News

Kevin Rudd our opposition leader visited a strip club, why that sort of news is news worthy I have no idea. 3 years ago to boot. I used to eat lovely meals at 3 am in Paris when I worked there back in the 1970s in strip clubs. It is just not a newsworthy event.

The money markets around the globe have gone crazy. Well I be it is a bit like hearing a guy has blown a million bucks down the casino. Who gives a fig. Here in Australia just about every news segment is proceeded by a financial update, which usually means a run down of the top stocks traded up and down. I have argued for a long time that for most of us we have no interest in stocks and shares and those that do will know in any case. It is a bit like sport who needs to know if player A hit player B and is being penalised for it. Which ever which way we get to hear this crap. And somehow we care.
Go read a blog or a book.
Woof.


Any additional comments can be sent to mark_brickel@hotmail.com

Liar Liar pants on fire

I knew this was going to be a hard few months. prior to our next general election.

Now we have holier than thou politicians proclaiming innocence when it comes to quotes of dissent and subterfuge. These men and women are potentially the most influential people in our society.

If the Treasurer speaks we are all told about what he says. A wrong word in the wrong ear can push interest rates up and put money markets in a spin. So they are skilled in the art of non speak and evasion. It is Yes Minister all the way.

If I had a 65 year old plus colleague telling me he is going to step aside and then doesn't I think I would be pissed off. Especially if you can't talk about it or canvas your intentions with out causing a political storm.

I don't blame Costello I blame Howard he should of stepped aside and made way for a new leader. In the world of politics, I would expect them to lie about there ambitions cause if you admit to every conversation you have you'd be like the rest of us and not be the treasurer.
Woof

Any additional comments can be sent to mark_brickel@hotmail.com

Health Care

Here is an article in The Age re private health funding.

Woof.


Any additional comments can be sent to mark_brickel@hotmail.com

Mr Howard's age

About a year ago, I was wondering about the Liberal party keeping John Howard as their leader.
I thought it was a mistake to let him choose when he retires, he had apparently made a deal with Peter Costello a year before to stand aside and then he reneged on it.
Now their own polling is telling them, the electorate see John Howard as too old to be Prime minister, and that he lies.
Well would you put up as your best candidate to lead your party, and the country, and old fart who lies?
Johns response to this criticism " You collect a bit of baggage when you have been in office for a decade or more."

Can't any of them see that selling politics is like selling a brand. Many in the electorate want their prime minister to appear to be relevant, and not an embarrassment, and that is how older people are perceived when they continue to act younger than their age.

We all know he wont be prime minister for long. The Libs just want to keep him on, to try and win the un-winable election. It has already back fired. They would of been better off breaking in his successor Peter Costello.

Treasurers are usually disliked [taxes, fiscal etc] but leaders can win the electorate over. Give it away John and your supporters. Give a younger man a turn.
Woof.

Any additional comments can be sent to mark_brickel@hotmail.com

John Howard time to redress

Now that John Howard has shown he is capable and willing to act unilaterally. Read Tasmanian Hospitals. I thought I would make a list of things I would like him to address.

1] Get rid of negative gearing on investment properties. It is making home ownership prohibitive in Australia.
2] Make private equity take overs and Overseas companies pay capital gains tax, and in fact make them much more accountable for their actions. We don't want them taking our commonwealth to make a few individuals mega rich at our long term detriment.
3] If he wants to step on states rights, stop the desalination plant here in Victoria and come up with a recycling plant.
4] Remove the now 6 billion dollar health rebate for private health insurance, it is doing nothing to improve our health. It is really just putting money into private health funds. In fact sack the economist that came up with that idea.
5] Acknowledge the indigenous people of Australia and work with them to improve their lives in a positive inclusive way.

There are many more things and I will probably add them as the election gets nearer.
Woof


Any additional comments can be sent to mark_brickel@hotmail.com

Medicare being crippled

Below is an article from The Age about our the private health subsidy that is now costing us 6 billion a year.

The likes of Tony Abbot [Health Minister] and John Howard should be in public office if they think the wants of big business and this includes health insurers, should influence health funding. Go back to practicing the law and let people with compassion for the poorer members of our society run the government. Governing is not about making surpluses and pandering to big business. It is about providing a fair go for the lower paid members of our society.

So have a read or go to the Article here.

Woof.

The $6 billion "corporate welfare" paid to subsidise private health insurance each year is putting Medicare under threat, a former top bureaucrat says.

A summit in Canberra on Monday heard that major health system reform was necessary to make sure all Australians had access to affordable health care.

Almost half of the population had missed out on health services they needed because they could not afford them, while another 15 per cent suffered financial pressure after paying for health care, figures presented at the National Health Reform Summit showed.

Centre for Policy Development chair John Menadue said government subsidies for private health insurance (PHI) were approaching $6 billion a year, including $4.8 billion for the private health insurance rebate, lost tax from the Medicare levy exemption and TV advertising.

"The trend to a two-tier health system in Australia is a serious threat," Mr Menadue, a former head of three government departments including Prime Minister and Cabinet under Gough Whitlam, said.

"When the government subsidises wealthy people in PHI to jump the queue, we are on the way to crippling Medicare.

"(Health Minister) Tony Abbott says that the Howard government is the best friend Medicare ever had. Words are one thing. Actions tell a different and alarming story."

Mr Menadue said the money would be better spent directly on mental, indigenous, preventative or dental health.

"Administration of the $6 billion annual subsidy to PHI should be transferred to Treasury, who would quickly recognise it for what it is - corporate welfare and not a health program," he said.

More than 40 health groups - including peak bodies for GPs, rural doctors, nurses and physiotherapists - are attending the meeting to push the government to reform the health system.

Mr Abbott was originally listed as speaking at the forum but declined to attend.

Mr Menadue said the health minister and his predecessors had been too timid to undertake a major redesign of the health system.

He said the government should set up a national independent authority to drive health reform, and call a public inquiry into the health system.

"Tony Abbott speaks of health as a 'dog's breakfast', but has made no serious effort to fix the mess," he said.

"Our health leaders lack the will for health reform because they are strongly influenced by the vested interests that abound in health."

Melbourne's Health Issues Centre CEO Centre Tony McBride told the forum that community consultations held across four states had found cost prevented 45 per cent of people accessing essential health care in the past 12 months.

Another 15 per cent had experienced financial hardship as a result of paying for care.

"Now it's not a representative sample, but even so these are very, very high figures, figures that I think would be concerning any health minister," Mr McBride told Southern Cross Broadcasting.

The private insurance subsidies meant wealthier Australians could access services such as dental care, but those who could least afford to pay for dentistry were getting nothing, he said.

Mr McBride added that many surveys showed people were willing to pay more for health care if the service was of good quality and equitable.

"So I think there are some good grounds for increasing the amount of money we give," he said.

Any additional comments can be sent to mark_brickel@hotmail.com

Steiner in our state schools

Yep there is Steiner education going on in our state school system. I have known about this for some time. Someone I knew did the course and became a Steiner teacher.
I first met them back in the 1970s and they were off with the fairies quite literally. Well they are still off and have brought their mad ideas to main stream schooling.

Rudolf Steiner had some very strange ideas, including thinking white people were more intelligent than black, and that there are fairies.

I used to see an image of a Germanic boy scout [Grown up] with hairy knobbly knees singing mad tunes and talking rubbish.

If you want to hear more about Steiner being taught in our Victorian State school system try the ABC Religion report.

Woof.

Any additional comments can be sent to mark_brickel@hotmail.com

A couple of quickies

Our Autorney General Philip says that the Tampa affair, which cause such a stink a few years back wasn't illegal and this was confirmed by the High court. May I remind the minister that Hitler made sure that all his deeds were legal. It ain't hard to make your actions legal when you are the government. It doesn't make it morally o.k.

John Howard is looking old and worn out. And now we have the biography to confirm many of our suspicions about the power behind the man. Jannette. Maybe he should stop listening to her and take a long holiday. I suspect that not only will the coalition be beaten at the next election and thus put them in the political wilderness but that John Howard may loose his seat too. I suppose that isn't too bad a thing. It saves us from having a bi-election soon after the general election.

Any additional comments can be sent to mark_brickel@hotmail.com

It's raining where is all the water going?

Melbourne is awash with rain. With all the hard surfaces, roofs,
pavements, roads etc. it all runs off into the drainage system pretty
efficiently. From there it travels to the streams and rivers, taking
it to the bay [ocean].

Once it goes into the ocean it becomes salty and undrinkable.
But not to worry in a few years time the Brack's
government will be desalinating it and pumping it back to the city.

The big draw back to this system is it will cost billions of dollars
and double the price of water. Why have the government told us this is
the best/only way to deal with our water problems?

There must be a reliable reasonably priced low tech way of saving our
own rainwater, before it goes into the bay. Creeks and rivers are
traditional sources of water for reservoirs. Surely we can utilise our
rainwater run off and avoid the horrendous expense of a desalination
plant with it's energy, environmental safe guards, and pumping requirements.

Any additional comments can be sent to mark_brickel@hotmail.com

Middle East

Here is an extract of a speech given by a former top CIA officer about the wests involvement in the middle east.
He says at one point that,

"We in the West are fighting an enemy we have woefully chosen to misunderstand and to whom we are losing hands down and on every front,"

He goes on to say,

"the US and its allies continually became involved in Middle East wars because of their reliance on Arab oil supplies and had little other interest in the region."

When the Iraq war started and I marched with many others here in Melbourne, we knew that oil was at the bottom of this conflict. And now at last it is coming out from senior cabinet ministers [Australia's Defence Minister Brendan Nelson] that the oil of the middle east is all important.
Wise up this ain't no practice run we have to find alternative types of energy now and make our planet safer, cleaner, and sustainable.

Woof.

Any additional comments can be sent to mark_brickel@hotmail.com