Northern Rivers businesses on notice regarding future carbon tax claims made to consumers

The ACCC has published online a guide for business when making any claim that the carbon tax to be introduced in mid-2012 will increase costs to consumers.

Hopefully the Northern Rivers business community will read this document as there will be local people watching out for any false or misleading claims.

Carbon price claims - Guide for business.pdf (1.6 MB)

When ad men go bad

Oh Todd, Todd, Todd.......

what a choice of T-shirt!

MeadowLea and The Case of the Missing Non-GM Oils

Snapshot from MeadowLea About Our Products Ingredients, 26 July 2011

MeadowLea promotes its margarines as Non GM on the outside of its tubs.

However, on the base of the these same tubs a question arises as to the legitimacy of this claim.

Firstly, only the canola seed is claimed to be Non-Genetically Modified on the tub bases.

Secondly, on the bottom of Salt Reduced and Extra Light tubs, I've noticed the claim only covers part of Vegetable Oils 65% (Containing 52% Canola & Sunflower Oils) and Vegetable Oil 31% (Containing 26% Canola & Sunflower Oil) respectively.

So what is the nature of the remainder of the vegetable oil (13% and 5% in the examples quoted) called plant & seed oils on its website and hidden within the term Vegetable Oil(s) on its tubs.

Could it possibly be from plant material that cannot be guaranteed as Non-GM?
Hhmmmm.....

Look how far the Liberal Party hasn't moved in the last year

The Australian Libs and Nats are definitely a one-note coalition under the leadership of Tones of the Fork-ed Tongue Abbott.

June 2010

July 2010

August 2010

June 2011

Magistrate orders Berlin held in custody until early June

Click on image to enlarge

The Daily Examiner on 17 May 2011:

John Xavier Berlin is in jail.

An advertisement placed by Berlin in a Clarence Valley newspaper earlier this month was deemed by Magistrate David Heilpern in Grafton Local Court yesterday as a breach of bail.

Berlin, 62, of Maclean, already on a 12-month good behaviour bond for offences of impersonating police last year, had last month been granted bail on 14 other criminal charges, many involving impersonating police.

But an ad in the Clarence Valley Review's Memoriam classified section in early May, a dedication to a police constable who was killed on duty in Sydney in 1989, stated that it had been inserted by former NSW Police Commissioner Peter Ryan and "former Australian Police DCI John Xavier Berlin - shot 28.12.96".

Berlin, through his barrister David Imlah, denied placing the advertisement.

Mr Imlah said Berlin suffered "difficulties" in his lumbar spine, was on heart medication and suffered from a psychiatric disorder which was not named in court.

"Mr Berlin is a very unusual man and I find it very difficult to represent him at times," he said.

Police prosecutor Mark Sinclair outlined an email trail showing that Berlin had in fact paid for the ad in question.

"This accused is thumbing his nose at the courts," he said.

Mr Heilpern said the prosecution had a very strong case.

"Who else has a vested interest in claiming that he was shot on duty? Who else would pay money to claim that he was a DCI (detective chief inspector)? The answer is, of course, that nobody does," Mr Heilpern said.

"Mr Berlin lives in some parallel universe in which, again, someone has conspired to place an ad in a local paper.

"It's a world of fantasy and make believe and he is seeking to hoodwink the court.

"Police contacted the ex-police commissioner Peter Ryan in the UK and he denied all knowledge of the placement of that ad."

Berlin was denied bail and will next appear in Grafton Local Court on Monday, June 6, at which point, Mr Heilpern said, the court would re-evaluate the situation.

Berlin's charges include using a police insignia, making a false statement to obtain money, and making false accusation subject other to investigation.

Around the traps in the last few days.....

A bit of free promotion APN didn't need?
With the euthanasia debate heating up, I was amused to see that APN Outdoor received a bit of free promotion on the nightly news last week after one of its outdoor billboards advertising in Yagoona ran a large advert promoting the pro-choice position. Probably won't please the bishops.

