Nine Greek Australians are among more than 120 Australians who have been charged in the Operation Ironside, or ‘Trojan Shield’, sting.
Four are from South Australia, two from Victoria, two from New South Wales, and one from Queensland.
Almost all of their offences involve trafficking or possessing drugs and money laundering.
Emmanuel Vamvoukakis is one of nine Greek Australians to be arrested in the Operation Ironside sting (Picture: AFP)
The Greek Australians who have been charged are:
South Australia:
APOSTLE BROIKOS
Aged 18 from Burnside. Charged with trafficking in a large commercial quantity of a controlled drug.
LUKE KOKOTIS
Aged 44 from Hackham. Charged with trafficking in a large commercial quantity of a controlled drug.
CHRISTO NICKOLAS
Aged 32 from Ascot Park. Charged with two counts of money laundering.
STAMATI TOULANTAS
Aged 24 from Park Holme. Charged with trafficking in a controlled drug, possess prescription drug and possess prohibited weapon.
Queensland:
JOHNATHAN JAMES CASIOTIS
Aged 34 and charged at Moorooka. Charged with possessing anything for use in the commission of crime, producing dangerous drugs (serious organised crime), possess dangerous drugs, possess utensils, contravene order about information necessary to access information stored electronically and possess property suspect of having been used in connection with commission of a drug offence.
Victoria:
Six men charged over an alleged plot to import $1 billion worth of ice and cocaine into Australia from India and the US. They include:
MARK JOANNOU
Aged 41, of Sydenham
GEORGE KAMVISSIS
Aged 30-year-old from Niddrie. Charged with two counts of trafficking a large commercial quantity of a drug of dependence.
New South Wales:
LUKE ANDREOU
Aged 31 from Horsley Park. Charged with money-laundering offences, and possessing drugs and firearms. Refused bail in Wollongong Court on June 10.
EMMANUEL VAMOUKAKIS
Aged 40 from Mount Keira. Charged with conspiracy to import cocaine, directing a criminal group, dealing in proceeds of crime. Refused bail by Wollongong Court.
The Cypriot government has responded to accusations of a lax response to last weekend’s fires as calls mount for an investigation into the death of four foreign laborers.
Government spokesperson Marios Pelekanos defended the response to the unprecedented fires in a written statement.
“The response by fire fighting forces and the state mechanism, in general, was quick and, given the circumstances, also effective because despite the extent of the damages, it is certain that a failure to react would have had infinitely more tragic results,” Pelekanos writes.
Cyprus police have also considered a criminal investigation to include a probe into the deaths of the workers, according to KNEWS.
That wasn’t enough to quell protest from critics and community leaders, who insist damages could have been averted had there been a swifter response from authorities.
Doros Polykarpou is the director of KISA (Source: Cyprus Mail)
Doros Polykarpou, director of the human rights advocacy group KISA, says 200 migrant workers were unaccounted for in the evacuations.
Mr. Polykarpou is leading the charge for a forensic examination to determine whether the agricultural workers from Egypt died after being left to fend for themselves.
“They are lying in order to cover up their criminal negligence,” he wrote on Facebook.
“Employers took their families and left but nobody thought what would happen to migrants, who don’t even have a bicycle to leave the village.”
Among Mr. Polykarpou’s accusations is that Cypriot authorities dissuaded search parties, ordered people to carry corpses, and were lax in their emergency response.
Morzok Shady Morzok, Hisa Melad Farouk, Ezat Salama Josef, and Maged Nabil Yonan were working in the field when a fire began ripping through south-central Odou, according to KNEWS.
Their employer, Christakis Constantinou, is accused of leaving the labourers to fend for themselves after fleeing town with his family.
Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades said the disaster “was a very difficult day for all of Cyprus.”
Sydney business tycoon Basile Papadimitrou, also known as Bill Papas, who is in the centre of fraud allegations by Westpac and French bank Societe Generale has allegedly fled to Greece, according to The Greek Herald’s sources.
Papas, who has been caught up in an alleged fraud with his business, Forum Finance, involving fake invoices and forged signatures that could cost the bank more than $290 million, was last seen in mid-June and there have been reports that he has ‘vanished’ or was ‘in a Perth Hospital’.
Mr Papas was known to the community as the, now former, president of Sydney Olympic Football Club, one of the oldest and most prominent members of the professional National Premier League and since October an investor in Greek club Xanthi FC.
