Australia news live: St Vincent’s hospital investigating leak of shark attack victim photo; new concussion time-out for amateur sport | Australia news
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Key events
Yesterday, 50 prominent Australians urged the Albanese government to step up diplomatic efforts to reduce the risk of being dragged into a war between the US and China.
One of the signatories was former NSW premier and foreign minister Bob Carr, who spoke to ABC RN earlier this morning about the issue. He was asked whether China has the “appetite” for this?
Carr responded that you would need to ask both China and the US:
I think Australia’s role in partnership … is to plant the notion of greater collaboration and less adversarial talk in the relationship.
Taiwan being the most challenging diplomatic question here provides a perfect opportunity of diplomatic language, diplomatic positioning being an alternative to a descent into conflict and argument that could give rise to war… I can’t find any Australian who sees a war over Taiwan as being remotely in our interest.
Images of shark-attack victim’s injuries leaked from Sydney hospital
St Vincent’s hospital in Sydney says it is investigating how an image of shark attack victim Lauren O’Neill’s injuries were leaked from inside the hospital.
In a statement, a spokesperson for St Vincent’s said it had “become aware of photos in the public domain” of a patient’s injury, appearing to be taken from within the emergency department.
St Vincent’s takes patient privacy obligations extremely seriously and is investigating this issue as a matter of priority.
We have engaged with the patient and we have sincerely apologised for any part St Vincent’s played in the photos being taken.
Natasha May
360,000 more bulk billed visits to the GP in two months, Butler says
The number of free visits to the GP has increased by 360,000 in the first two months since the tripling the bulk billing incentive came into effect, according to the health minister, Mark Butler.
Appearing on the Today Show on the 40th anniversary of Medicare, Butler said:
When we came to government, the bulk billing rate, particularly for visits to the doctor that are so important, was in free fall. And this was a really critical issue we needed to address. That’s why tripling the bulk billing incentive – the money GPs receive if they bulk bill pensioners, concession card holders and kids – tripling. That was a centrepiece of our budget last year. Our first job obviously was to stop that slide. It was in freefall. It was accelerating. GPs were saying bulk billing could become a thing of the past if something wasn’t done.
And data we’ve had since the budget shows that we’ve managed to stop that slide. But over the last couple of months, from the time that money really started to hit general practices, pleasingly we’ve seen a turnaround as well. 360,000 additional free visits to the doctor in November and December alone – just two months. But really pleasingly, a big increase in some areas where bulk billing was a real problem. So in Tasmania, an increase of almost 6%, regional communities got the biggest bang for that buck, which I’m really pleased about. We want to see more, but we’ve succeeded in stopping the slide, I think, and in the first two months of the new funding we’ve started to see a turnaround.
New amateur sport guidelines include three week time-out on concussions
New concussion guidelines to help protect Australia’s grass-roots athletes have been introduced, AAP reports.
The guidelines, announced today by sports and medical officials, include a return-to-sport protocol aimed at ensuring a minimum three-week break between a concussion and the resumption of competitive contact or collision sport.
The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), in partnership with Sports Medicine Australia (SMA), launched its Concussion and Brain Health Position Statement 2024 today, alongside the Australian Concussion Guidelines for Youth and Community Sport.
The guidelines have used the most up-to-date, evidence-based information on concussion for athletes, parents, teachers, coaches and healthcare practitioners.
Sports Medicine Australia CEO Jamie Crain said:
With concussion being a major issue in sport, it is imperative that all athletes, not just those competing at an elite level who have immediate access to team doctors, get the care and attention they need.
Federal health minister Mark Butler told Channel Nine the new guidelines would add peace of mind for parents and others overseeing community sport.
I used to ride the boundary watching my son play footy. By the time they’re in their early teens now, they are big units and they hit hard.
Every now and then you’d see a kid knocked out and it was a real worry for not just the parents but for the whole group around the boundaries.
In addition to the 21 day ‘time-out’ following a concussion, the minister highlighted the introduction of concussion officers to “make sure that the kids or the adults in community sport are being followed up by … medical experts”.
GPs welcome national increase in bulk-billing
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) says that boosting patients’ Medicare subsidies “gets results”, and has welcomed new data showing a 2.1% increase in bulk-billing nationally.
President Dr Nicole Higgins said the RACGP called for the tripling of bulk-billing incentives to help at-risk Australians who “are being squeezed from all sides with the cost-of-living crisis”.
Last year’s budget was the first step to strengthen Medicare. There is still a long way to go to repair the decades of cuts and neglect.
Reflecting on Medicare on its 40th anniversary, Dr Higgins said after all the cuts and underfunding, the gap between patients’ rebates and the full cost of patient care has “grown too wide”.
