UPDATE JULY 2007 PART THREE
PRETTY – BUT POISONOUS
While we are worried about terrorist attacks biological warfare and toxic contamination of our environment, there are some threats flourishing much closer to home which may be every bit as serious. Steve Stickney investigated.
Some plants which grow in our parks and playgrounds and even in our gardens are poisonous enough to make you sick, and possibly even kill you. Children are especially vulnerable, particularly because they tend to be curious and are not afraid to taste things which look colourful or interesting. Fortunately many toxic plants taste bitter or unpleasant but some poisons can also cause problems if they are inhaled or even come into contact with bare skin. If you or someone may have been poisoned, try to find some of the offending plants, including flowers or berries, and take these with you to the hospital to help have them identified.
There is also a 24 hour Poisons Information Hotline – 131 126. You may be surprised by some of the plants which may be potentially lethal to humans and pets. Here are just a few but the list is by no means complete.
Agapanthus: Bulb and all underground parts of this popular, but invasive, garden plant are poisonous.
Angel’s Trumpets: (Brugmansia) can cause hallucinations and may appeal to risk taking people.
Arum Lily: The bulbs and stems are poisonous.
Asthma or Sticky Weed: (Pellitory or Parietaria judicia) Associated with asthma attacks and can also cause skin allergies.
Blue Couch: Prussic acid is a potent, rapidly acting poison, hydrocyanic acid.
Castor Oil Plant: (Rivinus Communis) Bright red seeds contains ricin, a deadly poison also present in lower concentrations throughout the plant. Lethal doses can be as low as three or four seeds.
Cotton Bush: Contains imunoreactive cardia glycoside, the same toxin use by cane toads
Crab’s Eye Creeper: Hard red and black seeds contain a powerful toxin. Just one seed can kill and adult.
Crown Beard: (Verbesina) Clustered white or yellow flower heads can make people ill if ingested.
Cycads: The seeds are bright red and yellow, and look appealing, but are very toxic to humans. Aborigines knew how to leach out the poison and use the seeds as bush tucker.
Daffodils: Bulbs are poisonous.
Daphne: Berries are poisonous.
Euphorbia: Pink, red or yellow flowers on top of spike stems. Sticky, milky sap can be a serious irritant, especially for eyes. Difficult to remove from skin, use methylated spirits.
Foxglove: (digitalis) Beautiful conical flower spikes are poisonous, containing the heart medicine digitalis.
Green Poison Berry: (Green Cestrum) Fragrant by night, but by day smells like urine. Relative to the tobacco plant and Angel’s Trumpet (deadly nightshade).
Hemlock: (apiaceous or umbelliferae) Contains alkaloid conline and was said to have been used to poison Greek Philosopher Socrates.
Hyacinths: Bulbs are toxic if eaten.
Jonquils: Like hyacinths and daffodils, bulbs are poisonous.
Mother of Millions: Blue grey succulent with Christmas bell style flowers. Scores of tiny plants sprout at the tips of leaves making it very difficult to eradicate from gardens. Sap is toxic
Mushrooms: Never eat or touch wild mushrooms and toadstools. Some have been used as hallucinogens and deaths have been reported.
Native Fuchsia: Flowers are red with yellow tips and resemble Christmas bells.
Oleander: (narium oleander) all parts are poisonous but taste awful. Popular garden plants but keep leaves and flowers out of reach of children. Always wash hands after pruning as sap is a skin and eye irritant. Do not burn leaves and cuttings.
Yellow Oleander: ( cascabella or thevetia peruviana) Seeds are very poisonous but also highly appealing, especially to kids. Sometimes called “lucky nuts.” Plants are evergreen with yellow tubular flowers.
Paterson’s Curse: (echium plantagineum) Introduced from Europe during the mid 19th century. Bright purple flowers are pretty but contains a toxin which damages the liver.
Poinsettia: Sap is an irritant, handle plants with care.
Privet Oval Leaf: (ligustrum ovalifolium) Leaves and black berries cause liver damage in humans and can kill a horse.
