The Hellenic Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HACCI) of Victoria, was established in 1974 with the vision to connect and inspire the Hellenic Australian business and professional community to lead, collaborate and excel.
Nominations are now open for the HACCI Awards, which are held every year to recognise excellence within the Greek Australian community.
HACCI are accepting nomination entries for any of the following categories:
Bank of Sydney Business Award.
Professional Services Award.
Community Service Award.
Sport Award.
Woman of Influence Award.
Innovation Award.
Spiro Stamoulis Lifetime Achievement Award.
Chris Saristavros Young Achiever Award.
Nominations close by 5pm on 15 September 2020. The judging panel will be in contact to request further material and information from shortlisted nominees.
Now in its 44th year, this year’s Awards will be broadcast live online due to COVID-19 restrictions.
You can find the nomination application form here.
Etihad will offer refunds to all consumers who purchased airfares in Australia which were consequently cancelled due to COVID-19.
The airline will contact consumers who booked directly with the airline as well as Australian-based travel agents to inform customers they can elect to receive a refund for a cancelled flight even if they had previously accepted a “flight credit.”
The change comes as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) raised concerns about the airlines rebooking policy.
The ACCC has welcomed Etihad’s recent decision to offer refunds to all consumers who purchased Etihad tickets in Australia which were then cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, even if they previously accepted a flight credit. https://t.co/w5LbQudfu5pic.twitter.com/2ddN1SKpPp
From March 26 to June 3, Etihad’s COVID-19 rebooking policy did not provide customers with the right to a refund if their flight was cancelled due to pandemic restrictions.
This policy was updated on June 3 to include flights departing from Australia.
Etihad’s conditions of carriage now state that a consumer can elect to receive a refund in the event that Etihad fails to operate their flight reasonably according to schedule, for any reason.
ACCC Chair Rod Sims said the move by Etihad to contact affected customers was one that other airlines should follow.
“We are pleased that Etihad is fulfilling its obligations under its conditions of carriage by offering refunds to thousands of Australian customers with cancelled flights,” said Mr Sims.
“Etihad’s revised policy, and its decision to also offer refunds to consumers who weren’t previously advised of their right to a refund, should serve as a model for other airlines.”
Turkey has reduced the number of navy vessels in an area of the East Mediterranean where it disputes Greek jurisdiction over oil and gas drilling rights, Greek authorities said Monday.
Tensions in the long-standing dispute flared last week between the two NATO allies when Turkey announced it planned to send a research vessel south of the Greek islands of Rhodes, Karpathos, and Kastellorizo.
The initiative was publicly criticised by the United States, France and other European countries, and the Turkish research vessel, the Oruc Reis, has remained anchored off the southeast Turkish port of Antalya.
Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas said Monday that Turkey was withdrawing navy vessels from the area, adding that Athens remained ready to enter negotiations with Turkey “within the framework of international law and good neighborly relations.”
Turkey accuses Greece of trying to exclude it from fair mineral exploitation in the East Mediterranean, arguing that Greek islands should not be included in calculating exclusive economic zones. Athens counters that Turkey’s position is a violation of international law.
Turkey says the research mission plan will remain in effect through Aug. 2.
The aged care regulator has threatened to revoke the licence of the facility at St Basils Home for the Aged in Fawkner, as the facility is at the centre of one of Victoria’s largest COVID-19 clusters.
The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has issued St Basil’s Fawkner with a Notice to Agree, citing concerns about the serious impact of the outbreak on the residents and staff, and the aged care centre’s handling of it.
Under the notice, the home in Fawkner must not admit any new residents until it can demonstrate to the Commission’s satisfaction the “serious risk” to residents has been effectively addressed.
Health authorities try to get the coronavirus outbreak under control in St Basil’s Fawkner.
It must also appoint an independent adviser until St Basil’s Fawkner is declared free of all positive cases of COVID-19 and is declared safe by the Victorian Government’s Public Health Unit.
