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The latest piece by Vince (AKA Drunk Guy)
Queensland’s government debt bill is said to be costing over $10 million a day in interest payments ever since this state Labor government lost its AAA rating. So far, all of the other states have managed to retain theirs even though some are in dire financial predicaments. It seems that no money is safe from the clutches of Bligh.
In a recent move, Bligh has raided $10 million from the coffers of a community benefit fund to support its floundering solar rebate scheme, depriving many charities of much-needed grant money. The move mandates that $3.3 million each year be diverted into the solar rebate scheme.
Mary Philip, who has been on the Community Benefit Committee for 10 years, has resigned in protest at this interference. The Community Benefit Committee manages the fund, which delivered over $35 million from gambling revenue to charities and not-for-profit community organisations last year.
It is also reported that other members of the committee are intending to resign when their time for renewal comes up in August. There are concerns that this approach by the state government could set a precedent for future similar interventions, with more money being diverted away from not for profit community groups like , surf life saving clubs, environmental groups, shelters, kindergartens, scouting groups, churches and disability groups.
Community Benefit Committee member Richard Bowley said the committee was “very unhappy” with the government interference and lack of consultation.” We feel this is an intrusion, getting a directive from the Premier’s Department and then the Minister to redirect funds,” Mr Bowley said.
Bligh has accepted Ms Philip’s resignation and attempted to excuse the interference by claiming that community groups will benefit from solar.
While it’s commendable to add the solar hot water and /or power to the list of items that can be allowable as items that can be applied for funding for, and Anna Bligh has said that any money not applied for solar will still be available for other purposes that fit the criteria, some groups will be at a disadvantage. Although Bligh claims the $10 million over 3 years will have very little impact on community groups across Queensland, the groups that are incorporated and also own property will be able to make claims at the expense of smaller groups who cannot as they own no property.
The government expects that up to $3.3 million a year will be directed to solar applications and would save Queensland charities up to $245,000 collectively in electricity costs.
Bligh also said “Asking the committee to give priority to particular applications is consistent with the Act and not unusual,” she said. “Indeed, it was done in relation to Cyclone Larry, the introduction of Prep year, equine influenza and projects in rural and regional Queensland.”
There is a big difference between asking for funds to be directed to assist those in need due to hardship, and simply diverting much needed funds to prop up a government initiative which may be at risk of falling short. I’m sure this is not the purpose of the Gambling community benefit fund.
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Anna Bligh, i wish she was a labor person first then a premier.
After all her election is way off,
if she cared about the party and not just reelection she would also stand up against the miners.
I it was me i would always put the principles and the party first.
This is such an important issue for the country.
Get over it Anna, Mr. Rudd needs your support and so do labor voters.
i actuly wrote to her yesterday about this.i suggest that other do the same
The fact checker has gone to lunch apparently – and this article seems pretty close to a article in last Sunday’s Sunday Mail. The Community Fund that distributes the money received from the Casinos in Queensland gives money to non-profit and community associations. The fund has for years operated under a number of guidelines on what it will and won’t fund.
So the Government has added another criterion – so what? The money hasn’t been stripped from other areas of need – special allocations have been made for years. When I applied for funding for a non-profit association a couple of years ago, I was advised that anything to do with conservation of water would be favourably considered (as opposed to playground equipment) – the drought was current.
The only interesting thing here is that the official opposition (as opposed to the media) have kept very quiet on this matter.
2353: Is there anything factually incorrect here? I don’t want to check every article that gets submitted for accuracy, but I might need to keep a closer eye on them if that’s the case.
I did find the idea that richer clubs will disproportionately benefit from this move an interesting one, however.
What’s going on with the Queensland opposition at the moment? I’m not really up to speed with them, every now and then we hear about them “imploding”, but that’s about all I know :p
Hi 2353, The fact checker has not gone to lunch, and you know there are no incorrect facts in this story. If there is a similarity to a recent article in a Qld paper that proves the point, they are highly unlikely to publish anything that would lead them into a legal situation. Further, I have used some quotes, and make no apology for that, from press releases that I assume they also quoted from.
This story is not new, ok, it is several months old, however what has led it to be resurected is the fact that Ms Philip has resigned and Bligh has had to come out and defend her bolstering of the troubled solar program.
As JJ put it, and as I have mentioned, community groups must be incorporated and own property to get the solar and those that are, will. Thats $3.3 million of community benefit funds each year going to a few quite well off groups; that means many smaller groups will miss out of vital funds for small improvments to their organisations that they otherwise could not afford. Also as I have said, no one has a problem (not even the committee) when funds are prioritised to those suffering hardship or from natural disasters, but forcing the committee to purposely divert a large part of the funding to one particular area, despite her assurance that it is within the act is without doubt morally wrong.
