Rather than Closing the Gap in incarceration rates, so-called “tough on crime” policies are expanding it; governments wishing to reduce crime should be expanding community mental health services and building social housing, rather than new prisons, The Zap reports this week.
Developments in drug and alcohol policy, private health insurance reforms, trends in care provided by emergency departments, threats to tobacco control, and a call for regulation of AI-generated deepfakes are among the wide-ranging topics covered.
The quotable?
Australians are now left to wonder why the Coalition would recommend selling out Australia’s children to the vaping lobby.”
Charles Maskell-Knight writes:
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare released The health of people in Australia’s prisons 2025, summarising its findings as “people in prison are disproportionately affected by poorer physical, mental, and social outcomes than the general population”.
“They are less likely to access healthcare services, and more likely to have a history of at-risk behaviours that can affect health and wellbeing. Most people in prison are there for short periods, and many enter and exit prison multiple times. For this reason, the health of people in prison is public health.”
By way of context, in June 2025 there were 47,000 people in Australia’s prisons, an increase of 21 percent over 2016, driven partly by an increase of over 4.3 percent in the adult imprisonment rate to 216 per 100,000 adults. While most people in prison were sentenced, 42 percent were on remand awaiting the outcome of their trial or sentencing proceedings.
First Nations people represented 37 percent of the prison population, despite only making up 2.9 percent of the adult Australian population, and had an age-standardised imprisonment rate of 2,500 per 100,000 adults, up 30 percent from 2019.
Rather than Closing the Gap in incarceration rates, so-called “tough on crime” policies are expanding it.
Detailed findings included:
- 87 percent of people in prison had a recorded health condition, most commonly a mental health or behavioural condition (56 percent)
- three in five prison entrants said they had been told they had a mental health condition at some time in their life, and of these six in 10 said they had received treatment for a mental health condition in the year before entering prison
- 71 percent had been detained previously, and of these virtually all (94 percent) had been detained as adults
- one in five prison entrants reported that during their childhood at least one of their parents or carers had been in prison
- 25 percent of entrants had experienced homelessness in the month before entering prison, and 34 percent expected to be homeless when they left
- 35 percent of prison entrants were considered to be at high risk of alcohol-related harm during the previous year, 65 percent were daily smokers, and 80 percent had used illicit drugs in the previous year.
Locking up people with mental health, substance abuse and housing problems who have previously been locked up is an excellent way to increase the likelihood they will be locked up again.
Governments wishing to reduce crime should be expanding community mental health services and building social housing, rather than new prisons.
Private health insurance premium rebate
A number of groups commented on the Government proposal to remove the higher premium rebate provided to people aged 65 years and older, and released their submissions to the Senate inquiry into the legislation.
According to a National Seniors Australia (NSA) self-selected survey, “8.4 percent of older Australians are considering dropping their hospital cover entirely and 12.5 percent are considering downgrading their cover to manage potential cost increases from changes to the rebate”.
NSA CEO Chris Grice said “we must identify ways to reduce health inflation and improve value for all policy holders”.
“If we can find efficiencies to drive down premiums, this will reduce the cost of the rebate. A win-win situation,” Grice said.
Of course, the impact of older people dropping their insurance would be to drive down premiums for the younger people who cross-subsidise them.
COTA said “revelations that 1.2 million pensioners will be directly affected by proposed changes to the private health insurance rebate are further evidence the changes need to be urgently reviewed”.
COTA CEO Patricia Sparrow said “we know many older Australians are already questioning whether they can continue to afford private health insurance”.
“Making it more expensive risks pushing more people to downgrade their cover or leave the system altogether,” Sparrow said.
The Australian Private Hospitals Association (APHA) released its submission, claiming that “slashing the rebate will see a couple aged 70 pay $1,614 a year more next year”.
If the measure had applied this year, the rebate for people aged over 70 would have dropped just over eight percentage points (from 32.158 percent to 24.118 percent).
For an eight-percentage point reduction in the rebate to increase the net cost by $1,614 the gross premium would need to be $20,175 – which is nonsensical.
Private Healthcare Australia (PHA, the private health insurers lobby group) also argued against the proposal to reduce the rebate.
PHA said “if the Government remains committed to achieving savings, PHA recommends targeting the rebate reduction towards higher-income older Australians while protecting lower-income Australians from the full impact”.
PHA added it has “also proposed measures to help fund the savings required by Government, including reducing excessive private medical device prices and increasing the Medicare Levy Surcharge for higher-income Australians who choose not to take out health insurance”.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) “urged the government to protect older Australians on lower incomes by exempting those on the Medicare Levy Surcharge base-tier incomes from the proposed changes”.
I am still waiting for somebody to explain why people of different ages but the same income should receive different levels of assistance.
(See this article in The Guardian by Melissa Davey for some additional perspectives on the issue.)
Ministers and government
Health Minister Mark Butler announced changes to the Commonwealth’s drug and alcohol program in a speech to the Burnet Institute.
He said “at their core, the reforms are about three things: giving services greater certainty, making funding more evidence-based and better targeted, and building a stronger national approach to reduce harm”.
New grants under the program will run for three years from July 2027, “providing services with greater certainty and stability than the shorter-term funding extensions and rollovers used in recent years”.
There will also be transition arrangements for existing grantees that are unsuccessful in obtaining ongoing funding to minimise disruption for clients.
Butler said the new grants process will “focus on directing funding to areas of greatest need”, including priority populations and people living in rural and remote communities, and will “strengthen prevention and early intervention, helping people access support sooner and reducing the need for more intensive treatment services over time”.
The Government will also “begin work with states and territories on developing the next National Drug Strategy, which will replace the current strategy”.
The current strategy is the National Drug Strategy 2017–2026, which expires in four months. A timely replacement strategy appears unlikely if work is only now beginning.
Of course, the Government has form in this area. Despite spasmodic bursts of activity, there is still no sign of a new National Oral Health Plan to replace the current version which expired at the end of 2024.
Aged Care Minister Sam Rae spoke at the CHSP Conference, explaining why the CHSP was such a valuable program it should not be subsumed within Support at Home.
Of course, merging CHSP into Support at Home was Government policy until 20 August.
Rae had the grace to acknowledge “the important role of stakeholders in helping us to understand the value that CHSP brings, and the importance of keeping what works”.
The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing (DHDA) released the Statement of Expectations for the National Rural Health Commissioner for 2026-28.
It also released details of the arrangements for transitioning residential aged care payments from payments in advance subject to reconciliation to payment in arrears over the two years from 1 July 2027.
(This measure was originally announced in the 2024-25 Mid-Year Fiscal and Economic Outlook (MYEFO) to begin from 1 July this year, saving $2.5 billion over the first three years from and $234.1 million per year ongoing.)
DHDA released the Evaluation of the MRFF Research Missions theme report, which found:
- between 2015 and July 2025, Research Missions funded more than grants worth over $960 million
- the median grant size was $1.14 million
- funding is reaching grantees in all states and territories, with Victorian lead organisations having received the most ($359.96 million)
- Research Missions are supporting lead organisations in regional, rural and remote locations more than any other MRFF research theme
- grantees are directly addressing five of the six major areas of disease burden
- 49 percent of grantees were working towards, or had, translated their research into policy and practice.
It suggested “several opportunities for improvement… including strategically shifting towards larger, longer-term grants”.
On 28 August, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) opened a consultation on GOSERELIN – Zoladex® for the proposed treatment of hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, with a closing date of 2 September.
Really? Three working days?
The AIHW updated its chronic conditions dashboard.
It also released a series of updates of aged care data, including December 2025 quarter data on younger people entering and living in residential aged care.
While the number of people aged under 65 in residential care continues to decline slowly, 53 under-65s entered aged care in the quarter.
Other aged care releases included:
- Demographic data on aged care regions
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people using aged care
- Commonwealth Home Support Program aged care services
- Assessments for aged care
- Spending on aged care.
The AIHW also released a report on use of emergency departments (EDs) for lower urgency care 2017–18 to 2024–25.
Contrary to the popular narrative of EDs being swamped by people who should have seen a GP, the report found “from 2017–18 to 2021–22, the percentage of ED presentations classified as lower urgency fluctuated between 35 percent and 36 percent”.
“Since 2021–22, this percentage has decreased slightly. In 2024–25, 30 percent of ED presentations were classified as lower urgency.”
Now I’m not a statistician, but a decline from 35-36 percent to 30 percent seems to me to be more than “slight”.
The age-standardised rates of lower urgency ED presentations peaked at about 130 per 1,000 in 2020–21and then fell to about 105 per 1,000 in 2024–25.
Finally, the AIHW released an article on Endometriosis hospital procedures for 2024-25, finding that across the decade from 2015–16 to 2024–25, the rate of endometriosis hospitalisations increased by 23 percent from 145 to 180 hospitalisations per 100,000 females, compared with a 4.7 percent increase in the rate of all female hospitalisations.
