Today's column is all about choice, disappointment and apathy.

I was on a Qantas flight a few weeks ago and those words were the topic of a 90-minute conversation.

The first chorus of I Still Call Australia Home was still being belted out when I suddenly realised I was sitting beside a couple of “terrorists” as we headed south from Townsville to Brisbane.

But rather than be alarmed, I was quite happy about the situation. They were a couple of Tasmanians who called themselves “passive terrorists” in the fight against food not produced in Australia.

Both were farmers and passionate about how multinational retailers were guilty of confusing the consumer and driving the primary producers to the wall by screwing prices down via imported alternatives.

They were fascinating fellows, explaining to me how they refused to buy anything not produced in Australia.

They both go to their local supermarket and travel the aisles pretending to look at each product when, in fact, they are turning up the packaged food that is not home-grown so other shoppers come across it label-first.

This cunning move is designed to highlight to shoppers that what they may believe is Australian produce is, in fact, a geography lesson because some of it is imported from countries they have never heard of.

Now the manager of the supermarket watches them like a hawk but can’t do much about it.

Don’t you love that?

Another thing I learnt on that flight, according to the geniuses beside me, was that to confuse the masses the own-brand tactic works marvellously.

It looks, to the unsuspecting, that if it is an own-brand product it must be made in Australia. But, on inspection, many contain imported ingredients.

It is disappointing that information like this does not seem to jolt that apathy out of the Australian consumer, with most making their choice on price.

But as they played We Still Call Australia Home, and the cabin crew moved through picking up the remnants of what they had served us, I read the labels.

The dried fruit packet of apricots was from Turkey, the lovely multi-vitamin juice had Australian and imported fruits in it and the cup I drank my imported tea out of was probably made in China.

We might still call Australia home, but I think someone else owns it.

* * *

Now while on the subject of the three not-so-wise monkeys – apathy, choice and disappointment – the amalgamation topic has its fair share of all of them.

Maroochy councillors took the unusual step of putting Joe Natoli and his nemesis Tom Hullet on the steering committee for amalgamation.

Surely out of that entire council they could find two people who would have a chance of working together.

The only possible reason I could see for it is to add two people into the mix who have completely opposite views on everything.

But in my opinion that is a poor choice, at least one is anyway.

In regard to disappointment, I must say the Noosa saga has saddened me because for years I have been joking about how the northerners thought they were better than the rest and, now it appears it is reality, I have to admit I don’t actually believe it.

But mayor Bob Abbot is producing a Churchill-style performance which I’m sure will win him plenty of votes if he decides to go for the top job.

I am disappointed about a few things, including the way Beattie has disregarded public opinion and that Noosa was not left to its own devices while the other shires got on with it as one body.

* * *

And, finally, apathy and the Steve Dickson saga of contemplating running for the mayoral role: the sad thing about that is, in my opinion, if he was to do so, he would be showing disregard for the state MP position that voters put him in.

He seems to be handling it well but, considering the cost of a by-election to elect his successor, I think it is irresponsible. Funnily enough, people would probably vote for him as they recognise his name.

Now that is apathy.