Is Tony Abbott failing to read the mood of the electorate?

Another of Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's policy one-liners surfaced over the last few days in relation to health services and he is now proposing the 'return' of local boards to run public hospitals. No real change to the centralised federal and state administrative systems which allocate health funding and no significant increase in that funding - just another layer of bureaucracy added back into the mix in New South Wales and Queensland in particular.

This is what the man (who as former Health Minister resisted calls to increase federal health funding over his five-year tenure and left office with Commonwealth funding running at approximately 42-43% of total health funding) had to say in yesterday's press release, which refined his message to include the possibility of the abolition of NSW and Queensland area health service management leaving each region without a co-ordinated approach to service delivery or forward planning and presumably individual hospitals left to fight for their own piece of the federal-state funding pie.

Community response to this Coalition policy and its lack of detail appears lukewarm to say the least with the state governments highly resistant to the idea and, the Essential Report poll of 1,033 respondents between 9 and 14 February on the question of responsibility for Australia's public hospitals clearly shows that Abbott is not reading the mood of the electorate on the issue of who should be taking responsibility for our hospitals.

Q. Would you support or oppose the Federal Government taking over the responsibility for hospitals from the State Governments?
Total support 58%
Total oppose 10%
Strongly support 26%
Support 32%
Neither support nor oppose 19%
Oppose 7%
Strongly oppose 3%
Don’t know 13%

Over half (58%) of those surveyed support the Federal Government taking over responsibility for hospitals from the State Governments, 10% disapprove, 19% neither support nor oppose and 13% don’t know.
People aged 55 years and over were more likely that those in other age groups to support a Federal Government takeover of hospitals (79%).
People in NSW were more likely than those in any other states to support a hospitals takeover (67%), while people in Western Australia (18%) and South Australia (17%) were more likely to oppose such a move.
Males were more likely than females to support a hospital takeover by the Federal Government (65% v 52%).
Support for a Federal Government takeover of hospitals from the State Government was highest amongst Labor voters (70%), followed by Coalition voters (63%) and then Green voters (54%).

Abbott's foray into the area of industrial relations policy last Friday and his pledge to roll back workplace relations legislation until it reflects the intent of John Howard's much hated Work Choices also appears set to lead the Coalition down a rocky road.

Saffin has the right answer on Maclean flying fox colony question

The community debate on the flying fox colony roosting in bushland adjoining Maclean High School has been ongoing for literally years.
In fact one former Maclean mayor initially got himself elected on the back of beating up on bats.

Federal Labor MP for Page Janelle Saffin has the right idea; removing the bats is not a long-term solution and she is committed to discussing permanent options including moving the school.

Here is one local resident's recent letter to The Daily Examiner on the subject:

Beauty and the Beast

DOES age come before beauty in the Maclean Flying Fox issue?

I obviously touched a sore point with Mr Apps in my letter regarding the flying foxes at Maclean High school.

I did live across the road from Maclean High school for 10 years during the last flying fox episode in the late 1980s early 1990s and attended the then public meetings, public rally and kept informed.

The flying fox colonies Mr Apps refers to are in existence and so too are the major nurseries between Lismore and Grafton, all of which apparently unite and then head south to be with their friends on the Central Coast.

While I do not question Mr Apps capacity as an elderly gentleman to have amazing recall of his childhood, flying fox camps come and go and I don't think flying fox numbers would have been high on his agenda as a kid.

Camps may contain tens of thousands of animals or several hundred depending on the abundance of food available in the surrounding area. As the numbers of animals changes in response to food availability, the area of the camp occupied by them increases or decreases. (This is often mistakenly viewed as a 'population explosion').

Grey-headed flying-foxes are known to be faithful to sites for over 100 years; if sites are destroyed, the animals move to the 'next best site'.

Attempts to relocate a camp may not have the desired effect and flying foxes may move to an even more inconvenient location - example - attempts to move the camp near Maclean High School resulted in flying foxes moving closer to houses. (From the NSW Conservation Society).

