Local Govt News
 Larry Anthony
National News
Don't lose Bypass Heart
It was great to be back in Alstonville on Monday. I started the day at the Uniting Church Hall for another meeting with the Alstonville Bypass Committee.
My message to them was not to lose heart and not to give up. A change in Government next March means they will get their bypass. Alternatively it is not impossible that the Sydney Labor Government may finally hear their pleas and build this desperately needed road.
I was concerned to hear that some Shire Councillors may be considering prosecuting Alstonville residents who put up pro-bypass signs. This would be the ultimate case of shooting the messenger.
If you don't like the signs, get your Labor mates in Sydney to build us our bypass. Don't attack the local citizens who have been protesting peacefully against Sydney Labor's neglect of their road needs for the past seven and a half years.
Come on Ballina, Plateau residents are hardly dangerous revolutionaries and Alstonville is not Kabul - there is more traffic in Alstonville for starters.
50 New Aged Care Beds
Also on Monday I had the pleasure of marking the official start to works on the new Alstonville Adventist retirement village. The Coalition is funding fifty beds for this new facility. We are working hard to ensure older Australians are able to live in dignity and comfort. Congratulations all round for a great project.
More Road Funding
I am hoping to have more good news for Alstonville later this week with an announcement of a further major upgrade of Teven Road which links Alstonville and Wollongbar to the Pacific Highway north.
Teven Road has already benefited from two lots of Federal Roads to Recovery funding, but I believe we can always do more, especially around those narrow bridges. Watch this space.
 Ian Causley
Canberra Connection
Labor Blocks Drought Help Reform
Last month, the Sydney Labor Government, along with other Labor-led state governments, ganged up to block reforms to the Federal-State agreement which delivers exceptional circumstances assistance to farmers facing rare and irregular seasonal conditions.
Drought assistance in NSW is primarily the responsibility of the State Government. Presently, exceptional circumstances assistance is provided only in once-in-a-lifetime events and is only intended to be triggered after usual assistance programs provided by the Federal and State governments for disasters have been fully utilised.
The Federal Government's exceptional circumstances reform proposals, which were put to State Agriculture ministers in May, would have provided for faster, fairer and more generous support to farmers in declared exceptional circumstances areas.
With the states contributing now only four per cent of the total costs of exceptional circumstances, they have no incentive to act responsibly in dealing with farm support.
In the absence of state governments agreements, the Federal Government will continue to honour its commitment under the existing Federal-State exceptional circumstances arrangements, providing welfare support through exceptional circumstances relief payments and business support through interest rate subsidies.
Specialist Outreach Expanded
The Federal Government is providing $46,000 for the expansion of the community paediatric services at Casino to Ballina and the ear, nose and throat service at Grafton.
This funding will mean a range of specialists will visit a number of towns in the Northern Rivers on a regular basis, bringing the services to the people who need them.
Previous funding approved for services in the Northern Rivers Area Health Service region included $259,000 for psychogeriatric services at Ballina and Lismore, child and adolescent psychiatry services at Lismore, neuroscience services at Lismore, and the expansion of the clinical genetic service at Lismore to Tweed Heads, Grafton and other centres as needed.
War Widows
Better Off
Some 1300 Northern Rivers war widows will soon be better off following the Federal Parliament's approval of Coalition legislation to remove Labor's unfair freeze on the war widow's income support supplement.
This means important financial support for war widows will be indexed, so that recipients benefit from improvements in Australian living standards.
Like the Federal Coalition Government's initiative to reinstate the war widow's pension to those who remarried before 1984, the passage of this legislation removes another Labor anomaly which discriminated against Australia's war widows.
From Friday, September 20, the ceiling rate of the income support supplement will rise in September and March by the same percentage as the service pension, reflecting increases in the consumer price index and male total average weekly earnings.
While the majority of war widows receiving income support do so through the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA), there remains a small number who continue to receive their payments through Centrelink. Their payments are not covered by this initiative and I would encourage them to transfer to the DVA income support supplement, in order to benefit from the removal of the ceiling rate freeze. Those war widows who wish to transfer to DVA should contact 133 254.
More information about the war widow's income support supplement is available from the Veterans' Affairs website at www.dva.gov.au.
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