March 13, 2010

Sizzler staff quick to apologise after human - or animal - hair found in cheesy bread

Anthony - a waiter at Sizzler Annerley - was quick off the mark today after a human, or animal, hair was found in a serve of cheesy bread.

His apology was immediate and genuine and was followed within two minutes by a second apology and no fuss refund of the entire $64.30 bill by Manager Michael.

Michael promised to investigate the problem as far back as the supplier, if necessary.

These food contaminations sometimes occur but how they are handled is the key.

Sizzler, Anthony and Michael deserve top marks for their faultless approach to customer relations.

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PAUL TULLY: PaulGTully@gmail.com

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Free TV Australia crying wolf over much-needed changes

Free to Air television is currently running advertisements across Australia demanding the right to maintain its monopolistic first option to show sport on Australian television.

This campaign is laughable given the networks' disdain of viewers with all sorts of programming antics over the years including:

• International Rugby Union on Channel 10 on an hour's delay at night in Queensland;

• Major sports events not being shown live in Australia;

• Overseas Olympics on many hours delay in Australia;

• The Australian Open on the 7 Network on delay in Queensland;

• Rugby League fans getting the rough end of the pineapple from the 9 Network in Queensland.

If anything, the free-to-air networks should be stripped immediately of their monopoly for major sports events.

Pay TV would clearly do a better job anyday.

And the sooner the better according to many keen sports' enthusiasts.


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PAUL TULLY: PaulGTully@gmail.com

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Some Queensland backpackers work under atrocious conditions - Sacked for pleading for water

The Sydney Morning Herald

Date: March 13 2010


Backpackers are victims of rogue operators in the fruitpicking industry, writes Rick Feneley.

The pickers know him only as Max, but their stories are remarkably consistent. ''Pick faster,'' he screams. ''Hurry, pickers. Work with two hands. Faster, workers, or you won't be paid.''

''You feel like a slave,'' says Martin Pflaamenger, 22, a German backpacker.

He was one of several fruitpickers sacked while picking tomatoes on a farm near Bundaberg on February 16. The reason? They had pleaded for water after hours in the intense Queensland sun. Mehmet ''Max'' Tosun sacked them on the spot.

Only three months ago another German backpacker, Jessica Pera, 24, collapsed and died while working on a nearby farm. The coroner is investigating dehydration or heat exhaustion as possible causes of death. By all accounts to the Herald, that farm takes good care of workers. It insists they drink plenty of water.

The same cannot be said for the way Tosun does business. He and his wife, Calie, are a formidable team in Bundaberg. He is 27, she 23. Since October they have been running East Bundy Backpackers - a source of labour for Max's other business. He is a labour hire contractor for farms, which need a constant supply of fruitpickers.

Tosun and his wife, known as ''Kelly'', have refused to answer the Herald's questions concerning allegations it has gathered from seven backpackers over three weeks. But when the local newspaper ran similar claims by other backpackers this week, Calie Tosun, formerly Unwin, was quoted as saying: "I've heard people complain about the work, but if they don't like it they can leave." Her husband disputed many of the claims, but said he had to yell to make pickers work. "They need to be told what to do.''

They have only days to get their ''house in order'', says Queensland's Workplace Rights Ombudsman, Don Brown. He will not discuss individual cases, but he is sending his team to Bundaberg to investigate the industry - yet again. ''We intend to name and shame, and to refer people for prosecution where required,'' Brown told the Herald.

The federal Fair Work Ombudsman has ''serious concerns'' and has begun a separate inquiry.

Bundaberg is familiar with this sort of controversy. The mayor, Lorraine Pyefinch, other hostel operators and farmers are tired of rogue operators. They have been working hard to clean up the industry's image. Adding to their sensitivity is the coming 10th anniversary of a tragedy in nearby Childers in which 15 died in a fire at the Palace Backpackers Hostel.

''This area is entirely dependent on seasonal workers, and particularly backpackers, for our agricultural and horticultural industry,'' Pyefinch says. ''It's the backbone of our economy … In Bundaberg alone, at any one time, there's a thousand registered beds. You can double or triple that in the peak picking season - and they're the unregistered ones.''

Many backpackers go there to fulfil a requirement for a second-year holiday working visa: 88 days of fruitpicking. But Daniel Stockwell, 27, from England, has gone home, broke, having lasted one day as a picker under Max Tosun.

''I love Australia,'' Stockwell says, ''but this just killed it.''