The 1.1 hectare site of decimated rainforest next to Maclean High school is and was one of many food sources for the flying foxes. It's hard to imagine flying foxes ignoring this yummy area as it is within the flight path of many of them. Add to this equation flying foxes are genetically blue printed at birth to return to their birth place to give birth to their next generation.

Ten years ago dispersal of the flying fox colony cost ratepayers $100,000 and they are now back with a vengeance and relocating themselves in the process but unfortunately it is not where the community wants them.

My interest in this issue is in the health and well-being of the students and teachers of Maclean High School because they are caught up in a problem they did not create, just like the flying foxes are. It is a public health issue that has been allowed to develop to a point where something has to be done now.

I am not an environmentalist, however I do love, value and respect what Mother Nature has created for us.

If we all took the same view as Mr Apps we would still murder and bulldoze everything in our pathway till such a time we lived in a concrete jungle and visited museums to view trees and animals.

There is a solution but the NSW Government refuses to make a decision either way hoping the problem will fade or be buried because it will cost them money.

So Brucie Apps of Townsend, putting your old age before my stunning beauty may I suggest if you feel as strong as I do on this issue maybe we should join forces (Beauty and the Beast), start a petition, organise a rally, sell raffle tickets to fundraise for a trip to Canberra so that the people of MHS can be finally heard.

DEBRAH NOVAK, Yamba

Want to do a Woolies 'price check' comparison online? First sign a confidentiality agreement!

Woolworths went to the media with the big news that now one can do a price check online of 5,000 items it carries in its supermarket outlets across Australia.

Not only was this so-called pricing transparency met with a big yawn it was also somewhat misleading.

However, what was really interesting about this PR exercise was the fact that a visitor to the company website had to agree to the conditions set out below before the gatekeeping function allowed a search to begin.

So don't you dare print out a page and hand it on to your neighbour or the big bad Woolies police will come a-knocking.....lol, rofl

Price Check Terms & Conditions

Restricted Use

This website is only for personal or domestic use and only in relation to shopping at Woolworths. Unless otherwise indicated, without Woolworths' written permission, the content and information on this site cannot be:

• adapted, reproduced, stored, distributed, printed, displayed, performed or published, and no derivative works can be produced from any part of this website
  
• on sold or provided to any other person, in a material form, or
  
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The site's URL may not be displayed on any website without Woolworths' written permission.

I have read, understood, and accept the above terms of use.

Clarence Valley Council gets caught out

Clarence Valley Review 10 February 2010
Click on image to enlarge

The saving grace in this story is that Cr. Karen Toms has had the good sense to suggest to Clarence Valley Council that it start following Dept. of Lands guidelines and its own policy and procedures, now that irregularities in how council allocates trust fund monies has been brought to her attention.

Perhaps shire councillors and senior management might also take a quick tutorial in what constitutes reserve land covered by this trust.

Because only specifically named local reserves gazetted by the Minister are included under Clarence Coastal Reserve Trust provisions - it's not for just any old Crown land council might like to spend money on or supply services to whenever its budget allocations are otherwise stretched.

It was also good to see the Clarence Valley Review free community newspaper run with this story and include resident and ratepayer Ray Hunt's comments.

* Big thanks to Clarrie Rivers for the article image he emailed from his sick bed!

A message for Clarence Valley Council: "one person's junk is another person's treasure"

Like plenty of other Clarence Valley Council residents I've been waiting very keenly for council to undertake its annual kerbside cleanup. This annual event enables residents (and especially those who don't have access to a suitable vehicle) to dispose of items that either won't fit into the weekly garbage bin or are viewed as still having some redeemable features ... "one person's junk is another person's treasure".

So, I was more than a bit miffed when I found out, courtesy of a piece in The Daily Examiner, that 2010's pickup would not provide for the kerbside collection of e-waste. Prior to the 2009 cleanup residents were similarly told that e-waste should not be out for the February-March collection, but should instead be recycled during Council's second E-waste collection later in the year.

Sadly, the e-waste collection in late 2009 did not eventuate.

Consequently, small and not-so-small mountains of e-waste have been accumulating at many properties across Council's coverage area since at least early 2009.

