Long service leave to be expanded for 250,000 NSW community service workers
Anne Davies
A quarter of a million workers in New South Wales who work in disability services, domestic violence and other community services will see their paid leave rights expanded from 1 July, through a scheme to secure their long service leave.
The workers in these fields, three-quarters of whom are women, are often on short-term contracts. They will now become eligible for a scheme that makes their long service leave entitlements portable.
Under the scheme, which was extended in this week’s state budget, they will soon be able to access six weeks of long service leave after seven years of service to the industry, regardless of who they work for and how long they work with a particular employer.
Chantel Moffat, who has worked in the disability sector in Newcastle for 25 years, said it would make an enormous difference to her but more particularly to young people in the industry.
“I started in this industry young, had children and then came back in. I lost 10 years of long service leave I was entitled to,” Moffat said.
If you work in this sector, you often change employers. You follow your participants.
The minister for industrial relations, Sophie Cotsis, said the Minns government was expanding the scheme to community service workers to ensure those who dedicate their lives to supporting others gain the recognition and stability they deserve.
The scheme means people working in community services across NSW can take a well-earned break and access financial support when they need it, no matter the number of employers they have worked for in the industry.
The new scheme is entirely funded by employer contributions through a levy, making it a cost-free and equitable program for people working in community services across the state.
More to come in the next post.
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Updated at 02.47 BST
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Andrew Messenger
Labor leader Steven Miles has kicked off his budget reply speech in Queensland parliament.
Last year’s pre-election budget was absolutely packed with cost of living relief, and Miles has focused on the relative lack of giveaways in Tuesday’s.
It was the first LNP budget in a decade, since premier Campbell Newman lost office in 2015. Partly through enormous borrowings
The speech is tipped to focus on housing and putting food on the table, but it’s unclear if it will include new major policy announcements. Miles’ speech has been much less awaited than Crisafulli’s address last year, in which he announced much of the party’s agenda in government. With the state election not due for three years it’s unlikely Labor will do the same thing this year.
With an election slated for Tasmania next month – which may lead to a toppling of the state’s year conservative government after 11 years in power – Crisafulli may wind up the only Coalition premier in the country.
Labor spent much of question time demanding answers on capital projects supposedly unfunded by the new government, and complaining about a change in colour in state branding from maroon to blue, supposedly an act of treason in State of Origin season.
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Trio to learn fate over killing of Indigenous teenager
Three men who killed an Indigenous teenager after a series of violent incidents are set to be sentenced.
Cassius Turvey, 15, died in hospital 10 days after he was chased into bushland and beaten with a metal pole in Perth’s eastern suburbs on 13 October 2022.
Jack Steven James Brearley, 24, and Brodie Lee Palmer, 29, were convicted in May of murdering the Noongar Yamatji boy after a mammoth 12-week trial.
Mitchell Colin Forth, 27, who was also on trial in the West Australian Supreme Court for Cassius’ murder, was found guilty of manslaughter.
The trio’s two-day sentencing hearing is set to start today.
The trial heard Brearley delivered the fatal blows while “hunting for kids” because somebody had smashed his car windows.
It was alleged Forth and Palmer aided him, and had a common purpose on the day.
The jury was told the attack on Cassius in bushland near a creek was “the end point of a complex series of events that had absolutely nothing to do with him”.
– Australian Associated Press
SharePatrick Commins
Total value of Australians’ superannuation savings falls
The total value of Australians’ superannuation savings has dropped for the first time in two-and-a-half years, as global turmoil hit sharemarkets in the first three months of 2025.
But the March quarter household wealth statistics from the ABS, released this morning, showed that a solid lift in property values helped boost combined household wealth by $137.1bn, or 0.8%.
Property prices have climbed for eight consecutive quarters, the ABS said, and while they were growing more slowly than this time last year Reserve Bank rate cuts would likely spur further growth.
Total household wealth now sits at $17.3tn, according to the data.
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Updated at 02.45 BST
Anne Davies
The extension of the scheme to community workers was welcomed by Australian Services Union (ASU) branch secretary Angus McFarland.
“This is a win for workers, a win for the community sector and a win for the people of NSW who rely on the essential supports the sector provides them,” he said.
By tying long service leave to service in the sector rather than for one employer, we can properly value workers and give them a well-deserved break to help reduce burnout.
Portable entitlements are particularly important for workers in the NDIS where one in four disability support workers change jobs each year, and many work for multiple employers.
Workers who are registered by their employers in the first six months of the new scheme (commencing 1 July 2025 to 31 December 2025) will be able to access long service leave one year earlier – after six years of service rather than the current seven years.
