Tag Archives: oceania

NSW public and Catholic school teachers to strike over pay

Public and Catholic school teachers will walk off the job next week demanding better pay and working conditions.

It comes as the New South Wales state budget was handed down today and public sector employees only received a three per cent pay rise despite the union's ongoing calls for a bigger increase.

It is the first time the public and Catholic teacher unions have come together to take industrial action.

READ MORE: All of the winners and losers in the NSW Budget for 2022

Sydney teacher strike NSW December 7 2021

"This is an extraordinary moment. We are standing shoulder-to shoulder because fixing the education crisis in NSW demands no less," Independent Education Union of Australia NSW Secretary Mark Northam said.

Teachers will strike on June 30 which is the day before term two ends.

NSW Teachers Federation President Angelo Gavrielatos said the government and Catholic employers have "failed" to address the teaching crisis in the state.

"Both unions have come to the conclusion that the Government has its head in the sand in regards to the teacher crisis," he said.

"We asked the premier to reconsider his decision to cap the pay of teachers at three per cent when inflation is more than five per cent and rising. Yet, he did nothing."

READ MORE: First homebuyers win in NSW budget as stamp duty phased out

Thousands of Catholic school teachers strike in Sydney.

Northam said the Catholic schools take the government's lead on salary decisions and called on state leaders to reconsider the pay changes.

"Catholic diocesan school employers follow the NSW Government's lead on salaries, even though they are not legally bound by NSW Government wages policy," Northam said.

"Staff shortages and sinking salaries mean teachers and support staff in Catholic diocesan schools are really struggling.

"Teachers are leaving the profession and graduates are not entering it."

READ MORE: Adam Bandt's Australian flag stunt slammed

NSW Treasurer, Matt Kean outlines his budget to reporters prior to his budget speech in NSW Parliament in Sydney. 21st June 2022 Photo: Janie Barrett

Treasurer Matt Kean said today's budget announcement for public sector wage increases is "one of the most generous" in the country.

"So the unions that are marching in the streets in NSW are protesting against one of the most generous public sector pay increases in the country," Kean said.

"It shows it has nothing to do with pay and has everything to do with politics."

Public school teachers have walked off the job twice in the past year and Catholic school teachers have held industrial action once.

Dark web hawking valuable Aussie IDs for handful of dollars

Criminals are trading copies of prized Australian passports on one of the dark web's largest marketplaces for less than the price of two schooners of beer.

The unnamed trading market, which was investigated by cybersecurity company NordVPN, has illegally sold hundreds of thousands of items or pieces of data worth more than $23 million since it was launched on the dark web, researchers said.

Scanned copies of Australian passports were listed at just $16.50, driving licences traded for $48 and mobile phone numbers and emails with log-ins little more than $13.

Some common targets for criminals who buy dark web passport scans include cryptocurrency exchanges, payment systems, and betting websites

READ MORE: Seven family members killed on way home from funeral

All those key identification items can be used to open new accounts at banks, crypto exchanges and betting agencies, or as credible proof which criminals can use to break into otherwise secure accounts.

Among the items NordVPN found were passports, personal IDs, driving licences, emails, payment card data, mobile phone numbers, online accounts, bank account logins, crypto accounts and other personal data.

Real scans of actual passports are common on dark web marketplaces, while less spotted forgeries of passports can trade north of $1500.

Stolen physical passports are much rarer, but are known to command prices well above $10,000, depending on nationality.

"This one market is just the tip of an iceberg," Adrianus Warmenhoven, a cybersecurity expert at NordVPN, said.

He said there are over 30,000 websites on the dark web at the moment.

"The market that was analysed … was chosen because it was used by some big hacker groups in the past, such as the one involved in AT&T data theft in August of last year."

The dark web is an encrypted network that uses the internet, but requires specific software to access.

Ease of access and the shield of anonymity has made the dark web an attractive tool for criminals, including drug dealers, counterfeiters, scammers, paedophiles and terrorists.

READ MORE: 'Dark web cannibal' gets 40 years for plot to murder, eat teenage girl

A screengrab of a dark web site selling credit cards.

READ MORE: Australian woman 'killed in front of her father' in Pakistan

Illicit drugs are the most prolific product traded on the dark web, cybercrime expert Julian Plummer told 9news.com.au.

The other commodity bought and sold at significant levels is information, he said, which included child abuse material and other forms of illegal pornography.

"Anything that is illegal in most countries is in the dark web," Plummer said.

"You've got information on fraud, how to commit fraud, Bitcoin hacks, how to counterfeit fiat currencies and how to hack passwords."

Although stories about passports, identity cards and driver licences were attention-grabbers, Plummer said the selling of passwords was actually the "big one".

Cybercriminals were most interested in selling millions of hacked accounts and passwords rather than copies of passports.

"Once something like Yahoo gets hacked, those passwords are on the dark web in less than an hour, being sold for however many cents per user," he said.

"What they're going for is scale."

READ MORE: Elite Aussie unit helps catch paedophile who ran abuse website

The dark web is an encrypted network that uses the internet, but requires specific software to access. It is designed to ensure the user's anonymity.

READ MORE: Adam Bandt's Australian flag stunt slammed

The dark web is notoriously difficult for law enforcement agencies to police.

Last January, German police arrested an Australian man accused of running what was the biggest illegal marketplace on the dark net.

Prosecutors alleged the site, DarkMarket, traded drugs, forged money, stolen or forged credit cards, anonymous mobile phone SIM cards and malware.