As most residents (AND Council) know, the amount of material residents put out for collection and the amount of material council workers load on council trucks are two totally different amounts. Prior to the collection days scores of amateur and not-so-amateur recyclers and reusers "assist" Council and lessen the loads that have to be transported. In fact, many residents facilitate the work of the recyclers and reusers by sorting their material so that it can be readily identified as genuine junk/rubbish, useful junk/rubbish and possibly useful junk/rubbish.

Perhaps residents will ignore Council's advice and continue to place their e-waste out for collection. After all, seeing the e-waste go to good homes prior to the arrival of council workers and vehicles on the designated cleanup days is a darn lot better than having to resort to sending it to the tip in weekly instalments via the weekly red garbage collection.

Read Council's notice re the cleanup, including specific dates for local areas, here.









Regards,
Clarrie

Godless information technology or Why the minister doesn't like Apple Mac or the humble Platypus

What on earth can one say about this from Objective Ministries except why is the poor Australian Platypus dragged into the IT conspiracy against Christianity?

Hypnotically encased iMacs trick unsuspecting computer users into accepting Darwinism .
However, these propagandists aren't just targeting the young. Take for example Apple Computers, makers of the popular Macintosh line of computers. The real operating system hiding under the newest version of the Macintosh operating system (MacOS X) is called... Darwin! That's right, new Macs are based on Darwinism! While they currently don't advertise this fact to consumers, it is well known among the computer elite, who are mostly Atheists and Pagans. Furthermore, the Darwin OS is released under an "Open Source" license, which is just another name for Communism. They try to hide all of this under a facade of shiny, "lickable" buttons, but the truth has finally come out: Apple Computers promote Godless Darwinism and Communism.
But is this really such a shock? Lets look for a moment at Apple Computers. Founded by long haired hippies, this company has consistently supported 60's counter-cultural "values"². But there are even darker undertones to this company than most are aware of. Consider the name of the company and its logo: an apple with a bite taken out of it. This is clearly a reference to the Fall, when Adam and Eve were tempted with an apple³ by the serpent. It is now Apple Computers offering us temptation, thereby aligning themselves with the forces of darkness⁴.
This company is well known for its cult-like following. It isn't much of a stretch to say that it is a cult. Consider co-founder and leader Steve Jobs' constant exhortation through advertising (i.e. mind control) that its followers should "think different". We have to ask ourselves: "think different than whom or what?" The disturbing answer is that they want us to think different than our Christian upbringing, to reject all the values that we have been taught and to heed not the message of the Lord Jesus Christ!
Given the now obvious anti-Christian and cultish nature of Apple Computers, is it any wonder that they have decided to base their newest operating system on Darwinism? This just reaffirms the position that Darwinism is an inherently anti-Christian philosophy spread through propaganda and subliminal trickery, not a science as its brainwashed followers would have us believe.

A Satanic, unevolvable chimera compels you to submit to Darwinism!

ADDENDUM: It has been brought to my attention that the Darwin OS mentioned above now has a cartoon mascot (no doubt to influence children) named Hexley (pictured above) -- a platypus dressed as a devil who performs occult magic, i.e. hexes. They're not doing a very good job keeping their ties to the forces of darkness a secret, are they?

"Hexley DarwinOS Mascot Copyright 2000 by Jon Hooper. All Rights Reserved.''

Barnaby gets a conspiracy theory all of his very own

After deciding that climate change was a giant global conspiracy, that governments across Australia were against the humble farmer and the Rudd Government determined to bring down Armageddon on our heads, Opposition Finance Spokesperson Senator Barnaby Joyce was finally given a dastardly plot all of his very own.

"Tony told me there was a campaign directed against me and it didn't matter if I got 99 per cent of what I said right: everyone would latch on to the 1 per cent that was wrong," Senator Joyce told The Australian.

What more could an Opposition Leader do for his faithful National Party sidekick?

Marieke Hardy over at ABC's The Drum sums him up well (with tongue firmly lodged in cheek):

Barnaby Joyce is wonderful and juicy and mental, he really is. If he's not pulling magical figures from the number-sky, ("Let's call it $1,400 million! No wait, $1,400 gajillion-zillion! Let's stop throwing money to the hungry brown people and just build a giant donut named Bettina we can all turn to in times of crisis!") he's shrieking about climate change and leading some frankly startling campaigns against women who dare purchase smaller than a B-cup.

