By Natali Simonovski | Head of Digital Innovation, Australian Payroll Association
A room full of energy
On 8 October more than 400 payroll professionals filled Crown Melbourne for the 2026 Australian Payroll Summit, with 150 more joining us online. Both in person and virtual tickets sold out, and you could feel it from the first coffee at 7:30am.
The exhibition foyer was buzzing before the doors to the main stage even opened. Old colleagues were catching up, new faces were swapping stories and the conversations kept going right through to the last drink of the night.
This year we tried something new. Four tracks ran side by side, and delegates were free to build their own day. Some went deep on compliance, others split up across the program with their team and compared notes over lunch. Judging by the packed rooms, it worked.
Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth opened the day, and she set the bar high. Her keynote gave a frank view of where enforcement attention sits today and what proactive compliance really looks like.
She then joined MC Helen Kapalos on stage for a candid conversation about employer behaviour, the patterns the FWO is targeting and what she has learnt since stepping into the role. Delegates told us they valued how open and approachable she was. Her message was simple: keep striving to comply, even when the goalposts keep moving.
We were lucky to have practitioners, legal experts and regulators sharing the stage. A few themes came up again and again:
Pay is personal. Payroll is measured in transactions and deadlines, but what really matters is the impact on people.
Bring people on the journey. The projects that worked put planning, communication and employees first.
Transformation is more than a new system. People, process, data and governance matter just as much as the technology.
Compliance doesn't have to be complicated. Good habits and regular checks go a long way.
Celebrate your wins. Payroll teams are used to silence meaning success. It's time to make a little more noise.
We closed the day with a leadership panel and the National Payroll Awards, celebrating the people setting the standard for our profession.
When everything runs well, nobody notices. But the work matters, because every pay run touches someone's life and livelihood. That's why we bring the community together each year: to share what's working, learn from people who've been there and remind each other that nobody has to figure this out alone.
Thank you to our speakers for sharing their experience so generously, to our sponsors and exhibitors for making the day possible and to every delegate who came along and shared their own stories. After another big year, you all earned a day to celebrate.
We hope you can join us in Brisbane next March. Dates and details will be released soon.