Category: Australian News

Australian Greens Senator and Education spokesperson Dr Mehreen Faruqi has welcomed the South Australian government’s commitment to support international students through a $13.8 million package. Senator Faruqi has characterised it as a wake-up call and a kick in the backside of the Morrison Government, which continues to deny international students any income support.
Senator Faruqi said:
“Good on South Australia for stepping up and supporting international students at this very difficult time. Without access to any federal income support, thousands of students are struggling to pay rent, buy food, and make ends meet.
“This should really be a wake-up call and a kick in the backside of the Morrison Government. Higher education is a federal responsibility. While it’s great that students in South Australia will have access to support, students in other states continue to struggle.
“Scott Morrison and his Minister should hang their heads in shame, and then do their jobs and provide support for the hundreds of thousands of students they have so far abandoned during the COVID-19 crisis,” she said.

The Australian Greens have joined RBA Governor Dr Lowe’s calls for tax reform, with Australian Greens Leader, Adam Bandt, saying that means removing unjustifiable tax breaks for polluters, shifting tax concessions towards research, development and innovation and boosting public sector investment.
In responding to Dr Lowe’s speech, Greens Leader Adam Bandt MP warned the Liberal Party against using it as an opportunity to further give tax breaks to their corporate backers, saying everyday Australians should be the chief beneficiaries of any reforms.
“We back the call for major tax reform, which must mean getting rid of unjustifiable tax breaks to the big polluters and instead offering incentives to research, development and innovation. To get our economy out of this crisis we need new thinking, not just tinkering around the edges,” Mr Bandt said.
“The pathway out of this crisis will be green growth, not blue cuts.”
“You have to accelerate out of a corner. The government is flagging an era of aggressive deregulation, but that will only prolong the pain and leave us poorly-equipped to deal with future economic shocks.”
“To get our economy back on track we need a Green New Deal, with people back in secure work and government investment to kickstart the economy. Slashing workers’ rights and the corporate tax rate won’t just fail to encourage investment, it will be another setback in the attempt to recover from this crisis.
“The government must immediately shelve its plan to cut the R&D tax concession and instead come back with a new plan to increase it.
“This is the perfect opportunity for a price on carbon that will encourage innovation, foster growth in new jobs and industries, and end the piecemeal approach to emissions reduction that we’ve seen over the past decade. It won’t just cause a spike in economic activity as companies avoid paying for pollution, it will create a truly 21st century industrial sector that is secure well into the future.
“Australia’s labour laws already breach international standards, our wages are stagnating, and job insecurity was increasing, our efforts should encourage people to come back into the workforce and give them the security they need to start spending again.
“Unemployment is expected to surge to 10-16%, and unsurprisingly young people will be hit the hardest. Recent data shows people under 20 have seen drops in employment of up to 9.9%, with wages plummeting by 12.7%.
“The Greens will block any attempts to drive through massive tax cuts and further strip away protections for workers and the environment. We hope the government will instead accept the Greens’ call for targeted measures to support R&D, help manufacturing and lift wages.”

The lifting of mutual obligations will continue until 22 May 2020 as a result of the impact of COVID-19.
During this time employment services remain open and available to support job seekers to prepare for and find available jobs.
The Government has a strong expectation that job seekers will continue to work positively with their employment service provider, and take advantage of all the support that is available.
To further assist job seekers to prepare for and move quickly back into work, the Morrison Government is also bringing forward the Employment Fund credit for the most job-ready job seekers to be available immediately, rather than after 13 weeks, which is currently the case.
This change will apply to job seekers who commence in jobactive from 4 May 2020.
The Employment Fund can be used by employment service providers to purchase work-related items including licences, equipment, training or qualifications to ensure workers are prepared and able to take up critical roles in the economy.
These arrangements by the Morrison Government continue to support Australians through the challenges presented by COVID-19 and will be continually reviewed.

