Category: Australian News

The Morrison Government is investing almost $92 million to support better health care for all Tasmanians, improving waiting times for elective surgery, boosting mental health and maternity services and increasing cancer diagnosis scans.
The Tasmanian Health Plan also provides greater support for Tasmanians in rural and remote locations while increasing a wide range of vital services, from GPs to hospital care and specialist health services.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said this investment would improve the health of all Tasmanians.
“Our strong economic management means we can provide record investment in Medicare, public hospitals and medicines, delivering more doctors, more nurses and more services to Tasmanians.”
“We can deliver this record investment in health without raising taxes for hard-working Tasmanians.
“We will invest $34.7 million to reduce surgical waiting times by providing an additional 6,000 surgeries and endoscopies and for primary care support for Tasmanians in rural and remote locations through TazReach.”
$10 million will support the Menzies Multiple Sclerosis Flagship Program to improve the quality of life for the more than 25,000 Australians living with MS by conducting research into cures and prevention of the disease.
$10 million will be invested in a new residential eating disorder clinic in Hobart, to provide in-patient specialist care for people experiencing eating disorders.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said around one million Australians live with an eating disorder, which is a complex condition with a high mortality rate.
“This treatment option will be an Australian first, providing diagnosis and treatment of eating disorders across the state, through training, education and advocacy,” Minister Hunt said.
“Eating disorder patients will also benefit from our historic decision to provide Medicare benefits for up to 40 psychological and 20 dietetic sessions per person per year.”
$10.5 million will be provided for a new walk-in mental health centre in Launceston, providing an environment where people can receive psychological, counselling or other mental health services without a prior appointment.
The centre will cater for people in crisis as well as those at risk, providing an alternative to the hospital emergency department.
$3 million will fund two new diagnostic mammography units, one in Hobart and one in Launceston.
These new machines will ensure that Tasmanian women do not have to wait to obtain x-rays to check their breasts for cancer. Earlier diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer can save lives, especially for women over 40.
A further $400,000 will support upgrades to new birthing suites in Launceston General Hospital to better support women giving birth.
In Tasmania, funding for public hospitals will increase from $425 million a year (2018-19) to $525 million (2024-25) under a new agreement with the Tasmanian Government, which has primary responsibility for public hospitals.
This is in addition to the $730.4 million we provided to support Mersey Community Hospital.
Our Tasmanian Health Plan will result in new health initiatives, new infrastructure and new medical research, with real benefits for the people across Tasmania.

A Shorten Labor Government would kick off the process of opening Rockhampton Airport to international aviation, looking to supercharge growth of the Central Queensland economy.
An incoming Labor Government would invest $1 million to develop a business case to determine the viability of upgrading Rockhampton Airport’s status to that of a Regional International Gateway.
It would connect Central Queensland producers to the lucrative markets of Asia, creating huge opportunities for high-end agricultural exports.
The change would also provide a direct international tourism gateway to the region’s magnificent tourism assets, including the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef to the north and east and the Sandstone Wilderness to the west.
Most importantly, upgrading the Rockhampton Airport would boost economic activity and jobs growth right across the region.
Regional International Gateway airports require the capacity to deliver international airport services including customs and immigration.
The business case is a crucial first step that will examine the cost of expanding such facilities at Rockhampton, as well as the economic benefits of opening the region to the world.
Airports at Townsville, Cairns, the Sunshine Coast and Toowoomba are already designated Regional International Gateways.
It is beyond time that we look at the potential for Rockhampton Airport to join the international aviation community.
Over nearly six years of cuts and chaos,the Liberal National Party has been too focused on infighting to pay serious regard to regional economic development.
By contrast, Labor has a plan to assist every region in the nation to achieve its full economic potential through investment in critical rail and roads as well as support for tourism, aviation and economic diversification.
Labor’s plan for the Rockhampton Airport builds upon existing commitments for Central Queensland including $800 million for the Rockhampton Ring Road, $25 million for the South Rockhampton Flood Levee and $15 million to upgrade the Capricorn Highway.
Owned and operated by the Rockhampton Regional Council, the Airport is a major Australian regional airport, with flights to Brisbane, Mackay, Townsville, Cairns and the Gold Coast. Approximately 650,000 passengers pass through its terminal every year.

