Dingo bytes

Ongoing cuts to mental health services at both state and federal 
level have marginalised people with mental illness. One area 
where these shortcomings manifest themselves is in the number of 
callers to mental health helplines. The national service, SANE, 
received 15,330 calls last year, up from 8,560 in 2002. Around 40 
percent of the callers were people receiving no treatment at all. 
SANE's Barbara Hocking said the problem was added to by the 
growing case loads of mental health workers. "It's a fairly 
tragic reflection on our society when the only place people can 
turn for support is a telephone service", she noted.

* * *

Privatisation can only be done by stealth up to a certain point. 
Then the axe must come out. When the University of Sydney last 
month decided to give its undergraduate nursing course the chop 
in 2005, it came as a shock to the dean of nursing. Professor 
Jocalyn Lawler was only told of the plan on the day it was handed 
to the federal Education Minister, Brendan Nelson. The coup by 
university management — Professor Lawler called it "a process 
conducted in an environment of secrecy" — will also see the 
dismantling of a new bachelor of nursing in Indigenous health. 
The 850 undergraduate nursing places are to be farmed out to 
various other institutions. Many will simply disappear and the 
Indigenous and other unique courses will certainly not survive 
away from the much larger resources available at Sydney 
University.

* * *

And while on education, Minister Nelson has announced a plan to 
have funding to schools tied to their sporting activity under the 
guise of fighting childhood obesity. But recently PM Howard 
rejected a proposal to ban food advertising during children's 
television programs, saying there is "such a thing as a safe 
level of consumption of a McDonald's". Howard must have some 
connection to the peddler of those coronary-inducing globules in 
a sesame seed bun (does Ronald McDonald donate to the Liberal 
Party?). He is full of praise for the exploited youth they 
employ, marvelling at the way they have been imbued with Maca 
manners i.e. bow and scrape or you're sacked.

* * *

CAPITALIST HOG OF THE WEEK: is Jetstar. When Qantas introduced 
its budget airline, Jetstar, a couple of months back, people who 
eagerly rushed to buy cheapo tickets may not have realised that 
no-frills flights also meant no-safety. Of course, Qantas hasn't 
introduced cheap airfares by accepting less profit. This happens 
through such things as lower wages and conditions for its staff 
and compromises with safety. So it was that last week at Sydney 
Airport a cabin door of a Jetstar flight was ripped off when the 
aircraft started for the runway while still attached to the 
terminal. Said Jetstar corporate relations, "It was not the 
outcome desired."