Vol 56

Dec 2016

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Alan Jones - Dan Tehan.  TPI. (Continued)

In Vol 54 and Vol 55 we reported that Minister Dan Tehan had been interviewed by Alan Jones and had promised to look into the inadequate payment paid to TPI’s. You can hear an edited version of that interview HERE."

We wrote to Minister Tehan asking him what were his intentions and we reported last issue that Minister Tehan hadn’t bothered to reply.

Shortly after Vol 55 was released, we received a hard copy letter from Minister Tehan, apologising for the lateness of his reply and in which he said ‘in effect’ no way Josey! It was a very “motherhood” type of letter, telling me all the wonderful things DVA do for TPI’s.  He said:

“Arguments about the perceived erosion of TPI were addressed in the 2003 Report of the Review of Veterans’ Entitlements (Clarke Review). It found that those arguments did not take into consideration the total package of support available to TPI recipients, including the Gold Card and its associated benefits, and the Service Pension for those with levels of private income and assets that enable them to meet the eligibility requirement for the pension.”

You can read his full letter HERE.

I wrote back to the Minister advising him of a few facts and you have to, at least, admire him for replying. From his letter, it looks like a bit of a back-flip from what he said in that interview and it seems the status quo is as good as it’s going to be for a while, until perhaps the next election when I think there will be a major shake up. You can read the Minister’s reply HERE.

Opinion.

Back in October, I was down at Williamtown for the 100^th anniversary celebration of 1, 2, 3, and 4 Squadrons. It was a typical military event with a parade, troops marching, aircraft flying around, bands playing, lots of people looking on and of course a sausage sizzle – and it included a Welcome to Country ceremony.

A Welcome to Country ceremony??  WHY??

This particular ceremony was performed by John Ridgeway OAM, who was introduced as the Traditional Custodian of the Worimi People (he is given the title of “Uncle,”  ??) who I did meet and with whom I had a brief chat and who seemed a real nice bloke – but why do I need to be welcomed by him to a country in which I was born?? in fact, I was born before he was.

John Ridgeway (left) and Neville Lilley

Traditional Custodians of the Worimi People.

This “Welcome” ceremony seems to have become a bit of a fad, a ritual and it’s being performed at more and more events – but is it healthy??  I think it is a very divisive ceremony and although it might make some feel all warm and fuzzy, I bet it offends more than it pleases.

I think it has the real possibility of dividing us into a “them and us” nation and that would be very unwelcome. We are a one land, one people country, made up of hundreds of different ethnic backgrounds and religions and what we have works well. Cook landed here in 1770 – nearly 250 years ago, and although the land was then occupied by a people who we call Aborigines, those that came after Cook settled in and made Australia the wonderful country it is today. 200 years ago, atrocities were committed by both peoples, things weren’t all that smart for the Aboriginal people, but they weren’t all that smart for a lot of people who came by boat either. In time though, things settled down and we all got on with it.

Like John Ridgeway, I was born here, as was my father and as was his father, I have fought for this country – so as far as I’m concerned, that makes me a native and I don’t need to be welcomed.

Another ritual that is equally as divisive is the “Acknowledging” ritual. You hear this more often these days, on TV, radio, at our Parliament, even in schools:  "I would like to respectfully acknowledge the (insert tribe here) people who are the traditional owners and custodians of the land on which we stand.” What’s the purpose of this?? Irrespective of all injustices that happened in the past, I was under the impression that all of Australia belonged to all Australians – we judge people by who they are and what they’ve done, not by their ancestry – surely?.

All these “feel good” rituals have the distinct possibility of regressing us back into tribes, back into Feudalism, though I think the tide is changing, I think the so called “silent majority” is close to the “had enough” point and there will be some major surprises come the next election.

Rubbish.

There’s an email going around saying:  Headline News:  "A flood of doctors" are abandoning bulk billing. According to a report in the Herald Sun, more GP practices are ending bulk billing as the Turnbull Government refuses to lift the freeze on the GP Medicare rebate. And new Medicare statistics show bulk billing rates dropping in recent months.

That means patients who normally bulk bill can now face a $40 gap fee — much worse than the $6 co-payment in the 2014 Abbott Budget. Non-bulk billing patients could pay a higher price too, as their gap fees increase. But this hurts pensioners, the chronically ill and people on low incomes the most.”

This email is being peddled by that left wing organisation Getup – and as usual it’s rubbish, it’s a political statement. They are frightening people and asking them to sign a petition to get the Gov’t to lift the Medicare rebate freeze. The ABC, another left wing leaning organisation, reported recently that bulk billing rates have actually increased.

See HERE.

Membership.

We’ve decided to go with the following membership.

·                1 year’s full membership for $12.00.  (now $6 till 30 June 2017)

·                Life (5 year’s) full membership for $50.00 to 30 June 2021.

Annual Membership will run from July one year to June the next, with this year’s annual membership expiring in June 2017. As we’ve said, full membership is not compulsory, you can still receive the RAM which will remain open, free and available on the net and we’ve decided to limit life membership to 5 years because as we’ve recently discovered, we’re all mortal and 5 years could very well be a lifetime.

So, if you’d like to contribute and help us with the ever increasing costs, please join as a full member.

If you are already a member (ie: if your name is on this LIST), please fill in the form below and send it to us, if you haven’t already joined (if you're not on the list), please use the form HERE.

Reunions.

If you're having a reunion and you would like us to cover it and publish it, let us know and we'll see what can be done.

Errors

Our aim is to have this site error free – but that’s probably impossible. But with your help I reckon we can get pretty close. If you see any errors, be they punctuation, spelling, links that don’t work, facts wrong etc, (no matter how small) please let us know so we can fix them.

Merry Christmas everybody, I hope Santa is good to you.

See you all next year.

You can download the full magazine in PDF format HERE.

It is a very large file, contains 316 pages and will take a while to download.

The margins have been set so you can print on both sides of the page.

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