Health News at Your Fingertips

Missing pilot found dead

We brought you the news earlier that there was concern for a pilot of a recreational aircraft missing on a flight in the area of north-east Victoria since Sunday.

The plane has since been located, but the pilot was deceased.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said:

At about 10am (AEST) on Monday, after a search of the area involving multiple aircraft and ground crews, a Victorian Police helicopter located the crash site about 30km east of Tallangatta in the north-east Victorian high country.

Victoria Police have confirmed the pilot of the aircraft was found deceased at the scene.

AMSA acknowledge this is a difficult time for family and friends of the pilot and would like to thank all those who assisted with the search.

New meningococcal case in South Australia

A case of invasive meningococcal has been detected in a 21-year-old in Adelaide.

It’s the the 11th case of meningococcal reported in South Australia this year, compared with several reported the same time last year.

Covid rules needed into 2023, health minister says

Josh Butler

The health minister, Mark Butler, has confirmed some Covid measures will continue well into 2023, even as some in politics and the media pressure the federal government to drop pandemic rules.

Butler was speaking in Adelaide to confirm $1.4bn in new Covid federal funding for rapid tests, aged care staffing and Medicare subsidies. Asked by a journalist at his press conference when he expected “the shackles will be lifted off” (their words, not ours), Butler said it would be a while yet.

The health minister said:

There will be a need to retain some measures over the course of 2023, I’m very sure. And so over the course of the rest of this year, we will be considering the need for measures to be extended beyond the end of calendar 2022. And we’ll have more to say about that later in the year.

Butler didn’t say exactly which measures would remain through 2023, but confirmed that government backing for pathology and Covid testing would be one part of the continued response.

The minister also spoke of his concern about long Covid, or serious chronic symptoms lingering months after infection. Butler said Australia needed to have “a national focus on long Covid”, saying there had been more than 200 different symptoms associated, and that more research and data was needed.

Butler said:

We don’t know yet really what the true prevalence and scale of long Covid is here … But there’s no question it is going to be a very substantial pressure on our community, on individuals and on our health system.

Even health professionals are still coming to grips with the scale of this in terms of numbers, but also the diversity of symptoms that patients are presenting with.

Butler said the national strategy on long Covid would develop over the coming months.

Rex Patrick takes information commissioner’s office to court over FOI delays

Christopher Knaus

Former senator Rex Patrick will use the federal court to demand Australia’s information commissioner explain the lawfulness of her office’s delays in reviewing freedom of information decisions.

Patrick has taken the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) to the federal court over huge delays in its handling of FOI reviews, a crucial part of the overall FOI system.

The former senator says some reviews are unresolved more than 1,000 days after referral to the OAIC, delays which he says are unreasonable.

The hearing was due to take place next week.

But at an interlocutory hearing on Monday morning, the case was delayed by more than a month. The hearing will now take place in November.

The delay occurred after the OAIC’s lawyers made a late application to amend its argument. Patrick’s team will also be allowed to make additional arguments as part of its case.

People with a disability more likely to be victims of crime in NSW

People with a disability are twice as likely to be a victim of a violent crime in NSW, according to a data pilot which is the first of its kind in the state.

They are also over-represented in parts of the justice system, being more likely to face drug and domestic violence offences, AAP reports.

Data from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (Boscar) released today shows 17% of people accessing core disability support had been victims of crime.

Between 2014 and 2018, 6.5% of people claiming support experienced a violent incident and 4.4% experienced a domestic violence related crime.

Indigenous women with a disability suffered even worse, with 18% experiencing a violent crime over that same five year period.

People who commit violence against people with a disability were 17 % less likely to have criminal matters proceed against them.

Police were less likely to take action if the victim had a cognitive and physical disability.

People in NSW with a disability who experienced domestic violence-related crime were also more likely to experience it again within a year.

Generally, people with a physical, cognitive and mental health disability were more likely to become victims of crime.

BOSCAR’s director, Dr Suzanne Poynton, said the data pilot was the first of its kind to offer insight into both the victimisation and offending among people with a disability in NSW. Poynton said:

Filling this significant knowledge gap is important for developing disability policy in the justice system.

Peter Hannam

Patricia McKenzie replaces Peter Botten as AGL chair

Energy giant AGL has named Patricia McKenzie as the company’s new chair. She replaces Peter Botten effective today.

While Vales Point goes through a dance of a thousand veils (see earlier post), AGL is enduring its own corporate twists.

The largest electricity generator in Australia has had its share of management turmoil after billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes made a takeover bid for the company in February. Then he returned for a second tilt in May when his family firm Grok emerged as AGL’s largest shareholder.

That second effort managed to stymie AGL’s plan to split into two (a “bad AGL” full of coal-fired power plants, and a “good” one with a 4m-plus customer book of power and gas customers). Corporate heads rolled, as they say, leaving the company scrambling to settle on new leadership.

McKenzie had been the chair-elect, and has held roles at Essential Energy, APA Group, Transgrid and the Australian Energy Market Operator, among others.

An interesting appointment to AGL’s board is Miles George. George was formerly head of renewable energy firm Infigen Energy.

Managing director and chief executive officer Graeme Hunt will stay in his role until 30 September, with current chief financial officer Damien Nicks stepping up be the interim CEO. (The hunt, so to speak, for a new chief goes on.)

We’re hoping the Atlassian co-founder, Cannon-Brookes, will tell us what he thinks of AGL’s changes.

Investors, though, are not too chuffed. They’ve sent AGL’s 2.4% lower for the day compared with a roughly flat overall market.

Flood threat reduced near Bright

The Victorian SES says:

This is a final flood watch for 15 Mile Creek, Buckland River and Ovens River to Bright.

