quote:

CPA's Alex Malley's confidential Macquarie Uni exit

CPA Australia chief executive Alex Malley left Macquarie University in 2006 under a confidential settlement after the accounting lecturer was accused of serious misconduct.

The Associate Professor was allowed to resign without any finding of wrongdoing after allegedly directing hundreds of students each year to undertake paid tutorials through his wife's company, without Macquarie's knowledge. He also resigned mid-term (in June 2006) from his staff-elected position on the Council of Macquarie University, its highest governing body. The Council's members included then chancellor Maurice Newman and now-disgraced student union president Victor Ma.

Mr Malley was asked to explain student complaints that he was giving bonus marks in the university's first-year course, Accounting 101, to students who paid to complete private modules via Mrs Malley's website, Edextreme.

If proven, this would have been a prima facie breach of university policy and of the Commonwealth's Higher Education Funding Act, which proscribes auxiliary course-related charges (in addition to published fees) being imposed on students.
Edextreme was registered in 2002 in the previous surname (Wilson) of Mr Malley's wife Rachel. Mrs Malley has used her married name in the couple's other publicly-available property and company filings.

Mrs Malley was a director, secretary and 50 per cent shareholder in Edextreme with Adelaide man John Lugg. The entity was registered to the residential address of Castle Cove accountant Anthony Protich. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission began strike-off proceedings against Edextreme in January 2007 and the company was formally deregistered in April 2007.

Mr Malley was a serving director of CPA Australia when he resigned his faculty position at Macquarie.

CPA is a professional standards membership organisation for accountants. Despite the abrupt end to Mr Malley's academic tenure, he was elected CPA's president fewer than 16 months later, on October 1, 2007. At that time, another Macquarie academic, Richard Petty, sat on the CPA board and its Nominations and Remuneration Committee. Professor Petty was the committee's chairman from 2010 to 2015. Graeme Wade, now chairman of the National Basketball League which CPA Australia pays $756,000 to sponsor, has been a CPA director since 2006 and sat on the Nominations and Remuneration committee in 2013, and from 2015 to the present day. He replaced Professor Petty as its chairman in 2016. Kerry Ryan has been a CPA director since 2007 and has sat on the Nominations and Remuneration Committee every year since, bar 2014.

Professor Petty, Mr Wade and Ms Ryan have been able to remain directors after CPA's constitution was changed in 2014 to extend their term limits to a maximum of 11 years.
CPA Australia and Mr Malley did not respond to specific questions put by The Australian Financial Review but their solicitor confirmed the existence of the deed of settlement between Mr Malley and Macquarie University. The solicitor also claimed the Financial Review's questions included "significant factual errors", that Mr Malley was unable to comment on due to confidentiality terms and that CPA and Mr Malley were in the process of commencing defamation proceedings against this newspaper.

A spokesperson for the university said that "as a matter of practice, Macquarie University does not comment on individual matters pertaining to current or former employees. Mr Malley's employment with Macquarie concluded more than 10 years ago, and there has been no relationship between the university and Mr Malley since that time. Macquarie University maintains the highest ethical standards in our approach to teaching and research."

Mr Malley was appointed CPA's chief executive in October 2009 and under his leadership the organisation has exponentially increased its membership, revenue and public visibility. His critics, whom include hundreds of disaffected members, are indignant at board oversight, governance standards and excessive expenditure on augmenting Mr Malley's public profile, but unrelated to the accounting profession.

After weeks of public scrutiny of the organisation's spending and secrecy, CPA last week called its 2017 Annual General Meeting in Singapore for April 27. The 75 per cent of its members based in Australia will be able to access proceedings via an online video stream. Questions to the board from members not in attendance must be submitted in advance. Just 5 per cent of CPA's members reside in Singapore.

CPA has also disabled the public "Find a CPA" function on its website, preventing disaffected members from organising against management and the board, but also obstructing a critical generator of business leads for its members.

"The information about members on our website is available for professional usage," CPA's chief operating officer – Member Services, Jeff Hughes, wrote to members on Friday, March 16, "but if this information is used incorrectly such as to build email distribution lists then we will take appropriate action".

CPA is an incorporated members' body whose stated vision is to be "known as… the world's best member service organisation."

Unlike listed companies whose governance and transparency it often critiques, CPA does not break out the individual remuneration of its directors or its executives (except, for the board, in 2008).

