“Aboriginal people are dying from preventable deaths in police custody because the Morrison government is continuing Liberal and Labors’ legacies of inaction,” said Senator Lidia Thorpe, a Gunnai and Gunditjmara woman who is the Australian Greens’ First Nations and Justice spokesperson.
“It’s been 30 years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and the Morrison government has failed to show leadership and implement all 339 recommendations. What’s the point of a Commission if you ignore its findings?”
As a matter of national urgency, The Greens are calling for the full implementation of the Royal Commission’s recommendations, a ban on lethal chokeholds, greater transparency around the reporting of deaths in custody and a culturally safe, properly resourced independent prison oversight system.
“This is a matter of life and death, why should our people keep dying in places where they’re meant to be kept safe?” said Senator Thorpe.
Due to our community protocol, we will not comment on the recent death unless permitted to do so from family.
Month: July 2021
Landmark PBS listing for Australians with bowel cancer
The Morrison Government is providing access to a new treatment through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) to support around Australians who are diagnosed with colorectal cancer, a type of bowel cancer.
In 2020, bowel cancer was the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia, with around 15,000 Australians diagnosed with the disease each year. Sadly more than 5,000 lives are lost to bowel cancer each year, making it the second leading cause of cancer death in Australia.
For the first time, Keytruda® (pembrolizumab) will have its listing extended on the PBS to include the treatment of unresectable or metastatic mismatch repair deficient colorectal cancer.
This is the first immunotherapy treatment available to Australians with this type of cancer, which cannot be removed by surgery or has spread to an area outside the colon/rectum.
Keytruda® belongs to a new class of immunotherapy medicines that help the body’s own immune system to detect and fight cancer cells. The drug is already available on the PBS for other types of cancer, including lung cancer and melanoma.
More than 580 Australians a year will benefit from this listing. Without PBS subsidy, patients might pay more than $150,000 per course of treatment. From 1 August, it will be available for $41.30 per script or just $6.60 if they have a concession card.
This listing has been recommended by the independent Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee.
Earlier this year, the Government announced $9.7 million for a new National Bowel Cancer Screening Program awareness campaign.
The campaign will aim to increase the numbers of Australians taking their free bowel cancer test and will focus on men aged 50 to 59 years, people living in regional and remote Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and individuals from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse communities.
When detected early, the majority of (around 90 per cent) of bowel cancers can be successfully treated.
Our Government is increasing its efforts on cancer screening to help more Australians to get early treatment and beat the disease.
Since 2013, the Coalition Government has approved more than 2,600 new or amended listings on the PBS.
This represents an average of around 30 listings or amendments per month – or one each day – at an overall investment by the Government of $13.2 billion.
The Morrison Government’s commitment to ensuring Australians can access affordable medicines, when they need them, remains rock solid.’
City of Newcastle creates career opportunities for Newcastle youth
City of Newcastle is continuing its commitment to creating career opportunities for Newcastle’s youth in response to high unemployment rates caused by COVID-19.
Eighteen new trainees, apprentices and university graduates have joined City of Newcastle this month, while a 12-month partnership with Career Links to provide employment and workplace learning opportunities for young people helps fulfil a pledge made as part of the City Taskforce’s Youth Employment Charter.
The COVID-19 economic crisis has disproportionately impacted 18-to-25-year-olds, driving the Hunter’s youth unemployment rate to more than 20 per cent last year, significantly higher than the state’s average.
Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said the COVID-19 City Taskforce, led by City of Newcastle and comprising of 17 local leaders, developed a Youth Employment Charter calling on local organisations to affirm their commitment to maintaining and expanding opportunities for local young people.
“In what is one of the most challenging periods for young people looking for work, City of Newcastle is leading the way in supporting youth employment opportunities and pathways to careers,” Cr Nelmes said.
“By prioritising trainee, apprenticeship, and graduate positions we are ensuring there are quality early career opportunities for young people available in Newcastle.
“City of Newcastle fosters an environment where young staff can learn from experienced professionals. In return these youth employees offer us the passion and enthusiasm that comes with commencing a fulltime work career.
“We’re thrilled to welcome a diverse group of young people who have taken up signwriting, civil construction and horticulture apprenticeships; traineeships in early childhood education and arts administrations as well as engineering and information technology graduate positions – just to name a few. This brings our current number of trainees, graduates and apprentices to 44.”
