On February 5, Senator Nash’s office ordered the health food rating website to be taken down. On the same day the CEO of food peak body, the Australian Food and Grocery Council, Gary Dawson, spoke to the minister’s office and urged the website’s removal, ABC’s 7.30 program revealed.
The junior minister continues to weather criticism over her former chief of staff, Alastair Furnival's involvement in a decision to shut down the government's healthy food website on the day it was posted.
Mr Furnival resigned earlier this month when it was revealed that he co-owned with his wife a lobbying firm that represented clients in the junk food industry.Prime Minister Tony Abbott deflected questions in Parliament on Thursday when asked about the background of Mr Furnival and his role in a Coalition election promise of a $16 million grant for a Cadbury chocolate factory in Tasmania.
The opposition probed Mr Furnival's involvement in the Cadbury funding after it was revealed he had been employed by the chocolate company immediately before taking up the most senior post in Senator Nash's office, where he would have direct influence over health and food policy.
Key health organisations contacted by Fairfax Media said they had not met with Senator Nash "directly" despite, in some cases, trying numerous times to organise meetings.
"A number of times we requested a meeting with the Assistant Health Minister, but we were directed to one of her advisers," said Melanie Walker, acting CEO of the Public Health Association.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/assistant-health-minister-fiona-nashs-failure-to-meet-with-public-health-bodies-labelled-strange-20140227-33m12.html#ixzz2uaTheBDz

From MUNGO MACCALLUM

Tony Abbott just doesn’t get it.

The accusation against his Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash is not just one of parliamentary jaywalking: a momentary lapse of diligence in observing the ministerial code of conduct, or the inadvertent and short-lived misleading of parliament as a result.

The accusation is that her office corrupted – and the word is chosen carefully and deliberately – the process of government, and this, even by Abbott’s standards, is surely a sacking offence. There may, of course, be an innocent explanation; but if so, Nash has not yet provided it. And the evidence to hand looks pretty damning.

When Abbott appointed Nash as Assistant Minister for Health, she in turn appointed Alastair Furnival as her chief of staff. Like most new staffers, Furnival was vetted by a committee which included Abbott’s own chief of staff, Peta Credlin, and the government leader in the senate, Eric Abetz.

Abetz now says that Furnival’s connection with the firm Australian Public Affairs, which lobbied for the food and alcohol industry, was known to most ministers. This in itself should have been enough to suggest a looming conflict of interest; but the appointment went ahead. Abbott’s ministerial code of conduct required Furnival to break off all contact with APA, but he didn’t, and apparently no-one – least of all his minister – bothered to check.

In government Furnival moved swiftly to cut off the funding of Australia’s principle advisory body on drugs and alcohol and prevented its members – including a former MP, the medico Mal Washer – from protesting to Nash directly. He then moved to block the implementation of the health star system on retail food; this time he needed Nash’s own imprimatur, which was readily given. There was no decent explanation for either decision, despite the fact that both looked anti- rather than pro-health.

It was clear that Furnival was driving policy from the minister’s office, but Nash defended him: “There is no connection whatsoever between my chief of staff and the company Australian Public Affairs,” she told Parliament. “My chief of staff has no connection with the food industry and is simply doing his job.” Then she returned to the senate to add “for the sake completeness” that Furnival still held a shareholding in APA.

In fact Furnival and his wife are the sole shareholders in the holding company which controls APA – more than a casual interest. When this came out Abbott decided to cut his losses and Furnival was informed that his resignation had been accepted whether it was offered or not. And that, said the prime minister, was the end of the matter.

Well, for the moment, perhaps. Nash survived, and said she hoped to get a new, improved version of the health star system up and running in a few months, but failed to explain her mendacity, negligence and subservience regarding Furnival. And as a postscript, it was revealed that one of Furnival’s clients, the Mondelez food giant, came out in the star ratings very badly indeed; its products were decidedly unhealthy.

