Suicide is still the leading cause of premature death in Australia yet it took the Abbott Government ten months before it blinked over mental health funding cuts

In the May 2014 budget papers Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, along with Treasurer Joe Hockey and Finance Minster Mathias Cormann, wielded an ideological razor on health funding provided by the Commonwealth .

It has taken the Abbott Government ten long months to realise that the mental health sector, a traditionally underfunded area, could only respond to mooted federal funding cuts by reducing services or closing agencies.

The Minister for Health Sussan Ley finally announced a funding extension for a further twelve months on 2 April 2015 - two days after an Australian Bureau of Statistics media release which confirmed that suicide was still the leading cause of premature death in Australia.

It's almost as though someone in the Prime Minister's office finally put two and two together and realised that there was a public relations disaster of monumental proportions in the offing.

BRIEF BACKGROUND

Excerpt from an Australian Bureau of Statistics media release on 24 July 2010: New South Wales was found to have the lowest suicide rate at 8.6 deaths per 100,000 people for the period 2006-2010.

NSW Government Suicide by Local Health District and year:

The suicide rate for Northern NSW in 2010 was 10.7 deaths per 100,000 people and for the Mid-North Coast the rate was 6.2 per 100,000 people.

By 2013 New South Wales had a suicide rate of 9.1 per 100,000 people for 2009-2013.

In 2012-13 hospitalisation of young people aged between 15 and 24 years for intentional self-harm was significantly higher than the state average in Ballina, Byron, Clarence Valley and Coffs Harbour local government areas and, on par with the state average in Kyogle, Lismore, Tweed and Richmond Valley local government areas.

ABS 3303.0 - Causes of Death, Australia, 2013:

 There were 2,522 deaths in Australia from intentional self-harm in 2013.

(a) All causes of death data from 2006 are subject to a revisions process - once data for a reference year are 'final', they are no longer revised. Affected data in this table are: 2009-2011 (final), 2012 (revised), 2013 (preliminary). See Explanatory Notes 52-54 and Technical Note, Causes of Death Revisions, 2011 and 2012. (b) Includes ICD-10 codes X60-X84 and Y87.0. Care needs to be taken in interpreting figures relating to suicide. See Explanatory Notes 87-93. (c) Age-specific rates of deaths are the number of deaths per 100,000 population. See Glossary and Data used in calculating death rates (Technical Note) for further information. (d) The age-specific rates published in this table are calculated for the 2009-2013 reference period. As such, they may differ from age-specific rates published elsewhere in Causes of Death, which are calculated for a single year.  (e) Includes deaths of persons whose age was not stated.

(a) All causes of death data from 2006 are subject to a revisions process - once data for a reference year are 'final', they are no longer revised. Affected data in this table are: 2009-2011 (final), 2012 (revised), 2013 (preliminary). See Explanatory Notes 52-54 and Technical Notes, Causes of Death Revisions, 2011 and 2012. (b) Cells with small values have been randomly assigned to protect the confidentiality of individuals. As a result, some totals will not equal the sum of their components. Cells with a zero value have not been affected by confidentialisation. (c) Includes ICD-10 codes X60-X84 and Y87.0. Care needs to be taken in interpreting figures relating to suicide. See Explanatory Notes 87-93. (d) Includes 'other territories'. (e) Includes deaths of persons whose age was not stated.

np not available for publication but included in totals where applicable, unless otherwise indicated.

The Sydney Morning Herald 8 December 2014:

Mental health organisations are cutting services and shedding staff because of uncertainty about their funding, according to the sector's peak body.

Forty per cent of mental health agencies say they have already lost staff as a result of the uncertainty, while more than half report a reduction in services to their clients, according to a survey of 75 organisations which receive Commonwealth funding, conducted by Mental Health Australia.

Almost half of those surveyed reported difficulty in attracting new staff, and 81 per cent reported a decline in staff morale.

Fifty six per cent of organisations said they had not had communications with the government regarding the future of their Commonwealth funding after June next year, and 85 per cent reported a loss of trust in government among management and staff.

