Shame, DEX, shame

If there's not a red face or two at The Daily Examiner office today, especially in its classifieds department, there bl**dy well should be.

Today's Examiner has an In Memoriam notice with a conspicuous blooper (see below).

Enough said!

Credits: None worthy of mentioning!

Attention Ethical Consumers: Meadow Lea Alert

In August 2009  Goldman Fielder’s claimed of its Meadow Lea margarine:

Farmers grow our canola & sunflower seeds
MeadowLea spreads are made from over 70,000 natural seeds. The canola seeds that go into our MeadowLea spreads are Non-Genetically Modified. Our canola seeds are sourced locally from Australian Seed growers, whilst the sunflower seeds are sourced from the warm climate of South America.

In August 2013 Goldman Fielder's claimed:

The canola oil in MeadowLea comes from canola seeds grown in Australia. MeadowLea is proud to be supporting Australian Farmers, as we select only Australian grown canola seeds to make MeadowLea. In Australia canola is grown in the winter months, harvested in November / December and is the largest oil seed crop grown in Australia.

Sunflowers are native to South America and MeadowLea's sunflower seeds come from Argentina. Sunflowers are a summer crop and can grow as high as 2 metres.

Its margarine packaging now omits any reference to non-GM canola seed:

Goldman Fielder’s non-genetically modified claims were always somewhat misleading as only 52 per cent of the vegetable oil listed is/was produced from canola and sunflower seeds, with 48 per cent of the remaining oil unidentified.

This reluctance to identify all oils leads one to suspect the presence of environmentally destructive palm oil form SE Asia.

However to see this company abandon any commitment – however small - to consumers who prefer GMO free foods is disappointing.

A product to avoid at the supermarket.

Clive Palmer continues to claim Liberal-National Party candidate Mal Brough asked for money to destroy Peter Slipper's reputation

Brisbane Times 22 August 2013:

Billionaire businessman Clive Palmer has claimed LNP candidate Mal Brough asked him for money to fund a campaign to destroy Peter Slipper’s reputation.

Mr Palmer dropped the bombshell on Thursday, more than a year after the alleged meeting at Palmer’s Coolum Resort on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast in April 2012.

Mr Brough, who is standing as LNP candidate for Mr Slipper’s seat of Fisher, has been approached for comment.

‘‘Mal Brough said it was important the Liberal Party should win the seat of Fisher,’’ Mr Palmer alleged.

‘‘He said to me, ‘we need to destroy Peter Slipper’.

‘‘He said he had all the evidence that would put Slipper way for a long time.

‘‘He then outlined to me a case he had that would destroy his integrity and what the community thought about Mr Slipper.’’

The mining magnate alleged Mr Brough asked him to fund a sexual harassment lawsuit James Ashby would bring against his former employer, Mr Slipper.

Mr Palmer also alleged Mr Brough asked him to employ a woman who would play an integral role in the former House of Representatives speaker’s downfall.

He said Mr Brough did not outline the woman’s role……

Coalition admits it will be clawing back over $9.4 billion from low income households to fund its 2013 election promises

On 28 August 2013 the Federal Coalition issued a joint media release unaccompanied by any supporting documentation.

This confirmed that any Abbott-led federal government intends to save $3.7 billion by removing the Low Income Superannuation Government Contribution, $1.1 billion by abolishing the Income Support Bonus, $4.6 billion by abolishing the School Kids Bonus and $1.6 billion by deferring the scheduled Superannuation Guarantee increase.

Which means that it will be predominately those Australians who can least afford it who are expected to subsidize over 29.74% of the Liberal-Nationals Coalition’s identified ‘savings’ over the current forward estimates period.

Australian Liberal-Nationals Coalition 28 August 2013 media release re election policies/promises costings

Clarence Valley property theft/robbery crime rate across last decade - a matter of averages

On 21 August 2013 The Daily Examiner trumpeted; The Clarence Valley has returned some of the worst crime statistics in regional NSW following a 10-year review into offending trends across the state…..In nearly every category, crimes in Clarence were declining at a far slower rate than in the rest of the state.

Here is the actual Clarence Valley major property/theft crime profile between 2000-2012, published in August 2013 by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics:

Break And Enter Dwelling  -38.6% (12 year rate per 100,000 head of population falling but above overall state 12 year rate)

Motor Vehicle Theft  5.8% (now over the state 12 year rate per 100,000 head of population)

Stealing From Dwelling  -45% (12 year rate per 100,000 head of population falling but above overall average state 12 year rate)

Stealing From Person – less than 20 incidents per year over the last 3 years

Stealing From A Motor Vehicle  -3.13% (12 year rate per 100,000 head of population falling but above overall average state 12 year rate)

Stealing From A Retail Store  -7.8% (12 year rate per 100,000 head of population falling and less than 1% above overall average state 12 year rate)

Robbery - less than 20 incidents per year over the last 3 years

Comparing Clarence Valley property offense rates with the rest of regional New South Wales and the North Coast one finds that; falls in rates of this offence in the Murrumbidgee, Northern, Far West and Murray SD ranged between 11.5 and 32.8 per cent and the Northern SD experienced a 15.8 per cent increase in the rate of motor vehicle theft.

All recent NSW crime statistics releases here.

About that $1 billion that Abbott states was never cut from federal health funding

On 7 October 2003 the current Federal Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott became Minister for Health and Aging in the Howard Government – a position he held until December 2007.

These are the facts about the Australian Health Care Agreements 2003-2008 :

Each of the predecessor Agreements provided indexation formulae to account for growth and ageing of the population. The 1998–2003 Agreements also recognised that there was further "utilisation drift", that is increases in utilisation were occurring in the hospital sector over and above that which can be explained by population growth and ageing. This utilisation drift was in part the result of new technologies that allowed for treatments for conditions for which there was previously no hospital treatment. Utilisation also increased because of shifts in treatment from general practitioners' rooms and other ambulatory settings to same day hospital admission.

The 1998–2003 Agreements provided an escalation factor of 2.1% per annum over and above the growth caused by the increase in the rate of population for key elements of the grant. The 2003–08 Agreements reduced the utilisation drift factor to 1.7% and narrowed the applicable components of the grant, saving the Commonwealth Government about $1 billion from that provided for in the Forward Estimates. This reduction in growth provision was vociferously opposed by States and also by clinicians who were experiencing significant financial pressures on hospitals as a result of State Government funding constraints

In a 26 October 2007 radio interview with Mike Carlton, Tony Abbott admitted that there had been “a forward estimates adjustment” and agreed that “the share of federal government [health] funding has gone down from 45 per cent to 41 per cent since 1996”.