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Australia

Senators David Pocock, Jacqui Lambie won’t “rubber stamp” climate emissions target bill without amendments

Senators David Pocock, Jacqui Lambie won't “rubber stamp” climate emissions target bill without amendments

“It wraps up every bit of emissions reduction in a neat package, but that ends up hiding all the details,” she said.

The proposed “carbon impact assessment” could examine the impact of the $8 billion annual diesel fuel rebate given to mining companies on the government’s 43 per cent emissions reduction target. Emissions reduction projects funded by government agencies such as the Clean Energy Finance Corporation may also be scrutinized.

Ministers already have to provide a financial impact assessment when proposing new spending measures. That assessment is included in the explanatory memorandum for legislation, along with statements about the human rights and regulatory implications of new laws.

Lambie said the proposals for reporting progress on cutting emissions did not “force federal politicians to show their hand—show us which policies are working and which are pulling in the wrong direction.”

“I agree with Senator Pocock that a target isn’t worth the paper it’s written on unless there’s some integrity to it.

“In my mind, if the federal government wants to pass a target into law, but it doesn’t want to tell us what it’s doing to get there, then we should worry about their commitment to the target in the first place.”

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Pocock also flagged concern about two Australian carbon credit unit methods established in the final days of the previous parliament which, he believes, will create questionable credits and which are currently being reviewed.

The government needs the backing of the Greens plus one further senator to pass any legislation the Coalition opposes, such as the climate bill.

Pocock, a progressive ACT senator, and Lambie and Tyrrell, from Tasmania, are the most likely of the six crossbench senators to back the bill as they have already said they back the target.

Their warning their support can’t be taken for granted comes a day after the Greens confirmed they would vote for the climate bill in both houses of parliament, and as Labor hailed an end to the “climate wars”.

The Greens backed the bill through the lower house even though party leader Adam Bandt condemned the target as “weak” and vowed to switch focus to fighting against new coal and gas projects.

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday the harder work of outlining plans to cut emissions and then doing it could now happen.

“You have to have an economy-wide transition here. It will take effort. It’s not easy, but we can do it. And while doing it, we can create economic activity – create jobs, particularly in our regions,” he told ABC Melbourne.

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Australia

New Adelaide accommodation for domestic violence victims expected to be full within weeks

Women standing around a bench top looking at each other

Eight new units have been set up in an undisclosed location in Adelaide to help women and children escape domestic violence.

South Australia is the first state to get new upgraded facilities, with other states set to follow suit.

It is a part of a $20 million federal government program to upgrade domestic violence services across the nation.

The Adelaide facility, operated by the Salvation Army, will accommodate approximately 40 people, with on average one adult and four children per property.

Salvation Army general manager of family violence Lorrinda Hamilton said the facility was in high demand.

“We are almost half full and we’ve only been open for two weeks,” she said.

A woman standing with a beige jacket and looking serious
Lorrinda Hamilton says the Salvation Army runs domestic violence refuge facilities across the nation. (abcnews )

“We are expected to be fully occupied within the next week.

“These facilities are critical. The demand for family violence responses outstrips the supply of refuge accommodation.

“It is one of the leading causes of homelessness.”

The site includes recreational facilities and outdoor play areas for children, but in a high-security setting.

DV Shelter Adelaide (1)
Bedroom and living areas have been designed to maximize privacy and safety for parents, while affording them the opportunity to easily supervise their children and ensure their safety. (abcnews )

Ms Hamilton said it was important the location was kept secret.

“It is imperative that we operate in non-disclosed locations, and that’s particularly important when we are working with high-risk family violence, particularly women who might be an imminent risk of death,” she said.

“The majority of people using this facility are from South Australia but there are some women who will be fleeing from interstate who will use this facility.”

A woman with brown curly hair and glasses mid-sentence with everything else around her blurred out
Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth says no woman should have to choose between having a home or experiencing violence.(ABC News: Matt Roberts)

Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth said the federal government fund was “about supporting women and children who are escaping family and domestic violence.”

“Every 10 days, one woman is killed by their former or current partner,” she said.

“This is a really big problem, family and domestic violence in this country.”

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Australia

Anti-corruption chief Robert Redlich calls for independent funding for IBAC

Anti-corruption chief Robert Redlich calls for independent funding for IBAC

Center for Public Integrity research director Catherine Williams said: “It is not difficult to imagine a scenario where an executive which is the subject of adverse reports is tempted to retaliate against an institution like IBAC by reducing its funding.”

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She said a parliamentary committee could play a role in budget decisions for IBAC, but it must be non-government dominated and report to the public.

“But the optimal model would see funding allocated by an independent funding tribunal,” she said.

She also said the current threshold for IBAC to launch investigations was an “unjustifiable limitation” to investigate soft corruption, for example pork barrelling, which is designed to divert public funding to help the private political interests of the major parties, and breaches of ministerial and staff codes of conduct which might not reach the threshold of committing an offence.

