The Wiggles deny former CEO was illegally fired
The Wiggles have advised a court docket they are going to battle an illegal dismissal lawsuit from their former chief government, who claims the blue Wiggle undermined him, AAP stories.
Luke O’Neill says he was denied bonuses and excluded from conferences earlier than being dismissed and not using a affordable foundation by the well-known kids’s entertainers.
He has launched authorized motion in opposition to the group, blue Wiggle Anthony Subject and its common counsel Matthew Salgo within the federal court docket. No defence has been filed with the court docket however the band’s lawyer indicated on Monday the allegations have been contested.
The Wiggles’ lawyer, Bianca Dearing, stated on Monday:
“There are a number of complaints or inquiries pleaded in the course of the course of the applicant’s employment … all of that are denied.”
Justice Michael Lee requested the events to set out timetabling forward of a possible listening to in April, noting he was “unclear about how lengthy it would take”.
The Wiggles and its former chief government will doubtless attend mediation earlier than the tip of the 12 months to see if the problem might be resolved earlier than a listening to, the court docket was advised.
O’Neill was fired in Could, a call he says got here and not using a affordable foundation and with none prior warning or earlier opposed suggestions. He alleges his dismissal was illegal.
You possibly can learn extra concerning the case right here:
Key occasions
Adam Morton
A brand new function in an outdated basis for Adam Bandt
The previous Greens chief Adam Bandt has been named as the top of one of many nation’s largest and oldest environmental organisations, the Australian Conservation Basis (ACF).
Bandt, who unexpectedly misplaced the seat of Melbourne on the Could election, will substitute long-time ACF chief government Kelly O’Shanassy, who introduced earlier this 12 months that she was resigning.
Bandt begins at ACF in January. The muse stated he would “not play any additional function within the Greens”.
The ACF chair, Ros Harvey, stated Bandt was the unanimous alternative of the organisation’s board after a “rigorous search” that concerned screening greater than 300 candidates.
She stated “exhausting occasions require daring management” and Bandt had the “imaginative and prescient, the bravery and the expertise required” for the job.
In an announcement, Bandt stated it was a “true privilege to assist lead Australia’s most revered voice for nature and local weather at such a essential time”. He stated:
Local weather collapse is starting, nature is in disaster and that is the parliament that may keep away from extinction. This may very well be the very best parliament ever for nature and local weather. We’re setting politicians a check we hope they meet.
‘I don’t suppose Jacinta has it in for Indians’ Barnaby Joyce says
The fallout continues from Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s comments suggesting the Labor social gathering’s migration insurance policies have been makes an attempt to garner votes from immigrants together with these from India.
Barnaby Joyce appeared to defend Value on the Seven Community this morning, placing the feedback all the way down to a “mistake”.
The Nationals MP stated:
You make errors in politics on a regular basis, and the very best factor to do is apologise, transfer on … Get on to a different matter. It’s simply the character of politics. You’re not going to be good on each assertion you ever make, you’re gonna make errors.
I don’t suppose Jacinta has it in for Indians, by the way in which. I believe that she’s attempting to convey … migration is uncontrolled. Why is it uncontrolled? Not due to the folks [but] as a result of we simply don’t have the sources. We don’t have the homes, the hospitals, the faculties, the dams to soak up them.
He stated Value ought to apologise “if that solves the issue”.
Labor MP Tanya Plibersek, additionally interviewed on Dawn, stated the Indian group was due an apology.
Jacinta Value ought to apologise and if she doesn’t, Sussan Ley ought to make her apologise … They’ve received all kinds of mess taking place within the Coalition.
The Wiggles deny former CEO was illegally fired
The Wiggles have advised a court docket they are going to battle an illegal dismissal lawsuit from their former chief government, who claims the blue Wiggle undermined him, AAP stories.
Luke O’Neill says he was denied bonuses and excluded from conferences earlier than being dismissed and not using a affordable foundation by the well-known kids’s entertainers.
He has launched authorized motion in opposition to the group, blue Wiggle Anthony Subject and its common counsel Matthew Salgo within the federal court docket. No defence has been filed with the court docket however the band’s lawyer indicated on Monday the allegations have been contested.
The Wiggles’ lawyer, Bianca Dearing, stated on Monday:
“There are a number of complaints or inquiries pleaded in the course of the course of the applicant’s employment … all of that are denied.”
Justice Michael Lee requested the events to set out timetabling forward of a possible listening to in April, noting he was “unclear about how lengthy it would take”.
The Wiggles and its former chief government will doubtless attend mediation earlier than the tip of the 12 months to see if the problem might be resolved earlier than a listening to, the court docket was advised.
O’Neill was fired in Could, a call he says got here and not using a affordable foundation and with none prior warning or earlier opposed suggestions. He alleges his dismissal was illegal.
