Next Election

BILL SHORTEN will assure Labor's true believers that the embattled Gillard Government is in with a fighting chance at the next election, when he delivers the annual "light on the hill" speech in Bathurst tonight.

With the coalition's path of self destruction, there is no surprise there.

"We're competitive, and we can win," Mr Shorten will say when he pays tribute to Labor statesman and former Prime Minister Ben Chifley. Buoyed by a surge in approval for Prime Minister Gillard in The Age/Nielsen poll this week, the Minister for Workplace Relations will urge voters to maintain faith in Labor's reform agenda.

Competitive - Crap!  People are not voting for labor - they are voting against the opposition.

"Have the courage of your convictions and let the political cards fall as they may."

In a rousing speech laden with historical references to Chifley's famous "light on the hill" oration from 1949, Mr Shorten will insist the party's future will be decided "entirely, as it always has done, on the people who work".

"Australia needs a healthy, highly educated, creative workforce. If Australia can create that kind of workforce, we shall prevail beyond the commodities boom.

"All the challenges Australia faces - whether its globalisation, the skills race, empowerment of people - all of them come back to the brains and ability of our people," Mr Shorten will say tonight.

Turnbull brands Katter ad a 'shocker' | Herald Sun

• Turnbull brands Katter ad a 'shocker' | Herald Sun

  • OPPOSITION frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull has labelled Bob Katter's anti-gay marriage ad campaign a homophobic "shocker".

  • Mr Turnbull said he did regret Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's decision not to allow Coalition members a conscience vote on gay marriage in Parliament this year.

    "But the decision has been taken that it won't be a conscience vote so the probability is the party will vote against it," he said.      

    But he made his views on the issue clear: "I would not be troubled if gay couples were able to have their relationships and unions termed marriage."

    • Are we seeing the beginnings of a Malcolm Turnbull revival. It will happen eventually ... why not now

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Newman ... the ultimate political arrogance

• Newman to give up business deals if elected - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

• After two damning polls in less a week Mr Newman has now announced he and his wife Lisa will divest their business interests within 90 days if he is elected.
• If he is not elected to the seat of Ashworth he will give up political ambition.

That's dedication to a cause ... Campbell Newman

That's insulting to the electorate too.

 

 

Moyhu to create local service hub at memorial hall ... we'll see!

Having lived and worked for ten years in the King Valley, it is good to see a token development at Moyhu where a new community facility is proposed for the Soldiers Memorial Hall incorporating health services, the King Valley Learning Exchange and a Men in Sheds facility.

The Memorial Hall has been utilised for many years by Ovens & King Community Health running planned activity groups for seniors throughout the district.  The King Valley Learning Exchange has been housed in Moyhu since 2001 when, as co-ordinator of the KVLE, I was able to secure funding to purchase the old Hansonville Church in conjunction with the Moyhu Lions Club and relocate the new premises to the Moyhu Lions Park providing the organisation with it's first permanent home since it was founded some 20 years ago.

Peter Ryan, Vice Premier of Victoria, said the overall $30,000 project
would assist in providing architectural designs and professional planning
and advice for the project, and would ensure consultation with stakeholders
and local community.  Mr Ryan said the Rural City of Wangaratta
would provide the $10,000 balance of the overall project.

“The $20,000 in Victorian Government support
is funded through our Putting Locals First program through the Local
Initiatives stream of the $1 billion Regional Growth Fund,”
Mr Ryan said. 
 

With a budget of $30,000, this token development is probably doomed to failure just have the previous feasibility studies carried out in the King Valley over the last 12 years or more.  The most recent foray in local redevelopment was proposed for the Whitfield Recreation Reserve that would have seen O&K exerting their influence in closing down one operation in favour of an another.    Prior to that, O&K withdrew medical services from Whitfield and Moyhu. It appears to me that this is one more power grab by Ovens & King Community Health to control the remote communities.

Benalla patients satisfied - Benalla - mmg.com.au

• Benalla patients satisfied - Benalla - mmg.com.au

  • Benalla Health scored 85.3 out of 100. Hospitals with the highest scores were Timboon and District Healthcare Service, Yea and District Memorial Hospital, Moyne Health Services, Cohuna District Hospital and Casterton Memorial Hospital.
    • As a regular emergency patient of Benalla Hospital, I have to agree this is a fine hospital that has not yet been caught up in the less personal factory hospital concept of the regional hospitals. It seems that all those that scored well in this patient survey were smaller hospitals where the staff are not under as much pressure.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

VIC POLICE FAIL: Police state hits school yard

Teacher arrested in front of class in Melbourne's west | Herald Sun

Police entered the school in Werribee to arrest her yesterday, officers asking her year 10 class to turn around as they stood on a sports field as they loaded their teacher into a divisional van.

