Month: April 2019

A national trial of world-first artificial intelligence technology promises to reduce the pain suffered by people living with dementia, thanks to a $5 million grant from the Morrison Government.
“This is Australian innovation to help some of our most vulnerable Australians,” said Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Ken Wyatt AM.
“Accurately identifying the pain felt by people who have communication challenges can be difficult and with more than 50 per cent of residents in aged care homes living with dementia, there is a widespread risk of under-treated pain.”
The PainChek® app provides caregivers and health professionals with an efficient, smartphone-based system that applies artificial intelligence to determine a person’s pain using facial recognition analytics.
PainChek® CEO Philip Daffas said the Morrison Government funding would allow broader application of the app, to strengthen analysis of its effectiveness.
“This is welcome, given the significant benefits being reported at the dozens of residential aged care centres that already use PainChek®,” Mr Daffas said.
“It will provide equality of access to all residential aged care homes and their residents living with dementia and fits with our extensive clinical studies which have been conducted on people living with moderate to severe dementia.
“This will help refine how the app can be integrated into everyday clinical care, where PainChek® effectively gives a voice to people who cannot verbalise their pain.”
Unidentified pain can contribute to behavioural and psychological symptoms and incorrect prescription of antipsychotic medication.
“Better pain identification and better medication management means a better quality of life for people receiving aged care,” said Minister Wyatt.
“This trial will complement the reforms already announced by the Morrison Government to improve medication management and provide a record boost to dementia prevention, treatment and support.
“Under the Medical Research Future Fund, our Government is providing $185 million over the next decade to establish a Dementia, Ageing and Aged Care Mission, building on our five-year, $200 million Boosting Dementia Research initiative.”
“Our Government’s strong economic management ensures continued record investment in vital health and aged care initiatives like these.”
The 2019-20 Budget included an investment of $7.7 million to reduce the misuse of medicines in residential aged care.
This investment includes the establishment of a new unit of clinical pharmacists within the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission which will work directly with residential aged care providers to drive best practice use of medicines.
This is in addition to the Morrison Government’s support for the Pain in Residential Aged Care Facilities: Management Strategies publication launched early this year to help Australia’s aged care workforce to identify, assess and manage pain felt by people in their care.
PainChek® has regulatory clearance in both Australia and Europe.
The PainChek® app originated at Western Australia’s Curtin University and was then further developed by listed Australian digital health company PainChek Ltd.

A Shorten Labor Government will double the Federal contribution to the 2019 Channel 7 Telethon by contributing an additional $2 million this year.
Telethon is an amazing organisation that encapsulates the spirit of WA – receiving donations from Esperance to Wyndham, from Kalgoorlie to Claremont – and is the world’s longest running telephone fundraiser.
Western Australian families, even children, chip in what they can to help kids in need – making Telethon one of the biggest per capita fundraising events in the world.
Since it commenced in 1968, Telethon has improved the live of tens of thousands of children in Western Australia and beyond, raising more than $300 million over more than five decades.
Telethon’s role supporting medical research, purchasing equipment for children with disability, supporting community organisations, and providing critical support all make a real difference to the lives of young people and their families in Western Australia.
Labor’s additional $2 million commitment will provide support toward the Telethon Kids Institute’s focus on giving every child the best opportunity to enjoy a happy and healthy childhood.

A Shorten Labor Government will boost Australia’s potential as a resource powerhouse and battery production superpower by investing $75 million in developing the future mining of resources such as lithium.
We want to ensure Australian mines are powering the commodities of the future – such as lithium – as we build the renewable energy economy.
Australia has every mineral needed to make a lithium battery domestically – batteries that are used in electric cars, smart phones and to store renewable energy.
Our $75 million investment will reverse the Liberals’ decision to axe the Exploring for the Future program – a program that uses cutting edge technology to find future deposits through building underground maps that show where mineral deposits lie.
Labor’s plan will support local jobs, local industries, local manufacturing of future commodities and a cleaner energy future.
Western Australia has proved to be home to globally significant deposits of lithium and other minerals and is perfectly positioned to benefit from this funding boost.
The McGowan Labor Government and industry in Western Australia are looking at how best to turn the state’s natural resources into new jobs and industries.
The Association of Mining and Exploring Companies estimates that the global lithium value chain will grow from $160 billion in 2018 to $2 trillion in 2025 – Australia shouldn’t miss out on this.
Two-thirds of Australia’s potential mineral deposits remain undiscovered because they lie below the surface and could not be explored until the advent of new technology like ground penetrating radar, big data and machine learning – all deployed by the Exploring for the Future program.
While the world is discovering “Tier 1” deposits at a rate of three a year, Australia has not made a Tier 1 discovery since 2005.
This program had delivered important successes – like showing the South Nicholson Basin north of Mt Isa is three times larger than previously though and highlighting potential new gold and copper deposits in Tennant Creek.
In its last year, the program spent $40 million across 150 small to medium enterprises – most in Western Australia, Queensland, and the Northern Territory – to deploy cutting edge technology to help make an underground mining map of Australia.
Despite these successes, the Liberals still axed the Exploring for the Future program.
Mining contributes more export income for Australia than all other industries combined, but 80 per cent of its $221 billion in earnings during 2017-18 came from mines discovered more than 40 years ago, and our global share of exploration spending has halved in the last two decades.
Studies show for every dollar of initial geological survey by government, mining companies spend between $5 and $15 on subsequent exploration.
We need to be supporting that investment to discover future mines and deposits – which is exactly what Labor will do.
This commitment is part of Labor’s Future Mines and Jobs Plan, which includes:

• Establishing the Australian Future Mines Centre to co-ordinate exploration work and lead the scientific research and development necessary to explore under deep cover as part of a $23 million Australian Research Council Special Research initiative.
• Providing $2 million to support 100 new scholarships for mining engineers, with 50 of them for women.
• Delivering an industry data and skills road map.
• Developing a Resources White Paper, to deliver the long-term vision across government for the resource sector as recommended by the bipartisan Resources 2030 Taskforce Report.

This election is a choice between Labor’s plan to create Australian jobs and build the renewable energy economy, or bigger tax loopholes for the top end of town under the Liberals.
After six years of Liberal cuts and chaos, our united Labor team is ready to deliver a fair go for all Australians.

Greens science, research and innovation spokesperson Adam Bandt MP will today launch the Greens’ policy to put Australia on a pathway to reaching 4% investment of GDP in science, research and innovation. Mr Bandt launched the policy today in his electorate at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Australia’s oldest medical research institute.

The Greens’ plan injects $19.4 billion into the sector over the next decade, reversing funding cuts to key institutions, including the CSIRO, continued funding for the Medical Research Future Fund and over $2.5 billion for a suite of measures to support equitable and ongoing employment opportunities for researchers, including a ‘Secure Work for Researchers’ fund to assist universities and research institutes to transition their workers to ongoing, secure employment and targeted support for women in science.

Other policy measures in the package include:

• Creating a ‘Protecting Science’ package, consisting of a $2.557 billion boost to the Australia Research Council, National Health & Medical Research Council, and Cooperative Research Centres over the next decade;

• Providing $185.1 million over the forwards to ensure Open Access Publishing of Government funded research.

• Providing $60.2 million over the forwards to invest in strategic opportunities for international collaboration

• Improving the R&D Tax Incentive by reversing millions of dollars of government cuts and providing a 20% non-refundable tax offset for companies that hire STEM PhD students to work in their field of expertise.

Quotes attributable to Mr. Bandt:

“The Greens want a strong research sector in Australia to help move away from the polluting industries of the past and deliver the jobs of the future.”

“After six years of neglect and cuts from an anti-science Coalition government, we’ll improve access to information, foster international collaboration, protect key research institutions and fund the research and innovation Australia needs.”

“We must make life and work more secure for our researchers. We also need to do more to support women who take time out of the science and research workforce to have children.”

“By winding back unfair tax breaks to big polluters and big corporations, we can invest $19.4b into science, research and innovation to set us up for the future.”

“Australia is lagging behind. Commonwealth investment in research and development is at its lowest level in 40 years.”

“The old parties are stuck in the past. They’re addicted to the donations of old, entrenched and polluting industries so they don’t have the vision or the ability to usher in the jobs and industries of the future.

“This plan will put Australia on a path to joining other advanced countries that spend 4% of GDP on research and development.

The Australian Greens have announced an eight point plan to grow Australia’s agriculture industry sustainably and prepare for a changing climate.

“The Greens agriculture plan will grow the industry sustainably, provide $100 million annual support for drought-affected communities, protect farmers’ land with a national ban on fracking, and support farmers with grants to increase production and protect land and soil,” said Senator Janet Rice, Australian Greens Agriculture and Rural Affairs spokesperson.

“We need a plan for agriculture that looks beyond the next election cycle. The effects of climate change, drought, water mismanagement, soil erosion and changing consumer preferences are all already having a huge impact on farmers and rural and regional communities.”

“The Coalition continues to sell out farmers and primary producers in favour of their corporate agribusiness mates and coal industry donors. Just look at the rampant pork barrelling and water mismanagement by Barnaby Joyce when he was agriculture and water minister.”

“Farmers and the agriculture industry are bearing the brunt of drought and a changing climate. The Greens plan provides the real solutions to the challenges that our critical agricultural industries  face.”

“The Greens plan also supports the essential work of Landcare, from helping small farmers develop new land management techniques, to providing grant funding for communities to play a bigger part in caring for the land they live on.”

“The Greens secured an extra $100 million for Landcare in 2016. Now we will restore the $84 million in funding that was cut by this government.”

