Author: Morgan

Scandal-ridden telco Optus, the world’s biggest meat producer, global tech firms and huge gas producers are among a host of major companies earning billions of dollars a year but paying zero income tax.

The latest corporate transparency report from the Australian Taxation Office revealed a string of mostly multinational firms continue to pay no or very little tax on income in Australia, including household names such as Netflix, Apple and Microsoft.

Singapore Telecom, the locally registered owner of Optus, earned $8.2bn in 2023-24, but reported zero taxable income and paid no tax on that, the ATO data showed.

Tax minimisation was most evident among multinational firms, but wasn’t only the domain of hi-tech firms.

The Brazilian-owned JBS Global Meat Holdings earned $19.7bn in Australia in 2023-24 – putting it just inside the top 20 businesses by income.

But it paid zero tax on that income.

Companies that paid no tax 23-24

The ATO report provides no detail as to why companies paid zero tax, and noted there were entirely legitimate reasons for it – including making a loss, or using deductions and offsets to lower the taxable income and tax payable.

It’s unclear why JBS pays no tax, although the firm has an international reputation for its tax-minimisation strategies. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing.

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Other overseas-owned firms paying little or no tax were: Persol Australia, the Japanese owner of Programmed Maintenance; Saputo, registered anonymously as ACN 116 119 133 Pty Ltd but which is one of the largest dairy companies in the world; and ANZ Hospitals Topco, formerly listed as Healthscope and owned by Canada’s Brookfield.

Motorists in Sydney paying among the world’s highest road tolls may be shocked to hear that Transurban, which owns many of those roads, earned $3.2bn in 2023-24 but paid zero income tax, due to a legal arrangement where its profits are funnelled through a trust and tax is paid at an investor level.

Jason Ward, a principal analyst at the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research (Cictar), said while the ATO was one of the best in the world at getting multinationals to pay their fair share of tax, the latest report showed there was still a long way to go.

“Generally most Australian companies do the right thing and are relatively decent taxpayers,” Ward said.

“Most of the abuse we see comes from the big multinationals, and big US multinationals in particular. A big exception to that is CSL”.

The blood-based medicines firm – a champion of Australian industry – earned $5.2bn in 2023-24, reported taxable income of just $253m, and paid no tax – and not for the first time, Ward said.

CSL was the only Australian company to lobby against the new country-by-country reporting rules, which start from this financial year and are designed to shine light on profit shifting.

Ward said CSL’s Swiss operations generated 10 times more profit per worker than in Australia.

A spokesperson for CSL said the company paid $US784m in corporate income taxes globally, and that it “pays taxes in the jurisdictions where we make profits and the majority of CSL’s tax is paid in the countries where we have the most significant operations”.

“This reflects OECD transfer pricing principles of aligning economic return in a country with the value creation occurring in that country,” the spokesperson said.

They also said that CSL was a “significant” investor, and that this investment in R&D provided a material offset to the company’s taxable income in Australia.

Ward said while there was evidence that some of the big tech companies are paying tax, it was “pretty minimal compared to what they should be paying”.

Apple earned $12.4bn in 2023-24, and paid just $154m in tax. It reported taxable income of $529m – a profit margin of just 4.3%. This compared with its global profit margin of more like 25%, said Ward.

It was a similar story with Microsoft.

“That signals something is going on there in terms of profit shifting. It’s time for Australia to revisit a digital services tax,” Ward said.

Profit shifting is not illegal under Australian law and is used legitimately as a tax minimisation strategy.

The ATO’s report showed the big miners and banks were by far the biggest contributors to the company tax take in 2023-24.

Top corporate taxpayers 23-24

Rio Tinto and BHP Group were the two biggest taxpayers for the financial years, contributing more than $6bn each, followed by Fortescue’s $3.9bn and Chevron’s $3.5bn.

CBA, Westpac and NAB were also among the top 10 taxpayers, and the 20 biggest taxpayers accounted for more than 40% of the roughly $100bn in total tax paid in the year.

But Ichthys LNG – which operates one of the world’s biggest gas fields on the north-west coast of Western Australia – paid zero tax despite earning $10.7bn in the year.

Santos, another major gas player, earned $8.2bn and paid no tax.