In 2007, CPA's volunteer board began drawing directors' fees for the first time, which have risen from $63,000 in 2008 (when Mr Malley was paid $168,000 as president) to around $100,000 annually in 2016. In 2014 and 2015, Mr Wade was paid in the vicinity of $400,000 to serve as president. Total remuneration for the board's 12 members, Mr Malley, Mr Hughes and CFO Adam Awty was $5.51 million in 2016, up from $4.57 million in 2015.

In 2016, Wade was replaced as president by University of Sydney deputy vice-chancellor Tyrone Carlin. Both Professor Carlin and Professor Petty were PhD students at Macquarie while Mr Malley was on faculty.

In addition to their paid positions at CPA Australia, Mr Malley, Professor Carlin, Professor Petty, Mr Wade, Mr Hughes and Mr Awty are all paid additionally as key management personnel of its new and fully-owned subsidiary CPA Australia Advice, which the parent loaned $5.6 million in 2016 to keep afloat.

Bogan King posted:

https://twitter.com/TomMcIlroy/status/846094884343709696

open24hours posted:

Jesus Christ they are fuckwits. For those not familiar with Canberra, the Department of Immigration is currently located in Belconnen and, along with the ABS, is one of the major employers in the area. Belconnen is a thriving area with shops, schools, services and public transport. Immigration employees presumably also live in the area.

Canberra airport is in the middle of nowhere, has virtually no services, no public transport, limited childcare options and the roads are barely adequate for the traffic as is.

I'm almost tempted to believe it's deliberate attempt to damage an important part of the city for the benefit of the Canberra Airport Group.

BBJoey posted:

honestly i don't recognise agencies that aren't in civic as even existing

"can't wait to start work at pm&c, and visit the single cafe within walking distance every single day"

Kafka Syrup posted:

Honestly if they move anywhere it should be Woden since it's basically a bloody ghost town

quote:

Here I was thinking I would nip down and grab a coffee and come back and talk about the China extradition treaty and while I was gone the Prime Minister withdrew it.

Well, it was a long-ish line.

Laserface posted:

Legal advice requested. TL;DR at the bottom


Details:
A few weeks ago I attended a BBQ at my friends parents house. He was house sitting for them while they were on holiday.

I got there late and everyone was already eating. I sat down, got a beer and grabbed a snag and some grilled halloumi. I felt something get caught in my throat and coughed a bit to try and dislodge it. Thought it was a bit of bread crust or a piece of char or gristle, kept eating. Noticed a jabbing pain so I stopped eating and tried every method under the sun to dislodge it - eating bread, gargling cola, drinking honey, spewing. Nothing worked. Ended up leaving after an hour of trying to have a good time and went to the local ER as I was staying at my parents house for the night.

Usual 2hr wait at the ER for a Saturday night. Finally see a doctor who gets me to say AHHHH and shines torch in my mouth. Orders an x-ray which comes up blank. Tells me it's simply organic material and it'll break down overnight. I go home and sleep.

Next day it's still there. Go about my business but pain is getting worse, every time I swallow it's a 50/50 chance of stabbing pain or nothing. My throat is swelling up like it would from tonsillitis. I go to my ER. Another 2 hour wait and I get seen to by a nurse. He actually takes the time to look into my throats and sees something. Comes back with an ice cold metal tongue depressor and some long tweezers and removes a 1" metal wire from my throat.

The wire is from a BBQ cleaning brush. It was lodged in end-first like a needle. I get a paddle pop and I'm OK to go home. No pain after.

Anyway, the dad comes back from holidays and he hears the story and calls me. Assures me he is sorry and wants to help seek compensation from the manufacturer.

TL;DR: woolies has taken their lovely BBQ brushes off the market and I'm now at the stage they are asking me for a figure to make this go away. I have zero experience on this matter so no idea what Would be considered fair. This isn't in court yet and I don't really want it to be, but I have some expensive unrelated medical stuff I could really use the money for. Thoughts?

