Some 7-Eleven workers are made to withdraw part of their wages from ATMs to give back to their bosses, company executives have admitted to a Senate inquiry.

As well, an independent investigator found franchise owners had physically intimidated some employees wanting to complain – including a case of “beating” – about what has been labelled a “racket”.

Addressing revelations of widespread underpayment, 7-Eleven’s new chairman admitted the practice of “cash-backs” was still happening in some franchises.

“Unfortunately underpayment is happening in the form of cash-back which seeks to subvert enhanced record-keeping protocols,” Michael Smith told a hearing of the Senate inquiry into temporary work visas on Friday.

Mr Smith used his appearance in Canberra to apologise for underpayments, which have resulted in the company being subject to intense media scrutiny.

“As the new chairman of this company I think it is important for me to say that I am sorry,” he said in an opening statement.

“The directors and the company accept without complaint the consequences of what has happened, if for no other reason than people have been hurt.”

Former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chief Allan Fels, who is overseeing a compensation scheme, warned there were still threats of physical intimidation by franchisees.

His colleague, Siobhan Hennessy, described one case they were told about on Thursday in which a foreign student was beaten after making a claim.

“It’s unbelievable,” she told senators.

The Fels Wage Fairness Panel has also heard evidence of a “cash-back racket”, with workers being sent text messages about paying back a portion of their wage.

“Some of the claimants have been told to go round the back so that the money drop won’t be caught on CCTV,” Ms Hennessy said.

In another incident one employee was made to withdraw part of his wage to give it to a fellow worker who wasn’t on the books.

The panel told the committee more than 2000 workers had made initial contact with about 1000 claims received so far.

Of those, 188 determinations had been made, costing $4.36 million.

As of Friday morning a total of $2.82 million had been paid to 117 workers.

Professor Fels said 60 per cent of 7-Eleven stores were subject to claims.

Interim CEO Robert Bailey said new payroll systems, that included measures such as biometric signing in and out, would be ready from next week.

“It will be linked to quite sophisticated, unfortunately almost big brother-ish type confirmation that those who are said to be on the roster are actually there,” he said.

Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James was encouraged to see the company putting in measures such as electronic time-keeping.

But she still refuses to shop at 7-Eleven.

Former chairman Russell Withers, who is the company’s majority shareholder, told the hearing Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had no financial interest in his company.

Mr Turnbull has shares in two international investment funds that invest in Japanese conglomerate Seven & I Holdings, Fairfax Media claimed on Friday.

Seven & I’s major subsidiary is Seven-Eleven Japan, which is the parent company of 7-Eleven in the United States, with, in turn, licenses the billionaire Withers and Barlow family.

“I read (about Mr Turnbull) in the media just as you did,” he told a Senate inquiry hearing in Canberra on Friday in response to a question from Labor senator Sue Lines.

“I know nothing of it. The prime minister has certainly no interest in my company.”

A government backbencher has floated the idea of reducing personal income tax brackets from five to three.

Liberal MP Dan Tehan said Australia faces a choice between the status quo or continuing economic reform to reduce marginal rates impacting on average weekly earnings by reducing direct taxation in favour of indirect taxation.

“The problem is that for average and lower income workers they are already slowly bleeding,” he writes in Fairfax Media on Friday.

Five tax brackets exist now: zero, 19 cents, 32.5 cents, 37 cents and 45 cents in the dollar.

Mr Tehan pointed to the Henry Review which identified potential gains in shifting to three brackets with most income earners in a single bracket of 35 per cent, a higher tax bracket for those earning over $180,000 and a tax-free bracket for those earning under $25,000.

“Only tax reform that includes all options allows us to address the major flaws in our tax system, particularly bracket creep,” the MP said.

Unless people were earning more than $180,000, bracket creep would mean inflation and wage rises would slowly push Australians into higher tax brackets.

Workers earning the average annual wage of $80,000 would see every dollar earned over that amount taxed at 37 cents.

“With no changes, in seven years these average earners might be earning 30 per cent more in wages but end up paying 50 per cent more in tax,” he said.

Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen said Mr Tehan’s was one of a “cacophony” of ideas being floated by Liberal MPs.

“Liberal MPs are all over the shop when it comes to tax,” he told ABC radio.

Mr Bowen said Mr Tehan has not said how his proposal would be funded.

“Of course the obvious way to pay for it is increasing the GST and you know where (Labor) stands on that.”

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said it was the government’s intention to provide tax cuts.

