Health News at Your Fingertips

What we learned today, Thursday 20 July

Emily Wind

Thanks for joining us on the blog today! That’s where we’ll leave our live coverage – here’s what made the headlines:

• The Gold Coast has offered to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games after Victoria cancelled. The mayor, Tom Tate, said he is confident the city has the facilities and accommodation to host the games if the federal government provides support via a “re-provision” of funds.

• The federal government has already declined to provide funding for the Games, and the Queensland government previously ruled out hosting, saying its focus is on the upcoming 2032 Olympics.

• Senior Department of Defence official Kathryn Campbell has been suspended without pay in the wake of the royal commission report into robodebt.

• The unemployment rate fell to 3.5% in June and 32,600 jobs were added to the economy, according to the latest ABS figures.

• The minister for employment, Tony Burke, said Australia is “millimetres shy of half a million new jobs since this government came to office”, highlighting that 54% of the growth is full-time positions for women.

• Co-author of the voice to parliament handbook Kerry O’Brien said the conduct of the official no campaign has been an “open invitation to racists”.

• Guardian Australia has annotated and factchecked the official yes and no campaign pamphlets. You can read the yes essay here, and the no essay here.

• Meanwhile, the Blak Sovereign Movement published its own essay advocating a no vote on the referendum, writing the voice debate “is a waste of your time and energy”.

• Former Labor leader and unionist Simon Crean was farewelled at a state funeral in Melbourne, with political figures from both major parties honouring him.

• Two people were killed and six injured by a gunman in Auckland, hours before the Women’s World Cup was due to start in the city. We brought you the latest on a separate liveblog here.

Enjoy your evening and as always, we’ll see you back here tomorrow.

It was a chilly morning across NSW today, with many locations plunged well into the negatives overnight.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology records were broken in Scone, Merriwa, Moss Vale and Bombala:

Meanwhile, parts of Victoria have been issued a frost warning for tomorrow:

Henry Belot

‘Closed tenders are anti-competitive’: unions add to criticism of $33m grant to PwC backed company

The Community and Public Sector Union – which represents the bulk of the federal public servants – has also raised concerns about the $33m grant given to a PwC linked startup without an open, competitive process.

Here’s the union’s assistant national secretary, Michael Tull:

Closed tenders are anti-competitive and a corruption risk. We need improved government procurement rules that only provide for closed tenders in exceptional circumstances and where those circumstances are publicly detailed.

Tull and the CPSU have long been critical of public sector work being outsourced to consultants. Those concerns have been amplified after the scandal at PwC involving the misuse of confidential tax policy information.

Shadow education minister Sarah Henderson has called for Victorian premier Daniel Andrews to resign for cancelling the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

Appearing on Sky News tonight, she accused Andrews of misleading and betraying regional communities and affecting the state’s international reputation:

Daniel Andrews should resign over this … he should absolutely resign.

… He has trashed our international reputation.

… We have some of the best facilities in the world and he has entered into a very serious agreement …

It is very very serious and he needs to go.

Senator Nita Green said it’s been the “privilege of a lifetime” to co-chair Parliamentary Friends of Football during the past four years.

As the Women’s World Cup kicks off, Green said:

It’s been a long road for the players, coaches and all the staff involved from the day the bid was launched to game day today.

The Matildas are an inspiration to women all over the country. I can’t wait to cheer them on tonight.

Take a second to catch up on today’s biggest headlines with the Afternoon Update, courtesy of Antoun Issa:

Greens to investigate $33m grant to PwC-backed startup as minister orders briefing

Henry Belot

The Greens have vowed to use parliamentary process to find out more about the Coalition government’s decision to award $33m of taxpayer funds to a PwC-backed startup without a competitive process.

As Guardian Australia reported earlier on Thursday, the federal Department of Health and Aged Care entered a funding agreement with Innowell Pty Ltd in June 2017 for a series of collaborative research trials known as Project Synergy. Innowell Pty Ltd was established in February 2017, Asic documents show, with one of the largest shareholders being PwC.

The funding was to be used to develop a digital mental health platform. The government then decided not to use the platform, due to health workers finding it an administrative burden. The federal health minister, Mark Butler, is now seeking a briefing from his department on the grant.