The Australian Government in partnership with states and territories, peak surgical bodies, the AMA and the private hospital sector will be increasing the availability of elective surgery in a safe and carefully considered way which ensures the wellbeing of both patients and healthcare workers.
This is possible due to the strong collaboration across governments to build capacity and strengthen the health system to reduce the threat of COVID-19.
Through our containment measures we have successfully suppressed the virus: closing our borders, testing, tracing, and in particular, the social distancing and the isolation. These continue to be our strongest weapons against the coronavirus.
We have been boosting the capacity of the hospitals and in addition secured over 3000 new ventilators and we have now received 60 million masks into the national stockpile. From that, perhaps most importantly, we have secured an extra 100 million masks over the next six weeks to protect our vital health care workers in what has been an intensely competitive global environment.
Through testing we have had a rate of increase of less than 1 per cent per day for nine days straight now.
All these measures are helping to bring down the rate of transmission, flattening the curve and giving us the opportunity to relax some of our measures.
Restrictions on elective surgery have been a difficult but important part of ensuring the capacity across the health system to manage the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, thanks to the efforts of all Australians – National Cabinet has agreed with the health advice that we are in a position to reintroduce some elective procedures.
We particularly acknowledge those patients who have had their elective surgery deferred and recognise the effect this has had on their lives and wellbeing.
The first phase of the reintroduction will occur on 27 April.
Our central aim is to increase the availability of elective surgery in a safe and equitable way, on a nationally consistent basis for public and private patients.
Reintroduction of elective surgery will be done using a staged and controlled process which balances the ongoing need for the capacity to treat COVID-19 patients, while allowing our hospitals to treat elective surgery patients.
The selection of patients to undergo elective surgery will ultimately be a clinical one, guided by the following principles, recommended by the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) and endorsed by National Cabinet:

• Procedures representing low risk, high value care as determined by specialist societies
• Selection of patients who are at low risk of post-operative deterioration
• Children whose procedures have exceeded clinical wait times
• Assisted reproduction (IVF)
• Endoscopic procedures
• Screening programs
• Critical dental procedures.

This first stage of reinstating elective surgeries will require health administrators to monitor supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE), ICU and bed capacity, while preparing for the next phase.
On the advice of AHPPC, in addition to Category 1 elective surgeries, hospitals will initially recommence one in four closed operating lists, with a focus on Category 2 and some important Category 3.
In reintroducing elective surgery we acknowledge the safety of patients and healthcare workers is paramount. A thorough risk assessment of patients planned for elective surgery is essential, based on national guidelines.
There will be a national a study into asymptomatic carriage of COVID-19 in elective surgery patients to further inform testing policy.
Personal protective equipment is a critical element of staff safety and the use of PPE should be in accordance with national guidelines. The grade of PPE should be determined according to the national suspected case definitions.
The Australian, state and territory governments have put in place clear timeframes to monitor and review the situation as part of our commitment to protect patients, health care staff and consistent with AHPPC advice.
An overall review for additional support will be undertaken at two weeks and at four weeks based on:

• The number of positive cases, in both healthcare workers and patients, linked to increased activity
• PPE use and availability
• The volume of procedures and hospital/system capacity.

Making tech giants like Facebook and Google pay for the content they take from Australian journalists and creators is a welcome, albeit long overdue, move by the Morrison Government, the Greens say.
Greens Spokesperson for Media Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:
“Big tech giants have been ripping off Australians by taking content for free and making huge profits. It’s beyond time to put the blowtorch on Big Tech and make them pay for content they’ve been taking for free and pay proper taxes in this country.
“The Greens have been calling for Big Tech to have to pay for the content they take from Australian journalists and creators for many months.
“Finally the Government is doing something, albeit late and after much suffering for Australian media and creators. Waiting until November for tech giants and media companies to reach a deal was never going to cut it and would’ve seen more news outlets hit the wall.
“Australian media outlets were already under pressure because of this content theft before COVID-19, but the loss of advertising revenue during this crisis has been the last straw for many.
“The key issue now is what the code will look like and how it will be enforced. Other jurisdictions have been grappling with this issue and Australia must learn their lessons.
“Public interest journalism is vital for a robust democracy and Big Tech must be held to account if we are going to protect Australia’s right to know and Australian jobs.”
Leader of the Australian Greens Adam Bandt MP said:
“If the government can force Google to pay Rupert Murdoch, they can make tech giants pay our authors and artists as well.
“People working in the arts and creative sectors regularly have tech giants use their work without remuneration, and now their sectors are hit hard by coronavirus too.
“Just as we need a media industry with fearless and independent reporting to ensure politicians and business leaders are accountable to the public, we need a well-paid arts and creative sector to sustain us through times of isolation and give our nation a voice.
“Whether it’s printed on a newspaper, hung on a wall or piped through our speakers, content creators deserve to get paid for their work. Google’s CEO doesn’t work for free and neither should Australia’s creators.”

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann’s comments today that the Federal Government will take an “aggressive deregulation agenda” post-Covid19, is code for cutting corners for big business, the Greens say.
Greens Spokesperson for the Environment Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:
“Australians should be concerned that the first thing the Morrison Government will attack will be laws that protect the environment. The Greens will fight this and fight hard.
“If the Government wants to stimulate the economy post-COVID-19 it should be looking at environmental recovery and conservation and biodiversity measures as an opportunity to generate employment and enhance and protect our environment at the same time.”
“This was their agenda well before the Coronavirus but they’re setting the stage to use this crisis as an excuse for helping their mates in mining and development.
“When the Environment Minister announced the 10-yearly review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC Act) last year, she declared it was the ‘season to cut green tape’.
“Minister Ley also said the EPBC Act Review will ‘play a significant role across a wide range of sectors, from agriculture to mining and infrastructure’ and that ‘we should protect the environment, but business must be freed from laws that strangle the economy’.
“Any move to save the economy money by speeding up environmental approvals will come at the expense of Australia’s precious natural environment.
“We need strong laws to save our natural places and native animals, especially after the devastating bushfires over summer and when we already have one of the worst extinction rates in the world.”

