Health News at Your Fingertips

Michael McGowan

Perrottet says NSW Coalition and Labor in opposition are on ‘unity ticket’ in calling for train strikes to end

Amid the industrial strife engulfing the New South Wales rail network, the premier, Dominic Perrottet, has told reporters the government is on a “unity ticket” with the Labor opposition.

The comment, made during a joint press conference in Melbourne with the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, on Tuesday, will be news to many of his colleagues in the NSW Coalition party room, who for weeks have sought to link the chaos on the state’s rail lines with Labor.

Despite the Labor leader, Chris Minns, publicly calling for an end to the industrial action, on social media Coalition MPs including deputy Liberal leader and treasurer Matt Kean have sought to blame Labor for the rail strikes due to the head of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, Alex Claassens, sitting on the party’s powerful administrative committee.

But on Tuesday, Perrottet undermined that message somewhat, telling reporters:

I might give a different answer in New South Wales than in Victoria, but look, people will protest from time to time – in relation to the trains have made it very clear. That is a politically motivated strike. It’s been ongoing now for a substantial period of time.

Every time that we have made concessions to fix that issue, the union has come out and said ‘no no, we’ll move on to something else’.

Now you’ve got Labor opposition in New South Wales. It’s also said the strikes must come to an end. There’s a unity ticket here. There’s a unity ticket.

Nino Bucci

Justice Ian Harrison has taken a break while delivering his verdict in Christopher Dawson’s trial for murder, with court to resume about 1.30pm.

Adam Bandt says jobs summit must reconsider stage three tax cuts

The Greens have responded to social services minister, Amanda Rishworth, saying this morning that the government won’t be increasing the rate of the jobseeker payment.

In a statement, the Greens leader, Adam Bandt, reiterates his support for scrapping the stage three tax cuts, arguing cost of living relief is more important right now:

This week’s jobs summit must reconsider the stage three tax cuts for the wealthy, or everyday workers will fall further behind.

In their first year, these tax cuts will give the top 1 per cent of income earners as much as the bottom 65 per cent combined.

Labor’s stage three tax cuts cost a fortune, and the wealthiest 20 per cent get close to 80 per cent of the money.

Labor’s jobs summit and the October budget must deliver cost of living relief for everyday people now, axe the tax cuts for billionaires and fund dental into Medicare, free childcare and affordable housing instead.

Small businesses do not want unions ‘marching through their doors’, Peter Dutton says

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, says he has his doubts about the upcoming jobs and skills summit, adding he wants to see if it is “just a tick and flick for the union movement”.

Speaking to the Australian newspaper, Dutton added that Sally McManus was “no Bill Kelty”, and that businesses don’t want unions “marching through their doors”:

It is very clear that Sally McManus is no Bill Kelty, she’s not a pragmatic person, she’s a zealot.

And if you look at the work of John Setka in the CFMEU and the tens of millions of dollars they have donated to the Australian Labor party, their conduct is absolutely reprehensible.

Small businesses don’t want those people marching through their doors thumping the desk and threatening business owners and employees of migrant workers who must sign up to a union – that’s not where we are in the year 2022 in our country, and we should call it out.

We want to think very, very carefully about taking our industrial relations system back to pre-Hawke-Keating into the 1970s.

Judge says he is satisfied Lynette Dawson did not leave home voluntarily

Nino Bucci

Justice Ian Harrison has elaborated on his reasons for the finding we mentioned earlier: that he was convinced Lynette Dawson had not left her home voluntarily, as her husband Christopher Dawson had submitted during his murder trial.

Harrison is continuing his verdict in Christopher Dawson’s trial for murder, but has found that Dawson’s wife Lynette has died, that she died on the date alleged by the prosecution, and that she did not abandon her home on Sydney’s northern beaches voluntarily.

Dawson is alleged to have killed his wife Lynette Dawson on 8 January 1982. Harrison has not yet made a ruling on this, but has found that Lynette Dawson is dead, and that she died on the date alleged by the prosecution.

Harrison said the prosecution had provided multiple reasons to explain the unlikelihood that Lynette Dawson had left the house voluntarily that he had found “strongly persuasive” when considered together.

These included that she adored her children, was mentally stable, had not taken any clothing or personal belongings with her, had made plans for the future, and remained hopeful of reconciling her marriage with Dawson, despite his affair with a teenager known as JC.

Harrison said that to accept submissions made by lawyers for Dawson that his wife had left the Bayview home of her own accord would be to replace reasonable possibility with “frail speculation”.

Harrison is providing a summary of the prosecution’s circumstantial case. He said it relied upon an alleged motive that Dawson killed his wife Lynette Dawson so he could have an “unfettered relationship” with JC.

Harrison said the prosecution had to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Lynette Dawson is dead, that she was killed by Dawson with the possible involvement or assistance of others, and that he – and possibly others – disposed of her body. Her body has never been found.

He has twice made clear that Dawson does not have to prove nor disprove anything in defence of the charge.

The verdict continues.

Benita Kolovos

Shortening of Covid isolation period to be discussed at national cabinet

NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, says he believes Covid-19 isolation should be reduced from seven to five days.

He said the issue will be discussed by health officials at national cabinet later this week, but called for consistency across states:

We will naturally discuss and debate those things tomorrow and hopefully we’ll have a strong outcome.

Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, says his state will move to the shorter isolation period if recommended by health officials.

