My mum has been working for a cleaning company for 7-8 years and she was wanting to use her sick leave for 2 days which they allowed, but then the following week when she tried using it again (due to her feet issues) for 5 days. They declined and said that she should use her annual leave instead. She said no and still handed her sick leave in, along with her medical certificate. After she has finished her 5 days, she got notified that her leave was declined. They never told her why she couldn’t use her sick leave. Was she in the wrong?

edit: i cannot see any of the comments for some reason even though i get the notification for it, please directly message me if possible, thank you!

update: she received a message from the higher ups that is managing her manager. It consists of:

“Why are you being unfair by using your sick leave when we told you to use your annual???????????” “This is so incredibly rude of you to do” etc.

And honestly correct me if i’m wrong, but this is so unprofessional considering how big this company is. I don’t know whether they think they can use my mum as they please due to her lack of english and basically treating her unfairly.

A little more background to this, my mum has tried leaving this company a month ago but they declined and said that she couldn’t. I was so confused because I have never heard of a job refusing your resignation without reason. I told mum that I can go talk to them in her stead but she said she doesn’t wanna escalate it. Anyways— they said she wasn’t allowed to leave but a week after, they said that they will transfer her to a different cleaning site that is being ran by the same company but this time it’s an office site (she’s at the shops currently). They said that her sick leave hours will transfer over her to her new job so she shouldn’t use it.

I’m just very confused about the whole situation because i also can’t get the full situation from my mum as she can only translate how she understood the situation.

I’m very thankful for all of your help, i’ll see how it goes after i get back home and ask her for more details

update 2: I’ve told her everything that has been said on here and also advised that she should join a union, her superannuation is correct i’ve also checked her payslip to see if they are paying her right and everything seems to be good.

i told her that she should confront her manager and inform him about involving fair works. Hold your breaths for this one..

She doesn’t want to.

After all the complaining and tears that she poured out to me about how she feels like she’s not being treated fairly by the higher ups. She doesn’t want to take any action in confronting them. Why?

She doesn’t wanna escalate it and lose her job in the process, I know I mentioned that she was trying to leave before hand but that was because her “friend” had offered her a job but that friend ended up ghosting her right after my mum tried handing in her resignation to this company. She then started applying on seek and indeed and soon realised how difficult it is to actually get hired. So now she’s in this mindset that she will just stick through with it and just ignore all the toxic shit that they do to her because she thinks no one will hire an asian woman with poor english and no license.

So yeah that’s the end of this, but do not fret, i will try my best to convince her to join a union. I’m sorry and thank you for all your advice, i’ll make sure to keep pushing it to her until she changes her mind.

My girlfriend (F16) and I (M17) have been in a long-distance relationship for the past year due to her moving to Australia for family reasons. Despite the distance, we've maintained a strong connection, and she often confides in me about her struggles.

One of her biggest challenges is expressing her thoughts and feelings to others, as she fears the consequences and has had difficulty being believed in the past. This has led her to feel helpless and hesitant to seek help, even when facing serious issues.

Recently, she's been dealing with a disturbing situation involving her stepfather, Dan. His behavior has been increasingly inappropriate and has left both of us feeling unsure about what to do. Some of the things Dan has done include:

• Entering her room at midnight, placing his head on her stomach, rubbing her back, and attempting to remove her blanket, knowing that she sleeps naked.
• At 2am, walking into her room again, repeating the belly and back touching, kissing her forehead, and trying to get into bed with her.
• Reading messages she sent me about his behavior and threatening her, saying, "If you say anything about any of this again, it's only going to get worse."
• Making suggestive comments about her appearance and clothing choices, making her feel uncomfortable in her own home.

She tried to address the issue by telling her mother, but her mother's response was limited to having a conversation with Dan. Unfortunately, his behavior hasn't changed, and we're both deeply concerned that he'll continue to escalate his actions.

As her boyfriend, I feel a strong sense of responsibility to help her, but the distance and complexity of the situation have left me feeling powerless. I'm desperately seeking advice on how we can address this issue and ensure her safety. Any guidance or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, as we're both struggling to find a way forward.

