When Tim Fares was first encouraged to ask Convoy for help, he thought the support was meant for someone else.

His wife Emma had been diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer. They were facing treatment, financial pressure and the uncertainty of what lay ahead. Still, he resisted.

“That’s not for us. We’re okay,” the general manager of Illawarra Sports Stadium recalled telling those who suggested making the call.

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Months later, with bills mounting, he became overwhelmed during a conversation with a mate, and he heard the suggestion again. This time, his friend challenged him: their family was exactly who Convoy was there to help.

Speaking at Healthier Illawarra Men’s (HIM) annual luncheon at the University of Wollongong on Friday, Tim described the community that stood beside his family through Emma’s illness.

Emma died in September after a two-year battle. Ahead of this weekend’s i98FM Illawarra Convoy, Tim presented a $6,000 donation from HIM in her memory, accepted by Marty Haynes.

Tim said the support surrounding the family could be traced back to a decision Emma had encouraged him to make more than a decade earlier.

In 2013, they were living in Geelong with a young son when Tim messaged Emma during a difficult period at work. She suggested they quit and move back to Wollongong.

He worried about leaving without another job. Emma believed they would have more support at home.

Years later, as her illness progressed, the significance of that decision became clear.

Family and friends rallied around them. Convoy helped ease the pressure.

“It was like we had an army behind us,” Tim said.

“And right in the middle of that army was the team from Convoy.”

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He also recalled Emma’s determination, during trips for treatment, to leave people smiling because they could never know what someone else was going through.

Now, he was asking the community to support the organisation that had helped them.

The presentation was part of $30,000 in HIM grants, with Illawarra Aboriginal Corporation, Lifeline South Coast, Escabags and Top Blokes also receiving $6,000 each.

Under the theme ‘Bring Your Sister: The Women Who Shape Our Lives’, guests heard about seeking help, supporting others and the examples adults set for children.

NSW Minister for Health and Member for Keira Ryan Park told guests he deliberately talks to his sons about difficult days, hoping they will grow up knowing they can do the same.

“I don’t want him to feel as though he’s got to deal with stuff on his own,” he said of his 16-year-old.

That meant putting down the laptop and answering honestly when asked how his day had been, including acknowledging things he could have handled better.

“I expect him to do his best. I expect him to be a good person, but we’re human beings, and we stuff up sometimes,” Mr Park said.

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On respectful behaviour, he described asking his boys how they would respond if an offensive comment were directed at their mother, giving them a personal reference point for understanding its impact.

Women Illawarra general manager Michelle Glasgow, who joined Mr Park on a panel moderated by Destination Wollongong’s Jeremy Wilshire, said homes are important places to teach accountability.

“How we teach our children in the home is what they will take out into community,” she said.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare figures show 67 per cent of female domestic homicide victims in 2024–25 were killed by an intimate partner.

Ms Glasgow said supporting men and improving community safety go hand in hand: “I really believe that if we support our men, we’ll improve the safety of our communities.”

The lunch also recognised a young woman already helping men connect.

Abbey O’Connor, who leads social media and communications for The Man Walk, received the inaugural $5,000 Graham Lancaster AM Scholarship.

The University of Wollongong communications and media student plans to develop her knowledge of mental health literacy, trauma-sensitive communication, respectful relationships and community leadership.

She also hopes to create a practical “Check in on a Mate” resource series, helping people start conversations, listen without judgement and find support.

Alongside the funding, Abbey will receive mentoring from Mr Lancaster and access to leadership and networking opportunities.

“Working with The Man Walk has shown me how much a familiar face and a regular conversation can mean to someone,” Abbey said.

“I want to help make that first step feel easier, whether it’s coming along for a walk, checking in on a mate or asking for support.”

The i98FM Illawarra Convoy takes place on Sunday, November 15.

Later this month, the community will gather for the Rose Vigil at McCabe Park on Wednesday, November 25, at 12.30pm, remembering women who have lost their lives to domestic and family violence.

