In the News
Bidjigal Reserve will become home to one of the first Green Army projects to be supported in Australia under the Coalition’s Green Army Plan.
Federal Shadow Environment Minister, Greg Hunt, and Federal Member for Mitchell, Alex Hawke, said that if a Coalition Government were elected, the Bidjigal Reserve project would be one of the first to benefit from funding under the Green Army Plan.
Mr Hunt said the Green Army would provide teams of ten young Australians who will work on local community-based environmental projects for six month periods as part of a new Coalition program.
“This is a really positive program that will deliver significant training and practical experience in the vital area of environmental management,” Mr Hunt said.
“The Bidjigal Reserve Green Army Project will provide enormous environmental benefits as well as vocational training for our emerging workforce.”
The project’s aims are to remove weeds and undergrowth from surrounding walking tracks and bushland bordering onto nearby housing.
“This is an opportunity for local young people to gain valuable employment experience, while improving our precious local environment,” Mr Hawke said.
“The Coalition’s Green Army will help sites like Bidjigal Reserve and our local communities to gain the combined benefits of training, experience and environmental gain. Environmental workers would help local youngsters overcome employment barriers and deliver a positive contribution to the community.
“I am delighted that we have secured one of the first Green Army projects for Mitchell. This is about jobs and training for ten young people. It is also about creating an environmental benefit that everyone can enjoy.”
Mr Hunt said the Green Army plan had first been unveiled by Liberal Leader Tony Abbott earlier this year. Under a Coalition Government, the scheme would start in July 2011. Teams of ten young workers will be deployed on specific projects for six month periods.
The visit by the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, was an important opportunity to highlight the waste of the Gillard Government’s Building the Education Revolution program, and to announce the Coalition’s Real Action Plan to Stop Labor’s School Halls Waste, said the Federal Member for Mitchell, Alex Hawke.
Under the Coalition’s plan principals will decide on the priorities for each school, not the state bureaucracy. In addition, once the planned construction is complete, schools will retain any remaining money for other education or infrastructure initiatives.
“The Building the Education Revolution has seen a significant waste of taxpayer funds here at Annangrove, and right around Australia,” Mr Hawke said.
“At Annangrove, the school community was seeking a new hall, but was offered a library, despite already having a library. Nothing was done to ensure the many hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers money was spent wisely and produced good quality outcomes for the school.”
“If this is how local P & Cs are treated by Ms Gillard as Education Minister, what can we expect from Julia Gillard as Prime Minister?”
Mr Hawke said the scale of the mismanagement of public funds right around Australia was potentially enormous. The Building the Education Revolution was initially a $14.7 billion program, which within six months had blown out by a further $1.5 billion.
“Finding out the true extent of the waste still does not appear to be a Gillard Government priority,” Mr Hawke said.
“The waste in these programs must stop now. What more could we have been able to build in the Hills with these taxpayers’ funds?”
Mr Hawke said it was frustrating and galling that many of the problems with these programs were brought to the attention of the Rudd Government throughout last year and in the early months of 2010, yet the Government still will not conduct a full judicial inquiry.
“I asked questions of the then Minister, Julia Gillard, in the Parliament last September about Annangrove Public School,” Mr Hawke said. “Yet instead of sincerely addressing these concerns, and those of schools right around the nation, Minister Gillard seemed more intent on attacking the messenger.
“No-one is begrudging or arguing the merit of new school facilities. But our local schools have been locked into the inflexible Building the Education Revolution program and have not had their priorities addressed.”
“They see staggering examples of waste and mismanagement. It is an awful irony that the children going to local schools today will be paying off the massive debt incurred by the Rudd/Gillard Government to fund this program,” Mr Hawke said.
Hundreds of families in our local community could benefit directly or in the future from the establishment of Diabetes Clinical Trial Network (CTN) in Australia, said the Federal Member for Mitchell, Alex Hawke.
Mr Hawke said the Coalition will provide $35 million dollars to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation to pursue finding a cure for Type 1 diabetes through the Clinical Trial Network from next year.
“There will be hundreds of families in the Hills in which a family member suffers from Type 1 Diabetes,” Mr Hawke said.
“Earlier this year I had the opportunity to meet with a young local resident, Marika Martiskin, and have my blood tested as part of ‘Kids in the House.’”
Kids in the House featured over one hundred Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Youth Ambassadors aged 3 to 32, all with type 1 diabetes, converging on Parliament House to personally ask for government funding for type 1 diabetes research and a Clinical Trials Network (CTN).
“Establishment of a Diabetes CTN in Australia will enable people with diabetes to join international clinical trials for promising new treatments and technologies for diabetes,” Mr Hawke said.