The ATO report, however, showed the share of big companies paying zero tax has dropped, from 36% a decade ago to 28% now.

Papua New Guinea is in “early” discussions with Meta on imposing age restrictions to reduce the impact of harmful content, amid criticism of the government’s “heavy-handed” approach so far on social media regulation.

The government expects its proposed Social Media Policy 2025 will be taken to parliament later this month. Under the policy, users aged 14 and over will need a SevisPass digital ID before they can log in to platforms like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and X.

The government said the changes were needed to stop online abuse, fake news and scams. Social media companies will also have to register in PNG and follow local laws, and a new national e-Safety Directorate will be set up to monitor harmful content.

“We are in early discussions with Meta on enforcing age verification as a start,” PNG’s information and communications technology department secretary, Steven Matainaho, told the Guardian.

Officials declined to comment further. A government source told the Guardian the cabinet had approved the social media policy and that it would be tabled in parliament when it sits next month.

Meta did not respond to a request for comment.

The proposed restrictions come as PNG’s southern neighbour, Australia, prepares to roll out its long-anticipated under-16s social media ban. Governments and tech firms are closely watching Australia’s efforts, which will likely rely on artificial intelligence and behavioural data to estimate the age of users, and not conduct blanket age-verification.

Attempts to regulate online content and platforms has driven public concern in PNG about access to information and fears of censorship.

“On paper it sounds like protection, but in reality it could silence people who rely on Facebook or TikTok to speak out,” Jonathan Makil, a political science student at the University of Papua New Guinea, said.

Emmanuel Tipi, a comedian known as KabbageGang on Facebook, said the platform was “one of the most powerful tools for ordinary Papua New Guineans to share information, express themselves, and access news beyond traditional media.

“If the government introduces heavy-handed regulations such as ID registration, it risks silencing voices, especially those who rely on humour and creativity to educate and engage,” Tipi said. “People may feel less free to interact, comment, or share because of fear of surveillance.”

In March, the government prompted outrage when it temporarily shut down Facebook as a “test” to assess its capabilities to regulate online content. It did so under new anti-terrorism laws that gave the government powers to monitor and restrict online communication.

Facebook is the most widely used social media platform in the Pacific nation of around 11 million people. It is most popular with 18–34 year-olds and commonly used for political discussions and activism, though the country also struggles with the spread of misinformation and violent content.

The shutdown prompted widespread anger from users across PNG. The government said its actions were designed to protect young people from harmful content.

Small business owner Sylvia Pascoe, who relies on Facebook to run her events management company, said the shutdown “disrupted everyone, yet no one has explained what it achieved or why it mattered. That only deepens the distrust.

“Social media isn’t just for fun for most people; for many people, this is their shopfront and their only source of revenue for feeding their families,” Pascoe said. “The more they make life harder for ordinary people just trying to survive, the more that trust breaks down.”

Technology expert and activist Yuambari Haihuie has spent over a decade advocating for good governance with Transparency International Papua New Guinea. He said the attempts by authorities to “silence discussion” on platforms, such as the Facebook shutdown, should not be the way to make social media safer.

Haihuie said online media can be made safer “through education to promote safe conduct and media literacy in schools and on the platform itself.

“We haven’t developed the same instinct for our digital freedoms on social media, which is the modern public space … this thinking needs to change,” he said.

South Australia’s ambulance service was signed up to a new system that is supposed to send notifications when Optus has a triple zero outage, but says it was not notified during the outage last month.

September’s triple zero outage was caused by a network firewall upgrade which blocked emergency calls for Optus customers in South Australia, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and parts of New South Wales.

The outage has been linked to the deaths of two people in SA and one in WA. A fourth death, of an infant in SA, was found to be likely unrelated.

After the Richard Bean-led review of the Optus 2022 outage, telcos were ordered to provide real-time notifications to emergency services from 1 November this year. As Guardian Australia reported last week, Optus had been providing these notifications to emergency services that had signed up since the end of June.

In an opinion piece in the Australian Financial Review on Thursday, Wells said the new scheme to “share real-time network information detailing outages with relevant emergency services organisations and other appropriate entities … is on track to commence in full next month as planned”.

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However, Guardian Australia can reveal the SA Ambulance service signed up to receive Optus’s notifications but did not receive a notification during last month’s outage.

