Australia has its first National Nursing Workforce Strategy, which highlights the need “for urgent and effective policies and planning to support and sustain the nursing workforce”.
What needs to happen next? These and other questions are addressed in this week’s column, which also brings news on medical education, bird flu, the impacts of vaping upon young people, and the health risks for stressed and abused soccer referees.
Federal grants are now available for Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organiations (ACCHOs) to improve clinical buildings and other infrastructure. Meanwhile, GPs and dentists are on the front foot with MPs in various Parliaments.
The quotable?
As Trump has now been promoting imminent health reform for nine years, I suspect the only people who believe him at this point are died-in-the-wool MAGA cult members.”
Charles Maskell-Knight writes:
After an extended development period, the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing (DHDA) released the National Nursing Workforce Strategy, launched by Health Minister Mark Butler at the Australian College of Nursing (ACN) National Nursing Forum.
ACN said the Strategy “must be properly implemented to rectify the ad hoc, fractured approach to nursing workforce planning, and to set Australia up to meet its growing and more complex healthcare needs and avoid a workforce shortage of 80,000 nurses”.
ACN CEO Adjunct Professor Kathryn Zeitz said “we are failing to do enough to support our new, mid-career, and late-career nurses to stay in nursing”.
“The problem is not just recruitment, but retention: we are producing nursing graduates but do not have enough new-graduate roles for them to move into, and too many early-career nurses are leaving because they lack support.”
ACN called on all governments to:
- Release a costed implementation plan with clear timeframes and accountable owners
- Publish a monitoring and evaluation framework with measurable targets, including a target to close the projected 2035 shortfall [of 80,000 nurses]
- Act on supervision and support, wellbeing, remuneration, safe staffing and career structures as central retention levers
- Enable nurses to work to their full scope of practice across all settings
- Sustain the collaboration between the Commonwealth and all states and territories that the Strategy’s success requires.
The Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association (APNA) welcomed the Strategy’s release, describing it as an important step towards building, supporting and retaining Australia’s nursing workforce.
APNA President Denise Lyons said the organisation “welcomed the Strategy’s focus on workforce planning, education and regulation, nursing innovation, professional leadership and long-term workforce sustainability”.
APNA CEO Stephen Duns said “we are particularly encouraged by the Strategy’s focus on attracting, retaining and supporting nurses throughout their careers”.
“Ensuring nurses have access to meaningful career pathways, professional development opportunities and workplaces that enable them to work to their full scope will be critical to addressing future workforce challenges.”
The Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (CATSINaM) also welcomed the Strategy, saying it was “pleased to see a strong focus on cultural safety and anti-racism as essential foundations for a stronger nursing workforce”.
CATSINaM noted the clear actions in the Strategy:
- Grow the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nursing workforce
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nurses and communities design workforce initiatives that suit local conditions and community situations
- Grow Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nurse leadership
- Adopt anti-racism initiatives in nursing
- Foster a diverse, inclusive and culturally safe nursing workforce.
La Trobe University welcomed the release of the Strategy, saying it provides a significant opportunity to strengthen nursing education and build a sustainable workforce for metropolitan, regional and remote communities.
Ministers and government
Minister Butler joined Education Minister Jason Clare in announcing the universities that had successfully applied to deliver 50 more Commonwealth-supported medical school places (first announced in March).
Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand (Medical Deans) welcomed the announcement.
CEO Anita Hobson-Powell said “we are very pleased to see the Government continuing to invest in additional Commonwealth Supported Places for medical students, and in particular targeting this growth toward general practice and primary care”.
“Our Australian health system depends on a sustainable, home-grown medical workforce. Every additional Commonwealth Supported Place represents a young Australian who will be trained here and learn here in, with and for the communities that need them most.”
The Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) said while it welcomed the announcement, the increase “must be accompanied by targeted measures that encourage more future doctors to choose careers in rural, remote and First Nations communities”.
ACRRM President Dr Rod Martin said “high-quality rural placements are one of the strongest predictors of where a doctor will eventually choose to practise”, and called on the Government to extend the Commonwealth Prac Payment to medical students.
Minister Butler joined Indigenous Affairs Minister Malarndirri McCarthy in announcing ACCHOs can apply for a total of $180 million in grant funding from the Albanese Government to improve their clinical buildings and other infrastructure.
They said the Government and NACCHO co-designed the program to fund projects that reflect ACCHO and community priorities.
NACCHO CEO Dr Dawn Casey PSM said the program “puts $180 million behind the infrastructure priorities ACCHOs have set, from new clinics and extensions to urgent repairs and fit-outs”.
“In eligible rural and remote locations, it will also fund staff housing that helps services recruit and retain health professionals,” she said.
“Community-controlled health infrastructure must be shaped by the communities and services that will use it. Priority Reform Two requires exactly that: communities identify what is needed, ACCHOs lead the response and Government investment follows.”
Minister Butler also announced new clinical practice guidelines on the early detection and management of prostate cancer, replacing the current guidelines released in 2016.
Assistant Minister Rebecca White spoke to the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council Indigenous Healthcare Conference about the Australian Government’s commitment to self-determined healthcare solutions for First Nations communities.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) said it had begun Federal Court proceedings against Better Leaf Pty Ltd (Better Leaf), Better Life Aussie Pty Ltd (Better Life), and their sole director Jack Weisberg for the alleged unlawful advertising of medicinal cannabis in contravention of the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989.
The TGA said the court action “follows repeated warnings… to the companies and multiple infringement notices issued to Better Leaf and Mr Weisberg for alleged unlawful advertisements, which were not paid”.
As Australia faces the prospect of an epidemic of H5 avian influenza devastating native birdlife, some mammal populations, and commercial poultry flocks, the most recent statement from the Centre for Disease Control was issued four weeks ago, on 10 July.
This article by Croakey colleague Marie McInerney covers a wide range of issues around Australia’s preparedness to deal with the epidemic.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) released detailed hospital data for 2024-25 in the form of data cubes for principal diagnosis, Australian refined diagnosis-related groups, and procedures.
The AIHW also released a comprehensive update to its report on oral health and dental care.
While the data may have been updated, the fundamental issue remains the same: cost is still a major obstacle to access to dental care for many people.
The AIHW also released updated data on suicide and self-harm monitoring, and an article on using emergency department data to better understand suicide and self-harm.
Ahpra encouraged doctors to respond to the 2026 Medical Training Survey (MTS), saying it gave doctors in training “the opportunity to help shape the future of medical education by sharing their experiences of training, workplace culture and supervision”.
Medical Board of Australia chair Dr Susan O’Dwyer said “the MTS response rate is extraordinary and shows that trainees recognise the MTS gives them a voice that the sector wants to hear”.
Past survey results are available here.
The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission issued a rare statement, saying Commissioner Liz Hefren-Webb was meeting aged care providers in Cessnock as part of the first in a series of regional visits “designed to hear directly from providers, strengthen engagement and discuss challenges and opportunities across the aged care sector”.
Minister for Aged Care Sam Rae announced the appointment of Kate Pope PSM as the acting Inspector-General of Aged Care.
Consumer and public health groups
The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health (ANZJPH) published an article on the results of qualitative research of the impact of vaping on younger people.
Senior author Professor Michelle Jongenelis said the research “revealed three key themes – that vaping is an integrated part of people’s daily routine, preoccupation with vaping often causes disruption, distress and shame, and that some use vapes as a tool for stress relief and self-care”.
She added vaping “is harm initiation, not harm reduction, in action”.
Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) CEO Adjunct Professor Terry Slevin said the study reinforces the potential harms of vaping, particularly for young people who aren’t smokers.
“The predatory nicotine industry continues to attempt to addict new nicotine users, some of whom move to smoking as well as vaping, while downplaying the potential harms of vaping and argue they should be more readily available,” he said.
“We can’t risk another generation becoming addicted to nicotine and must support those who are already struggling.”
The ANZJPH also published a Deakin University study which “used eye-tracking glasses to show how much time children spend looking at unhealthy food and drinks placed in prominent displays at supermarket entrances, checkouts and end-of-aisles”.
Christine Dove, a Public Health Nutritionist and PhD candidate in the Deakin Institute for Health Transformation, said the study found “90 percent of the displays were promoting unhealthy food and drinks such as soft drinks, chocolate, lollies and processed snack foods and they are extremely effective in capturing children’s attention”.
Professor Kathryn Backholer, Co-Director of the Deakin Institute for Health Transformation, said the “findings suggest that comprehensive rules covering all prominent in-store locations are needed, similar to laws already in place in the United Kingdom”.
First Nations
The National Association of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers and Practitioners (NAATSIHWP) marked 7 August as the National Day of Recognition for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander health workers and health practitioners.
NAATSIHWP CEO Karl Briscoe said “while the paths differ and the ways of contributing vary, our workforce is united by a shared commitment to improving the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities”.
On 9 August, it was International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, with the theme this year of ‘Honouring Indigenous Midwives: Safeguarding Life and Well-being’.
In a related post, the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association paid tribute to Indigenous midwives who “play a vital role in supporting healthy beginnings, strengthening families and communities, and carrying forward cultural knowledge across generations”.
Trade unions
The Australian Dental Association (ADA) said “40 dentists from across Australia will converge on Canberra on 11 and 12 August for the ADA’s Dentist on the Hill event, where they will convene for meetings with MPs and Senators across the political spectrum”.
The ADA said a particular focus would be the National Oral Health Plan, which was due to be put to the Health Ministers Meeting in late 2024, but has not been released.
The ADA called on the Government to “release the Plan and fund it in full, so the profession can get on with co-designing solutions that work for dentists and consumers”.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) launched The Medicare Gap, a new campaign “highlighting the true drivers of Medicare gaps across the healthcare system”.
AMA President Dr Danielle McMullen said the campaign “seeks to help patients understand the patchwork and piecemeal nature of Medicare funding for general practice, specialist consultations, and surgery”.
McMullen said “despite the complexity, wild variation in costs and the patchwork quilt of funding Band-Aids, there was one common issue across all areas of medical care – the dire need to top up Medicare rebates”.
“Rather than continue to add more complexity, additional programs and more ribbon cutting outside new models of care, let’s do the right thing and fix the root cause of the problem, a lack of investment in patient rebates.”
The AMA also released its submission to the DHDA consultation on informed financial consent and fee transparency, saying “it was widely acknowledged that the vast majority of practitioners are doing the right thing and are committed to providing patients with information about the costs of care before it is delivered”.
The Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA) said its research had found “chronic work-related pain and discomfort remain widespread among Australia’s tradies, resulting in more than half of those surveyed lacking confidence in their ability to continue working in their trade until retirement age”.
The APA urged “tradies in discomfort to seek early treatment from their local physiotherapist, and… governments to pursue greater investment in preventative health care to ensure the well-being of this critical workforce”.
The Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) urged Australians who have not yet received a flu vaccination to book an appointment with their GP.
The call followed “a record winter day for Sydney’s emergency departments, with almost 10,000 presentations and 4,100 ambulance callouts”.
RACGP members also attended the NSW Parliament to provide free health checks, and lobby for Government action to:
- Better connect the healthcare system by establishing GPs with Special Interests, funding a GP Liaison Officer in every Local Health District, and strengthening links between hospitals and general practice
- Improve early access to care for young people by piloting a GPs in Schools program across 20 public high schools in disadvantaged communities
- Support multidisciplinary care by establishing a funding pool to help practices build teams that meet the needs of their local communities
- Expand timely access to essential treatment by enabling appropriately trained GPs to prescribe medicines including oral isotretinoin for severe acne and dementia medications, while supporting more hospital-level care in general practice
- Protect the community through greater access to vaccination, including ongoing funding for intranasal influenza vaccines for children and expanded access to meningococcal B, RSV and Q fever vaccines
- Improve access to care outside business hours through an After-Hours GP Expansion Fund to support evening, weekend and urgent GP appointments.
The RACGP also marked Loneliness Awareness Week, encouraging Australians to prioritise social connection, and Homelessness Week, calling for stronger investment in general practice to improve the health of Australians experiencing homelessness.
The Royal Australasian College of Physicians said a new study published in its Internal Medicine Journal suggests football (soccer) referees undergo a significant amount of stress and abuse that could contribute to cardiac risk.
Dr Toby Plasto, lead author of the study, said “acute emotional stressors are known triggers for heart attacks, and referees should be treated as a population with heightened risk”.
Plasto said “this study is a yellow card for the sport”.
“It’s a warning that unless there are stronger support systems to help referees manage their stress, and a whole-of-game approach to reduce abuse, our referees will quit, or potentially suffer a heart attack.”
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) joined the AMA in calling on the Queensland Government to account for money raised through the mental health levy.
The groups said “Government’s review into the mental health levy showed it had already raised $1.2 billion dollars and is set to collect more than half a billion more than expected”.
RANZCP Queensland Branch chair Professor Brett Emmerson AM said “we desperately need 350 new acute psychiatry beds, 250 bed refurbishments and 2,000 more mental health workers to keep up with growing demand”.
“The mental health levy should be funding those initiatives but there is no transparency or accountability, despite repeated requests.”
The Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) released its submission to the House of Representatives inquiry into access to and affordability of medical specialists, arguing “cost-effective reforms are ‘ready and waiting’ to help build a sustainable consultant specialist workforce for rural and remote Australia, and all that remains is a political commitment to get them done”.
The RDAA recommendations included:
- A significant expansion of end-to-end training positions for consultant specialists in rural areas, backed up with supports and incentives to encourage them to ‘stay rural’ once they have completed their training
- Urgent reform of the Commonwealth-funded Specialist Training Program in line with recommendations of the review of the program
- Implementing more flexible employment models to better enable consultant specialists to establish practices in rural and remote areas
- Embedding models of care that better connect consultant specialists with local Rural Generalist doctors who can provide complementary services.
Industry groups
The Members Health Fund Alliance (the lobby group for private health insurers which do not distribute profits) welcomed the latest Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) data showing increases in people covered by private health insurance.
