TRANSCRIPT
- Education Minister Jason Clare says new childcare laws will help rebuild community trust
- Health experts are warning that funding for dementia prevention lagging behind in Australia
- Australia secure eight-wicket win over West Indies in second T-20 clash in Jamaica
Education Minister Jason Clare says new laws that are set to give the federal government power to immediately cut funding from childcare centres that are not meeting quality and safety standards are part of an effort to rebuild trust.
The Strengthening Regulation of Early Education Bill has been introduced to Parliament following a scandal in Victoria where one childcare worker has been charged with 73 offences related to alleged abuse of eight children in his care.
Minister Clare says the Albanese government has acted quickly to reassure the millions of Australian parents who trust these centres with their children every week.
"I think the whole country has been sickened and shocked by the revelations that have come out of Victoria in the last few weeks. The biggest weapon that the Commonwealth has to wield here is the funding that we provide that enables childcare centres to operate. Childcare centres can't operate without it. I think it's fair, I think most mums and dads will think it's fair, that if centres are repeatedly not meeting the standards we set for them that we have the power to cut that funding off."
Sussan Ley has used her first Parliamentary question time as Opposition leader to criticise the Albanese government's failure to meet their own targets to address the housing crisis.
It follows leaked Treasury advice which stated the government's 1.2 million new homes target by 2029 will not be met and Treasurer Jim Chalmers admitting that the government would need to do much more to reach the deadline.
Ms Ley claims Labor has only built 17 new homes and question whether they are ready to scrap their housing policies.
LEY:"Will the Prime Minister abandon his failing policies and work constructively with the Coalition to address Labor’s housing crisis?"
ALBANESE: "When you inherit a decade of neglect, you put in place the investments, you put in place the construction, you put in place the refurbishments, delivering 55,000 social and affordable homes. The Help to Buy shared equity scheme was only passed last December because the no-alition held it up for three years."
Health experts are warning that funding for dementia prevention and management programs is lagging behind in Australia.
Professor Henry Brodaty, Co-Director of the University of New South Wales Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, has told the National Press Club the disease presents both a health and economic crisis for Australia, and a new approach is necessary.
He says more funding is essential to ensure more Australians can avoid the disease in their later years and those experiencing it can have a better quality of life.
"We need the slip, slop, slap of brain health - now. And hope for research. Funding for dementia has lagged behind cancer and heart disease, even though it contributes more to disease burden. Research is critical to find the best ways to provide services. There are programs that exist, but they're sparse. And funding is lacking."
The federal government is about to be forced to release a draft response to a landmark gambling reform report, which has been left untouched for more than two years.
Communications Minister Anika Wells, who picked up the portfolio after Labor's May 3 election win, has flagged upcoming changes to gambling advertising.
Her first meeting outside of department briefings was with Rod Glover, the husband of late Labor MP Peta Murphy, who championed a ban on gambling ads.
A draft response by the communications department to the 2023 Murphy report was prepared for the previous minister in November 2024.
But the department refused to release the 32-page document under freedom of information laws.
In cricket,
Josh Inglis and Cameron Green have smashed half-centuries to power Australia to an eight-wicket win over West Indies in their second T-20 clash in Jamaica.
The hosts posted 8-172 before Inglis and Green led Australia to 2-173 and victory with 28 balls to spare.
The pair put on a unbroken 131-run partnership off just 64 balls as Australia took a two-nil lead in the five-match series.
Inglis was brutal with the bat, blasting a half-century from just 22 deliveries - hitting five sixes and seven fours all-up.
And an equally aggressive Green cracked four sixes and three fours after starring a three-wicket win in game one with 51 from 26 balls.
