(Miscellaneous debris)

[Gozu]

"The Monckie of the month":

http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/02/19/and ... the-month/

[Gozu]

Interesting topic and discussion, "If it weren't for the Union...":

http://larvatusprodeo.net/2010/02/20/if ... the-union/

[Jimmy_041]

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.

Here Gozu - you might learn something

'Boss man' Brough leads way to a future

Natasha Robinson
The Australian February 20, 2010 12:00AM

Former minister Mal Brough is helping the APY on tough choices

THE sparse landscapes of remote South Australia are a long way from the tropical lushness of the Tiwi Islands, but leaders from the Aboriginal desert lands are willing to travel far in the pursuit of a better life.

Leaders from the desert Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands travelled to the Tiwi Islands, in the Northern Territory, this week seeking the knowledge they need to push through radical changes to employment, education and housing.

They were armed with a powerful ally: a Howard government indigenous affairs minister still widely greeted as "boss man" by Tiwi Islanders.

Mal Brough has been out of politics for more than two years, since his government was tossed from office in 2007 and he lost his Queensland seat of Longman.

But the former soldier has lost none of the angry passion that saw him force through a series of radical policies in indigenous affairs that divided Aborigines and brought some of the most far-reaching changes to the lives of remote indigenous people in recent history.

Now the chief executive of a charity heavily involved in supporting indigenous students at remote schools, Brough wants the APY to have access to the same kinds of reforms he initiated as indigenous affairs minister.

"Surely when people stand up and say, `We want to take tough decisions in welfare reform and home ownership', we should applaud that and whack our arms around them and embrace it, but it's not happening," Brough says.

The APY want what the Tiwi Islanders now have: the capacity for home ownership, a fledgling economy brought about through the signing of long-term leases, and a boarding school that is transforming the future for the islands' young people.

"This is what we want, a future for our people," says APY secretary Rex Tjampa. "For our kids."

The APY are on the precipice of far-reaching reforms, with plans for a South Australian Families Responsibilities Commission modelled on that developed by Cape York leaders, which cuts off the welfare of those who fail to send their children to school.

A plan to enable indigenous home ownership on the lands is in development, and the APY want reforms to community store arrangements to open up competition and jobs. Most of all they want to develop an economy that can offer a way out of a lifestyle of passive welfare and hopelessness that pervades in remote Australia.

APY chairman Bernard Singer says the APY have been keen to pursue widespread reforms that have broadly aligned with governments' policy objectives, but have hit bureaucratic roadblocks. "It's hope that we're looking for," Mr Singer says.

"We just really want to look at entering the future for our young people, get them employment, good education.

"We want to see changes but the governments are always all talk. We never get to do the things. It's all talk.

"But just seeing the people's faces here at Tiwis, the changes they've achieved in their community, and I wouldn't mind seeing these type of things for us."

The Rudd government has provided three new police stations at the APY Lands since gaining office, and has committed to building more than 70 houses there, 25 of which are under construction.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin says the government is working hard to overcome decades of underinvestment and government failure. "We are making progress," she says.

For Brough, returning to the Tiwi Islands was a poignant experience. The leadership of the Tiwi Land Council always shared Brough's vision for what a remote Aboriginal town should be: a place of enterprise and activity but above all, safety.

Through the development of large-scale projects such as their forestry plantation (now in administration since corporate giant Great Southern went broke, but still seen as a profitable enterprise once it operates again with future investors), aquaculture farms and the creation of an independent boarding college, Tiwi leaders have created a path for islanders out of passive welfare and pressing social ills.

Prior to 2005, the Tiwi Islands were named by a British newspaper as having the highest teenage suicide rate in the world. Metal spikes were erected around telegraph poles in the Bathurst Island town of Nguiu, to stop young men hanging themselves.

Just five years on, the suicide rate has dropped to almost zero, nurses who used to work upwards of 70 hours every week tending wounds inflicted during constant violent incidents now work no overtime at all.

And because of the traditional owners' decision to sign a 99-year lease, the town has secured government investment for 115 new public dwellings, and about 30 people are in the process of obtaining home loans to privately invest in property in Nguiu.

Despite earning more than $100,000 a year between them, Greg Orstow and Nazareth Alfred lived in a tent in the bush on Bathurst Island before home ownership became available at Nguiu. The shortage of housing left them homeless after Ms Alfred stopped working for the local shire and lost the home that was provided with her job.

Now, the couple has custom-designed their own house and have taken out a home loan.

Brough supported a controversial 99-year lease for Nguiu that was signed in 2006 amid fierce resistance from a minority of traditional owners. He handed over $5 million in advance lease fees to the Tiwi Islanders, which is now being reinvested in various projects including a hire car business, an accommodation facility, and the planned shopping centre.

