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UBOOKDIRECT offers all NSWNMA members discounted rates on 1000's of hotels Australia wide. Fill in a quote request today to save on your next getaway.

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.

UP TO 25% OFF!

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.

UP TO 40% OFF!

UP TO 35% OFF!

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.

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Vale Brendon Julian Towney

Julian Brendon Towney was born on 23 May 1964 in Wellington NSW. He was the 4th child and second son of Gwen and Frank Towney.

Brendon attended primary schools in Wellington and Sydney, before heading to St Stanislaus College in Bathurst for his secondary education.

Brendon was a highly intelligent student who did very well throughout his high school years. He had a remarkable memory and a lifelong interest in the sciences and the solar system.

In 1994 Brendon graduated from CSU as an RN. Brendon worked in hospitals across Australia for 29 years. He even travelled to Carnarvon, around ten hours drive north of Perth, and worked for a year, experiencing a different kind of work and life. Brendon’s most recent tenure was with the Gosford and Wyong Mental Health

Inpatients Units where he worked for 18 years.

Brendon loved to travel. He made five trips to Europe and three to the US, with trips to the Asian regions and New Zealand as well. While in New Zealand, he did bungee jumping on a number of occasions.

Brendon started playing the recorder, performing at school assembly, from early primary school, in response to his asthma. Eventually, one of Brendon’s greatest passions became classical music. He played in various orchestras over the years, including the Strathfield Symphony Orchestra, with whom Brendon toured Europe. He played viola, tuba, and trombone at orchestra level.

Brendon will be dearly missed by his family and friends. His family would like to thank all who offered their condolences and kind words following Brendon’s passing.

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.