Fine print on the back of that NBN envelope?
NATIONAL Broadband Network users will not be able to use their telephones in a power failure unless they pay for a back-up system.
Telstra copper lines will be replaced by NBN fibre as part of the $11 billion deal with the federal government.
NBN Co has a hands-off approach to ensuring lines will be available at all times.
Customers will rely on the fibre network for broadband and fixed telephone services. Each home and business will need a network termination unit for power.
The unit needs a standard 240 volt, 10 amp power outlet and without that it cannot work.
If the unit loses power, telephone lines will not work unless NBN users have a back-up battery system, an optional item under NBN Co guidelines.
The peak electrical body says NBN Co and the government must ensure service providers guarantee basic telephone services or people's lives could be in danger in emergencies.
The company says it will not supply, install or maintain the battery back-up. That means network users will have to purchase a back-up unit and battery, and ensure the unit is next to a power outlet.
Users must buy the back-up unit from their NBN service provider. The 12V 7.2Ah sealed lead acid battery for the back-up costs about $50. {The Australian 22nd October 2010}

NSW water raiders using #agchatoz to tweet their displeasure....
nswirrigators: 464 pages of Volume Two of #basinplan just released online. Saving the environment by ruining a forest? http://tinyurl.com/3x4umuw #agchatoz
nswirrigators: 3.30pm on the day #basinplan volume two was meant to be released and nothing yet. These people do not learn... #agchatoz #abcrural

A victim of friendly fire
"This is a debate that Australians need to have about the future of banking, and the banks now are clearly ignoring the government," Mr Hockey has said. "The Australian people need to know where the banking system is going."....
Liberal MP Don Randall launched into a withering attack on Mr Hockey's suggestion, labelling a "typical lunatic fringe idea" from the Greens - until it was pointed out that it came from the Coalition's top money man. "It's really going to have a negative effect on our economy ... it's really a worry". {news.com.au 21st October 2010}

Ad astra takes on Tony
Take the attack on the Government by Tony Abbott over the contemporary court martial of three Australian soldiers in Afghanistan. In a particularly contemptible assault he accused the Government of ‘stabbing the soldiers in the back’ and not giving them the support they deserved, of abandoning these men fighting as they are for their country. It was a powerful and aggressive strike. Yet what did the mild-mannered Stephen Smith say? He said Abbott’s words were ‘unfortunate’. Too right they were, but in the hurly burley of politics, words hardly like to make headlines, hardly likely to effectively rebut the Abbott charges.
I would have preferred him to say to Abbott: “How dare you have the temerity to make such outrageous accusations. It was the Howard Government, in which you were a minister that created the process for such trials of servicemen thought to be in contravention of the rules of engagement, and it had bipartisan support from Labor. You know perfectly well that in this process Government has no part to play, nor have politicians or politics. You know that this Government wants the process YOU established to bring about a considered outcome and that it wishes to play no part in it. Yet you come along with this completely illegitimate accusation which you know is dishonest, in order to score political points. And you were only too willing to enlist Alan Jones to promulgate this deception, something he was only too ready to do. Worse still, you allowed him, without contradiction, to denigrate the female prosecutor for laying the charges, even although you knew that she was acting completely in accordance with the process the Howard Government established. How dare you behave in this disgracefully disingenuous way, cast aspersions on those involved, and the Government too, although it is NOT involved. This is worse even that the usual low standards of political discourse which you employ. You are a disgrace.” {The Political Sword 22nd October 2010}

Too much fiction in Pollieville, U.K.?
A BRITISH MP enraged her constituents and her party after letting slip that her blog, which tells people how hard she works, is "70 per cent fiction".
Nadine Dorries, a Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire in southern England, made the admission to investigators during a sleaze inquiry that cleared her of abusing the Government's expenses system but found that she misled voters. {news.com.au 22nd October 2010}

Coffee Club's image turns to water......

The Coffee Club, which tries to promote a sustainable image with its UTZ certified brews, gets a dressing down in this letter to the editor published in The Daily Examiner yesterday:

Water wasters

I was disappointed the theme for one of the Coffee Club's Franchise of the Year events was a "water fight", which asked customers to buy a bottle of water and encourage their friends, work colleagues and family to do the same.

Don't they know bottled water is one the most wasteful products sold in Australia, particularly in towns like Grafton which have an excellent water supply?

Bottled water is expensive and is not worth the cost, either to the consumer or to the planet.