According to the Fair Work ombudsman, a worker on an average annual income of $65,000 would accrue over $9,000 in long service leave.
NSW has lagged other states in introducing portable long service leave for community workers.
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Updated at 02.37 BST
Long service leave to be expanded for 250,000 NSW community service workers
Anne Davies
A quarter of a million workers in New South Wales who work in disability services, domestic violence and other community services will see their paid leave rights expanded from 1 July, through a scheme to secure their long service leave.
The workers in these fields, three-quarters of whom are women, are often on short-term contracts. They will now become eligible for a scheme that makes their long service leave entitlements portable.
Under the scheme, which was extended in this week’s state budget, they will soon be able to access six weeks of long service leave after seven years of service to the industry, regardless of who they work for and how long they work with a particular employer.
Chantel Moffat, who has worked in the disability sector in Newcastle for 25 years, said it would make an enormous difference to her but more particularly to young people in the industry.
“I started in this industry young, had children and then came back in. I lost 10 years of long service leave I was entitled to,” Moffat said.
If you work in this sector, you often change employers. You follow your participants.
The minister for industrial relations, Sophie Cotsis, said the Minns government was expanding the scheme to community service workers to ensure those who dedicate their lives to supporting others gain the recognition and stability they deserve.
The scheme means people working in community services across NSW can take a well-earned break and access financial support when they need it, no matter the number of employers they have worked for in the industry.
The new scheme is entirely funded by employer contributions through a levy, making it a cost-free and equitable program for people working in community services across the state.
More to come in the next post.
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Updated at 02.47 BST
ATO gives tax return advice
Tom McIlroy
The looming end of the financial year means the Australian Taxation Office and many workers are preparing for tax time and lodging of annual returns.
In new advice to taxpayers this morning, the ATO says Australians shouldn’t rush to lodge paperwork until the required employee income statement is marked as “tax ready” and other pre-filled financial information has been uploaded.
About 142,000 people lodged their tax return in the first two weeks of July last year and had to make amendments or update information such as undeclared income.
The ATO assistant commissioner, Rob Thomson, said that waiting until late July is a smart approach because it allows for pre-filled information to be automatically included in your tax return.
“We know doing your tax return is something to tick off your to-do list each year but there’s no need to rush. The best time to lodge is from late July once everything is ready,” he said.
We pre-fill information from your employer, banks, government agencies and health funds into your tax return to help you get it right the first time – regardless of whether you use a registered tax agent or lodge yourself.
Once an employee’s income statement is ready to go, it will be marked as “tax ready” in the ATO online system called myTax or in the ATO app.
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Updated at 02.48 BST
Wealth of top 1% surges by over $52.4tn in the past 10 years – enough to end poverty 22 times over, Oxfam finds
The wealth of world’s richest 1% has increased by more than $52.4tn since 2015, according to new Oxfam analysis.
“This is more than enough to eliminate annual poverty 22 times over at the World Bank’s highest poverty line of $12.83 a day,” Oxfam said. Their numbers come ahead of the International Conference on Financing for Development happening in Seville, Spain.
The wealth of 3,000 billionaires has surged $6.5tn since 2015, now making up equivalent to 14.6% of global GDP.
The statement from Oxfam reads:
Ten years ago, in a landmark agreement, Australia joined other wealthy countries in committing to increase aid to achieve the Sustainable Development goals. Since 2015, the aid budget has been cut from 0.98% to 0.65% of the Federal Budget. While Australia is no longer cutting its aid budget, cuts by the previous government have left Australia amongst the lowest aid providers in the OCED, contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals being off-track.
Meanwhile, failures in our tax system to properly tax wealth accumulation at the top, mean the wealth of the richest 1% continues to grow.
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Updated at 02.01 BST
Josh Butler
Australia to send 100 defence force personnel to Europe to help Ukraine
Australia will send 100 defence force personnel to Europe to assist Ukraine, helping deliver humanitarian and military assistance from the United Kingdom.
The defence minister, Richard Marles, announced overnight, at the Nato conference in the Netherlands, that Australia would help Nato operations by sending a Royal Australian Air Force E-7A Wedgetail aircraft to Europe in August under Operation Kudu. Marles said it would “help protect a vital international gateway for humanitarian and military assistance into Ukraine”.
Operation Kudu is the ADF mission helping train Ukraine personnel in the United Kingdom. It is understood no Australian forces will deploy to Ukraine specifically.