Greg's Opinion:  

A bit over the top! The teacher was going nowhere except to class. 

By all means, arrest her after school or in her own time.  For the year 10 students to be told to turn around whilst the police put the teacher in the divisional van is straight out of a CSI television episode. 

Not involving the school principal is a serious breach of protocol as s/he is responsible for all that occurs on the school property.

Sex abuse becoming the norm in Australia

Sex abuse link to high rates of mental illness - ABC News

A study published today reveals that as many as a quarter of Australian women have experienced some form of assault or sexual abuse.

Can this really be?  There seems to be more assault and sexual abuse today than there was earlier in my lifetime.  Many will say that it only appears so because communications is so much better.  Well if that is the case, could it be that sexual abuse is not so much a crime as a basic feature of human nature.

After all, we are sexual creatures with the need to procreate programmed into our psyche.  But why do so many of us become offenders ... or victims?  One in four women are affected.  How many men are involved - probably about the same proportion.

It is becoming more common to hear of offenders from other countries committing sexual crimes in Australia so I wil stick with my perception that it is more common today than when I was younger.  We are told in the media that some of these use the defence that rape is culturally acceptable where they come from.   Well, it is not acceptable in Australia and people like this need to understand that they must abide by our cultural norms if they are  accepted into our communities.  If they cannot handle that, we need to tell them where to go.

 

Carbon price - I'm not convinced!

Carbon price evidence high as Everest: PM

"She has a mountain to move to convince Australian voters to support her carbon price package but Prime Minister Julia Gillard says the evidence backing her position is as "high as Mount Everest"."

I just don't get it.

Try as I might, I cannot find a single way that a carbon price will help me or the environment.

It seems to be nothing more than a political point scoring exercise between Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott.

How can Julia know more than everyone else in Australia - and how come Tony cannot see what the prophet Julia sees.

As for the rest of you ... can you show me the error of my ways?

 

GOVT.FAIL.AU: Labor tough on whistleblowing

Labor tough on whistleblowing  - The Canberra Times   

The Labor Government is a far more ferocious prosecutor of whistleblowers and leakers than the Howard government, with Kevin Rudd overseeing a doubling of leak referrals to the Federal Police during his time as prime minister.  

New figures obtained during a Fairfax investigation into Federal Police leak probes show that while the Howard government referred 16 leaks of government material to Federal Police between 2005-07, the Rudd Government referred 32.  The surprising figures reflect a similar trend in US politics, where the more liberal Obama Administration has become known for taking a harder line on whistleblowers than the previous Bush administration.  

The Federal Police unit the investigations are run out of is a section called Special References, and most investigations are run by a Canberra-based million-dollar-a-year, 17-officer unit called Head Office Investigations.(snip)   ''If the government want us to do it, they're our masters, so we do it ,'' the source said. ''And that's not just a particular government, both Labor and Liberal and everyone in between gets the shits when their policies are undermined or their big announcements appear on the front page of the newspapers 24 hours before they announce it.''

Now we see why the Prime Minister set herself against Julian Assange and the release of Cablegate.  Without whistleblowers, our democracy is degraded as there is no other way to monitor the activities of those who we elect to govern on our behalf.  Our governments must be held accountable.

Is your ADHD teenager trafficking drugs?

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0108/1224287042366.html

YOUNG PEOPLE with attention deficit disorder problems are at a significantly higher risk of misusing drugs and alcohol.

(snip)

Conference organiser Rose Kavanagh said there is still widespread ignorance over the links between the disorder and substance abuse, even among health professionals. “All the research points to this link, but there needs to be much greater awareness about the problem,” she said.

(snip)

US research indicates that at least one-fifth of 17-18-year-olds with the disorder had some form of substance abuse problem.

(snip)

Until recently it was thought sufferers outgrew the condition. But recent studies show that around 60 per cent of those diagnosed with the disorder in childhood will continue with a modified form of the condition into adulthood.

Well ... gollee! For years, I have been amazed that our health professionals could believe that a kid, after some years on Ritalan, or the alternatives, could 'grow out' of the need for legalised speed when they become adults. This has to be a contributing factor the self-destructiveness of so many of our teenagers. Road rage - and any other rages - should be evaluated to see what proportion of this behaviour could be attributed to the use of these drugs prescribed to manage ADHD in our children.

Let me tell you a story. Back in the 1990's, a fourteen year old in my care came home from school with a foil of Ritalin tablets. He had bought them from a classmate who had been prescribed them for ADHD. That kid was already a 'drug dealer' selling his tablets to his mates. Logic suggests that he didn't need the Ritalin if he was able to sell it rather than taking it. That beg's the question, how many teenagers are fakinhg ADHT to be a hero 'selling drugs' to their friends.