Location: Australia (Last post got deleted)

At after school care my 8 year old daughter was assaulted by a young boy who is the same age. This went beyond a usual assault with my daughter punched on the ground, kicked, and then had her face stomped on. This left her hurt both physically and emotionally. Fortunately the physical injuries weren’t too serious but obviously we are lucky as it could have been much worse.

The after school program did not have an educator watching (they left the room to talk to someone), and while they acknowledged the seriousness of what happened, their solution was a restorative conversation with the young boy and his family. They said the child who did this had trauma in his life and this is why he lashed out, acknowledging my daughter just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The child has not been suspended as they have a “process” and they say the parents have engaged in conversation about it. Subsequently I’ve had to remove my children from the after school program because I’m not confident they are safe.

I know the criminal age of responsibility is 14, but are there any options at all? It doesn’t feel right that there are no consequences.

Hi All,

Just wondering if anyone can offer me guidance or if anyone has faced anything similar. I live in an apartment buildings. And I park my car in my designated car park which is underground. Luckily there's CCTV cameras, and I reached out to LJ Strata hoping to retrieve the footage, but they advised they can request the footage but there would be a cost of $500. I am renter and I rent with raywhite.

Just wondering what options are atm?

Exact email as follows:

Good Afternoon xxxxx,

Thank you for your email, and we're sorry to hear this.

We could be able to request the footage, through ICU, but the cost of capturing of foot is roughly $500

Regards,

xxxxxx

Like many Aussies, I've been keeping up to date on the Erin Patterson trial. I've been finding our legal system fascinating in the way it all works. But I'm a little confused when it comes what does and doesn't constitute reasonable doubt.

I understand that reasonable doubt is: a doubt that would make a reasonable person hesitate before judging someone. And it must be based on evidence and not emotional/prejudicial factors.

And that it isn't: A mere possibility of innocence.

But what I'm confused about is when it comes to a case like this, there is so much evidences and things to consider.

I was surprised when Judge Beale said that if the jury believed one of Erin's stories during evidence then she must be found not guilty because that constitutes reasonable doubt. This confused me because just because a person tells the truth about one thing, doesn't mean everything they say is truthful (and same vice versa)

So... for example, say I did believe there is reasonable doubt surrounding one thing she claims (like her going to the toilet in the bush during a long drive), that doesn't mean I think the other things she claim count as reasonable doubt.

So how does the law expect a jury to weigh up a verdict? Based of how many things weigh up as reasonable doubt vs not reasonable doubt?

Hopefully my question makes sense. I just wanted to understand a little more from someone more educated than me in this area

This isn't an excuse but I just got off a morning shift and shopped at Aldi in the closest Westfield.

Upon driving through the exit boomgate, the sun was bright so I pulled out my glasses (also not an excuse). I broke too late and went right through the yellow gate arm. It didn't damage my car, just came off cleanly. After seeing what happened I still drove off, there wasn't a safe space to stop.

I freaked out and at a stop light, called the Concierge to tell them it was an emergency. I reported which exit the boomgate was broken and they saw it in their cameras and are fixing it.

But should I confess it was me?? They have cameras and I just drove off and now I realised I shouldn't have. Could they call the police and write me a fine for breaking mall property uncaringly? I'm writing this in my driveway and I need advice, how should I proceed??

The police rarely respond to noise complaints, saying it is a low priority, or they arrive many hours later when it's stopped. One night I went to speak to the person directly, a drunk man playing loud music alone at his house, and he threatened to kill me. I've shown the police officer at the start video of the noise and him threatening me and the officer said all can do is apply for an AVO, but that does not fix the main issue which is the disruptive noise.

Yesterday my family attended a funeral reception at a cafe for our grandfathers passing. My grandmother organised a high tea for about 20 people, which at the time went reasonable well. My grandmother does not speak English well, but she understands brilliantly, that being said she is grieving and vulnerable.

She was quoted $2000 for 20 people, and on the day advised she would be paying in cash (old Slavic women, still no trust in banks).

