quote:

Eman Sharobeem's life story reads like an inspiring tale of overcoming the odds: forced into an arranged marriage to her first cousin as a teenager, then widowed at 29 with two young sons, having endured a violent 14-year marriage.

After emigrating from Egypt, she gained PhDs in Psychology, Management and Organisational Leadership, rising to become chief executive of the Immigrant Women's Health Service and earning a list of community honours for her work giving a voice to the underprivileged.

But now the prominent women's refugee advocate, domestic violence campaigner and Australian of the Year finalist has had her assets frozen by the powerful NSW Crime Commission following an investigation into "serious crime related activity" and her "unexplained wealth".

The Crime Commission has secured a restraining order in the NSW Supreme Court that requires Ms Sharobeem not to dispose of three Sydney properties it believes she owns and to disclose her financial interests.

The Supreme Court heard that after receiving a summary of evidence provided by the Independent Commission Against Corruption, the Crime Commission held "a suspicion that the defendant is engaged in serious crime-related activity or activities being the offences of obtaining a financial advantage or causing a financial disadvantage by deception".

"That is an offence punishable by imprisonment for five years involving fraud and accordingly falls within the definition of 'serious criminal offence'," Justice David Davies said in his judgment.

"I have read the summary of evidence document provided to the [Crime Commission] and I am satisfied that [the] suspicion that the offence or offences have been committed is reasonably held."

He ordered Ms Sharobeem and her sons Richard and Charlie to face examination in court.

Ms Sharobeem was chief executive of the Immigrant Women's Health Service in Fairfield for 11 years until 2015.

In June 2016, funding to the not-for-profit organisation from the NSW Health Department was suddenly cut

A spokesman for South Western Sydney Local Health District said at the time that the governance of the service was under investigation and the organisation was no longer in a position to provide services.

Hundreds of migrant women protested against the announcement of the closure, fearing they would have to vacate their "safe haven". Services have since been picked up by other providers.

Last year, Ms Sharobeem was appointed National Community Engagement Manager at broadcaster SBS. She did not respond to a message left on her SBS voicemail.

Her online CV at social media employment site LinkedIn says she holds a series of public offices including as a member of the multicultural advisory council to the NSW Department of Justice, an advisory board member at Multicultural NSW, and as an ambassador to the NSW Australia Day Council.

The court order freezing Ms Sharobeem's assets includes three properties, a car and a bank account. The orders were made on February 14 without prior warning. The matter returns to court in May.

One of the frozen properties is a four-bedroom house in Abbotsbury that was bought in September 2012 for $676,000. Property services company RPData says the median home price in Abbotsbury has risen more than 46 per cent in that time.

Contacted on Friday, Richard Sharobeem said: "I'd rather not discuss the topic."

Ms Sharobeem's life story has featured prominently in the media over recent years.

Ms Sharobeem has earned a long list of community accolades, including finalist for the NSW Premier's Woman of the Year Award and as a finalist in the local hero category of the Australian of the Year.

In a 2015 interview concerning a nomination for a community award, she said: "The work is a reward, and self-satisfaction is the payment."

In an interview with SBS last year, Ms Sharobeem reflected on her life: "If I would be back home, if I were to be in Egypt, I don't think I would have the same freedom and the same choices and the same abilities open for people," she said.

"And people are listening and other people are learning and I wouldn't have the courage to go out and say I was a victim and look at me now. I'm living a life of victory."

Mad Katter posted:

Also morbidly obese at 10

I would blow Dane Cook posted:

Tasmantor posted:

Just read on my Facebook that the sky rail on the Frankston line has been defeated? By the looks of the age article it was too appease swing seats. These stations are so close to the water going down can't be a good idea. Tell me there's more than just house prices in the opposition. The opposition group claims noise pollution and "proper long term planning" are what they are worried about. Also "respect for local residence" which I read as house prices.

