Blame the baby bonus
MINISTER for Health Sussan Ley has said that “some children in our schools have never seen a toothbrush, let alone a dentist” when announcing a new dental scheme.
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There is a reason for that. It's because Peter Costello, a Liberal Treasurer, foolishly paid mothers $5000 to have a baby back around 2007. This encouraged people who were not in a sound financial or emotional position to have a baby, when they otherwise would not have. They were at least as interested in the $5000 as having a baby, and in many cases more interested in the cash than the child.
We know this because there have never been more children in protective custody, and because, as the Minister said, some of these children suffer such poor parenting “they have never seen a toothbrush”.
The dental scheme is a great idea, but it will not solve the more serious problem of poor parenting created by the Liberal-National Coalition. Nor will it address the increase in crime that will shortly occur.
And the irony is how willing the Coalition is to manipulate people's health. On the one hand, their insane promotion of reproduction, while on the other hand outlawing any sensible applications of physician assisted suicide for the terminally ill.
Dr Julian Fidge
Practice Principal, Docker Street General Medical Centre and Australian Country Party candidate for Indi
Pandering has a high price
AMID all the election talk, bungled child kidnapping attempts, and Anzac day celebrations, Australia has suffered a catastrophic event that has almost gone unnoticed, except for the ABC and the Fairfax press.
The Great Barrier Reef has suffered a mass bleaching event that has left only 7 per cent of the reef untouched. According to Queensland marine scientists, the greater part of the northern reef may never recover. If so the tourist industry will take a big hit.
It is ironic that while the Coalition and Labor parties talk up the value of jobs, the reef employs 70,000 mainly full-time workers and brings in $5.7 billion annually.
One would think that our leaders would do everything possible to preserve the reef and save these jobs. Not so. Both the federal Coalition and the Queensland State Labor Government are, incredibly, supporting the establishment of the huge Adani coal mine in the Galilee Basin .
This includes the building of massive port facilities at Abbot Point. This means dredging and shipping laneways through the reef, both of which will cause immense harm to the surviving corals.
As for the burning of coal, according to nearly all scientists on the planet, is the root cause of global warming and so the heating of the oceans and coral bleaching, one wonders why the Government is supporting this huge coal development.
I suspect there can be only one answer. Our politicians in both mainline parties are pandering to their big donors in the powerful fossil fuel industry. As the old saying goes “he who pays the piper calls the tune”.
David Sloane, Corowa
Trust, not popularity
WHO we trust in politics and public life is a real concern and politicians should note the mood of people who want better. From local to federal governments, trust is being eroded and politicians should be trying to restore confidence not popularity.
People want some certainty and direction and brave policy that keeps our economy strong and growing. The weekly antics of our politicians are often atrocious and pointless and embarrassing. All too much in all levels of politics and public life is about who throws the nastiest insults. Tall poppies rule and are often the bullies in society.
The budget debate should be about impacting plans that make the economy improve however unpopular – such choices may surprise with public support for doing what is needed and required.