Health News at Your Fingertips

Peter Hannam

Market braces for another RBA rate rise

Come next Tuesday, we’ll have another Reserve Bank board meeting, and more than likely another rise in its key interest rate.

Three of the four big banks expect we’ll get the fifth rise in the cash rate of 50 basis points in a row, taking it to 2.85%.

Assuming the banks all pass the increase on to their borrowers, here’s how much more it will cost for a typical loan, according to RateCity.com.au. For those with a $500,000 loan, the extra monthly payments will be $760 a month.

The CBA, Australia’s biggest bank and mortgage issuer, is more conservative (or optimistic), betting the RBA is more likely to go with just a 25bp rise to 2.6%.

“We believe the domestic backdrop does not warrant another super‑sized rate hike, particularly given the RBA has recently acknowledged that, ‘the full effects of higher interest rates yet to be felt in mortgage payments’,” said Gareth Aird, the bank’s chief economist.

ANZ economists, meanwhile, see the case for 50bp as “reflecting strength in recent domestic data, including solid household spending, ongoing inflation momentum and near-record job vacancies”.

However, their expectation is that the central bank will then ‘soften’ its message “by removing the reference to ‘over the months ahead’ in the context of further rate increases”, the economists said.

ANZ expects the peak rate will come in at 3.35%, or a full percentage point more than the cash rate is now.

Ahead of the RBA’s move, here’s how interest rates in the market stack up (at least among the big banks), according to RateCity.com.au.

If the UK serves as any example this past week, you would expect the RBA to avoid sending any mixed messages.

Benita Kolovos

The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has issued a short statement following the national cabinet decision to end Covid-19 isolation from 14 October:

Victoria supports the unanimous decision taken today and the continuation of a nationally consistent approach. It’s important that additional arrangements remain in place to protect vulnerable Victorians in aged care, disability settings and hospitals.

New diplomatic postings announced for Singapore, New Delhi, Tokyo and the UN

Penny Wong:

A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade recruitment process will be carried out to appoint experienced public servants as heads of mission in Singapore, New Delhi, Tokyo and at the United Nations in New York.

Will Hodgman will conclude as high commissioner in Singapore in February 2023. Barry O’Farrell will conclude as high commissioner in India in 2023.

Mitch Fifield will conclude as ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations in June 2023.

She also announced the appointment of six career diplomats to lead Australian overseas posts:

• Dr Simon Twisk as Ambassador to Argentina

• Dr Axel Wabenhorst as Ambassador to Egypt

• Ms Melissa Kelly as Ambassador to Kuwait

• Ms Indra McCormick as Ambassador to Portugal

• Mr Tony Huber as Consul-General in Istanbul, Türkiye

• Mr Andrew Goledzinowski AM as Ambassador to Vietnam

Our foreign service is the driver of Australia’s engagement with the world. And today, I am announcing a team that complements the existing personnel who we have across the world pursuing Australia’s interests.

Can I thank all those who have served Australia, the outgoing ambassadors, high commissioners and consuls generals for their contribution in advancing the nation’s interests in those countries during their respective tenures.

The foreign minister, Penny Wong, is speaking in Adelaide.

Wong says the government will continue to “advocate strongly” for economist Sean Turnell, who yesterday was sentenced to three years in prison after a closed trial in Myanmar.

Wong says the government rejects charges against him and will advocate through public and private channels for his return to Australia.

Wong then began to make announcements about new appointments she says will “strengthen Australia’s diplomatic capability and match people with the right qualifications and expertise to senior postings.”

I want to make clear our Government is reversing the previous government’s approach and we are rebalancing appointments towards more qualified senior officials consistent with community expectations and position requirements. In circumstances, there is also a clear advantage for Australia to be represented by people who have had distinguished careers beyond the public service such as business people and former Parliamentarians.

Wong announced former Labor defence minister Stephen Smith as the new UK high commissioner.

The eminence of Australia’s relationship with the United Kingdom has long been reflected in the appointment of the former senior Cabinet Minister. So in keeping with this tradition, the Albanese Government is appointing Steven Smith as Australia’s next High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.

Mr Smith was a member of the Australian Parliament for 20 years and he served as Minister for Defence and prior to that Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade.

He will commence his posting after submitting defence strategic review in early 2023. Until then Lynette Wood will continue as Australia’s acting High Commissioner and I thank her for that. A replacement for Arthur Sinodinos will be announced ahead of the completion of his posting in February 2023.

There were 3,104 new cases in the weekly reporting period, and one person is in intensive care.

OECD upbeat on global minimum tax rate

The OECD secretary general, Mathias Cormann, says he is “quietly optimistic” that a global minimum corporate tax rate will be implemented by 2024, AAP reports.

Cormann is in Sydney today to close the OECD’s Forum on Tax Administration (FTA) Plenary, which this week hosted officials from around the world focusing on how to boost international tax cooperation.

A key issue is implementing an OECD-brokered deal to rewrite cross-border taxation rules to deal with challenges from the digitisation of the economy, including tax avoidance by large multinationals.

The “pillar one” portion of the deal would replace unilateral taxes on digital services with a new mechanism enabling multinationals to be taxed in part based on where they sell products and services, rather than where they situate their headquarters and intellectual property.

Under the plan’s second pillar, a floor rate would be put under corporate income tax via a minimum global corporate tax rate of 15%, with the aim for countries to use it to protect their tax bases.

The former Australian finance minister, in closing remarks, said once a “critical mass” of countries legislated the global minimum it would very quickly become “self-perpetuating”. Cormann said:

As It will not be in any country’s interest to leave money on the table for other jurisdictions to collect at their expense.

That is why we are quietly optimistic that the momentum is there to ensure that pillar two of this historic agreement will be implemented in time for 2024.

