All care, no policy: Liberal party pretenders exposed

It probably should be no surprise that last night’s royal wedding became part of the political debate this week. But the criticism by government members highlighted yet again the Liberal party’s policy of pretending to care about something while simultaneously doing everything to work against it.

 ‘In January 2014, then minister for employment Eric Abetz (left)
warned unless businesses stood up to unions we risked seeing a
 wages explosion.’

Peter Dutton and Tasmanian senator Eric Abetz bought into the issue of the ABC’s coverage of the royal wedding off the back of erroneous reporting in News Corp papers suggesting the ABC had flown hosts Annabel Crabb and Jeremy Fernandez to London in business class. Abetz, who is never one to miss an opportunity to slight the ABC, echoed Dutton’s thoughts when he suggested he would “would like to see the justification for flying those two over when there is a crew permanently in London”.

It is the standard operating procedure of the Liberal party: cut funding to the ABC that in effect is designed to ensure it struggles to do a professional job, then either criticise it for not being up to scratch or, when it does something professionally, criticise it for wasting money.

Read Greg Jericho’s story from The Guardian - “All care, no policy: Liberal party pretenders exposed.”

Sustainable shopping: save the world, one chocolate at a time

Cocoa is probably the most sustainable of all internationally traded commodities, so there are several “feelgood” reasons for eating the chocolate made from it this Easter – at least when the cocoa is grown by smallholder producers and traded by processors that are committed to equitable sharing of profits.

These are the chocolates you’re looking for. 

Here are some ways to tell if you are onto a good thing.As a wild species, cocoa (Theobroma cacao) originates from the rainforest of the Amazon basin and the foothills of the Andes. In nature, it grows as an “understorey” species, shaded by the rainforest canopy. Much of the world’s cocoa crop is similarly grown in the shade of taller trees in mixed plantings.

Unlike many plantation crops, like rubber and oil palm, cocoa can be grown with a diverse mixture of other plants. Of course, not all growers produce this way, so if preserving biodiversity is a priority for you, look for Rainforest Alliance certification.

Read the piece on The Conversation buy a trio of authors - “Sustainable shopping: save the world, one chocolate at a time.”

'Hot and Dry: Australia's Weird Winter’

A new report out this morning tells us what we have probably already suspected — we've just experienced the hottest winter on record.

We've just experienced the hottest winter on record.

It's also been one of the driest — with average maximum temperatures up to two degrees higher than usual.

In all, 260 records were broken this winter, mostly related to heat and low rainfall.

That's according to the independent non-profit organisation, the Climate Council who this morning released its latest report titled, "Hot and Dry: Australia's Weird Winter".

Listen to the interview on Radio National - “‘Hot and Dry: Australia's Weird Winter’.”