John Pesutto pays $2.3m defamation debt to Moira Deeming, avoiding bankruptcy
The payment, which made with the assistance of a $1.5m loan from the Victorian Liberal party, means Pesutto will avoid bankruptcy and be able to remain in state parliament as the member for Hawthorn.
Last month, the federal court ordered Pesutto to $2,308,873 of Deeming's legal costs after it found in December that he repeatedly defamed the upper house MP by falsely implying she sympathised with neo-Nazis and white supremacists.
The costs were in addition to the $300,000 in damages and $15,000 in interest Pesutto paid after the federal court judgment.
Pesutto launched a fundraising campaign to help pay the bill but had to rely on a $1.5m loan from the Liberal party's investment vehicle, Vapold, which was approved by the administrative committee last Thursday.
The payment of the costs removes the prospect of a court challenge, which was to be initiated by a member of the administrative committee, against Vapold providing the loan.
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The Guardian
13 minutes ago
- The Guardian
AI, red lines and the idea employers hated: five takeaways from day one of economic reform roundtable
Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers have presided over the first day of the economic reform roundtable, with discussions focused on training, skills and worker mobility. The Reserve Bank of Australia governor, Michele Bullock, and a slew of bureaucrats, business leaders and trade unions took part in the opening sessions of the three-day event. The treasurer praised the quality and calibre of engagement as 'outstanding'. 'It's been a really promising and productive first day,' Chalmers said. Here's five takeaways from day one of the event at Parliament House: Union leaders including the ACTU boss, Sally McManus, called for a new levy on business to pay for training for those workers who want to up skill for their jobs. The proposal would impose a 1.5% levy on businesses with a turnover of $500,000 or above. Employers hate the idea. The Business Council of Australia boss, Bran Black, said such new levies would be a backward step. He said the government should pay for incentives for trainee workers. 'From a business perspective, we just don't see that taxing the business community is the right way to deliver the outcomes that Australia needs,' Black said. The Australian Industry Group boss, Innes Willox, said the plan would hit more than 70,000 Australian businesses and raise about $4.5bn. 'We've done a training levy before in Australia, between 1990 and 1996. It didn't work, it distorted the market,' he said. 'The Productivity Commission said it was distortionary and it also adds to compliance costs.' The prime minister told attendees their work would feed in to next year's federal budget, as well as the mid-year economic update, expected just before Christmas. Despite dampening expectations of major reforms in areas like tax, Albanese said longer term reform proposals and priorities were possible. He nominated AI as one area requiring a longer period of work. 'I don't expect that you will solve all of those issues in the next three days, but what you will have is ideas and input that will shape that agenda and … public discourse. There could be an agreement to better recognise the skills and qualifications of those who have trained overseas. AIG's Willox said 'millions of people' were in Australia doing jobs that were way below their skill level. 'There's recognition that the system is jammed up. [There are] people who have qualifications that are not recognised, be that migrants or be that people trying to transfer between states or even … between occupations,' Willox said. 'It's really important we do get some quick wins.' Liam O'Brien, an assistant secretary at the ACTU, agreed that recognition of prior learning and the transfer of credit for previous qualifications was a 'priority'. But hopes for a quick win look likely to be disappointed, after O'Brien said 'the devil is in the detail'. 'I think it is a very tricky one for us to resolve.' Jennifer Westacott, a former BCA boss and the chancellor of Western Sydney University, called for the benefits of productivity gains to be shared with workers. Speaking after taking part in a session on skills, development and mobility, she said business leaders wanted to reward workers who were doing a good job. 'It's about creating more value from what we do,' she told Guardian Australia. 'There has to be a sense in which people feel that they're getting the benefits. 'The best way of sharing things is high wages and we can't get started if we are not growing at a rate that allows us to expand the economy.' Westacott said households had weathered the cost-of-living crisis sparked by post-pandemic inflation but the next challenge was standards of living. 'If you look at the last decade, we've seen the lowest rate of GDP per capita in the last six decades. That's a red line.' AI was a major topic of conversation. 'Something that was really positive, where there was a lot of agreement, was the sense that we do need to help the Australian community skill-up in terms of its confidence in using AI,' Allegra Spender, the independent MP, said. The commissioner of Jobs and Skills Australia, Barney Glover, recently described AI as a 'foundational skill' that needed to be taught in schools. The JSA in a major report found that clerical roles were among a number of white collar occupations threatened by AI, but that the technology was more likely to augment jobs, rather than replace them. The transformative technology is sure to also loom large on day two of the roundtable, which will focus on productivity.
