One of Australia’s top defamation barristers, Sue Chrysanthou SC, has slammed the Federal Government’s proposed anti-trolling legislation as a ‘violent assault’ on defamation law that risked leaving victims worse off.
Speaking before a Senate legal and constitutional affairs committee hearing on Tuesday afternoon, Ms Chrysanthou said the proposed Social Media (Anti-Trolling) Bill 2022 is “misconceived and should not proceed.”
She added that the Bill does nothing to address online abuse or trolling, and is an attempt to remove the liability held by owners of social media pages for any defamatory materials posted on those pages.
If passed, the Bill would also create the requirement for social media companies to identify people if they post potentially defamatory material.
Ms Chrysanthou said “countless experts, including professors of law expert in defamation, oppose this legislation” and she encouraged the Federal Government to listen to these experts.
“The government should listen to these experts and work with them to draft a new bill that covers the field of defamation and strikes a balance between all of the competing interests,” she said.
A 25-year contract, which was originally sold by developer Meriton and gave another company exclusive rights for property management in one of their apartment complexes, has been cancelled by a NSW tribunal.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), this contract saw apartment owners at Acacia Gardens in Ultimo locked out of the complex’s reception area and unable to access their keys, CCTV cameras or even security control systems. Security guards were also hired to prevent them from attending a critical AGM to discuss the issues.
But in a landmark ruling at the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT), Senior Member Graham Ellis SC ruled that the contract with Central Sydney Realty (CSR) was harsh, oppressive, unconscionable or unreasonable, and would therefore be terminated.
Acacia Gardens apartment complex in Ultimo.
Nick Eltis, an Acacia Gardens apartment owner and secretary of the strata committee, told the SMH that he hopes this verdict will set a precedent that will help other apartment dwellers in a similar position.
“It’s been a very long road to get to the end of all this,” Nick Eltis said. “It’s been very stressful.”
“We are looking forward to moving ahead and getting our lives back to normal… We hope the precedent will make it better for other buildings and help the broader community.”
The management company, CSR, is now appealing the NCAT decision. The hearing is set for June.
The Australian Government has announced the 17 members who will serve on the Australian Multicultural Council (AMC) for its next three-year term.
Among the list is Helena Kyriazopoulos, who is the CEO of the Multicultural Communities Council of SA (MCCSA) and is also a former serving member on the AMC.
The AMC announcement was made public by the Federal Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs, Alex Hawke.
Mr Hawke said the new AMC membership offered both continuity and renewal, with six former serving members and 11 new members, including two youth members, appointed for the Council’s next term.
Helena Kyriazopoulos.
“The AMC brings together leaders from a diverse range of business and civil society backgrounds who will provide independent advice to Government on multicultural affairs and social cohesion policy and programs,” Minister Hawke said.
“I look forward to working with the new and returning members of the Council to build on Australia’s strong social cohesion, by strengthening the Government’s engagement with culturally and linguistically diverse communities and encouraging harmonious relations across the whole of Australian society.”
The Australian Multicultural Council members for the 2022-2025 term are:
Who is Helena Kyriazopoulos?
Helena Kyriazopoulos is the CEO of the Multicultural Communities Council of SA (MCCSA), an affiliate of the Federation of Ethnic Communities Council of Australia (FECCA). She has a Degree in Business, Industrial Law.
Ms Kyriazopoulos has contributed towards journal articles and published works in the areas of CALD carer and ageing needs, and disability rights.
She previously worked for Alzheimer’s Australia for over 22 years as the Access and Equity Unit Coordinator and the Secretariat for Alzheimer’s Australia – National Cross Cultural Dementia Network.
Ms Kyriazopoulos has over 30 years’ experience in the multicultural sector, and has held numerous past Board positions. She currently sits on the following Boards: Council of the Ageing, Aged Rights Advocacy Service, and Mental Health Foundation Australia.
Ms Kyriazopoulos has been a member of the Australian Multicultural Council since 2014.
The US Department of State praised Greece on Tuesday for its fast and effective reflexes during the Ukrainian crisis,Ekathimerini reports.
“The important aid, delivered within hours from President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy’s appeal, once again proves Greece’s solidarity with Ukraine,” a spokesperson for the US State Department said.
The spokesperson went on to highlight Greece’s role as “an important strategic ally of the United States, that is actively promoting security, stability and democracy not only in Europe, but in a several areas that are important to the United States.”
“As a result, Greece has an important role in defending NATO’s southeastern flank,” the statement concluded.
Greek Foreign Minister, Nikos Dendias, confirmed on Tuesday there is an operation underway to evacuate the Greek Consul General in Mariupol, Manolis Androulakis, along with local OSCE staff and their families.
The operation is being undertaken in close cooperation with the Organization for Security and Co-operation (OSCE) in Europe.
