The food dictators again

This is all so arrogant but arrogance is part and parcel of being a do-gooder.  The fact is that nobody knows for sure what food is healthy and what is not.  Medical opinion about particular food has often gone into complete reverse.  And some eventually abandoned advice actually did a lot of harm -- such as the advice to keep young children away from peanut products  -- when early exposure to peanut products is in fact associated with REDUCED peanut allergies

'Please choose healthier options': Preschool scolds mother for sending her child in with a slice of chocolate cake in her lunch

A South Australian mother was left mortified after her three-year-old child's preschool sent home a note about the contents of the lunchbox she had packed that morning.

She had included a piece of chocolate cake for her child to eat during the day, which she quickly learned was against school policy.

When her child arrived home, she came with a note featuring an oversized, red frowning face image.

'Your child has chocolate slice from the red food category today,' the letter read.

'Please choose healthier options for kindy.'

The mother-of-eight was mortified, and shared the note with her friend Melinda Tankard Reist, a prominent commentator and writer.

Ms Reist posted a picture of it on her Facebook page, and told her followers she had advised the woman to 'put in two slices tomorrow and tell them to get lost'.

State funded schools in South Australia are subject to the Right Bite programme, which classifies foods into red, amber and green categories.

Red foods are strongly discouraged, while green foods are heavily encouraged.

The programme encourages schools to work with parents to stop them packing 'red' foods for their children.

Suggestions include using newsletter notices, information sessions and canteen duty as a means of communication - as opposed to notes written in red.

Commenters on the post show a fierce debate between parents who believe they should be able to pack what they like and others who see the programme as essential.

One man shared a similar experience with his child's preschool. He said packets of Tiny Teddies were sent home, with children told they were not allowed to eat them.

'Since when are preschool teachers qualified dietitians,' he asked.

Another declared: 'This is worse than Trump', while someone else suggested the teacher may have been 'overzealous' in her handling of the situation.

A woman said she agreed with the policy, as it encouraged children to seek out healthier food, but like most commenters had some issues with the school's communication method - which most described as childish.

'This is pretty normal for kinders [sic] and schools trying to combat childhood obesity and help parents who don't healthy diets for their children,' she wrote.

'I don't see the concept as unreasonable, though the delivery could probably do some work.'

SOURCE 






Cory Bernardi resigns from the Liberal Party

Bernardi is a consistent conservative, unlike the wishy washies in the Liberal party.  He is unlikely to become Australia's Trump but the Australian system of preferential voting and proportional representation in the Senate, could make him an influential voice for Australian conservatives

SENATOR Cory Bernardi has hit back at suggestions he has betrayed voters after confirming he had resigned from the Liberal Party this morning.

Mr Bernardi addressed the Senate today to confirm he had left the party saying politicians had failed the people of Australia.

But he has already been accused of hypocrisy for timing the resignation shortly after being re-elected to the Senate.

Liberal Senator George Brandis said Mr Bernardi’s resignation was not a very conservative thing to do and the Liberal Party was disappointed.

“Only seven months ago Senator Bernardi was elected by the people of South Australia to serve in the Senate as a Liberal senator,” Mr Brandis said.

“There was no need for him to take this course because, as the former prime minister, Mr Howard, famously said, the Liberal Party is a broad church. It can accommodate people like Senator Bernardi and it can accommodate people of more moderate views.”

He said breaking a promise to electors was a poor way to begin.

“What Senator Bernardi has done today is not a conservative thing to do because breaking faith with the electorate, breaking faith with the people who voted for you, breaking faith with the people who have supported you through thick and thin for years and, indeed, decades is not a conservative thing to do,” he said.

“Nevertheless, as I said, Mr President, we will continue to treat Senator Bernardi courteously, professionally as a colleague.”

Mr Bernardi’s move came on the first day Parliament has met since Trump’s inauguration.

The 47-year-old recently spent three months in New York seconded to the United Nations and met Trump associates. He was spotted wearing a red baseball hat with a Trump-like slogan: “Make Australia Great Again.”

During a press conference after his Senate speech, Mr Bernardi said the hat was a birthday present.
Cory Bernardi was given a hat with the slogan “Make Australia Great Again” as a present for his birthday.

Cory Bernardi was given a hat with the slogan “Make Australia Great Again” as a present for his birthday.Source:Supplied

Asked about criticism over the timing of his resignation in a press conference following his Senate address, Mr Bernardi said: “I have reflected Liberal values since I joined the Liberal Party over 30 years ago.”

Mr Bernardi said he had hoped the last election would deliver a positive outcome for the people of Australia.

“But what we saw was a million votes left the conservative party and went to alternatives,” he said.

“Some of them represent the interests and national interests better than others.

“My ambition was always to bring those people back into the tent. I regret over the last seven months or so we see more of them leaving the tent. That says to me there is a serious problem.”

While acknowledging that some people were going to be disappointed, he hit back at suggestions he had betrayed voters, and that only 2000 people voted for him below-the-line.

“Every single Liberal Party voter and those party members knew exactly what they were supporting,” he said. “My principles have not changed.”

