Category: Australian News

Supporting young people around Australia and their mental health is a priority for the Australian Government.
To mark World Suicide Prevention Day and “R U OK?” Day, Minister for Youth and Sport Richard Colbeck urged young people not to battle mental health issues on their own.
“It is particularly important this year as younger generations face the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Minister Colbeck said.
“The Morrison Government has prioritised mental health for all Australians, with a focus on youth and Indigenous Australians.
“It is vital for people to understand that lifting the mental burden starts with a simple conversation – with a friend, a colleague, a family member or somebody in a support role.”
Minister Colbeck said sharing personal issues with somebody is the first step toward a healthier outlook and a better life.
“We lose too many Australians before their time,” he said.  “The decision to take your life is a devastating one and has ripple effects for family and friends, often for generations.
“The Australian Government is more determined than ever to turn around these tragic statistics.”
Minister Colbeck said on top of recent actions to engage young people and identify the challenges they face, the Government has made a commitment of $509 million towards the Youth Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan – the largest strategy of its kind in Australia’s history. Key areas include:

• Strengthening the headspace network by investing an additional $375.0 million to establish an additional 30 new services (10 centres and 20 satellites), reduce waiting times at existing services, continue the Early Psychosis Youth Services program, and expand the Young Ambassadors program;
• A focus on Indigenous suicide prevention with an investment of $14.5 million for tailored initiatives such as a national plan for culturally appropriate care; and
• Reinforcing early childhood and parenting support, by investing $11.8 million in initiatives such as Kids Helpline and batyr.

Minister Colbeck praised organisers for their work to engage those in need through initiatives like “R U OK?” Day which has established itself as an important annual fixture to raise awareness.
“Starting that conversation isn’t always easy but it is so important,” Minister Colbeck said. “Where ever you are, whatever your circumstance – you are not alone.”
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.
More information about R U OK? Day can be found on the website.

The Australian Government has signed a $3.7 million contract with a Melbourne company to supply sterile nasal swab kits to the National Medical Stockpile.
3DMeditech will supply Australian made, 3D printed nasopharyngeal swab kits. The kits will be issued from the stockpile to general practitioners, private pathology providers and state and territory governments according to their need for ongoing coronavirus testing.
The kits will include a nasopharyngeal swab, viral transport “media” (salt solution), and a bio hazard bag.
The swabs are the first sterile 3D printed swabs to be included on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods.
The kits will make it easy and safe for healthcare professionals to collect clinical specimens from people presenting for COVID-19 testing, and for the samples to be transported to testing laboratories.
3DMeditech, based in Port Melbourne, will deliver the first swabs this week, with further deliveries continuing weekly until early March 2021.
The National Medical Stockpile is a strategic reserve of personal protective equipment (PPE) and medicines maintained by the Australian Government for use in a public health emergency, such as the current pandemic.
Finding an Australian supplier of sterile nasal swabs is another positive move for the nation’s health security. Reliance on overseas suppliers can make it difficult to source vital health resources, such as virus testing materials and PPE, when global demand is high.
In recent weeks, our Government has signed major agreements worth over $1.7 billion to ensure Australia can mass produce vital vaccines, including a COVID-19 vaccine.
The production and supply agreements that form part of our Government’s COVID-19 response plan, means Australians will be among the first in the world to receive a vaccine, after trials have proven it to be safe and effective.

Thousands of jobs across the tourism and hospitality industry will be backed through a $50 million injection to help restart Australia’s vital business events sector.
Businesses will be encouraged to attend events, trade shows and conferences within Australia through grants to help cover the costs associated with exhibiting such as the hire of exhibition spaces, the design and manufacture of displays, travel and accommodation.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia’s lucrative $36 billion business events sector had virtually ground to a halt during the COVID-19 crisis.
“Getting business events up and running again will be a critical part of the recovery of our tourism industry, but will also have huge flow-on effects through the entire economy,” Prime Minister Morrison said.
“This is not only about supporting events companies and venues, but will also be a shot in the arm for a broad range of businesses and the people they employ – whether it’s accommodation providers, those who build exhibitions, caterers, cleaners or those offering audio-visual services.”
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development Michael McCormack said the program would provide opportunities and encourage businesses from regional Australia to attend events in their own backyard.
“With many international trade shows out of reach for the time being, making it less expensive and easier for regional businesses to attend events in Australia will also present new opportunities to connect with and secure new customers,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.
“Business events encourage domestic travel and the more events we can lock in, the more people we can get flowing through our airports, on planes and staying in hotels around the country.”
Federal Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham said the sector had been hit hard during the COVID-19 pandemic with around 95 per cent of business events for 2020 either cancelled or postponed.
“Our business events sector is doing it incredibly tough at present and getting events put back into the calendar will help this key part of our tourism industry which supports around 230 000 jobs turn the corner,” Minister Birmingham said.
“By incentivising attendance by exhibitors this should give event companies and organisers across Australia the confidence they need to move ahead with the planning of business events.”
Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews said the investment would also make businesses more resilient.
“Many Australian businesses are looking to each other to strengthen their supply chains, to prevent the shocks they experienced at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Minister Andrews said.
“Connecting businesses through trade shows and conferences will help unlock widespread collaboration and boost domestic capability by creating and expanding local supply chains.”
Under the Business Events Exhibitor Grants program, Australian businesses exhibiting at an approved business meeting, convention, conference and incentives event in 2021 will be able to apply for upfront grants to cover up to 50 per cent of their costs ($10,000 – $250,000).
This initiative is part of the Morrison-McCormack Government’s $1 billion COVID-19 Relief and Recovery Fund, which is supporting regions, communities and industry sectors severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
For more information, go to: www.austrade.gov.au/australian/tourism/tourism-and-business/grants

