Gin Gin Gravity Centre Chopped

[Nesti]

Today's West Australian said that the State Government have chopped $200,000 per year off the funding.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/04/09/2868514.htm

Okay, here's my gripe.

At the risk of being labeled as Insensitive, Politically Incorrect, or even a *******, I'll say just this; "So long as the State Government's investing wisely into Singaporean kidney operations, who cares about fundamental understanding of the universe".

Sorry, just needed to point out that-that was about the same amount of money as 12mths operations. 12mths breathing-space to find other sponsors!

Nuff-said.

:scared3:

[renormalised]

Why would the state gov'n be investing in kidney operations in a country that has as much wealth (per head of pop'n) as Singapore??. Makes no sense. Even though the kidney ops' are important, surely they can find the funding themselves. Taking money away from their own people to give to others overseas. They may as well sell the centre to the Singaporeans. At least they see the benefits of science and are willing to fund enterprises such as this in their own country. Unlike us out here. Mention science to most politicians out here and their faces go blank (oh, wait a minute, that's their normal expressions :):P).

[Nesti]

Carl, in-case you don't know, read this http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/04/01/2862634.htm

A very political story/issue: The WA State Government gave a $250,000 loan to the family of this girl for a liver transplant in Singapore. Sh had previously had a transplant and it had failed possibly on account of her continued drug activity. WA health refused to give her another transplant as there are other recipients waiting and the chances of it taking with her were slim at best...but the State Government still coughed up the money as it hit the media headlines.

The Gin Gin centre costs about $250,000 pa to run.

Do you think this family will honestly pay back a quarter of a million dollars starting in 3 years time?!

[renormalised]

Pay back the money??...not likely, by the sounds of it.

Sad to see her pass away, but she knew the consequences of being a heroin addict and ignored the advice she was given by her doctors after her first implant. It was most likely the heroin which wrecked her liver in the first place.

[Nesti]

True. I have three issues with this. I supply to health Australian-wide, and money is really tight out there. There are other people, children even, who are innocent and need help too, and lastly, how can anyone justify cutting off funding to science/education and then throw money around simply because it's politically sticky. Dumb!

[renormalised]

Typical of what politicians do....ignore what needs to be done/funded, in order to gain some kudos by pushing a barrow for some "cause". Most of the time it comes back to slap them in the face.

[etacarinae]

Typical beaurocracy. Results with very little $. What if Gingin were to observe gravity waves with the current funding? I'll bet the government would lap up the acknowledgement, touting how generously they invested in the centre. :(

[Nesti]

They would still do the same thing even it it were privately funded.

Headline options for the America's Cup in the 1980's;
"Australia wins America's Cup", and "Bond Looses America's Cup bid".
Those were the two headlines which were ready to run in the Australian Newspaper the morning after the last race...politics is politics!

[[1ponders]]

Without wanting to stifle discussion on the topic of the Gin Gin Gravity Centre, we would ask that you remember the TOS (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=7856)when drifting into political discussion.



thank you

[Nesti]

The budget cut for Gin Gin IS a political issue; that's the whole point, we're looking at bureaucracy at its' finest!

Government funding is always politically motivated, likewise, funding cuts are too. The issues here is loose credit versus penny pinching and who always get caught with the short straw.

I think the use of unessecary politics should be avoided, but when a subject is entrenched in politics, such as Government funding of science, as well as policies and precedences, well, to avoid such discussion, we might as well just sit around having sterile conversations of shapes of clouds...seriously! :shrug: