Oz media attacks Greek tradies

Greek community launch attack on Australia’s media for publishing racist slurs ....

Αυστραλία: 27 Aug 2012 (neoskosmos)

Leaked documents in which the Australian PM calls one tradesman a “Greek bullshit artist” and purposely mocks the work provided by tradesmen of Greek heritage that were published in The Australian and The Age [1] have offended and outraged the Greek community. One related story in The Courier Mail that went as far to reference the article in question with an image of a Greek soldier at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider in Athens has been touted as “utterly unacceptable” and has been coined as sensationalist journalism by the Australian Hellenic Educators Association.

The story refers to an investigation conducted by Slater and Gordom in 1995, when Julia Gillard was a lawyer with the firm, that claimed she used AWU funds to pay for renovations on her Abbotsford home. The leaked documents were conversations Ms Gillard had with senior partners of the firm during an investigation into whether or not she paid for the renovations herself.
What concerned the Greek community was the way the statements were reported in the Australian media. The Greek community has questioned the relevance in the media revealing the cultural heritage of the tradesmen.
In the conversation with the law firm Ms Gillard was quoted as calling one of the tradesmen - Bill the Greek - as being a “big Greek bullshit artist.” She said that the tradesman took the liberty of building a fence for her - one that she did not ask for - and said that the result was “truly hideous.” She also stated that Kon Spyridis, who worked alongside Bill the Greek, was going to put pickets on the fence “to try and stop it looking quite as Greek, dare one say.”
She added that she was “particularly unhappy” about the job Bill the Greek and Mr Spyridis had conducted on her home renovation.
“When I came home and saw the posts and windows which had got done in one day, I raised it immediately with Bill the Greek in fairly vociferous tones and said ‘this had just totally buggered up the job’,” she said.
“This is just hideous, you know, you need to talk to Con [sic] about it. I periodically raised with Bill ‘what on earth is happening with Con [sic] and these windows and these posts, and the tiling’s uncompleted and the fence is uncompleted’. Bill would say ‘I’ll fix it, I’ll fix it’, but it never got fixed.”
Yesterday, Mr Spyridis broke his 17 year silence and told Herald Sun that Ms Gillard had paid for all the renovations herself.
“The union has got nothing to do with Julia’s payment for the house,” he said.
The accusation came about when Ms Gillard’s then lover and one-time AWU state secretary Bruce Wilson improperly used about $400,000 in union funds.
Mr Spyridis added that Mr Wilson owed him $7000 for work he had conducted on the AWU offices in Carlton, and it was Jenny Mikakos MP, long-serving Labor member, who acquired the money on his behalf.

neoskosmos

27/8/12

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ΣΧΕΤΙΚΟ:

• Αυστραλία: Το «μπέρδεμα» της Γκίλαρντ με Έλληνες (24/8/120

  •  [1] Julia's big fat Greek reno

  
  ...................................Enter Con, a fellow recommended by Bill the Greek, a union organiser from Western Australia whose real name was Vassilis Telikostoglou.
  
  Ms Gillard wanted two Victorian windows replaced because their wood was rotting, and Con said he’d handle it.
  
  ‘‘Contrary to the directions I gave him about that he replaced them with aluminium sliding windows, which I was particularly unhappy about,’’ Ms Gillard related.
  
  ‘‘The verandah was slate and it was coming up and the posts which held up the veranda in part were rotting so I contracted with him to replace the posts and to tile the veranda. He did tile the veranda after a fashion, but the job is uncompleted. He did put in posts but he put in, ah, what’s the word, decorative posts chiselled out with patterns, rather than plain posts. Given it’s a Victorian weatherboard house I was pretty unhappy about that as well.
  
  ‘‘When I came home and saw the posts and the windows ... I raised it immediately with Bill the Greek in fairly vociferous tones and said this has just totally buggered up this job. This is just hideous, you know, you need to talk to Con about it.’’
  
  Nothing got fixed. And greater horror was still to come.
  
  ‘‘Bill the Greek, whilst I was at work one day, built for me a low-level brick fence,’’ said Ms Gillard. ‘‘I didn’t ask him to do that. The result was truly hideous ... and everybody else who’s passed my house has commented on it. In order to try and make it look less hideous, part of the work that Con was to do was to mortar it and put pickets on it ... to try and stop it looking quite as Greek, dare one say.’’
  
  Bill, Ms Gillard declared, had ‘‘obvious difficulties with the truth’’.
  
  And what might they be, she was asked?
  
  ‘‘He’s just a big Greek bullshit artist,’’ she said.
  
  Well, anyone would say that after such a trying experience. Wouldn’t they?
  
  theage.com.au
  24/8/12