Under the current law, IBAC must have a reasonable suspicion that a relevant offense has been committed before it can launch an investigation. Redlich said this threshold must be lowered to bring IBAC in line with its NSW counterpart, the Independent Commission Against Corruption, which can investigate any allegation of suspicion of corruption, including alleged substantial breaches of the codes of conduct that govern ministers and MPs.

“Very often when it comes IBAC, whilst it’s plain enough there is unethical behavior worthy of investigation, unless the material goes so far as to substantiate or meet that threshold, we must dismiss it,” Redlich said.

Robert Redlich has flagged a suite of reforms he believes are needed to strengthen the anti-corruption watchdog.

Robert Redlich has flagged a suite of reforms he believes are needed to strengthen the anti-corruption watchdog.Credit:Jason South

“In many of our investigations, we do not find at its conclusion that a relevant offense has been committed but we uncovered such fundamental institutional failings. And that’s the importance of integrity commissions. Anything that stands in the way of that, one has got to look at very carefully.”

Although the Andrews government increased IBAC’s powers in 2016 by removing the requirement for corrupt conduct to be “serious”, and added the ability to investigate the offense of misconduct in public office, its jurisdiction remains more limited than ICAC’s.

Victoria’s IBAC would have been unable to investigate, for example, former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian, who was probed by ICAC over whether she breached public trust or encouraged corrupt behaviour.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet in May announced an overhaul of funding for his state’s key integrity bodies and made them exempt from efficiency dividends applied to other government departments. However, he has stopped short of granting a request from ICAC for its funding to be made independent because of a “philosophical view” about the role of the executive.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Opposition Leader Matthew Guy are preparing to fight an election campaign on integrity.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Opposition Leader Matthew Guy are preparing to fight an election campaign on integrity. Credit:Fairfax Media

Victorian Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes said IBAC had broad powers and the resources it needed to conduct its investigations effectively.

“We’ve delivered stronger powers and record funding to further support IBAC in these investigations,” Symes said. “This funding includes an almost-doubling of what IBAC received in 2015, with this year’s forward estimates to show an annual increase of more than $31 million.”

Rules governing IBAC ensure “a balance is maintained between IBAC being able to do its important work and the proper protection of individual rights and their welfare,” she said.

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Shadow attorney-general Michael O’Brien said the Coalition had committed to a suite of reforms, including an additional $10 million to IBAC’s budget and giving it the powers to conduct more public hearings.

“We strongly support the IBAC having the funding and powers it needs to uncover and prevent serious corruption,” he said.

The Andrews government has been embroiled in several corruption scandals over the past eight years, including the recent joint IBAC and Ombudsman investigation, Operation Watts, which found two former Labor ministers misused public money for party-political activities.

The integrity agencies made adverse findings against former ministers Adem Somyurek and Marlene Kairouz, but stopped short of recommending criminal prosecutions, saying the law was “grey” and the duo had engaged in soft corruption.

Meanwhile, the government referred Opposition Leader Matthew Guy and his former chief of staff Mitch Catlin to IBAC this week after The Age revealed Catlin asked wealthy Liberal Party donor Jonathan Munz to make more than $100,000 in payments to his private marketing business in addition to his taxpayer-funded salary.

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Australia

In Australia’s welfare sector obligations are ‘mutual’, but profits flow only one way | Unemployment

Two words make the money go round in Australia’s multi-billion dollar welfare-to-work industry: mutual obligation.

When someone loses their job and applies for the dole, they are sent to an outsourced job agency to get help looking for work. It triggers a payment to the provider – and the possibility of more to come.

The federal government will spend more than $11bn on the two main outsourced employment services programs over four years. The top companies – some of them multinationals – will rake in hundreds of millions of dollars.

When a single mother’s child reaches nine months, she can be sent to a work preparation support program. The taxpayer sends cash to the charity or for-profit running the program, sometimes to check she is sending her children to playgroup or “storytime” at the library.

Those on the jobseeker payment may be sent to work for the dole, or a training course, which is sometimes run by the same company as the provider, or a related film.

And if you get a job yourself? The provider can still claim a payment. If you find yourself back on Centrelink payments, you return to a job agency. The money-go-round keeps spinning.

Since the Commonwealth Employment Service was wound up and the system was privatized in the late 1990s, a vast network of private job agencies and related training companies dependent on government contracts has formed: an “unemployment industry” fueled by the ideological mantra of “mutual obligation ” that guarantees their business model.

Some readers have been shocked by examples of the mutual obligations revealed by Guardian Australia over the past few weeks.

That includes those told to travel long distances – in one case a 250km round trip – for “tick and flick” appointments. Another person had to skip work to attend a job agency.

Then there are the courses: including basic computer and literacy tests and others such as “understanding body languages” and “making decisions”.

Last week we revealed how the industry successfully lobbied the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations to allow the practice of “same entity” course referrals to continue.

