Greek government authorities have begun investigating the ownership status of Bill Papas’ Xanthi FC, after the Forum Group founder claimed he had sold the investment vehicle which housed his shares in the Greek Super League 2 side, The Australian Financial Reviewreports.
It comes as Westpac successfully sought orders for a raft of new Papas-related entities, including vehicles in Greece and the United Kingdom, to be added to its claims of fraud.
The Federal Court of Australia also heard on Wednesday that Mr Papas’ solicitor has sent a notice to the Forum chief executive that he will no longer be working for him.
Bill Papas appeared at a Xanthi FC club on Saturday.
The Committee for Professional Sports – part of the General Secretary of Sports of the Greek government – has twice delayed hearings into the matter, but will return in October.
According to the AFR, the committee has set a hearing for next month “regarding the current ownership status” of Xanthi.
On Saturday, Mr Papas made his first appearance at the football club. He attended a friendly match between Xanthi FC and Olympiacos B, along with Xanthi chief executive Anastasios Giamouridis and club vice-president Fanis Ouzounidis.
New South Wales’ Premier, Minister for Multiculturalism, and Chief Deputy Health Officer met with multicultural media on Wednesday to discuss the state’s pathway to freedom.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said state borders won’t open until all states reach their 80 percent double-dose vaccination target.
“NSW is likely to hit that figure before any other state, but we have to wait for all the other states to catch up … before we can hope to freely travel around Australia,” Berejiklian said.
She said overseas travel may come sooner for states which reach the target early.
“So even though the other states may not have caught up to us yet, I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to not only welcome home many Australians through Sydney Airport but also have the opportunity to travel overseas ourselves,” she said.
She added that returning Australians from overseas who are jabbed with a federally recognised vaccine will be able to quarantine from home.
NSW Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, spoke with multicultural media on Wednesday.
“We will be able to have home quarantine for Australians coming back home from overseas, but they will need to be fully vaccinated with a vaccine that our health authorities think is safe,” she said.
“We know that the vaccines available in Australia are extremely effective and safe, but not all vaccines around the world have demonstrated the same level of effectiveness and safety.”
Chief Deputy Health Officer Marianne Gale added that unrecognised vaccinations are an issue that is “going to need to be worked through” as Australia reopens.
“I know that the [Therapeutic Goods Administration] is actively looking at these issues…” she said.
“At present, we recognise the vaccines approved by the TGA and understand that it is an issue still under consideration by the Commonwealth.”
Overseas travellers to Australia who are inoculated with an unrecognised vaccine aren’t the only ones who may miss out.
Chief Deputy Health Officer Marianne Gale.
The Premier said unvaccinated Australians shouldn’t expect freedoms once the state reopens.
She said they may still be waiting weeks longer to access venues.
“Unvaccinated people will not be allowed into venues or events to make sure we keep the population safe,” she said.
“We shouldn’t assume that unvaccinated people will have freedoms at 80 per cent [sic].”
Minister for Multiculturalism Natalie Ward added that rules will likewise apply to businesses.
“I know people want to get back to work and businesses want to get back to running their businesses,” she told The Greek Herald, but “there will of course be specific health orders to make that absolutely clear.”
Meanwhile, the State Government is gearing up its vaccine rollout for children.
“Whilst we require childcare workers [and teachers] to be vaccinated at this stage, there is no vaccine available for children under the age of 12,” Berejiklian said. It follows reports that children aged between five and 11 could get Pfizer COVID jabs in Australia by the end of the year.
The Greek Community of Melbourne (GCM) has long acknowledged that fairness in taxation and reducing the tax burden is essential for any Greek Australian wishing to invest in Greece.
The imposition of taxation by both countries when one invests in Greece has been an issue of concern at many levels for both countries. This includes most revenue inducing assets including inherited property etc.
The GCM has raised the issue with Government on a number of occasions and in late July, wrote to the Australian Treasurer, the Hon Josh Frydenberg specifically seeking movement on a Double Taxation Agreement (DTA) with Greece.
GCM president Bill Papastergiadis was delighted with the latest announcement by the Australian Government.
Papastergiadis met with Minister Sukkar in March 2021.
“We have been liaising with the Greek and Australian Governments on finding an equitable solution to the issue of people being taxed twice on any of their investments,” Mr Papastergiadis said.
“We met with Minister Sukkar in March 2021 and it is pleasing to receive a letter from Minister Sukkar on behalf of the Treasurer confirming that Australia and Greece will enter into bilateral tax treaty negotiations in 2022.”
A treaty between the two countries will have a profound effect on many levels. Firstly, it affects the plans of many Greek Australians who hope to one day retire in Greece without worrying about the treatment of assets from a taxation perspective.
More importantly, it makes Greek and Australian tax relations on par with over 40 other countries which in turn can only help trade relations.
Whilst it is not the only impediment to building on the rather anaemic $330 million of trade between Australia and Greece annually, it can only help but encourage further development. As a matter of context and whilst economies differ greatly, Italian trade with Australia sits at $11.1 billion annually, a significantly higher multiple than the Greek figure.”
A bilateral tax treaty between Australia and Greece will be negotiated next year.
The GCM applauded the statement from Minister Sukkar’s office that acknowledged that the Australian Government understands “the interest from stakeholders in a tax treaty between Australia and Greece and the benefits tax treaties can provide in reducing double taxation and encouraging trade and investment relationships,”
Mr Papastergiadis went on to say “any such treaty can only be a positive move that serves to strengthens the ties between our two countries.”
Mr John Tripidakis (Greek lawyer practising in Australia) who has been working with the GCM for the pursuit and establishment of the DTA, said that he is enthusiastic that both States decided to enter into long anticipated negotiations, but continued:
“The Greek Australian community has experienced specific unfair tax and legal issues when dealing with the two (different) tax systems simultaneously. These issues have to be specified, analysed and realistic proposals for their remedy need to be suggested.”
Melbourne home prices are tipped to surge following the lifting of a seven-week ban on home inspections over the weekend, The Australian Financial Reviewreports.
Many restrictions still remain including how only one set of buyers are allowed at properties at any time. Also, vendors cannot be on site while agents must remain outside, leaving buyers alone in the property, raising some security concerns.
But real estate agent, Luke Banitsiotis, from Woodards in Blackburn said a surge in house prices is still expected due to pent-up buyer demand.
“For those clients who had pre-committed but needed to sell something to fund the purchase, it definitely created some challenges for them. If there was inflexibility in terms of settlement dates they were faced with some nervous times,” Mr Banitsiotis said.
Luke Banitsiotis.
“On the positive side, we had a really good run with people who were willing to purchase off virtual inspections for stock that was already there, which is probably a sign of demand.”
He said stock levels were “definitely down” but the pipeline was looking good.
“It’s looking likely that the stock that we do have is still not going to meet demand. It feels like there’s plenty of people waiting in the wings,” he said.
“The moment we opened inspections up yesterday for Saturday on some properties there were 15 people registered within the first two hours.”
Some Melbourne agents have reported that October is set to be the biggest auction month ever due to the August and September property backlog.
Andrews Meat wholesaler, Peter Andrews, and his wife Irene, have sold their Vaucluse house for $34.5 million this week, Domain reports.
The sale of the couple’s grand Mediterranean-style house on 1200 square metres with a swimming pool ends almost half a century of ownership, since it last traded in 1974 when sold by the Gehrig family for $173,000.
Peter Andrews owns Andrews Meat.
Sources pinned the sale on Laing+Simmons Double Bay’s D’Leanne Lewis and Jacob Hannon, although details on the buyer remain shrouded in mystery.
The Andrews house sale is set to be the second highest in Vaucluse this year, just topped by the $35 million sale of the Hillside Avenue mansion owned by Hong Kong arts patron, Yang Yang.
Mt Olympus, covering 23,562 hectares in central Greece, has at long last been designated a national park in a presidential decree published on Tuesday.
The area is divided into three zones, as well a fourth one on the Elassona side, to prevent unwanted construction in the future.
Zone A (3,471 ha) forms the park’s core and is a protected area where only scientific research, forestry work and the maintenance of the E4 path are allowed.
Mt Olympus has been divided into 4 zones.
Zone B (5,570 ha) includes all three climbing refuges located on the mountain and allows low-key ecotourism activities. Maintenance and improvement works will be allowed on the shelters but not the creation of new ones. Vehicles are allowed on existing roads.
New mountain shelters and facilities for visitors to rest are allowed in Zone C (4,521 ha), along with beekeeping, free-range grazing, agriculture and hunting.
