Northern Rivers message to Della Bosca - no cuts, no way!

In The Daily Examiner last Monday:

Health protest rallies, such as this one at Market Square in Grafton, were staged throughout the North Coast on the weekend.
On a steamy, hot Saturday afternoon people came out in their hundreds to deliver a clear and unequivocal message to the Rees Labor Government cuts to health services will not be tolerated.
Scores of people, most of whom would never have protested against anything in their lives, braved the conditions to get their message to government.
Grafton doctor Hugh Calvey, who stressed he was speaking as a private citizen and not as a contractor to the North Coast Area Health Service, said there was a clear reality if the Government proceeded with plans to strip 30 jobs from the Grafton Base Hospital and seven from Maclean and that would be a cut to services.
"The reality is that we would lose nursing staff and if that happens you have to shut something," he said.
"We need all the facilities we have got. Whatever they decide to shut will affect you.
"It is a very serious crisis. The immediate effect would be disastrous; the knock-on effect worse."
Rally organiser and Member for Clarence, Steve Cansdell, said the North Coast Area Health Service had been underfunded for a number of years.
"The funding (resource distribution) formula has been ignored for a number of years," he said.
He said the region had missed out on $70 million a year.
"You can understand why the health service is struggling," he said....

Speakers called on residents to write personal letters to the Premier Nathan Rees the premier@www.nsw.gov.au, Health Minister John Della Bosca office@smos.nsw.gov.au, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd via www.pm.gov.au/contact/index.cfm and Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon Nicola.Roxon.MP@aph.gov.au.

Photos from The Daily Examiner and The Northern Star

NSW Parliament: when saying sorry isn't enough

When I opened yesterday's newspaper one of the first things I would normally have expected to see wouldn't have been a piece on Nats MP for Coffs Harbour Andrew Fraser shoving a female colleague in the NSW Parliament on Tuesday night.
Though I have to say there was little surprise in reading that policial argy bargy had again turned to biff.

That's the second time in three years that this NSW North Coast state parliamentarian has become angry and violent.
His physical attack on Joe Tripodi in October 2005 caused his second suspension from the House (being previously marched out by the Serjeant-at-Arms in May 2004) and now he's missed out on a third by a whisker because Parliament is nearing recess for 2008.

Kartrina Hodgkinson may have accept his personal apology just as Tripodi did.
However, saying sorry just doesn't have the same impact with the electorate if you're well on the way to becoming a serial offender.
Especially when Fraser admits that he had been drinking earlier in the night.

The NSW Opposition and the North Coast Nationals need to get their houses in order and Speaker Richard Torbay needs to exercise some control over that self-indulgent kindergarten in Macquarie Street.

Cooee! Calling all international bloggers

The Australian Government intends to impose mandatory national censorship on the Australian Internet.
It will decide what websites and blogs we may read or post comments to in the future.
The ISP-level filtering it intends to impose may slow the Internet so badly in this country that many online sites may no longer be able to reliably publish.

Please join us Down Under and petition the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy so that this draconian form of filtering is not introduced.

Remember your rural cousins on the New South Wales North Coast who already struggle to keep in touch across cyberspace via some of the slowest broadband and dial up systems in the developed world.

Support your fellow bloggers who may be removed from Australian view if they are on hosted sites like Blogger.com if just one of its many, many blogs is deemed to have content of which Senators Conroy and Fielding disapprove.

Go to GetUp! and sign the Save the Net petition here.

There are now 220 lobbyists on the Australian Government register

At least 32 new lobbyists went onto the Australian Government Lobbyists Register since 1 November 2008.
Edelman Public Relations Worldwide Pty Ltd registered on 17 November.

Edelman has a small but seemingly innocuous client list named for the register.
However, it must be remembered that the Edelman group also acts for GM seed giant Monsanto.

It has taken Edelman's over two months to decide to register after North Coast Voices mentioned its absence from this register.

I wonder how long it will take before it decides to fully list its client base in Australia?

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

The Brand Names Gazette, Est 1859

Maud up the Street has been having a word in my ear about a local rag she calls The Brand Names Gazette.
At first I couldn't bring to mind the newspaper she was griping about - then she mentioned the number of advertising inserts falling out of the middle of most issues and I realised she was talking about The Daily Examiner out of Grafton.