Τη στιγμή αυτή βρίσκεται σε εξέλιξη η προσπάθεια εκκένωσης του Έλληνα Γ. Προξένου Μ.Ανδρουλάκη από τη Μαριούπολη, μαζί με το προσωπικό του ΟΑΣΕ (από την ανακοίνωσή μου στην Επιτροπή Άμυνας & Εξ. Υποθέσεων της Βουλής για τον απεγκλωβισμό του Γ. Προξένου από τη Μαριούπολη). #voulipic.twitter.com/3K13DXLNBS
“I hope he will be able to return safely to our homeland,” Dendias said whilst thanking the Consul for his efforts to protect Greek expatriates in the Ukrainian port city.
Το "κομβόι της αγάπης" του Ελληνικού Ερυθρού Σταυρού πριν από λίγη ώρα διέσχισε τα ελληνικά σύνορα με κατεύθυνση προς Σόφια, όπου και θα διανυκτερεύσει, κερδίζοντας το ζεστό χειροκρότημα και τις επευφημίες του κόσμου. Συγχαρητήρια! Μείνετε ασφαλείς!✊#Ukraine#hellenicredcrosspic.twitter.com/PDwNEjkpzr
— Ελληνικός Ερυθρός Σταυρός – Hellenic Red Cross (@greekredcross) March 15, 2022
This news comes as the Greek Red Cross announced it has sent a second large delivery of humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
The delivery includes three trucks loaded with 40 tons of humanitarian aid, as well as a mobile Red Cross Health Unit complete with nurses and a rescue vehicle manned by volunteer rescue workers.
Non-Executive Director of SBS and former CEO of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBOD), Vic Alhadeff, has always been extremely proud of his Greek roots.
Speaking with The Greek Herald back in May 2021, Mr Alhadeff explained how not only was the Alhadeff family ‘one of the largest Jewish families on the Greek island of Rhodes,’ but both of his parents were also born there.
This all changed in 1938 – a year before World War II erupted.
Anti-Semitic decrees were passed in many parts of Europe banishing Jews from civil society. There were approximately 4,000 Jews living on Rhodes at the time and approximately half of them left for places such as the United States and South Africa.
Mr Alhadeff’s father, Salvatore, left Rhodes and went to Zimbabwe, then known as Rhodesia, with the aim of bringing out his parents, his teenage sisters aged 14 and 16, and his fiancé Becky.
The Square of the Jewish Martyrs on Rhodes Island, where the Jewish residents were assembled before being deported to Auschwitz.
“But then WWII erupted and he wasn’t able to bring them out. In 1943, German forces arrived on the island and in 1944 they sent the Jews who were still on Rhodes island to Auschwitz. That included my father’s parents, sisters and his fiancé,” Mr Alhadeff tells The Greek Herald.
“His parents were murdered at Auschwitz, his sisters both survived and what happened to Becky? He was told that she had been killed and she was told he had been killed.”
Approximately 40 years later, Salvatore was on holiday in Cape Town, South Africa, when he overheard his fiancé’s name in a restaurant.
Doing justice to his father’s story:
Whilst we won’t spoil what happens next, this true story of turmoil and upheaval is the main focus of Mr Alhadeff’s new play Torn Apart by War.
Mr Alhadeff wants to do justice to his father’s story.
The play is the first act of a larger production titled, Letters From a Troubled Past, which will be performed at the ARA Darling Quarter Theatre in Sydney on March 17 -19 and at the Randwick Ritz in Sydney on April 3.
Ahead of its opening night, Mr Alhadeff admits he never even considered turning his father’s life into a play until he was encouraged by Sydney theatre producer, Moira Blumenthal.
Since then, Mr Alhadeff has spent the last two years writing the play and trying his best ‘to do justice’ to a father he loved but rarely saw. His parents divorced when he was a child and he was sent to boarding school in Zimbabwe whilst his dad relocated to Zaire.
“It’s been an intense journey because my father’s story was a story of turmoil, of upheaval in his life and then one also thinks about what could have happened if he had married the person he was engaged to. Everything would have been different,” Mr Alhadeff explains.
Salvatore and his fiance Becky.
“Also… I’ve never written a play before and so inserting myself into my father’s story has been a pretty emotional experience and a very challenging one.”
Despite these challenges, Mr Alhadeff hopes his play will not only honour his father, but also the countless other Jewish stories of tragedy and loss from WWII.
“On a deeper level, I really want to raise awareness of the Holocaust and specifically, awareness of the Holocaust in Greece because it is not widely known,” he concludes.
A worthy cause which we look forward to learning more about at the launch of ‘Torn Apart by War’ on March 17 at the ARA Darling Quarter Theatre in Sydney. Bookings:moirablumentalproductions.com.au and jiff.com.au.
