Showing posts with label australia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label australia. Show all posts
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Friday, January 13, 2012
The only smoking kangaroo, should be on the barbie
via heraldsun.com.au
The Australian Government has hit out at a major tobacco company that is using a kangaroo on cigarette packages overseas. Australian Attorney-General Nicola Roxon says there is nothing the Government can do to stop one of Australia's most treasured national icons being used to flog cigarettes in Europe.
An image of a kangaroo and the phrase "An Australian Favourite" are on packets of Winfield being sold in France.
The branding of the cigarettes, made by British American Tobacco, has angered health groups and the Federal Government.
One anti-smoking advocate dubbed the image the "cancer kangaroo".
Ms Roxon said while the Government is set to force all cigarettes available in Australia to be sold in drab olive-brown packages from December 1, it has no legal control over the packaging of cigarettes overseas.
But it was inappropriate to use Australia as a marketing tool for a dangerous product, she said.
"Frankly I think it's pretty un-Australian," Ms Roxon said.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Nanny knows best: Why Big Tobacco's attack on Mary Poppins ought to backfire
It will take more than a spoon-ful of sugar to make this medicine go down.
In its latest attempt to derail the plain cigarette packaging legislation, Big Tobacco has pulled out one of its favourite pro-tobacco messages: say no to a nanny state.
The print advertisements and website ask, “Do you really like living in a nanny state?” and explain, “The government doesn’t believe you can make your own decisions. More and more, the government is telling us what we should and shouldn’t do.”
The tobacco industry’s concern with the legislation is, of course, the loss of their branding – one of the last available avenues to market cigarettes to consumers.
It’s motive? Retaining the current level of profit by selling cigarettes that cause addiction and then prematurely kill one in every two people who smoke them.
Big Tobacco has relied on a range of arsenal and contradictory messages to fight the plain packaging legislation so far.
First we were told there was no evidence plain packaging would work. Then, we were told it would increase smoking. And most recently, that it would increase terrorism and allow organised crime to flourish.
Economically, we were told plain packaging would waste taxpayer money. And, it would cost the taxpayer even more money because the tobacco manufacturers would sue the government.
Historical nannies
The term “nanny state” was coined by British politician Iain Macleod in 1965. At one stage a health minister, he smoked furiously and died at 57 of a heart attack.
The metaphor was given further prominence by the British author and journalist Auberon Waugh. Waugh, also a heavy smoker, opposed any action on smoking and died of heart disease at 61.
Closer to home, governments have been accused of nanny stateism in the process of implementing all of our greatest public health reforms.
In the 1950s, 75% of Australian men smoked. But with bans on tobacco advertising, smoke-free legislation and increased tobacco taxes, this rate is down to less than 17%, and we now have the lowest levels of smoking ever among adolescents.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Skywatch Friday
Close to the Oaklands train station there are many magnificent gum trees.
More skies at Skywatch Friday.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
Saturday, April 09, 2011
Ozymandias
I met a traveller from an antique landWho said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stoneStand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frownAnd wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold commandTell that its sculptor well those passions readWhich yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.And on the pedestal these words appear:"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"Nothing beside remains. Round the decayOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bareThe lone and level sands stretch far away.I always assumed this had something to do with Australia.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
A Newly Scanned French Map from 1546 shows Australia
Sunday, January 02, 2011
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
CONSTITUTIONAL EXCLUSIVE: 50 WAYS TO WIN GOVERNMENT | Daily Telegraph Joe Hildebrand Blog
Both Labor and the Coalition claim they have the right to form Government under Australia’s complex constitutional conventions. However in yet another extraordinary exclusive, the Joe Hildebrand Blog can reveal there are a number of criteria to decide who has the mandate to seek a majority in Parliament...
