Month: November 2021

The Morrison Government is providing additional support, reducing the out of pocket costs for hundreds of Australians living with epidermolysis bullosa, a rare genetic disorder which requires specialised wound dressings.
Epidermolysis bullosa, which mainly affects children can be a painful and debilitating condition, resulting in extremely fragile and blister prone skin.
Around 260 Australians require specialised dressings and for those living with the most severe form of the disease, the dressings can cost them around $5,000 a month.
Minister for Health and Aged Care, Greg Hunt, said the Morrison Government has approved 46 new products to be listed on the National Epidermolysis Bullosa Dressing Scheme (NEBDS) Product Schedule.
“These new products will provide additional support for Australians, helping to manage their costs for dressings, reduce their out of pocket costs,” Minister Hunt said.
“Recommended by the NEBDS Clinical Advisory Committee, the 46 additions include new and improved technology designed to enhance wound care and accelerate healing.
“In 2020-21, our Government invested $3.35 million through the NEBDS, which continues to help Australian patients access wound dressings. Instead of paying thousands of dollars a month, patients will only pay $41.30 per script or $6.60 with a concession card for each monthly order of dressings.”
Management of the Scheme is also being streamlined to enable recommended listings to occur sooner, which will improve patient access and support efficiency by enabling the Department of Health to approve minor changes and costs.
Access to the NEBDS is restricted to patients who meet the clinical eligibility criteria and are registered by a clinical expert. Patients participating in the Scheme are required to pay a contribution equivalent to the relevant PBS co-payment for each monthly order of dressings.
At 1 July 2021, there were 368 individual dressing/wound care products on the NEBDS Product Schedule.
More information about the NEBDS is available online – https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/national-epidermolysis-bullosa-dressing-scheme-nebds

The Morrison Government is securing Australia’s economic recovery by backing businesses to succeed and create jobs with a further $33 million to support Australian made food and beverage companies.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the funding was part of the latest round of the $1.3 billion Modern Manufacturing Initiative (MMI).
“Liberals and Nationals will continue to protect and grow manufacturing jobs to secure Australia’s economic recovery,” the Prime Minister said.
“More than one million Australians are once again employed in manufacturing and we want businesses to be successful and create even more jobs.
“Under Labor, one in eight manufacturing jobs were lost and Australians can’t risk this sort of economic mismanagement as we begin to open up again.”
Seven Australian companies will share in the funding, which will unlock new manufacturing opportunities, boost production, and create more jobs across the country.
The investment would boost manufacturing from Kingaroy in the north, to Hobart in the south.
Food and beverage production is the largest manufacturing sector in Australia, employing one in four manufacturing workers and contributing around $22.4 billion to our economy.
Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor said these grants would bolster the thriving food and beverage sector and unlock further significant investment from the sector.
“This funding will help some of the most innovative producers leverage technology to increase their production, while meeting growing export demand and creating new local jobs,” Minister Taylor said.
“Not only will this funding help maximise the agricultural advantages we enjoy, but it will also help regional Australia and the supply chains that operate throughout it.”
The successful Food and Beverage recipients under the Initiative are:

• Sabrini Foods (VIC, NSW, SA) will use $1.4 million to become the first local manufacturer to transform Aussie dairy into extended shelf life and frozen paneer, overcoming one of the constraints to export.
• Bulla (VIC) will use $4.5 million for a purpose-built facility to make new ice cream lines such as cones and sandwiches from Australian dairy for sale here and overseas.
• Plenty Foods (QLD) will use its $9 million in funding to transform Australian nuts into locally-made protein nut flour.
• Turbine Sunshine Coast (QLD) will use its $8.7 million in funding to establish a research and development centre and large-scale contract beverage manufacturing facility.
• Mulgowie Fresh (QLD, VIC) will use its $5.1 million in funding to expand its processing capability and capacity in sweet corn and beans, increasing its supplies both domestically and in South East Asia.
• Sullivans Cove Distillery (TAS) will use its $3.3 million in funding to help build its new state-of-the-art production facility, which doubles as a world-class tourism experience.
• Ennio (SA) will use its $ 1.3 million in funding to develop its world-first patented technology for manufacturing nettings and casings specifically for the global meat and poultry industry.

The MMI is the centrepiece of the Government’s $1.5 billion Modern Manufacturing Strategy, designed to position Australia as a globally recognised, high-quality and sustainable manufacturing nation.
Food and Beverage is the fourth stream of funding across priority areas identified under the MMI, and follows $100 million invested in Space, Medical Products, and Resources Technology and Critical Minerals Processing announced in July.
Funding across the remaining areas of Recycling and Defence will be announced soon.
To learn more about the Strategy and the MMI visit www.industry.gov.au/manufacturing

