Monthly Archives: May 2015

“You’ll get a truer test of the feeling within the parliament if both the big parties of politics, the Coalition … [and] the Labor Party do have a conscience vote,” says Arthur Sinodnos.

Senior Liberal senator Arthur Sinodinos says his party should allow a conscience vote on same-sex marriage.

Senator Sinodinos has previously declared his support for marriage equality, despite his party officially opposing a push to change the Marriage Act in the last parliament.

He said the Liberal Party should allow senators and MPs to vote as they like.

“I think we should [be allowed a conscience vote], I think you’ll get a truer test of the feeling within the parliament if both the big parties of politics, the Coalition … [and] the Labor Party do have a conscience vote,” he told Sky News.

“I think that will make for a more interesting debate and a truer test of the feeling within the parliament on this subject.”

In 2013 as opposition leader, Tony Abbott said the issue of whether to allow members a free vote in Parliament would be a “matter for the post-election party room”.

The issue was not discussed in March at the last party room meeting before the budget.

“Tony Abbott indicated at the beginning of this parliament that while our policy was that marriage is between a man and a woman, it was up to the party room ultimately to decide whether there should be a conscience vote,” Senator Sinodinos said.

“I think at some stage it’s inevitable there will be a call on this [within the Liberal Party].”

Meanwhile, Labor frontbencher David Feeney has rejected a call for the ALP to have a binding vote on same-sex marriage.

The party’s official policy is to support marriage equality, but it allows a conscience vote on the issue when it is before Parliament.

Deputy leader Tanya Plibersek wants to change that and compel colleagues to vote for same-sex marriage.

Mr Feeney has told Sky News he supported marriage equality, but not a binding vote.

“I don’t think the challenge is for Labor to engage in coercing people to support this legislation,” Mr Feeney said.

“I think the challenge is for supporters of marriage equality, and I’m one of those, to actually engage in the debate and persuade the unpersuaded.

“It’s pretty messy for Labor to insist that the Coalition have a conscience vote while at the same time proposing to abandon our own conscience vote.

“I think the conscience vote is the right mechanism for us to advance this issue on both sides of the Parliament.”

Ms Plibersek spoke publicly on the issue as acting leader when opposition leader Bill Shorten was out of the country last week.

She is set to push the issue at Labor’s National Conference in Melbourne in July.

source:Neos Kosmos

South Australian community leaders to fight it out in court

Two prominent members of Adelaide’s Greek community will face each other in court this month over comments made four years ago about the future of local churches.

Former president of the Greek Orthodox Community of South Australia (GOCSA), property developer Theo Maras, is suing former Industrial Commissioner John Lesses over what Mr Maras describes as “defamatory” statements made to GOCSA members in June 2011.

The statements, made in a newsletter and email to GOCSA members, described Mr Maras and other leaders of the organisation as “blatantly treating GOCSA members with contempt” and acting in a way that would abandon GOCSA’s independent status and align the organisation with the Holy Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia.

Last week the Adelaide Advertiser reported that GOCSA members feared that churches would be forced to close if GOCSA relinquished its independence.

Mr Lesses claims that Mr Maras said he “did not care if three churches closed”.

Mr Lesses is understood to have corresponded with members asking them to hold Mr Maras and others “accountable for this travesty of process” and described an annual general meeting of GOCSA as a “monumental fiasco”.

In his statement of claim, Mr Maras said as the founder of the Maras Group, “a high profile, respected and successful property investment and development group”, the statements by Mr Lesses left him “injured in his reputation and profession” and that he had “been brought into ridicule, odium and contempt”.
Court documents are reported to claim Mr Maras’ damages were aggravated by the “improper, unjustifiable and deliberate conduct of [Mr Less] … with the intention of embarrassing [Mr Maras] within the Greek community”.

Mr Maras claims the statements were defamatory and had the meaning that he was “untrustworthy” and “does not care about GOCSA churches”.

The Maras Group chief further claims that Mr Lesses edited a photograph of him shaking hands with an Archdiocese of Australia Bishop in order to convey the impression he was aligned with the national body.

“[The image] was altered to obscure the fact that the occasion was a reception at Parliament House hosted by (former) Premier [Mike] Rann in honour of the Deputy Foreign Minister of Greece,” court documents state.

In his statement of defence, Mr Lesses denies defaming Mr Maras, arguing he believed the statements to be true.

Mr Lesses has been president of GOCSA since July 2013 and claims the independence of the organisation was of “paramount” importance and that he had acted in the best interests of members.

Mr Lesses also says the statements were made under “qualified privilege at Common Law” and denied they had damaged the reputation of Mr Maras.

