The government may have thought Kenneth Hayne would run an easygoing royal commission. But his exposure of corruption and exploitation among the big banks sees him join a tradition of commissioners delivering more than their masters bargained for.
Farmers have experienced much of the scandalous banking practices now being exposed, but representatives say the royal commission is set to miss the worst of it.
While banks at the royal commission admit to misleading conduct and corruption – permitted by a compliant regulator – they are protected by government as too big to fail.
Gross underpayment of Australia’s migrant workforce has become institutionalised in a variety of industries, and with the Fair Work Ombudsman under-resourced and unions kept at bay, the government appears unwilling to address the problem.
The government’s assessment of Indigenous disadvantage ignores how far behind remote communities are compared with cities, and how top-down policy-making reinforces economic disparities.
A South Sudanese man who grew up in Australia awaits deportation from Christmas Island, as Peter Dutton uses ministerial powers to punish refugee members of ‘Apex’.
