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Volume 24 #46 Tuesday, April 27, 2010
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BOTH ONIONS AND ROSES MEET THE EYE
Good turnout for Anzac Day Story & photo Eve Jeffery
Hundreds looked to the west and fell silent as a whisper of Reveille played on the breeze in remembrance of fallen brothers and sisters. As what is growing into one of the biggest Anzac Day memorial events unfolded in Brunswick Heads, almost 600 people gathered at the Cenotaph in Fawcett Street for the dawn service at 5am on Sunday. Many of the local community emergency and rescue services as well as students from surrounding schools and members from several other community and service groups were well represented. . Steven de Rooy of the 41st Battalion was the guest speaker during the service. Steve was joined by brothers in arms at the service – the 41st, which was raised at Bell’s Paddock Camp in Brisbane in February 1916, draws its recruits from Brisbane, northern Queensland and the Northern Rivers district, including the Marching after the Brunswick Heads dawn service were Frank Mills, Jack Bashforth and Allyn Morton. likes of local historian Frank Mills. After the service a march was drum and pipe and a small tank together at the RSL for the tradi- to a day of activities, including twoled around Brunswick Heads by and jeep. Then families gathered tional breakfast before heading out up at the Brunswick Heads Hotel.
Dept calls on Council to suspend legal action against holiday letters
The Department of Planning has called on Byron Shire Council to suspend any legal action against holiday letters until the department gets its own policy in place. In a letter of February 23 to Council’s general manager Graeme Faulkner, the department’s deputy director of plan making and urban renewal Tom Gellibrand reiterated that Council’s planned approach to control holiday letting through its draft Local Environmental Plan (LEP) was not supported and that ‘it should continue with the current model of self regulation/management through letting agents and landowners…’. Nor is the department happy with Council seeking orders under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act ‘to preclude the use of certain dwellings as “tourist facilities”’. In relation to an order issued to Merkat Pty Ltd over its property at 89 Wordsworth Street in Byron Bay, Mr Gellibrand claimed ‘there is considerable uncertainty whether the use of those premises for short term holiday rentals can be properly characterised nary game in the new health agenda as “tourist facilities”’ under Council’s landscape, with the big game – en- 1988 LEP. hanced primary health care delivered through general practice and better Review under way ‘The Department is reviewing the community services – still to come. In related news, the Mental Health legal and policy context relating to Council of Australia (MHCA) said holiday letting on a Statewide basis…,’ that the Premiers must back up their Mr Gellibrand wrote. ‘We hope to rhetoric with action on mental health. have options available for councils’ ‘State and Territory leaders should review in the coming months. ‘Until such time as the Department demonstrate their commitment to mental health reform by allocating at has liaised with the LGSA [Local least half the promised new sub-acute Government Shires Association]… care beds to mental health consumers,’ I would like to request that the current legal actions being considered by said MHCA CEO David Crosbie. ‘Under Mr Rudd’s proposed New Council against individual property Beds Guarantee National Partnership, owners who are letting properties on the Government has pledged to create a temporary basis be suspended.’ In response Mayor Jan Barham said, 1300 new sub-acute beds over the next four years, however the allocation ‘This position defies Council’s legal
Real health reforms still to come, says NRGPN The Northern Rivers General Practice Network (NRGPN) has welcomed the extra health funding that’s come out of the significant COAG agreement, but says more emphasis needs to be placed on keeping people healthy. ‘The Health and Hospital Network package of $5.4 billion in additional funding will help,’ said NRGPN chairman Dr Tony Lembke. ‘Ongoing guarantees from the Commonwealth to take on the major share of hospital health costs gives hospital funding more security, when costs are expected to increase enormously in the future. ‘We have been discussing how hospitals are to be funded – it’s now time to focus on the “real work” in health – keeping people well and out of hospital!
‘In the reform plan, general practice will remain the cornerstone of the new primary health care system, with the Commonwealth taking up 100 per cent funding responsibility and policy for all primary health care. The NRGPN looks forward to the announcement of further details in outlining how the new primary care health system will operate.’ Dr Lembke said he would like to see media discussion move from hospital bed numbers to keeping people healthy and out of hospital. ‘We need a greater focus on family care – on improved access to general practice and on better care delivered in the community. This has enormous benefits in increased health outcomes and in decreased health costs.’ Dr Lembke said he also had con-
cerns about how the new hospital model might be funded. ‘If it’s funded purely by the number of cases that go through the hospital, hospitals might seek to attract high-value low-cost cases (predominantly surgery), rather than high-cost, more complicated medical and mental health cases. ‘NRGPN believes true health reform requires realigning the way the health dollar is spent to make sure that we all get the best health outcomes possible as well as the best value from our taxes. It is not sensible health reform to continue to pour more and more money into hospital beds, and invest a comparatively small amount in helping people keep well and out of hospital.’ Dr Lembke said reform of the public hospital system was just a prelimi-
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