Virgin Australia entering voluntary administration is devastating for its 16,000 employees and contractors, our tourism industry and regional economies.
This is a failure of leadership from Scott Morrison whose complacent approach to aviation did nothing to support the airline through this crisis.
Our aviation, tourism and freight industries were brought to their knees by necessary travel restrictions imposed by governments to limit the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak.
For weeks, Labor and unions called for Scott Morrison to extend a lifeline to Virgin Australia through extending or guaranteeing a line of credit and taking an equity stake.
The Government refused to support Virgin despite the fact they signed off on $100 million in cash grants exclusively for regional airlines, including the majority foreign-owned Regional Express.
Labor repeatedly urged the Government to also be open to supporting large aviation companies, like Virgin.
The current structure of our aviation industry with two major airlines supports hundreds of thousands of jobs, promotes competition and ensures services regularly reach all Australians.
Now that he has let the airline fall into administration, Scott Morrison must outline a plan to take an equity stake in Virgin and ensure we continue to have two major airlines in this country.
Allowing private equity investors to pick over Virgin will see thousands of workers lose their jobs and provides no guarantee of ongoing access to affordable flights for the travelling public.
Sixteen thousand workers cannot afford further inaction from Scott Morrison.
Our regional tourism economies from Cairns to Broome to Launceston cannot afford further inaction from Scott Morrison.
Giving up on Australia’s aviation industry is not an option for Labor.

The National Cabinet met today to take further decisions to save lives, and to save livelihoods.
The Chief Medical Officer Dr Brendan Murphy provided an update on the measures underway, the latest data and medical advice in relation to COVID-19.
There are more than 6,600 confirmed cases in Australia and sadly 71 people have died.
Australia will continue to progress a successful suppression/elimination strategy for the virus. National Cabinet noted data that confirms the measures put in place to suppress the virus have largely been successful in slowing and reversing the growth of cases in Australia, to ensure our health system has the capability to manage the epidemic.
It is estimated that overall, Australia is currently detecting approximately 92 per cent of all symptomatic cases, with each state and territory individually detecting at least 80 per cent. Australia’s point estimate when compared with other countries is 84 per cent, the highest reported detection rate globally.
For COVID-19 suppression strategies to be effective, Reff (the number of people a single case infects on average) needs to be less than 1.0. The results continue to look very encouraging.
To continue to suppress COVID-19, National Cabinet has commenced further work on Australia’s public health response including enhanced testing, tracing and local health response capabilities. This work will feed into National Cabinet’s review of baseline restrictions by 14 May 2020.
National Cabinet was briefed on the new app currently under development to support state and territory health authorities to notify close contacts of a person diagnosed with COVID-19. National Cabinet provided its in-principle support for the app. The Government will provide further information on the app closer to its release.
National Cabinet agreed to meet again on Friday 24 April 2020.
Elective surgery
National Cabinet received up-to-date data on the stock of personnel protective equipment (PPE) in the National Medical Stockpile, and PPE held by state and territory health systems. PPE stocks and other equipment such as ventilators are now largely sufficient to meet expected demand for Australia’s COVID19 response through to December 2020, with current social distancing and travel restriction measures in place.
National Cabinet noted that the National Medical Stockpile does not replace state, territory or private processes to source and deliver PPE to meet their needs. To date, the National Medical Stockpile has dispatched over 22 million masks primarily to state and territories, GP’s, Community Pharmacy, ACHHOS and aged care, with a further 11.5 million being dispatched this week.
Unnecessarily delaying elective surgeries can worsen health outcomes, increase anxiety and reduce social and economic productivity.
As result of Australia’s success in flattening the curve, our low rates of COVID related hospitalisation and new data on stocks of PPE, National Cabinet agreed that from 27 April 2020, category 2 and equivalent procedures can recommence across the public and private hospital sectors.
As result of Australia’s success in flattening the curve, our low rates of COVID related hospitalisation and new data on stocks of PPE, National Cabinet agreed that from 27 April 2020, category 2 and some important category 3 procedures can recommence across the public and private hospital sectors.
National Cabinet further agreed that the following procedures can recommence from 27 April 2020:

