Thursday 27 April 2023

Australia live news: national cabinet to tackle healthcare funding; $3.4bn for ‘disruptive’ defence tech

After-hours healthcare is likely to top the agenda in Queensland as Richard Marles earmarks money for ‘game-changing’ research

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The national cabinet will also discuss a paper called Better Planning for Stronger Growth, in which the federal government will propose a set of work to prepare for growing cities, towns and suburbs.

The paper proposes that governments, including treasurers, housing and infrastructure ministers, better prepare for population growth - with planning to be conducted this year, in line with the changes to the migration system flagged on Thursday that will be introduced in late 2023.

We are still facing these very substantial difficulties with housing. Our housing problem in Australia is the fault of 10 years of gross inaction by a federal government that never had a serious housing policy, not for a day ... There is no way for our three levels of government to work together to plan for housing, services and infrastructure needs that result from population changes.

While the federal government controls our migration settings, a real partnership with states and territories is going to be crucial to us getting the system right. The fact that there is actually no genuine mechanism at the moment for us to plan for population changes as a country is a bit startling. Tomorrow, when national cabinet meets, the prime minister will begin the conversation around how we can work together better as a federation to plan for housing and services and infrastructure. This will build on the incredible work my colleagues Jim Chalmers and Julie Collins have done with the housing accord.”

After nine years of cuts and neglect, Medicare is in its worst shape in 40 years. The former government froze the Medicare rebate for six years, ripping billions of dollars out of primary care and causing gap fees to skyrocket.

We said at the election that there was no higher priority for Labor in the health portfolio than strengthening Medicare and rebuilding general practice.”

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from World news | The Guardian https://ift.tt/1dYfK5Z

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