Doctor Spaceman posted:

quote:

KENNETT: He got on the phone and said are you happy with the result, and I said “No I’m not”, and he said “Why?” and I said “Without your front pages and total disunity I’d have had ten percent swing. I would have got myself another four and you’ve hosed it up for me and he went off his brain.
PEACOCK: Oh did he?
KENNETT: And he went off his brain trying to (inaudible)
PEACOCK: He went off his brain?
KENNETT: And I said…
PEACOCK: And HE went off his brain?
KENNETT: He said to me, “I didn’t like the way you kept me out of the campaign”. I said, “Wouldn’t have you in it, and I didn’t have any federal people in it.”
PEACOCK: Well you didn’t have me. Didn’t have anyone.
KENNETT: And I said to him, “Tomorrow, I’m going to bucket the whole lot of you”.
PEACOCK: No! Don’t do that Jeffrey.
KENNETT: Hold your flow. I said, “Tomorrow John” and he said, “I know where your sympathies lie”, and I said, “I couldn’t give a gently caress. I have no sympathies any more. You’re all a pack of shits and tomorrow I’m going berserk”. Well he went off his brain and in the end I said to him, I said, “Howard. You’re a oval office. You haven’t got my support, you never will have and I’m not going to rubbish you or the party tomorrow but I feel a lot better having told you you’re a oval office.”
PEACOCK: Oh poo poo!
KENNETT: And the poor little fellow didn’t know whether he was Arthur or Martha.
PEACOCK: Oh poo poo!
KENNETT: (laughing) I just thought I should let you know.
PEACOCK: Well, tomorrow you are humble. You do feel better. And I am getting out of that car. I’ve told you. I told Margaret, I said “Tomorrow I’m just gonna get out of that fuckin’ car and say this is not Howard’s day, it’s not my day, it’s not Carla’s day, it’s not anyone’s day, not Richie’s day. This is a day for Jeffrey Kennett”. And I was thinking that I’d go in even earlier, and even if only a third of the bastards were there I was gonna go and grab the mic and say this is unprecedented. This in the midst of the most horrific difficulties and I faced ’em when I was the leader in by-elections, we haven’t had ’em for some years. We had a great win yesterday, and the only person who is deserving. Not just earnt it, but deserving of support is Jeffrey Kennett and if you don’t give him everything then you’re letting down the Liberal Party.
KENNETT: Well, all I can say. I thought I should let you know where I ended up with your little mate…
PEACOCK: Well, gently caress him. I’m not worried. I just.. I almost bloody cried. I was terribly worried. I was terribly worried. My fuckin’ anger yesterday as Margaret knows. First thing I came in last night I said “Oh, fuckin’ oval office! I said the whole fuckin’ thing could upset tomorrow” I was really… And she was saying “What’s Jeffrey done?” and I was saying “It’s not what Jeffrey’s done. It’s what everyone’s loving done to Jeffrey”.
KENNETT: Well. I think we came out of it alright and certainly…
PEACOCK: Alright? The news reports. Have you seen them on the television?
KENNETT: No.
PEACOCK: They’re saying “Labor down 7%”. Cain is claiming on a two party preferred vote – and don’t you let that oval office get away with that – it’s only 2%. They’re saying the Joh campaign has stopped in it’s tracks. In one part of the three state electorates it’s something like 2 to 3% down on the last vote and the Liberal Party will walk in.
KENNETT: Well. We won on primaries in every lower house seat. And even in the National Party seats. So it’s a fantastic…
PEACOCK: Well, exactly. That’s what I interpreted from it. Mate I didn’t have the details, I was just going to talk you. And don’t you (inaudible) me. You can all go and get stuffed. This is Jeff Kennett’s day.
KENNETT: Well. It’s been a good result. But anyway. Howard won’t know whether he’s Arthur or Martha.
PEACOCK: I know. But you feel better?
KENNETT: Oh yes.
PEACOCK: Be humble. Everyone’s gonna say “You are the greatest leader” since sliced bread mate.
KENNETT: It’s a good all-rounder.
PEACOCK: Where are you?
KENNETT: I’m on the way home. I’m going home and having a reasonably early night and I will see you tomorrow.
PEACOCK: I’ve got to sit in the chair about four or five rows back from the front. And I’ll allow Howard, after he’s had his tumultuous reception to come down and sit next to me and be photographed together smiling.
KENNETT: Oh, how pathetic.
PEACOCK: I would do that.
KENNETT: How pathetic!
PEACOCK: Yeah but I’m doing it on the basis of when I get out, and when I talk because they’ll be chasing me because of the federal issues, I’m just gonna talk Kennett. I knew it was gonna happen, and it should have been fuckin’ better but it would have been better despite those difficulties.
KENNETT: Well there’s two points. One is the federal difficulties. The other point is the way Cain tried to bloody deceive the electorate on this price control thing.
PEACOCK: That’s right.
KENNETT: And the good thing about it….
PEACOCK: Be humble mate.
KENNETT: Oh, I know.
PEACOCK: They’re behind you. So you don’t have to…
KENNETT: The thing is we didn’t (inaudible) like Cain and the National Party did to try and win political support. We might have lost some votes on that price control thing but we’ve kept very firmly to our philosophies. That’s an important part of this whole win I think.
PEACOCK: Well make those points. But just tell them, there are hundreds of thousands of people in this state who are going to support you. And you’re right. And that’s it. Just be humble.
KENNETT: I will see you tomorrow.
PEACOCK: I look forward to it. And I am just so thrilled.
KENNETT: Alright mate.
PEACOCK: See you then.
KENNETT: Give my regards to your good lady.
PEACOCK: Ok. Ta. Bye.
KENNETT: Bye.

You Am I posted:

He's now attacking the teenage daughter of the Governor of the RBA:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/mar/29/mark-latham-attacks-15-year-old-daughter-of-reserve-bank-governor

quote:

Damning Bronwyn Bishop travel probe report revealed


DISGRACED former Speaker Bronwyn Bishop repaid thousands of dollars of travel costs relating to 11 trips before refusing to co-operate any further with an investigation of her expenses claims.

The Herald Sun has obtained the official review of the former Liberal MP’s use of entitlements, which reveals she returned $6768.25 to taxpayers, on top of the $7200 repaid over the “Choppergate” scandal.

But Ms Bishop provided records for only three years of her travels before informing departmental investigators that she no longer wanted to “open her life to the world”.

That abruptly ended the probe and left the Department of Finance unable to properly scrutinise hundreds of thousands of dollars in claims over another seven years.

The damning report — secret until today — criticised Ms Bishop’s commitment to the inquiry, saying records she had provided were “in large part, lacking in any details”.

Ms Bishop repaid costs for travelling to the weddings of three Liberal colleagues and to the funeral of media mogul Kerry Packer.

But last May, a month after losing preselection for her NSW seat of Mackellar, she stopped co-operating with the Department of Finance.

Ms Bishop — who now receives a taxpayer-funded pension of more than $250,000 a year — quit as House of Representatives Speaker in 2015 after “Choppergate”.

She repaid an expenses claim of $7200 after the Herald Sun revealed she had charged taxpayers for a return luxury helicopter trip from Melbourne to Geelong to attend a Liberal Party fundraiser.

Then prime minister Tony Abbott ordered a review of Ms Bishop’s travel claims, promising she would “co-operate fully” and repay any money for trips not meeting “community expectations”.

But investigators were able to analyse only three years of her travel records before she ceased co-operation.

“As the department is reliant on information provided by Ms Bishop to fulfil its role in the exercise, no further assessment is possible in relation to the incomplete seven years,” the report said.

Department investigator Greg Miles found details Ms Bishop provided for her travel during 2005-06, 2006-07, and 2013-14 were “non-specific and generic in detail”.

Questioned by Mr Miles, the veteran Liberal MP said she understood the expectation that she be “visible, approachable and available” but refused to provide more data.

She agreed to repay $5249.81 claimed for travel to the weddings of Liberal MPs Sophie Mirabella, Peter Slipper, and Teresa Gambaro, but did not concede the trips were outside the rules.

She also repaid $158 claimed for a chauffeur-driven limousine ride to Mr Packer’s funeral at the Sydney Opera House in 2006.

“She took the view that if her attendance at an event was in response to a stakeholder invitation, then she was entitled to travel at Commonwealth expense,” the report found.

Her overseas travel costs were deemed “comparable with other parliamentarians’”.

The department noted Ms Bishop’s statement last year that “she had herself reviewed travel undertaken and considered it to meet community expectations”.

MPs’ expenses are now to be overseen by an independent umpire and published online every month.

quote:

"If the public knew what went on in the Party I don't think they'd have anything to do with One Nation"
On Monday night Four Corners reporter Caro Meldrum-Hanna investigates the inner workings of Pauline Hanson's One Nation. She hears from former supporters who have been left disenchanted, and are asking Hanson to "please explain".

quote:

One Nation MP’s disdain for ‘slimy’ state leader


The policy dissent and personality clashes that rocked One Nation’s election campaign in Western Australia have been laid bare in a series of blistering emails, including a winning ­candidate’s “disdain” for his “slimy, lying” state leader, Colin ­Tincknell.

