Category: Australian News

A Shorten Labor Government will partner with the Andrews Labor Government to build Victoria’s first fully separated high-speed busway from Doncaster Road to Hoddle Street as part of a comprehensive $3.5 billion infrastructure plan that will ease traffic congestion across Melbourne’s northern and south-eastern suburbs.
This election will be a choice between a united Shorten Labor Government, which will build the transport infrastructure Melbourne needs, or more of the Liberals’ cuts and chaos. We need real change, because more of the same isn’t good enough.
Federal Labor will make a $250 million contribution towards constructing the busway. It will include two separated bus-only lanes running alongside a widened Eastern Freeway, commencing at Doncaster Park and Ride and ending at the existing bus lanes on Hoddle Street in the City.
Buses will be able to travel at up to 100km/h, cutting commute times by up to a third.
The Doncaster Park and Ride will be upgraded and a new Park and Ride at Bulleen built. These facilities will include additional bus platforms, multi-level parking, pedestrian and cycling access, and cycling storage cages.
In addition, a Shorten Labor Government will provide $1.75 billion to help deliver the North East Link, which will complete the ring road between the Eastern Freeway and the M80 and connect the city’s growing northern and south-eastern suburbs.
Widening the freeway and constructing the busway will accommodate current and future traffic volumes and ensure the North East Link achieves what it is designed to do: take trucks off local streets and return those streets to local residents.
The project will create more than 10,000 construction jobs.
Federal Labor will also invest $1.5 billion to deliver targeted upgrades to key arterial roads across Melbourne’s northern and south-eastern suburbs, further easing congestion, improving safety and slashing travel times.
Over six years of cuts and chaos, the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government has denied Victoria its fair share of federal infrastructure funding. Despite being home to a quarter of Australians, Victoria’s share of the federal infrastructure budget has fallen to as low as 7 per cent.
In contrast with the Liberals and Nationals, Federal Labor has developed a comprehensive plan that will ensure Victoria, Australia’s fastest growing state, has the roads and public transport networks that are fit for purpose.
By tackling traffic congestion, our investments will boost productivity, thereby laying the foundations for future economic and jobs growth.
End the chaos. Vote for change. Vote for Labor.

A Shorten Labor Government will invest $250 million in a Better Care Fund – delivering healthcare sooner and safer, and reducing pressure on public hospital waiting lists.
This is all part of Labor’s war on hospital waiting lists.
Public hospital waiting lists have been stretched to breaking point because of Scott Morrison’s cuts.
If the Liberals’ are re-elected, Morrison will cut another $2.8 billion from public hospitals, putting more pressure on hospitals and putting lives at risk.
Australia’s doctors, nurses and hospital staff are heroes who provide life-saving care to millions of people a year. But they are being asked to do more with less because of the Liberals’ cuts. This puts pressure on the quality and safety of services they can provide.
Labor’s Better Care Fund will help our hospitals by providing incentives to:

• Work with primary health care providers to deliver care in the community – preventing and treating chronic disease early and reducing pressure on our hospitals.
• Reduce re-admissions – improving discharge and follow-up care so that unnecessary re-admissions are avoided.
• Reduce waiting times for specialist visits – so people treated or referred sooner, before illness and injury become more serious.
• Improve quality and safety – rewarding hospitals that provide exceptional care (not just increasing pressure by penalising poor care) and ensuring that data is collected and used to improve care in all hospitals.

As part of our war on waiting lists, Labor will also:

1. Invest $250 million to slash elective surgery waiting lists
2. Invest $500 million to slash waiting lists for cancer patients
3. Invest $500 million for an emergency department waiting time blitz.

Around 600,000 Australians a year go to hospital and end up sicker from preventable complications from procedures or adverse reactions to drugs.
The Australian Medical Association says our public hospitals are under pressure, with “increased numbers of deaths for admitted patients, high levels [of] complications [and] delayed care”. It has called for the Government “to fund hospitals to be better, not just busier”.
Labor’s Better Care Fund will develop specific incentives in consultation with doctors, nurses and staff, and agree these incentives in a new National Partnership Agreement with the states.
Labor will also task the new Australian Health Reform Commission and the Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care with advising governments on how to improve hospital care under this agreement.
You don’t improve our hospitals by cutting them.
We need real change – because more of the same isn’t good enough.
If you want better hospitals not more cuts – vote Labor.
If you want a fair go for all Australians – vote Labor.

The Morrison Government is providing $30 million over four years to protect the hearing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children through its comprehensive Hearing Assessment Program.
“Poor hearing has profound effects on a child’s ability to learn from and interact with others and can leave them isolated, disengaged and facing challenges at home,” said Indigenous Health Minister Ken Wyatt.
“Our Indigenous children have much higher rates of hearing loss than other Australian children, largely due to complications from middle ear infection, otitis media.
“Children with undiagnosed hearing loss tend to fall behind in school due to delayed speech and language development, which can have a devastating effect on their future employment opportunities and their chance of living happy, successful lives.”
The program will provide ear health checks and diagnostic hearing assessments, as well as follow-up treatment for children in the years before they start school so that they are able to hear in the classroom.
Minister Wyatt said that he has asked the Department of Health to work with Australian Hearing to develop delivery arrangements for the diagnostic hearing services.
Consultation with stakeholders during co-design for the program has identified Australian Hearing as the organisation best placed to provide the scale and quality of diagnostic audiology services required for this important program.
“Involving Australian Hearing in the program will streamline hearing service delivery for children and their families by providing timely fitting of hearing devices for those children who need them,” said Minister Wyatt.
“At the same time, other Morrison Government funded ear health campaigns will be strengthened to support the Hearing Assessment Program by providing follow-up specialist and allied health services.”
The Minister said that in some areas, primary health workers needed more training and experience in providing ear and hearing assessments, especially for very young children.
“As part of their duties, Australian Hearing audiologists working with the new program will provide on the job training to health workers employed in primary care clinics,” Minister Wyatt said.
“Over time, this will build health workers’ skills and help embed ear health checks in everyday health service delivery for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.”
In addition, the Morrison Government is providing up to $200,000 in funding in 2018-19 to train health professionals in delivering tympanometry to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
The Hearing Assessment Program will support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to grow up with good hearing and the advantages this brings.
The program will be targeted at rural and remote communities.
This new investment brings Morrison Government funding for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ear and hearing health activities to over $95 million (2018-19 to 2021-22).
Thanks to our Government’s strong economic management, $160 million has also been committed to the Indigenous Health Research Fund which includes a commitment to end avoidable deafness.

Female athletes across Australia will be the major beneficiaries of a new $70 million sports package from the Morrison Government.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the package would secure the future of Australian netball, establish a permanent home and high performance centre for the Matildas in Melbourne, add support for South East Queensland’s bid for the 2032 Olympic Games and improve nationwide facilities for aspiring Olympians and Paralympians.
The Prime Minister said the further investment in sport was on top of his Government’s previous commitment to upgrade hundreds of change rooms across the country.
“We know that participating in sport and physical activity improves the health and well-being of millions of Australians,” the Prime Minister said.
“But sport also brings communities together and when our athletes are on the world stage it brings our nation together.
“This is about backing netball as a sport that brings young women in and keeps them engaged and active, often for decades. Our support for the first ever International Netball Hub highlights what can be done with our plan for a stronger economy and it recognises Melbourne’s reputation as a sporting city.
“More and more women are playing sport and my Government has made a deliberate investment to provide better and more equitable facilities at our playing fields. We need to make sure women are supported from entry level as young girls all the way through to elite level competition, including in once male dominated sports.
“The Matildas’ new home in Melbourne shows we’re getting behind one of Australia’s fastest growing and most popular women’s sports. Melbourne is one of the world’s great sporting cities and our support for the Matildas’ new home shows Victoria is kicking goals.
“An Olympics has the potential to be a game-changer for South East Queensland and our government will be there every step of the way. A Queensland Olympics wouldn’t just take Australian sport to a new level, it’d mean showing off the Sunshine State to the world and an economic and jobs boom.
“We are the party best able to deliver a stronger economy which is the only way to deliver the investment in sport to support ever higher levels of participation and success.”
Under the new $70 million package, the Morrison Government would deliver:

• $30 million to boost the number of young athletes playing netball, as well as providing the first ever International Netball Hub in Melbourne;
• $15 million to establish a home for the Matildas in Melbourne;
• Up to $10 million as an Australian Government contribution to support South East Queensland’s bid for the 2032 Olympic Games;
• $11.5 million to support infrastructure upgrades at high-performance facilities across Australia to benefit our Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls;
• $2 million to establish a Regional Events Fund which will support the staging of new elite-level sporting events in regional Australia; and
• $1.5 million to improve our capability in finding our best para-athletes to compete on the world stage.

