Hello Romania, the United Kingdom, China, and Germany...and welcome to the blog...and today's extended title could read something like 'For 141 Plantations, Money Grows on Our Trees and Now It's Also Raining Cash'...or more precisely 'The Escalating Betrayal and Corruption of the Rann/Weatherill Labor Government re the South East Forestry Estate Sale'...
(Catchy titles, but a tad long-winded...may I suggest 'You Stinking, Corrupt Bastards'-Ed)...yes, very succinct, and certainly accurate, but does it explain the specific issue?...(well no, it's just a general term of abuse that unfortunately is applicable to pretty much anything Rann/Weatherill Labor touch-Ed)...fair enough...
Recent revelations that Labor has altered 'proposed' water entitlements at the 'eleventh hour' of alleged negotiations and public consultation, and hugely in favour of Forestry, appear to be yet another loss for South Australia as a result of the altogether suspect Forestry Sale...(which, remember, Labor call a 'Three Rotation Lease' to avoid Foreign Investment Review Board involvement-Ed)...quite...
Whatever you choose to call any part of this financial betrayal of the people of South Australia, to me the recent re-allocation of Water Licenses is yet another cynical cash-grab on behalf of 141 Plantations, and potentially a critical blow to irrigators in the South East...and I would assume that this will include dairy, already suffering specific pressures from retailers, rising utility costs, etc...
The Forestry Sale places almost the entire SE Forestry Estate in the full control of 141 Plantations, eg, ForestrySA has what?...3 years to go before it effectively will cease to exist in the SE?...(yeah about that, give or take a few months-Ed)...and with that goes the jobs?...(well, probably...no point keeping them here to do nothing-Ed)...so, more jobs gone to Adelaide, or just plain gone...and what of the Fire Prevention/Protection issues?...now new regulations to hand them a huge swathe of water entitlements.
I am neither an Irrigator nor a Forester, but I fail to see how shifting these entitlements to forestry gains anything for the state, because as I understand it, these are not new entitlements, this is the same amount of water being taken off some people and given to others...
And I completely reject the argument that they pay for this water and therefore it's good to have money coming in from 'outside the state'...(141 being based OS-Ed)...yes, and in Melbourne...because it's not going to help the state in any way to reduce producer's quotas and potentially bankrupt their businesses...unless of course you're looking to do exactly that - bankrupt producers and/or just drive them out of business with ludicrous, unworkable legislation and grossly inadequate water allocations.
It is a fundamental reality, as I understand it, that you pay for that water because it has a definable profit attached to it, be it for crops, trees, dairy, whatevs...the return outweighs the outlay, therefore every litre has a definable dollar value to the license holder...every litre is profit...therefore, by taking allocation off one party and handing it to another, Labor is taking money off the producers and handing it to 141...and this greatly increases the value of the Forest Estate...after it has been sold.
This massive Water Entitlement allocation for 141 Plantations immediately increases the value of the Forestry Sale, which means SA loses twice...(twice?-Ed)...yeah, once when it wasn't included in the Sale price, and again when it's taken off local producers without reimbursement...(fair enough-Ed)...and all at a massive profit to 141.
I still maintain that the Forestry Sale is an illegal deal done by an illegitimate government who committed fraud at the March 2010 election to win government...and of course there's that box of votes found in Mt Gambier...what a corrupt shambles...and yes, I can say that because I was a bloody candidate, and the whole thing was a corrupt, shambolic joke from start to finish...and look at the Federal Fiasco...and we laugh at and/or criticise other countries for their dodgy electoral processes.
I'd suggest we should as a nation shut the shrek up and sort out some of our own problems and stop talking down at others about they can fix theirs...can you imagine the potential for corrupted outcomes if the whole electoral process was done electronically...long live the ballot box, and put bloody pens in the booths, not pencils...and then count them votes correctly...is it really that difficult?
