Latest news with #ACT
ABC News
2 hours ago
- ABC News
Four Sydney teenagers sentenced after 2024 violent home invasion in Canberra
One of four young Sydney men involved in a violent home invasion in Canberra last year told police he thought he was going on a camping trip. The four have been sentenced in the ACT Supreme Court today for aggravated burglary, intentionally causing grievous bodily harm and assault causing actual bodily harm, after they went into the home stabbing a woman four times and attacking her partner. The victims said the offenders were yelling, "Where is the money, where is the money?" The woman said she screamed: "There's nothing here". The group then fled, leaving the victims with serious injuries. Both were rushed to hospital. Police gradually identified members of the group which included 19-year-olds Lytrell Eneliko, Jacob Crichton and Raven Pauga, and a 17-year-old boy. One of the men was linked to a car leased to a family member, and there was CCTV footage both from the home and a fast-food outlet, with forensic evidence identifying DNA from one of the offenders on wrappers dumped near the scene of the crime. Police were also able to identify one victim because he was wearing part of a school uniform. Acting Justice Rebecca Christensen said no clear motive had been established for the crime, although police believed it could have been drug debt related. All four pleaded guilty. The court heard Raven Pauga told an undercover police officer: "S*** went south. "We just said f**k it. "We all agreed to do it." Acting Justice Christensen said the motive may not have been clear, but it was a "pre-meditated, targeted entry". "The number of offenders is particularly aggravating," she said. But she said it was not a professional job. Acting Justice Christensen said there were various levels of remorse and she was guarded about the rehabilitation prospects for the three older offenders. The court heard the offenders had grown up in Mr Druitt, Sydney, where the sister of Pauga said "being tough was not a choice, it was a necessity". Acting Justice Christensen said Pauga said he'd been involved because he thought there would be some financial reward and he planned to give the money to his family. The youngest of the group, who is still only 17, said he thought they were going on a camping trip, and couldn't work out why they went to the house. He said he regretted the offending and apologised saying he no longer associated with the others. Before sentencing the group Acting Justice Christensen said she would suspend each sentence, to give each a long period of supervision in the community. Eneliko was sentenced to five years jail, to be suspended after 30 months. Crichton and Pauga were given four year sentences to be suspended after 20 months. All except the 17-year-old boy, have been in custody since they were arrested. The 17-year-old was sentenced to three and a half years in jail, but his sentence has been fully suspended.
Scoop
2 hours ago
- Business
- Scoop
Parliament Considering Big Changes To Employment Law
, Editor: The House Parliament has kicked off a three-week sitting block this week, and the first legislative business was initial debates and votes on three new bills. Two are contentious, including a bill to amend current Employment Relations law. Among its measures, it would restrict or even rule out grievance claims, make it harder for contractors to argue they are employees, and remove various rules relating to new employees. The minister in charge of both the bills is ACT MP Brooke van Velden. She described the intent of the Employment Relations Amendment Bill using a variety of common euphemisms (rebalancing, flexible labour markets, greater certainty, competitive business settings), but also described the proposed changes. Below are the major changes, as described by the minister herself, along with comments by opposition MPs. Hindering contractors from being declared employees by the courts "Currently a contractor can challenge their employment status in law despite being a contractor … To give greater weight to the intention of the contracting parties, the bill establishes a gateway test establishing an exclusion from the definition of 'employee' in the Employment Relations Act." - Brooke van Velden (ACT) "At the moment, there is a test of the real nature of the job … 'is this actually an employment relationship or is it a contracting relationship?' That's what our judges can do at the moment. This bill takes that away. It says if you have the word 'contractor' written in a document, then you're a contractor. Well, this is against all the international examples, this [is] totally different to the common law that applies in many other countries that we compare ourselves to, and is an absolutely disgusting, unprecedented attack on workers' rights." - Camilla Belich (Labour) Changes to personal grievance 'remedy' settings "I'm introducing a suite of changes to address this imbalance, which are: removing eligibility for any remedies for employees whose behaviour amounts to serious misconduct; removing eligibility for reinstatement into a role and compensation for employees who contribute to the situation that led to the personal grievance; clarifying that the Employment Relations Authority and Employment Court have the full spectrum of remedy reductions - up to 100 percent - available to them; requiring the Authority and Court to consider if the employee's behaviour obstructed the employer's ability to meet their obligations to act as fair and reasonable employers; and increasing the threshold for procedural error to shift the focus solely to whether any errors in the employer's process resulted in the employee being treated unfairly." - Brooke van Velden (ACT) "In an employment relationship, often there is a situation where an employee may do something that is not 100 percent perfect; an employer might do something which is not 100 