The Morrison Government is backing Australian businesses to grow their exports and create jobs through reforms to the Export Market Development Grants (EMDG) scheme, after an independent review of financial assistance for small and medium enterprise exporters.
The EMDG scheme is a key Government financial assistance program to help aspiring and current exporters increase their marketing and promotional activities in international markets. Last year alone over 4000 Small and Medium Enterprises accessed the EMDG scheme, employing almost 69,000 Australians and generating exports worth $3.7 billion
Federal Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said better assisting Australian exporters to enter new markets or expand their presence in existing markets would be critical to boosting export activity and supporting Australia’s economic recovery from COVID-19.
“The EMDG scheme has played a critical role in helping hundreds of thousands of Australian exporters to expand into international markets, develop brand recognition overseas and form relationships with potential customers,” Minister Birmingham said.
“COVID-19 has presented new hurdles for Australian exporters including the disruption to supply-chains and loss of markets, and it is more important than ever that they have the support mechanisms in place to help them their reach their export potential.
“Maximising support to Australian businesses as they look to go global or expand their overseas footprint will be vital to continue growing the number of Australian exporters and the total value of Australian exports into the future which will help create more jobs.”
In October last year, the Government commissioned the independent review into the administration of the EMDG scheme. It was led by Ms Anna Fisher, co-owner of Zontes Footstep who was assisted by Australia Post CEO Ms Christine Holgate and Aspen Medical CEO Mr Bruce Armstrong.
Minister Birmingham said the Government accepted in-principle all ten recommendations from the review which centered on cutting red tape, increasing awareness of the scheme and giving exporters more funding certainty.
“Whilst the review found many businesses were overwhelmingly positive about the EMDG scheme, it did find the current reimbursement model provided a lack of funding certainty and that administrative processes were too complex,” Minister Birmingham said.
“By shifting away from a reimbursement model to a grants scheme, eligible exporters will now receive funding closer to when they incur costs, giving more confidence that EMDG funding will genuinely boost their international marketing and promotional activities.
“At the same time, simplifying application processes and reducing the administrative burden on exporters whilst still maintaining integrity in the scheme will allow recipients to focus on boosting export activities and ensure maximum return on taxpayer’s investment.
“I would like to thank Ms Fisher, Ms Holgate and Mr Armstrong for their work in ensuring the scheme remains fit for purpose and will support exporters to be competitive on the world stage into the future.”
Legislation to give effect to these changes to the EMDG scheme is scheduled for introduction into Parliament this year. The new scheme is intended to commence on 1 July 2021 once the new legislation has passed Parliament and associated rules are in place.
Consultations on scheme design and program rules will occur prior to changes coming into effect.
For further information, including the Reviewer’s report, go to: www.austrade.gov.au/Australian/Export/Export-Grants

