Federal Budget 2008-09: Janelle Saffin delivers for Page

While those on a full disability support pension are reeling from Wayne Swan's slap in the face (which saw them excluded from any cost-of-living mitigation bonus), those who have spent years on the public dental service waiting list are in flat despair and many others on the NSW North Coast are wondering about the Rudd Government's commitment to tackle climate change in light of the poor funding spread contained in this year's budget papers.

However, what cannot be gainsayed is the commitment of the Labor MP for Page, Janelle Saffin.
Ms. Saffin made sure that all funding promises (scattered like confetti across the Northern Rivers during the 2007 federal election campaign) were remembered.

The Northern Rivers Echo yesterday.

Southern Cross University has received a one-off grant of $5.2 million as part of the Australian Government’s $500 commitment to universities announced in the federal budget.
SCU vice-chancellor Professor Paul Clark said the grant came at a time when the university needed to expand facilities at its Lismore campus. He said the funding would provide support for high quality education, student amenities such as childcare, and boost SCU’s research capacity.
Other grants announced in Tuesday night’s budget include $7 million over two years to fast track radiotherapy services at Lismore Base Hospital. This is on top of $8 million already committed to the project.
There’s also $250,000 in recurrent funding for the Lismore-based Northern Rivers Business Enterprise Centre, $200,000 for the proposed Lismore Homeless Shelter, and $140,000 to upgrade the Browns Creek pumping station and flood levee as part of the Lismore Flood Management Plan.
The grants comes on top of $2.22 million in family support programs announced for Lismore in April.
In other areas $13.6 million has been allocated to begin work on the $90 million Alstonville bypass, while $100 million will be brought forward in 2008/09 for the Pacific Highway bypass at Ballina.
Casino will receive $3 million for development of the town’s community centre, and a further $2 million for the revitalisation of the town centre.

In The Daily Examiner on the same day.

The district's biggest win comes with an $18-million injection into upgrading the Grafton Base Hospital over the next 12 months.
The funding will be used to build a new accident and emergency department as well as establishing three new operating theatres.
This funding will no longer be tied to a hospital board being established at Grafton Base Hospital.
Grafton will also get its GP super clinic as part of a $275.2 million fund which will establish 31 clinics of its type throughout Australia.........
"We have also kept our promise of a $2 million grant for the Yamba Indoor Centre even though the local council has downgraded this project from $7.8 million to $4 million."
The good news for South Grafton residents is Skinner Street will receive a $1-million revitalisation package.
The fourth big pre-election promise was money for an upgrade of the Grafton saleyards and once again the Government has delivered with a $125,000 grant.

Rudd and his ministers may disappoint, but so far Janelle Saffin is showing she is good value.

There will be blood on the Liberal Party brand if....

There will blood all over the Liberal Party brand if it goes ahead with the rumoured threat to use Coalition Senate numbers to block any legislation needed to create a means test for the $5,000 'baby bonus'.

Liberal MPs will find the lower income half of their electorates at the front door ready to rip their bl**dy arms off, for wanting to give this increased bonus to the wealthy.
The wealthier half of their electorates will be waiting by the car with a noosed rope ready to string them high, because not means testing this increased bonus will result in the expectant parents among them falling within the Rudd Government net of managed cash transfers.

After all it's introducing periodic 'baby bonus' payments over 13 weeks to avoid paying out the $5,000 upfront, and even the rich couldn't be trusted not to splurge any lump sum on a new plasma TV or trip to the snow (the excuse for removing the lump sum from less wealthy parents).
And you can bet your last bob that these staged payments will require that a lot more information be supplied to Centrelink.

Either way Labor wins. It either gets to make the Libs look stupid or beat-up on the poor without much opposition.

There is also likely to be further blood splattered across the party brand when Liberal MPs realise that neither Nelson or Turnbull are going to come out of the budget debate looking credible - constantly repeating the phrase "high taxing budget" is not going to cut it in an electorate with tax cuts in its pocket and when the bulk of Labor's election promises are being met.

Graphic found at The Age.

A very personal kneejerk reaction to the Rudd-Swan 2008-09 Federal Budget

Belonging to a recognised category of poor that contains less than half a million souls and has little political clout, it has been so long since a Federal Budget gave me anything that I now treat budget night as a matter for hilarity.
Wayne Swan's first budget did not disappoint in that regard.
I am again one of those that government expects to make and scrape, in the face of rising costs and reduced options.

Swan's lullaby for the majority can be found here.
Turnbull's shrill trill can be read here.

When political image and actions clash

Images from Crikey

Kevin Rudd has worked hard to portray himself as one of the people. However, there are disturbing signs emerging that the Prime Minister is a bit of a bully boy.

Why else would he be condoning such incredibly intrusive security checks on Labor staffers.

There are 334 ministerial staffers - men and women - working for the Rudd Government. That is, 30 ministers and 12 parliamentary secretaries share 334 personal staff. These 42 politicians, from the Prime Minister down, each employ another four staff in his or her electorate office. In all, 502 ministerial and electorate staff. All are paid from the public purse. However, no matter how senior or junior their position, most of these staffers must first "obtain and maintain" a "Top Secret" security clearance.
And to be cleared by security can - and does - involve staffers having to answer hugely intrusive questions about the most intimate details of their private lives concerning their family background, their assets, their partners' assets, their bank accounts, mortgages, discretionary spending, overseas travel, drinking habits, drug use and, most odiously, his or her sexual preference and the names of their sexual partners, past and present.
Know, at the outset, that MPs are not subject to security clearance. Neither ministers nor backbenchers have to undergo such a process, no matter how lecherous, libertine, homosexual, drugged, debauched or alcoholic he or she might be. Only staffers of members of the government executive of the day. Politicians are immune.

