Good morning AusCorp. This week, we look at what happens to people who swap a bank or law firm for a bakery or side-hustle. We’ve also got another rate rise set to happen later today and and 3 in 4 cars that are being salary packaged are now electric.
Plus KPMG’s former CEO and chairman walked away with $8.5 million between them after resigning over the whistleblower scandal, and the typical family now needs half its income just to cover the mortgage.
Every leak and company update we receive now lives on our website, and we keep adding to each thread as more details come through.
For example, you could follow how NAB’s job cuts have unfolded here or see all of our latest tips here.
If you’d rather not wait until Tuesday, Pick & Scroll now carries every new leak each weekday at 8am alongside the day’s business news.
THE BIG CONVERSATION
Before you quit and start an AI-start up.
Pretty much every top-tier law firm, Big 4 and bank has someone who left to work in a bakery, a bookshop or on a ski field for a year. It’s not hard to see why. More than half of Big 4 staff rated their stress a 4 or 5 out of 5 in our 2026 Salary Survey, and 28% of people in top-tier law work more than 50 hours a week. Retail, cafes and gardening jobs finish when you clock off. Nobody is emailing a barista at 10pm, and the trade-off is coming home physically tired instead of mentally fried.
It doesn’t work for everyone though. Entry-level retail pays about $28 an hour, or roughly $55K a year if you can get full-time hours. That’s doable with a partner’s income, a paid-off house or savings you’re happy to spend. If you’re single and renting, or you’ve got kids and a mortgage, it’s way harder to justify. The alternative pathway is to not leave corporate entirely, and plenty of people career pivot or move into government, which comes with its own trade-offs on pay and progression.
The more realistic option is a side hustle. Everyone talks about starting their own thing, but very few of us are quitting a steady salary for a pre-revenue AI start-up or an e-commerce dropshipping company run out of the living room. But we can agree that a side hustle or passion project is a pattern disrupter. It gets your mind working on something completely different, even if it’s only one night a week or a market stall once a month. You meet people outside your industry and get to be someone other than your job title for a while.
Most side hustles start with something people already love, whether that’s baking, coffee or a niche they know inside out. They say if you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life, and a side hustle is the safest way to find out if that’s true. Corporate also prepares you to run your own start-up more than you realise. Writing tight emails, working to a deadline, keeping a project organised, and all those buzz words we all hate, all carry value in business and they’re all transferrable to any business.
It’s also never been easier to give it a go. AI can build you a website, write your first marketing posts and do the research that used to take weeks. Worst case, your side hustle never makes money and you’ve picked up skills your job was never going to teach you. Best case, it grows into the thing that lets you quit and go all in. Either way, the people who handle burnout best tend to know they have somewhere else to go, and a side project is a much cheaper way to find that out than quitting.
PICK & SCROLL BY THE AUSSIE CORPORATE | LAST WEEK'S TOP PICKS
National dwelling values dropped 1.2% in October, extending the slump to 6.7% since March, as rising interest rates and higher taxes weigh on housing demand. LINK
KPMG Australia's former chief executive Andrew Yates and ex-chairman Martin Sheppard collected $8.5M between them in departure packages after resigning mid-year over the firm's handling of a whistleblower scandal. LINK
Australian families now need 50.9% of their income to cover the mortgage each month, smashing past the 30% mark the Bureau of Statistics calls stress. LINK
The average Aussie spends $165 a month on unnecessary purchases, and diverting that to mortgage repayments could save about $66,910 and nearly 2 years off a typical home loan. LINK
The total national cost of fuel price increases since March exceeds $14B, according to analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. LINK
Every weekday morning at 8:00am, we send you everything that happened across Australian business and corporate news in a 2-minute read.
Our Inside Track is in there too (just daily), so you hear what's happening inside corporate Australia first. Same team. Same voice. Just daily.
THE INSIDE TRACK
Heard something at work? Redundancies, offshoring, an email that should not have gone out. Tell us what’s happening at your company.
THREAD OF THE WEEK - r/AUSCORP
Legally benefitting from work trips
What are your best (100% legal) hacks for profiting from work travel?
