More on South Australian Politicians Travel Reports (Part 3)

From 4 August 2004 to 25 August 2004, the Minister for Families and Communities, the Honourable Ms Jennifer Rankine, swanned off to the UK and Spain to study issues concerning childhood development and learning and to study issues concerning volunteers.

Again, I make no excuse for extracting bits & pieces from a rather lengthy document.

• Children don't learn from people they don't like
• Children don't learn if they are not well
• The relationship between parents and their children is recognised as critical to a child's development

And,

• Not all volunteers are good people.

Look, I am not setting out to 'have a go ' at Ms Rankine, because I do have respect for her and she does represent my Electorate.

My issue is with taxpayers monies being spent on some trips that on reading the subsequent travel reports make me think they were a waste of time and nothing meaningful was gained.

Since 1977, I have been employed within the Government (14 years) and I have been contracted by the Government whilst self-employed (15 years), and during those years I never ever saw a copy of any travel report being circulated amongst the plebs. Let's face it, why keep all that new knowledge to yourself. The plebs are out there in the front line, and the Minister is back to Parlie House, cheap lunches, and a chauffeur.

It is my belief and my understanding that travel reports, most of the time, are written by someone else. In this particular case, by PNSG, according to the file properties of the PDF file.

So, the Minister wings overseas, meets people, goes on a few tours, scribbles a few notes, gathers a few brochures & reports, and on return to Adelaide tosses them across to the assistant.

Whoever PNSG is, I think you should not have included comments such as '...children don't learn if they are not well...'

It only attracts critics, like me.