Day 313 - 13 Dec 96 - Page 48
1 in a lot of things and so in terms of recruitment,
2 obviously, they are looking for people who are willing to
3 work for a minimum wage, at or near the minimum wage. So
4 that is a fair comment, we would say.
5
6 "The fact that disadvantage groups are even more exploited
7 by industry than they are already", the word exploited we
8 would say is comment.
9
10 Finally, under "everything must go", the second sentence
11 "all of them", that is the junk food chains like Wimpy,
12 Kentucky Fried Chicken and Wendy, et cetera, "hide their
13 ruthless exploitation of resources, animals and people
14 behind a facade of colourful gimmicks and family fun", we
15 would say that is fair comment. That is a kind of a
16 comment based upon the overall impression in the whole of
17 the fact sheet.
18
19 I do not know if that exercise was helpful, what was
20 wanted, because we were never really quite sure what
21 exactly was needed in that exercise. I mean, obviously, it
22 seems to us what is important is what is fact and comment
23 in the actual meanings which you decide the text holds.
24 So, it is kind of a bit of an abstract point to do it on
25 the text of the fact sheet, but what we would say is that
26 within the meaning which you have ascertained for the
27 nutrition section, which I have not got in front of me, and
28 any other meaning for any other section, there will be
29 elements of fact and elements of comment; for example, the
30 word like "unhealthy" is clearly to us comment based upon
31 the fact that, you know, fats and sugar are discouraged
32 because of their link to degenerative diseases, et cetera,
33 and that is going to crop up with all the sections, the
34 meanings that you decide.
35
36 So, that is an exercise we cannot really do because you
37 have not decided those meanings, and I think that it may be
38 helpful in future cases, as you have said, that the
39 meanings should be decided first and that certainly seems
40 sensible to us.
41
42 Finally, on this subject, the words, the additional words
43 that have been floated as being there must be something
44 more than just, you know, McDonald's exploit their workers,
45 you know, McDonald's -- I cannot remember the word that was
46 suggested -- you know, unconscionably or wrongly exploit
47 their workers, these additional words that have been
48 brought up as potential meanings are, in fact, matters of
49 comment. First of all, we are saying that a corporation
50 does not have, cannot have -- cannot be equated with
51 individuals, and therefore it cannot be said that we should
52 have to prove that a corporation is unconscionable or did
53 something wrongly or implying some kind of human, moral,
54 ethical framework for what is, in fact, just some kind of
55 typical legal existence which is a corporation; but if we
56 should have to justify those additional meanings, first of
57 all, most of them are inferential meanings; it is not
58 something that has been stated in the text, therefore it is
59 an inferential meaning. If it is an inferential meaning,
60 we are entitled to justify them from many relevant evidence
