Health News at Your Fingertips

And with that we are going to put this blog to bed – thank you for joining us today. Before we go, let’s recap the big ones:

• Man dies in NSW flood waters in Broken Hill
• A man was charged with murder over a NSW boarding house fire; he later appeared in court
• Coalition to spend $243m on four mining projects
• New Zealand border to open to international travellers in April
• NSW adds 10,000 additional Covid cases from RATs
• Lawyers seek stay of prosecution for the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins
• ‘Chilling silence’ from China on Russia: PM
• NSW records 30,402 Covid cases and five deaths, Victoria 9,426 cases and eight deaths, QLD records three deaths and 6,136 cases, while WA records one death and 6,062 cases, and the ACT records 1,226 new Covid cases

That’s it from me for today – I will see you all again tomorrow afternoon!

LGBTIQ+ equality, health and parents’ groups have joined the NSW Teachers Federation in welcoming the NSW government’s outright rejection of One Nation’s anti-LGBTIQ+ education bill.

Ghassan Kassisieh, legal director of Equality Australia:

Every child deserves a quality education in a school where they have a place and feel valued.

The LGBTIQ+ community in New South Wales will breathe a little easier today, as the NSW Government has stood up to One Nation’s bullying of trans and gender diverse kids, affirming their right to connect, succeed and thrive at school.

The government’s position is contained in its response to Parliamentary Education Committee’s report into the bill, opposed at the time by committee members Anthony D’Adam (Labor) and David Shoebridge (Greens).

Teddy Cook, the sole trans person invited to give evidence at the committee hearings, and acting director, Community Health and Wellbeing at ACON, said:

It’s fantastic to see the NSW government today stand by trans kids and their families, who already face so many barriers, and experience disproportionate levels of bullying and harassment.

Trans kids already experience extremely concerning negative mental health impacts, as we see in research findings all over the world. One Nation’s bill would only have made schools less safe for trans students, and placed lives at risk.

From AAP:

A group of essential workers who were challenging Victoria’s vaccination mandates have been given permission to discontinue their case – though they will have to pay costs.

But two are hoping to press on.

There were 132 workers and employers who sought to challenge the state’s Covid-19 vaccination mandates, arguing it breached their human rights.

Melbourne couple Belinda and Jack Cetnar filed a case challenging the mandates in October last year, but after a judge recommended they get legal advice, they joined a larger action led by a healthcare worker Simon Harding.

All but two members of that group were represented in a Victorian supreme court hearing on Thursday where Justice Melinda Richards granted them permission to file a discontinuance and bring their case to an end.

Clive Palmer’s address to the National Press Club is back on, after the mining magnate cancelled his previously scheduled appearance because of Covid-like symptoms.

Palmer is believed to have refused to get the safe, effective vaccine.

The ABC previously said it would air the address on a delay, because of his views on the vaccine.

From AAP:

The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, has again defended Wivenhoe Dam releases during recent floods after extending her condolences to the families of 13 people killed in the disaster.

Palaszczuk moved the motion in parliament on Wednesday to take stock of the disaster in the state’s south-east during the last two weeks.

13 people died and another man remains missing, feared dead in the floods, which also damaged thousands of homes and businesses.

“The record rainfall that led to the widespread floods of the past fortnight will enter the record books as one of the toughest ordeals our state has ever faced,” the premier told parliament.

“I express once again my sympathies to the families and friends of [the] 13 people who lost their lives.

“These floods occurred with frightening speed across a vast area. It is as if a river dropped from the sky across the entire southeast.”

She paid tribute to Queensland Fire and Emergency Services who made 657 swift water rescues and responded to 13,685 calls for help.

The inspector general of emergency management is probing the government’s response, Palaszczuk said, including flood mitigation releases from Wivenhoe Dam into the upper Brisbane river.

However, the premier again defended the operation of the dam, which she said had held back “four Sydney Harbours’” worth of water.

“Critics have accused the dam’s operators of contributing to the floods – how they explain what happened in Gympie and Maryborough, let alone Lismore and Sydney, is beyond me,” Palaszczuk said.

