Holy Moli - This crook's at it again.

Interstate cooperation results in injunction


A joint operation between Queensland and South Australian regulators has resulted in a successful Federal Court injunction against itinerant door-to-door tree-lopper Elevisi Moli.

The Federal Circuit Court in Brisbane yesterday granted an injunction under the Australian Consumer Law against Mr Moli in relation to breaches of the unsolicited consumer agreement provisions.

Mr Moli was prosecuted by the Queensland Office of Fair Trading in 2011 and 2013 for failing to give details of his identity, failing to tell the consumers he had to leave on request, failing to give written agreements that complied with the law and misrepresenting that he had full insurance when he did not.

He was subsequently fined and was ordered to pay substantial compensation to elderly customers on the Bayside and Sunshine Coast respectively.

However, Mr Moli more recently continued this conduct in South Australia.

As a result of shared intelligence and cooperation between Qld and SA regulators, Mr Moli was located and served with the Federal Circuit Court application.

The injunction has force nationally and orders Mr Moli to stop committing offences. Failure to comply will result in a contempt of court order.

- Queensland Government News.

$100 Bill

It's a slow day in the small town of Roma and the streets are deserted.

Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody is living on credit.

A tourist visiting the area drives through town, stops at the motel, and lays a $100 bill on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs to pick one for the night.

As soon as he walks upstairs, the motel owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.

(Stay with this ..... and pay attention.)


The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer.

The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill to his supplier, the Co-op.

The guy at the Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her "services" on credit.

The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the hotel owner.

The hotel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so the traveller will not suspect anything.

At that moment, the traveller comes down the stairs, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, picks up the $100 bill and leaves.

No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town now thinks that they are out of debt and there is a false atmosphere of optimism and glee.

And that, my friends, is how a "stimulus package" works!

Scott Morrison - Australia's most-heartless and worst Immigration Minister since World War II


Ari Illingworth, 4, with grandad Mark
 Illingworth and mum Eunsil 'Chloe' Park.















Ari Illingworth was born here, making her an
 Australian citizen, and she started Prep this year.
A FAMILY has made a last-minute plea for Immigration Minister Scott Morrison to overturn an order that will force a four-year-old Brisbane girl out of the country.

Ari Illingworth was born here, making her an Australian citizen, and started Prep this year but her South Korean mum Eunsil Park, known as Chloe, has been ruled to have no right to remain following the breakup of her relationship with Ari's father in 2010.

Ari's heartbroken grandparents have called on the Minister to use his discretionary powers to allow them to stay so their "Angel Girl'' can grow up an Aussie.

"No one seems to care about what is best for the child in all this,'' Ari's grandfather Mark Illingworth said.

Ms Park, 31, has until next Monday to buy a one-way ticket to South Korea and must be on a flight within a week after that. If she fails to do, officials have warned her she can betaken into detention immediately.

"She is frightened out of her brain,'' Mr Illingworth said.

Ms Park has no home or job to go to and Mr Illingworth said Ari, who is almost 5, would be going to an unfamiliar culture. The family fears both mum and daughter, as the single-parent family would be stigmatised and shamed and discriminated against in South Korea.

"Her whole life has been in Australia.''

"It's still a matter of shame to be a single parent and it would show up on her documentation when she applied for work,'' Mr Illingworth said. "And as a child of mixed race, Ari would be ostracised or ridiculed.

"As a grandfather, I am out of words and it beggars belief that this could happen," Mr Illingworth said. "If they won't allow a woman gainfully employed and paying tax and rent with an Australian child and supportive Australian family to stay in Australia - then just who would be allowed to stay?"

Ms Park came to Australia eight years ago as a student and met Mr Illingworth's son Brett 11 months later. They split up in 2010.

Mr Illingworth said he and Ari's grandmother Sharon Smith were distraught at the thought of losing the little girl.

"We are really close. I want to do the things that grandparents do with their grand kids, taking her to the beach to build sandcastles and all that.''

Ms Park, who came to Australia eight years ago as a student, has been working for the past three years and Ari has settled well into her Prep class at Macgregor State School, where she has lots of friends. Mr Illingworth has offered to provide an assurance of support for them if required.

"I want to stay in Australia with my daughter,'' Ms Park said. "This is our home. I really don't know what to do.''