This is why our hospitals are under pressure, because when people can’t afford the care they need, they get sicker, and it ends up costing governments and taxpayers much more.
I look forward to continuing to work with the government on further health reforms and strengthening Medicare to better meet the needs of patients today, and in the future.
Summer charging queues down despite rise in EV sales
Dire predictions about lengthy waits at electric car charging stations have failed to materialise these summer holidays, experts say, even though the use of public chargers more than doubled across Australia, AAP reports.
Representatives from two of the country’s biggest providers, Chargefox and Evie Networks, told AAP electric cars experienced their “biggest week ever” for public charging this holiday season, and use across the period soared by 150%
But Electric Vehicle Council energy and infrastructure head Ross De Rango said the success should not lead businesses or governments to become complacent as battery-powered cars continued to grow in popularity.
The news came after sales of electric cars more than doubled in Australia during 2023, and after some drivers suffered 90-minute charging delays during the 2023 summer holiday break.
Evie Networks chief executive Chris Mills said the company had doubled its number of charging sites from 100 to 200 to meet growing demand.
Other charging networks had also stepped up to meet demand on high-traffic holiday routes, Mr Mills said. There were still some queues to charge cars in less built-up areas, such as Grafton in NSW, but wait times were nowhere near as long this year.
The etiquette of charging is better now. People are much more thoughtful than they were last year about getting off the charging station when they hit 80%.
Chargefox marketing head Rob Asselman said the rollout of charging station would need to continue in regional and rural areas to support holiday demand, and both federal and state governments should get involved.
Tripling of incentive has arrested decline in bulk-billing, AMA president says
President of the Australian Medical Association, Steve Robson, says the tripling of a bulk-billing incentive for doctors last year has “stopped [a] sharp decline” of bulk-billing.
Speaking to ABC News Breakfast, Robson said bulk-billing was in “very sharp decline around the country and things were reaching crisis point” last year. Since the new incentives were released last year, there has been an uptick in bulk-billing, he said, but added:
We know that for decades, successive governments have neglected Medicare and it really has fallen into disrepair. It’s going to take a lot of work, a big commitment, and it’s going to take investment to bring Medicare back to where we think it should be and make healthcare accessible and affordable for all Australians.
Robson argued that general practice has been “neglected”, with young people not wanting to take up the profession.
We’re hoping that these incentives will make that an attractive career path again, we’ll have more GPs training, and that will ease pressure on the system and allow Australians to get the care they need.
Wrapping up the interview, Anthony Albanese is asked about a meeting between Australian officials and the UN secretary general, following the suspension of funding to UNRWA for humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Albanese said he wouldn’t be “pre-empting those meetings”.
We take the allegations … very seriously. UNRWA is the only United Nations body with the mandate to provide relief and services to Palestinians in the region. It is providing essential services in Gaza directly to those who need it. And this issue needs to be resolved.
Q: Has the UN been able to satisfy Australian concerns around the involvement of staff in the October 7 attacks so that you can resume funding?
Albanese:
[We will] consider these issues after the conversation, rather than … on RN…
We’ll take considered advice. We want to ensure that every dollar that Australia contributes, as the other contributors like the US and Canada, goes to helping people on the ground who really need it.
For all the background on this, you can read more from Daniel Hurst below:
Albanese said he has had discussions with US secretary of state Antony Blinken and US president Joe Biden about conflict in the Middle East, and says it is “clear” we need a political solution.
He reaffirmed his government’s position on working towards a two-state solution:
It has been my long term view … that Israel has a right to exist within secure borders, and that Palestinian people need justice and need their own state as well. The two-state solution is something that the international community must play a constructive and positive role in.
The prime minister is asked how he would deal with demands from the Greens they will consider supporting the government’s tax package if jobseeker payments are increased?
Anthony Albanese pointed to a $40 a fortnight increase to payments at the last budget and said his government’s tax package “stands on its merits”.
And at the end of the day, the minor parties, as well as the Coalition, are going to have to decide [if] our package better than [any alternative] package.
Albanese added:
… the legislation will be introduced next week, and people will have to make a decision of whether they want every Australian to get a tax cut, or 13.6 million of them, not just some.
Q: Do you expect the RBA to start cutting interest rates?
Prime minister Anthony Albanese did not answer directly, saying the RBA makes independent decisions, but he did say:
Of course we’d like to see cuts to interest rates, I’d like to see any measure that takes pressure off low- and middle-income earners, particularly people in middle Australia who have had to deal with inflation [and] have had to deal with the interest rate increases.
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