Traditional owners are already reaping almost half a million a year in profits from the businesses that were kickstarted by the lease.

The former minister was delighted this week to see the transformation the long-term lease had brought to Nguiu.

[Gozu]

Sorry Jimmy I no longer read your walls of text after your IPA rubbish from The Australian (I see you swallowed their Newspoll spin hook line and sinker too). If your articles had any substance you would just provide a link and let people decide if they think something you've provided is worth clicking on or not instead of trying to force people to read them.

[Gozu]

Good piece today from Mungo MacCallum and I think he''s on Q&A tonight too, "Here's the Goss-Abbott may struggle to win the media war":

http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/02/22/mun ... media-war/

[Gozu]

"The Libs and the Scientologists-the film they're happy for you to see":

http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/02/23/the ... ou-to-see/

[Psyber]

"The Libs and the Scientologists-the film they're happy for you to see":
http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/02/23/the ... ou-to-see/

The Labor state governments of Victoria and SA in the 1980s were happy to take the advice of the CCHR front for Scientology to justify "liberalising" detention laws for acutely and chronically ill psychiatric patients.
This made treating the severely, and sometimes dangerously, disturbed very difficult, and ensured more left hospital before they were fully stable.
Chronically ill people who needed supported accommodation were then tipped out into allegedly supervised hostels, then into unsupervised boarding houses.
The hospitals emptied, the land could then be sold for profit.
Now the psychiatric services are insufficiently staffed, and do not have the back up beds needed, so only those so severely ill they cannot be ignored get treatment in the public system at all.

[mighty_tiger_79]

how bad are the tv ads

REDMOND IS READY

[Gozu]

"The Libs and the Scientologists-the film they're happy for you to see":
http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/02/23/the ... ou-to-see/

The Labor state governments of Victoria and SA in the 1980s were happy to take the advice of the CCHR front for Scientology to justify "liberalising" detention laws for acutely and chronically ill psychiatric patients.
This made treating the severely, and sometimes dangerously, disturbed very difficult, and ensured more left hospital before they were fully stable.
Chronically ill people who needed supported accommodation were then tipped out into allegedly supervised hostels, then into unsupervised boarding houses.
The hospitals emptied, the land could then be sold for profit.
Now the psychiatric services are insufficiently staffed, and do not have the back up beds needed, so only those so severely ill they cannot be ignored get treatment in the public system at all.

I won't deny this Rann Labor government have been pretty poor in how they've handled the mentally ill. You might know a bit more about this than myself Psyber but I've heard Rann Labor have plans to shut down the emergency section at the QEH. That would be ridiculous. I read somewhere the other day a bloke who was psychotic was sitting there in the emergency room under guard waiting something like 72 hours for a bed. I mean FFS.

[Jimmy_041]

and they have more time for the SA Film Corp than the mentally ill people in this State

How did the Film Corp negotiate such a great deal with this Government?

[Squawk]

How did the Film Corp negotiate such a great deal with this Government?

Perhaps you should ask the Minister for the Arts, Jimmy

[Jimmy_041]

How did the Film Corp negotiate such a great deal with this Government?

Perhaps you should ask the Minister for the Arts, Jimmy

Maybe they should move this discussion to the appropriate forum then......

[Leaping Lindner]

"The Libs and the Scientologists-the film they're happy for you to see":
http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/02/23/the ... ou-to-see/

The Labor state governments of Victoria and SA in the 1980s were happy to take the advice of the CCHR front for Scientology to justify "liberalising" detention laws for acutely and chronically ill psychiatric patients.
This made treating the severely, and sometimes dangerously, disturbed very difficult, and ensured more left hospital before they were fully stable.
Chronically ill people who needed supported accommodation were then tipped out into allegedly supervised hostels, then into unsupervised boarding houses.
The hospitals emptied, the land could then be sold for profit.
Now the psychiatric services are insufficiently staffed, and do not have the back up beds needed, so only those so severely ill they cannot be ignored get treatment in the public system at all.

This covers both sides of politics (laberal/Libor). I was working as a receptionist at bulk billing doctors in 1999/2000 in the heart of St kilda which had a large clientele of drug/alcohol patients and then we were engulfed with mentally ill/psychiatric patients when Jeff ++++.... um I'm sorry... I mean Kennett's government slashed funding to out patient services and hospital beds whilst still managing to find $50 million a year to put into Bernie Ecclestone's pocket and christ knows how much into Clown Casino. Many businessmen I have found are socialist when it suits them.