Screen recording of Communicare's Understanding Closed Body Language course featuring six images of a woman conveying different expressions
Screen recording of Communicare’s Understanding Closed Body Language course required to be completed by some jobseekers. Photograph: Australian Government / Services Australia

While some cases have emerged as part of our reporting on the new Workforce Australia system, advocates and jobseekers have rightly pointed out many of these problems have existed for years.

Some of the jobseekers interviewed by Guardian Australia over the past few months have struggled to get help when they needed it; others who did not need help were shuffled into “busy work” activities.

Alex North, once a jobseeker and welfare activist and now an organizer with the United Workers Union, recalls his time in the Employability Skills Training program, which is being expanded under Workforce Australia. More than $500m will flow to private providers via the program over the next five years.

The tasks he was given to fulfill the program included a “scavenger hunt” that involved counting car parks and listing the items in a vending machine at an Adelaide training provider – the winner receiving a freddo frog.

North already had a forklift license, and had worked in hospitality, retail and warehousing as a picker and packer. But because he had been on the dole for a set amount of time, the system insisted he undertook employability training.

On other days, he says, he was asked to copy text from paper to Microsoft Word, and create a fake business, including a logo.

“It was pretty humiliating,” he says. “Most people were just going through the motions.”

Former employment consultants, meanwhile, have told of referring jobseekers to online courses – at cost to the taxpayer – in areas their clients had no interest in. This occurred, they say, because it is the easiest way to game the key performance indicators that determine market share.

In other cases, it agencies allowed to receive extra direct payments.

One man who worked at a major for-profit provider for several years says: “A lot of people were saying, ‘Hey, this isn’t going to get me a job?’ And basically, our answer was, ‘It doesn’t matter what’s on offer, this is what you have got to do. It’s either this, or go get a job, or we’ll cut you off your services.’”

Experts agree that some unemployed people need support and guidance to get back into the workforce. That is particularly true in a period of low unemployment such as now, when a greater proportion of those on benefits are long-term unemployed.

But the evidence suggests the combination of a privatized employment services system and mutual obligations is producing perverse outcomes.

The winners are the private companies and charities that refer clients and/or provide programs; the losers are the unemployed, the disadvantaged and the taxpayer.

QuickGuide

Mutual obligations explainer

Show

What are mutual obligations?

  • People getting Centrelink payments must complete these tasks and activities in order to receive their benefits.
  • The obligations vary depending on a person’s circumstances and are listed in a “job plan”, which people on benefits must sign with their job agency to get their first payment.
  • To meet their mutual obligations, people on the new Workforce Australia program can complete various activities each month, such as job applications or education and training. These tasks are allocated a number of “points” and most jobseekers need to reach 100 points to keep their benefits.
  • Jobseekers in the Disability Employment Services program must also agree to a job plan with their consultant, which generally sets how many job applications they must send off each month. But they are not subject to the points system.
  • Those on the ParentsNext program must agree to a similar plan – and complete tasks related to pre-employment preparation or parenting – to receive their payments.

What happens if people don’t meet their mutual obligations?

  • They will receive a “payment suspension”, which means their benefits will be temporarily stopped unless they agree to rectify the problem with their job agency. They have two days to do this or their payment may be delayed. The suspension is generally automated.
  • Those found not to have a “reasonable excuse” for failing to meet their obligations will be given a “demerit point” by their job agency. After a sixth demerit point, jobseekers can have their payments docked by 50% or 100%, and then stopped completely.

Thank you for your feedback.

The introduction of Workforce Australia is the biggest shake-up of the system since it was privatized by the Howard government in the late 1990s. After voting for the legislation that enabled the new system, Labor has now announced a parliamentary inquiry to investigate it.

In a laudable attempt to avoid the problem of job agencies neglecting the most needy jobseekers, Workforce Australia cuts the number of welfare recipients sent to the privatized agencies.

Only those considered disadvantaged will be sent to providers, while others fulfill their mutual obligations through an online platform.

While still in its early days, some jobseekers transferred from the old system to Workforce Australia have noticed little difference in the quality of the service. Emily Rayward, who is completing a PhD in creative arts, told of being made to do an online personality test at her first appointment of her. While she apparently had a “love of learning” but little “zest” or “spirituality”, there was little or no discussion about any relevant employment opportunities.

“It feels very frustrating that these job agencies are receiving all this money for what feels to be very pointless activity, while welfare itself sits below the poverty line,” Rayward said.

New system or not, as long as jobseekers are subjected to rigid, mutual obligations enforced by private organizations with an inherent profit motive, the money-go-round will only continue.

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Australia

Wife of missing man Bruce Fairfax faces seven-year wait or Supreme Court for death certificate

Bruce Fairfax, photographed with his dog.

The wife of a man missing since 2017 says she feels hamstrung by the fact she cannot obtain a death certificate and move forward with her life, almost five years after they were separated on a bush path in far southern Tasmania.

Louise Fairfax was with her husband Bruce when the pair set out to walk the track at Duckhole Lake, a flooded sinkhole surrounded by dense forest south of Hobart on October 14, 2017.