But it warned “the proposed cuts to the private health insurance rebate for Australians aged 65 and over risk slowing this positive momentum by reducing the affordability of private health insurance and increasing pressure on public hospitals”.
Several weeks ago I reported on Private Healthcare Australia’s (PHA) release of RedBridge polling of 1,505 Australians which found 39 percent of people aged 65 and over with health insurance said the Government’s proposed reduction of the higher private health insurance rebate “would make them more likely to drop their cover, causing them to rely on the stressed public hospital system instead”.
The Conversation has now published an article by University of Melbourne Professor Yuting Zhang and colleagues about their research, which suggests the impact will be nothing like the polling suggests.
Their conclusion: “in a nutshell, the sky won’t fall in”.
Based on over a decade of tax data, they conclude that between 15,000 and 43,000 people may drop their insurance.
They say “stating hypothetical intentions in polls can be a poor guide to real behaviour”.
“Consider what happened more than a decade ago when the Government proposed means-testing the private health insurance rebate. Similar industry polling predicted 1.6 million people would drop their cover. In reality, participation actually went up slightly.”
I can recall that during the mid-1990s polling suggested the introduction of a private health insurance premium rebate would lead to 25 percent of people without insurance purchasing it.
When the rebate was introduced, the number of policyholders barely changed.
The Pharmacy Guild “encouraged patients to think pharmacy first for the treatment of everyday health conditions or minor injuries” as a way of freeing-up emergency departments to deal with seriously unwell patients.
Guild NSW Branch President Mario Barone said “community pharmacists are highly trained healthcare professionals who can help with a growing range of everyday health concerns”.
“Whether it’s a urinary tract infection, advice on managing flu symptoms, vaccinations, or identifying conditions that may become more serious if left untreated, such as shingles, your local pharmacist can often provide care quickly and conveniently.”
I would be interested in the data showing how many people are attending emergency departments for advice on managing flu symptoms or vaccinations.
Parliamentary committees
A number of Senate inquiries into health issues are due to report in the week beginning 10 August, including the inquiry into illicit tobacco.
International organisations
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) called for “an urgent scale-up of the community-led Ebola response in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with stronger early detection, contact follow up, access to care, support for frontline health workers and faster delivery of resources to affected communities”.
The current situation is critical, with 99 new confirmed cases and 52 deaths in the latest 24-hour reporting period.
“Contact follow-up stood at 75 percent, below the operational target of at least 95 percent required to identify transmission chains rapidly and ensure that new cases are detected among known contacts… Treatment-centre occupancy in North Kivu had reached 139 percent, placing severe pressure on available beds, health workers and response operations.”
Africa CDC and WHO called for immediate action to:
- Identify cases earlier and raise daily contact follow-up to at least 95 percent
- Bring testing, referral, isolation and treatment services closer to affected communities
- Urgently expand treatment, laboratory, ambulance and safe and dignified burial capacity
- Protect, equip, support and pay frontline health workers on time
- Strengthen infection prevention and control in health facilities
- Maintain essential health services for affected communities
- Improve secure access to areas affected by insecurity and poor infrastructure
- Work through trusted community leaders at every stage of the response
- Sustain cross-border surveillance and regional preparedness
- Ensure that committed financing reaches frontline operations without delay.
Finally
Speaking at a casino in Las Vegas, President Trump announced (again) “we will pass the Great Health Care Plan. It’s called the Great Health Care Plan… to stop all payments to big insurance companies and give the money to the people. You go and buy your health care and you have money left over”.
As Trump has now been promoting imminent health reform for nine years, I suspect the only people who believe him at this point are died-in-the-wool MAGA cult members.
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.
Therapeutic Goods Administration
Changes to the Permissible Indications Determination
12 August
Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care
Updated pathology Standard
12 August
Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care
Requirements for Haemopoietic Cellular Therapy
12 August
Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
Private Health Reforms – Consultation Paper 1
13 August
Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
Consultation on the Medical Research Future Fund Australian Medical Research and Innovation Strategy and Priorities
16 August
Food Standards Australia New Zealand
Common commencement date for labelling changes
18 August
Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority
The development of residential aged care pricing and costing advice to the Government for 2027-28
21 August
Senate Community Affairs Committee
Private Health Insurance Amendment (Modernising the Private Health Insurance Rebate) Bill 2026
21 August
Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
Co-design the future of aged care Application Programming Interfaces
29 August
Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
Inclusive Communities Fund Consultation
31 August
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
Therapeutic Goods Administration
Adoption of International Scientific Guidelines in Australia R01-2026
11 September
Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee
Public consultation on items to be considered by the PBAC in November 2026
16 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
Public consultation on items to be considered by the PBAC
16 September
Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care
Draft National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards (third edition)
25 September
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
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
House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Disability
Inquiry into the access to and affordability of medical specialists
16 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.
Bookmark this link to follow The Zap
Add Comment