Ο Αρχιεπίσκοπος Αυστραλίας Στυλιανός έλαβε τρίμηνη άδεια και απέχει από τα καθήκοντα του για λόγους υγείας και ξεκούρασης, σύμφωνα με ασφαλείς πληροφορίες του «Εθνικού Κήρυκα» τόσο από την Αυστραλία, όσο και από την Αθήνα.

Καθήκοντα τοποτηρητή-αντικαταστάτη του για όσο καιρό θα βρίσκεται σε άδεια ανατέθηκαν στον Επίσκοπο Απολλωνιάδος Σεραφείμ, ο οποίος τυγχάνει και πρωτοσυγκελεύων της Αρχιεπισκοπής Αυστραλίας. Μήνυμα του «Ε.Κ.» μέσω e-mail πριν από τέσσερις ημέρες στον Επίσκοπο Σεραφείμ, παρέμεινε αναπάντητο.

Ιεράρχες του Φαναρίου είπαν στον «Ε.Κ.» ότι ο Αρχιεπίσκοπος Στυλιανός «είχε αντιμετωπίσει κάποια ασθένεια στο παρελθόν, πλην όμως είχε αποθεραπευθεί», ενώ δήλωσαν άγνοια για τα αίτια που τον ανάγκασαν να λάβει τρίμηνη άδεια και αποχή από τα καθήκοντα του.

Εν τω μεταξύ, έχει ήδη αρχίσει ανάμεσα σε εκκλησιαστικούς, αλλά και πολιτικούς κύκλους, η συζήτηση της διαδοχολογίας και ήδη ακούγονται και οι επίδοξοι διάδοχοι, ανάμεσα στους οποίους συμπεριλαμβάνεται Επίσκοπος εξ’ Αυστραλίας, Μητροπολίτης ο οποίος στο παρελθόν υπηρετούσε στην Αυστραλία και τώρα περιφέρεται στην Αθήνα τελώντας κατ’ ανάθεση κηδείες, μνημόσυνα και εκφωνών λόγους κατά περίσταση σε εσπερινούς και άλλες ιεροτελεστίες, καθώς επίσης και ιεράρχης από την Αμερική.

Ο κ. Στυλιανός, ο οποίος διανύει το 78ο έτος της ηλικίας του, γεννήθηκε στις 29 Δεκεμβρίου του 1935, υπηρετεί ως Αρχιεπίσκοπος Αυστραλίας επί 38 χρόνια και συγκεκριμένα από τον Απρίλιο του 1975.

Ο Αρχιεπίσκοπος Στυλιανός ήταν ανάμεσα στους επικρατέστερους να γίνει Αρχιεπίσκοπος Αμερικής, τον Αύγουστο του 1999 έπειτα από την αποχώρηση από τον Θρόνο του Αρχιεπισκόπου Αμερικής Σπυρίδωνα, αλλά την τελευταία στιγμή ματαιώθηκε η υποψηφιότητα του και διορίστηκε ο σημερινός Αρχιεπίσκοπος Δημήτριος ουσιαστικά εξ’ ανάγκης διότι τελευταία στιγμή το Πατριαρχείο δεν μπορούσε να βρει κανέναν άλλον.

Από τότε ο κ. Στυλιανός «διέκοψε» κάθε συνάφεια και εγγύτητα με τον Πατριάρχη Βαρθολομαίο και το Φανάρι και περιορίστηκαν οι σχέσεις μόνο στα τυπικά και υπηρεσιακά, ενώ μέχρι σήμερα δεν έχει δεχθεί να συμμετάσχει στη Σύνοδο του Φαναρίου.

Σπούδασε στη Θεολογική Σχολή της Χάλκης, χειροτονήθηκε διάκονος το 1957 και πρεσβύτερος το 1958, ενώ με υποτροφία του Πατριαρχείου έκανε μεταπτυχιακές σπουδές στη Γερμανία, ενώ διεκηρύχθη διδάκτωρ με άριστα από το Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών. Διετέλεσε υφηγητής της Θεολογικής Σχολής του Πανεπιστημίου Θεσσαλονίκης.

Το έτος 1970 εκλέχτηκε τιτουλάριος Μητροπολίτης Μιλητουπόλεως και έξαρχος του Οικουμενικού Πατριαρχείου για το Αγιο Ορος, ενώ το 1975 εκλέχθηκε Αρχιεπίσκοπος Αυστραλίας όπου και υπηρετεί μέχρι σήμερα.

