Bob Brown resigns, Christine Milne to take leadership

[Bully]

good, never liked brown

[mick]

Four PMs in less than 5 years we are getting like Italy

[Leaping Lindner]

Are the Greens about to have a brief peak then self-destruct, like the Democrats did after the rational and restraining John Coulter retired?
Who will play the role of Cheryl Turncoat, and who will be Gareth Evans?

You're thinking of Meg "there will be no GST" Lees. No GST until John Howard made her feel really special for two seconds and then just like magic "One GST - No Democrats."

[Psyber]

Are the Greens about to have a brief peak then self-destruct, like the Democrats did after the rational and restraining John Coulter retired?
Who will play the role of Cheryl Turncoat, and who will be Gareth Evans?

You're thinking of Meg "there will be no GST" Lees. No GST until John Howard made her feel really special for two seconds and then just like magic "One GST - No Democrats."

I think that was the last step, not the main cause of their decline.
John Coulter had always been fairly balanced and under him the Democrats hung on to the middle ground that had come with Don Chipp as a spin off from the "Liberal Movement".
I was leaning towards them then, and knew John as we lived near each other.

My slightly different perspective of their decay is that after John's retirement they gradually moved further left and had a growth spurt as they attracted some more left orientated supporters from other parties, but in doing so they narrowed their base by losing a fair bit of their middle ground support. That didn't matter when they were the main left of the ALP party, but when the Greens started to take the left votes the Democrats had nowhere to go, and Meg Lees found herself on her own when she looked for the middle ground again as the bulk of the remaining members were left of that ground, and just hadn't moved to the Greens yet.

[Sojourner]

Rumour has it not all is well between the Environment Wing of the Greens and the Socialist Wing of the Greens, it appears some on the environmental side enjoy capitalism a little too much....

[Psyber]

Rumour has it not all is well between the Environment Wing of the Greens and the Socialist Wing of the Greens, it appears some on the environmental side enjoy capitalism a little too much....

The Greens may become a more attractive pro-environmental party to the broad public if the socialists left and formed their own Socialist Party.
(But unfortunately they have always tended to hide within more apparently moderate groups - like they did in the Democrats for a while.)

[Dog_ger]

The greens will end up like the democrats....

Waste of space...

[mick]

They have always been a waste of space, the enemy of any person with aspirations above living on social security

[The Sleeping Giant]

Or living in a tree house

[Gozu]

No doubt you'll all be pleased to know Bob Brown will be the sole guest on this Monday nights episode of Q&A.

[Leaping Lindner]

The Greens have no credibility unlikethe two major parties. This week proves how above reproach they BOTH are.

[gossipgirl]

The Greens have no credibility unlikethe two major parties. This week proves how above reproach they BOTH are.

Have you not been living in australia for the last 50 years.

[Leaping Lindner]

More looney ideas from the Greens. Fancy affordable dental care. That's crazy talk.

http://greensmps.org.au/content/petitio ... e-medicare

[Psyber]

More looney ideas from the Greens. Fancy affordable dental care. That's crazy talk.

http://greensmps.org.au/content/petitio ... e-medicare

I agree basic dental health care should be covered under the Medicare umbrella.
The problem is the potential cost scares the Hell out of both major parties, and so they both duck it.
I suspect they are a bit frightened there may then develop a public demand for minor cosmetic work like straightening teeth to be covered.

We have recently had a partial scheme where there was some Medicare funding if a GP certified the dental condition was complicating the person's general health.
GPs found it a bit uncomfortable, though, when people went to the Dentist and later fronted the GP wanting a retrospective referral under this provision when there was no longer anything to see.

All the Dentists I've spoken to want nothing to do with any form of billing Medicare directly - they can see where it has gotten GPs.

[Sky Pilot]

What I enjoyed about the Greens turmoil was the reaction of spoiled brat Sarah Hansen-Young when she failed in the race to be deputy leader. Milne really is a loopy and silly person. Brandt is a goose.