But not as unhealthy as the system which sought to protect them, and very nearly succeeded. The incident shows that the government is in urgent need of a severe purging. 

http://www.themonthly.com.au/blog/mungo-maccallum/2014/02/28/1393552101/not-healthy-trouble-fiona-nash

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Mungo, you are right about everything except one thing... Abbott does get it!.. He has to know what is happening here is totally corrupt.  BUT with the support of the merde-och press and that of screw-loose Bolt and other shock-jocks who wear similar budgie smugglers as Abbotts for flags, he can do what he wants to...

That is to say he will tell us to go and fly a kite, EVEN IF THE WHOLE NASH AFFAIR IS CORRUPT FROM TOP TO BUM (I mean bottom)... Tony the weasel rat will get away with this caper until the cows are blue and his face is dirty like a cow's butt coming home.  

And Australia is taken for a ride on a steam train full of chocolate... What are we complaining about?

Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash has been censured by the Senate, accused of misleading parliament over her connection to the removal of a food rating website.

But Prime Minister Tony Abbott is standing by his junior minister.

Labor and the Australian Greens on Wednesday used their numbers in the upper house to censure Senator Nash despite her strenuous denials.

Opposition Senate Leader Penny Wong said it was not a step Labor took lightly, because censuring a minister was a serious matter in parliament.

But the chamber had been treated with contempt by an assistant minister with an "unhealthy tendency to mislead" and action was needed, she said.

"The minister has failed to account for her actions by answering questions, and when she has ... she has demonstrated at best a reckless disregard for the truth," Senator Wong told parliament.

Despite the censure, Senator Nash's position appears secure with Mr Abbott repeating his defence of her in parliament.

"Not a single person has done anything wrong in this case," he told question time in the lower house as senators debated the censure motion.

"Not only is there no fire, there's not even any smoke."

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/nash-censured-over-website-scandal-20140305-3478a.html

Parliament has censured Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash for misleading the Senate and refusing to produce documentation about her employment of a junk food industry lobbyist in her office.

Labor says Senator Nash's position is no longer tenable and has called on her to resign after the extraordinary vote passed the Senate with the support of the Greens. Only three such censure motions have passed in the past 10 years.

Senator Nash had until early on Wednesday afternoon to produce a document she claims outlines measures she put in place to address her chief of staff's co-ownership of a firm that lobbies for soft drink and confectionery companies.

Until his resignation last month, Alastair Furnival was a director and co-owner, with his wife, of the company that owned lobbying firm Australian Public Affairs. Fairfax Media uncovered his connection with the junk food industry after he and Senator Nash intervened to take down a new healthy food-rating website.

Senator Penny Wong said the Australian public was asking whether Senator Nash's title should be changed to ''the senator for snack foods''.

''I should not need to move this censure, the prime minister should have acted,'' she said. ''The Senate, the press gallery, the Australian public, have been treated with contempt.''

While a censure motion will not have a direct impact, it will increase pressure on Prime Minister Tony Abbott to discipline Senator Nash.

In the lower house, Mr Abbott insisted that neither Senator Nash nor Mr Furnival had committed any wrongdoing.

''Not a single person has done anything wrong in this case … not only is there no fire, there is not even any smoke,'' Mr Abbott said in response to a question from Labor health spokeswoman Catherine King.

His remarks appear to contradict those made last week, in which he told parliament Mr Furnival was ''dilatory'' in divesting himself of a shareholding.

In the Senate, Senator Wong said Senator Nash had never adequately explained why the healthy food website was taken down at the same time as her most senior adviser owned a business that ''profited from helping food industry clients get what they wanted from government''.

Senator Nash said Mr Furnival's wife, Tracey Cain, had agreed not to lobby government staff or ministers on behalf of her junk food industry clients.

''There was no conflict of interest, the appropriate undertakings were put in place and they were adhered to,'' she said.