Minister for Sport Bridget McKenzie said the investment in netball, football, and our future Olympians and Paralympians was critical to Australia’s sporting future.
She said the Morrison Government was already rolling out the first ever National Sports Plan, Sport 2030, which outlines a vision for Australia to be the most active and healthy sporting nation known for its integrity and sporting success.
“The success of our Diamonds, Matildas and other national female athletes has encouraged a tsunami of young girls across the country to get more active,” Minister McKenzie said.
“We want to support these women in sport, from the grassroots level up to elite representatives – you can’t be what you can’t see.
“Women often don’t have access to appropriate change room facilities resulting in them having to get changed behind towels on the side of fields or in cars, and having to go home for showers.
“This is a major deterrent for women wanting to participate and to feel like they are welcome in clubs across many sports.
“That’s why in the past 12 months we have provided funding for more than 650 projects across the country including new change rooms, netball courts, upgraded playing fields and flood lighting.
“Regardless of whether you’re playing at the highest level or a grassroots level, we want all Australians to have the opportunity to be engaged in sport and physical activity.
“Our Government is committed to reducing physical inactivity among Australians by 15 per cent by 2030 – and we are determined to bring the health, social, cultural and inclusion benefits of sport and physical activity to all Australians.”
The additional $70 million investment builds on more than $2.5 billion which the Morrison Government has delivered for sport since being elected 2013.

Thousands of women across Australia are set for a boost with a $75 million commitment from the Morrison Government for new mid-career checks to help them pick up the work they want or to work more.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said many Australians in their thirties and forties were part of the ‘sandwich generation’ that had taken time out of their careers to start families, care for children and were often worrying about their ageing parents.
The Prime Minister said the Coalition was focused on getting more people the work they wanted with the new Mid-Career Checkpoint initiative set to support up to 40,000 Australians, particularly women, looking to return from time out of the workforce for caring responsibilities.
“Our new Mid-Career Checkpoint program is about backing the women and men who have taken family time and want to work or work more,” the Prime Minister said.
“Giving more people the choice and skills to get back into the workforce is key to our plan for a stronger economy.
“We’ve already overseen 1.3 million new jobs but backing women who have left their careers to take up the job of looking after their family, and who want to return to work, is key to achieving our ambitious target of creating an extra 1.25 million new jobs over the next five years.
“Many women in particular take a career break to start a family or care for older family members and are looking for that bit of extra help to get them back into the workforce.
“The skills and experience gained in those unpaid family roles is often not properly acknowledged, and women in these caring roles can sometimes lose confidence, as others have gone ahead at work and technology has changed roles.
“For those wanting the choice to return to work, we want to help them because tapping into their skills and talents is good for them, their families and the economy.”
The new initiative would start with a ‘checkpoint session’ to help people step back in to or step up their careers after two or more years out of the workforce to care for family:

• Stepping back in: women returning to the workforce will be able to have an initial discussion with a professional who can help assess their needs and steer them in the right direction (for example, they might need assistance with interview skills, polishing up computer skills, professional development or advice on where and how to undertake specific longer-term skills training)
• Stepping up: eligible women who have returned to the workforce for up to 18 months and are now at a point where they are ready to step up their career, but need a little extra advice to do so.

Minister for Women and Jobs and Industrial Relations Kelly O’Dwyer said the mid-career checks would give working women options based on their needs, interests and objectives.
“We want to help women to build their financial security by helping them to get the job they want,” Minister O’Dwyer said.
“Nothing gives someone more confidence, choices, independence and economic security than a job they love and thrive in.
“We want to ensure women with an interest in returning to the workforce have the advice they need to make that happen.”
The Mid-Career Checkpoint initiative will be targeted at women aged 30 to 45, but men aged 30-45 who have undertaken leave to care for family members will also have the opportunity to participate.
The Mid-Career Checkpoint initiative complements the Coalition’s:

• Reforms to child care and early learning saving a typical family around $1300 each year
• Extended access and flexibility for parental leave pay
• Expansion of the no interest loans scheme to assist 45,000 additional women escaping family and domestic violence.
• Career Revive initiative – a program working assist regional employers to develop action plans for their businesses to attract and retain women.
• $18 million in grants through a women’s start-up fund, Boosting Female Founders, to increase entrepreneurship opportunities for women
• Changes to superannuation rules, including concessional catch-up contributions, to boost super after taking time from the workforce for family responsibilities.
• Capping fees and charges for low-balance superannuation accounts to ensure women retire with more savings and reuniting Australians with their lost superannuation savings through the ATO.

