Politics by Sue Dunlevy
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Subscriber only Tens of thousands of older people who need help to stay at home will miss out because a budget funding increase is $1.4 billion short of what is required. The revelation came as aged care providers, nurses and pensioners welcomed the record $17.7 billion funding injection for aged care but agreed it was not enough to fix the neglect of our elderly. A detailed analysis by the Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association reveals the 100,000-long waiting list for home care packages won t be eliminated by extra funding in the budget. The government s own data shows in December there were 96,859 people waiting for a home care package but the budget will fund only 40,000 new places next financial year and a further 40,000 places from July 2022.
Millions of unused COVID tests secured by Andrew âTwiggyâ Forrest to be thrown out
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May 7, 2021 â 9.21am
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The federal government has been accused of wasting tens of millions of dollars on unused COVID-19 tests sold to them by WA mining magnate Andrew âTwiggyâ Forrest during the early stages of the pandemic.
Nine News reported almost two million tests could be thrown out at the end of May when they reach their expiry date.
Mr Forrestâs Minderoo Foundation secured 10 million COVID-19 tests from a Chinese company in April 2020, as Australia was going through its national lockdown and there was a global shortage of testing reagents.
The plan would mirror the bubble with New Zealand which is allowing Aussies to enter from today.
Singapore has escaped the worst of Covid-19 with just 30 deaths and has only been recording between 10 and 40 cases per day over the past two weeks.
Health Minster Greg Hunt said about 5,000 people were expected to fly between Australia and New Zealand on Monday
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said the government has been in early discussions with Singaporean counterparts. We re in discussions with Singapore. We re having those chats, those initial chats with other countries as well, and as vaccines are rolled out here and elsewhere, these travel bubbles will be created, and it will get us back to some sort of pre-COVID normality, he told Nine s Today Show on Monday.
Australians can now travel around the globe by exploiting a loophole in the New Zealand travel bubble - as long as they re happy to risk being stranded overseas.
Since March 2020, most Australian citizens and permanent residents have been banned from leaving the country for leisure.
But today the trans-Tasman travel bubble opened, allowing Australians to travel quarantine-free to and from New Zealand.
Unlike Australia, New Zealand advises its residents not to travel overseas but has not banned them from leaving.
This means that Australians could fly to New Zealand, before purchasing a new ticket and travelling to a third country like Singapore or the United States.
Australia passes world-first media law forcing Facebook and Google to pay for news content
AUSTRALIA passed a world-first media law forcing Facebook and Google to pay for news content.
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Facebook plans to spend at least $1billion in the news industry over the next three yearsCredit: Getty Images - Getty
The decision to unfriend Australia has been described as disgraceful by politicians in Australia.
Facebook s decision came in response to a proposed law compelling tech giants to pay for journalism.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison blasted the social media giant and said the country would not be intimidated by the tech giant s actions to unfriend Australia .