Daily Archives: September 11, 2014

Με διάθεση να διορθώσει τα… κακώς κείμενα της Εθνικής μας ομάδα που φάνηκαν στην πρεμιέρα των προκριματικών του Euro είναι ο Κλάουντιο Ρανιέρι .

Ο Ομοσπονδιακός προπονητής, όπως αποκαλύπτει η Sportday, είχε επικοινωνία με τον Πρόεδρο της ΕΠΟ Γιώργο Σαρρή και του εξέφρασε την επιθυμία να συνεργαστεί με τον Γιώργο Καραγκούνη. Ο “τυπάρας” μετά το Μουντιάλ αποσύρθηκε από την Εθνική, ωστόσο δεν έχει βρει ακόμα κάποιον σύλλογο να συνεχίσει την καριέρα του.

Ο Ρανιέρι θέλει τον Καραγκούνη ως άμεσο σύμβουλο στο προπονητικό τιμ και όχι ως τεχνικό διευθυντή, θέση την οποία κατείχε ο Τάκης Φύσσας για έξι ολόκληρα χρόνια.

Ο κ. Σαρρής μετέφερε την επιθυμία του Ιταλού τεχνικού στον πρώην αρχηγό της γαλανόλευκης, που δείχνει να το σκέφτεται. Πάντως πρωταρχικός στόχος του “Κάρα” είναι να συνεχίσει την καριέρα του ως ποδοσφαιριστής.

Πηγή: madata.gr

Asylum seekers who arrived by boat last year could be offered temporary protection visas and allowed to live in the Australian mainland community, in a major policy backflip by the Abbott government.

The shift could signal a disintegration in the offshore processing policy that the government has vehemently defended, but now concedes has its “challenges”.

Until now, asylum seekers who arrived after July 19, 2013, were subject to offshore processing after a policy change by the Rudd Labor government, which meant they would be processed in centres on Nauru and Manus Island.

The policy was adopted by the Coalition and Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has consistently maintained asylum seekers who arrive by boat after July 19 would be subject to offshore processing.

In November, Mr Morrison said: “I want to stress all those on Christmas Island who are there now – those who arrived after July 19 will be going to Nauru or Manus Island. There will be no exceptions, whether you’re Syrian, Iranian, single, married, adult, child, they will all be going to Nauru or Manus Island and will not return to live in Australia.”

But the minister told an audience at the National Press Club that the government was now looking at TPVs as an “alternative” option for the 2700 people, including 450 children, who arrived by boat and many of whom are being held on Christmas Island. He is currently negotiating with crossbenchers in the new Senate to reintroduce TPVs after Labor and the Greens twice blocked the controversial measure that prevents refugees from gaining permanent residence in Australia.

“Now while it will continue to be the policy of the government that anyone who arrives illegally by boat will be transferred to offshore processing … the government is open to alternatives for the earlier July 19 to December 31 caseload, but not those who may arrive now or who have already been transferred,” Mr Morrison said in the speech.

“Combined with other measures, TPVs will also give the government an alternative option for those who arrived after July 19 and before the end of last year, including over 450 children. Seventy five per cent of this group, including children, turned up under the previous government and had not been transferred to offshore processing centres.”

Until now, only asylum seekers who arrived before July 19 have been considered eligible for TPVs, if such a measure is reintroduced.

Mr Morrison told Fairfax Media on Wednesday it was no secret he was in negotiations with the crossbenchers, including Clive Palmer, to allow the use of TPVs.

The policy change would not affect any boats that arrived this year. The only asylum seekers travelling by boat who reached Australian shores this year arrived in July. All 157 asylum seekers have since been transferred to Nauru.

Mr Morrison acknowledged that the processing on Papua New Guinea was “challenging”.

“Offshore processing and resettlement has also been implemented. However, this has not been without its challenges,” he said.

Until now, not one asylum seeker has been resettled in the country. There are 1084 asylum seekers being detained on Manus Island.

He also said negotiations with Cambodia, which the government hopes will resettle refugees, were ongoing.

Opposition immigration spokesman Richard Marles said: “It is clear that the Minister is seeking to use Temporary Protection Visas as a band aid to hide his failure in managing the Regional Resettlement Arrangement with Papua New Guinea.”

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said on Wednesday the government’s offshore policy was “falling apart”.

“Dumping the government’s commitment to offshore processing like this is a major policy backflip from the Coalition on the back of a serious policy failure,” she said.

“The Abbott government has conceded that it has to process these people’s claims in Australia and is simply using TPVs as a distraction.”

source: smh.com.au

Julia Gillard denies money from a union slush fund helped pay for renovations to her home in the early 1990s, but admits she could have done some things differently with the benefit of hindsight – and a “time machine”.

Ms Gillard said she acted properly when she provided legal advice to former boyfriend Bruce Wilson to help him establish a union slush fund in 1992.

“None of us get to go in a time machine and go backwards,” the former prime minister said. “Obviously, if one got to do the whole thing again, you would do things differently, given what I know now that I did not know at the time.”

Appearing before the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption on Wednesday, the former prime minister said she had been through her financial records forensically and was satisfied she had paid for her home renovations in full.

The commission has heard allegations that money from a slush fund linked to the Australian Workers Union that Ms Gillard helped incorporate paid for work to her house in Abbotsford in 1994.

In a transcript of Ms Gillard’s exit interview with Melbourne law firm Slater and Gordon in 1995 before she entered politics, Ms Gillard said she could not “categorically rule out that something at my house didn’t get paid for by the association or something at my house didn’t get paid for by the union”.

After going through her records, Ms Gillard told the commission she then became satisfied “that I had documents, receipts, invoices that showed that I’d paid for it all”.

Asked whether she had considered the fund’s name – Australian Workers Union Workplace Reform Association – could be misleading in its inclusion of the union name, Ms Gillard said she did not.

Counsel assisting Jeremy Stoljar suggested the inclusion of the union’s name in the slush fund’s title could potentially facilitate the banking of cheques drawn in favour of the union.

Ms Gillard said she would do things differently “if one got to do the whole thing again”.

When taking the stand and asked for her occupation, Ms Gillard introduced herself as a former prime minister “who does a number of things associated with that”.

“I am an author. I am the chair of the Global Partnership for Education. I am a non-resident distinguished senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. I’m an honorary professor [at the University of Adelaide].”

Before Ms Gillard’s appearance, her former neighbours – Kaye Darveniza (now a Victorian MP) and her husband Robert Elliott – gave evidence that Ms Gillard had provided advice on setting up an election fighting fund linked to the Health Services Union when Ms Darveniza was the secretary of the HSU Victoria No. 2 branch.

But Ms Gillard denied this. “I was supportive of their campaign in the HSU. I didn’t give them any advice about incorporating an association, but, yes, I was politically supportive of their campaign,” she said.

In sworn evidence, Ms Gillard said she had no recollection of Mr Wilson, or anyone on his behalf, depositing money into her bank account.

She said Mr Wilson helped organise renovations to her home in the Melbourne suburb of Abbotsford in 1994, but he did not give her any cash.

Blewitt, a self-confessed fraudster, has alleged $7000 in slush fund money was spent on the home renovations.

Wayne Hem, a former records keeper for the AWU, told the commission Mr Wilson gave him $5000 in cash and told him to deposit it into Ms Gillard’s bank account.

Ms Gillard told the commission: “I don’t remember the $5000 being paid into my bank account, $5000 in those days was a lot of money.”

source: smh.com.au