REAL ACTION TO SUPPORT VETERANS

The Coalition will provide $45.6 million for initiatives to better support Australia’s veterans and their families. To further help veterans with cost of living expenses, the Coalition will increase assistance for Veterans’ Pharmaceutical costs. From 1 January 2012, the Coalition will remove out-of-pocket expenses for pharmaceuticals for disabled veterans in receipt of 50 per cent of the General Rate of Disability Pension, or higher (including EDA and TPI). This will enable more than 87,000 veteran disability pensioners, including our most disabled veterans, to save up to $168 per year. This extension of the Pharmaceutical Safety net will cost $38 million over the forward estimates. The Coalition will also provide more recognition for Veterans’ widows and wives. We will establish a ‘VWWInc’ website for networking, information and advice. A national memorial recognising the contribution of widows and wives will be funded following consultation with them. The Coalition will identify, contact and encourage eligible indigenous war widows to apply for their entitlements. The Coalition will provide support to help Veterans make the transition from post-deployment and military life. The ‘We’ll Be There’ programme will provide training and support for volunteer veterans and ex-service people, to be available 24 hours a day, to speak directly to veterans. This programme will complement existing services provided by Vietnam Veterans’ Counselling Service. The Coalition will provide $7.5 million to expand the Building Excellence in Support and Training (BEST) Programme and the Training and Information Programme (TIP). These programmes assist ex-service organisations to provide pension and welfare assistance with resources and support. Giving these organisations support and training will help members of the veteran community and their family to receive practical assistance with claims for assistance from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. The Coalition will respond to the Review of Military Compensation Arrangements. There is concern regarding the inflexibility of the current Act and the compulsory aspect of the rehabilitation requirement. The Coalition will consult with the veteran and ex-service community following this review. The Coalition will provide $100,000 towards the building of the Montevideo Maru memorial. This funding will be provided in the 2011-12 Budget for this memorial for those who lost their lives on the Montevideo Maru and in the Fall of Rabaul in 1942. The Coalition will conduct an audit of the locations of National Service Records, including the first and second intake, with the intention of having these records centrally located.

And this to me is the clincher;

As previously announced, the Coalition will introduce new indexation arrangements for members of the Defence Force Retirement and Death Benefits Scheme (DFRDB). Under the Coalition, from July next year, beneficiaries of the DFRB and DFRDB schemes aged 55 and over will have their pensions indexed to whichever is the highest of three indexes – the Consumer Price Index (CPI), Male Total Average Weekly Earnings (MTAWE) or the Pensioner and Beneficiary Living Cost Index (PBLCI).

Australia’s service personnel, past and present, deserve respect and recognition from the community for their service. The Coalition is committed to caring for Australia’s veterans and their families and understands that this can only be achieved with renewed compassion, understanding and action. 12 August 2010

ALP Veterans Policy? Haven’t seen one yet that’s worth reporting.

I’ve made the New York Times They are carrying a link to my post on Julia Gillard’s irresponsible dealings with the National Security Committee where she sends a junior staffer to attend in her place. Now if I can just get Australians to recognize how bad she is then all will be well in the world. Still, as I mentioned in the original post, the people voting for her wouldn’t know what National Security was anyway.

Dennis Shanan nails it in todays Australian

In six weeks, Labor has dumped Kevin 07 as leader because he was unpopular, installed Gillard because she was popular, changed strategy and Gillard’s image to the “real Julia” because the false, campaigning Julia was unpopular and now turned to Kevin 10 because the real Julia was unpopular.

Says it all really

Gillard doesn’t even bother to attend National Security Committee (NSC) meetings and punters are actually considering voting for her. There just is no excuse for missing the most important single meeting governments hold, the meetings that deal with life and death, with our soldiers in Afghanistan and elsewhere, with the physical security of the nation. Rudd often didn’t bother to attend either but he looks a positive paragon of virtue compared with Gillard’s practice.

Rudd at least sent his chief of staff, Alister Jordan, to attend in his absence, though the NSC meetings where Rudd was absent were chaired not by Jordan but by the next most senior minister present. However, Gillard sent one of the most junior people in her office to the NSC meetings in her place.

Strange world but then the people about to vote for Gillard most probably think it more important that we have a woman in power, or the ALP in power at whatever cost, or the unions in power or anything but Abbott. National security..what’s that?

That’s a good enough reason by itself to vote for him. And no, I’m not going to link to their out-of-context Abbott quotes.

JULIA Gillard is to create a Citizens Assembly to forge a national consensus on action on climate change and a commission of experts to help inform its deliberations.

The Prime Minister will also today recommit Labor to carbon trading, but pledge that it will be introduced only when “the Australian economy is ready and when the Australian people are ready”.

There, that’s got that problem out of contention for the election. I don’t think the tree-hugging Hippy Greens are going to be very happy but as they have joined the ALP they really can’t complain. Shades of Rudd’s failed 2020 conference, isn’t it? I can guarantee the vast bulk of any such citizens so assembled will be marching to Gillard’s tune. I doubt, for example that Andrew Bolt will get a slot. It’s a cop-out. We elect politicians to make these decisions and we accept their call even if we don’t agree, at least until the next election. But this “Ooh it’s contentious and might lose me some votes -let’s call a Citizens Assembly and then we can blame them if it goes pear shape” response is not, under any definition, doing what they are, or could be, elected to do.

AUSTRALIA might be asked to fund detention centres in Indonesia to help Jakarta deter asylum-seekers from using the nation as a staging point.

Jakarta’s plan, which would lock up all asylum-seekers currently free in the community, comes amid pressure from Julia Gillard for a regional solution to the politically explosive problem.

Jakarta’s plan would also fix all their problems at the expense of us poor tax payers. They have thousands of illegals living in their towns and ports already, all trying to get to Australia. Poor old Indonesia can hardly cope with their own people let alone all visitors clogging up their systems. Let’s talk to Gillard, they say. She’s in trouble, East Timor is not interested even though she is still saying “we are consulting with them” so lets fix our problem and have Australia pay for it. Baik sekali, very good…it’ll work. If they’re stupid enough to vote in Rudd and seriously consider Gillard then the Aussie taxpayer will buy anything. And of course, all the money will go to securing the illegals – won’t it? There has never been a stench of corruption in Indonesia – has there?

Joe Hockey on the ALPGreens agenda for their second term from last nights 7:30 report

JOE HOCKEY: Well if they are going to fix the problems of the first term, that is their second term agenda. Labor’s second term agenda is to fix up all the problems of its first term. That will keep them occupied, I can tell you.

Good call, Joe.