A new showroom dedicated to the Steinway & Sons brand named Steinway Galleries has opened in Australia. The gallery, owned by billionaire trucking magnate Lindsay Fox, caters not only to those that play, but also those who simply are entranced by the prestige of having an instrument such as a Steinway piano in their home. The showroom features a performance area that is regularly used for recitals, as well as the relatively new Spirio, which uses old-school pianola technology to allow the piano to play itself.
Australian betting firm Tabcorp may put in an offer worth over AUD100m ($75m) to secure the broadcast rights for the Melbourne Cup, insiders have reported. The five-year deal includes both national and international rights to the championship horse race, which turned 160 years old this year, with the former held by Australian network Ten for AUD100m since 2018. Tabcorp already secured the overseas rights to the 2022 and 2023 competitions, and could sublicense its free-to-air coverage to local broadcasters Nine, Seven or Ten if its domestic bid is successful.
Former Liberal MP Moira Deeming has helped to block an inquiry that would scrutinise Victoria’s rental crisis, which would examine the factors behind high rent prices in Victoria, options to increase the supply and standard of long-term rentals and suggest recommendations designed to aid the issue. The inquiry failed after a final vote on a joint Green and Coalition motion showed it was on a tied 19 votes to 19, with Deeming joining with the Andrews government. The political decision came under fire, particularly as almost one-third of Victorians were renters in the 2019-20 financial year.
Rare captive-bred orange-bellied parrots have been spotted in Victoria, raising hopes that the species can be saved from extinction. Researchers from Tasmania’s Department of Parks, Wildlife and Heritage bred and released 11 of the birds into their natural wild habitat near Mount Melaleuca in 1991. The parrots, which migrate from Tasmania to coastal Victoria, bred with wild birds but were not found last year, leading to fears that they had not survived. Wildlife authorities in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania are monitoring the birds, which may complete the return leg of their migratory flight next spring.
Case involving B.C. mortgage broker heads back to court as investors fear for their savings
CBC
23-05-17 02:41
Greg Martel, a controversial Victoria-based mortgage broker, owes over CAD 226m ($182m) to hundreds of investors who bought investments that, according to documents, may not have been real. Martel is the sole director of My Mortgage Auction Corp. (MMAC), which did business as Shop Your Own Mortgage, and the chief creditor, identified by a civil suit as 1548199 Alberta, claims it is owed CAD 17.6m. Two weeks ago, MMAC and Martel were put into court-appointed receivership overseen by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Neil Bunker, PwC's vice-president, said in a virtual town hall meeting with investors that procedures have not yet unveiled the missing millions or indeed, proof the investments ever existed. The case will resume in a Vancouver court on 5 May. Martel was accused of running his business like a Ponzi scheme. He claimed his investment arm provided annualised rates of between 50 and 100 per cent on bridging loans, when bank interest rates were at a historic low.
Australian truck driver charged over school bus crash that hospitalised 18 children
Reuters
23-05-17 08:58
A truck driver has been charged following a collision with a school bus in Melbourne, which hospitalised 18 children, including seven who were left seriously injured. The bus, carrying 45 students, overturned after being hit by the truck. Police have charged a 49-year-old man with four counts of dangerous driving causing serious injury.
The construction of Melbourne Airport Rail Link has been temporarily halted as part of a major Commonwealth review into Australia’s infrastructure pipeline. The pause, that also includes upgrades to Clyde, McGregor and Racecourse roads, has been put in place to ensure that States cannot enter into new contracts to progress works during the review period. Concerns have arisen about Victoria’s infrastructure blowouts, but Industry sources are confident that construction workers on paused projects can temporarily be redeployed.
Worried about their grandkids' future, more seniors are taking up the climate fight
CBC
23-05-17 08:00
A new movement in Canada is seeing elderly citizens march in climate protests and demand green policies in the face of environmental destruction. Seniors for Climate Action Now! (SCAN) began in July 2020 when several seniors from the Toronto area signed a statement of purpose and posted it on Facebook. Tours of Canada’s financial district, visits to politicians, and protests against RBC are some of the activities undertaken by SCAN. There are other similar organisations, such as Climate Legacy and Grand(m)others Act to Save the Planet (GASP). These groups are taking inspiration from youth climate activists such as Greta Thunberg and making themselves visible and vocal.
The changes they seek are significant, given the IPCC’s report on an expected 1.5°C increase in global temperatures since preindustrial times by the 2030s, with coal, oil, and gas being a primary cause. Seniors also hope to influence policy changes for the benefit of their grandchildren, creating images of them for placards to show who they fight for at protests. They are often motivated by environmental crises that affect them and the world. Seniors have seen the effects of climate change and biodiversity loss throughout their lives and recognise it is incredibly damaging.
While seniors have been a part of climate movements in the past, their prominence is increasing, aligning with movements like Extinction Rebellion in the UK as well as supporting young climate activists such as Thunberg. Senior demonstrations across cities in Canada were held on Fossil Fools Day, the date marking the end of winter and the start of the prime fossil fuel-burning season, in 2021, protesting RBC’s investment in fossil fuels. Bill McKibben, a long-time environmentalist in the US, suggests seniors are taking action because climate change is their legacy; so, they need to do something about it.
Thousands of new home building projects in Sydney, which has a critical shortage in rental properties and a rental vacancy rate near decade lows at 1.4%, have been shelved, according to urban economist Terry Rawnsley from KPMG. Rising interest rates pushed up homeowners' balance sheet pressure and dropped Sydney's property prices by more than 10% last year. Terry Rawnsley said developers are likely to consider postponing selling these approved homes in an oversupplied market, and cost overruns trigger the changes.
Developers are bypassing thousands of approved housing projects due to the expense of construction and stagnant property prices. In Victoria, 10,388 houses, townhouses and flats slated for construction in March are inactive, double the figure from the previous year and a level not reached since December 2017, KPMG found. Property developers are unwilling to finance projects due to the high associated costs and the smaller returns generated by flagging property prices, several of which are going bankrupt as a result, according to KPMG urban economist Terry Rawnsley.
A range of agencies responsible for services including the fire brigade and state libraries have run up extensive deficits and prepared to weather public sector spending cuts in Victoria, Australia. This comes as the state prepares to announce its budget next week. Treasurer Tim Pallas has said that the upcoming budget has to contend with higher public sector deficits than expected. Shadow finance minister Jess Wilson has observed that 21 state agencies went into the financial red in the 2021-22 financial year. Among them, Fire Rescue Victoria ran a deficit of $132.5m, while the Museum Board of Victoria and Museums Victoria registered deficits of $23.56m and $23.47m respectively. State-owned enterprise VicForests revealed a loss caused by ongoing legal cases, and is now in negative equity.
China’s largest state-run carrier, Air China, has requested commercial pilots from Australia's Airline Pilot Academy (AAPA), marking renewed confidence in the international travel market after the pandemic. Air China had stopped sending trainees to the Victoria-based campus after overseas travel came to a halt, but talks resumed two months ago and the carrier pressed the school to interview over a hundred Chinese candidates within four days in May 2021. The urgency highlights the pace at which travel is expected to recover, and the volume of flight crew required. According to Boeing, the world could need over 600,000 pilots between next year and 2041, with the greatest need in Asia. The largest latent demand for crew by far could be for Chinese airlines on overseas services, but the domestic airline market is also expanding. The AAPA will train its first Air China batch of around 70 cadets from June 2021.
This year, the Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelists prize has been awarded to Katerina Gibson for short fiction collection Women I Know, George Haddad, for his debut novel Losing Face, and Jay Carmichael for second novel, Marlo. Previous winners include Christos Tsiolkas. Tsiolkas won the award in 1995 for his debut, Loaded, which was released the previous year. The awards are open to Australian fiction writers aged 35 and younger at the time of publication of their nominated books. The prize encourages emerging writers and attracts entrants from a range of genres. It helps bring new talent to recognition and is designed to give early career writers the boost they need and the financial means to keep writing. Each of the winners of the prize receive a $5,000 award. The judges of the award were critic and novelist Fiona Kelly McGregor and Bram Presser, as well as Spectrum SMH editor Melanie Kembrey.