Telegraph
22 minutes ago
- Telegraph
‘I lost £150,000 to a romance scammer'
Every parent knows the madness of the school holiday juggle. For Tracy Hall, the morning of July 11 2017 began like a hundred others, a familiar whirlwind of breakfast, packed lunch and getting her seven-year-old daughter off to gymnastics camp. It ended with a video that almost destroyed her life. 'As my chest tightened and my stomach twisted, I watched Max Tavita, the man I loved, being arrested on my phone. But I had absolutely no idea why.' Desperately trying to control her panic, Tracy, at the time 41 and living in Sydney, Australia, called the police. Incredulity turned to horror as she heard that his name wasn't Max, that he was under investigation, and that they were unable to share anything more. 'Suddenly, I was struggling to breathe. What was Max's real name? Why was he being investigated? And then finally a question that made my legs buckle beneath me: what did this mean for my money?' This smart, educated and capable woman was about to discover that she'd been the victim of a massive financial fraud, manipulated by a man who had stolen millions and ruined the lives of men and women across the world. Funny and charming In 2016, a year after her marriage had ended, Tracy wrote her dating profile for an app. 'I loved my corporate job at eBay and was juggling my career with looking after my daughter, Asha, then five,' she remembers. 'I wasn't looking to be swept off my feet, I was just hoping to find someone nice to hang out with.' Even with low expectations, the experience wasn't what Tracy had hoped for, describing the dating pool as 'more like a puddle'. Then she spotted the profile of Max Tavita, a 41-year-old blonde triathlete and financial adviser. After swiping right, their messages flew back and forth, with Tracy pleasantly surprised by this funny, charming man, back in Sydney after 16 years in New York. Then, on their first phone call, Max revealed something shocking. 'When I asked about his family, he said that his parents had died in a plane crash when he was six. While I was shocked and struggled to know how to reply, he remained thoughtful and positive.' In bed that night, Tracy Googled 'Tavita plane crash'. It was odd, she noted, that nothing came up. Tracy falls quiet for a minute as she reflects back on that moment. 'At the time, the very last word I'd use to describe myself was vulnerable. We think of vulnerable women as being an emotional mess or being desperate for love. I was neither. 'But I was stressed and stretched, juggling single parenthood with a pressurised job and long hours. Being tired robs you of critical capacity and rational thinking. After a 16-hour day, I shrugged off the fact that I couldn't find anything on the plane crash. I liked this guy and I was exhausted. I didn't have the time or energy to do a deep dive, and suddenly, it was a new day.' The fact that Tracy was both time- and energy-poor were vulnerabilities Max saw from the start, she says, and exploited ruthlessly. Expensive apartment and flash cars As they began to date and Tracy's feelings for him grew, Max spoke about his scholarship to the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, his internship at American defence and aerospace manufacturer Lockheed Martin and his membership of Mensa. 'It sounded a little fantastical but not impossible,' she says. 'I'd seen Max's expensive apartment and numerous cars, I knew he was very successful. The fact that when I Googled him, [that] he wasn't on Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn was odd, but his explanation that he liked to keep a low profile made sense. It didn't feel like a red flag.' When Max told Tracy he'd been in New York on 9/11 and lost a friend in the first tower, or had once been stabbed on the subway, her very last thought was that this was a strategic fabrication to gain her sympathy and trust. 'He was a shape-shifter, a chameleon and, above all, a phenomenal listener. When he heard that I didn't like conspicuous consumption, suddenly his five cars disappeared. Whatever I was looking for, he became. With empathy and patience, he wanted to hear all my challenges and frustrations and then presented himself as the one person who could solve them all.' That included her finances. With the ever-increasing costs of single parenthood, Max listened patiently to Tracy's desire to build a greater financial buffer. Investment opportunity 'I was cautious when he first mentioned an investment opportunity, six months into our relationship. But there wasn't a minimum amount, there was the chance I could double it and at the very least I'd be able to get my money back.' In love and trusting a man who, after all, had made a living helping rich people grow their wealth, Tracy decided to do as he suggested. It appeared to be a success. In October 2016, she transferred £4,800, and just two months later, Max said her investment had doubled. That's when he suggested managing her pension pot. 'My mind didn't flash to Nigeria phishing scams,' she says. 'I didn't dream that the man holding me at night was trying to destroy my life. I believed this loving, decent guy wanted to look out for me. And with his experience I was sure that he was absolutely qualified for the job.' As Tracy continued to invest, Max continued to treat her, to a £1,190 leather jacket and £300 boots, or settling a luxurious hotel stay with £3,900 in cash. Then, in June 2017, he presented Tracy with a 14-page report, pointing her to the bold number at the bottom. 