Former chief whip Joel Fitzgibbon has joined other Labor MPs concerned about the prospect of taxing the superannuation earnings of the wealthy.After the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, again refused to rule out such a tax, Mr Fitzgibbon feared Labor might botch the definition of what constitutes a ''wealthy Australian''.
''In Sydney's west you can be on a quarter of a million dollars family income a year and you're still struggling,'' Mr Fitzgibbon said.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/fitzgibbon-joins-chorus-of-labor-mps-concerned-about-super-tax-20130327-2guo4.html#ixzz2OmTTv13D
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Here we have Fitzgibbon, a Ruddy pepperoni pizza lover, still trying to do as much damage to Gillard as Rupert and Abbott can't even dream of ever doing....

$250,000? And struggling? Is the MacMansion too big, has too many windows or too many bedrooms?...

I suppose the two and a half brats go to Hillsong private school and already have their own cars that they can't drive on the road since they are still way underage, though they can have a go on the perimeter of the acreage, near the fence adjacent with the juvenile detention centre...

But it's really those swimming pool cost that are killing us... Especially that muscular fellow my wife employs to clean the pool twice a week while I'm at work earning my measly wage and pwifty commissions. I'm dreaming of living in the inner west in a garret on King Street for $215 a week... That would be swell, except there would be nowhere to park our four cars......

 

AUSTRALIAN families are now $160 billion ahead on their mortgages, squirreling away an extra $30 billion since the start of the GFC.

About half of the nation's three million home-loan customers have taken advantage of low interest rates to pay down debt at a pace the likes of which has never been seen. 

New Reserve Bank of Australia figures show borrowers are a record 14 per cent in front on their combined $1.14 trillion of housing loans. 

In March 2008, as the global financial crisis was beginning to take effect, the mortgage buffer was 11 per cent. 

"People are paying down their homes, they're not drawing down on equity to pay for things which was going on during the GFC,'' said Australian Bankers' Association chief executive Steven Munchenberg.

"House prices were going up and people were using the equity to invest or spend, but it would suggest they are not doing that now, they are very happily paying down their mortgages as quickly as possible.''

The RBA - which has cut its cash rate at the lowest level since 1960 - estimates borrowers are 20 months ahead on repayments. 

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/realestate/aussies-are-160bn-ahead-on-mortgages/story-fncq3era-1226609151657#ixzz2P0BrznNh

 

Of course, we should blame the Labor government for making it too easy to live well and own our home sooner... Read articles above...

The business of saving the planet

The chief executive of the Carbon Conservation organisation knows the forces of profit and demand are arrayed against his team's efforts to protect endangered and highly sensitive ecosystems, and that the carbon credits system that was supposed to assist isn't doing so.
"We aren't going to change the system we currently have, so we have to play within the parameters of that system," he says.
"What I hope to do is convince governments, consumers, as well as companies that we can have a sustainable world as well as a profitable and prosperous world."
Part of the problem continues to be public apathy. "It's like the world is asleep and every time there is a catastrophe or a calamity, some people wake up, but a lot of people still hit the snooze button and go to bed while the clock keeps ticking," he says.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/executive-style/strive/the-business-of-saving-the-planet-20130531-2ngg3.html#ixzz2UrPivaW
See image at top...

 

South Australian ice cream maker Golden North is upset Zoos SA has ditched it in favour of a deal with a multinational, despite the local company avoiding use of palm oil in its foods.

Golden North marketing manager Trevor Pomery says the SA company spent a year eliminating palm oil from its products and Adelaide and Monarto Zoos had heavily promoted their Golden North treats as being free of palm oil.

Now the zoos organisation has struck a deal to sell Streets ice creams despite the fact they have palm oil in them.

Production of palm oil is widely considered a factor in destruction of rain forests, the habitat of orangutans and other endangered species Zoos SA promotes.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-07/eliminating-palm-oil-golden-north-ice-cream-zoos-sa-streets-deal/5654134

Get Peters ice cream out of your diet until it uses no palm oil... See image at top...

 

Pressure is continuing to mount on the Adelaide Zoo to reverse its decision to dump a local ice cream company in favour of another supplier that includes palm oil in its product.

South Australia Senator Nick Xenophon has begun collecting signatures outside the zoo in an effort to force a special meeting.

The move is in response to the decision by Zoos SA to end a contract with local ice cream company Golden North, which spent a year eliminating palm oil from its products as part of a zoo campaign to avoid the ingredient.

It was replaced by Streets, despite its ice creams containing palm oil, which is widely considered a factor in the destruction of rain forests, the habitat of orangutans and other endangered species Zoos SA promotes.

Senator Xenophon had previously introduced bills into the Federal Parliament to require the labelling of palm oil in food products and last year worked with the zoo on its campaign.

"What they've done by dumping Golden North actually goes against their aims in terms of conservation," Sentaor Xenophon said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-09/xenophon-puts-pressure-on-zoo-over-palm-oil-ice-creams/5660360

 

People power in Adelaide has forced Zoos SA to backflip on its plan to stop selling a palm oil-free, locally made brand of ice cream.

One week after the organisation ditched Golden North in favour of Streets ice cream for "financial benefit", Zoos SA chief executive Elaine Bensted said both brands would now be sold at its two zoos in South Australia.

