NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet addressed multicultural media on Wednesday, November 17, for the first time as the New South Wales leader.
The Premier said the high vaccination rates among teachers will ensure the state keeps schools open.
“The department continues to follow up with less than those two and a half thousand teachers [who are unvaccinated]… across the state,” the Premier said.
“So it will be a challenge, but I don’t think it’s as substantive as it’s being made out.”
The Premier went on to say that schools may have to close during an outbreak, but that it’s “better we have schools open than closed”.
He said he recently discussed the issue of vaccinating children with Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
“We’re obviously in [the TGA’s] hands in relation to at what point they deem it appropriate for our younger children to get vaccinated…,” he said.
“We’ll wait and see what the TGA says about the vaccine but I think it’ll promote a lot less disruption to families if children are able to get vaccinated,” NSW Health senior medical advisor Dr. Jan Fizzell added.
Over 80 percent of those aged 12 to 15 have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 73.9 per cent are fully vaccinated.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet addresses the COVID-19 multicultural media press conference (Screenshot: John Voutos)
Premier Perrottet is optimistic the state will enjoy a holiday period surrounded by family and friends regardless of their vaccination status.
“You’ve had many people separated from their families and friends for a long period of time and everyone’s made enormous sacrifice in that regard.
“So I think Christmas is going to be a time of immense joy.”
Minister for Multiculturalism Natalie Ward confirmed that returning international students will also arrive in Australia “just in time for Christmas”.
“A first flight on the sixth of December will be arriving with about 250 students from over 15 nations…,” she said.
“Then of course, there’ll be a second one just in time for Christmas pairing students from Southeast Asia and India, which is due on the 24th of December.”
Despite the optimism, Perrottet insisted the pandemic is far from over.
“We need to make sure that we continue to just be careful and look out for each other,” he said.
“…I also don’t want to see, as we move forward into the future, a two-tier society but ultimately those who aren’t vaccinated [inaudible] not looking after themselves.”
“We’ve seen the evidence is very, very clear. When you look at the hospitalisation numbers, when you look at those who are in intensive care, it is very much skewed towards those people who have not been vaccinated.”
NSW recorded 216 new cases of COVID-19 and three deaths on Friday.
Greek-owned business, Souvlaki Boys, have won the ‘Outstanding Specialised Retail Business Award’ for the second year in a row at the Inner West Local Business Awards 2021.
“I’m lost for words,” co-owner, Nick Alepidis, tells The Greek Herald exclusively.
“When we won for the first time, it was an amazing experience. Now we are smiling from ear to ear. We can’t thank our customers enough and all those who have supported us. Our father has been our biggest influence, teaching us the trade.”
Co-owners of Souvlaki Boys, Nick and Arthur Alepidis. Photo supplied.
Nick’s father, Greg Alepidis, started his business trade in Canterbury as part owner of Advanced Poultry and sold his shares in 2016. Now he has passed on his recipes to Nick and his brother, Arthur, who run Souvlaki Boys.
Nick and Arthur opened Souvlaki Boys in the heart of Marrickville, Sydney in 2016 and have gained a loyal following ever since for their lamb backstrap, pork neck, pork belly and chicken souvlakia.
“[The award] is a testament to the staff, my father who helps out and our customers who made all this possible,” Nick concludes.
Much-loved children’s book series, Ikoyenia, has released its fifth instalment just in time for the festive period.
Christmas With My Family is a special edition, rhyming story book about the true meaning of Christmas.
Adelaide-based journalist and author, Stephanie Timotheou, says the bilingual book, which is written in English and Greek, is a fun-filled story about a typical Greek Christmas.
“Anthea and her family start the day by going to church, followed by a big family lunch and of course there’s some festive fun along the way too,” Mrs Timotheou, 30, says.
“It’s a really special book which I’m sure children would love to receive under the Christmas tree this year.”
Former Rabbitohs captain John Sutton has announced his intention to run for Randwick council alongside independent councillor Anthony Andrews.
“As you’re aware, Anthony Andrews is re-standing as an independent candidate in central ward for the upcoming council elections on Saturday, December 4,” a video Sutton posted to Instagram said.
“Running with him as part of the community independent team is former premiership-winning captain of the South Sydney Rabbitohs John Sutton.”
Sutton recently spoke out against a decision by the NSW Electoral Commission to ban handouts within 100 metres of polling booths.
“I haven’t been in politics for too long, but at least I know that’s wrong, and we need to get that changed,” he told 2GB.
“Anthony has been a long[-term] councillor in this area, and his views resonate with me, so I’m glad I get to run with him.”
Cr Anthony Andrews was first elected to the council in 2000.
Lord Ashcroft is standing among rows and rows of headstones at the Suda Bay War Cemetery in Crete, which commemorates the lives of the more than 1500 fallen Commonwealth servicemen from World War II.
Whilst there, he reflects on the life of Charles Hazlitt Upham – a New Zealand farmer turned army officer who risked his life time and again defending Crete from its German assailants.