The case is listed for a five-day trial in the District Court starting on May 18.

Mr Maras has been an active community leader in Adelaide for many years and has numerous awards including being a Member of the Order of Australia.

Mr Lesses is a former commissioner in the South Australian and Australian Industrial Relations Commissions and is a former secretary of the United Trades and Labour Council of SA.

Source: Adelaide Advertiser

Oργανώνουν τα ποντιακά σωματεία στη Μελβούρνη.

Η γενοκτονία των Ποντίων (1916-1923) με 353.000 νεκρούς αποτελεί τη δεύτερη μεγάλη γενοκτονία του αιώνα μας.

Το Φεβρουάριο του 1994 η Βουλή των Ελλήνων ψήφισε ομόφωνα την ανακήρυξη της 19ης Μαΐου ως Ημέρας Μνήμης για τη Γενοκτονία των Ελλήνων στον μικρασιατικό Πόντο την περίοδο 1916-1923. Η αναγνώριση αυτή, παρόλη την καθυστέρηση, δικαίωσε ηθικά τον ποντιακό ελληνισμό και συνέδεσε το σύγχρονο ελληνισμό με την ιστορική του μνήμη

Στη Μελβούρνη τα ποντιακά σωματεία οργανώνουν αυτές τις μέρες εκδηλώσεις μνήμης για την θλιβερή επέτειο.

Πηγή: Νέος Κόσμος

Κόμματα, οργανισμοί, υπηρεσίες τον «διαβάζουν» διαφορετικά.

Πέρυσι, λίγο-πολύ, όλοι συμφωνούσαν ότι επρόκειτο για έναν από τους πιο συντηρητικούς και δύσκολους προϋπολογισμούς των τελευταίων ετών. Οι αντιδράσεις ήταν σφοδρές, ήδη πριν από την επίσημη κατάθεσή του, ενώ και οι δημοσκοπήσεις «ταρακούνησαν» για τα καλά την κυβέρνηση Αbbott.

Φέτος, τα πράγματα φαίνεται ότι είναι αρκετά διαφορετικά. Ακόμα και τα εξώφυλλα των μη φιλοκυβερνητικών εφημερίδων ήταν πιο… φιλικά προς τον προϋπολογισμό, που κατέθεσε στη Βουλή το βράδυ της περασμένης Τρίτης ο Θησαυροφύλακας της χώρας, Joe Hockey.

ΑΝΤΙΔΡΑΣΕΙΣ ΠΟΛΙΤΙΚΟΥ ΚΟΣΜΟΥ

Ο σκιώδης υπουργός Οικονομικών, Chris Bowen, δήλωσε ότι η κυβέρνηση απέτυχε να περάσει το τεστ που η ίδια έθεσε στο εαυτό της. «Το δημοσιονομικό έλλειμμα θα είναι διπλάσιο σε τέσσερα χρόνια έναντι των αντίθετων προβλέψεων του Joe Hockey μόλις πριν από ένα χρόνο. Ο προϋπολογισμός αποτυγχάνει να θέσει ένα σχέδιο για την ανάπτυξη, και την απασχόληση» είπε.

Αμέσως ήρθε η απάντηση του υπουργού Οικονομίας, Matthias Cormann, ο οποίος δήλωσε ότι η κυβέρνηση εξακολουθεί να προσπαθεί για έναν πλεονασματικό προϋπολογισμό. «Το πραγματικά σημαντικό σημείο εδώ είναι ότι παρά το γεγονός ότι το κράτος έχασε $90 δις φορολογικών εσόδων, ωστόσο το χρονοδιάγραμμά μας περιλαμβάνει επιστροφή σε πλεόνασμα, σύμφωνα με τις περυσινές εκτιμήσεις».

Πηγή: Νέος Κόσμος

Οι φονικές συγκρούσεις ανάμεσα στους Αλβανούς ενόπλους και στους Σκοπιανούς αστυνομικούς στο Κουμάνοβο έρχονται να προστεθούν στη μακρά σειρά ενόπλων παρεμβάσεων των Αλβανών εις βάρος της εδαφικής ακεραιότητας της ΠΓΔΜ. Από το 2001, όταν η αλβανική κοινότητα, που αριθμεί το 30% του συνολικού πληθυσμού, εξεγέρθηκε και αυτονομήθηκε, οι δυτικές επαρχίες του γειτονικού μας κράτους δεν ελέγχονται από την κυβέρνηση των ψευδομακεδόνων.Η αλβανική σημαία κυματίζει στο Τέτοβο, στη Στρούγκα,στο Ντέμπαρ, τα αλβανόφωνα σωματεία αρνούνται να παίξουν ποδόσφαιρο με τις ομάδες των Σλάβων, η Ιλλυρίδα έχει ανακηρυχθεί ήδη υποψήφια προς απόσχιση αλβανική περιοχή και η συμφωνία της Αχρίδος του 2001 απλώς συγκαλύπτει την προφανή κατάσταση διαλύσεως του κράτους.