“SAAS is signed up for notifications and did not receive any such notifications from Optus during the outage last week,” a spokesperson said.

The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, told the ABC last month that SA emergency services themselves informed Optus of the outage.

“They saw a drop off in the number of triple zero calls coming through on a particular line. They contacted South Australian police … and then Optus was alerted,” he said.

“Now what’s supposed to happen under the protocol is if a carrier has a technical issue in respect to triple zero, there’s redundancy that clicks in, and then they inform the emergency services authorities. That didn’t happen.”

NT emergency services had yet to sign up for the notifications and WA emergency services did not respond to a request for comment.

Optus refused to comment last week, saying that while the independent review led by Dr Kerry Schott is under way “we will respect this process and will not provide a running commentary”.

The spokesperson said the Optus board has committed to releasing Schott’s report.

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Following the 2022 Optus cyber-attack, the then chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin said a Deloitte report commissioned on the attack may “also help others in the private and public sector where sensitive data is held and [a] risk of cyber-attack exists”.

However, Optus then opted to keep the report a secret, fighting and losing a ruling on releasing the report in the federal court in 2023. It then appealed and lost the appeal on that ruling last year.

Optus earlier this year argued that real-time notifications for outages would impose a “huge burden” on staff.

Wells said the government will soon introduce legislation to establish a triple zero custodian to oversee the emergency call system.

Guardian Australia learned last week the government had sat on a report from a steering committee led by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) on the structure of the role since November last year.

Wells said on Thursday the role was established in her department in March this year, but the legislation will strengthen the custodian’s powers.

The New South Wales Industrial Relations Commission has handed down a decision finding that the state’s psychiatrists should receive a 20% pay increase.

The case comes after 200 psychiatrists threatened to resign in January, saying it was not about the money but being unable to continue working in a system causing them moral injury, knowing they were providing substandard care to their patients when one in three permanent psychiatrists positions were vacant.

The doctors union, the Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation (Asmof), representing the psychiatrists against NSW Health, argued the special levy was necessary to avoid the “collapse” of psychiatric care in the state.

On Friday Justice David Chin announced that a special case had been made out justifying the payment of a temporary allowance to attract and retain psychiatrists.

Chin said the psychiatrists would receive a “combined interim uplift of 20% for period of 12 months”.

He said this increase was including the 10% abnormal duties allowance psychiatrists have been paid since 3 February, and the increase would be absorbed into any increase in the general award for doctors across the state, which Asmof is still negotiating.

In response to the resignation threats the state’s mental health minister, Rose Jackson, had submitted a request to the IRC to urgently arbitrate the dispute and said the government would accept its decision.

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Hearings were supposed to take place across a single week in March but issues raised by NSW Health about expert evidence provided by the doctors’ union, and Asmof’s statewide industrial action, delayed them. They concluded in late June.

Since January 75 psychiatrists have resigned, while many put off their resignations to await the IRC decision.

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During the hearings Asmof argued that psychiatric care in NSW was facing “collapse” because of poor pay and conditions, and a special levy to fund a 25% pay rise would stem the flow of specialist doctors leaving the state’s public system.

NSW Health argued that there was no evidence that increasing psychiatrists’ pay would have any impact on attracting and retaining staff, except for stopping those who had threatened resignation pending the outcome of the arbitration, which its barrister urged the court not to consider.

Worshippers had arrived early for a special morning service at Heaton Park shul in north Manchester. It was Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, and rabbi Daniel Walker was leading prayers in his long white robes. By 9.31am, they were stained with blood.

As people made their way to the synagogue, they saw a small black car being driven erratically before it crashed into the gates. At first, some thought the driver had suffered a heart attack. But within seconds he had jumped out of the vehicle, dressed all in black, and had started stabbing those nearby.

It was “a rampage,” said one witness. An elderly man lay motionless and bleeding at the entrance to the shul. Another victim lay crumpled beneath the car bonnet. In the courtyard, the attacker appeared to be trying to break into the synagogue, stabbing and slashing at the windows as worshippers barricaded the doors.

Within six minutes, the knifeman lay prone after being shot by armed officers. As he lay on the floor, terrified passersby could see three white objects strapped to his waist. “He’s got a bomb!” shouted one man, as those inside the synagogue stared, terrified, from the windows above. “Shoot him!”