“Obviously our commitment always is when we pursue policy change like that we need to do the hard yards to identify how we would pay for it,” he told Sky News.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale said Mr Tehan’s idea would simply exacerbate income inequality.

“We have huge concerns about a proposal that would effectively cause an increase in the gap between the super-rich and ordinary people,” he told AAP.

The Wikileaks founder sought asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London three years ago to avoid extradition to Sweden over sexual assault allegations.

It’s expected a UN working group on arbitrary detentions has now backed Mr Assange’s claim.

In August 2012, Ecuador granted Julian Assange political asylum as he sought to avoid extradition to Sweden to be questioned over a rape claim, which he denies.

Mr Assange feared that if sent to Sweden, he would then be shipped to the United States to be interrogated as part of a secretive investigation into the Wikileaks founder’s activites.

Now, a UN working group is expected to rule that Mr Assange has been arbitrarily detained in contravention of international commitments.

That’s despite the fact he’s been staying inside Ecuador’s London embassy voluntarily.

Mr Assange’s lawyer, Per Samuelson, says Swedish prosecutors should cancel the decision to detain his client in absentia and close the case against him.

“Sweden must withdraw the European arrest warrant. Everything is depending on the Swedish decision to keep him in custody and that decision can be cancelled, withdrawn by (prosecutor) Marianne Ny personally tomorrow and then she can withdraw the European arrest warrant and then the UK authorities will stop guarding the building and he is a free man again.”

In his September 2014 application, Julian Assange told the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention that he was a political refugee whose rights had been infringed by being unable to take up asylum in Ecuador.

He says once the UN panel’s ruling is confirmed, he expects the immediate return of his passport and an end to attempts by British police to arrest him.

But there are still questions over whether the UN decision would be legally binding.

“No, the decision is not formally binding, so they are formally free to neglect it and go against it. But I think that will be impossible for Sweden to do in the light of the fact that they (UN panel) have interpreted Swedish law and said that he (Assange) is detained and if so, he’s been detained for three-and-a-half years which is way more than the maximum penalty he risks if he comes to Sweden and would be convicted.”

Swedish prosecutors say the UN decision had no formal impact on the rape investigation under Swedish law.

Christophe Peschoux, a member of the UN panel, explains that the working group is not a court but rather a body created by member states.

However Mr Peschoux says the panel adjudicates on the basis of international human rights law, which is binding for signatory states.

He outlines the two aspects of Mr Assange’s case which were under review.

“In the case of detention, there are two elements that the working group is looking into. One is the legality of the detention, the other is the arbitrariness of the detention. Because the detention can be legal, so it can be made according to existing laws and procedures, but these laws and procedures may be in violation of fundamental human rights. So if it’s the case, then the decision is legal but can be arbitrary.”

One of the most famous cases the UN panel once examined was that of Aung San Suu Kyi, whose arrest by authorities in her native Myanmar was deemed arbitrary, and whose liberation they recommended.

The request was ignored at the time.

British Prime Minister David Cameron’s spokesman says any decision by the UN panel examining Mr Assange’s appeal would not be legally binding.

He reiterated that an arrest warrant for Mr Assange will still be put into effect if he left the Ecuadorian embassy.

But Kristinn Hrafnsson, a spokesman for Wikileaks, says Mr Assange expects otherwise.

“Julian is very hopeful that he will win, it will be in his favour. He is expecting immediate reaction by the Swedish and UK governments, the lifting of the arrest warrant, that the UK will hand him his passport and he will have his liberty back.”

 

 

The Sri Lankan national anthem has been sung in the Tamil language at this year’s official independence day celebrations in Colombo as a move towards reconcilation between majority Sinhalese and minority Tamil Sri Lankan groups.

Though the anthem was also sung in Sinhalese, this is the first time the anthem has ever been sung in Tamil in an official capacity, since the country’s independence from Britain in 1948.

The inclusive decision was made by President Maithripala Sirisena, to promote peaceful cohesion between the two formerly warring group.

However his decision did face backlash and criticism from die-hard nationalists, including the nation’s former president, Mahindra Rajapaksa.

“It is in our constitution, I don’t know why people make an issue with this,” said Sirisena’s cabinet minister Harin Fernando to the BBC.

However, the former president Rajapaksa argued the national anthem should be sung in only one language, in spite of Sri Lanka’s mutlilingual community. 

