Sydneysiders who are still deciding which restaurant to book when the city emerges from lockdown best hurry, as many high-profile venues are rapidly filling their reservations lists through to the end of the year.
The easing of COVID-19 restrictions to allow in-restaurant dining from October 11 couldn’t have come at a better time, with the warmer weather encouraging people to eat outside and by the water.
Bill Drakopoulos, who counts Ormeggio, Ripples Milsons Point and The Fenwick in Balmain as part of his Sydney Restaurant Group portfolio, told Good Food he couldn’t be happier.
The Fenwick in Balmain.
Mr Drakopoulos said Ormeggio at The Spit in Mosman is already booked for many group sittings on weekends through to December.
“For most of our sites, even though they’re on the water and ideal for tourists, the cornerstone of the business is locals,” Mr Drakopoulos said.
“I have been doing this for 40 years and sharing with friends is the way to dine. Order a few dishes, engage, have fun. Bring on the 11th!”
Maria Dalamaras is a mum, travel addict and lover of wine, delving into the world of digital marketing. She has a psychology background and a natural desire to help people.
This passion for people and everything social media led her to climb out of the corporate space in 2018 to chase her dream of becoming an entrepreneur.
She launched the Rio Consulting Group, a boutique creative agency in Sydney which supports small to medium sized enterprises that have recognised the importance of digital presence by creating online engagement through creative content and unique marketing strategies.
In saying this, Maria has shared the following expert tips to make sure your social media presence is relevant:
1. Brand awareness. Australians are spending more time online now than ever, now is the time for you to be sharing your brand’s story and connecting with your audience.
2. Engage with your audience. Current lockdowns have limited interactions we are having with our community. Physical interactions have now shifted to online interactions. Ask questions, create polls and connect with your online audience.
Maria Dalamaras shares her top social media tips for small businesses.
There are multiple tools, paid and unpaid available to help small businesses create engaging content. My favourite tool to use when creating content is Canva. My favourite tool to use when creating video content is Inshot
3. Online shopping. According to an IBIS World Industry Analysis, online shopping has increased in Australia by 35% since the start of the pandemic. A strong recommendation is to utilise all online shopping tools across your digital platforms.
4. Get Creative. Increased video content is currently dominating social media platforms. According to the latest GWI Social Media Report, ‘Entertaining and inspiring content is the key to profitable social commerce.’
Reels are the video format that is currently trending on Instagram. Below are some items to help you create reels: Tripod for your phone, Light ring, Microphone for voiceovers
5. Website. Your website is the backbone of your online presence. All efforts put into social media will drive your customer back to your website. A website helps build credibility of your business. Ensure your website has an excellent design and usability to keep customers engaged.
It’s important to get creative with your content.
A successful website is a well organised website which excels in both form and function. These are the 4 principles our team at Rio follows when designing and developing a website:
Purpose: The first step in the design process is to identify ‘What do you want to accomplish with this website.’
Visually appealing: Your website needs to look good to captivate your audience. Colour and fonts are very important when designing your website.
Feature relevant content: Your website is the home of your content. This is your opportunity to showcase your capabilities/ products/ services.
Ease of site navigation. Aim for intuitive and simple. No one likes to browse a website that requires multiple clicks to get to their designated page.
And last but not least, to build an engaged community on social platforms it’s important to post different types of content. Here are some tips when creating content:
Educational: tutorials, guides, tips
Promotional: testimonials, benefits, results
Personal: behind the scenes, fun facts about your business
1) Ask them how things are with the intention to break through the ‘fine’ barrier. The fine barrier is when you ask a question and the answer comes back somewhere in the vicinity of ‘I’m ok or I’m truly fine’ – which you know is a cover.
2) Don’t offer solutions. Just listen when you’ve broken through the fine barrier (that’s an achievement).
3) Don’t judge. You may secretly go to judgment as they reveal the tapestry of their challenges. Try not to judge or secretly compare their problems with others (or your own) you feel are worse.
4) Wait for a question before you speak. When someone asks a question, they’re eager for an answer. Wait for the question. Then they’re ready to discuss a possible way forward with you.
5) Be a better listener than talker. People usually already have the solutions to their challenges but are unwilling to travel that road alone.
Lastly, don’t forget to thank them for choosing you.