The pair, who were experienced hikers, were with their dog when they became separated on the path. The dog was later found.

A search involving police, SES volunteers and hikers was launched, with helicopter flyovers employing thermal detection methods to try and penetrate the thick scrub.

No trace of Mr Fairfax has ever been found.

Mr Fairfax, 66 at the time he disappeared, had Parkinson’s disease and would be unable to survive without his medication for more than a week, Tasmania Police said.

a woman in a pink top on top of a very tall mountain, with ocean and hills in the background
Louise Fairfax on top of Precipitous Bluff in south-west Tasmania.(Supplied: Louise Fairfax)

This week, police featured Mr Fairfax as one of the seven “long-term” missing people as part of Missing Person’s Week.

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Australia

Queensland family shooting: Accused charged with three counts of murder, one charge of attempted murder

Queensland family shooting: Accused charged with three counts of murder, one charge of attempted murder

A 59-year-old man has been charged with three counts of murder following the horrific mass shooting on remote farmland in Queensland.

The accused, identified by The Courier-Mail as long-term Bogie resident Darryl Young, is also facing one charge of attempted murder.

He will appear in the Proserpine Magistrates Court on Monday.

Mervyn and Maree Schwarz and their son Graham Tighe were killed in Bogie on Thursday.

Ross Tighe – Graham’s brother – survived the shooting and is currently in hospital after being shot in the stomach.

Police allege the weapon used in the shooting was a rifle.

“It will be alleged that around 9am, police received a report that three people had been fatally shot at a property on Shannonvale Road and another man had suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen,” the police said in a statement.

“The injured man remains in Mackay Base Hospital in a stable condition with a single gunshot wound to the stomach.”

“How it happened in this day and age is beyond me. It’s not America,” Maree Schwarz’s brother-in-law, Greg Austin, told TheDailyMail.

Mr Austen said he was completely shocked when he heard the news, describing his loved ones as an “honest Christian family”.

“They were a bush family who worked seven days a week and had beers on Sundays, participated in events, very community-minded and well-respected in the community. Just a normal Australian family,” he said.

Mr Austen told news.com.au he learned of the shooting through “dribs and drabs” from the rest of his family.

“I have sisters and that over there, or on their way there, and it was just what we were hearing from them. They obviously were talking to the police, and we just got information from them when we could,” he said.

And in a tragic detail, Mr Austen revealed Graham Tighe had only spent three days with his newborn son before the shooting. The baby had just come home after three weeks in hospital in Brisbane.

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How the situation unfolded

Emergency crews were called to a property in Bogie – a small outback mining town in the Whitsundays near Collinsville – at 8.54am on Thursday.

Three people were confirmed deceased after police were notified of reports that multiple people had been shot in the area.

After finding the sole survivor, Ross, in a vehicle at Flagstone, an emergency declaration was made at 11.30am under the Public Safety Preservation Act, with boundaries encompassing Sutherland Rd, Normanby Rd, Mount Compton Rd and Starvation Creek.

This emergency declaration has since been revoked.

Police revealed Ross managed to alert police to the shooting after escaping the scene and miraculously traveling “many, many kilometers” while suffering from a gunshot wound.

“We believe that the male was able to extract himself from the area when he was spoken to by a police officer many, many kilometers away from the crime scene,” Queensland Police Acting Superintendent Tom Armitt said on Thursday.

“He was fleeing from the scene… he was able to tell police that he had been shot and three others (were) also shot.”

Police said he fled the scene in a red ute before contacting the authorities.

Mr Austen told the Daily Mail that his nephew-in-law showed incredible courage, describing him as a “very strong man”.

“Ross has two girls, but he’s OK. I haven’t spoken to him yet because he’s about three hours away, but we’re heading there,” he said.

“To witness what unfolded in front of him and then to be able to walk back to the car shows real resilience, and I’m sure he won’t forget it for the rest of his life.”

He was flown to Mackay Hospital in a critical condition and rushed into emergency surgery.

He is now in a serious but stable condition in the intensive care unit.

Police were able to interview him on Thursday night and are expected to speak with him again today.

speaking to Sunrise on Friday morning, Acting Superintendent Armitt said police “believe” they have the alleged shooter in custody.

“The person who has been nominated for that offense is with us here in custody,” he said.

“We haven’t pressed any charges at this point in time while our investigations are ongoing.”

Police spoke to five people on Thursday night in relation to the shooting.

Two of the people who were spoken to by police were reportedly wind farm contractors who happened to be near the property at the wrong time. They were released on Thursday night.

Two other people, family members of the 59-year-old man still in custody, have also now been released.

The man still in custody was located by police on the property following the shooting.

“At that particular point in time when we initially received the call we had no idea who or where the shooting offender was and obviously we had to push forward into the scene being very mindful of our own safety and at the risk of police officers being shot. ,” Acting Superintendent Armitt told reporters on Friday.

“We were able to make contact with the people on the property and organize taking them into custody.”

