Never trust a North Shore townie with the NSW Health portfolio

On the 15th September 2012 The Daily Telegraph ran this:
“HEALTH Minister Jillian Skinner is prepared to push people out of hospital early to help achieve a $3 billion budget cut.
Explaining the government's cuts to the health portfolio yesterday, Ms Skinner said that "most of the money" saved would be through "better models of care, through, for example, not keeping patients in hospital as long as they should be".
"I think a lot of people are very pleased not to be kept in hospital longer than they need to," Ms Skinner said.
"I have a brand new granddaughter. Her mother was in hospital for two nights, she spent the next two nights in a five-star hotel room. This is a private hospital, this is what they do now ... It's actually better for the mum ... and more efficient for the hospital to pay for a five-star hotel room than a $2000-$3000 acute bed."
Jaysus wept! Since when was country NSW littered with posh hotels? Where are patients in the Northern Rivers going to find a five star hotel near one of the public base or district hospitals? And what makes Skinner think that NNSWLHD CEO Chris Crawford will put his hand in his pocket to pay for one, when even getting into hospital in the first place can be a minor miracle due to closures and cost cutting.
Coraki’s public hospital went AWOL in 2011 and is now presumed dead, no in-house doctors in A&E at some other hospitals, and I’m told that mental health nurses and sexual assault counsellors are considered an endangered species in the Lower Clarence.

The Australian Commonwealth Ombudman's opinion on the matter of the AFMA-Seafish Tasmania alleged conflict of interest concerning allocated fishing quotas

Letter from Commonwealth Ombudsman to Andrew Wilkie MP concerning the matter of Seafish Tasmania's fish quo...

Australia's voting intentions polled between 10-16 September 2012

Click on graphs to enlarge

The Australian 17 September 2012:

According to the latest Newspoll survey, taken exclusively for The Australian on the weekend, the ALP's primary support went up three percentage points to 36 per cent as the Coalition's crashed five points to 41 per cent - its lowest since March last year.
On a two-party-preferred basis, calculated on preference flows at the 2010 election, Labor and the Coalition are even on 50 per cent each. At the 2010 election, in which Labor lost its parliamentary majority, the two-party-preferred vote was 49.9 per cent for the Coalition and 50.1 per cent for the ALP, with the Greens on a primary vote of 11.8 per cent.

The Age 17 September 2012:

*PREFERENCES FOR AREA AND AGE WERE ALLOCATED BY HOW PREFERENCES FLOWED NATIONALLY AND BY STATE IN 2010 ELECTION. ALL FIGURES ARE IN PERCENTAGES. THE ACNIELSEN/AGE POLL IS CONDUCTED ON THE TELEPHONE NATIONWIDE. INTERVIEWS WERE CONDUCTED ON SEPTEMBER 13 - 15 WITH 1400 ELECTORS. THE MAXIMUM MARGIN OF ERROR TO APPLY TO THIS SAMPLE IS APPROXIMATELY 2.6%. UNCOMMITTED VOTERS (4%) WERE REDISTRIBUTED. FIGURES MAY NOT ADD TO 100% DUE TO ROUNDING.

The Essential Report 10 September 2012:

Q. If a Federal Election was held today to which party will you probably give your first preference vote? If not sure, which party are you currently leaning toward?

Q. If don’t know -Well which party are you currently leaning to?

Sample size = 2,077 respondents

First preference/ leaning to	Election 21 Aug 10	4 weeks ago 13/8/12	2 weeks ago 27/8/12	Last week 3/9/12	This week 10 Sept 2012
Liberal		46%	46%	44%	44%
National		3%	3%	3%	3%
Total Lib/Nat	43.6%	49%	49%	48%	47%
Labor	38.0%	32%	32%	34%	34%
Greens	11.8%	10%	10%	9%	9%
Other/Independent	6.6%	8%	9%	9%	9%

NB. The data in the above tables comprise 2-week averages derived from the first preference/leaning to voting questions. Respondents who select ‘don’t know’ are not included in the results. The two-party preferred estimate is calculated by distributing the votes of the other parties according to their preferences at the 2010 election. These estimates have a confidence interval of approx. plus or minus 2-3%.

Cansdellgate: one year down the track and we're still waiting

Yes, one year ago today The Daily Examiner informed its readers their local MP Steve Cansdell was resigning from state parliament.

