Penny Sharpe's blog

Today the Government announced the draft changes to the 2009 Train Timetable. You have until 19 December 2008 to give comment - you can do this online.

There is some very good news about additional services to our rail system (the first since 2000) including:<!--break-->

The Treasurer has just delivered his speech for the mini budget. The Government has had to find $3.3 billion in savings and has raised revenues by another $3.6 billion (including congestion tolls, fee rises and potential privatisations). The payroll tax cuts remain. Also announced is $850million of spending. The aim of all of this has been to maintain infrastructure spending, quarantine front line services, introduce an alternative electricity plan and maintain NSW's AAA credit rating.

There will be plenty of media attention given to the significant downsides to the budget. Today I want to draw your attention to some of the positives:

 75 days until inauguration starts Obama's website. It is the first evidence of Obama's determination to involve all who want to be involved in his administration.

The first blog says "Change.gov provides resources to better understand the transition process and the decisions being made as part of it. It also offers an opportunity to be heard about the challenges our country faces and your ideas for tackling them. The Obama Administration will reflect an essential lesson from the success of the Obama campaign: that people united around a common purpose can achieve great things

On the weekend I attended the annual Labor Party Country Conference. Held this year in Port Macquarie, it is one of the largest grassroots political conferences held in NSW.

Premier Nathan Rees made a speech that if you are interested in how Labor understands and works with it's own history and traditions this one is worth a look.You can check it out here.

The Premier also announced funding for infrastructure in the bush, broadband development, country libraries, country halls and local tourism projects.

Yesterday I chaired a session at the 4Rs conference. The 4Rs is being held in Sydney this week and aims to shine light on the issues that Australia needs to take forward to build a more socially inclusive future.

My session was on GLBT rights and I was fortunate to  hear from speakers, Mark Orr from ACON, Professor Jenni Millbank from UTS and Labor Senator Louise Pratt from WA. They articulated a very clear to do list of the reforms still needed.