September 2021 – Page 13

COVID support payments expanded for workers and vulnerable communities across NSW

The NSW Government today announced an additional $287.5 million in COVID-19 financial support to assist workers and vulnerable communities in metropolitan, regional and rural NSW.
The additional funding will see the COVID-19 emergency hardship payments, test and isolate support payments and community empowerment grants expanded across all of NSW.
Deputy Premier John Barilaro said the funds will assist workers and vulnerable people under financial strain due to the COVID-19 restrictions across the State.
“The expansion and extension of the emergency hardship payment will provide assistance to people across all of NSW who are under severe financial strain but are not eligible for other support payments and grants,” Mr Barilaro said.
“The test and isolate payment will help people to test early and isolate if they have COVID symptoms. This payment will help take the pressure off if an individual does not have access to leave entitlements or other support payments.
“Grants for culturally and linguistically diverse groups have also been expanded to connect multicultural communities with essential services throughout the pandemic.”
NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said the new $287.5 million funding commitment is in addition to the NSW Government’s existing commitment of $7.7 billion in COVID-19 support measures.
“As lockdown continues, we want to make sure support is provided where it’s needed and no communities are forgotten,” Mr Perrottet said.
“We’re providing those under severe financial strainmoney in their bank accounts to help them through the lockdown and we’re supporting workers to test early and isolate so we can save lives and livelihoods across the State.
“We’re also supporting multicultural organisations which are best placed to connect migrant communities with vital health services to ensure our vaccination rate keeps climbing – as that’s really key to our State’s recovery.”
The NSW Government’s additional $287.5 million funding commitment includes;

The emergency hardship, one-off payment of $400 administered by the Red Cross which has been expanded to temporary visa/no visa holders in NSW who are facing severe financial hardship and are not eligible for other government income. To apply visit: https://www.redcross.org.au/get-help/help-for-migrants-in-transition/help-for-migrants-in-transition/nsw-relief
The test and isolate payment of $320 which has now been expanded state-wide. It is available for eligible workers aged 17 and over, who have symptoms of COVID-19, to get tested and isolate until a negative result is returned. The payment is available to NSW workers who do not have sick, carer’s or pandemic leave. To apply visit: https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/apply-test-and-isolate-support-payment
Community supports grants which have been expanded across NSW to help organisations deliver emergency food relief, promote vaccination and testing services, and provide culturally appropriate support and care to diverse communities.

Fostering safety and stability for children

People are being encouraged to shine a light on the life-changing work of foster and kinship carers by nominating them for a Carer Recognition Award to mark the start of Foster and Kinship Care Week.
Minister for Families, Communities and Disability Services Alister Henskens said more than 18,000 carers across NSW have opened their hearts and homes providing safety and stability to vulnerable children and young people.
“Foster and kinship carers provide vulnerable children with a solid foundation on which they can grow and thrive,” Mr Henskens.
“During the pandemic, they’ve stepped up and taken on extra challenges like remote learning, and the Carer Recognition Awards are an opportunity to celebrate their extraordinary contribution and to say thank you.”
The NSW Government is strengthening support for foster and kinship carers, prospective adoptive parents and guardians through My Forever Family NSW, which provides information, education, training and support to carers.
My Forever Family NSW is also leading a renewed recruitment drive to recruit new adoptive parents, guardians and foster carers.
“We need more people to open their homes and hearts to children in out-of-home care either in a permanent or part-time way,” Mr Henskens said.
“The support you give now can last a lifetime and I encourage anyone who is up for a rewarding and life-changing experience to consider becoming a carer.”
To find out more about the Carer Recognition Awards and for more information about becoming a foster carer, visit https://www.myforeverfamily.org.au/.

Applications open for $10 million COVID-19 Partnership Grants program

Applications have opened for eligible grassroots organisations to share in a $10 million funding package, to support vulnerable people and multicultural communities living in priority areas during the current COVID outbreak.
Minister for Multiculturalism Natalie Ward said the program would support non-Government organisations (NGOs) to link those in need with vital support services, including family and parenting supports, food and essential items, and specialist counselling to address issues such as mental health concerns, drug and alcohol abuse and family and domestic violence.
It will target those needing urgent help in the 12 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of concern, including those who are required to isolate due to COVID-19.
“This program will boost the delivery of more critical services that vulnerable people and multicultural communities are increasingly relying on,” Mrs Ward said.
“The current outbreak is amplifying hardships for already vulnerable people in our community including recent migrants, young people and seniors.
“We know more emergency support is needed now, and the NSW Government is responding quickly.”
The $10 million COVID-19 Partnership Grants program is part of a $18.8 million emergency relief package being delivered by the NSW Government, a record amount during this current outbreak.
Attorney General and Minister for Prevention of Domestic and Sexual Violence Mark Speakman said listening and responding to community feedback during the pandemic has been a top priority for the Government.
“So many are doing it tough right now, and that includes women and children impacted by domestic violence whose abuse may have been exacerbated due to the lockdown restrictions,” Mr Speakman said.
“Importantly, this program will help those who must isolate due to COVID-19, to make sure they can continue to have access to the support services they need at this critical time.”
Eligible organisations, who already provide proven support services to vulnerable members of the community in the 12 LGAs of concern, will be directly invited by the Department of Communities and Justice to participate in the program.