Censured Senator Fiona Nash Denies Wrongdoing Over Junk Food Link

Farming and tourism are tough industries to thrive in but one family in the far north of New South Wales has successfully run a productive tropical fruit farm as a holiday attraction for 30 years.

Just south of the Queensland border, Tropical Fruit World opened its doors in 1983 as Avocado Land.

It was the brainchild of Bob Brinsmead and his wife Valerie who bought the land in the early 1970s.

Originally a government fruit research station boasting a few avocado trees, the couple kept planting more until they were producing at a commercial level.

"We just loved avocados, the whole family was addicted to avocados," Mr Brinsmead said.

"Wasn't long before we had about 3,000 avocado trees but then we wanted more than avocados."

Over the next decade Mr Brinsmead started growing every tropical fruit imaginable. There are now more than 500 different types of fruit growing in his orchard.

"I must say not every type of fruit we brought here and trialled ended up being a sensation," he said.

"Some of them proved to be great garden fruits to grow in the home garden that you could never commercialise."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-08/tropical-fruit-tourism/5301058

The government has paid nearly a million dollars to cover its sudden axing of Australia's peak drug and alcohol body, documents reveal.

A leaked report from the administrator winding up the Alcohol and Other Drug Council of Australia shows the government has paid out more than $949,000 so far because of the decision by beleaguered Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash to cut the organisation's funding without notice.

Public health groups and former Liberal MP and council board president Mal Washer have said the decision was ill-informed, especially given the organisation cost only between $1.3 million and $1.6 million annually.

The wind-up cost raises further questions as to why the senator chose to cut the council's funding on the grounds she could no longer afford to provide for the organisation, which had been funded for almost 50 years.

Senator Nash was censured in Parliament this month for misleading the Senate and refusing to produce documentation outlining how her chief of staff was allowed to continue working for her despite co-owning a company that had worked for the alcohol and junk food industries.

Dr Washer, who has resigned because he says the lack of funding made his position untenable, said the decision was ''a bloody tragedy''. ''This wasn't subject to any review … it was dumb advising dumber, and dumb won,'' he said.

Ukraine Election: The Chocolate King Rises

It would have seemed ludicrous just six months ago, but candy magnate Petro Poroshenko has now become the leading candidate in the Ukrainian election. The question remains: Is he an opportunist or a visionary?

Those wanting to understand Petro Poroshenko should visit Vinnytsia, a provincial capital 200 kilometers (124 miles) from Kiev, on the Southern Bug River, with 370,000 inhabitants and a medical university.

For a long time, it had only two tourist attractions. The first is the former estate of Nikolai Pirogov -- the doctor who founded field surgery in Russia and died in 1881, but lies embalmed here, like Lenin, in his family tomb on the edge of the city. The other is the "Werwolf" headquarters that Hitler had built here in 1942, located in a forest eight kilometers north of Vinnytsia.

'Live in a New Way'

On this particular day, several thousand people are waiting for Poroshenko, the man whom Ukrainians call the "chocolate king." The crowd will be easy to convince -- not only because 5,000 locals have found work in his factories, but because he pays higher wages than they are used to here. He also recently opened another factory in Vinnytsia that manufactures canned milk.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/profile-of-petro-poroshenko-in-the-run-up-to-the-ukraine-elections-a-970325.html

See story at top...

A controversial tourism facility at a Cadbury factory partly funded by taxpayer dollars looks set to go ahead, with the chocolate maker announcing the "globally relevant chocolate experience" should be signed off within weeks.

Tony Abbott promised a $16 million grant to the Hobart project during last year's federal election, however questions have since been raised about the generous pledge given the Coalition government's refusal to provide taxpayer assistance to fruit cannery SPC Ardmona.

It was also later revealed that Alastair Furnival, the staffer dumped from working in the office of Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash, helped lobby the state government to secure funds for Cadbury.

