Stand Up and be Counted

With just days left until Budget, we've frantically crunched the numbers on Prime Minister Abbott's Commission of Audit recommendations for Medicare — and what we've found is pretty sickening.

 



The proposed $15 Sick Tax for GP visits means that bulk billing patients — those Australians who can least afford it — will cop up to $1.4 billion per year in new GP fees. In certain electorates, this could mean communities coughing up as much as $20.5 million.¹

Why? Because Treasurer Hockey says there are some government benefits Australians have "come to take for granted", and that "nothing is free".²

But the key fact missing is that we already contribute to Medicare out of each and every pay. And together, our contributions have built a universal Medicare system that's the envy of many around the world. That's why, in just a matter of days, nearly 70,000 Australians signed onto the petition to protect our Medicare.

According to press reports this week, political backlash to the Commission of Audit is being felt in the Liberal party room. So with just 3 days to Budget, this is our chance to tip things over the edge. The Government needs to hear from us now — and big, round numbers always make an impression.

Can you sign this urgent petition to protect our world class Medicare system and help us get to 100,000 signatures by Monday — the night before Budget?

https://getup.org.au/protectmedicare

Not only do we already pay for Medicare through the levy, one in four Australians pay more than $1000 every year in out-of-pocket healthcare costs, for things like medicine and specialist services.³ One study estimates that households now directly pay as much as 25% of the nation's health costs.⁴

So while the sick are made to suffer, one clear beneficiary of Abbott's "Sick Tax" will be the private healthcare lobby. It's no surprise then that the idea came straight from an industry funded think-tank.⁵

The Government's heard from the industry lobbyists — now it's time they hear from us, 100,000 strong. Together, we can send them a powerful message: a tax on the sick is political poison.

Click here to join the fight to protect Medicare and let our politicians know that Australians will not stand for profit-driven, US-style healthcare.

https://getup.org.au/protectmedicare

Charging someone for being sick would be the end of the Medicare system we know and love. GetUp member Jade said it best: "Being Australian is not about kicking someone while they're down!"

Let's drive the message home,
Sam, for the GetUp team

PS - To see what the proposed $15 Sick Tax would cost bulk billing patients in your electorate, check out the complete breakdown of our analysis at: https://getup.org.au/SickTaxMap.

PPS - Are you a GP? Or other health professional? We'd love to hear from you! Send a few sentences on why you think the Sick Tax is a terrible idea to: medicare@getup.org.au.

[1] For full electorate-based data, including sources, on the cost of the Sick Tax for bulk billing patients, go to https://getup.org.au/SickTaxMap.
[2] Treasurer Joe Hockey warns of tougher means testing ahead of Commission of Audit's release, ABC News, 24 April 2014
[3] Curing Medicare's malaise, Australian Financial Review, 23 April 2014
[4] Mind the gap: $6 GP visit proposal ignores the evidence, The Conversation, 9 January 2014
[5] The end of Medicare as we know it, ABC News, 6 January 2014

Chinese hacking of US media becoming a “widespread phenomenon”

by Dan Goodin - Feb 1 2013, 9:40am AUSEDT

Computer systems operated by The Wall Street Journal have been penetrated by Chinese hackers for the apparent purpose of monitoring the publication's coverage of China, the newspaper reported Thursday.
The acknowledgement came in a short article published less than 24 hours after The New York Times reported a similar breach. According to the earlier report, the NYT network had been rooted for four months by hackers who were intent on gathering intelligence about a series of stories related to the family of China’s prime minister.




The report cited unnamed sources as saying Bloomberg News was also targeted by Chinese hackers after the news organization published an article in June about the wealth accumulated by relatives of Xi Jinping. Xi has since become China's general secretary of the Communist Party and is expected to become president in March.
The NYT went on to say that media outlets have been targeted since 2008, and today's WSJ article characterized the hacking campaign as extensive.
"The infiltration at the Journal, along with reports of computer network breaches at the New York Times and other news outlets, indicate that Chinese spying on US media has become a widespread phenomenon," the WSJ said. "Chinese hackers for years have targeted major US media companies with hacking, repeatedly penetrating deep inside some newsgathering systems, according to several people familiar with the response to the cyberattacks."
The FBI has been investigating the attacks on media outlets for more than a year and considers the activity a national-security case against US interests, the paper said, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter. The WSJ hacks, which company executives said are "ongoing," aren't an attempt to gain commercial advantage or to appropriate customer data, Thursday's report said. The WSJ has overhauled its computer systems to improve security.


Dan Goodin / Dan is the IT Security Editor at Ars Technica, which he joined in 2012 after working for The Register, the Associated Press, Bloomberg News, and other publications.

 

Zaha Hadid's Pirated Building

Zaha Hadid's Pirated Building

Cloud Computing Brings Cyber Warfare To US - Business Insider

Cloud Computing Brings Cyber Warfare To US


 

Cyberwarfare Documentary Part 3

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Obama accelerated cyberwar with Iran

Published on 1 Jun 2012 by RT America: 
I stumbled across this whilst doing paper on Cyber-warfare.

As if the United States hasn't already been involved in enough wars, the US government has admitted its role in launching a secret cyber attack against Iran. Since the first day Obama took office, the plot named "Olympic Games" was used to launch online attacks with cyberweapons such as the Stuxnet computer worm, which disrupted certain aspects of Iran's nuclear program. Aaron Swartz, founder and executive director of Demand Progress, joins us with more on the online war.

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Computer virus hits US Predator and Reaper drone fleet

Computer virus hits US Predator and Reaper drone fleet | Hacker News




Also seen at ARS Technica

Stuxnet - Cyber Warfare

Shadow Boxing: Cyber Warfare and Strategic Economic Attack

JFQ-66: Shadow Boxing

First attack the enemy’s strategy, then his alliance, next his army, and last his cities.
(Sun Tzu, The Art of War)



U.S. critical infrastructure and resources are open to assault by “clever and persistent” cyber attacks. Such attacks could dra-matically affect the supply chain of our most strategic resource, petroleum. Two decades of warnings concerning cyber vulnerabilities inherent in U.S. infrastructure have effectively gone unheeded. Bureaucratic constructions such as U.S. Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) create the illusion of security but do not address the true problem. As we focus on creating effects in the enemy, we largely ignore the effects the enemy can create in us. Our culture of strategic fads (for example, hybrid war, fourth-generation warfare, irregular war, counterinsurgency, and counterterrorism) and our force-centric threat assessment indicate that changes in the character of war and corresponding implications may be missed. The character of war now undeniably involves attacks against economic and domestic infrastructure and cyber methods will be the weapons of choice.