Health News at Your Fingertips

Chalmers: Covid support payments ‘can’t continue forever’

From AAP:

Isolation requirements and pandemic leave payments will be at the top of the agenda when federal, state and territory leaders meet for national cabinet.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, will host his colleagues in Sydney on Wednesday afternoon where state premiers will push to shorten the Covid-19 isolation time from seven to five days.

But while the federal government will be responsive to the health advice, Australians should not expect the emergency payments to go on forever, the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said:

The reality … is that kind of support can’t continue forever [and] it’s also contingent on some of the other ways that we’re responding to this health and economic challenge.

One of the issues at play is the length of the isolation period and, not wanting to preempt the discussion that will happen this afternoon, it’s a relevant consideration as well.

I will bring you more when we have it.

Ben Smee

Two Queensland police officers who arrested and handcuffed prominent First Nations writer and academic Chelsea Watego have told a tribunal they did not also approach or investigate an allegedly “aggressive white man” who was also the focus of nightclub security guards at the time they arrived.

ABS: Covid and flu symptoms reporting up but testing down

More Australians reported household members experiencing cold, flu or Covid-19 symptoms, but fewer reported testing for Covid-19, according to survey results released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

David Zago, head of household surveys at the ABS, said:

Our latest household impacts of Covid-19 Survey, conducted between 10 and 30 July 2022, showed 42% of households experienced cold, flu or Covid-19 symptoms, up from 32% with symptoms in April 2022.

However, only 48% of households had a Covid-19 test in the past four weeks, down from 62% in April.

The percentage of households where someone had a positive Covid-19 test in July has remained about the same since April – 27% and 23%, respectively.

The survey also asked Australians about the impacts of Covid-19 on their household’s working arrangements and school or childcare attendance.

Zago said:

One in four Australians reported that the job situation of someone in their household had changed due to Covid-19 in the last four weeks – 23%, up from 18% in April.

Clouds rolling into Victoria from the west

Cait Kelly

Hello everyone – this is Cait Kelly. Before we start a big thank you to Natasha for taking us through the morning!

Let’s get into it – I’ve got a weather update coming and an important story from Ben Smee so stay with me.

Natasha May

Hope this Wednesday is treating you well. I am handing the blog over to the marvellous Cait Kelly who will be with you for the rest of the day!

New national disaster agency comes online

A new national disaster management agency will be created to help Australians get through their “darkest hours” with severe flooding likely to be on the way as the nation approaches a “high-risk” weather season, AAP reports.

The emergency management minister, Murray Watt, announced the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) will come into effect from Thursday and lead the country’s response to natural disasters. He told reporters in Canberra:

The new NEMA will transform the way the federal government supports the Australian people in their darkest hours and help communities respond and rebuild.

It’s about preparing, building resilience, responding and recovering.

Our view is … that is going to work in a much more coordinated manner if all of those functions sit under one roof with one set of leadership.

Greg Browning, a senior climatologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, said the forecast for the next three months showed the country moving into a “high risk weather season” with flooding as the major risk, over bushfires or heatwaves.

Browning said severe storms, intense rainfall, and giant hail were likely to batter the eastern states, with bushfires to hit the northern part of Australia.

An early tropical cyclone could also develop in northern Australia.

The body will be created following a merger of Emergency Management Australia and the National Recovery and Resilience Agency.

Lightning expected offshore of the Northern Rivers in NSW

There were 1,380 new cases in the last reporting period, and six people are in intensive care.

Universities could help end skills shortage, University of Sydney vice-chancellor says

A stronger government focus on higher education could help solve the skills shortage crisis, the University of Sydney’s vice-chancellor, Prof Mark Scott, is saying in an address to the National Press Club today.

Ahead of the government’s jobs and skills summit, which begins tomorrow, the vice-chancellor said it was critical for there to be an increase in national investment in research to drive future jobs, AAP reports.

Scott said:

I’d like those at tomorrow’s jobs and skills summit to consider not just the immediate challenges, for which migration will surely be one answer, but those challenges Australia will contend with a decade from now.

The speech also highlighted the university’s vision and goals for the next decade, including to enable more than 1,000 more students from low socio-economic backgrounds and disadvantaged schools to study at the university, along with a greater emphasis on student-focused education.

Scott said while the universities sector has been under funding pressure in recent years, student outcomes were still key.

The federal government provided as much as 90% of funding to universities during the 1980s, but commonwealth funding now makes up less than 30% of the sector’s income. The majority of income comes from domestic and international student fees, along with grant schemes and philanthropic donors.

Scott said current funding arrangements for higher education was a “complicated ecosystem”. He said:

International students in particular have played a vital role in providing not just key researchers at a graduate level, but also together providing the funding income that underpins much of the national research effort.

Funding pressure is no excuse for not fulfilling the promise that a university education should present to today’s students.

The federal government has promised to review university funding as part of a new accord with the sector.

It is expected nine in every 10 new jobs created in the next five years will require a form of post-school qualification.

No 2 golfer Cameron Smith defects from PGA to Saudi-backed LIV tour, citing financial rewards

Cameron Smith, the world No 2 male golfer and reigning British Open champion, has left the PGA tour to join the breakaway Saudi-backed LIV golf tour.

Speculation over the possibility of Smith joining LIV began in a press conference after the Australian’s success at St Andrews last month. Smith bristled at the journalist’s question at the time, but refused to rule out a switch to the Saudi Arabian-backed scheme.

Now Smith has become the first current top-10 player to sign with the rebel circuit, telling Golf Digest:

The biggest thing for me joining is (LIV’s) schedule is really appealing.

I’ll be able to spend more time at home in Australia and maybe have an event down there, as well. I haven’t been able to do that, and to get that part of my life back was really appealing.

Greg Norman, the Australian LIV chief executive, revealed earlier this month the circuit was looking to hold an event down under in 2023.

Smith admitted the financial rewards were also tempting at a reported $US100m ($A145m) signing-on fee. He said:

[That] was definitely a factor in making that decision, I won’t ignore that or say that wasn’t a reason.

– with AAP

PM pays tribute to Gorbachev as ‘one of the true giants of the 20th century’

Josh Butler

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said the former Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev “changed the world for the better” in a tribute message posted this afternoon following the death of the last leader of the Soviet Union.

He freed the nations of Eastern Europe from the prison of Soviet rule, and helped bring an end to the Cold War … [Mikhail Gorbachev was] a man of warmth, hope, resolve and enormous courage.

With his death we have lost one of the true giants of the 20th century.

There were 639 new cases in the last reporting period, and six people are in intensive care.