Health News at Your Fingertips

Thank you and goodnight

And with that we are going to put the blog to bed – thank you for spending the day with us.

Before we go, let’s go through the big headlines:

• Nurses and midwives across NSW walked off the job for 24 hours today, while maintaining life-preserving care. The NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association is calling for staffing guarantees, with one nurse for every four patients, to ensure the system is not overstretched and patients receive the best care.

• Chris Dawson has been threatened in prison and is seeking special protection after being found guilty of his wife Lynette’s murder 40 years ago, his lawyer says.

• The Albanese government announced 180,000 more fee-free Tafe positions and a suite of “immediate” reforms to improve bargaining for workplace pay deals on the first day of the jobs summit.

• Cosmetic surgery practitioners will be policed by a dedicated enforcement unit for the first time in Australia as part of an industry-wide crackdown by the national regulator.

• The Australian Medical Association demanded the release of health advice on reducing Covid isolation times to five days, saying the public should see the expert guidance on the change. The Victorian government has vowed to maintain its public transport mask mandate, despite the requirement due to be dropped on domestic flights from next week. Meanwhile, a study found nearly 2,000 Australian children have lost a parent to Covid-19 during the pandemic.

• Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull compared student demonstrators to “fascist bullies” after a Sydney University speaking event was effectively shut down amid jeers and protests over the policies of the former Coalition government.

  We will see you again tomorrow. Until then, stay safe!

The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has released a statement in regards to human rights concerns in Xinjiang:

The Australian Government is deeply concerned about the findings of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ report on Xinjiang.

The report is informed by extensive research, including the first-hand testimonies of Uyghur and other minority peoples in Xinjiang.

It concludes that serious human rights violations have been committed in Xinjiang.

It states that allegations of torture or ill-treatment are credible, as are allegations of individual incidents of sexual and gender-based violence and that some of the violations may constitute crimes against humanity.

Australia has consistently condemned human rights violations against the Uyghurs and other ethnic and Muslim minorities in Xinjiang and across China.

The Australian Government has emphasised the importance of transparency and accountability, in calling on China to grant meaningful and unfettered access to Xinjiang for United Nations experts, and other independent observers.

Australia expects all countries to adhere to their international human rights obligations and we join with others in the international community in calling on the Chinese Government to address the concerns raised in this report.

Our thoughts are also with the Australian Uyghur community. We acknowledge the strength and determination they have shown in speaking out, in support of their loved ones.

An inquest on Thursday heard nurses had expressed alarm about staffing at the hospital shortly before seven-year-old Aishwarya died of sepsis.

On 9 March 2021, two emergency department nurses wrote to union leader Mark Olson outlining the strain they were under.

Fancy yourself a bit of a sleuth?

The Australian Signals Directorate has a little challenge for you …

Sarah Collard

The prime minister pledged a referendum within this parliamentary term, a move the Victorian Greens senator Lidia Thorpe labelled a “complete waste” of money, saying advances towards a treaty were more important.

It’s all very cordial in Canberra right now:

Josh Butler

Malcolm Turnbull speaking event at University of Sydney forced online after protest

Protesters at the University of Sydney event denounced Turnbull, an alumni of the institution, as “ruling class scum” on Thursday afternoon, with the live event cancelled and moved to an online presentation.

“It is at odds with every value Sydney University holds,” Turnbull told Guardian Australia.

NSW supreme court case for protesters fined in 2020 for breaching public health orders

From AAP:

While thousands gathered at NSW football matches and horse racing events others outdoors in a group of 30 were fined for politically protesting and threatened with jail under public health orders.

A NSW supreme court test case has taken on two of 40 people fined in breach of those specific public health orders that prevented public gatherings of more than 20 people, bar some exceptions.

Chad Stratton was fined in Sydney’s Domain during a Black Lives Matter protest on July 28 2020.

Ruby Pandolfi was arrested on October 10 2020 during a protest against One Nation MP Mark Latham’s proposal “widely referred to as the Trans Erasure Bill,” the court was told on Thursday.

The public health orders were amended in December to allow for peaceful, socially distanced protests of up to 500 people.

“Unfortunately too late for my clients,” Shane Prince SC, said in his opening address.

Prince said the list of exceptions in these particular health orders “tell you a lot about what the government priorities were in exercising these powers”.

Mostafa Rachwani

NSW police investigating ‘inappropriate’ group chat at Sydney school

Police confirmed “specialist detectives” from the child abuse and crimes squad were reviewing material from the group who attend Knox Grammar school in Sydney’s north.

MEP laments lack of European support for Australia against China’s economic coercion

German Member of European Parliament, Reinhard Bütikofer, speaking on the latest national security podcast from the Australian National University, said he regretted that there was not a vocal enough reaction from Europe “when China tried to coerce Australia economically”.

Bütikofer, a progressive, was recently sanctioned by the Chinese Communist party for his outspoken comments against them.

On the podcast, he told ANU National Security College chair, Rory Medcalf, that he was in Australia to talk about how China and Russia are working together to overturn the global rules-based order.

Two in three Germans used to have a positive view of China, he said. Now the opposite is true.

He blames the human rights abuses against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang and the crackdown in Hong Kong, as well as economic coercion. He said:

I have regretted that, when China tried to coerce Australia economically, there was not enough of a vocal reaction from Europe.