[quote]2353: Is there anything factually incorrect here? I don’t want to check every article that gets submitted for accuracy, but I might need to keep a closer eye on them if that’s the case.[/quote]Yes, the dollars have not been taken out of the system – a non-profit organisation who either owns (or has building owner approval) still applies to the Community Development Fund (paid for by some of the Casino tax) for a grant to achieve a certain outcome. In line with the operation of the fund for a number of years – by both sides of the political fence – the current government has given a directive that a application for solar panels should be given favourable consideration – in a similar way to water efficiency applications were given priority a few years ago. Years before it was vehicles fitted out to transport those in wheelchairs.
[quote]As JJ put it, and as I have mentioned, community groups must be incorporated and own property to get the solar and those that are, will. Thats $3.3 million of community benefit funds each year going to a few quite well off groups; that means many smaller groups will miss out of vital funds for small improvments to their organisations that they otherwise could not afford. Also as I have said, no one has a problem (not even the committee) when funds are prioritised to those suffering hardship or from natural disasters, but forcing the committee to purposely divert a large part of the funding to one particular area, despite her assurance that it is within the act is without doubt morally wrong.[/quote]The requirement to be incorporated has always been a criteria for a Community Benefit Grant and it’s pointless giving money to a community group for solar panels when the group doesn’t own the property to hang them from! The larger and “well off” groups are usually in my experience larger and better off due to the knowledge, business acumen or research abilities of the committee. I suspect the Qld Govt solar panel program is to ensure that the Qld Govt doesn’t have to borrow more to build another power station which would inevitably burn something to produce electricity creating further greenhouse gas in the environment (as well as reducing debt levels to get the AAA credit rating back).
2353,
You’re a hard taskmaster, if you read the article or any of the recent ones in the papers (sorry I don’t get papers, it’s a tree hugging thing) you say it’s similar too, you know that the drama is not that the money has been “taken” it’s that for political purposes money has been allocated by forcing the committee managing it to have to aprove a certain criteria above need by other groups.
I’m sorry also that you chose to discrtiminate against smaller and fledgling groups in favour of large well off groups, which do you not think started out as small ones? the system has to be fair, it’s not there to be exploited by Bligh or the well of groups.
One local group here pays a fund raiser very well, that person and the 4 main committee get a car in their package as well as a smaller salary, and yet they will get the solar panels and a small group who desperately need a laptop for flora and fauna surveys or a pocket GPS for koala sightings will be rejected as funds dry up, tell me that’s fair.
1. Why is reducing our reliance on coal generated electricity political?
2. If you’re a tree hugger – logically you also support solar over nuclear or other forms of alternative power.
3. Where is the evidence that the laptop or GPS receiver won’t be funded?
2353, once again picking straws, A few solar panels will not reduce the reliance on coal generated power, if you read the article you’ll see that it is for the benefit of the groups who can get it to save in power costs to them (those who qualify)
I do fully support solar over any fossil fuel generation method, however if this was in addition to the community benefit fund wouldn’t it be better instead of robbing peter to pay paul? wouldn’t it be better to have simply added the criteria of solar up to a certain amount of Kilowatts per system and let the applications be processed by the committee as per usual instead of dictating how much has to be allowed for it? in a democracy shouldn’t you want government that increases community funding rather than telling you it’s increased by the addition of a solar program which actually comes out of the existing fund?
If the money runs out due to demand for solar set ups and all the other funds also run out, the applicants for the next three years of the last $3.3 million will be left unfunded, why do you not seem to understand that? is it too hard a concept? It’s plainly obvious that if funds run out due to large amounts going to solar ( I believe they range from $16,000 to $32,000 each)then the funds will just run out, what more evidence do you need.
And , FYI even without the solar taking a huge slice of funds away, I have seen the letters to community groups I belong to inviting them to apply at the next round, so don’t you think that will come sooner?
I guess if you’re arguing the tiny technical points here your are pretty much an ardent Labor supporter and are never going to admit that they sometimes get it wrong and the community suffers, well look closely, this is one of those times.
I agree. Bligh is as bad as NSW state Labor. They should go. This from a non liberal voter (most of the time in view of the horrendous extremes Howard pursued and Abbot after him).
I guess it comes down to this – no-one can afford to be a loyal voter to any particular political party any more because they some parties at State level are indistinguishable from the opposition party at federal level.
We dont have a lot of free choice do we?. Its a duopoly who happen look very similar.
Hey Denise, I thought it was all about the people she was supposed to represent not The Party, sounds a bit like Russia’s socialist era, they found it better to give that up though.
I think Alice, you have hit the nail on the head, with labor going away from traditional Workers Party roots and the Libs doing the same as far as their base voter being corporate and stockbroker types and both parties barely getting enough away from centre these days to even be considered center left or center right, a duoopoly is about the only way to describe the democratic system we have. We are despreately in need of a third Party, even if it just gives the media another fence to sit on.
I don’t think we need any more parties. What we need is a diversity of ideas and something that actually looks like a debate. Frankly if it weren’t for places like this, where we “Bludgers” can get together and spit a little, progressives’d all be whistling in the dark wouldn’t they?
The notion of a party implies a commonality of view, adherence to the accepted and common program. It’s pyramidal, hierarchical; just another power structure serving those at the top.
I think we’ve had enough of that. It just doesn’t work anymore. We need something that more closely approximates the reality of modern life, it’s diversity, complexity and its propensity for spontaneous, chaotic and creative change.
Bugger the party political system! It’s as old as top hats on bankers!
Of course that’s also a pipe dream at this time so failing that lets get Rudd back and the Greens up. That’ll do for now. You know what they say; politics is incremental, the art of the possible. Only open revolution brings about the highly improbable.
Mirriyula
The reality is – if people have any sense at all and they want better trains, roads and hospitals (and hey this is what gutted labor in Penrith – transport pure and simple – its costing people a motz in time and petrol and tolls to get to work – not just in Penrith).
Barry O’Farrell won on the strength of that slone in Penrith – it wasnt any shady deal – it wasnt Karen Paluzzano’s corruption – it was the total ineptitude of State Labor to do anything about infrastructure (and everything about over cramming their developer mates and their high density units on every main road – existing – from here to Penrith).
So there is Barry in Penrith handing out teacakes to blue collar workers for the first time in 37 years – surrounded by anti deficit hawkes and pro austerity vigilantes in his own party – with no intention of spending money on trains, roads or public hospitals (seeing as the libs want everything in private sector hands).
The only hope people have is to vote to destabilise the existing cosy duopoly – of B1 and B1. (Thats BS1 and BS2).
Vote Green and try to build a decent third party – at least one that is in favour of infrastructure spending and public infrastructure and the other parties (the big two) may just get the message. Right wng extremism means jack to the rest of us if its not working and we cant get to work without considerable expense and delay.
Pathetic we have to spell it out for the voters but someone has to. If they want change they have to vote change and voting liberal and labor isnt voting for change at all.
Well of course I buy all that in theory, indeed I like the thinking behind all your posts Alice; but the chance of going from a Labor majority of whatever it is to a Green majority of whatever it might need to be to achieve all the things you rightly identify as being needed, specially in Penrith, (see my comment re Penrith on the EmmJay post), is vanishingly small in the next election, even if the Greens and any fourth or fifth force field enough candidates.
I’ve been voting Green with labor preferences for the last several fed elections and ya know who’s got in every time, that prancing show pony Brendan Nelson several times and now he’s gone to check his personal grooming somewhere else and the boundaries have been redistributed I’ve got that pie eater Jokin’ Joe Hockey.
At the state level I’ve got Anthony Roberts and he just makes my flesh creep. There’s something not quite right about him, almost as if he might have a bag of boiled sweets in his pocket, you know what I mean?
So as far as the state election is concerned Big Barry O’Farrell’s huge but empty smiling head, even filled as it is with the evil hissing of the vile reptile David Clarke, cannot be any worse than the Obeid Tripodi Party and their dancing mannequin, the pretty but pointless Premier. It’s a case of, “Would Sir like shit with his shit, or would sir just prefer shit?”
So as I said, fine in theory but a little bit unreliable in practice. In this case I’d rather the devil I know in the form of the Labor Party whilst I continue to hone my ideas and opinions on future Green policy initiatives. The sort that may, indeed must, carry the day at some time hopefully in the not too distant future.
My reasons are very simple. At the federal level Abbott and his menagerie of poo tossing sociopathic crypto-fascist monkeys would be an abject disaster. At the state level there are so many political chickens coming home to roost one may as well sit back and just enjoy the circus. But I will say this. The coming state election is the biggest opportunity the Greens will ever get in NSW and they’d be nuts not to take full advantage of it.
Actually The Greens aren’t part of the any new solution, they are part of the problem, they’re not the breaker of duopoly they are firmly part of it and I don’t think voters are duped by their stance as an independent party. I think everyone knows they are an alternative vote catcher for Labor.