He went on to site India as an example. claiming in spite of being a nation of several languages, the Indian national anthem is only performed in one language, Bengali – in which it was originally penned. 

In 2010, the former president even debated imposing an official ban against a Tamil translation of the anthem being sung at public events.

“It’s the same song, same tune, and same meaning. If it is sung in Tamil, Tamil people will understand the true meaning of it, they will also be part of it,” Minister Fernando said in defence of the reconciliatory decision.

“When one speaks in one’s own language, one is more engaged and takes more responsibility, that is what we need as Sri Lankans.”

The tension between Tamil Tigers and ultra-nationalists who deny the Tamil identity in Sri Lanka have persisted for decades; however an all out war between the two groups was put to rest seven years ago.

Tamils are a minority group in Sri Lanka, constituting only 15 per cent of the country’s population.

Related reading

After grilling tight-lipped border force officials for more than an hour, a Senate committee is no closer to confirming whether Australian officials bribed the Indonesian crew of a turned-back asylum-seeker boat.

A Senate inquiry is attempting to get to the bottom of claims that $US5000 was paid to each of the boat’s six crew in May last year.

The boat was bound for New Zealand when it was intercepted by an Australian border vessel.

Operation Sovereign Borders commander Andrew Bottrell and immigration department secretary Michael Pezzullo cited national security, concern about people smugglers knowing operational tactics and a ministerial claim for public immunity to justify not answering questions about the alleged bribes.

“We have no comment on that,” Mr Pezzullo told a hearing of the inquiry in Canberra on Friday.

Though not in a position to confirm or deny intelligence matters, he maintained that officials had acted within Australian and international law.

Labor Senator Katy Gallagher suggested the money “magically appeared” at sea and lamented the difficulty in holding the government to account because of secrecy over operations.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the money had to come from somewhere because “there were no floating ATMs on the high sea”.

Though senators hit a brick wall of bureaucratic obfuscation, the hearing did turn up some new details about what happened at sea.

General Bottrell insisted there was a request from the vessel master for assistance and, for the first time, he confirmed passengers had been held overnight on the deck of their boat.

They wore life jackets because the seas were too rough to extract them.

“It was for a very real and practical reason,” he said of keeping them on the deck.

At the time there were winds of up to 21 knots and waves up to two metres.

Australian personnel were on board the boat and some were below the deck trying to maintain the engine, General Bottrell said, adding safety of life was their first concern.

He insisted passengers were later transferred on to other vessels because they were no longer safe.

Earlier Amnesty International, which conducted an investigation and interviewed passengers and crew in Indonesia, provided contrary evidence.

The boat was not in distress when it was intercepted and Australian officials had endangered lives, the human rights organisation claimed.

Asylum seekers made allegations of ill treatment, it said.

The men had been forced to stay outside overnight in heavy rain under armed guard and later 50 had been detained for a week in hot and overcrowded cells aboard a Border Force vessel.

Legal experts told the hearing that if border officials paid bribes they may have breached Australian criminal law as well as Indonesian and international law.

The Australian Federal Police and Border Force are investigating the boat turnback incident and the conduct of officers.

December’s Christmas season sales were flat, breaking a run of four straight monthly rises.

But while the December sales didn’t have enough firepower to produce a positive result for retailers, annual growth is still running at a healthy pace.

Non food retail sales recorded an outright contraction in December, down 0.3 per cent, Westpac economist Matthew Hassan said.

“(This was) led by sizeable falls in household goods and other retail – both bellwether discretionary categories,” he said.

“The report is particularly disappointing given the reasonably solid lead-in to the Christmas sales period from consumer sentiment and relatively upbeat reports from private sector business surveys.”

There were also stronger anecdotal trade reports, with the Retail Council predicting Australian punters would pour a massive $2.5 billion into retail coffers on Boxing Day alone.

However JP Morgan economist Tom Kennedy said monthly figures can bounce around based on price fluctuations, and the quarterly volume print was a better indicator of the retail industry’s performance.

Over the December quarter, retail sales rose by 0.6 per cent to $72.06 billion in seasonally adjusted volume terms, a little below the market consensus of a 0.9 per cent rise.

“The consumer was alive and well in the final quarter of last year, and we expect another reasonable contribution to growth from the household sector,” Mr Kennedy said.

He said there may also have been a late shopping surge in January where consumers stepped up their buying behaviour during post-Christmas sales.

“We’re still pretty optimistic on the outlook for the household sector this year,” he said.

