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The Law Society of NSW supports in-principle an announcement by Federal Attorney-General Christian Porter that the Family Court and Federal Circuit Courts be amalgamated.

The Law Society of NSW supports in-principle an announcement by Federal Attorney-General Christian Porter that the Family Court and Federal Circuit Courts be merged.

President of The Law Society of NSW said the ongoing delays in the family law system have been a concern of the Law Society for some years.

“Any measures that can streamline processes and reduce the backlog of cases are welcome,” Mr Humphreys said.

“However the Law Society is firmly of the view that the system also requires additional resources to cope with the increased complexity of matters and the current unmanageable workloads of many judges.

“While a merged court with a single set of rules, procedures and forms appears to be a step in the right direction, additional resources are an urgent priority ahead of the commencement of the merger on 1 January 2019.”

Mr Humphreys said the Law Society looked forward to the opportunity to review the legislation implementing the reforms and further details about the timeframe for merging the two sets of court rules.

“This will be key to simplifying procedures and improving the disposition of cases,” he said.

“We will carefully scrutinise the detail of the proposals to ensure they will generate the efficiencies and simplification the system so desperately needs.”

The Law Society will also continue to engage with the Australia Law Reform Commission’s review of the family law system, which is now an opportunity to focus on alternative reforms to further improve the operation of the system.

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GC2018 supports campaign to protect children around the world

An international initiative aimed at educating sports fans and the general public about the issue of knowing the signs of child abuse and exploitation will have a presence at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games (GC2018).

‘It’s a Penalty’ (IAP) works with the governing bodies of sports and organisers of major sporting events to highlight the global problems associated with child abuse.

Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation (GOLDOC) CEO, Mark Peters said he was pleased to provide opportunities through GC2018 to increase awareness of ‘IAP’ and all that it stands for.

“IAP uses sporting events like the Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games as platforms to share their message to unite through sport and encourage education and awareness to know the signs of child abuse and exploitation.

“We signed a memo of understanding early this year to demonstrate our commitment to work with IAP and will provide them with opportunities, including in-venue video, information in media packs and support through our GC2018 digital channels,” Mr Peters said.

Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) Chief Executive Officer, David Grevemberg CBE said the CGF aims to be a global leader in the promotion and protection of human rights and child safeguarding.

“We’re proud to support, share expertise and partner with It’s a Penalty to help develop this important global child-safeguarding initiative in 2018,” Mr Grevemberg said.

IAP Chief Executive Officer, Sarah de Carvalho MBE said prevention is infinitely preferable to cure when it comes to child abuse.

“Our extensive efforts with GOLDOC and the CGF is invaluable for the work we are undertaking in 2018.

“From our experience with previous global sporting events, we know how crucial it is to educate, equip and encourage the public to stop more children becoming victims of sexual violence.

“We cannot thank the organisations enough for the support they have already shown and will continue to show in the build-up and then throughout the eleven days of world class sport,” Mrs de Carvalho said.

IAP positions major sporting events as platforms for positive change across all societies by educating, equipping and encouraging the general public to #knowthesigns of child abuse exploitation and to take action – ‘if you see something, say something’.

It’s a Penalty is working closely with Bravehearts, a leading Gold Coast-based child protection organisation, to provide volunteers for IAP’s Games-time activities.

Find out more at www.itsapenalty.org.

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Drug-Driving Laws Placing Australian Road Users at Risk

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Messaging service WhatsApp, which recently celebrated its seventh anniversary, is withdrawing its operations from BlackBerry, including BlackBerry 10, Nokia S40, Nokia Symbian S60, Android 2.1 and Android 2 and Windows Phone 7.1

“While these mobile devices have been an important part of our story, they don’t offer the kind of capabilities we need to expand our app’s features in the future,’’ WhatsApp said.

It recommends users of these services upgrade to a newer Android, iPhone, or Windows Phone before the end of 2016 to continue using WhatsApp.

In its blog post, the WhatsApp team talked about the launch back in 2009 when most smart phones were either a Blackberry or Nokia.

“When we started WhatsApp in 2009, people’s use of mobile devices looked very different from today. The Apple App Store was only a few months old. About 70 percent of smartphones sold at the time had operating systems offered by BlackBerry and Nokia. Mobile operating systems offered by Google, Apple and Microsoft – which account for 99.5 percent of sales today – were on less than 25 percent of mobile devices sold at the time.”

It was a different time, and the Facebook owned company says technology has moved on.

“As we look ahead to our next seven years, we want to focus our efforts on the mobile platforms the vast majority of people use,’’ Whats App said.

