Category: Australian News

Pharmacies in Dubbo will for the first time receive $3,000 per year from the Federal Government’s Regional Pharmacy Maintenance Allowance (RPMA) program.
Federal Regional Health Minister and Member for Parkes, Mark Coulton said changes to the Coalition’s RPMA program will help maintain access to medicines and pharmacy services in Dubbo.
“Community pharmacies, like Orana Mall Pharmacy, play a vital role delivering medicines and essential health services for the third of Australians who live in regional, rural and remote areas,” Minister Coulton said.
“They continue to do a tremendous job supporting the health and wellbeing of regional patients and this is certainly evident during natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Government recognises the importance of maintaining the pharmacy network to provide a steady and reliable supply of medicines and other pharmacy services, in particular to people in the regions.”
Minister Coulton said the changes are a key outcome of the Seventh Community Pharmacy Agreement (7CPA) signed with the Pharmacy Guild of Australia in June 2020.
Co-owner of Orana Mall Pharmacy in Dubbo and an elected official of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, Simon Blacker, said the RPMA was a vital support in helping community pharmacies meet the needs of patients in regional, rural and remote areas.
“Under the Seventh Community Pharmacy Agreement signed last year, the substantial increase in funding under this important program has resulted in 400 more pharmacies across regional, rural and remote Australia now being eligible for support,” Mr Blacker said.
“This means they can provide more services to patients in these areas, which at times have been may have been left at a disadvantage compared with urban pharmacies.”
Mr Blacker said the new arrangement brought regional pharmacy classifications in line with the same rurality model used for GPs.
“Overall, this provides a fairer and more equitable outcome for pharmacies and patients in regional, rural and remote Australia, with the potential for further opportunities into the future which would improve health outcomes in these local communities,” Mr Blacker said.
Minister Coulton said the Coalition Government boosted its investment in the RPMA program from $16 million per year to $21 million per year under the 7th Community Pharmacy Agreement. Across regional Australia the RPMA program will support more than 1,200 pharmacies, which includes 400 new eligible pharmacies to participate in the program.

An alarming new report showing a drastic decline in shark and ray populations is yet another reason shark nets and lethal drum lines must be removed from Australia’s beaches and oceans.
Greens spokesperson for Healthy Oceans, Senator Whish-Wilson, said action was needed urgently.
“Fixed-drum lines and mesh-nets are designed to entangle and kill sharks but are also indiscriminate killers and weapons of mass destruction to protected marine life.
“There is no evidence that nets and drum lines make ocean-goers safe. They are merely designed to provide a sense of security.
“Australia is the only country in the world to utilise these lethal and unjustified measures, making us an international embarrassment.
“Failure from the Federal Government to take action to reverse the decline in shark and ray populations in light of such a damning new report would be inexcusable.
“The Greens have been campaigning for over a decade to replace and transition away from lethal shark nets with measures that both help protect human life and marine life.
“The issue of shark mitigation needs to be a federally coordinated approach that advocates for evidence-based programs and consistency across states.
“As a start The Greens urge the Federal Government to end exemptions granted to state governments that allow them to conduct trials of lethal shark control measures.
Senator Whish-Wilson chaired the 2017 Senate inquiry into shark mitigation and deterrent measures that recommended NSW and Queensland phase out shark nets, immediately replace lethal drum lines with SMART drum lines and increase funding and support for the development and implementation of non-lethal mitigation measures.
“The Greens have a plan to manage the risk of shark encounters and strike the right balance, in both public debate and policy, between the role of government and personal responsibility.
“The Greens would seek to end federal government exemptions for lethal shark mitigation measures and use the COAG Meeting of Environment Ministers to push for state governments to end lethal measures that are within their jurisdictions.
“The Greens would also put $50 million over ten years towards research and development of non-lethal shark mitigation measures including establishing a national sharks working group.”