$10m property and neighborhood dispute in the spotlight

An alleged neighborhood dispute is forming a major part of investigations, with Acting Superintendent Armitt revealing parties involved in the event were neighbours.

Mr and Mrs Schwarz, along with Graham, had only purchased the 300-square-kilometre property in May 2021, according to the Daily Mail.

They paid $10 million for the land, which is zoned for cattle grazing, breeding and farming purposes.

Acting Superintendent Armitt also appeared on Nine’s Today show on Friday, providing some more detail on the alleged neighborhood dispute.

“There is not too much detail I can tell you right now. What we do know is that the parties involved are neighbors and some conversation has occurred between the parties and resulted in a meeting up of the parties at the boundary line in the early hours of yesterday morning when the incident occurred,” he said.

Later on Friday, the Acting Superintendent provided some further insight on the layout of the properties in the area, revealing the scene of the shooting was an hour-and-a-half away from Collinsville in a very remote area.

“We are talking properties of the size of tens of thousands of acres and between the two properties in question it’s actually a 45 minute drive between the neighbours,” I explained.

“At the crime scene, which is at the front gate of one of the promises, it is a 3km drive between the gate and the house at that location.”

Mike Brunker from the Whitsunday Regional Council told Sunrise the family moved to the area from out west, describing the situation as “absolutely tragic”.

“The road leading up to that particular property, there’s some small boutique rural residential areas and then, of course, at the end of the road is the cattle properties that we’re talking about,” he said.

“I think these people had only moved over here 12 months ago from out west.”

‘It’s shocking’: Town rattled by horror shooting

Mr Brunker said a tragic event like this is the last thing the Bogie community would ever think it would make national news for.

According to the latest census data, Bogie has a population of just 207 people, making it an extremely tight knit community.

Locals from nearby Bowen and Collinsville described the incident as “unusual” and “strange” for the usually quiet area.

“There haven’t been many shootings there (Bogie) before … it’s very unusual,” a business owner in Collinsville said.

Bowen resident Shontai McLennan told the DailyMercury that the situation came as a complete shock to many.

“We’re traditional owners of this land around Collinsville. I wouldn’t have thought it could happen here. It’s a small town,” she said.

Redcliffe man Warren Davidson told the publication he had seen multiple emergency vehicles racing along the road as he was on his way to Bowen from Ingham.

“Then we heard it on the CB radio that there’d been a shooting. It’s pretty shocking,” he said.

Read related topics:Brisbane

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Australia

‘We’ve changed and so have restaurants’: the new rules of dining out in Australia | Australian food and drinks

The question that we, as diners, don’t ask ourselves enough is, “Am I being unreasonable?”

Sadly, a lot of reliable, old-school restaurants are choosing to close rather than renew their leases. And can you blame them? Many of these owners are claiming burnout is the problem. And what burnout means is constantly putting their health at risk by working a public-facing role, while tackling rising food costs, rent hikes, irate customers, and a nation-wide labor shortage where hospitality has 52,000 roles to fill. These figures place hospitality as one of the top industries experiencing a labor crisis, next to healthcare. Demand for workers is at an all-time high.

Unsurprisingly, after being locked in our homes for extended periods of time, we have forgotten how to dine. But what may be a surprise is that it’s a new generation of restaurant staff making up most of the workforce too. They’re green, they’ve been thrown into the deep end, and mentorship is hard to come by.

As much as we’d like to go out and think that everything was just like we left it, it isn’t. We’ve changed, and so have restaurants. So, how are we meant to behave to make sure we can continue dining out tomorrow?

Empty seating areas at Barangaroo in Sydney
Many established restaurants have closed as hospitality faces a labor crisis. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP

The obvious stuff: book a table and read the fine print

Remember when everyone collectively whinged about how restaurants didn’t take bookings anymore and we yearned for the good old days? Well, they’re back. Thanks to the pandemic, restaurants are still less likely to pack diners in, in case dinner turns into a super spreader event, infects their floor staff, and they need to close for a week.

It’s become standard practice for restaurants to ask for a credit card number to secure a booking. If you’re sacrificing your details, it would be remiss of you to not see what they can be used for – especially if you have flaky friends. If you’ve agreed to be charged per-head for a last-minute no-show, you shouldn’t be upset when it happens.

Communicate

Like all successful relationships, good communication leads to better experiences. Does your group have allergies? Tell the restaurant when you book. There is no way that the kitchen can come up with a delicious menu for you on the fly when they’re already behind, understaffed and firing off the courses for every other table in the venue.

Do you want to be seated in a specific area because you like it? Ask when making a reservation. Did someone suddenly get one of the million viruses going around? Tell the restaurant before you show up. Are you celebrating something? Tell them! Do you need to be out early because you have a show? Please tell them. Are you running late? You know the answer to this question.

Diners sit at tables inside a restaurant in China Town in Melbourne.
Diners at a restaurant in Melbourne’s China Town. Communicating with a restaurant will lead to a better experience. Photograph: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

be on time

This applied before the pandemic, but it has never been more important. If your table is rebooked for a second, or even third seating and you have been given an out-by time, it’s not a suggestion.

