The Australian Government is investing $60 million to extend support for COVID‑19 response measures for Australia’s impacted aged care facilities until 30 June 2022.
The extension means a second tranche of COVID-19 Aged Care Support Program grants will be available from this week to support providers with costs incurred from 28 May 2021 to 31 March 2022.
Surge workforce arrangements will also remain in place to meet future demand in the event of further outbreaks.
In a response to the current situation in Victoria and the emerging concern in New South Wales, significant efforts are being made to protect senior Australians in aged care, including more resources being made available should they be needed.
The Morrison Government is ensuring providers affected by an outbreak can access surge workforce staff and receive financial support for eligible expenses.
The program supports costs including additional or replacement staff, personal protective equipment (PPE), cleaning and infection control, waste management, and travel and accommodation.
The COVID-19 Aged Care Support Program started on 27 March 2020 and has, to date, provided $61.2 million in grant funding, reimbursing providers for certain expenses incurred from managing care recipients and staff needing to isolate due to suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infection.
The established surge workforce program and associated arrangements are keeping people in aged care safe, ensuring their continuity of care, while managing potential infection risk at times of community transmission of COVID-19.
To date, the department has assisted aged care providers dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak to fill more than 39,000 nursing, personal care and ancillary shifts and more than 750 clinical first responder deployments.
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Labor Commits to New Youth Engagement Model
An Albanese Labor Government will provide young Australians with strong and formalised engagement in government and policy making.
Under the Morrison Government, young people have been denied the opportunity to be part of forming the policies and making the decisions that impact their lives and futures.
As a result, younger people now face a future of high underemployment, depleted retirement savings, significant barriers to education and training, and a rent and housing affordability crisis.
Since 2013 when the Abbott Government abolished the Youth Advisory Council and the Office for Youth, both introduced by the previous Labor Government, there has been no framework for direct engagement between young Australians and the Federal Government.
Unlike the government, Labor is already consulting with and listening to young people, in particular through our online national youth survey.
More than 50 per cent of the young people who completed Labor’s survey said the biggest barrier to being part of decision making in politics was feeling they won’t be taken seriously or listened to at all.
By failing to engage with young people on the issues and policies designed to help them, the government’s programs specifically for young people have continually and spectacularly failed – including JobMaker, the Youth PaTH program, and the Youth Taskforce.
It is clear there is a two-way benefit to involving young Australians in policy making – young people need and deserve a say on the issues that impact them, and government needs the input of young people to develop successful youth policies.
That is why an Albanese Labor Government will introduce a new youth engagement model, to provide a voice and structure for younger Australians to directly engage with government and contribute to policy development.
If elected, an Albanese Labor Government will:-
- Establish a framework to directly and formally engage with young Australians on an ongoing basis.
- Establish an Office for Youth so that, rather than youth engagement being an afterthought or duplicating functions across departments, there is a dedicated unit within government to feed in the contribution from young people and advocates, improve and harmonise policy across government, and ensure government is communicating effectively with young people.
- Commit to a Minister for Youth to improve and facilitate a holistic response across portfolios on issues affecting young Australians.
The new framework will involve a number of strategies to provide a channel for direct communication between young Australians and the Federal Government.
The framework will be driven by a steering committee of up to 15 young people, under the direction of the Minister for Youth and Office for Youth.
However engagement will go beyond the committee, by incorporating local forums, workshops, and town halls for young Australians to directly engage in debate and offer their perspectives and ideas.
The new model will also aim to conduct annual youth summits to encourage young Australians across the country to participate in debating and shaping government policy.
Younger Australians have suffered a disproportionate impact from COVID-19 on their employment prospects, financial security, and social wellbeing.
Yet the Coalition Government continues to ignore the voices of young Australians and leave them out of the decisions that disproportionately affect their future.
Labor is committed to genuine, ongoing and two-way engagement with young Australians, and ensuring they have a voice in an Albanese Labor Government.
All Victorians must have access to JobSeeker if they need it during lockdown
The Greens are calling on the Government to ensure all workers impacted by the snap Victoria lock down have urgent access to the JobSeeker payment.
The Government ended JobKeeper much too early despite warnings of second and third waves,” Greens spokesperson on Family and Community Services Senator Rachel Siewert said.
We know that casual workers, those in hospitality and services roles are the ones that will lose a week’s wage going into lockdown.
Many people on low incomes in highly casualised sectors are already living from week to week and missing a week’s pay has a huge impact.
