At home with The Dollipotts

NRMA's Open Road: dodgy promotions

    

A Yamba resident contributed a tear jerking yarn to the latest edition of the NRMA's Open Road about her new puppy escaping from her yard. But, thanks to her NRMA Pet Plus policy, the story had a happy ending and she was reunited with her puppy.

It was a great yarn, but there was just one small problem with it. The contributor also happens to be a part owner of the local NRMA business.

So, the question must be asked: why didn't the NRMA observe its duty of disclosure and tell its readers the full story about the contributor having a significant financial interest in the story and the NRMA?

Earlier this year the local newspaper in the Clarence Valley, The Daily Examiner, ran an article about the Yamba NRMA relocating to a new office. The article stated (in part):

Proprietors (names deleted) operate the Yamba NRMA office.

The move next door comes after more than a decade at the old site and proprietor (name deleted) said she was looking forward to welcoming customers to the new location.

"From our new office we'll continue providing the local community with all their NRMA insurance and roadside assistance needs," (name deleted) said.

"Customers can expect to see the familiar, friendly faces in the new office and we're celebrating the move by running a competition."

Sources: Open Road, July/August 2012 and The Daily Examiner, 3/4/12

Australian Government now has full responsibility for Home and Community Care (HACC) services

Department of Health and Ageing media release 1 July 2012:

From 1 July 2012 the Australian Government has full responsibility for Home and Community Care (HACC) services that support more than 500,000 older Australians to live independently in their own homes and communities.

Minister for Ageing, Mark Butler said the transfer of responsibility for HACC services for older people to the Australian Government rationalises the system and paves the way for the reforms outlined in Living Longer Living Better.

“Supporting older Australians to remain living in their own home is a key focus of our recently unveiled Living Longer Living Better aged care reform package.”

“We’re investing an extra $880 million over the next 5 years for 40,000 new home care packages to help older people stay living at home,” Mr Butler said.

“The HACC Program provides a foundation for future aged care reforms and is one of the first steps in the development of a consistent aged care system covering basic care at home through to high-level care in aged care facilities.”

The Commonwealth HACC program replaces the former joint Australian Government and state government-funded HACC program in all states and territories except Victoria and Western Australia, where basic community care services will continue to be delivered under the old arrangements.

State and territory governments will continue to fund HACC services for people under 65 (or under 50 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people).

HACC consumers will continue to receive services from their current provider and remain in the most appropriate care setting regardless of their age.

The Australian Government has allocated more than $1 billion for the Commonwealth HACC program and will continue to support the joint HACC program in Victoria and Western Australia.

More information on the Commonwealth HACC program is available at: www.health.gov.au/hacc

USA CLIMATE CHANGE REALITY 2012

http://youtu.be/b0NrS2L6KcE

http://youtu.be/OmW_EQzU_qI

Fast food franchisee to stand against Elliot in Richmond

“A fast-food restaurant owner will go head-to-head with ALP MP Justine Elliot in the upcoming federal election”

And here he is in all his glory………

Matthew Fraser, co-owner of two Hungry Jacks (Competitive Foods Australia Pty Ltd) fast food franchises, in an obligatory shot with Wollumbin (Mt. Warning) in the background.

Pic from goldcoast.com.au

Matthew’s main claim to fame on the Internet is the exploding oil dumpster incident in 2009.

Darrell Lea Remembered

Darrell Lea went into voluntary liquidation this week and all we can think of is the pure delight of the deliciously plump and velvety plush chickens(with the most elaborate floral bonnets & cocky top hats) that perched on those mouth-watering nougat and chocolate eggs each and every Easter Sunday Morning of our childhoods.
They were year-round collectors items for Aussie kids under seven lucky enough to be visited by an Easter Bunny who lived within travelling distance of a store.

ANONY-MICE

Yamba

* GuestSpeak is a feature of North Coast Voices allowing Northern Rivers residents to make satirical or serious comment on issues that concern them. Posts of 250-300 words or less can be submitted to ncvguestspeak AT gmail.com.au for consideration.