You possibly can learn extra concerning the case right here:
Coles and Woolworths put together for $1bn underpayment invoice
Jonathan Barrett
Coles and Woolworths are making ready to pay greater than $1bn within the fallout from a serious wages case that discovered the grocery store giants had underpaid hundreds of employees.
The federal court docket discovered final week the massive supermarkets hadn’t adequately tracked entitlements owed below the related retail award, leading to years of missed extra time, penalties charges and different numerous funds.
The Truthful Work Ombudsman alleged Woolworths underpaid 19,000 employees and Coles underpaid greater than 8,700 employees, together with retailer managers.
Woolworths stated in an ASX assertion in the present day it may owe employees an extra $250m to $470m in pre tax funds, and as much as $280m in further prices together with superannuation and payroll tax.
Coles estimates it would must pay an extra $150m to $250m to “mirror the findings of the court docket, together with curiosity and on-costs”.
The estimates are along with vital sums Australia’s two largest grocery store chains have already made in again funds. Proceedings are due again in court docket in late October.
The underpayment difficulty may turn into much more expensive for the supermarkets, given the figures don’t consider potential payouts stemming from class actions.
‘Anti-corruption’ protest organisers attain settlement to not march on Sydney Harbour Bridge
Penry Buckley
NSW police and protest organisers have reached an settlement for another route that won’t block the Sydney Harbour Bridge this weekend.
As we reported final week, protesters had lodged a “kind 1” notifying police of a deliberate public demonstration throughout the Sydney Harbour Bridge this Saturday, 13 September. However after negotiations between senior officers and organisers, the route will now begin in Hyde Park and comply with a route by way of Sydney’s CBD, police stated in an announcement.
In a preliminary listening to on the NSW supreme court docket this morning, the organiser who lodged the shape, Mary-Jane Liddicoat, stated she had not been capable of finding authorized illustration in time for an pressing listening to initially scheduled for this afternoon. That listening to has now been cancelled with the court docket listening to an in-principle settlement had already been reached.
Police have now formally withdrawn their submitting to the supreme court docket. The NSW supreme court docket has ordered that every social gathering pay their very own authorized prices.
Within the assertion, police thanked the organiser for his or her cooperation and added the power recognised and supported the rights of people and teams to train their rights of free speech and peaceable meeting.
The protest, which is marching below the title “Australia Unites In opposition to Authorities Corruption” contains the teams My Place Australia and MMAMV, which as the ABC have reported have campaigned in opposition to vaccine mandates.
Luca Ittimani
Airline buyer watchdog proposal not sturdy sufficient, Alternative says
Following up on information the Albanese authorities is exploring a consumer protection scheme for aviation, buyer advocacy group Alternative has warned the trade wants a stronger watchdog.
Labor in the present day stated its scheme may give clients the precise to be compensated for cancelled or delayed flights and supplied with immediate rebooking, refunds and meals and lodging.
The proposed watchdog may help with clients’ unresolved complaints about airways or airports and penalise breaches, however it would report back to the transport minister and received’t be answerable for creating new rights for shoppers.
Alternative’s director of campaigns, Rosie Thomas, stated the brand new scheme was a welcome first step however the ombudsperson wanted extra energy and independence than Labor has proposed:
We deserve clear rights when flights don’t go to plan, not a patchwork of airline insurance policies. Nevertheless, client rights are solely ever as sturdy because the complaints processes to implement them.
Banks and telecommunications firms should reply to an impartial umpire and the airways ought to too.
The federal government is taking submissions on the design of the brand new scheme and watchdog.
Caitlin Cassidy
UTS college students ‘blindsided’ by program suspensions
The president of the UTS college students’ affiliation, Mia Campbell, says college students have been “blindsided” by administration’s choice to droop enrolments in additional than 100 programs on the college and really feel “deserted” by management.
Showing on the Senate inquiry into college governance, Campbell stated it rang “alarm bells” when the senior management workforce, showing earlier than her, stated the adjustments would haven’t any affect on present college students, as many had misplaced the chance to review postgraduate choices proper on the finish of their levels.
Campbell learn out quotes from college students within the college of public well being, who stated per week earlier than the cuts have been introduced, they attended an honours data session with “hope and ambition”.
We have been blindsided by information of the suspension of this program … College students of public well being really feel deserted by this college, by its management and by the vice-chancellor. For many people in public well being, we selected to review this diploma on the idea we might have a strong pathway to finish a bachelor, honours and PhD, however now we might not be capable of.
Campbell stated some PhD supervisors had already been made conscious that they could should supervise college students at no cost in the event that they have been topic to job losses subsequent 12 months.
In my courses I’ve seen tutors and friends pissed off and demoralised by the uncertainty and lack of course of the college, many college students are listening to bleak warnings from employees … I fear about how employers will interpret the worth of my diploma, contemplating UTS has determined to discontinue it.
