Daniel Holmes

3 weeks ago | themandarin.com.au | Dan Holmes |Daniel Holmes

NSW ICAC’s public hearings into alleged nepotism at School Infrastructure NSW (SINSW) have been running for almost a month, revealing a tangled network of players and payments. ICAC is investigating whether former chief executive Anthony Manning and other SINSW staff improperly gave jobs and contracts to mates at above-market rates and didn’t declare. This week saw alleged beneficiaries Stuart Suthern-Brunt, Michael Palassis, and Anthony Courtman give evidence in the public hearing.

3 weeks ago | themandarin.com.au | Dan Holmes |Daniel Holmes

The United Kingdom’s junior civil servants spend two-thirds of their time on things that can be done by AI, according to the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT). DSIT policy documents obtained by Politico estimate 62% of tasks performed by the most junior public servants are “routine”, and therefore automatable. It calculates that executive officers, senior executive officers, and higher executive officers spend 48%, 43%, and 23% of their time on routine tasks, respectively.

3 weeks ago | themandarin.com.au | Dan Holmes |Daniel Holmes

Public servants are weighing the costs of using AI to speed through their work, according to a report by UNSW Canberra’s Public Service Research Group. Released yesterday, the report examines the current use of generative AI (genAI) in policy development. The authors interviewed senior public servants across 22 state, territory, and federal government agencies to gather perspectives across the public sector.

3 weeks ago | themandarin.com.au | Dan Holmes |Daniel Holmes

Stakeholders have expressed their horror at proposed changes to Queensland’s planning laws that would strip local councils of the right to prevent Olympic-related developments. David Crisafulli “fired the starting gun” on a 100-day review of the previous government’s Olympic infrastructure plan in November as one of his first acts as premier.

3 weeks ago | themandarin.com.au | Dan Holmes |Daniel Holmes

Australia’s human rights record is “disturbing” to the international community, according to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Katie Kiss. Delivering the 2025 Mabo Oration, Kiss said the approach being adopted by Australian states and territories is not new, but part of a much longer pattern. She said Australia has a history of signing on to international agreements, then ignoring them when it’s politically inconvenient.