A very good mate of mine, who is well educated in environmental issues and lectures and researches in the subject and has worked in the community in the same for many years put his hand up for The Greens, I helped him out at three elections and at each one Labor had pre printed how to vote cards preferencing Labor on behalf of the Greens and had to be complained about before they would withdraw them. My mate would not give preferences preferring to allow voters to make up their own minds. The message from above basically said that we don’t make too much fuss because that’s how we are anyway, left of center.
The Greens had a chance in the Tasmanian elections to make a stand as a true independent party, and failed.
I also disagree that we don’t need another party, the democrats are having a resurgence in both desire and apparently membership and I think this shows that as you rightly point out, the system of a party fielding candidates who will serve the party first and the community a distant last is leaving intelligent voters cold. A new party might just push these two back to their corners and get some real diverse policy differences and allow MP’s to voice their opinion based on their electorate when they need to without retribution and if that means crossing the floor, so be it.
The Party machine has become ominous and the only way to change the way it does business is to reduce market share so that it has to perform to survive.
Actually The Greens aren’t part of the any new solution, they are part of the problem, they’re not the breaker of duopoly they are firmly part of it and I don’t think voters are duped by their stance as an independent party. I think everyone knows they are an alternative vote catcher for Labor.
A very good mate of mine, who is well educated in environmental issues and lectures and researches in the subject and has worked in the community in the same for many years put his hand up for The Greens, I helped him out at three elections and at each one Labor had pre printed how to vote cards preferencing Labor on behalf of the Greens and had to be complained about before they would withdraw them. My mate would not give preferences preferring to allow voters to make up their own minds. The message from above basically said that we don’t make too much fuss because that’s how we are anyway, left of center.
The Greens had a chance in the Tasmanian elections to make a stand as a true independent party, and failed.
I also disagree that we don’t need another party, the democrats are having a resurgence in both desire and apparently membership and I think this shows that as you rightly point out, the system of a party fielding candidates who will serve the party first and the community a distant last is leaving intelligent voters cold. A new party might just push these two back to their corners and get some real diverse policy differences and allow MP’s to voice their opinion based on their electorate when they need to without retribution and if that means crossing the floor, so be it.
The Party machine has become ominous and the only way to change the way it does business is to reduce market share so that it has to perform to survive.
My position is not so much one of Green Party supporter but rather supporter of Green Sustainable Social Democratic ideas. But I don’t even really like labelling those ideas. It seems to make them that little bit smaller almost as soon as they are uttered.
Now if there were a party that could accommodate members from across the current political spectrum from the so called left to the so called right, labels that also have very little meaning these days, then I’d be interested, because I see Australian politics as suffering a kind of terminal entropy these days. There is no gradient of ideas, no flow, no dynamic.
What we need is the bursting onto the scene of new white hot ideas that immediately and irrevocably change their surroundings, providing new impetus to the system, but what we seem to constantly get is stale cant and cheap political blandishments and bribes.
Australian politics is a pretty but poxy girl with one hand in your pants while the other filches your wallet, all the while telling you she loves you and aren’t you handsome, but then dropping you like a rock once she’s got what she needs leaving you with an urgent need for a doctor and a dose of penicillin.
I cant do anything else Warrigal. I rather like Bazza as a person but David Clarke and the rest of the ultra right make my flesh creep. State Labor stinks at NSW level but thats no reflection on Rudd’s government – he is basically a good guy but not moving fast enough to get back to the middle. I am so over the right wing nutters in both parties.
I feel I have no alternative but to be part of the “Im really pissed off” protest vote come the State elections. Greens gets mine….but I really need to know who they preference and if its labor….what else? Vote independent?
I dont know whether Im coming or going – I like a lot of Australians are sick to death of right agendas..its so obvious they are failing us all.
My kid got told he was on leave of absence tonight from his job. He is on a “training wage”. The employment placement agency told him he would be enrolled in a Tafe certificate and would complete in a year and Tafe would come to him and they would organise it. Tafe never came. He accepted a job working for $8 an hour for this. He took it to get the certificate. Now the boss tells him he wants to cut out the middle man and go direct, but offers no pay increase. The employment agency who is taking subsidies from the government tells him “Tafe must have lost your details and we dont actually enrol you and its up to them – we give them your details but we dont follow up”. No-one has been to see him and after working four months for $8 per hour – his stingy boss (who has three kids working for $8 per hour) tells him – no holiday pay – leave of absence if you want a holiday for a week.
Kickbacks here, there and everywhere, and these bastards are ripping off our kids….al in the name of the privatised CES.
No – I hate the right agenda of privatising job placements.
