Stronger dollar hurts McDonald's Q3 result

TOUGH competition in the US and the weakening economy abroad was a double whammy for McDonald's in the third quarter, sending the burger chain's net income down nearly 4 per cent. 

McDonald's said on Friday it was adjusting some of its plans to deal with the pressures, including stepping up advertising for its dollar menu and bringing back the popular McRib sandwich nationally in December to drive traffic into US stores.
The world's largest hamburger chain with 33,000 locations worldwide has thrived in boom and bust times by selling cheap meals ( ??? really) and constantly updating its menu.
But global economic pressures and intensifying competition are wearing at the company, which does two-thirds of its business overseas.
"When the economic crisis began in 2008, few people thought the environment would still be as uncertain and fragile as it is today," said chief executive Don Thompson.
"It is clear however that this operating environment is the new normal. As such, our near-term focus is on stabilising and growing traffic and market share."
Thompson said revenue in stores open at least 13 months, a key restaurant metric, is trending negative so far in October.
That news sent shares down $US4.14 ($A4.01), or 4.5 per cent, to close at $88.72. The stock had been down 7 per cent since the beginning of the year.
"McDonald's is facing a lot of pressure," said Morningstar analyst R J Hottovy.
"They're seeing more competition from their quick-service restaurants and fast-casual peers in the US and facing austerity measures and macro-economic pressures in Europe and Asia."
McDonald's said its net income fell to $1.46 billion, or $1.43 a share.
That compares with net income of $1.51 billion, or $1.45 a share last year. Analysts expected net income of $1.47 a share, according to Fact Set.
The stronger US dollar hurt net income by 8 cents a share. When the dollar is strong, international sales translate into fewer dollars at home.
Revenue was nearly flat at $7.15 billion from $7.17 billion last year. Analysts expected revenue of $7.17 billion.
Revenue in stores open at least 13 months rose 1.9 per cent globally, including a 1.2 per cent rise in the US, where the company said it faced "broad competitive activity".
McDonald's is facing stiffer competition from newer chains like Panera Bread Co, which offers higher-end food in a fast casual atmosphere.
Long-time rivals such as Wendy's and Burger King are also reworking their menus, renovating restaurants and launching new ad campaigns to win back customers.
McDonald's said it will step up advertising for its dollar menu rather than its more profitable extra value menu that includes items more expensive than $1.
Hottovy, the Morningstar analyst, said focusing on the value menu was a good move for McDonald's.
"In this environment you have to give customers what they want, and across the globe consumers are squarely focused on value," he said.
In Europe, where McDonald's does 40 per cent of its business, revenue in stores open at least 13 months rose 1.8 per cent, hurt by reduced guest traffic.
In the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, the measure rose 1.4 per cent as the company promoted limited-time offers and traffic increased.
In China, the measure rose 3.6 per cent.
Many US companies are looking to China for growth, but there is concern about a slowdown in the country.
However, Thompson said the country is a "market with significant potential" and that McDonald's is on track to open 225 to 250 restaurants there this year, with the goal of having 2000 open by the end of 2013.

news.com.au 20 October 2012

McDonald's is living proof of the stupidity, ignorance or the lack of education of the herd population.

McDonald's sell's carcinogenic, health depriving products in the form of food, in the process making billions of dollars in profit from the mob.

The herd's stupidity will always allow companies like McDonald's to flourish.

ASIO wants powers to counter changing technology

Australia's domestic spy agency has revealed there have been intelligence failures in recent years because of changing technology.

Speaking exclusively to Radio National's Background Briefing program, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) director-general David Irvine says new ways of communicating electronically are white-anting his agency's surveillance powers.

"We have had not near misses, we have had misses," he said.
"In recent years there have been instances where devices have been used or devices have been used that we didn't know about, and we have missed information."

Mr Irvine would not outline which types of communications were the problem.
"No. I'm not going to go into that kind of operational detail," he said.
"But the fact is when people have lots of telephones and you have a requirement to go on a warrant by device, when people are using various different forms of internet protocol type communications, it becomes more difficult."

