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“I say to regional Australia, let us use common sense and hard work as our compass and partnership as our way ahead,” she said.

“I want to work very closely with you. I want to help you achieve your goals so that together we can build a sustainable Australia.”

Ms Gillard says the program is aimed at providing more homes in regional centres as Australia’s major cities become more crowded.

However only certain cities have will be invited to apply and out of those applications it is expected that 15 cities will receive around $15 million each.

Councils would use the money to fund infrastructure projects such as roads, drains and community facilities that would be needed for new housing projects.

“One of the greatest pressures on sustainability is housing affordability,” Ms Gillard said.

“Our cities are under stress and so are many families.”

She has also used her speech to target anxiety among those living in outer-metropolitan seats in Brisbane who are dealing with traffic congestion and infrastructure problems.

In a swipe at the Coalition Ms Gillard says will always put Australians quality of life first.

“This is a time for choosing between cuts or services, fear and optimism, going backwards or going forwards,” she said.

“What I am saying is that growth should make life better for Australian families – not make things harder.

“Growth should not mean greater congestion, longer queues and more intense competition for scarce resources like housing and water.”

In her first official event of the campaign, Ms Gillard this morning joined her deputy Wayne Swan at the annual meet the babies family day he holds in his electorate of Lilley.

In amongst the stalls and jumping castles, the Prime Minister mingled with parents and had time for the obligatory campaign photographs with several babies.

Ms Gillard told those gathered she believes every child deserves access to a good education and decent health services.

As Ms Gillard seeks to connect with voters in Brisbane, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is today visiting western Sydney.

Mr Abbott has accused the Government of rushing into a quick fix on a population policy after it abandoned former leader Kevin Rudd’s support of a “big Australia”.

Tags: community-and-society, government-and-politics, elections, federal-government, regional, gillard-julia, federal-elections, australia

Greens call on Gillard to guarantee public service jobs

“Tony Abbott should explain his plans to cut public spending.”

With both the big parties pledging cutbacks, Australian Greens Leader
Bob Brown today called on Prime Minister Gillard to guarantee public
service jobs for Australians.

“The Prime Minister should make clear what the impact of the cutbacks
she has announced will be,” said Senator Brown. Ms Gillard has said she
will implement “unpopular cutbacks.”

“Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says he will cut 12,000 jobs out of the
public service,” Senator Brown said.

“Job cutbacks will lead to a decrease in the quality of services for the
public – in health, general welfare and for the environment.”

Australian Greens ACT Senate candidate Lin Hatfield-Dodds said: “I value
public servants and the work they do. The demand for well-informed
public policy doesn’t reduce if jobs are cut – it increases the workload
for existing public servants.”

“The $7.5 billion lost from the budget forward estimates by Julia
Gillard’s backdown over the mineral resources tax directly threatens the
ability of the government to finance the public service in the years
ahead,” Senator Brown added.

Media contact: Erin Farley 0438 376 082
www.greensmps.org.au

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A revolutionary machine

The NGO itself is the product of a collaboration that took place in 1997 between a group of Canadians from the organisation Pedal and local mechanic Carlos Marroquín. Jointly, they created what would be Maya Pedal’s first and arguably most revolutionary machine: the bicidesgranadora de maíz, a device that removes the kernels from up to 15 corn husks per minute, allowing farmers to bag up to two dozen 43-kilo sacks per day.

Marroquín explains: ‘It was necessary to find a path and an alternative that would meet the needs of the locals and we researched and invested all that we could to do so.’ The Canadian group was headed by Richard Andrews, a bicycle repair shop owner from Vancouver that had begun donating shipping containers full of used bikes and spare parts to rural communities in Guatemala and Mexico.

Andrews led his crew to San Andrés Itzapa as part of a widespread initiative to rebuild the cities and countryside following years of civil war. They did not have any specific contraptions in mind, but rather the desire to identify what these people lacked most and then find solutions that would have the greatest impact.

Marroquín, who narrowly escaped death during the height of Guatemala’s civil strife, immediately took interest in the initiative and within days was working beside them repairing bicycles and assessing his community’s challenges. The 41-year-old Mayan first began working with machines as a young man when, after his home and belongings were destroyed by a group of guerrilleros, he spent several months fixing his family’s appliances.

After rebuilding the television set with borrowed tools, the reception through his improvised antenna was so clear that he accidentally began to intercept the army’s secret communications signal. Since then, he has poured all his energy into engineering and invention, which is now materialised through the products of Asociación Maya Pedal, officially incorporated in 2001.

From broken bicycle to working machine

Today, the organisation repairs and sells bicycles to help finance the creation and assembly of machines, since the original devices themselves do not generate enough revenue for self-sufficiency. While some are custom-ordered and rented or sold, many have been donated to the community.

Like most NGOs, Maya Pedal is almost entirely dependent on external support. Cash donations and bicycle-repair tools are their greatest needs. The staff consists solely of Marroquín and his 16-year-old son, Carlos Jr., who constantly seek and welcome international volunteers for days or weeks at a time to learn, collaborate and assist with their mission at the tiny, colourful workshop located near the western edge of town.