We knew nothing, nothing! Honestly?

Following widespread social and mainstream media reporting The ISP Column in July 2012 recapped:

On the 18th June, it was reported on an Australian users' forum, Whirlpool, that whenever a Telstra mobile data service user contacted a web site, then some 250ms later the same web site URL was fetched from a different source address. It appeared that somehow this third party was stalking the mobile data user, visiting all the same web sites as the user, in every case shortly after the user. (http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1935438)

This third party was reported to be on the IP addresses 50.57.104.33 and 50.57.190.97. These addresses are used by Slicehost, who appears to be a hosting service provider located in San Antonio, Texas in the US.

Other users reported on the same behaviour, and it quickly became evident that this was a more general behaviour that had been quietly introduced by this national carrier without any form of notice to their users. The observed behaviour was that all URLs used by end users of their mobile network, whether private or public, were being passed across to this US-based third party, who in turn were repeating the original access call to the visited URL, if the URL was a novel URL. There was some speculation in the forum on the particular motives were driving Telstra to stalk its users in this manner, and some speculation that Telstra was attempting to monetize its user's browsing behaviour by on-selling this user behaviour data to a foreign third party……

In response to an accusation of unethical behaviour on the part of Telstra, a local industry publication, SC Magazine, reported the following:

"But in a short statement, Telstra’s senior media boss Craig Middleton said the company’s wireless network management assured that “there is nothing untoward in what the Whirlpool member has observed - it is a normal network operation”."
[http://www.scmagazine.com.au/News/305928,telstra-says-its-not-spying-on-users.aspx]……

A few days later, on the 26th June, it was reported that:

"Telstra has confirmed it is tracking websites visited by its mobile users in the lead up to a launch of a new web filtering solution.
Days after suspicions of Telstra's networking monitoring activity was first aroused, the telco has revealed it captures web addresses visited by millions of subscribers on its Next G network.
The addresses are compared to a blacklist of criminal sites curated by web filtering company Netsweeper, and held both in Australia and the US.
[http://www.scmagazine.com.au/News/306441,telstra-tracks-users-to-build-web-filter.aspx]

Finally, after trying to say the secret data collection was all about protecting our kids, in the transcript of this email (from Telstra CEO David Thodey) Telstra senior management appears to be asserting that it didn’t know what Team Telstra had been doing with customer information:

Team
I want to talk to you about why customer privacy is not negotiable.
Last week, the media ran with a story that Telstra was sending information about the web browsing activity of Next G customers to a third party company in North America. We were collecting this information to classify Internet sites for a new cyber-safety tool called Smart Controls.
We stopped the program immediately, as this was the right thing to do. We informed the media and briefed the Privacy Commission and other regulatory bodies. But by then, the damage to our reputation was already done.
Some of our customers may feel we have broken their trust, and, frankly, they are entitled to feel that way.
The hard reality is it will take months of hard work to win back that trust.
I am also concerned that this incident occurred in the same week that the Australian Communications and Media Authority and the Privacy Commissioner handed down their findings on a privacy breach last December, when customer records were exposed on the Internet.
Judging by media reports, the Privacy Commissioner, Timothy Pilgrim, is also concerned. He told The Australian last Friday that he was now on the lookout for systematic privacy weaknesses in our operational culture.
It’s not hard to see why. These incidents and investigations create an impression that Telstra does not care enough about the privacy of our customers. Not only that, they undermine the great work we have done to improve customer satisfaction and change the way our customers talk about us.
Of course, the truth is we care deeply about customer privacy.
That’s why I want to remind everyone that privacy is not an aspiration at Telstra – it is an essential requirement and our license to operate.
Privacy at Telstra is everyone’s responsibility. We have to do better.
If you have concerns with anything that threatens the privacy of our customers, then raise the issue with your manager as a matter of urgency.
Our customers’ trust is a commodity that’s both precious and fragile. It takes months and years to build, but can be broken in one day.
That’s what happened last week. It must not happen again.
David