Is Nicola Roxon suffering from a lack of foresight?

Maud up the Street is one of many in New South Wales who were diagnosed with cataracts in both eyes this year.
Like a large number of other pensioners she will have to go on the Medicare waiting list as there's no money in the pot for private surgery of any sort.
Maudie's livid over reports that Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon has stated that if the Senate doesn't agree to pass legislation introducing a reduced Medicare benefit for all cataract surgery, the government will automatically cancel the whole rebate anyway leaving those with diminished eyesight to find the entire cost of this operation and presumably both the pre-op and post-op visits.
Maudie reckons Roxon classing retaining your eyesight as a "minor surgical procedure" misses the point entirely.
Reasonable eyesight is one of the main supports of autonomy and independence for those getting on in years, so I agree with my friend that Ms. Roxon is getting a little too uppity in how she approaches the matter.
If saving health care dollars is such a big issue, perhaps the Minister should consider proposing a lesser reduction in the rebate to meet the ophthalmologists halfway - before Oz turns into a land where the poor are distinguished by higher levels of blindness than the general population.
How about it, Nic?

Local government thin ice pivot, slide and glide on the NSW North Coast

It seems like only yesterday that local government across the nation was up in arms over the constant cost-shifting by state and federal governments, which saw councils being asked to do more and more with less and less.
Indeed there was a formal inquiry into this very subject in 2003.

So I'm somewhat bemused to hear that one NSW North Coast council (which is known to complain about straightened financial circumstances from time to time) is now committed to allocating funding for improvements in a national park for which it has no responsibility, legal or otherwise.

This is the first time I have heard of local government actually encouraging other tiers of government to off-load their own financial obligations onto council ratepayers or council's own coffers. To the tune of a ballpark figure of $22,000+ no less.

So take a bow, Clarence Valley Council, for a dubious Yuraygir National Park coastal walkway decision based on an even more dubious attempt at a trust fund raid.

One has to wonder which councillor (or councillors) is trying to curry favour with either the Rees Labor Government or the Sussex Street mob and, for what purpose?

Surely not pre-selection hopes resurfacing?

Cartoon from Google Images

Just don't get Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize? Well join a growing crowd.....

I have to admit that I was one of those who, on hearing that US President Barack Obama had been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, went; "Whaaa?"
To see if I was the odd man out I did a quick swing across cyberspace on Saturday afternoon and this is what I found:

According to Mashable: The Social Media Guide Obama's Nobel Peace Prize: 69% of Twitter Users Don't Get It and drew this graph. Click to enlarge

Many in US media skeptical of Obama's Nobel Prize‎ reported the AFP.

Nancy Gibbs at Yahoo News thought The Last Thing Obama Needs Is the Nobel Peace Prize but her colleague Gregory Katz played another tune with Obama's Nobel Peace Prize triumph praised by many.

The Taliban pointed out the irony of getting a peace prize while conducting an escalating war in The Age's article Taliban condemns Obama's Nobel Prize.

The Brisbane Times informed us his Kenyan family 'honoured' by Obama's Nobel Prize.

The Sydney Morning Herald ran with Obama urged to use Nobel as spur to peace

Al Jazeera expressed surprise but went with Obama: I do not deserve Nobel prize

Examiner was plain blunt - Barack Obama: a Nobel for speeches, sainthood if he achieves something?

Teh Man himself was suitably humble according to a White House presser REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT ON WINNING THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE and a twee blog post Happy Birthday Bo! (which should come with an excess sugar warning).

While the Norwegian Nobel Committee released a short four paragraph announcement which started all the fuss by awarding the prize to Obama primarily for his "vision" and "attitudes".
Ever obliging, the Nobel Committee invites us to Ask the 2009 Nobel Laureates a Question! via its website.

Before the year is out Obama will probably be wishing that he hadn't won, because everytime the US death toll in Afghanistan rises some grieving mother is likely to toss that prize right back in his face.

Funniest line of the week.......

From The Borowitz Report:

Elsewhere, NASA bombed the moon, saying it was the one spot President Bush missed.

FBI current terrorist watchlist too big and riddled with errors

From THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION'S TERRORIST WATCHLIST NOMINATION PRACTICES, May 2009:

The federal government's consolidated terrorist watchlist was created in March 2004 by merging previously separate watchlists that were once maintained by different agencies throughout the federal government.1 The watchlist is managed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), through its supervision of the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC). The watchlist is used by frontline screening personnel at U.S. points of entry and by federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement officials.2 The watchlist serves as a critical tool for these screening and law enforcement personnel by notifying the user of possible encounters with known or suspected terrorists and by providing instruction on how to respond to the encounter. Each day the watchlist is updated with new or revised biographical information on known or suspected terrorists gathered by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies, including the FBI. Within the FBI, submitting the name of a known or suspected terrorist to the consolidated terrorist watchlist is referred to as a watchlist nomination. In general, individuals who are subjects of ongoing FBI counterterrorism investigations are nominated for inclusion on the watchlist, including persons who are being preliminarily investigated to determine whether they have links to terrorism. In certain circumstances, FBI policy also allows for the nomination of an individual for whom the FBI does not have an open terrorism investigation. Since the establishment of the watchlist in 2004, the FBI has nominated or processed the nominations for more than 68,000 known or suspected terrorist identities.3 As of December 31, 2008, the consolidated terrorist watchlist contained more than 1.1 million known or suspected terrorist identities.4........... In total, more than 62,000 watchlist records have been created using the FBI's processes for nominating individuals who are not being investigated for terrorism. Additionally, we found almost 24,000 FBI watchlist records that were based on an FBI investigation but not sourced to a current terrorism case classification. Many such watchlist records that we reviewed were based on cases that had been closed years ago and should have been removed at that time. [My highlighting]

If one bothers to read this U.S. Dept. of Justice audit it quickly becomes obvious that this terrorist name/profile list is not being accurately updated and is riddled with errors, including in some instances the names of dead people.

And so many pooh-poohed when the ACLU first pointed out problems with the list and set up its Terror Watch List Counter.

I can't help but wonder if the Rudd Government were to introduce a national mandatory ISP-level Internet filtering scheme, would we see the Australian Communications and Media Authority/Censorship Board list of banned URLs increase with similar rapidity (although it would be hoped with a more modest total) as those born-again flying monkeys the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy appears to favour pile on complaints about their pet hates?

Evans Head's Dawn Undery is a living treasure

Images from Dawn Undery website and Lismore Regional Gallery

click on images to enlarge

Dawn Undery, now retired to Evans Head on the NSW North Coast, is one of Australia's leading botanical artists.
She is exhibiting at Lismore Regional Gallery until the end of October 2009.

A NSW Nats ROFL

Now NSW Nationals MP for Ballina Don Page is probably a nice bloke in private, but I had to laugh at his expense last Thursday as he did his well-polished softshoe pollie dance.
There he was, his phizog in almost every frame and one sound bite (along with captioned name and job title) of a teev news story about six groups in Bangalow receiving funding from the NSW Government's climate change grants.
Then in The Far North Coaster online magazine he was at it again congratulating the successful applicants who scored a combined total of $59,000 in grants.
All done without Page managing to identify the state government in question as the Rees Labor Government.
Fair dinkum, the opportunistic pettiness of pollies as a species is beyond imagining!

