Australia’s most powerful media flocked to Melbourne’s Greek community this week to depict the deepening anxiety over the standoff between the Greek government and its international lenders.

As news of the Brussels negotiations breakdown spread and the referendum was called, reporters were heading in their droves to Hellenic diaspora heartlands like Oakleigh, bent on finding interviewees whose lives are affected by the crisis.

One of the many stories Fairfax Media ran about the crisis in recent days – and its affect on ordinary Greek Australians – was that of Mr Paul Nikakis, whose mother recently passed away in Greece, and who is struggling to secure his inheritance.

Mr Nikakis’ 84-year-old mother left her two sons money and land, but he and his brother, Kosta, have been trying to get the funds out of Greece since early this year. After this week’s events, they’re of course fearing the worst.

“I am very concerned,” Mr Nikakis said. “I am a bit depressed about it. I think probably it is not going to be good news.”

The lack of good news wasn’t restricted to Mr Nikakis’ predicament.

SBS Radio ran a piece on Harry Ipermichou, whose business importing specialised Greek wines and spirits has already lurched into difficulty because of the banks closing in Greece.

For Mr Ipermichou, 124,000 euros are in limbo.

“Everybody’s shocked,” said the importer. “I’ve got documents here to pay the suppliers but the bank says to me, ‘I’m sorry, we can’t, because the banks in Greece are closed’. The money will stay here in Australia until the problems, they’re fixed. God knows, five days, seven days, two weeks, three weeks.”

Until he finds out how and when he can pay his supplier, he, like others in his situation, is unsure how to manage the shipment.

Harry Ipermichou is not alone. Trade between Australia and Greece is worth about 190 million dollars a year, with imports from Greece making up the bulk of that at 150 million dollars.

Community leaders too were in high demand as some of Australia’s most potent media took to anything from the appeal of souvlaki, with Channel Nine’s Today Show presenters tucking into a portion, “doing their bit for the Greek economy”, to more nourishing fare.

Appearing on Channel Ten’s The Project, Greek Community of Melbourne president Bill Papastergiadis was pushed to say how he would vote in the referendum.

“I’d vote to stay in the European currency,” he said, after pointing out that the Greek people were caught “between a rock and a hard place”.
“There’s no light at the end of the tunnel if they decide to pull out of the currency,” he added.

Director of The Greek Centre, Jorge Menidis, speaking to the ABC’s 7.30 Report, talked about the upsurge in migration to Australia, and reminded ABC viewers that Greeks looking for a better life had literally walked into the office of the Greek Community of Melbourne with suitcases in hand, “saying ‘I’m here, help me'”.

Meanwhile, in one of the most provocative opinion pieces to appear, controversial columnist Andrew Bolt, in the Herald Sun, is unlikely to have won any new Hellenic fans – and may well have lost a few – in an acerbic analysis of the situation.

Speaking of the “urgent lesson” for Australia from Greece defaulting on its massive debts, it all started so warmly before he put the knife in.

“Forget this sneering about lazy Greeks doing the Mediterranean manana on money borrowed from hardworking Germans, because OECD figures tell a different story,” Bolt wrote.

“In fact, Greek workers put in 42 hours in the average week, while Germans knock off after about 35.

“True, those hours are often spent sitting in a shop till midnight, or in a government office counting paperclips or on a farm chasing goats while Germans are building Mercedes. We’re not talking productive here.

“No, the Greeks aren’t lazy. Just greedy – and in that envious way so typical of countries run too long by the Left.”
Ouch.