Rhubarb: Stalks and edible but leaves contain a toxin.
Rhus Tree: (toxicodendron succedaneum) most people are very allergic to all parts of this red leafed plant. Remove existing plants with care, avoiding all contact with skin. If you do show an allergic reaction don’t touch the tree again, ask someone else to remove it.
St Johns Wort: (hypericum perforatum) Invasive perennial herb Which can make some people and pets ultra sensitive to sunlight.
Tree of Heaven: (ailanthus altissima) Handling can lead to rashes and allergies. Accumulates poison in soil to discourage other plants.
Tulips: Bulbs are poisonous so avoid leaving where they might be mistaken for onions and never use as play food.
White Cedar Tree: (melia) Yellow berries are poisonous.
Wisteria: Beautiful vine with profuse cluster of purple flowers. All parts of the plant are poisonous.
Wild Tobacco: (nicotiana glauca) Broad leafed plant with small blue blossoms and fine hairs on stems which can often cause itchy allergic reactions.
TAXPAYERS BE DAMNED WE’RE ALRIGHT
Next time you’re waiting for a cab, give a thought to our long-suffering members of Parliament who have become queue jumpers. The taxpayer funded Comcar scheme for MPs and Judges has blossomed into a 24 hour taxi service costing the Australian people, $18 million plus per year. The cost explosion becomes even more baffling by the fact every MP is given a Cab charge card that gives them unlimited travel in private taxis.
An investigation has exposed the Comcar Service is being utilised to ferry party going politicians at all hours of the night to and from social functions. The misuse of the Comcar scheme is an open secret in Canberra where the chauffeur driven cars are known as “Z-sheds,” after the first letter on all Commonwealth number plates. Question to Special Minister of State Gary Nairn confirmed the cars are on call “as required,” 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Unofficial protocol dictates an MP who expects to be in a bar or restaurant for more than 15 minutes should release their driver and call a new car when needed. Labor backbencher Kelly Hoare’s drunken sexual approaches to a Comcar driver in Sydney in April 2006 highlighted the increasing misuse of the fleet. The driver who lodged a complaint is unlikely to have driven Ms Hoare regularly because only Ministers and Senior Opposition MPs can request their favourite chauffeur. The only rule that seems to be enforced is the ban on backbenchers using Comcars whilst they are in their home cities.
Drivers can technically refuse to allow an MP into their car if they are drunk and disorderly. “Drivers retain the right to refuse to accept passengers into their vehicles where circumstances warrant such action: a spokeswoman for Mr. Nairn said.
Labor MP Anna Burke, head of the Opposition’s Wastewatch Committee, said the APEC forum to be held in Sydney during September 2007 would see a “massive explosion” of Comcar expenses for the poor old, and not so old taxpayer. “They’re all off to Darwin, Perth, Tasmania in the lead up to APEC. So not only do you have the cost of the cars but interstate accommodation for the drivers,” she said.
Although Wastewatch has repeatedly attacked Prime Minister John Howard for his overseas travel bills, Ms Burke said she had no reason to believe the Comcar system was being rorted. “To date I have not seen any thing on Comcar that says to me this is a bad issue.”
“It’s not just MPs using Comcar, you have to look at how much of the expense is the High Court people, how much is for previous governor generals who still retain the use of a car and a driver.”
Taxpayers: Paid $18.6 million on the Comcar scheme in the past year.
Fleet: comprises 150 cars, 25 permanent and 110 casual drivers servicing MPs, Judges and visiting dignitaries.
All: MPs are issued with Cabcharge cards or private taxis, in case Comcar leaves them stranded.
MPs: Not supposed to ask drivers to wait any longer than 15 minutes at a function, but the rule is most overlooked.
Drivers: Can refuse to accept passengers “if circumstances warrant it.”
BANKS GREED LEADS TO REPOSSESSION OF 425 RESIDENTS AND BUSINESSES PROPERTIES
Properties repossessed in the following 8 suburbs in the past 12 months, Bankstown 73, Merrylands 63, Fairfield 53, Auburn 54, Guilford 50, blacktown 48 Granville 43 and Prestons 41 which has left residents from these areas including businesses really hurting. No longer able to make ends meet and pay their mortgages as interest rates rise, they are being forced to sell often at a loss in the present buyer’s market.
