Change of plans
Bega Evening VIEW Club's September dinner has had to be cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances beyond our control. Please check the Bega District News next month for details of the October dinner.
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Robyn Koellner, VIEW Club
For your own good?
Every time government at Federal, State and Local levels decide to sell off an asset vital to the wellbeing of all Australians, especially disadvantaged ones, we are given the same standard line. This selloff is for your benefit and you will pay less and get better service.
Guess what, this promise has not been kept once by any government. We are all paying more for everything and getting buried in more and more paperwork to access anything.
The government does this firstly to divest themselves of any responsibility and have all those providers to blame. Secondly the selloff gives them buckets of money to splash on big projects that they all hope will get them elected again.
All this deprives ordinary Australians particularly the disadvantaged of programs and services vital to their existence.
Doesn't happen though to all politicians, CEOs and bureaucrats who are deprived of nothing and in many cases profit from the misery of others. Two recent examples show this clearly.
Firstly those overseeing the NDIS. Apparently they are all on very large salaries with huge perks. All this at the time not-for-profit organisations are battling to get funded for vital services connected to disabilities.
I have been to a number of NDIS forums and their staff are confused by the intricacies of the NDIS, so what chance do us poor ordinary people have .
Secondly BUPA, our biggest aged care provider. They are making huge profits and badly neglecting those with whose care they are entrusted. Day after day articles appear about the severe neglect of our most vulnerable by this organisation.
No service program or utility vital to the wellbeing of all Australians especially the elderly or disabled should be in the hands of private providers. With them it is never about people, it's about profit.
Message to all politicians, CEOs and bureaucrats - grow a heart because you sure don't seem to have one. Imagine all this was happening to your family and I am sure you wouldn't be making so many bad decisions. Politicians, we are supposed to be part of your extended family, so start acting like it.
Frank Pearce, Bega
Problematic program
There are reports that 255 schools around the country may participate in a program called "Cows Create Careers", underwritten by Dairy Australia.
The independence of education has always been considered sacrosanct. Research, reason, and critical inquiry are the tools with which we hope to equip our children, and sponsorship by an industry promotion group is therefore problematic.
Children consider their career options as they grow up, but this generation is also contemplating the spectre of climate change and the possibly devastating effects of rising temperatures, including droughts, floods, and bushfires. Students need to be taught the causes of climate change and the ways in which it can be mitigated.
The dairy industry is a major contributor to climate change. A new report from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that without "comprehensive food system responses", mitigation of climate-change effects will not be realised and "food security will be jeopardised".
Dairy Australia promotes the sale of dairy products, but a more realistic name for its program would be "Cows Create Climate Change". The easiest way to alleviate the damage to the environment, human health, and, of course, the animals, is to go vegan.