Counting the pennies: Federal Budget night 13th May 2008

Well, the media is locked up with Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan's 2008-09 budget documents and the rest of us wait for the 7.30pm kick-off tonight.

The NSW North Coast which was promised a bag full of goodies by Rudd & Co. during the election campaign is holding its breath.

In the Page electorate alone a cool $26 million plus in promises need to be confirmed by the Treasurer before the end of his speech.

 

The Treasurer's speech and the budget transcript will be here from 7.30pm onwards.

The Sydney Morning Herald will have live coverage and analysis here from 7.30pm onwards.

Debit card reeks of Big Brother

So ran the banner above yesterday's editorial penned by David Bancroft in Grafton's The Daily Examiner (Clarence Valley locals will remember David as a former staffer for then NSW Labor Minister for Local Government, Harry Woods).

SOME disturbing signs of social engineering are starting to appear from the new Rudd Government.
It is widely expected the Government will announce in tomorrow night's Budget a scheme to issue parents of neglected or abused children with special debit cards so money can't be wasted on gambling, drugs or alcohol.
On face value it sounds like a great idea.....
But serious questions remain about the scheme.
Firstly, who decides.....
What is to protect decent parents from unfair allegations?
Even if these questions are sorted out, many others remain.
The identity of abused or neglected children should not become public knowledge, but in small communities such as those we have here, retailers will soon know 'abusive' or 'neglectful' parents as they present their debit cards and, consequently, the identity of their children will be known.
What happens if not all retailers participate in the scheme?
What happens in a place like Lawrence or Copmanhurst if the general store does not accept a debit card? How will those parents be able to buy anything.
There is also talk the scheme be extended to old age and disabled pensioners, which expands the potential problems.
All these issues may have been addressed, but there has been so little public discussion and consultation that it is difficult to tell.

Searching for water in hyperspace

water drought climate change global warming

History of Google Australian internet searches July 2007 - April 2008.

Liberal Party determined to devour itself

If it wasn't enough that Brendan Nelson was declared leader of the federal parliamentary Liberal Party with a bloody knife visibly sticking out from between his shoulder blades which appeared to encourage the party to indulge in a fresh round of divisive state leadership games, now we have in-fighting at the Victorian state body level which has blood running in the gutters.
First it was discovered that the blog Ted Baillieu Must Go was administered by party members.
At least two staff sackings came out of that and it's rumoured that the party went directly to Google to have this blog snuffed.
Now a state campaign manager has been outed (in what looks suspiciously like internal payback) and forced to resign over an anti-Semitic email sent during the 2007 federal election.
Victorian Lib leader, 'Red' Ted Baillieu, is hitting out at all and sundry by pledging a 'purge', with Melbourne's The Age happy to oblige with publication of any details.
Red Ted's public hissy fit shows just how thin the Baillieu blood runs in the current generation.
Word is out that prominent names at state and federal levels will get an airing before the Victorian Libs stop devouring themselves.

Like just about everyone else I managed to get a look at the ditched blog and the Baillieu montage above comes from that site.

Meanwhile in New South Wales the cracks widen...

Yesterday Crikey reported:
Debnam has resigned from the Opposition’s front bench, paving the way for current Liberal leader Barry O’Farrell to announce a shadow cabinet reshuffle this morning (11.30am).
In an unexpected dummy-spit which has annoyed many of his colleagues, Debnam has sent a private email explaining his action:
I have been opposed to Michael Costa’s electricity privatisation and despite lacking the numbers in Parliament to stop it, I’ve argued for the Coalition to take a strong stand against the privatisation and in favour of clean renewable energy. However, in my view, the conditional acceptance announced late last week by the Coalition effectively surrenders to Costa’s privatisation. Given my strong views, it is untenable for me to continue as the Shadow Minister for Energy and remain on the frontbench simply biting my tongue.
Debnam has given an undertaking to stay in parliament and contest the next election in 2011 as the MP for Vaucluse – so there will be no embarrassing by-election.

Electricity privatisation: NSW Speaker opposes it

The Member for Northern Tablelands and Speaker in the NSW Legislative Assembly, Richard Torbay, has put his cards about the privatisation of electricity on the table.

The Armidale Express reports Torbay said, "I am still opposed to the electricity privatisation and have not heard any arguments to convince me otherwise.

“Short term it will inevitably lead to loss of jobs and poorer services in country areas. But in long term the policy of selling off public assets may be seen as short sighted.

“The debate we should be having is the lack of government investment in public infrastructure over a long period and whether the people would be better served through reversing this position.”

Torbay said the power privatisation debate debased political standards in NSW and both the government and opposition had misled the people.

Although Torbay gave both the Government and Opposition serves for the position they have taken on the power issue, he made a stinging attack on National Party MPs.

According to Torbay, the Nationals had publicly opposed the sell off and told their constituents they were against it, but caved in at the last minute and fell in line with their Coalition partners.

“It’s like dairy deregulation and firearms legislation. The Nationals say one thing in the electorate and then go back to Parliament and vote against it,” he said.

With all its duck shoving, manoeuvring, number crunching and backflipping it has been an exercise in sheer hypocrisy and the worst I’ve seen since entering Parliament,” he said.

“The vital component missing in this debate has been the interests of the people.

“They have been misinformed and misled from start to finish.

“Although it looks as if we have a done deal on the privatisation, very few people in regional NSW have any idea of how it would impact on them or whether it is a sound long term decision. That is the debate we should have had.”

Mr Torbay said the Labor government went to the 2007 election with a commitment not to privatise the state’s public electricity assets and despite internal divisions now seemed set to push it through.

After sitting on the fence throughout the debate, the Liberals and Nationals had given their support this week based on conditions that were simply a face saving device to mask growing political division within the parties.