At the home, nine residents have already died and coronavirus cases linked to the facility jumped from 78 to 84 on Monday, making it Victoria’s largest aged care outbreak.
This morning, Victorian health authorities said a total of 79 residents have been moved from the home, while around 36 residents have stayed.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt told ABC News Breakfast the staff at the facility were being led by an experienced nurse.
“Our role is to make sure that those remaining residents are safe, and the advice that I had as of late last night and early this morning is that the conditions are stable,” Mr Hunt said.
Notices from the aged care regular have also been issued to Menarock Essendon Aged Care and Estia Health in Heidelberg, where outbreaks including more than 50 people have occurred.
Mahmut Dramali Pasha was the leader of the Ottoman military campaign known as ‘The Expedition of Dramali,’ which took place during the Greek War of Independence in the summer of 1822. The campaign was a large scale effort by the Ottomans to quell the ongoing Greek rebellion.
But on this day in 1822, the campaign failed as Dramali’s army was defeated at the Battle of Dervenaki by a Greek army led by Theodoros Kolokotronis, Dimitrios Ypsilantis, Papaflessas and Nikitaras.
We take a look back at the history of this momentous event.
Background:
By the summer of 1822, the Ottomans were preparing to move southwards and crush the Greek uprising. They assembled an army of some 20,000 men and 8,000 cavalry with ample supplied and transportation at Larissa, which was entrusted to Dramalis.
Dramali and his army were defeated in the Battle of Dervenaki on July 28, 1822.
Dramali was later appointed govenor of the Peloponnese with the rank of vizier, and undertook to form a military corps that would suppress the Greek Revolution.
Start of the campaign and retaking of Corinth:
In early July, Dramali set out from Zitouni (today Lamia) and found initial success. The Greeks, who were unprepared, left Dramali’s army largely unassailed and by July 17, Dramalis had retaken Corinth, which had been abandoned by its defenders.
At Corinth, Dramali held a military council to decide on future actions. Emboldened by the rapid progress and disintegration of the Greeks at the beginning of his campaign, Dramali decided to march his entire army towards Nafplio.
Trapped in the Argos:
Dramali and his army passed through the narrow gorge of Dervenaki and on 24 July reached Argos, where the Greek government had fled. Dramali left no guards behind him in the Dervenaki and he posted no forces where other gorges exposed his flanks.
“Expedition of Mahmud Dramali Pasha at Argos” by Alexandros Isaias.
On arriving in Argos, he found that its citadel, Larissa, was manned and that the Ottoman fleet, with which he had planned to rendezvous with at Nafplion, was actually at Patras. Instead, he launched an attack on the citadel.
The Greeks, under Demetrios Ypsilantis, held out for twelve days, waging a resolute defense before lack of water forced them to sneak out past the Ottoman lines in the middle of the night.
By this point, Dramali’s army had no more cattle, the burned grain fields supplied no subsistence, and the summer of 1822 was an especially hot summer, making water a scarce commodity.The plain south of Argos was a land of ditches, interconnected water lanes and vineyards, which hindered the Ottoman cavalry.
This gave the Greeks time to rally their forces.
Military leaders like Theodoros Kolokotronis and Petrobey Mavromichalis called for volunteers, who came flocking in, along with the kapetanei and the primates.
Kolokotronis pursued a scorched earth policy, aiming at starving the Ottomans out. The Greeks looted the villages, burned the grain and foodstuff they could not move, and damaged the wells and springs.
Dramali’s army was trapped in the sweltering Argolic plain at the same time as Greek troops surrounded them from all sides. On the hills extending from Lerna to the Dervenaki, Kolokotronis had 8,000 men. Around Agionori there were 2,000 troops under Ypsilantis, Nikitaras and Papaflessas.
Greek victory:
On July 26, Dramali dispatched an advance guard consisting of 1,000 Muslim Albanians to occupy the passes.The Greeks brought down devastating fire and then charged, slaying the Ottomans in vicious hand-to-hand fighting.Very few of the Ottoman light cavalry managed to escape.