The attacker then tried to sit up. “Shoot him!” a witness shouted again. One of the officers fired a final, fatal shot.

Map of synagogue in Manchester

In just six minutes, the assailant had brought terror to the Jewish community on their holiest day. Two people had been killed and a further four remained in a serious condition in hospital. It was only thanks to the bravery of the worshippers, police said, that the suspect was kept out of the building.

By 9.37am, Greater Manchester police had declared a major incident and triggered Operation Plato, the plan for a marauding terror attack. Army bomb disposal units raced to the scene as reinforcements were called in from Wales and other forces.

Fran Barrie, 75, was in her apartment overlooking the synagogue when she heard the sound of chaos: “At about half nine I heard this big bang and that’s when it all happened. There was about four loud noises. It might have been the police shooting at the guy but about 15 minutes later there was armed police, fire engines, everything.”

As paramedics rushed to help the victims, police locked down the synagogue. Nobody was allowed to leave. A huge police cordon was put in place as more armed officers arrived at speed. Military personnel arrived in what appeared to be two “Blue Thunder” helicopters, Eurocopter AS365 Dauphins used by the special forces.

On a day when many Jews turn off their phones, the news filtered out slowly at first. One woman had raced to Edilom Road dressed only in her nightwear when she heard what had happened. Her husband had been inside. He wasn’t answering the phone. “I’m sick,” she said. “I just ran out in my pyjamas”. Her son, clearly shaken, said: “It’s terrifying. We’re distraught.”

Barrie, whose husband is Jewish, heard a knock at the door. The police officer told all residents in their small block of flats to move to the back of the building, away from windows. He didn’t say why. At about 11.15am, another police officer returned and said they were all being evacuated immediately. Those held in the synagogue were led away. “We passed the bomb squad and an armed robot. I’m shaken up,” Barrie added.

Over the next two hours, bomb disposal experts carried out three controlled explosions – including one on the suspect’s vehicle. Each blast brought silence to those at either end of the police cordon. By now, security services were confident this was a terrorist attack.

Police cars were dispatched to synagogues across Manchester as nearby hospitals were locked down.

On Middleton Road, about 200 metres from the synagogue, some of those who had been inside Heaton Park shul were trying to digest what had happened. They were too upset to talk as volunteers handed out blue blankets and bottles of water. Children were among those being comforted.

Josh Aronson, 39, had been planning to observe Yom Kippur at the synagogue later on Thursday when he heard gunshots ring out at 9.37am. He immediately recognised the sound.

As a Manchester-based reporter for the Israeli newspaper Maariv, he had worked on conflicts across the world. “I’ve been in war-zone countries and know the sound of shots and I said: ‘Oh my god – I know that’s the sound of shots’. Then I heard too many sirens and I thought: oh my god, something’s happening.”

Aronson said police initially refused to let him leave the building but then told him to go, later pushing the cordon farther back before carrying out a controlled explosion. He then saw Walker, the rabbi: “I saw there was blood on the long white robe.”

“It’s just shocking,” he said. “I’ve said before, I’m a journalist but I have no words [right now]. I’ve covered these kind of attacks and never thought it would be in my own neighbourhood.”

As he spoke, armed police raced to a cul-de-sac about 500 metres from the synagogue. Officers surrounded a house and led at least one man away. Police later confirmed that two men had been arrested.

Heaton Park shul, in Crumpsall, is in one of Britain’s largest and most diverse Jewish communities, whose history traces back to the early 18th century. It also borders one of the city’s biggest Muslim populations, in nearby Cheetham Hill.

Four months ago, the area’s Jewish community was targeted when antisemitic graffiti including “Nazi Jews are scum” was sprayed outside synagogues, kosher restaurants and bus stops. Days earlier, pro-Palestine activists claimed responsibility for daubing red paint on another building, saying it was being used as a base for an Israeli weapons manufacturer.

The incidents, all around two miles from the synagogue attacked on Thursday, were among 200 recorded in Greater Manchester in the first half of this year, according to the Community Security Trust, which monitors anti-Jewish hate.

Police named the attacker on Thursday night as Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, a British citizen of Syrian descent. Greater Manchester police revealed that three other people – two men in their 30s and a woman in her 60s – had been arrested “on suspicion of commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism”.