Victoria Police have launched a five-month crackdown on driver behaviour that endangers road users following a rise in crashes that killed and injured cyclists, pedestrians and motorbike riders. The force released data revealing that of the 241 people killed on roads in Victoria last year, 55 were motorbike riders, 44 were pedestrians, 12 were cyclists and two were electric scooter riders. Operation Halo will initially focus on the council areas of Yarra, Melbourne, Port Phillip and Merri-Bek, targeting those who break the speed limit, use their phones or obstruct bike lanes and pedestrian crossings.
The Health Services Union (HSU) has written to the new Labor government of New South Wales, Australia, simultaneously making six demands to settle a dispute and calling for a 6% pay increase for its 47,000 members. Along with increasing wages, HSU boss Gerard Hayes has called for broader modernisation of HSU member awards for greater recognition of increased professionalism among paramedics and allied health care workers; as well as the establishment of a special commission of inquiry into health spending and further health reforms to reduce wastage. Hospital workers will refuse to take discharged patients to their home or a care facility in a protest from tomorrow.
Comedian, writer and actor Hannah Gadsby has released Something Special, their third Netflix special. This follows Emmy and Peabody award winning Nanette (2018) and Douglas (2020). Something Special is directed by producer and partner Jenney Shamash and centred mainly on happiness. Gadsby speaks of their experiences in Australia and the struggles of the country to remain a unified force. Gadsby has begun working on the Pablo Picasso exhibition, "It's Pablo-matic: Picasso According to Hannah Gadsby" at the Brooklyn Museum. Additionally, they have recorded a new Netflix project featuring six international, genderqueer comedians invited to perform by Gadsby, recorded in the UK.
Lack of co-operation stymies investigation into B.C. mortgage broker and missing $225M, court hears
CBC
23-05-18 00:35
Efforts to find the missing millions that mortgage broker, Greg Martel, from Victoria owes to investors has come to a standstill. Martel, who has been accused of running investment business My Mortgage Auction Corp (MMAC), also known as Shop Your Own Mortgage, like a Ponzi scheme, has ignored communication from investigator, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). PwC states that Martel has failed to produce the financial documents and a sworn list of assets, which led to serious concerns about his conduct, including an attempt to move assets from one American bank to another to prevent them from being discovered in the scope of the court order.
A growing number of sports bras, shirts and leggings brands found with high levels of toxic chemical, watchdog warns
CNN
23-05-18 00:19
BPA, a compound in certain types of plastic that can cause health issues, including asthma, cardiovascular disease, and obesity, has been found increasingly in sports bras and athletic wear brands, according to industry watchdog, the Center for Environmental Health. The group issued legal notices to eight brands, including Athleta, Adidas, and Nike, after tests found their clothes could expose wearers to a potentially harmful amount of the chemical. The Californian group, which conducted the tests, revealed it has only detected BPA in polyester-based clothing containing spandex.
A municipal worker employed by the District of Oak Bay has died on the job, reportedly after being hit by a vehicle. The police in Oak Bay commended the dead man's service, extending sympathy to family, friends and colleagues. They also confirmed the driver of the vehicle that hit the worker was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
The adoption of the “trauma-informed” teaching model by Australian schools is growing as teachers face rising levels of disturbance in the classroom after two years of interruptions caused by coronavirus. The model focuses on developing teacher strategies to engage with struggling students. The approach uses a “check-in” system to assess whether pupils are capable of learning, with children signalling Green when ready for a lesson, Blue when not quite ready and Red when distressed. The model has transformed Mahogany Rise Primary School in Frankston over the past two years and seen demand for services from children’s charity Berry Street double.
