From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 22 October

It is not rocket science! When you receive a threatening/disturbing email which purports to be from an organisation with whom you do business, do not rush to react. That is looking for trouble!

THE Australian tax Office, Telstra, Medicare, your bank, gas and electricity providers, and computer software companies, et al, all have established protocols. If you pause to consider, nothing of any consequence will happen to your business association in the following 24 hours.

If you do not understand, or you are concerned about the content, ask a member of your family; or a friend who understands the modus operandi of scammers. You can even attend at a police station. They will assist you in resolving the issue. It is the sole intention of the scammer to create havoc in your life; to frighten you into taking an action which will allow them access to your information.

You should stop, take a deep breath, check the address of the email, and if you are uncertain, delete it. Alternatively, leave it, and allow someone who knows to look and advise you. It is too late once the horse has bolted.

If you are asked for information over the telephone the response is quite simple. Either seek a telephone number to call them back, or demand their request be put in writing. Under no circumstances should you provide your address. If they are bona fide they will have it.

Best of all, and by far the most satisfying reaction, you can tell them to **** orff! Whichever approach you choose, I suspect you will not hear from them again.

The Government of Canada is standing on the precipice of a legislative stand-off with the country’s major supermarkets. It will certainly create a controversy.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has warned the nation’s major food retailers, unless they implement serious measures to reduce the costs of their goods, the government will legislate to impose a supertax!

It would be hard to imagine a more popular or appropriate tax in Australia.

Supermarkets’ annual, billion-dollar profits are obscene. You would not need to be a financial acrobat to conclude, self-evidently, the profits are the direct consequence of over-charging. The cost-of-living in Australia is absurd. It is difficult to imagine how some families survive on a limited income.

The Canadian proposal is so audacious in concept it might easily, if successfully implemented, affect the worldwide supermarket methodology. It will be intriguing to watch and see how it plays-out!

The democratic majority has spoken!

Australia’s rejection of the referendum proposal for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament, will, historically, cast a lasting shadow.

October 14, 2023, will be remembered by many as the day reconciliation died.

For those who voted yes, no explanation for the defeat is possible. While the proposed changes may not happen in the lifespan of some, reason and fairness will prevail. The proposition will, ultimately, come to pass. The contemptible humbug and conspiracy theories which have abounded in the past weeks are cause for reflection across the land. Many have reason to hang their heads in shame.

We are, the generations since invasion and white settlement, migrants to this land. We came seeking a better life. Having been gifted with much, it is incomprehensible we are now disinclined to allow the dispossessed Indigenous Australians full equality in that democratic reward.

Roland can be contacted via [email protected].