Hello and welcome to the blog Poland, the USofA, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom...and I know how wet it's been in England and parts of Europe, but it's raining here for the first time in ages (weeks even months?)...not a lot, but it's still rain...and there's just so much stuff going on that I'm not sure where to start...(how's about right here-Ed)...okey dokes then...
ASIC 'Em Boy: as the Parliamentary Senate Standing Committee on Economics goes the Australian Securities and Investments Commission about their (ASIC) response to the Insider Trading share deals that the David Jones Chairperson Peter Mason and 2 directors conducted ...(is that the recent one relative to sales results and a 'secret' merger offer from Myer?-Ed)...yep...(and that follows the Gunns Chair John Gay ripping off $3million and getting fined $50,000 without having to repay the money and no jail time?-Ed)...exactly...
(What do ASIC actually do?-Ed)...damned if I know...and I know I'm very cynical, but it looks to me like they're there to make it look like there's something there to look at the stuff they're supposed to look at but don't seem to ever do...(is that their Mission Statement?-Ed)...nice...and Mr Price of ASIC kept excusing their farcical inaction by saying that it was "the materiality" and/or lack of of the evidence, the situation, the personnel involved...it was all 'not material' , it lacked "materiality "...(materiality is never a word-Ed)...yeah I think it is, it's just that he used it in several contexts so I have no idea exactly what he was trying to say.
PATS: Dr Scott Lewis, President of the Rural Doctors Association states that patients are still going to be out of pocket even with the $2.5million Patient Assistance Transport Scheme funding increase that both major Parties have promised ahead of the state Election...they (RDA) identified that patients certainly cut back on trips, and do put off treatment and diagnostic services, eg, X-Rays, scans, etc.
They would like to see a much more "equitable" 25c per km for travel allowance not the 16c/km under the current system, and other changes to accomodation costs that are set to go from $30 up to $40. As Dr Lewis quite rightly stated, there are not many $40 per night accommodation options (if you can't get into Greenhill Lodge, etc) and the RDA would like it to be $80, and that these costs are often cumulative for multiple treatments and the associated stressors of just accessing services do affect lower positive health outcomes. He spoke highly of video conferencing as a way to bridge the perpetual gaps in services to help stop people having to travel.
Again, I have a problem with video conferencing as being a replacement for actual services in the Regional centres where they should be provided...I see these trends, eg, toward 'Video Education' that is being spruiked as a real positive for Regional students, I feel there is a real possibility of there being 1 lecturer and 10,000 on-line students, of jobs being lost at Regional campuses and once those jobs go, the institutions become unsustainable and are closed with the disclaimer that it can all be done on-line now.
Even today The Border Watch has concerns about service provision and jobs at TAFE Mt Gambier as the cover story...(ah but we're getting more prisoners from Adelaide for populating a further gaol expansion, that's all squared away, plenty of cash for that...and Grant District Council Mayor Richard Sage says be grateful for the jobs-Ed)...strewth...
But with PATS, I have experienced exactly what Dr Lewis is describing and know many others who have suffered the same problems, eg, getting to Adelaide to find appointments have been cancelled before the patient had even left Mt Gambier, but they weren't contacted...I missed a cancelled/re-scheduled MRI scan over a year ago because I couldn't get to Adelaide, only to find out that it was actually only an appointment to see if I would get a scan...I'd then have had to go back a few weeks later for the scan...if I got an appointment...still waiting...
My concern is that, as with PATS funding that doesn't address failure to provide Regional services, any sort of video conferencing can and will lead to further centralisation of services and self-justify further cuts, and with the Adelaide focused culture of South Australian politics, we could well end up with sub-standard video services...video conferencing is an excellent addition to expand service options, but it cannot be allowed as a justification for service reduction in local Health, Education, etc, service provision.
I further make the point that with the privatisation of the SA health service re the profit guarantee contract on the Royal Adelaide Hospital (previous posts), and a new RAH that is 100 beds smaller than the current hospital, this new "hospital for all South Australians" (former Labor Health Minister John Hill) will not have room for country patients...(yeah, but they're not just going to push patients out in the street-Ed)...actually they are, Labor directed exactly that to happen only 2-3 years ago when the ambulance 'Ramping' issue reached a climax, country patients were discharged en masse to make room for Adelaide patients.
This 'discharge directive' is considered by some country patients to be a continuing practice...I remind readers that the $26million for the current Mt Gambier Hospital expansion is Federal funding...it remains my concern that Mt Gambier is an irrelevance to Adelaide politics, and that the recent announcement from Liberal Health minister Peter Dutton of no MRI for Mt Gambier, is only further proof of that, and that we will increasingly be accessing Health services in Victoria.
Fair Game: apparently, are the Un-endangered Animals that Prince William has been gunning down in his spare time...(hang on...isn't he a patron for the World Wildlife Fund or something similar?...an advocate for Endangered Species Day or som'it?-Ed)...not quite I don't think, but he has apparently vowed to help save Africa's endangered wildlife and to show solidarity, to destroy the Royal family's Ivory collection...(so it's ok to shoot boar in Spain on 'holiday', but Ivory is right out?-Ed)...that's about the size of it.
I'm really not into shooting things...(bloody hippy-Ed)...but there is a great show on SBS 4 National Indigenous TV called Hunting Aotearoa where a Maori dude travels around Aotearoa (New Zealand) hunting predominantly feral animals like deer, goats, pigs, bulls, etc, with the locals...if PW gutted his boar and lugged it back to the ute and butchered it and slung it onto a BBQ, well that'd be one thing...(doesn't he have people to do that for him?-Ed)...dunno...shooting things for fun or trophy is not my sport...venison, now that's a different story.
(Ah, so you're saying that it's one thing to kill for sport but something entirely different to shoot for food-Ed) ...that's exactly what I'm saying...(see, I got really confused when Prince Billy said it was alright to shoot the animals that he was shooting because they weren't endangered, I just thought it meant that he was a very, very bad shot and therefore those particular animals were not in danger-Ed)...I love the way your mind works...and I also saw a photo of Prince Harry posing next to a Water Buffalo he'd just shot, but I think that was from 10 years ago and just thrown in amongst the other stuff for a bit of colour.
Enough for today and barely scratched the surface...haven't forgotten the Rory McEwen, Grant King, Seaweed thingy either so,
Tomorrow: Shenanigans
People say stuff to me, at me, about me...so long as it's me...(ahahaha-Ed)...but there are things that I can only say are said to me as such and as such are merely heresay...and should be carefully identified as such...but where there's smoke there's fire...(not necessarily...what about smoke machines?-Ed)...yeah, that's dry ice, not smoke...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
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