27 September 2023

Food for thought

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Great news for carnivores, vegetarians, vegans and everyone who eats this week with the national Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources announcing it plans to look into the effectiveness of the recently redesigned food labelling system, ensuring everyone will get the chance to share their mouthful.

“We’re evaluating reforms to Country of Origin Labelling (CoOL) for Food regulations,” the multi-syllabic Department of Industry etc etc etc etc said: We’d like to know how effective the reforms and new labelling requirements have been.”

And just to show how inclusively-inclusive the evaluators will be when collecting the reforms’ effectiveness, the Department added without the hint of a saucy grin: “(We) are seeking input from stakeholders and consumers.”

Presumably they don’t want to hear from people who don’t consume food!

The pain of pluralsy

Interesting response to last week’s legality lapse when a meeting of the Council of Attorneys-General (CAG) was mistaken for the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) when the latter had been dissolved some months ago.

While a few readers commented on the serious issue of the item’s focus – i.e. elder abuse –it was the awkwardly constructed collective noun for the plural ‘Attorneys-General’ instead of the more obvious ‘Attorney-Generals’ that caught other readers’ eyes.

For Ian C of NSW it was just the Attorneys big-naming themselves because a pair of Governor-Generals are really Governors -General and many an Attorney daydreamed that job as the logical conclusion of their career.

Good point Ian but a bit hard to prove.

PS-sssst! thinks there has to be a more realistic reason for the Attorneys collectively pluralling themselves as ‘Attorneys-General’ so is offering fabulous book prizes for the most correct or entertaining suggestions.

Send your thoughts to [email protected] and you too could be transformed into the proud owner of a Popular PS-sssst! Prize Pack.

Beating the blues

A quick visit to the comedarium now for a quick dose of (attempted) laughter in a bid to prove humour the best medicine for coping with the coronavirus.

Kindly delivered to PS-sssst! by the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services’ ever-vescent Philomena S some time ago when stress was less, a moment or two of worry-free whimsy can be good for our mental health at this time when the going gets tough and the tough get going.

This is what she found.

A daycare centre in an unnamed city was forced recently to place an urgent call to the police when the daycare’s workers, children, parents and others were confronted with a parent’s nightmare when a delicate situation arose demanding the most sensitive and skilled constabulary wisdom only a fully trained police negotiator could deliver.

Apparently a three-year-old was resisting a rest!

Suspicious giveaway

Our weekly visit to Rama Gaind’s impersonation of Pandora the ancient box keeper now, in which worthy souls are showered with valuable prizes and goodwill simply by answering quiz questions after displaying the wisdom and erudition being a reader of PS News comes with.

This week’s free prizes (which the TV-loving Pandora would have been so jealous of) are three DVD copies of the first four series of TV’s crash hit Prime Suspect, starring Helen Mirren, up for grabs to the first readers who could name the former senior police officer best known for being the inspiration for the character of DCI Jane Tennison?

The answer is Jackie Malton and the first three answers to squeeze out of the PS News Barrel of Booty belonged to Ros M of the Federal Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment; Voret C of the Australian Taxation Office; and Shirley A from Services Australia.

Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to everyone for taking part. The newly won DVDs will be on their way to their new homes shortly.

To join in Rama’s giveaway for next week simply put your luck to work on her latest book prize at this PS News link and her other book freebie at this link.

Good luck to all who do!

Till next week….

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