Amid the fallout from One Nation’s worse-than-expected result at last month’s election, the leaked emails also reveal bitter, expletive-laden exchanges between candidates and Pauline Hanson’s Brisbane-based chief of staff James Ashby, who ­demanded tight control over the WA campaign.

“You couldn’t fart without getting permission from James Ashby,” said candidate Sandy Baraiolo, who was dumped for refusing to cede control of her Facebook account. An irate Baraiolo is threatening legal action against the party if it does not reimburse her the $4000 she spent on her campaign. “I will become Pauline Hanson’s worst nightmare if she doesn’t give my money back,” she said.

The Weekend Australian spoke to a number of former candidates who were highly critical of the way One Nation ran its WA campaign and said this should serve as a warning for ­potential candidates in the upcoming Queensland election.

Others, however, said the campaign was professionally run given the two-month timeframe between registration of the party in WA and the March 11 election, with some blaming the political naivete of their fellow candidates.

The party polled 8.5 per cent of the vote in the 35 lower house seats it contested, but had expected a stronger result. At the 2001 state election, One Nation won 9.6 per cent of the vote. It can be revealed one of the party’s three successful candidates is among the disgruntled candidates who have been privately scathing of One Nation’s campaign and the role played by Tincknell, Hanson’s pick as WA leader.

Robin Scott, an electrical contractor who won a seat in the Mining and Pastoral upper house region, will sit alongside Tincknell when parliament ­resumes next month. One week after the election, when it was unclear whether Scott would win his seat, he wrote an email to a former One Nation candidate about Tincknell’s support for a preference deal with the WA Liberal Party. The arrangement was unpopular among One Nation voters and many candidates, some of whom refused to distribute the party’s how-to-vote cards.

“Until Colin Ticknell (sic) came on the seen (sic) the party was a happy and cohesive bunch of people who only wanted to improve the lives of ordinary West Australians,” Scott wrote to outspoken former One Nation candidate Margaret Dodd on March 18, in an email that raises questions about his ability to work with Tincknell.

“We had the election in the bag and all of a sudden we were getting into bed with the Liberals and my phone rang hot for two days and I was left to explain WHY. I still have a chance of being elected, however I will have to sit next to our slimy lying leader in the chamber and I am concerned that I may not be able to hide my disdain for the man.

“Once again Pauline Hanson has been played like a fiddle by someone who’s (sic) only interest was electing himself, he surrounded himself with like-­minded people who took the bait and have paid the price, I myself kept a low profile and escaped the chopping block.

“If I should be lucky enough, rest assured I will remind him of the people he chewed up and spat out to feather his own nest.”

When contacted this week, Scott said he had since spoken to Tincknell and “straightened out our differences”. He said Ashby had also assured him that Tincknell was not responsible for the Liberal deal and that it had been negotiated at a federal level.

Tincknell said Scott had made the comments in the email because he had been “poisoned” by Ron McLean and Marye Daniels, who previously ran the party in WA. He only had “one side of the story” in relation to the preference deal. Tincknell said he believed Scott would make an excellent MP.

The leaked emails also show Ashby was engaged in a war of words with several candidates during and after the campaign. A disendorsed candidate, Dane Sorensen, wrote to Ashby and other candidates on March 17 to complain about a “shambolic and stupidly conducted amateur attempt of a campaign”. Ashby fired back: “Wow, you’ve surprised me with such eloquent words Dane, unlike the multiple foul-mouthed calls ... Don’t ever contact me again you self-righteous, deranged man.”

Former One Nation hopeful Anthony Fels, a former state Liberal MP, said he fell out with Hanson after he made remarks to her about Ashby’s involvement in making copies of former federal Speaker Peter Slipper’s diary.

He claimed Ashby had ­ordered security guards to ­remove him from a One Nation event at a hotel in Perth last month. “Everything was going beautifully in WA until James Ashby turned up,” Fels said.

Ashby said yesterday Fels was a “terrible person”. He said only a handful of One Nation’s 51 candidates had ­proven troublesome. “Some of these people were not suitable to be candidates,” he said.

Ashby admitted that One ­Nation should not have struck the preference deal with the Liberals. “Would we do it again? No,” he said.

An unsuccessful upper house candidate, Indian-born small business owner Chris Fernandez, said he was happy with the campaign even though he had been promised the No 1 spot in his upper house region but was put at No 2 on the ballot paper. “I didn’t throw a fit — you have to be a team player,” he said.