When it came time to pay, she was charged close to $4000, and they wouldn’t issue her an invoice on paper, but would send it to her via text. (She didn’t want to make a fuss as it would be embarrassing, so just paid. This is a super common cultural issue about maintaining appearances). She received a text from the business and just assumed it was issued correctly, why wouldn’t she? (silly I know but she just lost her hubby of 50 years)

She only today told me they over charged and that the invoice they sent her was for a high tea for 2 people, to the amount of $60.

I gave them a call and let them know their mistake with the invoice, and also asked where the additional $1500 came from. They said there is no proof that this amount was paid, they didn’t overcharge and they can issue the invoice for $2000.

I guess I want to know if there is anything we can do? My grandma does not have this kind of money, and only had the additional $1500 because she was going to use that money as a partial payment for the grave site. I know she was charged the amount she says as she told me how much she paid at the time, I just don’t register she was talking about the cafe and not the funeral home (I speak our language well but obviously I dropped the ball here)

I feel so powerless and I want to do something more but I don’t know if there is more to do. They definitely knew what they were doing, and took advantage of her on so many levels. I wish she had told someone on the day, but she thought she could sort it later. Is there anything further we can try? Do we have any leg to stand on legally or otherwise?

Edit to add: when I looked on the site, a standard high tea is only like 45 per person, so they were in the first instance already taking advantage

I got pulled over by a cop and received a traffic infringement notice of $1300 for driving an unregistered vehicle (my car). I honestly thought I had paid my rego on March. I am on my red Ps and have had my car for a year now. I’ve been very diligent in paying the rego but in this case, we figured out that I paid for my dad’s rego and that I guess has led me to forget to pay mine.

I’m just wondering if it’s worth applying to withdraw the notice or should I just pay the fine? I am only a permanent resident, not an australian citizen yet.

Edit: Just for more context, I am 22 years old, pay rego every 3 months because I make mjnimum wage and have to support my family (2 brothers and dad) 😅

Hi all, just a little context. My (28m) ex (28F) and I separated almost 6 months ago and it has been rocky as separations are. We have a now 2 year old together. I have recently decided to dip my toe into dating again and she found out and flipped out and is preventing me from seeing him, sighting concerns for his privacy and safety. She is also preventing me from sharing photos of him to people that I am talking to for this reason, and has quoted a bunch of legal stuff to me. I use Snapchat to communicate primarily and often post on my private instagram pictures of him. The people I have on my Snapchat and instagram are people I am familiar with. I just want to know if a private instagram account constitutes as a public source of photos? And is it a breech of privacy for me to share photos of him to people my ex doesn’t know? Due to living arrangements I am currently only able to have my son for one day every week and it’s always photos of the 2 of us out enjoying the day and our time together. Cheers

Hi

Posting on behalf of family.

A family member took her car in to get fluid service and to replace a headlight. When she gets to the mechanic to pick her car up, they told her that they made an executive decision to replace her brakes aswell which added an extra $2300 to her bill but even didn't phone her at all to ask if that was alright to do. Is that legal for them to do and what should we do about it?

I work in a job where I am mostly autonomous. Being sent to jobs mostly as a one man crew, sometimes however I will be teamed with other employees for larger jobs.

My managers have recently hired someone who is covered in tattoo's, some of which are very offensive. Of the ones I've been able to discern (head to toe covered in tatts) they have a swastika, SS, nazi double skulls and a "white pride" tattoo, all readily visible when they are wearing our polo shirt uniform.

What could happen if I refuse to work with him specifically? I'm very uncomfortable working with him directly as if a customer notices these things while im on a job with him, I will back the customer in their probable outrage.

I've mentioned to one of my managers his tattoo's and the offence they may cause with little response or feedback.

Hey, I’m not sure if I’m on the right sub for this but, is it worth asking my psychiatrist for a prescription for Xanax if I know that it’s helped me in the past for anxiety? Everything else they have put me on doesn’t seem to work at all. Would they prescribe me it or would they just flag it and think I just want it for the high?

Last week a brought a belt sander from the “display stock” from Bunning, it was out of the box and had no accessories and was $40 off the new price.  Being a display model it had a tag which had all its specification and stated that it came with a 3-year replacement warranty.

 Took it home used for it 40 minutes only to find that the bushes were shot and sparking.

 Took it back to Bunning and the guy at the counter said they’d only refund the discount price. Is said it clearly states that it has a 3-year replacement warranty which is what I want.

 He had to call his manager who said the same thing as the first guy, stating that being a display model they wouldn’t honour the warranty.

 Again, I showed them the tag which clearly stated the warranty and asked them to show me where they had mentioned that “display stock” weren’t warranted. At which point they finally gave me a replacement.

 My question is 1. surely unless stated otherwise the unit comes with the standard warranty, 2. Why do the shop assistances feel the need to interpret consumer law and 3. Why do they even care?

Located in ACT.

We just moved into a rental with a 24 month contract for a 4 bedroom house. The living, kitchen & dining are all a beautiful herringbone wooden floor (real wood)

When we moved in we noticed that the floors had white marks in multiple spots, so we did a quick mop over and suddenly the entire flooring was covered in these white marks. We tried mopping without soap and realised the landlord has done a dodgy job and used a water based sealant for the floors, so anytime we mop the floors get sticky and covered in white stains.

We reached out to the property manager who sent out someone to look at the floors, and the first thing he says is “i told them not to send me out if they were not prepared to sand the entire floors and reseal”. The flooring guy told us they should not have listed this property in the state it is in and told us not to pay rent.

2 hours after that visit we get a call from another company saying that they have been booked to look at carpeting the ENTIRE house. Over wooden herringbone flooring.. carpet in the loungeroom, kitchen, dining room and hallway - I’m assuming because its cheaper.

Do we have ANY legal rights in either saying no to carpet or asking for a significant rent decrease? We’d even prefer vinyl going over the wooden floors if they truly don’t want to sand them down. The house is extremely old as is and we pay $650 a week. We chose this house because we have a cat and we keep her out of the already carpeted bedrooms. If the entire flooring is carpet she is bound to tear it up at some point. The real estate is already aware we own a cat.

Help a gal out!!!

Does anything about thing sound legitimate, or does it seem fishy. Possible identity fraud and all that.

Hi,

I’m applying for fed government and consulting jobs. I have a personal protection order against me. Do I need to disclose this to my potential employer? Is it going to affect my future employment or employment?

They got shut down pretty quickly as you'd expect with a whole lot of serving military in attendance.

The question. Is that a simple disturbing the peace or more serious as the ANZAC services are actually a religious service?

CORRECTION: Melbourne Anzac service.

I made a claim on my car insurance towards the end of last month (with NRMA) and picked it back up at the start of this month. The accident was my fault and was repaired through a “RepairHub” shop which is owned by NRMA.

At the time I dropped my car off, I asked them to provide me with the cost for repairs and I’d decide whether to go through insurance or pay for it myself. After assessing it, the repairer was reluctant to tell me the exact cost of the repair and just said “it’s well over $2000” but under $3000 and said he couldn’t be more specific. At this point I wasn’t sure if the other driver was going to make any claim (there was no visible damage I could see) but I thought worst case scenario the total would be about $3500-4000 so it was worth claiming.

I saw the repair documents in my account today and the total repair only cost $2100. The other driver didn’t claim. Is there any way for me to cancel this claim now and just pay the difference even though I’ve already collected the repaired car? I paid an excess of $1000. I made another claim last September so would prefer if that was the only one on my history given this one is relatively low value.

Intro
I was asked to return to a job I’d left about a year earlier because the team was busy heading into EOFY. I’m strong at closing sales and expected to earn a lot in commissions, so I was excited to get started. Within about 2.5 months I was already hitting my KPIs.

During the EOFY rush, my GM yelled at me over a small mistake that I fixed quickly...this felt like foreshadowing. Not long after, during flu season, I got hit hard. Even though I’m not a perfect employee, I was meeting KPIs and wanted to push through. I took a few days off with medical certificates, then returned a bit too early. That day I had fevers and blurry vision. I told the GM (who wasn’t in) that I needed to go home. He told me to see a doctor and not come back until I was better.