The Government needs to take responsibility and ensure that people who won’t be able to go to work this week and who won’t get their pay can call up Centrelink and be granted an emergency JobSeeker payment, with the waiting period waived, for the period of the lockdown.
There also needs to be support provided to small businesses.
It’s outrageous that those who can least afford it have to bear the brunt of the costs because the Federal Government has fundamentally messed up the vaccine rollout and failed to get quarantine facilities up to standard.
Emissions fall to lowest level on record
Today the Morrison Government released the December 2020 Quarterly Update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory.
In the year to December 2020, emissions were 499.0 million tonnes – 5.0 per cent or 26.1 million tonnes lower than in 2019.
This is the lowest level on record and 20.1 per cent below 2005 levels (the baseline year for our 2030 Paris Agreement target).
When exports are excluded, domestic emissions are now 37.4 per cent below 2005 levels.
Emissions from electricity generation continued their long-term, structural decline in 2020, down 4.9 per cent or 8.7 million tonnes relative to 2019.
Fugitive emissions also fell 8.8 per cent or 4.8 million tonnes, with the ramp up of the Gorgon carbon capture and storage facility in Western Australia making a significant contribution. The Gorgon CCS facility will permanently store around 4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year at full rate, making it the largest, purely emissions reduction facility of its kind in the world.
COVID-related restrictions on transport activity reduced emissions from that sector by 12.1 per cent or 12 million tonnes. Land sector emissions were slightly higher over the year to December.
The Government’s strong management of the economic and health response to the pandemic saw the Australian economy grow by 3.1 per cent during the December quarter, while emissions fell 0.6 per cent on a seasonally adjusted and weather normalised basis.
Reductions in electricity and fugitive emissions more than offset a small rise in transport emissions during the December quarter.
In the year to March 2021, emissions in the National Electricity Market fell 5.6 per cent.
The continuing structural decline in emissions from electricity is driven by Australia’s world-leading deployment of solar and wind. Since 2017, Australia has invested over $35 billion in renewables and in 2020 deployed new wind and solar PV at eight and a half times the global per capita average.
The production of exports for overseas markets generates 39.1 per cent of Australia’s total emissions. The value of Australia’s overseas exports has increased by around $110 billion since 2013, reflecting the Government’s strong economic management.
Despite upward pressure from growth in exports and industry, emissions per capita and the emissions intensity of the economy continue to fall and are at their lowest levels in three decades.
The Government has a comprehensive suite of policies to meet its emissions reduction commitments, encourage innovation and back new and emerging low emissions technologies.
The Government has announced, as part of the 2021-22 Budget, a further $1.6 billion to bolster Australia’s position as a leader in low emissions technologies and to meet Australia’s emissions reduction targets, taking our total expected investment to more than $20 billion over the decade to 2030.
Investing in low emissions technologies will enable Australia’s continued success in meeting and beating our emissions reduction targets. Australia beat its 2020 target by 459 million tonnes and we are on track to meet and beat our 2030 Paris target.
Over the last two years, the projected emissions reductions required to achieve that target have fallen by 639 million tonnes – the equivalent of taking all of Australia’s 14.7 million cars off the road for 15 years.
Between 2005 and 2019, the last year for which comparable data is available, Australia reduced emissions faster than many similar economies, including Canada, New Zealand, Japan and the United States.
The Quarterly Update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory: December 2020 can be found here: https://www.industry.gov.au/data-and-publications/…
In the year to December 2020, emissions were 499.0 million tonnes – 5.0 per cent or 26.1 million tonnes lower than in 2019.
This is the lowest level on record and 20.1 per cent below 2005 levels (the baseline year for our 2030 Paris Agreement target).
When exports are excluded, domestic emissions are now 37.4 per cent below 2005 levels.
Emissions from electricity generation continued their long-term, structural decline in 2020, down 4.9 per cent or 8.7 million tonnes relative to 2019.
Fugitive emissions also fell 8.8 per cent or 4.8 million tonnes, with the ramp up of the Gorgon carbon capture and storage facility in Western Australia making a significant contribution. The Gorgon CCS facility will permanently store around 4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year at full rate, making it the largest, purely emissions reduction facility of its kind in the world.
COVID-related restrictions on transport activity reduced emissions from that sector by 12.1 per cent or 12 million tonnes. Land sector emissions were slightly higher over the year to December.
The Government’s strong management of the economic and health response to the pandemic saw the Australian economy grow by 3.1 per cent during the December quarter, while emissions fell 0.6 per cent on a seasonally adjusted and weather normalised basis.
