Item:
In the old days as a student Health Minister Tony Abbott liked to pull on the boxing gloves and spend some time in the ring with his opponents.Today he’s still counter punching, this morning leading with the launch of a health program preventing obesity and chronic disease, and moving in close and going for his Labor opponent, Nicola Roxon. (AM – my emphasis)
Item:
The chairman of the Federal Government’s Pregnancy Counselling Advisory Committee says some people may have been put off calling a new helpline because of negative publicity.
The $15 million counselling service has received 68 calls in its first two weeks of operation…
The Health Minister, Tony Abbott, says a fair and reasonable promotion campaign will start soon and the helpline’s operators eventually expect to receive about 1,000 calls a month. (ABC News - my emphasis)
So where’s the money coming from to fund this new health program and the promotion campaign for the helpline nobody wants to use? Answer over the fold.
MORE than half the federal health Budget is remedial spending to fix up services that have been allowed to run down, an Access Economics analysis has found.
About $2.7bn of the $4.6bn allocated over five years as new health spending was remedial, the economics consulting firm said.
(Jane Bunce, AAP syndicated in The Age and at News Limited)
I liked Kerry Nettle’s response:
Well, precisely.
Compulsory boxing in schools. That’ll trim them fat kids, hey Tony.
I’m fat and I hadn’t even heard of this brilliant idea. $15 million to waste and they’re complaining about welfare bludgers.
Jenny Craig, Weightwatchers, Dietlite and all the other ‘let us help you drop flab’ money grabbers must be laughing all the way to the bank.
What kind of counselling could you give over the phone unless it’s the phone numbers of Jenny Craig, Weightwatchrs, Dietlite etc.
Guess those two quotes in a row at the head of the post are a bit confusing.
Anyhow, the counselling service is for pregnant women – nothing to do with obesity. And (main point of post) the money for every initiative Abbott announces between now and the election comes from underfunding the health system in the past.
Next up – restoration of neglected services as major health initiatives. Naturally.
Such a popular program, the will of the People given resources and leadership, should scarcely need publicity. I’m surprised the people who work there aren’t rushed off their feet. It’s Liberal policy that when an individual has a personal problem, the first thingg they do is to call a government service.
Gummo’s first quote calls to mind the campaign against domestic violence that reinforced negative perceptions of Mark Latham: an image of Tony Abbott going after Roxon or Gillard would make that meme reverberate on the government. Tony Abbott: Australia Says No.
Speaking off boxers:
Sorry Gummo, blame it on the diet I’m trying to keep to. At the moment I’d even kiss Abbott for a chocolate, desperate times, these.
Tony Abbott related – this was interesting:
“THE head of the Federal Government’s ADHD review has stood down after The Saturday Daily Telegraph queried his links to two major ADHD drug companies.
Health Minister Tony Abbott yesterday said paediatrician Dr Daryl Efron had “done the honourable thing”.
Mr Abbott said it was “not a good look” that Dr Efron was on the advisory boards of Novartis, which makes the controversial drug Ritalin, and Eli Lilly, maker of Strattera, which goes on to the PBS in July.”
Bad luck the links were revealed … but has Efron stood down from the Committee or just down from being Chairman?