The Greek Herald understands that Mr Papas was recently seen in Thessaloniki, Greece and “is soon expected to make public announcements regarding Xanthi FC.”
With a post on social media, Sydney Olympic FC confirmed late on Friday that Mr Papas had resigned from the board “effective immediately” and that it appreciated the commitment and contribution of Mr Papas during his tenure.
The details of the financial scandal
Mr Papas’ business Forum Finance, which started in 2011, offers arranged lease financing from banks to its clients for office equipment, computers and software.
The banks then pay the funds to an entity, subsequently receiving regular lease payments.
Forum Finance clients included Findex, HWL Ebsworth, the Cerebral Palsy Alliance, Smart Group, and Channel Seven-owned WesTrac.
Westpac discovered the alleged fraud leading to an investigation when Westrac, applied for finance for office products with the bank in early June.
The bank discovered it already provided financing for Westrac through Forum Finance.
WesTrac confirmed funds were in fact accessed through a Forum Finance loan for equipment worth about $9 million under its name, yet had no record of obtaining the funds.
Further investigations undertaken by Westpac into six more loan contracts financed by the bank allegedly showed the assets financed did not exist, with just one of the advances for equipment amounting to $211 million.
When Westpac questioned Mr Papas, he failed to attend a meeting to discuss the allegations on 15 June and according to the bank, has ‘since that time not been contactable or seen’.
Her image has become familiar in recent weeks on Greek television channels. “Sweet Hope,” Yawen Wu, is a young Chinese woman from Beijing, who speaks Greek better than many of our compatriots.
This fact was a pole of attraction for several media organisations, who were curious with the image of the young journalist, who decided to learn a difficult language like Greek.
And not just to learn Greek but also to sing classic songs by Dionysis Savvopoulos to modern ones, such as Elli Kokkinou and Tamta. Her story aroused the curiosity of The Greek Herald and we decided to follow her trail on the “Silk Road.”
The first question was the one anyone would ask. What made her learn Greek?
“Because the west wind blows in the East! I’m kidding,” Sweet Hope tells us playfully during her interview with The Greek Herald.
“I first heard of Greece from mythology and from the Aegean Sea, which I have connected with romanticism.
“In China, at the time I was finishing school (that is, about 8 years ago), there were 2 or 3 universities which offered courses of study in Greek literature. I chose the specialty to get to know Greece and its language better…”
In Greece, we usually jokingly say when something is difficult to understand that these are “Chinese for me.” Sweet Hope knows both languages and we asked her which seemed more difficult to her.
“Greek. And I say this without hesitation,” she tells us in impeccable Greek.
“I am Chinese, so my mother tongue is not at all difficult for me. I must say that Chinese and Greek are two completely different languages. Greek is simpler than Chinese, which has symbols. But as far as grammar is concerned, I confess that Greek is very, very complicated.
“There are so many changes in inclinations and times. Learning the Greek language makes it difficult for me but I will not give up. After all, now my work has to do with Greece,” Sweet Hope, who works in Beijing as a journalist in the Greek language service of the International Chinese radio (CRI), says.
Visiting Corfu and Journalism:
Born in the southern province of Chiangsi, she studied at the Department of International Studies at Shanghai University and was enchanted by Greece, which she has visited once.
“I went to Corfu for two semesters as part of a student exchange program between the two countries in 2015 to 2016. My experience there was so good that it gave me the determination to deal with Greece through my work,” she says.
“Clear sky, blue sea, mountains and architecture. It’s like heaven. Greeks are friendly people and live next to nature.
“In addition, history and culture are impressive. Of course I also went to Santorini, it was beautiful but it seemed to me like I was in China. A lot of my countrymen were everywhere. I prefer Crete that does not have so many tourists and has a long history.”
The question of learning a foreign language becomes difficult when you have no people to speak it. The same – more or less – may be the case with some Australian Greeks, who are trying to learn Greek in a country where English is the basic language.
“For reading and writing it is not so difficult. I find sources. But in the matter of speech there are difficulties. I try to find chatters but it’s not the easiest thing. Of course, there are Chinese who know Greek as well as Greek in China but I don’t have the chance to meet them. Maybe my work will help me,” she says.
“I work as a journalist at China Media Group, which is like ERT in Greece and which has an international section with about 60 languages. I work in the Greek Department and there we generally report news about China and Greece, aiming to deepen the knowledge and communication between the peoples of the two countries.”