A re-elected Morrison Government will commit $9.6 million to ensure children with cancer have the best chance in survival through a range of clinical trials and research projects.
The funding from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Emerging Priorities and Consumer Driven Research (EPCD) initiative will be provided to the Children’s Cancer Foundation to ensure that every Australian child has access to the world’s best childhood cancer treatments and to establish both Melbourne and Australia as global leaders in childhood cancer research.
$4.8 million will fund the Hudson Monash Paediatric Precision Medicine Program, which involves the establishment of a living biobank of paediatric brain tumours and solid cancers.
This includes lab-grown ‘mini-tumours’ which replicate the patient’s original tumour – to develop personalised treatments which improve survival rates and limit side-effects for childhood cancer patients.
Through this program 150 children diagnosed with brain and central nervous system tumours will also have their tumours analysed to identify clinically relevant molecular alterations and participate in clinical trials to identify the biomarkers and best treatments for each tumour type.
The remaining $4.7 million will fund the following research projects:

• $637,500 for a research project to improve the effectiveness of treatment in children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia who respond poorly to or relapse following standard-of-care therapy
• $1,177,055 for 2-year clinical research fellowships that will retain the next generation of oncologists in translational research skills and retaining Australian clinical research talent in this country
• $176,927 for a project that will use human pluripotent stem cells to model the initiation and transformation of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia
• $879,750 for clinical trial that will provide access to a new drug currently unavailable to Australian children, even on compassionate grounds, to improve survival rates.
• $283,328 for brain cancer medicine trials
• $180,066 for clinical trials that may allow safe and effective stem cell transplant from a patient’s parent and for paediatric and adolescent patients with high-risk malignancies
• $200,000 to develop a rapid and cost-effective clinical tool to determine the medulloblastoma molecular subtype
• $1,205,705 for a study that aims to understand relapse, improve residual disease detection and develop pre-clinical testing models to identify better therapies for high-risk neuroblastoma patients

Brain cancer kills more children in Australia than any other disease and, despite improvements in patient care and support, survival rates for brain cancer have remained relatively unchanged for the past 30 years.
Clinical trials are the gold standard in treating children with brain cancer. New therapies tested in clinical trials will, over time, contribute to improvements in survival rates.
This commitment complements the work done by the Australian Brain Cancer Mission.
The Mission was established in 2017 by our Government with the goal of doubling survival rates and improving the quality of life of people living with brain cancer over the next decade to 2027, with the longer term aim of defeating brain cancer.
This Mission is a true partnership between the Australian Government, philanthropists, researchers and clinicians, patients and their families and has to date achieved $124.7 million in funding.

Australian Greens Senator for New South Wales and Animal Welfare Spokesperson, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, has today launched the Greens Plan for national animal cruelty laws.The Greens have obtained advice from the Parliamentary Library that the Commonwealth has the constitutional power to enact laws in a large number of areas.
Senator Faruqi has said that States and Territories had manifestly failed to protect animals. State and Territory based animal cruelty laws lack teeth and are not enforced effectively. Some are up to forty years old, making them massively out of date with community expectations. The Greens would establish a National Animal Cruelty Prevention Act that would introduce penalties for animal cruelty at a national level for the first time. These laws would be enforced by the Australian Federal Police in cooperation with animal protection organisations and State police.
Quotes from Senator Faruqi
“States have failed to protect animals and the community is rightly sceptical of whether they are serious about stopping animal cruelty at all. When people are charged with animal cruelty the penalty pales in comparison to the crime. The community expects zero tolerance for animal abuse.
“Prime Minister Scott Morrison is very quick to condemn vegan protestors, but his Government has done nothing to stop suffering of animals.
“A key area where reform is needed we need reform is needed is farmed animals and livestock owned by companies. Our advice clearly states that the Commonwealth has the power to create laws that will protect them. Currently in most states and territories, farm animals can legally be subject to excruciatingly painful procedures. This has to end.
“The Greens are committed to ending factory farming and we would use these laws to end sow stalls, battery cages and other cruel practices that make the lives of farmed animals miserable.
“Animal welfare laws are wildly inconsistent across the country. For example, aggravated animal cruelty, where an animal is killed or seriously injured by cruelty, has a maximum penalty of seven years jail in Queensland, but just two years in New South Wales. Some of these laws were drafted up to forty years ago and are completely out of touch with community expectations and animal welfare needs.
“The Greens are listening to the community and taking action to reform our laws to protect animals,” she concluded.

Australia is on track for a record number of flu shots in 2019 following the release of 11.4 million flu vaccines to vaccine providers to date in 2019
I encourage Australians to get a flu shot to protect themselves against this year’s influenza virus.
Vaccines are now available at your GPs office and community pharmacies.
As at 30 April 2019 over 11.4 million doses of the seasonal influenza vaccines have been released into the market by the Australian Government for the 2019 Australian influenza season.
This includes over 7.4 million doses for the National Immunisation Program (NIP) and state and territory government schemes including 3.8 million doses of enhanced vaccines for those aged 65 years and over.
Vaccination is the most effective way to protect individuals and the broader community from the flu.
It’s important to get vaccinated against influenza every year, as the virus changes year to year.
Those eligible for a free flu vaccine through the NIP include people aged 65 years and over, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 6 months and older and people aged sixth months or older with certain medical conditions which put them at risk of severe influenza.
Pregnant women are also eligible for a free flu vaccine – it’s safe to receive at any stage of pregnancy to protect both mother and baby.
Getting vaccinated now allows protection during the peak influenza transmission period, from around June to September in most parts of Australia.
Immunisation is critical to maintaining public health and preventing the outbreak of infectious diseases.
Last year a record 11 million Australians got a flu shot and I hope that we reach another record this year.
For more information visit the Department of Health immunisation website at: www.health.gov.au/immunisation

The Liberal National Government is investing over $19 million in a new medicine to help people with a metabolic disorder, saving patients more than $90,000 a year.
The medicine Kuvan® is now being listed on the PBS for the treatment of patients with hyperphenylalaninemia – caused by phenylketonuria (PKU).
PKU is a genetic disorder requiring lifelong management that prevents the normal breakdown of a protein found in some foods.
This medicine works in combination with dietary restrictions, to help lower the amount of amino acid phenylalanine in the blood.
Without PBS subsidy, patients would otherwise pay more than $90,200 per year for this treatment.
It will now be $40.30 a script or $6.50 for patients with a concession card.
This medicine will be of particular benefit for young children with the condition who need to start treatment early after diagnosis.
Without treatment from a young age, patients can develop progressive intellectual disability and other health complications.
With treatment, children with PKU can grow and develop normally and that why this new listing is so important.
This medicine was recommended for listing on the PBS by the independent medical experts at the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee.
Since 2013, the Morrison Government has listed over 2,000 new or amended items on the PBS.
This represents an average of around 31 listings per month – or one each day – at an overall cost of around $10.6 billion.
We are listing all medicines on the PBS unlike the former Labor Government.
In 2011 when the current leader of the opposition Bill Shorten was Assistant Treasurer Labor took the unprecedented step of stopping the listing of new medicines on the PBS.
Labor’s 2011-12 Budget stated “given the current fiscal environment the listing of some medicines would be deferred until fiscal circumstances permit”. This included medicines for asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, endometriosis chronic pain and IVF amongst others.
Our commitment to ensuring that Australians can access affordable medicines, when they need them, remains rock solid.

Port Macquarie’s first tidal pool is set to become a reality with a $4.5 million commitment from the Liberal and Nationals Government.
Visiting Port Macquarie today, Prime Minister Scott Morrison pledged his Government would finish the feasibility study, finalise planning and design, and get the project done.
The Prime Minister said his Government had listened to the local community and the 18,000 people who had signed the petition to the Port Macquarie-Hastings Council.
“A tidal pool in Port Macquarie is one of those projects which has been talked about in the community for decades and my government and our candidate Pat Conaghan will make it a reality,” the Prime Minister said.
“We believe in Port Macquarie as one of the most popular and picturesque destinations along the Mid North Coast, and a tidal pool will make the city even more of a drawcard.”
The Nationals Candidate for Cowper Pat Conaghan said he had lobbied hard for a serious commitment to the project on behalf of the local community.
He said the tidal pool would deliver a significant economic and health boost for Port Macquarie.
“There is going to be widespread benefits throughout the Port Macquarie community as a result of this project,” Mr Conaghan said.
“Over the course of construction there is going to be an economic boost through the creation of construction jobs, and the tidal pool will help entice more visitors to the area which has significant flow-on benefits for local small businesses.
“On a day to day level, the tidal pool will support better health outcomes by encouraging Port Macquarie residents of all ages to live a more active lifestyle.
“The people of Port Macquarie have been asking for a serious commitment to this project and only a Liberal and Nationals Government will deliver it.”
The $4.5 million commitment to the Port Macquarie Tidal Pool from the Federal Liberals and Nationals follows a $50,000 commitment from the State Liberals and Nationals which has kick-started a feasibility study to determine the key details, construction timeline and location of the project.