(Miscellaneous debris)

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Re: (Miscellaneous debris)

Postby Gozu » Fri Jan 29, 2010 8:00 pm

"Has Australia Really Banned Small Breasts?":

http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/01/29/has ... l-breasts/
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Re: (Miscellaneous debris)

Postby Psyber » Fri Feb 05, 2010 12:21 pm

PM defends work rules as teens lose jobs: http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/676 ... lose-jobs/
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Re: (Miscellaneous debris)

Postby mick » Fri Feb 05, 2010 12:37 pm

Psyber wrote:PM defends work rules as teens lose jobs: http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/676 ... lose-jobs/


We have to expect collateral damage.
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Re: (Miscellaneous debris)

Postby Psyber » Fri Feb 05, 2010 12:41 pm

mick wrote:
Psyber wrote:PM defends work rules as teens lose jobs: http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/676 ... lose-jobs/
We have to expect collateral damage.
Yes probably lots, but dogma and inflexibility are the priority... :lol:
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Re: (Miscellaneous debris)

Postby Psyber » Fri Feb 05, 2010 1:02 pm

I would have thought the job risk was the least concern here - I'm not sure I'd want to rely on sustained good implementation of the safeguards.
Beef import decision 'risks jobs': http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/676 ... isks-jobs/
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Re: (Miscellaneous debris)

Postby Gozu » Fri Feb 05, 2010 4:27 pm

Another example of why I won't be voting for federal Labor either, this is something you'd expect from the Liberal Party.

"Pushing bad policy against the evidence":

"Sole parents and the unemployed beware! Jenny Macklin is trying to take half your income away. From July in the NT, and 2011 for the rest of the country, she wants to implement the most drastic change to our social security system ever."

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/thestump/201 ... -evidence/
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Re: (Miscellaneous debris)

Postby Psyber » Fri Feb 05, 2010 5:57 pm

I agree with you in general principal there, Gozu, but I couldn't imagine it getting up in any branch of the Liberal Party I was ever involved in.
[That's Mayo, Higgins, and La Trobe - though I am not sure how the present incumbent in Mayo may lean. I've only met him twice.]

From what my father told me, I understand the original "dole" was not money, but food in a bag, and there were rorts by the contractors resulting in the contents being of questionable edibility.
He was a staunch Labor man, and although this scheme may not allow those rorts it would concern him.
I can see why the plan may make sense applied to those with a demonstrated pattern of neglecting their children's nutritional needs.
But I can see no justification to apply it globally.

Unfortunately, there seem to be a sub-group of politicians and bureaucrats who simply enjoy exercising control, as described in the book "1984".
They may push this on to allow them to dictate to Aged an Invalid Pensioners, too, if this gets up as it stands, and call it "preventative health strategy".
[They are already trying to tell doctors how to treat patients.]
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Re: (Miscellaneous debris)

Postby Gozu » Fri Feb 05, 2010 6:31 pm

Psyber wrote:I agree with you in general principal there, Gozu, but I couldn't imagine it getting up in any branch of the Liberal Party I was ever involved in.
[That's Mayo, Higgins, and La Trobe - though I am not sure how the present incumbent in Mayo may lean. I've only met him twice.]

From what my father told me, I understand the original "dole" was not money, but food in a bag, and there were rorts by the contractors resulting in the contents being of questionable edibility.
He was a staunch Labor man, and although this scheme may not allow those rorts it would concern him.
I can see why the plan may make sense applied to those with a demonstrated pattern of neglecting their children's nutritional needs.
But I can see no justification to apply it globally.

Unfortunately, there seem to be a sub-group of politicians and bureaucrats who simply enjoy exercising control, as described in the book "1984".
They may push this on to allow them to dictate to Aged an Invalid Pensioners, too, if this gets up as it stands, and call it "preventative health strategy".
[They are already trying to tell doctors how to treat patients.]


I agree Psyber. What I meant by saying this would be something you'd expect from the Libs is they're known to go hard at poorer people on welfare (Howard's work for the dole-which by the way he said he would never bring in, another one of those non-core promises) and that Labor in the past has traditionally been more compassionate towards the less well off in society.

It's disgraceful that firstly a Labor government is going to do this but it is in effect saying that all single parents and unemployed people can't manager the pittance they get. I could understand if someone with children like you said has demonstrated that they aren't managing their money well and thus the child is being neglected and I'd hope they were pushed into counselling and what not before going down this route. There is no way this should apply to people who aren't parents and even so counselling, financial management help etc should be done before quarantining payments.