And no, I’m not talking about embezzlement or fudging receipts. I mean the perfectly legitimate ways you turn work trips into personal perks, points, cashback or a cheeky bit of extra money.
For example, I buy the Uber gift cards from Coles/ woolies when they’re either 20x points or 10% off. I’m able to make some money & points when travelling in Ubers for work. I also use ShopBack for hotels when travelling interstate.
“An obvious one that can be pretty lucrative is eating cheaply when you are getting a per diem.
I had a boss once who only ever seemed to eat Maccas or KFC (though he was pretty skinny). He travelled a lot for work and was getting a reasonably generous per diem, $20-30 for breakfast $50-60 for dinner etc. he would have made a fair bit from that”
Top Comment
THE BRAINS TRUST
Three in every four new cars leased through salary packaging are now electric, according to McMillan Shakespeare, one of the biggest novated lease providers in the country. A novated lease lets you pay for a car out of your pre-tax salary, and electric cars have been exempt from fringe benefits tax, which can save thousands a year. That tax break has made EVs the obvious pick for a lot of corporate workers, and leasing numbers rose 14% last quarter even as the rest of the economy slowed.
The cars themselves are mostly coming from China now. BYD has overtaken Tesla as Australia’s best-selling EV brand, selling around 44,700 to September against Tesla’s 41,700. Chinese-made cars sales are up about 71% on last year to roughly 209,000, while total new car sales have barely moved, and China has passed Japan as our biggest source of new cars, making up 35.5% of sales in the first half of the year. Eagers Automotive has bought full control of BYD’s Australian business, which tells you the local profits were bigger than most people expected.
Electric and plug-in hybrid cars made up 25% of new car sales in September, and analysts expect 40% by 2030. That’s starting to hurt businesses that have nothing to do with selling cars. Servos make a lot of their money from the drink and snack you grab while filling up, and fewer people stopping for petrol means fewer of those sales.
Prices should keep getting more competitive too, with the number of Chinese models on sale here expected to grow from about 72 to around 120 by 2027. If you’re thinking about leasing an EV, check the price first. The tax break was wound back for cars over $75,000 in this year’s budget, so the cheaper models are where the biggest savings now sit.
AUSCORP EXECUTIVE BITES
What's one piece of advice you'd give anyone in corporate who's worried about being replaced by AI?
Know an exec that has some words of wisdom to pass on? Send them our way - collab@theaussiecorporate.com
OFF THE CLOCK
EATING
Macca’s brings back Spicy Chicken McNuggets after two years
Spicy Chicken McNuggets are making a comeback at McDonald’s after being discontinued in 2024. Fans can grab them in packs of six to 40, with mixed regular and spicy nugget packs also returning. LINK
GOING
2026 Sydney Restaurant Awards
The Australian Good Food Guide has been recognising the country’s top restaurants with its Chef Hat Awards since 1982. Based on anonymous inspections and diner feedback, the awards celebrate some of Australia’s best dining experiences. LINK
READING
7 books to help you get ahead in your career
Whether you're hoping to land a promotion, grow your business or figure out your next career move, these seven books are packed with ideas to help you get there. LINK
WATCHING
Villeneuve's Dune finale gets an IMAX trailer
The third and final chapter of Villeneuve's Dune has a trailer, and it looks exactly as enormous as you'd hope. LINK
WEARING
Gorpcore shoes are still everywhere, apparently
If you haven't bought trail runners yet, this roundup won't convince you, but it will confirm everyone else already has. LINK
AUSCORP EMPLOYEE BENEFITS SURVEY 2026
Two jobs can pay the same and feel completely different once you add up the parental leave, the super, the bonus, the WFH days and what your manager is actually like. We are comparing what Australian companies really offer, and we need your help to do it.
It takes about 5 minutes and most of it is already filled in, so you won’t need to dig out your contract. There’s also a section on culture where you can tell us what your workplace is really like. It’s anonymous, and the results go straight back to the community.
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ODD PICKS FROM LAST WEEK
19 simple tips to help you fall asleep quickly. LINK
Graduate salaries are rising sharply in the years after finishing university. LINK
The 13 best foods to increase blood flow and circulation. LINK
A handful of pistachios may help you sleep better, review says. LINK
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women struggle to access flexible work options. LINK
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