Health News at Your Fingertips

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is up at estimates today.

Foreign affairs minister Marise Payne says the foreign affairs questions are being asked today, instead of tomorrow as originally scheduled, so that she can leave Australia tonight, bound for a Munich security conference.

She says she also has a broader series of international visits (including a French/EU Indo-Pacific forum in Paris).

Deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce has taken another swing at the Liberal MP (or MPs?) who seem to be leaking embarrassing details to the media, in the wake of reports that Alan Tudge’s days as education minister may be limited.

Channel 10 reported on Tuesday that Tudge could be on his way out.

It was also reported that Tudge’s name had been scratched off a nameplate at his office door, but prime minister Scott Morrison’s office said the matter was still in progress and no decision had been made.

Senate estimates heard on Monday that a report on allegations made against Tudge by former staffer Rachelle Miller had been provided to Morrison weeks ago, but that people participating in the report were still being given the opportunity to review its contents.

The latest leak from the ministry follows several other damaging leaks to Channel 10, including texts reportedly between former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian and a Liberal minister which were strongly critical of Morrison, and a cabinet leak last week which claimed Morrison had been “rolled” by colleagues over a strategy to allow debate on a federal integrity commission in hopes of gathering more support for his religious discrimination bill.

Joyce, speaking on Sky News, criticised whoever was sharing such explosive information with media. He said:

If you’re deliberately handing over information that’s supposed to remain private … then you’re deliberately trying to make that task in the next election more difficult.

Joyce had his own embarrassing moment recently when a text he sent to former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins, which was also very critical of Morrison, was published in the media.

Morrison has asked his party for more unity in recent weeks. On Tuesday he told his members that they had jobs to do:

I’m going to do mine, I need you to do yours.

All elective surgery across public and private hospitals can resume by the end of the month in Victoria, the state government has said, adding that the impact of the Omicron wave continues to subside and stabilise.

From Monday 21 February, public hospitals in metropolitan Melbourne will be able to perform category 2 surgery.

The minister will also consider further changes to allow all surgery to resume from 28 February. Each hospital will individually assess their own capacity based on staff availability and Covid-19 demands, with 44 hospitals still operating as Covid- streaming hospitals.

Private hospitals will also be able to increase their elective surgery activity as long as they can continue to provide support for public hospitals to respond to Covid-19 demands.

From 21 February, private hospitals in metropolitan Melbourne can undertake up to 75% of any elective surgery activity, increasing from 50%. The government will then consider increasing this on 28 February to up to 100%.

In regional Victoria, the cap for private hospitals will increase from the current 75% to up to 100% on 21 February – while regional public hospitals continue to deliver any elective surgery based on their individual capacity.

The rolling seven-day average of Covid-19 hospitalisations is 457 patients, decreasing from a peak of more than 1,200 patients in mid-January 2022. The number of staff unavailable due to Covid has dropped by around two-thirds, currently at around 1,400 people.