On July 28, Dramali attempted to evacuate his main forces by way of the route through Agionori.Here he came up against the Greeks under Papaflessas who was holding the main defile (Klisoura).
Dramali’s campaign resulted in a disaster of great magnitude.
Unable to proceed, he soon found himself assailed by Nikitaras and Ypsilantis who made a forced march from their positions at the village of Agios Vasilis and at Agios Sostis, where the Greeks again annihilated the Ottomans by ambushing them in a narrow defile.
Although Dramali himself with the main troop of delhis managed to force his way through and finally reach Korinthos, the Greeks captured all the baggage and the military chest, and they annihilated almost completely the unmounted personnel of Dramali’s army.
Dramali’s campaign resulted in a disaster of great magnitude: Out of the army of more than 23,000 with which he entered the Morea, barely 6,000 had survived.
The extent of the Ottoman defeat became proverbial in Greece, where a great defeat is still referred to as a “καταστροφή του Δράμαλη”, i.e. “Dramali’s disaster.”
Last night, a joint Four Corners investigation with The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, found workers compensation schemes in NSW and Victoria are losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year in what has been described as “immoral and unethical practices” by an industry ombudsman.
Single mother of two, Chris Iliopoulos, was a victim of the Victorian scheme, with her lawyers saying it left her ‘broken.’
In 2012, Ms Iliopoulos was working in a homewares store when she hurt her back moving furniture. Even in excruciating pain, she had to battle for the insurer to approve her treatment.
“All they kept saying to me was ‘you have to wait. You have to wait until we get the okay.’ I’m not asking for a diamond ring or a new car. I’m asking for treatment,” Ms Iliopoulos told Four Corners.
Chris Iliopoulos and her daughter Cleo Gutszmit. Photo: The Age.
Her lawyer, Bree Knoester, managing partner at Adviceline Lawyers, said the insurance company fought her every step of the way.
“It was getting to the point where Chris’ treating doctors… who were recommending treatment, were being ignored by the insurance company managing Chris’ claim,” Ms Knoester said.
“Each time a treating practitioner provided a report, the insurance company got an independent medical report to say the contrary.”
In Victoria, the workers compensation scheme WorkSafe recorded a loss of $823 million last financial year. But there is still money to be made for insurance agents who can meet key performance targets.
Single mother Chris Iliopoulos was injured at work while moving furniture. Her lawyer says she was broken by the workers' compensation system. Read more: https://ab.co/303zZGl.
One of the targets is to have workers out of the system or back to work by 130 weeks. That was the moment Ms Iliopoulos’ payments were terminated, even though her treating doctors said she was not well enough to go back to work.
For Ms Iliopoulos, the news was too much. She attempted suicide.
“It wore me down to the point where I became somebody else. I didn’t recognise myself and my thought process was totally different,” Ms Iliopoulos said.
“Her doctors were not being believed. And I think she felt entirely overwhelmed that she was at the mercy of an insurance company who would make decisions contrary to her wellbeing at almost every turn,” her lawyer added.
Ms Iliopoulos challenged the decision to cut her payments. An external medical panel found she was not capable of work and her payments were reinstated.
She eventually accepted a settlement from the insurer and said she’s happy to speak out now to expose the system.
“Who’s going to be held accountable for this you know? If I don’t speak out now, who’s going to say ‘hey you’re doing the wrong thing and people are suffering because of it?’
As the Victorian coronavirus cases continue to soar with record 532 deaths many of them connected to aged care facilities, the Greek Archdiocese of Australia sends message of support to residents and families of St Basil’s Victoria and all Australians.
See the full statement below:
St Basil’s Homes for the Aged – Victoria, together with the Holy Archdiocese as a whole, are greatly pained by the loss of lives and mourn our loved ones who have now fallen asleep. These individuals will remain in our prayers as will their families.
As we move forward, we remain committed in ensuring that the pastoral needs of each resident and their families are met. Clergy will continue to facilitate pastoral interactions with families affected, using modern technology, to provide comfort.