Ok, so what has happened since? When will someone in a position of authority bite the bullet and have this matter addressed?

Image credit: The Daily Examiner, 17/9/12

David Hill asks politicians: Which part of NO CSG do you not understand ?

Email received on 15 September 2012:

ONLINE PETITION  - Which part of no CSG do you not understand?

David Hill from Southern Cross University has started an online petition in response to the NSW Government's latest cave-in to the CSG industry.  If you are concerned about the refusal of politicians to take seriously community concerns about this industry, consider signing the petition and sending details of it on to others who have similar concerns.

http://www.communityrun.org/petitions/which-part-of-no-csg-do-you-not-understand-politicians

Apologies for cross-postings.

Leonie Blain
Clarence Valley Conservation Coalition Inc.

Tony Abbott's character revisited

It’s hard to look at this deliberately posed photograph and not wonder if the person depicted is likely to be a violent bully who makes life miserable for anyone who opposes him and, sadly, there is some foundation for that worry in the continuing reports of what Australian Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott was like in earlier years.

Michelle Grattan writing in The Age 13 September 2012:

A SYDNEY barrister, David Patch, has corroborated a woman's claim that Tony Abbott behaved in an intimidatory fashion when she beat him in a vote for Sydney University Student Representative Council president in 1977.

Mr Abbott has denied the account from Barbara Ramjan - published in David Marr's Quarterly Essay, ''Political Animal: The Making of Tony Abbott'' - that he came within an inch of her nose and punched the wall on either side of her head.

But Mr Patch, who won the SRC presidency in 1975, said he had been Ms Ramjan's campaign manager in 1977, and she had told him about the Abbott incident immediately after it happened.

He writes in today's Age: ''I did not see the incident, but I was nearby. The count had just finished. Barbara found me. She is a small woman, and Tony Abbott was (and is) a strong man. She was very shaken, scared and angry. She told me that Tony Abbott had come up to her, put his face in her face, and punched the wall on either side of her head.

''So, I am a witness. Barbara's immediate complaint to me about what Abbott had just done had the absolute ring of truth about it. I believed Barbara at the time, and still do.''…..

The wall-punching event was not an isolated one, he writes. ''As President, Ramjan chaired SRC meetings. She did not want to be called 'Mr Chairman', but preferred 'Chairperson'. But for an entire year Abbott called Ramjan 'Chairthing' whenever he addressed her at SRC meetings.

''The gender-based disrespect for her office and her person is remarkably similar to the disrespectful way that Abbott treats the Prime Minister, and her office, today.''….

Mr Abbott told Marr he had no recollection of the wall punching and said ''it would be profoundly out of character had it occurred''. It was later that he hardened this up to a complete denial. He also denied a claim made this week by a woman who ran against him for the Democrats in 2007 that when she was handing out how-to-vote cards he put his face an inch from hers and grunted…..

Abbott aspires to be Australia's next prime minister. On 30 June 2012 in an Address to the 56th Federal Council of the Liberal Party of Australia he stated:

So ladies and gentlemen, I am not asking the Australian people to take me on trust but on the record of a lifetime and an instinct to serve ingrained long before I became opposition leader: as a student president, trainee priest, Rhodes Scholar, surf life saver, volunteer fire fighter, as well as a member of parliament and as a minister in a government.

I intend to take him at his word and consider his entire life before going into the polling booth.

Meet the new Mayor of Coffs Harbour City Council

Cr Denise Knight – Mayor of Coffs Harbour City Council, September 2012.

Elected by a margin of 992 votes.

Elected to Council: 2008

Elected Deputy Mayor: 2010

Profile Summary
I have lived in Sawtell with my husband and 3 children Katherine, David and Amy for the past 25 years. I am a Registered Nurse by trade and am currently working at a hospital in Coffs Harbour. I have been actively involved in current health issues, local theatre and many fund raisers for the community. You might say I am a bit of an all rounder: I am interested in sport and promoting tourism in this wonderful area. I would like to work for the community by providing a different dimension to Council. I am keen to get an entertainment centre into the city.

Committee Membership
Represents Council on:Access Advisory Committee
Australia Day and Special Events Committee
Coffs Harbour Arts & Cultural Development Advisory Committee
Jetty Memorial Theatre Advisory Committee*

*Biographical details from Coffs Harbour City Council website on 13 September 2012