There is a flow-on effect from you being late, and that causes stress on the floor and in the kitchen to get your meal out faster, so the people after you aren’t being punished for doing the right thing. The push to speed up a service is an act that can only be controlled by experienced staff. Newbies to the industry are not as efficient as hospo-lifers and haven’t yet developed the confidence to rush an order through the kitchen. So, if you’re late, you’ll make everyone late.

You can ask when the next table is coming but keep in mind that once you leave, your table will have to be cleared, sanitized, and reset. You can’t just play musical chairs. That being said, the industry es hospitality and staff always try to be hospitable. So, if the team read the room correctly and can shuffle people around, they’ll let you know that you can stay for longer. Just don’t assume it can happen every time.

Workers prepare food at Japanese restaurant Nobu at Crown Sydney
The kitchen at Nobu, Sydney. When diners are late, it has a flow-on effect on chefs. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP

be patient

You know how over lockdown, you reflected on your life choices and decided it was probably time to get a new job or quit your industry altogether to do what you love? Well, that happened in hospitality. Plus a huge chunk of the international workforce went home and it’s expensive and very difficult to sponsor new, international workers now.

That means you’re being served by fewer people, and they may never have worked in hospitality before. Everyone is operating a little slower, they’re a little bit clumsy, they’re learning on the job and prone to making a mistake or two. Please, be kind and understanding. It’s not the end of the world if your drink takes a couple of minutes longer than everyone else’s – in the worst-case scenario, just remind your server. I guarantee you they’ll apologize profusely. If you scare off the next generation, who will be there to serve you next week?

show-up

It hurts me to write this, but after speaking to a few restaurant owners, they all mentioned an overwhelming number of no-shows. Even when confirmation texts and emails have been sent and acknowledged. One owner told me he texted a person half an hour after their table was meant to arrive, and receiving the response, “Nah, brah, not coming. GF’s not feeling it.” After warning the customer they would be charged to cover the minimum cost of labor and wasted food, the owner discovered the card was already maxed out. Food waste is agonizing for any restaurateur, especially as costs rise – and they’ve already prepped it for you to eat. If you don’t show up, you’re lighting someone else’s money on fire.

Workers clean tables for outdoor dining
Outdoor tables at Sambandha Nepalese restaurant in Auburn, Sydney. Remember, staff have limited time to turn tables around between sittings. Photograph: Joel Carrett/EPA

But what if the experience was truly horrific?

We have all been here. It’s an off night for the front and back of house. The bar couldn’t get your drinks right. You were left standing out in the cold waiting for your table to turn (see point three). Service was absent. Cold food arrived warm and hot food arrived cold. It took forever to pay and you felt like you were left to die in the corner.

Raised by Wolves cover
Raised by Wolves, by Jess Ho. Photograph: Affirm Press

Management should be able to see this and they’ll be hurting inside watching your table receive a sub-par experience. If they aren’t putting out a million fires, they’ll most likely approach your table, apologize, take on your feedback and either buy some drinks or send dessert to your table. If you can give them feedback on the spot, don’t make a scene. If management is going down with the ship, try to call in rather than calling out. Email or ring the restaurant to let them know about your experience. Outline what went wrong in the most graceful way possible. They can always track down your table to confirm your story, use your feedback to retrain staff, and most likely invite you back to dine on them. If there is anything a restaurant wants, it is to prove to you that they can do better.

Businesses have been struggling to survive Covid, give them a chance to change your mind before venting your frustrations on Google.

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Australia

Australian Border Force ship docks in Colombo to return 46 men

Australian Border Force ship docks in Colombo to return 46 men

The ABF said in its monthly report last week that it had stopped four boats from Sri Lanka in June with 125 people on board, the highest monthly tally of vessels intercepted in seven years.

A fishing trawler carrying 12 men from Negombo, north of Colombo, was earlier pulled up near Christmas Island on May 21, the day of the federal election.

Since May, there have also been 15 boats attempting to leave Sri Lanka illegally that have been stopped by its navy including some with children on board. A total of 701 people have been arrested on those boats and a further 210 arrested on land with the assistance of police, navy spokesman De Silva said on Friday.

Australia is providing tactical assistance and training to Sri Lanka’s navy, which already uses two retired Australian patrol boats that were given to it when Operation Sovereign Borders came into effect under Tony Abbott in 2013.

The Albanese government has also donated more than 4000 GPS devices to help Sri Lankan authorities in monitoring activity in their own waters.

The Sri Lankans attempting to make it to Australia have been escaping a devastating economic meltdown in the south Asian nation, which has run out of foreign currency reserves and where inflation last month rose to a record 60.8 per cent.

Months of shortages of fuel, food and other essentials, as well as surging prices, also triggered a political upheaval that led to the resignations of president Gotabaya Rajapaksa and prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.

