Transcript – 3AW interview with Neil Mitchell

E&OE…                       Topics: COVID response in Victoria; Victoria’s contact tracing; Alan Finkel; NSW contact tracing; Federal offers of support to Victoria; PPE in Karana Aged Care   NEIL MITCHELL: On the line is the Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt. Good morning.   GREG HUNT: Good morning, Neil.   NEIL MITCHELL: Is it fixed yet?  …

Transcript – Sunrise interview with Natalie Barr

E&OE…                       Topics: Victoria’s Roadmap to get out of lockdown; Victoria’s contact tracing.   NATALIE BARR: The Prime Minister has slammed the Victorian Government’s plan for a road out of the lockdown.   Health Minister Greg Hunt joins us now for more. Morning to you. What should Victoria be doing differently here?   GREG HUNT:…

Initial Commonwealth response to Victorian Roadmap

Today’s announcement from the Victorian Government to extend lockdown arrangements will be hard and crushing news for the people of Victoria, and a further reminder of the impact and costs that result from not being able to contain outbreaks of COVID 19, resulting in high rates of community transmission.   It is vital to the…

Australia leads way on global health action

Australia has led a successful push for worldwide action to tackle two key global health issues – cervical cancer and eye health.   The Morrison Government welcomes the recent adoption of two Australian-led resolutions by member states of the World Health Organization (WHO):   Cervical Cancer Prevention and Control: Accelerating the Elimination of Cervical Cancer…

Human biosecurity emergency period extended by three months

The Australian Government will extend the human biosecurity emergency period under the Biosecurity Act 2015 by an additional three months. The emergency period, which has been in place since 18 March 2020, will now be in place until 17 December 2020. The extension of the emergency period was informed by specialist medical and epidemiological advice provided…

Funding boost for covid-19 research

The Australian Government is backing several Australian research projects aimed at finding breakthrough treatments, diagnostics and – the ultimate – a vaccine in the fight against COVID-19. Our Government has allocated $10.4 million for 13 early stage biomedical projects through Biomedical Translation Bridge (BTB) program, which forms part of the landmark Medical Research Future Fund…

$16.9 million investment for Australian health and medical research

The Morrison Government is proud to have invested more than $1 billion in ground breaking medical research through the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) to improve the health and wellbeing of Australians.   As part of this investment, more than $16.9 million has been awarded to researchers to study women’s health issues and aspects of…

Record Medicare bulk-billing rates through COVID-19

Record GP bulk billing rates under Medicare reached 87.5 per cent in 2019–20. This means that on average, more than 8 out of 10 visits to the GP were provided with no out-of-pocket cost. In total, Medicare services increased to 428.3 million with total benefits reaching $24.7 billion. To ensure Australians have access to the…

Transcript – Doorstop – Canberra

E&OE… Topics: $563.4m aged care support announcement; Coronavirus update; One worker one site in Victoria; University of Queensland research; Medicare levy; Data on aged care workers; Aged care commission facility visits; State borders; Victorian pathway out; Senate committee; 41 deaths in Victoria; Craig Kelly comments on Hydroxychloroquine; Treasurer’s comments on Victorian outbreak; Has Senator Colbeck…

Additional funding to reinforce Australia’s aged care sector

The Australian Government will provide an additional $563.3 million to extend support for the aged care sector’s response to COVID-19, announced in March and subsequently as part of the Aged Care response plan. This takes our Government’s support to senior Australians in Aged Care to over $1.5 billion since the pandemic began. We are committed…