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Amazon has posted a job ad suggesting the company is creating virtual reality experiences for entertainment.

The ad, posted on Glassdoor and spotted by the UploadtoVR website, says that the company wants to hire a senior software development manager to lead a team that create VR on Amazon Video.

It doesn’t get more specific than that.

But the wording of the ad suggests Jeff Bezos and his team has big things in mind.

It says:

“Entertainment is evolving rapidly. The future will not be limited to passive 2D experiences. The Virtual Reality team will explore and create the platform and interface for immersive storytelling. This will include an ingestion and playback platform for Virtual Reality experiences.”

It’s a development that could totally transform the Amazon offering.

At the same time, Amazon is late to the party.

Amazon Video’s main competitor Netflix already has some shows available for viewing on the Samsung Gear VR headset, powered by the Facebook-owned Oculus platform.

And YouTube has compiled a stash of 360-degree videos.

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Australia’s most popular travel agents and the holiday-goers more (or less) likely to use them

Between July 2015 and June 2016, just over 13.7 million Australians 14 took at least one holiday, the latest findings from Roy Morgan Research show. Of these Aussie holiday-goers, 7.3 million (52.8%) reported using a travel agent or tour operator for at least one of the trips they took – more than double the number (3.2 million) that didn’t use one at all. And the most popular travel agent? No prizes for guessing that Flight Centre has clinched top spot once again…

Some 12.6% of Australian holiday-goers used Flight Centre for at least one trip in the 12 months to June 2016, giving the chain a respectable lead over online accommodation service Booking.com (11.4%). Wotif.com was a distant third at 6.8%, ahead of Webjet (6.1%) and — in its first year of being measured in the Roy Morgan Holiday Tracker Survey — Airbnb (5.5%).

Ten travel agents/tour operators most used by Australian holiday-goers

ten-most-popular-travel-agents

Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia), July 2015-June 2016, n=10,112. Base: Australians 14 who took at least one holiday in last 12 months

Besides Flight Centre, the only travel agent with a bricks-and-mortar presence to crack the Top 10 was Helloworld, used by 2.8% of holiday-goers. The remaining eight are all exclusively online businesses. This is hardly surprising, given how dramatically the rise of digital technology has transformed the travel industry, but it does not tell the whole story.

Viewing Australian holiday-goers through the lens of Roy Morgan’s in-depth consumer profiling tool Helix Personas, it soon becomes apparent that booking a holiday is not a one-size-fits-all scenario.

Even Flight Centre – as popular as it is – is more likely to attract certain groups of travellers than others. For example, 22.5% of the Helix Persona known as Social Flyers used Flight Centre for at least one holiday in the 12 months to June 2016 – well above the national average and more than five times the proportion of Rural Traditionalists (4.0%), the Persona least likely to choose Flight Centre.

Australia’s five most popular travel agent and the Helix Personas most/least likely to use them

helix-travel-agent-prefs

Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia), July 2015-June 2016, n=10,112. Base: Australians 14 who took at least one holiday in last 12 months

Frequently young, sociable and single, Social Flyers earn good wages but are not yet tied down by too many financial or family responsibilities. What better excuse to indulge their love of overseas travel? With the hectic schedule they keep, however, they may be too busy to organise all the finer details themselves. Just as well Flight Centre’s complete travel service (from flights to hotels, cruises to package deals) makes it so easy…

In contrast, Rural Traditionalists tend to be older, living in country areas and working hard in blue-collar jobs to pay off their mortgage before retirement. They generally stay in Australia for holidays, organising their budget getaway on the Virgin Australia Holidays website, Lastminute.com or Hotels.com rather than visiting a travel agent.

Meanwhile, Airbnb attracts an elevated proportion of people from the Big Future segment. Educated, cultured, switched on and usually coupled up, Big Future would find Airbnb appealing for the way it allows travellers to feel more like locals and less like tourists. They may have started a family, but they’re still hipsters at heart!

Norman Morris, Industry Communications Director, Roy Morgan Research, says:

“Although Roy Morgan data tells us which travel agents were most used by Aussie holiday-goers in the last 12 months, this is a top-level insight, and does not reveal which holiday-goers are more or less likely to use a particular agent – or, indeed, to use none at all.

“Of course, it’s no secret that the travel industry has been transformed by digital technology, with the rise of online agents, booking services and tourism operators being a logical outcome of this. For bricks-and-mortar travel agents, this has meant adapting to the changing market or risk losing relevance. Flight Centre’s continued popularity indicates it has done this effectively. The fact that it attracts a tech-savvy consumer segment such as Social Flyers also speaks volumes for the chain’s ability to anticipate and meet the needs of even those who’d be perfectly comfortable organising their own holiday online.