~ The Pulse Illawarra was invited to the HIM Luncheon by 360HR Solutions.

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CHICAGO (AP) — A widespread outage hit Microsoft platforms including Outlook, with many users encountering trouble using their email accounts and other errors across the tech giant’s suite of apps.

Nearly 130,000 users on outage tracker Downdetector reported problems accessing Outlook just after 1 pm eastern time in theUS.. New reports have since fallen from that peak, but many said they couldn’t send and receive emails or had trouble loading their inboxes altogether.

Thousands also reported issues with Microsoft’s workplace messaging app Teams, as well as its AI assistant Copilot and wider Microsoft 365 services.

Microsoft said it was investigating disruptions, notably related to its email and Teams applications.

In updates posted on social media, Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said it was aware of users “experiencing issues accessing Exchange Online mailboxes through multiple connection methods in the Americas.”

Microsoft explained that a portion of its infrastructure was “experiencing elevated load” — which it said was “likely contributing to the connectivity errors.” The company determined a number of servers were “unexpectedly unavailable” due to a problem that caused them to fail during “automated health checks.”

It was not immediately clear what exactly caused that failure. But Microsoft later said it was testing a fix and rolling out an alternative method for these checks to bring impacted servers back online.

“We’re aggressively pursuing all pathways to reduce impact,” the Microsoft 365 Status account wrote on X.

Earlier in the day, the company said it had “successfully restored” problems related to Microsoft Teams in North America, although some users continued to report connectivity issues.

• This article comes via The Pulse Illawarra’s partnership with The Associated Press.
  

When Mark Jones bought into the business that would become Edmiston Jones, his parents put their house on the line to help him.

Forty years later, the architectural practice’s anniversary gathering at Wollongong’s Illawarra Performing Arts Centre (IPAC) on Tuesday, November 10, offered a chance to reflect on that gamble.

From its beginnings in Nowra, the practice has grown to operate across Wollongong, Nowra and Batemans Bay.

Guests didn’t have to look far to see the firm’s work. Edmiston Jones was behind the recent upgrade of the IPAC’s bar and foyer areas.

Other prominent Illawarra projects include the IRT development in Culburra, Thirroul Library, the Illawarra Women’s Trauma Recovery Centre in Shellharbour, The Headlands Hotel in Austinmer and Headspace Warilla.

But the evening’s theme was that its contribution went beyond buildings.

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Wollongong Lord Mayor Tania Brown recalled getting to know Mr Jones while working at the University of Wollongong, including through the Sustainable Buildings Research Centre and their involvement with the Property Council.

“It wasn’t just about designing buildings; it really was about places, spaces and people,” she said.

She praised the team’s commitment to putting its values into practice and its contribution to conversations about the region’s future.

“It is no small thing to have an organisation last for 40 years,” she said.

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Steven Bayer, now owner of Alchemy Consulting, joined in 1986, became a director, and worked with the practice until 2020.

He recalled a team that grew from six people to around 30, describing its longevity and ability to retain professionals in a regional setting as a testament to its resilience.

He said the practice had also encouraged clients to think more deeply about what they needed. Sometimes, the answer was something other than a new building.

Mr Jones recalled learning the trade at a drawing board, listening to his employer’s telephone conversations with clients, and working through successive waves of technology: typewriters, fax machines, early Macintosh computers and a car phone.

Now, with artificial intelligence bringing another period of rapid change, he said the practice’s future would depend on qualities technology could not replace.

“I think we’ve got to hang on to our human values,” he said.

Those values had evolved into three guiding principles: respect, curiosity and leadership.

Mr Jones also flagged a change in his own role, with fellow directors helping carry the practice forward.

After recently holding his eight-week-old great-grandson, he had found himself wondering what the next 40 years might bring.

“I really don’t know where this will go,” he said. “But what I do want to hang on to is what hasn’t changed in that time.”

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A fifth interest rate hike by the Reserve Bank of Australia today is now seen as likely by financial markets.