Mental Health Australia chief executive Frank Quinlan said the typically short-term funding cycles for mental health programs, a lack of clarity about how the National Disability Insurance Scheme would affect funding arrangements, and a national review of existing mental health programs had combined to create a "perfect storm of indecision."

"Nobody argues about the need for these programs but at the moment we just can't seem to find anybody to own the future of that problem," Mr Quinlan said.

Health Minister Peter Dutton is considering the review of existing services, conducted by the National Mental Health Commission, after receiving the report late last month….

Excerpt from Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) media release, 31 March 2015:

Suicide was once again the leading cause of death for Australian's aged 15 to 44. Suicide accounted for 2,520 deaths in 2013 at a standardised death rate of 10.7 per 100,000 people. The median age at death for suicides is lower than for many other causes at 44.5 years of age. As a result, suicide accounted for over 85,000 years of life lost making it the leading cause of premature death in Australia. [my red bolding]

ABC News 2 April 2015:

In a move worth $300 million, mental health services will have their funding renewed for a further 12 months.

The announcement made today by Health Minister Sussan Ley follows a campaign by Mental Health Australia, after some mental health services began to shut down, unsure of future funding.

Hundreds of contracts were due to end on June 30.

Ms Ley said the 12-month extension would allow services to continue to be delivered while work continued on the current Mental Health Review.

So who are these Americans thought willing to put "tens of millions" of dollars into Tony Abbott's re-election coffers?

It causes enough unease to know that a Conservative Party peer of the realm sitting in the U.K. House of Lords financed past Liberal Party of Australia federal election campaigns to the tune of $1.5 million, now it seems Americans are expected to donate to Tony Abbott’s 2016 re-election coffers.

The Sydney Morning Herald 24 February 2015:

Mr Higginson wrote that he had raised $70 million since 2011 and recently "laid out my plans to the PM" to travel to the United States to raise "tens of millions" from donors.

Is the Prime Minister so unpopular with home-grown donors that he now has to look elsewhere for the big money?

Or is this trawl for foreign political donations part of the Abbott Government's "open for business" approach to governing?

Shorter George Brandis: Don't waste your time contacting me, I'm not interested if you live in the Clarence Valley

For years accessing no-cost legal advice, mediation and support in the Clarence Valley has been a lottery to say the least.

Name any problem (tenancy issue, dispute with a neighbour, companion animal problems, family breakdown etc.) that is not actively before the courts and the individual concerned will only have telephone numbers for services situated a hundred, sometimes many hundreds of, kilometres away.

This sad little article in The Daily Examiner on 4 February 2015 clearly indicates why it is about to become even harder in Abbott's Australia:

The Northern Rivers Community Legal Centre (NRCLC) is left in limbo as it waits for the finalisation of funding cuts.

The NRCLC is the main provider of legal support in domestic violence, employment, credit debt and other areas to the Clarence Valley. It was set to open an office in the Richmond Valley which would have provided better access to Clarence Valley residents, however, funding cuts meant it could no longer go ahead.

"A lot of people suffering domestic violence would have been helped by that office," centre manager Angela Pollard said.

"At the moment everyone is flailing. We still don't know what is happening."

She said they kept receiving funding extensions to continue operating, however, that left them in suspense while they waited for the axe to fall.

Ms Pollard tried to lobby Federal Attorney-General George Brandis to not cut the funding for the office, but he replied by letter not to waste taxpayer dollars on lobbying.

Ms Pollard said she was pleased Australian of the Year Rosie Batty highlighted Prime Minister Tony Abbott's contradictory national scheme for domestic violence orders while funding to legal services were cut.

So what type of jobs might Clarence Valley workers get from 155km of Pacific Highway upgrade?

In October 2014 the timeline Prime Minister Tony Abbott placed on completion of the Pacific Highway upgrade between Woolgoolga and the NSW-Qld border was by the "end of the decade", or to put in another way, by 2020.

All the larger contracts (with contract values ranging from $132.5 million down to less than $500,000) were either invitee only or advertised and, these have been awarded to firms from outside the Clarence Valley and sometimes out of the state for periods up to 2016 and 2017.

In all fairness most of these contracts were beyond the means of most Clarence Valley businesses because of the steep prequalification financial levels required to assure both the federal and state government co-funders of a contractor’s financial stability, solvency, and capacity to manage cash flow requirements.

