National economy
WE ARE constantly being told that our government is struggling to maintain education, public health services and pensions, etc.
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It is of course all nonsense. We are a rich nation. Yet perhaps, a rich nation that is too generous in throwing overseas aid off shore whilst neglecting our own needs. This policy stands in need of serious review.
The father of a family does not tell his wife and children that he cannot afford to buy them school books or send them to a doctor, still less does he tell them to neglect their grandparents and go without dinner because he has given all his money away to strangers down the street.
The first responsibility of government is the care of their own citizens and this has been forgotten.
We cannot turn on our televisions without being bombarded with demands on our after tax incomes to support charities and research and when this outlet gives us a rest our telephones ring with additional appeals.
Why are we giving millions of our nation’s wealth to other countries that have larger armies, navies and air forces than our own whilst being asked to pull in our belts?
Are we supervising how this money is spent and do we really know where it all goes? Should we not be spending our money on educating people here to travel overseas to train and supervise self-help programs and guarantee that the money we provide is spent wisely and productively where it is needed?
We are a generous people and we will always help humanity but that help should be managed to make sure that it goes to those in need rather than scattered in ministerial good-will gestures by politicians who are often inclined to forget that it is our money and not theirs on which we have first call.
Pay in aid what we can afford. Although we would like to give more we can only donate so much and we should decide how much we can each afford and how it should be spent. That is the first priority and duty of our parliaments. If everything is on the table, and we are told that it is, then Australians come first.
Len Langan, Longford.
Make a wish
THIS National Volunteer Week (which ends today) on behalf of Make-A-Wish Australia I’d like to say a heartfelt thank you to all of our Launceston volunteers.
Since 1985 Make-A-Wish Australia volunteers, who hail from 57 different branches, have helped make more than 8000 wishes come true for very sick children and teenagers all over the country.
Make-A-Wish wishes are not fleeting gifts, but rather carefully crafted experiences designed to create a sense of future and hope. We strive to make the impossible possible.
We can make it snow in Cairns, and even bring flying unicorns with rainbow horns to life. Experiencing the impossible helps a child believe, even when very sick, that they can regain their strength and experience a positive future.
Parents often tell us that the wish was the turning point during their child’s treatment. None of this great work would be possible without our amazing volunteers – they are the backbone of Make-A-Wish.
Our 109 volunteers across regional and metropolitan Tasmania are the ones who meet with a child to help unlock their deeply held wish, support families through the entire wish journey, plan activities in the lead up to a wish to build anticipation, to the culmination of the wish itself.
Our volunteers also allow us to grant more wishes by raising much-needed funds through events and fundraising drives.
A great example of our volunteers’ selfless work is their involvement in the wish of five-year-old Scarlett, who is living with a rare heart condition and wished more than anything to “see a unicorn fly through the sky and taste its rainbow horn”.
After 17 home visits of anticipation and tracking the unicorn’s migration path from the North Pole to Australia, a team of volunteers helped Scarlett’s wish come true last month.
Every day, six families in Australia receive the devastating news that their child has a life-threatening medical condition. That’s 2000 children a year in need of a vital wish; four times the number of families Make-A-Wish are currently able to reach.
As an organisation funded solely by donations, with no government funding, we rely on the help of our volunteers and support of the community. Our volunteers believe in our goal to ensure each and every child and teenager living with a life-threatening illness experiences the healing power of a wish.
So to our volunteers, we say thank you. You make it possible for wishes to come true.
Gerard Menses, CEO, Make-A-Wish Australia.
Malaria
AS SOMEONE who has lived in areas beset by mosquito-born diseases, I have seen the devastation they bring.
Sleeping in mosquito nets, fumigation trucks regularly trundling the streets indiscriminately spraying your neighbourhood and covering up morning and night would change the way we live. As Australia warms, the country enters the danger zone and therefore Australia must support the work on eliminating malaria.
Already overseas travellers and our fighting forces are at risk to drug resistant forms. Australia must be ready by committing to fund the fight against the scourge in the budget. Last year Malcolm Turnbull promised to rid the Asia Pacific of malaria by 2030. The only way we can keep this promise is if we tell the government to fund this critical work.