“By identifying exactly who is more or less likely to use a particular bricks-and-mortar travel agent or online booking site, Helix Personas enables tourism operators to target the travellers who will be most responsive to their brand, rather than going for a more generalised approach.”

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Shoppers at Woolworths are more likely to have their mobile phone with Telstra, while those at Coles are more likely to be with Optus—and the correlation reflects how the supermarkets and telcos are positioned in their respective markets, Roy Morgan Research shows.

47% of people who mainly shop at Woolworth are Telstra mobile phone customers, compared with 39% of Coles’ main shoppers. 22% of Coles’ main shoppers are Optus mobile phone customers, compared with 19% of Woolworths’ main shoppers.

Could it be an accident? In both cases, the difference is statistically significant—showing a real link between our choice of supermarket and choice of mobile service provider.

% of supermarkets’ main shoppers with mobile service provider

Source: Roy Morgan Single Source, April 2015 – March 2016, sample n = 12,318 Grocery Buyers 14

So if the Woolworths-Telstra and Coles-Optus connections aren’t arbitrary, the question is: what connects our choice of main supermarket with our choice of mobile service provider?

The answer lies in the most basic tenet of market positioning: Quality versus Price. The two supermarket giants have distinguished themselves as the ‘fresh food people’ and the home of ‘down-down’ prices respectively.

As the chart below shows, Woolworths is more commonly associated with Quality and Coles with Price—just as Telstra and Optus are.

64% of grocery buyers who mainly shop at Woolworths say the one thing their supermarket is best known for relates to Quality*, compared with 44% of Coles’ main shoppers. Conversely, 35% of grocery buyers who mainly shop at Coles say the store’s defining attribute relates toPrice*, compared with just 18% of Woolworths’ regular customers.

When it comes to mobile provider, 71% of Telstra’s customers say an issue pertaining to Quality was among the reasons they chose the provider, compared with just 28% of Optus’s. And just as with supermarkets, the situation reverses when it comes to Price: mobile owners with Optus are over twice as likely as those with Telstra to cite Price as a deciding factor, 61% vs 29%.

% who cite Quality or Price for Supermarkets and Telcos

Source: Roy Morgan Single Source, April 2015 – March 2016, sample n = 12,318 Grocery Buyers 14 and 13,464 Main Mobile Owners 14

* The individual factors constituting Quality and Price are: for supermarkets, Quality is ‘wide range of goods or products’ or ‘fresh food quality freshness’, and Price is ‘low prices’ or ‘good value’; for mobile phone service providers, Quality is ‘better network coverage’, ‘better connection or reliability’ and/or ‘faster data or download speed’, and Price is ‘cheaper rates’, ‘more calls or texts included in the plan’, ‘clear pricing of the plan’, and/or ‘free or discounted phone’.

Michele Levine – CEO, Roy Morgan Research, says:

“Recent news suggests Woolworths may be planning a greater push into telecommunications. Each supermarket is already offering mobile phone plans as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO)—and the network owner it has signed on with is the best fit. Woolworths’ mobile services use the Telstra network, while Coles’ agreement is with Optus.

“As we’ve previously reported, mobile owners signed up with an MVNO tend to be seeking cheaper rates—but ALDIMobile customers are more likely to cite network coverage as a reason they picked the provider, reflecting the high score for its network operator, Telstra. This suggests that even MVNO customers often know full well which network they’ll be on, and it plays a part, after price, in determining which one they choose.

“While network operators all need to weigh up the revenue from selling on expensive networks to virtual providers, while the MVNOs themselves need to consider how they can distinguish themselves in a crowded market and target customers based on whose network they use. This is clearly important for the supermarket MVNOs in particular, with customers who already align closely with their respective network provider.”

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Between 2012 and 2016, the number of Australian adults whose diet is all or almost all vegetarian has risen from 1.7 million people (or 9.7% of the population) to almost 2.1 million (11.2%), the latest findings from Roy Morgan Research reveal. While it is a nationwide trend, the shift towards vegetarianism has been most striking in New South Wales, where there has been a 30% growth in this kind of diet.

As of March 2016, 12.4% of people living in NSW agreed that ‘The food I eat is all, or almost all, vegetarian’, up from 9.5% back in 2012. There was also a solid increase in Western Australia, with 10.9% of adult Sandgropers adopting a meat-free (or meat-minimal) diet (up from 8.7% in 2012), and in South Australia (10.4%, up from 8.5%).