'It said my investments had grown from £130,000 to £192,000 in just three months. I thought about my friend Cath, who'd been so worried about Max, who'd warned me not to trust him. She'd been totally wrong. In total I transferred £154,000 on his advice.' A waking nightmare Then Tracy's world collapsed. After 24 hours of silence from Max and convinced that something terrible had happened to him, Tracy received a text message from Cath with a link to a news article. That's when she saw the video of Max being led away by police. 'In desperation, sick to my stomach but numb in my limbs, I saw a text message from an unknown number. 'Tracy, please call me back urgently on this number,' it said. It was signed, 'Chris (Hamish's brother-in-law).' 'Although I'd never met Max's sister, we had hung out with her husband, Chris. But who on earth was Hamish? In a call that lasted less than a minute, Chris seemed absolutely baffled that I thought my boyfriend's name was Max Tavita.' Hearing Chris say that his brother-in-law sometimes went by the names Hamish Watson or Hamish McLaren, Tracy's confusion only increased. ''I don't know who those people are,' I said to him, feeling like I was having a panic attack.' In the hours that followed, Tracy was plunged into a waking nightmare. Googling the names Chris had given her, she found news articles on his crimes, including how he'd lost his financial services business licence after being found guilty of stealing £2.4 million from an accountancy group. 'At the police station they told me Hamish had been arrested for crimes against three victims, and they knew there were more, like myself. It was shocking to hear myself described that way. Just hours before, it was an identity I never thought I'd have to try on.' Shame and self-loathing Even now, Tracy struggles to describe the horror of realising that she'd spent 18 months in love with a man, without even knowing his real name, and that she'd trusted him with so much of her money. 'The shame and self-loathing were immediate and overwhelming,' she says quietly. 'I asked myself over and over, how could I have been so stupid?' In the weeks and months that followed, Tracy's shock and trauma only increased. 'I was a single mum who'd lost everything, I didn't have a single penny in my account and was terrified of what my future would be. 'But the betrayal was almost worse. We'd had the closest, most trusting relationship, and then suddenly, it was as if he'd never existed. I'd been in love with a fictional character. I'd catch myself grieving for him, then hate myself for it. I was clinging on to my sanity by a thread.' In the 18 months between Hamish's arrest and his plea hearing, Tracy struggled to eat or rest. 'All I could think about was what had happened, and how he'd lied to me. Losing his parents in the plane crash, being at 9/11, his work history, it was all lies. 'Saying that now, I know how ridiculous it seems that I would ever have believed him. If he had knocked on my door two weeks after we met, told me all these lies and then suggested investing my life savings, I'd have laughed and slammed the door in his face. But that's not how this manipulation worked. He groomed me throughout the months we were together.' There was always an explanation for everything, such as the lack of friends. Tracy says, 'I did meet a childhood friend, Matt, who called him Hambone when we were all together in his apartment one day. When I asked him later, 'Why Hambone?' quick as a flash he said, 'I was really skinny as a kid and people used to say that I needed to put 'more ham on my bones' – Hambone.' I didn't think anything more of it. 'I met some other people here and there but they were fleeting encounters. The reasoning was all wrapped up in conversations like, 'We don't get much time together, Trace, I haven't seen you for a few weeks... I just want to be with you.' He also explained it away by having lived overseas for the last 16 years and not having kept in touch with old friends, people had moved on, had families. It was all very believable and I didn't suspect anything was wrong, so I didn't question things further.' Prison sentence In 2019, Tracy watched as Hamish pleaded guilty to stealing £3.73 million from 15 Australian victims. He was then sentenced to 16 years in prison, later reduced to 12 years on appeal. But it didn't end Tracy's nightmare. 'In truth, it took another six long years to piece my soul back together, through therapy, humour, exercise, friendships and the love of my daughter. Six years of pain, tears, weight loss and sleepless nights.' In that time, she worked on the investigative podcast Who the Hell is Hamish?, began speaking publicly about financial empowerment and intimate fraud, and has now written a memoir about her experience. There is so much stigma, judgment and misunderstanding about all financial crime, she explains, not to mention the devastating impact on its victims. Tracy understands why so many stay silent, especially when they've experienced romance fraud, but has found strength and solidarity in speaking out. While she feels the police could have warned her while they were investigating Hamish, at a time when she was still transferring money to him, she understands why they didn't and has accepted it. But even now, five years into a loving relationship with an old friend and with the support of her family, it's still a constant struggle to maintain trust. 'I don't want to believe that the world is made up of Hamishes,' she says quietly. 'But I have to remind myself that he is an outlier every single day.' As for the surprising revelation in her book that she doesn't regret joining a dating app or even dating Hamish? 'I absolutely regret losing the money, which I know I will never get back,' Tracy says firmly. 'But I don't regret the experience, because it's brought me to where I am now. It's shown me my life's purpose. 'Using my voice to educate, empower and bring awareness has helped me heal and help others. I refuse to be ashamed.'