The defence minister, Richard Marles. Photograph: Jono Searle/AAP
A Wedgetail aircraft and up to 100 ADF personnel were previously deployed to Germany for six months, returning in April 2024, according to the defence department.
“Under Operation Kudu, up to 100 ADF personnel will deploy alongside the aircraft. The aircraft deployment is expected to conclude by November 2025. This deployment of ADF aircraft and personnel complements Australia’s overall support to Ukraine of more than $1.5bn since the start of Russia’s invasion,” Marles said.
Marles did not announce a major defence spending commitment at Nato, as other world leaders did. The Australian government has said it won’t jump at the Trump administration’s request that it raise military spending to 3.5% of GDP, from its current level of about 2%, but Anthony Albanese and Marles have not ruled out spending more on defence capabilities if it was deemed that it was necessary.
“Australia is proud of its longstanding operational partnership with Nato,” Marles said.
The deployment of an E-7A Wedgetail aircraft will again showcase our ability to operate from Europe, alongside Nato and partners, in support of Ukraine and international peace and security.
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Updated at 02.01 BST
David McBride to take appeal to high court
Sarah Basford Canales
David McBride will take his case to the high court in an attempt to challenge his conviction and reduce his five-year, eight-month prison sentence.
The former army lawyer was sentenced in May 2024 for taking and leaking classified defence material to the ABC, which formed the basis of an exposé on alleged war crimes by Australian troops in Afghanistan.
McBride’s appeal against the sentence and conviction was unsuccessful in May and has now lodged an application with the high court to hear the case.
His legal team is arguing against the lengthy prison sentence, saying it failed to take into account McBride was motivated by “bravely and selflessly” attempting to right what he saw as a “serious wrong”.
McBride told Guardian Australia from jail last October he took issue with what he perceived as defence leadership not applying the law equally to soldiers accused of potential war crimes, or at all, if it wasn’t convenient.
McBride took 235 documents from defence offices – mostly in the ACT – between May 2014 and December 2015 with 207 of them classified as secret. He later leaked documents to the ABC.
McBride, who is in Canberra’s only prison, is eligible for parole in August 2026 with his full sentence ending in January 2030.
Read more here:
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Updated at 01.38 BST
David Littleproud tells shadow cabinet to ‘come out swinging’ after election defeat
Dan Jervis-Bardy
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, is convening her shadow cabinet in Canberra as the Coalition gets down to business after its thumping federal election defeat.
A day after sketching out her agenda in a speech to the National Press Club, Ley told her shadow cabinet colleagues that the election result was “sobering” and the “message from Australians was clear”.
She said:
So our task is now to rebuild with humility, to listen with purpose, to go forward with conviction and every voice in this room has a role to play.
In his opening message to colleagues, the Nationals leader, David Littleproud, said the Coalition had to “cop the election result on the chin”.
But Littleproud said while the opposition had to be humble, it also had to be “aggressive” in prosecuting the case against Labor, assuring colleagues that the “mob” (read: voters) would eventually turn and “turn big time” against the Albanese government.
So while it’s humbling and disappointing, the election result, you can do one of two things. You can get in the foetal position and give up or you can come out swinging. Being from western Queensland, we always take the latter. So let’s come out swinging
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Updated at 01.37 BST
Uni student charged with alleged hacking for cheaper parking, better grades
An attempt to save on parking has allegedly put a university student on a path to altering her marks and threatening to sell other students’ data after a series of cyber-attacks.
The 27-year-old woman is due to face court today after being charged with a slew of fraud and hacking offences.
Police allege she was behind a series of cyber-attacks on Western Sydney University, beginning in 2021.
They say it began with system exploits in an attempt to secure unauthorised discounts for parking on campus. But police further allege it escalated into alterations to her academic results and threats to sell other students’ confidential data on the dark web.
The university suffered a series of hacks involving unauthorised access, data exfiltration, system compromises and unauthorised use of the institution’s infrastructure, police allege. Hundreds of staff and students were affected.
The former student was arrested as police seized computer equipment and mobile devices during a raid on a Kingswood unit yesterday.
The woman is due to face Penrith Local Court charged with 20 offences including 10 counts of modifying or accessing restricted data.
She is also accused of dishonestly obtaining property and financial advantage by deception.
A Western Sydney University spokesperson said the university has been working with NSW Police to assist their investigations:
These cyber incidents have had a significant impact on the University community and we are thankful for the support of NSW Police. As this matter is now before the Court, the University cannot provide further comment.
– Australian Associated Press
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Updated at 02.47 BST