But many are hit with enourmous agony, when their bank repossesses their property to take control of the sales procedure. The State member for Bankstown Mr. Stewart said, “banks need to be more responsible in terms of their lending practices and clearly ascertain that whoever borrows money for a home mortgage can properly and reasonably afford the terms of the loan.”
Our real estate experts told us, “that by June 30 2008 that a conservative 10,000 first home buyers will have their properties foreclosed on by banking institutions. This will come about not only due to the rise in interest rates, but by the Howard Coalition Government’s new Industrial Relations (IR) Laws in which many Australian employees circumstances in regards to their income has been massively reduced because they have been down graded from full time workers to part time or casual employment.
COSTELLO BUDGET SPIN ON FIRE ANT
The South American intruder the red fire ant has already cost Australian Taxpayers $85 million but the Government is now “hoping” an extra $10 million will finally eradicate the pest from our country.
The DEADLY ANT WAS FIRST DISCOVERED IN Australia in Brisbane in 2001, creating the most costly and puzzling responses to an exotic pest. Since then it has been reported more than 98 per cent of the fire ant population has been eradicated, leaving only isolated colonies to be detected and destroyed. “A two year extension of the program is critical to completely eradicating this highly dangerous and destructive ant,” Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Minister Peter Mc Gauran said.
“As the fire ant displaces native fauna and has a powerful sting that may be fatal, it is imperative that we support this world class program to its conclusion,” the Minister said on Tuesday May 8 2007.
This part of the budget spin doctoring, could only be for the brain dead voter, for the following reasons that 98% of the fire ants have been eradicated and yet in the same sentence admits they have only isolated colonies to detect. If the authorities have yet to detect these isolated colonies, how can they give us an accurate percentage of fire ants that have been eradicated?
Our former Customs and Quarantine Officers have two questions for the Minister and his Bureaucrats, how did the fire ants invade our country undetected? And are they aware that a fire ant colony can have as many as 4,000 queen ants? It’s time Australians were told the truth. Link >>>> Update January 2006 Part One
DISABLED MAN BULLIED OVER FINES
A severely mentally disabled man will be forced to do community service by the State Labor Government to pay $1,000 in train fines, although he has no idea he’s done anything wrong. City Rail and Michael Costa’s State Debt Recovery Office have been branded “heartless” for insisting 30 year old Ahmedul Chowdhury pay his fines. Bureaucrats have demanded he either pay the fines which total up to a third of his yearly wage from a sheltered workshop or work off his debt.
Ahmedul Chowdhury whose mental age is eight, works 40 hours a week at David Morgan Enterprises in Rydalmere for a weekly wage of $73. Catching a train home is the one independent action he can manage in a life of care and restrictions. Since 1999 he has been fined five times by Rail Crop enforcement officers for fare evasion or having the incorrect ticket for his journey. His father Abdul Chowdhury queried the latest ticket, he was told there were four other unpaid fines dating back as far as eight years that had escalated to a total bill of $1,150, which were enforceable by the State Recovery Debt Office.
Incensed at the heartless treatment of his son, he supplied evidence from family doctor Thorimalingan Ramanathan who said Ahmedul was severely intellectually impaired. “He doesn’t understand what a fare is so how can he understand what fare evasion is?” Dr. Ramanthan said. The NSW Iemma Labor Government has done a back flip on the original decision to pursue the debt.
On Tuesday May 15, 2007 Transport Minister John Watkins issued an unreserved apology to Ahmedul. Rail Corp CEO Vince Graham promised to contact the Chowdhury’s to work out a way to get Ahmedul back on trains.
LETTERS
RING-IN, NOT BEST MAN FOR SEAT
In light of the recent pre-selection of Jason Clare to represent Blaxland in the next federal election, I find it difficult to understand how someone who lives in Neutral Bay was selected to represent Blaxland when there were local nominees of equal if not superior qualifications. Mr. Clare does not know the needs of the area and has no empathy for the local people or problems. Balxland should not be considered as a stepping stone to further one’s career.