A Shorten Labor Government will slash waiting times for cancer treatment and surgery in public hospitals, with a $500 million investment in waiting lists across Australia.
When people are sick, the last thing they need is to sit on long waiting lists watching the clock for the treatment they need.
However, under the Liberals’ cuts to health and hospitals, waiting times for essential surgery and procedures have blown out.
Average waiting times for elective surgery have increased in every state and territory under the Liberals.
One in ten Australians will have to wait an average 47 days to get a breast lump removed or checked.
83 per cent of people who receive a positive result from the government’s bowel screening program don’t undergo a colonoscopy within the recommended time.
That’s why, as part of Labor’s $2.3 billion Medicare Cancer Plan, we will act to ensure that it is your Medicare card, not your credit card, that determines access to potentially life-saving surgery.
Labor will work with the states and territories to establish a National Partnership Agreement (NPA) on Cancer Care, to slash waiting times for surgery and consultations in Australia’s public hospitals. This investment is in addition to Labor’s $2.8 billion Better Hospitals Fund.
Labor’s public hospital cancer blitz will mean:

• More Australians can receive free cancer care in public hospitals
• Public waiting times will be reduced, forcing fewer patients into the private system
• Downwards pressure will be put on private out-of-pocket costs through increased competition from the public system

Labor’s $500 million investment is equivalent to:

• Almost 19,000 major breast reconstructions
• Over 250,000 free colonoscopies
• Almost 1.4 million free consultations with medical oncologists
• Almost 1.8 million free consultations with radiation therapists or
• Almost 2.9 million free consultations with cancer nurses or allied health providers

Public patients generally visit a specialist in an outpatient department for referral to surgery, radiation therapy or other procedures.
Long waiting times for these initial consultations can force patients into the private system, where they may face large out-of-pocket costs.
When someone is sick, they shouldn’t face the cruel choice of long public hospital waiting times or being forced to pay huge out-of-pocket costs in the private system.
Addressing inequality in our health care system is critical to addressing inequality in survival rates across the country – people living in rural and regional Australia and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders wait longer for the treatment they need and have poorer health outcomes.
This investment is part of Labor’s $2.3 billion Medicare Cancer Plan – a plan to make sure it is your Medicare card, not your credit card, that determines your access to health care.
Our Medicare Cancer Plan will deliver cheaper cancer scans, cheaper cancer specialist consultations and cheaper cancer medicines.
The Medicare Cancer Plan will cover an additional 2,000 specialist consultation a day –  with no out-of-pocket costs.
For people who need a cancer scan – every MRI machine, in every postcode, will be eligible for Medicare.
For CT scans, X-Rays, mammograms, PET scans – this plan will cut out-of-pocket costs and provide up to six million free scans.
We can pay for our plan because we are making multinationals pay their fair share and closing tax loopholes used by the top end of town.
We’re prioritising health and hospitals – making sure Australians have access to the best medicines and care, because we’d rather have the world’s best health system not the world’s best tax loopholes.
Labor will invest in cancer care, we’ll fight for Medicare and we will always make sure it is your Medicare card, not your credit card that determines access to health.

