ZEG

In his latest offering, conservative Australian cartoonist ZEG comments on the NSW budget and its shortcomings.




NSW public hospitals not safe

Not one public hospital in NSW is operating at a safe occupancy level with Royal Prince Alfred, Royal North Shore and Gosford hospitals singled out today by the Australian Medical Association as performing particularly poorly. RPA operated at 95 per cent occupancy and RNS 92 per cent and Gosford even reached 110 per cent at times, according to the AMA's national report card released today. The internationally recognised safe level is 85 per cent before patient care is compromised.

There are 1500 unnecessary deaths in Australia each year due to overcrowding in public hospitals, the report said. The president of the NSW branch of the AMA, Brian Morton, said "no matter what the spin is given all our hospitals are under great stress". "Not one of our hospitals is operating at a safe level. We can no longer cut beds, cut funding in our hospitals," Dr Morton said. He said NSW needed an immediate injection of $1 billion to lift bed numbers to an acceptable level. He said yesterday's announcement in the mini-budget that NSW area health services would have to save $64 million would inevitably mean more bed closures. "This translates, it appears, to bed closures as in RPA closing its obstetrics and gynae ward." The AMA said in its report card that over the past 20 years, 67 per cent of beds have been cut.

However, NSW performed the best when it came to the percentage of elective surgery and emergency department patients seen within recommended times. NSW also had the second-most public beds per 1000 weighted population, behind the Northern Territory and ranked third for recurrent expenditure, behind NT and ACT.

But the president of the AMA, Rosanna Capolingua said all states rated "F for failure and then it's really how badly they have failed". "There's not enough equipment, beds, capacity, doctors and nurses ... because hospitals have been stripped of their funding over time." She said stories of patients banked up in corridors of emergency departments and even on chairs and floors were too common and were simply due to a lack of beds. "It's a ridiculous scenario. How much more do we need to hear about this before we do something to stop it," she said.

Source





Leftist politician abets union thugs

A SENIOR state Labor minister has defied Federal Court action to lead a group of union officials into the site of Sydney's proposed desalination plant, against the will of the firm constructing it. NSW Water Minister Phil Costa yesterday led a delegation of eight senior union officials into the proposed $1.8 billion plant at Kurnell in Sydney's south, despite efforts by construction company John Holland to keep them out. Mr Costa appeared to use the cover of yesterday's NSW mini-budget to enter the site as public attention was directed elsewhere. The decision to march on to the sight ignored drawn-out legal action in the Federal Court in which John Holland has sought to limit union access under national building industry rules. John Holland received less than 24 hours notice of the visit.

The company is known to be concerned that unrestricted union access to the site, on the pretext of a safety inspection, using NSW's union-friendly workplace safety laws, could lead to disruptions costing millions of dollars.

The Howard government imposed tough union access rules for building sites, including a construction industry code of practice that appears to have been subverted by yesterday's entry of NSW union leaders including Bernie Riordan, Russell Collison, Tim Ayres and Chris Christodoulou.

Federal Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard declined to comment on the NSW minister's tour with union officials, which prompted protests from John Holland. Opposition workplace relations spokesman Michael Keenan said he found the incident extraordinary after past attempts to clean up the building industry. "We established the Australian Building and Construction Commission and a national framework for the industry to ensure law and order was restored,'' Mr Keenan said. "The NSW Government is ignoring due process by bringing these union officials on to the site.'' For the past 12 months, John Holland has been fighting the militant Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union in the courts to limit their access, arguing federal workplace safety laws apply to the site.

Yesterday's visit also confirms the more intimate relationship between the NSW Labor Government and unions since NSW Premier Nathan Rees replaced Morris Iemma nine weeks ago, with strong union support. The Australian received a tip-off last week Mr Rees himself planned to conduct the union visit, but both he and Mr Costa yesterday denied the backdoor plan for union access was the Premier's brainchild. Asked about entering the worksite despite John Holland's legal action to stop union access, Mr Costa told The Australian he was given full approval by Sydney Water and the building contractor to enter. "The unions have met with me and expressed some issues concerning the desalination plant construction site," he said. "I decided to go on site today to have a look for myself. The proper approvals to enter the site were obtained from Sydney Water and the builders John Holland were very accommodating of my visit. "This visit was of my own undertaking following discussions with the unions."

Officials and organisers from the CFMEU, Australian Workers Union, the Electrical Trades Union and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, accompanied Mr Costa on the 20-minute visit. Mr Costa appeared ruffled by the presence of The Australian at the site, asking union officials and John Holland staff on his arrival "Are they with you?" before jerking his thumb over his shoulder in a gesture suggesting he wanted the journalist and photographer removed. His media adviser then attempted to block photographs of Mr Costa with the union delegates during the walk-through.

When asked what he was doing on the site and whether he was acting contrary to the pending court decision, Unions NSW assistant secretary Chris Christodoulou said he was "on a normal PR visit" which had "nothing to do with (the court action)". Mr Tullock, the CFMEU assistant secretary, said the last time he had visited the site, over a worker who refused to return to work over safety issues, John Holland had called the police. "This is apparently the only way we can gain access to the site, if we come as a visitor with the minister, which is pretty ordinary," Mr Tullock said.

