Woolworths has lauded itself as an "exemplary employer" and "a model accused" in court as the supermarket giant admitted underpaying more than $1 million to about 1200 workers.

Two days after Woolworths' boss was threatened with jail for holding the Senate in contempt, the company faced Melbourne Magistrates Court where it pleaded guilty to more than 1000 charges.

Woolworths is facing a maximum penalty of more than $10 billion over the offending, prosecutors said on Thursday.

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Barrister Kathleen Crennan, acting for the Wage Inspectorate Victoria, said the regulator was contacted in February 2022 by lawyers for Woolworths after it undertook a review of its payroll systems.

The supermarket chain discovered it was not paying some employees their long service leave entitlements after they left Woolworths, due to discrepancies in how those payments were being calculated.

Crennan said the inspectorate investigated and found the underpayments occurred for former Woolworths and Woolstar workers on 3617 occasions between January 2020 and July 2022.

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The regulator took the case to court and charged Woolworths for those who were underpaid sums of more than $250, which resulted in about $1 million in unpaid leave for 1227 former Victorian staff.

Woolworths' barrister Saul Holt KC admitted it was an "interesting week" to be discussing the supermarket in open court.

"But Woolworths is much more than some headlines and a senate inquiry," he said.

He said Woolworths was described as "a model accused" by the prosecution, as it had self-reported and self-investigated the underpayments to the regulator.

"Woolworths is an exemplary employer," he said, adding it was a major employer of young people aged under 25.

Holt said the proposed $10 billion maximum penalty was "extraordinary" and asked the magistrate not to dole out such a high penalty as it could discourage other employers from self-reporting.

"There's an incredibly important policy imperative in encouraging employers… to say when 'we find anomalies, we're not just going to fix them in the future, we're going to go back and check'," he said.

Woolworths has since paid back most of the underpaid after alerting them via text message, email and post, and paid those they could not get in contact with into their last known bank account, he said.

Crennan said Woolworths, as a major corporation with ample resources, should have put in place mechanisms to prevent the underpayments from occurring in the first place.

"With a corporation of these resources, across jurisdictions, there's really no excuse for this to have happened," she said.

Magistrate Nahrain Warda asked why it took so long for Woolworths to discover the payroll issues, given it had changed systems in 2016.

"Why is it not until 2020 that the testing is, in essence, to ensure there are no anomalies? One would think that would be ongoing," she said.

"Woolworths can't escape from the fact that over that period those anomalies were not picked up, that should not have occurred and would not have occurred now because we know more," Mr Holt replied.

Woolworths will be sentenced on April 24.

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The Environment Court ended McCallum Brothers’ battle to mine sand at Pākiri Beach.

Shoppers could be seen running out of the mall in South Auckland, followed by the group.

One of the victims has since died, while the other won’t get all her money back.

Owners with construction scheduled in as little as two months have been left in the lurch.

The pilot was also found guilty of refuelling with a passenger still aboard.

The PM has landed in the Philippines after a quick visit to Thailand’s capital Bangkok.

Council’s ‘challenging’ draft Long Term Plan could include closing Frimley Pool.

Quiet sobs, slight rustling and creaks from a tired escalator reverberate at a quiet Westfield Bondi Junction, where mournful crowds gather to pay tribute to the lives lost in Saturday afternoon's mass stabbing.

It has been five days since Joel Cauchi killed six people, injured a dozen more and left countless more lives changed forever at the once-busy shopping centre.

Today, the centre reopened its doors for a day of reflection for the lives lost: Ashlee Good, Jade Young, Dawn Singleton, Faraz Tahir, Pikria Darchia and Yixuan Cheng.

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Sydneysiders walk slowly, with intention, through the centre, stopping to gaze inside closed stores and share an embrace as they make their way to level four.

There, a site has been designated to leave flowers and sign a condolences book.

A heavy and quiet air hangs over bowed heads with hardly more heard than quiet sobs, the rustling of bouquet wrappings and that creak of a nearby escalator.

The centre is visibly clean. It smells clean too. 

It's hard to picture this was the chaotic and bloody scene where shoppers and staff either ran for their lives or bravely confronted the attacker, who had been wielding a knife.

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Students, workers, police officers, parents and children are gathered around the site on level four to place flowers, share a meaningful silence, hug and shed tears.

Leaders across all faiths are there to provide a comforting ear while Westfield staff stand equipped with tissue boxes.

Dozens of security guards are also back on duty after one of their own, Faraz Tahir, died protecting others and another was injured.

The line to sign the condolences book is long and slow-moving and you understand why when you reach the front.

Lengthy and heartfelt messages in different handwriting and languages are scribbled across the pages, which are quickly filling up.

Walking past Cotton On Kids, in particular, is confronting.

It was here where parents grabbed their children and took shelter inside the store, fleeing from Cauchi.

Inside Chanel, there are flowers laid by staff with a note reading "For Dawnie".

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Heading back outside the centre, a pile of bouquets is growing.

It is here Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and NSW Premier Chris Minns laid their own flowers on Sunday. 

One young girl, with handpicked garden flowers wrapped in ribbon, adds her bouquet next to the others.

Walking into a nearby florist, the staff have their head bowed and talk in hushed voices.

One worker tells another to keep the flowers coming from their stockroom.

Mental health staff in hi-vis are gathered to the sides offering support while police officers are in groups and on horses patrolling the streets.

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Five days ago, this was a place streaming with emergency services and crowds of grief-stricken shoppers but today this is a quiet place of reflection.

Police are still investigating the stabbing spree while the NSW government has green-lit an $18 million coronial inquest.

Bondi Junction Westfield will officially reopen for trade tomorrow.

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The average student debt is going to increase by at least $1100 in June, according to new parliamentary projections, but Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has hinted relief is coming in next month's federal budget.

Almost three million Australians have student debt, which will increase on June 1 when HECS-HELP indexation comes into effect.

According to projections done by the Parliamentary Library for the Greens released this morning, this year's indexation will be the second highest on record at between 4.2 to 4.8 per cent, trailing only last year's 7.1 per cent increase.

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The exact rate won't be known until after the March inflation figures are announced next week, but even the low end of the estimate will see the average student debt of $26,494 rise by $1113, according to the Greens.

If indexation is the full 4.8 per cent, that amount will increase to $1272.

The Greens have used the figures to repeat their calls for indexation to be abolished.

"In the May budget, Labor must scrap indexation on student debt," education spokesperson Mehreen Faruqi said, adding that "there is still time to stop the massive indexation hit coming again this June".

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"Student debts are spiralling out of control."

Questioned about the impending rise on radio this morning, Albanese indicated there would be some form of relief for those with student debt in the May 14 budget, although remained tight-lipped on what that would actually be.

"I think there's a range of areas where we need to do much better with the younger generation, and HECs is one of them," the prime minister told HIT Central Queensland.

"We've received a review of that… and what that has said is that the system can be made simpler and be made fairer.

"The idea of HECs is a good one. It's one that has led to a massive expansion, the number of people being able to do university degrees.

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"But we're examining the recommendations and we'll be making announcements pretty soon on that. We, of course, have a budget coming up."

The review – the Australian Universities Accord, which was released in February – didn't call for indexation to be scrapped, but did recommend that it be tied to whichever is lower out of inflation or the wage price index.

The current settings only take inflation into account.

Although it is usually lower than the increase in wages, that wasn't the case in recent years, meaning the increases in debt were outpacing current and former students' means to pay it back.

The Universities Accord final report also recommended that student fees be based on the potential life time earnings associated with the course someone is studying.