Showing posts with label cost of living. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cost of living. Show all posts

Saturday 27 February 2010

Rudd Government and Woolworths partner in 2010 Food Rescue Campaign


Food Rescue Campaign

Woolworths supermarkets, together with the Federal Government, have launched a year long campaign to rescue a record amount of surplus food from the waste stream and turn it into meals for the needy. With a target to provide two million meals for those in need and $2 million for those food relief charities who serve them, the campaign aims to address an underlying social problem in Australia. The Australian Government will partner with Woolworths to advise on the allocation of the funding. The Woolworths Fresh Food Rescue campaign will support food relief charities at two core levels:

  1. Expanding food rescue and food donation schemes from Woolworths stores to charity groups. With 687 supermarkets already participating in some kind of food rescue program, Woolworths wants to substantially increase its partnerships with local food relief charities or soup kitchens. Woolworths' target is to turn its food surplus into two million meals for the needy in 2010.
  2. Building additional capacity amongst charity groups through a major grants scheme Woolworths will contribute $2 million to help charity groups expand their operations and ensure thousands more people can access healthy, nutritious food.

Each year households, retailers, restaurants and businesses throw out millions of tonnes of food which then finds its way into landfill sites. Although not always fit for sale, much of it is good quality and could easily be rescued and turned into nutritious, healthy meals for the needy or vulnerable in our society.
Organisations such as Foodbank, OzHarvest, FareShare, Food 4 Life and SecondBite and others work hard to turn excess food into nutritious meals for the homeless, the vulnerable and the needy.

These charities are primarily staffed by volunteers and only have limited resources to provide the help that is required. Food is not the only thing they need, the sector is also crying out for vehicles, storage, refrigeration and other facilities to maintain and expand their operations.
FareShare CEO Marcus Godinho says there's no shortage of quality surplus food in Australia, however sadly local charities have lacked the means to handle the food donations on offer.

Godinho says the program will help charities to receive, store and hand out hundreds of tonnes of quality food and help the growing number of Australian families who are struggling to afford three meals a day, seven days a week.

OzHarvest Founding Director Ronni Kahn says the unwanted food is there and Australians in need are there. OzHarvest is only limited by lack of funds to enable us to collect more food from more stores to deliver to more people. An injection of funds like this to the food rescue sector helps all of us to share the surplus food with those in need.
SecondBite also supports the Woolworths initiative to expand the provision of surplus fresh food and donate $2million dollars to the food relief sector.
Food Program Manager Russell Shields says that with SecondBite's focus on providing recipient agencies with fresh food and innovative food relief programs that provide long term preventative solutions to families in crisis, this funding will help us to collect and redistribute over 900 tonnes of fresh food in 2010 across Victoria and Tasmania.
Foodbank CEO John Webster describes the initiative as a wonderful adjunct to the current Woolworths' program to capture and distribute surplus packaged goods from individual stores and distribution centres.

He says Woolworths is already their single largest national food donor and this will assist in expanding donations as they strive to meet the demands of the 2,200 welfare agencies that they provide food to across the country.

Woolworths says it is working toward an ambitious target to reduce organic waste to zero by the year 2015. In 2009 the company was one of Australia's largest food donors, providing 1.35 million kilos of consumable food which is the equivalent of 1.5 million meals. Woolworths will be consulting with a number of current charity partners to understand how the grant scheme can best address their needs. Further details, criteria and eligibility will be released later in the year. Enquiries can be made by email -
freshfoodrescue@woolworths.com.au

(From Northern Rivers Social Development Council Feb/March newsletter)

Monday 15 February 2010

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.

Tuesday 5 January 2010

Fair dinkum, you're a bit of a political b*tch aren't you Kristina!