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Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country when thousands of demonstrators stormed the presidential palace last month and has since been in Singapore, which has permitted him to stay as a private citizen in the city-state until next Thursday.

New leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was elected by MPs to serve the rest of Gotabaya’s presidential term until 2024, has dismantled the sprawling protest camp that had been set up outside the presidential office for months.

He is negotiating a bailout with the International Monetary Fund but in a speech to parliament on Wednesday warned Sri Lanka was “facing an unprecedented situation” and there was much difficulty still ahead.

“We are in great danger,” he said.

A spokesman for the ABF said it did not comment on operational matters.

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Australia

Castlecrag’s Salteri family buy their neighbour’s house for $11.6 million

Castlecrag's Salteri family buy their neighbour's house for $11.6 million

When Sydney’s rich list and their heirs are not busy on large-scale home rebuilds, it seems many are buying their neighbours’ houses in the pursuit of ever more space.

Take Adriana Gardos, the daughter of the late Transfield/Tenix boss Carlo Salteri, who with her husband Robert has bought a Castlecrag house with tennis court and a pool on a double block of waterfront reserve for $11.6 million.

The seven-bedroom, five-bathroom house with tennis court and pool was bought for $11.6 million.

The seven-bedroom, five-bathroom house with tennis court and pool was bought for $11.6 million.

The couple is currently building a two-storey residence with a pool on the double block next door, and in which they no doubt plan to live without the fear of living next door to someone else’s home rebuild job.

Amassing the parcel of what now totals 2900 square meters didn’t come cheap. Atlas’ Michael Coombs started with a guide of $9 million to $9.9 million, but with 14 contracts out the Gardos family were forced to dig deep to secure it the day before auction.

The Salteri family co-founded Transfield in 1956 with the Belgiorno-Nettis family, before the company was split and the Salteris took the defense contracting operations into Tenix. Tenix Defense was sold to BAE Systems in 2008 for $775 million, and the rest of the company’s assets sold to Downer EDI in 2014 for $300 million.

The Salteri family already lay claim to the Castlecrag suburb high, set in 2015 when brother Paul Salteri, the former chairman of Tenix, sold the nearby Penhallow estate for $12.8 million.

The Salteri family from left: Robert Salteri, Adriana Gardos, Carlo Salteri, Mary Shaw and Paul Salteri.

The Salteri family from left: Robert Salteri, Adriana Gardos, Carlo Salteri, Mary Shaw and Paul Salteri.Credit:

Sister Mary Shaw is still in the neighborhood, having bought two waterfront houses in the mid-1980s, knocking down one to make way for a tennis court, and snapping up a third house next door in 2003 for $4.3 million.

Shaw and her husband Alexander bought again locally from neurologist and Rhodes scholar Professor John Watson, paying $4.075 million.

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Australia

Family and domestic violence is the ‘wicked social problem’ a university course is aiming to address

The silhouette of a woman as she stares out the window while sitting on a bed

Grace* did not know, or perhaps did not want to admit, she was in an abusive relationship until her husband became physically violent.

When he did, it was a catalyst for her to leave, but not right away.

“I even talked police out of laying charges against him in the early stages of it,” said Grace, whose name has been changed to protect her identity.

“I’d put it down to [his] mental health in all honesty, it’s only later after much study that I have a much better understanding that, that was purely an excuse for a lot of it.”

It took a further three years before Grace accessed support services, which for her in Victoria was an organization called The Orange Door.

“I think twice I went and sat in the car outside [The Orange Door] and I went, ‘nah I can’t do it, can’t go in’,” she said, a slight tremble cracking through her otherwise steady voice.

“Just because I couldn’t … I didn’t want to tell my story.

“I didn’t want to be honest about the things that I had put up with and what I’d gone through because in my head I was going, ‘well why didn’t I leave earlier?’

“‘Who would go through that? No-one in their sane mind’ was what my narrative was.”

Shame, fear and dependency

The feeling of shame overwhelming Grace as she sat in her car that day is not uncommon among victim-survivors of family and domestic violence (FDV).

According to a number of professionals who work in the field, it is one of the common misconceptions about FDV that can have far reaching and devastating consequences for those who are already at their most vulnerable.

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Michael Flood is an associate professor at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) whose work in the school of justice includes dispelling some of the most common and persistent misconceptions about FDV.

“There are very understandable reasons why women might stay with a partner who is being abusive towards them,” he said.

“Their fear, their commitment to the relationship, their concerns about harm to the children, their lack of alternative sources of housing and income, their dependency, their social isolation, many of which are deliberately engineered by perpetrators.”

A ‘wicked’ social problem

As part of his work in the FDV field, Dr Flood is responsible for QUT’s graduate certificate in domestic violence responses.

When it began in 2016, the online course was the only one of its kind in Australia, but Dr Flood said he knows of at least five other professional qualifications in domestic and family violence now being offered at universities.

Michael Flood wears a purple jumper and a serious expression in an outdoor setting
Associate professor Michael Flood believes cultural change is necessary to prevent domestic violence.(Supplied)

“We’re dealing with a wicked social problem, a complex and pervasive social problem,” he said.