Greens senator Barbara Pocock, who is leading a senate inquiry into consultants along with Labor’s Deborah O’Neill, has raised serious concerns about the grant.

We’ve been told that it was a decision of the previous government not to go to open tender and to directly fund this company without a competitive process. I’d say there would be many suppliers in that market who would have jumped at the chance to bid for a contract such as this, so the question is why weren’t they given that opportunity?

… We’ll be asking questions when parliament resumes about precisely what went on and who was responsible. I’m sounding like a broken record here but I’ll say it again, we need accountability and transparency in government, particularly when dealing with private sector suppliers and particularly when dealing with the Big 4 consultants.

Shorten ‘after a scalp in Stuart Robert’, Liberal MP says

Liberal MP Angie Bell also speaks to the ABC on robodebt:

Certainly people should be held accountable for their actions, but Luke [Gosling] says on the one hand that it’s OK for the Victorian government, for example, to break a promise, and on the other hand it isn’t OK for governments to make mistakes, so which one is it in terms of how we deal with these very big issues?

(This is in reference to Victoria’s decision to cancel the Commonwealth Games).

Bell continues, accusing NDIS minister Bill Shorten of “politicising” the issue:

Robodebt had terrible consequences on very many Australians and the former Coalition government has apologised, the current opposition has apologised for what has happened to many families. We have made those payments to those families that happened two years ago, and I think that Australians realise that Bill Shorten was simply after a scalp in Stuart Robert.

He politicised the whole thing. I’m not sure how much work he has done on the NDIS in the 12 months he has been in the portfolio because every single question time that I have been seated in all he has talked about is Stuart Robert and robodebt.

Labor MP Luke Gosling tells the ABC there is “no doubt” the royal commission on robodebt was needed:

As a local federal member here in Darwin, I had many people come in to my office who were just in tears about debts they were told that they had and they didn’t, in fact, have them.

It’s a sad indictment on the former government, frankly, but also on some public servants who were part of this scheme and perpetuated it. And the alleged actions of some public servants and some federal politicians during the time of robodebt, there needs to be some accountability.

Liberal MP Angie Bell is appearing on the ABC and is asked about the Gold Coast’s offer to host the Commonwealth Games.

She said she’s been on the phone to mayor Tom Tate and his deputy mayor this afternoon:

He has one small hurdle, which I will say is the Queensland premier, to get over. But certainly the Gold Coast delivered a fantastic Commonwealth Games last time … let’s not rule it out.

Bell is asked what the federal funding component was, and if it is “a bit hypothetical”:

In terms of what the Gold Coast mayor is looking at, it was about the ratepayers not having to pay for that. He said to me it was operational funding that he’d be looking for from the federal government, but of course the Queensland premier will have to be part of that conversation and the last I heard she had ruled it out.

Police investigating after baby suffered ‘serious head injuries’

Queensland detectives are investigating after a two-and-a-half month old baby was taken to hospital with serious head injuries last month.

In a statement, Queensland Police said the infant, from Marsden, was presented at Logan hospital on 18 June with “serious head injuries”.

Preliminary investigations indicate the injuries may have been inflicted in the days leading up to 18 June.

Detectives from the Logan district child protection and investigation unit are seeking public assistance with their investigation, urging anyone with information to contact police or Crime Stoppers.

Agriculture minister Murray Watt is speaking to the ABC from the Torres Strait Islands, where he is currently visiting.

He reflects on conversations he’s had with community leaders about the Indigenous voice referendum:

… For anyone who has spent time here you’d be aware that Torres Strait Islander culture is very different to mainland Aboriginal culture, and there’s a lot of different history that needs to be recognised as well.

I have taken the opportunity while I’ve been up here … to ask them about their views on the voice, what they’re thinking about, what they want to know more about.

Like much of the country, people are interested in hearing a bit more about it but there’s certainly some strong enthusiasm from the Torres Strait Islanders that I have met with for having a more direct way of having a say over government decisions which, of course, is what the voice is really about.

