Pokies Planning Permit Application is in.

The Maryborough Highland Society has lodged the application for the planning permit for the use of the Goods Shed in Kennedy Street as a social venue that will if approved include 65 more poker machines in Castlemaine. I have just lodged my objection based on the inappropriate use of the building, parking issues and traffic. I am staggered that Victrack which owns the building has been prepared to consider giving the MHS a lease for a use that will inevitably be in conflict with the increasingly busy Castlemaine Railway Station. They should be in the business of providing transport services, not poker machine venues.

Addiction to surpluses a taxpayer/ratepayer rip off?

I just read that our Council intends to budget for a $6.25M surplus. In the 'old days when I was a councillor ' (1980-1990)  it was illegal (according to the Local Government Act) to budget for a deficit or a surplus. Councils were required by law to raise only the income that was required to cover the expenditure. It seems to me that if our council were to do that, we would not be up for a rate increase that is around three times the consumer price index. Indeed, the rates might well have not had to go up at all. Can anyone explain how local government is now able to catch this addiction  (from their Federal and State counterparts) to surplus budgeting which leaves we who have to pay our rates/taxes left with a financial burden which is hitting people on low and fixed (pensioners and self-funded retirees) incomes? I must confess to being a tad confused. Cr Machin, who introduced the budget made the claim that this is "a very responsible budget", but with this large rate increase and other  fixed charges going up between 9.5% and 25% it is difficult to see how. What are they planning to do with this surplus, or is that another decision for a future confidential briefing?

Baillieu captive of vested interests?

Letter published in the Weekly Times on 9th May. Dear Sir, The Baillieu Government’s failure on May 2nd to support Opposition moves for a moratorium and inquiry into CSG exploration is very disturbing to all in the community, not least those making a living on the land. The bans on wind power development taken in conjunction with a refusal to take steps to protect food production from fossil fuel exploration suggests that this is a government that is beholden to some very powerful vested interests. The whole Victorian community needs some assurance that this is not the case.

Europeans take different road to recovery.

Letter to the Editor Published in The Age and Bendigo Advertiser on 9^th May.

Dear Sir,

Thank goodness the voters of France and Greece are giving their support to leaders who have some concern for the way wealth is distributed. Since the Global Financial Crisis you’d think that economic growth and cost cutting was the only way to extricate the world economy from the mess made by the speculators and money lenders.

Another way of balancing the books is for big wealthy businesses and individual taxpayers on multi-million dollar incomes digging a little deeper. In Australia we have banks making almost obscene profits and mining companies boasting how the new tax won’t hurt them after all.

Meanwhile ordinary people the world over are seeing pay cuts and job losses and hard-won entitlements being clawed back. Our own Federal Government is cutting the spending that underpins a social wage. We are told this is the only way- a blatant untruth.

No wonder electorates are volatile and incumbents are an endangered species. I say, let the people-power momentum roll on to elect leaders who like the new President of France have the courage to stand up to vested interests.

Castlemaine Greens apologise for misleading community.

The Castlemaine Greens Convenor Lisa Minchin has acknowledged that in telling the local community that Cr. Bronwen Machin would not be endorsed by the Greens party she provided “incorrect advice”. In a letter published in the Castlemaine Mail on 4^th May she apologized on behalf of the local party.

Those in the community who followed the controversy which led up to the article “It’s not easy being green” published in the Mail on March 20^th,then read comments from Ms Minchin, Pat Healey and Cr Machin in response to questions from the editor  in which they sought to make out that the State Council of the Greens was simply dealing with a motion to approve Cr Machin’s application for party membership and that she was not being endorsed as the party’s councillor.

Seen in that context, my resignation from the Greens could be dismissed as an attempt to block a possible rival from joining the party rather than a principled decision. This admission is a welcome correction and the apology a duly required move to make good a wrong that cast a shadow over the integrity of the party in this community.

The only thing left that perhaps will be left undone is an acknowledgement of the wrong that was done to the reputation of someone who only some two months ago had championed the Green cause. I won’t hold my breath. Somehow I think party politics in this country has descended below the level at which collective decisions to do the right thing about matters such as this are still in prospect. The juggernaut forages, consumes and moves on.

Letter about unemployment Catch 22 published in Castlemaine Independent

As one who works in the employment services sector and in 2009 decided for ethical reasons to quit the new Job Services Australia/Centrelink regime, I have seen the position of job seekers deteriorate steadily despite claims by the Federal Government that they are funding more training and education and effectively supporting unemployed people back into work.

The clients I meet today come to the agency where I work because they get little or no help from Job Service Australia (JSA) providers. Unless you can register in what is called ‘Stream Services’ with a 2-4 rating, you can’t count on any help at all. If you do rate 2 or above, most JSA’s will only spend from the Employment Pathways Fund (paid for by the taxpayer) if they are going to get a guaranteed ‘paid outcome’. That means you have to convince them that you have a job offer in the bag if only you can get the funding for the up-skilling, licence or certificate required.

Meanwhile, the compliance regime for unsuspecting job seekers, (many of whom were made redundant suddenly and without warning because of an industry downturn over which they had no control), is punitive and humiliating. If a Newstart (unemployment benefit) recipient fails to jump through all the hoops and jump every hurdle they have their payments cut arbitrarily and virtually need a lawyer to get them restored. The administrative arrangements policed by Centrelink are deliberately vague and the problem is compounded by new staff who case-manage job seekers with minimal training and no experience. The turnover of Centrelink staff is high because many people have ethical concerns about what they are expected to do.

Yet, as the survey in this article shows, the actual level of payments is just enough to ensure that a person who is dependent on Newstart, or in the case of under 25s Youth Allowance are plunged into a poverty trap of debt and instability. Then surprise, surprise, they turn up at local Magistrate’s courts charged with minor property offences or worse, drug related crime that tears at the fabric of our society.

I work for an agency that tries to help pick up the pieces for those who despite these systemic barriers are still sufficiently motivated and understand they need real help. The Bendigo region, despite a lot of negative publicity has significant capacity to employ committed and motivated people but the other problem is that the jobs are hidden from view. Having been taken for a ride by agencies that force job seekers (with the threat of benefits being cut) to interviews for jobs they feel they are not skilled for or don’t want to do, we now have a large ‘hidden employment’ problem. To ‘break in’ to the job market job seekers have to learn to hit the pavements, resume in hand and sell themselves and network. These are not necessarily skills that they have. When they found employment in the past, they just needed the skills and ability to do the job and had to scrub up reasonably at the interview.

I am grateful that the Federal Department of Employment, Education and Workplace Relations is beginning to recognise that some lateral thinking is now required if we are to sincerely strive to reach full employment. Programmes are now being funded which tackle the problems of those for whom the system is not working. It is to be hoped that when the 3 year contracts of the JSAs are renewed after June 30th this year this more flexible approach will be used. Until then, JSAs will continue to calculate the level of assistance they provide to those who cross their door steps on the basis of the funding they bring to their bottom line and job seekers will be subjected to a downward spiral of debt, poverty and depression.

Salvos consistent in their mission.

Letter submitted to Midland Express.

Dear Sir,

To criticize the Salvos' support for EPIC as two of your correspondents did last week is to demonstrate a profound misunderstanding of this revered community organization. I expect that not only would the Salvation Army say there are ‘enough pokies in Castlemaine’, but that there should be none.

 Their support for EPIC’s campaign is entirely consistent with their Christian mission and I salute their courage in entering this controversial debate on the side of social sustainability.

 I suspect their critics are the same people who oppose ratepayers’ money being used for the  VCAT appeal. If so, I respectfully suggest that they cannot have it both ways. After all, we can choose not to donate to the Salvos, but we have to pay our rates.

While I am a critic of their drugs policy which supports the failed continuation of criminalizing drug use, I believe that the Salvation Army is faithful in its beliefs and practices what it preaches.