🗞️ Buns to brag about

Good morning. The Bureau of Meteorology has officially declared El Niño active, with ocean temperatures in the Pacific already warming at the fastest rate since 1943 and the Southern Oscillation Index crashing to -23.3.

Australians can look forward to a hotter, drier second half of the year, a harsher fire season, and a delayed monsoon - just in time for summer.

All the headlines and more below...

GRILL'D PUTS BURGERS ON A WOMAN'S BACKSIDE. STAFF SAY IT'S PUTTING THEM AT RISK.

Grill'd is facing calls to pull a campaign showing a burger resting on the back of a woman in activewear with the tagline "Super Buns to brag about." Workers say it sexualises female staff and exposes them to harassment.

An 18-year-old employee said the company is "profiting off the unwanted sexualisation and focus on the bodies of female workers." One manager told a worker who complained that "sexualisation was the point of the campaign." Grill'd Workers United called it "a degrading corporate choice that uses women's bodies as a punchline to sell burgers."

Grill'd said 5 women signed off on the campaign and social media response has been "overwhelmingly positive." The company launched the ad the same day the ACCC announced legal action over a separate campaign where Grill'd claimed to donate $1 per burger sold on Tuesdays - only 4% qualified. The company is also defending a class action over unpaid breaks.

An ANU marketing lecturer called the tone "astounding" for a brand positioning itself as premium and community-focused: "You don't sell sex, you sell burgers."

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

• APRA and the RBA have warned banks, insurers and super funds they face a new era of geopolitical risk and must strengthen cyber, governance and staff-vetting defences. LINK

• ASIC warned that many Australian private credit firms are still failing to meet its expectations after surveillance found ongoing shortcomings similar to problems seen in US and European markets. LINK

• PM Anthony Albanese has expanded the 50% active asset capital gains tax reduction to all small businesses with turnover up to $10M, making 2.7M firms eligible. LINK

• Australian companies including Telstra, NAB, Officeworks and Woolworths are increasingly offshoring high-value roles to India, the Philippines and Vietnam, globalising critical innovation and problem-solving capabilities. LINK

• Australia’s venture capital ecosystem has grown 13.7 times in value between 2016 and 2026, while all-women founding teams received only 2% of its capital last year. LINK

MIGRATION HITS 301,000. STILL 76,000 ABOVE LABOR'S OWN TARGET.

Net overseas migration dropped to 301,000 in 2025, the lowest since 2022. The government's target is 225,000 by 2027-28. It's currently tracking 34% above that.

Since 2022, Australia has added 1.27M people through net migration - 423,000 a year. Labor upgraded its 2025-26 forecast in May to 295,000, a 35,000-person jump from what it predicted 5 months earlier. The reason was fewer temporary migrants leaving, more New Zealanders arriving. A May poll found 40% of voters trusted One Nation most on migration policy.

A former immigration deputy secretary says the government needs "lots more policy tightening" to hit its target before the next election. It seems Australia keeps bringing in more people than it forecasts, then raises the forecast to match.

COMPANY NEWS

• KPMG has warned and fined senior partners Kim Lawry, Eileen Hoggett and Paul Rogers after they accessed confidential Lendlease documents during a US$32M-a-year Westpac audit pitch. LINK

• HSBC has been ordered by Australia’s Federal Court to pay a $35M penalty after ASIC proved it failed to prevent escalating impersonation scams causing $34.6M in unauthorised losses. LINK

• The charity Good Ancestors has received more than US$1M from Anthropic-linked philanthropic funds as it helps shape Australia’s AI copyright rules affecting model training and compensation. LINK

• Vodafone has restored mobile services after an outage at a network hub began at 8am and disrupted calls until 11am, while Triple-0 access remained available via other networks. LINK

• Binance expressed confidence in its Australian compliance and ongoing AUSTRAC-mandated external audit as it reportedly faces a loss of European Union operating permission in July. LINK

2026 AUSCORP SALARY SURVEY

Since late 2022, your employer can no longer stop you discussing your pay. But most people still have no idea what the person next to them earns. We're trying to fix that.

This is our biggest survey yet and the more people who contribute, the harder it gets for anyone to be underpaid without knowing it. Anonymous, takes 2 minutes, and the results go straight back to the community.

TOGETHER WITH

Doga Sydney - Corporate Cuddles & Puppy Yoga

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CHART OF THE DAY

The most common blood types around the world

ONE MORE SCROLL

Editor’s Pick: Two Sydney burgers named among the world’s best in global guide top 10.

Draft Pick: World Cup rocked by drone 'spying' claims.

Doctor’s Pick: The blood type diet.

TRIVIA

Here are five events that happened on the 19th of June. Put them in order in history:

1. The First Father's Day Celebration

2. The First Modern Baseball Game

3. Lady Liberty Arrives

4. Soviet Troops Completely Withdraw from Hungary

5. The Birth of King James VI and I

Answers below

OUR SOCIALS

ANSWERS

1566: The Birth of King James VI and I
1864: The First Modern Baseball Gam
1885: Lady Liberty Arrives
1910: The First Father's Day Celebration
1991: Soviet Troops Completely Withdraw from Hungary

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