Friday, June 26, 2026

More senior ATO staff poached to lead next APS bargaining round

 

ATO assistant commissioner returns for second round of industrial relations duty. Think you can do a better job than last time? Apply here.
The Australian Taxation Office has reaffirmed its strong tradition of giving it to the Australian Public Service Commission, with the lead-up to the next round of enterprise bargaining negotiations resulting in yet another senior official being recruited to the triennial industrial arm-wrestle.
It has been confirmed that ATO assistant commissioner Damien Booth (HR Operations) took up a secondment with the Australian Public Service Commission on June 22. He’s going to help out with negotiations between the Albanese government (represented by the APSC) and public-sector unions.
Booth’s secondment comes after the promotion of ATO chief operating officer and HR lead Jacqui Curtis to Australian Public Service commissioner. She used her succession of Gordon de Brouwer to signal a culture shift from established promotion patterns based on time served to one based on delivery.
The ATO has had some famous debacles over the past decade — like Operation Protego, created to stop the looting of the Goods and Services Tax automated refund facility. Protego nabbed tens of thousands of Australians engaged in a frenzy of first-person fraud. (Note: it was nothing on the scale of the robodebt scandal that the ATO repeatedly and vigorously repudiated.)
Integrity restored to ‘intact’, it now appears that the ATO is ripe for the picking of key negotiators for the next APS round of bargaining.
Booth’s secondment follows that of Alison Stott, ATO Enterprise Strategy and Corporate Operations Group deputy commissioner, to run the Commonwealth’s employer side for enterprise bargaining.
“Assistant commissioner Damien Booth (HR Operations) is taking up a secondment with the Australian Public Service Commission from June 22. As a result, Kirsten Hughes will act as assistant commissioner, HR Operations, for four weeks while longer-term arrangements are made,” the ATO said in an update to staff.
“Sheridan Harvey is acting deputy commissioner, Enterprise Strategy & Design, until an Expression of Interest process is finalised for longer-term arrangements. Janelle Oakes is acting assistant commissioner, Strategy and Governance, during this time,” Brad Chapman, acting chief operating officer, Enterprise Strategy & Corporate Operations for the ATO, told staff.
“Following finalisation of an EOI process, I’m really pleased to share that Melinda Bopping will act as deputy commissioner, ATO People, for an initial period of three months.
“As a result, effective June 29, Tim Silvers will temporarily transfer to assistant commissioner, Working Well, and Richard Stinziani will act as the assistant commissioner, PST North CEG & LDP Business Partner & ELP Operations,” Chapman said.
The movements indicate that the APSC, under new leadership, is refocusing on delivery and performance after triaging the governance and integrity issues that occupied it during the immediate post-robodebt sanitisation period.
It also indicates that the broader Albanese government may be more receptive to ideas beyond those offered by the APS’s dominant union, the Community and Public Sector Union, which remains formally affiliated to the Australian Labor Party, unlike state branches.
It’s unlikely that the ground will shift in terms of pattern bargaining for the APS, led by the CPSU. But the political pressure to accommodate the views and issues of other APS employee representatives just went up a notch.

About the author

Julian Bajkowski

Julian Bajkowski

Senior journalist
Julian Bajkowski is a research and technical-driven reporter with over 20 years’ experience in technology and cybersecurity journalism. Julian has also been an adviser in public policy and corporate affairs for Mastercard and 

Monty Don - Containing the Joy

The truffles Nachos in the neighbourhood 🪴🫜 R & K


Visiting gardens is bad for you. Not only does it encourage too much eating of cake but sets up all kinds of false notions that are ruinous to your garden back home.

Monty Don


Don left London in the late 1980s when he and his wife, Sarah, with whom he ran a jewellery business, bought a big house with 15 hectares (35 acres) in Herefordshire. They lost it, along with everything else, after the 1987 financial crash. He had lived not far from where we are now, on the Hackney border in north London, long before it became fashionable, buying a house when he was 25. His three children, now in their 30s, “couldn’t begin to afford to live in London”.

Montydon.com


Most of us would look at Monty Don’s life as something to aspire to - from his stunning gardens to his faithful pooch, Ned.

But in a heartfelt and candid interview as part of the RHS visual podcast, Roots, the Gardeners’ World icon revealed that the origins of Longmeadow and his landscapes hark back to a tougher time, including the failing of his business and a "breakdown".

    Don as sex symbol

Speaking with Jo Whiley for the podcast, as well as revealing the one thing viewers will never get to see in his gardens, Monty explained that finding order and symmetry in the structure of his gardens was indicative of his mental state at the time.

He told Jo, "I effectively had a breakdown and making the garden was very much part of the healing process."