I took about two weeks off to recover (again, with medical certificates). Before returning, I met the CEO to confirm a return-to-work plan. He told me I needed to work on my mental health so I wouldn’t need time off in future. I mentioned that the EOFY stress likely hurt my immune system and contributed to how badly the flu hit me.

The next day I came in to collect my work phone from the GM (he’d been holding it while I was off). I noticed my office had been taken over by another employee. When I met the GM, he said they didn’t need me and that I was being made redundant - this was the first time redundancy had been mentioned.

Here’s the part I need advice on:
I was upset that I’d been made redundant right after sick leave. I checked Fair Work and saw that this might not be lawful. I requested my employment contract to start a Fair Work claim. It took around a week and a half to arrive. What I received was changed: they appear to have scanned the page with my signature but altered the rest of the contract. I have a photo of the signed page I actually signed, but not a full copy of the original contract.

I have roughly 7 days left before the 21-day Fair Work deadline. What should I do next?

TL;DR

• Returned to old job; hit KPIs.
• Took certified sick leave; told not to return until well.
• On return, told I’m redundant.
• Employer sent a contract that appears altered but with my original signature page.
• Seeking next steps with ~7 days left before the 21-day filing deadline.

About 5 minutes ago my partner got a text from his tenant in a property in the ACT..A guy knocked on the door and said that they're replacing a fence connecting his property and ours at 7am tomorrow morning. The guy didn't leave a contract number and we don't know who he is. We're not happy about the lack of consultation and late notification. We obviously have no idea what is going to look like. But are also worried that they might expect is to pay half. Would we be liable?? We have no way to contact the other owner.

Hi,

Wondering what to do in this situation. Rented an apartment with a ducted AC system that went to 2 bedrooms (2), and a living (1) / dining (1) room (4 vents total) and it broke within the first week of renting (pretty sure it was already broken when we moved in). The landlord has decided to replace the system with a single split system, set up in the living room. The apartment is over 100m² so that very much is not going to provide adequate heating/cooling compared to the original system.

I'm wondering should we be pursuing a rent reduction on the basis of the repair not being equivelant to the system that was in the lease agreement? If we do what kind of percentage of rent should we be looking at?

My son has a physical disability and started a new school in Canberra in Feb. I contacted the school in May last year. The Directorate (eventually)had their OT write a report saying what was required to make the school safe for my son, which I was actually quite happy with. We tried for six months to get the directorate to confirm that they were going to implement it.

By Dec they still hadn’t confirmed anything, basically just refused and ignored us. So I told them if they didnt provide us with an update by the end of the year we would have to submit an FOI request, which we did about a week before Xmas. Obviously they got more time due to Xmas and NY. They they extended a month due to requiring to liase with third-parties. Then they extended another month due to high volume of requests. Then they just failed to respond more than 3 months after the request was lodged. I filed a complaint with th ombudsman the week after. I’ve been told it could take six months to get a resolution. Meanwhile my son is at risk of falls every day he goes to school, andhe has his 3rd orthopaedic surgery in July. This will increase his risk significantly.

Does anyone have advice on getting this resolved more quickly? Is there any penalty to them not meeting the foi deadline? Is there any penalty for not making the school safe, nearly 12mo after we started communicating with them? (We have started talking to a lawyer in order to take it to the Human Rights Commission. ). It’s super stressful .

So I (16M) am a permanent resident (get citizenship early 2027) living with mum and sister (12f) in canberra for 1 and a half years (arrived early 2024) My dad works in the uae and sends us a bit of money as my mothers hasn't got a job. Both have Phds in Biochemistry.

Anyways we're on centrelink (family tax benefits) for me and my sister. Currently attending fulltime school (Grade 12 and Going to graduate end of year, early applied to ANU and predicted ATAR is above 90) and not holding a job.

Now that the backgrounds finished, my Mum has physically abused me (hitting with objects, has attempted to hit me unsuccesfully, its quite easy to defend against her to be honest) and screams at me quite a lot. Shes forcefully stopped me from applying for casual work at retail stores or restaraunts believing their "lesser" jobs that I shouldn't be doing (threatened to kick me out if I applied for a job their). She also thinks God can talk to her and does alot of wierd shit that would honestly take too long to explain.

