Health News at Your Fingertips

Charities relieved over Labor pledge to scrap gag clauses

The charities sector says it is breathing “a sigh of relief” after the new assistant minister for charities and Treasury, Andrew Leigh, pledged to scrap gag clauses which restricted nonprofits from speaking about public policy.

Leigh said the federal government wanted to encourage social, legal and environmental charities to give feedback on policies – calling the former Coalition government’s opposite stance an “attack on democracy”.

Psychiatrists’ college welcomes Victorian mental health bill

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) has welcomed the introduction of the Victorian government’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Bill, saying it marks a significant transformation in Victorian mental health legislation.

The Victorian RANZCP chair, Astha Tomar, said the proposed legislation – a key recommendation of the royal commission into Victoria’s mental health system – is a welcome step in the right direction when it comes to addressing mental health and wellbeing in the state.

But Tomar said much still needs to be done in order to ensure new legislation doesn’t suffer from the same issues as previous mental health acts.

If passed, this legislation marks a significant transformation of Victorian mental health legislation.

While we’re looking forward to seeing this enacted, there’s a lot that needs to happen at the frontline of Victoria’s mental health and wellbeing system before the new legislation can be properly enacted.

Tomar said it was critical that any new legislation supports Victorian consumers and carers to make informed decisions in relation to illness and treatment throughout their journey.

New MPs to learn the ropes in Canberra

With the last declaration of MPs set for tomorrow, the new members will visit Canberra next week to learn about their roles.

In a statement Parliament of Australia said:

Australia’s newest MPs will be introduced to their new lives in the House of Representatives over the two-day seminar held 28-29 June, hearing from officials of the House of Representatives and other parliamentary and executive agencies.

They will learn about the procedural and administrative aspects of their new roles and also hear from seasoned MPs before the 47th Parliament opens.

Learning to navigate the 75,000 sq metre building, understanding chamber proceedings and the work of committees and what a newly-elected MP can expect during their first week on the job, will also be on the agenda.

Pandemic highlighted weaknesses in Dfat’s crisis response, auditor general says

Daniel Hurst

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade failed to meet all of the government’s objectives during the operation to help Australians stranded overseas during the pandemic, the auditor general has found.

A new report, tabled in parliament this afternoon, focuses on how Dfat managed the return of Australians from overseas during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) report said the department had “adapted its crisis management arrangements and established a new program of activity to provide assistance to a large number of overseas Australians affected by Covid-19, although it did not meet key government objectives”.

The report said the department’s underlying crisis management structures and capabilities “require strengthening to ensure it is prepared to respond to future major and complex crises”.

Here are some key passages from the report’s findings:

Dfat’s preparedness to manage complex crises before the onset of the pandemic was partly effective. While crisis management arrangements align with whole-of-government requirements, Dfat lacks a defined crisis management framework and mature preparedness policies. There is scope to strengthen crisis management planning, capability development and assurance processes over Dfat’s crisis management capability.

Dfat applied its crisis management arrangements to support the return of Australians and adapted these to deliver a new program of flights and financial assistance. The pandemic has highlighted weaknesses in responding to standard and complex, and large-scale crises. While policy advice to the government was largely appropriate, Dfat’s reporting to government on its return of Australians could not be verified by the ANAO.

The report notes Dfat’s consular funding to assist Australians overseas increased by 64% between 2018–19 and 2021–22, and that it helped arrange 150 “facilitated commercial flights” between 22 October 2020 and 24 February 2022.

But it says the department “did not maintain reliable data on registered Australians, including those identified as vulnerable”.

Dfat data and reporting indicate it did not meet all of the government’s objectives. The ANAO could not verify Dfat reporting on: the number of Australians and vulnerable Australians it assisted to return to Australia; and Australians who accessed facilitated commercial flights administered by Dfat. Reporting could not be verified due to data quality issues and unclear methods underpinning its reporting on Australians registered with Dfat.

Dfat accepted seven of the nine recommendations, saying “the circumstances of the pandemic were extraordinary and there are lessons to learn”. Dfat said in a letter to the ANAO:

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s established crisis framework enabled it to assist 61,755 Australians to return and facilitate 227 flights…

ANAO’s framing of the government’s objectives focuses narrowly on the period of 18 September 2020 to 25 December 2020. At that time, 26,200 Australians had registered as seeking to return; by Christmas, more than 24,800 had returned.

Bruce Lehrmann trial date postponed

Paul Karp

The ACT supreme court chief justice, Lucy McCallum, has ruled “regrettably and with gritted teeth” to vacate the trial date of Bruce Lehrmann on 27 June due to public comments prejudicing his ability to get a fair trial.