In recent years there have been instances where devices have been used or devices have been used that we didn't know about, and we have missed information.

ASIO chief David Irvine

Mr Irvine has given his first interview in a year to defend ASIO's request for a series of new national security laws.
Critics including prominent Sydney barrister Phillip Boulten say ASIO has accumulated unprecedented powers in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and does not need them any more.
"Now that Australia has settled down after more than 10 years following the atrocities of 2001, it is time to reflect on whether we really do need the existing coverage of legislative provisions, let alone whether we need to arm ASIO with a whole raft of new proposed provisions," he said.

'Modernisation of a regime'

A member of the Law Council of Australia, Mr Boulten says ASIO is empire building.
"This is an attempt to get every extra conceivable way of spying on somebody," he said.
"There is no other way that anyone could actually come up with this, to allow this, except to allow ASIO to actually sit in somebody's bedroom full-time," he said.
But Mr Irvine rejects the accusation.
"We are talking about the modernisation of an interception regime," he said.
"It does not mean extensive new powers.
"It means the ability to do what we could do 15 years ago and even 10 years ago and even five years ago ... that we are gradually losing the ability [to do so] unless the law better accommodates the interception capability with the march of modern technology."
Mr Irvine says interception is critically important to ASIO's work and there are now many new ways of communicating electronically that are not covered by the Telecommunications Interception Act, passed more than 30 years ago.
"What's changed is that once upon a time interception was very easy," he said.
"One telephone to another telephone.
"Today there are hundreds of different ways of communicating electronically and the law does not cater for those ways in the way it should," he said.

Expansion of powers

ASIO has put several proposals to the Federal Government, including allowing its officers to commit crimes and not be charged.
It also wants to hack computers of people who have not committed a crime.
And most controversially, it wants telecommunications companies to store phone and internet data for up to two years so it can be searched without a warrant.
Mr Irvine says ASIO already has access to phone and internet records without a warrant, but many telcos no longer need to keep that data for billing purposes.
ASIO wants the government to force companies to keep up to two years of phone and internet records.
Mr Irvine says the proposals are about properly equipping ASIO to do its job.

Police are regularly, unfortunately in trouble for looking up the address of the movie starlet, of trying to find where the girlfriend lives now, of drawing on the data to try and square up the record in a personal dispute.

Barrister Phillip Boulten

He says ASIO wants to introduce a single-warrant system so it can intercept whatever device a suspect uses.
"We would like also to be able to collect intelligence through interception based on the fact that a person will use several different devices at any one time," he said.
"[They] will swap sim cards day in, day out."
Mr Irvine explained that current warrants must specify each device used, and do not cover a suspect who uses multiple phones.
"Not in any convenient way at all, no," he said.
ASIO also wants to be able to vary that single warrant itself, without going back to the Attorney-General.

'Really necessary?'

But critics say laws should not be changed for the sake of convenience and that there must be strong justification.
"It is logical that an organisation like ASIO would seek extra powers," Mr Boulten said.
"It would be handy to have every conceivable way of spying on people.
"Yet the best test in determining whether or not to grant extraordinary powers like these to organisations like ASIO is to work out if they are really necessary.
"The case that is presented on ASIO's behalf for these extra powers does not spell out any detailed analysis that would allow conclusions that they need these powers."
Mr Boulten added that the more power an agency has the more chance it will be abused.
"It would be going against the experience of life to think that there will not be rogues amongst the federal police and amongst ASIO," he said.
"Police are regularly, unfortunately in trouble for looking up the address of the movie starlet, of trying to find where the girlfriend lives now, of drawing on the data to try and square up the record in a personal dispute.
"I'm afraid this is what human beings are like."

