Yesterday
- Exclusive
- Big four consultants
Spending on consultants at 10-year low: Gallagher
Finance Minister Katy Gallagher says spending with the big four consulting firms along with Accenture and Scyne is down $240 million so far in 2023-24.
- Ronald Mizen
One in two want government to cut use of big four firms: survey
Surveys in November and December show that almost one in three people have a negative view of the big four consulting firms.
- Edmund Tadros
Samuel’s big four fix: ban firms consulting to audit clients
Former competition watchdog Graeme Samuel also said ASIC should resume naming and shaming firms with poor audit quality.
- Edmund Tadros
This Month
LinkedIn’s top five jobs for graduates – and how much they pay
Accounting was one of the top five jobs for graduates this year, based on annual growth in hiring activity on the professional networking site LinkedIn.
- Euan Black
McKinsey, BCG don’t want public to know junior partners earn $700,000+
McKinsey told a Senate inquiry it was “not able to share the remuneration of our individual partners”, while BCG said partner pay was “tied to a global structure in a highly competitive global market”.
- Edmund Tadros
CPA Australia reels from cost overruns, exec departures
Last week, yet another executive bowed out of CPA’s Southbank headquarters, resigning a mere four months into her role.
- Updated
- Myriam Robin
- Opinion
- Social media
Metaverse a black hole, but Zuckerberg had a surprisingly good year
He renamed Facebook and committed billions of dollars, but he cannot force us to care about the metaverse. Meta’s AI experiment proved more successful.
- Elaine Moore
Boutique consulting firm cuts dozens of staff to face a ‘slow’ 2024
Nous boss Tim Orton says “challenging market conditions” are unlikely to improve.
- Edmund Tadros
Detention row intensifies; Israel travel warning; Beware bitcoin hype
Read everything that’s happened in the news so far today.
Rest of the big four decline to join PwC on political donations ban
EY and Deloitte will continue to donate despite PwC stopping all contributions after its tax leaks scandal, while KPMG is reviewing its stance.
- Edmund Tadros
Meet the ex-Deloitte partner overhauling the IR system
Ex-Deloitte partner Natalie James doesn’t plan to emulate a consulting firm at the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, but she refuses to give up some habits.
- Ronald Mizen
November
- Exclusive
- Big four consultants
Big four billing rates leaked by federal government
Highly confidential details about how much 400 consulting firms charge the federal government were accidentally leaked this month, sparking outrage and calls for a full investigation.
- Ronald Mizen and Edmund Tadros
Optus appeals judgment in battle to keep Deloitte report secret
The telco is appealing a court ruling that could lead to the release of a forensic report into last year’s cyberattack, as a review into the latest outage gets under way.
- Jenny Wiggins
Deutsche recruits new investment banking head from rival
And there should be plenty of talent for her to choose from as she builds a team, given the lay-offs at some of the other big banks around town.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
- Opinion
- Telecommunications
Why the Optus CEO had to go – and quickly
The telco’s outage points to much deeper problems in Australia’s readiness to cope with cyberattacks and tech failures affecting critical infrastructure.
- Jennifer Hewett
Luke Sayers had millions of reasons to hire Mathias Cormann
Under Mathias Cormann’s oversight, government spending on consultancies swelled nearly four-fold.
- Updated
- Myriam Robin
Mid-tier firm revenue surges 17pc, outpacing big four
Strong demand for traditional auditing, accounting and tax services, along with fast-growing consulting offerings, helped boost annual revenue at mid-tier firms.
- Updated
- Edmund Tadros
Ambitious but want to work part-time? Tough luck
Only 7 per cent of managers work part-time, and that statistic has barely changed over the past five years, new data shows.
- Sally Patten
Revealed: Australia’s best accounting firms in 2023
Income across Australia’s 100 biggest accounting firms jumped almost 12 per cent last financial year, with mid-tier firms outgrowing the big four.
- Edmund Tadros
- Exclusive
- Conflict of interest
Deloitte accused of double-dealing Honda sellers
Honda dealers are suing their parent company, and say auditors Deloitte used their confidential accounts data to help the car manufacturer buy them out cheaply.
- Jessica Sier
