Australia news live: top 100 CEOs bank 16% pay rise; Husic warns Labor over Gaza policy | Australia news
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Husic warns Labor Party over Gaza policy
Labor risks losing voter support similar to Democrats in the US if it continues to respond to questions about Palestinian rights with “fear and hatred”, former cabinet minister Ed Husic has said.
The Western Sydney MP, the most outspoken Labor member on the war in Gaza, wants a special federal police team to monitor dual Australian-Israeli citizens traveling to the Middle East to fight on behalf of the Israel Defense Forces, Australia’s Associated Press reports.
“What I am deeply concerned about is that there are elements of fear and hatred that drive the way we respond to these problems,” Husic said at a Labor Friends of Palestine event over the weekend.
Be afraid to have your own opinion, and hate it if you have it.
Husic’s comments, first reported by the Labor Tribune, which billed him as the voice of the “Marxist left” in the labor movement, were made on the sidelines of the NSW Labor conference in Sydney.
They foreshadowed a possible fight over Palestinian rights at Labor’s national conference in July.
While elements of the party are keen to raise the issue at the party’s most important policy-making forum, many Labor sources have confirmed to the AAP that the debate is likely to be tightly stage-managed and relatively calm.
Husic said the Labor Party he grew up in had similar controversies and won multiple elections.
He warned that the political movement risked losing support if it continued to suppress “legitimate debate” about the rights of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
“We cannot continue like this. Otherwise, we will see what happened to the US Democrats as our members and supporters move away, and we cannot allow that,” Husic said.
Good morning, Nick Visser I’m here to grab the blog. Let’s get to the point.
Luca Ittimani
Luca has more information on the Australian Superannuation Investors Council’s Life360 founder’s CEO pay report. Chris Hulls He was the highest-paid chief executive of an Australian-listed company in the 2025 financial year.
Hull earned a real salary of $47.7 million, approximately 437 times more than the average Australian full-time adult worker.
Other top earners were also heads of ASX-listed companies headquartered overseas: ResMed’s Mick Farrell He took home $35.1 million and News Corp Robert Thomson $33.5 million. Thomson was last year’s top earner.
Temple & Webster’s will be the lowest-paid CEO among the 200 largest ASX-listed companies in 2025 Mark Coulter $506,000.
ACSIs Louise Davidson He said Australian investors were doing a good job of keeping executive pay in check. Fixed salaries at top 100 companies rose 4% to an average of $1.83 million, still below 2012 levels. The difference comes down to bonuses: the average ASX100 CEO received 70.7% of the maximum bonus at the top end. Only five CEOs missed the bonus. Nine CEOs were awarded severance payments averaging $2.2 million each.
Analysis shows top 100 CEOs paid an average of $4.8 million in 2025
Luca Ittimani
Chief executives of Australia’s 100 largest companies earned an average of $4.8 million in realized salaries in the 2025 financial year, according to a new report; This represents a 16% increase compared to 2024.
The Australian Superannuation Investors Council calculated take-home pay, which includes reported salary plus bonuses, vested shares and other extras.
The average of $4.8 million across the top 100 ASX companies was the highest recorded in the 12 years the calculations were made. Two Australia-based CEOs earned salaries over $30 million – Macquarie’s Shemara Wikramanayake and Goodman Greg Goodman – but none of them have made it in 2024. Incumbent CEOs tended to see higher pay increases. The average reached 6 million dollars.
ACSI found that the gap between senior CEOs and rank-and-file employees is the same as in 2024, with CEOs earning 55 times the weekly full-time earnings of the average Australian adult by May 2025. Average earnings have slowed since then, so the gap may have widened.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I Martin Farrer with the best night stories and then it will be Nick Visser with the main action.
Ed Husic He warned Labor that it risked losing voter support, similar to Democrats in the US, if it continued to respond to questions about Palestinian rights with “fear and hatred”. More is coming.
Chief executives of Australia’s top 100 companies earned $4.8 million in realized wages in financial year 2025; This represents a 16% increase compared to 2024. We will share more details about this shortly.