Agencies concerned

Top law agencies are worried about several ASIO proposals, including the request to allow officers to break the law without penalty.
Mr Irvine explains why ASIO needs this power.
"If an ASIO source were to penetrate a terrorist group that wishes to do harm to Australia and our only source of information about the terrorist group was that penetration and that group was prescribed under Australian law, then technically being part of that group the ASIO officer or source could be breaking the law," he said.
"What I would like to see is the removal of that ambiguity in those sorts of situations."
But ASIO is accused of blurring the line between spying and policing.
Police officers are allowed to break the law in limited circumstances but any resulting prosecution will end up in court and be open to public scrutiny.
This safeguard will not apply to an ASIO officer because their job is to collect intelligence and they do not bring cases to court.
But Mr Irvine says there is still accountability.
"That is exactly why we have the independent inspector general of intelligence and security to monitor and ensure that ASIO acts in accordance with the law and with the utmost probity, and reports to Parliament if that is not the case," he said.
You can listen to the full interview with David Irvine on RN's Background Briefing program this Sunday.

abc.net.au 19 Oct 2012

What a joke presented to the herd populous of Australia.

All of this for allegedly a safe environment for all great citizens of Australia.

As an example, the authorities were fully aware of the drug lords operations of the Moran's and William's gangs since the 1990's and did literally nothing, allowing the gangland killings to spill out into the public arena.

Corrupt police, legal teams together with high court judges made sure that patriarch George Williams went straight back into drug production after posting bail to the courts.

Since the drugs are going to the useless children of the mob, there is little care by the ruling elite to stop this kind of practice.

The drug trafficking industry trades approximately $1,200 million per month, where a LOT of high end personnel can be bribed.

ASIO already participates in illegal surveillance activities, unbeknown to the public.

Even if someone was aware that illegal monitoring was carried out against them, there would not only be no repercussions, if eventually there was any court time allocated to the matter, as no judge would rule in favour of the victim, as this is against the governmental policy.

The sinister policy is that every citizen could be considered an enemy of the state, and appropriate action must be taken.

An Australian citizen is considered property of the government, especially those who have a social security number.

Civil liberties being eroded right before the eyes of the mindless herd.
 

Starbucks faces boycott calls over tax affairs

Starbucks was facing calls for a consumer boycott last night as MPs prepared to investigate claims it has paid just a few million pounds in corporation tax since bringing its coffee shops to the UK 14 years ago.
As a campaign against the company gathered pace on social media, politicians and union leaders were among those urging people to avoid its 735 UK stores.

Stephen Williams, a Liberal Democrat MP, said “consumer power” would force Starbucks “to come clean about their tax avoidance activities”.
“Consumer boycotts have a long tradition in the area of coffee and sugar going right back to 18th century Quaker led campaigns in Bristol against the slave trade,” he said. “Think before you drink and maybe we’ll get this company to act responsibly.”
According to a Reuters investigation the retailer has paid £8.6m in corporation tax since it opened in the UK in 1998 and has not paid any since 2009. The company has made UK sales of £1.2bn in the past three years but declared no profit despite having described the British business as “profitable” to investors and analysts.
Starbucks hit back on Wednesday, arguing that corporation tax represented just a fraction of its UK tax burden.

‘We noticed that you filed the super-skinny, no-caff tax return indicating that you have no tax liability’

Kris Engskov, UK managing director of Starbucks, said the company had in the past three years “paid over £160 million in various taxes including National Insurance contribution for our 8,500 UK employees, and business rates”.
He added: “The truth of the matter is, the one tax that has been debated in the media, corporation tax, is based on the profits we make in this country – and regrettably we are not yet as profitable as we’d like to be.”
MPs are set to question tax officials about multinationals’ tax planning next month when senior Revenue & Customs officials give evidence to the Commons public accounts committee. Margaret Hodge, who chairs the committee, said HMRC had “questions to answer” about Starbucks’ tax affairs.
MPs on the Treasury subcommittee are also due to question HMRC officials and George Mudie, its chairman, said he planned to ask them about Starbucks.
HMRC said last week that it deployed specialist tax professionals to ensure that multinationals complied with the rules.
Heather Self of Pinsent Masons, a law firm said the controversy over the tax paid by multinationals did not justify a change in the law but underlined the need for proper enforcement. “HMRC needs the skills the assess the information it is being presented with.”
Efforts by HMRC to crack down on tax avoidance are set to come under scrutiny on Thursday when it publishes it latest figures for the “tax gap”, the difference between what it collects and what it ought to collect. The tax gap is expected to increase because of the rise in VAT.

ft.com 17 Oct 2012

Whilst some companies are allowed NOT to pay tax, others are publicly hung. 

