INDIA NEWS
June 16-30, 2021 - Vol 1, Issue 24
NEWS FROM AUSTRALIA
Telstra launches new Best of Business Awards June 3: Telstra announced the launch of its new awards program, the Telstra Best of Business Awards, which celebrates small and medium sized businesses who are using innovation and expertise to drive the nation forward.
The new program continues Telstra’s long legacy of awards programs that recognise exceptional leaders and small and medium businesses, providing a platform to further their success and inspire others. Telstra Consumer and Small Business Group Executive, Michael Ackland said the past year gave Telstra an opportunity to reflect and reimagine a program of the future. “We are proud of the support we have shown the small business community over the past 25 years through the Telstra Business Awards and the Telstra Business Women’s Awards, where we have recognised over 5,000 finalists from both city and regional areas across each state and territory of Australia,” Mr Ackland said. “The Telstra Best of Business Awards builds on the success and learnings of these award programs and is a reflection of our desire to continue to lead positive change for all Australians. “It allows us to celebrate the businesses and people making a positive impact within their community, industry, across the country or perhaps the world. “We know the past year has been challenging for everyone, particularly small to medium sized businesses. We hope by creating this new program, we will lead a national conversation and shine a light on businesses that are making a meaningful
contribution to Australia and provide them with the recognition they deserve.” Central to the new awards program is the addition of a new, annually-changing awards category – Progressing Australia. The new category will highlight businesses that are best responding to the most pressing issues the nation faces. To identify this category, Telstra will conduct extensive research each year with the Australian public and business experts to gain a pulse check of the nation, and the issues that matter most. This research will be used to set the ever-changing national agenda for the awards. This year’s topic is Local Leadership - a category that champions small businesses who are excelling in their role of building a thriving community of the future. This comes after research showed 96 per cent of consumers said they considered small businesses an important part of their community.* Diversity and inclusion is also at the heart of this revamped program, from improved accessibility to the entry process, to the creation of new categories. This includes Indigenous Excellence for Indigenous-owned businesses, Accelerating Women for businesses challenging exclusion and inequality, and Building Communities for businesses working to make a positive impact on their communities. “We are committed to embedding diversity and inclusion and ensuring all business owners from a cross-section of industries, sizes, categories and locations are able to enter and
Shelly Horton, Sally Obermeder, Mark Olive, Grace Brennan & Eamon Sullivan
are judged fairly. We want to give everyone across Australia the opportunity to be on the main stage,” Mr Ackland said. All businesses under 200 employees are invited to nominate and enter across eight categories. Entering the Telstra Best of Business Awards will help business owners take their business to the next level. The rigorous judging process will seek to identify those who are having an impact in the areas and industries most important to Australia’s growth. Anyone can nominate an exceptional business by heading to the website today: www. telstrabestofbusinessawards.com
Michael Ackland, Group Executive, Consumer & Small Business Telstra
-endsMedia contact: Steve Carey, 0413 988 640 E: media@team.telstra.com Agency contact: Info@ multiconnexions.com.au Reference: 038/2021
Jeremy Nicholas, Chief Marketing Officer Telstra
beautiful and bright daughter was abducted in broad daylight,” said Mr Gill.
incredible strength and resilience post Covid, and I am so proud to be one of the few culturally and linguistically diverse(CALD) creative directors in Queensland to helm an inclusive and diversity-driven production company committed to presenting CALD stories to the mainstream in Australia," said Ms Bajaj.
Dramatic new theatre production to highlight missing persons’ epidemic in Australia June 8: Groundbreaking Gold Coast theatre company, Wild Dreamer Productions has risen from the ashes of Covid by relaunching its highly-anticipated new original stage show, VOID. The dramatic two-person production was set to make its world-premiere on the Gold Coast just weeks prior to the Covid lockdown in March last year. Starring Wild Dreamer Productions’ founder and creative director, Aarti Bajaj, VOID aims to highlight the impact of missing persons on families, relationships and society as a whole. Ms Bajaj, who was honoured with a Cultural Achievement Award at the City of Gold Coast 2020 Australia Day Awards, said the show‘s message had touched her when she first read the script. “What really attracted me to
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the show is that it’s needed in society,” she said.
“It’s about a missing child. A daughter goes missing on her fourth birthday and now we go forward to her 18th birthday, with everything that’s happened in the last 14 years. “It’s about how that one incident has affected (the parents’) entire lives, their family, their relationships.” VOID has been written and directed by former Bond University professor Chamkaur Gill, and also stars actor and barrister, Lance Jones in the role of the father. “All any parent wants is nothing but the best for their child. To grow up joyous, to grow happy, to grow filled with the best parts of life. And for two parents, that was exactly how things were, until one unforgiving afternoon at the local park changed everything. Their
“Fourteen years have passed, but a parent never gives up hope. Never on their own children. Longing once again to see their beloved, this is a story of how a helpless mother and father grapple with one of the most heartbreaking situations any parent could face. The void created by the loss of their child.” The production was proudly hosted by Home of the Arts (HOTA), and was also a recipient of the Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF). The RADF is a partnership between the Queensland Government and the City of Gold Coast Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland. "Wild Dreamer Productions as a company has displayed
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VOID is a far cry from Ms Bajaj’s previous production, the dance spectacular MEERA, which debuted to a full-house of 1,100 attendees at Home of the Arts in 2018, followed by a six-date New Zealand tour in 2019. VOID played three shows on the 3rd, 4th and 5th of June, 2021 at 6pm at HOTA at Bundall on the Gold Coast.
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