“You’ve seen a fall in oil prices again in January. That’s going to boost consumers’ disposable incomes and that should lift consumption.”

Commonwealth Bank of Australia senior economist Michael Workman said annual sales growth is still running at a relatively healthy 4.2 per cent, which is just below the decade average of 4.5 per cent.

“Note that across all the categories annual growth rates are positive,” he said.

Total retail spending was $24.76 billion in December, up only slightly from $24.75 billion in November.

Trans-Tasman rivals will become teammates on Saturday, with the Indian Premier League auction to unfold at the same time as the ODI in Wellington.

Australia will be desperate to square the three-match series after a shambolic loss to New Zealand in Auckland but thoughts of the action in Bangalore will be at the back of their minds.

Of the 14-man touring party, eight will go under the hammer as IPL franchises look to beef up their squads.

Usman Khawaja, who is yet to take part in the IPL, is expected to attract a lot of attention after his sparkling stint with Sydney Thunder.

Khawaja’s reserve is approximately $A206,000, while the bidding will start at approximately $A411,000 for Kane Richardson and Mitch Marsh.

Khawaja, Richardson, Marsh, George Bailey, John Hastings, Adam Zampa, Marcus Stoinis and Scott Boland will all be up for grabs when the auction begins at 3pm AEDT on Saturday.

None of the eight will match the record-breaking $3.31 million contract that was awarded to Yuvraj Singh by Delhi Daredevils in 2015; an investment of roughly $13,347 per run.

But all will have high hopes of being picked up when the three-match ODI series continues at the Cake Tin.

Players have to hand mobile phones over during matches as part of anti-corruption rules but team management will be able to keep them abreast of developments.

“A couple of years ago the Aussies were saying it was like that, they had a bat then came off and found out what they went for,” NZ allrounder Corey Anderson said on Friday.

“It’s probably a pretty unreal feeling.

“Whether they (NZ management) hold it back till after the game I’m not too sure. I’m sure in some way shape or form the boys will find out.”

It’s understood Cricket Australia won’t enforce a strict rule on the squad regarding the auction, leaving it up to players as to how they want to approach a potentially awkward situation.

Shane Watson and Aaron Finch have been listed as marquee players in the IPL auction, meaning they will be amongst the first few up for sale.

Test squad members Joe Burns, Adam Voges, James Pattinson, Nathan Lyon and Jackson Bird have also thrown their hats in the ring.

Hard-hitting opener Martin Guptill headlines NZ’s list of IPL nominees, with Tim Southee, James Neesham and Grant Elliott also making themselves available.

“Whatever Gup goes for he’s going to deserve it,” Anderson said.

“We’ll be playing while it’s happening and I know Gup will have his mind on the game.”

Brad Hodge and Ricky Ponting are among the Australian coaches involved in the Twenty20 league.

The Wikileaks founder has been in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since June 2012, to avoid extradition to Sweden where he faces questioning over alleged sex assaults.

Facing arrest if he leaves the building, his mother, Christine Assange, confirmed on Friday that limited access to the outside world has had “severe” effects on his health.

She told ABC Radio on Friday his body is breaking down to such an extent he now has heart problems, a chronic lung infection, as well as deep and severe shoulder pain.

Related reading

Emergency medicine expert, Dr Stephen Parnis, believes long-term confinement may have caused Assange physical and psychological ailments.

Physical

Dr Parnis, the vice-president of the Australian Medical Association, said lack of vitamin D from sunlight and proper exercise, may cause the body to break down.

“You can de-condition relatively quickly, lose muscle bulk, lose bone-mineral density and some of your cardio respiratory fitness or aerobic fitness,” Dr Parnis said.

“If you do lose bone-mineral density, it isn’t easy necessarily to get that back.

“That may manifest itself in years to come with things like fractures. If you are confined indoors for a prolonged period of time, it does carry significant risk.

“People have this after prolonged hospital admissions. That’s why good rehabilitation is so important.”

Related readingMental

Dr Parnis said a person in confinement suffered psychologically due to lack of interaction with other people.

“We are meant to move about and interact with people,” he said.

“While you can do things to mitigate that, whether it be exercise, careful attention to diet, and even issues do with your psychological wellbeing… (you) still would require a transition to move back into a normal way of being.”

“You can do things to mitigate some of those harms – but it isn’t good for anyone to be locked away for such a long period of time.”

Dr Parnis said he was amazed at the resilience Mr Assange had demonstrated and that it took a certain degree of patience, fortitude and the ability to suffer or endure things that many other people wouldn’t.