Ο αλβανικός άνεμος είναι ισχυρός και έχει τη σιωπηρή υποστήριξη των ΗΠΑ. Από τη στιγμή που αποσχίσθηκε το Κόσοβο από τη Σερβία με τις ευλογίες της Δύσης, το επόμενο βήμα αργά ή γρήγορα θα υλοποιηθεί. Θα αποσχισθούν οι αλβανικές περιοχές από την ΠΓΔΜ και το υπόλοιπο κομμάτι θα αναζητήσει την τύχη του. Να επιβιώσει μόνο του δεν μπορεί. Το πιθανότερο θα είναι να μοιρασθεί μεταξύ Βουλγαρίας και Σερβίας. Προσωπικά δεν θα εκπλαγώ, διότι εδώ και 20 χρόνια έχω υποστηρίξει τη θέση: Να μην παραχωρήσουμε το όνομα και την ιστορία της Μακεδονίας σε ένα μόρφωμα, το οποίο σε λίγα χρόνια δεν θα υπάρχει.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has defended high spending levels revealed in last night’s budget and rejected the idea it has been designed to take the Government to an early election.

Multi-billion-dollar packages to boost small business and alleviate childcare costs formed the bedrock of the Abbott Government’s second budget, prompting speculation from some independent MPs that the Coalition is preparing to go to the polls ahead of time.

But this morning Mr Abbott said it was his “plan” to serve the full three-year term.

When asked on AM if it was an election budget, Mr Abbott replied “it’s a budget for the Australian people”.

Earlier he had laughingly called it a budget aimed at “Tony’s tradies” – echoing the term “Howard’s battlers” that described the so-called aspirational voters who backed former prime minister John Howard.

Tradies will benefit from the $1.8 billion instant asset write-off measure, which will apply to any item valued at less than $20,000 and bought by a small business.

The budget has revealed that government spending levels have not been trimmed under the Coalition, still sitting at 26.2 per cent of GDP – a level it has been at for two years.

It also hit that high when the Labor government was spending up on stimulus packages to try to fend off the global financial crisis, and under the Howard government in the midst of the mid-90s mining boom.

But the Prime Minister said the budget was “right for these times”.

“We are doing the responsible thing under the circumstances that we find ourselves in,” he said – a line he repeated several times.

“We’ve got a credible path back to surplus.

“We inherited a deficit of $48 billion and every year the deficit comes down by about a half a per cent of GDP and I think under the circumstances that’s a very good result.”

Mr Abbott also defended his Government’s spending record, saying that under Labor expenditure was growing at 3.7 per cent, while under the Coalition spending had been reined in to 1.5 per cent growth.

But budget expert Chris Richardson from Deloitte Access Economics said the Prime Minister was “not comparing apples with apples”.

“This Government has done a lot, but that comparison exaggerates what they’ve achieved,” he said.

“He’s comparing spending over different time periods.

“Most importantly, the one includes six years of NDIS [National Disability Insurance Scheme], and the other includes one year of a mature NDIS.”

When the disparity was put to Mr Abbott this morning, he said “I don’t accept that”.

And he dismissed the Coalition’s apparent abandonment of the rhetoric of a “budget emergency” used before the election, saying it had been alleviated by a “change of government”.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said Labor could not accept the “trickery” in the budget, though the small business package will have Labor’s support.

He said Labor was ready to fight an election and pointed to the $80 billion cut to schools and hospitals funding for the states outlined in last year’s budget, and beginning to show in the figures for this year’s budget, as a “disaster”.

“You’re going to lose $80 billion worth of schools and hospitals – yep, I call [the budget] unfair,” he said.

But Mr Shorten stopped short of saying a Labor government would reinstate the funding.

The Prime Minister is certainly standing by the cuts, and gearing up for a lasting stoush with state and territory leaders.

“We made certain commitments in last year’s budget and those commitments carry over into this year’s budget,” Mr Abbott said.

Late last night, New South Wales Liberal Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian released a statement saying she was “deeply concerned” about the cuts.

source:abc.net.au

An immediate crisis has been averted once again in the Greek drama. At least that is how most media outlets will interpret Greece’s approval of a scheduled 750 million euros ($836 million) debt payment to the International Monetary Fund this week. The decision was made as Eurogroup finance ministers expressed some satisfaction at the greater seriousness shown by the Greek government and urged it to do more, and quickly.