He was sacked on February 16 with his English friend Oliver Brown, 24, Martin Pflaamenger, another German and an Australian. They woke at 3am, but there was no room on the first bus so they caught the second at 5.30am. They were lured by $17.60 an hour. ''But when we got there we heard that had changed,'' Stockwell says. ''We'd be getting paid $1.80 per bucket … I'd been picking for an hour and I'd hardly got one bucket.''

They moved to another field. After 2½ hours they were ''gagging for water''. After three hours, Brown says, he had picked eight buckets of tomatoes. ''You can do the sums.'' Thus far: $14.40.

Workers are unable to carry their own water bottles while picking. They asked for water but none came. Some sat down, refusing to work. ''How can we work without water?'' Stockwell asked.

Tosun bid them farewell. Back at the hostel they were given one hour to leave. Signs warned that only working fruitpickers could stay at the hostel. The group protested that they had paid $160 in advance for a week's accommodation. They said they called in the police, who told them it was a civil matter and they must leave. They left with no pay and no refund.

Yesterday the owner of the farm, SP Exports, terminated its contract with Tosun. Its investigations had revealed ''considerable substance to the allegations'', said its managing director, Andrew Philip. ''We employ 300 and it is certainly not the way we treat them or how we expect people to be treated.''

A spokesman for the Fair Work Ombudsman said piece rates could only be paid if a worker received at least the federal minimum wage for every hour worked, now $14.31.

John Walker, who runs the Bundaberg Workers and Divers Hostel, estimates the illegal industry in Bundaberg is at least twice as big as the legal one. But he believes the state ombudsman is missing the point attacking hostels and growers. ''He is tarnishing the whole industry while failing to target the real culprits - the labor hire contractors.''

Don Brown, the ombudsman, says: ''The bad name earned for the region through backpackers would definitely be causing Australia, and particularly Queensland, tourist dollars.''

Mayor Pyefinch worries that, with the internet, ''we're responding to a network of opinion that's available all around the world''.

Oliver Brown is part of that network. He checked his bank account this week to discover that he and Daniel Stockwell had finally been paid. ''I got $20.36 for a day's work. Daniel got $9.60 for exactly the same work.''

March 12, 2010

Telstra passes the buck over phone line fiasco at Goodna

Developer Manos Saradakis
speaks to the media over
the Telstra bungle which
is costing him almost
$40,000 a month


Telstra has excelled again with its "blame game" propaganda.

Telstra Countrywide Manager in Toowoomba has now stepped in to resolve the issue at 12 Queen Street Goodna.

Telstra is now apparently conceding they do not have the 200 cable pairs in Queen Street.

Telstra should stop the blame game and get the problem fixed.


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PAUL TULLY: PaulGTully@gmail.com

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BREAKING NEWS: Ipswich developer to sue Telstra over 6 month phone delay

Ipswich developer Manos Saridakis is planning to sue Telstra as part of a massive class action against the communications giant.

Mr Saridakis has been waiting six months for Telstra to connect telephones lines to his new commercial development at 12 Queen Street Goodna.

Telstra's spin doctors have gone into overdrive in the past 18 hours with spurious claims they have been unable to connect the lines because the developer had not installed the necessary conduits on the street.

Local Goodna Councillor Paul Tully, whose electorate office is two doors from the development, confirmed the conduit had been installed last August on the day the project commenced.

"I personally witnessed the conduit going into the ground," Cr Tully said.

Mr Saridakis is briefing lawyers this afternoon with plans to sue Telstra as part of a wider class action against the company.

"How much longer do businesses have to put up with this sort of incompetence?

"This is costing me $30,000 a month. I am calling on businesses across Australia who are on the receiving end of Telstra's poor service to join me in my action against Telstra.

He said Telstra has had six months to get the installation sorted out.

"I have three tenants ready to move in but without any phone connections they cannot take up their new tenancies.

"This is costing me a small fortune with my tenants very angry."

He said he should not be out of pocket because of Telstra's failures.

Mr Saridakis said he rang Telstra on Wednesday of this week to find out what was happening but was put through to a call centre in Asia where the operator couldn't understand him and hung up on him.

He said if Telstra was going to use Asian call centres, they should at least ensure the staff understood basic English.
Cr Tully said Ipswich was the fastest-developing city in Australia but Telstra was "behind the eight ball" in keeping up with the pace of development in the city.

"No wonder their shares have dropped almost 25 percent in the past year."

Cr Tully said Telstra was one of the worst companies in Australia when it came to customer relations and they used a "mixture of spin, bravado and lies" to try to get out of embarrassing media publicity.

"The problem is that Ipswich is managed out of Toowoomba by Telstra bosses 100km away from the city who have probably never heard of the Ipswich or the western corridor."