Yesterday evening, a representative of our Holy Archdiocese and the Chairman of St. Basil’s Homes for the Aged in Victoria, joined the residents and their families, in a meeting organised by the Australian Government. The meeting was an opportunity to discuss our shared concerns which are the result of the outbreak of COVID-19 in our facility, the interim measures introduced and also our acknowledging of and agreeing with a notice to agree issued by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. We have immediately implemented the requirements within the notice as agreed with the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, relating to the monitoring and management of the COVID-19 outbreaks at Basil’s and we will continue to cooperate fully with both levels of government so that we can address the needs of our residents and their families.
We understand that the direction that we received from the Victorian Government for our regular staff to self-isolate from 9 AM on Wednesday 22 July was an act of precaution for the health and well-being of our residents and our staff during this testing time, which is also our priority and it is shared by both the Australian and Victorian Governments and the Board of Directors of the Home.
At present we are fully co-operating with the current management of the home which has been brought in by the Commonwealth Government and who are now in control of the home from the date that we had to leave. We are pleased to see many of our Covid-19 infected residents are being transferred to hospitals for further treatment. We await the test results of our employees and as soon as they are cleared we are eager to return and continue in our mission of caring for our residents.
As of today, the Victorian Aged Care Response Centre, established by the Australian Government will co-ordinate and expand resources to tackle the challenge of COVID- 19 in aged care services. This will enable effective responses for all Aged Care Facilities and ensure communication with families remains prioritised during this time. This, we pray, will reinforce provisions that are there to ultimately protect the lives of those we care for most.
We pray that the pandemic which has entered our Home and affected many other facilities across the State of Victoria, quickly comes to an end. Our thoughts remain with our residents who are in our facility under lock-down, those being treated in hospital, their families, the families who are dealing with the loss of their loved ones and all who are working tirelessly for the good of all people affected.
We remind all that St. Basil’s NSW/ACT, SA and WA are all separate entities and not in anyway related to the facility in Victoria. By the grace of God, there are no COVID- 19 infections in any of those facilities and the management and staff in those facilities are working hard, together with the Holy Archdiocese, to ensure the continued safety and health of their residents.
We continue to pray for all the elderly in Homes for the Aged across the nation currently affected by COVID-19 and for the health and wellbeing of all Australians during this pandemic.
The Apollo restaurant in Potts Point has closed for cleaning after NSW Health confirmed a staff member at the restaurant has tested positive for COVID-19.
NSW Health is tonight contacting everyone who attended the restaurant from Thursday 23 to Saturday 25 July and asking them to quarantine for 14 days after their visit.
Any diners who develop symptoms should be tested.
NSW Health is also asking all people who live in or have visited the Potts Point area in the past two weeks to get tested if they have any symptoms of COVID-19.
The Apollo is the fourth Sydney restaurant forced to close in two days.
On Sunday, Thai Rock Potts Point was forced to shut after a diner contracted the virus last week. A worker tested positive on Monday morning.
The two cases at Thai Rocks Potts Point have not yet been linked to the outbreak at the venue’s western Sydney sister restaurant, Thai Rocks in Wetherill Park. That outbreak has grown to 70 cases.
AN Restaurant in Bankstown and Tan Viet Noodle House in Cabramatta were also closed on Sunday after they were visited by a couple on the weekend, who were later diagnosed with COVID-19.
On Monday, Victorian
Premier Daniel Andrews announced the state’s worst daily coronavirus number
yet, with more than 500 new cases confirmed.
Professor Sutton called the numbers of cases related to aged care “disturbing,” saying the “tragedy” was the consequence of community transmission.
At least 84 cases of the 683 total active cases across 71 aged care facilities are linked with the St Basil’s Home in Fawkner cluster.
Mia* is of Greek background, a first degree relative of a resident at St Basil’s Fawkner facility and the creator of a FB group which emerged on July 24th and aims to unite the voices of the affected families and to advocate for their loved ones.
