Local Government News

Larry Anthony
National News

The Australian Government's response to the Clarke Committee's report on veterans' entitlements is great news for the more than 7000 residents of Richmond who receive a disability pension, war widow pension, service pension or income support supplement from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The package, worth $267 million over five years, will give more veterans access to the disability pension; enhances the disability pension; provides rent assistance to war widows in addition to the income support supplement; and almost doubles the veterans' funeral benefit.

It is clear evidence of the strength of the Government's commitment to our local veteran community.

Among the Government measures to assist veterans contained in the response are:

• An exemption of the veterans' disability pension paid by Centrelink from the means test applied to income support payments. This measure will benefit about 19,000 veterans and cost $100 million over five years.

• The indexation of the above general rate component of the disability pension by the Consumer Price Index or Male Total Average Weekly Earnings, whichever is higher. This will benefit 45,000 veterans and will cost $66 million over five years.

• An extension of rent assistance to war widows, which will benefit 11,500 widows and is worth $73 million over five years.

• An increase the funeral benefit from $572 to $1,000 at an estimated cost of $27 million over five years. An estimated 14,500 veterans stand to gain from the additional assistance.

• An extension of access to the disability pension to surviving veterans involved in the Berlin Airlift; to those involved in minesweeping; and to aircrew of the RAAF's No.2 Squadron, who served on the Malay-Thai border and;

• The granting of an ex-gratia payment of $25,000 to surviving Prisoners of War of the North Koreans, or their widows, for the extraordinary hardship they suffered.

The Government also had decided to respond positively to the needs of those affected by the British Atomic Test programme when the outcomes are available of the Australian

Participants in the British Nuclear Test Programme - Cancer Incidence and Mortality Study.

It will also continue to provide special recognition and comprehensive assistance to those who have served Australia in times of war, at personal risk of injury or death from an armed enemy.

Larry Anthony MP
Federal Member for Richmond
Minister for Children & Youth Affairs
PO Box 6996 Tweed Heads South 2486 ph: 07 5524 2466 fax: 07 5524 9366
www.larry.com.au Toll Free: 1800 812 125 larry.anthony.mp@aph.gov.au

Ian Causley
Canberra Connection

Free trade and intelligence

The release of the draft text of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Australia and the United States provides an early opportunity for people to examine the historic agreement in detail.

It is also the best way of reassuring Australians that there has been no compromise on our pharmaceuticals benefits scheme, nor on our conservative approach to quarantine. The full text of the draft US-Australia FTA is available online at www.dfat.gov.au.

Also available online at www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/pjcaad is the report into the intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

The Parliamentary joint committee's report confirms the Australian Government was right to believe that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and weapons of mass destruction capabilities before the war.

The findings of the Iraq Survey Group since the war ended have revealed dozens of weapons of mass destruction programs in Iraq, and those programs confirm the assessments of Australian intelligence agencies.

I appreciate the point that actual stockpiles have not been found, but the programs were clearly there.

Environmental fund extended

The Australian Government's Envirofund program has been extended for another two years, with the fund to continue to outlay about $20 million a year of local environmental and natural resource management projects until at least 2007.

The program allocates grants to community groups of up to $30,000 for projects which address local environmental and natural resource management problems or for associated training and education activities. For more information about the Envirofund please call my office on 1300 301 735, or visit www.nht.gov.au/envirofund.

Narcotics report

Australia's unrelenting war on illicit drugs, in particular heroin, has been praised in the 2003 Annual Report of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB).

The INCB has noted Australia's success in stopping the trafficking of illicit drugs as a result of its tough border protection strategies, especially the major joint operations by the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Customs Service.

Australians are already aware that the extra resources provided by the Government to our law enforcement agencies have resulted in a massive reduction in the supply of illicit drugs to the Australian market. It is pleasing that Australia's efforts are now being recognised and praised internationally.

The Coalition Government has invested more than $1 billion in the Tough on Drugs strategy which tackles illicit drug use on three fronts: health, education and law enforcement. This additional funding and tough border controls have resulted in a heroin shortage since late 2000, which has led to a rise in prices and a fall in the purity of heroin available on Australia's streets.

According to the 2001 National Drug Strategy Household Survey, there are now 23 per cent fewer Australians using illicit drugs, and since the launch of Tough on Drugs Australia's law enforcement agencies have stopped more than nine tonnes of serious illicit drugs from reaching Australian streets.

Sadly, these positive results are being undermined by the operation of a heroin injecting room in Sydney, which is heavily criticized in the INCB report. I am totally opposed to heroin injecting rooms.

For further information please contact my electorate office on 1300 301 735, or send me an email: ian.causley.mp@aph.gov.au.