How accountants will help save the planet, plus Australia's highest paid CEOs revealed

This week, we reveal Australia’s 50 highest-paid CEOs, have breakfast with the first female CEO of the Central Coast Mariners, and analyse new advice from state-based regulators on the acceptable use of generative AI in law.

But first: how accountants will help save the planet.

From January 2025, large companies will be required to include climate-related information in their annual reports under changes to the Corporations Act introduced by Treasurer Jim Chalmers earlier this year.

This means companies will need more accountants who can understand a broad range of climate-related risks and help their employers meet and explain their climate targets.

“Who would have thought that the once humble accountant is key to supporting the transition to net zero?” said Ainslie van Onselen , chief executive of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand .

BOSS editor Sally Patten spoke to Karen McWilliams FCA , CA ANZ’s sustainability and business reform leader, and Sophie Jackman (CA) , head of ESG disclosure and reporting at 澳新银行 , to learn more about the surging demand for accountants with sustainability expertise – and what these types of roles actually look like.

Elsewhere, we look at the sexual harassment class actions at BHP and Rio Tinto that will allow all female employees who worked at the miners since November 2003 to register for the claim.

We explore why the jobless rate last month fell to 3.9 per cent.

And find out why Australian Museum boss Kim McKay AO has no time for “networking”.

Some housekeeping before we go: next week’s edition (December 19) will be the last newsletter of the year. We'll catch you back here in mid-January.

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Law Partnership Survey

Law firm leaders say clients are beginning to push back on price increases and are seeking to extract value through more competitive mandates amid a soft wider economy, in the first signs of a moderation in the legal industry’s boom year.

But firms are still performing strongly in an “unusual market”.

Explore the survey results in full here.

It was a boom year for law firms. But signs of a slowdown have emerged Law firms held their gains in the second half of 2024, but some leaders are wary of rising pressures on price and profit margins, reports Maxim Shanahan .

Top-tier firms are cutting lawyer numbers for the first time in years The country’s most prominent legal practices have reduced the number of lawyers they employ in the past six months. But their mid-tier rivals are hiring.

MinterEllison raids PwC, KPMG to build up consulting arm Consultants now make up almost 10 per cent of fee-earners at the firm, as clients prove increasingly willing to seek non-legal advice from law firms, reports Edmund Tadros .

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