Many in the community are linking the stabbings to the rise in antisemitic incidents across this part of Manchester – and Britain more widely – in the wake of the Gaza conflict.

Aronson, wearing a Manchester United shirt, said the attack would be a “wake-up call” in relation to antisemitism and the “hatred” toward Jewish people as a result of the conflict in Gaza. He added: “There’s so much hatred between Jews and non-Jews at the moment. There must be dialogue. Not everything going on in Israel has to involve the Jewish faith.”

Outside the police cordon, Barrie struggled to comprehend what had happened to her community – on this of all days. “You don’t do this in a civilised society,” she said. “It’s not helping any case. I’m feeling sad.”

Her neighbour Joyce Goldstone, 75, said: “I’m shaken up. We’ve never had any animosity here. Whenever there was riots all over the police there was nothing like that here. I was born Catholic and my husband is Jewish – we all have the same Ten Commandments so why can’t we all get along?”

Prince William has said “change is on my agenda – change for the good” when he becomes king.

In one of his most personal interviews yet, the Prince of Wales set out his approach to the monarchy.

“I want to question things more,” he told Eugene Levy at Windsor Castle in an interview for the actor’s Apple TV+ series, The Reluctant Traveler.

William said: “I want to create a world in which my son is proud of what we do, a world and a job that actually does impact people’s lives for the better.”

His eldest son, Prince George, who celebrated his 12th birthday in July, will one day succeed him as king.

His other son, Prince Louis, is seven and his daughter, Princess Charlotte, is 10.

William said his children did not have mobile phones. And he appeared to suggest that he wanted to ensure they did not face a repeat of “practices” he and his brother, the Duke of Sussex, had faced when younger – a possible reference to intrusive press scrutiny that also plagued their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.

William said of the “insatiable” media he experienced growing up: “They wanted every bit of detail they could absorb, and they were in everything, literally everywhere. They would know things, they’d be everywhere.

“And if you let that creep in, the damage it can do to your family life is something that I vowed would never happen to my family.”

With regard to his change agenda, William said: “I embrace that and I enjoy that change – I don’t fear it. That’s the bit that excites me, is the idea of being able to bring some change. Not overly radical change, but changes that I think that need to happen.”

He added: “I think it’s very important that tradition stays, and tradition has a huge part in all of this. But, there’s also points where you look at tradition and go: ‘Is that still fit for purpose today? Is that still the right thing to do? Are we still doing and having the most impact we could be having?’”

Asked by Levy, star of the hit TV series Schitt’s Creek, if he thought about being king, William replied: “It’s not something I wake up in the morning and think about, because to me, being authentic and being myself and being genuine is what drives me.

“And then you can attach whatever labels and kind of roles that come on top of that, but if I’m not true to myself, and I’m not true to what I stand for and believe in – then it doesn’t really matter who you are, it gets lost.

“I take my roles and my responsibilities seriously but it’s important, like I said to you earlier, you don’t feel they own you – you have to own them.”

At-home abortions should be allowed for up to 12 weeks of pregnancy across the UK, according to academics, after a study found they were just as safe and effective as hospital care.

A medical abortion involves taking two medications, mifepristone and misoprostol, to end a pregnancy. In 2022, at-home medical abortions were made permanent in England and Wales, after temporary legislation allowed them to take place at home during the pandemic. In Northern Ireland, at-home abortion care is not permitted at any gestation.

Despite the World Health Organization (WHO) recommending that early medical abortions can occur safely at home in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, legislation across England and Wales limits this to 10 weeks.

The study, published in BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health, looked at the outcomes of abortions carried out between 10 and 12 weeks of pregnancy in hospital and at home across NHS Lothian in Scotland, between 2020 and 2025. At-home medical abortions are legal in Scotland up to 12 weeks.

During this period, 14,458 referrals were made to the abortion service, and of these 485 women (3.5%) were assessed as being between 10 and 12 weeks of pregnancy either by the date of their last period or by an ultrasound scan.

The researchers found that 97% of abortions were successful for both groups of women.

They also found cases of serious complications, such as heavy bleeding or infection, one month after the procedure among those who had opted for a medical abortion at home. But despite this, the researchers concluded it was a rare complication among women who are less than 20 weeks pregnant.