He said if principles and values were predictable and forecastable, it would alleviate many of the concerns that people had about the nature of politics.

He also criticised the revolving door of prime ministers and said it was a “folly” to condemn the Labor Party about knifing first-term prime ministers and then do the same and say it was “some sort of virtue”.

“I think there is a yearning for the stability and sense of predictability that was around during the Coalition government,” he said.

He also confirmed that he would guarantee supply for the Turnbull Government.

In his speech to the Senate on the first sitting day of the year, Mr Bernardi said after holding membership of the party spanning his adult life, it had been a “very difficult decision” for him to leave. “Perhaps the most difficult one of my political life,” he said.

But Mr Bernardi said he was both reluctant and relieved. “Reluctant because this decision has weighed heavy on my heart, but relieved because while it is difficult, I believe it is the right thing to do.”

“As the sea through which we sail become ever more challenging, the respect for the values and principles that have served us well seem to have been set aside for expedient, self-serving, short-term ends. That approach has not served our nation well.”

Mr Bernardi said the body public was failing the people of Australia. “The level of public disenchantment with the major parties, the lack of confidence in our political process and the concern about the direction of our nation is very, very strong.

“This is a direct product of us, the political class, being out of touch with the hopes and aspirations of the Australian people.”

Mr Bernardi said he would begin a new political movement. “It really is time for a better way. For a conservative way," he said. “So today I begin something new, built on enduring values and principles that have served our nation so well for so long.  “It is a political movement of Australian Conservatives.”

He said the movement would be united by the desire to create stronger families, to foster freedom of speech, to limit the size and scope and reach of government while seeking to rebuild confidence in civil society.

Opposition Senate Leader Penny Wong said the “extraordinary” resignation showed the government was bitterly divided and coming apart at the seams. “This resignation is a consequence of the failure of leadership by the prime minister,” she said.

SOURCE






Australia’s Chief Scientist labels Trump’s censoring of environmental data as ‘Stalinist’

He ignores the blatant dishonesty of the American climate establishment that lies behind Trump's attempt to stem the flow of Green/Left fake news.  In typical Green/Left style, he tells only half the story.  He has outed his own politics

Australia’s Chief Scientist has likened US President Donald Trump’s censoring of environmental data to Soviet Dictator Joseph Stalin.

Dr Alan Finkel was speaking at the Chief Scientists’ roundtable discussion at the Australian National University on Monday when he said “science is literally under attack”, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

"The Trump administration has mandated that scientific data published by the EPA must undergo review by political appointees before they can be published,” Dr Finkel said during the discussion.

Adding that the Trump administration’s decision to bar the EPA from sending out press releases or placing new content on its website was “reminiscent of political officers in the old Soviet Union”.

"Every military commander there had a political officer second guessing his decisions,” he said, making a reference to Joseph Stalin and Trofim Lysenko, a soviet agrobiologist.

“Stalin loved Lysenko's conflation of science and Soviet philosophy and used his limitless power to ensure that Lysenko's unscientific ideas prevailed."

He also stated modern science had no room “for political control” and expressed his gratitude that no Australian political figure had ever tried to censor him.

"Frank and fearless advice - no matter the views of the political commissars at the EPA,” he said.

SOURCE





Union restrictions behind Brisbane railway chaos

DEPUTY Premier Jackie Trad says she believes trade unions will be willing to give a little in order to address closed shop conditions identified by the Strachan Inquiry as contributing to the southeast Queensland rail fail.

Acting Premier Jackie Trad, Commissioner Phillip Strachan and Premier Annastacia Palasczcuk met with union officials yesterday to discuss the report.

Ms Trad, Commissioner Phillip Strachan and Premier Annastacia Palasczcuk met with union officials yesterday to discuss the report which raised concerns about impediments to external recruitment of drivers, among other issues, as contributing to the critical driver shortage.

“There are provisions within the EBA currently around recruiting externally so what we need is we need management, unions, government all focused on how we can recruit not only new drivers but how we can expand the pool of trainers so that we are training the drivers we are recruiting as fast as possible,” Ms Trad said.

“Some of the current arrangements that have been reached, while there is an EBA in place, have been reached in good faith, through negotiations with the trade unions to date.

“There is capacity and there is a willingness for us to reach agreement around elements of implementing these recommendations, of accelerating training and recruiting new drivers.”

Queensland Rail’s board will officially meet for the first time on Friday with new chair Phillip Strachan seeking an assurance from acting QR CEO Neil Scales that the current timetable is sustainable.

Mr Strachan, who took over as chair yesterday after handing down his report into the southeast Queensland train driver crisis, said he wanted to ensure it was sustainable.

“One of the recommendations is to look at the January 23 timetable and to really make sure that is a robust timetable,” Mr Strachan said.

“That is a job for Neil (Scales) and his team to come back to the board and demonstrate with good data that this current timetable is robust and actually providing services to the public as they should expect.

“I’m not at all flagging more delays or cancellations.”

He said he wanted to be able to give an assurance the timetable was sustainable.

Mr Strachan said it was too early to make any calls on the composition of the QR board going forward.

SOURCE


Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here