Category: Australian News

The Greens condemn the major parties for voting to create a backdoor for dirty donors to bypass state donations laws.
Greens Leader in the Senate and spokesperson for Democracy, Senator Larissa Waters, said:
“Once again, we see the major parties going to every length to keep the dirty donations flowing to their coffers.
“These new laws allow donors to bypass state donations laws. If we leave this backdoor wide open, we will see big money flowing to state parties under the guise of ‘federal purposes’.
“Thanks to pressure from the Greens, Queensland Labor has banned the corrupting influence of donations from property developers. Yet both Labor and the Libs just voted for laws that will undermine those protections.”
Labor sided with the government to oppose Greens amendments that would have lowered the disclosure threshold, capped donations at $1,000 each year, and stopped all donations from industries – such as mining, banking, and gambling – with a track record of trying to buy political outcomes.
“We had a chance today to stop corporations from buying their seats at the table; but the big parties remain all too willing to sell democracy to the highest bidder,” Senator Waters said.
“Corporate money should have no place in parliament. It’s time the government cleaned up legalised corruption and put public need ahead of party greed.”

The Australian Government is backing several Australian research projects aimed at finding breakthrough treatments, diagnostics and – the ultimate – a vaccine in the fight against COVID-19.
Our Government has allocated $10.4 million for 13 early stage biomedical projects through Biomedical Translation Bridge (BTB) program, which forms part of the landmark Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF).
Five of them are COVID-19 research projects receiving $4.1 million. A key project, conducted by the University of Melbourne, involves developing an innovative ventilated hood for patients in isolation.
The Hood provides better respiratory treatment for patients, reducing the need for invasive ventilation, and also gives hospital staff greater protection from COVID-19, reducing viral levels in the immediate surroundings.
The novel hood is effective, comfortable, reusable and can be rapidly improved for urgent supply to Australian hospitals, clinics, GP surgeries, and beyond. A smaller, mobile version under development will have significant health benefits in developing countries and for patient transport.
Other COVID-19 research projects include a vaccine candidate being developed in South Australia, a new treatment for respiratory complications of COVID-19, a preventive nasal spray, and a rapid response test to predict how severely the disease will progress.
The remaining eight projects, receiving $6.3 million, will help patients of the future with new treatments and diagnostics for conditions such as muscular dystrophy, breast cancer, metabolic and fibrotic disease, prostate cancer, ataxia, antimicrobial resistance and the Zika virus.
Industry partners have contributed a further $28 million to the 13 projects, complementing our Government’s investment of $10.4 million – this means a total of $38.4 million is being invested into the biomedical sector.
The BTB is a four year $22.3 million MRFF program, operated by MTPConnect.
It helps researchers transform their ideas into new treatments to help tomorrow’s patients. These investments are from the second and third rounds of the BTB program.
Research is a key weapon in the fight against COVID-19.
The emphasis of the BTB program is on rapid translation of ideas into new products and treatments that will make a real difference to patients, both in Australia and globally.
Research is also about jobs and exports – which is particularly important as we tackle both the social and economic disruption of the pandemic to our lives and livelihoods.
Further details of the 13 successful projects are listed here.
BTB Round 2 recipients:
Bard1 Life Sciences Limited, VIC (ASX listed) is developing a novel high-throughput SubB2M-based liquid biopsy blood tests for breast cancer screening and monitoring based on a unique cancer-specific probe.
Cincera Therapeutics Pty Ltd, VIC/SA is developing a new drug treatment for Metabolic and Fibrotic Disease.
Envision Sciences Pty Ltd, SA is developing diagnosis and prognostic detection methods for prostate cancer, using blood and tissue samples.
LBT Innovations Limited, SA (ASX listed) is developing APAS®-AMR: An Automated Plate Assessment System for Anti-Microbial Resistance using Artificial Intelligence.
Pharmaxis Ltd, NSW (ASX listed) is developing compound PXS-4699 with tailored dual action to treat Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
The University of Adelaide, SA is developing a world-first needle-free Zika virus vaccine.
The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, VIC is developing a device for guiding therapy in ataxia and imbalance.
UniQuest Pty Ltd, QLD is developing first-in-class drug candidates for the treatment of prostate and other cancers.
BTB COVID-19 Round 3 recipients:
Dimerix Bioscience Pty Ltd, VIC (ASX listed) is developing a new treatment for respiratory complications as a result of COVID-19 in a global clinical study with a potential fast track pathway to clinical practice.
Starpharma Pty Ltd, VIC (ASX listed) is developing an intranasal spray, utilising an already-marketed, broad-spectrum antiviral dendrimer for COVID-19 and potential use in future pandemics.
SpeeDx Pty Ltd, NSW is developing the InSignia(TM) Respiratory Virus Host Response test – a rapid-response COVID-19 assay to enhance Australia’s current and future pandemic preparedness.
University of Melbourne, VIC is developing a novel ventilated hood for patient isolation to provide better patient respiratory treatment and protect hospital staff from COVID-19.
Vaxine Pty Ltd, SA is developing an Australian COVID-19 vaccine, COVAX-19®, which comprises of a recombinant spike protein antigen formulated with Vaxine’s proprietary Advax™ adjuvant.

Australian Greens Education spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has said that the Senate has fired a warning shot at the Morrison Government, voting 24-24 for a Greens motion to establish an inquiry into the Job-ready Graduates Package legislation.
Though the motion was defeated, it was supported by Labor, the Greens, and Senators Lambie, Griff and Patrick.
Senator Faruqi said:
“The Senate has sent a strong message to the Morrison Government today. This hugely significant legislation must go to a Senate inquiry.
“The government can’t just ram through whatever it wants, whenever it wants. The Senate has established processes to scrutinise bills. This is part and parcel of our democracy.
“Less than a week has passed since the final legislation was made public by the government. This is a once-in-a-generation change to university fees and funding. To try to push it through without an inquiry would be autocratic and shameful,” she said.

The Greens have said that Anglicare Australia’s latest Rental Affordability Snapshot update, released today, has shown that only a tiny percentage of rentals (1 percent or less) are affordable for Australians on low incomes, and this will only get worse if the JobSeeker payment is reduced in the coming months.
Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Australian Greens Housing spokesperson, said:
“Renters are doing it tough during the Covid crisis. With unemployment skyrocketing, many are struggling to make ends meet.
“As bans on evictions and rental increases are wound up across the country, we’re at serious risk of seeing more people pushed into homelessness.
“We need to extend eviction bans nationwide and invest urgently in social housing. Building 500,000 new publicly-owned homes will be critical to solving the housing crisis and ensuring everyone has a place to live.
“The pandemic has revealed that the government has the ability to implement powerful measures to tackle poverty and homelessness. What is lacking is political will,” she said.
Senator Rachel Siewert, Australian Greens Family & Community Services spokesperson, said:
“The Government has no plan to manage the rental stress that is coming in just weeks when JobSeeker is back below the poverty line.
“Anglicare highlights yet again how important a permanent increase to the JobSeeker payment is in ensuring that no one is living in poverty.
“Even with the temporary JobSeeker increase there are still very few affordable properties to rent for people on income support.
“Everyone in our community should have safe, affordable housing and an income to ensure this,” she said.

Australian Greens Spokesperson for Education, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has reacted to the Catholic Schools NSW documents leaked to the ABC that confirm their practice of taking funding meant for disadvantaged schools to subsidise fees in wealthy areas.
Senator Faruqi said:
“Private school rorting of their disadvantaged students like this should be illegal. It’s an indictment on our education system that it’s not.
“This is galling confirmation of the dirty open secret of Australian school funding.
“Liberal and Labor governments have been running a protection racket for private schools for years.
“That this went on was well known, but the major parties have spent years avoiding putting in place transparency requirements that would have confirmed it.
“For too long, private schools have benefited from opaque reporting requirements that mask where public funding is going. Every last public dollar spent in the private system should be reported and justified at a school level.
“It’s clear the NSW Catholic Schools are more concerned with losing enrolments to public schools than they are about giving disadvantaged, First Nations and regional students the funding they are allocated.
“The ethics of this aren’t just between the Bishops and God. The Bishops were fully aware they were ripping off low-SES families to help the wealthy. It’s public money. They must apologise and be held accountable.
“This is the system that successive Labor and Liberal governments have lavished with billions in special deals while they starved hardworking public school teachers and students of basic funding.”

The Morrison Government is proud to have invested more than $1 billion in ground breaking medical research through the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) to improve the health and wellbeing of Australians.
As part of this investment, more than $16.9 million has been awarded to researchers to study women’s health issues and aspects of primary health care, and to facilitate more and better clinical trials of new and improved treatments.
In the lead up to Women’s Health Week (7-11 September 2020) the MRFF grants announced today are:

• $5 million over five years to the National Women’s Health Research, Translation and Impact Network, for research with strong potential to improve health outcomes for women and girls
• $5 million over four years to the Australian Clinical Trials Alliance to be a national partner providing specialised leadership and support to both investigator-led and industry clinical trials, and to Clinical Quality Registries
• more than $6.9 million to five projects to improve primary health care in the areas of contraception and abortion for rural women, health care for people in aged care, diabetes in Indigenous Australians, nutrition and heart disease, and the health of urban Indigenous people (details below).

Compared with men, women have a higher life expectancy but experience more disease burden from living with disease, rather than dying early from disease and injury.
The women’s health network will use the funding for research into nine priority areas, including reproductive health, mental health, and preventing cancer and heart disease.
The project will also boost national and international collaboration on women’s health, build health workforce capacity and develop leaders in women’s health.
In addition to these grants, I am today announcing new grant opportunities worth more than $86.5 million, for clinical trials and other vital research.
Clinical trials grant opportunities totalling $77.2 million will provide up to:

• $24 million for the Million Minds Mission Mental Health Research supporting access to new approaches to prevention, diagnosis, treatment and recovery
• $3 million for clinical trials to examine the benefits of medicinal cannabis for managing pain, symptoms and side effects for cancer patients
• $25.2 million for international clinical trial collaborations
• $25 million for clinical trials of new or improved treatments for rare cancers, rare diseases and other illness with unmet clinical need.

Other grant opportunities are making $9.3 million available for research:

• $4.8 million for primary health care research
• $4.5 million from the MRFF and National Health and Medical Research Council for research into silicosis, a preventable lung disease related to inhalation of fine silica dust from artificial stone bench tops.

Investing in health and medical research is a key priority of our Government’s Long Term National Health Plan. Research of all kinds is essential to improve our prevention of disease, health care and treatments, and to make our health system work better for all Australians.
The Morrison Government’s MRFF is a $20 billion endowment fund. The MRFF is a long-term investment supporting Australia’s best and brightest researchers. Further information about the MRFF is available at www.health.gov.au/mrff.

The Morrison Government is continuing to provide unprecedented levels of support to households and businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic after legislation passed the Parliament today allowing the extension of JobKeeper by six months to 28 March 2021.
As part of our plan to keep businesses in business and Australians in jobs, the JobKeeper payment has provided cash flow support to more than 900,000 businesses and income support to around 3.5 million workers to date.
This extension will provide further support to significantly impacted businesses so more Australians can retain their jobs and continue to earn an income.
The passage of the JobKeeper legislation will also see an extension to the vital workplace flexibility that has been available for businesses receiving JobKeeper payments. Similar flexibility will also be provided to legacy JobKeeper businesses where their turnover remains between 10-30 per cent down.
As the economy reopens the payment will be tapered in the December and March quarters to encourage businesses to adjust to the new environment, supporting a gradual transition to economic recovery, while ensuring those businesses who most need support continue to receive it.
A two-tiered payment will also be introduced from 28 September 2020, to better align the payment with the incomes of employees before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Morrison Government has provided an unprecedented level of economic support totalling $314 billion to cushion the blow for Australians during COVID-19.
The JobKeeper payment will continue to remain open to new participants that meet the eligibility requirements.
Eligible businesses can apply for the extended payment online via ato.gov.au

