UNDERPAYMENTS to roofers, hairdressers, shop assistants and vet assistants have been exposed after complaints to the State Government and workplace inspectors.

In the 12 months to June, $4 million in back pay and entitlements were recovered, averaging $700 for each worker, across 1948 separate cases.
In all, 1500 employers breached state industrial relations laws and had to back pay their staff.
Four employees of a take-away food shop in Winston Hills shared $21,317 in underpaid wages; in Penrith, a music store underpaid overtime to three shop assistants totalling $10,903; at a Blacktown veterinarian, …

FORMER Wallabies coach Eddie Jones last night predicted Jarryd Hayne would have no trouble handling a switch of codes and warned he could command more than $1million a season in European rugby union.

Jones’s comments came amid speculation last night that the Parramatta fullback was about to be the subject of a massive offer from the Australian Rugby Union.
A Sydney radio station reported that the ARU would offer Hayne a multi–million-dollar contract to switch to rugby.
Hayne, off contract at the end of next season, has suspended talks with Parramatta until the …

It’s in the book, out now.

As the author Matt Peacock explained to me over a cup of coffee in Parliament House, you can trace every stage of James Hardie’s asbestos production process and find a trail of death that is continuing still, in places most people - quite reasonably - don’t suspect.
Such as carpet.
The hessian bags that carried the asbestos James Hardie transported were subsequently sold to carpet companies (among others) who used them to make carpet underlay.
Only now, two or three decades later, is that carpet being ripped …

AFTER a slight pause when asked to reveal to whom she dedicated her world champion’s gold medal, Dani Samuels cleared her throat and simply said ”my dad”.

Samuels, aged 21, but an infant in the ancient sport, joined Jana Pittman, Cathy Freeman, Nathan Deakes, Dmitri Markov and Rob de Castella as Australians to have triumphed at the world championships. She had a dream realised in Berlin - but there was one sad wish.
”I wish he was here to see this because I know how proud Dad would have been,” she told …

Wests Tigers 18 Eels 26
UM … what do you say about that? Magic, madness and more magic. Take your pick of the flicks, served with chips, in the highlights package - which will be long.

How often do you find the most hyped occasions end in anti-climax? But this was no Star Wars III. Scrap the think tank for the next NRL ad. Just play this on high-rotation. Or just show Jarryd Hayne, whose chip and chase clinched the result. To the neutral at least, and no doubt the Parramatta faithful, …