Daily Mail
41 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Mother of baby boy scalded by stranger in random hot coffee attack unleashes on the legal system a year after the monster responsible fled to China
The mother of a baby who has undergone eight operations in the last year after a stranger allegedly poured hot coffee on him has begged Australian authorities not to take another year to catch the person responsible. Nine-month-old Luka suffered horrific burns when boiling hot coffee was poured over him by a stranger during a picnic in Brisbane 's Hanlon Park on August 27, 2024. A 33-year-old man allegedly responsible later fled the country and returned to China, where he is protected from extradition back to Australia under Chinese law. Almost a year after the ordeal, Luka's mother, who cannot be named, confirmed on Tuesday that her son has undergone eight operations. 'Every procedure is a painful reminder of what was done to him — and of the justice that still hasn't come,' she said in a social media post seen by ABC News. 'He's received synthetic skin grafts, skin needling, and laser treatments for his burns.' The mother described it as 'beyond unacceptable' that the man had not faced consequences, calling it 'one of the hardest things to endure'. 'To those in positions of power: please don't make it another year. Do not let this man escape accountability for hurting a child!' 'Our legal systems and international relationships should protect victims and children, yet they have failed to do so,' the woman said. A spokesperson for Queensland Police said investigators and Australian Federal Police remain committed to securing justice for the victim and his family. The Daily Mail has contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for comment. Since Luka's ordeal, Australian authorities have been urging China to return the unnamed 33-year-old for prosecution, but they have been consistently denied. Chinese law rules that no Chinese nationals can be extradited to face prosecution abroad for crimes allegedly committed overseas. Former NSW detective and University of Western Sydney adjunct professor Michael Kennedy has previously said there was little Queensland police could do to have the man accused of burning Luka returned to Australia. 'All the Queensland police can do in reality is take out an arrest warrant for this bloke, put him on the watch list for the airport and wait for him to come back,' he said. 'China isn't going to send him back here under any circumstances because they just don't do that. The man allegedly responsible boarded a flight to China days after the incident Luka, who will turn two in October, is continuing his recovery. His mother said he has a 'strength that continues to outshine the cruelty he experienced'. 'Despite everything he has endured and continues to endure, he is healing with a spirit that amazes us every single day,' she said. Australian authorities have maintained silence on the fate of the alleged attacker, with detectives declining to reveal their available options. It is understood that Queensland Police have forwarded their detailed evidence against the man to Chinese authorities for their consideration. The man was said to have approached Luka slowly before emptying his beverage and breaking into a sprint as he fled the scene. Both his attack and escape, fleeing the Brisbane park following the incident, were captured on CCTV. Following his departure, the man is believed to have driven to Sydney and immediately boarded a flight out of the country on August 31. CCTV footage has shown the man allegedly accountable for the ordeal as he fled the scene Initially, Australian police provided the public with an incorrect name for the man and were unable to verify his true identity until he was already out of the country. (It was revealed that the attack took place after the man learnt his request to extend his visa in Australia had been denied. The 33-year-old had been in Australia since 2019, working in a warehouse and an abattoir at various times. The man is known to Chinese authorities and has been extensively covered by local media. Investigators from the Queensland Police Service and the Australian Federal Police have been in contact with China over the man's whereabouts.
