Aussie news : Free travel after power cut halts trains at Melbourne's Southern Cross railway station

COMMUTERS will get a free day of travel after this morning's mayhem, as Melbourne rail operator Metro says they have 'more work to do'.

It comes as the company faces a fine of up to $1 million after the meltdown on the train network this morning, with almost every train service delayed and hundreds of thousands of people affected, reported the Herald Sun.

Metro has apologised to commuters, with spokeswoman Geraldine Mitchell answering angry traveller's questions on the Herald Sun's website.

She said a faulty overhead power line caused a power outage between Southern Cross and Flinders Street stations, severely limiting the amount of trains that could move through that section.

"We do regular inspections of our overhead lines and all parts of our network infrastructure," she said.

"This particular line was inspected recently and at that time there was no visible fault.

"The replacement and maintenance of infrastructure with high volumes of use is an ongoing matter. We do all that we can these types of disruptions.

"Each day we're delivering more than 98 per cent of our 2200 services. And the reliability levels are showing month on month improvements. But we know, it still needs to improve further," she said.

Transport Minister Martin Pakula apologised to commuters for the delay and confirmed the government was looking at additional penalties after the morning peak hour was thrown into fiasco when a power shortage near Southern Cross cut electricity on the lines.

Metro reported that most train services had returned to normal by noon.

"This morning was not acceptable and not desirable. It is very disappointing for commuters to have to endure that sort of disruption,'' Mr Pakula said.

The minister said he had full faith in the head of the Department of Transport, Jim Betts.

But he is demanding a full report of events ahead of crisis talks with Metro's board and senior management this evening.

Mr Pakula promised a "full and frank" exchange of views with Metro as the government prepares to slap the operator with a $1 million fine for its failures in July.

But Mr Pakula was unwilling to say if commuters will get a refund or compensation - outside of the normal system - for this morning's chaos. Earlier this month, Mr Pakula invoked emergency powers and withheld $4 million owed to Metro after the operator failed to meet timetable targets for seven consecutive months.

The trouble was triggered when a power line broke and became tangled in a train's pantograph near the Melbourne yard, not far from Southern Cross station.

The incident cut overhead power supplies to all trains in the vicinity.

Metro spokeswoman Geraldine Mitchell said the "northern group" was the worst affected with severe delays on the Craigieburn, Upfield, Sydenham, Williamstown and Werribee lines.

While power was restored to most of the system and trains were back running again by 9am, it took about three hours more before service times returned to normal.

Almost every service this morning was affected as other trains were diverted and delayed.

In a press conference this morning, Metro boss Andrew Lezala apologised for the chaos.

Premier John Brumby, talking on ABC Radio, admitted Metro had had an ordinary start in the first half of the year.

Explaining the outage, Metro's Ms Mitchell said: “We lost overhead power at Melbourne yard, near Southern Cross station at 4.45am, so for a while there was no power between Flinders St and Southern Cross".

"As you can imagine they are our two biggest stations, so that’s where just about every train goes."

Ms Mitchell said power was partly restored shortly before 7am for some trains in the City Loop, but the delays would continue for hours.

Bill Shorten and Senator Stephen Conroy were both caught up in the train chaos.

Mr Conroy was forced to apologise to members of the deaf community after delaying the launch of a captioned telephone at Federation Square this morning by almost 30 minutes.

Yarra trams scheduled extra services this morning to cope with the backlog including the Route 8 to assist passengers between South Yarra and the City, extra services on Route 59 to assist passengers from Essendon, and along Route 19 to assist Upfield passengers.

Yarra Trams spokesman Colin Tyrus said the aim was to help people get to work by calling in several trams to help with the situation.

Coaches were brought in for outbound services in an attempt to deal with the thousands of stranded passengers.

Taxi services were also affected as frustrated commuters tried to find alternative ways to travel.

In June, about 17 per cent of trains ran late, well over the 12 per cent target.

And today's meltdown will almost certainly mean that Metro will not meet its targets for July.

In the past two years, the State Government has given Metro $319 million to improve maintenance.

But critics claim this money is too little and too late.

My News:

Melbourne Rail Operator Metro was charged up to 1 million by the Department of Transport of Australia due to a meltdown of power supply between Southern Cross and Flinders Street stations. The incident cut overhead power supplies to all trains in the vicinity. Almost every train services are affected by this incident which is considered as a fiasco by the commuter. This mayhem has causes great disruption to the commuters that rely on the train services. The commuters will have a day free travel of train services as Metro need to fix the problem.

Aussie news: Queensland schools file 12,000 child harm reports

MORE than 12,000 reports of suspected child abuse were made by Queensland school staff over the past year.And that number is expected to soar even higher.

The Education Department has revealed it is projecting more than 15,000 suspected child harm reports will have been made by staff in both private and state schools last financial year.

That's a jump of more than 40 per cent on the previous year.

However, figures provided by the Department of Child Safety yesterday show only a small number of the reports have been substantiated.

Of the 12,339 reports made by school staff in the year ending March 31, only 3090 were deemed worthy of investigation by the department. And only 858 of those cases were found to be true.

The alarming figures have been released by the State Government in response to a report that claimed Queensland laws failed to protect children from sexual abuse that ``may be highly likely to occur''.

Acting Education Minister Karen Struthers disputed the findings of the Queensland University of Technology report, saying a mix of legislation and the department's student protection policy served to protect children.

``The fact that there (could eventually be) more than 15,000 reports in the past year shows just how seriously teachers take their job,'' she said.

She said the figures demonstrated teachers and principals erred on the side of caution.

``In every circumstance in a state school where a staff member or non-staff members suspects a student has been harmed or is at risk of harm, they must report it,'' she said.

Ms Struthers said that if a teacher or principal ``failed in their duty'' (to report possible abuse) they faced disciplinary action, including losing their jobs.

The Queensland Teachers Union, Queensland Council of Parents and Citizens Associations and Independent Education Union of Australia all said they weren't concerned by the high number of reports.

QCPCA president Margaret Black said while the data was likely to be inflated because teachers reported ``even the slightest suspicion'', that was not a bad thing.

However, the Queensland University of Technology report ``Teachers reporting child sexual abuse: Towards evidence-based reform of law, policy and practice'' made 13 recommendations in relation to strengthening the state's laws, policies and training which dealt with the reporting of child sexual abuse by teachers.

The report is being considered by Queensland's education stakeholders, including the State Government, the Queensland Catholic Education Commission and the Queensland College of Teachers.

It criticized Queensland and the ACT as the only states and territories which did not require teachers to report cases where there was a likely risk that sexual abuse would occur in the future.

``The Queensland legislation should be amended to also require reports of suspected risk of sexual abuse that has not yet occurred,'' it recommended.

But the report also acknowledged policies in Queensland did require teachers to report suspected future sexual abuse

My News:

12339 reports have been lodged for the children abuse in Queensland based on the statistic released by the Education Department. This figure is higher 40 % than previous record and is presumed to skyrocket more. Despite the high number of cases, the Queensland Teachers Union, Queensland Council of Parents and Citizens Associations and Independent Education Union of Australia all are not daunted by the alarming statistics. They think that the figure is inflated due to the vigilance show by the school staff. It is a good sign because this shows that teacher nowadays are more observance with their student in school. Of the 12,339 reports made by school staff in the year ending March 31, only 3090 were consider as worth to be investigated and only 858 are substantiate to be true. On the other hand, this report gained serious attention from Queensland's education stakeholders, including the State Government, the Queensland Catholic Education Commission and the Queensland College of Teachers. These organizations accuse Queensland as the only state that doesn’t require teachers to report cases where there are high possibilities of a sexual children abuse to take place and advocate for the amendment of Queensland legislation which require teacher to report any suspected risk of sexual abuse.

Aussie News: auction to july 25 Man found guilty of making abusive calls to public servant. Jailed for 12 months, set free on parole

