Fri 14 Aug 2026 at 6:39pmFri 14 Aug 2026 at 6:39pm<\/p>\n
Thanks a MILLION for joining us<\/p>\n
OK that’s a wrap today.<\/p>\n
Thank you so much for joining the special business blog today focusing on the senate hearing.<\/p>\n
From the team, we hope you have a safe and relaxing weekend.<\/p>\n
Loading<\/p>\n
Fri 14 Aug 2026 at 6:36pmFri 14 Aug 2026 at 6:36pm<\/p>\n
Joint Committee has adjourned<\/p>\n
That’s it folks.<\/p>\n
The committee stands adjourned.<\/p>\n
There’s now A LOT of work to be done by the senators and KPMG representatives who fronted the hearing.<\/p>\n
Fri 14 Aug 2026 at 6:34pmFri 14 Aug 2026 at 6:34pm<\/p>\n
How much is the whistleblower worth?<\/p>\n
“How much is the whistleblower worth?” Senator O’Neill asks former CEO Andrew Yates.<\/p>\n
“I’m not going to put a figure on that,” he responds.<\/p>\n
Fri 14 Aug 2026 at 6:29pmFri 14 Aug 2026 at 6:29pm<\/p>\n
KPMG past and current bosses in front of senators<\/p>\n
It’s extraordinary to see current and former KPMG bosses sitting in a line in front of Australian senators, heads bowed, apologising for professionally poor behaviour.<\/p>\n
It looks like a group of naughty school children.<\/p>\n
Fri 14 Aug 2026 at 6:26pmFri 14 Aug 2026 at 6:26pm<\/p>\n
Mr Yates and Mr McClelland working on investigation<\/p>\n
General counsel James McClelland’s emotional testimony is being spoken of again.<\/p>\n
Senator Scarr wants the KPMG’s former bosses to respond to his testimony.<\/p>\n
Mr Yates, we were told earlier, didn’t instruct Mr McClelland to forensically examine emails.<\/p>\n
“It was very difficult to understand what we were dealing with,” Mr Yates said.<\/p>\n
“If I had my time again,” he said, he would do things differently.<\/p>\n
Fri 14 Aug 2026 at 6:16pmFri 14 Aug 2026 at 6:16pm<\/p>\n
Hearing moves into overtime<\/p>\n
This Joint Committee was scheduled to wrap now (6:15pm AEST) but it’s moved into overtime.<\/p>\n
There’s been a huge amount to get through.<\/p>\n
Fri 14 Aug 2026 at 6:11pmFri 14 Aug 2026 at 6:11pm<\/p>\n
All together now<\/p>\n
Senator O’Neill has just asked past and present KPMG bosses to join together in the room.<\/p>\n
Fri 14 Aug 2026 at 6:10pmFri 14 Aug 2026 at 6:10pm<\/p>\n
Ms Mortell in the dark<\/p>\n
KPMG deputy chair Ms Carmel Mortell has just revealed she was not aware of the whistleblower scandal until April 2025.<\/p>\n
Fri 14 Aug 2026 at 6:05pmFri 14 Aug 2026 at 6:05pm<\/p>\n
Full disclosure needed from KPMG<\/p>\n
KPMG has just agreed to hand over relevant documents to Lendlease, Macquarie and other firms connected with this scandal.<\/p>\n
Senators want more “transparency” from KPMG to force cultural change.<\/p>\n
This is a significant step in the process of KPMG being held accountable amid this saga.<\/p>\n
Fri 14 Aug 2026 at 5:59pmFri 14 Aug 2026 at 5:59pm<\/p>\n
The ‘irony’ of an auditor being improper: senator says<\/p>\n
“There is not one part of me that is going to defend any of that conduct,” CEO John Sams says.<\/p>\n
KPMG is relied upon to examine the books and management of some of Australia’s biggest companies with integrity and credibility.<\/p>\n
Fri 14 Aug 2026 at 5:55pmFri 14 Aug 2026 at 5:55pm<\/p>\n
KPMG failed the whistleblower<\/p>\n
“Clearly we have absolutely failed the whistleblower in this case,” CEO Sams tells senators.<\/p>\n
This goes to the heart of this hearing.<\/p>\n