NSW North Coast a winner in 2010 WetlandCare Australia National Art and Photography Competition

Nicholas Duckworth, Grafton - Open Photography Prize

Other North Coast winners were:
Anna Jackowiak-Hoare, Bonalbo - Open Art Prize
Oliver Lifford, Teven - Children’s Art Senior Prize
Isabella Laura Jones, Ballina - merit award Children’s Art Senior Prize
Blair Trigger, Byron Bay - merit award Children’s Photography

The winning works from the WetlandCare Australia National Art Competition 2009... are now on display at the Cooee Heritage Centre in Gilgandra, central west NSW. The Heritage Centre doubles as the information centre for Gilgandra, so there are plenty of visitors passing through who will get to enjoy the artworks.
The exhibition is hosted and sponsored by the Central West Catchment Management Authority, who sponsored the Children's Art Senior Category in the 2009 competition.
The works will be on display until August 31.

Congratulations to everyone who took part in the competition.

Abbott leaves himself exposed by choice of shadow ministers

It was not a good week for Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott.

Former Liberal Party leader Malcolm Turnbull rises to his feet and takes a scalpel to the Coalition's greenwash climate change policy and, in full election mode, Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey declares to anyone who would listen;"There is a very clear message to the Rudd Government from the Reserve Bank: Stop spending so much money (or) interest rates will rise" only to be knocked down by every blogger capable of reading what the Reserve Bank had really said.

Tony Abbott weathered the very public Turnbull defection and that whopper from his #1 protegee only to be faced with this:

Let me see if I'm getting this right because, you know, things move by at pace. First up, shadow treasury spokesman Joe Hockey took the obvious course when confronted by a growing perception that the conservatives were losing ground in the revered 'preferred economic manager' category of the national polls: He appeared on commercial television clutching a pink tutu and a magic wand. This was an approach clearly designed to offer a point of colourful comparison that made 'maverick' opposition finance spokesman Barnaby Joyce look a little more greyly bankerish and restrained.

Just after Shadow Minister Finance and #2 boy Barnaby Joyce, red faced and almost incoherent, came out with a real jaw dropper when he claimed that Australia was in danger of not being able to meet its sovereign debt leading to this online new excerpt:
Economists have joined the Federal Government in branding Senator Joyce's comments irresponsible, especially at a time when financial markets are jittery and overseas investors might take his comments seriously.
Credit ratings agencies that monitor sovereign risk say the Opposition finance spokesman's assessment is nonsense.Brendan Flynn, who analyses sovereign risk for Standard and Poor's, gives the Federal Government the highest triple-A credit rating.......
"With the triple-A rating, that's indicative of the extremely strong ability to meet financial obligations and therefore in our opinion, very little chance of defaulting on debt," Mr Flynn said.
"We rate all of the Australian states triple A or double A-plus, and the double A-plus is our second-highest rating - our opinion of a very strong ability to meet debt obligation."

A number of voters are not amused with this from rod3000 out in the Twitterverse; "Sir Barney Bjelke-Petersen" I like it Emmo :-) #qt and this from no_filter_Yamba; Why is it that Queensland seems to throw up politicians with serious neurological deficits? Barnaby Joyce needs to be retired pronto!

UPDATE:

Another Hockey moment to make Abbott cringe; Coalition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey called for an end to the stimulus, saying the big issue was no longer unemployment but interest rates. ''It's time for the government to explain how spending money on school halls in 2012 is going to create jobs and help address the economic downturn in 2008,'' he said.
In the same The Age article Deutsche Bank answered his question; Since mid last year almost 8000 primary schools have been building halls and computer labs and libraries with $14 billion [of stimulus funding] … It looks as if in January, with school about to return, the tradies put on more blokes. ''It has to be the stimulus. Private non-residential construction is flat, private industry isn't investing outside the mining sector.''

Peter Martin laid it out in pictures for the economic theory-challenged Shadow Treasurer: