Yeah, a lot of good cardiology and vascular work gets done at the mount hospital in Perth, it’s not that they’re literally useless all the time. Just most of the time.

It is absurd the Medicare doesn’t cover dental. I see a patient once or twice a month delaying dental care because of cost.

I kind of understand the government being cautious about controversial reforms but the libs had literally nothing to say about the recent GP bulk billing changes as it’s just popular. Medicare covering dental care and increasing school funding to meet Gonski targets are almost opposition proof.

Incidentally I am a doctor and I don’t have insurance. I don’t wear glasses, I don’t play sports that ruin my joints and I’m not getting pregnant. There is literally no benefit. On top of which, when I was a junior doctor it wasn’t uncommon for us to have a private patient transferred to the public system when the private physician realised they were actually sick and not just a pay day, the public system treats sick patients, the private system has nice carpet and nurses that smile. We need to remove Medicare payments to private providers and invest properly into public healthcare.

Sorry for the tangentially related rant.

I absolutely love this. I was at a volly firefighter training the other week and just about everyone gravitates to the big map on the wall. Walking on a ground map is an awesome idea.

Today’s West is trying to make out this is somehow a bad thing…

It seems like there is a push from within the party to make this happen which is a great sign.

🤞

Unfortunately it seems to have been taken down. Not sure what happened there. If it shows up again I’ll repost it

Yeah, the headline should’ve been “1/3 of Australians don’t understand what corruption is”

I wonder if this could convince right wingers that it’d be good to nationalise the mines?

And here I thought the the Labor Party didn’t really believe in anything, but they sure do believe in capitalism…

Fixed it for you.

Haha, yeah hybrid projects, not a hybrid product.

In other news, water is wet.

I’m not reading Nobodys Girl but I had a similar experience.

I read Lolita in my 20s and found it a beautifully written text. I reread it in my 30s and couldn’t get through it because of the subject matter. I guess I developed empathy.

I don’t think you’re dishonoring the author by giving up if its a bit too much

Thanks, I’ll check it out

Any ideology that proposes deliberately making peoples lives worse is not worth discussing.

If I’m playing devils avocado I guess rapid technological and economic growth gives us more value to appropriate in the name of the proletariat?

You could be, and probably are, right. I’m a bit disillusioned by the past 2 shires I’ve lived in and I think that if managed well some things like education and healthcare could have a great deal more input from local government.

I’m a decentralist by instinct but whether that degree of decentralisation is achievable or even desirable I’m not sure.

That said I love the way Albany in particular has changed over the past few decades and you’re right that local government is to thank for that. I’m less enchanted by how Busselton has changed over the past few decades and I think local government is to blame. I do wonder if there was compulsory local elections we might have seen less unchecked development.

As I say, I’m in the self education phase of forming opinions so thanks for your thoughts.

Be wary of people applying Econ 101 concepts where they aren’t applicable.

Education is a public good and the market will never provide adequate supply. It requires public policy to provide it. You’re right that if public schools made teaching an attractive option there would be more teachers, but then that’s the point of the article.

“Ian Macphee told me stories of how, as immigration minister, he’d ring Fraser to tell him another Vietnamese boat had arrived at Christmas Island. ‘Let them in,’ Fraser said. Macphee rang Fraser to tell him a boat had made it to Darwin carrying Vietnamese people with no papers. ‘Let them in.’”

Can you imagine any Labor or Liberal politician being so humane.

Take a glance at the honorable Senator’s comment history. That comment word for word shows up fairly often… Maybe they can explain why @SenatorCollins

There’s nothing inherently wrong here. Taxing gas exports is certainly something we should be doing and allocating the additional funds to the states is clearly a good idea.

Only thing I’d say is that this is kind of a kick the can down the road as eventually gas export revenues will decrease also.

Treating bat bites as serious in areas with lyssavirus, which is incurable once it starts showing symptoms, is very typical. Transmission to humans is uncommon but ruling it out is literally deadly serious.