Today
BDO poaches big-four talent as partnership hits record high
The country’s fifth-largest accounting firm by revenue has surpassed the 300-partner milestone as it ropes in staff from larger rivals.
- Daniel Arbon
This Month
The most important lessons these CEOs learnt in 2024
Celebrating your wins, staying grounded and embracing generative AI were some of the key things these top business leaders took away from last year.
- Euan Black and Sally Patten
Trump uses New Orleans attack to push security and border agenda
The incident and the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas have fuelled Republican narratives that crime is out of control.
- James Politi
‘No terrorist to me’: Relatives, friends saw few signs before attack
Little in his outward persona suggested Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar could be responsible for such a brutal attack along one of the most famous US streets.
- Maria Jimenez Moya, Shannon Sims, J. David Goodman and Mike Baker
Suspect in New Orleans terror attack that killed 15 was an army veteran
US President Joe Biden condemned the “despicable” ISIS-inspired attack that 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar carried out on New Year’s Day.
- Updated
- Andrew Buncombe
December 2024
New Deloitte CEO reveals executive team
Incoming Deloitte Australia chief executive Joanne Gorton has kept six executives and added four new members to the team.
- Edmund Tadros
- Exclusive
- Big four accountants
EY sues five partners who left for Alvarez & Marsal
The civil action comes as EY’s leadership asks at least eight partners to leave as part of a cost-cutting exercise.
- Edmund Tadros
ASIC sues Rex; ‘Australia needs a DOGE’; Trump launches perfume
Read everything that’s happened in the news so far today.
- Opinion
- Super wars
Deloitte gave industry super governance a big tick
The report into Cbus’ fit and proper processes dispels assertions that the equal representative model is a barrier to funds getting the skills and expertise needed to govern these large financial institutions.
- Ann Sherry
- Exclusive
- PNG
Bigger than sport: PNG’s PM on getting an NRL team
James Marape, Papua New Guinea’s prime minister, says the bid to join the NRL goes way beyond sport and commerce for the country, and will also benefit Australia.
- Angela Macdonald-Smith
‘Eat what you kill:’ how this consultancy is taking on the big four
Alvarez & Marsal’s remuneration model means managing directors can potentially earn multiples of the average big four partner pay.
- Edmund Tadros
- Exclusive
- Big four consultants
What Defence spent on consultants could run submarine fleet for a year
What would Defence’s $811 million in spending on the big five consulting firms in 2022-23 buy? Turns out the answer is quite a lot.
- Ronald Mizen
Alvarez & Marsal plunders Deloitte to erect local restructuring unit
Two years and 50 partners later, US bigwig Alvarez & Marsal is kicking off an Australian restructuring arm. And it has triggered a mass exodus from Deloitte’s offices.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Wayne Swan’s Cbus testimony an unexploded bomb
A discrepancy has now emerged between Wayne Swan’s (very) recent Senate testimony and the findings of a review dated two days before his appearance.
- Myriam Robin
November 2024
The big winners as scandal forces big four into retreat
Mid-sized firms such as those run by Steve Meyn of PKF, Jamie O’Rourke of RSM and Annabelle Clare of Walshs had their best year on record as clients move away from out-of-favour big players.
- Updated
- Edmund Tadros
Deloitte made me do it: CEO throws auditor under the bus
A weekend call from the auditors sent the $1.7 billion Web Travel into a spin.
- Anthony Macdonald
Web Travel restates earnings two months after WebJet spinoff
Company boss John Guscic says he’ll explain to investors next week at a postponed results briefing why margins on its global WebBeds business are falling.
- Jenny Wiggins
Distressed debt fund wrangles with Deloitte to win $480m Keystone fund
Sources said Deloitte has failed to be wooed by Arbitrium’s bid so far, and is veering towards a liquidation which could be a lengthy and expensive process.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
What the inquiry into the structure of the big four firms recommended
A summary of the key recommendations from the joint parliamentary inquiry into the structure of the big four consulting firms and what they mean for the sector.
- Updated
- Edmund Tadros
Capping big four partnerships would ’cause great disruption’
Two conservative members of an inquiry committee that recommended capping accounting partnerships at 400 said the move would be an “extraordinary intervention” by the government.
- Edmund Tadros