Female Officer charged with DV – North West Metropolitan region

A police officer has been charged with alleged domestic violence-related offences.
Officers from Parramatta Police Area Command commenced an investigation into an alleged domestic-related incident involving two women, aged 44 and 24, at a home in Sydney’s west earlier this month.
Following inquires, the 44-year old senior constable, attached to a specialist command, was issued a court attendance notice for common assault (DV).
She is due to appear at Parramatta Local Court on Wednesday 27 October 2021.
The officer’s duty status is currently under review.

Tertiary education job destruction laid bare

Australian Greens Education spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has said that a new report by the Centre for Future Work estimating 40,000 job losses is a devastating exposure of the extent of the insecure work crisis in higher education.
Senator Faruqi said:
“Tens of thousands of job losses amount to nothing less than complete decimation of large parts of our tertiary education sector.
“Workers at our universities and TAFEs have been completely hung out to dry by an uncaring government and, more often than not, neoliberal management.
“Morale across tertiary education is at historic lows. This is in no small part due to casualisation and insecure work, which is rife in higher education and must be combatted.
“It’s hard to separate this devastation from the Liberals’ thinly-veiled contempt for tertiary education, and universities in particular.
“Not only were universities excluded from JobKeeper, they were targeted by the so-called ‘Job-ready Graduates’ fee hikes and funding cuts. The consequences of this are now being felt across the country.
“This is having devastating impacts for university staff, students and education now, and the reverberations will be felt for decades to come unless the government provides the investment needed to support and advance the sector. ”

Labor to make climate central to the US alliance

Our collective attention has recently been focused on the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks in the US, and our invoking of the ANZUS Treaty. It has also been absorbed by assessment of the 20-year war in Afghanistan, which arose from the events of September 11, and which so recently came to a painful, if not tragic, end. Such reflection is natural and necessary. But it is important to recognise that the Australia-US relationship has seen incredible change and endured.
The recent 70th anniversary of ANZUS provided an opportunity to look at how the Australia-US alliance will serve our futures in an increasingly challenging world. And with AUSMIN – our regular foreign affairs and defence ministerial talks with the US – on the horizon this week, it is time for ambitious action.
Without our US allies, our efforts and the efforts of many other countries to evacuate thousands of citizens, permanent residents and visa-holders from Kabul in past weeks would have been wishful thinking. US leadership came at great cost – 13 service men and women lost as they sought to help others. We mourn alongside our US friends, and offer our condolences for the many Afghans who were killed and wounded.
But, rather than alliances fraying, what is emerging is a new phase of US-led global collective action on Afghanistan and a shift to looking at how institutions such as the ANZUS relationship can be put to work in our neighbourhood. The geopolitical imperatives that drove the signing of the ANZUS Treaty have changed, but geopolitical imperatives have not gone away. Labor has long recognised the central importance of building and evolving the relationship in the face of changing conditions.
Prime minister Bob Hawke’s 1984 Parliamentary Statement entrenched the “full knowledge and concurrence principle”, since reaffirmed by successive governments. The principle set the foundation for a program of reform directly aimed at new and emerging 21st-century security challenges from space, satellite and defence communications infrastructure to cyber.
Labor governments also upgraded and modernised facilities, including deployment of a new jointly operated US C-Band Radar at the Harold E. Holt Naval Communications Station and the relocation of an advanced US Space Surveillance Telescope to Australia.
Prime minister Julia Gillard secured the rotation of US Marines through Darwin, greater use of Australian airfields in our north and west, and the promise of increased US Navy use of our Indian Ocean naval base at HMAS Stirling. The Gillard government also initiated its own Force Posture Review, Australia’s first since the 1980s. Its report in 2012 underpinned the rollout of the new level of alliance defence co-operation we have seen since then.
It was also Labor that adopted Australia’s first National Security Strategy in 2013, a move the Coalition government has failed to repeat, despite calls for this from a wide range of respected national security leaders. The 2020 Strategic Update warned of the rapidly changing circumstances in our region and stressed a 10-year warning time was no longer an appropriate basis for defence planning. This means we can no longer assume Australia will have time to adjust military capability and preparedness gradually in response to emerging challenges.
This, alongside the US’s current Global Force Posture Review, means it is time for Australia, too, to have a closer look at our posture to ensure it is fit for the times. Labor has therefore committed to a new Defence Force Posture Review, something the Morrison government has also failed to do, despite more than nine years passing since the last Labor-led review.
A further manifestation of how our alliance relationship needs to keep evolving is climate change. We know the risk climate bears on our security. We have vividly seen its impact on ADF operations already, whether responding to the 2019-20 bushfire crisis or disaster assistance missions such as Operation Fiji Assist. We also know it will have major impacts in our region, destroying hard-won development gains and increasing fragility.
Australia’s action on climate change will shape whether our interests prosper in partnership with our neighbours and our US ally. On coming to office, I will make comprehensive US-Australia co-operation on climate change a hallmark of our alliance.
Finally, the US as our biggest investor remains central to our economic prosperity and is our key partner in maintaining and building the global rules-based order. Labor welcomes the return of US leadership in that order under President Joe Biden.
The US and Australia have worked closely to build and strengthen this order. But the challenges we face demand we be even more ambitious about what we do together and with our mutual friends across the region.
Vice-President Kamala Harris and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin’s recent Southeast Asia visits were welcome first moves. We hope to see this engagement grow rapidly. Australia has an opportunity and the responsibility to work closely with the new administration as it develops its Indo-Pacific strategy. We should never forget it is Australia’s partnerships and leadership in the Indo-Pacific that are the principal value-add we bring to the alliance.

Morrison government secures a million more Moderna doses to bolster community pharmacy vaccine program

The Morrison Government has secured an additional one million Moderna doses from European Union member states to further bolster Australia’s vaccination programme.
The extra doses, along with the first shipment of the already contracted doses, will arrive within the next week and go directly to local community pharmacies across the country and into the arms of Australians.
This comes at the same time that the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) is now also recommending Moderna for everyone 12 years and older. In line with approval by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), everyone aged 12-59, including families, can access these doses from their community pharmacy.
The doses have been sourced by the Government from surplus vaccines destined for Spain, Czech Republic, Portugal and Bulgaria and will further bolster the community pharmacy vaccine rollout.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the extra supplies of Modena represented a family sized dose of hope.
“Families will now be able to go along together to their pharmacy to get their vaccinations,” the Prime Minister said.
“This additional supply also enables us to direct urgent supplies where they are needed most, and make up the final ground for everyone in Australia to be offered a jab, originally set back in January for in October.
“In October we’re going to have enough vaccines in the country to have offered everyone a jab meaning we’ll be able to take the next steps in our plan to safely reopen Australia.
“First thing’s first to take the steps to safely reopening – get vaccinated. The next few weeks are going to be critical to encourage your friends, family and colleagues to get the vaccine.
“As all these extra doses arrive in Australia we’ll see queues for vaccines cut at the more than 9,000 places you can get vaccinated. Mum, dad and the kids will also be able to go to their local community pharmacist to get vaccinated as a family all at the same time.
“These are doses of hope for families in particular as we move to reopen Australia safely.
“These additional Moderna doses build on four million Pfizer doses sourced from the United Kingdom, one million from Poland and 500,000 from Singapore.
“I’d like to thank the European Commission and partnering countries for their cooperation, and Sweden and Norway for their assistance. I also thank Moderna with whom we have also worked closely to secure this arrangement.”
Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Women, Marise Payne said Australia’s network of diplomats had been working around the clock in securing agreements such as this.
“This agreement further demonstrates the important role our diplomats play and the strength of Australia’s bonds with European nations and the European Union,” Minister Payne said.
“Australia is committed to working with all partners across the world because our shared recovery from COVID-19 depends on it.”
The safety of the Australian people is the Government’s top priority and upon arrival the Moderna doses will undergo the same TGA batch release process as all other COVID-19 vaccines.
With the vaccine rollout program expanding throughout community pharmacies, Minister for Health and Aged Care Greg Hunt said local community pharmacies would begin to receive Moderna doses within a fortnight.
“These doses are adding additional capacity and will further ramp up the vaccination rate of young Australians,” Minister Hunt said.
“Australia’s vaccine rollout is continuing to hit record levels every day, with 22.4 million doses delivered nationally. Some 13.6 million people have had one dose, and over 41 per cent of the eligible population are now fully vaccinated.”
These doses plus Australia’s already contracted supply will be shared with over 3600 community pharmacies across Australia. Up to 1800 Pharmacies will begin to receive doses through the week of the 20th of September and the next 1800 pharmacies will follow shortly after.
Supplies will arrive later this week and go through standard clearing procedures with the TGA.
National President of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia Trent Twomey said pharmacies across the country were ready to help even more Australians to be vaccinated.
“Community pharmacies have kept their doors open during bushfires, floods and a once in a generation global pandemic,” Mr Twomey said.
“Community pharmacies are now stepping up to vaccinate Australian families against COVID-19.
“I encourage all Australians to visit their local community pharmacy and roll up their sleeves to get vaccinated.”
Getting vaccinated at your local community pharmacy is easy and convenient.
So far approximately half a million AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines have been administered through community pharmacies across the country.

