The News Review:
- Tasmanian forestry grants under fire
- Stateline Tasmania
- Roxon to slug it out with states
Tasmanian forestry grants under fire
abc.net.au – Feb 29, 2008
The money was set aside as part of a federal-state deal that was designed to help the industry stop logging old growth forests. But the auditor-general has found that 18 grants worth $13 million were not assessed properly. In Hobart Felicity gilvie reports. FELICITY GILVIE: When the Howard government came good on its promised to put more of Tasmania’s old growth trees into reserves after the 2004 election the timber industry was compensated with financial grants.
Stateline Tasmania
abc.net.au – Feb 29, 2008
It promises to plough the money saved from school mergers into improving literacy and numeracy but parents worry that if too few schools volunteer to merge smaller schools may be forced. As Kylie Rollins reports they want assurances they will be involved in the process. KYLIE RLLINS: In the early ’90s school amalgamations and cutbacks were so unwelcome there was even a song about them. The controversial Cresap report recommended teacher redundancies and school mergers to save $18 million.
Roxon to slug it out with states
NEWS.com.au – Feb 29, 2008
article-tools –> February 29 2008 02:52am FEDERAL Health Minister Nicola Roxon is prepared to tough it out with her state counterparts in Sydney today as they negotiate funding for the next five years. The states want more money for their health systems but the federal government is demanding better performance in return. And a bitter stoush has developed with the Tasmanian government over commonwealth moves to restrict a $45 million payment to marginal seats. Today’s meeting will be the fourth since the Rudd government took office in November. Ahead of the meeting Ms Roxon said the federal government would expect improvements in hospital performance and states must publish details. "I am well aware that the negotiations will be tough" she told the 10th annual Australian Financial Review health congress in Sydney yesterday. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has affirmed his commitment to boosting funding but said money would not flow until the system was working more efficiently and cost-shifting between the different levels of government had been eliminated… Victorian Premier John Brumby said it was not sustainable for the state to be paying 60 cents out of every dollar of health funding while the commonwealth only provided 40 cents. A side issue to today’s meeting is a dispute between the federal and Tasmanian governments over funding for the Mersey hospital. Ms Roxon has brushed off accusations by Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon that the federal government was trying to "blackmail" the state over health funding. The commonwealth is insisting the $45 million that Tasmania will save from the federal takeover of the Mersey Hospital near Devonport be spent on health services in the surrounding area. Share this article.