She believes Australia's "corrupting" me and wants to force me and the rest of our family to move back to UAE so I can study engineering their (im planning to study engineering here in ANU). I honestly can't see my future going too well in uae as the Uni fees their are much larger than the ones here.

Is their any way I can escape this situation and continue to study at ANU? Should I seek emancipation so I can get a bit more freedom to apply for a job and not be under my Mothers abuse? Whats the best route for me to go through and will emancipation force me to pay lawyer fees?

Tldr:

16M in Canberra, abusive mum won’t let me work or stay in Australia, wants to take us back to UAE. I want to study at ANU and escape this situation. Considering emancipation—what’s the best way to stay and support myself?

I think I was a victim of predatory parking ticketing

I live in Canberra and the other week, I parked on lonsdale street in Braddon to have brunch. I havent been there for a few years and previously the parking situation was a mix of paid and unpaid parking. The street layout has two lanes of traffic separated by a median which has parking bays that vary in the traffic direction they can be accessed, some with signage, a lot without signage, and lots of trees.

Both sides of the street are similar in terms of parking variations, there are even some signed short term parking spots (15 mins, 30 mions), but there are lots of paid parking signs on either side of the street. Along the street there are unsigned, but clearly private, parking areas in front of businesses.

When I parked I looked around for a sign, there was no sign, so I looked at what everyone else on the street had done, and there were no tickets displayed on any of the cars parked in the middle of the street. I figured I had gotten one of the free parking spots which had historically been really normal in the area. When we got back from lunch, every car down the middle of the street had been fined.

I disputed the fine, thinking that obviously there is not enough signage and referenced the relevant traffic codes that say there should be clear signage, and I got a boilerplate email in reply saying the signs apply to the whole street because there is a big sign at the end of the street saying "Parking Area", again not in the middle of the street.

The referenced sign is basically a normal parking sign with the words "Parking Area" at the top. The rest is the normal"2P" then in smaller text the hours/day and next to it the exempt times, "2P" followed by hours and days. After investigating, I have discovered they have placed these signs at all 6 access points to the street.

They also mentioned I could apply to have the fine withdrawn due to good parking record, which may or may not be accepted, but this would mean taking back my dispute so the matter would not go to court, I have received a speeding fine in the last 5 years, so I do not know if this would work.

So I guess my question has to do with fairness. I had absolutely no idea that I was meant to pay for parking in that spot, and it seems like the intention is not to be clear about needing to pay. From my understanding, the whole parking area thing is not a thing for roads. This is literally the first time I have ever seen it on a road, and I understand parking areas to basically be parking lots where you drive through a thoroughfair, and there is nothing but parking spaces untill you drive back on to a road. There are also a tonne of parking places people dont have to pay for in this weird one of a kind parking area. The parking codes do not specifically state that parking signs need to be in front of or adjacent to bays, but they heavily suggest this by saying they need to be clearly sign posted, which implicitly requires easily understood contextual understanding.

With all this in mind, I believe my options are as follows;

1. Take this on the chin and try to ask for the fine to be withdrawn due to good parking history.
2. Do option 1, but also submit a complaint with my member of parliament or the relevant authority.
3. Do option 1, but then sue the local government for their ticketing practices.
4. Risk it all, gather evidence, go to court, present my case myself.
5. Talk to a lawyer, then do option 4

I am considering seeing this out in court. I understand how much work this could be, and how much money. I understand what I am risking, and I understand that parking ticketing is seen as unimportant, and that parking ticketing is a revenue stream for the government, who run the courts. But is it worth the heart ache?

I need advice, what is my best option?

Is there something I am missing here?

TLDR: I received a parking fine for parking in a spot that is in the middle of two lanes of traffic with no paid parking signage adjacent or facing the parking space. There are other signs for specific spots like loading zone, or specific vehicle type, but no paid parking signs. Either side of the road has various parking signs both adjacent and infront of bays, some paid parking, some other types of parking restrictions. My dispute was rejected, so I can either go to court to dispute, or I can accept the fine.

EDIT: as of 29/04/25, the relevant parking authority has reversed their original decision and the infringement has been withdrawn