MasterChef judge George Calombaris, Matt Preston and Gary Mehigan to leave the show | Television and radio

The entire MasterChef Australia jury will not be back next season, an announcement that follows revelations George Calombaris' companies had underpaid staff of nearly $ 8 million in its restaurants.

Network 10 announced Tuesday, in anticipation of the season finale, that this episode would be the last show of Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and Calombaris.

The CEO, Paul Anderson, said the network had not been able to reach a satisfactory trade agreement for the trio.

"We would like to thank Gary, George and Matt for their contributions over the past 11 years," Anderson said in a statement. "We look forward to introducing another group – and the next generation of outstanding judges – to MasterChef Australia's season 12 next year."

Nothing indicates that the judges' decision not to return to the show next season is related to the issue of insufficient payments.

Last week, unions called for the dismissal of Calombaris as a MasterChef judge after learning that his businesses had underpaid restaurant staff by nearly $ 8 million.

The Fair Work Ombudsman fined $ 200,000 for its Made Made Establishment following a four-year investigation that revealed a failure to pay compensation rates, penalties, and occasional penalties. overtime and other allowances.

The Western Australian government has also suspended its tourism campaign featuring Calombaris.

Calombaris was part of Tourism WA's Create Your Own Gourmet Getaway advertising campaign, which aired for the first time in MasterChef's Eastern States during WA Week in early September and was expected to last until September.

Tourism WA's general manager, Brodie Carr, said the Calombaris ads had been suspended, although the campaign with MasterChef is continuing.

"We have suspended all of our work with George for the moment and are discussing with his management the possibility of recovering some of our costs that we have paid him," Carr told Radio 6PR. "We will continue with the campaign we are doing with MasterChef but probably not with George.