The Cyprus Community of NSW is set to launch a youth committee called ‘Neolaia’ as a new initiative in affiliation with global advocate, NEPOMAK, an organisation that works to preserve the cultural roots of Cypriots worldwide.
This new initiative will be aimed at 18–30-year-old young Cypriots in order to help them create a connection within the community and strengthen ties to their heritage.
The Greek Herald spoke with Assistant Secretary of the Cyprus Community of NSW, Emilios Michael, and he said this new initiative was created alongside NEPOMAK to bring in the youth and create awareness of the Cyprus issue.
“To understand how to move forward, you need to understand the past. A lot of the youth have not lived the Cyprus issue,” Mr Michael says.
“It’s that link between our parents and grandparents.”
So why now? Mr Michael said that with the help of social media and because of the way the global community engages, appealing to the youth has never been easier.
“We do very well with kids while they’re in school, when they do Greek dancing, up until the ages of 16, 17 and then there is a disconnect, they tend to re-engage at a later stage,” Mr Michael explains.
The hope is that this new committee, once chosen and formed, will create initiatives which will become entrenched within the local Cypriot community.
To find out more about ‘Neolaia,’ an information evening will be held this Thursday, March 17 at 7pm at the Cyprus Community Club at Stanmore. Guest speakers from NEPOMAK will be present to introduce the new initiative and how the youth can get involved.
South Australia’s Liberal government has released its policy costings and says it will not be making any further funding commitments, ABC News reports.
The expenditure list released today shows $288 million in new funding is required to pay for the Liberal Party’s election commitments.
SA Treasurer, Rob Lucas, said the announcement was an attempt to “force” Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas to explain how Labor’s pre-election promises will be funded.
Mr Malinauskas said all of Labor’s policies had been fully costed and that he would be announcing all of the budget numbers on Thursday.
SA-BEST candidates Keyvan Abak (far left) and Ian Markos (far right) with MLCs Frank Pangallo and Connie Bonaros.
In response, SA Best’s lead Upper House candidate, Ian Markos, accused the government and other major parties of being dishonest in their insistence that taxes would not increase to pay for their promises.
“BS has its own sound and that’s what you’re hearing now,” Mr Markos told ABC News.
If elected to the Legislative Council, Mr Markos said SA Best would advocate for wide-ranging tax reforms, including to stamp duty, payroll tax and slashing the “outrageous cost” of registering land titles.
Pfizer CEO, Albert Bourla, said on Sunday that people will need a fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to help fend off another wave of the virus.
Speaking to CBS’ Face the Nation program, Bourla said “many variants are coming” and although a third dose of the vaccine does offer some protection, it “doesn’t last very long” when faced with a variant like Omicron.
“It is necessary, a fourth (dose) for right now,” Mr Bourla told CBS.
We have seen encouraging results of our #COVID19 treatment in high-risk adults, and we are now expanding studies to non-hospitalized, symptomatic, pediatric participants who are at risk of progression to severe disease, including hospitalization or death: https://t.co/YjJSUs1BeD
The Greek Jewish CEO went on and said Pfizer is now working on a vaccine that will protect against any future variants.
“What we are trying to do, and we are working very diligently right now, is to make not only a vaccine that will protect against all variants, including Omicron, but also something that can protect for at least a year,” Mr Bourla said.
“If we be able to achieve that, then I think it is very easy to follow and remember so that we can go back to really the way [we] used to live.”
Cyprus needs to improve its policies and infrastructure in order to be ‘more humane’ when accommodating migrant refugees, President Nicos Anastasiades said on Monday.
The President’s statement comes after he paid a visit to Pournara camp on the western outskirts of Nicosia on Monday.
The Cypriot Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Despo Michaelidou, last week called conditions at the camp “miserable,” including poor food and a lack of sanitation facilities.
President Nicos Anastasiades listens to a migrant behind the fence of the Pournara refugee reception centre in Kokkinotrimithia. Photo: Financial Mirror.
During his visit, President Anastasiades said that any “deficiencies” at the camp that arose as a result of an influx of migrants will be “dealt with accordingly.”
The Cypriot President stressed that difficulties were to be expected when nearly 5 percent of Cyprus’ population are asylum seekers. He said Cyprus has the highest number of asylum applications per capita among the European Union’s 27 nations.
“It would be better to focus on how to solve these problems, how to deal with the crisis created from the flow (of migrants), rather than dealing with everyone’s criticism,” he said.
So far, according to the Cypriot Interior Minister Nicos Nouris, 92 of the 356 children at Pournara have already been relocated to hotels, while accommodations for another 150 will be found soon.
Minister Nouris said the overcrowding at Pournara will be alleviated once the migrants are transferred to a newly-constructed reception center 50 kilometres south of the capital.
