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Of 250 people dobbed into the hotline who are still under investigation, 59 reviews have been completed, with compliance action taken against just eight.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the Government is committed to fixing the problems that the royal commission highlighted in its report which it handed down earlier this year. We ve had a royal commission which has indicated that the sector is in dire need of reform, Mr Frydenberg said. We have an ageing population and it s not just about spending more money, it s also about ensuring that that money is well spent and our focus is on governance, workforce issues, the quality of aged care services. Mr Hunt said the allocation of the funds in the budget would help the Government respond in full to the royal commission s recommendations.
The Australian Greens MPs
The Leader of the Greens, Adam Bandt, says the National Cabinet agenda should include the Greens’ call for investment in publicly-owned domestic mRNA vaccine production.
The Greens have been calling for publicly-owned vaccine manufacturing for almost a year, and since February have been explicitly calling for Australia to be able to produce mRNA vaccines here. Top scientists and immunisation experts have also argued that Australia should have domestic mRNA production.
Current expert advice and international experience suggests that it could take 6 months to construct and commence mRNA production domestically in Australia, which is not only competitive with the Government’s best guess timeline around international vaccine imports, but vastly superior, as it would provide a permanent buffer against unexpected events overseas.
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The Australian Greens MPs
The Greens say the government should use unallocated discretionary funds set aside for COVID to begin work on a publicly-owned domestic vaccine manufacturer. If the government fails to act, the Greens plan to move in the Senate to demand action on domestic vaccine production when Parliament resumes.
The Greens call on the Government to ensure that the 2021/22 budget allocates funding for the urgent development of publicly-owned mRNA vaccine manufacturing capability in Australia, and that it immediately initiates this work by drawing on $1 billion from the $10 billion made available in the 2020/21 Advance to the Finance Minister, which was boosted for the specific purpose of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, most of which remains unallocated.