Explaining earlier that he and his wife Sarah were able to buy their property thanks to money inherited after his mother passed away, Monty shared that the couple went from high-flying in London to having to shut their jewellery business down and move to Herefordshire on a "shoestring" budget.


Monty Don's Gardens


Speaking in the video, he said: "I never go into the garden without a pair of secateurs, so it's got to feel comfortable, they've got to be small enough so that you can put them in your pocket or in a holster, but big enough so that you can cut.

'I never go into the garden without this' — Monty Don reveals the top tool every gardener needs


Once you engage with the simple enough business of feeding yourself, of soil and water, weather, season and harvest, it becomes personal. It is about you, your family and friends. Food becomes an aspect of those relationships as well as your intimacy with your plot.

Monty Don



This is the one gardening job Monty Don does every day during June - here's why you should do it too

The gardening guru has shared his favourite job to do through June and why it's so important to do each day


Even if you live in an apartment or are short on outdoor space, there are ways to grow your own food at home.

Planting herbs and vegetables on windowsills, indoors or on small balconies can be a cost-effective option, as well as benefiting your wellbeing.

Here's what the experts say are the best way to get started this winter.


Containing the Joy


The truffles 





Dallas is Calling - Final WC Group 0:0 : Australia vs Paraguay as Socceroos make six changes to starting line up

The Socceroos wrap up their 2026 FIFA World Cup group stage with a showdown with Paraguay in San Francisco.


      Rainbow 🌈 over the holy river 

“Although fleeting, [sports] have the enduring power to inspire. For a few moments or a few days, divisions crumble, replaced by the beauty of kinship.”


Australia has officially qualified for the knockout stage at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

The Socceroos had moments of brilliance in their 0-0 draw against Paraguay, but will have to go one step better when they head to Dallas for their do-or-die match.

Here's what's coming for the green and gold.

When is Australia's next World Cup match?

This is the easy part.

Australia will play on Saturday, July 4, at 4am (AEST).

The game will be played in Dallas.

Who is Australia playing in its next World Cup match?

Here's where it gets a bit murky.

Australia will play the second-placed team from Group G.

Right now that could be any one of Egypt, Iran, Belgium or New Zealand.


Painted Gold: Federation Square pumping for crucial Socceroos clash


The Socceroos look to seal their place in the Round of 32 in their final group match, and first fixture that falls squarely in the middle of the workday (12pm Friday AEST). The stakes are high. A win or draw will send Australia through, while defeat could either end the Socceroos' campaign or leave them facing a tougher opponent in the knockout rounds.

Follow all the action at our live blog here: https://bit.ly/4wbg5We



Australian workplaces are trading business as usual for the chance to celebrate the Socceroos and workplace culture during Friday’s match.

Former Socceroos coach Frank Farina believes incumbent Tony Popovic will "make the right decisions" in today's clash against Paraguay.

Farina coached the Socceroos for six years in the early 2000s but, despite some high-profile wins, did not reach a World Cup.

The 61-year-old believes the current generation of players needs time to reach the heights of Australia's "golden generation".



Socceroos manager Tony Popovic is of Croatian descent, with his parents having emigrated from the former Yugoslavia to Australia. Popovic was born and raised in the Sydney suburb of Fairfield, where he built his early football career

The Socceroos' 26-man World Cup squad, reflects at least 15 cultural and ethnic backgrounds, including four former refugees.

Migrant advocates say the team's diversity offers an important counterpoint to anti-migrant sentiment and political attacks on multiculturalism. A different kind of win.

"It sends a powerful message that African Australians belong and are an integral part of the Australian national story," African Australian Advocacy Centre founder Noël Yandamutso Zihabamwe told SBS News.

Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/44hFuRU


Holy Sailing mob



Humans nearly went extinct 930,000 years ago

I have met some very bad people at Parliament and the Tax Office, none as bad as AN and his mate from Garigal Bell Roses 🌹 Rose by other names …

Torched truck, pile of dirt led cops to record cocaine haul in Sydney

Is a compute tax a good idea?

 

Humans nearly went extinct 930,000 years ago, researchers find The Brighter Side


Former Coffs Harbour strata manager Jessica Marrie Carah charged with fraud


Public Records Show FBI Secretly Extracted Data From ICE Protesters’ Phones Previously unreported


Scientists have found evidence of mass death due to the plague 5000 years ago, which goes against the prevailing theory that plague wasn’t that deadly until more recently.


“The prevailing emotions among scientists right now are rage and shock.” U.S. Science Is in Chaos. “This compact that has existed since World War II, that made the U.S. the successful, prosperous nation that it is, is being dismantled.”


Publishers sue to shut down alleged pirated book site WeLib

Reuters: “A group of major book publishers including the “Big Five” English-language book publishing houses — Hachette, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Macmillan and ​Simon & Schuster — sued an alleged pirated book website for copyright infringement ‌in New York federal court on Tuesday. 