Twenty-four-year-old Kahli Mortimer has commenced a painting apprenticeship with City of Newcastle as part of the latest intake of apprentices, trainees, and graduates.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to begin an apprenticeship with City of Newcastle, especially at a time when many people my age are struggling to find work. The best part of my job is learning the technical parts of my trade and working in so many different and interesting environments. I can see a career at City of Newcastle because my supervisor supports me to learn and be the best I can be in my job, and I also enjoy being a member of my team,” Ms Mortimer said.
Beyond the recruitment of local youth, City of Newcastle and Career Links have joined forces to establish the Newcastle Youth Industry Partnership Program to deliver on the objectives of the Greater Newcastle Youth Employment Charter at a community level.
The program’s focus is to build partnerships with industry, schools and support services to expand real world employment and workplace learning opportunities for young people.
A range of new programs will provide mentoring, workplace learning, transition support and information-sharing interventions to help build employability skills and wellbeing for vulnerable young people, aged 15 to 25 years.
The programs will foster interventions suitable for young people in the Newcastle in need of assistance, with special attention given to people transitioning from school to work and particularly vulnerable groups.
More information can be found on the Career Links website
Public Health Order breaches continue to put community at risk
Police are reminding the community of the continuing state-wide operation to enforce all public health orders, after a number of concerning breaches in the past 24 hours.
Officers across Sydney are focusing on compliance in every PAC and PD across the state, with 160 PINs issued in the past 24 hours. 55 of those were issued to individuals for not wearing a mask.
$7000 worth of fines were also issued to seven people after they were discovered having a birthday party at an office on George St, Sydney.
Deputy Commissioner Mal Lanyon, Metropolitan Field Operations, said police would continue to focus on enforcing all public health orders in every PAC and PD across the state.
“Not only are we continuing our high-visibility compliance operations, but we’re following up every single report to Crime Stoppers too,” Deputy Commissioner Lanyon said.
“Police are investigators and as some of the recent breaches show, if you are a repeat offender or we receive information retrospectively, we will go back and fully investigate every piece of information we receive to ensure community safety.
“Never has compliance with these Health Orders been more vital to the safety of our community, so I would urge everyone to stick to the Health Order and work together to stop the spread.”
The Minister for Police and Emergency Services David Elliott welcomed the decision to stand-up an Emergency Operations Centre in Bass Hill to support Greater Sydney.
“The Centre is run by highly-experienced government and non-government operators who know the Greater Sydney region and understand the needs of their people,” Mr Elliott said.
“The people of Greater Sydney need to be reminded that police are working tirelessly to protect their families and loved ones from harm. But police will have zero tolerance for those carelessly flouting the orders.
“I urge everyone in the area to work with the team at the Emergency Operations Centre and police across the State to fight the spread of this disease,” Mr Elliott said.
PINs issued in the last 24 hours include:
*A total of $7000 worth of fines were issued to seven people after they were discovered having a party inside an office suite on George Street, Sydney late last night. Officers from Sydney City PAC who were performing COVID compliance duties noticed a man outside a building on George Street. Officers approached the man and upon questioning led police to an office suite where a birthday party was taking place. The seven party goers were issued $1000 PINs for breaching the current Public Health Orders.
*A 21-year-old Merrylands man was issued with a PIN for travelling outside the 10km radius without a reasonable excuse. About 11.40am (Monday 19 July 2021), the man attended Bondi Police Station to speak with officers about a Traffic Infringement Notice he was issued the day before. Officers explained that was not a reasonable excuse for him to leave his area and directed him to immediately return to his home in Merrylands. A short time later he was seen standing on Gould Street, Bondi making no attempt to leave the area. Police approached and asked him again to leave. Soon after he was found exercising at the North Bondi outdoor gym area. He was then issued a PIN.
Anyone who has information regarding individuals or businesses in contravention of a COVID-19-related ministerial direction is urged to contact Crime Stoppers: https://nsw.crimestoppers.com.au. Information is treated in strict confidence. The public is reminded not to report crime via NSW Police social media pages.
Personal Protective Equipment for Primary Health Networks in Victoria
The Australian Government has today announced significant quantities of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) will be made available for GPs, community pharmacies and other healthcare providers across Greater Melbourne, Moorabool Shire, City of Greater Geelong, Surf Coast Shire, Borough of Queenscliff and Bass Coast Shire who need to see their patients within their practices.
Health professionals in these areas are able to request a package of PPE from the National Medical Stockpile (NMS) through their local Primary Health Network (PHN) with an initial allocation of up to:
- 725,000 surgical masks;
- 725,000 N95 masks;
- 175,000 pairs of gloves;
- 175,000 gowns; and
- 175,000 goggles.
