Month: September 2020

Millions of Australians will continue to receive medical care and support in their own homes with the Morrison Government investing more than $2 billion to extend a range of COVID-19 health measures for a further six months, to 31 March 2021.
Medicare-subsidised telehealth and pathology services, GP-led respiratory clinics, home medicines delivery, public and private hospital services will all be extended, as well as further investments in PPE.
These health initiatives play a major role in detecting, preventing and treating COVID-19.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the $2 billion extension in funding brought the Government’s commitment for the COVID-19 health response to more than $16.5 billion since March 2020.
“We will continue to provide Australians with critical health care and support to protect both lives and livelihoods,” the Prime Minister said.
“By providing telehealth and home delivery medicine services we are reducing the risk of exposure to COVID-19 in the community while also supporting people in isolation to get the care they need.
“Importantly this also includes mental health services, delivered over the phone, by trained specialists and GPs.
“As we continue to suppress COVID-19 while continuing to open our economy up, Australians can be reassured that we have the world’s best medical support in place to protect their health.”
Minister for Health Greg Hunt said “Our Governments response to the pandemic brought forward a 10 year plan on telehealth within 10 days.”
“As a consequence, over 30 million consultations protected the health and wellbeing of Australians, and protected our health workers and the viability of their practices.”
Patients will continue to have access to Medicare-subsidised telehealth for general practitioner, nursing, midwifery, allied health and allied mental health services, where and when they need them.
Telehealth is also being extended for essential specialist services, such as consultant physician, geriatrician, and neurosurgery services. Bulk billing will continue to be available and regular billing practices will apply to all of these services.
Up to 150 GP-led respiratory clinics across the country, which complement state run fever clinics, will continue their pivotal role in testing. Patients will continue to have access to bulk-billed COVID-19 tests under Medicare, with aged care residents and staff getting priority access to rapid testing.
Medicare-subsidised pathology and testing at the point of care will continue in 86 rural and remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria. This enables early identification of cases and rapid response if COVID-19 is detected in these highly vulnerable communities.
Eligible people will continue to get free home delivery of essential medicines by their local pharmacist. The Home Medicines Service has already delivered more than one million medicines to patients’ homes at no additional cost to patients.
Our support for states and territories continues, with the historic National Partnership Agreement ensuring the public health system is prepared and the public and private hospital systems are fully resourced and able to respond rapidly to any outbreak.
As an example, this agreement has enabled the transfer of more than 480 aged care residents to private hospitals and deployed clinical and nursing staff to assist in aged care during Victoria’s second wave.
The National Coronavirus Helpline will continue to operate around the clock providing important advice.
The expert Australian Health Protection Principal Committee recognises that future outbreaks will occur. The ongoing health response must be maintained to protect the health of Australians.

Australian Greens Disability Rights and Services spokesperson Senator Jordon Steele-John has labelled reports that the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission has fined just one provider, despite receiving more than 8000 complaints, as deeply concerning but not surprising.
“As a disabled person, as a disability advocate, it speaks to the systemic and endemic nature of the violence and abuse we have been screaming about for decades, and the abject failure of the commission to act.
“This report is particularly concerning to me because we know that those 8000 complaints are still just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect that is occuring.
“There are many people who, because of their disability or circumstances, physically cannot use the safeguard system to report. You’ve got to be able to pick up the phone, do it in a safe way, and if you’re hearing impaired, visually impaired or have a physical mobility issue that’s not an option to you.
“It should not have taken the murder of Ann Marie Smith for the Commission to take action against a single provider. I shudder to think about the number of people who are in similar situations around the country with no avenue for justice.
“These systems are supposed to protect disabled people and hold perpetrators to account. They are failing.”