“Our study contained a small number of patients, with only one case of haemorrhage that presented one month following abortion with chronic bleeding, and so admission to hospital for [early medical abortion] is unlikely to have altered this,” they said.

The researchers concluded that the study showed that at-home medical abortions between 10 and 12 weeks were “highly effective and safe”.

“In line with WHO guidance, action is needed to extend [early medical abortion] at home up to [12] weeks to women across the rest of the UK and beyond,” they concluded.

Heidi Stewart, the chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, said: “This important study from Scotland adds to the already extensive body of evidence that at-home medical abortion between 10 and [12] weeks’ gestation is safe and effective.

“Thousands of women each year in the UK are being compelled to attend hospital appointments and undergo surgical procedures when, as this research makes clear, they could be treated at home.”

She added: “When the abortion law was first passed in 1967, it was designed to protect and improve women’s health. Nearly 60 years later, this legislation is restricting our ability to innovate and develop services in line with clinical practice.

“It is time for parliament to modernise our out-of-date legal framework, and finally allow healthcare professionals to give all women in the UK the best possible care, including the choice of an at-home medical abortion care throughout the first trimester.”

The Department of Health and Social Care has been approached for comment.

Senior officials inside Donald Trump’s administration have acknowledged the federal government shutdown, without an end in sight, could hurt the US economy. The damage could be worth billions of dollars each week, according to analysts.

“This isn’t the way to have a discussion, shutting down the government and lowering the GDP,” Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, told the CNBC financial news network. “We could see a hit to the GDP, a hit to growth and a hit to working America.”

Prolonged failure to reach a deal would be costly.

“We estimate that each week of shutdown would reduce US GDP growth by 0.1 percentage points (ppt) in Q4 (in annualized terms), translating into a $7 billion weekly hit to the economy,” a report by EY Parthenon said, citing the effect of lack of pay for furloughed federal workers, delayed government procurement of goods and services and decline in demand.

A White House memo by the Council of Economic Advisers obtained by Politico suggested the economic hit could be even greater, estimating the shutdown could result in a $15bn loss in US gross domestic product every week the shutdown extends, with a monthlong shutdown resulting in an additional 43,000 unemployed workers.

The memo estimates a monthlong shutdown would reduce consumer spending in the US by $30bn.

“CEA analysis indicates that the shutdown may have wide-ranging economic effects that reduce American prospects through lower growth, higher unemployment, as well as disruptions to social security, air travel, and nutritional support to women with infant children,” the memo states. “These effects will intensify the longer the shutdown lasts.”

The EY Parthenon analysis noted that some of the damage would be offset by backpay for furloughed workers and a rebound in activity once the government reopens, but cautioned of lasting effect.

“Beyond the immediate macroeconomic consequences, a shutdown would also weigh on financial markets and private sector confidence,” added the analysis. “Perhaps most critically, it would delay the release of key economic data at a pivotal juncture for the economy – complicating the task of Fed policymakers, investors and business leaders who are navigating a highly uncertain, data-dependent environment.”

The last government shutdown, a partial shutdown of 35 days from December 2018 to January 2019, was estimated to cost at least $11bn to the US economy, including a permanent $3bn loss, according to the congressional budget 0ffice. The report did not incorporate some indirect impacts of the shutdown, such as a halt in federal permits and reduced access to loans.

A growing number of federal agencies and staff are explicitly blaming Democrats for the current government shutdown. The political messaging by the agencies may be a violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity.

Furloughed federal employees at some agencies have been instructed to set out-of-office messages explaining that they are not working because Democrats caused a shutdown. Government agency websites also have displayed messages informing site visitors the websites are temporarily on hold due to the “Democrat-led” shutdown.

Other agency websites have used more combative language.

“The radical left has chosen to shut down the United States government in the name of reckless spending and obstructionism,” the treasury department’s website reads.

Similarly, the US Department of Agriculture’s website says that their site will not be updated “due to the Radical Left Democrat shutdown”.

According to Department of Education (DoE) sources, DoE officials changed the language in employees’ automated out-of-office replies to include rhetoric blaming the shutdown on Democrats.