I guess if the same happened anew today, it might be different, because in the meantime, we have ourselves experienced similar coercive policies … and I have, I can say, admired some elements of Australia’s policy, for instance, [the push] to create more transparency.

Ben Butler

NSW watchdog receives report on The Star’s suitability to hold a casino license

NSW’s Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority says it’s received the report of silk Adam Bell, who held an inquiry for the regulator into the suitability of Sydney’s The Star to hold a casino license.

The inquiry heard serious allegations related to high-rollers and resulted in the resignation of Star’s boss, Matt Bekier.

“The Bell review report will be made publicly available after an initial consideration of its findings,” ILGA said on Thursday afternoon.

“Due to the serious matters uncovered during the review and the potential for ongoing compliance failures, the authority has appointed an independent expert, Wexted Advisors, to act on its behalf to observe and monitor The Star’s operations and internal procedures.”

Complicating matters slightly, ILGA is set to lose responsibility for regulating NSW casinos in just four days. A new body, the NSW Independent Casino Commission, will take over oversight of Star and its even more troubled cross-town rival, Crown Resorts, on 5 September.

“With the wholesale transformation of the casino laws, the NICC will be in a position to closely regulate the day to day operations of The Star and Crown Sydney casinos,” ILGA said.

Muslim advocacy groups furious at watchdog clearing Asio of impropriety

Christopher Knaus

Australian Muslim advocacy groups are furious at a decision by the intelligence watchdog clearing Asio of impropriety after it pre-emptively described a Muslim man with mental health issues as a radicalised terrorist.

In November, the Australian Muslim Advocacy Network (Aman) lodged a formal complaint to the inspector general of intelligence and security (IGIS) over Asio’s response to the case of Raghe Abdi, who murdered a couple in their Brisbane home in 2020.

Abdi was later shot dead by police.

An inquest, yet to be held, will explore the circumstances of Abdi’s death, his severe mental illness, and any motive for his actions.

Last year, Asio director general Mike Burgess declared Abdi to be “a radicalised ISIL supporter”.

The comments prompted Aman to complain that “there has never been any judicial finding or acceptance of the allegation that Raghe Abdi was a radicalised ISIL supporter, nor has the Queensland Police alleged or stated this”.

Their complaint said:

Mr. Burgess has used the Mr. Abdi matter to substantiate an argument that ‘religiously-motivated’ terrorism remains a deadly and active threat to Australia. Cumulatively, the impacts of this coverage contribute to exceptionally high levels of anti-Muslim sentiment and the strength of right-wing nationalist movements.

Two weeks ago, the intelligence watchdog responded to say it could find no issues of impropriety.

In this case, I can confirm that the Acting Inspector-General has carefully considered the matters you raised that are within the Inspector-General’s jurisdiction; and after examining a range of materials relating to your complaint, the Acting Inspector-General did not find errors of legality or propriety in relation to the actions of either the Director-General of Security or ASIO.

The Aman is now calling for Asio and government ministers to wait for trials or coronial inquests before declaring an incident to be a “terrorist incident”. Such an approach, it said, would uphold the conventions of procedural fairness. In a statement, it said:

Every terrorism incident counted or declared involving a Muslim person has a very significant impact on the Muslim community as we face collective blame and retribution in the form of hate speech and hate incidents.

The tally also shapes public discourse and public perceptions of threat levels and sources. The implication of the IGIS response is that Australia has no baseline requirements before ASIO can count something as a terrorism incident.

First home-buyer loans dropping markedly

NSW government announces plan to open blue carbon market

From AAP:

NSW is taking a deep dive into the potential of aquatic measures to help cut carbon emissions in its latest strategy to tackle the climate crisis.

Blue carbon ecosystems, which include seagrass, mangroves and saltmarsh, can store four times more carbon than land-based forests in the same area.

State environment minister, James Griffin, has announced a new five-year strategy to open up a blue carbon market in the state.

He says marine ecosystems can capture and store carbon while also improving foreshore protection, water quality, biodiversity and fisheries.

The strategy will help unlock investment in blue carbon projects through carbon credits and other mechanisms that will ultimately benefit the state’s economy and environment, and build resilience to the climate crisis.

“The simplest way to understand blue carbon is to liken it to underwater forests – just as trees store carbon, marine and coastal plants and ecosystems do too, except even more efficiently,” Griffin said on Thursday.

“We have more than 2000kms of NSW coastline and surrounding areas that could support the storage of additional blue carbon, which would significantly contribute to our goal of reducing carbon emissions,” he said.

Reports Queensland government to ‘transition away’ from managing Covid with public health directions

Carbon capture and storage ‘simply won’t work’, says thinktank

AAP reports:

Pumping carbon under the sea from gas rigs or storing it underground “simply won’t work” as a climate solution, an independent energy researcher warns.

In a report released on Thursday, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis examined 13 of the world’s flagship carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) projects.

More than half of them underperformed, two failed and one was mothballed, report author Bruce Robertson said.

“CCS technology has been going for 50 years and many projects have failed and continued to fail, with only a handful working,” he said.

The Gorgon project off the coast of WA – Australia’s only operating CCS system and one of the world’s largest – underperformed by about 50% over its first five-year period, according to the case study.

Chevron Australia’s Gorgon liquefied natural gas operations takes carbon from offshore gas reservoirs and injects it into sandstone beneath Barrow Island, off WA.

Falling short of state government-mandated performance targets, Chevron Australia buys carbon credits to offset emissions and comply with its WA licence to operate.