There are many factors that decide which businesses pay tax and which do not.

Google reveals 'top secret' data centres that act as beating heart of the digital age

• Inside glimpse of data centers powering Google
• Search engine indexes 20 billion web pages a day
• Handles more than 3 billion daily search queries

Google Data Centre, Georgia: Thousands of metres of pipe line the inside of Google's data centres. They paint them bright colors not only because it's fun, but also to designate which one is which. The bright pink pipe in this photo transfers water from the row of chillers (the green units on the left) to a outside cooling tower. Image: Google

GOOGLE has opened a fascinating virtual window into secretive data centres, where a maze of computers process internet search requests, distribute Gmail and show YouTube video clips for billions of people. 

The unprecedented peek inside the most powerful server network on Earth is being provided through a new Google's updated Data Centres website.

The site features photos from inside some of the eight data centres that Google already has running in the US, Finland and Belgium. Google is also building data centres in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Chile.
Virtual tours of a North Carolina data centre are available through Google's Street View service, which is usually used to view photos of neighbourhoods around the world.

The photographic access to Google's data centres coincides with the publication of a Wired magazine article about how the company builds and operates them.

The article is written by Steven Levy, a journalist who won Google's trust while writing In The Plex, a book published last year about the company's philosophy and evolution.

The data centres represent Google's nerve centre, although none are located near the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California.

As Google blossomed from its roots in a Silicon Valley garage, company co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin worked with other engineers to develop a system to connect low-cost computer servers in a way that would help them realise their ambition to provide a digital roadmap to all of the world's information.
Initially, Google just wanted enough computing power to index all the websites on the Internet and deliver quick responses to search requests. As Google's tentacles extended into other markets, the company had to keep adding more computers to store videos, photos, email and information about their users' preferences.
The insights that Google gathers about the more than 1 billion people that use its services has made the company a frequent target of privacy complaints around the world. The latest missive came Tuesday in Europe, where regulators told Google to revise a 7-month-old change to its privacy policy that enables the company to combine user data collected from its different services.

Google studies Internet search requests and Web surfing habits in an effort to gain a better understanding of what people like. The company does this in an effort to show ads of products and services to the people most likely to be interested in buying them. Advertising accounts for virtually all of Google's revenue, which totaled nearly $US23 billion ($22.4 billion) through the first half of this year.

Even as it allows anyone with a Web browser to peer into its data centres, Google intends to closely guard physical access to its buildings. The company also remains cagey about how many computers are in its data centres, saying only that they house hundreds of thousands of machines to run Google's services.

Google's need for so many computers has turned the company a major electricity user, although management says it's constantly looking for ways to reduce power consumption to protect the environment and lower its expenses.

The company's data centres are located in: Berkeley County, South Carolina; Council Bluffs, Iowa; Douglas County, Georgia.; Mayes County, Oklahoma.; Lenoir, North Carolina; The Dalles, Oregon.; Hamina, Finland; and St. Ghislain, Belgium. Other data centres are being built in Quilicura, Chile; Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan.

news.com.au 18 Oct 2012

Quite simply put, all the better to spy on you. It's all part of the plan.

Aussie tv icon a paedophile

It  can be quite easily said that every communications medium has its “Golden Age”, i.e. the golden age of radio could refer to the decade between the 1930’s – 1940’s, or the golden age of Hollywood that being American cinema, being from the mid 1910’s to the 1960’s, which all are of course subjects to debate, as they are a matter of opinion.

