1925 Greens Cunningham 6.Indd
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CUNNINGHAM NEWS Newsletter of the Federal Member for Cunningham, Michael Organ MP New Office - Globe Lane Wollongong ISSUE 6 JUNE 2004 Web - www.michaelorgan.org.au IN THIS NEWSLETTER • Federal Budget BUDGET PROVIDES • Employment • Lower East Crown Street • Industrial Manslaughter SLIM PICKINGS FOR • Royal Commission • Global Warming THE ILLAWARRA • ATSIC Rally Treasurer Peter Costello’s latest budget lending right scheme which will allow • Port Kembla Expansion is a lost opportunity for the community local authors to continue to receive • Superannuation with tax cuts favoured over urgent royalty payments when their books spending needs in health care and are borrowed from public libraries. • 50th Wedding Anniversary job creation for the Illawarra and is We should also be expecting to receive nothing more than old-fashioned, pre- • ‘Oilies’ Surfing Spot a slice of the $45 million per year election pork-barrelling tagged for accident black spots to be • Bulli Hospital The government’s decision to allocate spent on the Princes Highway. Emergency Department a paltry $7.2M over 4 years for the With the imminent release of the continuation of the voluntary work • Sports Awards government’s Auslink white paper, initiative program is a far cry from a the jury is still out on the prospect of • May Day job creation scheme the community federal funding to expand Port Kembla has been asking for by anyone’s and its rail links. • Medical Retrieval Unit measure. Overall this budget provides slim • Public Education The would-be PM, Treasurer Peter pickings for the Illawarra. • Inviting Michael to Functions Costello, is continuing to turn a blind- eye to the unemployment crisis in the The Government’s decision to only • Constituent News Illawarra. provide tax cuts to people earning above $52,000 per year is a slap in The government has turned a deaf ear the face for low income earners, to pleas for investment in job creation Michael Organ MP particularly those people doing it extra schemes in this Budget, and withheld Federal Member for Cunningham tough in the Cunningham electorate. a surplus of over $2.4 billion dollars Shop 501 Globe Lane despite the Illawarra having amongst The Government’s neglect of the Wollongong NSW 2500 the highest unemployment rate in the least well-off people in Australia in an nation. affront to decency. PO Box 387 Wollongong NSW 2520 Likewise, the failure to fund a medical Phone: 02 4228 3666 school for Wollongong University is Fax: 02 4228 3677 a disappointment and there was no mention of a licence for Wollongong Freecall: 1300 301 821 hospital’s Magnetic Resonance Imaging Email : [email protected] Machine in the budget papers. Web: www.michaelorgan.org.au On the other hand, the government has allocated $44 million over four years to continue the educational 1 A SUSTAINABLE EMPLOYMENT FUTURE FOR OUR REGION Unemployment in Wollongong is currently among the and the arts. We already have excellent examples of highest in the country at 9.7%. Youth unemployment employment generation in this area through initiatives is even higher. This is a national outrage and a national such as Film Illawarra, and Wollongong City Council has tragedy. But the federal government’s recent Budget also done some very good work in promoting cultural offered no solutions for this problem besetting our region. employment. More can be done however. For these reasons addressing the issue of unemployment Some of our unemployment problems can be addressed will be my top priority for the remainder of 2004. through increased government funding. For too long our region has been neglected by federal governments I firmly believe that this great region can generate who have taken the people of the Illawarra for granted. employment in a way that is both socially and I have invited Kevin Andrews the federal Minister for environmentally sustainable. Employment, to visit the region and observe first hand the There are opportunities to revitalise some of the traditional problems of unemployment we face here. forms of employment, but in ways that are environmentally Solving the unemployment problem in this region also benign and not damaging to human health. One example is requires bringing people in the Illawarra together to push a that of the Port Kembla Container Terminal, which I have common employment agenda - to develop local industries been working on very closely with local business. and export local products. I have already been involved in Tourism also has the potential to provide a major impetus this process by facilitating a cooperative, all-stakeholders for job creation in the region. Local initiatives to promote path for redevelopment of Port Kembla, and I have the unique qualities of the region are already paying championed the establishment of an Illawarra economic dividends. development organisation to be owned, controlled and driven by Illawarra stakeholders. Such initiatives are a step The Illawarra region is well-placed to benefit from the forward for employment in the region and I will continue development of high-tech, ecologically