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The Australian Greens eight-point agriculture policy includes:

1. Deliver $100m a year of real support for drought affected communities

2. Support farmers with grants to grow production and protect land and soil

3. Reverse the cuts to Landcare funding

4. Create a Centre for Sustainable Agriculture and develop a climate smart plan for our agricultural sector

5. Drive the domestic carbon farming and farm forestry industries

6. A national ban on all new unconventional gas projects

7. Conduct a thorough review of our agricultural chemicals and food safety

8. Ensure that our existing genetic regulatory regime is protected and updated for new technologies

Australian Greens Housing Spokesperson, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has commented on the latest Anglicare Australia Rental Affordability Snapshot which has found that there is a huge shortage of secure, affordable rentals across the country.
The Australian Greens have a plan to more than double the amount of social housing across Australia by building 500,000 new ecologically sustainable and affordable homes, with a net addition of 33,000 dwellings each year. The homes would be funded by scrapping negative gearing and capital gains tax exemptions, as well as redirecting part of the banking levy on major banks.
Senator Faruqi said:
“Housing in Australia is monumentally messed up and this latest report from Anglicare Australia further reinforces this. The near complete lack of rental places available to people living on Newstart or the Disability Support Pension across the country underlies the need for sweeping changes to boost affordable housing in Australia.
“The primary goal of a housing system should be to supply long term secure homes to people, not unbridled profits for investors.
“Everyone has the right to a safe, secure and permanent home. We know the situation is getting worse. We need urgent intervention, coupled with significant financial resources and reform of the housing system, or more and more people will be without a home.
“The Greens are the only party with a plan to massively boost the amount of social and affordable housing in Australia. We will more than double social housing in Australia by building 500,000 new ecologically sustainable and affordable homes” Dr Faruqi concluded.

Greens Senators Richard Di Natale, Nick McKim and Peter Whish-Wilson will today join Tasmanian surfers in calling for a ban on oil and gas exploration in the Great Australian Bight.
Senator Di Natale said, “Today we’re standing with surfers and other oceangoers in saying no to oil and gas in the Great Australian Bight.
“It’s just not worth the risk to our marine environment and to our climate.
“The fossil fuel era is coming to an end. This means companies are chasing the last oil and gas into deeper and more dangerous waters than ever.”
Tasmanian Greens Senator Nick McKim said, “Modelling has shown that an oil spill from the Bight could travel thousands of kilometres, even as far as Tasmania.
“The emergency response times to a spill would be much longer due to the remoteness of the Bight.
“This poses an enormous threat to a pristine marine environment that should be under World Heritage Protection.”
Greens Healthy Oceans spokesperson, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, said, “Despite the danger to our marine life and our climate, the major parties can’t get enough of it and are running a protection racket for the industry.
“Last year, they voted against the Greens attempt to hold a senate inquiry into seismic testing.
“Seismic testing involves continuous blasts from an air gun that are louder than a jet engine and can go on for weeks on end. Just how much harm it does to other marine life, including dolphins and whales, is unknown.
“The Federal Government has a responsibility to protect Australia’s oceans and marine life, and to take the strongest possible action to protect future generations and prevent dangerous climate change.”
A new report by Global Witness showed that the opening up of any new oil and gas reserves is inconsistent with the Paris Agreement.
The Greens would:

• Ban all new offshore oil and gas exploration, including a ban on seismic testing.
• Ban all new offshore oil and gas extraction.
• Stop all oil and gas exploration and extraction in marine parks and in the Great Australian Bight, including by revoking existing permits.

The Greens’ Healthy Oceans policy can be found here.

The Greens health reform package will reduce out of pocket costs and build a truly universal healthcare system – including Medicare funded dental care – that provides healthcare for everyone, regardless of bank balance, postcode or illness.
“Medicare was a visionary reform and point of pride for many Australian but years of neglect, populist politics and piecemeal reforms have resulted in driving up costs for patients and prevented investment in areas that matter,” said Leader of the Australian Greens Dr Richard Di Natale.
“You don’t have a truly universal health system when thousands of Australians delay or avoid seeing a doctor, dentist or specialist because they can’t afford it. It’s about time we returned to the principle of free, universal, healthcare.
“Instead we have thousands of Australians languishing on surgery waiting lists or skipping their medications because they can’t afford them. We are now heading down the path to an American two tiered health system.”
“The Greens plan to reduce out of pocket costs and bring dental care into Medicare will finally follow through on the promise of a truly universal health system designed to keep people well. It’s time our health care system provided the care you need when you need it, regardless of your bank balance.
“As a doctor I know that the growing gaps in care and barriers to access cannot be fixed with band- aid solutions that favour one particular patient group over another. Australia’s health system is sick and the only policy prescription is comprehensive reform that addresses the root causes.
“The Greens health reform package will reduce out of pocket costs for everyone, clear elective surgery waiting lists and bring dental into Medicare. We will invest in prevention, implement team- based healthcare for people with chronic conditions, fund capital works that reduce bed block and ramping and put an end to the hospital funding blame game once and for all.”