NSW health minister: system ‘catastrophically let down’ toddler’s family
Natasha May
The NSW health minister has admitted “we’ve catastrophically let down” the family of Joe Massa the toddler who waited hours in a Northern Beaches emergency department and died of cardiac arrest.
Ryan Park spoke with 2GB radio this morning after Joe’s parents, Danny and Elouise, shared their story on the program yesterday morning. Park said:
We let Joe down. We let Joe’s family down, and the system has erred in a way that has had catastrophic outcomes. And that will never be lost on me. I hope it is never lost on the team at Healthscope, and it certainly won’t be lost on the secretary, Susan Pearce, and our staff.
This is a massive tragedy, a tragedy that shouldn’t have happened, a tragedy that at multiple steps along the way could have been intersected and changed. And the biggest one, having read through the report now four or five times, the biggest one that comes out all of the time is a failure to listen to Mum, and that is a catastrophic outcome as a result of that ignorance.
Park acknowledged the hospital, whose emergency department is operated by the private hospital provider Healthscope in a public-private partnership (PPP), is “not the best model of healthcare”.
Park said he opposed the privatisation of the hospital when it was introduced many years ago but “the parents in that community don’t want to hear that now. They want to hear what we’re going to try and do to fix it. This is not about passing the buck”.
Park apologised to the parents in a phone call yesterday and said he wants to meet with Eloise and Danny, together with the premier, “to see if there’s other things that they might want us to consider”.
Key events
Benita Kolovos
Victoria’s transport minister Gabrielle Williams was asked about deputy police commissioner Neil Paterson’s contract not being renewed. She denied there was a “sweep out” occurring at the force but referred questions to the police minister, Anthony Carbines.
She was also asked about a report by former Labor state secretary Stephen Newnham into the Werribee by-election, which showed if the Liberals preference the Greens above Labor, the opposition would benefit from a 16% swing, giving them the 45 seats needed to form government.
Williams said Labor had learnt lessons from the Werribee by-election and acknowledged that people were “doing it tough” and it would to do more:
I’m not going to comment on who’s a credible analyst or not. What we need to do, as any good government should, is focus on how we’re delivering for our community, on understanding where their pressure points are, and we’re acutely aware that many in our community are under a significant amount of financial pressure, cost of living pressure, and we’re working day in and day out to support those communities, to support working families through a range of different initiatives, and of course, always looking at how we can do more, and we’ll continue to do that.
Benita Kolovos
Victorian contactless ticketing to begin with full-fare customers
Williams:
I’ll note that in Sydney, for example, their tap and go technology has only ever been available to full fare customers. They’re actually currently out to market at the moment for the sorts of functionality that we’re currently building now …
We’ve always been really clear that the rollout would need to be careful and considered and therefore incremental, starting with that full fare product and then moving towards an account-based ticketing system being the sort of end stage and moving into other fare types … as well as other modes of transport, as I outlined previously, starting with rail and then moving across our network. Similarly, starting with adult full fares and then broadening out that offering to other groups as well.
Benita Kolovos
More on Melbourne’s public transport ticketing announcement
Transport minister Gabrielle Williams was asked why the government was installing the old ticketing machines across the five new stations of the Metro Tunnel, which will open later this year, and how much it will cost to remove them when ticketless travel begins.
Williams said it was part of the commissioning process to allow them to open on time. She said:
As a part of commissioning those stations, we need to have all the appropriate infrastructure in place that includes ticketing infrastructure. Because when we talk about the testing and trialing that goes on in the Metro Tunnel, people are often focused on the trains, what we’re also testing is all the surrounding infrastructure, from platform screen doors to elevators and escalators to the integration of the ticketing system within the station precinct.
All of that has to work and function well through that commissioning process, and in the lead up to us switching on Metro Tunnel.
She said three stations were commissioned last year, with Town Hall and State Library to be completed in the coming months:
That ticketing infrastructure had to be in place at a point in time that was quite early on in, in CBTS taking over the ticketing contract in parallel and building us this new ticketing system.
But what I will say is as a part of our new ticketing system contract, we have provided for the replacement and rollout of new ticketing readers across the network.
So that doesn’t require us to replace all the surrounding infrastructure at the Metro Tunnel stations. For example, that gate infrastructure and those sort of pillars for whatever better word that the readers rest on – we simply just have to swap out the readers themselves.
Williams said Victorians may see new readers installed over the coming months:
I believe it’s 22,000 – might even be 28,000 readers – that have to be replaced across our public transport system. I’ll get you the exact figure, but it is obviously a very large-scale project to work through our networks and replace one by one those new ticketing readers – that will start in coming months.
It will obviously take a bit of time to get through those sort of tens of thousands of assets and replace them, but we’ve been keen to ensure we can turn on the Metro Tunnel later this year. It will be turned on later this year, and of course, then the new ticketing system on our rail network will roll out from early ‘26.
All readers across the train network will be installed by 2026, she said.
Priority must be given to getting them rolled out across our rail system. But that is an incremental process of getting that new ticketing asset rolled out across our rail, bus and tram networks.
Bullock says Trump tariffs ‘definitely negative for growth’ but inflation impact ‘less certain’
Jonathan Barrett
The RBA governor, Michele Bullock, has told a parliamentary committee that while Donald Trump’s tariffs are bad for economic growth, it’s unclear how the import duties will affect inflation in Australia.
Bullock told the House of Representatives economics committee today:
The bottom line is that it’s definitely negative for growth … The impact on inflation is less certain. It does depend.
Bullock went on to explain that the tariffs could prompt China to export goods more cheaply elsewhere, including to Australia.
This would be disinflationary.