• IVF
• Screening programs (cancer and other diseases)
• Post cancer reconstruction procedures (such as breast reconstruction)
• Procedures for children under 18 years of age.
• Joint replacements (incl knees, hips, shoulders)
• Cataracts and eye procedures
• Endoscopy and colonoscopy procedures

PPE stocks for these elective surgeries and procedures will not be taken from the National Medical Stockpile.
It is estimated that a gradual restart of elective surgeries will see 1 in 4 closed elective surgery operating lists reopen, with flexibility for states to determine the appropriate levels of elective surgery within this general framework
Reintroduction of elective surgery in a staged manner balances the ongoing need for the capacity to treat COVID-19 patients, while allowing our hospitals to treat elective surgery patients.
These arrangements will be reviewed by 11 May 2020, to determine if other elective surgeries and procedures can recommence and volumes increased.
National Cabinet further agreed to the Australian Dental Association recommendation that dentists move to level 2 restrictions (such as fitting dentures, braces, non-high speed drill fillings and basic fillings), allowing a broader range of dental interventions to occur where the risk of transmission can be managed and PPE stocks procured by the private sector.
National Cabinet again thanked Australia’s health care professionals for their work to support our COVID-19 response.
Aged Care Response
National Cabinet discussed the lessons learned from recent COVID-19 outbreaks in residential aged care facilities and acknowledged the critical importance of adequate infection prevention and control measures in minimising the spread of COVID-19.
It is not acceptable, fair or compassionate for any residential aged care facilities to ban visits from carers and families.
National Cabinet reconfirmed the principles announced on 18 March 2020 regarding visits to aged care facilities. In line with these principles, visits should be limited to a short duration, a maximum of two visitors at one time per day, and conducted in line with social distancing practices. This is designed to limit the spread of COVID-19 in residential aged care facilities.
Infection prevention and control measures must be balanced against the needs and best interests of residents. Aged care providers are best placed to make these assessments on a case by case basis.
National Cabinet also reiterated that the following visitors and staff (including visiting workers) should not be permitted to enter the aged care facilities:

• Those who have returned from overseas in the last 14 days;
• Those who have been in contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19 in the last 14 days;
• Those with fever or any (even mild) symptoms of acute respiratory infection (e.g. cough, sore throat, runny nose, shortness of breath); and
• Those who have not been vaccinated against influenza (after 1 May).

All Governments are committed to protecting and supporting elderly and vulnerable Australians and are working together, with aged care providers, to manage infection control. This extends to supporting health and aged care workers to be safe and healthy while at work, including appropriate use of PPE and screening of staff.
Family members who may be concerned about the care being provided to loved ones in residential aged care facilities are encouraged to contact the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.
Schools
National Cabinet re-emphasised that the one person per four square metres rule does not apply in school classrooms. Schools should consult the most recent AHPPC advice, issued on 16 April 2020.

More than 3000 ventilators have been delivered to the Federal Government from Australian manufacturing company ResMed to assist in the response to the coronavirus pandemic.
This represents more than half of the 5500 ventilators purchased from ResMed by the Federal Government for the COVID-19 Stockpile.
Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews said the delivery from ResMed follows extensive work across Government.
“The Government has been working hard to secure supply and increase the domestic manufacture of ventilators as we respond to the COVID-19 crisis,” Minister Andrews said.
“ResMed is a wonderful Aussie manufacturer that has stepped up in these unprecedented times to ramp up its production of ventilators.
“ResMed is a terrific example of the incredible manufacturing capacity that Australia has right here at home and shows how Aussie ingenuity can save lives.”
The Government has purchased 500 ‘Astral’ invasive ventilators and 5000 ‘Lumis’ non-invasive ventilators from ResMed. So far 260 ‘Astral’ invasive ventilators and 3000 ‘Lumis’ non-invasive ventilators have been produced and delivered.
Minister for Health Greg Hunt said the more than 3000 ventilators delivered by ResMed with 2500 more to come, builds on the 4400 existing units in Australia and a further 2000 being manufactured by Grey Innovation – another Aussie company – and its consortium of local manufacturers and engineering firms.
“We have been working closely with ResMed, and across Government to establish procedures to use the company’s non-invasive ventilators within the care continuum for COVID 19 patients,” Minister Hunt said.
“These additional ventilators will help to ensure we have sufficient supplies to meet the increased demand we expect in coming months.”
“Our national aim over the next few months is simple, suppress the virus, increase our testing and tracing, and slowly ease the restrictions,” Minister Hunt said.
ResMed President and COO Rob Douglas said ResMed is proud to support the Australian Government in their efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We will continue to work with the Australian Commonwealth, State and Territory governments, as well as with suppliers and governments from around the world, in a strong public-private partnership to support health care workers in their valiant efforts to save lives,” Mr Douglas said.