With something of a carefully stage-managed publicity blitz Kristina Keneally launched herself as NSW Premier late last year.
She faced the meeja on taking office and promised a government focus on five main issues - one of which was the
"most vulnerable members of the community".
Now it didn't take long to see that this touchy-feely sentiment was going to be a load of hot air.
You can't get much more vulnerable than those Aussies living on or below the poverty line but I didn't see the new premier rushing to roll back the former Rees Government decision to take a big bite out of the Federal Government's one-off basic payment increase for quite a few single pensioners later this year, and this week the state government she heads is defending its
Solar Bonus Scheme levy which will see those families on very low incomes and pensioners without assets subsidizing the cheaper power supplied to people rich enough to be able to install solar power throughout their houses.
"Effectively, the costs of the feed-in tariff paid to a customer with a solar PV system will be spread across all customers on the network."
This on top of the fact that the NSW Government is about to give the nod to yet another hefty increase in electricity pricing (after a plump increase in 2009) so as to cover the black hole it allowed to develop in power supply infrastructure which needs to be quickly papered over if government wants to sell-off state energy assets.
Yeah, Kristina - that's really governing for the vulnerable that is!
I don't care how small the buyback levy may or may not be for the average family - it's the bl**dy principle.
Why should the interests of silvertails still rule in New South Wales and a hypocritical blow-in premier dare to act as if that's a really bonza state of affairs.


Pic from KKK's scrap book of media images

Thursday 31 December 2009

Favourite word picture of 2009 and other quirks


Favourite word picture of 2009:
"just got booted out of the conference center..."
{The limp lettuce leaf in any Oz political salad, Senator Steve Fielding,
tweeting at COP15}

Least favourite second incarnation on the Internetz:
The
Project for the New American Century (PNAC) died years ago. This think tank had fun slogans like "American leadership is both good for America and good for the world", "a Reaganite policy of military strength and moral clarity" and "a secure foundation on unquestioned U.S. military preeminence.
Unfortunately Kristol and Co are now up and running again at
Foreign Policy Initiative which started up in 2009. The new website tells us that "The United States remains the world's indispensable nation -- indispensable to international peace, security, and stability, and indispensable to safe-guarding and advancing the ideals and principles we hold dear."

Most predictable election result:
"Preference data for the Bradfield by-election has now been published by the Australian Electoral Commission, making it possible to assess the success or otherwise of the Christian Democratic Party's tactic in nominating nine candidates for the by-election.Standing nine candidates has been costly for the CDP, as none of its candidates reached the 4% required for return of deposit or to attract public funding. In total the nine candidates received 2,524 votes or 3.58% of the vote, but 1,054 votes or 1.49% were recorded by James Whitehall who had the Number 1 position on the ballot paper and so received the donkey vote." {
Antony Green's Election Blog 25th December 2009}

A quote to remember:
"As Boris said over on Stoat, "If there's something stupid to believe, there is someone on the internet who believes it." {From Rabett Run 21st December 2009}

The growing litigation pile belonga Monsanto:
"A mountain of lawsuits against Monsanto and related companies have been removed to federal court.This summer and fall, 161 lawsuits were filed in Putnam Circuit Court alleging Monsanto and related companies are responsible for causing cancer." {
The West Virginia Record 23rd December 2009}

Worst OZ commercial decision of 2009:
iSnack 2.0 - nuff said!

Something for the 'Obama is the Anti-Christ' assorted nuts:
"The first family arrived on the island of Oahu and President Obama and his wife Michelle started Christmas Day with a gym workout at 6.40am, returning more than an hour later. The first couple did not exchange gifts, aides said, and did not attend church." {The Sydney Morning Herald 27th December 2009}

A little festive season hysteria:
"Police from Blacktown Local Area Command want to dispel rumours circulating on a social networking website that a man, Dennis Ferguson, is living in Doonside in Sydney’s west.The claims have been investigated by police, in consultation with the Department of Housing, and the information posted on the website is incorrect. This is a case of mistaken identity and the resident of a street in Doonside is not Dennis Ferguson as has been reported on the social networking site. Police are urging those people transmitting false information to cease immediately." {NSW Police media release 22nd December 2009}

Most disturbing statistic of the year:
"NSW Council for Civil Liberties secretary Stephen Blanks said a pattern of police shootings had emerged in the past year. Four people have been killed by NSW Police this year." {The Sydney Morning Herald 27th December 2009}
This propensity to ape a fictional vision of police machismo by using deadly force appears to have been growing steadily in recent years.
Between 1990 and 2007 87 people were shot and killed by police in Australia and the most dangerous time of day to have an aggressive confrontation with police seems to be between 4pm and 8pm.

