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1907: Harvester minimum wage judgement by Justice Higgins

"In 1907 Justice Henry Bourne Higgins, President of the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Court, set the first federally arbitrated wages standard in Australia. Higgins’s ruling became the basis for setting Australia’s minimum wage standard for the next 70 years.Using the Sunshine Harvester Factory as a test case, Justice Higgins took the pioneering approach of hearing… Read More »1907: Harvester minimum wage judgement by Justice Higgins

1989: Opening of the Berlin Wall

"On November 9, 1989, as the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for East Berlin’s Communist Party announced a change in his city’s relations with the West. Starting at midnight that day, he said, citizens of the GDR were free to cross the country’s borders. East and West Berliners flocked to… Read More »1989: Opening of the Berlin Wall

Saint Leo the Great

"At a time when there is widespread criticism of Church structures, we also hear criticism that bishops and priests—indeed, all of us—are too preoccupied with administration of temporal matters. Pope Leo is an example of a great administrator who used his talents in areas where spirit and structure are inseparably combined: doctrine, peace, and pastoral… Read More »Saint Leo the Great

Remembrance (Armistice) Day, commemorating the end of World War I in 1918

"At 11 am on 11 November 1918 the guns on the Western Front fell silent after more than four years of continuous warfare... The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month attained a special significance in the post-war years. The moment when hostilities ceased on the Western Front became universally associated with the… Read More »Remembrance (Armistice) Day, commemorating the end of World War I in 1918

1975: Dismissal of the Whitlam Government

"On 11 November 1975, after a series of dramatic events including a 1974 double dissolution and a budgetary supply crisis, the Gough Whitlam-led federal Labor government became the first (and only) government in Australian history to be dismissed by the Governor-General. While this constitutional crisis has overshadowed the Whitlam years, the administration left a lasting… Read More »1975: Dismissal of the Whitlam Government

Saint Josaphat

In 1595, the Orthodox bishop of Brest-Litovsk in present-day Belarus and five other bishops representing millions of Ruthenians, sought reunion with Rome. John Kunsevich — who took the name Josaphat in religious life — was to dedicate his life, and die for the same cause. Josaphat was the first saint of the Eastern Church to… Read More »Saint Josaphat

World Diabetes Day

Diabetes is a major cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart attack, stroke and lower limb amputation. Healthy diet, physical activity and avoiding tobacco use can prevent or delay type 2 diabetes. In addition diabetes can be treated and its consequences avoided or delayed with medication, regular screening and treatment for complications. Communities experiencing poverty and… Read More »World Diabetes Day