The pandemic in China and the goals:
The pandemic is constantly present on the planet. Sweet Hope gives a response to The Greek Herald from the country, where it all began.
“The situation of the pandemic in China is much better and life has returned to normality. People go out, shops open normally. But we still wear a mask indoors,” she explains.
“I went through a very “difficult” time due to the pandemic. I couldn’t go out at all, I had to work from home, but I always thought it was a necessary measure to fight the virus. In the end we made it.
“More and more people in China have been vaccinated, I believe that we will quickly live a simple but happy life.
“I want to do my postgraduate studies in Greek or in the media and in addition to having a better knowledge up close about the daily life, history and customs of this charming country.
“I, a Chinese woman who knows Greek, will be a bridge between the two peoples, where there are many similarities. I would like to contribute to the understanding that the two peoples are very similar and to strengthen their cooperation and communication,” Sweet Hope concludes.
The Australian Olympic Committee has named the 472 athletes who will be competing at the Tokyo Games.
The team is made up of 218 men and 254 women — the greatest number of female athletes to compete for Australia.
This year’s team is also the second-largest Australian Olympic contingent, 10 short of the 482 Australian athletes who went to the Athens Games in 2004.
Among the names are at least 6 Greek Australians which The Greek Herald has been able to recognise by their surname. They are:
Dylan Pierias – Football:
At 21 years old, Dylan Pierias will be representing Australia in the men’s football team, under coach Graham Arnold. This is his first time at the Olympics.
Pierias made his A-League debut for Melbourne City at age 16 in a clash against Brisbane Roar in February 2017, making him the first player in the competition’s history to have been born in the 21st century.
Dylan Pierias of Western United.
After seeing only occasional stints of game time with City, Pierias made the crosstown move to fellow Melbourne-based club Western United, where he has become an integral part of the club.
In the 2020/21 season, Pierias’ second season with United, the 21-year-old scored six goals in 17 appearances while playing in multiple positions on the pitch, displaying the sort of versatility that can become crucial in a gruelling Olympic tournament.
After the exploits of his 2020/21 campaign, Pierias was rewarded with a two-year contract extension at United. He will be hoping to continue his season’s performances at the Tokyo Games.
Alexandra Aristoteli – Gymnastics:
Alexandra Aristoteli, 24, is making her Olympics debut with Australia’s Rhythmic Gymnastics Group this year.
Aristoteli was born into the dance world as her mother was the Director of the Queensland Dance and Performing Arts School. She began ballet around the age of four and her amateur career progressed to full time training by the age of 15. She even spent months abroad training overseas with the Houston Ballet Academy and the Miami City Ballet School in Florida.
Alexandra Aristoteli (centre).
Aristoteli’s career change occurred when she decided to focus on competing in rhythmic gymnastics. Her talent in gymnastics speaks for itself and she now competes at the highest level of the sport in the International Senior Group.
The Australian Seniors Gymnastic Group is highly successful, with a long standings rank of No.1 in Australia, they’ve won 6 consecutive National Championships. As well as Aristoteli, the team presently consists of Emily Abbot, Himeka Onoda, Felicity White and Alannah Mathews.
In 2018, the group attended the Gymnastics World Championships, in Sofia, Bulgaria. This was big for Australian Gymnastics as their attendance marked the first time in 10 years for a group. At the event they made a final rank of 29th with an end score of 28.925.
In 2020, they scored PB’s to win at the Pacific Rim Trials in Sydney. Most recently, the team has been victorious at the 2021 Continental Championship, as well as the 2021 Oceanic Championships.
Taylah Tsitsikronis – Softball:
Taylah Tsitsikronis, 27, will make her Olympic debut with the Australian Spirit in Tokyo when softball returns to the Olympic schedule for the first time since Beijing.
CHIBA, JAPAN – AUGUST 04: Taylah Ashleigh Tsitsikronis bats against Italy during the Preliminary Round match at NASPA Stadium on day three of the WBSC Women’s Softball World Championship on August 4, 2018 in Chiba, Japan. Photo by Takashi Aoyama/Getty Images.
Tsitsikronis began playing softball at the age of six at the Penrith Softball Club after her parents wanted her to put her energy into a sport. In 2015, she turned to professional softball. She realised her Olympic dream when attending a baseball match during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games when she caught a foul ball.