Most likeable blog:
Still Life With Cat - Clarencegirl once told me that this was a quietly insightful, gently humorous, venom-free zone and I wholeheartedly agree!

That unwanted prediction for 2010:
"ELECTRICITY, gas, water and public transport costs will all increase in 2010, while the average grocery shop will make a bigger dent in the family budget." {The Sydney Morning Herald 27th December 2009}

Most laughable Oz politician of this any year:
Just take your pick! Abbott, Abetz, Tuckey, Minchin, Pyne, Joyce, Fielding, Keneally,............

The Arsehat of all Arsehats in 2009:
Andrew Bolt - for services to Oz's racist underbelly, the anti-science lobby and general contrariety. {See almost any post on
his Herald-Sun blog}



Pic from Crikey

Tuesday 22 December 2009

Just another example of how rural & regional NSW is being let down


The Daily Examiner editor points out the inequity in energy service delivery costs across New South Wales.


Comment from The Daily Examiner, 21 December 2009
Click on image to enlarge

Tuesday 25 August 2009

Food for thought....


Recently on SBS's Insight program, Woolworths' Environmental Manager Kane Hardingham confessed to throwing out 65,000 tonnes of food a year. "We know that's a waste," he admitted.

The hessian bags that carried the asbestos James Hardie transported were subsequently sold to carpet companies (among others) who used them to make carpet underlay.
Only now, two or three decades later, is that carpet being ripped up and replaced.
The Australian workers or families who rip up their carpets are being exposed to asbestos fibres and a high risk of a painful lingering death.

Spotted on a bumper sticker:
Beware of promises of life where death is prerequisite.

In The Record Searchlight on Friday:
"[I'm] a proud right-wing terrorist" said by voter at Redding townhall meeting on Obama health care reform.

Sunday 28 June 2009

GroceryChoice website yet to carry news of its own demise

The Rudd Government's GroceryChoice web site is to be axed.
A good idea which was doomed to fail because it lacked the enthusiastic participation of the big supermarket chains and so could only ever supply the bare bones of a compartitive shopping guide.
Even the tranfer of management to Choice could do little to change public perception that the site was a lemon, for the lead-in time was far too long for the promised upgrade which would allow consumers more information.
Maintaining its irrelevance to the last, the GroceryChoice website still hadn't posted a notice of its own death thirty-six hours later.

Sunday 4 January 2009

2009 on the NSW North Coast: time to brace ourselves for price hikes

Well the festive season is virtually over and there is only Australia Day left to mark the end of most people's December holiday break.

So what have we to look forward to on the NSW North Coast?

The cost of prescription medication under the Commonwealth Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme went up this month by $1.60 to $32.90.
Pensioners will have to pay $5.30, up from $5, and will also have to pay for 62 scripts before they qualify for the safety net provision.
Of course, as it was getting harder to find prescribed medication being dispensed for $5 this will come as no surprise to many pensioners.
There is also no indication that Centrelink's pharmaceutical allowance will be increased to cover more than the current one script per fortnight.

The New South Wales retail price of electricity supplied to residential customers is likely to be fully deregulated sometime this year, coupled with the latest decision by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal to allow a 26 per cent increase in electricity prices within the next two years.
The first price change is likely to be on 1 June this year.

Residential and business water charges will go up again this year, by around a 7.6 per cent annual increase if the North Coast Water timeline is any indication.

The Rees Government appears to be endorsing the IPART recommended 8.5 per cent increase of the maximum cap on regional bus fares.
As Sydney metropolitan and outer-metropolitan rail and bus fare increases have already been announced, expect to see local bus companies increase fares soon after any government announcement.
Further fare rises can also be expected over the next four years., but for the first time all-day pensioner excursion tickets will be available on the North Coast.