The Greens are calling on the Morrison Government to implement stronger environment laws before we lose our precious nature and wildlife for good, after the release today of a scathing major review.
Responding to the release of the final report from the once-in-ten-year review of Australia’s environment laws led by Professor Graeme Samuel, Greens Spokesperson for the Environment Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:
“The Samuel Report sounds the alarm that Australia’s environment is under unprecedented stress. Without urgent action and a full reform package we risk losing our native wildlife and iconic natural places for good.
“After sitting on the report for 90 days, the Morrison Government needs to respond with a genuine commitment to a full reform package that makes our environmental laws stronger, with an independent watchdog to hold corporations and governments to account.
“We need environment laws that are fit for protecting nature in the face of climate change.
“There is one path forward for the Morrison Government and that is to accept the warnings in the Samuel Report of the dire straights our environment is in and commit to action.
“Our environment laws are too weak and are failing to do the job of protecting our environment.
“Professor Samuel says at the outset of his report that ‘The EPBC Act is out dated and requires fundamental reform’. He warns that ‘Governments should avoid the temptation to cherry pick from a highly interconnected suite of recommendations’.
“What is needed is stronger laws and an independent cop on the beat to enforce them. Anything less and there will be more dead koalas, our forests and bushland will be destroyed and our oceans polluted.
“The Government must scrap its Tony Abbott reforms of 2014 and implement a full reform agenda informed by the advice of their own expert.
“The rest of the world is working out how to save the planet – Australia needs to join them with urgent action.
“As Professor Samuel said ‘To shy away from the fundamental reforms recommended by this Review is to accept the continued decline of our iconic places and the extinction of our most threatened plants, animals and ecosystems’.”

The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) discussed the COIVD-19 situation in New Zealand and the current 72 hour travel pause on green safe travel zone flights from New Zealand to Australia at its meeting on 28 January 2021. The AHPPC was joined by representatives from the New Zealand Government including the New Zealand Chief Medical Officer.
The AHPPC has been advised that all three confirmed COVID-19 cases in the community in New Zealand have been genomically linked to an international traveller in hotel quarantine in Auckland.
The AHPPC was also advised that all close contacts of the first New Zealand case have returned negative test results, and that five of the 11 close contacts of the subsequent two cases have also returned negative results, with the remainder awaiting their results.
Based on updated information from New Zealand, including that there have been two additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the community in New Zealand since the initial case, and involving the variant of concern B.1.351, the AHPPC has recommended to the Australian Government Chief Medical Officer (CMO) that the Commonwealth extend the pause in safe travel zone flights from New Zealand to Australia.
The AHPPC recommendation is to extend for a further three days, to 2pm on Sunday January 31.
The Federal Government has accepted the recommendation of the AHPPC and Acting CMO to extend the pause for a further three days.
The B.1.351 variant of concern has been shown to have higher transmissibility and so presents a heightened level of risk.  It has spread to 26 countries, including in people who have arrived in Australia who are in mandatory hotel quarantine.
It is estimated to be 50% more transmissible based on the available evidence. This extension of the pause for a further 72 hours affords continued protection of Australians while the extent of the situation in New Zealand is clarified.
Quarantine arrangements are a matter for each state and territory government. As a result, any recent arrivals from New Zealand during paused green safe travel zone flights from New Zealand to Australia will be advised on any changes to their quarantine arrangements by the relevant jurisdiction.

Australian Greens Education spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has said that the December quarter Consumer Price Index data released today by the ABS has revealed “out-of-pocket [childcare] expenses have now returned to pre-COVID levels in all capital cities.”
Senator Faruqi said:
“These latest numbers put us back to where we were before Covid-19 – with one of the most expensive childcare systems in the world.
“The new Minister, Alan Tudge, has an opportunity here to set a different course when it comes to early learning. We urgently need new investment to fully subsidise childcare and make it truly universal.
“Early learning costs in Australia are out of control. High fees make our society less equal, and limit choices for women, who have to give up study, career and work opportunities.
“Last year, the government briefly flirted with providing fee-free childcare for all. There is no reason we can’t have this again. This is a choice the government has to make: will it allow business-as-usual when we know free childcare is possible?”

The Australian Government’s $23.9 million public information campaign to encourage Australians to get a COVID-19 vaccine begins today.
The campaign will keep Australians fully informed and up to date about the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines as they become available, including when, how and where to get the jab.
This follows Australia’s first COVID-19 vaccine approval by the Therapeutic Goods Administration – for the Pfizer vaccine.
From the start of the pandemic, the COVID-19 campaign has been a trusted source of information for the community. The new vaccine campaign will build on this, providing timely, transparent and credible information to all Australians.
The new campaign will be in three phases:

• Reaffirm that COVID-19 vaccines have been put through our world-leading independent approvals process, ensuring both the safety and efficacy of our vaccine candidates
• Provide information on how the vaccine will be rolled out, particularly to priority groups, and dosage requirements.
• Inform people about how and where to get vaccinated, dosage requirements, and support vaccine uptake.