Shadow industry spokesman Anthony Albanese has criticised the decision, saying it was made on the run without any analysis of whether it represented value for taxpayers' funds.

And last month cabinet minister Eric Abetz warned that if the business case did not stack up, the government may need to reconsider the venture.

But a year after Mr Abbott promised the grant, Cadbury's parent company Mondelez International Australia has sketched plans to develop the project with hopes the business will open in the summer of 2015-16.

Mr Abbott said in Tasmania on Thursday the government had made a commitment to Cadbury, and the state, because it had long been an iconic tourist attraction.

"We stand by our commitment, we will deliver on our commitment," Mr Abbott said.

The cancellation of the Hobart Baroque festival has been described by the Lord Mayor as the worst possible outcome.

Festival organisers have not commented on their decision to cancel next year's event.

Premier Will Hodgman was told festival heads would not accept the State Government's $300,000 funding offer.

Festival founder Leo Schofield had hoped to convince the Government to put in an extra $100,000 or attract extra private investment, but has been unsuccessful.

A spokeswoman for Mr Hodgman said he was disappointed.

Lord Mayor Damon Thomas said it was a big blow to the city and would be hard to replace.

"For me, that decision would have to represent, the worst outcome in all of my years of public service," he said.

"That festival was the only one in the Southern Hemisphere, the only one out of continental Europe and of course, now having proven itself at what appeared to be a low public input for the value we got out of it, will now obviously be taken somewhere else."

Mr Schofield has been contacted for comment.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-20/hobart-baroque-festival-cancellation-worst-possible-outcome/5757184

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As Tasmanian forest are under threat again of being chopped for loo paper and sawdust, the music of chain saw is to replace the civilised music of the baroque. Sad. Gus thinks it's time for Chocoville (Cadbury) to let the festival have $100,000 out of its $14 million — given to it by Tony Abbott-the-Turd to develop a chocolate bath to attract the tourists in Hobart — in order to help the baroque festival along... 

Two Western Australian World War II veterans who received honours for bravery have been invited to a lunch with the Australian and British prime ministers, but will have to pay their own way to Canberra and meet all expenses for the trip.

Now in their 90s, the brothers will need support from their wives to make Thursday's lunch, thrown in honour of Australian airmen who fought in Bomber Command and attended by Britain's David Cameron and Australia's Tony Abbott.

The expected cost of transporting each to the capital is $2,000.

Murray and Eric Maxton flew together in 460 Squadron in 1944, bombing Hitler's factories in Nazi Germany. 

They were the only brothers to fly combat missions in the same aircraft, a practice forbidden at the time but excused by RAAF Bomber Command because of a shortage of skilled air crew.

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-10/no-free-lunch-for-wwii-bomber-brothers-who-won-highest-honour/5880230

Who can forget that Turdy himself charge the government for his charitable displacements which were more like promotions for Turdy himself since everyone by now has forgotten the charity he'd been farting for...

Meanwhile only a nasty fool :

Seating bitter political foes Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd next to each other was far too tactless to be accidentally done by a PM’s ceremonial and protocols mandarins, says Michael Galvin.

ON FORMAL OCCASIONS, seating arrangements are important. Anyone who has ever organised a wedding, or been to one, knows that.

Few events are more formal than astate memorial service for a former prime minister. In fact, there is a special section of the PM's Department ‒ the Ceremonial and Protocols section ‒ whose job it is to make sure all the niceties are observed.

At the Sydney Town Hall memorial for Gough Whitlam last week, the responsible officials decided to seat Julia Gillard next to Kevin Rudd. An absurd decision.

You could probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of people in Australia who would make such a tactless and inappropriate decision if they were organising the event. It is wrong on so many levels only a fool would do this knowingly.

read more: http://www.independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/abbott-plays-musical-chairs,7080

Almost $7,000 has been raised by the public to send two West Australian World War II veterans to Canberra for a lunch with the Australian and British prime ministers.