Even going beyond the no booze/smokes stuff into the noted possibility of banning single parents/unemployed from buying things like chocolate biscuits, soft drink etc is the over the top nanny state BS this Rudd government seems to love. This whole thing is purely so they can avoid being labelled as racist for already doing this to people in Aboriginal communities in the NT because they had to suspend the racial discrimination act to do so.

They won't ever go after old age pensioners Psyber, there's too many of them. There's no votes in the unemployed.
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Re: (Miscellaneous debris)

Postby Psyber » Fri Feb 05, 2010 8:05 pm

Gozu wrote: I agree Psyber. What I meant by saying this would be something you'd expect from the Libs is they're known to go hard at poorer people on welfare (Howard's work for the dole-which by the way he said he would never bring in, another one of those non-core promises) and that Labor in the past has traditionally been more compassionate towards the less well off in society.

It's disgraceful that firstly a Labor government is going to do this but it is in effect saying that all single parents and unemployed people can't manager the pittance they get. I could understand if someone with children like you said has demonstrated that they aren't managing their money well and thus the child is being neglected and I'd hope they were pushed into counselling and what not before going down this route. There is no way this should apply to people who aren't parents and even so counselling, financial management help etc should be done before quarantining payments.

Even going beyond the no booze/smokes stuff into the noted possibility of banning single parents/unemployed from buying things like chocolate biscuits, soft drink etc is the over the top nanny state BS this Rudd government seems to love. This whole thing is purely so they can avoid being labelled as racist for already doing this to people in Aboriginal communities in the NT because they had to suspend the racial discrimination act to do so.

They won't ever go after old age pensioners Psyber, there's too many of them. There's no votes in the unemployed.
I agree, Gozu, that the Libs sometimes go overboard with their ideas about ways of dealing with the minority of real bludgers, and overestimate how many there are, as the Howard government did.
But also, some local managers in CentreLink over-interpreted the Howard government's policy and went beyond the intention of the law.
When I was in practice in Melbourne, I wrote a few letters to their local Liberal MP for patients of mine, and he did reps to the Minister.
In one case a Ministerial assistant rang me and gave me the name and number of the CentreLink Area Supervisor he had instructed to straighten it out, suggesting I ring him directly if it wasn't sorted out within 2 weeks and get back to him if I met resistance. I didn't have to - the Area Supervisor rang me when he had it all fixed within a week.

I agree too about financial counselling as the first step, and that the Nanny state can go too far, from being supportive towards being just plain overbearing.
You are probably right, too, about them not going after pensioners directly, but they are already getting at them with the pressure they are putting on doctors regarding medication costs through Medicare.
["Mediscare" is what most GPs call it.]
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Re: (Miscellaneous debris)

Postby fish » Fri Feb 05, 2010 8:23 pm

Gozu wrote:I agree Psyber

Psyber wrote:I agree, Gozu

:shock:
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Re: (Miscellaneous debris)

Postby Gozu » Fri Feb 05, 2010 11:59 pm

Psyber wrote:You are probably right, too, about them not going after pensioners directly, but they are already getting at them with the pressure they are putting on doctors regarding medication costs through Medicare.
["Mediscare" is what most GPs call it.]


I'm not sure if this is common but I know of one doctor who's about to stop bulk-billing old age pensioners at his clinic because he says they take up too much of his time because they come in with a list of things.
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Re: (Miscellaneous debris)

Postby Psyber » Sat Feb 06, 2010 8:25 am

Gozu wrote:
Psyber wrote:You are probably right, too, about them not going after pensioners directly, but they are already getting at them with the pressure they are putting on doctors regarding medication costs through Medicare.
["Mediscare" is what most GPs call it.]
I'm not sure if this is common but I know of one doctor who's about to stop bulk-billing old age pensioners at his clinic because he says they take up too much of his time because they come in with a list of things.
Yes it is a growing issue...

GP Appointments tend to be booked on the 6 patients per hour basis that Medicare sees as usual, unless there is a known reason that can easily justify a longer consultation to Medicare - like multiple conditions.
So the patient who turns up with a list without telling the staff in advance they need a longer consultation causes problems as follows:

If a doctor bulk bills he is entering into a contract with Medicare, and if they decide he is doing too many long consultations they accuse him of "over-servicing" to bleed Medicare. Then they may even withhold payments until the argument is settled. Under recent legislation amendments brought in under this government Medicare may then send some non-medically trained clerk to read the case notes and check on the doctor, and ask a lot of questions. [Under Medicare arrangements there is a presumption of guilt on the doctor's part and he or she has to prove he or she is not guilty.]

The doctor is pushed into a long consultations by the patient who turns up unexpectedly with a long list, then runs late with other patients who get stroppy. Then if it happens often enough, he gets a lot of his patient care time wasted by the investigation and the stupid questions that follow because a clerk not a doctor was sent to review the case notes, and doesn't understand the contents. So, there is a lot of discussion on Medical fora along the lines that, if you can't afford to quit Medicine entirely yet, the best thing is to not enter a contractual arrangement with Medicare by bulk-billing.

The alternative strategy of seeing the patient more frequently for shorter consultations to deal with there multiple issues also attracts flack from Medicare for alleged "overservicing", despite the fact most doctors are overworked due to the doctor shortage and don't need to "overservice".

If the patients pay for the consultation and deal with Medicare themselves, the doctor is left out of the contract, and the pensioners won't get harrassed and their time wasted because many of them vote Labor and the party doesn't want them upset...

Also, doctors are unhappy about a government department being able to access case notes without getting the patients' position first, especially given past leaks of confidential information from other departments like CentreLink, and at state level the Police files.
Last edited by Psyber on Sat Feb 06, 2010 8:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: (Miscellaneous debris)

Postby Psyber » Sat Feb 06, 2010 8:45 am

mick wrote:
Psyber wrote:PM defends work rules as teens lose jobs: http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/676 ... lose-jobs/
We have to expect collateral damage.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/676 ... lose-jobs/
Mr Rudd said the laws were aimed at preventing workers from being exploited and denied he had broken a promise that workers would not be worse off under the new system.
"What we said from the beginning is we are going to have a fair and balanced system," Mr Rudd said on Friday.

But in March 2008, just four months after coming to office, Mr Rudd told the parliament "no working families in this country will be worse off as a consequence of the industrial relations laws that we have advanced".
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Re: (Miscellaneous debris)

Postby Psyber » Tue Feb 09, 2010 9:16 am

A couple of mildly interesting ones here...
Rudd wants to lift legal drinking age: http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/677 ... nking-age/
Schoolgirl grills PM over promises: http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/mp/6777354 ... -promises/

I tend to support Rudd's view on the first, especially this bit:
Mr Rudd told the audience, including 200 high school students, that booze, like alcopops, was a concerning factor in P-Plate driving deaths.
"(The) drinking rates of young teenagers (is) going through the roof ... and hugely affecting their ability to, frankly, manoeuvre a car."
It is the first time I have heard of a politician not blaming all road accidents and deaths on speed while ignoring this aspect.

I don't remember enough details of his promises to know which version was right in the second..
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Re: (Miscellaneous debris)

Postby Gozu » Sat Feb 13, 2010 2:28 am

Well done Adele Horin, "Far-reaching welfare reform quarantined from evidence":

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-a ... -nxel.html
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Re: (Miscellaneous debris)

Postby Jimmy_041 » Sat Feb 13, 2010 8:35 am

Some people should spend a bit of time in the NT and ask the locals what the income management and restrictions on alcohol and porn have done for some aboriginal communities, but more importantly; children who now get fed and feel some safety from abuse
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Re: (Miscellaneous debris)

Postby Gozu » Sat Feb 13, 2010 5:18 pm

Jimmy_041 wrote:Some people should spend a bit of time in the NT and ask the locals what the income management and restrictions on alcohol and porn have done for some aboriginal communities, but more importantly; children who now get fed and feel some safety from abuse


Mal Brough is that you?

"Outcast Aborigines stage red desert walkout"

http://www.theage.com.au/national/outca ... -nxko.html

Putting aside the fact that I was pointing out how this disgraceful welfare quarantining will be rolled out nation wide regardless of whether someone has children or not, we all know the vast majority of child abuse occurs in suburbia.
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Re: (Miscellaneous debris)

Postby mick » Mon Feb 15, 2010 9:55 am

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Re: (Miscellaneous debris)

Postby Leaping Lindner » Mon Feb 15, 2010 12:20 pm




Wouldn't place too much in that. 49% of Queenslanders who read the Courier Mail. I didn't think people read the Courier Mail. I always thought they pointed at the pictures and grunted. ;)
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Re: (Miscellaneous debris)

Postby Gozu » Thu Feb 18, 2010 4:04 pm

"The Senate lends Scientology a helping hand":

http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/02/18/the ... ping-hand/
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