These will be made available through the five PHNs relevant to the Commonwealth hotspot, namely:
- North Western Melbourne;
- Eastern Melbourne;
- South Eastern Melbourne;
- Western Victoria; and
- Gippsland.
These packages will assist to further supress the COVID-19 infection rate occurring across Melbourne and builds on the recent commitment to support NSW as announced on 12 July 2021.
The Australian Government is committed to ensuring that healthcare professionals have access to the critical PPE supplies they require to continue to safely see their patients during this COVID-19 outbreak.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Australian Government has deployed more than 90 million masks, 5.8 million gowns, 6.5 million pairs of gloves and 1.1 million goggles from the National Medical Stockpile.
More support for youth mental health in Victoria
The Morrison Government is providing $3 million to support young Australians in Victoria, ensuring they can access mental health support if and when they need it during this lockdown.
The funding will be matched by the Victorian Government and delivered through headspace, helping meet the critical demand for youth mental health services across the state.
This additional investment to headspace services, complemented by co-funding from the Victorian Government, will support a surge workforce of clinicians to immediately boost the capacity of 32 headspace services across Victoria for six months.
Minister for Health and Aged Care, Greg Hunt MP, said the Government is profoundly committed to safeguarding the mental health and wellbeing of young Australians, who have been substantially affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is a tough time for our young Australians and we want them to know that they are not alone, which is why we’re putting more health professionals on the ground to meet increased demand,” Minister Hunt said.
It is vital young Victorians can get the mental health support they need, where and when they need it. This is even more so when their lives are upended by COVID-19-related restrictions.”
The funding will also ensure Primary Health Networks and headspace National can integrate activities through the National headspace Program for monitoring and evaluation activities. This further complements the Morrison Government’s $152 million program to reduce wait times and manage demand at headspace services across the nation.
Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention,
David Coleman MP, said the Government had made more than $500 million in direct supports to respond to the mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic including $43.9 million in targeted support for Victorians during the 2020 lockdowns.
“We know that extended lockdowns can have significant impacts on the mental health of young Australians and our Government has worked quickly to ensure that additional support is available for those who need it,” Assistant Minister Coleman said.
If the Victorian lockdown is extended, the Commonwealth will provide additional support in consultation with the Victorian Government.
Targeted mental health support for Victorians during the pandemic has included $12 million to bolster the capacity of Beyond Blue, Lifeline and Kids Helpline, and support headspace outreach services. An additional $31.9 million was also provided last year during Victoria’s extended lockdown to establish 15 HeadtoHelp mental health clinics across Victoria and to further enhance digital and phone services for vulnerable groups.
The Morrison Government continues to make mental health a national priority, investing a record $2.3 billion in the 2021-22 Budget for the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan to lead landmark reform of the mental health system. This includes a record $6.5 billion in mental health and suicide prevention services and supports in 2021-22, doubling since 2012-13.
Australians looking for support throughout the COVID-19 pandemic can access the Beyond Blue Coronavirus Wellbeing Support Service anytime via telephone at 1800 512 348 or online at coronavirus.beyondblue.org.au.
Anyone experiencing distress can seek immediate advice and support through Lifeline (13 11 14), Kids Helpline (1800 55 1800), or the Government’s digital mental health gateway, Head to Health.
If you are concerned about suicide, living with someone who is considering suicide, or bereaved by suicide, the Suicide Call Back Service is available at 1300 659 467 or www.suicidecallbackservice.org.au.
Paralympics Australia outgoing chief executive recognised
Minister for Sport Richard Colbeck has credited outgoing Paralympics Australia chief executive Lynne Anderson for forging greater pathways for athletes.
Ms Anderson has announced she will step down from her role at the end of 2021 after six years leading the organisation.
Minister Colbeck said Ms Anderson had showcased extraordinary leadership during her tenure.
“She has championed the needs of the Australian Paralympic movement starting with those who matter most – the athletes,” Minister Colbeck said.
“Ms Anderson has strengthened the pathways for aspiring para-athletes, taking advantage of every funding opportunity to ensure our Australian representatives can make their mark on the world stage.
“She has worked tirelessly to reinforce athlete welfare – an increasingly important aspect as we navigate the impact of the pandemic on professional sport.”
She has also been a fierce advocate for corporate support.
