Australia news as it happened: NSW rail workers wage deal stalls; Tasmania debates no-confidence motion of Rockliff; Shadow treasurer urges Labor to ‘drop’ super tax proposal

Staff at Westpac’s RAMS home loan franchises submitted fake payslips from employers that did not exist to get mortgage applications over the line, the corporate watchdog says in a new court case alleging “systemic misconduct” within the lender.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission on Wednesday launched legal action against RAMS, a home lending business that Westpac bought in 2007. Westpac closed RAMS to new customers in August last year.

The case, which follows investigations by ASIC, alleges RAMS was in breach of the Credit Act by failing to properly supervise representatives of the company, and it says this resulted in “widespread misconduct” by RAMS franchisees and staff.

RAMS admitted it conducted business with unlicensed persons, failed to properly supervise its representatives, and failed to have proper policies and procedures in place.

Westpac, which has previously acknowledged misconduct in RAMS, said RAMS was working with ASIC to resolve the proceedings as quickly as possible.

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When Michael J. Fox – aka Marty McFly – blew the minds of a 1955 dance hall with a face-melting rendition of Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode, it was immediately iconic.

But the guitar has never been seen since filming wrapped up on the first Back to the Future film. Something the brand behind the axe – Gibson – is looking to change.

Fox, Christopher Lloyd (aka The Doc) and others have issued a public call for help to find “the most famous guitar in cinema history”.

While of course that’s up for debate, (Jack Black’s six-string from School of Rock and a few from the spoof rockumentary, Spinal Tap, might be challengers), the red ES-345 definitely has a place in film history – even if the model started going on sale in 1959, four years after the scene in the film was set.

“It’s in some teamster’s garage,” Fox joked in a video on Gibson’s social media.

The cast did not address why, 10 years on from the year 2015 portrayed in Back to the Future II, we are still without hoverboards.

O’Brien has described Liberal candidate Gisele Kapterian’s narrow loss in the NSW seat of Bradfield as a “really sad result” after independent Nicolete Boele secured the seat by a margin of 26 votes.

Asked if the recent Liberal leadership vote which resulted in Sussan Ley elected as opposition leader should be revisited given Kapterian had been included, O’Brien said the ballot process was “standard”.

“No, that’s the usual approach taken. Advice is received by the parliamentary wing from the federal director as to who should be given a franchise to vote in the party room and that’s standard process,” he said.

Opposition deputy leader and shadow treasurer Ted O’Brien is up again, this time on Afternoon Briefing where he has doubled-down on the Coalition’s promise to rally against Labor’s proposed super tax changes.

O’Brien said the Coalition was no longer interested in negotiating with the government on its planned changes after Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the government would not compromise on taxing unrealised capital gains.

“This is a dreadful tax, and therefore we need to fight against it,” O’Brien said on Afternoon Briefing.

“If the prime minister or the treasurer wishes to engage and speak to the Coalition, of course we’ll speak to them. But the way the tax is presented today, the fact it increases taxes, it has unrealised capital gains, it’s not indexing … none of those things align with our values.”

Former ASIO director-general Dennis Richardson says the Australian Strategic Policy Institute – a think tank which last week accused the government of failing to spend enough on defence – has acted “very partisan” in recent years.

Speaking on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing program, Richardson said he had “a lot of time” for the institute which he described as having been more “disciplined” lately.

“I don’t think they were seeking to be partisan a few days ago,” he said, referencing their annual analysis of defence spending.

“However, at different points over the past five years, they have been very partisan, and I believe they’ve stepped out of their remit at different points.”

The NSW government and the Electrical Trades Union are at loggerheads over one final sticking point in a proposed enterprise agreement that would bring an end to a bitter dispute that has crippled Sydney’s train network.

On Friday, the government announced it had come to an agreement with the combined rail unions for a 12 per cent pay rise over three years. However, the government still hadn’t smoothed everything over with the ETU.

The union wants its qualified electrician members to be classified separately in the agreement. The other negotiating unions, including the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, are ready to put the deal to a vote after the months-long dispute.

Despite feeling confident the issue would be resolved at a Monday meeting, the state government is still at the negotiating table.

“Enterprise agreement negotiations are complex but in this situation, it’s really clear: we need an enterprise agreement that actually retains and protects qualified tradespeople on our network otherwise our trains won’t work. It’s as simple as that,” ETU NSW organiser Jesse Savill said.