Health News at Your Fingertips

Some images are trickling in now from the teacher strike in New South Wales.

Job vacancies jump by 14% in the last three months: ABS

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has reported another big jump in job vacancies, with almost half a million jobs on offer as of May.

That tally’s double the level of pre-Covid times, if you can recall what the world looked like in February 2020. Of all the forecasts around the economy during the height of the pandemic, predictions about the labour market – in many nations – have proven to be the most off the mark.

Anyway, in the past three months, job vacancy numbers have jumped by 14%, with “customer-facing” roles the most in demand, according to the ABS. (Perhaps that’s a sign of heightened absentee rates given the rapid spread of Covid and now flu in many workplaces.)

So about one in four businesses say they are looking for employees, or double the pre-pandemic proportion:

Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics, at the ABS said:

The large growth in vacancies through the pandemic has coincided with a decline in the number of unemployed people.

As a result, there was almost the same number of unemployed people and vacant jobs in May 2022.

That’s about 1.1 unemployed people per vacant job. Back in early 2020, the ratio was closer to three jobless people per vacant position.

Victoria has had the largest jump in vacancies since February, rising 18%, ahead of NSW’s 12% rise. The Northern Territory, though, has the biggest share of companies looking to fill roles, with almost one in three on the hunt.

The industries with the highest growth in vacancies over the quarter were retail trade, up 38%; information media and telecommunications services, up 18%; and arts and recreation services, up 16%.

Perhaps now might be the time to put in that resume or ask for a pay rise?

The Therapeutic Goods Administration has provisionally approved Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine, Comirnaty, for use in children aged six months up to five years.

This is only the first step – for the vaccine to be provided, it will also need to be recommended for administration to this age group by Atagi.

In a statement, the TGA said:

Provisional determination is the first step in the provisional registration process. Approval and potential supply in Australia would only commence should the vaccine be approved as safe and effective by the TGA and recommended for administration to this age group by ATAGI (the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation). It does not mean an application for use in this age group has been made and it does not mean any subsequent application would be approved.

On receipt of an application to provisionally register COMIRNATY for use in this age group, the TGA will undertake a rigorous assessment of the safety, efficacy and quality of this vaccine with the highest priority.

Environment Victoria says energy roadmap ‘not fast enough’ in face of climate crisis

Environment Victoria has responded to the roadmap to renewable energy, released by the Australian Energy Market Operator today, saying while it’s not fast enough to avert catastrophic climate crisis, it’s “more realistic”.

Environment Victoria’s chief executive, Jono La Nauze, said in a statement:

Australia’s Energy Market Operator (AEMO) is now predicting that 60% of Australia’s coal will be closed by 2030, all of Victoria’s coal will be closed by 2032 and the very last coal power station will shut by 2042.

Although still not fast enough to meet Paris Agreement goals of averting catastrophic climate change, AEMO’s report at least provides a more realistic timeline for rapidly shifting to clean renewable power and ramping up storage technologies as an urgent national energy security priority.

Each time this roadmap is updated the market operator shows that the shift to renewables is happening quicker than they previously thought.

… Australia’s renewable capacity needs to grow nine-fold to meet our future energy needs. Environment Victoria agrees with AEMO’s description that the energy transition is ‘irreversible’ and both a ‘challenge and an opportunity’, and that the energy transition is urgent but achievable, but we need to act now.

Queensland cabinet papers to be released in 30 days, not 30 years as part of Coaldrake report recommendations

The Queensland government will release cabinet papers within 30 days instead of 30 years, in what the premier has described as a “revolutionary” response to a damning integrity review, AAP reports.

The premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who was publicly absent on Wednesday while undergoing dental surgery, has faced a barrage of questions two days after the review report found major issues within the public service.

Palaszczuk said:

It means that cabinet papers, which are usually held for 30 years, will be released in 30 days. This is revolutionary.

Prof Peter Coaldrake’s landmark report, handed down on Tuesday, pointed to a tolerance of bullying within the state’s public service and a reluctance to deviate from the perceived official government line.

Palaszczuk described the review process as a “health check”, adding all governments benefit from scrutiny. The report also called for the access and influence of lobbyists to be reigned in, including an explicit ban on “dual hatting” by lobbyists during election campaigns.

To every single member of the business community out there, you do not need to employ a lobbyist to have a meeting with my government.

But on “dual hatting”, the premier said every state and federal political campaign run by the major parities employed a lobbyist.

That has been the practice for many years – in fact, many decades.

Within hours of the release of the Coaldrake report, Palaszczuk committed to adopting all 14 of his recommendations. But her absence the day after was noted, forcing the premier to reveal she had dental surgery and couldn’t speak.

NSW Health urges booster uptake as Omicron subvariants spread

NSW Health is urging people to keep their Covid-19 vaccinations up to date as a report is published showing the overall proportion of Omicron BA.4 or BA.5 sub-lineages is growing.

Those variants increased to 35% in total in the week ending 25 June, compared with 32% in the previous week. There were 55,510 positive tests reported during the week.