The ANAO report released today has confirmed the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility is a politically motivated waste of taxpayers money designed to funnel cash into projects like the Adani coal mine, the Greens say.
Greens Senator for Queensland Larissa Waters said the ANAO has found the NAIF lacks transparency and has made inconsistent decisions.
“The Greens have said NAIF was opaque from the word go. It has been a political exercise to appease the Nationals, rather than actually meeting the needs of northern Australians,” she said.
“NAIF was all set to pour taxpayer money into Adani’s proposed coal mine before the Queensland government vetoed it, and later a rival rail provider also pulled the plug on their application.
“If the Greens’ amendments to the NAIF legislation had received support from either major party, NAIF would have been prohibited from funding fossil fuel developments, and instead could focus on providing the clean, green infrastructrure that could help people in Northern Australia.
“The Auditor General’s report, commissioned at the recommendation of a Senate Inquiry which I initiated, found that NAIF’s assessment criteria are not transparent, assessment processes are inconsistent, and the CEO has too much power.
“Only a handful of projects considered by the NAIF have addressed an identified infrastructure need.
“NAIF is also operating in a secretive and underhanded way. They are not fully compliant with FOI processes. There are no minutes of weekly meetings with the Minister’s office. And some board members are using non-NAIF email accounts to conduct NAIF business, and further evading scrutiny in the process.”
The Greens want NAIF overhauled so it’s required to consider the Australian Government’s policy commitment to the Paris Agreement, the climate impacts of a project and to prohibit the NAIF from financing infrastructure which would facilitate the extraction, refinement, transportation or burning of thermal coal or gas.
Legislation should also be passed to ensure a suitable person test is added to the NAIF’s consideration of a project.
The recent decision by the government to further loosen already lax criteria for investment is not the solution and serve only to further demonstrate this government’s retrograde obsession with fossil fuels.

The fish kill report underlines that the environment must be put first and we need a royal commission to fix the management of the Murray Darling Basin before it is too late.
“Water allocations and licenses must be changed in order to make sure there is enough water in the river when flows are low. To do this the parliament must lift the freeze on water buybacks and reinstate the ability to purchase water for the environment,”
“In order to save the river more environmental water must be purchased off irrigators. This means reinstating water buy backs and reversing cuts to environmental flows previously supported by the Labor and Liberal parties.
“This report shows very clearly that the environment has been forgotten and climate change disregarded in managing the Murray Darling Basin, and that must change.
“This report, along with the South Australian Royal Commission and the Productivity Commission, shows that the greed of the big corporate irrigators must be tackled head on. When water levels are low, the environment must be prioritised, which ultimately means big irrigators must be prevented from taking more than the river can handle.
“This report comes as new polling shows 73 per cent of South Australians support the Greens’ push for a federal Royal Commission into the Murray Darling Basin.”

The Australian Greens are extremely concerned at comments made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the weekend that, if re-elected, he will “extend sovereignty” to Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
In response to the comments, Greens Leader Senator Richard Di Natale said:  “Any annexation, even a partial one, of the West Bank would be a serious violation of international law.  It would represent yet another huge blow to the prospect of a two state solution, and would be disastrous for Israel’s democracy.”
“The Greens urge the Australian Government to speak out and make it clear that the Israeli Government must not rule over millions of Palestinians while denying them equal civil and political rights.  It’s time to reinvigorate the peace process, not escalate tensions yet again with reckless actions during an Israeli election campaign.”

