Health News at Your Fingertips

Adeshola Ore

A $2bn investment to boost Victoria’s Police workforce by more than 2,000 officers has not improved community safety, according to a review by the state’s auditor-general.

The auditor-general’s report said it was unable to determine how the police force arrived at the business case of requiring 2,729 extra police officers in 2016.

“Victoria Police told us that this number originated from a government decision,” the report said.

The auditor-general concluded Victoria Police did not have a proper internal process to forecast additional staffing numbers.

There were 1,162 new cases in the last reporting period, and two people are in intensive care.

Peter Hannam

Housing loans take a tumble

Outside in the wider world, the ABS has released some interesting data on lending.

The value of new loan commitments for housing fell 8.5% to $28.4bn in July 2022 (seasonally adjusted), accelerating from the 4.4% drop in June

The value of new owner-occupier loan commitments fell 7.0% in July 2022, while new investor loan commitments fell 11.2%.

Katherine Keenan, ABS head of finance and wealth, said:

Although lending has fallen from historically high levels recently, the value of loan commitments remained significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels.

Owner-occupier loans in July 2022 were 40% higher than February 2020, while investor loans were 78% higher.

Loans to first home buyers totalled $4.06bn for the month, down 9.5% from June, and were off 32.6% from a year earlier.

As we reported earlier today, house prices are tumbling, and these loan numbers suggest further falls are ahead.

Adeshola Ore

Mask requirements on public transport to stay in place in Victoria

The Victorian government says it has no plans to remove its mask requirement on public transport, despite the fact the mandate will be dropped on domestic flights from next week.

National cabinet agreed on Wednesday that face masks on domestic flights would be voluntary from next week.

But Victoria’s health minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, said it would not change the state’s requirement that people wear masks on public transport:

Masks are a simple and effective way to reduce the spread of the virus. We’ve still got Covid in our community.

Adeshola Ore

Push for raising the age in Victoria ahead of November election

The Law Institute of Victoria has called for the state government to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14 ahead of the state election in November.

The LIV has released its pre-election wishlist, which includes 51 policy recommendations to reform Victoria’s justice system.

The peak body has also called for the state government to reform the state’s bail laws and mandatory sentencing – laws that disproportionately impact women and Indigenous Victorians. Guardian Australia has reported that the Victorian government is spending $1m each day to keep unsentenced prisoners in jail.

LIV president, Tania Wolff, said parties should prioritise long-term reform as opposed to short-term policies.

The LIV Call to Parties sets out a clear agenda for improving the laws in this state. It would not be possible without the valuable input from LIV members. I thank all of those who contributed to this document and look forward to real action being taken on these issues by the next government.

Government pledges additional $20m to Timor-Leste’s budget support

The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has announced $20m for Timor-Leste, while Timor-Leste wants a gas pipeline.

Wong has discussed the controversial Greater Sunrise project with her Timor-Leste counterpart, Adaljiza Magno.

Resources in the Timor Sea are estimated to be worth $71bn. Timor-Leste’s prime minister, José Ramos-Horta, has said his country could turn to China for support if Australia doesn’t support the bid to have the pipeline lead to Timor-Leste, rather than Darwin.

It’s a commercial decision by the partners (including Australia’s Woodside Energy), although there are regulatory changes the government could make to help a deal along.

Asked about Greater Sunrise, Wong said Timor-Leste’s economic resilience was important, and that Greater Sunrise was part of an economic diversification, but “not the only part”. She said:

We need to see how a way through can be found … that will be best done respectfully and directly, not through the media.

Wong, who impressively began the press conference speaking Portuguese, said $20m support would be given this financial year, on top of $100m in existing funding as well as support for labour mobility:

Australia will be providing an additional $20m from our Covid response package to Timor-Leste – funds to be provided as budget support, to co-fund finance programs managed and delivered by the government of Timor-Leste.

Asked about the looming presence of China in the region, she said smaller nations needed to work together, and that there needed to be a “regional order that reflects rules and norms”. She said:

We don’t want a situation where power and size is the only way in which disputes in this world become resolved.

On the trip she has also met with the president, Ramos-Horta, the prime minister, Taur Matan Ruak, and the finance minister, Rui Augusto Gomes.

Amanda Meade

ABC to air special Australian Story episode following Dawson verdict

The ABC will air a special episode of Australian Story at 8pm on Monday following the guilty verdict for Chris Dawson.

“Lyn Dawson – Vanished” will feature Lynette’s sister and brother behind the scenes as they prepare for the outcome of the murder trial and digest the guilty verdict, which was handed down in the New South Wales supreme court on Tuesday.

The episode will update a 2003 Australian Story about the disappearance of Lyn and the family’s desire to have her husband prosecuted.

There is another TV project in the works after Hedley Thomas, the Australian newspaper’s national chief correspondent and creator of the Teacher’s Pet, signed a deal with Jason Blum’s American production company Blumhouse for a TV series based on his hit podcast, which has been downloaded 60m times.

Peter Hannam

Education union welcomes Tafe announcement out of jobs summit

Perhaps not surprisingly, the Australian Education Union has welcomed Anthony Albanese’s summit-starter announcement of the 180,000 Tafe places.

The union notes these places add to the 465,000 fee-free TAFE places announced prior to the May federal election. AEU’s federal president, Correna Haythorpe, said:

Australia is facing skills shortages across states and territories, and across industries. There is an urgent need for skilled workers to secure our economy now and into the long term.

In making this announcement at the start of his opening address, the prime minister has acknowledged the critical role Tafe plays in Australia’s vocational education and training system, and placed it at the heart of the national jobs and skills agenda.

[With the $1.1bn funding,] Tafe can continue to provide high quality vocational education to help Australia rebuild following the pandemic, address skills shortages in the labour market and help ensure our future economic security.

Meanwhile, we’re still trying to clarify how that funding will be split between the federal, state and territory governments.

Paul Karp

Employers call for ‘sensible reform, not radical change’ on bargaining

The Australian Industry Group chief executive, Innes Willox, is leading the employer rearguard action against unions’ call for multi-employer bargaining.

Willox said the Fair Work Act was designed around bargaining at the enterprise level. He said:

That has been the bedrock for a very long time, which Paul Keating spoke about. We should not lose sight of that.

Willox said that industry has consistently said bargaining is “overly complicated and technical”, particularly in the way the “better off overall” test is applied. He said that “sensible reform, not radical change” can help achieve higher productivity and real wage rises.

On the ACTU call for multi-employer bargaining, Willox said AiG is not convinced of the need for “risky” reform. The ACTU had provided “little detail” to its proposal, leaving employers “deeply concerned”.

Willox warned that the proposal could cause “crippling industrial action” which “nobody wants”.

Guardian Australia understands that business groups including AiGroup, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and ACTU have agreed on principles to reform the better off overall test, and that workplace relations minister Tony Burke will commit to do so later in this session.

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Andrew McKellar said this is “fundamental reform” that “has to be on the table”. He said Burke and his team have “worked to close the gap” to achieve near complete unanimity on the ways to reform the test.

Paul Karp

Opinions on multi-employer bargaining divided at jobs summit

Tim Reed from the BCA reiterated that it thinks bargaining should still occur “primarily at the enterprise level”, explaining why it didn’t sign up to the ACTU call for multi-employer bargaining.

IR expert Prof Anthony Forsyth has argued that limiting bargaining to a single entity “completely ignores how business has evolved”, with labour hire, franchising, outsourcing and other business models which “enable lead firms to exert significant economic power on wages down the chain, but avoid ever having to negotiate with them”.

Forsyth said that multi-employer agreements would help enable pay rises in childcare and aged care, which are female-dominated. He suggested that given the government is the primary funder in those sectors, it should also be around the bargaining table.

AMA demands release of health advice following decision to reduce Covid-19 isolation period

Josh Butler

The Australian Medical Association is demanding the release of health advice on reducing Covid isolation times to five days, saying the public should see the expert guidance on the change.

The AMA’s president, Prof Steve Robson, warned that “many people re-entering the community after five days’ isolation will potentially still be infectious and pass the virus on”.

Yesterday, national cabinet received advice from the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (made up of federal and state chief health officers) that isolation could be reduced from seven days to five for people who are asymptomatic after that time. The seven-day period will be enforced for people who are symptomatic, or who work in health or aged care.

Robson said he worried up to 30% of people may still be infectious on day six or seven and beyond. He called for a “clear plan” for the vulnerable after this change, and said rules should tighten again if case numbers spike. He said:

Throughout this pandemic, the AMA has continuously said governments must base their decision-making on the health and medical advice, and we need to see that advice and whether it supports today’s decision. If it doesn’t, the politicians need to explain themselves.

Governments should also continue public health messaging on the importance of community vigilance around Covid testing and isolation requirements, community spread and vaccine uptake.

It’s a busy day in Parliament House with the jobs summit, but the AMA will hold a press conference later on to talk more about this.

Peter Hannam

Tafe places are positive, but support for trainers needed too: Ai group

Innes Willox, chief executive of the Ai Group, popped out of the jobs summit bubble for a few minutes during the morning break, to say “there was complete agreement around gender equality”.

Willox is looking for agreement on “the big issues and an approach of how to tackle them” as a measure of the summit’s success.

He described the announcement by PM Anthony Albanese for 180,000 new TAFE positions from 2023 as “a real positive” . Willox said:

It’s great there’s that commitment.

The big issue for that sector, and for training more generally, is getting the trainers and getting the equipment they need to train with.

So the places are one step, and then there’s the next step of actually fulfilling the needs of those extra students.

Willox said “you’ve got to find the extra 180,000 students who want to do TAFE courses”, which feeds into career counselling and other issues.

That points to some issues raised in this pre-summit piece we published a few days ago:

One takeaway is that places like Switzerland steer about 75% of high school graduates to vocational education and training – about double Australia’s share. That ship might take a bit of effort to turn, Down Under.