Category: Australian News

Today Labor has launched the Child Care Calculator so Australian families can find out how much cheaper child care will be under an Albanese Labor Government.
This new website is a useful tool for the over one million families that will be better off under Labor’s Cheaper  Child Care for Working Families plan.
Under this plan, Labor will:

• Scrap the $10,560 child care subsidy cap which often sees women losing money from an extra day’s work;
• Lift the maximum child care subsidy rate to 90 per cent; and
• Increase child care subsidy rates and taper them for every family earning less than $530,000.

Labor’s plan will make child care more affordable for 97 per cent of families in the system, and remove financial barriers that disincentivise second income earners, predominantly women, to work full-time.
Importantly, Labor will keep working to fix Australia’s broken child care system, which currently locks out more than 100,000 families because they just can’t afford it.
The Productivity Commission will conduct a comprehensive review of the sector with the aim of implementing a universal 90 per cent subsidy for all families.
The ACCC will design a price regulation mechanism to shed light on costs and fees and drive them down for good. The ACCC will examine the relationship between funding, fees, profits and educators’ salaries.
The Coalition’s child care system has failed parents – particularly women. It has created a financial disincentive for many second wage earners to work full time, or even increase their hours.
On top of that, since this Government was elected in 2013, child care fees have skyrocketed by 35.9 per cent.
Labor has put forward a plan for cheaper child care that is win, win, win – it is good for parents, good for children, and good for the economy.

The Australian Government’s early action to rapidly increase the number of Registered Nurses (RN) who have the necessary skills to treat people infected with COVID-19, has significantly strengthened our ability to respond to the pandemic.
The Government provided $6.6 million for the delivery of two nurse training programs in response to COVID-19 – one to refresh clinical skills, and the other to provide training in critical and high dependency care in response to the pandemic.
Minister for Health Greg Hunt said more than 2,700 RNs completed the refresher training, and almost 16,500 completed critical care and/or high dependency care training to upskill to meet the forecasted need during the pandemic.
“The training programs ­– separately developed and delivered by the Australian College of Nursing (ACN) and Medcast – significantly built up the skills and knowledge of Australian nurses and gave them greater confidence to redeploy to roles in response to COVID-19,” Minister Hunt said.
“Training outcomes showed the online delivery mechanisms used were cost efficient, supported rapid access, and provided consistent education across multiple health networks and hospitals nationwide.
“As Australia and the world continue to navigate the COVID-19 health emergency, nurses remain at the forefront of our health care.
“I would like to thank every nurse who stepped up during this challenging time, working hard to aid the recovery of Australians sick with COVID-19. They have saved lives and protected lives.”
Minister for Regional Health Mark Coulton said nurses continued to play an essential role in stopping the spread of COVID-19 in regional, rural and remote communities.
“Our highly skilled nurses, along with our doctors and allied health workers, have been the true heroes of the pandemic,” Minister Coulton said.
“This Nurse Practitioner Week, I thank every nurse across Australia, and pass on my gratitude to those who completed their refresher training or upskilled in order to support the nation through such challenging times.
“Nurses are the lifeblood of rural communities, responding to complex health needs away from major hospitals, and this year has exemplified the vital and necessary role they play.”
The Ministers said it was fitting nurses received special recognition in 2020, the World Health Organisation’s International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, given their immense contribution.
The Australian Government has committed more than $16 billion to the emergency health response to the pandemic.
The ACN and Medcast evaluation reports on the outcomes of the COVID-19 nurse training are available from the Department of Health website at health.gov.au/resources/publications.

Young deaf and hearing-impaired Australians will benefit from a $300,000 investment to support their mental health and well-being announced today.
The Australian Government will fund Hear For You to deliver online mentoring, collaborate with mainstream youth mental health services providers, and produce a campaign to reduce stigma and encourage deaf and hearing impaired young people to seek help for mental health issues.
Announcing the funding during a visit to Hear For You’s headquarters at the Australian Hearing Hub in Sydney, Regional Health Minister – whose responsibilities include hearing services – Mark Coulton said Government is committed to ensuring Australians who are hard of hearing get the services they need.
“The Government is committed to improving the health of all Australians, particularly the most vulnerable among us,” Minister Coulton said.
“We understand that for Australians who are hard of hearing, their health needs are not defined purely by their hearing challenges and can – just like the rest of us – benefit from support for their mental wellbeing.
“Life’s not easy when you’re a teenager and if you’re deaf or hard of hearing, it can be even trickier.
“Hear For You delivers a modern service, tailored to support improved mental wellbeing for young Australians with hearing challenges, and I am pleased to announce our support for the work they do.”
Minister for Health, Greg Hunt said the Australian Government recognises the cumulative impact that COVID-19, bushfires, floods, and droughts had created for many Australians.
“This funding will address the additional mental health and communications challenges that deaf and hearing-impaired young people face, such as increased levels of social isolation, loneliness, anxiety, and depression,” Minister Hunt said.
“The Government is committed to supporting all young Australians with, or at risk of, poor mental health by improving access to early intervention services and preventative mental health support.”
This announcement follows $21.2 million invested in the recent Budget to deliver key initiatives from the Roadmap for Hearing Health and an additional $485 million for mental health services and supports.
For more information about Hear For You and their work, visit hearforyou.com.au.

The Australian Government is continuing to improve Australia’s world leading vaccination program through the Australian Immunisation Register Amendment (Reporting) Bill 2020, which enters parliament today.
This Bill supports and builds upon the longstanding action of the successive Governments to ensure that Australians have access to safe and effective vaccines and that we maintain world leading immunisation rates.
Currently, not all vaccine providers make a record in the Australian Immunisation Register (the AIR) when a vaccine is administered, which means that individuals or health professionals may not have access to vaccination history. This information could be vital in an emergency, when undertaking medical treatment and in managing an individual’s health and wellbeing.
The effect of the amendments in the Bill is to ensure all vaccination providers report vaccines given, including any COVID-19 vaccine, to the AIR.
These changes will ensure that every Australian can access their vaccine history through this safe and secure register and support the administration of COVID-19 vaccines and other lifesaving vaccines, including those against the flu and meningococcal.
While the Government strongly supports immunisation, it is not mandatory. Vaccination will remain voluntary and individuals will retain the fundamental choice to choose not to vaccinate.
The Australian Government is a strong supporter of immunisation in that it is a safe and effective way to prevent the spread of many diseases in the community that can cause hospitalisation, serious ongoing health conditions, or even death.
The Australian Government has acted decisively to secure production and supply agreements to secure early access to 134 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine to Australians in 2021-21 and 2021-22 through an investment so far of $3.3 billion.
In addition to the significant investment in COVID-19 Vaccines, the Australian Government invests over $400 million each year though the National Immunisation Program (NIP) to protect Australians against 17 vaccine preventable diseases.
The NIP provides free vaccines to eligible people, including children, adolescents, the elderly, pregnant women and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people against conditions such as pneumococcal, meningococcal, measles, mumps, rubella, pertussis, shingles, human papillomavirus (HPV) and influenza amongst others.
The need for the Australian Immunisation Register Amendment (Reporting) Bill 2020 arose from the need to provide more Australians with information about their immunisation history, to support the roll out of a COVID-19 vaccine and the ongoing administration of the NIP.
Australia continues to have a high level of vaccination reporting and the AIR data entered is sufficiently reliable for the administration of childhood immunisations due to a number of policy and program settings which encourage reporting.
For example, Australia’s immunisation coverage rates for children continue to be at a record high, compared to the rest of the world. As at September 2020: 94.90 per cent of all Australian children aged five years and 97.03 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children aged five years were fully vaccinated.
However, reporting of adolescent and other adult vaccines is lower and less reliable. For example, the reporting of vaccinations against Herpes Zoster and Pneumococcal for older Australians is around 40 per cent and reporting for seasonal influenza is around 50 per cent.
The AIR provides Australians with an Immunisation History Statement (IHS) which displays all immunisations that an individual has had that are recorded on the AIR. The IHS is can be viewed and printed via Medicare Online, myGov, the Express Plus Medicare mobile app, or My Health Record. Vaccination providers can print an IHS on behalf of their patient.
Public consultation on the proposed changes indicated a high level of community support for these improvements and it is pleasing to note that key stakeholders, including health peak bodies have indicated their public support.

Ground-breaking research and world-leading facilities will be on show when the Federal Regional Health Minister visits the Australian Hearing Hub and Macquarie University in Sydney today.
Minister Mark Coulton, who suffers hearing loss due to industrial deafness, said he was thrilled to see first-hand the innovation that is achieving positive outcomes for Australians with hearing challenges.
“The Australian Hearing Hub is an awe-inspiring facility and work conducted here is actively improving the lives of people in each corner of Australia and right across the globe, and the Australian Government is proud to play a key role,” Minister Coulton said.
“Whether it is developing new teleaudiology standards to help tackle the peril of distance for rural and remote Australians or studying the feasibility of cochlear implants for seniors with profound hearing loss, the Federal Government is actively engaged with The Hub to identify future opportunities while delivering services to improve lives.”
Federal Member for Bennelong, John Alexander, whose electorate is home to The Hub, welcomed the Minister’s visit and congratulated the Hub on its work to improve the lives of deaf and hearing-impaired Australians.
“There is no denying the great work of the Australian Hearing Hub and I am particularly pleased to join the Minister to have a good look at Hearing Australia’s facilities here today. It is facilities like these that make Bennelong the Innovation Capital of Australia,” Mr Alexander said.
“I congratulate Macquarie University for their leadership in hosting the Hearing Hub and look forward to continuing to work with Hub Members to ensure this facility continues its world-leading research and education.”
The Hearing Hub unites many of the nation’s brightest researchers, educators, clinicians, and innovators with expertise in linguistics, audiology, speech pathology, cognitive and language sciences, psychology, nanofabrication, and engineering sciences
The 2020–21 Federal Budget invested $21.2 million to fund key initiatives from the sector-developed Roadmap for Hearing Health.
“This investment is delivering a national awareness campaign to prevent unnecessary hearing loss; a research grants programme; workforce initiatives in both the rural and aged care sectors; projects to reduce hearing loss in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children; and forming telehealth standards to ensure consistent and high quality hearing services,” Minister Coulton said.
Nearly four million Australians are currently affected by some form of hearing impairment, with this number expected to increase to 7.8 million people by 2060.
“Delivering the Roadmap will help ensure Australians have access to quality services and support, which is vital to prevent further hearing loss,” Minister Coulton said.
“These measures will assist Australia to continue delivering innovative and efficient hearing services, and keep our country at the forefront of excellence for hearing support.”
Alongside the Roadmap, the Australian Government will also review and improve the Hearing Services Program, which provides hearing tests, assessments, and subsidised devices to vulnerable Australians including pensioners, veterans, indigenous Australians, those with complex needs, and people in rural and remote areas.
Background
The Australian Government continues to implement projects and strategies to improve hearing health, including:

• The national rollout of innovative hearing screening tools for primary health care clinics in remote areas, through a collaboration between Hearing Australia and the Royal Flying Doctors Service
• The development of nationally-consistent clinical standards for paediatric audiology and teleaudiology by the Ear Science Institute and Audiology Australia
• Roll-out of a free sign language interpreting service for senior Australians, being delivered by Auslan Connections
• Funding the National Acoustic Laboratory to examine the clinical and economic benefits of upgrading sound processors in clients aged over 65
• A review of the Minimum Hearing Loss Threshold used under the Hearing Services Program, also being undertaken by the National Acoustic Laboratory

The Liberals and Labor have combined forces to block a Climate Emergency declaration in Australia, on the day our closest neighbours have declared a climate emergency at their Labour Prime Minister’s request.
The Australian Greens put Climate Emergency Declaration motions before the House and Senate today, with the Government blocking the vote in the House, and Labor and the Government blocking in the Senate.
Meanwhile, across the Tasman, the New Zealand Parliament today joined the many nations to declare a Climate Emergency, following a long and successful campaign from the NZ Greens.
“The first step to dealing with a problem is admitting you’ve got one. Last summer’s disastrous season of bushfires has made it abundantly clear that we’re rapidly speeding towards a climate cliff,” Mr Bandt said.
“This was a chance for Australia to show it is serious about climate action ahead of next week’s international climate summit. Thanks to the Liberals and Labor, we have failed.
“We are running out of time to stop the climate emergency, and every day counts. When the Australian population is at threat, when there is a threat to the safety and the livelihoods of our people and our country, parliament should drop everything to deal with it. Instead, the government is refusing to accept the truth about our climate.
“Declaring a Climate Emergency forces Scott Morrison to tell the truth that our current targets and the world’s current targets are not enough.
“Current projections from the Bureau of Meteorology confirm that our attempts to limit global warming to just 2 degrees are failing. Australia’s on track for 4 degrees of heating unless we increase our ambition, and do it quickly.
“This government clearly has a problem with this truth and the Greens are trying to hold them to account, but the opposition doesn’t know where it stands on the defining issue of our time. “We’re running out of time to take action. I wish Labor would decide where they stand and join us in holding this government of climate criminals to account instead of siding with the Liberals to protect Scott Morrison.
“The Labor-Green government led by Jacinda Ardern knows where they stand on the climate emergency and we welcome New Zealand joining the declaration club.

Today’s national accounts figures show that government support for people who need it most must continue, Greens economic justice spokesperson Senator Nick McKim says.
“These figures show it was government spending that propped up the rest of the economy,” Senator McKim said.
“And even then, we are still way behind where we were before the pandemic hit. Millions of Australians are unemployed or underemployed.”
“As the OECD has made clear, now is not the time for the government to cut spending.”
“Our economy being technically out of a recession means very little for the millions of Australians who are living below the poverty line because of decisions taken by this government.”
“Income support will not only save lives and save people from despair, it will help ensure a fairer, quicker economic recovery.”
 