She is a recipient of the New South Wales Institute of Sport Scholarship, which was launched in partnership with Softball Australia and NSW Softball.
Taylah plays in positions catcher and first-base with both the Australian Softball Team and for the New South Wales Firestarters.
Australia gained a spot in the Olympic field after qualifying through the Softball Asia/Oceania Qualifiers in 2019.
Off the pitch, Taylah is a student of a Bachelor of Policing Practices and Criminal Justice at the Western Sydney University.
Nick Kyrgios – Tennis:
Boasting six singles titles and a doubles title, Nick Kyrgios is one of Australia’s most dominant tennis players and he’s playing to win at the Olympic Games this year.
NEW YORK – AUGUST 29: Nick Kyrgios of Australia serves the ball during his Men’s Singles second round match against Antoine Hoang of France on day four of the 2019 US Open. Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images.
Nick got his start in tennis through helping out on the court at four-years-old, picking up balls for his older brother Christos, and occasionally having a hit. By seven-years-old, his dad had entered him into his first local tennis competition.
At 16, Nick accepted a full scholarship to play tennis at the Australian Institute of Sport. He moved between the Lyneham Tennis Centre in Canberra, and Melbourne Sports Park, but in 2015, committed to training in his hometown.
Nick currently holds six ATP Tour level titles, all of which were won on hard courts. He recorded the biggest upset of his career after defeating the World Number Two, Rafael Nadal, at the 2014 Wimbledon Championships in four sets in the fourth round.
The momentous victory boosted the Canberra youngster, who was only 19 at the time, to a career high of 66.
Despite qualifying for a spot on the Australian team for Rio 2016, Nick opted not to play in the Olympic Games. Five years on, he is set to make an Olympic berth in Tokyo, taking to the court in the green and gold in the men’s singles.
Anthony Hrysanthos – Water polo:
Anthony Hrysanthos, 25, will make his Olympic debut at the Tokyo Games, as a member of the Australian Sharks water polo squad.
Hrysanthos started playing water polo at the age of 12, after joining his local club with one of his best friends from school.
Anthony Hrysanthos, 25, will make his Olympic debut at the Tokyo Games.
In 2015, Anthony was a member of the Australian junior team who finished eighth at the FINA World Junior Championships. Two years later he won gold at the 2017 FINA World League Intercontinental Cup.
A member of the Sydney University Lions, Anthony played a vital role in 2018 when the team claimed the Australia Water Polo League title. After saving three penalty shoots, Anthony helped the team to a 11-10 victory in the gold medal match and was named the 2018 Most Valuable Player in the finals.
Later that year, the Sharks achieved their best international result with a silver medal at the 2018 World Cup finals against Hungary. They backed this up with a bronze at the 2019 World League Super Finals.
Lea Yanitsas – Water polo:
Lea Yanitsas, 32, will be representing Australia at the Tokyo Olympics this year by playing for the Aussie Stingers water polo team.
Yanitsas’ Olympics dream all began at Mackellar Girls High School when she was introduced to her roll call teacher, Debbie Watson, who won a gold medal for water polo at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
Lea in Rio De Janiero, Brazil, at the Olympic Games in 2016. Photo: Elsa/Getty Images.
Since then there have been a few pauses in between. She sat out the 2014 season, needing surgery on two fingers plus hip rehabilitation work – proving a goalkeeper’s life ‘in the cage’ also has its injury issues.
Then another stoppage came happily for Lea and husband Andrew as they welcomed son, Constantine, into the world in October 2018.
In Rio, the Aussies kicked-started their Olympics campaign with a strong, dominant 14-4 win over Russia which saw Yanitsas make 4 from 4 saves. Their second pool match proved to be more of a challenge with the green and gold side narrowly going down to Italy 7-8 despite the scores being tied until the final seconds.
The Aussies then powered home to take a decisive 10-3 win over hosts Brazil in the final pool game, setting up a quarter-final clash against Hungary. In a physical, tense and ultimately heartbreaking encounter the Australians lost in a penalty shootout after scores were level, 8-8, after four quarters, ending their 2016 Olympic campaign.
But now the Olympic push is on once again – this time for Tokyo.
In some exciting news, Marrickville Library has just been announced as a finalist in the International Public Library of the Year Award 2021.
