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| 8 October 2026 | 7:30am to 5:30pm | Crown, Melbourne | Virtual tickets available |
Anna Booth - Opening Keynote
Setting the compliance agenda for 2026 and beyond
Four tracks. Choose your focus.
Whether your focus is compliance, leadership, career growth or technology, there's a track built around where you are right now
Technology Showcase
Live Product DemonstrationsAcross the day, you'll find leading payroll technology vendors showcasing their latest innovations available for demos, conversations and hands-on exploration at your own pace. Whether you're evaluating a new system, benchmarking your current setup or simply staying across what's available in the market, the technology showcase gives you direct access to the people building the future of payroll technology.
Practitioners, leaders and regulators.
Hear from Australia's leading voices in payroll, including compliance experts and thought leaders. Their sessions are designed to help you stay ahead and deliver more value in your role.
Adrian Wong
Alkan Munur
Anna Booth
Prior to taking up her role as Deputy President at the FWC, Anna was Chair and a non-executive member of the Slater and Gordon board. She had held this role since the law firm’s listing on the ASX in 2007. Anna also sat on various boards, including the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and insurer NRMA, as well as industry superannuation owned financial services companies ME Bank and IFM. Anna has taught at the Australian Institute of Management and lectured at the Macquarie Graduate School of Management.
During the amalgamation of the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union, Anna was the first female and youngest federal secretary of a union. She joined the Australian Council of Trade Unions as vice president in 1991. During her period in the union movement, Anna attracted national attention by exposing the exploitation of migrant women workers in sweatshop organisations.
Anna is the Patron of the Industrial Relations Society of New South Wales.
Belinda Atkins
Caleb Andrew
Caleb Andrew is Senior Payroll Manager at Bild Group, a multi-disciplinary civil contractor operating across Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia with around 600 employees across four divisions. Reporting to the CFO, he leads a team of five, accountable for end-to-end payroll operations, compliance and system transformation across construction, manufacturing, transportation and retail. Caleb brings strategic, people-focused leadership to running a payroll function that is optimised, productive and compliant.
Carmel Batticciotto
Carmel Batticciotto has over 15 years' experience partnering with organisations on leadership development, career and talent management, designing tailored psychological strategies and assessments. A registered psychologist, she is passionate about turning research into practical tools that help individuals and organisations thrive, with particular expertise in neurodivergent inclusion, return-to-work support and workplace stress management. Carmel holds a Master of Psychology (Organisational) and is certified in several leading profiling and assessment tools.
Claire Formby
Claire Formby is a strategic payroll leader with over 25 years' experience transforming payroll from a transactional function into a data-driven business partner. Her background spans finance, accounting and payroll leadership across multiple industries, bringing a strong commercial lens to operational excellence. Claire is known for building compelling, metrics-driven business cases and influencing executive stakeholders, with a leadership focus on governance, scalable processes and using clear insights to drive better outcomes.
Grace Brunton-Makeham
James Vickery
James Vickery is CEO of Benchmark 365, a global IT and cyber security partner helping organisations stay operational and protected through managed IT and security services backed by a 24x7x365 incident response team. Trusted by hundreds of IT service providers globally, James and his team sit on the frontline of modern attacks. He focuses on practical security that prevents financial loss and business disruption, translating technical threats into clear actions leaders can implement, measure and enforce.
Kate Lamb
Maria Nikoletatos
Maria was APA’s very first employee, and to this day, she’s still the most entertaining. Known affectionately as our resident payroll nerd, Maria has an unmatched passion for getting payroll right. She’s the person who actually enjoys reading payroll legislation in her spare time (yes, really) and her reputation for razor sharp knowledge is legendary.
As one of APA’s most enthusiastic trainers and our living, breathing knowledge base, Maria is the go to for even the trickiest payroll questions. If she doesn’t know the answer… well, no one does.
Nicole Gibson
Nicole Gibson's career has centred on what allows people and societies to thrive. As the youngest-ever Commonwealth Mental Health Commissioner and a former non-profit leader in mental health systems design, she reshaped how care is delivered nationally. She later founded IN TRUTH, an emotion bio-tech company where she is CEO, translating wearable data into a real-time Emotion Score to make emotional regulation measurable and support stronger, more coherent leadership.
Rebecca Stubbs
Sean Crick
Shane Weaver
Steve Batrouney
Valerie Flight
Event Details
Join us for a dynamic day of presentations, peer exchange, and industry updates. Learn from subject matter experts on topics including compliance, technology, fraud mitigation and operational best practice.
Date: Friday, 20 March 2026
Time: 7:30am – 4:30pm
Location: Hilton Hotel, 488 George Street, Sydney, NSW 2000
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We're delighted to welcome Anna Booth, Australia's Fair Work Ombudsman and one of the country's most respected voices in workplace relations, to open this year's Australian Payroll Summit. With over 45 years of experience spanning unions, the private sector, and public institutions, Anna sets the perfect tone for a day dedicated to the future of payroll in Australia.
Award-winning journalist, broadcaster and documentary filmmaker Helen Kapalos sits down with Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth for a candid conversation on what compliance really looks like in Australian workplaces today. Together they explore what's genuinely shifting in employer behaviour, the patterns the FWO is actively targeting, what proactive compliance means in practice, and the impact Anna has made since stepping into the role. An unmissable session for every payroll professional in the room.
Payroll is full of questions that don't have a simple answer. In this main stage session, Maria and Jacqueline from the APA helpdesk bring the profession's most complex and frequently debated payroll queries to the room and work through them live. Where questions cross into employment law, Grace from Makeham Flaherty will be on hand to ensure nothing is left unanswered.
Understanding Your Obligations: Advisory Services, Child Employment & Long Service Leave
This session brings together two regulatory specialists for a practical overview of key compliance areas affecting payroll professionals. Covering the remit of the child employment licensing framework, regulatory requirements for employing young workers and the latest compliance trends in long service leave, including real employer responses and the payroll configurations sitting behind non-compliance. Attendees will leave with a clearer picture of their obligations and where the risks lie.
Making the Case: Building Business Cases That Actually Land
Getting payroll the resources, recognition and seat at the table it deserves often comes down to one thing, how well you can make the case. Drawing on 25 years of experience across multiple industries, Claire shares what she has learned about building business cases that actually land. From identifying the metrics that matter to translating data into executive language and building the relationships that make outcomes possible, this is a practical, experience-led session covering what worked, what did not, and what you can apply immediately.
The Data Behind the Workforce: How the ABS is Unlocking STP
Single Touch Payroll data is doing far more than processing pays. Since 2020, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has been transforming STP data into powerful industry insights, from navigating the COVID-19 pandemic in close to real time to shaping labour market statistics, regional estimates and national accounts. Sean Crick and Kate Lamb from the ABS Labour Statistics program share how they wrangle large-scale STP data, what it's revealing about Australia's workforce and how STP Phase 2 opens new possibilities. A fascinating look at the bigger picture your payroll data is helping to build.
Live Product Demonstration — Paytools
A live demonstration of Paytools' platform showcasing key features for payroll teams.
Injury, Wages and Compliance: What WorkCover Really Means for Payroll
WorkCover too often sits in the “sunk cost” column, written off rather than acted on. This session unpacks the true financial footprint of workplace injury, from rehabilitation spend and productivity drain to wage impact and the growing pressure of an ageing workforce. You’ll leave with practical tools to measure these costs and the language to make WorkCover a strategic conversation with leadership, not just a compliance one.
Delivering a Fully In-Arrears Pay Cycle: Lessons from Commonwealth Bank
Moving to a fully in-arrears pay cycle is a significant operational shift and one more organisations are exploring as they modernise their payroll function. Belinda Atkins shares how Commonwealth Bank successfully transitioned its fortnightly payroll model, covering the rationale, the implementation considerations across payroll, HR and technology and how employees were supported through the change. A candid account of what worked, what required careful management and the practical lessons that translate to organisations of any scale.
From AI Curiosity to Everyday Practice
Most payroll professionals are somewhere in the middle right now. They can see the potential of AI and may be experimenting with a tool or two, but many are still working out how to make it part of their day-to-day workflow. This session provides a practical framework for moving from occasional experimentation to consistent, confident use of AI. Whether you're a team of one or part of a larger function, you'll learn how to turn individual successes into repeatable ways of working, build confidence across your team, and achieve meaningful productivity gains. You'll leave with a clear approach for embedding AI into everyday workflows in a way that is practical, sustainable and aligned with your organisation's needs.