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PAUL TULLY: PaulGTully@gmail.com

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March 11, 2010

Telstra screws Goodna developer

PIC: Manos Saridakis has been waiting 6 months
for Telstra to provide telephone lines to his
new, multi-million dollar
development in Goodna.


Manos Saridakis is a hard-working developer who has contributed a lot to the Ipswich economy.

He has already developed two commercial properties in Queen Street Goodna, a third in William Street and a double child care centre in Alice Street.

He also has plans to redevelop the Redbank Shopping Village in Brisbane Road Redbank.

But his latest multi-million dollar investment is a two-storey office block and commercial premises at 12 Queen Street Goodna.

The development is substantially complete with tenants ready to move in - except, surprise surprise, Telstra has failed to deliver.

This development includes government offices, private suites, financial service providers and the latest up-market Coffee Club.

Six months ago, Telstra was asked to install 200 telephone cable pairs to service the 8 tenants at 12 Queen Street.

In December, they turned up to install 10 pairs - barely enough for one tenant, let alone eight.

Now, tenants cannot move in because at this time there are no telephone connections to the site.

The tenants are very upset and Manos is feeling like the meat in the sandwich.

Telstra is again treating the people of Ipswich and Goodna as second class citizens.

Telstra has had six months to get this right but they have still failed to deliver at every milestone.

They are real shockers.

Telstra's customer service in Ipswich is generously rated as somewhere between Buckley's and none.

The local Telstra Countrywide Manager for Ipswich Nigel Beaman is based in his ivory tower in Toowoomba almost 100km away and has probably never heard of Goodna.

Telstra doesn't care what standard of service it provides.

It treats residential and business customers with utter contempt.

It's surprising Telstra shares are not languishing around the 1 cent mark rather than their inflated $3 figure which is unsustainable in the long-term, given Telstra's anti-customer attitude which is hardening by the day.

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PAUL TULLY: PaulGTully@gmail.com

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Telstra fiasco at Goodna: They can't supply badly-needed telephone lines to a new building

This is another Telstra fiasco.

With the new building about to open with A1 tenants such as The Coffee Club, Telstra cannot supply telephone lines to the complex in the main street of Goodna.

The owner Manos Saridakis is extremely disappointed at Telstra's un-business-like approach to the community.

Full details later.

March 10, 2010

New valuation laws a kick in the teeth for Property Council of Australia

Steve Greenwood -
a three time loser
in his stoush with
the State Government

Despite his political posturings and awkward attempts to save face, the Executive Director of the Property Council of Australia Steve Greenwood has suffered three big losses in one day.

The State Government has legislated to maintain existing property valuations as well as the legality of individual Council rates plus it will abandon the current valuation methodology on which the Property Council based its entire ill-fated campaign.

Poor old Steve Greenwood - he couldn't get up one even leg of the Brisbane trifecta.

Moving from un improved capital value to site value in Queensland will ensure a much better and more equitable regime for the calculation of land tax and local government rates.

Meanwhile, Steve Greenwood can chalk up another loss in his expensive, failed campaign to be the king-pin of Queensland politics!

March 08, 2010

Property Council made to look like dunces thanks to Steve Greenwood

Steve Greenwood - a friend of local
government for many years and now
its arch rival!


The Property Council of Australia continues its political campaign against the Bligh Government in Queensland with another full page advertisement in today's Courier-Mail.

The Property Council under Executive Director Steve Greenwood wants to retain the status quo with property valuations set to drop overnight by up to 35%, as a result of a recent court decision.

The corresponding shortfall in rates would have to be made up by ordinary householders, forced to subsidise big business, if Steve Greenwood had his way.

This guy is really a class act - having worked with the Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ) and now in his new role with the Property Council attempting to smash local government financially.

If fairness and equity were the test on this issue, Steve Greenwood would fail badly.

Today's Courier-Mail also features a full page advertisement from the Queensland Government which puts this whole issue in perspective:

NO CHANGE for family home valuations

NO CHANGE for mums' and dads' investment properties

NO CHANGE for superannuation funds

NO CHANGE for tourism owners and operators

NO CHANGE for local shopping centres

NO CHANGE for farmers

NO CHANGE for renters

NO CHANGE for retail tenants

NO CHANGE for tradies.

LGAQ President Paul Bell is quoted in the State Government advertisement rightly supporting the proposed legislation.

Paul Bell must be acutely embarrassed that a former LGAQ staffer would spearhead such an anti-local government campaign to stop this legislation.

The ONLY CHANGE really needed is for the Property Council to dump Steve Greenwood for wasting its funds on this ill-conceived political campaign which is doomed to fail abysmally.

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PAUL TULLY: PaulGTully@gmail.com

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