The library is among five other finalists, including China’s New Ningbo Library, the new Deichman Bjørvika in Oslo Norway, the Forum Groningen in the Netherlands, and the Het Predikheren in Belgium.
Nearly all have cinemas, play and meeting areas and public spaces, but what does Marrickville have that they don’t?
The Marrickville Library. Photo: Kate Geraghty.
The Library has a special collection of Greek books, of course! It was also the first to establish a Hellenic Book Club in Australia, which aims to showcase and discuss books that promote Greek literature and history.
“It’s not just a library, it is the town square. It is the heart of Marrickville. It is such a lively place. There are so many young people coming in. It is not quiet or old or dead. It is lively and youthful,” Inner West Council Mayor, Darcy Byrne, told The Sydney Morning Herald.
Designed by architects BVN, the library has already won nine national architecture awards, three National Trust heritage awards and a NSW landscaping award.
Inner West Mayor, Darcy Byrne, at Marrickville Library. Photo: Kate Geraghty.
When announcing the shortlist, the judges admired the library’s beautiful adaptive re-use of the old Marrickville hospital. The floating canopy roof originates from the pitched roof of the existing building.
Since it opened in late 2019, visitor numbers have more than doubled. Last October, the 3600 square metre library had 53,000 visitors, including a record number of young people studying at university or the HSC.
There’s no doubt the local Greek community, which includes around 2,353 people according to the last census, are among these visitors as they sample the fantastic architecture and Greek books on offer.
In a Four Corners and ABC Investigations exclusive on Monday night, five casino inspectors spoke out about how they were blocked from investigating serious crime in Melbourne’s Crown Casino.
One of these inspectors was former Victoria Police officer, Danny Lakasas, who worked for the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR) and was supposed to have oversight of the casino by keeping out criminal influence and infiltration.
But Lakasas, along with the four other inspectors who include Former VCGLR Senior Inspector Peter McCormick, told the program that over the years they lost access to parts of the casino, were shadowed by Crown staff in high-roller rooms, and felt their presence was unwelcome.
They also told Four Corners their roles at the casino were constantly undermined as the watchdog they worked for gave Crown what it wanted again and again.
In fact, Lakasas detailed how he once ran a 12-month operation to track the use of counterfeit notes at the casino — methodically tracking dates, times and gaming table numbers, as well as who the dealers and patrons were.
Former Victoria Police officer, Danny Lakasas. Photo: Four Corners.
He told the program that when he compiled what he’d found and passed it up the chain, nothing happened.
“Somebody from intel came down then, took all the information, said, ‘Thanks very much.’ That was the last I heard of it,” Lakasas said in the episode.
“You get disheartened after a while, and you start thinking, well, why am I busting my backside in doing all this work when it’s not going to go anywhere and nothing’s going to happen?”
The casino inspector went on to say that during a period of upheaval at the regulator, James Packer ramped up Crown’s aggressive expansion into the Chinese high-roller market. VIP gamblers were also brought into Melbourne by third party agents known as junket operators.
Danny Lakasas has spoken out about he was blocked from investigating crime at Melbourne’s Crown Casino. Photo: Four Corners.
To Lakasas, the casino suddenly became more vulnerable to organised crime.
“What changed then with the junkets coming in was the amount of Chinese people coming in, having their own rooms, and gambling basically millions of dollars,” Lakasas told Four Corners.
“What we saw was a lot of money change hands… I don’t know where this money came from, or how it was accounted for, or whether the state was receiving their cut of taxes at that time, because it was all mainly cash.”
Both Crown and the regulator declined to be interviewed by Four Corners. A VCGLR spokesperson said it would be inappropriate to comment while the royal commission into Crown Melbourne was underway.
But all five inspectors have risked speaking out so that they might see a regulator restored with sufficient power, expertise and independence.
“So many ex-inspectors speaking up just shows that they’re concerned and that the system’s broken, and hopefully our voices are taken on board and something’s done about it,” Lakasas says.
Westpac says at least seven major corporate customers including Coles, Woolworths, Veolia and WesTrac have been caught up in an alleged fraud involving fake invoices and forged signatures that could cost the bank more than $290 million, The Sydney Morning Heraldreports.
After the bank launched legal action against Sydney-based Forum Financial, which is run by Basile Papadimitriou, on Friday, documents released by the Federal Court reveal new details about the scandal and how it was uncovered.
