Natarsha Belling

And that's it for this episode of the afternoon edition of The Briefing.

We'll be back tomorrow with The Weekend Briefing.

Helen is joined by Antoinette Latouf to talk about going from sacked to vindicated and also about her new book, Women Who Win.

We'd love you to subscribe or follow us on Instagram at The Briefing Podcast.

I'm Natasha Belling.

See you next time.

A listener production.

Hi, Natasha Belling with you and welcome to the afternoon edition of The Briefing.

Coming up in our deep dive today, there's a growing scandal at KPMG, one of the big four accounting and auditing firms that's central to the Australian public and private life.

A whistleblower revealed that the firm was using confidential documents from one client to secure work with other top clients.

Now the CEO has stepped down with more heads set to roll as KPMG risks losing top clients worth tens of millions of dollars as the scandal deepens.

All those details in just a moment.

But first, let's check the afternoon headlines this Wednesday, the 3rd of June.

Anthony Albanese has defended the federal government's controversial tax reforms in question time in Parliament this afternoon.

The PM admitting skyrocketing house prices have put the Australian dream of home ownership out of reach.

Mr Albanese claiming the government's changes announced in the budget to negative gearing and capital gains tax are designed to help young people who are, quote, working hard and making sacrifices.

Meantime, new economic data was released today showing that Australia's economy is continuing to struggle.

In the three months to March, Australia's economy grew by just 0.3% below market expectations.

The quarter just beforehand had a growth rate of 0.9%.

Overall, Australia's growth over the year to March was 2.5%.