The Morrison Government is helping improve access to an important treatment for Australians battling a form of breast cancer.
From 1 November 2021, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) listing of Verzenio® (abemaciclib) will also be expanded for use in combination with fulvestrant.
Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia, with approximately 55 Australians diagnosed every day. 1 in 7 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime.
The treatment will be accessible for non-premenopausal breast cancer patients with hormone receptor positive (HR+) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 negative (HER2-) inoperable locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer.
Verzenio® works by inhibiting two proteins that drive the growth of tumour cells and when used in combination with fulvestrant can slow the progression of breast cancers in some patients.
Minister for Health and Aged Care, Greg Hunt, said the expanded PBS listing will benefit around 1,600 Australians and their families each year.
“Without this PBS subsidy Australian patients would pay around $80,000 per course of treatment, instead they’ll only pay $41.30 per script or $6.60 with a concession card for these medicines,” Minister Hunt said.
“This listing will help improve the lives of many Australians, ensuring they can access the treatment they need, while reducing their out of pocket costs.”
In April 2021, the Government expanded the listing of Kisqali® (ribociclib) for use in combination with fulvestrant on the PBS for this patient group, this new further treatment option gives hope to more Australians battling breast cancer by providing access to a choice of treatments.
Since 2013, the Coalition Government had approved more than 2,700 new or amended listings on the PBS. This represents an average of around 30 listings or amendments per month – or one each day – at an overall investment by the Government of $13.8 billion.
The Morrison Government’s commitment to ensuring Australians can access affordable medicines, when they need them, remains rock solid.
These PBS listings have been recommended by the independent Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee.
Major events the ticket to Newcastle’s economic success
Major events have broad support from residents and businesses, while each Supercars Newcastle 500 delivers an average $36.2 million in economic output and 149 jobs, according to global accountancy firm Ernst & Young (EY).
City of Newcastle (CN) engaged EY to evaluate community perceptions of major events with a statistically robust survey of 650 locals and businesses, and to undertake an economic analysis of the Newcastle 500 as part of an ongoing review and planning process.
EY found more than two-thirds of residents and businesses believe the benefits of major events outweigh any negative impacts, along with strong support for CN’s investment in attracting large events.
Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said events were a key part of delivering on City of Newcastle’s vision of being a vibrant emerging global city.
“Newcastle’s position as an events city has been growing since the early days of Surfest in the 1980s, but it was only after delivering our first Newcastle 500 in 2017 that the rest of Australia has really taken notice,” Cr Nelmes said.
“Research tells us that events deliver both an immediate and ongoing benefit for the community and economy, with greater visitation, investment and liveability outcomes.
“Local tourism and accommodation providers that have been heavily impacted by COVID-19 will be looking forward to and benefit from the economic stimulus provided by the Newcastle 500’s return in March next year.
“Major events in Newcastle, be they motor racing, music festivals or world-class surfing, are here by design, not by chance. On the back of research like the EY reports, we’ll continue working to build Newcastle’s position as a global events city.”
Business support for events is especially strong, with more than three-quarters saying the benefits of major events outweigh any disruptions, while 88 percent believe major events are a benefit for businesses across the LGA.
The benefits of major events are also enjoyed throughout the region, with a resounding 96 percent of accommodation providers outside of Newcastle saying major events deliver benefits to the region as a whole.
When asked which major event had the most positive impact on turnover, the Newcastle 500 came out strongly on top for both local businesses and accommodation providers in the region. CN’s annual budget for the Newcastle 500 (including a licence fee to Destination NSW and services provided to Supercars) is $1.6 million, which means for every $1 of ratepayers’ money invested in the race, $22.60 is returned to the local economy.
More than 80 percent of residents said major events are a benefit for the city, and 60 percent were either supportive or neutral for the Newcastle 500 continuing.
EY’s economic assessment measured the impact of the 2017, 2018 and 2019 Newcastle 500 events, finding an upward trend in big-spending international and interstate visitors offsetting a slight decline in total spectators from the inaugural event.
Business Hunter CEO Bob Hawes said the return of major events to Newcastle was something to look forward to as the city emerges from COVID-19 restrictions.
“Events bring a significant amount of economic stimulus, particularly through the visitor and hospitality sectors, which are those that are hurting the most right now because of COVID-19,” Mr Hawes said.
“Confirmation from Supercars Australia that the Newcastle 500 would be returning in March 2022 has been very positive news for the Hunter’s businesses, and the research released by City of Newcastle matches the feedback we are receiving from many of our members.”