“We need skills and training for the people who will come into contact with that problem.

“Certainly, recent stories from the Queensland Police and elsewhere tell us that police, too, may not be very skilled at responding to these issues.

“I think a key learning from some of the most recent inquiries is that a whole lot more training and education, if not culture change, is necessary in our police services, and in some of the other services that respond or should respond to victim- survivors and perpetrators.”

Police responses questioned

Police responses to FDV have been under an increased — and public — level of scrutiny as of late, especially in Queensland.

The inquest into the murders of Hannah Clarke and her three children at the hands of their father and her estranged husband was followed by another into the killing of Doreen Langham by her ex-partner.

There is also an ongoing inquiry into how Queensland Police respond to FDV matters – all of it highlighting significant areas of concern and leading to calls for more thorough face-to-face, and ongoing training for police across the country.

Hannah Clarke, and her three children, Aaliyah, Laianah and Trey.
The murders of Hannah Clarke and her three children, Aaliyah, Laianah and Trey have led to calls for better police training in handling family violence.(Supplied: AAP/Department of Justice)

A recent government report identified WA as having the highest overall rate of family and domestic violence related assault in the country.

“Este [Hannah Clarke] inquest and other recent reports on family violence are being reviewed for their applicability to WA Police Force policy and practices,” a spokesman for the state’s Police Minister, Paul Papalia, wrote in a statement.

Police jurisdictions across the country are reporting that FDV call outs make up a significant proportion of their work, with many turning to improved officer training to try to better address the issue.

The QUT course, which attracts students from professions including social work, law, psychology, and law enforcement, looks at how disadvantage and privilege contribute to domestic violence and how to respond effectively to it.

Dr Flood said it was a complex issue, and one that was not only about physical violence.

“Domestic violence is as much about a kind of daily dripping tap of abuse, of control and so on, that may not be particularly physical, it may involve only threats of violence or a perpetrator, in very subtle or sneaky ways, reminding the victim of the possibility of them using violence,” he said.

The situation is compounded when children are present.

“We know very well now that whenever there are children in a household where there’s domestic violence, they are deeply affected by that violence, affected just as much by witnessing or being around that violence as if they are being assaulted themselves,” he said.

Dr Flood said about 40 students completed the course each year, about 87 per cent of whom were women.

He would like to see more men enter the FDV response and prevention workforce.

Police officer sees hope

Patrick Hayes has been with Victoria Police for 22 years, becoming a family violence liaison officer two years ago, and is also a facilitator for QUT’s graduate certificate in domestic violence responses.

When it comes to the track record of police in dealing with FDV, Sergeant Hayes holds few punches.

A police officer in uniform standing with one hand on the bonnet of his police car.
Sergeant Patrick Hayes says improvements are being made in the way agencies work together to combat family violence.(Supplied)

“Has there been mistakes made in the past? Absolutely. There’s no denying that at all,” he said.

“What’s encouraging is that we’re recognizing this, and we’ve started to work more collaboratively. We are making headway.”

Restraining order ‘just a piece of paper’

On her third attempt, Grace finally found the courage to get out of her car and enter The Orange Door for support.

She is now working in the area of ​​FDV case management while undertaking the QUT course, which she describes as having “confronting content”.

When it comes to her own experiences and her own trauma, Grace said her journey was ongoing.

A silhouette of an anonymous woman
Grace says she feels let down by the judicial system, which fails to make her feel safe.(Unsplash: Erick Zajac)

After her ex-husband was found guilty of numerous breaches of a violence restraining order, she has now been granted a rare long-lasting order against him, which runs for 40 years.

But she feels the judicial system is letting victim-survivors down.

The consequences faced by her ex-husband for multiple breaches appear to her to be no more than verbal reprimands and ends he will never pay off.

She said the court’s actions had made her feel more unsafe.

“Just by not holding breaching accountable, there’s no deterrent. At the end of the day … it’s just a piece of paper,” Grace said.

Living invisibly

And while Grace rates her own interactions with police as positive overall, there is one aspect she still struggles to come to terms with.

She was told by police she needed to change her phone number, move house and protect her address and her place of work so she would be ‘safe’.

“I think the onus of that needs to be taken away from a victim-survivor and placed at the perpetrator’s feet,” she said.

A blurred, dark photo of a child holding her hand up behind a glass screen.
Garace says survivors should not bear responsibility for the actions of perpetrators.(abcnews)

“It’s not my responsibility to make someone else toe the line or behave responsibly, but that’s exactly what I was told.

“And I did try and live invisibly for a lot of years… it’s not an easy way to recover when you’re trying to be invisible.

“Practically, it’s sound advice — it’s just something I shouldn’t have to do.”

Dr Flood agrees.

“Whether they take place in schools or in sporting context or in the community, we need to shift the attitudes, the behaviours, inequalities that feed into domestic and family violence in the first place,” he said.

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