Barry Nicolaou.
Who is Barry Nicolaou?
Barry’s ability to locate and define personal purpose in the mental health space has lead him to the publication and #1 Best Selling ranking of his book; The 11 Master Secrets to Business Success and Personal Fulfilment.
COVID-19 has seen Barry take his strategies to the corporate world and instill cultural ‘people first’ strategies in some of Australia’s most dynamic companies. His passion lies in deconstructing the layers beneath personal cognitive fear, deep rooted anxiety, indecision, subconscious paradigms, inherited thinking and their connection to real-world expectations and experiences.
His presentation on Gratitude Leadership and numerous mental health programs assist businesses excel at what they do best by understanding our individual need for connection and appreciation
“I feel privileged to have great clients and appear on podcasts by being a sincere conduit between anxiety, chronic stress and burnout and a genuine light at the end of the tunnel,” Barry says.
On this day in 1927, Greek writer Costas Taktsis was born. Taktsis is described as a “landmark of post-war literature in Greece’. The Greek Herald takes a look back at his life.
Early life:
Costas Taktsís’ father, Grigórios, and his mother Eli were from Eastern Rumelia, a region of Thrace now part of Bulgaria.
Costas was sent to Athens to live with his grandmother at the age of seven after the separation of his parents.
He graduated high school and enrolled at the Athens Law School, but would never finish his studies.
In 1947, he was called up for military service, and in 1951 he was hired as an assistant to the American director of the Louros dam project.
From 1954 to 1964, he travelled and lived in Australia where he was befriended by the Australian modernist painter Carl Plate.
He had brief stints as a tour guide, translator, and writer upon returning to Greece in 1964.
He had several encounters with police during the period of the Junta from 1967 to 1974.
Taktsis was a gay man who advocated for gay rights and against the community’s repression and marginalisation. He incorporated themes of homosexuality in his work.
Work:
He has thirteen literary works to his name stretching from 1951 to 2002.
These include poetry and short story collections, novels, and an autobiography.
Most famous of which was Το τρίτο στεφάνι (‘The Third Wedding Wreath’) which he wrote partly in Australia and released in 1962.
It was met with international acclaim after it was translated into French as Le troisième anneau by Jacques Lacarrière and published by Gallimard in 1967 and then into English by John Chioles.
Many directors, including Michael Cacoyannis, unsuccessfully tried to adapt the book for the screen.
It was eventually adapted as a TV series in 1995 on ANT1 TV, and later as a four-hour play directed by Stamatis Fassoulis in 2009-10.
Later life:
He met an untimely death when he was strangled at his home in Kolono on August 27, 1988.
The pop-up vaccination hub at the gym of All Saints Grammar in Belmore will reopen next week.
It’ll remain open from next Monday, October 11 to Friday, October 15.
The clinic first opened on August 18 to help speed up the vaccine rollout in New South Wales.
Tina Daniels, 47, wasted no time to get her jab, queuing up that very day.
She described her experience to the Greek Herald as ‘unreal’.
“It was very good. Everyone is just trying to do their best to keep everyone safe and the nurses were beautiful,” Ms. Daniels said as she sat in the clinic’s observation area after receiving her vaccine.
The popup clinic at All Saints Grammar (Photo: The Greek Herald/Andriana Simos)
“I think it’s really good to have pop-up hubs like this. I wish there was more of them. This is a great organisation and it’s really lovely of them to open their doors up to us and allow us in to be vaccinated.”
Hundreds of people aged 16 to 59 across the 12 local government areas (LGAs) of concern showed up to roll up their sleeves for the Pfizer jab in the month of August.
The clinic had administered a total of 4,500 Pfizer vaccines in the three weeks it was open.
You can book your vaccination at All Saints Grammar at: bit.ly/mycovaxvc16
Investors may be underestimating a rebound in consumer spending when the economy reopens from COVID restrictions and will seek clarity from corporate annual general meetings this month, The Australianreports.
A UBS survey of 1000 people in late August and early September was even stronger than a similar survey in the June quarter survey despite strict lockdowns in NSW and Victoria.
Combined with resilient activity and labour market data, and less uncertainty on economic reopening, the consumer survey led UBS to upgrade its forecast for real consumption in 2022 to 4.1 per cent year on year – 0.5 per cent above consensus – while raising its GDP forecast to 3 per cent.
