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UBOOKDIRECT is giving members a $20 voucher to use on any already discounted member package when booking through the Concierge. To book one of these fantastic destinations log on to https://travelbenefits.ubookdirect.com and click on the ENQUIRY tab or call 1300 959 550.

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Adaaran Prestige Vadoo Maldives

Stay 5 nights with a FREE UPGRADE* from a Sunrise Water Villa to a luxurious Sunset Water Villa for only $2,999 pp (based on 2 adults) with the following inclusions:

• FREE UPGRADE! Sunrise Water Villa to Sunset Water Villa with private pool & jacuzzi*

• All buffet and à la carte meals, snacks and select beverages included

• Roundtrip boat transfers

• 10% discount on any day tours during stay

Luxurious water villas with private plunge pools conveniently situated 8-minutes from the airport.

Rahaa Resort Maldives

Stay 5 nights in a Lagoon View Villa in the pristine Laamu Atoll for only $1,599 pp (based on 2 adults) with the following inclusions:

• Domestic flights and speedboat transfers for two

• All meals (Breakfast + Lunch + Dinner) for two

• All taxes and charges Escape to the hidden paradise of Rahaa Resort where luxury beachfront accommodation, pristine beaches and crystalclear waters await.

Club Wyndham Dunsborough, Western Australia

Stay 2 nights in this beautiful resort located between Busselton and Dunsborough in a Studio King Room for only $149 pp (based on 2 adults).

Beachfront Dunsborough resort featuring a wide range of outdoor activities including a tennis court, outdoor pool & spa and gym.

Limited offer! Send an enquiry for your requested dates today! Use your $20 voucher to save even more on these offers.

Nurses and midwives honoured in annual King’s Birthday awards

Three NSW nurses and two midwives were prominent in the King’s Birthday 2023 Honours List.

Joanne Gray, Nicky Leap, RoseMarie Radley, Elizabeth Grist and Natalie Shiel received awards during King’s Birthday celebrations.

Joanne Gray was received as a member of the Order of Australia “for significant service to education, and to the midwifery profession.”

Joanne is the current Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Education and Students, at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), as well as the President of the Australian College of Midwives. She has served as the Head of the Graduate School of Health and the Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning at UTS. She currently sits on the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council as a director.

Dr Nicky Leap was also received as a Member of the Order of Australia “for significant service to midwifery as a clinician and educator.”

Dr Leap is an Adjunct Professor of Midwifery at UTS, and was involved in the development of the university’s Bachelor of Midwifery program. She has served in the Midwifery Practice Committee of the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association, and was the Association’s Midwife of the Year in 2006.

Rose-Marie Radley was received as a member of the Order of Australia (AM) “for significant service to community health, and to the nursing profession”. She had been a former Director of Nursing at the Sydney Adventist Hospital, as well as having been the Lead Nursing Officer at Open Heart International’s first visitation program to the Solomon Islands.

Elizabeth Grist was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for her “service to community health, and to nursing and midwifery”. She has been the Executive Director of Clinical

Services Nursing and Midwifery for Hunter New England Local Health District since 2015.

Natalie Shiel was also awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for “for service to nursing.” Natalie is the Director of Nursing, COVID19 Vaccination and Screening Program, for the Sydney Local Health District (SLHD). She had also held nursing manager roles at SLHD, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Concord Repatriation General Hospital.

Employers jump at shadows over new IR laws

Business groups mobilise against the Secure Jobs, Better Pay Act , which came into force in June.

Employer groups have spent millions of dollars on a national advertising campaign against new IR laws that ensure labour hire workers are paid the same as employees doing the same job where they work.

The new laws are the implementation of a promise the ALP made in the lead-up to the 2022 federal election.

Workplace Relations Minister, Tony Burke, said he was surprised the advertising campaign “continued to rail against something we’re not doing”.

“The term ‘labour-hire loophole’ describes exactly what we’re doing: closing a loophole in which labour hire is deliberately being used to undercut agreed pay and conditions.”

New research by the ACTU has found that:

• about 600,000 workers, or 3.5 to 4.5 per cent of the workforce, are employed through labour hire

• about 81 per cent of labour-hire workers work full-time hours yet they do not have full-time jobs

• some 84 per cent of labour hire workers do not have paid leave and most have no guaranteed minimum hours.

ACTU president, Michele O’Neil, said some big businesses are using the loopholes to get out of paying proper wages and entitlements, such as sick leave and annual leave.

“Businesses are upset they have been exposed manipulating the system to cut wages,” she said.

Australia

It’s time to treat gambling like tobacco

Gambling harm is profound. It is not just financial, it is also social. It impacts mental health, leads to other health issues, and too often it leads to suicide, argues a leading campaigner.

The parallels with big tobacco and gambling are chilling, said Reverend Tim Costello AO.

“They are both predatory industries –industries that knowingly sell harmful products. They invest massive sums to sell and market addictive products.

“Most disturbingly, both tobacco and gambling companies invest huge sums to develop new, addictive products, designed to get young people hooked,” he wrote in the online journal Pearls and Irritations.

Costello argues that governments should treat gambling as a public health issue in the same way they do tobacco.

“We successfully applied a public health approach, banned advertising, introduced plain-paper packaging, and funded research and public education. Eventually, the number of people smoking dramatically reduced and countless lives have been saved as a result,” he said.

“When we look at gambling harm today and the virtually unlimited and unrestricted marketing of gambling, it is as if we have learnt nothing from history.”

Gambling in Australia, he said, “is normalised and celebrated, which has led to the highest levels of gambling losses per capita in the world”.

Costello said the federal government should establish a unit in Health and spearhead the development of a comprehensive national strategy for gambling that encompasses prevention, awareness and education, treatment and research.

Australia’s lowest paid workers get 5.75% increase in minimum wage

More than 2.75 million workers to benefit, but the increase is still below the inflation rate.

The Fair Work Commission’s annual wage review decision increased minimum wages to $882.80 per week, or $23.23 per hour.

The increase is about midway between the 3.8 per cent called for by business groups and the 7 per cent sought by the ACTU.

Fair Work Commission president, Adam Hatcher, said the previous year’s 5.2 per cent minimum wage increase had affected about one in four workers whose wages made up 11 per cent of the national total, and had not contributed to a wage-price spiral.