Modern ministers for health in the Liberal Party are no friends of families or of Medicare.

Couldn't be at yesterday's

Save Medicare Rally in Melbourne ?

Get a cuppa, sit back, put your feet up ...

and Miss Eagle will make you feel as if you were there.

The ABC News has a done a quite reasonable story

on the rally and the issue.

Then there is this YouTube item

There's a Flickr photostream here

Miss Eagle's rally photos are here

Ian Hall's photo of the march are here.

The march went from the State Library

to the premises of the Business Council of Australia.

The Abbott Government's Commission of Audit

and other elements of the Medicare proposal

have involvement from members of the BCA. 

The research - which is recommending co-payments

for GP visits now fully funded by Medicare - 

has been done by Terry Barnes, an adviser to Tony Abbott,

when he was Health Minister in the Howard Government.

The research was commissioned and funded by the 

Australian Centre for Health Research.

When you visit the last link,

click on the 'About Us' tab on the silver ribbon at the top.

Then go to the side-bar and click on 'Board of Directors'.

Please note who these directors are.

Not one of them could remotely be considered as

a consumer advocate or representative.

ACHR has tried to make itself look as if it is

broad-based or non-political

with the inclusion of 'Labor man' Neil Batt. 

A look at Batt's background should make clear

that he is hardly and working-class man.

An this is certainly the case for the others.

You also might note that the name

Australian Unity has more than a mention.

Australian Unity is a major health insurance fund.

Their self-interest is self-evident.

Should, dear reader, you have health insurance

with Australian Unity you must think upon the 

fact that in giving AU your business, you

are contributing to the downfall of Medicare.

So let's look at the pedigree of this proposal.

There is a Commission of Audit established by Tony Abbott.

It is comprised of members of the Business Council of Australia

(who, it can be assumed, either have the top rank of health insurance

or can afford to pay for their own health services)

and, almost certainly, each are paid up members of the Liberal Party of Australia.

If for some sort of reason, such as a career which requires them to parade

as impartial, I feel confident in guessing that

 they frequent Liberal Party events and people.

The research has been done by a former Liberal Party policy adviser,

Terry Barnes.

Abbott was not the first Liberal Health Minister that Terry Barnes served.

He also worked for Michael Wooldridge.

I don't want to query Barnes's ethics but many have questioned those

of Michael Wooldridge.

Added to the Wikipedia entry, you can read about the MRI scandal

here, here, and here.

All this sort of muck did eventually mean that Wooldridge 

wore out his welcome.

One is left to wonder where Barnes was in all this?

Did he prove to be a gun for hire way back then,

as he clearly is now?

So the background for the Medicare co-payment is indeed circular.

It is an expose, as well, of how some people build their careers

and establish their finances.

It is well to always take heed of Adam Smith.

As he said in his seminal work -

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations - 

People of the same trade seldom meet together, 

even for merriment and diversion, 

but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, 

or in some contrivance to raise prices.

I would also add 

"or in some way to influence and collude with government".

From Wooldridge to Abbott to Dutton
there is no reason to feel comforted
that Liberal Party Ministers of Health
will act in the best interests of Australian families.

The long arm of justice reaches out to Ponce from Pinochet to the present and perhaps to prison in Chile

