Leading English academics and former HSC chief examiners have warned that plans to make HSC English exams shorter and put word limits on answers will make it easier for students to game the system and will "further fuel the HSC tutoring industry". The submission warns that the tutoring industry would benefit from the introduction of shorter answers because students would pay to be taught how to "memorise and then reproduce" 600-word responses for their exams.

A secret report by Ernst & Young into credit card use at Murdoch University has revealed its four most senior academics racked up almost AU$1 million (US$753,000) in expenses in two years. Murdoch refused to release the document until The Australian won an appeal to the West Australian Information Commissioner, arguing that the report was in the public interest as it involved the use of taxpayers’ funds. The revelations come after Western Australia’s Corruption and Crime Commission last year described Murdoch’s financial controls over corporate credit cards as “lax” and found that the parameters of card usage were “extremely broad”.