Australia’s AAA credit rating has been reaffirmed by Standard & Poor’s (S&P) in a strong expression of confidence in the 2019-20 Budget and the Coalition Government’s economic management.
In its report, S&P notes that Australia’s “economic growth prospects remain sound” and that our “public finances traditionally have been a credit strength for the rating”.
S&P states, “Better labour market conditions and commodity prices have helped to lift government revenues. The resulting boost to income and, in particular, company taxes, combined with expenditure restraint, have helped the central government forecast a return to surplus in 2020.” It further notes that “commodity prices and employment and wage trends over the next few years should continue to support revenue growth”.
Today’s report confirms Australia as one of only 10 countries which has a AAA credit rating with all three major ratings agencies.
In 2019-20, the Budget surplus will be $7.1 billion or 0.4 per cent of GDP. Over the forward estimates, surpluses will total $45 billion. Surpluses will continue to rise over the decade, reaching more than one per cent of GDP and eliminating Commonwealth net debt by 2030. All of this is being achieved without increasing taxes.
Under the Coalition Government’s economic plan, one million new jobs were delivered as promised and ahead of schedule. The unemployment rate has fallen to 4.9 per cent, its lowest level in more than seven years, and the proportion of working age Australians on welfare is at its lowest level in 30 years.
Our future is bright and the Government has committed to creating another 1.25 million new jobs created over the next five years, driven by our economic plan of lower taxes, more infrastructure and better skills.
The Government is also providing tax relief for families and small and medium-sized businesses. S&P notes, “Recently announced tax changes could provide some support to the household sector, if introduced.”
We must not, however, be complacent. As S&P states, “While our base case is for a soft landing, our ratings could come under pressure if house prices fall sharply and increase risks to fiscal accounts, real economic growth, and financial sector stability.”
Labor’s housing tax policies will do just this. They will damage Australia’s housing market and destroy the equity that people hold in their homes, increasing the risk of financial instability and lower economic growth. Now is the worst possible time for Labor’s experiments with the housing market.
Our strong economic performance and the important reforms that we are undertaking would all be put at risk by a Shorten-led Labor Government and its high tax and spend agenda.

Greens Healthy Oceans spokesperson, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, has urged the Federal Government not to intervene in Queensland’s Shark Control Program after the Administrative Appeals Tribunal ordered an end to lethal shark culling in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
Senator Whish-Wilson said, “I urge the Federal Environment Minister to put our oceans first and listen to the scientific evidence that killing sharks does not make oceangoers safe.
“Lethal methods of killing sharks only provide a false sense of security.”
Queensland Fisheries Minister Mark Furner has written to Federal Environment Minister Melissa Price saying urgent action from the Commonwealth Government was required to provide for swimmer safety within the Marine Park. The Federal Government can intervene under section 158 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 to allow Queensland to continue their lethal shark control program if it is deemed to be in the ‘national interest’.
“I reminded Senator Birmingham at Senate Estimates this week that the AAT heard overwhelming scientific evidence that killing sharks does not reduce the risk of unprovoked shark interactions.
“What part of ‘overwhelming scientific evidence’ does the Queensland Government not understand?
“With no scientific evidence that killing sharks makes oceangoers safe, it would be very interesting to hear the basis for any Federal Government decision that lethal shark culling is in the national interest.”
The Greens’ plan to invest in non-lethal shark mitigation measures can be found here.

State and Federal Governments must intervene to save Australia’s first baseload solar thermal power plant, following the collapse of Solar Reserve’s plans, the Greens say.
“I’ve written to Prime Minister Scott Morrison and SA Premier Steven Marshall today to urgently ensure this project is saved, fixed, and funded. So South Australia gets the jobs, investment and permanent lower power bills,” Greens Senator for South Australia Sarah Hanson-Young said.
“South Australians would be proud to be the owners of the country’s first baseload solar thermal plant. The Greens are calling for this project to go ahead with state and federal funding.
“Once again the Liberals have dropped the ball on a critical renewable energy project. The State and Federal Governments need to immediately intervene and save this project.
“A publicly-owned solar thermal plant would be a boon for jobs at a time when they are desperately needed in our state. It would also provide investment in R&D catapulting South Australia as an innovation state.
“This is exactly the type of project The Greens’ Renew Australia 2030 is designed to support. We know when energy generation is publicly owned, it drives down electricity prices.
“The Port Augusta community fought so hard for this project, but this doesn’t have to be the end of the road. This is an opportunity for our state to take ownership of our own renewable energy future.
“Barnaby Joyce is calling for a publicly-funded coal-fired power station that would lock us in as a major polluter on the world stage and cement dangerous climate change. The Greens’ alternative is a jobs-rich, nation-building solar thermal power station that will launch South Australia into a clean, renewable future.”