Health News at Your Fingertips

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare will later today announce a review of the the Australian Research Council, with the body facing criticism on a lack of transparency and how it operates.

Clare will be speaking to The Australian Financial Review Higher Education Summit in Sydney, and the AFR itself has published a preview of his speech, where he will also announce a temporary hold a three-yearly national assessment of the quality of research conducted in Australian universities.

Clare says he will demand the ARC produce a timetable of when funding rounds are announced, and to stick to it, criticising delays and political interference:

Delays and political interference damage our international reputation and make it harder for universities to recruit and retain staff.

We need to make sure all future grant rounds are delivered on time, to a predetermined time frame. I have also committed to an independent review of the ARC and the legislation that underpins it.

I know the way the current national interest test operates is causing problems.

When Brian Schmidt, the vice chancellor of ANU, tells you the research he did that won him the Nobel Prize wouldn’t qualify under the current test, you know you have to make some changes.

Erin Molan wins defamation suit against Daily Mail Australia

Amanda Meade

Sky News broadcaster Erin Molan has won a defamation suit against Daily Mail Australia over an article and two tweets which she says portrayed her as racist.

Molan told the federal court last year she did not think she participated in the mockery of Polynesian names when she said “hooka looka mooka hooka fooka” on 2GB in 2020.

She has been awarded $150,000 in damages.

Victoria has recorded four deaths overnight, as well as 2,147 new Covid cases:

NSW has reported 37 Covid deaths overnight, with the state recording 4,271 new cases:

College calls on government to waive Hecs fees for nursing students nationally

The Australian College of Nursing has called on the federal government to waive university fees for nursing students across the country.

In a statement, the ACN calls for the government to adopt the Victorian model, with the college’s acting chief executive, Yvonne Mckinlay, saying the waiving of student debt would help grow the domestic workforce:

This one-off measure is crucial to retaining nurses and addressing shortages in both public and private sectors including primary care, hospitals, aged care and mental health. Every nurse everywhere contributes to the health system.

People aspiring to enter the nursing profession usually want to make a difference in the community. It is important to attract these people, so a waiver would be an important step to support them on their journey.

Additionally, it will provide much-deserved recognition of the immense sacrifice nurses have made to protect our communities throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

Independent calls for PM to ‘protect’ potential Icac from government interference

The independent MP Helen Haines, has called on the prime minister to “protect” a potential federal Icac from any future government interference.

Appearing on RN breakfast this morning, Haines said she wanted to be co-chair of the committee, adding that she believed someone that wasn’t from either of the major parties was better suited to the role:

We need more detail around how it will be funded to make sure, in subsequent governments, that the powers of this commission can’t be eroded away. And we need to make sure that the broad definition of corruption can really capture anyone who attempts to improperly influence government decisions.

The other part of it that I haven’t seen, and I would like to see, is what the government plans to do to encourage a pro-integrity culture. And I haven’t seen anything about that thus far.

Grace Tame alleges childhood abuser continues to threaten her

The former Australian of the Year Grace Tame has alleged her childhood abuser is continuing to target her with “open threats and harassment”.

Tame was abused repeatedly as a 15 year old by a then 58-year-old man at St Michael’s Collegiate School. The man was sentenced to two years and 10 months in prison for his abuse and for possessing child exploitation material.

Last night, Tame posted screenshots purported to be from his Twitter page, which refer to Tame via an old email address, adding ““at last I shall come for [email address]”.

Another screenshot, posted on 28 August, reads “the good old come-uppance on its way”, again referring to her via her old email address.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese has called on people to “chill out” about former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal’s appearance at a press conference on the voice to parliament campaign last week.

It comes after the PM has faced a bit of a backlash for the appearances, with Greens senator Lidia Thorpe and Country Liberal party senator Jacinta Price criticising the appearance.

Albanese told 2SM that Shaq had actually approached him first, saying he wanted to express support for the voice.

He approached me and I think people should chill out a bit basically.

The fact is that Shaq’s appearance means that people are talking about it. Shaq appeals to a whole bunch of people, many of whom would have been hearing about the voice to parliament for the very first time, and that’s a good thing.

I make no apologies for saying I’ll engage with anyone, anywhere, anytime, about these issues and anything we can do to raise the profile of this issue is a good thing.

De Minaur makes confident US Open start

Australian Alex de Minaur has continued his hot American summer to steam into the US Open second round in New York, the AAP reports.

The Australian No.1 carved out a 7-5 6-2 6-3 victory over Serbian Filip Krajinovic to live up to his 18th seeding status.

The straight-sets victory atoned for a first-round exit last year after previously producing his two best grand slam results at Flushing Meadows.

He was a quarter-finalist in 2020 and reached the last 16 the year before.

Relishing the faster conditions, De Minaur swept past Krajinovic in less than two hours to book a potential rematch against his Wimbledon conqueror Cristian Garin.

The Chilean broke De Minaur’s heart at the All England Club last month, fighting back from two sets down and saving a match point to deny the Australian a place in the quarter-finals.

Garin was up against Czech Jiri Lehecka in his opener in New York later on day one.

De Minaur arrived at the season’s final major full of confidence after snaring his sixth career title four weeks ago in Atlanta, and also claiming two top-25 scalps in Montreal.

De Minaur’s first projected seeded opponent is Spain’s world No.15 and two-time US Open semi-finalist Pablo Carreno Busta in round three.

De Minaur is among seven Australians scheduled for action on Monday, with Nick Kyrgios taking on doubles partner Thanasi Kokkinakis in the feature men’s night match (about 11am Tuesday AEST).

Queensland Labor MP: ‘People doing well don’t necessarily need a tax cut’

Queensland Labor MP Graham Perrett has called on his own government to reconsider tax cuts for the wealthy, telling the Australian that there were tweaks to the budget that “might actually make the cause less strident”.

There could be a myriad things that mean they’re more palatable.

I’m seeing the cuts through the lens of a trillion dollars of debt and a deficit a show-jumping horse couldn’t clear. I’ve certainly had lots of people indicate that in these times, people doing well don’t necessarily need a tax cut.

Buying defence equipment from overseas would save Australia money, study argues

Australia should save money by buying more defence equipment from overseas, an Australian Strategic Policy Institute paper argues.

Author Rob Bourke, a former defence department economic adviser, has used public figures to calculate that by preferencing more Australian content, taxpayers are forking out a premium of up to $602,393 for a single job.

To get to that figure, he calculated the difference between having 40% Australian content and 70% on the equivalent of building a Collins-class submarine.

That drives up the price while costing jobs in other parts of the economy, he argues.

He wrote:

Avoiding a significant price premium on whichever types and classes of new weaponry Australia obtains might be among the few options available to Defence to boost its purchasing power. Given the size of the projects involved, even modest percentage reductions in the price of preferring domestic over foreign supply could translate into significant dollar gains.

Although any future supply may be years away, decisions made in the coming months will largely determine the outcome.

Social services minister holds firm on stage-three tax cuts

So, first politician off the bench this morning is minister for social services, Amanda Rishworth, who was on the ABC this morning, and was asked about stage three tax cuts.

Rishworth reiterated what we’ve heard before, that the cuts are legislated and don’t come into play until 2024, and although she was pressed on the necessity of the cuts, she held firm:

Look, let’s be really clear about the stage three tax cuts. They’re already legislated and they don’t actually come into play until 1 July 2024. That’s two years away. So, our focus is on the here and now. We’re bringing people together through the jobs and skills summit. We’re getting on with delivering what we promised in the election.

What my focus through the jobs and skills summit is to look at what is a complex issue of boosting women’s participation. It is about training, it is about removing barriers to entering the workforce and remaining in the workforce.

It is about those low-paid sectors that particularly have been low paid, like aged care, where we have supported the fair work – put in a submission to the fair work decision around our aged care workers. So look, we’ll be looking at these issues right across the board. Those tax cuts are not due to even come in for two years. Our focus is right here right now.

Health union boss says people should be ‘trusted’ to isolate with Covid

So I wanted to start with the head of the Health Services Union, who, as mentioned below, has been calling for mandatory Covid isolation to be scrapped.

Gerard Hayes, the union’s national president, was on ABC News Breakfast earlier, where he said that workers should be trusted to make the right call:

We’re moving into the third year of the pandemic.

We’ve got a community that has complied with vaccinations, all health orders. They need to see some light at the end of the tunnel.

In hospitals over the past four or five months, particularly with the flu, the worst-case scenario hasn’t been realised.

We don’t go to work with measles, chickenpox, we don’t want people to go to work with the flu. We need Covid treated the same as other infectious diseases.

Good morning, Mostafa Rachwani with you on this Tuesday morning, taking you through the days news.

We begin with anticipation we will hear a verdict in the Chris Dawson murder trial. Later today, NSW supreme court Justice Ian Harrison will hand down his verdict after a two-month trial and decades of investigation. Dawson is accused of murdering his wife and disposing her body in 1982.

Meanwhile, the Health Services Union has called for Australia to adopt the UK model on Covid rules and to scrap mandatory isolation. They say workers should be trusted to stay home if sick, adding that “personal responsibility and community respect” should underpin the rules.

Stage-three tax cuts continue to dominate conversations this morning after senior Coalition backbencher Russell Broadbent said Labor should shelve the tax changes because the world has changed since 2019.

There is much already going on, so let’s dive in.