UBS chief economist, George Tharenou.
“Distinct to the first ‘reopen trade’, when high-income earners drove the bullish pivot in consumer intentions, in the September quarter, the lift is driven by middle and lower-income earners, to near their pre-Covid level,” UBS chief economist, George Tharenou, told the newspaper.
Mr Tharenou said his survey showed consumers were “close to a turning point in shifting spending from goods to services” – good for some companies but bad for others.
A rise in fiscal support to exceed the lockdown cost of about $2 billion a week also caused a “positive income shock” for lower and middle-income households, and the house price boom reinvigorated goods spending intentions, he said.
Based on the consumer survey, Mr Tharenou listed housing-related goods, mobility-sensitive, and ESG (environmental, social, governance) as his top three Australian stock themes.
The Cat Protection Society of Victoria says pet adoption inquiries have ‘skyrocketed’ since Melbourne’s stage four lockdown began.
Rachel Bitzilis, Marketing and Communications Manager at the Society, says there’s a reason why more Melburnians than ever before are welcoming cats into their homes.
“Every time there is a lockdown, there is a spike in adoption applications… There is also more interest in adoption than cats and kittens available,” Ms Bitzilis tells The Greek Herald.
“There are quite a lot of benefits from the cat’s perspective as well. They find a forever home.
“They also provide companionship.”
Zaki the Greek offers all that and more for his Greek-Italian owner Eliza Malerba.
Little did Malerba know that Zaki would be her lifeline in lockdown and during very difficult times when she rescued him from the Society, but when her lipstick left a mark on his white fur she knew he was “the one”.
It turned out Zaki would be the one rescuing Malerba, she tells The Greek Herald.
Zaki, deriving from the Greek word for ‘sugar’ (‘zachari’), is 10 years old with heterochromatic eyes and is one of the more than 1500 surrendered and abandoned cats that find themselves in the Cat Protection Society of Victoria’s care each year.
On average, a cat will spend 20 days in care at a cost of around $600.
That’s a cost of over $900,000 per year, the Society says.
La Trobe University research fellow Dr. Vanessa Rohlf says the burgeoning COVID-19 lockdown has helped find these endangered animals find a home.
“The reason we are seeing this increase is that we as human beings are social creatures and we are hard-wired to connect, especially in times of crisis,” she says.
“Prior to the pandemic, research showed that those who owned a cat reported time spent interacting with their cat improved their mood and reduced their levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms.
“Pets can offer a stable and secure connection. [They] can really offer some certainty, purpose, and comfort during these difficult times.”
Members of Sydney’s Greek community have been left angry and confused by new taxi licence plate reforms announced by the NSW Government recently, which are set to create a more competitive taxi sector.
When the taxi industry was first introduced in Australia decades ago, many Greek migrants decided to buy taxi or hire car licences from the government as they believed they were a safe investment.
According to the CEO of the NSW Taxi Council, Martin Rogers, a taxi licence, which allowed a business to provide ‘rank, hail and booked’ services, cost roughly $400,000 to buy in 2012 or $25,000 to lease. A hire car licence, which allowed a business to provide ‘booked’ services only, cost about $100,000 or they could be leased for around $8,000 a year.
But when rideshare services such as Uber came into the market, they chose not to pay the licence fee and in 2015 the NSW Government de-regulated the booked market, which meant there was no longer a requirement to pay for a licence to provide ‘booked’ services.
Mr Rogers tells The Greek Herald this de-regulation of the market saw people who owned a hire car licence lose not only a significant amount of business, but also the value of their licence ‘dropped to zero.’
In response, the NSW Government decided to buy back hire car licences from people who owned them for what they had originally bought it for, plus CPI to today’s value. For people who owned a taxi licence, the government provided $20,000 worth of income support which was taxed and capped at two licences.
But this is where Greeks across NSW continue to fight for their rights as those who own taxis still need a licence for ‘rank and hail’ services, but this licence has also lost around $300,000 in asset value because the ‘booked’ service, which made up part of their taxi licence value, is now free. In return, many tell The Greek Herald they haven’t received sufficient compensation.
An independent review and Upper House Inquiry into the impact of these taxi licence reforms were conducted in 2020, with the NSW Government accepting the independent review and its 24 recommendations by Sue Baker-Finch.
