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    Aaron Patrick

    Senior correspondent

    Aaron Patrick is the senior correspondent. He writes about politics and business from the Sydney newsroom. Email Aaron at apatrick@afr.com

    Aaron Patrick

    This Month

    Justice Michael Lee in conversation with former ABC chair Ita Buttrose on Friday.

    Higgins rape case judge calls for greater judicial accountability

    Michael Lee urged media outlets to more aggressively fight suppression orders, which he said should only be used in a “small range of cases”.

    The CFMEU purportedly sent funds via a printing company to support Ms Asmar’s uncontested election.

    CFMEU is a dirty word the industry doesn’t want to talk about

    A construction industry conference billed as important as UN climate conferences barely touched corruption allegations roiling the sector.

    July

    Law graduate, Claudia McDonnell, wants to have 5 children.

    If this law graduate has two children, she will be exceptional

    Claudia McDonnell, 24, belongs to the most childless generation of Australian women in modern history.

    NSW Premier Chris Minns at a Labor Party conference in Sydney on Sunday,

    NSW Premier Chris Minns dodges a fight over Palestine

    The Labor leader promised new protections for renters and gig-economy workers at the party’s first conference in power in NSW after 12 years.

    • Updated
    NSW’s new no-reason rent ban may discourage property investors.

    Considering buying a rental property in NSW? Think again

    NSW Premier Chris Minns plans to ban at-will evictions of tenants. The policy is unfair on owners.

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    Building Bad, an investigation into Australia’s construction union.

    Albanese is responsible for the monster that is the CFMEU

    A friendly political environment created by the Labor government allows the lawless union to thrive.

    Former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian outside her home in Sydney on Friday before the judgment was handed down.

    Top barrister slams Berejiklian over corruption denial

    Former ICAC assistant commissioner Anthony Whealy criticised the ex-NSW premier for her defiance after losing an appeal over a corruption finding.

    • Updated
    A Lendlease construction site in Melbourne.

    Lendlease’s convenient, lucrative alliance with the CFMEU

    Allegations of wrongdoing on construction sites raise the question: Do big contractors enable and profit from union thuggery?

    Archegos Capital founder Bill Hwang leaving a New York court last week after being found guilty of criminal charges.

    The Archegos Capital collapse shows nice bankers finish last

    As Bill Hwang’s $50 billion family office went broke, the investment banks that tried to help came off worst, including UBS and Credit Suisse.

    ANZ has been conducting its own probe into workplace behaviour in its trading teams.

    ‘Those involved will be held accountable’: ANZ boss amid scandal

    ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott has admitted to staff that the alleged wrongdoing and inappropriate trading raised by the Financial Review is “not new”.

    For ANZ, chief executive Shayne Elliott, the incentive is clear: he needs to prevent the story of the bank’s Treasury trades from blowing up.

    ANZ’s board could be on the precipice of a bank-defining scandal

    Insiders believe ANZ has played with this arcane-but-lucrative corner of the market for years – it could be the worst modern scandal in ANZ’s history.

    The securities regulator is investigating ANZ over its bond trading.

    ANZ probes ‘$54b’ in inflated bond trades

    The bank overstated the value of government bonds it traded by over $50 billion in a year, boosting its chances of winning lucrative mandates to issue Commonwealth debts.

    Booktopia’s warehouse.

    Booktopia’s outsized ACCC penalty may have sped up its decline

    The ACCC secured $20 million in fines against Meta, Facebook’s parent. If the fine was proportionally the same size as Booktopia’s, it would have been $82 billion.

    Keir Starmer UK Labour leader

    Labour’s sweeping victory in Britain is terrible news for Peter Dutton

    The UK general election was fought over problems that are familiar to many Australian voters, which is why the outcome looks bad for the Coalition.

    June

    Tucker Carlson addresses a crowd, including federal MPs, at an event in Canberra on Tuesday.

    In Australia, Tucker Carlson finds a new enemy: the ABC

    The right-wing commentator wrongly accused the ABC of criticising him, in another example of how on society’s fringe the market for alternate realities runs strong.

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    Jim Chalmers believes Australians will be better off with more understandable information from the nation’s largest banks.

    Recession a 50-50 chance if RBA raises rates: economists

    As many as 100,000 Australians could lose their jobs in an inflation-driven recession likely to coincide with the federal election.

    A roadside charging station in action. Ausgrid says NSW needs 30,000 of them.

    The reason Australians aren’t buying electric cars

    The industry can overcome “range anxiety” by building thousands of charging stations across Australia, experts say.

    An Ausgrid community battery in Warriewood, in Sydney’s northern beaches.

    To get power bills down, your suburb needs a battery

    A power company wants to install hundreds of local batteries. Bureaucracy is getting in the way.

    John Mullen will chair Qantas from July.

    Will John Mullen’s emotional intelligence work at Qantas?

    The business veteran’s decency, toughness and persistence could make him one of the airline’s great chairmen.

    Federal Member and Greens Leader Adam Bandt spoke at the rally and called for a ceasefire and immediate aid into Gaza.

    Right-wing group asks Jewish donors for millions to target Greens

    Advance’s campaign to portray the Greens as antisemitic worries some Liberals, who fear it will drive voters to the Labor Party.