In just three days the group counts more than 133 members, all families of the Melbourne nursing home.
“Pretty much all families are on board this group,” Mia told The Greek Herald exclusively.
“I just wanted to connect with other people who had similar experiences so we can support each other through this process and to raise awareness around what’s happening. This is the reason [for the creation of the group]. We want to advocate together to ensure that our loved ones that are inside the facility have a chance to receive the right medical treatment if they are positive and to remain negative if they are negative,” Mia said.
Nicholas Barboussas has expressed anger at the way St Basils Fawkner have handled the coronavirus pandemic within the facility.
The Federal and Victoria governments on the weekend set up a response centre, which started work today, to co-ordinate efforts to curb the virus spread.
It comes after one man, Nicholas Barboussas, was told by St Basil’s in the weekend, his father was in the home and doing well, while hours earlier, Northern Hospital informed him his father was fighting for life.
“We have been contacted by Senator Colbeck. Yesterday we had a private Zoom meeting with him and the families, Dr Brendan Murphy, Janet Anderson from the Aged Care Quality Commission and it’s a start. It was the first meeting, so early days,” says Mia.
“People are unable
to get answers”
Although there have been some efforts to provide families with information for their loved ones, Mia said that what is being done is not enough and that “the issue of the communication needs to be addressed immediately.”
Staff outside of St Basil’s Fawkner. Picture: Nicki Connolly.
“People are unable to get through, people are unable to get answers and largely left out in the dark and we are hoping to see something that is addressed immediately. Peoples’ experiences are that social workers are not able to provide much information, other than comfort, which is much appreciated, but at this stage people need information on their loved ones,” says Mia.
“We will try to advocate for changes across all Aged Care. We want to ensure that this does not repeat anywhere so we would really like to be a voice for families to ensure that some kind of best practice model is set up, because we do believe that the families have been largely excluded and that is a top down approach than a collaborative one. We want to make sure our families are alive and we have information on them.”
“We want answers and we want to create change. This is what we want,” she concludes.
In a statement to families posted online, St Basil’s chairman Konstantin Kontis said all staff from St Basil’s had been placed into quarantine and had been forced to leave at 9:00am on Wednesday to hand over to a completely new team appointed by health authorities.
He acknowledged a “gap” in communication with families as staff were removed from the home on Wednesday, but said he understood all relatives’ families had since been back in regular contact.
However, he said that since St Basil’s staff were sent home and a new team brought in, there had been “very limited” information provided back to the original team, hampering their ability to keep families up to date on the situation.
The date was 26 July 1970 when the late Archbishop of Australia Ezekiel presided over the service of the official opening of the Parish of St Nectarios in Burwood, Sydney.
50 years later, the Parish welcomed scores of parishioners of all ages who, in a deeply moving ceremony, celebrated the important anniversary of the church, as well as the feast day of Saint Paraskevi.
Chancellor of the Holy Archdiocese of Australia, Bishop Emilianos of Meloa, who attended the parish for the first time, presided over the divine liturgy together with Parish priest Father George Liangas and his immediate predecessor, Father John Kapetas.
Bishop Emilianos of Meloa, who attended the parish for the first time, presided over the divine liturgy. Photo Supplied.
In his sermon, Bishop Emilianos spoke to parishioners about an aspect of spirituality that characterised St Paraskevi, but also St Nectarios and all the saints of the Greek Orthodox Church.
He explained that faithful can become more spiritual, as long as they struggle against vanity.
“That is, our actions should not be in vain. Our thoughts should not be about vain things. Our life should not be vain, but it must have meaning,” Bishop Emilianos stressed.
The ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary was moving. Photo supplied.
“It must be oriented towards God,” he added, underlying that “only in this way can we become like St Paraskevi and like St Nectarios, the Patron saint of your Parish.”
The meal, which was served after the Divine Liturgy, was prepared and hosted by the Ladies Philoptochos of the Parish.
