A single mother will be torn apart from her eight-year-old Australian-born son after she was given final deportation orders to leave the country in three weeks’ time. Brisbane aged care worker Bernadette Romulo has also been banned from re-entering the country for three years, meaning she will not see her son Giro again until he is 11 years old. Ms Romulo and her two daughters from a previous relationship, aged 12 and 13, have lived in Australia for the past 11 years but are being deported to the Philippines after their application for permanent residency was rejected. The distraught mother’s appeal for a ministerial intervention into her visa case was dismissed by Assistant Minister for Home Affairs Alex Hawke last December but she has been given several extensions on her departure date over the past few months amid national media coverage of her plight. However, Ms Romulo was last week told that she must leave the country by July 11 and show proof she has bought plane tickets by July 5.
June 19, 2018
A Portsea resident has been awarded a medal in the general division OAM in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. Trevor Douglas Martyn said he was “amazed and proud to be considered” for the award for service to the community. He is on the boards of several businesses and is chairman of residential aged care and disability services provider Mayflower, and director of Decoral Trust.”
June 18, 2018
Rosemary Kayess, the Interim-Director of UNSW’s Disability Innovation Institute, has been elected to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
June 18, 2018
A s.365 (General protections) application by Maree Howard against Medical and Aged Care Group T/A Humphries Road Medical Clinic has been turned down by Fair Work Commissioner Platt in Adelaide on 13 June 2018.
June 18, 2018
Centre Orthodontics will defend a s.394 (Application for unfair dismissal remedy) in front of Fair Work Commissioner Cirkovic in his Brisbane chambers (Cowan).
June 18, 2018
Australian Laboratory Services Pty Ltd has a s.739 (Application to deal with a dispute) with which it must deal before Fair Work Commissioner Williams in Hearing Room 4 in Brisbane (Yaneza).
June 18, 2018
A s.185 (Enterprise agreement) application by St Andrews Village (ACT) T/A St Andrews Village for the St Andrews Village Enterprise Agreement 2017-2020 has been approved by Fair Work Commissioner Johns in Sydney on 13 June 2018.
June 18, 2018
A codeine and alcohol dependent former nursing assistant has pleaded guilty to siphoning more than $40,000 from the bank account of an elderly woman she befriended at a Gold Coast aged care facility. Ann Jennifer Saunders, 49, pleaded guilty to one count of fraud in the Southport District Court yesterday. Saunders developed “a significant level of trust” with Angela Ryan, a resident at the aged care facility at which she worked, before she took her bank card and began withdrawing cash from her account, the court heard. Saunders “blatantly and persistently” withdrew money from the 81-year-old woman’s account 48 times between January 2016 and February 2017. Saunders managed to withdraw a total of $40,970 from Ryan’s Bank Of Queensland account at a Southport ATM without permission for her own “direct personal gain”. The fraud wasn’t detected until the victim’s son checked his mother’s bank accounts and noticed the withdrawals. CCTV captured Saunders withdrawing the money on multiple occasions. The court heard Saunders gave a false version of events and tried to shift the blame on to others when questioned by police before she pleaded guilty yesterday. Saunders had been working at the aged care facility since 2014 but she lost her job as a result of the fraud charge and has since applied for a disability support pension. During sentencing Saunders wept quietly in the dock. Judge David Kent QC took into account trauma experienced by Saunders during her childhood, her lack of a criminal history and various physical and psychological issues in sentencing. “You have an unspecified trauma-related disorder, alcohol dependency and opioid prescription medication dependency — your problems are multiple at best,” Judge Kent said. But he said a “very significant part” of Saunders’ defence was that she was able to fully compensate the elderly woman. Judge Kent sentenced Saunders to two and a half year in prison wholly suspended after three months. The maximum penalty for the offence was 12 years in prison. Saunders was ordered to pay back the $40,970 within a month.
