2010 Election Campaign Day 19 - I can't believe he said that!

I can't believe a bloke who thrusts his lycra-clad family jewels in front of any camera he can find would have the hide to say: "I find the Burqa a particularly confronting form of attire. I would very much wish that fewer Australians would choose it."

Not impressed with Abbott's aged care promises

The policy has also come under fire from the Australian Medical Association (AMA).
AMA president Dr Andrew Pesce says while incentives to provide more aged care beds are a welcome move, they should not come at the cost of GP services.
"Not only is there no new funding for the provision of medical care to older Australians, the Coalition has committed to cut the $98.4 million promised by Labor in the May Budget to provide incentive payments for GPs to provide services in aged care homes," he said in a statement.
"This is a missed opportunity for the Coalition that has been compounded by taking away the only new funding that was available to improve access to medical care for older Australians, at a time of their life when their medical care needs are very high." [ABC News 2 August 2010]

The NSW North Coast is a prime destination for Australian east coast seachangers, treechangers and retirees. Which means that this region is starting to experience what will be an continuous extended aging band in its overall population demographics.

So it is more than a little disappointing that Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is placing aging issues at the back of the funding queue once again:

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has warned the coalition's aged care policy will be limited by how much money is left in government coffers.....
"I want to caution people against expecting enormous dollars," Mr Abbott told reporters in Adelaide.

This disappointment is somewhat personal for North Coast Voices as most of our regular contributors are over sixty years of age and, quite frankly, in regional and rural areas the glue which often holds communities together is the commitment of now aging volunteers and community stalwarts.

Abbott's plan to bribe nursing home operators to use all their current bed allocations does not engender confidence and, in the face of a longstanding regional aged care services shortfall, promising $14 million for nursing home 'pets as therapy' is an ill-conceived pledge.

While his plan to shuffle older patients in stressed public hospitals to post-hospital care in stressed nursing homes is rendered risible by the fact that in regional areas any empty nursing home bed is a rare commodity.

His announced $935 million aged care package has no roll-out details and, is pitifully inadequate when the Aged Care Association is warning that Australia will need on average $2.5 billion each year for the next twenty years just to keep up with demand.

Given Abbott's stated intention to roll back the Labor Government's new mining tax while still reducing company tax and the fact that he is tossing around what seem to be unfunded promises in so many ministerial portfolios, this aged care election promise of 1 August 2009 does not appear to be achievable - until one realises that he intends to simply take money from other areas of the overstretched public heath system to fund this particular election 'sweetener'.

They are passionate about their politics in regional Australia

From the Clarence Valley Review classifieds on Wednesday 28 July 2010.
















Clarrie suggests that this short announcement contains a typo and the last word should be GOLD.
On the other hand.............

William Cooper, a righteous man (ATSIC readers please note this post contains image of deceased person)

AN Aboriginal elder is about to make history by becoming the first indigenous Australian to be honoured with his own memorial and garden at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem....

"'You Australians should know that a group of Aboriginal people led by William Cooper held in your country the only private protest against the Germans following Kristallnacht'."

[The Australian 2 August 2010]

Another NSW North Coast council disappoints

On 27 July 2010 The Bellingen Shire Courier Sun reported on the failure of Bellingen Shire Council to support Uranga residents and the Urunga Storm and Flood Mitigation Committee formed in July 2009 after widespread regional flooding in the first half of that year:

"Cr Mark Troy announced they were going to approach the State Government for funding. He said the Council couldn't afford to fund this work but they would be immediately making that application. For the next few months I regularly rang the Mayor to be told they hadn't had any response from the State," said Mr Boatfield.

"Mike Edsall (former Director of Engineering) rang me at 11am on November 12, (6 months after the flood). Mike apologised for taking so long to respond on behalf of Mark Troy in relation to my constant requests for an update on Councils progress. He then said "the Council needed to apologise for misleading the Committee as there had virtually been no progress to this stage and no funding had been applied for but they were now applying for funding of $45,000 from the Floodplain Assistance Committee, to advertise for quotes to do a feasibility study on option 2. "This was to see if the last study conducted in 1999 with recommendations that scheme No.2 be adopted and the works to be completed by 2001 would still be the best outcome (Option 2 is an open drain across Urunga to a drain under Morgo Street) this would reduce the flood level by 1.5 meters and could mean virtually no houses would be inundated with floodwater. This new study was subject to a State grant. To date this has not been achieved.

"Councillor Bruce Cronin, who was involved in the original Public Meeting and who totally agrees with our continued efforts and our above statements, regrets that he sees little or no light at the end of the tunnel for our cause. All we are getting are words of agreement from every source, but no money & therefore no action," Mr Boatfield said.

"It is now time for Council to come clean on their course of actions and stop hiding behind the inactivity of Government and get for Urunga what the rate payers need and make it a priority for Urunga. If Council is so ineffective in looking after us please tell us who to approach," he concluded.

Bellingen flooding photographs

Intoduction to Journalism 101 or What not to do as a regional journalist

There are over 100 million Facebook accounts around the world and anyone who has an account can in theory read everyone of these pages.
These particular Facebook snapshots was passed on to me with the comment that it was not a good look for any jounalist working on a regional paper with a circulation of less than 9,000 covering a population of around 150,000.

In fact - not a good look when working in any relatively small community where you may already have a higher profile than the fella next door because you work in teh meeja.
On checking I tend to agree.

Going onto a pollie's Facebook page and publically mocking the Federal Treasurer, sniggering about the NSW Premier, bagging local Labor or egging on a candidate is definitely not a good look if you want to be seen as an even-handed journalist.

The journo in question is Josh McMahon and the Facebook sites belong to the NSW North Coast's Federal Labor MP for Page Janelle Saffin, NSW Nationals MP for Clarence Steve Cansdell and Nationals federal candidate for Page at the 21st August election, Kevin Hogan.

2010 Election Campaign Day 18 - @rsehole alert!

"PERTH Catholic Archbishop Barry Hickey has suggested Julia Gillard's atheism could cost her votes. But he says Tony Abbott's "strong Christian faith" could benefit him.
The provocative comments triggered heated debate on Perth talkback radio yesterday as a string of callers objected to the apparent leap into partisan politics.

The archbishop told The Australian he had not meant to imply people should not vote for the Prime Minister - a self-professed atheist - and was simply "sounding a caution" about the rise of secularism in politics." {Perth Now 30th July 2010}

"Gillard told the ABC’s Madonna King this week that she was not “a big time, you know, fashionista, in that sense. I, you know, view myself as someone who works and I wear the clothes that are appropriate to the work that I do, so I took that perspective”.
Which might have stunned readers of the Vive article for which she wore a Giorgio Armani black suit valued at $3000, an Emporio Armani white shirt ($440), Chloe black suede stilettos ($745) and a pair of Monteperla golden pearl earrings ($11,000).
That’s a total of about $15,185 worth of clobber - the equivalent of 43 1/2 weeks’ pension. Not bad for a small-time fashionista." {Piers Akerman in The Daily Telegraph on 29th July 2010, misrepresenting the obviously borrowed clobber used in an Australian Women's Weekly photo shoot}