In Australia, it can also be said that there was a golden age of television, which could refer to a period of time from the 1960’s to the 1970’s or even 80’s.

Whatever the time frame is, there can be no doubt that there have been some iconic or legendary television performers and hosts.

One name synonymous with the baby boomer generation is that of media personality, Graham Kennedy, who not only graced the radio waves, but also the television frequencies as well.

It was a well known fact within the industry that Kennedy was a homosexual (and for that matter who his partner was), and whilst his popularity was on the rise, word started to get out about his homosexuality, so the truth had to be hidden by perpetuating a lie. 

The so called rumours that Kennedy was with this woman or dating another woman, were perpetuated by the corporate media, in order to conceal the truth that he was a homosexual.

These facts are well known within the Australian entertainment industry.

It is surely the common opinion of the masses that one of the worst crimes against children is that of paedophilia.

This can be supported by the fact that today the authorities are spending billions of dollars worth into technology, in the form of censorship, data collection, in order to catch paedophiles that lurk on the internet.

What is most concerning that an entertainment icon that graced the television screen was a paedophile.

The person that graced the Australian television screen was born, of the lesser known identity as Morton Donald Isaacson, or more familiar to the Australian public as Don Lane.

There is no question that this fact was known to authorities, but the truth remains hidden whether the television producers knew of this fact, and hid it from the rest of Australia.

The truth was concealed about Graham Kennedy’s homosexuality, and even an elaborate public hoax, that Kennedy had an interest in women was given to the masses, so it could also be quite plausible that Isaacson’s conviction of paedophilia was also known to producers, as it has been hinted that his return to Australia was met with hindrances.

Young slow on online protection

AUSTRALIANS overall are second only to Singaporeans in their concern for online privacy in the Asia-Pacific region, a study says.

 Click here to see previous The Privacy Question articles.

But younger people are least likely to protect themselves online, according to market research firm IBI Partners' study - Online consumer behaviour throughout the Asia Pacific.

The study - which interviewed more than 20,000 people in 12 countries - found only 39 per cent of Australians aged between 18 and 30 took active measures to prevent online security breaches.

David Gorodyansky, the chief executive of AnchorFree - a US company that sells software to encrypt users' online data in public wifi zones - said many still took online communication for granted.
''If you walk into my house you'll know a lot less about me than if you look in my browsing data,'' he said. ''People have a lock on their door at home but they don't have a lock on their door online.''
Mr Gorodyansky said it was easier to compromise online data as more of it - and the technologies used to hack it - was accessible, with more people using the internet to communicate in daily life as a matter of course.
''If you go around to every Starbucks, or airport you can see everything people do on their wifi networks. Their bank accounts, their browsers, their email passwords - everything they're doing. Firefox extension Firesheep, which demonstrates internet hijacking, takes five minutes to install and it's open-source and it's free.
''So I think the bad guys are advancing a lot faster than consumers are reacting.''
David Freer, the Asia-Pacific vice-president of anti-virus company Norton by Symantec, agreed, saying people were too comfortable sharing and storing their passwords and banking details on their mobile phone, which could be stolen or lost, and social media networks, which could be interfered with.
He said Norton research this year showed 40 per cent of Australian mobile phone owners did not have passwords on their phones.
Mr Freer said the perception of anonymity had made mobile phones and social media networks the newest risk areas for privacy breaches. 
 "We're seeing all the scams we used to see five years ago - don't open an email attachment from someone you don't know - all being reborn because people are getting what they think is a link from a friend and getting infected (by computer viruses)," he said.
Such companies are examples of the beneficiaries of the veritable industry surrounding online privacy that has proliferated since the advent of the internet about 20 years ago.
Both Freer and Gorodyansky said they had to be careful to be transparent about how they encrypt their own customers' data.
"We've got as much if not more to lose if there's any compromise of a user’s data because that is our business," Mr Freer said.
But the steps people could take to protect their own online identities could be as simple as changing their internet browser settings to private, Mr Gorodyansky said.
Melbourne University PhD candidate Alif Wahid, who researches network security, agreed, saying changing passwords regularly and downloading up-to-date anti-virus software, were often the most effective measures.
Stephen Wilson, founder of digital privacy group Lockstep, recommended people destroy their old hard drives and mobile phones instead of selling them, as information stored on the devices could be retrieved.
"I tell people to actually to get into the computer, take the hard drive out and hit it with a hammer," said Mr Wilson, who has 17 years of experience in internet security.
"You can delete the photos on your device but there are plenty of forensic tools that can hack into it. A discarded iPhone, even if you think you've deleted everything, can be hacked into and have that information retrieved."

