Saffin promises Labor will establish a headspace centre in the Clarence Valley

Shadow Minister For Families And Payments, Shadow Minister For Disability Reform & Member for Jagajaga Jenny Macklin and Labor Candidate For Page Janelle Saffin (pictured above), joint media release, 14 June 2016:

LABOR WILL ESTABLISH A HEADSPACE CENTRE IN THE CLARENCE VALLEY

Shadow Minister for Families and Payments, Jenny Macklin and Labor candidate for Page, Janelle Saffin today announced that a Shorten Labor Government will provide funding for the development of a Headspace Centre in the Clarence Valley which will provide assistance to young people experiencing mental health issues.

“There is a clear gap in mental health services in the Clarence Valley, and this $1.8 million in funding will address that gap by ensuring local young people can access the help they need,” Ms Saffin said.

“Establishing a Headspace Centre will give young people in Grafton and the Clarence Valley the same support as people in Coffs Harbour and Lismore.”

Ms Saffin said the Clarence Valley community had been rocked by the death of 11 young people from suicide in just 12 months.

“There are a number of factors behind the high levels of youth suicide and mental health problems on the North Coast. These include high levels of unemployment, cuts to other youth services, and substance abuse.

“We cannot turn a blind eye to this reality and pretend it’s not happening. Ignoring the mental health needs of young people is effectively casting them adrift.

“That’s why I am so passionate about this issue, and so determined to make sure all young people in the Northern Rivers and North Coast have access to services such as Headspace.

“I have fought for the Headspace service for our region, and secured the Lismore Headspace. I have since argued that the Clarence Valley needs one as well, and if I am elected I will deliver it.”

Shadow Minister for Families and Payments, Jenny Macklin, said regionally delivered and funded services were vital to preventing mental illness and building stronger, more resilient communities.

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And Nationals MP for Page for the last three years, Kevin Hogan scrambles to catch up……

The Daily Examiner, 15 June 2016, page 6:

Federal Member for Page Kevin Hogan said an array of extra mental health services were about to be provided in the Clarence Valley due to extra resourcing.

"Mental health is a very serious issue, every suicide in our community a tragedy," he said.

"Following a community meeting in December last year I organised a Consultation Workshop on May 23. This brought together local agencies to decide how the extra resources should be allocated in the Valley.

"There will be an outreach of Headspace from Coffs operating in the Clarence before the end of the year. There will also be more resources allocated at the acute care level.

"Many good mental health services exist in the Clarence Valley. It was identified that many people were not aware of the current services."

Labor's plan to rescue the National Broadband Network and scale up rollout of fibre-to-the-premises

For everyone tired of the debacle that is the Abbott-Turnbull Government’s National Broadband Network (NBN) rollout, there may be some hope……..

http://www.100positivepolicies.org.au/

Labor Candidate For Page Janelle Saffin, media release, 13 June 2016:

An incoming Shorten Labor Government will direct NBN Co. to prioritise the rollout of Fibre-to-the-Premises NBN to homes and businesses across the electorate of Page. 

In the entire electorate of Page, not a single existing home or business will get Malcolm Turnbull’s second rate Fibre-to-the-Node network by 2016 as initially promised. Not one…

Janelle Saffin said that there was a lot of dissatisfaction in the region about Turnbull’s flawed NBN.

“Stephen and I spoke to Keda Ley and her family today to find out why the NBN matters so much to them,” Ms Saffin said.

“She is a mum of three who works and studies from home and she needs a strong, reliable Internet connection to make this happen.

“There are families just like the Ley family across the region; in the 21st century they need first-rate Internet services.

“Of course it isn’t just households who stand to benefit from Labor’s plan. Small business owners can’t compete if they are constantly being held back by an inferior broadband connection. 

“The NBN build has not even started in Grafton, Lismore, Alstonville, Casino, Evans Head, Woolgoolga and Yamba. These areas deserve better and Labor will deliver for them......

Labor Candidate Janelle Saffin: public sector infrastructure investment declined by 50 per cent under Abbott-Turnbull Government and investment in the Pacific Highway upgrade was cut by $351 million

Shadow Minister For Infrastructure And Transport, Shadow Minister For Cities and MP Grayndler Anthony Albanese & Candidate For Page Janelle Saffin, joint media release 12 June 2016:

COALITION HAS LET DOWN PAGE

The Abbott-Turnbull Government has short-changed the people of Page with more than $11 million in cuts to financial assistance grants used by local councils to maintain roads.

