Kevin Rudd firm on move to cut welfare

A Leftist government cutting welfare? A bit different! It's mainly aimed at middle-income people though. And discouraging savings through superannuation is really dumb and shortsighted. So it really is pretty Leftist despite initial appearances

The Rudd Government has vowed to act within a fortnight to protect welfare payments to charity and church workers facing average losses of $50 a week, but will push ahead with its own plans that will cut benefits to hundreds of thousands of Australians. Wayne Swan and Families Minister Jenny Macklin yesterday promised low-income workers for charitable organisations, who maximise government benefits by using salary-sacrificing and fringe benefits to reduce their assessible income, would have their concerns addressed before planned tax changes kick in on July 1.

The changes to the income-assessment of fringe benefits for charity workers were introduced two years ago by the Howard government but the extent of the effects were discovered only when employees were notified in April. The Treasurer said he would ensure the plans were altered before July 1 to protect low-income workers in charitable organisations.

But the Government yesterday stood by its own changes, which cover the inclusion of salary-sacrifice as income for the purpose of calculating family tax benefits and a raft of other programs that are due to come into effect on July 1 next year. As the Opposition yesterday accused the Government of inadequate attention to detail, Mr Swan vowed to push ahead with Labor's plans to standardise the definition of income for means-testing benefits. The changes, which will save the Government more than $500 million, will cut a range of benefits to hundreds of thousands of people by raising their assessible income. Yesterday, The Australian revealed a family with seven children whose sole breadwinner made little more than $100,000 a year would be left almost $200 a week worse off once the new income rules were applied to family tax benefits.

Despite yesterday's backdown on fringe benefits tax exemptions for charity workers, Mr Swan vowed in the Government's first budget last month to create a fairer and more equitable tax system by closing loopholes, such as those used to exploit the definition of income. "The Government will put fairness and integrity back into the income tax and transfer systems by better targeting benefits to families, making income-testing arrangements more comprehensive and tightening the fringe benefits tax and employee share scheme provisions," the budget papers said. "Fairer systems will generate budget savings and support the delivery of the Government's broader economic and social policy in a fiscally responsible manner."

At his budget press conference, Mr Swan said: "This is a tough budget, but it's a fair budget. And if there are loopholes which have emerged in tax systems, they should be closed. There's one that we're closing: when it comes to a rort which has developed with meals and that people have escaped the fringe benefits tax. And we are going to attack those sorts of loopholes in the system. And we have done a number of them in this budget." Among the changes he flagged were including salary-sacrificing for superannuation in income for the purpose of means-testing for Family Tax Benefits Part A and B, closing a large loophole.

More than a dozen other government benefit programs, including the Medicare levy surcharge, the baby bonus, the senior Australians' tax offset, drought relief and veterans' support will be affected by the changes due to be introduced next year. Mr Swan said that while he would take action to stop workers being made worse off by the Howard government's changes, his Government's changes close a "big loophole" that allowed some workers to receive much higher welfare payments than families on similar incomes by making large pre-tax contributions to superannuation.

Discussing charity employees and the decision to wind back the Howard government's fringe benefits tax changes, Mr Swan said: "I don't think there was a thorough knowledge of the savage impact this was going to have on the charitable sector". Mr Swan admitted that Labor had given support to the measure, which he said at the time was delivered in the context of child support reforms designed to stop deadbeat dads hiding their true income. But the party was at the time unaware of the unintended consequences later identified.

Ms Macklin said the Government would take action before the end of the financial year to help the charitable sector but would not explain how. She said there was a range of options being considered. Mr Swan said the Howard government's changes would have other "knock-on" effects. "This does then point to the need for a comprehensive review of the factors involved that have caused this," he said. He said the tax review ordered by the Government and led by Treasury Secretary Ken Henry would investigate the issue. "We think that having a look at the fringe benefits tax issue in the context of its application to low-income earners, when its original intent was to apply particularly to executives, is something that the Henry review will certainly take into account," Mr Swan said. He added the Rudd Government's changes should not be confused with the Howard administration's measures and affected fewer than 4 per cent of families.

The Government has estimated that at least 74,400 families will lose all or part of their family tax benefit because of the changes to superannuation salary sacrificing. The Treasurer has not supplied any estimates on the number of people affected in other programs. The total saving from the Rudd Government's changes is more than $500 million. Queensland Nationals senator Ron Boswell yesterday questioned how Ms Macklin could be unaware that 200,000 workers in not-for-profit groups and hospitals would be adversely affected by her own budget measures. "Two weeks ago I asked questions on this exact issue in Senate estimates and the department acknowledged it, cited recent publicity and had even written letters to affected people, so how could the minister not know of the effects of her own policy?" he said.

The Government was also forced yesterday to defend another measure that would see small numbers of veterans' partners lose some payments under new income eligibility tests.

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Not enough medical staff to use badly-needed donated organs!

Dying Queenslanders desperate for transplants are missing out because the state's leading hospital is giving donated organs to interstate patients. At least twice this year interstate surgical teams have flown to Brisbane to retrieve organs turned away by Prince Charles Hospital. The fiasco has been blamed on staff shortages and surgeons with "large egos and voluminous hip pockets".