Ernst & Young Partner Erik Heller said a conservative methodology has been adopted in analysing the benefits of major events, while the economic impact of the Newcastle 500 was determined by estimating the direct and indirect expenditure of people that visited Newcastle for the event or extended their stay following the event.
“Ernst & Young has taken a balanced, statistically-driven approach in evaluating residents, businesses and accommodation providers’ awareness, perception and sentiment towards major events in Newcastle,” Mr Heller said.
“To capture a robust sample of people who live in the Local Government Area (LGA), quotas and weighting have been applied to provide results that are representative of the population of Newcastle based on age, gender and ward populations.
“The weighting process has also been applied to collecting data from businesses, considering 17% of businesses are located in the City Centre and 83% are in the wider Newcastle LGA.”
The relevant reports, the ‘Newcastle Major Events Evaluation’ and ‘Economic Impact of the Newcastle 500 Supercars Event’ can be downloaded here.
'First Lap' swim program extended to kindy kids
The NSW Government’s new learn to swim voucher program will be expanded from preschool-aged children to include kindergarten kids who missed out on lessons due to COVID restrictions.
Under the ‘First Lap’ program, eligible children can access a $100 voucher for swimming lessons with an approved provider, with businesses able to register for it from next month.
Premier Dominic Perrottet said the program, which starts on December 1, would be extended to cover children in kindergarten this year, or who are starting kindergarten in 2022.
“Because of COVID restrictions, our kindy kids have missed a crucial window of being able to develop the skills they need to stay safe in the water,” Mr Perrottet said.
“It’s really important they don’t miss out, so we’re making sure they can also access the First Lap voucher program now that our pools are back open for lessons.”
Minister for Sport Natalie Ward said the NSW Government will invest $54 million over two years in the program, which will also ease cost of living pressures for families.
“Summer in Australia is all about swimming, at your local pool, beach or river. We know families have been doing it tough during the COVID lockdown and the First Lap program will also ensure family budgets aren’t stretched so our kids have these crucial skills,” Mrs Ward said.
Minister for Digital and Customer Service Victor Dominello said the program was one of more than 70 NSW Government savings helping to ease cost-of-living pressures for households, including the Active Kids and Creative Kids programs.
“This is in addition to a host of other savings including energy rebates, free car registration and lower green slip costs,” Mr Dominello said.
Active Kids vouchers can be used by school-enrolled children, including those in kindergarten, for sport and recreation activities such as swimming lessons. Families can apply for the First Lap vouchers from 1 December, through Service NSW.
School sport and HSC support as students return to the classroom
The final stage of the return to school begins today with more than 500,000 students from Years 2 to 11 welcomed back to classrooms across Greater Sydney and remaining regional areas of NSW.
To help students return to normal life and support their studies, restrictions on school sport will be lifted and HSC special consideration extended for students most impacted by the learning from home period.
From Monday, November 1, school sport can resume on site, schools can utilise external sport facilities in line with community sport guidelines, and schools can engage in inter-school sport outside of school hours.
Other restrictions will similarly be reviewed over the next few weeks, with a focus on continuing to ensure the health and safety of children and families as we progressively re-open NSW.
Premier Dominic Perrottet said he was thrilled students were finally all back in the classroom and returning to normal life and praised students, teachers and parents for their patience.
“The majority of students returning today have not been in the classroom since the end of Term 2 and it is fantastic they are back where the best learning happens,” Mr Perrottet said.
“Now that we’ve achieved our goal of returning students to the classroom as quickly and safely as possible, our focus is on helping students settle back in and catch up on their education.”
“It’s important life gets back to normal as quickly as possible for students, and school sport resuming is a big step towards this goal.”
Schools are also now able to make applications on behalf of HSC students who have experienced severe disruption during the learning from home period through the NSW Education Standards Authority’s (NESA) new COVID-19 Special Consideration Program for HSC written exams.
The program is open to students whose learning was significantly compromised for six weeks or more due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning Sarah Mitchell said with students back, the job of helping them recover and excel in their education begins.
“Of the 512,000 students returning today, more than 180,000 are from former LGA’s of concern, and a number of these students are sitting their HSC this year ,” Ms Mitchell said.
NESA’s COVID-19 Special Consideration Program for HSC written exams is designed for those hardest hit by the pandemic, enabling NESA to take into consideration these unique circumstances while still maintaining a fair and equitable HSC.
Strict safety measures remain in place at all NSW public schools. A recent survey of more than 88,000 parents from 799 schools returning today found 82 per cent of parents were supportive of a return to the classroom and happy with the safety measures in place.
