Month: September 2011

A loophole in international trade agreements is allowing China to get vegetables into Australian supermarkets while avoiding chemical testing.  Toxic food imports – Today Tonight – Yahoo!7 News

We checked the freezer…

 

Sure enough – Birds Eye frozen vegies in there.

Made in China.
What else is in there…

Bag of Heinz…

Made in New Zealand – I wonder.

Looks like New Zealand is China’s back door into Australia.

Door-to-door power hawkers face $1m fines

Brian Robins – September 14, 2011 – 9:16AM

A crackdown on electricity door-to-door marketers has been launched by the competition watchdog, the ACCC, which is concerned that the elderly and those with only a limited understanding of English are being targeted by some companies.

The newly appointed head of the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission, Rod Sims, said criminal and civil penalties will be sought, with fines of up to $1.1 million for each company for each transgression.

“The ACCC will not hesitate to take swift action to enforce compliance,” he said at a conference held yesterday in Canberra.

Mr Sims said that in the first half of this year, the ACCC received 2000 complaints about door to door marketing by electricity companies. “That is a lot of complaints.”

Mark Franklin, executive officer with the NSW Ethnic Communities Council said his organisation has been concerned about targeting of families with English as a second language by some electricity marketers for some time.

“It’s been on our radar all year,” he said, “particularly with migrants who came out not long after the war, who are getting old, and are reverting to their native language, along with refugee and students who are on a low income.

“Often, they think the marketer at their front door is from the government, since they present with ID, clipboards and the like. Really, the migrant needs immediate telephone access to someone they can speak to in their own language.

“We have had cases of some migrants getting themselves into financial problems by signing up for contracts at times.”

Christopher Zinn of the consumer organisation Choice said: “There does need to be greater scrutiny. Consumer groups all have stories of door knockers who target particular groups, who seek signatures on contracts before they have explained all contract details, and the like.”

Energy Retailers Association of Australia chief executive Cameron O’Reilly rejected the latest criticism, saying his organisation had received recently approval from the ACCC for a new voluntary code covering door-to-door sales.

“There will always be issues with this form of marketing. We have taken comprehensive action, which has already been acknowledged by the ACCC, with authorisation of our new code of conduct.”

“My push back to that is: why has it taken this industry so long to react,” the ACCC’s Mr Sims said. “Why should you need a code in the first place?”

The ACCC is to also overhaul the way electricity prices are fixed in an attempt to stem the surge in prices, Mr Sims said.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/doortodoor-power-hawkers-face-1m-fines-20110914-1k8cz.html#ixzz1XsZEmC3a

Thursday, 01 September 2011 11:32

JUST when you thought your electricity bill had gone up far enough, gas prices too have increased. This increase would have been somewhat easier to swallow at around four per cent, were it not for AGL changing their pricing structure for its retail customers.
AGL has decided that it’s more than reasonable to charge low consumption at a much higher rate than any of the higher consumption tiers. They’ve increased the charge for the first 41.096 megajoules (MJ) per day by a staggering 41% while reducing the daily service charge by 17%.

Below is a breakdown of the old and new prices which took effect on 5 August.

AGL Gas Prices effective 5 August 2011

Gas usage	Old charges	New charges
First 41.096 MJ/day	1.9492 c/MJ	2.7401 c/MJ
Next 49.315 MJ/day	1.8667 c/MJ	1.6489 c/MJ
Next 189.041 MJ/day	1.8040 c/MJ	1.6258 c/MJ
Next 2,465.753 MJ/day	1.7479 c/MJ	1.6115 c/MJ
Next 10,964.384 MJ/day	1.7380 c/MJ	1.5224 c/MJ
Remaining balance	1.7325 c/MJ	1.3772 c/MJ
Service charge	57.409 c/day	47.498 c/day

An increase of less than one cent doesn’t sound like much, but it very quickly adds up. A household using 15,000MJ a year will now be paying nearly over $15 more on their quarterly bill, an increase of 12%. This level of consumption is below the average of 23,000MJ per household, according to IPART, and is the sort of level many single and couple resident households would use.

The consequences of this, of course, are that those who can least afford it – pensioners and other low-income earners – are being punished for consuming less energy than other households and put in even greater financial difficulty.
The price change also doesn’t make any sense from an environmental or efficiency perspective. By jacking up the price at the lower end, it rewards those who can afford to use more or waste energy.