[Jimmy_041]

how bad are the tv ads

REDMOND IS READY

Fortunately, neither sides ads have not infiltrated Foxtel (yet)

[Psyber]

This covers both sides of politics (laberal/Libor). I was working as a receptionist at bulk billing doctors in 1999/2000 in the heart of St kilda which had a large clientele of drug/alcohol patients and then we were engulfed with mentally ill/psychiatric patients when Jeff ++++.... um I'm sorry... I mean Kennett's government slashed funding to out patient services and hospital beds whilst still managing to find $50 million a year to put into Bernie Ecclestone's pocket and christ knows how much into Clown Casino. Many businessmen I have found are socialist when it suits them.

True, medical and other services were slashed in both Victoria and SA, because of the huge debts in both the state banks and the state superannuation funds in that era.
I also agree about the pouring of money into "Events" and "Projects" of the type you describe, in the vain hope that will generate state income by stimulating the local economy, being a waste.

I shared your experience with being engulfed during the slashing era, trying to deal with patients in a private setting who needed more support than a doctor working alone, without ancillary staff back up, could provide.
As a practising doctor I used to bulk bill all Pensioners and Health Card holders until the late 1980s.
Then two things stopped me:
1. No longer being able to get the chits signed before the consultation so you didn't have to chase people down the road or hold it till you caught up with them.
2. The increasing gap between the full fee and benefits, so that nobody could pay the full fee to subsidise the bulk billing.

However, the cause of that era goes back further than Kennett or Olson...
I remember Don Dunstan in the 1970s admitting the SA government was spending the state super funds, and saying, "It's all right, we are the government. When it is needed we'll put it back." I saw the interview where he said that on TV.

Unfortunately, in the 1980s John Bannon couldn't put it back and neither could the governments that immediately succeeded his.
I assume it was the same in Victoria - but I didn't move to Melbourne until January 1999, so I had no experience of the pre-Kennett regime there.

[Jimmy_041]

One thing Joh did right - Queensland is fully funded

I would suggest that subsequent governments would be salivating at the sight of the money

[mick]

This covers both sides of politics (laberal/Libor). I was working as a receptionist at bulk billing doctors in 1999/2000 in the heart of St kilda which had a large clientele of drug/alcohol patients and then we were engulfed with mentally ill/psychiatric patients when Jeff ++++.... um I'm sorry... I mean Kennett's government slashed funding to out patient services and hospital beds whilst still managing to find $50 million a year to put into Bernie Ecclestone's pocket and christ knows how much into Clown Casino. Many businessmen I have found are socialist when it suits them.

True, medical and other services were slashed in both Victoria and SA, because of the huge debts in both the state banks and the state superannuation funds in that era.
I also agree about the pouring of money into "Events" and "Projects" of the type you describe, in the vain hope that will generate state income by stimulating the local economy, being a waste.

I shared your experience with being engulfed during the slashing era, trying to deal with patients in a private setting who needed more support than a doctor working alone, without ancillary staff back up, could provide.
As a practising doctor I used to bulk bill all Pensioners and Health Card holders until the late 1980s.
Then two things stopped me:
1. No longer being able to get the chits signed before the consultation so you didn't have to chase people down the road or hold it till you caught up with them.
2. The increasing gap between the full fee and benefits, so that nobody could pay the full fee to subsidise the bulk billing.

However, the cause of that era goes back further than Kennett or Olson...
I remember Don Dunstan in the 1970s admitting the SA government was spending the state super funds, and saying, "It's all right, we are the government. When it is needed we'll put it back." I saw the interview where he said that on TV.

Unfortunately, in the 1980s John Bannon couldn't put it back and neither could the governments that immediately succeeded his.
I assume it was the same in Victoria - but I didn't move to Melbourne until January 1999, so I had no experience of the pre-Kennett regime there.

This is interesting, the Brown/Olsen government put SA Super back on track and it is now one of the best performing super funds in the country. During the Bannon era, it performed poorly and the super fund was used to fund all sorts of "risky" investments (IMO) including a racing stud, the Adelaide Casino (a good investment until the govt legalised Pokies everywhere). The shear incompetance of the Bannon government is hard to imagine today, but at least Bannon had the guts to accept responsibility for it and I admire him for that. Ministers stuff up today always seem to be trying to blame others when the buck really stops with them.

[Psyber]

State Election: Glenside Hospital’s fate in balance.
http://eastern-courier-messenger.wherei ... n-outcome/

[mick]

Garrett gets a slap on the wrist. A decent human being but way out of his depth. Time to reform the Oils methinks http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/national/garrett-stripped-of-responsibilities/story-e6frfku9-1225834853702

[Wedgie]

Garrett gets a slap on the wrist. A decent human being but way out of his depth. Time to reform the Oils methinks http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/national/garrett-stripped-of-responsibilities/story-e6frfku9-1225834853702

Be a win/win situation, get rid of a crap politician and bring back an excellent band!