We were chatting in the office last week about all the things you need to remember to do before the end of the financial year, and boy can it be confusing.

If you’re like me and need an annual reminder, here it is.

The quote
"Senator [Lidia] Thorpe was absolutely within her right to use parliamentary privilege to raise those issues as she did.” – Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie on Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe’s decision last week to raise allegations against then-Liberal Senator David Van under parliamentary privilege.

The stat
$US4.6 billion
The amount Taylor Swift’s ‘Eras Tour’ is estimated to generate for the economy in the U.S. alone, according to Fortune.

Today in history
1865: An announcement was made in Galveston, Texas, that slavery was no longer legal in the United States. This day is now known as ‘Juneteenth’. It became a national public holiday in the U.S. in 2021.

Some headlines from this morning:

The NSW Government is seeking to speed up new apartment builds by taking over local council approval processes for some developments.

Under a new policy announced by NSW Premier Chris Minns, developers would be able to access a fast-tracked approval process if they ensured some of the development would be affordable housing (offered at below-market rents).

Minns said this would lead to "more affordable housing in places where people want to live."

Background:
Sydney's housing is the least affordable in the country.

A key reason is lengthy approval processes for multi-level residential buildings, according to a recent report by a federal government housing agency. These processes are typically run by local councils, which often object to new developments. The report noted approval windows were twice as long in NSW as in Victoria.

The NSW Government says the average approval time for a new development is now over 100 days. The state is expected to deliver 134,000 fewer houses than needed over the next five years.

New policy:
The new policy would allow housing developments worth over $75 million to access the fast-tracked "State Significant Development" approvals process.

That's a process currently used for major projects such as schools, hospitals and industrial infrastructure.

Projects assessed in this way are not guaranteed approval, but the state government can approve them even if local councils have objected.

Affordable housing:
To be eligible for approval under the new policy, a developer must allocate at least 15% of the build's total floor plan to 'affordable' housing. This usually means housing which is available to rent at below-market rates.

Developments approved in this way would also be allowed to build 30% higher and 30% more floor space than local councils permit.

Opposition response:
NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman has asked for more detail, calling the new policy "concerning".

"How many properties will it deliver? Where will they be built? And will appropriate access to infrastructure including public transport be guaranteed?"

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The UK's powerful Privileges Committee has accused former Prime Minister Boris Johnson of "deliberately misleading" Parliament.

The Committee has been investigating Johnson over illegal parties held at his official residence during COVID lockdowns in 2020 and 2021.

Johnson, who stayed on as an MP after his Prime Ministership, resigned from Parliament earlier this week, avoiding a possible forced removal. He says the investigation is a "witch hunt".

Background
:
Johnson was UK Prime Minister from 2019 until 2022. He attracted criticism over staff parties held at 10 Downing Street (the PM's residence and office) during lockdowns, some of which he attended.

A Metropolitan Police investigation found the parties broke the law by breaching COVID rules. Johnson and current PM Rishi Sunak were both issued fines.

The parties were a key factor in Johnson's resignation in 2022, which followed sustained public pressure from his Conservative party colleagues.

Privileges Committee
:
The Privileges Committee investigates MPs accused of breaking rules and can recommend suspensions based on its findings. The Committee is made up of seven MPs from both major parties.

In April 2022, the Committee began to investigate whether Johnson misled the House of Commons (UK Parliament's lower house) when he said he was unaware of some of the parties, but that rules were followed at the parties he did attend.

The Committee sought to determine whether Johnson deliberately lied, not to determine the legality of the parties.

Findings:

The Committee published its findings on Thursday, concluding Johnson "deliberately misled" the house with "repeated and continuing denials of the facts".

The Committee accused Johnson of showing "serious contempt" to the House.

"Our democracy depends on MPs being able to trust that what Ministers tell them in the House of Commons is the truth."

Johnson resigns
:
Johnson resigned last week, after the Committee had shown him its findings, but before they were published.

In a statement, he called the investigation a "political hit job" and a "witch hunt".

"They have still not produced a shred of evidence that I knowingly or recklessly misled [the House]... I was saying what I believed sincerely to be true," he said.

Suspension avoided
:
The Committee says it would have recommended Johnson be suspended for 90 days if he had not resigned.

That suspension could have forced Johnson out of Parliament.

MPs suspended for more than a fortnight can be forced to run for re-election if 10% of voters in their electorate sign a petition demanding a "recall".

Next steps:

The House of Commons will now vote on whether to endorse the Committee's findings. The vote is expected to pass.

The Conservative party (to which Johnson belonged) has a majority in the House, but Conservative MPs will be free to vote as they choose, and very few have publicly suggested they intend to vote against the Committee's findings.

Get all the news you need to know today in your ears on The Daily Aus podcast!

If you don’t want to be at work today, maybe send this to your boss, because there’s good news for those only wanting to work four days a week.

The Swinburne Institute of Technology followed 10 Australian companies trialling the four-day work week and all 10 have either extended or made the change permanent. All 10 companies also saw productivity levels either stay the same or increase.

Under the trial, employees received 100% pay for only working 80% of their previous hours.

We use this little space in the newsletter every day to tell you about different, interesting partners that we work with, but our favourite thing is finding out you have taken action as a result of it.

An example? We did a partnership with the Department of Health and Aged Care a little while ago reminding people to book in for a Cervical Screening Test if they were eligible. The response was amazing, with people messaging us to tell us they had remembered to book in after seeing the ad information.

We’re keen to extend that influence as far as it can go, so here’s your official reminder. If you:

Then you need to get a Cervical Screening Test every five years. The new self-collection option means you don’t have to have the speculum experience - you can do your own test with a simple swab.

Find out more here.

Do you remember in 2020 when Spotify and the Duke and Duchess and Sussex announced a major podcast deal? At the time, the deal was touted as a “multi-year” partnership to tell “uplifting and entertaining stories”.

Fast forward a few years and that deal has ended after a single series. The deal, reported to be worth a whopping $AU29 million, ended by “mutual agreement”, according to both parties.

Under the deal, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle produced one show called ‘Archetypes’, which featured the likes of Mariah Carey, Serena Williams and Mindy Kaling.