This has since led to Transport for NSW holding a number of webinars with taxi licence owners in September this year where they announced their new reforms. These include, but are not limited to, removing the limit on the number of taxi licences and removing restrictions on areas where taxis can operate.
“The government mentioned that what they want to do is cancel all existing taxi licences. So if you own a taxi licence, once the reforms come through, they’ll be gone. What you would then need to do to even operate a taxi is apply for an annual licence for one year through the Point to Point Transport Commission for about $200 a year,” Mr Rogers says.
The CEO then explained how during the webinar, Transport for NSW gave an “inappropriate example” of how taxi licence owners could potentially be compensated for this cancellation. They said owners could be given $50,000 for each licence, but it will be capped at two licences. Anything over that will not be compensated, amounting in huge losses for many Greeks who, as stated, initially paid around $400,000 for a licence.
‘We feel very betrayed’:
Roula Angelopoulos.
Roula Angelopoulos and her sister Theony are some of these Greeks who stand to lose a lot from these reforms as they not only own quite a few taxi licences, but they also operate taxis as well.
She tells The Greek Herald her losses are in the millions since the introduction of rideshare services into the market.
“I have no issue with any ride-share app. I have an issue with the government that betrayed us, sneakily legalised it and didn’t implement changes for us first,” Ms Angelopoulos says.
“People invested a lot of money to buy a licence. Some of them put their homes as collateral… the government didn’t do the right thing.”
Now, she says, the government wants to cancel the licence plates without a buy-back or compensation for each which is ‘so unfair.’
“That’s why I’ve been speaking up because I can’t expect an older Greek couple who has invested all their life savings for their superannuation to be rorted like this and they can’t speak. They don’t have a voice.”
Elpida Makris is another Greek woman who reached out to The Greek Herald to voice her own disappointment with the reforms announced during the webinar. Elpida owns only one taxi licence, but she says it was still a huge investment for her at the time.
Elpida Makris is also against the reforms.
“A lot of people borrowed money from the bank and pay interest and a lot of people who bought a licence after 2015, they still haven’t paid it off and the government want to destroy the numbers without paying off the people,” Ms Makris says.
“I feel very betrayed by the government. That’s not fair the way they do it.”
Building momentum for proper compensation:
The NSW Shadow Minister for Small Business, Property and Multiculturalism, Steve Kamper MP, has been campaigning for years for people in similar situations to Ms Makris and Ms Angelopoulos to receive adequate compensation.
“Compensate these people properly, enough is enough. It’s unjust what they’ve done. Let’s not get caught up in the argument of which service is better. It’s not about that,” Mr Kamper tells The Greek Herald.
“It’s the fact that there were people that invested in a government supported, government sponsored point to point transport system. No one invests in a system, through licenced investment, thinking the government’s going to renege on them and that it’s going to destroy it overnight. That’s what they did.”
Mr Kamper says to rectify this, the government should utilise the money collected over time from a $1.10 passenger service levy to fund compensation.
“What we’re arguing is to just leave the levy in there. Everyone is used to it now… and through that levy over time, pay off all the taxi plate owners with proper compensation,” he says.
“That’s the key mechanism… that’s the revenue that underpins compensation.”
Steve Kamper MP has been pushing for compensation for taxi licence owners for years.
Mr Rogers from the NSW Taxi Council agrees with Mr Kamper and says whilst his organisation is not against reform, the ‘right level of assistance’ needs to be provided.
“Some of these people who have come into this industry, it is their end of career job. They’ve bought it when they’re 50 years old or 60 years old as an opportunity to use it and then they’d sell it into retirement. There’s a number of them who still have a loan against their licence… and they’re feeling like a bit of a failure and will leave their family with a debt and a burden,” Mr Rogers stresses.
“We need fair and just assistance for licence owners based on the value of their licence in 2015 and we need to have a future model that focuses on vehicle utilisation that delivers appropriate driver earnings rather than, as suggested, unlimited vehicles for both rideshare and taxis.
“Because what I don’t want to see is a lot of empty vehicles adding to emissions, adding to congestion and drivers not earning the appropriate level that they need to.”
But of course, to get this appropriate level of compensation, a call to action by the Greek community in NSW is also needed.
“A chorus sings louder than any one person and it’s important that we all join together and be part of that chorus. I encourage every licence owner to visit their local MP and explain to them their concerns,” Mr Rogers concludes.
Comment from Transport for NSW spokesperson to The Greek Herald:
“Currently taxis are limited in their ability to put on new vehicles to compete with other operators such as rideshare, who face no such constraints,” the Transport for NSW spokesperson said in a statement.
“However, our proposed reforms, which include removing the limit on the number of taxi licences available, will address this imbalance by making taxi licences available on application and therefore creating a more even playing field enabling taxis to better compete with other services.
“Taxi service providers will have more choice and flexibility about how they respond to market changes – either by putting on more taxis, expanding their fleets to include hire vehicles, specialising in rank and hail services only, or providing other niche services.
“We are now consulting with taxi licence owners affected by the proposed reforms about setting up an appropriate industry assistance scheme before any changes are made.
“Our focus, like it’s always been, is to support and guide industry, particularly those most affected, through this transition.”
The Greek Herald will continue to advocate for Greek community members who stand to be impacted by these new taxi licence reforms. If you have a similar issue, you can call us on: 9566 0500or email: info@foreignlanguage.com.au.
Geosynthetic product manufacturer Geofabrics has acquired Plascorp to create one of the biggest manufacturers of industrial products.
The products will be used in road and mining infrastructure projects.
“We believe Geofabrics fits the ethos that we have always used in building up Plascorp to its current stage,” Plascorp co-director George Antonopoulos says.
“I am certain Geofabrics will take Plascorp to the next level of growth.”
“[Co-director Jeff Goldberg] and I will continue to work for Plascorp under Geofabrics ownership for a transitional period to ensure a smooth takeover of the business and to help Geofabrics in its endeavour to grow Plascorp to its full potential.”
Michael Loudovaris will also join Plascorp as executive general manager.
Geofabrics is an international manufacturer with plants in New South Wales and Queensland.
Plascorp has manufacturing plants in Victoria, Western Australia, and Queensland.
Professor Joy Damousi and Professor Sheila Fitzpatrick will present an online lecture entitled Cold War Immigrants: Left, Right and the Orthodox Church, on Thursday 14 October, at 7.00 pm, as part of the Greek History and Culture Seminars, offered by the Greek Community of Melbourne.
While the history of the Cold War and the history of immigration have both attracted scholarly attention, rarely have these two studies been brought together to explore immigrants to Australia from both the extreme left and right.
Drawing on the case studies of Greek (left) and Russian (right) communities this research project will examine unexplored aspects of Cold War and immigration history by bringing insights from both bodies of work. One of these aspects is the role of the Orthodox Church in this context.
Professor Joy Damousi.
By examining how the Church aligned itself politically and its role in promoting post-war political agendas this study will also extend new understandings of the role of religion in new immigrant communities.
Sheila Fitzpatrick is a historian of modern Russia and immigration who is a Professor at Australian Catholic University, Honorary Professor at the University of Sydney and Distinguished Service Professor Emerita of the University of Chicago.
Her recent books include On Stalin’s Team: The Years of Living Dangerously in Soviet Politics (2015), Mischka’s War(2017) and White Russians, Red Peril: A Cold War History of Migration to Australia(2021. The Shortest History of the Soviet Union will be published early in 2022. She is currently writing a book on Soviet and Baltic “displaced persons” after the Second World War.
Professor Sheila Fitzpatrick.
Joy Damousi is Professor of History and Director of the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences at the Australian Catholic University and Immediate Past Present of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. She has published in migration and refugee history and aftermaths of war.
Her recent publications include Memory and Migration in the Shadow of War: Australia’s Greek Immigrants After World War Two and the Greek Civil War (Cambridge (2015) and as co-editor, Cambridge World History of Violence (4 volumes, Cambridge 2020). Her next book is The Humanitarians: Child War Refugees and Australian Humanitarianism in a Transnational World, 1919-1975 (forthcoming, Cambridge, 2022).
The event will be simulcasted YouTube Live, Facebook Live, and Twitter Broadcast.
You don’t need an account to watch the live broadcast with any of the above services. However, if you want to participate in the Q&A at the end of the seminar you’ll need an account with the equivalent service in order to post your question in the comments / chat.