It noted “these increases are likely influenced by growth in the awareness of endometriosis among the general population and medical practitioners in recent years, as well as advances in our understanding of endometriosis as a disease and improvements in the medical technology available for diagnosis”.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics released updated data on deaths due to acute respiratory infections in Australia with preliminary figures for July. Over May and June deaths involving COVID-19 and influenza were both at low levels, with 68 deaths in both May and June for COVID-19, and 13 deaths in May and 24 in June for influenza.
The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care announced it was developing the third edition of the Australian Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of Infection in Healthcare (aka the IPC Guidelines) and would be consulting on them from 31 August to 29 September.
Ahpra and the National Boards said they had published a revised Supervised practice framework and launched a new supervised practice hub “to enable a more flexible and contemporary approach to supervision while maintaining strong safeguards for the public”.
Ahpra Executive Director, Health Workforce, Helen Townley said “the revised framework is an important part of our response to the Kruk review recommendations and supports a growing health workforce in Australia by having a regulatory system that is adaptable, and focused on the needs of health practitioners, health service employers and the community”.
The Office of the Inspector-General of Aged Care said an opinion piece published by Professor Gill Caughey from Flinders University “shows that coordinated, preventative care is linked to fewer hospital stays and better outcomes for older people receiving care”.
The Office went on “this reflects what [we have] consistently said. Investing earlier in the supports that keep people feeling well, independent and connected with their communities can delay or reduce the need for higher-cost care”.
“The evidence says this works, and it is what older people tell us they want most.”
The Australian Research Council (ARC) and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) issued a communiqué following a joint workshop bringing together the ARC Board and NHMRC Council, along with the CEOs and other senior officials from the agencies.
After discussing the need to strengthen trust in research and support fair, effective and sustainable assessment, the parties agreed to a joint commitment of $50 million over five years “to support collaborative funding opportunities that bring together researchers across disciplines and generate benefits across a range of sectors”.
They said they “will now work together to develop priority initiatives and funding mechanisms that aim to maximise the impact of this investment for Australia”.
Consumer and public health groups
MS Australia encouraged members to participate in the consultation process taking part as part of the PBAC rapid review of MS medications.
NSA put forward a proposal to “create a new Pensioner Extra Concessions Card for pensioners with the least financial capacity, giving them access to additional concessions and assistance while maintaining all existing Pensioner Concession Card benefits”.
It went on “this isn’t about taking things away, it’s about giving more to those who need it”.
First Nations
Coalition of Peaks Lead Convenor Donnella Mills commented on the Federal Government’s release of the Terms of Reference for the second Productivity Commission Review of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.
“Governments must be held to account for delivering on the funding commitments agreed in the Closing the Gap Agreement,” she said, in a report in the National Indigenous Times.
“That is what this review will deliver, a clear view of whether that investment has been made.”
NATSIAACC, the national peak body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ageing and Aged Care, said it “welcomed the Senate’s recognition of the significant deficiencies of the aged care Integrated Assessment Tool (IAT) and the need for action to address them”.
NATSIAACC said the problems with the IAT reflect a failure in national system design, which affects Elders and Older People across Australia.
It called for “the next phase of assessment design to be genuinely co-designed with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders and Older People, the community-controlled sector and First Nations leadership, so that the broader deficiencies now being recognised can be addressed alongside the additional cultural and equity considerations for First Nations people”.
The Indigenous Dental Association Australia (IDAA) invited members to a yarn in September supported by the Australian Indigenous Governance Institute to help shape the association’s new strategic plan.
It said “this yarn will give members the opportunity to share what matters most for IDAA’s future, including how we continue to strengthen connection, support Indigenous oral health students and practitioners, and advocate for better oral health outcomes for our communities”.
Trade unions
The Australian College of Nursing (ACN) said “clinical research nurses (CRNs) are calling for action to strengthen their workforce to help realise the ambitions of the national research strategy, warning Australia is increasingly out of step with other countries that are advancing their research capability through workforce investment”.
ACN CEO Adjunct Professor Zeitz said “despite their vital role, CRNs are currently poorly recognised and have little to no workforce development or formal career pathways”.
“Significant targeted investment in the leadership and sustainability of this critical delivery workforce is still required to realise the ambitious translation and commercialisation targets outlined in the [National Health and Medical Research Strategy 2026–36].”