Whether the rate rise happens then, or at a future meeting, most of the media focus will be on the higher cost of mortgages.

But that’s just one of the ways higher rates dampen demand across the economy and help bring down inflation. Let’s look at some of those other avenues.

Why is the RBA raising rates?

Inflation has been stubbornly above the RBA’s target range of 2-3% for most of the past five years.

Data this week showed annual inflation has continued to rise, up to 4.3% in September from 4.0% in August. While the RBA’s favoured measure of underlying inflation was 3.7% in the September quarter, this, too, remains well above the central bank’s target.

RBA officials have been increasingly vocal about the need to bring down inflation. Deputy Governor Andrew Hauser warned recently that “the inflation outlook looks materially worse than we projected in the August report”.

Hauser was also worried that an increasing share of businesses are losing confidence in the central bank’s commitment to the inflation target. He called it the “central banker’s nightmare”.

Another RBA official, Assistant Governor Sarah Hunter, even went on 60 Minutes to explain the bank’s approach. She emphasised: “higher interest rates will work.”

Raising interest rates to slow the economy is how the RBA lowers inflation. Yet many people — perhaps a majority — are sceptical about this.

But it is true nonetheless.

How does an interest rate rise help reduce inflation?

If the RBA does raise interest rates again, most of the focus will be on the impact on the one third of households with a mortgage, and particularly those in cities with the highest house prices.

Higher mortgage payments will leave these households with less money to spend on other things. This is known as the “cash flow” effect. It attracts attention as it is very tangible.

But this is only one channel, and maybe not the largest. It is also partially offset by some households, such as retirees, who benefit from higher interest on their savings.

The other ways that interest rates work, which affect the broader community rather than just households with mortgages, are:

1. Higher interest rates make saving more attractive, which reduces spending.

2. Higher borrowing costs flow through to all forms of debt. It makes borrowing by consumers to buy cars, furniture and whitegoods less attractive, deferring spending on these items. Companies facing higher borrowing costs may undertake fewer investment projects.

3. Higher interest rates also tend to lower the value of assets, such as shares and houses. In the first half of 2026, house prices have fallen by 5% in Sydney and Melbourne. This makes households feel less wealthy and less likely to spend.

4. Higher interest rates can also push up the value of the Australian dollar. A higher return on Australian assets makes them more attractive to overseas investors. Since the RBA started raising interest rates in February, the official cash ratehas increased by 0.75% more than the equivalent in the United States. And thus far this year, the Australian dollar has appreciated from 67 to 70 US cents, although it is still below its high of 72 US cents.

The Australian dollar has also appreciated against many other currencies. The trade-weighted index, which measures the Aussie dollar against a basket of currencies, is at 65, up from around 60 during 2025.

A stronger dollar makes imports (including petrol) less expensive for Australian consumers, directly lowering prices.

A stronger Australian dollar can also weaken domestic economic activity because people may buy cheaper imports over locally made goods. Less demand for locally made goods means less money going into local manufacturers and jobs.

How big is the impact?

The RBA has done modelling that shows the peak effect of a rate move on economic activity and inflation occurs around one to two years after the rate change.

The models suggest real gross domestic product (GDP) could be 0.4% to 0.5% lower, and inflation 0.1 to 0.2% lower, than otherwise following a 1% interest rate hike.

AUTHOR:
John Hawkins, Senior lecturer, Canberra School of Government, University of Canberra

This article was first published on The Conversation

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With the NSW state election on March 13 (and the summer break right around the corner), we’ve really only got about 15 working weeks to get this right.
And we need to start now.

The decisions we make as a community over the next few months will shape our region for the next four years.

We at the Pulse Illawarra have no interest in regurgitating media releases, sharing rehearsed talking points, or political point-scoring. We’re betting you don’t want to read that, either.

We want our election coverage to be useful to you. Genuinely useful. And readable.

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If there’s more you’d like to say, then email: gayle@pulseillawarra.com.au or janine@pulseillawarra.com.au

Thanks for taking the time to have your say. It’s appreciated.

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