters, we have to have plans and resources in place beforehand." Someone had changed it to something like "Implementing this framework will require developing reporting thresholds, adaptable response and recovery plans, and the necessary coordination, information sharing, and incident-reporting mechanisms." The Gettysburg Address it was not. Someone had literally cut and pasted lines from the report into the speech. And, in their defense, why not? Wasn't the purpose of the speech to unveil the report? Yes, but... When any of us get up and speak--in government, business, philanthropy, or advocacy--we should beware The Curse of Knowledge: when we mistakenly assume that everyone in our audience has the same knowledge and vocabulary as we do. And as a human being speaking to other human beings, we should always talk like...a human being, with words and language that everyone can understand. This is one of the lessons that I share in my keynote on effective communication, which I'm excited to deliver at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on May 23. I'm very grateful to Jen Easterly for the invitation and to Widomski Michael and their team for giving me the opportunity to address the CISA workforce. And I promise to share the rest of the story...how we turned "the necessary coordination, information sharing, and incident-reporting mechanisms" into a presidential address. :)