So how are valley businesses going to benefit from the est. $220 million this approximately 155km upgrade (from 6km north of Woolgoolga to 6km south of Ballina) will cost?

Sadly, Clarence Valley Council let the cat out of the bag in its media release of 29 January 2014:

“While the exact contracts are unknown, we do know there will be opportunity for local businesses,”….

“Examples of opportunities this may present are; landscaping, cleaning, drainage, fencing, etc. [my red bolding]

There are currently only two open tenders available on the NSW eTendering website and these are for an Independent Hydrological Expert Service and Registration of Interest for the Design and Construction of the bridge over the Clarence River at Harwood, NSW. Even the emu fencing contract between Glenugie and Tyndale has passed valley businesses by.

There has also been talk of the jobs expected to be generated by the upgrade section between Glenugie to Grafton and Iluka-Maclean-Yamba, which includes a second bridge at Harwood.

With the valley-wide unemployment rate running at 8.1 per cent (Grafton 8.9 per cent and Maclean-Yamba-Iluka 7.8 per cent) and with negative employment growth in the September Quarter 2014, it would appear that Clarence Valley locals must pin their hopes on sub-contracting crumbs falling from the table once construction work commences or on finding grunt work with the major contractors, cross their fingers that some of those workers from elsewhere want local accommodation for the twelve to twenty-four months these companies might be working somewhere in the valley and, hope like hell that the Harwood Bridge construction - and the separately funded Grafton Bridge project* - begin by 2018.

* The NSW 2014-15 Budget Papers mention Grafton Bridge, with a foreshadowed $117 million in state funding without any specified timeline, but only $8 million actually available for bridge and feeder roads planning this financial year.

Just how big is the ABC's slice of the federal budget pie?

Business Spectator 20 November 2014:

When members of the Abbott Government talk about a need to rein in Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) spending, they rely on graphs like the one above (which displays funding in terms of millions of dollars) in order to scare voters about current and future public broadcasting sustainability.

Here is just a small visual reminder to the Abbott Government of how little, in the grand scheme of things, ABC television, radio and digital platforms actually cost.

A relatively small 0.271% of the total federal budget according to BudgetAus:

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott forgot that science is evidence-based

With science removed from its ministerial portfolio list, the dismantling of a number of science-based advisory bodies, savage cuts to science funding and climate change denialism rampant in its ranks – surely the Abbott Government must have expected this when it had the gall to hand out the Prime Minister’s Prizes For Science as though science mattered to this federal government.

http://youtu.be/N_EoFJwjEXk

The Guardian 30 October 2014:

Tony Abbott received a frosty response from scientists after he called on them to lobby Labor and Greens MPs to support the government’s plan for a medical research fund.

Abbott, speaking at the prime minister’s science awards in Canberra on Wednesday night, reiterated a message from his speech at last year’s awards when he said the government should be judged “not by its titles but by its performance”.

“I hope our performance has at least passed muster over the past 12 months,” the prime minister said, to a smattering of applause at the Parliament House awards ceremony.

“That was desultory applause, but at least it was some,” Abbott said, in response to the tepid response from the assembled scientists….

This exchange has been carefully omitted from the official transcript of Abbott’s speech which can be found here.

This is not the first time scientists attending these awards have signalled their dissatisfaction by failing to bring their hands together in unison en masse.

After last year’s prize giving The Guardian noted on 31 October 2013:

“It’s been remarked upon that we don’t have a minister for science as such in the new government and I know that there are people in the room who may have been momentarily dismayed by that,” Abbott said.

“But let me tell you that the United States does not have a secretary for science and no nation on Earth has been as successful and innovative as the United States. I’d say to all of you please, judge us by our performance, not by our titles.”

Abbott’s speech, which drew a smattering of applause from the audience, provoked a mixed reaction.

Our ABC speaks out

Present Challenges, Future Audiences

13TH OCTOBER 2014

Address by Mark Scott
University of Melbourne
Monday 13 October 2014

Last Friday night, I had the honour of hosting a ceremony as part of the ABC’s Mental As week. I am sure you’re aware of Mental As and our involvement with it, as it illustrates perfectly the role of the ABC—engaging the community in an issue of national importance, using its storytelling expertise and cross-platform prowess to explain a complex, contemporary issue. No other broadcaster in this country could even attempt such an ambitious exercise.