Paternalistic system entrenched by state pension grab says CPSA, but doesn't reveal full extent of Commonwealth-State duplicity

Excerpts from recent Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association media releases concerning the recent increase in the base pension rate for single pensioners:

Paternalistic system entrenched by pension grab

"By taking a quarter of the pension increase away in public housing rents, state governments are entrenching the paternalistic notion that pensioners should be grateful for anything that they get" said Charmaine Crowe, CPSA Policy Coordinator.
"It says to pensioners in public housing that they owe the state governments something because they were lucky enough to secure public housing in the first place."
CPSA calls on the Federal Government to make good on their assurance that they will "take whatever actions are required to ensure that this money is delivered permanently to the pensioners of Australia" (Treasurer Wayne Swan, ABC Radio, 29 September 2009).
"This pension increase is in response to the fact that the pension was seriously inadequate - seriously inadequate for pensioners in public housing, as it was seriously inadequate for home-owners and pensioners renting privately."
"Pensioners are sick and tired of having to battle to get anywhere. It seems as soon as pensioners win one battle, they're faced with ten more."
"The extra $30 a week is needed for pensioners to pay higher electricity bills, pay higher water bills, and to pay for higher-priced groceries. By taking away a quarter of the increase, it is clear that state governments do not comprehend the cost pressures facing pensioners everyday."

State governments see dollar signs in the pension increase

"The increase in public housing rents also tells private landlords that it's okay to charge pensioners more for a roof over their heads." "It's disgraceful that some of the poorest people in our community will be footing the bill for state infrastructure, when every cent they receive is needed for the essentials in life."

What the CPSA doesn't point out is the fact that the Rudd Government went as far amending the Aged Care Act 1997 in order to honour its commitment to protect the September 2009 pension increase for those single pensioners in aged care accommodation, but only quarantined $20.18 per fortnight. So that these pensioners are also not seeing the full benefit of the recent $60 per fortnight increase in the base pension.

What the Rudd Government has done is use this pension increase as a backdoor way of increasing funding to both the NSW Government public housing sector and public/private aged care providers.

Making a mockery of its 2009-10 budget pledge; The Government is reforming the pension system to improve pension adequacy, make its operation simpler, and ensure its sustainability into the future.
The global financial crisis is a timely reminder of the importance of an adequate safety net for older Australians. and Jenny Macklin - Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs joined us the morning, pensions fall under her portfolio.
She confirmed that the budget announcement of $32.49 for single pensioners will be money in the hand. That is - on top of their current payments and allowances

This is a cynical exercise worthy of the former Howard Government and, I expect that quite a few pensioners on the NSW North Coast will remember Labor's tricky move when it comes time to cast their votes at the next state and federal elections.

North Coast Voices turns two in blog years

North Coast Voices celebrates its second birthday today.

Everyone here would like to say a big thankyou to all who have visited this blog and stayed to read and sometimes comment.

A special thanks also to those locals who decided to participate by using Guest Speak to add their views to the post mix.

22 ways to leave your leader.......

The political career of Australian Liberal Party Leader of the Federal Coalition Opposition, Malcolm Truffles Turnbull, is still under threat from his own colleagues and now Peter Costello has thrown another by-election into the ring.

In an effort to give them all a little {ahem} spine and free up political space for things that really matter, here's 22 Ways To Leave Your Leader for those that remain........

Use a louder voice, Joyce,
Hop on the home bus, Truss,
Break a few rules, Jules,
Keep giving him the flick, Nick
Lose another preselection seat, Pete,
Be brave enough to punt, Hunt,
Take to the poodle p*ss, Chris,
Pass that ETS bill back, Mac,
Threaten to leave, Steve,
Tell TehBull to take a hike, Mike,
Give Hockey a rave, Dave
Support giving Mal the sack, Jack,
Leave him not a fig leaf skerrick, Eric,
Dob for a nice new job, Robb,
Make a beaut plan, Keenan,
Swear to another on a bible, Nigel,
Try to out-jockey, Mr. Hockey,
Leave the rich git on his own, Stone,
Poll the lot by phone, Tone,
Ring the final bell, Hel,
A new leader forge, George,
Backbenchers all, just take back his key
And set yourselves free.

Snap! The very real rewards of business failure

Two perspectives on Greed Unlimited.

From the Brisbane Times last Monday:

The basic wage of Babcock & Brown Infrastructure's boss has risen by more than $300,000, despite the company's shares losing 90 per cent of their value, a market analyst says.
Jeff Kendrew was appointed chief executive officer of Babcock & Brown Infrastructure in June 2007.
On November 12 last year he was also named executive director.
News Limited says Mr Kendrew's basic wage has risen from $365,000 to $700,000, while shares have fallen from $2 in 2007 to less than one cent.

From Stephen Mayne's email newsletter The Mayne Report on the same day:

Will someone shove a cake of Sunlight down the throat of John bluddy Winston bluddy Howard.....

For a man who stated that he was going to refrain from political commentary after he retired was tossed from office, former Aussie prime miniature JW Howard is forever popping up in the media with yet another observation on world affairs or national politics.
This time he combines both (along with some gratuitous brown-nosing) by calling for an increase in troop numbers in Afghanistan.
Yer, right.
Let's send more young men into a region where no invading First World power has 'won' a war in living memory.
Where temporary victory is inevitably followed by successful insurgency, until the 'foreigners' finally take their military bat and ball and go home. Just ask Russia.
And where Australia is supposedly fighting for democracy by supporting a corrupt Afghan government which only holds power because it could rig a national election on a grand scale right under the West's nose.
So will someone do the world a favour and stuff that arrogant little man's gob with Sunlight soap or lock him away in a backroom at Wollstonecraft where his stupidity will only be heard by four beige walls.

Of course if it comes to L'l Johnnie's own hip pocket nerve, he is not as quick to front the microphone.
The media attention was suddenly unwelcome when asked if he is to have a well-paid role in a restructured NRL.
Last Wednesday ABC News Radio reported that he would not comment because he was travelling.
Tha's right! The same 'travelling' he was doing when he opened his mouth about Afghanistan.

Image of the wee richardhead from Pop Culture Caricatures and Cartoons

First Dog On The Moon takes the mickey out of Monsanto with Canolabees

First Dog On The Moon cartoon from Crikey
5 October 2009
Click on image to enlarge

* This post is part of North Coast Voices' effort to keep Monsanto's blog monitor (affectionately known as Mr. Monsanto) in long-term employment.

Link to Austalian Indigenous Languages Database

Wilhelm Schmidt map 1912

AUSTLANG provides information about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages. The core of AUSTLANG is a database which assembles information about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages from a number of sources.

The database contains the following information about each Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language:

• alternative/variant names and spellings
• history of the number of speakers
• geographical distribution
• classifications from various sources
• resources
• documentation
• programs
• researchers

Browser requirements here.

Rees Government wants to sell-off NSW rail transport options?

Anyone living in rural and regional New South Wales on a limited budget knows how important the last vestiges of public transport are when it comes to accessing health care and maintaining family contact, let alone being able to shop with wider choice of goods or competitive prices.

The Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association of NSW has been pointing out the advantages of regional rail for years.

So it is with some dismay that I realised that the Rees Government is seeking to pave the way to sell-off an estimated 3,000 klms of existing and closed rail corridors - corridors which should remain in the future public transport planning mix if only on the grounds of social equity and climate change mitigation.

This legislative move has been described by others as a fire sale for developers and this would not be an inaccurate description.

There is one NSW North Coast Federal MP, Labor's Janelle Saffin, who is doing something about one closed rail corridor in the Page electorate according to The Far North Coaster on 3 October 2009.

If you don't want a For Sale billboard on the Casino to Murwillumbah line you can sign a petition asking that this line be quarantined and kept in public ownership until the completion of the Integrated Regional Transport Plan for the Northern Rivers and south-east Queensland:

The petition can be signed at Ms Saffin's electorate office – 63 Molesworth Street, Lismore – during normal business hours or when her mobile office visits the Lismore Car Boot Market this Sunday.

She has also arranged for Minister Campbell's office to accept separate emailed letters of protest.

These can be sent to david@campbell.minister.nsw.gov.au and should be copied to Ms Saffin's policy adviser peter.ellem@aph.gov.au