From AAP:

Some Australian Defence Force veterans are being “overwhelmed” by a complex compensation claims process that could be contributing to high suicide rates among ex-soldiers, a royal commission has been told.

The commission in Sydney is probing the long-running issue of defence and veteran suicide, with the inquiry on Wednesday hearing from Department of Veterans’ Affairs officials about a “complicated process” for ex-ADF members seeking compensation payouts.

Counsel assisting the royal commission, Peter Singleton, put to the DVA official Kate Pope that complexities in the department’s claims process meant “some veterans feel overwhelmed by the task of seeking their entitlements”.

“Yes, I think it’s broadly true that DVA would have the view that, for some people, it is an overwhelming process,” Pope said.

The claims process, for some veterans, became a source of stress, depression, deteriorating mental health and even suicidality, the inquiry was told.

“Does DVA accept that in some cases these issues can extend so far as to be contributing factors to suicidality?” Singleton asked.

“It’s not unreasonable to think that an overwhelming process that affects someone in that way could be a contributing factor,” Pope replied.

The inquiry has previously heard of an “unacceptably high” claims backlog at DVA, with the average processing time blowing out to around 200 days.

With petrol prices continuing to soar, Peter Newman, a John Curtin Distinguished Professor from the Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute, says it’s time to make the switch to electric transport.

The oil crisis is finally happening after many previous shorter versions with serious fluctuations in price due to political interference in oil markets. These have been very big disruptions in the past. I was in San Francisco during the first oil crisis in 1973-74 when the whole city fell apart desperately trying to get their last tank of petrol.

We must act rapidly to get all electric transport so we can depend on local sunshine for our transport as well as our buildings.

We have electric trains, but we must go for electric buses and electric modern trams – and, of course, electric cars. It’s time to put the diesel subsidy into getting help for industry to switch to electric freight trains and trucks, electric tractors, and mining equipment. And it’s time for the fuel tax to be put into electric cars and electric public transport purchases and infrastructure.

From AAP:

Victoria’s health minister has been forced into seven-day quarantine after a family member tested positive for Covid-19 as the state’s case numbers grow.

Martin Foley said he returned a negative rapid antigen but since he was a close contact he would undergo isolation, meaning he will miss the first half of this state parliament sitting week.

“I feel healthy, so I’ll continue working remotely and will be doing regular tests,” he tweeted on Wednesday afternoon.

The minister held a press conference about vaccinations in the suburb of Sunshine earlier on Wednesday.

Victoria has seen a 10% rise in Covid-19 case numbers week-on-week as the state government pushes vaccinations ahead of winter.

The state’s daily Covid-19 figure, of 9,426 new infections, is the highest since posting 9,908 on 9 February.

From AAP:

Access to Victoria’s parliament is a privilege not a right, says a lawyer defending the rejection of a media pass for a conservative activist and political commentator.

Avi Yemini, the Australian bureau chief for Canadian far-right website Rebel News, is suing over a decision to refuse him media accreditation to allow him entry to both houses of state parliament, the building and its surrounds.

Yemini, whose lawyers describe him as a member of the “new media”, have argued in Victoria’s supreme court that he was denied procedural fairness when his accreditation application was rejected last year.

He has brought a case against the upper house president Nazih Elasmar, the lower house speaker, Colin Brooks, and the serjeant-at-arms, Paul Groenewegen.

But Chris Horan QC, representing the trio, said all cases for access were a matter of privilege.

“There’s no right or entitlement of journalists or anybody else to have access to any part of the parliamentary precinct,” he said.

“That doesn’t detract from the importance of freedom of the press or reporting on parliament, but the decision not to give a media pass is, of itself, not inconsistent with the freedom of expression or reporting of political activities.”

Justice Tim Ginnane suggested there were different rules for members of the “old media” – organisations who have historically been granted access and accreditation.

But Horan insisted decisions were made on a case-by-case, saying even accredited organisations would have limits on the number of yearly accreditation passes based on things like the capacity in the parliamentary press gallery offices.