Minister Colbeck said Ms Anderson’s professionalism and experience extended to her role as a member of the Sport Integrity Australian Advisory Council.
“The Morrison Government, through the establishment of the advisory council, has been able to draw from Ms Anderson’s breadth of experience and professionalism, ensuring matters of sports integrity are dealt with comprehensively,” Minister Colbeck said.
“I thank her for her contributions to sport in Australia and wish her every success in the future.”
Transformation of Hamilton’s James Street Plaza close to complete
After three months of construction the City of Newcastle’s transformation of James Street Plaza on Hamilton’s Beaumont Street is nearly complete.
The last pavers are being laid and the final placement of street furniture, artwork and landscaping is planned for the coming weeks.
Newcastle Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said it is wonderful to see the renewed plaza taking shape for the community to soon enjoy.
“Hamilton locals told us they wanted a safer, more appealing place to spend time, and this really delivers on that vision,” Cr Nelmes said.
“This is a place where we hope to see the community gather and activate the space with music, markets and food.”
Janice Musumeci from Hamilton Business Association Inc said local businesses are looking forward to the plaza being open to the public and a hub for community activity.
“We’re already exploring ideas for how we can activate James Street Plaza for the whole community like live music spots and regular markets. It will be an inclusive and versatile space.
“Hamilton is already seeing great business growth so this will be a great drawcard to bring people back to supporting local businesses.”
Councillor Carol Duncan said the upgrade has been a collaboration with community and business in the area.
“Through our ongoing conversations with business owners we heard lots of ideas for improving this space and how it could be better utilised for the community,” Cr Duncan said.
“It is especially exciting to see the lighting display coming together, with installation underway this week.”
In June the community was asked to vote on their favourite of three lighting designs put forward by the University of Newcastle’s Future Art Science & Technology Lab (FASTLab), each celebrating a different aspect of Hamilton’s history and character.
The “Microcosmic Mosaic” concept proved to be the favourite and was developed into a full-length animation which will soon light up the space.
In addition to the lighting display, the rich history of Hamilton is reflected in artworks in the renewed plaza, informed by the research of local historian Ruth Cotton, author of Hidden Hamilton and through collaboration with the Newcastle Museum.
Final works will take place in the coming weeks before the community is welcomed into the upgraded space next month.
Two new vaccination centres open
Two new NSW Health vaccination centres have opened their doors this morning, boosting the NSW Government’s contribution to the Federal Government’s vaccine rollout.
The growing number of NSW Health sites complements the GP Network, which has and will continue to deliver the majority of COVID-19 vaccines across NSW.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the opening of these centres was another important milestone as NSW Health works towards vaccinating up to 200,000 people each week, if sufficient vaccine supply becomes available.
“The new centres are an important addition to the vaccine rollout and add to the more than 100 NSW Health vaccination clinics and outreach locations across the state,” Ms Berejiklian said.
The mass vaccination centre in Belmont, Lake Macquarie, which has been transformed from an old Bunnings Warehouse into a vaccine centre in six weeks, began administering jabs this morning.
The centre will have capacity to administer up to 20,000 Pfizer vaccinations each week and will employ around 100 nurses, 25 pharmacists/pharmacy technicians, and around 200 other support staff.
The new vaccination clinic on Pitt Street in the Sydney CBD also began administering vaccines this morning, and has capacity to administer up to 7,000 Pfizer vaccinations each week.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard said NSW Health has worked incredibly hard to turn these vaccine centres around within weeks.
“I would like to thank our NSW Health team and the hundreds of nurses, pharmacists/pharmacy technicians and support staff who are ensuring thousands of people receive their vaccine each day,” Mr Hazzard said.
Mass vaccination centres at Macquarie Fields in Sydney’s south-west and Wollongong are set to open in the coming weeks.
To check your eligibility and book an appointment use the vaccine eligibility checker:
https://covid-vaccine.healthdirect.gov.au/eligibility
NSW Police statement regarding Public Health Order breach
Police attached to the hotel quarantine operation were notified of an alleged breach of the Public Health Order (Covid-19 Air Transportation Quarantine) at a hotel on Sussex Street, Sydney, about 8.45pm on Friday (16 July 2021).
Following inquiries, a 46-year-old woman was issued a $1000 Penalty Infringement Notice for not wear face covering yesterday (Sunday 18 July 2021).
NSW Police assisted Australian Border Force with the transfer of the woman to Sydney International Airport this afternoon (Monday 19 July 2021), following the cancellation of her visa, departing to the United Kingdom.