It has a high environmental cost at all stages - during its production vast amounts of oil and water are used, during its transportation more fossil fuels are burned, and then there is the problem of disposing of the discarded bottles.

All up, the amount of oil required equals about 20 per cent of the bottle's volume.

Australia's annual use of bottled water generates more than 60,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases - the same amount as 13,000 cars.

Bundanoon became the first town in Australia to ban the sale of bottled water a year ago due to concerns about its environmental impact.

I presume there is no Coffee Club franchisee in that town.

A much better stunt for the Coffee Club would have been to ask its franchisees to sell reusable bottles, which could be filled for free from the tap.

JANET CAVANAUGH,
Secretary,

Climate Change Australia (Clarence)

Fast food giant McDonalds 'enraged' over PCRM's public service announcement [video]

Washington-based health lobby Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) has commissioned a provocative new fast-food commercial drawing attention to the link between heart disease deaths and fast food.

Reportedly this advertisement was recently aired on American television and has "enraged" fast food giant McDonald's.

Given that McDonald's Australia is on schedule to impose its presence on the small NSW coastal community of Yamba before Christmas 2010, I'm sure that this ad is being noted and that residents will bring it to the attention of Clarence Valley shire councillor Margaret McKenna who brazenly argued that McDonald's food was "nutritious" before voting for the multinational's development application.

The Nationals and political advertising cons

The three days preceding the political advertising blackout at midnight on Wednesday were more than a little painful, as television screens were blitzed by campaign advertising by all major political parties. Here on the NSW North Coast it was a veritable snow storm of spin.

However, what really took the top prize was the Nationals running with one ad which brazenly stated that it was the only party which helped to get an increase in the pension.
Not even lipservice paid to truth there. In fact, putting it bluntly, that would have to be a blatant lie.

The Nationals were not the only party debating pension increases over the last three years and, I can recall that in 2008 they supported an increase of only $30 a week and even then not for every class of pensioner. Remember that vacant space in their initial argument when it came to disability support pensioners?

Every Nationals candidate in 2010 from party leader Warren Truss down to novice Kevin Hogan seems to have conveniently forgotten that fact.

1 more sleep until polling day and......

...the NSW North Coast Nats candidate in Page (and former Croweater) Kevin Hogan's campaigning is beginning to smack of desperation - he's got his wife sending out personalised letters spruiking the cause.

The missus wants to tell a few voters all about Kevvie's virtues as "a husband and father, rather than just as the political candidate you see in the newspaper or on TV".

Apparently he has too much "humility" to tell us himself that he's a "man of integrity, commitment and intelligence".

Unfortunately for the luvverly Karen (pictured) she doesn't have all that much material to work with and I'm left wondering what the Nationals campaign team thought they were achieving this late in the piece.

For the record here's an image of the letter in question and while I'm at it - a chapeau tip to Clarencegirl and someone she calls R's Dad for passing this little gem on.

5 sleeps to polling day and .......

....the Nats Kevin Hogan is still providing laffs on the NSW North Coast.

This time a give-away note pad (below) proudly proclaims that he did not use taxpayer's money to produce the pad.

Er, you're a first time candidate Kevvie - not a sitting MP - so you're not eligible for any taxpayer funded printing allowance.

There's no virtue in claiming to abstain from what you can't access in the first place!

The 'republicofeveryone' shows Australia what a first class political ad looks like

republicofeveryone August 11, 2010
Our ad for the Greens which aired on Gruen Nation on August 11.

The YouTube political ad they couldn't kill

News of this ACTU political advert's demise was greatly exaggerated in The Australian today: "AN ACTU animated video showing two budgies flying into Tony Abbott's bathers has been suspended by YouTube for violating the site's terms of use. The peak union body uploaded the viral ad earlier today, calling it a humorous attack on Mr Abbott's workplace relations stance."
Because it was still displaying on YouTube this evening:

2010 Election Campaign Day 16 - Political advertising

Can you find any legible authorisation on this official National Party campaign pic gracing candidate Kevin Hogan's Facebook page?
























Nup, didn't think so.