Learn extra right here:
Spring has sprung?
Melbourne loved its warmest day since Could on Saturday, with the mercury reaching 22.1C, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
The heat coincided with the start of Petyan, or wildflower season, in Victoria.
In Sydney, the temperature was 27.1C at noon in the present day – however whereas spring has sprung, it could solely be a glimpse, with the SES warning components of NSW are heading into a few days of unsettled weather.
Erin Patterson’s sentencing listening to this morning was historic past its fast subject material: it was additionally the primary time information cameras have been allowed in Victoria’s supreme court docket to movie a sentencing.
Right here is Justice Christopher Beale’s sentencing of Patterson in full:
UTS cuts employees bonuses and confirms consultants invoice of $44m
Caitlin Cassidy
The vice-chancellor of the College of Expertise Sydney, Prof Andrew Parfitt, says senior employees won’t be paid any bonuses on account of the continuing restructure on the establishment. Late final 12 months, UTS introduced round 400 jobs might be misplaced to ship $100m in annual financial savings.
Greens deputy chief and better training spokesperson, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, pointed to Parfitt’s personal wage of round $935,000 final 12 months.
Does the operation sustainability initiative contemplate a lower to that wage or the salaries of any of the opposite very extremely paid executives, or is it simply employees who should pay the value of the adjustments that you’re proposing?
Parfitt stated senior executives and the senior employees group “won’t now be paid any bonus or efficiency parts, which is a saving throughout the college of about $2.5m”. He additionally confirmed UTS had spent $44m on consultants final 12 months.
Faruqi additionally pressed Parfitt on “worry and distrust” amongst employees to talk brazenly, who have been as an alternative resorting to “closed door conferences and encrypted WhatsApp teams”.
He stated “real and open session round difficult points must happen”.
It’s a part of our change course of, and now we have been trying to launch the doc … which supplies the idea for the adjustments that we would contemplate.
The change proposal might be launched within the subsequent fortnight, Parfitt stated.
Caitlin Cassidy
‘Unprecedented’ quantity of strain on universities, says vice-chancellor
Staying with the Senate inquiry into college governance, round 1,000 potential college students are anticipated to be affected by the temporary suspension of enrolments on the College of Expertise Sydney, its deputy vice-chancellor has stated.
Requested concerning the 120 programs which have been affected till the tip of the autumn 2026 semester, Prof Kylie Readman stated 33 had fewer than 10 enrolments, and an extra 31 had no college students enrolled:
If I checked out these programs’ commencing college students in 2025, it was lower than 1,000 out of about 38,000 on the college. We did comply with our coverage and our course of to determine these programs for momentary suspension, every dean famous the programs that they wished to droop, and so they have been accepted by the provost.
In his opening assertion, the vice-chancellor, Prof Andrew Parfitt, stated universities in Australia have been going through an “unprecedented” quantity of strain:
In my 30 years within the sector … I’ve by no means witnessed such a confluence of challenges at present going through our establishments … constraints on income resulting in monetary stress and job losses … the underpayment of wages, campus security issues … antisemitism and different types of racism, overseas interference … debates round tutorial freedom and freedom of speech, fast affect of rising applied sciences. It’s an extended checklist, senators.
Mourners arrive to pay respects to Porepunkah capturing sufferer
Household, associates and colleagues are coming collectively to salute a veteran police officer who was gunned down simply days away from retiring, because the hunt for his alleged killer continues.
Detective main senior constable Neal Thompson might be farewelled with full police honours at a funeral on the Victoria Police Academy in the present day, stories AAP.
The 59-year-old was considered one of two Victoria Law enforcement officials killed on 26 August whereas serving a warrant on Dezi Freeman on a property in Porepunkah, about 300km north-east of Melbourne.
The officer was trying ahead to spending extra time with the love of his life, Lisa, and already had a listing of duties to deal with in his free time.
His associate, with whom he constructed a house, might be among the many mourners anticipated to pack the onsite chapel on the academy in Melbourne’s east to recollect the person affectionately referred to as Thommo.
Thompson deserved the life he had deliberate for after his policing profession, state police union boss Wayne Gatt stated.
“That, after 38 years within the job and on the cusp of retirement, he made the choice to place others earlier than himself, is a measure of the person we’ve misplaced,” Gatt stated.
Erin Patterson has left Victoria’s supreme court docket after her sentencing listening to this morning.
The convicted assassin left as she arrived – in a safe jail truck with a crowd of onlookers.
Video: Erin Patterson sentencing
Erin Patterson has been sentenced to life in jail with a non-parole interval of 33 years after murdering three folks and trying to homicide a fourth with a lunch laced with dying cap mushrooms.
Right here’s footage of the second Patterson was this morning sentenced by Justice Christopher Beale:
