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The Victorian Premier John Brumby says he remains opposed to any federal takeover of hospitals.

Hey :) I'm new to Melbourne and was wondering if anyone could recommend me any of the following in the eastern suburbs. I live in the Belgrave area.

- good independant book stores and second hand book stores (desperate!)
- art supply stores (not Riot or shopping centre ones), more like Eckersleys etc
- a really good doctor, preferably female. would be good if leans towards natural approaches
= a really good naturopath
- good organic/ free-range butcher/ food stores and health food shop
- a good photo lab, i have various films i need to process and don't want to use, say, Rabbit photo
- recommended kindys/ playgroup
- good markets - both for produce and/or trinkets...Read Full Article»

This is a fascinating piece given the rabid health care debate currently occurring in the US. Here, the public health care system is taken for granted and we mainly debate how much tax we waste subsidising the extortion that is the private health insurance rebate.

Melbourne has been called the cultural capital, the sports capital and the coffee capital of Australia. Well, now we can add another title to Melbourne"s fame, the flu capital.  I"m unsure as to what is worse,  trying to avoid people who have the flu in order to prevent getting sick or trying to avoid people who have the flu in order to not here another lame joke about pig flu. Either way, we are winning in the amount of H1N1 flu and coming a close second for "regular" flu cases developed this year.

In an incredible sense of bad (or possibly good) timing, Google has released "Google Flu Trends" for Australia. At first glance, it seems like another April fools prank like Gball but in fact is an interactive graph mapping flu data from user"s flu related searches on Google. Google correlated the amount of people searching for flu related topics and actual flu data from the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory and found that the two were very similar as seen in the graph. Unfortunately, medical data from the VIDR is not real-time but Google"s search results are, thus making for "Flu Trends" to accurate predict the frequency of flu and the state you reside in....Read Full Article»

Maniacs,

I'm about to file a 'notice of breach of duty' to the landlords. There are several reasons for this, but I was wondering if mice and cockroach infestation is a plausible and valid reason for reason 68, that the rented property is "not in good repair"....Read Full Article»

I have to admit that I agree with Chris Berg about half of the time. I normally disagree with his opinions on industrial relations and (generally) the economy and the environment. However, his latest op-ed piece in the Sunday Age is a cracker. He is having a swipe at greenies who have called for a population cap in Australia of 7 million (not sure what they plan to do with the other 14 million people... but I"m sure that"s in the fine print).

When it comes to population growth, I must disagree with my fellow greenies. Whilst we might like to cap our population, halve our birthrate, adopt out those children parents had "for the country" to needy parents elsewhere in the world - we do have a global obligation not to shut our borders and turn off all the lights in the hope that they won"t notice we"re here....Read Full Article»

A recent survey conducted by the city of Melbourne reported in the Age found that over 100 homeless people were sleeping on the streets of the CBD area (including Fitzroy) on a winter night, and that a quarter of those were sleeping in Fitzroy. Only 3% slept in Carlton and Parkville.

...Read Full Article»

In WA and NSW the state governments have introduced official information campaigns that release the results of food hygiene inspections in restaurants and other food service businesses. The government agencies the NSW Food Authority and the WA Environmental Health Directorate publish the names and addresses of businesses that have been penalised for breaching food health standards.

This is a fantastic service for consumers and provides great copy for the media. Why is this not available in Victoria? Choice magazine says the Victorian government has no plans to introduce a similar service, and according to the Age newspaper the government has recently confirmed this position. How can it be Labor policy in one state to publish this information for the benefit of citizens and consumers, yet be Labor party policy not to in another state?...Read Full Article»

I live alone and sharing a house is not a viable option for me. So with the costs of rent going up, petrol going up, food going up and my wage staying the same I wondered what else I could "do without" to put more into my savings account. Im not willing to live a pre-1970's lifestyle so somethings I have come to concider essentials in this day and age.My fixed living costs are:Rent..... I cant control that one much. Im looking for a new place to live and even the outer suburbs are going up in cost. Electricity... Im allready pretty frugal with that. I hate having lights on if they are not needed Only the light in the room I am in is on at a time, I dont run the TV very often. The only appliance (aside from fridge/freezer) that is on most of the time is my laptop, which does go into a low power hibernation when not in use. I could start turning things off at the wall and not leaving them in standby mode but other then that I am not sure how I could futher reduce my electricity bill. Gas..... I rely on gas for cooking... not much I can do about that one and heating... I will not turn on a heater unless I am sick or it is FREEZING. I will wear jumpers, pants and snuggle under a doona while I surf the net/watch tv before I turn on the heater. So I dont think I can do much about that bill. Water.... I only wash clothes (1-2 loads) once a fortnight (I live alone so thats plenty), have short showers and dont water lawn/garden so Im not sure how I could reduce that cost either.Phone.... I dont have a home phone and have my mobile on a cap - This works out cheaper then a land line for me. Having some sort of telecommunication is not in my view a luxry but an essential in todays society. I think the world has to have SOME way of calling you and the mobile in lieu of a home line to me is more practical. So while I could reduce the calls I make and bring my cap down a bit this would be one of the last costs I could concider cutting as my family is all interstate and this is the main way I keep contact with themInternet... costs me a total of $39 a month. I dont think this is excessive... its not like I have the worlds fastest boradband or anything. Again.. even though some people might concider this one a luxuary Its an essential to me.Petrol.... I fill up as little as possible and no longer go for long sunday drives or cruises with the car club which I useto. Motoring was one of my "leisure activities"Insurance... I definatly concider my contents and car insurance to be essential and as you all know its yet another cost that goes up year after year the same as my private health insurance. Sure some people would be able to survive without health insurance but having it has saved me heaps becuase I need new glasses every year usually and I have been chronically ill this year so its been a god send to have and I wouldnt/couldnt get rid of it... still the cost keeps going up.Food... This one I know I could make some slight savings in if I was well enough to start cooking again but that will just have to wait untill my health picks up again. But again... this is another one of lifes costs that just keep rising. Even a loaf of bread now is close to or exceeds $2.00 a loaf.Medications... I have even noticed an increase in the cost of my perscription medications now. I have to make choices about which scripts are actually essential now days and which I can probably do without. This cost probably doesnt effect everyone but again, becuase I have been chronically ill this year its a big one for me latley.The rest of lifes negotiable things I really dont spend much money on. I rarely go out, I dont smoke or drink, I dont buy clothes unless I HAVE to and Im happy to wear cheap ones - no designer lables here. Same for shoes. I dont spend more then $10 a month on cosmetics or lotions or potions. Ive stopped dying my hair. The only thing I think I spend money on that I dont HAVE to is the dogs They are spoilt.So what other corners can I cut? How do you save money ? Give me your genius tips and suggestions !!!!AND P.S - Those who just want to pick on my spelling and or grammar - save the comments for yourselves - lets try to stay on topic huh? ...

Hey kids, due to my healthcare card expiring today i now have a weekly concession zone 1+2 ticket that's already validated but has 4 days left. As i can't use it now i thought i'd rather give it to someone who'd appreciate it then leave it at a station and hope someone finds it. If anyone wants it let me know and i can arrange to meet you after work tonight to give it to you....