In a piece for the NZ Herald, Lord Ashcroft details the life of this incredible man and shares how he is one of only three people ever to win the Victoria Cross (VC) twice for his actions in Crete in 1941 and Egypt in 1942. Upham is the only person to have achieved this as a combat soldier.
Lord Ashcroft pays his respects to fallen soldiers at the memorial cemetery at Crete. Photo / Angela Entwistle.
Who was Charles Upham?
Born in Christchurch in 1908, Charles Upham joined the 2nd NZ Expeditionary Force soon after war broke out in September 1939.
Upham earned the VC for outstanding gallantry and leadership in Crete in May 1941, and his Bar at Ruweisat Ridge, Egypt, in July 1942.
According to the NZ Government, Upham was severely wounded in Crete. In one particular incident, Upham led a counterattack on Maleme airport, which had fallen into enemy hands.
“When his company was forced to withdraw, Upham carried a wounded comrade back under fire,” Lord Ashcroft writes.
“A comrade who witnessed the incident said later: “Bullets and shrapnel were flying about. A chap walked out of olive trees and across open country. No shirt, shorts blood-smeared, carrying a badly wounded man. I said to my CSM [Company Sergeant Major], ‘He’ll either get a wooden cross or a Victoria Cross’.”
Charles Upham receiving his VC from General Auchinleck, November 1941. Photo: stuff.co.nz.
Upham was later captured by the Germans. After a failed escape attempt while recuperating in an Italian hospital, he was transferred to Germany in September 1943.
A particularly audacious solo attempt to scale his camp’s barbed-wire fences in broad daylight saw Upham become the only New Zealand combatant officer sent to the infamous Colditz camp for habitual escapers in 1944.
It was here that the Americans liberated him and others close to the end of the war.
After the war Upham returned to farming life in Canterbury, where he died in 1994 surrounded by his wife and daughters. He was 86 years of age.
Modest and selfless, but extremely tough and single-minded, Upham came to symbolise the steely determination and professionalism of the New Zealand Division in the Second World War.
Mytilineos has secured funding of solar power projects in southern New South Wales from ANZ, Westpac, and Societe Generale.
The company says the solar parks in Corowa, Junee, and Wagga Wagga will produce 220-gigawatt hours of electricity and reduce 180,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year.
“We applaud Mytilineos Group’s commitment to develop sustainable energy solutions, and in turn support Australia’s energy transition,” said Alastair Welsh, manager at Westpac Institutional Bank.
Westpac’s Alastair Welsh (Photo: Aaron Francis)
“ANZ is very pleased to have supported MYTILINEOS in… providing valuable renewable energy generation in New South Wales as the state transitions to net-zero carbon,” ANZ executive director Mark Clover said.
The project is part of a 10-year ‘Green’ Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Coles.
Mytilineos says its remaining projects in Australia will be ready to start construction next year.
Construction is nearing completion on St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in the Financial District of New York City.
According to the New York Yimby, the reinforced concrete structure is now nearly fully clad in Pentelic marble and stone.
The radiant, cream-coloured light of the Pentelic marble will reflect a warm ambience outward toward those who stand on the hallowed ground of Ground Zero, where nearly 3,000 people perished in the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001.
The shrine lit up on the 9/11 anniversary this year. Photo: Jeremy Campbell / Twitter.
The cross has also been reinstalled back on the top of the dome.
The St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church was recently blessed on November 2 in which Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Archbishop of New York, Timothy Cardinal Dolan, took part.
24 aid workers accused of espionage, forgery, and intercepting radio frequencies in Greece are in legal “limbo” after their trial was postponed.
Irish law student Seán Binder is among them and also faces charges of human trafficking, money laundering, and fraud during his work for the now-defunct NGO Emergency Response Centre International (ECRI).
“I may not have been found guilty today but effectively I’m still not free.
The criminalization of humanitarianism continues,” he told the Guardian.
The aid workers, almost all volunteers, include Greek and foreigners who had participated in search and rescue work on Lesbos.
Former ERCI volunteer and competitive swimmer Sarah Mardini, who helped save 18 Syrian refugees from drowning when their dinghy sunk off Turkey, is being tried.
Mardini and Binder have spent 106 days in pre-trial detention, with Mardini incarcerated in Athens’ high-security Korydallos prison.
Under Greek law, they can be held in custody pending trial for up to 18 months.
If ultimately convicted, both could face 25 years in prison.
Mardini’s lawyer Haris Petsalnikos suggests the charges may be “the most serious any aid worker has ever faced.”
Protestors across Europe are calling for the charges to be dropped.
The European Parliament has condemned the trial.
Outside the Lesbos court, protestors held banners reading “saving lives is not a crime”.
“Today’s decision adds to the ordeal of the defendants and compounds the violation of their human rights,” said Amnesty International’s Giorgos Kosmopoulos.
The trial highlights growing hostility towards NGOs involved in migrant solidarity work and mounting accusations against the Greek government of migrant pushbacks.
Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has denied the alleged pushbacks, arguing that Greek patrols “intercept” migrant boats, as EU law allows, until Turkish coastguard vessels collect them.
He has accepted his government pursues “a tough but fair” migrant policy.