In a statement on Thursday, NSW Health said the BA.2 sub-lineage was “the dominant variant of concern” in NSW, but they expected BA.4 and BA.5 to become dominate in the next few weeks and that would come along with an increase in Covid-19 infections and reinfections.

NSW chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, implored the public to limit the spread of Covid-19 and protect the most vulnerable:

There is no evidence yet of a difference in disease severity for those infected with BA.4 and BA.5, but there is evidence that they are better at evading the body’s immunity.

Any potential increase in infections will depend on a combination of factors, including immunity levels in the population and behavioural factors, so it is vital that anyone who is eligible for a booster dose who hasn’t yet received it does so as soon as possible.

We all have a role to play in reducing the spread and burden of respiratory infections this winter and protecting our most vulnerable, so I strongly encourage everyone to keep doing the little things that make a big difference, such as staying home when you are sick, washing your hands regularly and indoor mask-wearing.

Currently, only 64.5% of NSW residents have received a booster shot.

The banks aren’t waiting for the RBA to raise interest rates

More signs today that the banks aren’t waiting for more Reserve Bank rate rises to adjust their own offerings.

The CBA has lifted the interest it charges on its fixed-rate loans for both owner-occupiers and investors by a “massive” 1.4 percentage points, RateCity.com.au says. (Australia’s biggest bank also cut its lowest variable home loan rate by 15 basis points, to 2.79%, with the major catch that the rate only applies to new customers who stump up a 30% deposit.)

Here’s how the rates stack up across the banks:

RateCity’s research director Sally Tindall said:

We haven’t seen one-off hikes of this size and scale from CBA in our records.

Less than a year ago, CBA was still offering one fixed rate under 2%. Today the bank’s lowest fixed rate is just under 5%, while the majority are well over 6%.

We expect other banks will follow in CBA’s wake. Westpac and NAB’s fixed rates are now, in many cases, over a percentage point lower. It’s only a matter of time before these banks hike fixed rates again.

As for what the RBA is up to, we can expect another rate rise next week, which would make it three months in a row. (The two previous hikes surprised in their size, so we’ll see if there’s a three-peat there too.)

The CBA’s chief economist Gareth Aird is among those expecting the central bank’s cash rate target will be raised half a percentage point to 1.35%.

One reason is that it would be better to set a pattern, rather than chopping around. He said:

Put another way, a potential sequence of rate hikes of 25bp in May, 50bp in June, 25bp in July and 50bp in August would be unwelcome.

It is much better to move by 50bp in July and make a judgement around 25bp or 50bp in August based on the evolution of the data and the outlook for both inflation and the economy.

Meanwhile, Aird also notes home prices have begun their descent, and tomorrow “we expect the CoreLogic data to indicate that national home prices fell by about 0.9% in June. Sydney, our biggest market, is forecast to be down 1.5% over the month.”

A perfect excuse to highlight this article we ran earlier this week:

Nick Evershed

How many caravans are there again?

On the day the census results were released, there was discussion on radio and in other media about how either the number of people living in caravans increased between 2016 and 2021, or the number of caravans in total increased between 2021.

However, it turns out that this is not the case – there were in fact both fewer people living in caravans and fewer caravans overall in 2021. Caravans also had a lower percentage share of the total number of dwellings in 2021.

When I asked the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) for clarification on caravan-related counts, an ABS spokesperson said:

There was an error identified in the article published regarding the increase in caravans and a correction has been issued.

Mostafa Rachwani

Australia taking major backwards steps in closing the gap on early development

Australia is already off target to meet a key Closing the Gap goal, just two years after the revised targets were introduced.

Data released by the Productivity Commission on Thursday shows that progress toward a 10-year target of having 55% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children meeting national early development goals took a backward step in 2020-21, with just 34.3% meeting the threshold, down from 55.2% in 2018.

To meet the target, children need to be assessed as developmentally on track in all five domains of the Australian Early Childhood Development Census, a metric taken just before children start school.

It is one of three targets covered in data released on Thursday. The rate of imprisonment for Indigenous children also fell in 2020-21, to 23.3 per 10,000.

Read the full story here:

Aged care sector outraged at ‘patently inadequate’ subsidy increase

Christopher Knaus

On Wednesday, the federal government announced that the subsidies paid by government to providers of aged care would increase by just 1.7% in 2022-23.The news is prompting a furious response from the sector, who say it is “patently inadequate” and “doesn’t go nearly far enough to keep up with rising costs in aged care”.

Recent figures show that two-thirds of Australia’s aged care providers are operating at a loss. MyHomecare Group, the biggest home care provider in Australia, said the subsidy increase would mean that many older Australians “can’t afford to continue living at home”.

Chief executive, Stuart Miller, said:

Inflation is rising significantly and more needs to be done in the aged care space to match these increases for older Australians. It is estimated the cost of care has gone up 20%, so while this 1.7% subsidy increase will assist Home Care Package recipients, it will mean many can’t afford to continue living at home.

Aged and Community Care Providers Association, a national peak body, labelled the subsidy increase as perplexing, given Labor’s focus on aged care in the lead-up to the election.