More information on the COVID-19 Special Consideration Program can be found here: educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/covid-advice
Medicare rebates for bowel inflammation testing
From 1 November 2021, patients with chronic bowel inflammation will be able to claim a Medicare rebate for non-invasive laboratory tests, reducing the need for diagnostic endoscopy and colonoscopy procedures.
The Morrisonac Government is listing faecal calprotectin testing to diagnose inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) on the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS).
Its use means that fewer patients will require diagnostic endoscopy and colonoscopy, with faecal calprotectin shown to be an effective, safer and significantly cheaper alternative.
Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis – collectively known as IBD – are chronic diseases that require complex and long-term care.
Two new items will be listed on the MBS – one to test faecal calprotectin levels for diagnostic purposes as requested by a medical practitioner and another for follow-up testing for diagnostic confirmation when requested by a specialist gastroenterologist.
Patients presenting to a medical practitioner must have been experiencing symptoms suggestive of inflammatory or functional bowel disease for more than six weeks, be under 50 years of age, and have had infectious causes excluded to be eligible for the MBS rebated test, which will assist in distinguishing inflammatory from functional bowel disease.
A further test can be requested by a specialist gastroenterologist when an initial test is inconclusive.
The new items have been recommended by the expert Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC) and the Australian Government has agreed with the recommendations.
Consultation has been undertaken with key stakeholders, clinical experts and providers, and consumer health representatives as part of the MSAC process.
Breast cancer treatment expanded on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
The Morrison Government is helping improve access to an important treatment for Australians battling a form of breast cancer.
From 1 November 2021, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) listing of Verzenio® (abemaciclib) will also be expanded for use in combination with fulvestrant.
Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia, with approximately 55 Australians diagnosed every day. 1 in 7 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime.
The treatment will be accessible for non-premenopausal breast cancer patients with hormone receptor positive (HR+) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 negative (HER2-) inoperable locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer.
Verzenio® works by inhibiting two proteins that drive the growth of tumour cells and when used in combination with fulvestrant can slow the progression of breast cancers in some patients.
Minister for Health and Aged Care, Greg Hunt, said the expanded PBS listing will benefit around 1,600 Australians and their families each year.
“Without this PBS subsidy Australian patients would pay around $80,000 per course of treatment, instead they’ll only pay $41.30 per script or $6.60 with a concession card for these medicines,” Minister Hunt said.
“This listing will help improve the lives of many Australians, ensuring they can access the treatment they need, while reducing their out of pocket costs.”
In April 2021, the Government expanded the listing of Kisqali® (ribociclib) for use in combination with fulvestrant on the PBS for this patient group, this new further treatment option gives hope to more Australians battling breast cancer by providing access to a choice of treatments.
Since 2013, the Coalition Government had approved more than 2,700 new or amended listings on the PBS. This represents an average of around 30 listings or amendments per month – or one each day – at an overall investment by the Government of $13.8 billion.
The Morrison Government’s commitment to ensuring Australians can access affordable medicines, when they need them, remains rock solid.
These PBS listings have been recommended by the independent Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee.
New help for Australians on the IVF journey
The Morrison Government is giving Australians new support on their IVF journey, providing Medicare rebates for testing services that can help prevent them passing serious genetic disorders onto their child.
Until now, people who know they are carriers of serious genetic disorders could only access these testing services if they were able to pay privately.
From 1 November 2021, people will be able to claim a Medicare rebate for five new Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) items for new Pre-implantation Genetic Testing (PGT) services provided within the existing IVF process.
Types of genetic disorders able to be tested include, but are not limited to, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, spinal muscular atrophy, fragile X, neurofibromatosis and Huntington disease.
PGT is a sophisticated scientific technique which can be used to test embryos for either a specific known single gene condition or chromosome variation. This allows chromosomally healthy embryos or those unaffected by a specific genetic disorder to be selected for implantation during an IVF cycle, maximising the chance of a healthy baby.
The Government is providing $95.9 million so that PGT services can be reimbursed through Medicare. This implements recommendations from the independent, expert Medical Services Advisory Committee.
This change will give real, practical support to individuals and couples on their fertility journey. It will help ease the financial strain on people using IVF to conceive.
Under the direction of a medical specialist, Medicare funding will support individuals or couples who carry a risk of passing on a serious genetic or chromosomal disorder to their child for which there is no cure and which causes a severe limitation on the quality of life.
Other IVF services already funded under Medicare will not change under the new arrangements.
More information is available at MBS Online.
Australia launches latest COVID-19 vaccine communications campaign
The next phase of the Australian Government’s vaccine communication campaign launches today, with the message ‘we’re almost there Australia’, reminding people that with increasing vaccinations we are able to return to a more normal, free life.