The AMA called on the Government to act urgently on AI-generated deepfakes, saying it was “concerned that deepfake content is being used to impersonate reputable health professionals and expose patients to potentially unsafe health advice, yet there are no regulations in place to enforce the removal of this harmful material from digital platforms”.
The AMA recommended a regulatory framework including:
- mandatory identification of the individual or company responsible for any online post promoting a medical product or service
- an accessible portal for individuals to report fake, misleading or AI-generated content
- unsubscribing mechanisms enabling users to opt out of unsolicited medical advertising
- time-bound takedown requirements, mandating platforms to remove harmful content within a specified period after a complaint is lodged
- appropriate enforcement powers, including the ability to issue infringement notices for non-compliance.
The Health Services Union (HSU) said passage of the new NDIS legislation “must now be followed by an equally serious effort to build the skilled workforce Australians with disability rely on”.
The HSU “welcomed mandatory registration for NDIS providers and stronger whistleblower protections, but said national registration of disability support workers should now follow, as well as proper qualifications, training and career pathways to lift standards across the sector”.
According to the Australian Financial Review, the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association is taking Federal Court action against Opal Healthcare, “alleging the private equity-backed provider misclassified laundry and kitchen tasks to reach its mandatory 215 minutes of direct care per patient per day across more than 50 centres in the state”.
In other Opal news, CEO Rachel Argaman OAM was appointed to the board of Ageing Australia (the peak body for aged care providers).
The Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) announced Dr Ramya Raman had won the election for President, and would step into the role at the RACGP’s Annual General Meeting on 19 November 2026 at the end of current President Dr Michael Wright’s two-year term.
Raman is a specialist GP, practice owner, medical educator, and academic who has served the RACGP in a range of senior leadership roles, including as Vice President and Chair of the WA branch.
The RACGP released the sixth edition of the Standards for general practices, featuring new and updated topics, including:
- defining and planning for your practice
- environmental sustainability
- artificial intelligence
- reprocessing (for practices that reprocess reusable medical devices)
- engaging consumers
- continuous quality improvement.
RACGP President Dr Michael Wright said “the perspectives of our patients have been embedded in the Standards through consumer expectation statements, ensuring these are central to the delivery of care”.
“The Standards aim to support practices as they adapt to modern consumer expectations, consider how AI can improve care, implement environmental sustainability, and thrive in an often-challenging financial environment.”
Services for Australin Rural and Remote Allied Health (SARRAH) said it had recently published two important evaluation reports on programs designed to improve the sustainability of the rural and remote allied health workforce and improve access for communities to vital allied health services such as speech pathology, psychology, physiotherapy and podiatry – the Allied Health Rural Generalist Education and Training Scheme and the Building the Rural and Remote Allied Health Assistance Workforce programs.
Industry groups
The Pharmacy Guild “welcomed the passing of [Queensland] legislation which closes loopholes which could have allowed supermarket giants to offer pharmacy services online”.
Pharmacists muscling into primary care is apparently ok, but supermarkets muscling into pharmacy isn’t.
Ramsay Health Care released its 2026 results, with its Australian performance summarised by consultant David Worldon on LinkedIn as showing:
- Underlying EBIT (earnings before interests and taxes) jumped 11.2 percent to $640m
- Admissions increased 3.3 percent, with theatre utilisation up almost 1 percentage point
- Day admissions now represent 69 percent of Australian admissions
- Improved private health insurance indexation helped offset cost inflation
- Four payer agreements now link annual indexation to sector metrics.
Worldon observed “it’s a useful reminder that the private hospital profitability challenge isn’t being felt equally”.
“There may be some important lessons here about what a sustainable private hospital model increasingly needs to look like.”
Perhaps some of APHA’s remaining members (Ramsay is withdrawing from the organisation) need to pay attention.
Politicians and parliamentary committees
The Senate inquiry into illicit tobacco (chaired by Liberal Senator Leah Blyth) tabled its report, making 12 recommendations including:
- the Government immediately pause any further increases to the tobacco excise, including through regular indexation, until meaningful elimination of the illicit tobacco market can be achieved (recommendation 1)
- the Government reduce the tobacco excise as part of a comprehensive suite of policy measures spanning improved enforcement, modernisation of border controls, strengthened public education campaigns, and improved availability of other less harmful nicotine products. The precise new excise level should be determined by way of an independent review that publicly releases modelling on the effects of alternative excise levels (recommendation 2)
- Australia adopt policy settings similar to those in place in New Zealand since 2020 to establish the legalised sale of regulated nicotine vapes and other non-smoking nicotine products as a comparatively less harmful alternative for Australian smokers (recommendation 3)
- the Government work with states and territories to establish a nationally harmonised illicit tobacco enforcement framework, including creating nationally consistent licensing obligations, inspection powers, penalties, intelligence sharing, supply chain integrity measures and retail compliance arrangements (recommendation 8).