We need a local member who understands the needs of the local area and who has the interests of the district at heart, and not just a means to an end in furthering ones political career. It smacks of “Jobs for the Boys.”
Jenny Brown, Bankstown
INDEPENDENTS THE ANSWER
If Dary Melham has been selected by the rank and file for the seat of Banks, how come Michael Hatton didn’t have the same democratic chance? If you are grass roots Labor branch member then all the hard work you put in means nothing, if you are over ruled by party headquarters. Factional deals seem to be the go for both major parties. What we need in the upcoming election is a strong Independent candidate as a preferred alternative who has to answer to no one except his constituents. At least in the Senate we have a choice of Independents. One candidate worth voting for in the Senate will be the present Independent member for Clare Peter Andren.
David Jones, Punchbowl
DEMOCRACY IS DEAD
Being brought up on the notion of democracy I am completely bamboozled how the major political parties the ALP (Labor) and the Liberal Party a supposedly proud and democratic organisation select candidates from outside their local branch to stand for upcoming elections. From an outsider looking in, to me it smells of head office dictatorship.
Roy Smith, Brisbane
LOCAL CANDIDATES ARE CRUCIAL
It comes as no surprise to see the battle which occurred on May 5, 2007 at the ALP headquarters regarding Labor’s pre-selection for the seat of Blaxland. Typical of the back stabbing which has been going on for years within the party, the ALP has insulted the Blaxland electorate by not only dumping Michael Hatton, but by replacing him with Jason Clare, who doesn’t even live in the electorate. If Mr. Clare was so ecstatic about being pre-selected for the seat of Blaxland, why does he live in Neutral Bay? Ms Mihailuk who was also running for pre-selection would have been a much preferred candidate for the seat, as she is a local. The Labor Party think that because Blaxland is a safe seat, they could put a North Shore yuppie to run in the seat, and gain the votes needed. How does Mr. Clare know the needs of the Blaxland electorate, when he hasn’t lived here for years. Mr Clare thinks that by living with his parents in Lansvale, he is making an effort to try and understand the needs of the community. This is not only insulting to voters, but my question to Mr. Clare is, how do you expect to learn about the needs of the community in six months? That is the time of the next election. Blaxland voters are smart and have woken up.
Harry Stavrinos, Greenacre
WHEN HUMAN BEINGS COUNT FOR VERY LITTLE
Governments long ago stopped serving the interests of the people in favour of serving their own interests and those of big business. I was in tears after reading of the horific treatment of Ahmedul Chowdhury by those put in place to serve and protect us, in that he would have to do “community work” to pay off his so called fare evasion fines.
Link >>>> Disabled Man Bullied Over fines
There has since been an apology and the fine has been waived. But if those we elect and pay can’t look after our weak and handicapped, we are indeed in deep trouble.
David Ready, Padstow
NO ONE TOLD US
Industrial relations will apparently be a big factor in how people will vote at the next election, but is it simply a case of John Howard’s IR reforms just being unpopular? I have worked under the old awards system as a union member and have also worked under an AWA. There is nothing wrong with AWAs per se-it depends on each person’s own situation, but they should not be forced on people whose circumstances they don’t suit.
What really offends people is the dictatorial manner in which they were introduced. No mention was made of IR reforms before the last election, yet they are now one of the Government’s key policies and it cynically waited until It gained control of the Senate to push the legislation through.
The Prime Minister has supposedly always been able to read the mood of the electorate but this has been an error of judgement that could cost him Government. With all of his experience, Mr. Howard should have realised that Australians don’t like politicians of any standing telling them what, when, where and how things are going to be done without being consulted first. It’s arrogant.
B Thompson, Cowra
EX-PAT SOUTH AFRICAN
As an expatriate South African, I find it interesting that the Federal Government has initiated a ban on the Australian cricket tour of Zimbabwe. During South Africa’s diabolical and evil apartheid era, governments throughout the world were urged to ban sporting ties with South Africa (SA) and to isolate SA from the international sporting arena as a means of applying pressure on the SA Government to dismantle its apartheid regime. Many countries heeded the call, but in the 1980’s Australia was one of the countries that was instrumental in organising rebel cricket tours of SA. Many people, including some in Australia, protested against these tours. The argument offered by the SA Government and Australian Governments then was that politics and sport should not mix.
Robert Mugabe’s regime is an oppressive, auto cratic system of Government. So AS’s white Government during the rebel tours. And SA’s apartheid system was an institutional system at that.
Do I detect just a hint of hypocrisy and double standards?
Des Ranglah, Erskine Park
While John Howard could not be called a dictator, is not the act of a dictator to prevent a team of sportsmen from leaving the country? The Zimbabwe ban would carry more weight if it was instigated by the players rather than the Government.
Geoff Ferguson, Morpeth
So Mr Howard gets tough with Zimbabwe and we are expected to believe that this is a man who supports democracy. Well, how about Burma? China and Thailand, keep this nasty junta alive, yet our Government says nothing to either country.
P Stephens, Yamba
WE SHOULD FEEL INSULTED
Robert Mugabe is of course, a ghastly tinpot tyrant, running by totalitarian means a completely ruined country. But sport has no place in either politics or diplomacy. Mr Howard’s ban is not only antithetical to the basic concept of sport, but elevates a game which attracts the interest of according to established international statistics, no more than 11 per cent of the population to a status far above its importance.
The important thing is that any Australian may travel anywhere he pleases do anything he wishes, providing it is not illegal, even to the extent of provoking the self righteous outrage of our moral guardians. Mr. Howard’s ban goes past being an insult to us all. It is an impertinence, which I for one find grossly offensive.
John Wallace, Willoughby
AND NOW FOR CHINA
I applaud the Federal Government’s decision to stop the tour of Zimbabwe. Going there would only have helped boost the image of Robert Mugabe and that is something we cannot allow. We cannot turn a blind eye to this despite appalling treatment of people.
But now that the Government has acted, basing its stance on a people’s human rights being abused by a Government, will it now act against China when the 2008 Olympic Games comes around in Beijing? The human-rights record of the Chinese is as bad, if not worse, than that of Zimbabwe’s Government.
William Johnson, Guildford
THE LITANY OF DECEIT
Freedom of Information (FOI) laws are being stymied at every turn
This report by the Saturday Daily Telegraph’s Freedom of information Editor Kelvin Bissett, May 12, 2007.
Every Australian family has a genuine and indisputable interest in the contents of 114 secret files gathering dust on shelves in Prime Minister John Howard’s offices. The files are the result of Howard’s 2004 election campaign promise to produce “family impact statements” on every major piece of his Government’s legislative agenda.
But in a disgraceful exhibition of political deception, Australians learned after the election that they were never to know anything about the contents of these reports. It’s absurd in the extreme that households can’t learn for themselves how Work Choices will affect parental time with children or how the Telstra 3 sale could lead to more expensive house hold phone bills.
The Daily Telegraph has attempted unsuccessfully under the Commonwealth Freedom of Information Act 1982 to access all copies of these Family Impact Statements. The latest effort determined this week by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet denied even a straightforward request for a list of legislation measures where the statements were conducted.
It’s yet another example of how Australian governments at all levels are in the grip of a secrecy obsession and are prepared to cunningly and cynically avoid their own FOI laws to escape scrutiny. The Daily Telegraph which has the largest commitment to applying FOI laws of any Australian media outlet is frustrated every week by bureaucrats gnowing away at their clear obligation to make their files public.
In recent times the newspaper has been denied access to management reports on the NSW paedophile register, the privileges offered to inmates at the supermax prison and the names of corporations wasting water. Even the green initiatives for the Prime Minister’s Kirribilli House are off limits.
Comparative performance data for NSW public hospitals, their rate of botched surgeries, for example, is deemed exempt as “business affairs” and as such is none of the public’s business.