The Government also cut investment in the Pacific Highway duplication by in the 2016 Budget, following on from a cut of $130 million in the 2015 Budget.

Only a Shorten Labor Government can be trusted to invest in the infrastructure needed in northern NSW to boost economic productivity and improve road safety, and to ensure councils have the resources they need to maintain local roads.

We stand on our record.

Between 2007 and 2013, the former Labor Federal Government invested $7.9 billion on the Pacific Highway duplication.

That investment dwarfed the $1.3 billion invested by the former Howard Coalition Government over 12 years.

Labor also promised, built and opened the Alstonville Bypass, which was completed in 2011.

The bypass has reduced the level of traffic moving through Alstonville by 50 per cent and eliminated a major bottleneck between Ballina and Lismore.

The Liberal-National Government has talked a lot about infrastructure investment but cut funding.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that between the September quarters of 2013 and 2015, public sector infrastructure investment declined by 50 per cent.

To conceal its failures, the Government has re-announced road projects developed and funded under budgets of the former Labor Government to pretend they were new. 

A Shorten Labor Government will get nation building back on track.

Australian Federal Election 2016: Labor candidate for Page Janelle Saffin announces a Shorten Government will repair Coalition budget cuts to community legal centres

Labor Media Release, Friday 10 June 2016:

SAFFIN ANNOUNCES $300,000 FOR NORTHERN RIVERS COMMUNITY LEGAL CENTRE

Janelle Page, Federal Labor Candidate for Page, today said a Shorten Labor Government would provide $300,000 over three years to ensure the Northern Rivers Community Legal Centre has the funds to continue helping people in need.

The Federal Budget confirmed that the Liberal-National Government would cut funding for Community Legal Centres by 30 per cent, however Labor will inject a total of $43 million into the sector over three years from 1 July 2017.

Ms Saffin said Labor understood how important the Northern Rivers Community Legal Centre was to people in the seat of Page.

“Access to legal assistance when you need help is as important as access to Medicare when you’re sick. That’s why Community Legal Centres are such an important local service.

“The Northern Rivers Community Legal Centre helps local people deal with a wide range of legal issues – from tenants’ rights, to domestic violence and family law disputes.

“Labor will ensure that CLCs can continue their vital work helping people to navigate their way through our complex legal system.”

Ms Saffin said the Liberal-Nationals attack on Community Legal Centres was another example of how local MP Kevin Hogan had failed to needs of regional communities.

“Mr Hogan has been missing in action. He’s been too busy defending the city-centric Liberal-Nationals to defend local community legal services.

“Labor will ensure the Northern Rivers Community Legal Centre can keep its doors open and go on providing vital services to the people of the North Coast and Northern Rivers.”

Ms. Saffin told The Daily Examiner on the same day:

"Access to legal assistance when you need help is as important as access to Medicare when you're sick. That's why Community Legal Centres are such an important local service," Ms Saffin said.

"The Northern Rivers Community Legal Centre helps local people deal with a wide range of legal issues, from tenants' rights, to domestic violence and family law disputes.

"Labor will ensure that CLCs can continue their vital work helping people to navigate their way through our complex legal system."

Ken Beilby, the Principal Solicitor for the Northern Rivers Community Legal Centre in Lismore said the funding will mean they do not have to shut offices in the Richmond Valley in Casino and the Tweed Valley office in Murwillumbah.

"It's going to help us maintain front line services to disadvantaged clients in our region," Mr Beilby said.

"One of the main priorities of our centre is women experiencing domestic violence and providing early intervention.

"Our ability to continue assisting vulnerable clients will be greatly diminished without those funding cuts being restored."

Australian Federal Election 2016: recalling better times in the Page electorate

The public hospital system in the NSW Northern Rivers region has been attempting to deal with state and federal health funding cuts by Coalition governments for years now (including est.$730 million over ten years from the Northern NSW Local Hospital District) and the strain is beginning to show.

So it’s only natural that a good many regional voters look back fondly on the hard work then Labor MP for Page Janelle Saffin put in to securing health funding between 2007 to 2013.

This effort on the electorate’s behalf included:

$4 million for a community health centre in Yamba

$20 million for the upgrade of Grafton Base Hospital and 114,000 for new equipment for the Emergency Department

$487,000 to refurbish 10 student nurse accommodation rooms at Grafton Base Hospital

Federal grant to establish the Grafton Super Clinic

$60.25 million to redevelop Lismore Base Hospital, including new emergency department, an express community care clinic and a new renal dialysis unit

$7 million on top of the $8 million already committed for Lismore Base Hospital radiology services

Magnetic resonance Imaging (MRI) services for Lismore Base Hospital and North Coast radiology’s Clarence Valley Imaging in Grafton

$15 million to fast track the Lismore Integrated Cancer Centre

$2.7 million for a second linear accelerator at the Lismore Base Hospital Integrated Cancer Centre, providing cancer treatment for an extra 30 patients a day

$7 million for Lismore GP Super Clinic

$2.6 million for Our House Cancer Patient Accommodation in Lismore for cancer patients and families -150 construction jobs 

$2.53 million to St Vincent’s Private Hospital Lismore for two new operation theatres, $884,414for state-of-the-art teaching centre and $157,000 to purchase equipment to develop aUrological Centre of Excellence 

$7.9 million to establish the University of Western Sydney's new Rural Clinical School in Lismore and Bathurst

$407,000 to expand McKid Medical Private General Practice in Kyogle under the Primary Care Infrastructure Grants Program and $295,455 to upgrade the Urbenville Medical Centre

$9.22 million to North Coast Medicare Local to establish its headquarters in Ballina and for operational funding

$1.45 million investment in dental funding for the Northern Rivers, announced this year as part of the Commonwealth Dental Health Program

Five new GP registrars to train in Lismore, Goonellabah, Ballina and Alstonville and four specialist doctors in Lismore area

$1.6million to Interrelate to boost mental health services in Ballina and Kyogle shires and the Richmond Valley

$640,000 to Local HACC services Home and Community Care Program funding

$1.45 million investment in dental funding for the Northern Rivers announced in 2013  as part of the Commonwealth Dental Health Program

Five new GP registrars to train in Lismore, Goonellabah, Ballina and Alstonville and four specialist doctors in Lismore area

$1.6million to Interrelate to boost mental health services in Ballina and Kyogle shires and the Richmond Valley

$700,000 to Clarence Valley Council under the Healthy Communities Initiative to combat obesity

A total of $522,000 to Bulgarr Ngaru Aboriginal Medical Service to expand its health service with new premises and practice manager

$1.9 million for local crisis intervention services.

A list of funding for a range of services within the Page electorate between August 2010 and September 2013:

Janelle Saffin Federal Labor MP for Page - Achievements since 2010 by clarencegirl

Ms. Saffin is standing as Labor's candidate in Page on 2 July 2016.

Statistics that Team Turnbull hope voters won't notice

The Guardian, 4 June 2016:

Australian Bureau of Statistics data released over the past few days shed a stark light on private sector business investment and company profit trends over the past few years. It shows that rather than being anti-business, investment and profits boomed under Labor, and rather than being pro-business, they have collapsed under the Coalition.

Here are the facts.

In the two and a half years since the 2013 election, company profits have fallen 11% to their lowest level since 2010. This has occurred with the global economy registering decent growth and interest rates at record lows. In the six years of Labor government to 2013, company profits rose 28% despite the global financial crisis which plunged the world economy into a deep recession.

On business investment, the credentials of both sides of politics are even more extreme. Since the September 2013 election, private sector capital expenditure has fallen a thumping 26% and the outlook for the next year is for a further fall of between 5% and 10%. The fall in business investment is set to be more severe than during the early 1990s recession.

Under the previous Labor government, business investment rose a robust 67% to reach a record high proportion of GDP. It seems the policy settings which included the carbon price and mining tax did nothing to discourage the private sector from going out and investing.

Labor being anti-business with its emphasis on better health and education, and the Coalition being pro-business with its planned tax cuts.

Don’t believe the journalist? Still convinced only conservatives understand business? Then check his facts at 5676.0 - Business Indicators, Australia, Mar 2016 – data from 1994 to 2016.