Health professionals in drought and bushfire-affected rural communities have access to extra resources to help them deal with the mental health fallout from these events.
CRANAplus, the peak professional body for Australia’s remote and isolated health workforce, has received Commonwealth funding to provide a suite of webinars, podcasts, and tailor-made workshops for those working on the frontline, to keep themselves and their communities resilient.
Federal Regional Health Minister, Mark Coulton said nurses are the lifeblood of rural areas, responding to complex health needs away from major hospitals and needed support to carry out this vital role.
“We cannot overstate the important role our remote nursing workforce has in helping their local communities get through these tough times,” Minister Coulton said.
“The CRANAplus mental health training workshops are unique and tailored to the specific needs of clinicians in a particular community to help build long-term resilience in our rural and remote health workforce.
“With the summer months fast approaching, it is important to prepare for the upcoming bushfire season by ensuring our health professionals are well supported to respond and help rural communities who might face additional challenges in the months ahead.”
Minister Coulton said Nursing in the Community Week (14-20 September) provided an opportunity to thank all rural and remote nurses who continuously put their heart and soul into caring for communities, especially this year as we face the additional challenge of managing COVID-19.
“I want to thank all the nurses who often go above and beyond the call of duty to care for rural and remote communities, this year has already been particularly challenging for rural Australia,” Minister Coulton said.
CRANAplus CEO, Katherine Isbister said many rural communities have dealt with years of drought, compounded by last summer’s devastating bushfires and now COVID-19.
“Our primary health clinicians are starting to see an increase in complex, trauma-related mental health presentations linked to these events, and we need to support them to continue caring for their communities,” Ms Isbister said.
“In many cases, our rural and remote health professionals have been through the same traumas and challenges as their patients and they haven’t had a break to be able to look after their own wellbeing”
CRANAplus Psychologist, Cath Walker said the free resources were developed in conjunction with experts in the field of disaster recovery and mental health, and can be accessed via the CRANAplus website.
Ms Walker said consultations with clinicians in remote and rural communities have led to training content being developed across four key areas:

• Effects of disaster, long term stress, common reactions and helpful responses.
• Potential for secondary trauma and burnout in health professionals and other carers.
• Resilience and self-care strategies to reduce the potential long-term effect on personal health and wellbeing.
• Increasing confidence with conversation about mental health using basic listening, counselling and communication skills.

“The prolonged disaster-related stress being experienced by some of our rural and remote communities is placing significant pressure on isolated clinicians, who may not have had mental health training, particularly when community members are unable to travel to access specialist mental health care, so it’s vital to provide tools to help the helpers,” Ms Walker said.
Minister Coulton said the Federal Government’s investment totalled more than $13 million over three years to CRANAplus to provide remote health professionals, including community nurses, with access to training, professional services and mental health support.
This builds on existing support available to provide trauma-informed care and mental health first aid training to frontline healthcare and emergency workers, under the Australian Government’s $76 million Supporting the Mental Health of Australians Affected by Bushfires package.
Health professionals in areas affected by drought and/or bushfires interested in a having a local mental health training workshop can contact National Project Manager Kristy Hill at kristy@crana.org.au or visit crana.org.au to access the free resources.
“This initiative complements our existing CRANAplus Bush Support Services 24/7 toll-free support line, 1800 805 391, for rural and remote health professionals and their families,” Ms Isbister said.

The Morrison Government is investing in new and emerging technologies that will support jobs, strengthen our economy and reduce emissions.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the $1.9 billion investment package in future technologies to lower emissions would back jobs now and into the future, cut costs for households and improve the reliability of our energy supply.
The Prime Minister said the Government is supporting the next generation of energy technologies with an extra $1.62 billion for the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to invest, as well as expanding the focus of ARENA and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) to back new technologies that will cut emissions in agriculture, manufacturing, industry and transport.
“Our JobMaker plan is about protecting and creating the jobs of today and positioning Australia for the jobs of the future, which is why our investment in new technologies is so crucial,” the Prime Minister said.
“Australia is in the midst of a world-leading boom in renewable energy with over $30 billion invested since 2017. Solar panels and wind farms are now clearly commercially viable and have graduated from the need for government subsidies and the market has stepped up to invest.
“The Government will now focus its efforts on the next challenge: unlocking new technologies across the economy to help drive down costs, create jobs, improve reliability and reduce emissions. This will support our traditional industries – manufacturing, agriculture, transport – while positioning our economy for the future.
“These investments create jobs and they bring new technologies into play. This will not only cut emissions, but deliver the reliable energy Australia needs while driving down prices for homes and businesses.”
The new package also invests in a range of promising low-emissions, reliable new technology advancements including:

• Supporting businesses in the agriculture, manufacturing, industrial and transport sectors to adopt technologies that increase productivity and reduce emissions through a new $95.4 million Technology Co-Investment Fund that was recommended by the King Review
• Piloting carbon capture projects that will dramatically help cut emissions with a $50 million investment in the Carbon Capture Use and Storage Development Fund
• Helping businesses and regional communities take advantage of opportunities offered by hydrogen, electric, and bio-fuelled vehicles with a new $74.5 million Future Fuels Fund
• Setting up a hydrogen export hub worth $70.2 million to scale-up demand and take advantage of the advancements in this low emissions, high powered source of energy
• Backing new microgrids in regional and remote communities to deliver affordable, reliable power with $67 million
• Contributing $52.2 million to increase the energy productivity of homes and businesses, including a sector specific grant program for hotels supporting equipment and facilities upgrades
• Slashing the time taken to develop new Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) methods from 24 months or more to less than 12 months, involving industry in a co-design process and implementing other recommendations from the King Review into the ERF, worth $24.6 million
• Boosting energy and emissions data and cyber-security reporting and supporting the delivery of future Low Emissions Technology Statements under the Technology Investment Roadmap process, as well as developing an offshore clean energy project development framework, together worth $40.2 million

Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor said getting the next generation of energy technologies right would not only help to keep prices low and the lights on, but would importantly grow jobs, strengthen the economy and reduce emissions.
“We will reduce the cost of new and emerging technologies, not raise the cost of existing technologies or layer in new costs to consumers and businesses through mandated targets or subsidies,” Minister Taylor said.
“The Government recognises the strong growth in emerging energy technologies that will play a role in Australia’s energy mix into the future. We need to get the balance right and our investment to re-energise ARENA will deliver that.
“ARENA has played an important role in this growth, and as the cost of renewable technologies has fallen dramatically, the Government is investing in the future of ARENA to support the next generation of energy technologies.”
The Government’s emissions reduction strategy is focussed on technology not taxes. An approach that doesn’t compromise energy affordability or reliability will be more important than ever as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Government will provide ARENA with guaranteed baseline funding of $1.43 billion over 10 years. ARENA’s baseline funding will be supplemented in two ways:

• Together with the Clean Energy Regulator, ARENA will be approved to deploy a portion of the $2 billion Climate Solutions Fund; and
• ARENA will also become a clean technology grants hub for future initiatives, with a new $193.4 million provided to deploy targeted programs.

The Boards of ARENA and CEFC will continue to be accountable for individual investment decisions. The Government will introduce new legislation so both agencies can support new and emerging low emissions technologies (including zero and negative emissions technologies). That ensures they will be able to support critical technologies such as soil‑carbon sequestration, carbon capture and storage, production of green-steel, and industrial processes to reduce energy consumption.
This package will contribute to Australia’s continued success in meeting and beating our emissions reduction targets. Australia beat its Kyoto-era targets by up to 430 million tonnes and the Government is on track to meet and beat our 2030 Paris target.
As a nation, Australia has done far better than similar export-oriented countries with emissions now 14.3 per cent below 2005 levels. This is an achievement all Australians can be proud of.
Early-stage investment is a proven method to accelerate the development of new and emerging technologies. The Technology Investment Roadmap will provide a strategic framework to prioritise the Government’s investments.