Today, on World Suicide Prevention Day and R U OK? Day, the Australian Government is officially launching vital suicide prevention aftercare services in six states and territories, as well as providing a further $19 million to extend leading national suicide prevention services.
Suicide prevention is a key priority for the Australian Government. In 2018, 3,046 Australians lost their lives to suicide. Each death is a national tragedy and has a devastating effect on friends, families and communities.
This year, World Suicide Prevention Day recognises our shared responsibility for suicide prevention and urges us to engage with others and join together to spread awareness.
I encourage all Australians to take a minute to think about mental health and how they and the people around them are coping with life’s demands.
It is ok to talk about suicidality, and to assist others reach out for support. Our Government is investing in a range of innovative programmes to make sure that help is available.
One of these programmes is the Way Back Support Service. This initiative, delivered by Beyond Blue, offers vital follow up contact and assistance to people for several months after a suicide attempt or suicidal crisis.
People who have self-harmed or attempted suicide are among the most at risk of dying by suicide. Non-clinical care during this vulnerable time is effective in reducing suicidal thoughts and behaviour.
To support The Way Back, the Australian Government has committed $44.6 million over four years, matched by states and territories, to deliver the service in selected regions across Australia.
The Government has now signed bilateral agreements with the ACT, Northern Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, and Victoria, making the service available in six states and territories. We are continuing to engage with the other jurisdictions.
To further ensure that services and support are available to all Australians, an extra $19 million will be provided for 18 projects, to continue their work as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
This funding, through the National Suicide Prevention Leadership and Support Program, will sustain important support, awareness and stigma reduction activities, research, and leadership until June 2022. This announcement brings the total investment in the programme to over $100 million.
Under the program, organisations such as the OzHelp Foundation and MATES in Construction, are funded to provide training and support to higher risk populations, building wellbeing and resilience in workplaces across Australia.
With so much change and so many challenges this year, the work of organisations like OzHelp and MATES is Construction is critical to supporting mental health and preventing suicide.
Also among the organisations receiving funding though the program is R U OK? Ltd.
R U OK? Day is a day when Australians are asked to connect and have conversations about their wellbeing. In recognition of this year’s theme of “there is more to say after R U OK?”, Australians are also all encouraged to follow up on the initial question, to reach out to someone who looks like they may need help.
Like many of our other activities, R U OK? Day will look different this year because of COVID-19 restrictions. Whether through technology or in person, we can still connect and show we care, in our friendship or family groups, workplaces, schools and community.
As well as urging Australians to reach out to others, I encourage anyone going through tough times to reach out for help, whether in person, through telehealth or a phone or online services.
To ensure that help is available when it is needed, the Australian Government has committed more than $500 million for expanded mental health services since January this year. This builds on record funding for mental health, expected to reach an estimated $5.7 billion this year alone.
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 on their website.
National Suicide Prevention Leadership and Support Program – Funding Breakdown

Leader of the Australian Greens, Adam Bandt, has today announced a portfolio redistribution that will see Lidia Thorpe and Mehreen Faruqi take on a new anti-racism strategy intended to counter Australia’s growing tide of far right nationalism and tackle systemic racism.
The move comes as Lidia Thorpe attends her first Greens Party Room meeting as a Senator this Wednesday and ahead of a fuller redistribution of portfolios by Adam Bandt on Thursday.
Victoria’s first Aboriginal Senator, Lidia Thorpe, will have the First Nations and Justice portfolios, focusing on breaking down the entrenched disadvantage that Aboriginal people face.
Senator Mehreen Faruqi will lead a newly created Anti-Racism portfolio, aimed at sharpening the fight against a toxic surge of the anti-immigrant fringe.
Leader of the Australian Greens, Adam Bandt said that the last two years have seen the far right emboldened in Australian politics, growing from a handful of anti-immigrant politicians to a well-organised, far-right coalition.
“These new portfolios recognise the scale of the challenge that compassionate politics has today,” Mr Bandt said.
“These new portfolios will sharpen the Greens’ fight for justice and put anti-racist work at the core of everything we do.”
“It’s no longer enough to just preach acceptance of diversity. We need to actively prevent hate speech through education, take action against media that uncritically promotes hate, improve standards in our parliament, and dismantle the racist structures that fail to deliver First Nations peoples justice.
“Lidia Thorpe and Mehreen Faruqi will help lead the way as the Greens fight for justice, take on racism and tackle the far-right.”
Senator Lidia Thorpe said despite the rising tide of racism, public support for systemic change is stronger than ever.
“Right now, we stand at a crossroads, as a nation and as a global community. People from all backgrounds are coming together, united by the conviction that no one’s identity or background should limit their potential, safety or their life expectancy,” Senator Thorpe said.
“Across the world, the Black Lives Matter movement has empowered the community to demand justice for First Nations people and people of colour.
“Australia’s continued failures towards First Nations people aren’t just the result of a few bad policy decisions. They’re systemic issues that have become entrenched through decades of inaction.
“If we’re to right these wrongs we need to fix the system. That means ending deaths in custody and the mass incarceration of First Nations peoples, righting the wrongs of the past and moving forward through Treaty, and reversing the entrenched economic inequality that this pandemic has highlighted.
“It’s time to address the systemic racism that cuts lives short and leaves Aboriginal people falling behind. A just Nation means justice for all, including First Nations people.”
Senator Mehreen Faruqi said that anti-racist advocacy and activism was more important than ever.
“Australia hasn’t yet grappled with being the country that raised the Christchurch killer,” Senator Faruqi said.
“We’re going to take the fight to the far-right and their cheerleaders in Parliament and the media to build a proactively anti-racist movement.
“For our country to become anti-racist at its core, we need strong hate speech laws, resources for quashing the far-right, a national anti-racism campaign and diversity in public life.
“The institutions that are meant to protect us haven’t just failed – they’ve become captive to the hate they’re meant to fight. Any nation where police officers feel comfortable with flashing white supremacist hand gestures is not one where people of colour can feel safe.
“Politicians who ignore or encourage the rise of the far-right do so at their own peril. I’m proud of the Greens record of anti-racist work alongside communities of colour.
“Australia’s colonial history and ongoing occupation has to be recognised and addressed head on. I’m looking forward to working with Lidia to do just that.”
The portfolio redistribution has also seen Senator Janet Rice take up the Multiculturalism Portfolio, highlighting how building a diverse and compassionate society is the responsibility of all of us, not just people of colour.

