Month: May 2019

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.