We welcome the emergency approval given to the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in the UK. This is particularly so given the over 1.6 million cases and tragic loss of over 59,000 lives in the UK.
I have again spoken to the Australian CEO of Pfizer, they remain on track for vaccine delivery once it is approved for use in Australia by the independent regulator.
Pfizer continues to work with the Therapeutic Goods Administration, providing data for safety and efficacy as part of the approval process.
Our advice remains that the timeline for a decision on approval is expected by the end of January 2021, and our planning is for first vaccine delivery in March 2021.
Pfizer is one of four vaccines the Australian Government has purchased for a total projected supply of 134.8 million units.
In addition we will have access to up to 25.5 million units under the international COVAX facility.
Safety is our number priority and Australia is well placed both for a thorough, but rapid safety assessment and early rollout of a free, voluntary but entirely universally available COVID-19 vaccine program.
Today is an important step for the world.

The Australian Government has today introduced legislation into the Parliament to support the establishment of the Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS) for residential aged care.
Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians, Richard Colbeck, said the Government, through this bill, is providing safe and quality care as a priority and is putting in place stronger measures to help prevent elder abuse to protect the health and wellbeing of senior Australians.
“The Australian Government’s quality reform agenda is strengthening protections and improving delivery of safe, quality care,” Minister Colbeck said.
“The Serious Incident Response Scheme will commence from 1 April 2021 and expands the responsibilities of aged care providers to identify, record, manage, resolve and report assaults and a broader range of serious incidents in residential aged care.”
“Prioritising implementation of the SIRS is part of the Government’s rapid response to the Aged Care Royal Commission’s recommendations into COVID-19 to increase protection for residents,” Minister Colbeck said.
“It will drive quality and safety improvements in residential aged care at the individual service and broader system level.
“It will require aged care providers to manage all incidents, with a focus on the safety and wellbeing of people in aged care. Importantly, providers will need to put measures in place to prevent similar incidents from reoccurring.”
The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission will have additional resources to administer the SIRS, including receiving reports and taking proportionate regulatory action. The new legislation strengthens the Commission’s enforcement powers with civil penalties, infringement notices, enforceable undertakings, and injunctions across a range of provider responsibilities. This aligns the Commissioner’s powers with contemporary regulatory best practice.
“Significantly, the scheme will remove the current reporting exemption of incidents of abuse and aggression between aged care recipients where the alleged perpetrator has an assessed cognitive or mental impairment,” Minister Colbeck said.
The Government has invested more than $1.7 billion to support senior Australians in aged care since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which includes a further investment of $132.2 million as part our response to the Aged Care Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety’s recommendations on COVID-19.
The Government has accepted and is acting on all six recommendations made by the Royal Commission in relation to COVID-19, including an additional $11.1 million investment in the Serious Incident Response Scheme, taking total investment to date to $67.9 million.
“The introduction of the SIRS legislation demonstrates the Government’s ongoing commitment to improving care for senior Australians and keeping them safe,” Minister Colbeck said.

Australian Greens Peace spokesperson Senator Jordon Steele-John has called for General’s Campbell and Burr to resign to enable the recommendations of the Afghan Inquiry to be implemented free from any actual or perceived conflicts of interest, and facilitate ongoing investigations by the Australian Federal Police.
General Campbell was the Commander of Joint Task Force 633 responsible for all Australian forces deployed in the Middle East, including Afghanistan, between January 2011 and January 2012. Lt. General Burr was a Commander of SASR on two separate deployments during the Afghanistan War.
“Since this report was first released, I have been clear in questioning how appropriate it is for General Campbell and General Burr to initiate the disciplinary action against commanding officers who served during the Afghanistan War,” Steele-John said.
“If this level of alleged systemic failure had occurred within a financial institution, it would be totally inappropriate for the reform of that institution to be led by an individual who hel a senior executive position during the time that alleged criminal activity occurred.
“Both General Campbell and General Burr have irresolvable conflicts of interest; it is impossible for the public to trust that commanding officers will be held to account when the process is led by the top brass who themselves held commanding roles during the period of time when many of these alleged crimes were committed.
“I’m not saying that General Campbell or General Burr were involved in any of the alleged incidents or even that they knew about them prior to the release of the Afghan Inquiry report, but that perception is undermining the process.
“Veterans who did the right thing expect that the commanders who either turned a blind eye to sanitised reporting, or failed to engage with what was happening on the ground should be held to account and so does the Australian public.
“We cannot allow defence leadership to apply one set of rules to their subordinates in the lower ranks and a different set of rules to themselves in secret.
“If General’s Campbell and Burr will not do the right thing by the Australian Defence Force, and the Australian public, and resign then Prime Minister Morrison should sack them.”