The Mandarin

Queensland Police is mourning the loss of former top cop Steve Gollschewski. Gollschewski died in Brisbane on Friday, aged 67. Acting Queensland Police Service (QPS) commissioner Brett Pointing said Gollschewski had been a strategic and visionary leader. “Steve was a remarkable strategist and contemporary leader, disciplined in his thinking, measured in his decisions, and guided by deeply held personal values,” he said.

The Tax Practitioners Board has stripped a Melbourne accountant of his tax agent licence almost a year after the same person was deemed unfit to hold an audit registration by the Companies Auditors Disciplinary Board. Accountant Ryan O’Shea was found unfit and improper to hold an audit registration by the CADB in October 2025 because he failed in multiple instances to follow auditing standards.

The masterminds behind a major corruption scheme over cleaning contracts for a state rail network have been jailed over their “corrosive” offending. Former V/Line chief executive James Pinder was jailed on Thursday by the Victorian County Court for two years and eight months with a non-parole period of one year and nine months for misconduct in public office.

At the very start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was living and working in New York. As the virus began to spread throughout the city I’d made my temporary home for a few years, and its defences felt overwhelmed, I decided to bail out. Emerging from Sydney airport in late March 2020 felt like walking through a time machine. Where I’d left was empty; wide avenues bare but for a lone bicycle, millions of people ‘sheltering’ at home. In the sullen Houston airport, I counted fewer than a dozen people.

Australians think government is failing the country. But they aren’t blaming public servants. Released today, the Centre for Policy Development’s Purpose of Government Pulse Survey shows trust in politicians is falling, while trust in public servants is rising. A clear majority (58%) of the 1,000 Australians surveyed did not believe their elected representatives serve their interests. The number has risen from 52% in 2023. However, this doesn’t extend to public servants or public services.

Senior Executive Service Band 1 Jennifer Noble has been appointed assistant secretary for policy and programs at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Maria Alves is now assistant secretary at the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport, and the Arts. The Bureau of Meteorology has named James O’Brien general manager of organisational development.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers wants Australians to believe artificial intelligence will make our economy radically more productive. He may be right. The treasurer explicitly highlights the care economy and service delivery as prime beneficiaries of AI diffusion. But without outcome-based metrics, this claim will be impossible to verify later. Private organisations must report on their ROI for investment in AI.

Australia will be represented by three new consuls-general, one each in Germany, the US, and the Middle East. Renee Barton has been appointed consul-general and senior trade and investment commissioner in Frankfurt. Barton has worked at Austrade for more than two decades, most recently as acting chief people officer. She replaces Kelly Matthews, who has been based in Frankfurt since 2024.

Listed real estate asset company Dexus has warned the corporations and financial services committee that structurally separating accounting firms may affect audit quality. Since the appearance of Dexus representatives before the committee last month, the company has responded to questions on notice, including a caution that splitting up firms may increase audit costs and deprive auditors of necessary expertise.

One-third of Victoria’s prison staff have reported being assaulted over the past year, while nine in 10 experienced verbal abuse or intimidation, according to a Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) survey. The “Code Blue” report tracks the reality of working in the state’s adult corrections system. It identified occupational hazards, chronic understaffing, and numerous issues impacting the mental health and wellbeing of prison workers.