Mr Hawke noted this could give access to treatments five or ten years before they would otherwise become available in Australia.
“It could bring researchers just that much closer to a cure for this chronic and life-threatening disease,” Mr Hawke said.
There are an estimated 140,000 sufferers of Type 1 diabetes in Australia, 20,000 of those are children. Overall Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes affects more than 800,000 Australians.
An operative CTN would speed up access to the latest treatments and technologies, translate promising Australian research into clinical outcomes, improve health and reduce complications for those with Type 1 diabetes.
Mr Hawke said there could be flow on benefits to Australians who suffer other auto-immune diseases.
“Some people with Type 2 diabetes who experience the same life threatening complications as those with Type 1 diabetes will also benefit,” Mr Hawke said.
Mental health professionals and services will get greater support from a major expansion of frontline mental healthcare services under a Coalition Government, said the Federal Member for Mitchell, Alex Hawke.
In particular young people suffering from a mental disorder will have greater access to services, Mr Hawke said.
The Coalition’s Real Action Plan for Better Mental Health will provide $1.5 billion towards an expansion of frontline mental health services to cut the burden of mental health disorders within Australia.
In 2006, the former Coalition Government made the single biggest investment in mental health by any government in Australian history. $1.9 billion was committed over a five year period for services for people with mental illness, their families and carers.
The Coalition’s Real Action Plan for Better Mental Health will build on this by providing $1.5 billion towards 20 new Early Psychosis Intervention Centres, 60 additional youth headspace sites and 800 acute and sub-acute early intervention beds.
headspace is Australia’s National Youth Mental Health Foundation. The number of headspace sites will increase from the current 30 to 90.
The new Early Psychosis Intervention Centres will be based on the ‘EPPIC’ model pioneered in Australia by current Australian of the Year Professor Patrick McGorry. There is currently only one such Centre in Australia, located in metropolitan Melbourne.
The Early Psychosis Intervention Centres and headspace sites will be located in metropolitan and regional areas across Australia and mobile services will be provided in each state and territory.
The provision of 800 acute and sub acute beds linked to the Early Psychosis Intervention Centres will take pressure off the nation’s public hospitals and emergency departments and provide better care to the patient in the community.
Mr Hawke said the new spending in mental health would help take pressure of hospitals and emergency departments.
“It will also provide more treatment facilities in community settings to the benefit of those suffering with a mental illness.”
Mr Hawke said the Coalition’s commitments would target younger people suffering with mental disorders.
“Mental illness often first manifests itself in teenagers or young adults and early intervention is critical to help these young people deal with their disorder and regain health.”
“Labor talked about mental health, but took no action. The Coalition has a strong track record and will deliver necessary services to those suffering a mental illness,” Mr Hawke said.
A Coalition Government will introduce new indexation arrangements for Defence Force Retirement and Death Benefits Scheme (DFRDB) members, said the Federal Member for Mitchell, Alex Hawke.
“This is an area of great concern which I have discussed with many local veterans and members of the ex-service community,” Mr Hawke said. “I have been pursuing this with the Shadow Ministry and spoke about this in Parliament earlier this year.”
Mr Hawke said that these changes recognise the unique nature of military service. Better indexation arrangements are a necessary part of a fair, equitable and fiscally responsible military superannuation system.
Under a Coalition government, from 1 July 2011 those DFRDB members aged 55 years or older will have their military superannuation pensions indexed to the greater of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), Male Total Average Weekly Earnings (MTAWE) or the Pensioner and Beneficiary Living Cost Index (PBLCI).
Currently this superannuation scheme is indexed only in line with movements with the CPI.
Widows of DFRDB superannuates will also benefit from the announced changes.
“Australia’s service personnel, past and present, deserve to live out their lives in the knowledge that they have financial security,” Mr Hawke said.
“Labor broke its election promise to ‘fix’ the issue of military superannuation indexation and this has yet another example that the Labor Government is all talk and no action.
“This is a fully costed and fully funded policy. Savings already identified by the Coalition will be used to offset the $98 million cost over the forward estimates. A further $100 million will be invested into the Future Fund as a first step towards funding the new arrangements beyond the forward estimates.”
This change brings into line the indexation of DFRDB superannuation with the aged pension. Currently DFRDB superannuation is indexed according to the CPI.
If the indexation rate had increased in line with the aged pension, military superannuates would have received an extra $28.40 per fortnight to their pension (if they received the full pension rate) in March this year.
“We are committed to real action to support our veterans, and will ensure that those who have served their nation are properly looked after in their retirement,” Mr Hawke said.
“Military service is unique and unique solutions are required to recognise that service.”