What’s worse is that despite there being an energy price regulator, the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART), nothing can prevent AGL from making such a price structure change. IPART regulates standard gas prices and by how much they can increase, but cannot regulate how retailers charge their customers. So AGL is free to pump up the charge for initial consumption, which everyone has to pay, and reduce the charges for the rates that barely anyone uses.

CPSA has sought for IPART to be given the powers to regulate such pricing structure changes, but it’s thus far fallen on deaf ears. This would allow groups such as CPSA to put forward a case where prices are fairer to households that do not use much energy and are on low incomes.

http://www.cpsa.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=419:agl-punishes-low-energy-users&catid=4:cost-of-living&Itemid=46

• Couples need up to $55k a year for retirement
• Annual income needs are up $1000, and rising
• Phone companies told to get real on bills

THE average Australian couple will need between $31,500 and $55,000 a year to maintain their lifestyle in retirement following a jump in living costs of more than $1000 during the past year.

According to the latest superannuation pension and retirement forecasts released yesterday, $31,500 a year will pay for a “modest” lifestyle while $55,000 will provide a “comfortable” retirement.

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia report to June 2011 shows increased costs have pushed up annual income requirements by more than $1000 in the past year, with food, transport and health costs continuing to rise.

Association chief executive Pauline Vamos said retiree households spent differently to the wider population, with a greater outlay on food, health, transport and recreation.

“Between the March and June quarters retirees faced a 1.4 per cent increase in the cost of food and over the year to June the increase was 6.1 per cent,” Ms Vamos said.

The latest statistics also included estimates on how much of a lump sum or nest egg retirees would need to provide top-up income to boost their age pensions.

For a modest lifestyle, a couple would need a lump sum of only $35,000 to provide enough extra income on top of the full $29,400 government age pension.

For a comfortable lifestyle, however, a couple would need a lump sum of $510,000, as they would only qualify for a part-age pension.

Yesterday, the Australian Prudential and Regulation Authority reported that the nation’s superannuation pool had increased 10.9 per cent to $1.34 trillion during the year.

Retiree costs jump $1000 a year | Herald Sun

 

Thursday, 01 September 2011 11:32

JUST when you thought your electricity bill had gone up far enough, gas prices too have increased. This increase would have been somewhat easier to swallow at around four per cent, were it not for AGL changing their pricing structure for its retail customers.

AGL has decided that it’s more than reasonable to charge low consumption at a much higher rate than any of the higher consumption tiers.

They’ve increased the charge for the first 41.096 megajoules (MJ) per day by a staggering 41% while reducing the daily service charge by 17%.

Below is a breakdown of the old and new prices which took effect on 5 August.

AGL Gas Prices effective 5 August 2011

Gas usage	Old charges	New charges
First 41.096 MJ/day	1.9492 c/MJ	2.7401 c/MJ
Next 49.315 MJ/day	1.8667 c/MJ	1.6489 c/MJ
Next 189.041 MJ/day	1.8040 c/MJ	1.6258 c/MJ
Next 2,465.753 MJ/day	1.7479 c/MJ	1.6115 c/MJ
Next 10,964.384 MJ/day	1.7380 c/MJ	1.5224 c/MJ
Remaining balance	1.7325 c/MJ	1.3772 c/MJ
Service charge	57.409 c/day	47.498 c/day

An increase of less than one cent doesn’t sound like much, but it very quickly adds up. A household using 15,000MJ a year will now be paying nearly over $15 more on their quarterly bill, an increase of 12%. This level of consumption is below the average of 23,000MJ per household, according to IPART, and is the sort of level many single and couple resident households would use.

The consequences of this, of course, are that those who can least afford it – pensioners and other low-income earners – are being punished for consuming less energy than other households and put in even greater financial difficulty.

The price change also doesn’t make any sense from an environmental or efficiency perspective. By jacking up the price at the lower end, it rewards those who can afford to use more or waste energy.

What’s worse is that despite there being an energy price regulator, the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART), nothing can prevent AGL from making such a price structure change.

IPART regulates standard gas prices and by how much they can increase, but cannot regulate how retailers charge their customers.

So AGL is free to pump up the charge for initial consumption, which everyone has to pay, and reduce the charges for the rates that barely anyone uses.

CPSA has sought for IPART to be given the powers to regulate such pricing structure changes, but it’s thus far fallen on deaf ears. This would allow groups such as CPSA to put forward a case where prices are fairer to households that do not use much energy and are on low incomes.