Two big things happened today, one predictable, one surprising.

'Bad apples'

The clear difference between the new CEO of PwC Australia — imported from Singapore in recent months — is the willingness to blame former leaders for wrongdoing.

Repeatedly, Kevin Burrowes laid the blame for failings on former CEOs Luke Sayers (2012-2020) and Tom Seymour (2020-2023).

Mr Seymour did not appear before the hearings today.

Greens senator Barbara Pocock put it to the current CEO that it was bad leadership, forming a certain culture, that led to bad outcomes.

POCOCK: "Switkowski's main finding is that the PwC scandal arose because of the firm's pursuit of revenue at any cost, a 'whatever it takes' culture, and a system in relation to revenue putting profit above ethics. While a small number of bad apples have been sacrificed or suffered a penalty of some form, the system persists... none of the proposed measures will fix the problem. They're window dressing. They exhort people to behave ethically, when the overwhelming requirement of the business model is to chase the business to make revenue. How do you propose to change your business model?

BURROWES (New CEO): "I would agree with your characterization of the firm historically, certainly. I think that's clear. And we need to change because that's not acceptable. It's not the way we should be doing business."

Mr Sayers apologised overall but specifically blamed "a number of bad actor tax partners, bad actor tax partners that behaviourally made the wrong choices" who had shared confidential information.

Misled?

A persistent line of questioning — and a future headache for the firm — was about a plan to sell the business.

The idea was created by former PwC boss Luke Sayers sometime around 2017-19 to spin-off the Australian, New Zealand and some of the Asian-based management consulting arms of the firm.

The plan was advanced enough that Mr Sayers travelled to the US to push the idea, with a mooted figure he couldn't recall but was noted in the inquiry to be $1 billion. The deal never came off.

The reason for the questions was only revealed by Labor senator Deborah O'Neill at the end of the hearing.

Around the time of the deal, the Senate had been examining audits and consulting firms.

A PwC Australia submission pushing back on the idea of 'structurally separating' the audit and consulting businesses rubbished it as unworkable and impossible.

But according to responses today, at the same time Mr Sayers and PwC Australia were actively shopping this idea.

If proven, it would mean PwC staff were saying one thing to the Senate and an entirely different thing to the market ...