Mr Morrison rejected a previous application to intervene in the case, and the Department of Immigration last month refused to forward a second request to his office, saying nothing had changed, but Mr ­Illingworth has now made a final desperate appeal ­directly to the Minister, and local federal MP for Forde, Bert van Manen has also made representations.

Mr Morrison's office last night declined to comment.

In his latest letter to Mr Morrison, Mr Illingworth says: "Minister this case has slipped through the cracks in the system and we, the grandparents, implore you to let her stay in Australia to keep doing what she is doing. Working and bring up a beautiful child.''


13.3.14

COMMENT: The Immigration Minister Scott Morrison is proving to be the most uncaring, unreasonable, heartless and incompetent Minister for Immigration since World War II.  How he can possibly fail to intervene in this case, under the special powers which he possesses, absolutely beggars belief.  He is either a complete political troglodyte or he is mindlessly following his policy advisers' disgraceful advice, or both.

Coca-Cola's massive Australian ripoff - Money for nothing!

Coca-Cola Amatil accused of draining Springbrook National Park on the Gold Coast





 A row has developed between Springbrook
 and Coca-Cola Amatil over the global
 organisation’s water-pumping operation from
 Purlingbrook Falls to produce its Mount
 Franklin spring water. 


CASCADING streams tumbling over Purlingbrook Falls are the kind of thing money can't buy – and Coca-Cola Amital doesn’t have to.

The international soft drink giant is under fire from locals in the tiny Gold Coast community of Springbrook over its water-pumping operation to produce Mount Franklin spring water.

Coca-Cola has a lease to extract water from groundwater at Springbrook – and they don’t have to pay a cent.

Under the terms of the agreement, Coca-Cola are restricted to operating from 8.30am-5pm six days a week and can take two tanker loads each day – but there is no limit on how much water they are allowed to take per visit.

Acting Gold Coast Mayor Donna Gates hinted that it might be time to renegotiate the terms of Coca-Cola’s arrangement on Springbrook.

“It’s a very old approval and it probably needs to be updated,” she said.

“It’s possible that a new material change of use application might be needed to alter their operations up there.”

The council’s development compliance department is now investigating complaints by Springbrook residents about Coca-Cola’s operations, but Councillor Gates said there was no evidence the company was breaching its obligations.

Earlier, The Courier-Mail reported residents of the tiny Gold Coast community of Springbrook are in a fizz over Coca-Cola Amatil’s water-pumping operation to produce its Mount Franklin spring water.

Springbrook is home to Purlingbrook Falls, one of Queensland’s most spectacular waterfalls, and the World Heritage-listed Springbrook National Park.

Coke has had approval for the operation since 2006, but residents say Springbrook’s creeks and streams have never looked worse.

Even after recent rain, the iconic Purlingbrook Falls looked more like a trickle yesterday, while other nearby watercourses have gone from cascading creeks to stagnant swamps as Coca-Cola continues to extract thousands of litres of water every day.

Ceris Ash has lived on the mountain for more than a decade and said immediate action was needed.

“They are threatening the world heritage values of Springbrook National Park,” she said.

Ms Ash said a dry summer was all the more reason for Coca-Cola to scale back its operations.

“They might say it’s not all down to them if we’ve had dry weather, but surely that needs to be taken in to account,” she said.

“You can’t just continue draining water away at the same level if there is less water around.”

Resident complaints to Coca-Cola have been defended by the company.

A Coca-Cola spokeswoman yesterday said the Springbrook operation followed guidelines.

“CCA extracts groundwater from its site in the Springbrook area and is compliant with conditions set by the Gold Coast City Council,” she said.

In her latest sponsorship deal, Aussie supermodel Jennifer Hawkins has given Mount Franklin sparkling water a fresh new look.

“They are taking their water out of the ground, but that all still feeds into the creeks and streams that go through the national park and down to the coast.”

“We are just one of 50 or more bore sites in the area, and we certainly support a sustainable water plan for the whole area which must include all the water users.

“We look forward to working with the Gold Coast City Council on such a plan.

Queensland Natural resources Minister Andrew Cripps said Coca-Cola was not breaching any laws.

“Surface water levels are not necessarily linked to groundwater extraction,” he said

The matter is now under investigation by the council’s development compliance department.