A Turkish warship issued a warning to a Greek research vessel to prevent it entering what Turkey considers its territorial waters, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.
The showdown came a year after tensions in the eastern Mediterranean threatened to escalate into open conflict between the neighbors and NATO allies.
The Nautical Geo survey ship was confronted by the Orucreis frigate as it attempted to enter Turkey’s continental shelf, the ministry said.
“The ship in question was radioed and warned not to enter the Turkish continental shelf. There was no physical intervention,” the ministry added.
It condemned Greece’s “unlawful, provocative and expansionist initiative” under the guise of scientific research and said Turkey was “determined to protect and defend its rights and interests.”
The ministry didn’t say when the incident occurred, but maritime tracking services showed the Maltese-flagged Nautical Geo docked Wednesday at Iraklio port on the Crete.
Earlier, Greek Foreign Minister, Nikos Dendias, briefed his European counterparts on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly over the harassment by Turkish warships.
According to diplomatic sources, Dendias informed his counterparts on the “unacceptable move” of the Turkish warship which harassed the Maltese-flagged vessel as it was carrying out scientific research inside the Greek continental shelf – as designated by the Greece-Egypt maritime deal of 2020 – in an area 10 nautical miles east of Crete.
Greece and Turkey have been competing over the exploration of gas reserves in the eastern Mediterranean amid a lengthy dispute over their respective territorial waters. Turkey also considers itself the guardian of breakaway northern Cyprus’s energy rights in the region.
Dendias briefed his European counterparts on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly over the harassment by Turkish warships.
In the summer of 2020, Greek and Turkish warships shadowed each other across the eastern Mediterranean as Turkey sent research ships backed by its navy to search for hydrocarbon reserves.
Although there was no direct conflict, the danger was illustrated when a Greek frigate collided with a Turkish warship in August. The standoff also drew in France, the United Arab Emirates and the European Union in defending Greece’s rights in the face of what they declared to be Turkish provocations.
The confrontation led Athens to bolster its naval and air forces with new defense equipment, including 24 French Rafale jets.
Last week, Athens issued a Navtex warning that the Nautical Geo would be operating off the eastern coast of Crete, which Turkey considers its waters and is covered by a 2019 maritime deal between Turkey and Libya. The Navtex expired on Wednesday.
Senior Greek and Turkish officials have met twice this year to discuss their maritime disputes, the first talks on the long-standing issue since 2016.
As a former Editor of The Greek Herald, Constantinos Potiris estimates he has translated thousands of newspaper articles to “accurately” represent a story to Greek readers.
It’s this experience which now sees him working tirelessly during the current lockdown in New South Wales to translate COVID-19 public health messaging from English to Greek for the local Greek community.
Mr Potiris is one of more than 800 translators and interpreters working with Multicultural NSW on a casual basis and he says the service they offer is essential “to cope with the changing developments in the fight against COVID-19.”
“Today, after more than half a century, the Greek community in Australia has diversified considerably, but there still remains a significant number of Greek Australians who speak Greek at home and translated information remains a key source of communication for them,” Mr Potiris tells The Greek Herald exclusively.
“The amazing work structure achieved by Multicultural NSW allows the unique multicultural society of the state… to enjoy translation and interpreting services by over 200 ethnic communities of various backgrounds.
— NSW Multicultural Health Communication Service (@mhcsnsw) September 14, 2021
“Apart from having a platform to translate their documents in a professional and safe manner, non-English speaking communities have the opportunity to be updated in their mother language on government advice, which became a life-saving necessity in the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The NSW Minister for Multiculturalism, Natalie Ward, couldn’t agree more with Mr Potiris and says that, since the start of the pandemic, more than 2,600 resources covering specific health information, including stay at home orders, have been translated in almost 60 languages.
“It is a priority of the NSW Government to ensure our critical COVID health messages reach all corners of our wonderful diverse community,” Minister Ward said in a statement to The Greek Herald.
“I’m so grateful to all our fantastic Multicultural NSW translators, like Mr Potiris, who are working tirelessly behind the scenes to help keep us safe.”
What makes a good translation?
This high praise is well-deserved for a man like Mr Potiris.
A Greek migrant who finally settled in Australia in 1984, Mr Potiris had already attained a Certificate of Proficiency in English from Michigan University when he first started translating for The Greek Herald.
Later he applied to the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI) and after he passed the demanding examinations, he was accredited as a professional translator (Level 3) for Greek to English and vice versa.
Constantinos Potiris in his office.
Mr Potiris was then accepted as a panel translator at the Community Relations Commission for a Multicultural NSW, which is now known simply as Multicultural NSW.
It’s this vast experience which ensures Mr Potiris’ translations of COVID-19 public health messages are accurate every time.
“In translation, your aim is to render the meaning of the source language to the target language, accurately and without omitting any words,” Mr Potiris explains.
“Not all words have a literal translation. Very often word-to-word translation produces a non-colloquial text in the target language. This is now the problem with mechanical translations offered online.
“A good translation must render the correct meaning, as well as the style of the source language text.”
In saying this, it seems the job of a translator such as Mr Potiris is not only always evolving, but also continues to contribute greatly to Australian society.
“Decades ago, the Greek community in Australia with thousands of newly arrived immigrants who did not know English, had no idea of local customs and traditions, could not understand the environment they found themselves in coming from their village (most of them), but could find, read the basics and get information from translations provided to them through various media. A huge contribution!” Mr Potiris says.
“Αt the risk of self-praise, I would like to point out that the significant service provided by translators and interpreters, is not just a means of livelihood. Much more it represents a social function within the unique multicultural social fabric of the Australian society.”
It was a case between Greeks with Kostas Tsimikas, Dimitris Giannoulis and Christos Tzolis all starting for their teams as Norwich were beaten 0-3 by Liverpool at Carrow Road on Tuesday night and were knocked out of the EFL Cup.
German manager Jurgen Klopp wanted to keep the momentum going for the 25-year-old left-back, offering him yet another place in the starting eleven after his recent string of great performances.
And he didn’t take long to make good on his choice as it was a Tsimikas corner kick just after four minutes of play that led to Liverpool’s first goal of the night, with Divock Origi heading the ball towards Takumi Minamino and the Japanese player putting the ball in the back of the net.
The Greek players dominated the play in the game between Norwich City and Liverpool. Source: beIN Sports
On the other end, Giannoulis was a major problem for the red defense all night with his runs down the left flank. During one of them on the 40th minute, he picked up the ball after a shot on goal by former PAOK teammate Tzolis, only to be brought down in the area by Conor Bradley.
The referee immediately pointed towards the spot, with Tzolis stepping up to bring his team back on level terms. But his poor attempt was denied by Caoimhin Kelleher, with Liverpool holding the lead for the end of the first half.
The “reds” were able to double their advantage again thanks to Tsimikas, after his run down the left on the 50th minute was spotted by Curtis Jones. The 25-year-old made a pinpoint cross for the head of Divock Origi, who had little trouble beating Angus Gunn.
50' – Tsimikas sends in a pinpoint cross from the byline to Origi and he glances his header beyond the reach of Gunn 🙌
Tsimikas’ team secured their spot in the fourth round of the English Cup with a second goal by Minamino which came by a Giannoulis error when the 25-year-old attempted to dribble past two Liverpool players outside the area only to lose the ball.
It was Tsimikas who may have come out on top in this small skirmish, overall however, it was a great night for Greek football.
Greece tested drones to deliver medicines to regional areas on Tuesday.
It flew three kilometers between Trikala and Leptokarya in the country’s north and made two stops in between – one at the pharmacy, another at a farmer’s field.
“Technology can give real solutions to real problems that we have today. Today we transported medicines to a pharmacy nearby, tomorrow it could be to transport medicines to some emergency,” said Trikala mayor Dimitris Papastergiou.
Trikala mayor Dimitris Papastergiou says the trial will benefit regional communities (Left: Greece Investor Guide) (Right: REUTERS/Thanos Floulis)
It’s part of an EU-funded program called Harmony which aims to use low carbon and less resource-intensive solutions for transport.
The drone program is intended to serve people with mobility issues, isolated villages and homes, and sites of emergencies. Officials said the project is particularly crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It concerns situations where immediate help will be needed, or people and places that are isolated,” said Dimitris Anastasiou, president of the Trikala pharmacists’ association.
The Harmony program will be tested in six cities in Europe and Britain.