DarkMarket had nearly 500,000 users and more than 2400 vendors when it was taken offline, German prosecutors said.

READ MORE: Illegal websites hit in major dark web police raid

Airport chaos forecast for school holidays

Australia's airport chaos isn't coming to an end anytime soon, with millions of people set to take to the skies in the coming school holidays.

Sydney Airport has said 2.1 million passengers are forecast to pass through the facility between June 27 and July 17.

That's compared to 1.8 million in the previous Easter holidays period of April 4 to April 24, which saw airports brought to a choking halt around the country amid massive queues and an overstretched workforce.

READ MORE: Seven family members killed on way home from funeral

The winter holiday complement is expected to be comprised of more than 1.5 million domestic passengers, compared to 1.39 million in April, and 560,000 international passengers, compared to 376,000 over Easter.

"It's terrific to see the ongoing demand for air travel but we won't sugar-coat the fact that the terminals will be busy during the school holidays, and there will be queues," Sydney Airpport CEO Geoff Culbert said.

"We are doing everything we can to get people on their way, including bringing an additional 60 customer service staff into the terminals every day to help manage queues and bring passengers forward in order of flight priority."

READ MORE: Australian woman 'killed in front of her father' in Pakistan

Culbert said all airport businesses were still rebuilding their post-COVID workforces, even as they faced "the tightest jobs market in nearly half a century".

It comes as the Transport Workers Union claimed 47 per cent of ground crew sacked by Qantas remained unemployed or underemployed, based on a survey of 1100 outsourced workers.

"Flights are full, but passengers are stuck waiting because there aren't enough workers to load their bags into the hold – meanwhile almost half of outsourced workers are still searching for a permanent job," national secretary Michael Kaine said.

However, Qantas has said the source of airport wait time issues – which is not isolated to one airline or country – was due to "COVID absenteeism and a competitive labour market".

"We have put a lot of focus into reducing call wait times which blew out under the volume of calls we were receiving as borders reopened and travel increased," a spokesperson said in a statement.

"We have since doubled the number of people working in our call centres and average wait times are now better than they were pre-COVID.

"We've got a lot of confidence leading in to the upcoming school holidays we'll see a different outcome than we saw at Easter because we've got 20 per cent more reserve coverage, 15 per cent more people working for our ground handling suppliers and airports are recruiting thousands of people to fix the security queue issues."

What should passengers do?

The advice for passengers is to arrive as close as possible to two hours prior to departure for domestic flights, and as close as possible to three hours prior for international flights, unless advised otherwise by their airline.

"It's great that passengers are arriving well ahead of their flights, but it's important to arrive as close as possible to the advised times, and not any earlier," Sydney Airport general manager of operations Greg Hay said.

"Some domestic airlines do not open baggage check-in until two hours prior and if you get to the airport too early you could end up having an additional wait."

READ MORE: Adam Bandt's Australian flag stunt slammed

Peak days are expected to be Mondays, Thursdays and especially Fridays.

"Across any given day early-to-mid morning will be busy, with passenger numbers easing late morning and into the afternoon before peaking again in the evening," Hay said.

As well as the extra 60 customer service staff, the airport will be taking other measures to combat the heavy traffic, including reconfiguring a queueing system, introducing a priority security screening lane in the international terminal, and providing an alternate taxi drop-off area.

Darwin publican fends off crocodile with frying pan

A brave Darwin pub owner has found a peculiar but effective way to fend off a huge saltwater crocodile.

The footage shows Goat Island Lodge's owner Kai Hansen, also known as "King Kai", using a frying pan as a weapon against a crocodile.

Hansen whacks the crocodile not once but twice on the snout with the frying pan as it comes running towards him.

READ MORE: Seven family members killed on way home from funeral

Darwin pub owner hits crocodile with frying pan.

The crocodile then slivers back to the water.

It's not Hansen's first encounter with the massive reptiles; he lost his dog to a crocodile in 2018.

Watch the fearless encounter in the video above.

Hong Kong's famous 'floating restaurant' sinks in South China Sea

Hong Kong's iconic Jumbo Floating Restaurant has capsized in the South China Sea less than a week after it was towed away from the city, its parent company said.

The restaurant encountered "adverse conditions" on Saturday as it was passing the Xisha Islands, also known as the Paracel Islands, in the South China Sea, and water entered the vessel and it began to tip, according to Aberdeen Restaurant Enterprises Ltd.

The company said no one was injured, but that efforts to save the vessel failed and it capsized on Sunday.

READ MORE: Adam Bandt's Australian flag stunt slammed

"As the water depth at the scene is over 1000 metres, (it makes it) extremely difficult to carry out salvage works," it said in a statement.

It said the company "is very saddened by this accident".

The Jumbo Floating Restaurant, almost 80m in length, had been a landmark in Hong Kong for over four decades, serving Cantonese cuisine to over three million guests including Queen Elizabeth II and Tom Cruise.

READ MORE: Australian woman 'killed in front of her father' in Pakistan

It closed in 2020 due to the pandemic and laid off all its staff. Aberdeen Restaurant Enterprises said the restaurant became a financial burden to its shareholders, with millions of Hong Kong dollars spent on its inspection and maintenance even though it was not in operation.

The restaurant was towed away last Tuesday. The company said it planned to move it to a lower-cost site where maintenance could be carried out.

READ MORE: Seven family members killed on way home from funeral

It said that prior to its departure, the vessel had been thoroughly inspected by marine engineers and hoardings were installed, and all relevant approvals were obtained.

"The company is now getting further details of the accident from the towing company," the statement said.