"We know that South Australians are not only passionate supporters of local businesses but are also deeply concerned with the preservation of habit and wildlife," she said.

Zoos SA came under fire for its decision to pull out of a contract with Golden North that had one year to go, despite the company's year-long effort to eliminate palm oil from its products, and despite Streets' products still containing the oil.

The harvesting of palm oil has been blamed for contributing to deforestation and the subsequent loss of animal habitats.

Golden North marketing manager Trevor Pomery said he would be meeting with Zoos SA on Monday and did not want to pre-empt the meeting's outcome.

"However, we're hopeful that visitors to Adelaide and Monarto Zoos will continue to enjoy our South Australian made, palm oil free ice cream," he said.

"It's fantastic to see the level of support people have for the protection of endangered species by ceasing destruction of rainforests."

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-15/zoos-sa-backflips-on-plans-to-stop-selling-golden-north/5673406

 

 

See mischief at top.

See what happens next... Who knows... people might be sold a cheaper palm-oiled ice cream... and the palm-oil free ice cream might bite the dust... You know, discounts and all that, price wars and profits...

 

One of the world’s leading orangutan experts has called on Australian food manufacturers to speed up efforts to ditch unsustainable palm oil, warning that the situation “has never been so desperate” for the threatened primates.

Dr Ian Singleton, head of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program, said the apes, with the Sumatran elephant, rhino and tiger, were facing a “major extinction event” due to plans to open up a critical reserve for logging and construction.

The vast Leuser ecosystem in northern Sumatra is the only place on Earth where orangutans, elephants, rhinos and tigers co-exist.

Despite this, the regional Aceh government has approved a plan to allow roads, palm oil plantations, logging and mining in the ecosystem. Construction work has started, despite objections put forward by the central Indonesian government.

Singleton warned the situation was “dire” for the threatened species, warning that the development plan would completely wipe out the Sumatran rhino, and leave just a few hundred orangutans.

There are an estimated 6,700 Sumatran orangutans, primarily in the dense rainforests on the north of the island. But their numbers have been severely depleted by forest clearing, largely for palm oil plantations. This has led to apes wandering on to newly established farms, where they are regularly beaten, tortured and killed.

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/aug/22/orangutan-experts-plead-for-australian-food-manufacturers-to-reject-palm-oil

 

And see also: rabid destruction of tasmanian forest a-cometh...

It is more than 35 years since Sir David Attenborough was memorably prodded, poked and groomed by rare African mountain gorillas in front of television cameras. Now the 88-year-old naturalist is again fighting to save the endangered primates.

Yesterday, he launched a scathing attack on a British firm with a history of oil exploration in the gorillas' fragile habitat. Sir David, whose now famous scene from the Life on Earth series featured a family of mountain gorillas, called for Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, one of the last bastions of the mountain gorilla, to be protected from oil exploration by SOCO International. The firm, which is registered on the London Stock Exchange, had been conducting studies on whether it is feasible to drill for oil at Lake Edward, on the border of the park and neighbouring Rwanda.

read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/sir-david-attenborough-facing-new-battle-to-save-the-gorillas-9833672.html

 

 

See image and articles at top...

Nestle can no longer claim to use certified sustainable palm oil in its chocolates and other products, after being suspended by the group responsible for certification.

But Greenpeace says the ban is too little, too late, and has only been imposed for monetary purposes.

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), which has come under repeated criticism for being too soft on member companies, suspended Nestle after "breaches of the RSPO statutes and code of conduct for members".

Many chocolate products including Nestle's KitKats contain palm oil.

The RSPO was set up by environment groups and industry partners in 2004, to help curb destructive practices by palm oil growers, including the bulldozing of huge swathes of rainforest.

Due in part to a controversial Greenpeace ad campaign in 2010 which portrayed an office worker biting into an orangutan finger instead of a KitKat, Nestle made a "commitment on no deforestation".

The commitment included helping to achieve zero-net deforestation by 2020.

A statement from Nestle in 2014 claimed the company was only using "segregated, certified-sustainable palm oil in its Australian chocolate factory".

But late last year a spokesperson for the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) accused a number of companies of "deceiving" their consumers over palm oil.

"Nestle, Mars and Hershey have cherry-picked their [palm oil] targets and then moved the goalposts when they don't achieve them," RAN's Laurel Sutherlin told the Guardian.

But in a statement to the ABC on Friday, Nestle spokesperson Margaret Stuart said Nestle remained committed to "improving the social and environmental performance of the palm oil sector".

"Nestle is committed to achieving traceability to plantations and to improving supply chain practices through intervention on the ground, rather than relying on audits or certificates," Ms Stuart said via email.

"We respect the RSPO board's decision regarding Nestle's membership, and will continue our dialogue with RSPO and hope to re-qualify in the near future.

"The suspension does not affect the sustainable sourcing of any of our ingredients containing palm oil: we are still buying the same ingredients from the same suppliers."

 

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-06-29/nestle-suspended-sustainab...

 

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World in Progress: Indonesian palm oil puts village on the edge of ruin

Valued at $60 billion, Indonesia's palm oil industry has been a boon for the Southeast Asian country. But as the village of Rukam has learned, it's a dirty business for the environment and humans alike.

 

See more:

https://www.dw.com/en/world-in-progress-indonesian-palm-oil-puts-village-on-the-edge-of-ruin/av-53841878

 

 

 

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