He said unions had been contacted by members who had many concerns over safety at the site, including hazardous dust and wetness [Dust and wetness!! How awful!!] and the danger of people falling from heights. "There is an atmosphere of fear, loathing and intimidation on the site here in regards to safety," he said. "We believe we have got a right under the NSW Occupational Health and Safety Act to be here and John Holland believe we don't."

NSW Opposition leader Barry O'Farrell said: "Under Nathan Rees's premiership, it's obvious the boys are back in town and union bosses are in control."

Source





'Spousal maintenance' for mistresses

Extraordinary!

PHILANDERING husbands could soon be forced by the courts to keep paying for their mistresses after an affair ends. That is just one outcome set to arise from laws on broken de facto relationships that will take effect early next year, The Courier-Mail reports. Under the Family Law Act reforms, de facto partners together for two years will get the same rights as married couples to seek "spousal maintenance" claims. Maintenance, as distinct from child support, may be ordered when the other party is "unable to support herself or himself adequately" following separation.

But legal experts warn the amended Act - passed in the Senate on Monday - opens the definition of a de facto couple to wide interpretation. It prescribes a de facto relationship as an opposite-sex or same-sex couple "living together on a genuine domestic basis". Yet it also stipulates that a de facto alliance can exist even if one of the partners is legally married to somebody else or in another de facto relationship.

Veteran Brisbane family lawyer Paul Hopgood said the door was ajar for jilted lovers to seek maintenance orders. "I get high-profile people from around town saying, 'I'm having an (affair) with so and so. I wine and dine her and take her on holidays. I look after her and it's been going on for five years. But I'm safe - she hasn't got the key to my house'. "You don't have to live in the same house and under the same roof to be a de facto. A lot of people are living in de facto relationships and don't think they are."

Mr Hopgood cited a couple who might not share a home because of international business commitments. "If everything else is there, apart from the common residence, they've still got a de facto relationship."

In a further twist, the laws shape as a threat to the coffers of polygamist husbands. Queensland Law Society family law chairman Julie Harrington said: "In polygamy, you have only one marriage that's recognised, so you have wives two, three and four as the de factos. "At least those women will now have some rights which they otherwise didn't (have) under the Family Law Act."

Ms Harrington said the new laws could also create a debt nightmare for others, who now face the possibility of ongoing spousal support to a string of previous de facto partners.

With married couples, maintenance orders generally end when the ex-partner receiving the money remarries. De factos will come under the same rules if they marry a new partner. But no explicit provision exists in the legislation for maintenance payments to stop should a recipient enter a new de facto relationship. "Young people might have a series of short de facto relationships - and they're potentially up for paying spouse maintenance for several," Ms Harrington said. "It could be a big problem."

However, a spokesman for federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland said that in this situation the payer would be entitled to head back to the family courts to show "just cause" for discharging or varying the order.

The Family Law Amendment (De Facto Financial Matters and Other Measures) Act aims to end discrimination in the treatment of married and unmarried couples after separation. Previously, Queensland's de facto couples could access the Family Court to resolve child custody issues, but property disputes had to be heard in Supreme or District courts. With the new laws, de factos can have all matters heard in a federal family law court. Claims on superannuation also are allowed.

In August, a Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs inquiry heard grave concerns about the reforms from family and religious agencies, including FamilyVoice Australia. FVA feared that by extending equal rights to de facto couples, marriage would be devalued and undermined.

Source






Alarming teen suicide rate in lesbians, gays, and bisexuals

Not a lifestyle to be encouraged

Lesbian, gay and bisexual young people are attempting suicide and harming themselves at an alarming rate because of bullying in Queensland schools, a new report shows. The Open Doors Action Research Report 2008 shows that over the past 12 months 37 per cent of affected young people had attempted suicide and 82 per cent had considered suicide. It also showed that of the 164 participants who completed the anonymous online survey, 59 per cent had harmed themselves.

"Given that LGB (lesbian, gay and bisexual) young people reported extensive maltreatment and lack of support, it is unsurprising that they also reported high rates of self-harm, suicide ideation and suicide attempts," the report by the support organisation Open Doors says.

The report highlights schools as a significant source of distress for lesbian, gay and bisexual young people. Four out of five respondents reported they had been bullied for their sexuality at school, but only 12 per cent said the school took action to stop the bullying. "Bullying not only came from students. Adults such as teachers, school administrators and parents also bullied LGB students," the report says. "Many young people felt so afraid at school that they had missed over two school weeks worth of classes to ensure their safety. "Clearly current school anti-bullying measures do not adequately protect LGB students - this is providing a discriminatory educational environment for LGB students which is illegal. "Schools need to take further actions to ensure LGB students are safe at school."

Sexual health education at schools was also found to be inadequate, as out of the two-thirds of LGB young people who reported that they had engaged in sex, only two per cent reported being adequately educated in practising safe sex. "It is essential that LGB young people are provided equal opportunity to their heterosexual peers to learn about safer sex," the report said.

The average participant in the survey was 17, attending school and sexually active. The report stated 98 per cent of participants were certain of their sexual orientation. Open Doors Youth Service has operated since 2001, tackling youth homelessness in the greater Brisbane area.

Source