- Government Senators prepared a lengthy dissenting report, noting “it was not made clear to the committee how making legal cigarettes cheaper would impact the illicit trade, as criminal syndicates retain the ability to undercut the legal market given their production costs and profit margins”.
They quoted evidence from Professor Andrew Terry and Dr Fei Gao of the University of Sydney: “In 2009, tobacco taxation already accounted for about 69 percent of the retail price. Today, despite substantial excise increases, that figure remains nearly identical at 70.4 percent”.
“This indicates that industry ‘net-of-tax’ prices have risen substantially alongside government taxes. This outcome is consistent with economic theory: in a market characterised by low price elasticity, small increases in the industry margin have little effect on demand but significantly increase corporate revenue.”
The Government Senators also observed “it would be baffling to anyone who listened to the two days of witness evidence just how the Liberal Senators have arrived at Recommendation 3 given that there was no evidence that widely accessible cheap vapes (which are highly nicotine potent) was safer for Australians or of any discernible public health benefit”.
“In fact, there was plenty of evidence to the contrary.”
They concluded: “Australians are now left to wonder why the Coalition would recommend selling out Australia’s children to the vaping lobby.
“While mysteries will always remain, Labor Senators observe that while the Labor Party does not take donations from Big Tobacco, the same can’t be said of the Coalition.”
The Greens dissenting report said: “We strongly emphasise the evidence that reducing tobacco excise is unlikely to address the prevalence of illicit tobacco.
“Rather, reducing the price of legal tobacco would make tobacco more accessible and could increase smoking rates, undermining Australia’s longstanding tobacco control efforts.”
The Senate inquiry into the aged care Support at Home program held three days of hearings (24, 25 and 27 August), including evidence from Professor Kathy Eagar AM on 24 August, which will be well worth a read once the transcript is available.
The Senate also began an inquiry into contaminated blood and blood products, including the “scale and nature of, and the circumstances relating to the collection, testing and supply of blood infected with Hepatitis C, HIV and other viruses it is known that people were exposed to, administered to thousands of Australians in the 1970s, 80s and 90s”.
This is not the first inquiry dealing with the issue, nor even the first Senate inquiry.
Earlier inquiries to consider the issue as part of the wider blood supply system included the 1995 Commonwealth Review of Australian Blood and Blood Product System and the 2001 Review of the Australian Blood Banking and Plasma Product Sector (the Stephen review).
In 2003 an Expert Advisory Group on Hepatitis C and Plasma was appointed to examine claims that plasma positive to hepatitis C antibody was used in the manufacture of plasma products for several months in 1990, and produced the so-called Barraclough report.
The Senate carried out an inquiry in 2003-04. Its report made six recommendations, including establishing a national post-transfusion hepatitis C committee, with one of its tasks being “formulating, coordinating and delivering an apology to those who have acquired hepatitis C through the blood supply”.
One of the terms of reference of the new inquiry is “the failure to implement recommendations of the 2004 [Senate report], Hepatitis C and the blood supply in Australia, including the issue of an apology to the victims and the need for one to be made”.
While this may be a fruitful ground for examination, I believe little will be achieved by inquiring into “the adequacy of safety measures taken by government agencies… at the time… and the extent to which commercial considerations influenced decisions made by those agencies”, or “the adequacy of government decision-making in response to the risks of infected blood including whether there was a lack of candour or openness in that response, and whether information was withheld or documents destroyed”.
Many decision makers from the time 40 years ago are now dead or cognitively impaired, and the archival record is likely to be patchy at best (and absent at worst).
According to the ABC, “the inquiry was secured through cooperation between Shadow Health Minister Anne Ruston, One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts and Greens senator Jordon Steele-John”.
Ruston told the ABC “this inquiry is not the end of the process. It is the beginning. It’s a chance to finally put this issue back on the national agenda and start the work of getting survivors real answers”.
International
As measles cases rise in the US, KFF has published the results of a study on vaccination rates in children entering kindergarten.