percent perfect. The situation that they're bringing in says if the employee is anything less than perfect, they can't get their remedies." - Camilla Belich (Labour) "It's going to heighten the workers' vulnerability to be unjustifiably dismissed. And it's great if you have employers that are good, but, unfortunately, this opens the doors, as it does for many situations, for those worst-practising businesses and employers. That's why employees' rights were put in place in the first place. …This gives the employers more power. When you're in a climate where there isn't a heck of a lot of work, that then creates an opportunity for employers to exploit the most vulnerable." - Debbie Ngarewa-Packer (Te Pāti Māori) No personal grievance option for the well-paid "This bill introduces an income threshold of $180,000 per annum, above which a personal grievance for unjustified dismissal cannot be pursued. … By making it easier to remove poorly performing managers and executives while giving new talent a chance, I expect to help improve management capability and thereby lift economic performance across New Zealand." - Brooke van Velden (ACT) "The first thing that they're doing is actually making it so anyone earning over $180,000 in New Zealand can be fired at will." - Camilla Belich (Labour) Employer obligations to new staff "Currently, if an employer is party to a collective agreement that covers the work of the new employee, an employee's individual employment agreement terms must reflect the terms of the collective agreement for the first 30 days of their employment. This is known as the '30-day rule'. …The bill removes the requirement that the terms of a new employee's employment agreement should reflect the terms of the applicable collective agreement for the first 30 days of employment. …The employer would still need to inform an employee that a collective agreement exists." - Brooke van Velden (ACT) "The 30-day rule acts as a lifeline. It gives kaimahi time to consider union membership before being pressured into an individual agreement. Without this rule, employers could use the divide and rule tactics, which is real - the peer pressure to keep Māori kaimahi, to keep Pasifika kaimahi, to keep those who are not savvy on what their rights are, on weaker contracts from day one. And that's a really tough position to claw back from. It allows employers to opt out of collective conditions on day one, and it creates a race to the bottom." - Debbie Ngarewa-Packer (Te Pāti Māori) Union sign-up The minister in charge of the bill, Brooke van Velden did not mention this aspect of the 30-day rule: that the new law removes any obligation of employers to inform new staff of the option of joining a union, or facilitating that option. "It removes the obligation to provide an active choice in which the employer asks the employee whether they want to join their relevant union and receive that advocacy." - Ginny Andersen (Labour) A note on international obligations "We have a regulatory impact statement where all of the information in relation to international obligations is redacted. And why is this? Because we have free-trade agreements with lots of different countries that state that our employment situation should not decrease - and I bet you that that's exactly what it says in this regulatory impact statement. They won't share it with the House." - Camilla Belich (Labour) The Employment Relations Amendment Bill will be considered by the Education and Workforce Committee, which will be asking for public feedback on the bill. *RNZ's The House, with insights into Parliament, legislation and issues, is made with funding from Parliament's Office of the Clerk. Enjoy our articles or podcast at RNZ.
ABC News
3 hours ago
- Health
- ABC News
Doctors say it's not too late for a flu shot as the ACT stares down record influenza cases
The ACT looks set to record its worst flu season, with Canberra general practitioners seeing a recent spike in influenza cases. The National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System shows there have been 4,020 ACT influenza cases this year to July 15, compared to 2,491 over the same period last year. The territory's current worst year on record for flu cases was 2024, with 4,837 cases. The ACT president of the Australian Medical Association (AMA), Kerrie Aust, said although the figures were high, they did not show the full extent of flu in the community. "The numbers that we see in the statistics generally reflect those who are sick enough to be attending for formal PCR testing either at a general practice or a hospital," she said. Dr Aust said most of her colleagues had had their same-day or emergency appointments filled with patients experiencing symptoms common in influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). "Most people are reporting that they are getting a sore throat, productive cough. Occasionally, we see people getting quite significant either viral or secondary bacteria pneumonias. "But the thing people are complaining most about is a really, really significant fatigue. "So, we do encourage if people are sick to stay home, to rest, to make sure that they are staying well-hydrated, and of course, to seek medical care if they're concerned about their symptoms," Dr Aust said. The AMA said Canberra's hospitals were also experiencing increased numbers of influenza, with elderly people most affected. Canberra GP Mel Deery said it was not too late to get a flu vaccine. "Even if you have had the flu, it's still definitely worth getting the vaccine. The vaccine does protect against two strains of flu, A and B, so it might protect you in the future from another strain that is circulating. "We've certainly had a really big spike in the last couple of weeks. Sometimes that spike might last through July, August, and be coming down in September, but every year is different, so it's really hard to know when we're going to peak," Dr Deery said.
