The full KPMG Australia scandal timeline...

The KPMG Australia scandal began with a whistleblower’s 2024 allegations that senior partners misused confidential Lendlease board documents to gain an unfair edge in winning major audit mandates, including Westpac.

The story exploded into the open in 2026 after parliamentary revelations, a firm admission that internal investigations “fell short,” multiple leadership exits, fresh admissions of further breaches (including Optus-related material), regulator action, and mounting client and government fallout.

It also fits a broader Australian pattern, in which the Big Four have been forced to confront the consequences of treating confidentiality, independence, and oversight as problems to manage after the fact rather than standards to protect from the start.

The scandal has put reform back on the table, reviving proposals that were floated after the PwC tax leaks scandal but went nowhere at the time — including tougher independence rules, stronger whistleblower protections, tighter oversight, and a harder line on separating audit from consulting.

Timeline of a Scandal

June and August 2023 — KPMG partners twice access a Lendlease folder containing confidential material relating to audit bids submitted by rival firms EY and PwC. The material later becomes part of KPMG’s preparations for its attempt to win the Westpac audit.

10 October 2023 — Seven people from KPMG’s audit business meet to help prepare partner Kim Lawry for the Westpac audit tender. During the meeting, confidential material taken from Lendlease board papers is displayed, including an assessment of rival bids submitted by EY and PwC.

6 November 2023 — The “Lunchgate” incident occurs at KPMG’s Barangaroo office, during KPMG’s pursuit of the Dexus external audit. According to the whistleblower, partner Jeff O’Sullivan said he would go to lunch and leave his laptop open on confidential Dexus internal-audit material so members of the bid team could view it. KPMG later said the remark was intended as a joke and that it found no evidence the information was actually shared, but sanctioned O’Sullivan for making an inappropriate remark.

Late 2023–March 2024 — Westpac audit tender raises conflict-of-interest questions.
During Westpac’s audit tender, Peter Nash, Westpac’s audit committee chair and a former KPMG Australia national chairman, attended audit pitch meetings. KPMG chair Martin Sheppard later told a parliamentary hearing that Nash had stayed at his house during the pitching process, describing him as a long-standing friend. Westpac said Nash declared his KPMG links and was not on the selection committee, but later acknowledged the perception of bias created by those relationships.

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https://www.big4news.com/p/the-full-kpmg-australia-scandal-timeline

Social worker who stole £10,000 from client spared jail...

A social worker who stole £10,000 from a man she had met when he was a client has been handed a suspended prison sentence.

Tabitha Hall was a senior social worker, responsible for managing supervisors who run social workers in the north of the county.

As part of that role, she worked with the man when he was a client but after his social care was stopped, she continued to visit him weekly without any authority.

The man then employed a personal assistant to help him and he told her that Hall had taken two separate amounts of £5,000 from his bank account and transferred it to hers.

An investigation was launched with Hall being suspended from her role. Police were called and in an interview, Hall told officers that she continued to see the man as his unofficial social worker and friend.

She said the first £5,000 she took was to pay for her child’s new boiler and the second was because her debt was getting out of hand so she asked to extend the ‘loan’.

In a victim impact statement, the man said: “I am struggling to sleep due to this happening to me and my anxiety level is now very high.

“I trusted her and she was my friend. She has let me down and betrayed me.”

Hall, 42, of Springbank Road, Chesterfield, was subsequently charged with fraud by abuse of position.

More - 
 https://www.derbyshire.police.uk/news/derbyshire/news/news/north/2026/july/social-worker-who-stole-10000-from-client-spared-jail/