Public broadcasting has always aspired to inform, to educate and to entertain. I couldn’t be prouder of how we fulfilled that role last week, giving Australians a chance to talk, to seek and to give, creating a platform for a national conversation around mental health. It was the work of a digital age ABC, the most comprehensive cross-platform content and marketing initiative we have ever undertaken.

Mental As will have had an impact on millions of Australians who watched, listened and engaged online—and on the nation itself.

That has always been the ABC’s way. Part of Australian life, part of the lives of millions of Australians each week. Something that belongs to all Australians, everywhere.

Our work on Mental As coincided with campaigns around the country over the future of Lateline and other programs. The public response to Mental As and the Save Lateline petitions show yet again the degree of passion the public, the owners of the ABC have for the public broadcaster.

The ABC Board acts as trustee for the Australian people who own the ABC. The Board is independent and accountable to Parliament for the decisions it makes on how to spend the funds allocated to the public broadcaster, for decisions about how best to fulfill the Charter as set out in the ABC Act.

Why is the ABC so widely appreciated by the public in whose interests the Board acts? It’s a national asset, long loved and nurtured down through the generations. For the vast majority of Australians, it’s our most trusted source of news. It’s integral to the lives of millions, with over 70% of Australians over 18 using the ABC each week—not to mention the nation’s pre-schoolers for whom bedtime is signalled by Giggle and Hoot.

For all these reasons, when you talk about the prospects of the ABC being changed, and changed significantly, it would be negligent not to talk about the challenges the ABC is facing right now.

If you love and care for the ABC, if you support and want it to remain strong, robust and relevant within Australian life—and if you read the headlines—then you know these are uncertain times for the ABC.

In the face of this uncertainty, the ABC Board and its management team remain resolved to secure the ABC’s future in the digital age. For the ABC to be an indispensible element in the lives of millions of Australians and the life of the nation. For it, as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, to be a place where despite all the international content freely flowing within our media streams, Australians know they will find Australian stories and a national conversation.

Convergence, technological change and new competition continue to create uncertainty everywhere in the media sector.

The ABC also contends with an additional uncertainty, dependent upon funding decisions that are still to be made—or at least revealed—by the Government.

Everyone except the cynics would be a little surprised to find the ABC facing this uncertainty.

For decades now, the ABC has been funded through a bipartisan triennial funding arrangement, where three years funding has been committed by the Government of the day. This enabled the ABC to undertake multi-year contracts and plan with some certainty, most importantly in program production areas, with a secure income stream.

That security is particularly important to the ABC in that, unlike other media organisations, we effectively have no other way of raising revenue.

We’re now in the middle of the most recent triennial funding agreement, made in May 2013. This agreement still has a year and a half to run, and it’s very rare indeed for the ABC’s budget to be cut in the middle of a triennial funding agreement.

I don’t need to remind you of the very clear, public and oft-repeated commitment made by Mr Abbott before the election, and after the election, inside Parliament and outside Parliament. He guaranteed that, in its first term of office, the Government would maintain the ABC’s budget.

These are facts that I can report—I’m not going to provide further commentary.

The reality is the ABC’s budget has already been cut this year. And more cuts are on the way.

Earlier in the year, I’d imagined that by the time I’d be speaking to you here at the University of Melbourne, we’d know the future funding position for the ABC.

Not so.

We are still not sure precisely how much will be cut. We are still not sure precisely when the cuts will become payable. And decisions around size and timing could, naturally, have a material impact on ABC audiences.

I want to pay tribute to our staff. As I have said to them, the very best thing they can do during this period of uncertainty is to do their very best work. And they’ve done it, continuing to be completely professional, dedicating themselves to bringing Australian stories and conversations to Australians everywhere regardless of the climate of uncertainty in which they’ve had to work.

Some commentators have suggested the ABC should stop grandstanding and get on with belt-tightening. The reality is the ABC has already been belt-tightening, and taken steps to deal with what amounts to a $120 million funding cut over four years.

In the May budget, the Government introduced the somewhat novel concept of a “down payment”. This “down payment” came in the form of an extraction of funds from our triennial funding settlement—a 1% cut to base funding and the termination of the Australia Network contract, which still had over 9 years to run.

ABC International has been forced to downsize and more than 80 people have left the ABC as a result—many great talents are now lost to us, over a thousand years of experience has gone out the door.

The challenge was not helped at all by the fact that compensation provided by DFAT for terminating the contract fell short—by more than $5 million—of the actual costs of termination.

We have also taken steps to deal with the first tranche of the $40 million base funding cut. No one’s procrastinating.

Now, “down payments” normally provide some notion of rights for the payee about when and how the final payment will be made.

But not so in this case.

The final strategy for dealing with the funding cuts will have to be determined by the Board and Executive once the size of the cut and the repayment timing is known. Obviously both will have a significant effect on the decisions that must be made.

And since rumour loves a vacuum, while we’ve been waiting for the Government to reveal just how much more they want back from the ABC, some of the ABC’s critics have taken this opportunity to step up and offer us helpful guidance on where cuts must be made, while ABC supporters have been telling us where they must not be made.

We’re hopeful that this will, finally, be resolved soon.

In the meantime, we continue to develop a range of options to deal with what we do know, and contingency plans to deal with what we don’t.

And while I’m not able to deal with specifics tonight, I do want show you how we’re thinking through the considerable challenge.

Let’s begin with efficiency.

Read the rest here.

So what is this Free Enterprise Foundation of which they speak?

According to evidence before the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) and other sources, the Free Enterprise Foundation:

* Is listed by the Australian Electoral Commission as an associated entity of the federal divisions of the Liberal Party of Australia and the National Party of Australia.

* Was created by deed on 20 August 1981 as a $10 trust at the direction of Sir Robert Crichton-Brown, federal treasurer of the Liberal Party of Australia from 1973 to 1985.

* Has set out its objectives in the trust deed are as follows:

* Original trustees were Anthony Joseph Bandle and Charles James Fox who comprised the trust’s original Council. The current trustees are Anthony Bandle and Stephen Francis McAneney.  Both of whom were also trustees of the Greenfields Foundation, an associated entity which was allegedly set up to hide from public view a 1992 $4.7 million political donation to the Liberal Party.

* Accountants are Bandle McAneney & Company.

*  Name was registered with the Australian Security & Investments Commission as a business name in 2012.

* Receives political donations which the trust directs onto the Liberal Party of Australia, the Liberal National Party of Queensland, other associated entities of the Liberal Party and, infrequently to registered charities.

In practice the Free Enterprise Foundation does not appear to fulfil all the prescribed purposes set out in the trust document, does not seem to operate independently of the Liberal Party of Australia and, has accepted political donations from prohibited donors in New South Wales which it redirected to the Liberal Party of Australia (NSW Division).

Rather disingenuously former NSW Deputy State Director of the Liberal Party and former Metgasco Limited executive, Richard Shields, stated during a 12 September 2014 ICAC Operation Spicer hearing in relation to the Free Enterprise Foundation, which had donated  approximately $700,000 to the Liberal Party to fund its 2011 NSW election campaign:

I knew that it existed, I, I didn’t have a lot, a great understanding of it. I had heard, you know, I, I was of the opinion that it was an organisation that had political or philosophical 

allegiances with the conservative side of politics. 

The Abbott Government's unfair budget brings down another successful community initiative

Yet another example of the Abbott Government’s determination to lay waste to this nation’s social capital……….. 

Announcement From Vibe Australia

July 14th, 2014.

In June, 2014, Vibe Australia was informed that funds for the Vibe Project will be directed to the Australian Government’s programs that deliver front line services from 1 July 2014. We are currently in a transition arrangement.

Everyone at Vibe is extremely proud and humbled by the work we do on behalf of the community and of the support we receive from community, and the wider Australian public.
This announcement is made in good faith to inform you of the current situation.

The Vibe Project includes:

      Deadly Vibe magazine

      The Deadlys

      InVibe magazine

      Deadly Sounds radio

      Move It Mob Style TV

      deadlyvibe.com.au (also as a value added activity, Deadly Vibe on Facebook andTwittersites and the weekly e-publication Deadly Vibe Wire).

As of 30 June 2014 all these activities are concluded. However, our commitment to Vibe and our belief in the work we do on behalf of community remains firm.

The annual Deadly Awards® are due to be held at the Sydney Opera House on 30 September 2014. The Deadlys will not be held this year, in 2014. We understand we have responsibilities to a number of sponsors and will be in negotiation with these agencies and organisations over coming weeks, and will negotiate and honour such responsibilities.

Everyone at Vibe stands by our work, across our events and communications activities, and are confident in our ability to improve the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia through our holistic approach in primary health, mental health and social and emotional wellbeing and across education, employment and community empowerment.

We have always had in our hearts a goal of strengthening the connection to culture and community. Through all our work, we are proud to bring you the excellence and achievement, to create unity and rightful pride in identity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, particularly for our young people.

We are proud of all we have achieved with our radio program, Deadly Sounds, Deadly Vibe magazine, InVibe magazine, Move It Mob Style®, our Vibe 3on3® events and of course, The Deadlys®.

Move It Mob Style® Series 4 has been completed, and commences on NITV and ABC3 soon.

Going forward, at this point, there are many responsibilities that we have to partnerships and working relationships. And we will be calling and working through these as quickly as possible. We ask everyone to please be patient.

We would like to thank everybody who has been a part of Vibe to this point over our 20 year journey and ask for your support at this critical time.

We would also like to thank the Australian Government, and the many officers and political people along the journey, for having the insight and vision to support Vibe for so many years.

Since the early 1990s, we hope we have contributed greatly to empowering Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people all ages, particularly the young, to be their best with regard to education, employment, health and wellbeing, by providing clear and coherent information and showcasing positive role models, advancing the individual, the family, and the community.

Thank you, and in unity,

Vibe Australia
14 July 2014

The Sydney Morning Herald 15 July 2014:

The Aboriginal founder of the Deadly Awards, the annual celebration of indigenous achievement, was shattered last month when he learnt that he would lose federal funding worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Gavin Jones, 47, was found dead on his farm at Goulburn on Saturday. While his family did not want to discuss the nature of his death, they and his friends were aware of his devastation at the loss of funding affecting his ventures, which had spawned radio and television productions, the national Deadly Vibe magazine, the annual Deadly Awards, sport, dance and hip-hop events, and much more.

“Yes, it was a huge blow to him,” said his long-time friend Shelley Reys, who shared offices in Darlinghurst with Mr Jones when they were establishing their indigenous consulting businesses in the 1990s.

“He was very disappointed by the lack of support, not just to the business but to what the business provided to young people.”…

Some friends understood Mr Jones learned of the funding cuts in the middle of last month, despite a recent audit which had given his ventures a glowing report….

Mr Jones’s ventures also included The Vibe 3on3, a national music and sporting event to promote health, wellbeing, identity and sportsmanship and Move it Mob Style, a dance-based health program screened on the indigenous channel NITV and ABC.

In 1995 he launched Deadly Vibe magazine, which delivered positive Indigenous stories and health messages directly to schools and communities. At the time of his death it had reached its 209th issue and had a monthly national distribution of 55,000, mostly students.

Mr Jones wrote in the editorial for the 200th issue last year: “Overly negative media was the reason why we started Deadly Vibe magazine. To put something positive in the hands of our young people; something of a high professional quality that could be read and handed around at home or school that told a different story. A story we could be proud of. A magazine that was ours. Something that had blackfellas achieving and breaking stereotypes – achieving in music, sport, at a community level, in the health sector, at school and in the work force. Something our young people can get excited about, and be justifiably proud.”

InVibe magazine, an insert into Deadly Vibe, was produced specifically for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in prison and juvenile detention centers and focused on mental health, sexual health, information on substance abuse, and promoting pride and self-worth….

Pensioner concessions stay in New South Wales and Queensland

The Sydney Morning Herald 8 June 2014:

Pensioners will be spared cuts to concessions on basic living expenses, with NSW Treasurer Andrew Constance to announce on Sunday that the Baird government will fund a $107 million shortfall left by the federal budget.