The roll-out will begin by providing protection to those who need it most – the elderly and disabled, and frontline workers who are tirelessly working to save lives and protect lives.
The information in this campaign, based on expert, and independent, medical advice, will help answer the questions people may have.
The campaign will run across a variety of mediums, including television, radio, press, digital, social, mobile, search and out of home.
To ensure the campaign reaches all Australians, special committees representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people with a disability and the multicultural community are informing the communication approach, ensuring communications are appropriate and disseminated through the best communication channels to these communities.
Australia is a vaccination nation – we have one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. Australians understand that vaccines work. They save lives. They improve lives. They protect lives.
I am confident, given Australia’s high vaccination coverage rates that Australians will take up a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine in equally high numbers.
This campaign will help every Australian to understand how the vaccine works and how it will keep them and their family safe.

A major upgrade to the Reinhold Batschi Men’s National Training Centre (RBMNTC) for men’s rowing was today officially opened by the Australian Minister for Sport Richard Colbeck on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra.
The $1.7 million development, funded by the Australian Government, through Sport Australia and the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), provides the elite rowing facility with improved changing rooms, new laundry, consultation rooms and enhanced disabled access.
“The long-awaited facility upgrade is an enormous boost for Australia’s rowers who are an integral part of our nation’s high- performance sports environment,” Minister Colbeck said.
“The rowing centre was originally built in the early 1980s as part of the AIS Rowing Facility and this significant investment represents the biggest upgrade to the elite training facility in 35 years.
“Importantly, the redevelopment now allows the centre to host not only the full-time male athletes when they are on site, but also visiting athletes from the Hancock Prospecting Women’s National Training Centre (based in Penrith), Australia’s elite Para-rowing Program and the Pathway Training Camp groups.”
Rowing Australia CEO, Ian Robson extended his thanks to the Australian Government, through Sport Australia and the Australian Institute of Sport, for the ongoing support of rowing and its athletes.
“The upgrades to the Reinhold Batschi Men’s National Training Centre brings the facility to the same standard as our dedicated female rowing centre, the Hancock Prospecting Women’s National Training Centre, which was opened in Penrith in 2017,” Mr Robson said.
“The athletes have had a disrupted year, with the postponement of the Olympic Games, but have continued to train diligently, even when their facility was in the midst of renovation. I would specifically like to thank Canberra Grammar School, who generously allowed our Men’s National Training Centre athletes to train out of their sheds, for part of 2020, while the building works were underway.
“I know our athletes are all extremely grateful and excited to be utilising the new spaces and continuing their pursuit of Olympic glory for Australia while based at the centre. We delighted to now have a facility that is fit-for-purpose for all our elite athletes to use when required and that would not have been possible without the funding and support of the Australian Government and Sport Australia.”
Snapshot of upgrades:

• Sport Australia and the AIS granted Rowing Australia $1.7 million to upgrade the changing rooms and consultation rooms at the centre.
• The facility was established in 1986, with expansions including the gym, ergometer room, treatment areas and changing rooms.
• This is the first upgrade to the changing rooms since they were added in the late 1980s.

The new upgraded facilities include:

The workers we rely on to plan, run and secure our Australia Day celebrations could lose hundreds of dollars form their pay packets under Scott Morrison’s nasty industrial relations changes.
Mr Morrison wants this Australia Day to be the last that workers are guaranteed public holiday penalty rates.
If Mr Morrison successfully scraps the Better Off Overall Test a typical employee on the Local Government Industry Award could be hit with a $273 Australia Day pay cut, according to the government’s own fair pay calculator. Instead of earning $455 over an 8-hour day they would earn just $182.
A level 4 club employee could earn $272 less next Australia Day than they do this Australia Day. A more senior level 9 club employee could lose $321. And a level 3 security officer could lose $280 over a standard 8-hour shift.
Australia Day is also a huge day for many hospitality workers, particularly in bars and pubs. They could also lose hundreds of dollars under Mr Morrison’s scheme.
These workers, like all workers, deserve extra compensation for working on a public holiday.
This pay cut is Scott Morrison’s thanks to the people who got us through the pandemic – the frontline and essential workers who put themselves at risk by showing up to work and steering Australia through the crisis.
If you abolish something called the Better Off Overall Test, guess what will happen:  workers will be worse off.
Scott Morrison’s earlier penalty rate cuts for retail, fast food, pharmacy and hospitality workers failed to deliver a single extra job. But now they want us to believe that cutting more penalty rates, cutting overtime, cutting shift loading, cutting allowances will create jobs?
Pay cuts are bad for workers and bad for the economy. For Australia to recover from the recession we need people with the money and confidence to spend.
The Government says the economy is doing well enough that businesses no longer need JobKeeper. But then they say the economy is doing so badly they need to cut the pay of workers. They can’t have it both ways.
 

Australian families have clearly demonstrated that we are a vaccination nation, with childhood immunisation rates reaching record levels in December 2020.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, parents followed expert health advice and continued to take their children to receive their shots, pushing five-year old vaccination rates beyond the aspirational target of 95 per cent coverage.
Australia’s immunisation rates are world leading. In fact the December Quarter of 2020 took Australia’s coverage rate for five year old children to 95.09 per cent which exceeds the estimated World Health Organisation international average immunisation coverage rate of 86 per cent.
Reaching our target of 95% supports herd immunity to stop the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases.
These figures show Australians have both the capacity and the will to lead the world in taking up COVID-19 vaccines, as they recognise how important vaccination is, and how it protects and saves lives.
It also shows the faith that Australians have in our independent medical regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, to provide expert advice and ensure the safety and efficacy of all vaccines provided to the community.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children at five-years old have the highest rates of immunisation in the country at 97.25 per cent. This is an incredible result and shows that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families are taking their children to have their shots on time and keeping up to date with the recommended vaccination schedule.
The Australian Government invests more than $400 million each year in the National Immunisation Program.
The national immunisation coverage rate for all one-year olds has grown to 94.85 per cent and among two-year olds is 92.55 per cent.
While not as high as the five-year old rate, the results for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander two-year olds and one-year olds continue to climb, reaching 91.43 per cent and 93.79 per cent respectively.
The importance of vaccination is not lost on Australians, the vast majority of families ensure their children are fully immunised against a range of dangerous, but preventable diseases.
Immunisation providers have maintained their routine immunisation services throughout the pandemic and are ensuring on-time vaccination according to the recommended schedules.
Australia’s seasonal influenza vaccination program continues to provide increasing numbers of vaccines to Australians of all ages, in 2020 the Therapeutic Goods Administration released more than 17.6 million doses of seasonal influenza vaccines for the Australian market – this includes those for the National Immunisation Program and the private market.

General practices will play a key role in the Australian Government’s rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, in what will be one of the greatest logistical exercises, public health or otherwise, in Australian history.
Providing access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines for everyone in Australia is a key priority for our Government.
General practices will help deliver the vaccine initially to priority groups, starting with people over 70, adults with underlying medical conditions and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in phase 1b. Three more phases will follow until the whole country has been offered the vaccine.
The Government will also work closely with Primary Health Networks to determine general practice distribution points for the vaccine. Over time, there will be more than 1,000 distribution points across Australia.
Applications open 9am tomorrow, at www.health.gov.au.
Australian GPs have considerable experience administering vaccines, with the Australian Government’s highly successful childhood immunisation program and the influenza vaccines both exceeding expectations with record engagement. General practices are key players in Australia having one of the highest vaccination rates in the world.
General practices are the core of our health system and those involved in supporting the vaccine rollout will include GPs and primary health care nurses, as well as their support staff, including practice managers, receptionists, cleaners, and IT support.
The vaccine rollout in Commonwealth-funded GP-led Respiratory Clinics and Aboriginal and Community Controlled Health Services will be administered through separate processes. They are not required to complete an expression of interest to take part in the rollout.
The COVID-19 vaccine rollout is a new frontier. It will bring new challenges, and I am very confident that our health care workforce is well placed for this immense task.
An expression of interest for pharmacies will be released next week.