ABC News
4 hours ago
- ABC News
Suspended army officer jailed for three years after raping an ADFA colleague in 2022
Suspended army officer cadet Jake Sullivan has been sentenced to more than three years in jail for raping a colleague from the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) in Canberra in 2022. An ACT Supreme Court jury last year convicted Sullivan of two counts of rape and one of committing an act of indecency. Sullivan's lawyers today flagged a last ditch bid to keep him out of jail today, before abandoning an application to stay the sentence ahead of an appeal to be heard next month. In 2022, Sullivan had gone to the room of a fellow ADFA cadet after the pair had agreed to have sex. The two had originally met some time before on a Tinder date and maintained a casual relationship for a while before parting. They had reconnected earlier that year, and after meeting at Canberra nightclub Mooseheads where the victim had gone with some of her friends, the two returned to the academy. The victim said she had agreed to have sex with Sullivan, but withdrew her consent after she said he became aggressive and had hurt her. That included pulling her hair and grabbing and twisting her breast, leaving bruising. The woman told the court she said words to the effect of "ow" or "that really hurt". She said she had turned to go to sleep. The court heard Sullivan then said "you are the one who invited me here" and he continued. The woman said she froze. Justice Belinda Baker said the offender was much bigger than the victim and she was scared. Justice Baker noted the victim impact statement, in which the woman said she was raped in her own bed despite giving Sullivan more than one indication to stop. The victim said it had affected her mental health, her career and relationships and robbed her of her sense of safety. Justice Baker took particular aim at Sullivan's response when the woman reversed her consent, that she had invited him over. "That demonstrated a selfish entitlement towards her," Justice Baker said. "The offender prioritised his own sexual gratification over any consideration of the victim." Sullivan has maintained his innocence throughout. Sullivan has been sentenced to three years and three months in jail to be suspended after 15 months, meaning he will be eligible for parole late next year. His appeal against his conviction will be heard in August.
News.com.au
5 hours ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Simple change set to pocket Aussies $110m in super a week
Australian workers are losing $110m a week in unpaid superannuation. Super Members Council (SMC) analysis of 2022-2023 tax data shows 3.3 million Australian workers lost collectively $5.7bn in superannuation payments. This is based on the average worker losing $1730 in superannuation a year. Australians living in the ACT or the Northern Territory had the highest average underpayment, while more than one million people in NSW lost $1760 a week, 848,000 Victorians lost about $1670 and 377,450 people living in Western Australia lost $1790. The SMC said unpaid super could cost the average worker more than $30,000 from their final retirement nest egg. When not intentional, superannuation underpayment can occur due to the timing of payments. While wages and salaries are paid weekly, fortnightly or monthly, businesses only need to pay the superannuation guarantee quarterly. Under new laws coming in July 1 2026, superannuation payday reforms will require employers to pay superannuation, salaries and wages at the same time. These reforms have been three years in the making after the federal government first announced the changes back on May 2, 2023. SMC deputy chief executive Georgia Brumby said Australians would pay the price for any further delays. 'Each week these laws are delayed, Australians are made $110m poorer in retirement, which means less money to pay the bills after a lifetime of hard work,' Ms Brumby said. 'The sooner this legislation is introduced and passed, the more time and certainty it will give businesses and the super payment system to prepare so all workers can get paid their super on time and in full. 'Payday super will not only stamp out unpaid super, it'll put nearly $8000 more in the average Australian's pocket at retirement thanks to more frequent payments and the power of compounding.'