According to the SMH, one of the documents also says Mr Papadimitriou, known as Bill Papas, has not been contactable since mid-June when he did not attend a scheduled meeting with WesTrac due to a “health emergency.”
The bank’s repeated requests to contact Mr Papas had gone nowhere and the last information received suggested he was in Perth Hospital, according to the documents.
Westpac has said none of its corporate customers appear to have suffered financial loss, but the affidavits point to a trail of fake signatures that were uncovered following an investigation in recent weeks, the SMH writes.
Students from the language schools of the Greek Community of Melbourne excelled at the Oral Speech Festival 2020, which was organised by the Association of Modern Greek Teachers of Victoria.
The winners based on the category in which they participated are:
Poems of 1st Category: Year 3 and 4
1st place: Angelina Dimitrakopoulou from the Narra Warren Year 4 class with her recital of the poem ‘The Tsoliades.’
Poems of 5th Category: Year 11 and 12
1st place: Year 11 student, Katerina Liappi, from the Doncaster class, with her recital of the poem ‘They fell to Ioannina’ by Aristotle Valaoritis.
2nd place: Year 11 student, Angeliki Kaye, from the Doncaster class, with her recital of the poem ‘They fell to Ioannina’ by Aristotle Valaoritis.
3rd place: Year 11 student, Vangelis Tomaras, from the Doncaster class, with his recital of the poem ‘The Old Man of Moria.’
“I’m excited to win! When my teacher gave me the poem, the truth is that I was stressed and I was thinking how to say it…” Angelina Dimitrakopoulou, who won first place in the primary school category, says.
“I was not so excited when I was given the poem, but learning it put me in the process of having a good time with my family, because it eventually became a family affair, and I also learned new words in Greek. It is definitely something I will remember with joy for the Greek school!”
The purpose of the Festival is for the children to enjoy the Greek language through testing it in practice and to gain or strengthen students’ self-confidence in oral speech.
This year, the theme of the Festival was also dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the start of the Greek Revolution.
The teachers and students of the Community Schools welcomed, as every year, the Festival with enthusiasm. After studying the poems to be recited, as well as the topics for speech, they prepared and started shooting because, instead of a live presentation this year due to COVID-19, the students videotaped the recitation of the poem or the presentation of their speech.
“We congratulate all our students who participated and were tested at the Festival. We rejoice in their distinctions and, paraphrasing Cavafy’s poem, what ultimately matters is the journey itself and not the attainment of the goal, the road and not the finish, the struggle and not Ithaca. A big congratulations to all our children! Well done!” the new director of the School of Language and Culture of the Community, Mrs. Maria Bakalidou, said.
Senator for Western Australia, Rachel Siewert, has joined the Joint Justice Initiative and pledged to recognise the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek genocides.
Senator Siewert signed an affirmation of support for the Joint Justice Initiative, which calls for Federal Australian recognition of the genocides of 1915.
The February 2020 launch of the Joint Justice Initiative at Australia’s Parliament House featured the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding by the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU), Assyrian National Council – Australia (ANC) and Australian Hellenic Council (AHC), which declares Australia’s recognition of the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek genocides as a priority on behalf of their communities.
Senator for Western Australia, Rachel Siewert, has joined the Joint Justice Initiative.
A long standing Perth resident, Senator Siewert is the Whip of The Australian Greens and Chair of the Senate Community Affairs References Committee.
The Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU), Haig Kayserian, said that the Joint Justice Initiative is extremely proud to have another federal parliamentarian on board.
“On behalf of the Armenian-Australian, Greek-Australian and Assyrian-Australian communities, we thank Senator Siewert for her support,” Mr Kayserian said.
The Joint Justice Initiative has so far announced the support of Siewert, Susan Templeman MP, Adam Bandt MP, Tim Wilson MP, Senator Janet Rice, Steve Georganas MP, Michael Sukkar MP, Senator Louise Pratt, Warren Entsch, Joel Fitzgibbon MP, Andrew Wilkie MP, Julian Leeser MP, Michelle Rowland MP, Senator Paul Scarr, Tony Zappia MP, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, Senator Hollie Hughes, Senator Rex Patrick, Mike Freelander MP, Senator Eric Abetz, Senator Larissa Waters, Senator Pat Dodson, Jason Falinski MP, Josh Burns MP, John Alexander MP, Senator Andrew Bragg and Bob Katter MP, with a promise of more announcements to come.