McCallum told a hearing on Tuesday that she was “not in a position to say how long” the trial should be delayed for, but she remarked she wanted it “to be heard this year if it can be”.

McCallum said October would be an appropriate time for “dissipation of prejudice”.
McCallum asked the ACT director of public prosecutions, Shane Drumgold, if he wished to seek injunctions to prevent further commentary on the case. She suggested these could be directed at Lisa Wilkinson, the complainant Brittany Higgins, The Project, and radio hosts Jonesy and Amanda.

The matter was stood over to 9.30am Thursday for a mention only. At that hearing a date will be set to discuss further orders.

The New South Wales budget includes a 3% pay rise for teachers over the next financial year, with another 3.5% the following year.

Queensland reports budget surplus as coal royalties soar

From AAP:

Queensland’s budget is back in the black amid surging coal prices and a property boom, but taxes will be increased on big businesses to prop up the bottom line.

The state treasurer, Cameron Dick, has delivered an unexpected $1.9bn surplus in 2021/22, after forecasting a $1.49bn deficit six months ago.

He says surging coal royalties and land transfer duties have significantly lifted government income this year.

“Much has changed from when I stood here to deliver last year’s budget,” he told parliament on Tuesday.

“We are back in black.”

Coal royalties soared to $7.29bn in 2021/22, but the government expects that to fall substantially as international prices ease over the next four years.

The centrepiece of the budget is $5.7bn in funding over four years to bring another 2,509 hospital beds online.

There will also be $120m in new funding for mental health, addiction and suicide prevention next financial year.

Daniel Hurst

Australia recommits to climate leadership

The Albanese government says it is “deeply committed to taking real and significant climate action at home, and to re-establishing Australia as a climate leader internationally”.

The minister for international development and the Pacific, Pat Conroy, made the comment in a video message to a Pacific symposium this afternoon.

Conroy said shaping a shared future in the Pacific was “a whole-of-nation effort, drawing together all of our national assets” including the private sector, civil society and academia. He said:

The complexity of issues we face is growing. As the foreign minister [Penny Wong] has said, the triple challenges of climate, Covid and strategic contest will challenge us in new ways.

We are committed to listening and working in partnership with our Pacific family to face these shared challenges together.

Nowhere is an integrated approach more critical than in tackling climate change, described in the Pacific Islands Forum’s Boe Declaration as the ‘single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and wellbeing of the peoples of the Pacific’.

Conroy said the last few months had shown “the clear ways in which development, diplomacy and defence issues are intersecting in the Pacific”.

He didn’t directly mention China, but referred to “much sharper global geostrategic circumstances”.

Conroy said Australia would remain a long-term partner for the Pacific.

He said Wong’s early visits to the region had demonstrated “the new energy we are bringing to that partnership” and he, too, looked forward to visiting soon.

Our goal, fundamentally, is to work together with our Pacific family to support its long-term stability, security and prosperity.

Conroy’s video message was to a virtual conference organised by the Asia-Pacific Development, Diplomacy & Defence Dialogue (AP4D). The thinktank launched a series of papers about how Australia could reset its relationship with the region, with climate being one of the crucial elements.

You can read our preview on those policy papers from this morning:

NSW teachers yet to respond to 3% pay rise in budget

From AAP:

NSW teachers are set to respond to the state budget a week after giving the premier an ultimatum to improve their pay deal.

In the lead-up to the budget, the government announced it would lift its 2.5% cap on increases to public sector wages in a bid to stem industrial action and strikes from government workers including teachers, nurses and transport staff.

The new policy confirmed in the budget on Tuesday includes a 3% pay rise over the next financial year, with another 3.5% the following year for workers who make a “substantial contribution to productivity-enhancing reforms”.

“It is important to maintain competitive wages to attract and retain the best talent,” the treasurer, Matt Kean, said.

“In the context of a strong and growing economy, this two-year increase to wages is an affordable and sensible policy,” he said.

The budget also expanded paid parental leave to 14 weeks for public sector workers, including teachers.

Gabrielle Chan

Australian Agricultural Company chief executive resigns

The chief executive officer of Australia’s biggest cattle company, Australian Agricultural Company Ltd, Hugh Killen, has resigned, effective immediately.

The decision was announced by AACo’s chairman, Donald McGauchie. It looks like a scramble, even though McGauchie says in his statement: “Hugh and the board agree that now is the right time to begin an orderly executive leadership transition.”

The move has sparked a local and global recruitment process to fill the chief executive position as well as the appointment of an acting chief executive, namely the company’s chief operating officer, Dave Harris.