It may not get any better for Mr Assange, who plans on leaving the embassy on Friday night.

British authorities have said they would arrest him if he steps foot from the embassy, despite a UN ruling that he had been arbitrarily detained.

Related reading

Sydney’s former Anglican archbishop Peter Jensen has apologised for the church’s past handling of child sex abuse allegations but says he probably would have made the same mistakes in an era when the impact of pedophilia was misunderstood by many.

Now-retired Bishop Jensen on Friday sat through the “absolutely heart-wrenching” evidence of a Sydney man who recounted four years of abuse by a leader at the Church of England Boys’ Society at St Ives Christ Church, which began when he was 10.

Simon Jacobs is in prison for his abuse of three boys, including this victim who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Bishop Jensen, who in his role as archbishop in 2002 apologised to the man, thanked him and his mother for having the strength to share their story.

“I wish to say I’m sorry they had to do this and I’m very sorry these things happened when those who should have protected this dear boy, as he was, failed to do so,” he said.

Bishop Jensen said some members of the clergy who received reports of abuse failed to act appropriately.

“There is an ethos in the church of what we may call easy forgiveness without repentance and I think that’s what was expressed back then,” he said.

“I don’t exonerate it, it was the wrong thing, but I am saying I could see myself doing something similar.”

Some of the clergy were from a generation when the impact of abuse was not understood.

“There was a belief that sexual abuse did not have the impact on a person that we now know it did,” Bishop Jensen added.

In 1987 the victim, now 49, took his complaint to the church.

The then reverend of the Pymble parish told him to let sleeping dogs lie and not proceed with any action.

“He also told me that, as a Christian, I had to forgive him,” the victim recalled.

Richard Kells was a society leader at St Ives about the time of the victim’s abuse in the early 1980s and reported his suspicions about Jacobs to the then rector.

“Try to forgive and give Simon a second chance,” Mr Kells said was the response.

“I was staggered by (the) response but felt there was nothing further I could do given his responsibilities and authority as a parish rector.”

The victim said his suffering had been wide-reaching and was ongoing.

“I live below the poverty line in subsidised rental accommodation that is very unstable and precarious,” he said.

“I feel the abuse has affected every facet of my life.”

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse wrapped up an eight-day public hearing in Hobart on Friday after investigating offences by Jacobs, John Elliot, Louis Daniels and Garth Hawkins (now known as Robin Goodfellow).

Each has been convicted for the sexual abuse of boys.

A fifth man, Robert Brandenburg, also part of the inquiry, died before facing court on more than 350 charges.

Hundreds of protesters in Brisbane have urged the prime minister to stop the looming deportation of scores of asylum seeker families in Nauru.

Holding signs plastered with slogans like “let them stay” and “shut Nauru and Manus now”, they demanded Malcolm Turnbull ensure the asylum seekers are resettled in Australia.

The protest, outside Brisbane’s immigration office on Friday, follows a High Court ruling that paves the way for 267 people brought to Australia for medical treatment, including babies, to be deported to Nauru.

The Anglican Dean of Brisbane, the Very Reverend Dr Peter Catt, and Greens Senator Larissa Waters both called for Mr Turnbull to intervene to stop the children and their families being deported.

“Just because the High Court says it’s legal does not mean it’s moral,” Senator Waters said, to rounds of cheers and applause.

Dr Catt was given a warm reception at the rally where he spoke of the support he’d received since offering to protect those facing deportation.

He’s warned authorities they’ll have to bash down church doors and arrest clergy to deport those who take up the church’s offer of sanctuary.

“I have had hundreds of emails, of which only six are negative,” he said.

“As soon as it hit the press, a gentleman walked into the cathedral office and handed over an envelope with $1000 in it for the refugees.”

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has insisted the government won’t be dragging asylum seekers out of churches to cart them back to Nauru.

He said most were people accompanying ill family members and the government would be looking to send them back to Nauru or their country of origin once medical assistance was completed.

Mr Dutton has also stressed the importance of the government’s border protection policies in stopping the boats and drownings at sea, emphasising the deterrence factor.

But Senator Water said the asylum seekers shouldn’t be sent back to the “prison island hellhole”.

“Surely there has to be a better choice between child abuse and turning back boats on the high seas,” she said.

She also rejected claims some asylum seekers could be future terrorists, saying such assertions inflamed tensions when the best way to prevent extremism was to care for people.