The publishers said in the complaint that WeLib hosts tens of millions of pirated books and provides access to tech companies for their ​AI training. They said WeLib copied the source code and ​contents of Anna’s Archive, another prominent pirate-book site that the publishers sued ⁠in March…”



Human brains were not designed to deal with an endless supply of bad news. “We are the same species as we were thousands of years ago. What’s changed is the size of the world it’s asked to scan for threats.



Canberra's town crier recognized as world's loudest person with 122.4dB yell

Wake the f**k up’: Senator’s warning to Aussies amid One Nation surge

ICAC hears timelines, tender and KordaMentha University of Wollongong contract issues 


Wake the f**k up’: Senator’s warning to Aussies amid One Nation surge 

 A Greens senator has delivered a chilling warning, saying Australia needs to ‘wake the f**k up’ following One Nation’s unprecedented rise in the polls.


Thursday, June 25, 2026

Consultant executive sacked after being told be ‘more Machiavellian’

Consultant executive sacked after being told be ‘more Machiavellian’ 

David Marin-Guzman Jun 25, 2026

 A former executive of IT consultancy Capgemini is suing the firm for almost $1 million over unlawful dismissal after she was sacked for criticising the firm’s business decisions and her chief executive told her she needed to be “more Machiavellian” and do whatever was necessary to win.

Capgemini Invent’s former chief sales officer, Julie Raoux, alleges in the Federal Circuit Court she was unlawfully dismissed for complaining about her lack of pay rises despite positive performance ratings, firm failures to define key performance indicators and erosion of her sales duties.

Capgemini Invent former chief sales officer Julie Raoux has since joined KPMG as a partner. 

The case reveals her boss Christian Kroll, CEO of management consultancy division Capgemini Invent, told her during a feedback round she should exhibit “less ‘emotional’ actions” and be “more Machiavellian … the ability to be manipulative and a drive to use whatever means necessary to win”.

That comment – admitted by the firm in its defence filed with the court this month – framed how Capgemini and Kroll later interacted with her, Raoux alleged, including its allegations that she did not support firm strategy.

Raoux, who was also head of the group’s design and innovation arm, was paid $450,000 a year with long-term incentives worth $650,000. She was terminated in December last year. At the time, the firm advised staff that she had “made the decision to pursue new opportunities”.


But according to Capgemini’s termination letter to Raoux, included in court documents, the firm sacked her over what it alleged was a breakdown in the working relationship following several months where she had been “consistently critical of business decisions after they had been adopted”.

It accused her of not supporting Kroll and said it was “not tenable for a senior leader” to continue with the business in such circumstances.

Capgemini Invent managing director Christian Kroll. 

Raoux disputed the reasons in her statement of claim and alleged the firm, instead of addressing the merits of her complaints about employment entitlements, increasingly and incorrectly framed them as criticism of business operations or challenging “managerial prerogative”.

In particular, she alleged the firm had misconstrued her comment that the work situation was “unbearable” as meaning Kroll was unbearable to work with and then relied on that as a rationale for termination.

Raoux said she raised concerns with Capgemini global leaders about Invent’s governance, forecast accuracy, restructuring, alleged salary silence, retaliation and career-blocking. Her concerns were inseparable from her complaints about the impact they had on her role and pay, she alleged.

In their defence, the firm and human resources manager Maria Dimopoulos, who is an individual respondent, denied terminating Raoux for making employment complaints and alleged those were distinct from her criticism of leadership decisions and business operations.

Dimopoulos wrote to Raoux shortly before her dismissal that she had been told her ongoing criticism of the business was “not necessary or appropriate and must cease” and it was not feasible for a senior leader to “publicly” undermine strategy or her leader, according to court documents.

Dimopoulos also alleged Raoux said words to the effect that “it is unbearable for [Raoux] at this stage working for [Kroll]“.

Roaux was paid six months’ pay in lieu of notice but refused to accept a proposed deed that would have prevented from her making any adverse comment or launching legal action.

Raoux, who has since joined KPMG as its national Salesforce leader, is seeking $919,400 in economic loss, including long-term incentives she forfeited as a result of the termination.

Unrepresented, she is currently seeking orders for Capgemini to produce documents surrounding her termination decision ahead of mediation. A directions hearing is scheduled for Friday.

A Capgemini spokesman declined to comment while the matter was before the courts. Raoux did not respond to requests for comment.

Find out the inside scoop about Accenture, Deloitte, EY, KPMG, PwC and McKinsey. Sign up to our weekly Professional Life newsletter.

 writes about industrial relations, workplace, policy and leadership from Sydney. Connect with David on Twitter. Email David at david.marin-guzman@afr.