Reductions in electricity and fugitive emissions more than offset a small rise in transport emissions during the December quarter.
In the year to March 2021, emissions in the National Electricity Market fell 5.6 per cent.
The continuing structural decline in emissions from electricity is driven by Australia’s world-leading deployment of solar and wind. Since 2017, Australia has invested over $35 billion in renewables and in 2020 deployed new wind and solar PV at eight and a half times the global per capita average.
The production of exports for overseas markets generates 39.1 per cent of Australia’s total emissions. The value of Australia’s overseas exports has increased by around $110 billion since 2013, reflecting the Government’s strong economic management.
Despite upward pressure from growth in exports and industry, emissions per capita and the emissions intensity of the economy continue to fall and are at their lowest levels in three decades.
The Government has a comprehensive suite of policies to meet its emissions reduction commitments, encourage innovation and back new and emerging low emissions technologies.
The Government has announced, as part of the 2021-22 Budget, a further $1.6 billion to bolster Australia’s position as a leader in low emissions technologies and to meet Australia’s emissions reduction targets, taking our total expected investment to more than $20 billion over the decade to 2030.
Investing in low emissions technologies will enable Australia’s continued success in meeting and beating our emissions reduction targets. Australia beat its 2020 target by 459 million tonnes and we are on track to meet and beat our 2030 Paris target.
Over the last two years, the projected emissions reductions required to achieve that target have fallen by 639 million tonnes – the equivalent of taking all of Australia’s 14.7 million cars off the road for 15 years.
Between 2005 and 2019, the last year for which comparable data is available, Australia reduced emissions faster than many similar economies, including Canada, New Zealand, Japan and the United States.
The Quarterly Update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory: December 2020 can be found here: https://www.industry.gov.au/data-and-publications/…
Report endorses value of new face-to-face aged care navigation services
Face-to-face support to access and navigate aged care will be the centrepiece of new services to help senior Australians.
The Morrison Government has committed in the Budget to provide face-to-face aged care support in 325 Services Australia centres, aged care specialists in 70 additional service centres and $93.7 million to introduce a network of up to 500 local “Community Care Finders” – staff in local organisations specifically charged with helping vulnerable senior Australians who need specialist support.
It marks another significant step forward as the Government responds to the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.
The Australian Government has today released the final report of the evaluation of the Aged Care System Navigator trials, which found local, face-to-face support is highly valuable to senior Australians accessing aged care.
Minister for Health and Aged Care, Greg Hunt, thanked the Council of the Ageing Australia (COTA) and its 30 partner organisations, as well as Services Australia for staging the trials, funded in the 2018–19 Budget.
“The trials involved COTA Australia and its partners delivering different ways of providing navigation support between October 2018 and June 2020 as well as Services Australia trialling specialist aged care financial information support,” Minister Hunt said.
“The COTA-led trials have been extended to June 2021 due to disruption as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and while the Royal Commission’s investigation into issues, including navigating aged care, was ongoing.”
Minister Hunt said key findings in the report show users of the navigator service were satisfied with the experience, and reported improved knowledge and confidence in accessing aged care services.
“There are also positive findings around improved experience for senior Australians who may be hard to reach or part of vulnerable population groups.”
Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services, Richard Colbeck said the Morrison Government was committed to making access to aged care services easier.
“We understand the difficulties senior Australians, their families and carers have faced as they make the transition to care,” Minister Colbeck said. “This face-to-face support will ensure those seeking information will be able to tap into the knowledge of local experts.”
“The Royal Commission found that aged care required a much greater face-to-face presence to support access and utilisation, and now the Aged Care System Navigator trials evaluation supports that finding, it’s a clear indicator of the way forward.”
“The report also found navigator services work best when they can be locally tailored, ensuring the appropriate level of local knowledge and flexibility to meet the needs of local seniors,” Minister Colbeck said.
In this year’s Budget the Government announced a further extension to the trials to continue support until the longer-term Connecting senior Australians to aged care services and navigation support within Reforms to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are implemented.
World No Tobacco Day 2021 – helping more Australians quit smoking
With approximately 20,000 Australians dying each year from tobacco-related illness, the Australian Government is investing $3 million through Cancer Council Victoria towards a new national best practice support service for nicotine cessation to ensure these health professional have up-to-date evidence-based resources.
Additional initiatives in the 2021–22 Budget aimed at encouraging people to quit smoking include the expansion of telehealth and face-to-face services to support patients’ access to general practitioner consultations.