Συντέλεσε στην ίδρυση κοινοτήτων και μονών και της Θεολογικής Σχολής του Αγίου Ανδρέα. Διετέλεσε πρόεδρος του Επισήμου Διαλόγου μεταξύ Ορθοδόξου και Ρωμαιοκαθολικής Εκκλησίας, ενώ το 2003 υπέβαλλε την παραίτησή του από τον Διάλογο

* Ο κ. Θεόδωρος Καλμούκος είναι εκκλησιαστικός συντάκτης στην ομογενειακή εφημερίδα “Εθνικός Κήρυξ” απ’ όπου προέρχεται και το παραπάνω ρεπορτάζ

Source: abc.net.au

Source: crikey.com.au

The ceremony saw students receive a Certificate for Excellence from the Minister in front of their families and senior representatives from across the education sectors.

2013 highlights include:

Modern Greek Beginners
Rhonda Douroukis – Georges River College Oatley Senior Campus

Modern Greek Continuers
Fotini Kapsabelis – St Spyridon College (Maroubra)

Modern Greek Extension
Dionisia Kolevris – Open High School (RANDWICK)

Classical Greek Continuers
Kim Zhang – Pymble Ladies’ College

Over 70,000 students will have access to their HSC results from 6.00am tomorrow (Wednesday 18 December).

Results are available online and by SMS using a secure system requiring a Student Number and HSC PIN. For more information on HSC results go to studentsonline.bos.nsw.edu.au

The Board of Studies HSC Results Inquiry Centre 1300 13 83 23 will be open from 9 am for students with questions about their HSC results.

Source: DailyTelegraph

Source: mirror.co.uk

The Mysterious Girl singer reveals he had a meltdown in Mothercare

Naw. Don’t they look lovely together?

Source: abc.net.au

Holden confirmed the Australian car manufacturing industry’s worst fears when it announced on December 11 it would close its operations in South Australia and Victoria by 2017.

Before the announcement, Independent Senator Nick Xenophon and his Democratic Labor Party counterpart John Madigan made pleas to Prime Minister Tony Abbott to keep Holden in Australia by increasing government assistance.

Senator Xenophon said the Australian car industry does not compete with other car-making countries on a “level playing field”.

“We have this crazy deal with Thailand, a free trade agreement, where cars made in Thailand come here with no duty whatsoever, but if you want to buy a Ford Territory that retails for $38,000 to $40,000 in Australia, it will cost you over $100,000 in Thailand,” he said in Canberra on December 9.

 

ABC Fact Check asked Senator Xenophon for the basis for his figures. His office said they came from ‘The strategic role of the Australian automotive manufacturing industry’, a report prepared by ACIL Allen Consulting in September 2013 for the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, an industry organisation.

The report says the Ford Territory costs “an unattractive $100,000 [in Thailand], which is far above the price of a comparable locally made product”.

Price of a Ford Territory

Ford Australia shipped 100 Ford Territorys to Thailand in August 2012. Currently the Ford Territory Titanium model sells for 2,990,000 Thai Baht, which is equivalent to $102,211.

The same model in Australia, the Ford Territory Titanium RWD, costs between $59,357 and $61,076 depending on which state it is purchased in.

Thailand-Australia Free Trade Agreement

A Thailand-Australia Free Trade Agreement came into force on January 1, 2005. It has eliminated the majority of Thai tariffs on goods imported from Australia.

Following the agreement, Thailand eliminated tariffs on Australian large passenger motor vehicles, defined as cars with an engine capacity of over 3000cc, as well as goods vehicles such as pick-up trucks. Previously these tariffs were 80 per cent and 60 per cent respectively. For smaller vehicles and all automotive parts, components and accessories also, tariffs are now zero. These Australian products enter Thailand duty free.

Tariffs on engines were halved to 15 per cent.

Thailand’s car excise

Shortly after the agreement came into force, the Thai government introduced a new automotive excise regime based on engine capacity, a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokeswoman said.

All cars, whether they are manufactured locally or imported, attract an excise of up to 50 per cent.

Vehicles with engines larger than 2,500cc attract excises ranging between 40 and 50 per cent. Smaller vehicles such as pick-up trucks with engines up to 3,250cc attract excises between 3 and 20 per cent.

A later publication from the Thai government’s Fiscal Policy Office, ‘A Guide to Thai Taxation 2008’, described the excise as an indirect-selective sales tax.

“Apart from the dominant role of a revenue generator the purposes of imposing excise taxes are to restrict consumption of certain goods, to promote social and economic equity, encourage saving, and to reflect energy conservation and environmental issues,” the publication said.

For locally made cars, the excise is levied when they leave the factory, and for imported cars, when they arrive onshore.