Minor flood warnings are current for following catchments: Seven and Castle Creeks, Ovens, Kiewa, and Goulburn rivers.

The threat of flooding is reduced. You can now return to normal activity, but be aware of any hazards that may still exist in the warning area.

Bulldog Josh Dunkley keen to join Brisbane Lions

Star Western Bulldogs midfielder Josh Dunkley is set to walk out on the club to link up with Brisbane, AAP reports.

Dunkley’s future has been up in the air since the Bulldogs crashed out to Fremantle in the first week of the AFL finals.

The 25-year-old’s bid to join Essendon last year fell through, but he is now out of contract and keen to join the Lions for what’s reported to be a six-year deal.

It’s believed the Bulldogs had offered Dunkley a five-year extension in a bid to keep him.

Port Adelaide were also in the hunt to secure Dunkley’s services.

Dunkley’s partner, Tippah Dwan, plays professional netball for the Adelaide Thunderbirds in what loomed as a potential advantage for the Power.

Brisbane will now need to weave some magic on the trade front in order to satisfy the Bulldogs.

Complicating matters is the fact Brisbane are committed to taking star father-son prospect Will Ashcroft.

Ashcroft, son of three-time Brisbane premiership player Marcus Ashcroft, is regarded as the standout player in this year’s trade pool, meaning the Lions are highly likely to need to match a bid at No 1.

It means the Lions, who currently hold pick No 15, might need to offer future draft picks to snare Dunkley, or go into a significant draft points deficit.

Dunkley averaged 25.4 possessions and 4.4 clearances a game this season, and his arrival at Brisbane will add further potency to a midfield already featuring Brownlow medallist Lachie Neale, Jarrod Berry and Zac Bailey.

Fire in Port Kembla bush

Fire Rescue NSW are working to extinguish a fire in an area of bush within the city.

Car swallowed by sinkhole in Perth suburb

A luxury car has become submerged in a sinkhole after a water pipe burst and flooded a street in the affluent Perth suburb of Subiaco, AAP reports.

The Mercedes-Benz was parked near a water main in the inner Perth suburb, when it burst just before 10pm on Sunday.

It became almost completely immersed in the water, along with a nearby park bench.

A Water Corporation spokeswoman said no one was injured in the incident.

Emergency crews attended the scene and repair works were conducted throughout the night.

About 60 homes and businesses were without water early on Monday but that number had fallen to three by mid-morning as works continued. The spokeswoman said:

Traffic management is on site and road diversions are in place. Motorists are asked to please show caution in the area.

The cause of the burst (pipe) is being investigated.

We sincerely apologise to those affected.

An update on the trains dispute in NSW

From AAP:

The rail union and NSW government are returning to the industrial umpire in a bid to break their long-running stalemate over the safety of a new intercity train fleet and wages and conditions for workers.

The Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) will meet with the government at the Fair Work Commission (FWC) on Monday for a second day of conciliation talks.

The talks come after the union on the weekend dropped plans to shut down Opal Card readers this week, following a government threat to launch court action over it.

“There won’t be anything this week,” a union spokeswoman told AAP.

The RTBU had planned to leave station gates open as it did last month, but to also deactivate Opal Card readers, preventing commuters tapping on to pay for trips.

The measure reportedly could have cost the government more than $1 million a day.

As part of its campaign, the union recently took Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink to the FWC in a bid to keep negotiating a new enterprise agreement and changes to Korean-built trains that have been mothballed for years, with the union saying they are not safe to operate.

Premier Dominic Perrottet declared negotiations were over at the end of August and threatened to terminate the enterprise agreement if there was further industrial action, after weeks of union disruptions to train services.

RTBU NSW secretary Alex Claassens has said the union is doing everything it can to reach a speedy resolution but says the government “is stalling the process at every opportunity”.

Transport minister David Elliott has been contacted for comment.

Peter Hannam

Pricier properties predicted to fall more in relative terms: RBA

As in our earlier posts, the RBA’s head of domestic markets, Jonathan Kearns, has been commenting on how higher interest rates will affect property markets.

Among the comments from Kearns was the prediction that more pricey properties will fall more in relative terms than other segments of the market. Here is the article too:

CoreLogic’s research director Tim Lawless has confirmed that the data for most cities so far backs up Kearns’s view. The upper 25% of the market showed prices across the combined capitals peaked in January and values had fallen 7.4%.

Lawless says:

In contrast, the lower quartile of the market peaked much later, in July, and housing values are down a much smaller 0.2% by the end of August.

For Sydney, where prices had started to turn lower before other capitals, housing values were down 7.5% across the upper 25% over the past three months, while the lower quartile was down 2.8%.

Mind you, the top end of the market has further to fall. From the trough in prices during the Covid pandemic to the recent peak, dwelling values across Sydney’s upper quartile had surged by 33.9% compared with a 17.5% rise in the lower 25% of the market.

CoreLogic’s data also showed house prices across the capital cities had risen just shy of 30% from the trough to the peak, compared with unit values’ 13.2% increase.

Australia and Indonesia have pledged to increase economic cooperation ahead of a G20 finance ministers meeting, AAP reports.

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, met with the Indonesian finance minister, Mulyani Indrawati, in Canberra on Monday to sign the memorandum of understanding.

The agreement will facilitate the exchange of departmental officials from both nations, with dialogue and cooperation to focus on areas such as tax policy and financial regulation.

Clean energy, climate financing and pension systems were also on the agenda. Chalmers said in his opening remarks:

That’s why we deepen and renew the MoU today, so we can continue sharing policy experiences in key reform areas and build capacity in both our departments.

Chalmers also flagged facilitating further investment from Australia’s $3.4tn superannuation pool into Indonesia.

G20 finance ministers are due to meet in Washington DC in October.