A national consultation process will guide the third set of the Morrison Government’s ground-breaking Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Australian Medical Research and Innovation Priorities for 2020–2022.
This consultation process will ensure the MRFF continues to target national health priorities for better health outcomes.
Determining future health priorities is about taking into account the burden of disease in Australians and the need to enhance the translation of research into clinical practice.
Australia’s health and medical researchers are world class and we continue to drive investment in ways that deliver the practical benefits of medical research and innovation to all Australians.
The landmark $20 billion MRFF is supercharging this growth in Australia’s cutting-edge health and medical research.
It is leading to new cures and treatments across Australia—saving lives and improving lives. The Australian public, organisations with expertise in health and medical research and innovation, consumer representatives, clinicians and health services managers are invited to contribute to the consultation.
Online consultation will begin today, 9 September with submissions to be considered by the Australian Medical Research Advisory Board.
There will also be targeted webinars and virtual roundtables on specific issues and themes to inform this third set of MRFF priorities.
Information about consultation activities will be provided on the MRFF website.
Interested stakeholders can receive the latest information, by subscribing to the MRFF newsletter (www.health.gov.au/using-our-websites/subscriptions/subscribe-to-mrff-newsletter).
The MRFF was established as an endowment fund to provide a sustainable source of funding for vital medical research and is the single largest boost in health and medical research funding in Australia’s history.

The Australian Government is implementing three new measures to help provide increased protection to help reduce the number of healthcare workers being infected with COVID-19.
Today, three new measures will be introduced to help all states and territories learn from what has occurred in Victoria and new information from around the world.
Firstly, a new partnership has been established between the Infection Control Expert Group (ICEG) and the National COVID-19 Evidence Taskforce led by the Living Guidelines Consortium.
With so much evidence emerging so quickly, this partnership will bring together Australia’s leading infection control practitioners, many of whom are frontline clinicians, with other senior healthcare workers, to review the latest evidence on infection prevention and control during COVID-19.
The partnership will contribute to national infection control guidance by providing consensus guidelines on specific infection control issues that have emerged during COVID-19.
Secondly, the AHPPC has endorsed an expansion of national surveillance of healthcare worker infection to ensure we have a better understanding of COVID-19 among healthcare workers at the state and territory level.
This will provide more information on the type of healthcare workers who are becoming infected and enable state and territory governments to target their investigations and interventions based on national-level data.
Thirdly, the Australian Government has funded a new network of epidemiologists – or “disease detectives”. These ‘COVID-NET’ epidemiologists will be available on request by state and territory public health units to assist investigating healthcare worker outbreaks. They will also gather and analyse data on healthcare worker infection at a national level.
We are committed to assisting the states and territories to understand where workplace controls designed to protect healthcare workers have can further strengthened. It is important healthcare facilities to continue to review their controls and strengthen these to ensure workers are better protected.
The Australian Government continues to support hospitals in their efforts to protect their workers from COVID-19.
This includes the provision of vital personal protective equipment, drawn from the National Medical Stockpile.
Since March, over 73 million masks have been dispatched from the National Medical Stockpile to support healthcare workers, aged care workers, States and Territories and to support the disability sector.
Our healthcare workers are doing an outstanding job of bravely caring for the health and wellbeing of Australians who have either contracted – or are suspected to have contracted –COVID-19.
They are at the frontline of our fight against COVID-19 and deserve the greatest possible protection from contracting the virus themselves.
The Australian Government is committed to assisting state and territory governments to ensure healthcare workers receive the protection they deserve.