“Large engine PMV (engines larger than 2,500cc), which are mainly imported to Thailand, are Australia’s primary export interest to Thailand,” the department’s spokeswoman said. “By contrast pick-up trucks and passenger pick-up vehicles (with engine sizes up to 3,250cc) are mostly produced by Thailand itself. By default, this excise regime discriminates against imported vehicles.”

The Ford Territory Titanium has an engine size of 2720cc and therefore attracts an excise of 40 per cent.

Adding other domestic taxes such as the value added tax (VAT) brings the Ford Territory Titanium to its retail price of about $100,000.

Thailand is however now moving to a new automotive excise regime based on CO2 emissions which is expected to take effect on January 1, 2016.

While these changes mean Thailand moves away from engine sizes as the driver for excise taxation, “the impact of these new changes on Australian exports is still unclear”, according to the department.

The department also says the Thai government did not breach the free trade agreement by introducing new excises after the agreement was entered into.

“Excise duties were not covered in the agreement. Excise duties are a domestic matter, determined independently by governments, and are generally not covered in FTAs. We are pursuing the matter with Thailand through bilateral trade discussions,” the department spokeswoman said.

Other countries that Australia has a free trade agreement with such as Malaysia and Singapore also have high car excises. In Singapore in order to own a large car like the Territory, a purchaser has to bid for and pay for a Certificate of Entitlement (COE) to own a car. For cars bigger than 1600cc, COEs cost $SG73,010 or $65,036, more than the price of the Territory itself in Australia.

The Singapore government says these additional motor vehicle taxes are “to curb car ownership and lower congestion”.

The verdict

Excise is levied on all cars in Thailand, locally made or imported.

Senator Xenophon’s claim is not the full story.

Source: cnet.com.au

Abandoned tax reforms hit Aussie startups hard

Reforms in Australia’s tax system that could have helped the startup scene in Australia have been abandoned, making future investments in new businesses a risk.

AVCAL’s submission to the future Financial System Inquiry slated for 2014.
(Credit: AVCAL)

The Australian government’s Assistant Treasurer Arthur Sinodinos passed through a raft of taxation and superannuation adjustments into law over the weekend, but set aside two measures in a wider range of reforms that would have made it easier for Australian startups to grow.

One of the measures dismissed would have allowed new businesses engaged in research and development to claim tax credits quarterly. This would have helped cash flow for startups that struggle to make it to the end of their first reporting period for tax credits, which can be as long as 16 months.

The other denied measure that could have directly influenced startup success was a lowering of the Early Stage Venture Capital Limited Partnership (ESVCLP) requirement from AU$10 milion to AU$5 million, and combining both early stage and general venture capital partnerships.

The Australian Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (AVCAL), representing Australia’s venture capital industry members, said the two reforms would have been a boon for startups and investors alike. “Abandoning these reforms is a major setback for Australia’s innovation agenda,” said AVCAL’s CEO, Yasser El-Ansary.

“These reforms would not have a significant net cost to the budget bottom line; in fact these reforms would likely lead to more tax revenue over time as investment increases and businesses become more profitable more quickly.”

AVCAL will continue to push for the reforms to be passed. Until then, it says, Australia faces an “innovation deficit” that will impact future research and development and the success of Australian startups.

Source: greekcommunity.com.au

Greek Community students currently enrolled in Ancient Greek

The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) granted authorisation to the Greek Community of Melbourne & Victoria to teach Classical Greek (Ancient Greek) Units 1-4 at VCE level, starting in 2014.

The Greek Community of Melbourne will be offering Ancient Greek to VCE students, as well as to students from Year 7-10.

Those students wishing to complete Ancient Greek at VCE level are required to have studied the subject for two years prior to beginning Ancient Greek studies at VCE level.

We wish to remind interested people that the subject of Ancient Greek is scaled up; for example in 2013 this meant an additional 16 marks for those students who received a score of 30.

In a statement made today, Theo Markos, Education Coordinator of the GOCMV said “Education is one of the foremost priorities of the Greek Community and for many years our organisation has invested in providing support for the promotion of our language and culture”.

“The fact that our application to teach Ancient Greek at VCE level was approved by the relevant authorities is not only significant for our language schools but also for the Greek community at large.

We are the only Greek Language School in Victoria to receive such accreditation and as of next year our first Ancient Greek Students will undertake the subject at VCE after two years of studying the subject”.

Parents who wish to enrol their children in Classical Greek are advised to call the Community’s offices on: 9662 2722 or email education@greekcommunity.com.au