The Defence Housing Authority has confirmed Jan Mason as its managing director for the next five years.
November 16, 2016
Kathy Jackson has bid enthusiastically at a prominent Sydney auction house though claiming to be a bankrupt and owing the Health Service Union $2.4 million. The disgraced former HSU leader won multiple items during bidding at Lawsons Auctioneers in Sydney’s west yesterday. It was not clear yesterday whose money Ms Jackson was using to buy the items. There were reports last month that she was doing some work with a friend, selling antiques on weekends at a warehouse in inner-Sydney Alexandria. From Lawsons’ catalogue yesterday the items she bought included a sideboard for $220, a carpet for $60, a chair for $60, a set of outdoor chairs for $35, table lamps for $25 and a rug listed at $50 to $80. The cheapest item she bought was a porcelain figure, listed in the Lawsons’ catalogue in the range of $5 to $10. Repeatedly holding up her bidding paddle, Ms Jackson made winning bids for up to a dozen items including antique furniture, outdoor chairs, carpet rugs and collectibles. Only in September, Ms Jackson’s lawyer Philip Beazley reminded Melbourne Magistrates Court that his client had no money because she was a bankrupt. That was during Ms Jackson’s first court appearance after police had charged her in August with 70 offences related to allegedly stealing almost $500,000 from the HSU during her years heading one of its Victorian branches. Ms Jackson is on bail, the terms of which requires her to live at her home on Sydney’s south coast and to not go near international airports.
November 16, 2016
James Packer’s former fiance Kate Fischer — now known as aged care worker Tziporah Malkah — has penned an open letter to his most recent partner Mariah Carey, advising her how she could win back the billionaire’s love. Malkah, who was in a two-year engagement with Packer until the pair split in 1998, had recently accused the businessman of using her name to keep himself in the press. In the lengthy letter, addressed directly to ‘Dear Mariah’ and published in this week’s edition of New Idea, Malkah said she was sorry to hear the pair had recently parted ways. “My advice to you is, if you really want him back, play the game, let him make the key decisions and you may well live happily ever after as Mariah Carey Packer,” she writes. The former model and actor outlines her own early courtship with Packer in the mid-90s, detailing romantic dates and dinners — and arguments. “Here’s a tip, Mariah,” she writes. “If you want to get him back and he’s having a sulk, just wait a few days and get in touch.” Malkah suggests Carey is “perhaps lucky” she didn’t have to meet James’ late father Kerry Packer, who she describes as “intimidating” with a great temper. As for his mother, Ros: She “isn’t the easiest woman to impress. Did you find that, Mariah?” Malkah also reveals the true reason she and Packer split, saying an endless array of hangers-on in their life meant she struggled to have one-on-one time with her partner during their five years together.
November 16, 2016
The Health Services Union and the Department of Health and Human Services are armwrestling a s.739 (Application to deal with a dispute) before Commissioner Cribb at 3pm.
November 16, 2016
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation and Aspen Medical Pty Ltd have a s.730 (Application to deal with a dispute) live before Commissioner Cribb in the Fair Work Commission 11 Exhibition Street Melbourne today.
November 15, 2016
Public servants at the Commonwealth’s biggest department, Human Services, have smashed a proposed workplace deal with a 74 per cent no-vote in a ballot of the 36,000-strong workforce. The result is a case of third-time unlucky for bosses at the department, which runs Centrelink, Medicare and the Child Support Agency, who have now seen three rejections of broadly similar proposals that workers fear will strip away basic workplace rights. The result comes on the heels of a crushing 82 per cent no-vote by public servants at Border Force and the Immigration Department last week of another deal developed under the Coalition’s hardline public sector bargaining framework and a rejection by scientists and researchers at the CSIRO of a similar proposal. Staff at Human Services were told of the result on Monday morning with the department’s human resources boss Adrian Hudson indicating there would be no change in approach despite the third failure to convince the department’s workers that the deal on offer was in their best interests. “Now, the department and bargaining representatives will need to consider their next steps,” Mr Hudson wrote. “We are committed to reaching a fair and affordable Agreement within the boundaries of our service delivery requirements, and the Government’s bargaining policy. “The department will continue to bargain in good faith.” The Community and Public Sector Union was quick out of the blocks to say the no-vote was more evidence that the government’s approach to bargaining had failed abjectly. “For workers in the largest Commonwealth agency to vote No to an agreement despite struggling under a three-year pay freeze shows there’s something seriously wrong with enterprise bargaining,” the union’s national secretary Nadine Flood said. “For them to vote No three times in little more than a year confirms this process is an absolute mess. “These workers provide public services that are among the most needed and valued by ordinary Australians – Medicare, Centrelink and Child Support – yet they’ve been forced to fight to hold onto basic workplace rights and conditions, particularly important family-friendly conditions. “The Government’s bargaining policy means it’s impossible for DHS staff to be offered a reasonable agreement. “Instead the policy seeks to starve workers out with a wage freeze. “It’s a nasty tactic hurting DHS staff struggling on modest wages, mostly below the national average.”
November 15, 2016
Bosses are being forced to pay compensation to crims who lodge a discrimination claim when they are sacked over their criminal records. Already under fire on a number of fronts, the Australian Human Rights Commission has told employers to compensate or apologise to criminals who lied on their job application forms. A male nurse with a stalking conviction won $2000 compo after an aged care home withdrew its job offer upon discovering his criminal record.
November 15, 2016
Calvary Health Care ACT Ltd is facing a s.394 (Application for unfair dismissal remedy) before Deputy President Kovacic in his ACT Chambers at 4.30pm.