This interpretation is strictly correct; it is also potentially misleading.

The deal does buy time for Greece and Europe. But it doesn’t get either side much closer to resolving a crisis that is causing considerable human tragedy in Greece and eroding the credibility of European institutions. At best, it is another attempt to prolong the muddling through, despite the escalating costs and steadily diminishing effectiveness. As a result, conditions on the ground continue to slowly slip out of the control of Greek and European policy makers.

Greece is right to do whatever it can to meet its obligation to the IMF, one of the world’s very few preferred creditors. As I argued earlier, a default to the IMF would most likely trigger a cascading interruption of what little new funding is still making its way to Greece, including the absolutely critical “emergency liquidity assistance” from the European Central Bank. That means an IMF non-payment would most likely be followed by a series of other defaults, the imposition of capital controls, and the de facto introduction of a new currency through the issuance of government IOUs to meet domestic obligations such as pension payments and civil service salaries.

A Greek default to the IMF could also be harmful to the international monetary system. Such failures have until now been contained primarily to very few failed and fragile states, and it used to be unthinkable that a default could involve an advanced economy, let alone a member of an elite grouping such as the eurozone.

Yet, by doing the right thing — for itself and for the multilateral system — Greece is getting very little in return.

In the Eurogroup negotiations on Monday, Greece was unable to secure a sufficiently strong statement of support from its European partners, much less the immediate infusion of funds it desperately needs. Meanwhile, the IMF is no closer to recycling funds into Greece via new lending. That, along with continued deposit flight from the domestic banking system, will force the ECB — Greece’s only remaining active supplier of credit — to confront on Wednesday the critical question of whether to increase its lending to the country even though other lenders are staying away or getting paid.

Greece, the eurozone and the international monetary system need an urgent and sustained implementation of a set of meaningful policies, including action by the Greek government on internal reforms, greater debt relief from creditors and a pro-growth recasting of fiscal austerity.

Unfortunately, I continue to believe there is a very low probability this will happen. In fact, I now estimate the chances are down to about 5 percent, given how far the sides are from agreeing on comprehensive policies, never mind trusting each other to implement them. What has increased is the threat of a financial accident, or Graccident, with hugely detrimental impact on Greece’s well-being. The probability of such a Graccident are now around 50 percent, as financial and economic conditions continue to worsen. That brings the probability of muddling along for a long time to below 50 percent, and they are declining.

These probabilities are troubling, and the Graccident scenario is particularly frightening. It would mean that Greek and European policy makers lost control of the destiny of the country and its membership in the eurozone. And while the rest of Europe is better placed to contain damaging spillover effects of such a scenario, the consequences would be devastating for Greece’s long-suffering population.

source: ekathimerini.com

An attempt by Gjorge Ivanov, the president of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, where ethnic strife reignited over the weekend, to blame Greece for the Balkan nation’s stalled efforts to join international alliances has not surprised Greek diplomats, Kathimerini understands.

Ivanov’s aim is to attract the attention of the European Union and NATO so that political decisions are taken for FYROM’s accession to alliances, according to diplomatic sources. The move is an attempt to broach a dispute between Greece and FYROM over the latter’s official name and to put Athens under pressure to reach a quick solution, the sources say.

In comments on Sunday, Ivanov urged the EU to start accession talks that have been blocked since FYROM became a candidate in 2005 due to the name row with Greece. “I demand the international community, the EU and NATO get involved with the greatest seriousness and unlock our Euro-Atlantic integration,” he said. Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman Constantinos Koutras called on FYROM authorities to focus on «serious problems… that have to do with the functioning of rule of law… respect for the principle of good-neighborly relations, and the country’s democratic deficit… rather than looking for scapegoats and blaming others for the impasse in their Euro-Atlantic perspective”.

source:ekathimerini.com

A new communication system donated to the Greek Police (ELAS) by the British government and Greek entrepreneurs last year will start operating for a trial period in the coming days, Kathimerini understands.

The new platform, manufactured by Cambridge-based Sepura plc, and technologically superior to the previous system from the Siemens-SAIC consortium, acquired for the Athens 2004 Olympics, will be operational soon, officials told Kathimerini.

“We are just a step before the implementation of the contract,” they said.

The system is to include dispatcher terminals in police control rooms together with gateways to provide connectivity to telephony systems.

Authorities decided not to renew the previous 10-year Siemens-SAIC contract, which expired in July, after it was deemed too costly.

source:ekathimerini.com