Pollies need health kick
THIS week in health, the following has been reported.
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Senior nurses jobs looking likely to be cut (The Daily Advertiser, February 10).
Let's not forget the 30 redundancies offered 18 months ago (The Daily Advertiser, August 6, 2014).
Wagga's only public hydrotherapy pool is being removed because according to the Wagga Health Service general manager, "it's in the way".
Instead, public health funds will be given to a private health organisation to provide a service we already have, but only for designated groups.
On top of this it was revealed by ABC Riverina that the new public operating theatres are not being used because of understaffing and instead public health funds are been used to utilise a private health organisation's operating theatres instead.
And what has been said from our elected representatives?
Daryl Maguire – nothing.
Michael McCormack – nothing; instead he has spent his time trying to drum up support to run for leader of the Nationals, only to not put his hand up at all. Weak.
Dan Hayes
President – Wagga Labor branch
Parroting false facts
AS CHAIR of the Regional Development Australia - Riverina Committee (RDAR), I was disappointed to read the comments made by Alan Jones (DA, February 6) suggesting the economy of the Riverina has been in decline in recent times.
This is far from being the case, as ably demonstrated by the massive capital investment currently being made into agriculture in the region, and the economic and employment growth that is being seen as a result.
The community of the Riverina deserves better than this from national commentators, and I would like to reassure our region that we are indeed successfully exploiting the opportunities offered by international demand for our "clean and green" food.
I invite Mr Jones to meet with the RDAR committee (which includes representation from the irrigation sector) to discuss the facts relating to economic growth in our vibrant region.
I look forward to his subsequent retraction of such damaging misinformation.
Diana Gibbs
Chair, RDA Riverina
Issue not black and white
PEOPLE are people, none of us are perfect and we are all entitled to our own opinions.
To my way of thinking, anyone who intentionally harms another human being, physically, loses their right to roam free.
Degrees of harm receive degrees of loss of freedom to protect the public from repeated crime. .
There is all sorts of false information coming from the internet. Most of it is opinion, as varied as the people who write it.
Violence is wrong, anyone who doesn't know that has a lot to learn. The law needs to be changed; freedom for violent offenders is wrong.
We have 18 years of a person’s life to recognise they need support to counter an upbringing that leads to violence. That is our challenge.
After that, if a line is crossed to violence, the length of the sentence should directly mirror that of the victim.
The car thefts and burnings and now the house of an elderly couple being robbed and burnt falls into the category of violence because it could so easily result in death. It is also elder abuse.
Noel Pearson gave a valuable press club address recently about funding and programs which address problems.
No matter if these teens were black or white, we need to fund and back programs that work. Father Chris Riley is another with programs that work.