As the Glasgow climate summit comes to a head and the Liberals’ weak 2030 targets place Australia under increasing pressure, Scott Morrison is again readying Australia to sabotage a global climate consensus by blocking political momentum for a ‘ratcheting up’ of 2030 targets.
With Australia failing to raise ambition for 2030, the draft communique from COP26 is planning to specifically call upon nations who have insufficient mid-term targets to return next year to COP27 in Egypt with increased ambition consistent with the science.
The Liberal Party has a demonstrated history of sabotaging international climate talks by blocking consensus and demanding the right to keep polluting. The notorious ‘Australia clause’ loophole that allowed countries like Australia to increase its emissions under the Kyoto Protocol was added into the agreement at the demand of the then Howard Government.
“Scott Morrison is getting ready to sabotage global climate action just to save face,” Greens Leader, Adam Bandt, said.
“Scott Morrison must not hold the rest of the world back from climate action just to suit his domestic climate denial.
“If we don’t do more by 2030, we won’t stop the climate crisis. The rest of the world gets that and they’re urging countries like Australia, Russia and Saudi Arabia to do more.
“Instead of trying to fudge the science and rip clauses out of the Glasgow agreement, Scott Morrison should sign on to the agreement and lift Australia’s 2030 targets, like the US and UK have done.”
“Removing clauses that recall nations who fail to increase 2030 ambitions may appease the coal and gas corporations in the lead up to the 2022 election, but it gives cover for other recalcitrant petrostates to join Australia’s lead and refuse to act.
“We’re in a critical decade for climate action and the rest of the world is no longer distracted by the Liberals’ accounting tricks. The only action that will count is urgently phasing out coal, oil and gas, the main causes of the climate crisis.
“This draft communique recognises the urgency from the latest IPCC report. Pushing back action to later decades is as dangerous as climate denial.”

Gomeroi man, Stanley Russell, a father, was shot dead by NSW police. His brother, Eddie Russell, died in police custody in 1999. “Violence against First Nations people is a national crisis and the Morrison Government is doing nothing about it,” said Gunnai, Gunditjmara and DjabWurrung Senator for Victoria Lidia Thorpe.
Greens spokesperson for Justice and First Nations, Senator Lidia Thorpe said:
“This is colonial violence. This is the continuation of the genocidal project that started in 1788. Over 470 people have died since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and we’re still waiting for true accountability. Is the system broken, or working according to its design?
“The police are supposed to protect people, not kill them. Why does being around the police have fatal consequences for First Nations people? My heart aches for this family. The police have a duty of care and that has been completely ignored for this family.
“We’ve had the solutions to end deaths in custody for over 30 years. The Morrison Government needs to work with the families of people who have died in police custody and implement all of the recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. How many more of us need to die?
“The Greens have listened to the families and we are joining their call for a national ban on spit hoods and lethal choke holds, greater transparency in reporting deaths in custody and more funding for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services and Family Violence Prevention Legal Services and their peak bodies.
“As a matter of national urgency, we’re also calling for the full implementation of an independent prison oversight system under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT). Without independent monitoring of places of detention, more First Nations people will die in custody.
“OPCAT is a critical instrument of international human rights law. It needs to be culturally safe, properly resourced and nationally consistent. The Liberal party signed onto it in 2017, and since then have done the bare minimum and called it progress.
“Everyone has the right to be treated fairly, no matter where they are. Humane treatment in police custody cannot be a game of chance. Every person in this country deserves to be treated with dignity and be free from torture. Always.” Said Thorpe.
The Office of Senator Thorpe has asked for permission from the family to speak on this, and use their names.
David Shoebridge, Greens NSW MP said: 
“Deaths in custody are not an accident, they are the result of a criminal justice system that is designed to be dangerous, often lethal, for First Nations people.
“Recurring deaths in custody send renewed waves of pain and hurt across communities. It never seems to have an end.“This is a national crisis that many political leaders refuse to recognise, because those that pay the cost are not the people they are in power to represent.
“Indifference, platitudes and empty gestures from politicians allow these killings to continue, and it’s well past time they were held to account for their inaction,” Said Shoebridge.

Attorney-General and Minister for Industrial Relations, Michaelia Cash will today open a national forum hosted by Commonwealth work health and safety (WHS) regulator Comcare, focussing on the prevention, management and regulation of workplace sexual harassment.
“I am proud to launch this forum today as it brings together WHS regulators, professionals and employers across the country to promote cultural change in our workplaces. That’s reflected in the forum’s theme – Influencing positive change,” said the Attorney-General.
“Education is a central to the Government’s action to implement the ‘Roadmap for Respect: Preventing and Addressing Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces’. The forum will help drive a national approach to prevention strategies, as announced in the 2021-22 Budget.”
Participants will hear from a range of speakers at the event including Sex Discrimination Commissioner and Chair of the Respect@Work Council, Kate Jenkins, who will focus on the findings of her landmark National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces.
The program has been co-designed in collaboration with Safe Work Australia and state and territory WHS regulators. It will help to ensure that WHS authorities are equipped to assist businesses and workers to understand their duties and obligations in relation to sexual harassment under WHS laws, and deliver best practice regulation.
The forum builds on the education resources Comcare has developed in collaboration with the Australian Human Rights Commission and aligns with the national Guidance from Safe Work Australia. These resources provide practical guidance for employers, managers, supervisors and workers to prevent and respond to workplace sexual harassment.
For more information on the event, visit the Comcare website.
If you need immediate assistance or support you can contact 1800RESPECT: 1800 737 732.