theage.com.au 8 Oct 2012

Every citizen has their own personal file within the archives of government.

What the children of the herd are not taught at their schools is that it is the policy of government to collect data on their citizens from various sources, which not only stays with the individual, but is on the record for EVER.

Whilst seemingly trivial information is posted by the unwary teens / young adults, this information is collected and used by authorities in a manner that it is difficult for the younger generation to comprehend.

By giving away prizes, free trips, and the like, the corporate media, also entices all to share their details online, thus promoting the government agenda.

The information collected by authorities, is then open for abuse.

Geoffrey Edelsten wins injunction against US woman but judge claims both lied under oath

COLOURFUL medical entrepreneur Geoffrey Edelsten and a woman he took to trial were both willing to lie under oath, a Supreme Court judge said today. 

In handing down judgment in a breach of confidentiality trial - and awarding Dr Edelsten a permanent injunction preventing US woman Stacy da Silva and others making public disclosure of details regarding the case, Justice David Beach was highly critical of both parties.
"A little over 13 years ago, Brooking J commenced a judgment with the statement 'Titus Oates was the greatest perjurer that ever lived','' Justice Beach wrote in his judgment.
"Self-evidently, his Honour was not the trial judge in the present proceeding.''
Titus Oates was a 16th century priest who famously concocted a story about a supposed plot to assassinate King Charles II.
During the present trial, both Dr Edelsten and Ms Da Silva accused each other of fraud, Justice Beach said.
"I found both Dr Edelsten and Ms da Silva to be unsatisfactory witnesses. Both were prepared to mislead me in respect of any matter that they thought they could get away with,'' Justice Beach said.
"Each was prepared to be truthful only if it did not otherwise embarrass them or harm their case.
"Most of the evidence given by the defendant (Ms da Silva) was demonstrably false and could not be believed.
"However, Dr Edelsten was no more an impressive witness than Ms da Silva ... much of Dr Edelsten's evidence was simply unbelievable.
"Nothing about Dr Edelsten's appearance in the witness box or any of the evidence in this case led me to conclude that I should accept the evidence given by him.
"Specifically, the way in which Dr Edelsten gave evidence was unsatisfactory. On a number of occasions, there were inappropriately long pauses before an answer was given to a straightforward question that should have been capable of a ready answer.
"From time to time, Dr Edelsten appeared to be contemplating which of a selection of answers might prove least embarrassing or least destructive to his case.
"Finally, in respect of too many matters in cross-examination, Dr Edelsten was content, all too readily, to say that he could not recall the matter inquired of, before having to, somewhat grudgingly, acknowledge its existence.''
Despite Dr Edelsten and Ms da Silva being unbelievable, Justice Beach said Dr Edelsten's expert witness was credible and enabled him to make a finding in favour of Dr Edelsten's case.

hearaldsun.com.au 18 Oct 2012

Certain people are allowed to get away with fraud, corruption and intimidation, amongst other criminal activities.

Since now a judge stated that Edelsten 'lied under oath', which in itself is a criminal act, one in contempt of court. 

Charges can now be laid by police against Geoffrey Edelsten.

This case shows that not only you can lie in court in order to win, but also there are no repercussions.

