Shaggy Dog Comments...
A year down the deregulation track, with milk prices having just risen, plenty of dairy farmers are still going broke and being forced out of the business. If you think the money is going to the farmers, you're sadly mistaken.
It was the maverick Queensland politician Bob Katter who estimated that all deregulation did was transfer something like $450 million in profits from farmers to the supermarkets.
And if you think that's not true, a recent study comparing prices in the supermarkets and at the farm makes for interesting reading. For example, over the past four years, the price of bread has risen 17 per cent, but wheat prices have fallen 16 per cent. Buying lamb now costs you 10 per cent more, yet farmers are getting 16 per cent less.
While we're talking facts and figures, here's some you might like to consider as a proud, but xenophobic nation eager to shut its doors to the invading hoards. Norway has a population of 4.5 million - less than a quarter of Australia's, yet in the past 12 months, it has accepted just under 4000 refugees, compared with our 6400-odd.
Norway donates around the same amount of money in emergency aid as Australia - $1.4 billion. So if you want to play tit for tat with Norway to take the high moral ground, then on a per capita basis Australia will need to accept about 10,000 more refugees and increase economic aid by $4.5 billion. In fact Norway is the world's second biggest donor, on a per capita basis, to the UN High Commission for Refugees. The biggest is Denmark. And if you want to compare things in terms of the biggest donations to the UNHCR, Australia ranks 13th, with the US topping the list. Norway may eat whales, but it gives 2.5 times more money to refugees than Australia. Our wallets are as closed as our minds and hearts.
Two jokes which were emailed to Shaggy and amused us - insert your own town/city/state to insult;
Q: How do you know when you're staying in an Ipswich hotel?
A: When you call the front desk and say 'I've gotta leak in my sink', and the person at the front desk says 'go ahead'.
Q:Where was the toothbrush invented?
A: Ipswich. If it was invented anywhere else, it would have been called a teethbrush.
While we're on email, we had one from Peter Tollan. We'll let him pick up the story after he spotted a letter by his brother in the online Echo.
'I have been trying to contact Paul and Shenka as I am getting married this November in Hamilton, New Zealand and would like to invite them.
Is it possible to place a notice in your paper for Paul and Shenka to contact me via this email address ptollan@xtra.co.nz or phone 07 846 9116. NZ.'
Paul, if you're reading, don't forget to bring Shaggy back a piece of wedding cake
On a more serious note, apologies to the children featured in a picture of the singing group the Rainbow Geckos. To save space, we edited out an important detail - the fact that while some parents are indeed gay or lesbian, some are not, but are supportive of their friends. Apologies for any confusion or distress it caused. Hope that sets things straight.
 Australia Post is the not-so-proud owner of a cast iron heritage post box on the corner of Molesworth and Woodlark Streets in Lismore (is one of the last of its type still in use in Australia).
For some time it's slowly been rotting away until Lismore resident Robin Osborne could stand it no longer and six weeks ago, took the matter up with head stamp lickers in Sydney. 'We take great pride in preserving these kinds of items', said public relations flack Elizabeth Finlayson, 'and review their condition on a regular basis. However it was fortuitous that you brought it to our attention' she told Robin.
Ms Finlayson said the box would be included in a maintenance roster of North Coast facilities and repainted within a fortnight. But despite those earnest assurances, the historic artefact was still awaiting its much-needed facelift when Shaggy visited it this week.
To date, nothing has happened beyond the advance of rust (we hasten to point out we're not one of the dogs or humans who've had a desperate need to relieve themselves on it, thus speeding up the rust). Maybe the restoration team is still in the mail.
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