Childhood Obesity Condemns Young Australians to a Short, Sick Life. Eat, Drink, Consume, for Soon You Die.

posted by Paul Roberton on Friday, November 6th 2009

22 million children world-wide are obese.

In the US 16% are overweight.  28% of Uk children are too. In Australia, 1 in four are obese.

Meanwhile, 230,000 students and 46% of NSW secondary schools have gone with a computer tutoring  package sponsored by McDonald’s, putting fast food advertising in front of students in their homes and classrooms.

This, while the  Australian Society for the Study of Obesity (ASSO) paints a miserable picture of the future for obese children: asthma, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and orthopaedic problems.

It only gets worse with age.  Obese adults can look forward to diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, gallbladder disease, ovarian, breast, prostate and renal cancers, not to mention the psychosocial disorders.

Analysis by Tim Gill from the NSW Centre for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Sydney show that in Australia, roughly half of 16- to 18-year-old boys consume nearly a litre of soft drink a day.

Not surprising, since the Australian Schools Canteen Association is contracted to the Coca Cola company- a company that has been known to spend up to $180m on its television advertising.

Compare that to the funding Nicola Roxon recently earmarked for the new National Preventative Health Strategy. The $17.6m funding allocated by the Federal Government is a drop in the ocean  compared to the advertising spend.

Yet we see no leadership from our government on the issue of childhood obesity. They should be responding to research like Gill’s and making companies accountable. They should be spreading information on what 1000mls of Coca Cola per day does to the a young person.

They should be investing more time, money and effort in combating an epidemic which will otherwise consign the next generation of Australians to lives of ill-health, sickness and disease.

They certainly should be curtailing the ability of companies like McDonalds to reach into the homes and bedrooms of school children.

Granny-Gate – Sex For Cig’s – Brumby Government Goes From Bad to Bloody Unbelievable!

posted by Scott Kane on Friday, September 25th 2009

Is This What Victoria Has Reduced Elderly Women To?

Community Services minister Lisa Neville says:

“…the state government had begun the process of improving the care-home sector and that it was unacceptable if women were exchanging sexual favours for necessities.”

This only comes after the Victorian Public Advocate, Colleen Pearce, tells Victoria:

“It is not uncommon for us to hear about (elderly) women either trading cigarettes for sex or else being raped.”

Epic Fail, Minister!

When a Minister of the Crown who is ultimately responsible for the portfolio in which this is allegedly taking place only offers us spin about beginning “…the process of improving…” we are sorely in need of a ministerial resignation.

Minister We’re Talking About Crimes – Not “Favours”

Colleen Pearce is rightly and justifiably outraged.  But for the minister who holds ultimate responsibility of thousands of elderly woman and men to call it “…unacceptable…” is a sick, perverted joke at the expense of our loved ones.  A group who, by definition, cannot look after themselves and  are generally voiceless, apart from the work of Advocates like Colleen Pearce.

Not “…unacceptable…” Minister – the word to use is intolerable.

Across every area of responsibility,  Brumby government is always “gonna fix it” – yet they preside over a mess, one they’ve created through negligence and a complete lack of interest.

This has become the anthem of the Brumby Labor government.

“Gonna!”

Stated Plainly Cigarette Smoking Is An Addiction.

Using a powerful addiction to a substance such as nicotine found in cigarettes – an addiction experts state is harder than heroin to beat – as a tool to rape must not be minimised by calling it a “favour”.

It’s a crime.  A crime under state, federal and international law.

It’s disgusting.

What is it with the Brumby government?

• We’ve got the Bushfire Royal Commission tasked with finding no blame.
• The Brimbank Botch Up.

And now..

• Nursing Home Bordellos?

The community is sickened by reports of women being trafficked to work in the sex trade.

There is very little difference here.  These people are vunerable – in many cases as vulnerable as children.

This is the era – or should that be error? – of Labor party spin, big government advertising budgets to tell us of their glorious achievements.

Perhaps Labor will make a TV commercial now asking Victorians to:

• “Ration” their abuse of the elderly, in keeping with their water policy,
• Dob in a Granny Grabber

…or some other trendy, disconnected “shiny” campaign to demonstrate their total lack of real concern.

That the press haven’t called this “Granny-Gate” is in itself amazing.

Our Elderly Depend On Us As Much As Our Children For Protection

Elderly people constrained to nursing homes should be receiving care – not abuse – respect – not rape -  palliative care – not pain.

Resign Minister!

Scott Kane

Rudd bids for public hospitals while voters know only clear and responsible federalism will heal the sick.

posted by David Collyer on Monday, July 27th 2009

Quality health care is a bargain - just ask the sick and dying

Kevin Rudd wants to run the public hospitals and is willing to conduct a referendum to gain the power.  Why?

What can the federal government bring to our public hospital system that state governments cannot?

Do they possess superior management skills?  A lower cost base?  Or unique insights into patient care?

I don’t think so.

The federal government does have the money, courtesy of the takeover of income tax from the states in the Second World War.  And we owe a debt of gratitude to Gough Whitlam for the introduction of universal health care in the early 1970’s.

However, both of these key changes undermined the clear lines of responsibility voters need to inform their choices.  State governments blame the feds for rationing the funds they need.  Canberra accuses state administrators of ‘inefficiency’.

No government is clearly responsible; no government can be punished for its failures.   One taxes, another spends.

Many people think state governments are redundant – relics of our colonial past.  But the end of the states is not the shift Rudd is threatening a referendum on.  He merely wants to control their activities.

Universal health care is a public good of enormous value.  It is more use to the poor and sick than superannuation or transport or even social welfare.  It is the gift of life itself.

We can congratulate ourselves on being born in a country that provides quality care for everyone at a cost of only 8.8 per cent of GDP.  This is an absolute bargain!

The USA is currently debating the introduction of a system like ours – theirs currently costs 15.2 per cent of GDP and leaves over 30 million people without health care and higher infant mortality rate than all other developed countries.  That comparison makes a mockery of allegations of ‘inefficiency’.

Why does Rudd want to run the hospitals?  This is a second order answer to the problem.  A better one would be to match state taxes to their responsibilities.  Then we could vote them out for just cause, not just because.