Privatization Profiteers from Pinochet’s Chile May Yet Face Prison by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch Blog September 19th, 2013 Julio Ponce, the billionaire owner of Sociedad Quimica & Minera de Chile (SQM), faces ten years in prison for insider trading. A beneficiary of former dictator General Augusto Pinochet, Ponce is charged with buying company shares at below market prices and selling them at a profit. SQM – often referred to as Soquimich - is one of the world’s biggest producers of potassium nitrate, iodine and lithium which it produces with raw materials sourced from its caliche ore and brine mines in the Atacama desert. Originally a state enterprise, SQM was privatized by Pinochet in 1988 at the bargain basement price of $120 million on the advice of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The man in charge of privatization in Chile was Ponce, who trained as a forestry engineer, but had the good fortune of marrying Veronica Pinochet, the daughter of the president. Pinochet appointed Ponce to the board of SQM before it was privatized. “Call it business savvy plus political connections on overdrive,” writes Erin Carlyle at Forbes magazine. Ponce became president of the privatized nitrate company in 1987. Several of his relatives became major stockholders and had positions on the board of directors of the company. Today SQM is worth $9.2 billion. Ponce has 84.1 million shares in the company, according to SQM filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) making him worth $3.3 billion. "It is obvious that Ponce Lerou's family ties and public posts helped him to put together the prosperous economic state that he enjoys today," Maria Olivia Monckeberg, author of "The Looting of the Chilean State by the Economic Groups," told the New York Times. "He created a network of relatives and business partners that came to occupy the highest posts in some of the most important state companies, not just Soquimich, but also the state-owned copper and steel companies." The Chilean taxpayer was not as fortunate, write Joseph Collins and John Lear in Multinational Monitor in 1991. “Revenues from sales of public corporations provided one-time boosts to the government budget, allowing Pinochet the luxury of balancing the budget from 1986 through 1988, pleasing the IMF, making timely payments to foreign creditor banks and even cutting taxes,” write Collins and Lear. “However, since the companies sold had produced revenues for the government rather than deficits, such gains were brief and illusory.” Today Ponce and his friends have continued to profit from the company, say Moneda Asset Management, a minority shareholder in SQM. They allege that Ponce and his friends conducted over 100 irregular purchases of shares between 2009 and 2011, which they used to make over $100 million in profits. For example, Bloomberg writes that on March 29, 2011, Soc. de Inversiones Oro Blanco SA (a company controlled by Ponce) sold 163 million Soc. de Inversiones Pampa Calichera SA shares at 726 pesos, 10 percent below the previous day’s price, to Norte Grande and SQ Inversiones. On November 7 of the same year, Potasios de Chile SA bought 151 million shares in Calichera for 1064.53 pesos while SQ Inversiones sold 137 million at 1065 pesos. Ponce has until the end of this month to explain the trades. Also charged are Aldo Motta, chief executive of Norte Grande and Roberto Guzman, an advisor to Ponce.

Is corruption alive and well in your nation? See for yourselves...

Transparency International's 
2013 
Global Corruption Barometer 
by webber3292

Read on line or download here

DO ANY OF THESE KEY FINDINGS
SOUND FAMILIAR TO YOU, NETWORKERS?

Bribery is widespread -

Overall, more than one in four people (27 per cent) report having paid a bribe in the last 12 months when interacting with key public institutions and services.

Public institutions institutions entrusted to protect people suffer the worst levels of bribery -

Among the eight services evaluated, the police and the judiciary are seen as the two most bribery-prone. An estimated 31 per cent of people who came into contact with the police report having paid a bribe. For those interacting with the judiciary, the share is 24 per cent.

Governments are not thought to be doing enough to hold the corrupt to account -

The majority of people around the world believe that their government is ineffective at fighting corruption and corruption in their country is getting worse.

The democratic pillars of societies are viewed as the most corrupt -

Around the world, political parties, the driving forces of democracies, are perceived to be the most corrupt institutions.

Personal connections are seen as corrupting the public administration -

People surveyed regard corruption in their country as more than just paying bribes: almost two out of three people believe that personal contacts and relationships help to get things done in the public sector in their country.

Powerful groups rather than the public good are judged to be driving government actions -

More than one in two people (54 per cent) think their government is largely or entirely run by groups acting in their own interests rather than for the benefit of the citizens.

People state they are ready to change this status-quo -

Nearly 9 in 10 surveyed say they would act against corruption. The majority of people said that they would be willing to speak up and report an incident of corruption. Two-thirds of those asked to pay a bribe say they refused.

Ban Political Donations: start with liquor and gambling

Here is an interesting debate on political donations.*

However, it is not just the panel

who makes interesting comments.

Listen for statements/questions from

John Cane, former Victorian Premier

and

Peter Kavanagh,

the lone DLP member of Parliament in Australia.

Miss Eagle's view is that

those who are influenced

and

those who can and hope to influence

live in denial

or, more bluntly,

cloud-cuckoo land.

Disclosure is not enough.

Perhaps if names went on billboards

in relation to what is being influenced.

Otherwise, no.

Money for influence is not new.

Money for influence has not gone away.

John Cane fingers the liquor and gambling interests.

So, citizens, want safety on Melbourne's streets?

Get liquor and gambling interests

off the political donors & lobbyists roll.

* Thanks to Denis for drawing my attention to this

even though he had to wake me from a Sunday nap

For all posts "Ban Political Donations":

Go here.

THE SAGA OF SYDNEY FERRIES: WILL VEOLIA OR TRANSDEVTSL TAKE THEM AWAY FROM THE PUBLIC OF NSW

Picture from here

Co-blogger and Networker, Denis Wilson has potted one into my court:

Hi Miss Eagle.

And another of your friendly multinationals is in the running to take over Sydney Ferries.

Jack Mundey is on the case, which is the best news I have heard in years! I know Veolia, but not TransDev, but it is also said to be a French consortium. No doubt you will reveal all.

Of course, NSW has a checkered history with Ferries, as the charming Minister Tripodi is in charge (if that's the right word). ALP Far right at its very best!

That's why I am delighted to hear Jack Mundey has reappeared.

Cheers

Denis

Miss Eagle is happy to take on the challenge drom Denis, if only to stand beside Working Class Hero, Jack Mundey. Every time I walk around The Rocks in Sydney, I offer up a prayer of thanksgiving for Jack Mundey and wonder what might have been if Jack and his friends in the BLF hadn't fought off the developers.

VEOLIA

Veolia is becoming widely known in this country through Public Private Partnerships (P3s) of one sort or another as well as for Veolia Environmental Services (or Veolia Environnement SA, giving its French version) and that spin-off's ubiquitous presence across a fair bit of Australia picking up everyone's rubbish. Veolia traces its origins back to Napoleonic times,like its compatriot company Suez. Their wealth, expertise, and technology owe much to the fact that while English speaking countries and most of Europe treated water and its related industry, sanitation, as public goods, the French privatised what we would call public utilities. Veolia is the second oldest water business in the world and the biggest in the wastewater industry. In this new age of privatising public goods, Veolia and Suez have been making inter-continental financial killings and chalking up dubious records on human rights along the way.

Veolia, these days, also incorporates transport services. They are still running Connex trains in Melbourne but have lost the contract to continue due to long and lasting public outcries on poor service. Veolia was also the major player in an unsuccessful bidding consortium (Suez won) to build the Victorian Desalination Plant at Wonthaggi.

Veolia is not new to public transportation in New South Wales (NSW). Veolia Transport has operated buses within the Sydney metropolitan area since purchasing Southtrans Bus Co in 1999. Since then, Veolia Transport has acquired several other bus companies. Services are operated out of five depots located at Taren Point, Menai, Revesby, Bankstown and Villawood.

Veolia Transport NSW is a fully owned subsidary of Veolia Transport Australia. Veolia Transport consideres itself a world leader in private transportation with a diverse portfolio of bus, train, tram and ferry networks around the globe. In addition, Veolia Transport operates Sydney's Metro Monorail and Light Rail system.

TRANSDEV

TransDev is familiar to Sydney-siders. People living on the North Shore will recall, as Miss Eagle does, the take over of Shorelink buses. What is interesting is that, in Australia, TransDev has partnered with Transfield Services. Transfield is an Australian company best known to most Australians for its historic role in mining and major infrastructure development and and, in recent times, provision of public services such as P3 tollways. However, it has teamed up with TransDev to become TransDevTSL and it runs Yarra Trams (that should be past tense soon) and Brisbane Ferries.

And all this lies in the portfolio of one Joe Tripodi who - as Denis said - is quite a charmer.

Now, far be it from me to impugn the Minister or private companies and consortiums bidding to take over Sydney Ferries, but the chances of Sydney Ferries remaining in public hands would seem to me to be pretty slim.

Regular Networkers know where this blog stands on political donations, cronyism and - for that matter - any sort of money changing in any sort of hands in relation to public and private benefit. So Networkers who think like Miss Eagle will undoubtedly be on the look out for any of these aforesaid transactions and interactions and will advise accordingly.

John Brumby, Collingwood Football Club and the AIS: cronyism at work?

What's a little business between friends?

When its special pleading,

when its political, its cronyism.

Eddie Maguire of Collingwood Football Club

and

John Brumby, Premier of Victoria

at Federation Square after the recent Walk for Harmony.

John Brumby and the Victorian Government are strong opponents of any form of anti-corruption commission such as the Crime and Misconduct Commission in Queensland and the Independent Commission Against Corruption in New South Wales. Brumby and mates show little inclination to forego the privilege and special pleading that forms part of political fundraising.

Only Queensland and New South Wales have such anti-corruption commissions. Neither the Federal Government and the governments of the other states and of the Territories has any such body.

How wonderful! Clearly only Queensland and New South Wales have politicians, bureaucrats, and police services full of suspect people. The Federal Government, the other states and the Territories have politicians, bureaucrats, and public services who are beyond reproach. Or, if reproach is required, it is for mere peccadillos. Nothing serious. Don't you worry about that, as Joh Bjelke Peterson used to say.

I wonder what the current feelilng might be at the Australian Institute of Sport about having an independent body to which government decision making could be referred. Take notice of this example of priveleged decision making, dear Networker.