Australian Greens Senator for NSW, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has said that the latest progress report of the parliamentary PFAS Sub-committee, tabled today, has highlighted failures of the Government in adequately dealing with PFAS contamination.
Among other recommendations, the Committee recommends “that the Government prioritise assisting property owners and businesses in affected areas through compensation for financial losses associated with contamination emanating from Defence bases, including the possibility of buy-backs.”
Senator Faruqi said:
“The nation-wide damage wrought by toxic PFAS chemicals has been extensive and people have suffered for too long.
“The government has not done enough to adequately deal with PFAS contamination. Financial compensation must be provided for residents and property owners, including buy-backs.
“Communities are still concerned about the lack of consistency and a piecemeal approach to PFAS management. They have ongoing worries regarding contamination on non-Commonwealth sites.
“The government is dragging its heels on banning the use of PFAS across the country. We know the alternatives exist, they just aren’t being used.
“I want to thank and acknowledge community members and community groups across the country who have been organising on PFAS contamination and compensation issues, including in NSW. This saga has been immensely exhausting for so many,” she said.

Record GP bulk billing rates under Medicare reached 87.5 per cent in 2019–20. This means that on average, more than 8 out of 10 visits to the GP were provided with no out-of-pocket cost.
In total, Medicare services increased to 428.3 million with total benefits reaching $24.7 billion.
To ensure Australians have access to the healthcare services they need through the COVID-19 pandemic, temporary Medicare telehealth services have been introduced and widely taken up by the community.
In the period from 13 March to 30 June 2020, there were 1.4 million COVID-19 video consultations and 16 million COVID-19 phone consultations provided by GPs, specialists and allied health professionals.
Temporary telehealth items have played a critical role in the Government’s response to COVID-19. They have allowed patients to access essential health care while minimising the risk of community transmission of the virus.
The uptake of the telehealth items was greatest for GPs, with 13.9 million GP consultations provided by phone and 504,307 by video.
For the 2019–20 financial year, temporary telehealth items represented 8.8 per cent of GP consultations and 4.1 per cent of all Medicare services.
Bulk-billing incentive payments have been temporarily doubled to support sustainable practice, while the types of services eligible for the incentive payments have been expanded.
The Morrison Government has also required telehealth services to vulnerable Australians to be bulk billed. These measures have reduced the barriers to timely health care for thousands of Australians.
Our rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic has meant better protection for patients and health care providers, and ensured continuity of access to affordable care.
The Morrison Government’s commitment to Medicare and bulk billing remains rock solid. These figures show that we are supporting the health and wellbeing of Australians more than ever before.

The Youth Action Projects Grant Scheme is now open to individuals and organisations supporting activities important to young Australians.
The Australian Government understands the unprecedented impact COVID-19 and last summer’s bushfire season has had on young Australians.
Minister for Youth and Sport, Richard Colbeck, said the targeted scheme was an opportunity for individuals and organisations to apply for funding to support projects that will make a difference in the lives of young people.
“It’s a difficult time in our nation’s history and young people are feeling the repercussions of job losses, breaks in education and social isolation,” Minister Colbeck said.
“Life as we know it is not the same, but we know young Australians are keen to take part in activities that will help them and their communities thrive.”
As part of the program, grants of between $5000 and $20,000 are available for projects which respond to the social challenges facing those aged 15–24.
The Government has engaged the Foundation for Young Australians (FYA) to administer the scheme.
FYA is a non-profit organisation committed and passionate about improving the outcomes and life opportunities for youth.
Projects need to be either new initiatives that recognise and respond to the hardship young people face now and will face in the future, or existing initiatives which already provide a valuable on-going service to young people, but which need further funding to continue.
Funds can be used to pay for any type of project including but not limited to staffing, equipment purchase, consumables or marketing.
“While grants will be used for projects which support young people in a variety of ways, there will be a particular focus on employment, transportation, mental health and the impacts of COVID-19 and the Australian bushfires,” Minister Colbeck said.
“I look forward to working with FYA and seeing the outcomes of the exciting projects funded by the Australian government for the benefit of young Australians everywhere.”
Successful grant recipients are expected to deliver projects over the 2020-21 financial year.
The grant round opens today, Tuesday 1 September and closes Wednesday, 7 October, 2020.
For more information and to download the application form, visit the website.