[Gozu]

And Sky Pilot is clearly oxygen deprived up there

[Leaping Lindner]

More looney ideas from the Greens. Fancy affordable dental care. That's crazy talk.

http://greensmps.org.au/content/petitio ... e-medicare

I agree basic dental health care should be covered under the Medicare umbrella.
The problem is the potential cost scares the Hell out of both major parties, and so they both duck it.
I suspect they are a bit frightened there may then develop a public demand for minor cosmetic work like straightening teeth to be covered.

We have recently had a partial scheme where there was some Medicare funding if a GP certified the dental condition was complicating the person's general health.
GPs found it a bit uncomfortable, though, when people went to the Dentist and later fronted the GP wanting a retrospective referral under this provision when there was no longer anything to see.

All the Dentists I've spoken to want nothing to do with any form of billing Medicare directly - they can see where it has gotten GPs.

I use to work at a bulk billing clinic and the seven doctors I worked with over that time never had an issue with bulk billing and in fact still bulk bill to this day. Mind you the practice was in St Kilda not South Yarra.

[Psyber]

I use to work at a bulk billing clinic and the seven doctors I worked with over that time never had an issue with bulk billing and in fact still bulk bill to this day. Mind you the practice was in St Kilda not South Yarra.

So they never got accused of "overservicing" and audited if they did more than the statistical average number of long consultations (with patients with mental health issues for example), or ran into the problem of being presumed guilty of fraud if there were any clerical errors in the bulk-billing? These are the things GPs express frustration about on medical fora.
One of my old friends (a long-term ALP member and one time candidate) got found guilty and fined after trusting his secretary, and just signing the chits she filled out.
Interestingly, she was the main witness against him, and was currently on charges from her next job as a cashier at a major hotel, but that didn't help him.

Of course, if those who bulk-bill are careful to stick to official policy these experiences can be avoided, but any deviation for patient benefit attracts attention.
I got quizzed once by Medicare by phone about he fact that I'd done a few vitamin level assays.
But they couldn't say much and didn't audit me when I pointed out 4 of the 6 had toxic Vitamin A levels proven by the tests and one of the others was mildly elevated.

GPs started to drift away from bulk-billing in the early 2000s but when the statistics showed the dip Medicare introduced the 100% MBS fee instead of the previous 85% for bulk-billing pensioners and children, and the Practice Incentive Payment system.

(They don't care whether specialists bulk-bill as it doesn't affect the statistics much - so it is still 85% and no PIP there.)

[Leaping Lindner]

I use to work at a bulk billing clinic and the seven doctors I worked with over that time never had an issue with bulk billing and in fact still bulk bill to this day. Mind you the practice was in St Kilda not South Yarra.

So they never got accused of "overservicing" and audited if they did more than the statistical average number of long consultations (with patients with mental health issues for example), or ran into the problem of being presumed guilty of fraud if there were any clerical errors in the bulk-billing? These are the things GPs express frustration about on medical fora.
One of my old friends (a long-term ALP member and one time candidate) got found guilty and fined after trusting his secretary, and just signing the chits she filled out.
Interestingly, she was the main witness against him, and was currently on charges from her next job as a cashier at a major hotel, but that didn't help him.

Of course, if those who bulk-bill are careful to stick to official policy these experiences can be avoided, but any deviation for patient benefit attracts attention.
I got quizzed once by Medicare by phone about he fact that I'd done a few vitamin level assays.
But they couldn't say much and didn't audit me when I pointed out 4 of the 6 had toxic Vitamin A levels proven by the tests and one of the others was mildly elevated.

GPs started to drift away from bulk-billing in the early 2000s but when the statistics showed the dip Medicare introduced the 100% MBS fee instead of the previous 85% for bulk-billing pensioners and children, and the Practice Incentive Payment system.

(They don't care whether specialists bulk-bill as it doesn't affect the statistics much - so it is still 85% and no PIP there.)

One doctor was certainly questioned about overservicing. It was a simple matter of going from a three day week to a five day week and Medicare picked up the increased revenue. All sorted by a simple visit so no big deal in the scheme of the things.