Health News at Your Fingertips

The Northern Territory has recorded 265 new cases of Covid in the past 24 hours to 8pm last night.

That includes 152 cases recorded in the Top End region, 56 in Central Australia, eight in East Arnhem, 15 in the Big Rivers region, three in the Barkly region and 31 under investigation.

There are 15 people being treated in hospital with the virus including one person in ICU.

Statistics show more young people are taking up vaping, even as the number of daily smokers in NSW continues to fall, AAP reports.

People over the age of 16 lighting up every day fell from 9.2% in 2020 to 8.2% in 2021, according to the 2021 NSW population health survey.

Speaking on World No Tobacco Day, NSW’s chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said she was impressed some 23% of NSW residents were now successful former smokers, and urged more people to kick the habit.

Of those who still smoke, 41% are serious about quitting in the next six months and one in five (19%) plan to quit in the next month, according to 2021’s NSW smoking and health survey.

Quitting smoking is one of the most important things a person can do for their health, Chant said.

While the number of smokers has dropped, there has been a growing use of vapes, or e-cigarettes, among young people. More than one in 10 young people aged 16 to 24 vaped between 2020 and 2021 – double the rate of 2019-20.

Chant:

This is a worrying trend for our young people because vapes can contain many harmful chemicals and toxins, even if they are nicotine-free. We know vapes can harm your health in the short-term, but the long-term effects are largely unknown.

Victoria is following Queensland, South Australia and NSW by making the flu vaccination free from tomorrow following rapidly rising influenza cases.

Flu cases increased by 30% in the past week in the state.

“If you change the government, you change the country,” is one of those hoary old gumnuts that was novel when Paul Keating made the comment back when but is becoming a little hackneyed.

Consumers don’t seem to have noted much change, if the latest survey of sentiment by ANZ and Roy Morgan is any guide.

Since 2008 when the gauge went weekly there have been five elections, including changes of government in 2013 and 2022. The latest iteration showed barely a budge in the reading.

David Plank, ANZ’s Head of Australian Economics, says:

Of the four elections prior to this one, there has been little immediate reaction in consumer confidence, with no large swings in either direction. Confidence going into the 2022 election was, however, well below previous pre-election levels.

One reason for the dim view might be that the RBA’s first of what could be quite a few rate hikes in the coming year. The central bank is keen to stamp out expectations that prices will keep rising – which they might well do for a while, if electricity and food prices are any guide.

Those expectations nudged higher again in the past week, the survey found:

As it stands, investors remain pretty firm that rates will climb sharply, including by a full percentage point in just the next three meetings.

The RBA board meets in a week’s time, on 7 June, which will be new treasurer Jim Chalmers’ outing to explain that it wasn’t Labor’s fault. A not unreasonable claim but one that will be harder to make as each month passes …

Speaking of climate change, the Greens have called for Labor to legislate a timetable for the regulated closure of coal-fired power stations after AGL’s failed demerger plans.

Greens leader Adam Bandt said AGL’s decision was a “game changer”:

Everyone knows coal is over, and now we need to phase it out in a planned way that supports workers and communities through the transition.

Instead of leaving these decisions to corporate boardrooms, Labor needs to update its climate legislation to include a regulated timetable of power station closures by 2030. Given the urgency of the climate crisis and the need to support workers and communities through the transition, a legislated timetable of closures makes sense.

Joyce rules out early retirement

Before we leave Barnaby Joyce, he’s asked about the Labor party’s intention to reduce emissions by 43% by 2030. David Littleproud has been more coy, arguing you don’t have to legislate targets to act on climate change.

Joyce reiterates that the Coalition, in their agreement, didn’t support a 2030 target:

We did support a 2050 target, we didn’t support a 2030 target. That is the position I told the Australian people on my behalf … and once more, if you say you are going to try and move in that direction too quick, people say I will be out of a job if we do this. Also, the treasurer, good luck to them – the treasurer will be getting strong advice like if you start shutting down industries, your coal, gas, you will be poor. Be really careful what you suggest.

He then rules out any suggestion of early retirement:

Barnaby Joyce is asked if he’ll support the conversation within National held seats about the need to transition from coal.

“No,” he replies, “I won’t.”:

I think it is really important that we understand where the wealth of our nation comes from. If you start saying we will take away our second biggest export, you have to say what services will you give up as well? Because the money is no longer there. NDIS or maybe pensions or maybe schools or health? Which – you can’t – you have to move away from this slightly naive ideas that if you shut down your major exports, you somehow keep the same standard of living. You don’t, you become poorer.

‘I had to stand because I had a contract to the Australian people’

Barnaby Joyce is asked why he would wait until half term to give up the Nationals leadership and instead contested the ballot yesterday. And why wasn’t David Littleproud aware of this intention to stand down?

I said it actually when I stood for the leadership, when there was a change between Michael and myself. I said this is a transition to a new leadership team. I have said that all the way through … also I didn’t think it was fair to the Australian people to say I was the leader last week and I am not the leader this week. I had to stand because I had a contract to the Australian people and they would be pretty disappointed … it was incumbent upon me to stand and I stood and I didn’t win and that is life.

Barnaby Joyce is speaking to reporters now. He congratulates David Littleproud and then abruptly turns to talking about the possibilities of nuclear energy:

I would like to congratulate David and Perin. It has been a big shift up for Perin and good luck to her. I hope she goes really well … it is really important now that the Nationals reset, go forward, I will be supporting them in doing that. To be frank, it is a weight off my shoulders, to be honest. I went to the election saying that on behalf of my colleagues, I would hold every seat and we did that, got close to winning another two.

We got ourselves another Senate position and the whole time, as deputy or leader, I never lost a seat, only won them. That was in the last two elections, the Libs unfortunately lost over 30 seats in the two I was leader. We did it against the tide and that was pretty hard.

I always said, and I am surprised it never leaked, I was transitioning out of the leadership and that was what I was going to do. I probably didn’t want to do it yesterday but that is life. That is politics. Now there is a new leadership team and I wish them all the very, very best.

I think it is important we get a couple of things in opposition to give you a chance to take a few things on. It is really important that Australia goes into nuclear energy. That will be incredibly important for us if we are going to talk about net zero, we have to be brave enough and smart enough to make hard decisions … I would love to see the Labor party come onboard with us and not turn it into some sort of ridiculous fight of “you’re going to put a nuclear reactor in someone’s backyard”, which divides the place up.

I suppose you think I am sad:

It is worth looking at this chart in the context of the lives that are lost each day.

It is based on ABS data from 2020 to now.

It’s a high day for fatalities in Victoria, where 20 people have lost their lives in the latest reporting period. Condolences to their loved ones.

There have been 9,595 new cases recorded. There are 527 people being treated in hospital with the virus, including 31 people in ICU.

NSW Health has released today’s Covid update.

Sadly, it has been a high day for fatalities – 19 people have lost their lives.

There have been 7,342 new cases detected in the past 24 hours. There are 1,185 people being treated in hospital including 36 people in ICU.