Who stole the "stolen generation"?

There was in fact no such thing, just social workers doing a job that they are now too afraid to do. Rather than taking black kids away from abusive families, they now just let the black kids die: Another malign effect of Leftist lies

But there WAS authoritarian treatment of blacks in earlier times. And who was it doing that? The following is a brief excerpt from a biography of Ned Hanlon, a LABOR party Premier of Qld. and still a revered figure in the ALP. Labor Premier Peter Beattie named a hospital after him a few years back

How odd that the left yammer on about the stolen generation but glide over REAL discrimination against Aborigines

As the minister largely responsible for the development and implementation of the A.L.P.'s welfare policies, Hanlon held assumptions and attitudes that had important consequences for the character of Queensland society. Under his administration Aborigines continued to be subjected to 'enforced population transfers, confinement to particular areas under relatively arbitrary and quite authoritarian regimes, excessive moral scrutiny, interference in intimate human relationships, supervised breeding, imposed placement and calculatedly inferior educational training for their children, control over their labour conditions, wages and personal property, and even suppression of their ''injurious" or menacing ''customs" or practices'. In these ways, Aborigines who, in their 'natural' state—according to Hanlon—were 'about 1,000,000 years behind the white race', were 'protected' by the state.






$1bn to keep "asylum-seekers" in detention

THE Federal Government has been handed a $1 billion bill for the running of Australia's detention centres.

Foreign-owned global security company Serco secretly renegotiated its contract with the Department of Immigration just before Christmas.

The new four-year contract to manage immigration detention centres - including Maribyrnong in Melbourne - has quadrupled from the original figure of $280 million.

The Opposition labelled the blowout a failed "stimulus program" for asylum seekers. The number of detention centres has increased from 12 to 20 under Labor.

While the centres accommodate visa overstayers and illegal workers, the Government admits they make up a small number compared with asylum seekers.

"When Labor came to office there were just four people in detention who had arrived illegally by boat," Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said. "After four years of policy failures on our borders, this grew to more than 5600."

The variation to the contract with Serco - from 2009 to 2014 - was made on December 2 last year. It had been revalued in July last year to $712 million, meaning the cost blowout in the past nine months is almost $400 million.

"The original contract did not cover the number of sites we have now expanded to," Immigration Department spokesman Sandi Logan said. "It has been driven by a simple reason - the expansion in the number of centres in the network."

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said the new contract would not affect the Budget.

Greens senator Sarah Hansen-Young said boat people should be immediately released from detention into the community.

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Medical tourism hits Australia too

It's common in Britain

FOREIGNERS are taking up hospital beds, many without paying, and leaving hospitals with millions in unpaid bills. Angry doctors say the burden effectively pushes Australians down waiting lists.

More than 30,000 foreign citizens were treated in Victoria's hospitals in 2010-11, leaving the state's healthcare system with $6 million in unpaid bills. Many did not pay, sparking calls for travel insurance to be made a visa requirement.

While most international patients were treated after falling ill or being injured while here, thousands made the most of the state's world-class medical amenities for non-urgent treatments.

Less than half of the 11,372 international patients given a hospital bed were facing medical emergencies, with more than one in five having elective surgery and even more filling maternity wards, Health Department data released to the Herald Sun reveals.

The number of foreigners admitted to hospital has almost tripled in six years. Emergency departments are seeing twice as many foreigners as six years ago, treating 19,429 in 2010-11.

The most common reasons visitors use our hospitals are births, maternity services, kidney failure, cancer, colds, flu, injuries and infections.

Foreigners using our hospitals most commonly come from India, China, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Vietnam, Fiji, the US, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. None of these countries are among the 11 with whom Australia has reciprocal healthcare agreements.

But their citizens accounted for more than half the foreigners admitted to our hospitals and treated in emergency departments.

Monash Hospital was the most popular, treating almost 4300 foreign patients, followed by Royal Women's with 3103.

Stephen Parnis, Australian Medical Association state vice-president, said making insurance a visa requirement for foreigners should be considered.

All doctors would be concerned by foreigners coming to Victoria to have a baby or seek elective care and "effectively pushing Australian citizens further down the waiting list". "If people have the means to come to Australia on an international holiday they should have the means to make allowance for their own healthcare," he said.

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Ned Hanlon's "Free" hospitals are not so free anyore

Ned Hanlon's "free" Qld. hospitals pre-dated Britain's NHS by 5 years -- 1944 vs. 1949 -- but the trajectory has been downward for both

PARENTS of children with ear, nose and throat problems are being told to consider paying for private treatment, despite living in one of the most disadvantaged areas of southeast Queensland.

Doctors in Logan, south of Brisbane, are at a loss to know where to refer children who have ear, nose and throat conditions for public treatment.

The Mater Children's Hospital is accepting only some ENT referrals and, despite Queensland Health's promises of a pediatric ENT service at the Logan Hospital, it is yet to receive funding.

A recent letter, signed by Logan ENT surgeon Bernie Whitfield, suggests general practitioners should consider referring the patient to a private practitioner.

"Due to high demand the Mater Children's Hospital is unable to accept routine ENT referrals and is returning them to Logan," the letter says. "Unfortunately, Logan Hospital is currently not funded to provide pediatric ENT services and we are unable to review your patient."

ENT director at the Princess Alexandra and Logan hospitals, Ben Panizza, said Logan received a minimum 30 pediatric ENT referrals a week but was not equipped to deal with them.

"That's led to approximately 1000 kids waiting to be seen," Dr Panizza said. "That's probably a figure which is on the conservative side. "There's a huge unmet need for pediatric ENT services in the Logan area.

"We've got the manpower to do it, we need the capital requirements from Queensland Health for outpatient facilities and theatres to allow us to do this."

Australian Medical Association state president Richard Kidd called on Queenslanders to lobby MPs and Health Minister Geoff Wilson to take urgent action.

He said children who needed ENT procedures, such as having grommets inserted, would be condemned to potentially years of partial deafness if they failed to receive the surgery. "That's a major impediment in their social and educational development," said Dr Kidd, a general practitioner.

Logan Hospital Medical Services director Jennifer King said funding had been marked to create a dedicated pediatric outpatient area.

Mater Children's Health Services executive director Mark Waters said if patients could not be seen within 12 months, they were notified the appointment could not be accepted so alternative arrangements could be made.

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