Gosford Anglican Church

The Priest at Gosford Anglican Church has a dab hand with signage.

Here are a few examples.

More power to his elbow.

There aren't too many real Christians about, and none in federal politics.

These signs make that state of affairs abundantly clear.

Mutual Obligation

We’ve heard the term “mutual obligation” thrown around a great deal in the context of the federal budget.

Mutual obligation is an idea that seems on the face of it, commonsense.

Essentially it means that individuals should contribute to society in exchange for the support society gives them.

Let’s examine the notion, and turn it on its head.

Take three examples.

The first is a returned soldier - let’s say a Vietnam Veteran, who was conscripted and spent a year on operational service, say with an infantry battalion, or perhaps in cavalry, crewing an APC, or maybe as an engineer on mine clearing operations.

Because of the nature of his posting, he was exposed to combat, and saw a couple of mates blown to pieces in mine incidents.

This individual, at the time of call-up, was gainfully employed, and had been paying taxes. At the end of his service, he was reinstated in his previous occupation, but after about fifteen years, he found himself with a diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

He took one look at the hoops he needed to jump through to get support through DVA as totally or permanently incapacitated, and decided it wasn’t worth the grief, and to use a bad metaphor, he soldiered on.

At the same time, he continued to work, pay taxes, and support his family.

The second example is a person with disability. He has Cerebral Palsy, but despite this, he completed schooling, and got a job working for a federal bureaucracy.

He was good at his job, and by 2014, was in a senior position.

Then at age 51 he was made redundant in a round of austerity measures aimed at trimming the public service. He is now unemployed, and struggling to pay a mortgage and support his family.

His chances of finding a new job, given his age and disability, are almost zero.

He has been contributing and paying taxes for over twenty-five years.

The third example is a twenty eight year old who was prescribed a medication for Attention Deficit Disorder. At the time he was in employment and paying taxes.

He had a very bad reaction to the medication, and it sent him into a psychosis. The prescribing physician was negligent, but this young man could not be bothered with the carry-on he would have to go through to take civil action.

His subsequent hospitalisation meant that he lost his job, his network of friends, and his accommodation.

He was forced to return to his parental home during his rehabilitation.

He has recovered and is now looking for work, but a mental health crisis doesn’t look great on a resume. Whilst it’s not completely clear, the tightening up of conditions for Newstart are a worry he doesn’t need as he tries to get his life back on the rails.

Here are a few simple questions.

What does “mutual obligation” mean as it relates to these individuals?

Do their individual contributions prior to the incidents that damaged their lives count for anything?

Do they have an entitlement to support to achieve a reasonable quality of life and should this support come from the taxpayer?

What does “mutual” mean in this context?

Or can what has happened to them be described in the two words used by the current Prime Minister when he was Leader of the Opposition a few years ago?

These are real people, by the way. I didn’t make them up.

Over to you.

Selling the Budget

Brilliant.

Gutter Journalism

I've been reading newspapers since I was about ten years old, and have seen some gutter journalism in that fifty plus years, but this takes the cake.

It's despicable on so many levels.

In the first place it stereotypes people on the Disability Support Pension as "slackers".

It does this without any evidence except the rising numbers of people on the DSP.

It hones in on the rising proportion of successful claims for incapacity on the basis of mental illness, whilst noting a decline in the number of successful claims for physical injury has declined.

What kind of "journalism" is that? Geoff Chambers (the person who wrote this bilge) must have been living under a rock for the last ten years. He obviously missed the news that mental illness has become a major community problem in that time, and that improved workplace safety practices has had an effect on injury rates.

Chambers obviously lacks the wit to consider that these trends have something to do with population statistics. His blaming the victim panders to bigotry and ignorance.

It probably sells more newspapers, much in the same way as salacious stories involving sex and violence sell well. Basically, this "journalism" is a form of pornography.

He obviously has no idea of the stringent and lengthy process involved in getting classified as incapacitated. He obviously knows nobody in this predicament, and forgets that it takes usually about three years to see the process through.

It's a similar process to that required for returned service personnel to be classified as Totally or Permanently Incapacitated, but at least the diggers have advocates assisting them. I doubt Mr Chambers would have the hide to stereotype TPI pensioners as "slackers".

Which brings me to the disgraceful comparison Chambers has employed, using returned Diggers in his quest to demonize DSP recipients.

He has used an iconic photograph (one of Damien Parer's series of historic Kokoda Track images) and set it besides a photo shopped picture of a queue of young people.

To use this photograph, and the wealth pf symbolism it generates, in this generalized smear, is about as low as you can get in print.

My father, who fought in New Guinea in World War two, would regard this as sacrilege. I'm sure Parer is turning in his grave. My twelve months on operational service in an infantry battalion in Vietnam in 1970 was ostensibly about defending the maintenance of Australian values of freedom, fairness, and tolerance. There is precious little of those values displayed in Chamber's piece.

My forty plus years of experience working with people with disabilities has taught me that this particular group of people should be lauded, not demonized, given the challenges they daily surmount to seek a reasonable quality of life. The Telegraph's attack on this vulnerable group is pure cowardice.

Mr Chambers, his editor, and the rag he works for have hit rock bottom - they can't descend from here.

Apologies to DSP recipients, TPI pensioners, and the veteran community at large would be a good start.

A complaint to the Press Council would also be appropriate.

One of the major barriers to emplyment of people with disabilities is public attitude.

Image what this type of report does to that.

Shame.......

 

Integrity is Optional

Queensland's assistant health minister Chris Davis was sacked this week.

Given the recent history of the LNP government, this is unremarkable, except that Dr Davis was not sacked because he was corrupt.

He was sacked because he demonstrated integrity.

Straight up, that makes him persona non grata in the Newman government.

That little branch of Meercat Manor* can't abide anyone who puts public interest before self interest and vested interest.

Here are some extracts from last night's 7.30 Report -

But Dr Davis says he suspects a number of complaints were made about him.
He says revelations at a New South Wales corruption inquiry show powerful interests are involved in politics.
"You only need to look across the border to New South Wales to actually see under current arrangements how there are a number of very powerful interests in any political system," he said.
"We have at the moment on the table a great relaxation of caps and donations and so on, just at the same time the new Premier of New South Wales Mike Baird is actually saying that he needs to nail shut the back door to government because it is actually causing so much damage.
"You don't make an investment in business unless you make a return on it," he said.It was not just a technicality of the Cabinet solidarity message, I think I had trod on some very powerful toes.

"You'd be naive to think that the political gene pool changed when you crossed the border from New South Wales to Queensland."
Dr Davis says he was not offered the opportunity to hand in his resignation.
"We had a situation on Thursday [the previous week] where the Treasurer, Tim Nicholls, had made a media comment, as I recall it, that the LNP was a very broad church," he said.
"The scenario changed between then and when I was called in on Tuesday, and I suspect that, as I say, was a number of complaints to the Premier and he felt obliged to send a message.
"I think it was a signal on a number of fronts.
"I think it was not just a technicality of the Cabinet solidarity message, I think I had trod on some very powerful toes.

The whole interview is here.

* Meercat Manor because of Newman's uncanny resemblance to one of these critters

An Economy of Social Inclusion.

Pic courtesy The Catholic Leader

Below is an extract from Today's Catholic Leader -

The article is called Putting People First: The call for an economy of social inclusion.

In co-operation with all sectors of business, unions, and the community, government has a responsibility to ensure workers and their families are put first in the nation’s economic system. It should take the lead in: 

1. Creating jobs for vulnerable workers which are secure, adequately paid and relevant to the needs of business and local communities 

2. Supporting industrial and infrastructure development that increases opportunities for local employment 

3. Increasing investment in research and development and lifting national training standards 

4. Assisting employers by reducing on-costs – for example through wage subsidies or tax rebates on employment-related costs 

5. Agreeing on a way of measuring poverty and social exclusion and applying it when setting minimum wages and social security payments. 

We need a competitive and productive national economy. But we cannot leave it to the market alone. There is a responsibility on government to ensure all people can make their contribution to the productivity of our nation and reap the benefits of growth.

It resonates with me, as I've always believed that after providing security, the first responsibility of any government is to create conditions so that everyone, irrespective of age, gender or disability, can find productive work.

This has apparently gone out of fashion, and as the statistics in the article demonstrate, people on the margins are suffering, and that suffering is spreading.

Read the whole thing.

Matthew 7:15-16

Grayson (left) - photo courtesy of the Australian.

Last year, the Oz published a report that Jon Grayson, director-general of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, had entered into a joint venture called Gasfields Water Management in 2011 with Australian Water Holdings, the company at the centre of the NSW ICAC inquiry.

It is alleged AWH used taxpayer funds to expand into Queensland.

So what we know is that the most senior public servant in Queensland was in a joint venture conjured up by the notorious Eddie Obeid.

This Jon Grayson was hand picked by Newman for his position.

Grayson has rapidly divested himself of his holdings - just as the LNP refunded the $5000 that Noddy charged for a meeting previously.

What's the old saying?

I think it goes something like - "You will know them by the company they keep".*

No wonder the LNP in Queensland is removing the independence of the CMC.

We need an ICAC in Queensland. 

* Not exactly Matthew 7:15-16, but close enough........