“This message is uniform and provided to us by the Department. We all enabled the auto-reply before logging off for the shutdown,” a DoE employee said, requesting anonymity for fear of retaliation. “However, the Department has gone in without our knowledge or approval and changed the message.”

NBC News previously reported on the changes to the DoE employees’ automated email messages.

The government shut down on Wednesday at midnight, after lawmakers failed to reach an agreement before the Tuesday night deadline. As the Guardian’s Chris Stein explained, Democrats are demanding a series of concessions related to healthcare, funding for public media and foreign aid. As a result of the shutdown, hundreds of thousands of federal employees have been furloughed and agencies have shut down key functions.

By reviewing agency websites and news reports, the Guardian has tracked a number of federal government agencies promoting language that blames Democrats for the shutdown. They include:

• The Department of Justice

• The Department of State

• The Department of the Treasury

• The Department of Agriculture

• The Department of Housing and Urban Development (Hud)

• The Department of Education

• The Department of Heath and Human Services

• The Department of Commerce

• The Department of Labor

• The Small Business Administration (SBA)

• The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)

• The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

• The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

• The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

• The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

• The Administration for Children and Families (ACF)

Some explicit political activity by federal employees is prohibited by the Hatch Act, a 1939 law seeking to prevent political influence on the agencies.

The use of government websites and employees’ out-of-office messages to blame Democrats for the shutdown is “extraordinarily irresponsible and inappropriate”, said Donald Sherman, executive director and chief counsel of the nonpartisan watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or Crew.

“This is clearly behavior that does not comport with ethical guidance,” he said. “Some of it, I think, is illegal. Some of it is not illegal, depending on the law that you’re talking about, but it’s extraordinarily irresponsible and inappropriate.”

Sherman said it was possibly “the worst time to be engaged in this kind of partisan chicanery” because many Americans are relying on government websites for information on essential services disrupted by the shutdown.

“It’s part of a pattern and practice of politicizing and weaponizing the government in ways that we have not seen before,” he continued, adding: “It’s astonishing, which is saying something for this administration.”

Already, Public Citizen, a non-profit consumer advocacy organization, has filed a complaint against the SBA for the message on its webpage blaming Democrats for the shutdown. The organization says it is a violation of the Hatch Act.

“The SBA and other agencies increasingly adopting this illegal, partisan tactic think they can get away with it because Trump has gutted any and all ethics oversight of the federal government,” said Craig Holman, a government ethics expert with Public Citizen.

The independent office of special counsel enforces Hatch Act violations. The penalties can include removal from federal service for up to five years, and civil fines up to $1,000. The office is currently closed because of the funding lapse, and Trump fired the head of the office earlier this year and installed Jamieson Greer, the US trade representative, in the role.

NBC News reported that the Department of Labor sent a message to employees on Wednesday morning, suggesting their out-of-office email messages include language blaming “Democrat Senators” for the shutdown. HuffPost similarly reported workers at the Department of Health and Human Services were instructed to to the same.

The Trump administration on Thursday morning threatened to fire many employees at federal agencies across the nation, leading to worry and fear among furloughed employees for their job security.

DoE sources said some workers printed out their furlough notices and last few pay stubs, in case they have to file for unemployment in response to Trump administration threats of firings during the shutdown.

Sherman noted that it’s Congress’s responsibility to perform oversight of the executive branch but said there also could be investigations by inspectors general or the government accountability office (GAO). In this case, he said, accountability would not come in the form of firing the officials ordering the partisan messaging.

“That power exists solely within the executive branch and clearly they’re the ones doing this. Nobody is acting out of school0. They are acting consistent with the administration’s edict,” Sherman said.

House speaker Mike Johnson said on Thursday morning that lawmakers are still far from reaching a deal on government funding, placing blame on Democrats.

Despite the government shutdown, the Trump administration is taking advantage of it to pursue its policy goals. As the Guardian previously reported, the US energy department will be slashing nearly $8bn in climate-related funding for projects in 16 US states and freezing $18bn for two New York City construction projects.

Trump said on Thursday he would be meeting with Russell Vought, the head of the office of management and budget, to discuss further cuts to agencies that do not align with his political priorities.

“I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. Vought was a significant player in pushing forward Project 2025, which seeks to radically reshape the federal government.

“I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity,” Trump added.

Michael Sainato and Lauren Gambino contributed reporting