City to progress significant remediation of former Shortland landfill site

City of Newcastle will soon go to tender to remediate a former landfill site at Shortland where much of the debris from the Newcastle earthquake was buried.
The work will be brought forward following preliminary investigations that show the scale of work will be significantly more complex and costly than previously expected.
The former Astra Street landfill opened in 1974, taking waste from across the Hunter until it was closed in 1995.
Acting Director Infrastructure and Property Joanne Rigby said City of Newcastle has been working with the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) on a plan to remediate the site and protect the nearby RAMSAR-listed Hunter Wetlands.
“City of Newcastle is committed to ensuring historic sites like Astra Street Shortland are not forgotten and we work closely with the EPA to ensure they’re adhering to modern environmental management standards,” Ms Rigby said.
“We have completed our preliminary investigations and finalised two detailed designs, which will improve the 20-year-old capping and drainage on the 37-hectare site.”
Ms Rigby said the detailed designs had allowed City of Newcastle to update their project estimates, with cost efficiencies and innovative methodologies to be explored where possible during the tender process.
“Following further assessments of the site, the cost of the remediation work is expected to significantly increase on initial estimates, which will need to be factored into the 2021 Budget,” Ms Rigby said.
“City of Newcastle will invite tenders from five companies identified during an expression of interest process to carry out the construction of these enhanced environmental safeguards, with work expected to get underway next year.
“This will include the final capping and reprofiling of the site, drainage improvements to aid in management of surface water and sediment runoff, followed by revegetation and landscaping.
“These works will allow City of Newcastle to help protect and maintain the local environment well into the future, safeguarding the water quality of surrounding wetlands and aquatic ecosystems, increasing biodiversity values and promoting long-term native vegetation growth.”

City's commercial kitchen facilities dish up support to charities

With the city in lockdown, City of Newcastle has handed over its unused commercial kitchen facilities to help charities prepare healthy meals for families struggling to get by.
Newcastle City Hall’s Executive Chef, Mark Rusev, is putting his culinary skills to use by preparing meals to be delivered to families at Ronald McDonald House.
The City’s commercial kitchen at the Fort Scratchley Function Centre has also been donated to Catholic Care Social Services where they will prepare 300 healthy meals each week.
Newcastle Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said City of Newcastle’s Civic Services Venues & Catering team reached out to local charities to offer up the City’s unused commercial kitchen facilities, to help charities meet increased demand.
“Many Newcastle families are experiencing financial difficulty and facing economic uncertainty as a result of the prolonged lockdown, placing immense strain on local charities,” Cr Nelmes said.
“Due to current restrictions, our facilities’ commercial kitchen spaces are temporarily not operating, so our Civic Services Venues & Catering team came up with an initiative to open their kitchens to support charities who have either had to scale up due to COVID-19, or have been adversely affected by the lockdown measures.
“City of Newcastle team members have supported Ronald McDonald House in recent years by visiting the house to prepare meals for families, so this is a wonderful way of continuing our support in a COVID-safe way by cooking in our own facilities and delivering the meals.”
Ronald McDonald House Community Engagement Coordinator Kerryn Scully said she was appreciative of the City of Newcastle’s offer to cook meals for families staying at the House during the current lockdown.
“Families staying at Ronald McDonald House are finding it very difficult at the moment to simply pop down to the supermarket to purchase ingredients to prepare their own meals, as they need to remain extra vigilant to COVID-19 in order to protect their child undergoing vital treatment at John Hunter Children’s Hospital,” Ms Scully said.
“Some families stay with us for 100 days or more, so the cost of purchasing takeaway meals every night is an expensive option for families already under financial strain, and takeaway options are not always healthy.
“We are so grateful to our generous community and the City of Newcastle team for their kind gesture to prepare and deliver quality meals prepared by Executive Chef Mark Rusev. Our beautiful families are doing it extremely tough at the moment and this is just one less problem they have to face, allowing them to focus on supporting their child.”