Josh Butler

Albanese says Optus’s actions “unacceptable”

Further to the Optus agreement to pay for replacement passports, prime minister Anthony Albanese has tweeted that the company’s actions were “unacceptable”.

In a tweet thread saying Optus would pay for the passports, he said:

Australian companies should do everything they can to protect your data. That’s why we’re also reviewing the Privacy Act – and we’re committed to making privacy law stronger.

We’re still waiting for an update from Optus to confirm this, and we’ve asked for information about how the company plans to do it, by which date, and how much they expect it to cost. There’s been no word publicly from Optus at all on the passports issue since foreign minister Penny Wong asked them to foot the bill.

We’ll keep you posted.

Khaled Al Khawaldeh

“No family should ever have to experience the devastation”: findings from Mackay Base Hospital investigation

Inadequate care at the Mackay Base Hospital contributed to the deaths of three children, an independent investigation has found.

The report, released by the Queensland government this morning, found “systemic failures” within the hospital’s obstetrics and gynaecology services had caused many women to suffer “sustained lifelong physical and mental harm”.

The state’s health minister, Yvette D’Ath, offered her “sincerest and unreserved apology” to the 96 women who participated in the investigation, with 81 women found to have suffered substandard care and 12 more under review.

The report said 26 cases resulted in personal injury or harm, while D’Ath said three cases identified inadequate care leading to the loss of three children.

Those three cases span over 10 years. No family should ever have to experience the devastation of the loss of a child and certainly not under these circumstances.

Our health system can and must do better.

At least 40 vehicles have had their tyres slashed in the north-west Melbourne suburbs of Essendon and Moonee Ponds last night.

Victoria police are appealing for assistance from the public after the damaged vehicles were found in Buckley Street, Salisbury Street and Primrose Street in Essendon, and Montague Street in Moonee Ponds between 9pm-10pm.

In a statement, the police said:

Police have spoken to several victims today and would like to hear from any victims who have not yet spoken with police.

Investigators would also like to speak with residents in the area with security cameras on their properties.

Josh Butler

CMO warned PM that further waves of Covid-19 infection “highly likely”

Back on Covid isolation being abolished by national cabinet, we can share some interesting details from chief medical officer Paul Kelly’s advice to prime minister Anthony Albanese.

The PM’s office shared the letter that Kelly wrote, in which he wrote that the proposed changes were “a reasonable approach”:

In the current Australian context of low community transmission and high hybrid immunity from vaccination and recent infection, it is my view that removing mandated isolation requirements in the current period would not materially detract from Australia’s pandemic response and would be consistent with the current aims of that response.

However (and this is the point I went to in the question I asked Kelly in the press conference about whether isolation rules might be returned at some point in future), the CMO also specifically notes his advice is tied to this point in time and current trends.

While backing the cut to isolation, Kelly also suggested national cabinet commission commission “a detailed transition plan which would adequately prepare Australia to respond to a surge in cases” in the event of a new Covid variant in future.

I asked Kelly whether he would ever see a moment where he would provide health advice to reinstate mandatory isolation. He didn’t say no.

In his letter, he warned it was “highly likely that further waves of infection will continue to occur over the next two years at least”, citing new virus variants of higher transmissibility or severity, low use of masks and low adherence to public health guidelines.

Kelly warned Australia would need “constant vigilance and a strong commitment as well as continued capacity to surge the response”.

Just on that koala story, the reason we’re hearing the warnings today is because it has been dubbed “Save the Koala day” by the Australian Koala Foundation.

I highly recommend you have a look at this useful explainer from Guardian Australia’s environment reporter, Lisa Cox.

Koalas at risk of extinction, experts warn

One of Australia’s most iconic native animals is at risk of being functionally extinct and urgent government action is needed, according to wildlife experts, via AAP.

Over the past two decades, koala populations have nearly halved because of urban expansion, loss of habitat, disease and climate change, and experts believe they remain under threat. Rolf Schlagloth, Central Queensland University’s koala ecologist, said:

There is a risk of extinction. The time frame is pretty difficult to determine. The biggest threat has always been and still is the loss and the fragmentation of habitat. We are still losing more habitat every year, and in some states it’s worse than others.

Exact koala population figures are largely unknown because of the 2019-20 bushfires, but government estimates show in 2001 there were roughly 184,748 koalas in Queensland, NSW and the ACT. By 2021 this figure had dropped to about 92,184.

It is estimated there are about 450,000 koalas in Victoria, but this figure is often disputed.

Post-covid flight cancellations continue

The Australian singer-songwriter Alexandra Lynn, known better as Alex the Astronaut, has taken to social media to reveal the trouble Lynn’s drummer has had in travelling from Sydney to Brisbane with the national carrier.

It comes as the entire travel industry struggles to get back to the pre-Covid normal.

Optus to pay for replacement passports

Josh Taylor

Optus will pay for the replacement of passports for people caught up in the data breach, prime minister Anthony Albanese has announced.

The foreign minister, Penny Wong, wrote to Optus earlier in the week calling on the company to pay for replacement passports for those who had their passport numbers exposed in the leak. Today, Albanese said Optus had agreed to the request.

He said:

Optus have responded to my request that I made both in the parliament and that senator Wong made in writing to Optus [confirming] they will cover the costs of replacing affected customers’ passports. I think that’s entirely appropriate. I find it extraordinary that the federal opposition called upon taxpayers to foot the bill.

It’s been a busy hour with announcements from both the national cabinet about scrapping Covid-19 isolation period and the Australian Federal Police revealing a new operation in relation to the Optus breach.

(Suffice to say the team at the Guardian heartily approve of its new name)

Both those press conferences are over now, but if you want to read more about Operation Guardian, my colleague Josh Taylor has this report: