A short, snappy (and blatantly untruthful) version of the Rudd Government's plan to censor the Australian Internet from an email sent out last week by the Department of Broadband, Communication and the Digital Economy.
Better be careful what you say about Stephen Conroy on Twitter then. No more threatening to set his undies on fire or vote him out of the Senate! ;-)
Friday, 29 January 2010
DBCDE is sending out emails on Conroy's mad Internet censorship scheme
Thursday, 28 January 2010
My School website: now that's a league table in the making
Well, the Rudd Government's comparative assessment of Australian schools (like to like, overall, government vs private) is now available on the website My School for the very first time today.
This is the message currently showing after any attempt to use the Find a School search:
First Blog Quote of the Month for 2010
Just as Keneally has exposed the power of the Right's faction bosses in all its bankruptcy, so has Abbott's ascension exposed the bankruptcy represented by the old guard of the Federal Liberals.
No Going Back post in The Piping Shrike post on 23rd January 2010
e-Health: something's rotten in the State of Kevin
"The End User Security Reviews clearly found that there are instances in which particular users may share user credentials (whether they be passwords or tokens) to facilitate their obligation to patient care.
The security controls and awareness levels found in these assessments have been varied." {NEHTA - HI Service Security and Access Framework 13/11/09 PUBLIC}
The Medicare smart card and national health information database rolls on.
According to the National e-Health Transition Authority this is its board which is facilitating the progress of this giant collection of the nation's most personal information:
Australian public figure and businessman.
Chief Executive of the Northern Territory Department of Health and Families.
Mark Cormack
ACT Health Chief Executive.
Dr Peter Flett
Director-General of the Department of Health of WA.
Jane Halton
Secretary of the Australian Department of Health and Ageing.
Prof Debora Picone AM
Director-General of NSW Health.
Mick Reid
Former chief of staff for Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon, now the Director-General of Queensland Health.
Secretary with the Department of Health & Human Services in Tasmania.
Dr Tony Sherbon
Dr Tony Sherbon is the Chief Executive of the South Australian Department of Health.
Fran Thorn
Secretary of the Victorian Department of Human Services.
Notice the complete absence of anyone from a consumer health lobby group in the key positions of importance?
No, the board is full of former bankers, accountants, bureaucrats, and gawd help us, a couple of individuals who helped drive the North Coast Area Health Service into the dismal state it's in today.
It is only in a list of organisations invited to attend the NEHTA Stakeholder Reference Forum that one consumer health group is invited inside the tent.
I imagine it's no coincidence that this single consumer organisation in that 33 strong group is an organisation which is firmly guided by government, receives funding from the Dept. of Health & Aging, was actively engaged in creating a so-called consumer demand for e-health and remains committed to the database scheme regardless of emerging concerns.
Even this feeble form of consumer protection is not participating in each internal working group.
NEHTA's Stakeholder Reference list:
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Federal election campaign information 2010: Who is funding Australian hospitals?
By now no-one is in doubt that this is an election year across Australia and, if Tony Abbott, Barnaby Joyce, Joe Hockey, Stephen Conroy, Jenny Macklin and Nicola Roxon are any indication, this will be a year filled to the brim with politically motivated misinformation.
Although I (like many others) have come to expect a high degree of doublespeak and obfuscation from those elected to federal and state parliaments, it is not something the electorate should tolerate.
The 2007 federal election campaign demonstrated that NSW North Coast candidates for elected office had not always factored in the possibility that voters would use the Internet to check the 'facts' they presented. At least one of these local candidates had obviously hoped that his face and a soundbite would last longer in voters' minds than the truth - needless to say he was spectacularly unsuccessful in his bid for a parliamentary seat.
Hopefully this year's local candidates will be mindful of that salutary lesson and stick to factual accounts and realisitic promises.
The public hospital system is a constant source of concern and debate on health will likely form part of the election campaigns of all major political parties during the 2010 federal election.To offset at least some of the inevitable mudslinging, here are excerpts from The state of our public hospitals:June 2009 report (C'wealth Dept of Health & Aging) with regard to beds, funding sources and basic costs.
How many hospitals were there?
At June 2008, Australia had 1,314 hospitals, of which 58 per cent (762) were public.
There were 742 public acute hospitals in Australia, ranging from small remote hospitals with a few beds providing a narrow range of services, to large metropolitan hospitals providing a wide range of specialist services.How many beds were there?
The number of available beds indicates the availability of hospital services. An available bed is defined as a bed which is immediately available for use by a patient and may include same-day beds, neonatal cots, hospital-in-the-home and overnight beds.
In 2007–08, the total number of available beds nationally was 84,235.
In 2007-08, the number of available public hospital beds was 56,467 (67 per cent). This means there were around 2.5 beds per 1,000 people.
The number of available private hospital beds was 27,768 or about 1.3 beds per 1,000 people.
Who funds hospitals?
Australia spent an estimated $94 billion on all health care in 2006–07 (the latest year for which this figure is available). More than a quarter ($27 billion) was spent on public hospital services. Almost 8 per cent ($7.1 billion) was spent on private hospitals.
The Australian Government funded around 40 per cent of public hospital services expenditure ($10.8 billion) through public hospital funding, rebates for private health insurance, hospital services for veterans and direct expenditure such as payments for blood products, specialised drugs and grants for diagnostic equipment.
State, Territory and Local Governments contributed 53 per cent ($14.3 billion) of public hospital services funding. Private sources contributed 7 per cent ($1.9 billion), these included private health insurance benefits and out-of-pocket payments from patients.
In comparison, more than 70 per cent (nearly $5 billion) of private hospital expenditure came via private health insurers. Of this, over 23 per cent (nearly $1.7 billion) was provided by the Australian Government through health insurance premium rebates and 47 per cent ($3.3 billion) came from premiums paid by contributors and other revenue to insurers. These figures do not include funding provided by the Australian Government through the Medicare Benefits and Pharmaceutical Benefits Schedules or for blood and blood products for patients in private hospitals.
What was the cost of an average patient?
The average cost of a patient treated in a public hospital in 2007–08 was $4,232 (excluding depreciation). This cost covers nursing and medical staff, supplies such as surgical dressings and support services such as meals, cleaning and security.
Salaries for medical and nursing staff represent 50 per cent of admitted patient costs.
Placing those climate change denialists into perspective
Information Is Beautiful attempts to visulise those oft cited numbers used to support anti-global warming claims.


Click on images to enlarge
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
26 January 2010 is also a day we celebrate........
.......the courage and resilience of those original Australians, the Aboriginal communities across this nation.