2010 Election Campaign Day 21 - Kev comes out fighting for his team this week

Former Oz PM KEVIN RUDD speaking in a 4th August 2010 ABC Late Night Live radio interview comes out fighting for his Labor team:

"Well, the bottom line is I can't just stand idly by at the prospect of Mr Abbott sliding into office by default. I mean elections are really important things Phillip. They're about who governs the country affects the lives, in a very direct way of every one of your listeners, every family in the country, every business in the country, every community, every school, every hospital . I mean we've got too much at stake here, we spent a long time keeping the economy strong despite the global financial crisis, we've come through that. Mr Abbott opposed those measures. We spent a long time getting a deal for the future funding of our hospitals in place - Mr Abbott opposed that. We spent a long time negotiating a national broadband network in place and Mr Abbott says he's going to tear that down. And I think we do know where he stands on the reintroduction of Workchoices. So there's big stuff at stake for the country and I suppose my message more broadly is, the future of KM Rudd is one thing, the future of the country is actually much bigger because it affects 22 million of us, not just one........

Look I think it's pretty important that the team comes, ah comes first. I'm always concerned about being some sort of side show to the main event because the main even tis what's important. The main event is the country's future and that will be what the Prime Minister has to say. But look, what's my predisposition? I will be there but on the condition that I don't have a major relapse before then and secondly, that I'm not a distraction from what I think is a pretty serious debate about what sort of future we want for our country and I don't think it's a debate which we can allow - with only two and half weeks to go before D Day, that we can't allow to be trivialised. It's too important.....

No government's perfect, no Prime Minister's perfect, I wasn't, Keating wasn't, Hawke wasn't, Gillard's not. But you know something? When it comes to the fundamentals of economic policy settings, general policy settings, the country's heading in the right direction and if anyone doubts that just for one moment, think about what's going on the moment throughout Europe and North America. And what I do know for a fact is that it's hard to build things up, it's very easy for people like Mr Abbott to tear things down."

With some justification Janelle Saffin beats her own drum in the Page electorate

Federal Labor MP Janelle Saffin is known locally as one politician who has managed to attract money to the NSW North Coast and, she has recently sent out a campaign leaflet which outlines funding she has secured for the Page electorate over the last three years totalling almost $783 million - for everything from health and community infrastructure/services to roads and flood mitigation. That is in addition to the cash payments received by individuals/families and the school building program that came into the region courtesy of the Federal Government's GFC economic stimulus policy.

Here is a breakdown by area:

Alstonville/Woollongbar - $91 million

Ballina - $532.3 million

Casino - $5.9 million

Evans Head - $3.8 million

Grafton/South Grafton - $43.4 million

Iluka/Woombah - $291,897

Kyogle - $6.1 million

Lismore - $97.3 million

Yamba - $2.7 million

Bonalbo/Tabulam/Urbenville/Woodenbong - $450,225

Have you seen Chloe the Staffy?

In The Daily Examiner yesterday.

LAST Thursday night there were a series of loud explosions somewhere in the Grafton area.
I vaguely remember hearing something but didn't pay too much attention.
On Saturday night while our family was away it happened again.
Apparently though, it went on for sometime and rumour was that it continued until around 1am.
Our six-year-old staffy dog is very sensitive to these sounds and so would be many other dogs.
Since Saturday night our dog has been missing.
I hope she has been found and kept safe, as a search on Sunday morning failed to find her.
She is a loving dog and would not hurt anyone.
Her name is Chloe and she is black and dark brown.
To the senseless idiots (there is no other word) that created this disturbance, that's all you are - idiots.

TONY FOULSTONE Grafton NSW

2010 Election campaign Day 20 - Remember it was the Libs & Nats who wanted to steal Northern Rivers water!

Everyone living on the NSW North Coast can remember the Howard Government's intention to dam and divert coastal rivers in order to supply water to the big mines, power companies and irrigators in south-east Queensland and north-west New South Wales.
The 2007 federal election stopped this raid cold in its tracks.
Howard may be gone, but most of those greedy b#stards still remain on the 21st August 2010 ballot paper and some even continue to refer to massive water theft as visionary or call for the Clarence River to be dammed and diverted.

Some history:
Council vows to fight Clarence River dam proposal
Dam the neighbours
A Clarence Valley Protest

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.............