Sharman Stone MP

TRANSCRIPT: ABC Goulburn Murray interview

May 18, 2011

Interview between Dr. Sharman Stone  and Joseph Thomsen of ABC Goulburn Murray

Date: 3 May 2011

JOSEPH THOMSEN:

Sharman Stone good morning.

SHARMAN STONE:

Thanks Joseph.

JOSEPH THOMSEN:

We know that there are two tiers of government involved here. Why not just urge the State government in Victoria to just sign the document?

SHARMAN STONE:

Well I'm not sure what these impediments are. When you speak to Simon Crean you could perhaps identify exactly what they are demanding. But if they are saying for example there is  so much red tape involved that there’s oversight from the Commonwealth that’s going to hold things up in addition to what it should and so on. Remember we've had the pink bats debacle and the building the education revolution debacle. The Commonwealth at the moment doesn't have a very good record in overseeing its direct spending so I would just simply say to the Victorian State Government; here is the cash, you've got the knowledge with your local councils up there in northern Victoria. Get stuck into it because there are farmers and small businesses Joseph who are just saying we can't hold on much longer.

JOSEPH THOMSEN:

With that criticism though of the Federal Government harking back to the pink bats and so on isn’t that an argument for the State Government to sign the document and take accountability for the spending?

SHARMAN STONE:

Well indeed there is always acquittal processes but this is a case that the Commonwealth is just demanding that they somehow oversee the recovery and the construction work which seems to be implied then that is just another layer of bureaucratic nonsense. Now more funds get diverted off to  Centrelink or some other federal agency? That's unnecessary.  We also know that our local councils did a great job when they had the Roads to Recovery money going straight into their coffers. We said to our local councils you know where your potholes are. You know which wooden bridge needs fixing. Here's the cash you go and spend it you'll get the best value the money and send us the bill. Jobs right. Now why can't we do that with this money?

JOSEPH THOMSEN:

What are you telling Simon Crean to do to resolve this situation then?

SHARMAN STONE:

I would suggest that Simon Crean picks up the blueprint that we used, we meaning the John Howard government for Roads to Recovery which directed the funds straight to the local councils that could spend it.

The State Government can watch on the way through to make sure it's going to the right places and get that cheque in the mail. I'd give them 48 hours quite frankly Joseph because there are families right now who just cannot hang on. We lost exceptional circumstances support on the 31st of March.

We had families, I had people in my office Joseph who said we've just presented our prescriptions for fungus on the lung problems to the pharmacy with our health care card and were told “sorry this card no longer functions as of the 31st of March we want $70 please for the prescription”. Those people have had to walk away with their medicines sitting on the counter. Now that is shocking absolutely shocking and that's the reality happening right now in our part of the world.

JOSEPH THOMSEN:

Sharman Stone thank you for your time.

SHARMAN STONE:

Thank you Joseph.