Research shows having the support of a health professional greatly improves a smoker’s chances of successfully quitting.
There has never been a better time to quit smoking. The World Health Organisation notes that smokers face a 40-50% higher risk of developing severe disease and death from COVID-19. Quitting smoking now could reduce the severity of disease for anyone who contracts COVID-19.
There is also strong evidence that quitting smoking improves mental health, reducing depression, anxiety and stress.
We know from the Australian Bureau of Statistics surveys that 13.8% of Australian adults smoke tobacco daily. However, among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people this rate is more than double, 37%, making it the leading contributor to disease.
Smoking causes half of all deaths among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults 45 years or older. Reducing tobacco use in this population continues to be a public health priority.
The Tackling Indigenous Smoking program commenced in 2010, and has contributed to cutting the daily smoking rates among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from around 50% to 37%.
The Institute for Urban Indigenous Health, a service provider for the Tackling Indigenous Smoking program, is the winner of a World Health Organization’s World No Tobacco Day 2021 award for the Deadly Choices program, recognising its achievements in tobacco control.
Quitting is not always easy, but assistance is available and the benefits are significant. It is never too late to stop smoking. The younger you are, and the sooner you stop, the better. It is also best never to start.
For help to quit smoking:
- talk to your trusted health professional
- call Quitline – 13 78 48
- visit www.quit.org.au, and
- download the free My Quitbuddy app.
World No Tobacco Day is an initiative of the World Health Organization and has been celebrated on 31 May since 1988.
More communities take up the fight against drugs and alcohol
Another 47 communities will take up the challenge of fighting drugs and alcohol in their midst, after being accepted for inclusion in the Australian Government’s innovative Local Drug Action Team (LDAT) program.
The 47 new LDATs bring the total number of active community teams across the nation to a record 280.
The Alcohol and Drug Foundation (ADF) operates the program for the Government.
The LDAT program emphasises building protective factors in the community. Many of the teams are focused on working with vulnerable groups in their communities to prevent alcohol and drugs misuse, including crystal methamphetamine or ice.
The new community LDATs will each receive $10,000 upfront to help them through the initial phase. During this phase, a member of the ADF will assist them with setting up, undertaking community consultation, and developing a Community Action Plan tailored to their local alcohol and other drug issues.
When this phase is completed, the LDATs can apply for further funding to support delivery of their action plans.
The LDAT Program recognises that every community is different. Its expansion is very positive news, as more communities are joining together to give their people the resources to reduce the misuse of alcohol and other drugs in their communities.
The Government has committed more than $29 million to the LDAT program since it began in 2016-17, as part of the $450 million National Ice Action Strategy.
As part of the 2021/22 Budget, the Government also committed $ 5.9 million to continue the Good Sports Program, which complements LDAT activities.
Good Sports helps community sporting clubs to develop policies on alcohol and other drugs, to reduce their impact on club members and the wider community.
This funding will expand Good Sports to another 400 clubs and support the new consolidated digital delivery platform to improve its efficiency and availability. More than 10,000 clubs are already engaged in the Good Sports program.
LDATs deliver evidence-based information, education and mentoring programs to prevent and minimise the risk of harms related to alcohol and other drugs. A wide range of other grassroots activities may be undertaken to allow people to connect, engage, empower and support each other.
This approach has proven to be successful in heading off the harm that drugs and alcohol misuse bring to individuals, families and across the community.
LDATs are formed from partnerships that can include local government, community groups, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander organisations, business associations, police, schools, local Primary Health Networks, and other interested not-for-profit organisations.
Organisations that have not been accepted into the LDAT program can deliver alcohol and other drug prevention initiatives in their local area using free resources available on the Alcohol and Drug Foundation website at https://community.adf.org.au/.
Labor's Plan to Beat COVID-19
Yet another COVID-19 outbreak from hotel quarantine has plunged a state into lockdown. Yet another COVID-19 outbreak from hotel quarantine has closed state borders.
The risk to the health and livelihood of Australians has not gone away, and the Morrison Government must get their act together and treat this pandemic with the urgency it deserves.
But because of their complacency, we’ve seen another outbreak stem from hotel quarantine. If Scott Morrison had built a fit-for-purpose national quarantine system – a responsibility that sits squarely with the Prime Minister – then this outbreak would not have happened.
Some of the people at the centre of this current outbreak were eligible for the vaccine. If the Morrison Government hadn’t botched our vaccine rollout, those people would have been vaccinated by now.
Australians want a clear plan for the future – a plan that gives them clarity and certainty.
It’s now clear for everyone to see that Scott Morrison doesn’t have a plan to beat COVID-19. But we do.
If I were Prime Minister, an Albanese Labor Government would:
- Build new quarantine facilities and expand existing facilities in every state and territory – because it’s time to end the blame game and be a true partner with the states and territories.
- Fix the vaccine rollout and expand mobile and mass vaccination clinics to get as many Australians vaccinated as quickly as possible. We would stop the excuses and get everyone who lives and works in aged or disability care vaccinated. We have the doses and we know where they are. There’s simply no excuse for the delay.
- Start a mass public information campaign to encourage people to get vaccinated, and start a process for considering incentives to achieve that aim.
- Begin manufacturing mRNA vaccines, like Pfizer, right here in Australia. This virus isn’t going away and when it comes to beating it, we need to be able to stand on our own two feet.
More GPs to join the COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout
The role of General Practices in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout is set to expand, with up to 900 additional general practices to come on board to administer the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine as part of a targeted expansion to ensure more points of presence are available across the country.
Through an expression of interest (EOI) process, run in partnership with Primary Health Networks (PHNs), we’re inviting general practices who are currently not participating in the rollout to apply.
The Australian Government has worked closely with states, territories and PHNs, undertaking comprehensive modelling and analysis to identify projected COVID-19 vaccine gaps across Australia.
These new practices will be brought into the program from mid-June to ensure equitable and timely access to COVID-19 vaccines for people aged 50 and above.
More than 4,600 primary care vaccination sites joined the rollout between March and April 2021 – including approximately 4,400 general practices.
Primary care, as the cornerstone of our health system, has played a critical role in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout so far, with approximately two-thirds of all the vaccinations administered to date occurring within general practice.
The PHNs will assist the coordination of a short EOI process within their regions, with interested general practices asked to provide details required to be on-boarded to the program.
Beyond the general practices in regions initially targeted, the results of the EOI may be used to bring further practices on board as the rollout progresses and for a future ramp-up of the program later in the year as more vaccines become available.
Through an expression of interest (EOI) process, run in partnership with Primary Health Networks (PHNs), we’re inviting general practices who are currently not participating in the rollout to apply.
The Australian Government has worked closely with states, territories and PHNs, undertaking comprehensive modelling and analysis to identify projected COVID-19 vaccine gaps across Australia.
These new practices will be brought into the program from mid-June to ensure equitable and timely access to COVID-19 vaccines for people aged 50 and above.
More than 4,600 primary care vaccination sites joined the rollout between March and April 2021 – including approximately 4,400 general practices.
Primary care, as the cornerstone of our health system, has played a critical role in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout so far, with approximately two-thirds of all the vaccinations administered to date occurring within general practice.
The PHNs will assist the coordination of a short EOI process within their regions, with interested general practices asked to provide details required to be on-boarded to the program.
Beyond the general practices in regions initially targeted, the results of the EOI may be used to bring further practices on board as the rollout progresses and for a future ramp-up of the program later in the year as more vaccines become available.
Release the Foster report, PM
The Greens have called on the PM to drop the veil of secrecy and release the review by Stephanie Foster into processes for responding to serious incidents at Parliament House.
Greens Deputy Leader and spokesperson on women Senator Larissa Waters said:
“The Prime Minister’s description of what Ms Foster has recommended seems positive, but forgive me for not taking the PM’s word for it given his appalling track record on women’s equality and safety.
“The Prime Minister must release the Foster review. He must say whether he will act on her recommendations, on what timeframe, and with what resourcing.
“An independent complaints body is long overdue and has been called for by Brittany Higgins, and by many others including the Greens for many years.
“Important questions need answering which Ms Foster was unable to answer in senate estimates today.
“The Prime Minister must answer if and how the complaints body will be able to sanction MPs, given the gaping holes in existing processes, and given the Prime Minister’s track record of keeping alleged abusers within Cabinet.
“The Prime Minister must say if the recommended independent complaints body would be retrospective, and if workplace safety training would be compulsory for MPs.
“We know from Senate Estimates yesterday that policies for dealing with serious incidents have not been updated since Brittany Higgins’ alleged rape more than two years ago. It’s an astounding failure.
“After months of revelations of vile, abusive and misogynistic behaviour in this building the women who work in Parliament House can wait no longer for the PM to face up to his responsibilities and ensure a safe workplace for all.”