Tasmantor posted:

Just read on my Facebook that the sky rail on the Frankston line has been defeated? By the looks of the age article it was too appease swing seats. These stations are so close to the water going down can't be a good idea. Tell me there's more than just house prices in the opposition. The opposition group claims noise pollution and "proper long term planning" are what they are worried about. Also "respect for local residence" which I read as house prices.

quote:

Ross Cameron quotes Gandhi while maintaining a Liberal rage


Former Liberal MP Ross Cameron is unrepentant after being suspended by the NSW Liberals for 4.5 years, declaring himself to be in open dissent against the party’s constitution.

Speaking on Sky News today, Mr Cameron said he was booted from the party because he supported reform within the NSW division and for his public claim in October that Mike Baird’s position as Premier had been threatened by the factions over his advocacy for greater democratisation of the state branch.

“I plead not guilty. And I am in a situation of conscientious dissent from the media regulation and opinion regulation provisions of the constitution of the NSW division of the Liberal Party,” Mr Cameron said.

“I believe it was Mahatma Gandhi who said there is no virtue in obeying an unjust law. In fact, it is your duty to disobey an unjust law and that is what I am doing.

“The specific offence of which I am accused is to come here onto Sky News at this desk ... and make the statement, which I had learned ... that Mike Baird had been warned as Premier that if he continued to support the cause of democratic reform of the Liberal Party, of giving members of the party a vote in preselections, that the faction now controlled the numbers in the party room, and the faction now had the power to replace him with Gladys Berejiklian, and if he continued to support democratic reform the faction would do so.

“That is the statement for which I have been suspended by the party for 4.5 years.”

Mr Cameron garnered criticism earlier this month for his remarks at a controversial fundraising dinner for the hard right Q Society in which he said the NSW division of the Liberal Party was “basically a gay club.”

Scylo posted:

Annabell Crab wrote something not terrible for once


http://www.smh.com.au/comment/generation-y-must-be-close-to-revolution-20170224-gukink.html

"How – if you were a young person today – would you see your seniors as anything but a grabby crowd of legislative brawlers who got their degrees for free and their homes for a song, and are conspiring together to have you foot the bill for their retirement as they drink the last of the Grange in the polluted ruins of the planet that is now exclusively yours to fix?"

Scylo posted:

Annabell Crab wrote something not terrible for once

Periphery posted:

I'd hazard a guess and say it's the government not wanting to make it an election issue. All the reports I read seemed to indicate that elevated rail was the best option (specifically for the Frankston line stations) and that the soil and ground water conditions make rail under road to be a pain in the rear end and expensive to maintain.

If the government was thinking creatively they'd build over the top of the underground rail then create new public open spaces and increased pedestrian/road connectivity while selling the rights to any left over land to developers that will comply with decently high affordable/social housing quotas.

DancingShade posted:

Look there is no housing shortage or affortability issue if you're willing to take a small commute.

Just buy a cheap property on the Nullarbor Plain and commute to Sydney or Melbourne from there every day. Gawd. So easy.

I would blow Dane Cook posted:

Newspoll soon comrades.

Anidav posted:

Tonight right?

Xerxes17 posted:

I was thinking about this while walking to work in Saint Petersburg. If we want to fix housing affordability, commuting and etc, we need to have medium/high density apartment blocks around metro stations, and also within the city and not on the fringes. Like, I don't want there to be nothing but the apartment blocks, but the Metro system is a public good and should be serving the maximum amount of people possible within walking distance. If you want to have your backyard block and a car, well you'll have to live some distance from a metro station.

But good loving luck acquiring the land, defeating the NIMBYs and getting people to support public transport.

Brown Paper Bag posted:

Better PM: Turnbull 40, Shorten 33

Brown Paper Bag posted:

https://twitter.com/Leroy_Lynch
#Newspoll
TPP: ALP 55 (+1) L/NP 45 (-1)
Primaries: Coalition 34, Labor 37, Greens 10, One Nation 10, Others 9
1582 sample. Feb 23-26 #auspol

#Newspoll
Turnbull: Satisfied 29, Dissatisfied 59
Shorten Satisfied 30, Dissatisfied 56
Better PM: Turnbull 40, Shorten 33
#auspol

tithin posted:

I would love queensland to cecede

Starshark posted:

c'mooon someone knife Shorten and replace him with... erm... me!