Killen came from Westpac to lead AACo four and a half years ago. He has pivoted the company towards hitting sustainability goals, such as the industry’s first sustainability framework in an industry with significant methane emissions. The company took some big hits over Killen’s time, with the company reportedly losing 42,000 head of cattle to floods in 2019.

Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest has recently been circling. Forrest’s holding company for his private family businesses, Tattarang, increased its stake in AACo by 10% to 17.4%.

AACo was established in 1824 as a land development company with the assistance of the British parliament’s crown grant of 1m acres.

It has since been listed on the stock exchange and owns about 1% of the Australian land mass – 6.4m hectares of land. It is focused on beef – and very expensive beef at that. The AFR reported a 300g strip was selling for $580 in Dubai in 2020.

Victoria appoints first female court of appeal president

The Victorian government has appointed justice Karin Emerton as the new president of the court of appeal – the first female president in the court’s history.

The appointment will commence on 16 July.

Business conditions gained momentum in June quarter, survey finds

From AAP:

Australia’s manufacturers are facing the most challenging times in 50 years due to supply headwinds and escalating costs but are benefiting from strengthening demand, a new survey has found.

The latest Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry-Westpac industrial trends survey showed business conditions are expanding and gained momentum in the June quarter.

“[But] the economy is bumping up against capacity constraints in a tight labour market,” said Westpac senior economist Andrew Hanlan.

“The economy needs to lift investment to be able to boost capacity and provide a lift to productivity to drive a sustained recovery.”

The survey’s actual composite index – a gauge of business conditions – rose to 64.5 in the June quarter, up from 56.7 three months earlier and about 51 over the second half of 2021 during Covid-19 Delta lockdowns.

Here are the latest coronavirus numbers from around Australia today, as the country records at least 59 deaths from Covid-19:

ACT

• Deaths: 3
• Cases: 869
• In hospital: 87 (with 1 person in ICU)

NSW

• Deaths: 7
• Cases: 7,805
• In hospital: 1,499 (with 57 people in ICU)

Northern Territory

• Deaths: 0
• Cases: 232
• In hospital: 17 (with no people in ICU)

Queensland

• Deaths: 4
• Cases: 4,797
• In hospital: 491 (with 7 people in ICU)

South Australia

• Deaths: 11
• Cases: 2,270
• In hospital: 230 (with 9 people in ICU)

Tasmania

• Deaths: 0
• Cases: 1,001
• In hospital: 41 (with 2 people in ICU)

Victoria

• Deaths: 28
• Cases: 7,507
• In hospital: 434 (with 21 people in ICU)

Western Australia

• Deaths: 6
• Cases: 4,885
• In hospital: 259 (with 8 people in ICU)

NSW early education plan is ‘once in a generation’ investment, says Kean

From AAP:

The NSW government says its $15.9bn worth of budget commitments to early education represent a “once in a generation” investment in children across the state.

The government handed down its 2022/23 budget on Tuesday, announcing the massive spending on initiatives for early childhood education and child development over the next decade.

The centrepiece of the budget’s education initiatives was the multi-billion dollar investment in early eduction, including $1.4bn over four years to provide affordable preschool across the state.

Other measures for early learners were $281.6m over the forward estimates to boost the number, quality and retention of early childhood educators and teachers, and $112.2m for developmental checks in preschools.

There was also $37.9m to boost before- and after-school care and $24.7m to support and guide early childhood education and care service providers.

The treasurer, Matt Kean, said the government understood that a “great education can propel a person up the ladder of opportunity”.

“We know that the first five years of a child’s life can set them up for success at school and beyond. Ninety per cent of a child’s brain development occurs in these years,” Kean said in his budget speech on Tuesday.

Benita Kolovos

Victorian opposition confirms support for treaty process

The Victorian opposition has announced it will support the establishment of an independent authority to oversee the state’s treaty negotiations, though ousted Liberal MP Tim Smith says he will cross the floor to vote against the bill, describing it as “illiberal and divisive tokenism”.

The opposition leader, Matthew Guy, and the Nationals leader, Peter Walsh, confirmed the Coalition’s position on the Treaty Authority Bill following a party room meeting on Tuesday.

“The Liberals and Nationals are committed to advancing the treaty process in Victoria in a way that supports self-determination and reconciliation while strengthening community and connection to country,” the spokesperson for Aboriginal affairs, Walsh, said in a statement.

“Treaty is deeply personal, meaning that the road to achieving it will be different things to all people.

“Moving forward we must continue to ensure this process is delivered in a way that respects, and strives to meet, all the community’s ideals and expectations, while contributing positively to reducing disadvantage for Aboriginal Victorians.”