A Healthier Future For All Australians Interim Report transcript: a revolution has been recommended but will Rudd and Roxon listen?

The A Healthier Future For All Australians interim report was released today.

At first reading it is somewhat like the curate's egg - good in parts - and although this report is heavy on broadly worded aims and a fair degree of wishful thinking it does have one startlingly good recommendation that the Commonwealth should assume responsibility for primary health care (outside of the public hospital system).

What the report recommends regarding oral health:

11.1 We propose that Australia should have a scheme 'Denticare Australia' for universal access to preventive and restorative dental care, and dentures, regardless of people's ability to pay.

11.2 We propose that 'Denticare Australia' be based on a mixed approach of public and private cover. The additional costs would be funded by an increase in the Medicare Levy of 0.75 per cent of taxable income, with people opting either to become a member of a dental health plan (with a private insurer), or to use public dental services.

11.3 We support an equitable approach to financing a universal dental scheme. Under the proposed approach, the funding of dental services will be linked to ability to pay through an increase in the Medicare Levy.

We estimate that under this approach:

• Many people will pay no more than they currently pay for dental care – the increase in Medicare Levy of 0.75 per cent of taxable income will be smaller than existing out-of-pocket costs for dental services for many people.

• People on low incomes will pay considerably less and have much better access to dental health services.

11.4 We support the introduction of a one-year internship scheme prior to full registration, so that clinical preparation of oral health practitioners (dentists, dental therapists and dental hygienists) operates under a similar model to medical practitioners.

11.5 We propose the national expansion of the pre-school and school dental programs.

11.6 We propose that additional funding be made available for improved oral health promotion, with interventions to be decided based upon relative cost-effectiveness assessment.

Full copy of A Healthier Future For All Australians interim report is here.
Reform directions section is here.

See: Attention: Rudd, Rees, Roxon, Saffin, Elliot. This mouth has been almost a decade on the public dental treatment waiting list

Janelle Saffin MP on North Coast industrial relations

Federal Labor's Janelle Saffin, Member for Page, speaking in the House of Representatives last week:

Re-establishing fairness to Australian workplaces was one of the hallmarks of the Rudd Labor government, so when I hear of workers in my electorate of Page being treated more like cattle than people it makes my blood boil. One of my first jobs after leaving school in Ipswich was as an abattoir hand. It was hard, physical and sometimes dangerous work. On staggered days last year—28 November, 1 December and 2 December—up to 23 employees turned up to a south Grafton abattoir for work to be told by embarrassed foremen that they were out of a job due to 'a WorkCover thing'. They were handed a week's pay, shown the gate and thrown out on Armidale Road to uncertain futures. Appallingly, they did not receive their rightful entitlements: termination pay, redundancy, annual leave and long service—nothing. Coming up to Christmas, with mortgages to service, bills to pay and presents to buy, this was a very cruel, bloody-minded and gutless way to treat employees, some of whom had been veterans of the slaughter floor.

All of these workers tell me they were employed by Tempus Holdings Pty Ltd, a labour hire company that provided labour to abattoir owner Stuart Ramsey's company Ramsey Food Processing Pty Ltd. The sacked workers were informed in writing that Tempus Holdings would on 28 November 2008 cease to be a labour hire company supplying labour for Ramsey Food Processing Pty Ltd. The local Daily Examiner newspaper, which has been championing the plight of the affected workers and their right to entitlements, has repeatedly asked Stuart Ramsay, Tempus Holdings director Michael Considine and their solicitors about the complex corporate structure attached to the abattoir. The Daily Examiner's inquiries have been met by silence and stonewalling. I have twice written to Mr Ramsey, on 12 December and 12 January, on behalf of my constituents seeking clarification on exactly who is responsible for paying the sacked workers their outstanding entitlements, but I have had no response to date............

I have arranged for any sacked abattoir employee to get free legal advice on unfair dismissal or unlawful termination from the Lismore based Northern Rivers Community Legal Centre. I have raised this with my colleague the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations the Hon. Julia Gillard. I raised the allegations of these men with the Commonwealth Workplace Ombudsman and am heartened to say that they have given a high priority to their investigation..........

I know that the Workplace Ombudsman recently served a notice to produce documents on the director at the registered office of Tempus Holdings and that significant resources are being directed at the investigation. I am encouraging more affected workers to come forward and provide evidence so that they can recover what is rightfully theirs and perhaps discourage rogue employers out there from running roughshod over other workforces in regional Australia. I do not care what tricky, albeit legal, company arrangements may have been put in place, the person morally and ethically responsible for paying these workers their entitlements is the person who owns the abattoir—Stuart Ramsey.

The full text of Ms. Saffin's speech here.

Is local government to blame for bushfire vulnerability in villages and small towns?

As the main stream media and blogosphere begin to discuss the causes of Victorian bushfire fatalities, a voice of reason is heard in the remarks of Russell Rees, chief officer of Victoria's Country Fire Authority:

AUSTRALIANS living in the bush and in semi-rural suburbs must change the way they live or else risk dying in bushfires....................
firefighters could no longer guarantee saving the lives of those who chose to surround themselves with vegetation despite the obvious fire risks.................

"We've got to choose," .....'If we choose to live in this way, then who do we blame? My fear is that people will say the fire service failed (last Saturday) and I will go to my grave saying we fought our guts out.
"Fundamentally, our community is choosing to live in a way I can't, and our people can't, guarantee their survival. Why do we choose a system of civilisation that puts itself at so much risk?"

Mr. Rees quite rightly mentions personal lifestyle preferences.

However, we also need to remember that local government hungry for residential and business rate revenues and developers avid for less expensive land to sell on at a profit are also pushing the same dangerous (albeit attractive) lifestyle.

This same scenario can be seen playing out in the Northern Rivers coastal town of Yamba right now.

Not only is Clarence Valley Council seriously considering development of flood prone land at West Yamba, this same land sits directly above scrub and forest cover which extends further south into Yuraygir National Park.

When strong southerly winds are driving bushfires, the blaze can (and has) come raging up past Wooloweyah and begin knocking on West Yamba's door.

Which makes one narrow bridge over the Clarence estuary a very chancy exit for around 6,000 people.

Photograph from The Australian

Greed no longer rules in the corridors of power?

I've watched with growing amazement as governments all around the world have thrown money at financial institutions and industry with almost reckless abandon as everyone tries to stop the economic haemorrhaging.
I thanked my lucky stars that (with the exception of the ABC childcare debacle) money wasn't going directly to corporation bailouts here in Australia.

When the Yanks began to put together their latest stimulus package I thought that some sanity might be returning, for President Obama was making a lot of noise about stopping these big corporations spending some of that enormous pile of taxpayer funding on their own salary packages and bonuses.

At first it seemed that my optimism was premature and greed was still stalking the corridors of power and board rooms across America because it appeared that the move to cap these often multi-million dollar payouts is in trouble.
"Congressional efforts to impose stringent restrictions on executive compensation appeared to be evaporating yesterday as House and Senate negotiators worked to fine-tune the compromise stimulus bill."
Another day brought other news however and the U.S. Congress has gone even further than the conditions suggested by Obama as it applies the cap retrospectively.
"The bill, which President Obama is expected to sign into law next week, limits bonuses for executives at all financial institutions receiving government funds to no more than a third of their annual compensation. The bonuses must be paid in company stock that can be redeemed only when the government investment has been repaid. With the measure, lawmakers seek to address public outrage over extravagant Wall Street paydays even as taxpayers bail out the industry."

Perhaps Sol Trujillo may decide to stay with Telstra after all - he now milks a more productive cow Downunder.