The legal system serving the elite at its best.

The corporate media is now sponsoring a new reality  trash television program featuring the Edelstens wife Brynne.

The corporate media subservient to governmental policy and a propaganda machine to the corporate elite.

Electricity companies failing to provide enough supply

Electricity companies are on a profits before service binge where ultimately the consumer is the real looser.

An investigation into the actions (or rather lack of) by the electricity companies, concluded that the some part of the Victorian bush fires where people lost their lives was attributed to the lack of service of power lines which caused a bush fire.

The lack of service i.e. cost cutting, by the electricity company, led to the loss of life.

Quite simply put profits before service or even loss of life.

A policy put forward by the South Australian electricity firms was that at peak periods, the electricity companies would turn off the air conditioners from household customers.

In certain cases this could result in the death of people who are dependent on a specific environment.

This fact surely would have been part of the business plan, and it would be interesting to note what number of deaths would be considered acceptable to the electricity companies.

The masses would also be struggling to ask the obvious question, of how could a company turn of an air conditioner remotely?

Now, there is a new policy that rewards the herd, by giving discounts for not using essential services, also  desensitising them that it is acceptable to turn of power to households.

The undeniable fact is that the electricity companies have not grown with the demands of the population, putting profits before services, as any infrastructure project is quite costly.

Melbourne's population (for example) has grown approximately 30% in 15 years, which currently sits at approximately 4 million.

Only under communism there was rationing of services, and we know how evil communism was, which was essentially supported by the very banks that keep the financial stronghold of people's monies today.

See article from the Herald Sun (18 Oct 2012):
  
Productivity Commission puts forward changes to offer cheaper power deals for reduced airconditioner use

HOUSEHOLDS would get cheaper power deals in exchange for reducing airconditioner use during heatwaves under sweeping changes put forward by the Productivity Commission. 
 
The reforms, which would allow for new electricity pricing based on cost and time of use, would save families up to $250 a year, according to modelling. But strict safeguards would be needed to protect vulnerable customers.
A 772-page report on Australia's electricity network said rules needed to be overhauled to stop hefty increases in the costs of building and replacing poles and wires.
It said smart meters were crucial to lowering people's bills in the long run, but hit out at the bungled Victorian roll-out, which, it says, was at an "unexpectedly high cost".
"It appears that the Victorian decision to roll out smart meters was premature and/or poorly planned with inadequate knowledge about smart-meter technologies," it says.

A freeze on time-based tariffs enabled by smart meters, which is being lifted, also stopped people getting the benefits of the costly meters.
The report found that if customers accepted a slight decrease of reliability standards in return for slightly lower bills, investment in the network could be deferred.
That money would not flow through to customers' bills until a later stage, reducing short-term bill shock.
The report takes aim at large and costly investments in poles and wires - which ultimately hit consumers and were recently attacked by Prime Minister Julia Gillard as "gold-plating" - to cater for the hottest days of the year.
"Capacity that caters for less than 40 hours a year of electricity consumption ... accounts for around 25 per cent of retail electricity bills," the report says.
The spike in electricity use during that short amount of time has increased during the past decade, "driven primarily by growth in residential airconditioning".
The Productivity Commission backs de-regulation to allow radical power deals for consumers, including those based on driving down use at peak times.
Such deals could include massive charges for using energy on the hottest days of the year, in exchange for cheaper power at other times.

Website names and shames child sex offenders

Australia's first public sex offenders register has gone online, publishing the names and faces of known child sex offenders in Western Australia.

The names and faces of about 50 paedophiles have been published on the State Government website, which is being set up in fulfilment of a 2008 election pledge.

The launch is being closely watched by other states, but there are concerns it will prompt vigilantism and cases of mistaken identity.

The website will provide information on some of the state's most dangerous and repeat child sex offenders, including their photos, names and the suburbs in which they live, although it will not give out specific addresses.

Through the website, parents can also ask police about the criminal history of people who have unsupervised contact with their children.