The move to cushion the blow of the Abbott government's cuts follows angry scenes in Queensland after Premier Campbell Newman decided to pass on $50 million in Commonwealth cuts to pensioners in the Queensland budget. Within 48 hours, as irate pensioners flooded talkback radio, Mr Newman had reversed his decision.

Mr Constance said: "We understand the cost of living pressures seniors face and are determined to ensure they are not adversely affected by the federal government's harsh cuts … We are not in the business of creating bill shock, where, in just a few weeks' time, people would have been left out of pocket courtesy of Canberra."

The NSW budget will commit an extra $107 million to maintain pensioner and seniors' concessions. These include discounted vehicle registration, $2.50 travel across the train, ferry and bus network, a $250 discount on council rates to pension card holders, a $235 rebate on electricity bills and an exemption from Sydney Water service charges of $31 a quarter…..

It appears that in New South Wales pensioner concessions will remain for the life of the current state budget. Hopefully, funds to cover these concessions in future years will also be found.

As in remote, rural and regional areas in particular, bus/train travel and car registration concessions can mean the difference between receiving adequate medical care for chronic or potentially life threatening disease/illness or having to go without appropriate treatment all together because access to regular specialist medical care is unachievable.

What all members of the Abbott Government (without whose support the draconian 2014-15 Federal Budget would not exist) appear to have forgotten is facts such as these from the National Rural Health Alliance:

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) reports that cancer is responsible for Australia’s largest disease burden, with more than 108,000 new cases and more than 39,000 cancer deaths in 2007.

About one-third of the people affected by cancer live in regional and rural areas. For them, the burden of cancer is disproportionately heavy.

People living with cancer in regional and rural areas have poorer survival rates than those living in major cities, and the further from a major city patients with cancer live, the more likely they are to die within five years of diagnosis.

A study by Jong et al published in the Medical Journal of Australia (MJA) in 2004 found that people with cancer in remote areas of NSW were 35 per cent more likely to die within five years of diagnosis than patients in metropolitan areas.

For prostate and cervical cancers, patients in remote NSW were up to three times more likely to die within five years of diagnosis than those living in more accessible areas….

For most people a cancer diagnosis causes significant physical and emotional distress, loss of income and substantial expense.

Because of the complexity of cancer treatment and the absence of specialist services, most rural people with cancer need to travel to major centres for at least some of their care.

This adds to the financial and personal burden for patients and their families….

As well as in this article by ABC News on 4 November 2013:

It seems little progress has been made over the past two decades in bridging the gap between rural and city cancer patients when it comes to treatment.

A study in the Medical Journal of Australia has found cancer patients in rural and remote communities continue to be at increased risk of death from the disease compared to their city counterparts.

The paper looked at cancer deaths from 2001 to 2010.

It found there was no improvement in the rates of regional and remote patients dying of cancer. In fact, for women, the disparity actually increased.

Dr Michael Coorey, from the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, says one of the reasons death rates have not improved is because of the lack of investments in policy on how to organise cancer services so they provide the most benefit to patients.

"Enough is already known about the causes of the regional and remote access in deaths to start evaluating possible solutions," he said.

Possible solutions could include more support for regional and remote patients to travel to metropolitan centres, and more funding for associated accommodation….

That elusive Monaco donor to Coalition coffers may not be all that mysterious after all

The Canberra Times 2 June 2014:

A short limousine ride from the famous Monte Carlo casino, the Les Caravelles building enjoys a dress circle position overlooking Port Hercules - a popular place for the world's mega-rich to park their super yachts when visiting the Cote d'Azur.

According to documents filed with the Australian Electoral Commission, it is also the mailing address for Akira Investments Ltd, a generous donor to the Free Enterprise Foundation, a mysterious entity closely linked to the Liberal and National parties.

Given the foundation has no phone number and no website, just how a company domiciled in Monaco came to donate $200,000 last financial year - an extraordinarily large donation by Australian standards - is intriguing enough.

But just who is behind Akira Investments is also shrouded in mystery. Regulatory authorities in Monaco say there is no record of its existence. Nor does it appear in Australian company records.