Had the same drama with my son, he took a job placement opportunity whilst starting uni as a Lab Technician (on about $6 an hour IIRC) and within four months he was loading and unloading trucks on the road with a forklift without a license or even being in the correct union.
His boss claimed there was only enough Lab work for a tech for about two days a week so to make up the rest of the days he had to work as a factory hand. My son was OK with it because he wanted to buy a car and wanted to keep the money coming in.
I, of course was fuming, and after making some calls to the employment agency and being told it was up to my son to either agree to what ever work they gave him or quit, and if he did that they wouldn’t keep him on the books either, I was even more fuming, a call to the union and only to be told they weren’t interested because they can’t intervene in trainee-ship contract situations, and anyway my son isn’t in the union,and QT to find out if my son could be charged with an offence whilst under instruction from an employer for operation a machine without a license, my rage was now at it’s peak. Time for a friendly chat with Mr. employer.
First a phone call to arrange an appointment, Mr. employer must have suspected that I was unhappy, he delayed the appointment for two weeks claiming he was going back home to South Africa for a fortnight to manage some company affairs, I could wait.
In the meantime, he had organised to get (all four kids actually) my son a forklift ticket after QT had made a call to him.
OK so my beef was that he was getting $6 an hour to be a storeman 3 days a week, when there is an award for a storeman, further he should be working in a lab if that’s what his job description says he should be doing.
At the end of the fortnight I called to confirm our meeting, only to be told he believed I had dobbed him into QT and that he had now made things right so in a word F@#% off and don’t call him again, I was in my car in ten seconds.
After meeting the man face to face, he was much more able to see my position, he said that even though he didn’t have to, he would pay my son 60% of the Storeman pay as a full time lab assistant if he continued to help in stores when needed, and that he would guarantee his attainment of certificates and tafe courses as a priority.
After the end date of the trainee-ship, they offered him full time employment at full pay on the same terms, my son was out of there the next day and hasn’t looked back, he has deferred UNI and is now a lab manager and specialises in some things that has seen him travel to the US and Europe to lecture on (he created a new method of doing a process that cuts the time down to a quarter and is more accurate).
I know this is an isolated case but in my opinion, the unions should have stepped in at the start, if they want membership, and truly want to fight inequity in the workplace, it’s all or nothing, and if they sort a problem for a young bloke just starting out they probably have a life member.
We’ll be undoing the damage done during the Tiny Turd’s years in Canberra for years to come. The inequities he set in concrete are manifold and you only really discover them when you or your family fall over them.
I suppose that may be why so many people are genuinely disappointed with Rudd. He just doesn’t seem to be moving fast enough to roll back Tiny Johnny Small’s fascist pograms against ordinary Australians. Even so, and even given the visceral hatred I have for the tiny turd, the idea that the Mad Monk might gain the treasury benches just fills me with dread.
I agree, that’s one of the real sticking points with Rudd, he got elected on getting rid of Johny’s Work choices and then he straight away said he would get it done after the next election, that to me is a buck pass, and I don’t like to be taken for a sucker.
Looks like Gillard might topple him in the near future, and to me she is more scary than little Johny, she’s reduced our kids to a number and put all their info on the net for all to see, . . big brother is here.
Hey guess what Drunk Guy – I was fuming too at this D…H…who hired my son and told him leave of absence for holidays …and hey call me when you get back and also told him a month ago “lets cut out the middle man heh??..ie the job placement agency because the nasty cretin probaly pays them $12 an hour to pay my son $8 an hour. Do you think he wanted to share the cut with my son? Waffled on about it a month ago and it was all “smooth talk” – hey kid maybe I can think about cutting out the middle man but Im paying them “disproportionatly to what they pay you…oh woe is me I dont think the business can take it if I pay you more – but Id like to get rid of them” Yeah right. Oh no… hejust wanted to save the miserable premium the employment agency was making out of my son for himself.
Its called BTP accounting BTW – dont send any of your business there. They cal all starve. The guy has three of these kids and the rest of the staff leave early most days and say to the kids “oh youre not a team player” because they leave at 3.30pm to go for an interview for a job with more money.
Bastard. I rang the bastard. He didnt return my calls. Thats because he is screwing school leavers with promises (that mean jack) and both he and the Mission Australia are getting kickbacks and the govt gets to keep the unemployment numbers down.
Stuff them. I had to educate my keen son on what wrking for jerks smells like. Early education. His first job. Nice.
Sorry – the whole privatised CES is a lie and a scam to reduce keen school leavers to humiliated mcdonalds wage slaves.
Oh if Id only this creep would return my calls…Im seriously thinking of my solicitor right now. I am one angry mother.