Keeping track of all those election campaign leaflets in 2010

Citizens Electoral Council leaflet understood to have been authorized

by R. Barwick on behalf of Craig Isherwood

At last! Somewhere to go to check out those 2010 federal election campaign leaflets.
You can even upload images of those examples that are beginning to litter your own letterbox.
ElectionLeaflets.org.au

Browse at your leisure and spot those breaches of the Commonwealth Electoral Act as they are posted online.

2010 Election Campaign Day 12: Hustled by Christian Louboutin?

Maud up the Street (who enjoys public access to Teh Netz at her local library) alerted me to the oamimb website which is offering a very odd service:
"This is an example of a WordPress page, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many pages like this one or sub-pages as you like and manage all of your content inside of WordPress."

Click on image to enlarge

Stuffin' letterboxes

Maud Up The Street is hopping mad - this week she found her letter box stuffed with advertising even though a "No Junk Mail" sign was clearly displayed.
What makes her even more annoyed is that of the 5 separate bits of bumpf lobbed at her by Woolworths, Aldi, The Reject Shop, Crazy Clarks and Cellarbrations - only one of these stores is in her local area. The rest are over 50 klms away.

Australian Federal Election 2010: So who thinks neither rule nor law applies to him?

What's wrong with the pictured letter and attachments?
These three documents (letter, flyer and petition sheet) came in the same envelope - as part of a bulk mailout by the Nationals Federal Member for Cowper sent to voters in the neighbouring seat of Page which held by a member of the Rudd Government.
Worked it out yet?
I'm sure many of you are already starting to count the (ahem) breaches.....

Small hint; The entitlement must only be used for parliamentary or electorate purposes, and must not be used for: (a) party business and As of 1 October 2009, Senators and Members have had the option to submit a print ready copy of material proposed to be printed using their printing and communications entitlement for vetting by the Department of Finance and Deregulation. As part of the vetting process, Finance will assess the print ready copy against the parameters of the printing and communications entitlement, and Senators and Members will receive written advice on whether or not the item is within entitlement. and The AEC takes the view that the election period for these purposes will - at minimum - be the period from the announcement of the election or the issue of the writs (whichever is the earlier) to the close of polling on election day. However, in circumstances where there is considerable speculation surrounding a possible election, the AEC may consider that the election period has commenced, notwithstanding that there has been no announcement or issuing of the writs.

Seems Luke Hartsuyker MP didn't bother to consider his actions against current policy, rules or law and that's not his only problem, even if his spokesperson 'appears' not to understand when questioned by the media.

Click on images to enlarge

Name and address of recipient redacted from letter

Want to do a Woolies 'price check' comparison online? First sign a confidentiality agreement!

Woolworths went to the media with the big news that now one can do a price check online of 5,000 items it carries in its supermarket outlets across Australia.

Not only was this so-called pricing transparency met with a big yawn it was also somewhat misleading.

However, what was really interesting about this PR exercise was the fact that a visitor to the company website had to agree to the conditions set out below before the gatekeeping function allowed a search to begin.

So don't you dare print out a page and hand it on to your neighbour or the big bad Woolies police will come a-knocking.....lol, rofl

Price Check Terms & Conditions

Restricted Use

This website is only for personal or domestic use and only in relation to shopping at Woolworths. Unless otherwise indicated, without Woolworths' written permission, the content and information on this site cannot be:

• adapted, reproduced, stored, distributed, printed, displayed, performed or published, and no derivative works can be produced from any part of this website
  
• on sold or provided to any other person, in a material form, or
  
• commercialised, or used for any commercial purpose.

The site's URL may not be displayed on any website without Woolworths' written permission.

I have read, understood, and accept the above terms of use.

Ralph Lauren brand owner hits out at blogger for laughing at advertisement blunder and blogger hits back

PRL USA Holdings, owner of the brand Ralph Lauren, issued a DMCA notice on 2 October 2009 to the blog PsD: Photoshop Disasters, for laughing at a Blue Label advertisement of a super skinny model (with distorted dimensions) which is still being displayed in Google cache as I write.

PsD now has a second Lauren advert posted The hits keep coming with a photo allegedly taken in Sydney - proving once more that displaying a humour deficit can lead to more people finding out about your company's photoshop blunders than if you had originally just taken it on the chin.

Image from PsD post The hits keep coming, 14 October 2009