Gillard Regional Estates Plan a sop to Miners,risky investment

Incumbent Prime Minister Julia Gillards regional expansion may seem like reasonable policy to many. Like all other proposals, this one requires serious scrutiny.

 My initial and lasting impression is that the Prime Minister is a tad too close to the Big end of town in the mining industry.Earlier this year she was reported in the Northwest mining belt attacking Unions who were at the time engaged in a campaign for better conditions. Upon her traitorous ascent to the Prime Ministership, her first consultation was with the miners...well...not all miners, but with the big end of town..Rio and BHP Billiton, with little guys such as Fortescue and a gaggle of other miners struggling and unconsulted.Its a fair bet that "independent" MiningSuperTax implementation team member Marius Kloppers will do what is right for Rio (his old charge) .. but the process is very secretive with all other miners aside from Xstrata,BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto shut out of the process.

  So to Gillards regional housing policy, which makes perfect sense for miners. They get workers to pay the cost of housing rather than face the expense of providing or subsidising housing themselves.Workers and private investors should be wary of investing in mining driven towns. The world is littered with mining ghost towns, and your equity invested in premium priced slick marketed property may be worthless in 30years as the mine reaches its use by date.Sooner, if China suddenly decide that they no longer need to pay the generous premiums they do for ores and fossil fuels. This policy is reminiscent of government releases of outer urban estates for housing without social amenities or work availability and the social and personal economic mischief those policies have caused. We know many who are or have been homeless after "investing" in these high risk low investment value properties financed by virtual loan sharks.

Greens challenge Coles on cheap smokes

And we challenge Govt and Greens on Cigarette tax.

Australian Greens challenge Coles over cheap tobacco:   The Greens support of Labors 25% extra Tax impost on smokers is policy which impacts our homeless community and low  income communities Australia wide.The Greens falling into line with Labor on the notional health impact leaves our community concerns on cigarette costs without a political ally.

 I have personally seen, and spoken to several of our community who have noted the effects of this illogical tax grab on not only our community, but a growing number of workers and besuited professionals.These are the Sydney City folk who are regularly seen collecting cigarette butts from the ash receptacles and footpaths of the city.Smoking recycled cigarettes is a practice long associated with Mexico City and Manila slums.We can now report that Sydney has finally caught up. 

 The Cancer health figures are doubtless genuine, but attribution solely to smoking, and unfairly burdening only smokers with this tax is highly suspect.Many of the chenicals added to foods such as colourings flavourings and preservatives have the potential to contribute to the cancer count, but we see no tax on those foods.Then theres the carbon monoxide which our national love affair with cars and #bigoil produce, but no 25% slug on the motor or petrol industries. Or the cancer causing (and climate debilitating) industrial pollutants associated with the array of chemicals burned and used,but no 25% Tax on them either.In fact Rudd / Gillard Labor quietly exempted the biggest polluters from mitigation responsibility in discussions leading up to their abject failure on Climate in the Senate,and their subsequent rating as virtual climate deniers by The Copenhagen Climate conference. Hard to see the level playing field from our kerbside perspective...

 We haven't looked much at the impact on crime, but we know that ChopChop is now freely available along with "Paraguay Marlboro" and some other brands.Carboot sellers pop up doing the 1 man flashmob thing selling packs as fast as they can take the money in. These people contribute positively to maintaining the sanity of many in our homeless community, including myself, who would be driven absolutely mad without a nice relaxing smoke, a diversion from the rigours of corporately driven homelessness and marginalisation.

 I smoke about a packet of rollies a day.If I get cancer,I get it, same as if I get hit by a bus or shot by a cop. Treatment??I haven't been to a doctor since about year 8 so I'm probably not too concerned about it- I'll take my chances.

 The important issue here is freedom of choice, something which Australians have become too used to rich serving governments usurping because they know best & we don't. Freedom is undermined by draconian Tax imposts. i choose to assert my freedom to smoke the cheapest healthiest ciggies I can buy -legally or not

Building Sustainable #Fairpay in Sydney

In our many years of dealing with homelessness and marginalisation, we are yet to see a government supported program which has a sunset clause, a measure of success involving zero ongoing government funding because the marginalisation issue has been successfully and permanently resolved. 


 Under the current Rudd/Gillard #Labor and the immediate past Howard Abbott Coalition Governments we have in fact witnessed a rise in the income bar at which social marginalisation kicks in, a rise in the number of marginalised and a progressive increase in repetitive funding calls on the taxpayer.


 There are no government or Poverty Industry strategies to end poverty and marginalisation. Yet there are billions of Taxpayer dollars spent in the name of Homeless and other marginalised community sectors. The inconvenient truth is that our homeless name, along with that of the long-suffering aboriginal community, children, families and economically marginalised workers, is being used by State and Federal governments and a gaggle of co-dependent NGOs, to bilk the Taxpayer out of billions of dollars annually. This daylight robbery of the working Australian taxpayer has to end - and soon. 


 While State and Federal Governments wax lyrical about "sound economic management" they in fact produce the economic results they claim by digging deeper into the legislatively thinned pockets of working Australians. Ever more taxes, and ever less solutions has been a consistent characteristic of the Charlatan Australian political leadership of the past two decades. A recent example is the 25% hike in cigarette taxes which severely impacts low income workers & Benefit claimants,as it was designed to.
 For every social marginalisation issue,there are swelling numbers of people and swelling government and NGO budgets,but no solutions.Despite the diabolical Patrick McClure inspired "Workchoices" and "McClure Report" Howard era millions spent on NGOs, homelessness and marginalised numbers rose. The Rudd/Gillard Labor "The Road Home" and Stimulus Package spend of $6billion plus in the name of homeless people has seen asset increases for State Governments and NGOs, and an alarming growth in homeless numbers. Surely a sign that this program is not working?? Instead, Government and NGOs promote one self serving scheme after the other-including diabolical families and aboriginal schemes which actually exacerbate the perceived problems. And so with homelessness. The furphy of solving homelessness and aboriginal issues with jobs is undermined by bi-partisan legislation severely curtailing workers rights to organise and lobby effectively for #FairPay. For example Agency workers cannot picket their actual place of employment, due to Howard era anti-worker secondary boycott laws which Labor disliked so much,they kept. 


 I could,but won't,continue forever with a discourse dissecting the disastrous policies of past and present governments, or their NGO parasite friends. I will tell you what we ( and you are welcome to join us) are doing about it.


 Our initiatives aim to provide homeless, at-risk-of-homelessness and other marginalised community members with a self directed strategy to exit marginalisation by building an income base in which the participant owns or shares in the developed equity.Without govenment or NGO support -and without benefits to those parties.


 Our most successful project commenced in June 2009.Our IT based off the streets concept leverages a number of pre-existing online tools and strategies which participants use to derive an income.Our measure of success is an income of $Au1300 per week, which is the minimum a single person needs to live comfortably and make choices in Sydney. We have as of last night successfully helped 245 people to achieve this goal online.Delivery has been manually and we haven't charged for training or anything...but it will be available to all online as soon as we can guarantee it is not usable by parasite JobNetwork NGOs to claim $20000 success fees for doing nothing...or contact us @SydneyHomeless if you're in Sydney..more soon.  


 We are launching @BannerBikes in about 3 weeks - a powerful promotional service commencing in Sydney in August . Further info  This service will allow Sydney Homeless people to participate in and build an income and equity share in a viable workers community controlled collective,providing innovative service partnerships to Sydney and Australian businesses