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The Hollywood Sunset Free Clinic

By David Hale - posted Wednesday, 15 April 2020


The argument is the same for tackling poverty. Senator Sanders focuses on going after the big bad wolves of Wall Street and other world-famous billionaires - and that motivates people. For us Australians, the attacks on the big end of town, hating Gina Reinhart can motivate.

Boring, but useful measures to address poverty, like financial budgeting, tax changes, improving case management models for the homeless, not so much. 

In health, it may simply come down to supporting charities like the Royal Flying Doctor Service or, in America, options such as St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.

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They provide not only free primary care, but all care to children, the costs of operations, specialists, as well as accommodation for the family. Free transportation is also provided as is food, and food not just for the patient.

What St Jude needs is not a Sander’s revolution, but monthly financial donors - boringly giving monthly by direct debit.

Many people believe that free healthcare is a right but we also need them to support the implementation of that right by giving to the groups providing free healthcare to those in need.

We should not need a Close the Gap or a new fund to get us excited about doing it and the same can be said about tackling any social ill.  It does not always have to come down to doing something grand.

For the 2019 election, the ALP received over 11 million dollars in donations.

P­eople, at least some of them, may have been caught up in the big promises being made to reshape Australia:  promises to use the law to force up wages, remove decades old negative gearing for existing homes, and review the amount given to those not working resulting in the first real increase in decades. 

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Then there was the universal early education policy as well - the claim that for the first time, every single 3-year-old would have access to subsided 15 hours a week of early education.

Most of these commitments did not come to pass.

The more than 11 million dollars, if instead donated to charities, to help workers, the unemployed, and kids would have achieved more than a lost election. 

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About the Author

David Hale is an Anglican University Lay Chaplain, staff worker for the Australian Student Christian Movement and a member of the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship.

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All articles by David Hale

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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