The secrecy obsession goes beyond FOI. It extends to suppression orders in courts, sedition laws with the “war on terror” and even strategic litigation to silence public debate.
In one case, two journalists from Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper, Michael Harvey and Gerard McManus, are awaiting sentence, and possibly facing jail terms, for the so called crime of refusing to identify a confidential source.
Their crime! The documents helped them prove that former Veterans Affairs Minister Danna Vale rejected a recommendation to increase war veteran’s benefits by $650 million, instead presenting cabinet with a plan to spend only $150 million. In reaction to the erasion of free speech, Australia’s leading media companies announced on Thursday that they had taken the extraordinary step of joining together to fight the incursions.
On behalf of their readers, viewers and listeners, they have had enough. Led by News Limited publisher of this newspaper, the move is supported by Fairfax Media, Australian Associated Press (AAP) the ABC, Commercial Radio and Television, SBS and Sky News.
News Limited Chairman John Hartigan said yesterday the constat retreat in Australia from the principle of free speech had turned Australia into a “lightweight democracy.” He said FOI laws had become an “oxymoron” and there were now around 500 legal prohibitions limiting the release of information.
“Many of these laws were introduced with good intention but, take cumulatively, they” represent a very significant threat, Hartigan said. Recent international studies had placed Australia 35th and 39th on a world press freedom index. “Behind Bosnia, Bolivia and just in front of El Salvador.”
The secrecy problem in this country is not limited to one side of politics. “To trace the degradation in our press freedoms over many years’ shows that all persuasions, whether they are federal of state, have allowed this to continue,” Hartigan said. ABC managing director Mark Scott says the trend is towards more incursions “and we are disturbed by the trend we are seeing.”
The right to know Coalition’s first job will be to study the state of free speech and expression in Australia and to put out the results of research before the election. The Daily Telegraph’s recent attempts to access Family Impact statements, is illustrative of the kind of obstructions used to block access to government information. In her determination letter, Legal Policy Branch adviser Kim Huegill says the documents are tucked away in Cabinet documents and because of that, and under section 24 of ant Act, they are out of bounds.
But there is a provision that allows for “factual information” contained in such documents to be released. This information would be considered for release only with the payment of $3816.50 to check the 114 files for such “factual information.”
But Huegill admits this might not be worth the investment: “There would at most, only be a small amount of purely factual material contained in the Family Impact Statement that would not be covered by the exemption provisions of Section 34.” The $3816.50 includes payment for 88 hours of what is vaguely termed “decision making time.” FOI requests are usually foiled by determinations that the matter is Cabinet in confidence or in conflict with someone’s business or personal affairs. Any argument that the public interest is served by ministerial advisers.
But the biggest deterrent can be processing costs in the thousands of dollars, possibly to fund consulting time with third parties who should never be consulted anyway. The Daily Telegraph has had some regular success using the FOI Act, especially at state level, proving it is worth fighting to bolster what is left of open government laws. Examples include revealing the full extent of the parking fine blitz by local councils. Other relations include sexual misconduct at the NSW police training centre at Goulburn, how the bridge climb deal dudded taxpayers and the issue of crime in our public schools documents published earlier this year showing the extent of former Premier Bob Carr’s public expenses since retirement also grabbed the spotlight.
But FOI is more miss than hit its effectiveness in regard to federal agencies took a broadside in the High Court last year in a case brought by the Australian. The newspaper lost an appeal against a conclusive certificate issued by Treasurer Peter Costello blocking access to documents on bracket creep and the First Home Buyers Scheme. As a result, a politician faced with a straight forward FOI application they don’t like but with no other grounds to fight, can simply issue a certificate that functions much like a Monopoly get out of jail free card.
Where such a certificate is challenged, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal must judge the matter ion the narrow question of “whether there exist reasonable grounds for the claim that disclosure is contrary to the public interest.”
BANKS HIT THE JACKPOT WITH THEIR BANK FEES
Customers have paid more than $4 billion a year in bank fees for the first time with penalties for breaching the banks own regulations and has become the fastest growing source. The average person now pays about $200 a year in fees. Households are shouldering an increasing burden, as businesses are offered more generous discounts, an annual survey by the Reserve Bank has found.
