Minters is axing 70 to 100 business operations roles, citing "evolving needs", while Clayton Utz reportedly cuts 50-plus roles. Both insist it's nothing to do with AI, after The Aussie Corporate flagged whispers on Instagram. Mallesons, Allens, Ashurst and co all say "no" too, for now: Point Blank, Capital Brief, Aussie Corporate

⚖️ Employment: Slagging off your boss in a private chat won't save your job, but your employer spying to find it might cost them. The Fair Work Commission found Endacom engineer Tyler Monaghan breached his contract by sending "extremely insulting" WhatsApp messages about his manager to nine colleagues, giving Endacom a valid reason to sack him. Still, Commissioner Crawford ruled the dismissal was harsh and unreasonable, because management only found the messages after a co-worker's computer was read without permission, and Monaghan was never given a chance to explain himself. Endacom must pay $13,701.92 plus super, with his payout halved to reflect his own misconduct: FWC

⚖️ Insolvency: Shareholders hoping their constitution or the ASX Listing Rules will give them a say in a company's fire sale are out of luck. In IMO Cypress Community of NSW, the NSW Supreme Court confirmed an administrator's power under s 437A(1)(c) to sell company property isn't a power of the company at all. It's a separate statutory power, so it's not limited by member approval rules, the constitution or listing rules. The same applies to DOCAs, which can go even further and appoint the administrator as proxy for all members at general meetings, cutting shareholders out of voting entirely: NSW Supreme Court, Ashurst Perkins Coie

⚖️ Consumer: City Beach has lost its appeal against a $14m penalty, the first ever handed down for breaching the button battery safety standards. The Full Federal Court rejected all 11 grounds of appeal, finding the retailer took four months too long to start a recall after the ACCC told it to act, even though it knew it had sold over 57,000 unsafe products. City Beach argued it only made $34k profit from the sales, so the fine should be lower. But the Court disagreed, ruling a penalty doesn't need to match the profit made, especially since City Beach had no system in place to catch the risk at all: Maddocks

The AFR has revealed the highest paid directors of 2026 and Malcolm Bundey of MinRes tops the chart on $14.9m, mostly performance options, well ahead of John Mullen (Qantas, Brambles), Michael Chaney (Wesfarmers) and Ross McEwan (BHP). Directors usually can't get performance pay under ASX governance rules, but 82.6% of shareholders backed it given MinRes was in freefall when he joined: AFR

New polling shows two-thirds of Aussies back Anika Wells' digital duty of care laws, including the right to opt out of algorithm-driven feeds. Support holds across Labor, Coalition, Greens and One Nation voters alike. The Coalition is still refusing to back the bill, warning it hands the minister too much power: Capital Brief

🖥️ Firmus is eyeing a build-out of around 2 million GPUs by 2028, with leaked job ads naming Meta among nine customers tipped to spend over US$1bn a year on AI capacity. The neocloud's chasing a $7bn raise ahead of its ASX float, with a pathfinder prospectus landing for investors next week: Capital Brief

💵 NAB is circling HSBC's Australian deposit book, having a second crack after a knock-back last year on a non-conforming bid. It follows HSBC's $36bn home loan sale to Blackstone in July, as the London-based bank retreats to its Hong Kong and UK home turf: The Australian