A woman dies in a flood related accident south of Brisbane; Health Minister defends the deferral of home care price caps; GWS Giants' star urges patience with the club's growth amid a decline in Indigenous players.
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TRANSCRIPT
In this bulletin;
- A woman dies in a flood related accident south of Brisbane.
- Health Minister defends the deferral of home care price caps.
- GWS Giants' star urges patience with the club's growth amid a decline in Indigenous players.
A woman has died amid flooding chaos south of Brisbane.
Queensland Police say the 28 year old was hit by a car on the Pacific Motorway at Loganholme after pulling over to exchange details with another motorist following a minor rear-end crash in afternoon peak hour traffic.
The deadly crash has come amid severe storms hammering Queensland's southeast from Bribie Island to Coolangatta, triggering flash flooding and soaking the Gold Coast with up to 160mm of rain.
In the Scenic Rim, swift-water crews and SES volunteers have used a boat to ferry almost 50 people – including 42 Year 12 students and teachers from North Lakes State College – across a flooded road after their school camp at Mount Barney was cut off.
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The Federal government has indefinitely deferred long-awaited home care price caps that would stop older Australians being overcharged, but have introduced other financial protections in the meantime.
The changes were due to start in July, but the government is fearful of cost increases resulting from the war in the Middle East.
Health Minister Mark Butler says he doesn't want to set a price cap that leads to prices actually going up.
"We haven't set a precise date for that, we will continue to work on this. It's important we get the price caps right. We've seen in some other programs - the NDIS is one example - that if you set the price cap too high, everyone moves up. And that's not just bad for budget, more importantly that's bad for recipients of care as well. So at a time of a lot of price volatility in the economy, particularly connected to the war in the Iran, we don't think now is the right time."
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The Tasmanian government will today [[May 19]] formally apologise for the past practice of retaining body parts after autopsies without the knowledge or consent of family members.
The University of Tasmania has previously apologised and met with families after a coronial investigation in September found its RA Rodda Museum secretly kept 177 human autopsy samples for teaching and research purposes between 1966 and 1991.
A coronial probe launched in 2016 found now deceased forensic pathologist, Royal Cummings, had provided the large majority of the specimens to the museum.
The remains in question were removed from public display in 2018, before the coroner's office spent years reconciling records to determine their origin.
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A Liberal senator has broken ranks over his party's migration policy, warning that opposition leader Angus Taylor's tone risks alienating Australia's diaspora communities.
South Australian senator Andrew McLachlan says he has particular issue with the phrase "mass migration", saying it creates unnecessary anxiety and fear.
He says a proposed policy that would bar permanent residents from accessing welfare would effectively create two tiers of citizenship.
But Taylor has defended his approach, arguing Labor had exceeded its own immigration targets while failing to meet housing goals.
"It only alienates t he government it's got it wrong. This has got nothing to do with migrant communities, we think migration is incredibly important to these country, it always has been a and it always will be. But but the numbers can't be too high and the standards can't be too low or Australian say it's got to be fixed and Australians are saying it must be fixed now."
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The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade says they are urgently seeking confirmation of the welfare of Australians they believe have been detained.
Flotilla organisers say a group of 11 Australians are among hundreds of people who have been detained after Israel intercepted Gaza-bound ships.
The DFAT spokesperson says they will continue to make clear their expectation that any detainees receive humane treatment in line with international norms.
They have also said that while they understand people want to respond to the humanitarian situation in Gaza, Australians are urged not to join others seeking to break the Israeli naval blockade as they are putting themselves and others at risk of injury, death, arrest or deportation.
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Great Western Sydney Giants star Toby Bedford is urging patience with the club's growth in rugby league heartland, amid an alarming decline in the number of Indigenous players at the AFL level.
The Western Sydney region is home to one of the largest urban populations of Indigenous people.
Nearly 55,000 identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, according to the latest census from 2021.
Many in the football industry have questioned the viability of the Giants' existence in the region this year amid concerns over youth participation, but Bedford is adamant there is future AFL talent waiting to be nurtured.