sustainable sunrise to promote and facilitate the development of such bodies. industries. Already the University of Wollongong is a leader in research in this area and organisations such as I believe that a sustainable employment future for this Futureworld in Coniston are showing the way in the area region is not only possible but absolutely vital, and I of renewable energy. commit myself to promoting this vision locally and to the federal government. Other former industrially based regions, such as Newcastle, have benefited from the development of cultural industries LOWER EAST CROWN STREET DEVELOPMENT The lower east Crown Street development proposal has Margaret Gooden, like so many others, cannot be dismissed been controversial as locals have reported concerns about as nostalgic and anti-development but rather as having the increasing traffic, street shading and wind tunnels along with foresight to recognise the value that already exists in our built a loss of character in the beach end of Crown Street. environments and seek developments that complement our best assets. Margaret Gooden is particularly concerned about the loss of the unique ambience that is east Crown Street and agrees with many others that the heritage listed former Post Office sets the tone for that part of the city. Margaret used to live in what is now called Santanas Café, when her parents Mavis Murphy and Frank Murphy (known as Spud Murphy), lived from 1935 to 1973. Upstairs comprised two bedrooms and lounge room, whilst below was a hairdressers, later to become a shop in the early 1950s. There is a strong call for sympathetic and environmentally friendly developments in city centres as well as spaces that are people friendly. The eastern end of Crown Street unlike other precincts in the Wollongong Central Business District, has a sunny, less noisy, accessible atmosphere thereby making Margaret Gooden and Michael Organ discuss the future of Lower it a preferred meeting place for locals and visitors. East Crown Street. 2 Launch of “No Job Is Worth Dying For” Photographic Exhibition An exhibition of 20 enlarged and framed photographs of Member's Bill - legislation that has been drafted which unsafe work places was launched at my Wollongong office provides for custodial sentences of up to 25 years and fines in May. This purposefully low key event was attended by of $50 million in circumstances where bosses negligently the media, workers, union officials and two people that kill workers. Next the exhibition is off to Tasmania, then have been particularly struck by workplace injuries. An South Australia and the other States, before finishing up in Illawarra worker Mr Gary Corbett, who suffered serious Canberra where Michael’s legislation will be introduced in injuries including the need to have screws placed in his the Federal Parliament by Senator Kerry Nettle, sadly after spine, spoke of the need for the compensation process nobody in the Labor party would support it. to be improved. Also, Sue Exner the mother of 16 year old Joel Exner, who died on his third day at work after plunging 15 metres from the roof of a western Sydney building site, gave a moving account about the need for effective industrial manslaughter laws. The exhibition then moved to the NSW Parliament on 19 May, just two days after a NSW parliamentary inquiry called for the introduction of industrial manslaughter laws. I spoke at Parliament and called on both the Federal and State governments to introduce laws to protect workers from criminally negligent employers. The photographic exhibition promotes the need for effective industrial manslaughter legislation at a critical time- both in the context of the upcoming Federal election and at the same time as the Federal Government introduces legislation that would override the ACT's ground breaking industrial manslaughter laws. The backdrop to this exhibition is my Criminal Code Amendment (Workplace Death and Serious Injury) Private Sue Exner and Michael Organ at the opening of the exhibition. WHY A ROYAL COMMISSION INTO AUSTRALIA’S INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES IS NEEDED The Australian people were lied to about Saddam Hussein. concede that the reasons for going to war were deficient There was no immediate threat. There were no large and flawed. stockpiles of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons The objects of my Bill, that I introduced to the House of of mass destruction. The story was a beat-up. Pure and Representatives on 8 March 2004 are: firstly, to establish simple. a royal commission to investigate the intelligence advice That is why I moved to establish a Royal Commission into provided to the Australian government that related the Australian intelligence services on 8 March this year to its decision to invade Iraq in 2003 and to continue It must be said that the Australian Intelligence Community the occupation of Iraq in 2004; secondly, to expose any assessments are more moderate and cautious that those misrepresentation, neglect or omission of advice provided from partner agencies, particularly those in the United to the Australian government by the Australian Public States.