A new restaurant is opening in Top Ryde shopping center (Ryde - Sydney) and will be called "La Mafia Cucina", as it appears on its windows. The Australian Business Name Registration Act [Corporate Name Registration Determination (Name Availability) 2015] prohibits the use of names that are offensive to the public or part of the public [Part 3 Reg. 8 (1) item 1].

The Italian community rejects the use of this name! An official complaint has already been made to ASIC, which is the relevant Australian authority, against the registration of the names "La Mafia's Cucina" and "La Mafia Kitchenetta". ASIC says: "The impact of the business name should be closer to a visceral sense of affront, injury or disgust" and they "note that business names involving the word ‘mafia’ may be considered poor taste, however, there needs to be sufficient evidence to determine that a business name is offensive to members of the public or members of a section of the public."

If we allow associating the term "mafia", which is synonymous with death, drug addiction, political and economic interference, and other social disasters, with a convivial evening, we allow us to attribute normality to a criminal phenomenon that has ruined millions of lives worldwide. The mafia is no longer just an Italian issue, the mafia is well established in Australia and there is a lot of evidence about it.

Sign the petition to prove to ASIC that our disgust is "visceral" and that we don't want the mafia to become our normality!