Assistant minister for employment Andrew Leigh spoke to the ABC about the role of factions in party politics.

One of only two politicians federally not part of a faction, he’s given a speech calling on Labor to rethink the role of factions, arguing they “stifle debate and quash ideas”.

… I enjoy having my only loyalty being to the party itself.

Whether this decision has come at a cost for his career progression is for “others to judge”, he said.

I’m not anti-faction … [but] we should leave space in the party for people who don’t want to join a faction, just as we have space for people who do want to join a faction.

Leigh said over the recent decades there has been a decrease in the number of unaligned members in the federal caucus. He also said the decline of the “centre left” has meant a move away from three factions in the Hawke era, to two large factions now:

I think as we’re looking to attract young progressive activists, it is really important that the Labor party is able to say ‘just be Labor’. If you join the Labor party and you don’t want to be in a faction, you won’t be a second-class citizen.

Health minister seeks briefing on allocation of $33m to PwC-backed startup

Melissa Davey

The health minister, Mark Butler, has asked the Department of Health and Aged Care for a brief on the allocation of $33m of taxpayer funding towards a PwC-backed startup.

As Guardian Australia reported earlier on Thursday, the federal Department of Health and Aged Care entered a funding agreement with Innowell Pty Ltd in June 2017 for a series of collaborative research trials known as Project Synergy. Innowell Pty Ltd was established in February 2017, Asic documents show, with one of the largest shareholders being PwC.

The funding was to be used to develop a digital mental health platform. The government then decided not to use the platform, due to health workers finding it an administrative burden.

Policy experts and transparency watchdogs have raised alarm about the grant and called on the federal government to explain why the money was not allocated through an open and competitive process to ensure value for money.

Guardian Australia put multiple questions to both the department of health and the minister’s office asking for any documents that explain how the funding decision was made by the former government, who made the decision, and why the funding was not allocated through a competitive tender process.

On Thursday afternoon, a spokesperson for minister Butler’s office responded to the list of questions with one line, saying:

The Minister has asked the Department of Health and Aged Care for a brief on the matter.

NSW police speak on ‘unusual’ pursuit through Sydney’s west

Earlier, Supt Adam Whyte spoke to the media about the police pursuit through Sydney’s west this morning, in which a man and a woman were subsequently arrested.

Whyte said that apart from the pursuit, the woman was being investigated for a separate break and enter, stealing and fraud offences. He said the man had two outstanding warrants in relation to property-related offences and in relation to an aggravated robbery.

Whyte said:

Our proactive crime team here in Liverpool are exceptional … the efforts they have done have been outstanding.

Whyte described today’s pursuit as “unusual” and said different police agencies worked together appropriately to arrest the individuals involved.

The system has worked as it should, the vehicle was monitored from a distance and safely.

He said that despite the alleged reckless nature of their driving, the pursuit was able to be brought to an end.

When questioned on the fact there were no other injuries in relation to the pursuit, Whyte said the timing was “very beneficial” with the “number of users on the road”.

If the vehicle was determined to be stolen, charges would be laid accordingly, he said.

I’d like to thank all the officers for their work today, especially PolAir.

be Tasmania’s premier is dropping the key health portfolio and will shuffle ministerial roles in his minority government after months of political turbulence, AAP reports.

Jeremy Rockliff conceded the Liberal state government had been “knocked off course” by the departure of two MPs to the crossbench over contentious stadium plans.

The government plunged into minority on 12 May when Lara Alexander and John Tucker quit the party to become independents. They flagged concerns around transparency over a proposed $715m Hobart waterfront stadium, a condition of the AFL granting Tasmania a licence for a team.

During a speech in Hobart today, Rockliff said he would hand over the health portfolio in coming days and announce “small changes” to the roles of cabinet MPs.

He said there would be no new MPs in cabinet, and reiterated that he would not call an early election.

My government will not be defined by one issue, and two individuals.

Rockliff said he had “no personal beef” with Alexander and Tucker, who have guaranteed the government their votes of supply and confidence in parliament.

Labor opposition MP Dean Winter said the government “reset” was an admission it had got things wrong.

Aaaaaaand the Barbie memes continue: