The Guardian

Australia politics live: new rules for public service aim to prevent another Robodebt scandal; social media summit to look at age limit



The Labor government has proposed changes to rules for the oversight of the public service. Follow today’s news liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe University of Sydney has spent millions of dollars more on external contractors and consultants – including PwC – calculating and administering liability for wage underpayments than it has paid out to staff, answers provided to the Greens have revealed.In the answers to supplementary questions, provided to chair of the NSW education committee, Greens MLC Abigail Boyd, it was revealed the university had repaid 514 casual staff a total value of $2.8m as of last month, while across all “remediation work streams”, it had paid 10,692 professional staff a total value of $17.4m.They’ve gotten away with so much, for so long, with next to no accountability. It’s past time we had a look under the hood of these public institutions, with a proper inquiry into their governance.We are continuing to identify and remediate any past underpayments. The bulk of the work to date has been investigating and calculating incidences of underpayment across this period, ahead of remediation and payment of backpay.Our priority is to pay people as quickly as possible however this is complex and important work, and it must be accurate. Multiple sources of historic information need to be analysed over a period of 13 semesters to correctly classify the work completed, identify any incorrect payments and calculate the individual remediation amounts.At the moment, the maximum the commonwealth government can provide to public schools is 20% of the SRS … this landmark legislation allows the Albanese Government to deliver more funding to public schools and tie that funding to practical reforms to help students catch up, keep up and finish school. Continue reading…



Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2024/oct/10/australia-politics-live-public-service-international-student-cap-social-media-summit-qld-election-health-tax-cost-of-living

Author : Amy Remeikis

Publish date : 2024-10-09 20:03:59

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