Whilst we have reached Phase B of the National Plan with seventy per cent of the eligible general population now fully vaccinated and more than 86.1 per cent have had at least one dose, we need to ensure people receive their second dose and we reach the 80 per cent fully vaccinated mark.
The advertisements create a sense of encouragement and a feeling of enjoying more freedoms as Australia opens up, as Australians start to return to travelling overseas, birthday parties, weddings, and a family Christmas. It provides a positive, hopeful tone, with a touch of humour, to motivate those who are more hesitant, to get vaccinated to avoid missing out on greater freedoms.
The “Spread Freedom” campaign will air from tonight and materials will be shared across all media channels.
To further encourage First Australians to get vaccinated against COVID-19, the Government is also launching a new project entitled “For all of us’.
The project features a number of high profile Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians who have come together to encourage their mob to get vaccinated.
Model Samantha Harris, musician Baker Boy, chef Nornie Bero, street artist Tori-Jay Mordey and renowned didgeridoo player and vocalist William Barton all encourage further vaccination uptake and seek to combat vaccine hesitancy.
The project conveys the simple message ‘For our past, for our future, for all of us. Get vaccinated for COVID-19’.
Committees representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, people with a disability and the multicultural communities are being consulted regularly to ensure the vaccination messaging is clear, appropriate and disseminated through the best communication channels to reach all Australians.
The communications campaign also supports on-the-ground engagement with the public, including information kiosks at shopping centres and events, and community in-reach activities with CALD and Indigenous communities.
The Australian Government’s comprehensive COVID-19 vaccination communications campaign is being supported with an investment of more than $90 million.
The Spread Freedom and “For all of us” materials will be available on Health.gov.au from 24 October 2021.
Tudge’s toxic history war
Australian Greens Education spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has responded to the Education Minister’s latest attempt to whitewash Australian history and pressure the independent curriculum authority to sanitise what’s taught in our schools.
Senator Faruqi said:
“Alan Tudge’s ever-escalating culture war is offensive, pathetic and ahistorical. It should be challenged by everyone who cares about the integrity of our education system.
“Students should be learning critical thinking, not a sanitised version of history. Tudge clearly sees it as his mission as Education Minister to fight what he considers a ‘woke’ agenda in education. This is an alarming approach to say the least.
“The Education Minister’s obsession with the national curriculum reflects several of his Liberal predecessors. But if Christopher Pyne was famously ‘hands-on’, Alan Tudge is ‘gloves off’.
“Right-wing politicians the world over are currently waging these wars. The confected outrage over ‘critical race theory’ in the United States is a case in point. It can escalate and infringe on the civil liberties of teachers and school communities.
“I worry about the effect this has on the independence of ACARA. It’s their job to dispassionately draft the curriculum in consultation with experts. Tudge’s ideological campaign of parliament speeches, TV interviews and newspaper op-eds is unprecedented and puts pressure on them.
“Of course, the great outrage is that while the Education Minister has been fighting this history war, universities have continued to lose thousands of jobs. Schools are grappling with immense challenges in the pandemic. Education is in crisis and the Minister is missing in action.”
$85 million to explore Australian and global health challenges
Seventeen multidisciplinary research teams will each receive $5 million in funding from the Australian Government to find solutions to major questions in human health that cannot be answered by individual investigators.
The Minister for Health and Aged Care, Greg Hunt, today announced the award of $85 million for 17 projects through the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Synergy Grant scheme.
“Collaboration is at the heart of science today,” said Minister Hunt. “Many of our greatest health challenges will only be solved by collaboration between people with different skills and different perspectives.
“These grants bring together teams of Australia’s best health and medical researchers from across disciplines to address health issues as diverse as the link between the gut microbiome and lung inflammation and creating new drugs to fight the emerging viruses and antibiotic-resistant superbugs.
“One project at WEHI will support an exceptional team of experts in computational protein design, structural biology, immunology and brain surgery who will together help achieve better outcomes for those Australians facing the devastating diagnosis of brain cancer.”
The research team at WEHI, led by Associate Professor Misty Jenkins, aims to have one or more novel CAR T-cell therapies to take into clinical trials in Australia to treat glioblastoma, which is the most common primary brain tumour and has a low survival rate.
The team aims to develop cell-based immunotherapies that will potently and specifically eliminate tumours with minimal damage to healthy tissue and will support long-term remissions.
Each Synergy Grant team receives $5 million over 5 years, with funding commencing in 2022.
The Synergy Grant scheme was introduced in 2019 and is designed to support highly collaborative teams of diverse researchers to work together to address major problems in any area of human health and medical research, from discovery to translation. Notably, over 50 per cent of the Synergy Grants awarded in this round are led by women.