1 The party that has the most seats
2 The party that has the highest primary vote
3 The party that has the highest two-party preferred vote
4 The party that has the highest two-party preferred vote in the highest number of seats
5 The party that has the highest MPs (ie. the Greens)
6 The party that runs the best focus groups
7 The focus groups that run the best party
8 The focus groups that host the best party
9 The party with the most women
10 The party that picks up the most women
11 The party that wins Eden-Monaro
12 The party that wins Lindsay
13 The party that wins Lindsay Lohan
14 The party that finds Lindsay Lohan
15 The party that has a plan for the future
16 The party that has an action contract with the Australian people
17 The party that has a contract out on the Australian people
18 The party that can offer the most stability
19 The party that can offer the most money
20 The party that can offer its costings
21 The party that can cost its offers
22 The party that can stuff its coffers
23 The party that can stuff the coppers
24 The party backed by Marius Kloppers
25 The party that can tell the best joke
26 The party that has the most jokes*
27 The party that has the most blokes
28 The party that bums the most smokes
29 The party that snorts the most coke
30 The party with the most conservatives
31 The party with the most reds
32 The party with the most redheads
33 The party with the most deadheads (ie. the Greens)
34 The party with the best policies
35 The party with the most policies
36 The party with the best plan
37 The party with the best people
38 The best party
39 The Peter Best party
40 The Ringo Starr party
41 The Birthday Party
42 The third party insurance party
43 The arty-farty party (ie. the Greens)
44 The party in the house
45 The party in da house
46 The party with the numbers in the house
47 The party with da numbers in da house (ie. the Greens)
48 The party with the highest principles
49 The party with any principles
50 Any party
*Laurie Ferguson counts for two
Monday, August 23, 2010
Ye Ha I'm From the Banana Republic of Oz
Bob Katter is one of the small number of independents who will decide who will form government in Australia. He has some interesting agendas.
BOB KATTER, 65, INDEPENDENT, KENNEDY
Major issues: ethanol production, banning banana imports, smashing the Coles-Woolworths duopoly
DON'T be fooled by the befuddling turns of phrase - and occasional giggles - employed by this 65-year-old outback Queenslander.
Bob Katter's idiosyncratic manner belies a savvy political mindset nurtured in his days as a state minister under then premier of Queensland, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, in the 1980s.
Mr Katter started political life as a National. He defected in 2001 to become an independent - having already made the switch from state politics in 1993 to the federal arena in the sprawling north Queensland electorate of Kennedy.
The former insurance agent's bitter falling out with the Nats reflected regional voter disenchantment with major parties, particularly in relation to competition policy and loss of jobs.
Positioned adroitly as a Right-wing regional maverick, Mr Katter has never been troubled electorally in Kennedy by splitting from the Nats.
His outspoken views on agricultural protectionism and social conservatism resonate sharply with a constituency still pining for the certainties of the Bjelke-Petersen era.
He once said he loved crocodiles but only dead ones.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/features/federal-election/who-are-these/story-e6frfllr-1225908655267#ixzz0xOnLpEJs
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Skywatch Friday
Topical Skywatch with the Australian Election Tomorrow, 21 August. This is our local Labor MP, who is likely to be reelected in the seat of Kingston in the Southern Suburbs of Adelaide. Posters like these adorn every light pole, stobie pole and public space. I can't vote, but hope the 14.5 million Australians registered to vote, enjoy their civic duty. In Australia, voting is mandatory.
More Skywatchers here.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
New Viceroy for Australia?
via twitpic.com
It is interesting to me that Australians are so romantically linked with people with the powers derived from abroad. Why not move on? Become a Republic. Kick out the Wettin Windsors and become a real country.Friday, August 13, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
I am waiting for the male version . Where do Aussie Designers Get Off - What a Joke.
via telegraph.co.uk
The costume, which will be worn by Jesinta Campbell at the competition in Las Vegas next month, features high-heeled Ugg boots, a brown one piece swimming costume hand-painted by an Aboriginal artist and a lamb's wool shrug. The ensemble is topped off by a voluminous flamenco-inspired rainbow skirt.
What to say other than Ugg boots should not be worn outside the home.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Chart Of The Day - Afghanistan: What's changed? via@colvinius
Health statistics depressing with increased access to health care and no change in under five mortality and life expectancy goes down. Childhood mortality is only just below the highest rate in Sierra Leone. By comparison Australia is 4.4. Life expectancy is also low with Afghanistan in the bottom 10. Interestingly most of the shortest life expectancies are in Africa.
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