According to the Australian Electoral Commission, Akira Investments has failed to lodge a political donation disclosure form, as required by law.

But an AEC spokesman said the commission is powerless to chase the company as the act governing its operations does not have ''international jurisdiction''.

Liberal Party federal director Brian Loughnane did not respond to a request to discuss the donation to the foundation, which is classified as an ''associated entity'' of the Liberal and National parties for election funding purposes.

The foundation's long-serving trustee, Canberra accountant Tony Bandle, did not return Fairfax Media's call or an email.

Mr Bandle was recently grilled at the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption about whether the foundation was used to channel funds from banned donors back to the NSW Liberals….

Sounds all very mysterious doesn’t it? Until one lets one’s fingers do the walking across a PC keyboard.

Then a possible prime suspect immediately comes to light.

Akira Investments Ltd of London, Monaco, New York and Miami – an international super yacht brokerage company originally registered in London U.K. in 1975.

Its Monaco CEO Jonathan Beckett regularly visits Australia:

Snapshot from Ocean_Jonathan_Beckett.pdf at www.burgessyachts.com

Ocean Magazine 26 November 2013:

While Jonathan Beckett, Chief Executive of Burgess, was recently in Australia and New Zealand for a whirlwind tour, he spoke to Ocean about the purpose of such visits and the significance of the region to Burgess.

Q: How many times a year do you travel to this region and how important are these visits?
I travel to Australia and New Zealand between one and four times a year. This has been a very good and interesting niche market for us and one that I have personally worked hard at securing relationships and deals. I don’t think we could have succeeded in this market if we did not travel here regularly to meet with our customers. These visits are therefore fundamental to our success in the region.

Perhaps the mainstream media might like to contact this company and inquire about any political donations it may have made in the past.

UPDATE

Boilermaker Bill points out that very wealthy Sutton Forest NSW sometime resident, Reg Grundy, may have a connection with Akira Investments Ltd as the address given for this company, by the associated entity Free Enterprise Foundation on its political donation disclosure form, matches that of one of Grundy's own companies:

Grundy has a further connection with Akira Investments according to Bill in that he appears to have either leased or sold his super yacht Boadicea through this yacht brokerage company.

FURTHER UPDATE

ABC News 2 June 2014 approx 6.40pm:

Television pioneer Reg Grundy has confirmed he made a $200,000 donation to the Free Enterprise Foundation, a Liberal Party-linked entity that has been scrutinised by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, via a family-owned business.

Until now the source of the donation, one of the largest to be channelled to the Liberal Party through the Foundation, has remained a mystery.

The ABC can also reveal that federal Liberal Party director Brian Loughnane directed the Mr Grundy and his wife Joy to make the donation to the Free Enterprise Foundation, rather than directly to the party, to maintain their privacy.

The payment was made via Akira Investments Ltd, which is owned by the Grundys.

In a statement, Akira director Jo Cullen-Cronshaw said: "I made enquiries of Mr Brian Loughnane and was advised by him that the best way to maintain their privacy would be to make the donation through the Free Enterprise Foundation".

"As they are extremely private individuals they always prefer that any donation they make, political or philanthropic, remains anonymous."

Mr Loughnane declined to confirm making those instructions to the Grundys, but said all Liberal Party fundraising complied with the law and met all disclosure requirements.

The 2013 BRW Rich list estimated Grundy's fortune at $760 million.

The $200,000 donation from Akira Investments was listed by the Foundation among its donor disclosure filings to the Australian Electoral Commission for the year 2012-13.

Akira has failed to lodge a political disclosure donation form to the Commission as required by law. However the AEC is powerless to chase it for disclosures, as it has no international jurisdiction.

The Australian Tax Office would not confirm if it would investigate Akira Investments Ltd.

In a statement, the ATO indicated that any investigation into donations to political parties would be limited to reviewing any claims for tax deductions.

The $200,000 donation stands among the largest single amounts gifted to the Free Enterprise Foundation, described  as "a tool for the Liberal Party" by Geoffrey Watson SC, Counsel Assisting ICAC, during his opening address on April 28....