Brothers Eric and Murray Maxton were told they would have to pay their own way to the event, being thrown in honour of Australian airmen who fought in Bomber Command.

Radio listeners have now donated thousands of dollars, as well as offers of car hire and accommodation, after the brothers' plight was featured on 666 ABC Canberra.

Virgin Australia has also offered to pay for return flights for the pair after being contacted by the Prime Minister's Office.

Murray, who is 94, told 720 ABC Perth how grateful he was for the offers of help.

"We didn't really want the public to pay our way," he said.

"We could've afforded it but it would have been a fair expense."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-11/brothers-offered-flight-to-attend-lunch-in-their-honour/5881824

see above: meanwhile as Turdy fucups on...

It is a "sad day" for Tasmania-based chocolate maker Cadbury Australia which will shed 20 per cent of its workforce from its factory in Claremont, unions say.

The company has been notifying staff of the 80 redundancies ahead of the weekend.

The multinational chocolate maker has fallen victim to a drop in sales and a more internationally competitive market.

It is the latest in a number of big blows for the company, which withdrew its application for $16 million of Federal Government money earlier this year.

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) state secretary John Short said those funds need to be invested in Tasmanian industries to create new jobs.

"What we're calling on is for that $16 million to be put back into Tasmania to help manufacturing," he said.

"It's a sad day for workers and a terrible day for Tasmania."

He said a boost from the Federal Government could have helped the situation.

"It wouldn't have done any harm to help the company become more productive," he said.

"It wasn't just a handout, the company was prepared to put money in themselves, but the conditions on the grant were too difficult for the company."

Cadbury's parent company Mondelez said the decision was not taken lightly.

Staff were briefed about the job losses at the start of their shift this morning.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-22/sad-day-for-cadbury-as-the-chocolate-giant-sheds-80-jobs/6488796

You can blame this caper on SuperTurd... See toon at top. Don't blame Gus, please. I do my bit and swallow, crunch and melt more Cadbury dark chokholette daily than an average bear in a year. I do it for the taste, my country and Cadbury.

The Cadbury chocolate factory located in the city of Claremont became one of the latest additions to the list of the victims claimed by ‘Petya,’ a ransomware similar to its notorious predecessor, WannaCry.

Computers at the factory, which makes about 50,000 tonnes of chocolate a year, mostly for sale in Australia, went out of operation at around 9.30pm local time on Tuesday, and started to display a message from hackers with instructions on how to “purchase the decryption key.”

After its computer systems went down, production was put on hold, Reuters reported, citing Australian Manufacturing and Workers Union State Secretary John Short.

Factory workers “weren’t sure what it was but, as the night’s gone on, they’ve realised there’s been some significant attacks around the world,” Short told the news agency.

read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/394330-chocolate-ransomware-attack-factory-austr...

read from top...

Senator Fiona Nash, from Cockies Corner, has been one of Gadfly’s bêtes blondes, so I’m hoping the High Court can send her packing to Britain.

Who can forget her time as assistant health minister in the glorious Abbott era, when she and her chief of staff cum PR operative, Alastair Furnival, arranged to delete from cyberspace a government food-rating website that graded the quality and nutritional value of foods.

At the time Furnival’s family PR business was in the pay of the junk food industry. Kathy Dennis, the public servant who resisted the demand from Nash’s office that the website be removed, was mysteriously moved elsewhere in the department.

The assistant minister then went onto other policy initiatives such as axing the funding for the peak drug and alcohol advisory body. If only we’d known earlier that she couldn’t read the Constitution or properly answer questions on her nomination form, some of these horrors might have been avoided.

read more:

https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2017/08/26/gadfly-marriage-misguidan...

Read from top, especially: 

and read: a northshoree pisspot mea culpa...

One does not have to wonder why Fionaville Nash axed the funding for the peak drug and alcohol advisory body... Her boss, Turdy Abbott, was on the piss....