Acting Detective Senior Sergeant Darryl Noye says he is confident offenders will not be at risk as a result of the site.

"It is leading Australia in providing parents with what would have been confidential information," he said.
"Previously they would not have been aware potentially that someone is a reportable offender if that person has access to their children."

WA Police Minister Liza Harvey says despite the website, parents need to be vigilant.

"What I would like to put out there to parents is that there's no substitute for common sense and for parental supervision," she said.

The founder of Bravehearts, Hetty Johnston, doubts the website will work.

She has told the ABC the best way of keeping children safe is to introduce mandatory sentencing for repeat offenders.

"Western Australia needs two strikes legislation just like everybody else does," she said.

"The human rights of our children have to be placed as a priority over the civil rights of repeat, recidivist sex offenders."

In order to access information, users will have to hand over some of their own, including their licence details.
The photos of offenders will be watermarked with the user's name, so if they are ever posted on Facebook or misused, police will know where they have come from.

But Jonathan Davies from the Australian Lawyers Alliance says it is only a matter of time before the website leads to vigilantism and cases of mistaken identity putting innocent people in harm's way.

Audio: WA launches nation's first sex offender register (AM)

 

"Violence, damage to property, slashed tyres and broken windows. These things will flow and they will have no practical remedy," he said.

The president of WA's Criminal Law Association, Linda Black, is also worried about how some members of the community will deal with the information.

"The concern is that if these people are identified down the track, potentially at a time where they have rehabilitated, whether people will try and track them down in some kind of vigilante action and take their version of the law into their own hands," she said.

"And there is also a risk we have a very real concern about as to whether the release of this kind of information may lead to the misidentification of people as sex offenders."

But Senior Sergeant Noye says vigilantism is never acceptable.

"It then puts the person who takes the matter into their own hands, it puts them at risk as well," he said.
Anyone found guilty of harassing an offender identified on the website faces a jail term of up to 10 years.
The website's launch did not go to plan with a technical glitch initially preventing the general public from accessing the site.

It can be found at www.communityprotection.wa.gov.au

abc.net.au 15 Oct 2012

For the United States of America, there is an app for that!

called:

Sex Offender Search, by Life360

https://itunes.apple.com/app/sex-offender-search/id394721194?mt=8

or
  
Sex Offenders Search Lite, by LogSat Software LLC

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sex-offenders-search-lite/id327871110?mt=8

Tardy Barclays fined $80,000 by ASIC

THE Australian Securities & Investments Commission has levied a fine of $80,000 on Barclays Bank over a case in which the lender took five days to fix the misuse of $13.8 million of clients' money in January last year. 
 
On request from London, the money was incorrectly taken from Barclays' Client Segregated Account when it should have come out of bank funds held in the Australian operation's London house account.
Despite a flurry of emails sent between Sydney, Singapore and London, it took until February 4 for the client account to be compensated for the error.

Barclays state that no client money was lost because of the error, but ASIC's ruling, published yesterday, noted that the withdrawal was a careless act that was then "compounded by the fact that the erroneous withdrawal was not . . . rectified immediately but instead subject to discussions by various Barclays' international offices over at least five business days".

ASIC said the client could have been affected if Barclays had become insolvent during the period. It also noted that although it was Barclays that reported itself to ASIC over the beach, it took until February 14 -- 14 days after it was first identified -- for Barclays to admit the problem, which ASIC called "an unacceptable delay in the circumstances".

A spokesman for Barclays said yesterday Barclays "is committed to the highest levels of integrity and regulatory compliance across all of its operations". He said the bank "takes any breach of regulations very seriously".

theaustralian.com.au 16 Oct 2012

Newsflash: ALL Banks use clients money, not just Tardy Barclays.

The so called line " takes any breach of regulations very seriously", is a joke, as the actions dictate that there is complete disregard for any regulations.

Now it's time for ASIC to pursue other banks, that is if they are really out for justice.

Fraud in the banking circles is called an 'error'.