AN Ipswich pensioner has been given a 12-month jail sentence for stalking a senior Queensland public servant during a series of 11 abusive telephone calls over the "hot water".
Judge Leanne Clare, SC, ordered the man be released on immediate parole.
A Brisbane District Court deliberated less than two hours before finding Kevin Keith McMahon guilty of stalking former Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation chief workforce manager Cate Callaghan between April 13 and July 3 last year.
During a two-day trial, the jury was told during one phone conversation McMahon told Ms Callaghan to contact the police because he was going to "do her".
The prosecution said McMahon's conduct "crossed the line" with his repeated threats and vulgar language levelled at Ms Callaghan.
Ms Callaghan testified in one conversation McMahon told her: "Get the police, sweetheart. You will be the first witness and I will do you."
She said McMahon in one "menacing and shrill" call claimed Queensland's Premier and numerous government officials were corrupt in their dealing with one electricity and gas retail provider.
"The tone (of one call) was quite menacing and shrill in volume," she said.
"I really felt this time this man could do more than just make (abusive) phone calls."
Prosecutor Glen Cash said the offensive language used by McMahon was so vulgar it "would make a sailor blush".
McMahon, 55, a disability pensioner, had pleaded not guilty to one count of unlawful stalking with a circumstance of aggravation.
The jury found McMahon not guilty of that charge, but guilty of the lesser alternate charge of unlawful stalking.
McMahon had formally complained to Ms Callaghan's department over a claimed grievance about the supply and cost of gas to provide hot water to the Ipswich unit in which he lived.

My News:
A disable pensioner in Ipswich has been convicted for stalking on the former Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation chief workforce manager Cate Callaghan between April 13 and July 3 last year. According to Ms Callaghan, the criminal, Mc Mahon called her and talked to her in a vulgar and menacing tone. Actually, Mc Mahon was intend to complaint to Ms Callaghan about the hot water issue around his house as he thought that government was been corrupted by one electricity and gas retail provider. The outrageous Mc Mahon even intimidated Ms Callaghan to lodge a police report before he started to attack Ms Callaghan. Ms Callaghan felt unsecure as she thought that Mc Mahon would do more other than making abusive call to her. Therefore she reported to the police and Mc Mahon received the punishment of 12 months jail with the crime of a series of 11 stalking calls.

Aussie news: Chinese paid $1.90 an hour to dismantle Mitsubishi factory

CHINESE labourers were flown in to dismantle heavy machinery at the former Mitsubishi car plant and paid as little as $1.90 an hour for the backbreaking work, it has been revealed.
The 24 temporary migrant workers were housed in dormitory-style accommodation in the Adelaide Hills while completing the eight-month job, and were allegedly underpaid more than $131,000 by their employer, a Chinese state-owned company.
The Fair Work Ombudsman has launched Federal Court action against their employer, the Chinese-registered China SANAN Engineering Construction Corporation, alleging two breaches of workplace relations laws.
Fair Work Ombudsman executive director Michael Campbell will allege China SANAN paid the workers between 2005 and 6603 yuan a month, or from $1.90 to $6.75 an hour.
At the time, the Australian federal minimum wage was $14.31 an hour.
China SANAN brought the Chinese workers to Australia to dismantle and remove an automotive press formerly used by Mitsubishi Motors Australia. They worked at the Tonsley Park site from October 29, 2009, until the end of June this year.
Federal Court documents show the Chinese labourers worked a 7.6 hour day and 21.75 days a month during the contract and were entitled to receive at least the federal minimum wage.
"The Fair Work Ombudsman is committed to its role of enforcing Australia's labour standards for overseas workers and will take action against employers who seek to exploit foreign workers," Mr Campbell said.
"Strong and persistent messages need to be sent to employers that both deter this type of behaviour and reinforce the fact that exploitative practices will just not be tolerated."
The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union was aware Chinese workers had been brought in to work at the former car plant but attempts to discover their working conditions were thwarted.
The revelation that they were paid as little as $1.90 an hour outraged union state secretary John Camillo, who described the situation as "a disgrace" and "unbelievable".
"The company knows the industrial relations system in Australia. I just don't know how they could do that," Mr Camillo said.
"We had roadblocks everywhere when we tried to investigate it in December and we were told no, they are not labourers, it is only engineers. I can understand why they wouldn't let us go anywhere near them to talk to these people.
"It is a disgrace and there would have been a lot of people who were aware of that and allowed it to happen. It is more than slave labour. A dollar-something an hour is a big concern and I will be further looking into this to make sure it never, ever happens again."
The Fair Work Ombudsman launched its investigation after receiving information from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship. Workplace inspectors visited the former Mitsubishi site twice in January, three times in February and once in May and interviewed the workers, China SANAN lawyers and Mitsubishi representatives.
Mr Campbell said that foreign companies operating in Australia must comply with Australian workplace laws, including minimum pay rates.
It is alleged the Chinese workers arrived in Adelaide on class 456 visas, which are designed for short-stay business visits of up to three months for specialised, non-ongoing work. These were later cancelled by DIAC.
Mr Campbell said Chinese SANAN reimbursed its workers when they returned to China in March, with an "overseas travel allowance" which satisfied the alleged underpayment of the minimum wage.
Some of the workers subsequently returned on 457 visas which allowed supervised work.
The Chinese workers were believed to have been put up in dormitory-style accommodation in the Adelaide Hills during their stays. The accommodation had its own kitchen and all meals were cooked by a China SANAN employee, including lunch, which was delivered to Tonsley Park daily.
Accommodation and all meals were paid for by the company.
An Immigration Department spokesman yesterday said following discussions with the workers, most of their 456 visas were cancelled and the "more appropriate" 457 visa issued to eligible workers.
"This is not unusual once the department becomes aware that the work being conducted does not fit the requirements of the 456 visa," the spokesman said.
State Industrial Relations Minister Paul Holloway yesterday said that the pay and conditions of the SANAN employees were covered by federal minimum wage provisions.
The highest-ever penalty handed out for underpaying employees from a non-English speaking background was against an Adelaide cleaning company earlier this year. Saya Pty Ltd underpaid two vulnerable workers less than $4000.

My news:

The Fair Work Ombudsman started its investigation against a Chinese-registered China SANAN Engineering Construction Corporation after receiving information from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship. Report from Fair Work Ombudsman reveals that Chinese labourers, who were employed by the company to destroy the heavy machinery at the former Mitsubishi car plant, were paid with wages of $1.90 per hour for the strenuous work. The wages paid are lower than the Australia federal minimum wages 14.30 per hour. According to the Federal Court documents, the labourers worked 7.6 hours per day and 21.75 days per month while entitled to receive wages not less than the federal minimum wages. The Fair Work Ombudsman is committed to enforce the federal laws against the overseas worker and will take action against company that exploit their workers. Therefore SANAN will be charged through federal court action for breaking two breaches of workplace relations laws.

Aussie News: Culture shock for untrained cabbies

CABBIES must have good English but they also need cultural training so they can deal with difficult and dangerous situations, a report says.

Muslim drivers have been known to refuse to accept cash handed over from female passengers unless the money is put on the seat.

Other reported cases include migrant drivers feeling threatened because they don't understand Australian humour and being embarrassed when women offer to pay their fares with sex.

Growing concern by taxi operators and governments over the poor English skills of drivers led to Queensland firm ISLPR Language Services being commissioned to develop national minimum standards for the industry.

The company's report, How Good Should a Taxi Driver's English Be? was presented on Thursday at a Melbourne University conference hosted by the Language Testing Research Centre.

Report co-author Prof David Ingram said that many drivers had problems communicating on an everyday basis and this could mean trouble in stressful situations.

"It requires high levels of English proficiency to deal with drunken and aggressive passengers," he said. "But if you set the levels too high you will have an adverse effect on recruitment."

The Herald Sun picked five questions from the year 7 NAPLAN literacy test and quizzed migrant drivers on their English knowledge.

Of the 15 cabbies tested, six got two questions right, six got three right and one got four correct. No one got all of them right and two drivers gave up after briefly studying the questions.

Driver Aravind Pindi, 30, of Sunshine, said that about 60 per cent of his colleagues spoke good English and Indians often had an advantage over other migrants because they had learnt English from a young age.

" It takes time for everyone to get used to this language," he said.

Another driver, who got two questions right, said he was attending English classes and wanted to improve.

"Taxi drivers are dumb. That's why we are taxi drivers," he said.

Prof Ingram, an honorary professorial fellow at Melbourne University, said that cultural clashes such as refusing to carry guide dogs showed that language was not the only issue.

"You can't just teach that or talk about that," he said.

"You've got to let people get into a situation where they can experience it."

Report co-author Elaine Wylie said passengers were being insensitive to drivers from certain backgrounds when they used sexual come-ons.

My News:

There is a growing concern about the poor English level of the taxi driver in Australia. Many cases which involve the miscommunication between passengers and taxi driver have happened. These include some migrant cabbies get threatened with the humors that spoke by the passenger and felt awkward when some female passengers offered for sex to pay for the rates. Other than that, there is a culture shock among the migrant driver. Muslims are known for their reluctance to receive money from female passenger unless they put the money on the seat. This draws the attention of taxi operators and governments and Queensland firm ISLPR Language Services are given authority to increase the minimum English level of taxi driver in Australia.