KPMG needs a culture, the senators insist, that encourages employees who believe wrongdoing is being done to come forward.<\/p>\n
Fri 14 Aug 2026 at 5:52pmFri 14 Aug 2026 at 5:52pm<\/p>\n
Allens services under question<\/p>\n
Sharma asks Ebeid: Would you use Allens again for this type of investigation?<\/p>\n
But Senator Sharma interrupted himself with another question.<\/p>\n
Fri 14 Aug 2026 at 5:47pmFri 14 Aug 2026 at 5:47pm<\/p>\n
Whistleblower on their own legally<\/p>\n
New chair Ebeid tells senators he knew ASIC’s guidelines said KPMG should not provide the whistleblower legal advice and that the whistleblower needed to seek their own legal counsel.<\/p>\n
Fri 14 Aug 2026 at 5:41pmFri 14 Aug 2026 at 5:41pm<\/p>\n
By how much should a KPMG partner be sanctioned?<\/p>\n
CEO John Sams insists harsher penalties are being handed out.<\/p>\n
He has been asked who was fined what by Senator Scarr.<\/p>\n
Sams replies by saying he’ll take that on notice because he does not want to make a mistake in the detail.<\/p>\n
Fri 14 Aug 2026 at 5:36pmFri 14 Aug 2026 at 5:36pm<\/p>\n
Staff ‘shocked and appalled’<\/p>\n
John Sams tells senators staff have been “shocked and appalled” by what’s taking place at KPMG.<\/p>\n
Fri 14 Aug 2026 at 5:34pmFri 14 Aug 2026 at 5:34pm<\/p>\n
How are staff being supported?<\/p>\n
KPMG CEO John Sams tells senators that he’s going around the country and answering his staff’s questions in an open environment.<\/p>\n
He says he still sees “pride” in the organisation.<\/p>\n
“Forums” are providing “feedback”.<\/p>\n
Face-to-face meetings are also providing Mr Sams with “challenging” feedback.<\/p>\n
Fri 14 Aug 2026 at 5:30pmFri 14 Aug 2026 at 5:30pm<\/p>\n
Phone user asked to leave<\/p>\n
Senators have just asked a person towards the back of the room to leave the hearing after their phone kept ringing.<\/p>\n
Fri 14 Aug 2026 at 5:29pmFri 14 Aug 2026 at 5:29pm<\/p>\n
CEO backs independent chair<\/p>\n
KPMG CEO John Sams just publicly supported Michael Ebeid and says he’s “grateful” for his presence.<\/p>\n
Fri 14 Aug 2026 at 5:25pmFri 14 Aug 2026 at 5:25pm<\/p>\n
Million-dollar salary<\/p>\n
In case you missed it, Michael Ebeid revealed earlier he will be paid a base annual salary of $1 million as independent chair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fri 14 Aug 2026 at 6:39pmFri 14 Aug 2026 at 6:39pm Thanks a MILLION for joining us OK…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":854832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2001,64,29217,63,166,2009,99,174,20024,5304,2003,2005,186,1605,160,6461,2010,1603,171,78777,2007,2006,5463,20611,5464,41884,2004,1996,1491],"class_list":["post-854831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-asx","tag-au","tag-aud","tag-australia","tag-australian-dollar","tag-bitcoin","tag-business","tag-business-news","tag-commodities","tag-currency","tag-dollar","tag-dow-jones","tag-finance","tag-finance-news","tag-live-blog","tag-live-news","tag-live-update","tag-market-news","tag-markets","tag-markets-live","tag-nasdaq","tag-nyse","tag-sp-500","tag-sharemarket","tag-shares","tag-stockmarket","tag-stocks","tag-tech","tag-wall-street"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"David](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/lcimg-2df95ae4-9506-4940-bbd7-9ade9e2e308c.jpeg\")
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