And I get that very unpleasant, queasy feeling in my gut where this 'allocation' looks very much like a partial privatisation of the SE Aquifer...most if not all of this water is going to a private company for the next 100+ years...and now that they've got it they ain't about to just give it up, and there's just no way that our piss weak politicians are going to try and take it back...at best I can see us buying back our own water from 141...(ohhh, don't say that...we couldn't be that stupid...could we?-Ed)...that stupid, that corrupt, that weak, and any combination that you care to come up with...
Family First MLC Rob Brokenshire was on the ABC Local Radio quoting a conversation he had some time ago with Labor's previous Health Minister John Hill, where John Hill stated that the Patient Assistance Transport Scheme budget was $7.7million pa, but Mr Brokenshire stated that this last Financial Year 2012/13 only $7.2m was spent and that this gave him cause for concern.
He re-iterated his other concerns about proposed changes to eligibility criteria, and rightly suggested that the services should be brought to the patients, not the other way around, starting with MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machines in major regional hospitals...(that or increase the PATS funding pool and provide appropriate reimbursement, not something still based on costs of over 10 years ago-Ed)...well indeed.
He also said that in 2009 the average claim was $215, but for 2012/13 was only $174, a "significant reduction", but he didn't know why...(why?...because patients are being increasingly denied parts of or even whole claims, many in the South East access the drastically superior services available in Victorian hospitals, people just give up getting treatment because it is too difficult/inconvenient/expensive, and any combination of the three-Ed)...well quite...
But if I might make 2 points...1) I believe that your second point is true, but I would put it potentially first, and 2) I'd like to offer the qualifier that there are many excellent staff operating in SE Hospitals, from Mt Gambier to Keith, but that the lack of funding leads to minimal infrastructure, services, etc, and therefore a lack of specialists, etc...(fair point, I fully concur-Ed)...even with the disastrous treatment I received in May-July 2004 with my multiple misdiagnoses and tumour-laden discharging (as per previous post My Cancer Treatment...)
I am purely theorising, it is an educated guess, that the 'average' claim is down because these are mostly from near Adelaide, and not least of all are serviced by more frequent and cheaper air flights...(ooo, nice gouge at Rex Airlines for their borderline extortionist pricing for Mt Gambier flights-Ed)...well actually I wasn't, but fair point...and many SE patients go East and therefore aren't claiming...and the overall cost is down because of this,
But also because many people are getting denied full reimbursements and even denied outright, or their paperwork is wrong, or they couldn't have a companion/escort to Adelaide, etc...I have spoken to dozens of people in the last few months who have experienced this, and last Friday night (1st November 2013) I spoke to two people who had been refused any reimbursement, and one was still trying and the other had given up, losing "several hundred dollars".
I have to ask, is this merely gross incompetence on the part of those running PATS, or is it a deliberate strategy by Labor to reduce the total cost...and I would absolutely not put it past them...therefore justifying their otherwise indefensible and reprehensible conduct on issues of Health...(and indeed on the welfare of Rural communities in their entirety-Ed)...hear! hear!...
Mr Brokenshire makes a perfectly legitimate point that 'nobodies getting rich by claiming PATS', particularly when it pays well below commercial travel and accommodation rates. As he stated, SA is at the bottom of the heap, and Tasmania and the Northern Territory have both recently increased their relative schemes.
I believe that these PATS figures, if they are even accurate, and how does one trust Rann/Weatherill Labor given their propensity for lying...(indeed-Ed)...even if they're accurate, they will be used to justify a funding cutback, or at the very least, justify the PATS Review guideline that pre-emptively rules out an increase in funding.
Tomorrow: And Yet More Child Abuse Lunacy the SA Way
Things are all over the shop with the Naracoorte High Abuse case, and the super-brief interview with Prof Frida Briggs on ABC Local Radio this morning didn't border on offensive, it got it's passport stamped and went for a quick tramp through the Hills of Incredulity...
(You don't sound too happy-Ed)...that's probably because I am shrekin' furious...tomorrow...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my rant, ah, blog...this is my blog...laters.
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