As it did in 2012, Tasmania leads the nation with the highest proportion of residents who eat little or no meat (12.7%, up from 12.2%), while Queensland (9.2%, up from 8.3%) retains the distinction of being the state least inclined towards vegetarianism.

Where Australia’s vegetarians live: 2012 vs 2016

where-vegetarians-live-chart

Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia), April 2011-March 2012 (n=19,167); April 2015-March 2016 (n=14,380)

Australia’s vegetarians (and those who eat an almost vegetarian diet) are more likely to live in capital cities than in regional or rural areas. Given NSW’s vege-friendly status, it’s hardly surprising that Sydney is the capital with the greatest proportion of residents who eat little or no meat (14.4%); ahead of Hobart (13.3%) and Melbourne (12.7%).

Veges: good for the waistline?
As Roy Morgan Research has explored in the past, many Australians adopt a vegetarian diet for health and/or weight-loss reasons – and this hasn’t changed. Nearly half (48.7%) of Aussies 18 who eat little or no meat agree that ‘A low-fat diet is a way of life for me’ (well above the population average of 31.9%) and 36.7% agree that ‘I always think of the number of calories in the food I’m eating’ (compared with the 25.2% national average).

And it seems they’re onto something: while 60.7% of Australian adults have a Body Mass Index that qualifies as overweight or obese, this figure drops to 45.4% of those whose diet is mostly or totally vegetarian.

Norman Morris, Industry Communications Director, Roy Morgan Research, says:

“Whether people are embracing a less meat-heavy diet for health, environmental or animal-welfare reasons, the fact remains that this trend looks set to continue. Not only has there been an increase in near or total vegetarianism across Australia, but almost 9.9 million Aussie adults (53.4%) agree that they’re ‘eating less red meat these days’.

“If they have not already, supermarkets and eateries would be wise to revisit their vegetarian-friendly options to ensure they are catering adequately for this growing – and potentially lucrative — consumer segment.

“Of course, to do this successfully, an in-depth understanding of the segment is crucial: which is where the power of Roy Morgan Single Source data comes in. For example, Australians whose diet is largely or completely vegetarian are 20% more likely than average to spend more than $40 per week on fruit and vegetables, 93% more likely to buy organic food whenever they can, and 14% more likely to try new types of food.

“Roy Morgan’s ground-breaking consumer profiling tool Helix Personas allows businesses in the food industry to identify the country’s vegetarians with unprecedented accuracy, enabling them to create marketing campaigns and branding that are relevant and appealing to their target audience.

“For example, nearly 30% of people who fall within the Fit & Fab persona eat little or no meat. Based primarily in inner-city neighbourhoods, Fit & Fab tend to be young, sociable, sporty and always on the go. While they’re not averse to some serious partying, they are also careful to balance their action-packed lifestyle with a healthy diet – which is where vegetarian food would come in.

“In contrast, vegetarianism is frequently a cultural choice for the segment known as New Australians, nearly one third of whom follow a diet free of or low in meat. Comprised largely of Indian, Chinese and other Asian immigrants living in outer suburban areas, New Australians are well educated, socially connected and in the early stages of their careers. They enjoy domestic life – even grocery shopping, where they would certainly take an interest in vegetarian products on offer.”

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Experienced litigator encourages them to seek legal help to secure maximum compensation

Recovering prostate cancer patients wrongly informed their illness had returned should seek urgent and expert legal help to secure maximum compensation for the distress the wrong diagnosis imposed, an experienced compensation litigator has advised.

Earlier this week, the South Australian Government reported that as many as 52 men had been wrongly informed their prostate cancer may have returned despite surgery to remove the cancer.

The report found the incorrect diagnosis was reached via faulty testing kits administered by SA Pathology, the state’s public health laboratory.

Maddens Lawyers Class Action Principal Brendan Pendergast, who successfully settled Australia’s first Black Saturday Bushfire Class Action and has represented hundreds of other bushfire victims from across Victoria and New South Wales over the past 30 years, suggested those affected by the false results should seek legal help to ensure appropriate redress.

“A compensation claim prepared by an experienced litigator is the most effective way to secure adequate compensation,” Mr Pendergast explained.

“Compensation claims may be a complex process however advancing a claim will be simplified by engaging a lawyer experienced in these types of negotiations. Those representing the party at fault want to ensure their payout is as low as it can be. Anyone lacking in experience in this process may find themselves missing out on everything they are entitled to.”

He encouraged anyone affected by the faulty screening tests to contact an experienced lawyer or visit maddenslawyers.com.au for further information.

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