As customers are slugged penalties as high as $40 for being overdrawn on their account, total fees paid by households grew 10 per cent last year, compared with 3 percent grown for businesses. Penalty fees charged on credit cards surged 21 per cent last year, the figures show.
Hated by customers and massively criticised by consumer groups, penalty fees are imposed for a range of minor misdemeanours, including failing to make repayments on time or accidentally going over a credit limit. They are typically charged as a flat fee and do no discriminate between being overdrawn by $5 or $1,000. The policy manager at the consumer watchdog choice, Gordon Penouf described the fees as “nasty” and “out of proportion” to the cost imposed on the bank by the customer’ mistake. “They slug you when you have just made some minor error, “he said, citing examples where people were charged $40 for being just $5 over their limit.
“They are unfair fees that create a great deal of hardship to consumers and, in most cases, they are unjustified.” Penalties on borrowers exceeding their credit card limit were particularly unpopular because banks ended up earning more interest when consumers did so, he said.
As public outrage about these penalty fees grows, the Australian Bankers’ association has promised to release more information on when and why the fees are charged. However, Mr. Renouf said that the basic problem lay in customer behaviour. Because customers never intend to pay the penalty fees, they do not look closely at them when they are selecting a financial product. While those in financial difficulties were more likely to incur the fees, the widespread used of direct debits meant all Australians were at increasing risk of incurring penalties, he said.
It’s getting harder and harder to manage what balance you need to have in your account.” The managing director of the banking research group cannex, Andrew Willink, said increased penalty fees were a sign of rising competition among banks.
While competition was forcing banks to offer lower interest rates, they were increasingly recouping this through stricter penalty fees if consumers did not follow the rules, he said. “On the one hand institutions are being tough. On the other hand, there are ways of avoiding these things.”
The Reserve Bank report found that the average fee for exceeding a credit card limit has ballooned from $6 in 2001 to $30 by 2006. The average late payment fee rose from $20 to $31 over the same period.
It is interesting, but very concerning that the Howard-Vaile-Liberal-National coalition and the Rudd Labor Opposition continue to turn a blind eye to the actions of the banks in fact we the consumer unprotected.
AUSTRALIA INVADED BY FERAL ASIAN BEES
Beekeepers may lose millions of dollars in exports due to a swarm of deadly Asian intruders who like the fire ant has avoided detection by our Quarantine Officers. Industry experts are concerned for the future of our native bees after a second hive of the foreign honey eaters who are suspected of carrying exotic diseases were discovered in Northern Queensland.
The hive was detected in early May 2007, on the most of a fishing vessel that has been moored at a wharf in Cairns for the past two years. The ship was having repairs on the mast when a worker was attacked by the swarm of Asian bees, known as apis cerana. The second hive was discovered in the second week of May in a cable drum 100 metres from the boat. The Asian bees are a dominant species and can impede native bees from fulfilling their duties of pollinating or, worse, kill them off, according to beekeeper Maurice Damon who advises the Queensland Government about bees.
Since bee the feral disease struck America and destroyed half of its bee population Mr. Damon admitted United States beekeepers relied on NSW grown stock to help pollinate their almond trees. In February 2006, about $1 million worth of bees alone were shipped to the US.
Under bio-security protection Mr. Damon pointed out the exporters mainly in NSW were not permitted to trade for three months or until the threat of Asian bees were gone.
“That will cost the industry millions,” he confessed. He said that the Asian bees could destroy Australian populations because they carried mites that enter the bloodstream. “The mites suck the blood from our bees, which is not good,” he said. Mr. Damon said if bees did not pollinate fruit then fruit prices could escalate out of control. “That would be the worst case scenario,” he conceded.
Australian Honey Bee Industry executive director Stephen Ware reverberated Mr. Damon’s feelings adding the Asian intruders could force Australian bees to the brink of extinction if the invading population spread out of control. He said baited hives had been distributed around Cairns harbour to try and attract them.