NHMRC CEO Professor Anne Kelso said the success of female lead investigators in the latest Synergy Grant outcomes was encouraging for all as well as for many other women starting out on their research careers.
“The projects funded today are exciting examples of what is possible when different disciplines and perspectives are brought together to solve a problem. While the Synergy Grant outcomes for female lead investigators are significant, NHMRC continues to work on ways to ensure women are equally represented at all careers levels and across all our grant schemes,” Professor Kelso said.
Today’s announcement includes funding for research at:
- The University of Queensland where Professor Kate Schroder will lead a multidisciplinary team to create new drugs to fight the emerging viruses and antibiotic-resistant superbugs that are major challenges for human health in the 21st century
- The University of Melbourne where Professor Ingrid Scheffer will lead a team bringing computational expertise to integrate multiple biological measurements from patients with severe forms of epilepsy, revealing underlying disease dynamics and targeting new treatment approaches
- The University of Western Australia and Telethon Kids Institute where Professor Jonathan Carapetis will bring together a diverse team of experts to tackle the social determinants that underlie rheumatic heart disease – a serious disease caused by preventable Strep A infections and disproportionately affecting Indigenous Australians – by investigating how environmental health and housing interventions can stop Strep A spread
- The South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) where Professor Alex Brown will lead a national consortium to build Indigenous leadership in genomics through empowering communities to understand genomic variation, identify multi-omic signatures of disease and translate these findings to health care, ensuring Indigenous people can lead genomic research on their terms
- University of Technology Sydney (UTS) where Professor Philip Hansbro will lead a team that will examine the link between gut disease and emphysema and how the altered microbiome can be modified with dietary interventions, with the most effective to be tested in clinical trials.
| Chief Investigator Name(s) | Application Title | Administering Institution | Budget ($) |
| Professor Kate Schroder |
Mining the host-pathogen interface to deliver a drug pipeline for treating intractable and emerging infections | University of Queensland | 5,000,000 |
| Professor Paul Haber |
Linking clinical and basic science discovery to find new treatments for alcohol use disorder | University of Sydney | 5,000,000 |
| Professor Monika Janda |
Roadmap Options for Melanoma Screening in Australia (Melanoma-ROSA) | University of Queensland | 5,000,000 |
| Professor Mark Jenkins |
Tackling Australia’s low screening participation to prevent bowel cancer morbidity and deaths | University of Melbourne | 5,000,000 |
| Associate Professor Kate Sutherland |
Improving outcomes for lung cancer patients: Discovering targetable vulnerabilities in lung cancer | The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research | 5,000,000 |
| Professor Philip Hansbro |
Defining the role and therapeutic manipulation of the gut-lung axis in respiratory disease | University of Technology Sydney | 5,000,000 |
| Professor Anne Kavanagh |
Interventions for better life-time mental health outcomes for young Australians with disability | University of Melbourne | 5,000,000 |
| Professor Ingrid Scheffer |
“Integrative-omics” for precision medicine in the epilepsies | University of Melbourne | 5,000,000 |
| Professor Jonathan Carapetis |
STopping Acute Rheumatic Fever Infections to Strengthen Health (STARFISH) | University of Western Australia | 5,000,000 |
| Professor Roslyn Boyd |
Cerebral Palsy SYNERGY Network to Protect, Repair and improve Outcomes | University of Queensland | 5,000,000 |
| Professor Mark Parsons |
SERPICO Stroke: Synergistic Enhancement of Research design with Precision analytics to Improve Clinical Outcomes in Stroke. | University of New South Wales | 5,000,000 |
| Associate Professor Misty Jenkins |
Rational design of novel CARs for safe and effective brain cancer immunotherapy | The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research | 5,000,000 |
| Professor Monica Slavin |
Improving patient outcomes through implementation of digital and diagnostic innovations for infections in cancer | University of Melbourne | 5,000,000 |
| Professor Andrew Roberts |
Understanding and averting blood cancer resistance to therapy | The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research | 5,000,000 |
| Professor Patrick Brennan | IMPACT: IMplementation of x-ray PhAse-Contrast Tomography to transform cancer diagnosis | University of Sydney | 5,000,000 |
| Professor Alex Brown |
Respecting the Gift – Empowering Indigenous Communities in Genomic Medicine | South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute Limited | 5,000,000 |
| Professor Melissa Southey | National Precision Health Research Translation for Breast and Prostate Cancer Prevention and Early Detection | Monash University | 5,000,000 |
| Total | 85,000,000 |