Live Product Demonstration — Frontier
A live demonstration of Frontier's platform showcasing key features for payroll teams.
The Rising Risk Profile of Payroll
Payroll represents between 65 and 80 percent of most organisations' cost base, yet for years it operated out of sight. That is changing fast. This session examines the shift underway as payroll leaders move from back office administrators to front line risk managers, taking ownership of executive reporting, regulatory compliance and system-led transformation. You will leave with a clearer understanding of where payroll sits in the modern organisation and what it takes to lead from that position.
Leading Under Pressure: Emotional Intelligence, Performance and the Future of Payroll Leadership
The most advanced systems in any organisation are only as effective as the people leading them. As analytical and process-driven work continues to be automated, the real competitive advantage will come down to vision, creativity and emotional intelligence. Nicole Gibson, founder of emotion bio-tech company IN TRUTH, brings a science-backed perspective to what high performance actually looks like and how to measure it. Drawing on real physiological data from wearable technology, this session explores what emotional regulation means for payroll leaders and their teams, and what it takes to build the internal capacity to lead well under pressure.
Same Team, More Capacity: A Live AI Case Study from Bild Group
When Bild Group's payroll team faced multiple competing projects in a single financial year, they didn't just add headcount. They embedded AI into how the team worked and delivered all three. Caleb shares the leadership decisions, real use cases, quantified time savings and an honest account of the failures along the way. Operating evidence from a live environment, not a pilot. You'll leave with a practical framework your team can adapt and the confidence to know where to start.
Live Product Demonstration — Ramco
A live demonstration of Ramco's payroll platform.
Wage Compliance in 2026: What's Changed and What It Means for You
Wage compliance obligations don't stand still and neither should your approach to them. This session unpacks recent legal developments in wage compliance, including the Federal Court's landmark decision in a major test case on annual salary arrangements, and what it means for employers in both the short and long term. Walk away with a clear update on annual salary effectiveness and record-keeping obligations, plus practical tips for engaging with employees, unions and regulators.
Leading Governance: The Decisions, Disciplines and Stakeholder Work Behind a Payroll Function That Holds
Strong payroll governance does not happen by accident. Drawing on her years of experience leading payroll, Valerie shares the minimum hygiene measures every organisation should have in place, the cadences and operational rhythms that build consistency and accountability, and how to stay across changing requirements and translate them into clear action for your team. A practical, experience-led session from someone who has built and maintained governance at scale. You will leave with a framework you can apply regardless of your organisation's size.
Know Your Edge: Benchmarking Leadership Capability for the Modern Payroll Professional
This session explores what good leadership actually looks like in a changing payroll environment, moving beyond technical capability to the adaptability and strategic mindset that define modern payroll professionals. You will also have the opportunity to explore the Payroll Knowledge Assessment and Profiling Tool.
Live Product Demonstration — TracEzy
A live demonstration of TracEzy's platform showcasing key features for payroll teams.
This closing panel brings together four experienced payroll leaders for an honest conversation about what it takes to lead with authority, build trust across an organisation and drive meaningful change from within the function. Drawing on diverse experience across large and complex organisations, the panel explores the skills, mindset and decisions that define payroll leadership today, and what the profession needs from its leaders tomorrow.
No better way to celebrate a big day. We close the Summit by recognising the best in Australian payroll. The National Payroll Awards celebrate the individuals, teams and organisations driving excellence across our profession. From rising stars to bold innovators, this is your moment to cheer on the people who make payroll matter.
The day doesn't end with the awards. Join fellow delegates in the Exhibition Area from 4:30pm for drinks and dessert. Reconnect with familiar faces, meet new ones and keep the conversations going in a relaxed setting. A great day deserves a proper send-off.
End the day on a high.
The National Payroll Awards celebrate the individuals, teams and organisations driving excellence across the profession. From rising stars to bold innovators, be in the room when Australian payroll recognises its best and close out the day with Summit Social Drinks.
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| 8 October 2026 | 7:30am to 5:30pm | Crown, Melbourne | Virtual tickets available |
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