12.3.14


COMMENT: It's about time the Gold Coast City Council closed this operation down. Coca-Cola has had it too good for too long, literally drawing down our natural resources for huge profits. Coca-Cola is defending the indefensible and should take a long, hard look at this operation.

Abbott dupes voters: IR changes key to jobs, according to Mad Monk


Tony Abbott says dealing with
"industrial lawlessness" is the key
 to driving the economy
PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has put ridding the country of "industrial lawlessness" at the heart of his plan to grow the economy and improve the budget.

As parliament resumed on Monday, Labor leader Bill Shorten accused the prime minister of being a "wimp" when it came to standing up for jobs in the wake of manufacturing plant closures.

The comment parodied Mr Abbott's description of Immigration Minister Scott Morrison as not being a "wimp" when it came to border protection.

Mr Abbott told parliament he deeply regretted recent job losses, but it was his job in government to give businesses a fighting chance of flourishing.

"I am doing what I can in this parliament as prime minister to remove the taxes, and the regulation and industrial lawlessness which is damaging the job prospects of decent Australian workers," Mr Abbott said.

"I will do that for as long as there is breath in my body."

The prime minister found some support from Business Council president Tony Shepherd, who told a forum in Melbourne that labour costs accounted for a third of cost blowouts on infrastructure projects.

The chairman of the national commission of audit said the reinstatement of the Australian Building and Construction Commission should help control such costs.

The government sees infrastructure spending as one of the drivers of growth, to help bring the budget back to surplus and meet its target of one million jobs created over the next five years.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt accused Mr Shorten of ordering an "industrial go-slow" in the Senate, which is blocking the repeal of the carbon tax.

In a bid to pressure Labor over the repeal, Mr Hunt has issued a ministerial determination to stop carbon emission permit auctions before June 30.

As the government considers a 900-page report from its commission of audit, Labor deputy leader Tanya Plibersek asked the prime minister whether he could guarantee one of the areas of budget cuts being considered was pensions.

"There is a big challenge and we will address it in ways that are consistent with our election commitments," Mr Abbott said.

Labor families spokeswoman Jenny Macklin said the prime minister couldn't bring himself to use the word pension.

"This is a broken promise to every Australian pensioner who took the Prime Minster at his word on polling day," she said.


24.2.14

Redcliffe swing equates to an extra 54 seats for Labor in 2015

Yvette Dath - new Member for Redcliffe
Yvette D'Ath scored an impressive 16.3% swing to the ALP in the Redcliffe by-election, on figures released at the close of counting on Saturday night.

She easily took the seat off the LNP following the forced resignation of the former member Scott Driscoll last year.

If that swing is repeated uniformly across Queensland in the 2015 state election, the Labor Party would gain an extra 54 seats as well as the 8 seats it now holds.

Ministers and one-term backbenchers would all be given the collective Royal Order of the Boot.

Labor would win office with 62 of the 89 seats in the Queensland Parliament.

Swings are rarely uniform and political fortunes can change dramatically but those figures are reminiscent of the days when Peter Beattie ruled Queensland with a massive majority.

What seems to be certain is that Campbell Newman will be facing impossible odds to hold his seat of Ashgrove which he won with 55.7% of the vote when Labor fortunes were at their lowest ebb since 1974.

If Campbell Newman panics and switches to the safe LNP seat of Moggill, the sitting member Bruce Flegg - who is no fan of Campbell - would almost certainly stand as an independent and win on ALP preferences.

Either way, Campbell Newman would join an array of single term conservative premiers which Queensland has had since 1859.

24.2.14

Sale of Australia Post would be just plain dumb

The Liberals have already proved their policies at the 2013 federal election were a smokescreen to dupe the people of Australia.

But to now be considering the sell off of Australia Post is nothing short of disgraceful.

Australia Post is a proud organisation owned by the people of Australia

The origins of postage in Australia pre-date federation. Originally known as the PMG (Post Master General's Department), Australia Post was formally created in 1975 when the PMG was split in two, including Telecom Australia which was later renamed Telstra.

To sell the nation's postal authority would be one of the dumbest things the Liberals under Tony Abbott could ever dream up.

Imagine if these political troglodytes ever got control of the senate.

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