Maud like most of us has noticed that the number of 'advertorials' seem to have increased since Peter Chapman became editor - to the point where he is no longer game to label his comment as an editorial.
What really galls however, is the number of news articles which contain clumsy attempts at brand placement or are naked puff pieces on behalf of local real estate agents, developers and businesses.
Though I swear that the birds are worse than the blokes on this moan - Clarencegirl is almost apoplectic when she talks about those puff pieces, although she swears that three retired blokes in Yamba beat her hands down when it comes to loathing how the newspaper reports lately.

While he's busy wrecking an historic regional paper, Chappie is also failing to win friends and influence people in his new home town as this little gem below shows.
What do they say about pets and their owners?

Click on image to enlarge

How a picture of a train on your blog may get you on the Rudd-Conroy internet filtering blacklist

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Stephen Conroy, has previously stated that his national mandatory ISP-level filtering scheme will rely on the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) for a black list which lays the foundation of what Internet content is not acceptable to the federal government.

Now most Australian blogs would not be able to conceive of the possibility of falling foul of ACMA.

However, Australian blogs often contain an image to brighten up the web page or illustrate a post.
In the strange times in which we now live even the picture of a train may excite the attentions of the Australian Broadcasting Authority and Classification Board on which ACMA in its turn relies for the kernel of its URL blacklist.

Here is a classic example of why the Rudd-Conroy plan to bleach the Internet 'middle-class conservative' may go pear-shaped:

Classification: Processing Date:	PG 20/10/2000	OFLC No: ABA No.	T00/3317 A2000001818
URL might be:	http://www.melbgraff.cjb.net
OFLC Synopsis:	"A still photo referred for classification by the ABA. The front of a train with a small amount of graffiti is pictured in close up. Text below the picture refers to the Internet Privacy Act in the USA".
Extract from OFLC Board Report:	"...This film warrants a PG classification as it contains adult themes that could be confusing or upsetting to children without adult guidance. ... The still photograph shows the front of a Melbourne train, pictured close up with a small amount of graffiti on it. Text below the picture refers to the Internet Privacy Act in the USA and has some other vague references to graffiti. There is no instruction or promotion of graffiti or any other illegal activity on this website page. Given that the word graffiti is mentioned and the front of the train is pictured with graffiti markings the Board is of the opinion that this concept may require explanation or guidance from a parent to any person under 15 years of age".

What I want to know is - when did childhood turn into some weird form of psychopathology which requires an entire nation to be placed in a giant straightjacket in order for the young 'patients' to survive?

NB. My apologies in advance to Warwick County Council in the United Kingdom if my use of their steam train image sees that webpage blocked by the Great Firewall of Australia (the engine is smoking after all!)

The Member for Richmond shows us her aged care report card

Yesterday the Minister for Ageing and Member fo Richmond,Justine Elliot released a Report Card of Achievements in Aged and Community Care:

In the last 365 days, the Rudd Government has:

• Begun investing more than $41.6 billion over the next four years into aged and community care;
• Increased funding to community care in 2008-2009 to $2.2 billion – an increase of $260 million over 2007-2008 – recognising that older Australians want to remain at home and independent as long as possible;
• Allocated 228 transition care places under its $293.2 million four-year election commitment;
• Offered $150 million in Zero Interest Real Loans as part of Round One of $300 million election commitment to create nursing home beds in areas of high need;
• Announced an Indigenous Aged Care plan worth more than $46 million;
• Introduced improvements to quality/compliance, including strengthening accreditation standards and processes, extending police checks and better arrangements for missing residents;
• Increased unannounced visits by the Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency to nursing homes to record levels;
• Selected Australian actor, Ms Noeline Brown as Australia's Ambassador for Ageing;
• Expanded programs to retain, recruit and support nurses and personal care workers to the aged care sector; and
• Made improvements to aged care assessments, including a rapid response team and reducing duplication – helping older Australians access aged and community care services when they need them.

I have to say that any change that this funding represents is going to happen slowly on the NSW North Coast if past instances are any indication.

The complete report card can be found here.