Newspaper Columns

Even though National Stroke Week was last week, the National Stroke Foundation is hard at work 52 weeks of the year. Stroke is Australia’s second single greatest killer after coronary heart disease, and is a leading cause of disability. This year, Australians will suffer about 60,000 strokes – that’s a stroke every 10 minutes – [...]

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ome people may remember the 2004 comedy ‘50 First Dates’ starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. It was about a girl, Lucy, who was incapable of converting short-term memories into long-term memories, and a bloke who had to make Lucy fall in love with him again every day.
In the film, Lucy had an acquired brain [...]

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he closure of the Jubilee Bridge to pedestrian traffic last week was of course necessary. While people will no longer be able to walk, ride a bicycle or push a pram across from East Innisfail to the CBD, the risk was simply too great for the sake of convenience.
I want to take this opportunity [...]

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t’s often said that regional members of parliament from across the political spectrum need to yell a little louder to be heard. Well, the Premier and Treasurer have listened and the 2010-11 state budget delivers for regional Queensland.
More than 57 per cent of our record-breaking building program is to areas outside South-East Queensland, with over [...]

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Bill to secure Workers’ Compensation scheme
The TJ Ryan Labor Government introduced Queensland’s first compulsory workers compensation scheme for non-government employers in 1916, which extended to almost all workers in the state rather than just the manual workers who had previously been covered. Legislation introduced in Parliament last week seeks to continue the protection of workers [...]

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Friends of mine recently sent me their eight year-old son Liam’s thoughts about ANZAC Day:
“Every year that ANZAC Day comes I don’t joke and I don’t laugh for I know that it’s too important. ANZAC Day reminds me of my Great Grandpa (my Mum’s Grandfather) and my Great Poppa (my Dad’s Grandfather) because they fought [...]

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Social housing is always a topic that generates a great deal of discussion. Currently, there are 1,296 social housing dwellings in Mulgrave – 287 in the Innisfail area alone. So it’s worth putting on the record some facts that people are either not aware of, or perhaps choose to ignore, when talking about social housing.
We [...]

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On 2 February, Premier Anna Bligh and Education Minister Geoff Wilson launched an education discussion paper to seek the views of the community on the future of the state’s education system and a range of education reforms.
The paper called ‘A Flying Start for Queensland Children’ will help our youngest Queenslanders fulfil their potential. It outlines [...]

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With school starting back today, it will be a day of transition for many families across our region.
An important milestone will be marked by more than 59,000 students across Queensland when they transition from Year 7 to Year 8. More than 36,000 in state schools and almost 23,000 in Catholic and independent schools are expected [...]

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My first year on the job has been a challenging one. On the personal front, I fought an election campaign, bought a house, sold a house, my wife and I had a healthy baby boy and I threw myself into a new job. It’s not likely that I’ll be repeating this in a hurry.
The world [...]

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