It found in 2019-20 only three US states had MMR vaccination rates in the kindergarten cohort of less than 90 percent, while 20 states had vaccination rates of 95 percent or more.
By 2025-26, 18 states had MMR vaccination rates in the kindergarten cohort of less than 90 percent, and only ten had vaccination rates of 95 percent or more.
The report notes “substantial variation in vaccination rates across states, with MMR coverage rates among kindergarteners for the latest school year ranging from a low of 75.2 percent in Idaho to a high of 98.9 percent in West Virginia”.
Finally
Several weeks ago I attended an event held by Head and Neck Cancer Australia to urge the Government to fund a national reimbursement program for external facial prostheses for head and neck cancer survivors, and wrote an article about the issue for Croakey.
On Friday 14 August, I put several questions to Minister Butler (through the DHDA media team):
- Is the Government going to address this horrendous gap in the health system and introduce a national scheme, and if so, when?
- And if not, why not?
Not having had a response by Wednesday 19 August, I wrote to DHDA again, saying “I asked for a response by cob Monday [17 August] – when may I expect one? Or should I just write that the Minister declined to respond?”
As of 28 August I have still not received a response.
I think at this point we can safely conclude that the Minister has decided not to respond.
Consultations and inquiries
Here is our weekly list of requests by government bodies and parliamentary committees for responses to consultations or submissions to inquiries, arranged in order of submission deadlines. Please let us know if there are any to add for next week’s column.
Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee
Consultation on GOSERELIN – Zoladex® for the proposed treatment of hormone receptor-positive breast cancer
2 September
Therapeutic Goods Administration
Improvements to the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code
3 September
Therapeutic Goods Administration
Proposed changes to Required Advisory Statements for Medicine Labels
4 September
Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care
Draft Assisted Reproductive Technology Standards
6 September
Pharmaceutical Society of Australia
Clinical governance in contemporary pharmacy practice
10 September
Pharmaceutical Society of Australia
Dispensing practice guidelines
10 September
Therapeutic Goods Administration
Adoption of International Scientific Guidelines in Australia R01-2026
11 September
Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
Public consultation to help inform a possible “commissioning” approach for part of the Supported Independent Living market
13 September
Therapeutic Goods Administration
Proposed changes to support automated decision making for applications to change listed medicines
14 September
Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee
Public consultation on items to be considered by the PBAC in November 2026
16 September
Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
Public consultation on items to be considered by the PBAC
16 September
Attorney-General’s Department
Privacy reforms consultation paper
18 September
Office of the Gene Technology Regulator
Commercial supply of a genetically modified multivalent vaccine for chickens
25 September
Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
Medical Research Future Fund Reducing Health Inequities Mission – Consultation on the Roadmap and Implementation Plan
25 September
Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care
Draft National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards (third edition)
25 September
National Health and Medical Research Council
Nutrient Reference Values – Public Consultation on Draft Recommendations – Vitamin B6
Nutrient Reference Values – Public Consultation on Draft Recommendations for Sodium
30 September
Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee
Rapid Review of PBS medicines for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis
1 October
Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care
Requirements in the draft National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards to improve the cultural safety and quality of care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
2 October
Therapeutic Goods Administration
Consultation on sharing more information about medical devices
2 October
Medical Services Advisory Committee
- Surgical Procedures for Gender Affirmation in Adults with Gender Incongruence
- Breyanzi (lisocabtagene maraleucel) for the treatment of large B-cell lymphoma
- Implantation of an active middle ear implant (Vibroplasty) for treatment of mixed and conductive hearing loss
- Supervised oral food challenge in patients with suspected food allergy
- Genomic testing for the diagnosis of primary immunodeficiency
- Procedures for the implantation and refill-exchange of the Port Delivery System with ranibizumab to treat neovascular age-related macular degeneration
9 October
Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
New Framework Planning and NDIS Supports
14 October
House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Disability
Inquiry into the access to and affordability of medical specialists
16 October
Therapeutic Goods Administration
Additional public consultation on amending the Poisons Standard regarding ethylene oxide, propylene oxide and epichlorohydrin
26 October
Author details
Charles Maskell-Knight PSM was a senior public servant in the Commonwealth Department of Health for over 25 years before retiring in 2021. He worked as a senior adviser to the Aged Care Royal Commission in 2019-20. He is a member of Croakey Health Media; we thank and acknowledge him for providing this column as a probono service to our readers. Follow on X/Twitter at @CharlesAndrewMK, and on Bluesky at: @charlesmk.bsky.social.
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