Both leaders said isolation payments must continue and called for a continuation of the 50-50 funding split with state and federal governments.

Peter Hannam

ABS data shows decline in apartment approvals

The latest ABS stats on dwelling approvals for July reveals a few down arrows that point to future declines in the supply of new apartments (we used to call them flats).

The monthly drop of 17.2% in approvals – seasonally adjusted – was much faster than the 0.6% drop in June. Within that tally, though, was a 43.5% dive in approvals for new private sector apartments.

“This was the lowest level recorded since January 2012 and was driven by a lack of approvals for large apartment developments,” Daniel Rossi, the head of construction statistics at the ABS, said of the slump in apartment approvals.

Private sector housing approvals had previously edged 0.7% higher in July, adding to the 1.6% increase in June.

Among the states, Western Australia had the largest drop in the number of dwelling approvals at 36.9%, with Victoria‘s off 17.4% and NSW down 16.2%. The value of total building approved fell 12.9% in July, following a 6.2% decline in June, the ABS said.

On the subject of values, CoreLogic yesterday put out this chart showing just how property prices have soared.

(Handy for those wondering, “if only we’d bought about there” – just point to one of those dips in the trend lines.)

Benita Kolovos

Andrews and Perrotett: patients are visiting emergency departments because they can’t find bulk-billing GPs

Premiers Andrews and Perrottet say patients in both their states are visiting emergency departments because they are unable to find a GP that provides bulk billing.

Andrews told reporters:

… what this will do is get people the care that they need, when they need [it], to keep them out of emergency department where they don’t need to be and they don’t want to be.

They want to get primary care but just can’t find a bulk-billing doctor to provide it to them. This is the key point. It’s never been harder to find a bulk billing doctor than it is right now. And instead of complaining about it, we’re doing something about it.

Perottet added:

[People] can wait for hours in emergency because the patients with most need, need to be seen first.

Judge’s findings continue in Dawson verdict

Nino Bucci

Justice Ian Harrison is continuing his verdict in Christopher Dawson’s trial for murder, but has found that Dawson’s wife Lynette has died, that she died on the date alleged by the prosecution, and that she did not leave her home on Sydney’s northern beaches voluntarily.

Dawson is alleged to have killed his wife Lynette Dawson on 8 January 1982.

Harrison is providing a summary of the prosecution’s circumstantial case. He said it relied upon an alleged motive that Dawson killed his wife Lynette Dawson so he could have an “unfettered relationship” with a teenager known as JC.

Harrison said the prosecution had to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Lynette Dawson is dead, that she was killed by Dawson with the possible involvement or assistance of others, and that he – and possibly others – disposed of her body. Her body has never been found.

Harrison made clear that he did not accept any evidence given during the trial regarding multiple reported sightings of Lynette Dawson after 8 January 1982, or claims made by Dawson to police that his wife had phoned him after that date.

The verdict continues.

Benita Kolovos

Victoria and NSW to partner on urgent care services to ease pressure on emergency departments

The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, and the New South Wales premier, Dominic Perrottet, are in Melbourne announcing a partnership to expand urgent care services across both states in a move to further try and ease demand on emergency departments following Covid-19.

Both states will establish 25 urgent care services each, in partnership with local GPs. The services will help ease to pressure on emergency departments by handling conditions such as mild infections, fractures and burns, freeing up resources in hospitals for patients with more serious needs.

Services will operate for extended hours and patients will not be charged, even if they do not have a Medicare card.

It comes after the Victorian government announced last week five exisiting GP clinics in Melbourne, Epping, Sunshine, Clayton and Ballarat would reopen as priority care centres, costing $14.3m, with Andrews saying his state needed to “act now”:

Around the country, the pandemic has put enormous pressure on healthcare systems, and part of that is because – through no fault of their own – people have delayed going to their GP and accessing primary care.

Every day, it gets harder to access a bulk-billing GP. Victoria and New South Wales are doing something about it.

We know and appreciate that the commonwealth are investigating longer-term support for primary care, but we also know we need to act now to support healthcare systems across Australia’s two biggest states.

On the partnership, Perrottet said:

Across the country, state and territory health systems are under pressure as a result of the pandemic and we need to boost support so communities can continue to access the care they need.

We are leading the way to adopt a new model of care by investing in our communities to ensure people can access free healthcare.

We continue to work with the commonwealth to make sure we have long-term solutions to offer communities first-class healthcare and provide our frontline health workers with the support they need.

And, if you were wondering, Serena Williams has powered through her opening US Open match in straight sets:

Josh Butler

Dutton calls on national cabinet to reduce Covid isolation time from seven days

The federal opposition leader, Peter Dutton, said “the community expects” Covid isolation periods will reduce, calling on tomorrow’s national cabinet to drop the mandatory stay-home time from the current seven days.

Tomorrow’s national cabinet will discuss cutting the isolation period, potentially down to five days as championed by the NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, hasn’t ruled that out.

Speaking in Melbourne this morning, Dutton said he would support the change.

“I’m happy to listen to the health advice but clearly now we’re moving into a phase where the isolation period will reduce and the arrangements otherwise that were in place at the height of Covid will start to unwind,” he said.

“I think that’s what the community expects and what the premiers and prime minister should deliver.”

Dutton called Perrottet a “sensible voice” on Covid rule changes.

The NSW premier will join Victoria’s premier, Daniel Andrews, for a joint press conference in Melbourne at 11.30am. Expect both to share their thoughts on the isolation period.