Interim chief executive, Paul Sadler, said:

This figure is patently inadequate, particularly as we know that two thirds of aged care facilities are currently operating in deficit.

We have had positive engagement with the new government on the problems facing the sector, and the prime minister has nominated fixing aged care as key priority, so we are perplexed by this news.

We understand that the indexation figure was part of the budget prepared by the previous government so we are keen to hear the new government’s plan to fix this issue consistent with its commitment to implement the recommendations of the royal commission.

Family of Queensland woman missing in Mexico for almost two months holding out hope

The brother of a Queensland woman missing in Mexico for almost two months says his family is clinging to the possibility she is still alive, AAP reports.

Dan Shanks, brother of missing woman Tahnee Shanks, told the Nine Network’s Today program:

We can only keep hoping … Until she’s found or a body’s found, we are just holding out hope for as long as we can. We will just keep throwing resources at it until we find her one way or the other.

Shanks said although Mexican authorities continued to probe the case, his family had hired a private investigator to further their search for answers.

Quintana Roo state attorney general, Oscar Montes de Oca Rosales, said last month he believed Tahnee Shanks’ disappearance was linked either to drug cartels her husband “was involved with” or domestic violence.

Police issued alerts for the couple, both 32, after their toddler, Adelynn, was found wandering the streets near a church in the resort city of Cancun.

They have not been seen since 2 May.

Dan Shanks said:

It is terrible not knowing. That is why we are pushing as hard as we can with the embassy and the Mexican authorities and engaging our own private investigator to keep things happening.

We are not going away until we get answers.

It was hoped a breakthrough in the case was not far off, he said.

Shanks said Adelynn, 2, had been staying in Brisbane with her aunts for the past month but was now in the care of her grandmother in Mackay.

She’s safe. We are doing the best we can to provide for her.

Montes de Oca Rosales said it was possible Shanks’ husband, Jorge Luis Aguirre Astudillo, was a cartel member.

He, Tahnee and Adelynn were last seen on a toll road out of Cancun the day of the disappearance but their car didn’t return via the same checkpoint, leading to suspicions they were being followed.

Montes de Oca Rosales said Astudillo had previously been threatened and had at one point hired a bodyguard.

SA police commissioner praises efforts that delivered NCA bombing verdict

More on the NCA bombing verdict, the SA police commissioner is speaking now about Domenic Perre being found guilty of murder and attempted murder:

I couldn’t be more proud of the efforts that have gone into making sure we got a result and a positive result in what was a complex and protracted investigation and a complex and protracted trial …

I’m incredibly proud of our major crime investigation team and I’m relieved for the family that we got a result that they were obviously hoping for and I’m hopeful this result gives the family some ability to move on.

You never get over something like this, and we can’t even begin to imagine the impact this has had on the families of Geoff Bowen and Peter Wallace over the past 28 years. It is a shame that Peter couldn’t be here to see this result but I’m sure their families are very happy with the outcome today.

Renowned music and culture festival, South by Southwest – better known as SXSW – is coming to Australia next year, setting up in Sydney.

Usually held in Austin, Texas, SXSW Sydney will mark the first time the festival has left the US since it was established in 1987. The event will pivot around the Sydney Convention Centre and take place in October.

Producer of the Sydney edition, Geoff Jones, told media on Thursday:

SXSW is the Olympics of events for the creator industries, and we are thrilled to bring this legendary festival of gaming, music, screen, tech and innovation to Sydney in 2023.

Perre has been convicted of murder and attempted murder in the SA supreme court after a long-running trial. He sent a parcel bomb to the National Crime Authority building on 1 March 1994, which detonated, killing Det Sgt Geoffrey Bowen and injuring lawyer Peter Wallis.

Beekeepers to be compensated for hives destroyed in fight against parasite

Compensation will be paid to commercial beekeepers whose hives and bees are destroyed as attempts to contain the deadly varroa mite continue, AAP reports.

The NSW and federal agriculture ministers met on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the response to the discovery of the mite, which was first detected at the Port of Newcastle last week.

About 600 beehives have so far been destroyed and eight properties infected as NSW continues attempts to contain the outbreak.

Eradication zones are in place from the city of Newcastle north to Seaham, with another around Bulahdelah.

NSW agriculture minister, Dugald Saunders, says about 600 hives have been destroyed so far, with as many as 30,000 bees affected in each hive.

Around 440 beekeepers have been affected, with Saunders telling AAP that commercial operators who have had their hives destroyed will be compensated:

Registered commercial beekeepers will be compensated for all essential equipment, hives and bees that are destroyed through this process. This support will be shared by industry and the state and commonwealth governments.

But the minister said at this stage no compensation is on offer for recreational apiarists:

We know that recreational beekeepers will play a big role in helping to help prevent the further spread of varroa mite. They aren’t included in the current compensation agreements. We are looking at what support we can provide them if there is a need for it.

Neither federal nor NSW ministers were able to confirm how much would be paid to commercial beekeepers or the size of the compensation package on offer, but discussions on reimbursement costs are underway.