Queensland Health has confirmed organs donated by Queenslanders were being sent interstate because of the "unavailability of transplant service surgical staff with the appropriate specialised skills at the time of the offer". It refused to reveal whether anyone on the heart or lung waiting list had died after organs had been sent interstate. Under the national donor scheme, organs which become available in a state are meant to be offered to residents in that state first. In Queensland, two people are waiting for hearts, eight for lungs and two for heart/lung/liver transplants.

The stunning revelations have been exposed by Professor Russell Strong, the first surgeon to perform a liver transplant in Australia and medical director of Queensland Health's Queenslanders Donate. In a strongly worded letter to Queensland Health acting director-general Andrew Wilson, he argued Queenslanders had a better chance of a transplant if they lived interstate. "I wish to draw your attention to a situation that must be regarded as unacceptable and with the potential for severe repercussions," Professor Strong said in the April letter, obtained by The Courier-Mail.

He argued the hospital should be stripped of its transplant services. "It is highlighted by two events in the past three weeks (where) two young healthy males were involved in motor vehicle accidents, received traumatic brain injuries and became multi-organ donors," he wrote. "In the first case, the heart and lungs were offered to The Prince Charles Hospital (TPCH), were accepted for heart/lung bloc and two names given for a cross match. Within half an hour, TPCH rang back declining the organs due to a lack of surgeons to remove the organs and perform the transplant surgery. "The organs were offered interstate and an interstate team came to Queensland to retrieve the organs. "

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NSW Ambulance inquiry to hear 'bullying and intimidation'

Bureaucracy stifles paramedics who try to blow the whistle

An inquiry into the NSW Ambulance Service is expected to hear evidence of deep-rooted problems of intimidation and bullying. But the parliamentary inquiry, due to start in less than three weeks, could suffer the same fate as previous investigations, with paramedics too afraid to speak publicly, fearing retribution from their superiors. Nurses recently gave evidence behind closed doors, during the Royal North Shore Hospital and NSW Public Hospitals inquiries, scared they would later suffer harassment from management. Almost all the submissions lodged by ambulance officers are either anonymous or cannot be published.

Upper House MP Robyn Parker, who is overseeing the inquiry, said there were already common problems evident from ambos who have submitted evidence. "Anecdotally we can see there is a high suicide rate among ambulance officers," she told The Daily Telegraph. "It also appears management are using rosters and the transfer system to bully officers. I will be probing the department on both those (issues) on the first day." Low morale is plaguing the service, which has been the subject of internal and governmental investigations.

Ms Parker said: "The officers need a place where they can air their grievances and I will be demanding answers from the (health) department. "But this will also be putting the Government on notice and hopefully they will act."

The Daily Telegraph recently reported the overstretched service was relying on firefighters to respond to medical emergencies. Trucks are equipped with trauma kits and defibrilators attending to patients when ambulance crews do not cover the area. One ambulance officer said some Sydney suburbs were completely without emergency medical coverage. "Many areas in Sydney are inadequately covered by ANSW due to a deficit of stations," the submission said. "In the areas known to me there are three suburbs Carlingford, Berowra and Galston, that are at best 15 minutes from an ambulance. For a first-world country in the 21st century, that's embarrassing."

Another anonymous worker said inexperienced junior staff were attending jobs unsupervised. "I cannot remember the last shift I worked where we stayed wholly in our station area," the submission said. "We constantly move resources and become stretched to the limit and some areas end up with no coverage. The fact the NSW Fire Brigade is covering ambulance jobs is testimony to this."

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Crown-of-thorns starfish on wane at Great Barrier Reef

Global warming was often blamed for the starfish plague so I guess this proves global cooling.. Since the climate IS cooling, maybe this is one they got right!

The potentially devastating crown-of-thorns starfish is in retreat on the Great Barrier Reef, with its numbers hitting a 20-year low, researchers say. Findings from the Australian Institute of Marine Science released Tuesday, June 17, indicate the latest outbreak of the coral-eating pest is near an end. Surveys of the Reef in 2007 detected fewer crown-of-thorns starfish than in any year in the past two decades, the head of AIMS' long-term monitoring program, Hugh Sweatman, said. "There were outbreaks on 6 per cent of the 104 reefs surveyed in 2006, and on just 4 per cent of the reefs we surveyed in 2007," he said. "Historically, the numbers of the starfish have increased drastically every 15 years, and in 2000 up to 17 per cent of the reef was afflicted." However, the crown-of-thorns starfish remains a "mysterious phenomenon", according to AIMS, and it is not known when the next outbreak could begin.

AIMS researchers have also detected a fall in coral cover on outer sections of the Reef due to coral diseases, particularly a disease known as white syndrome. The cause of the disease was unknown but it killed off massive areas of coral on previously healthy reefs, Dr Sweatman said. "The disease is found particularly where hard coral cover is high," he said. "What we see is that the healthy reefs with lots of coral cover are the ones at risk."

Seven reefs in the Capricorn-Bunker sector and six in the Swain sector of the Great Barrier Reef were surveyed. No crown-of-thorns starfish were recorded on Swain reefs but scuba surveys found the starfish for the first time at Fairfax Reef in the Capricorn-Bunker group.

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