On the other hand, the Australian dollar may lose value against the greenback, which could rise in value due to the higher import duties.
This would be inflationary because a lower Australian dollar makes imports more expensive.
Benita Kolovos
More from Victorian transport minister Gabrielle Williams
Williams mentioned the current trials of tap and go on buses in Wangaratta, and said there will be further trials on trains soon, including for public transport staff:
There will be further closed trials across our rail network as well and we will be talking about that more in due course. There will be further trials … involving PTV staff testing and using that technology in advance before we make it available to the broader Victorian community.
It’s important that we start with our rail network, 70% of Victorian commuters use our rail network, we know it’s heavily relied upon by the Victorian community. Having this new technology available on our rail system is very impactful for the great majority of the Victorian community and from there, we will roll out the technology across those other modes.
RBA governor strikes cautious tone on rate outlook
Jonathan Barrett
The Reserve Bank governor, Michele Bullock, has told a parliamentary committee that future cash rate decisions will be guided by “our evolving assessment of the risks” after striking a cautious tone on any future cuts.
The RBA cut the cash rate by a quarter-point on Tuesday to 4.1%, the first cut since the early days of the pandemic. Bullock, who took over as governor in late 2023, warned at the time the cut did not imply there was a string of further cuts to come this year.
Bullock told the House of Representatives committee today the cut represented a rewinding of a rate hike that occurred in 2023, which was taken at the time as “insurance” against the risk of rising inflation.
Bullock told the committee:
The board’s decision on Tuesday to unwind the November 2023 increase reflects its assessment that this insurance is no longer required …
Looking ahead, the board is committed to being guided by the incoming data and our evolving assessment of the risks.
The November hike in 2023 came after a quick-fire series of 12 increases.
The RBA’s interest rate outlook is more cautious than forecasts provided by economists at Australia’s major banks, who expect up to three more cuts this year.
The central bank has raised concerns over the potential for inflation to rise again.
Victorian transport minister confirms ticketless Myki rollout
Benita Kolovos
The Victorian public transport minister Gabrielle Williams held a press conference this morning, where she confirmed the rollout of ticketless travel will begin next year.
She told reporters more than 20,000 new Myki readers would be installed across the train network that would eventually allow travellers to tap and go without a Myki card. It would then roll out across buses and trams:
We’re taking a very considered and cautious approach to how we do this rollout because we know that we need to both build this new system and keep the current system operating so that we’re not unnecessarily disrupting commuters in their day to day travels through our city and state.
But we are very excited to be able to announce that the new ticketing technology – that tap-and-go technology – will be starting to roll out across our network from early 2026, starting with our rail network and then gradually incrementally rolling out across the broader network from there.
We will have more updates for the Victorian community throughout the course of this year as we head to that period of time.
The move has been long awaited, with Sydney becoming ticketless in 2019 and Queensland in 2020.
US property firm bids to take over Nine-owned Domain
Nine-owned real estate portal Domain has received an unsolicited takeover offer worth $2.7bn from US property behemoth CoStar.
The proposal is to acquire 100% of the issued capital of Domain at $4.20 a share. The closing share price for Domain Holdings on Thursday was $3.12, giving it a market cap of $1.97bn, and meaning the CoStar offer includes a 34.6% premium.
In a notice to the ASX, Domain said it had been advised by CoStar that it had acquired 16.9% of Domain’s ordinary shares on Thursday at $4.20 a share, and it stated that its proposed price of $4.20 a share would be offered to all Domain shareholders entirely in cash.
The offer would still need to be approved by the Foreign Investment Review Board, but CoStar said it already had financing in place for the buyout.
CoStar is publicly traded on the Nasdaq Exchange. It describes itself as the world’s largest real estate information company and has a market value of A$51bn. Domain would be its first Australian asset.
Opposition says government using Victoria police departures as ‘scapegoats’
Benita Kolovos
The shadow minister for police, David Southwick, has released a statement after news of Neil Paterson’s contract not being renewed. He has accused the government of using Paterson and Shane Patton as “scapegoats”:
It is clear the Allan Labor government is using some of Victoria police’s most senior and experienced executive officers as scapegoats for the crime crisis their own mismanagement has created.
This worsening leadership crisis will do nothing to reopen the 43 closed stations closed across the state, fill the 1,000 frontline vacancies, end Labor’s cycle of offend, arrest, bail repeat or equip police with the powers they need to keep Victorians safe.
Benita Kolovos
About Neil Paterson
Some background about Neil Paterson, the deputy commissioner of Victoria police, whose contract will not be renewed.
Paterson joined Victoria police in 1988 and has since worked across several units, including the homicide squad, the arson squad’s road policing unit and as a divisional commander in Frankston. He was promoted to chief of staff to then chief commissioner Graham Ashton in 2015.
He is being investigated by the state’s anti-corruption commission over an alleged road rage incident during school pickup at a Melbourne college campus in 2024.
In November, when the existence of the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission investigation was first reported by the Age, Paterson defended his conduct, telling the publication that it was another parent who had been agitated and he had acted professionally throughout.
Jonathan Barrett
GYG upsizes profit amid strong burrito sales
Mexican-themed restaurant chain Guzman y Gomez has reported a 23% boost in sales across its network over a six-month period, and a big jump in profit.
The fast-food outlet, which has a handful of overseas stores to complement its expanding Australian business, has enjoyed a stellar share price run since listing on the ASX mid last year, with its stock price up more than 50%.
GYG, which is its acronym and stock market ticker, recorded a 91% increase in profit over the half year to $7.3m, according to financial results released today.
GYG had 239 stores at the end of December.
The huge increase in stock value has drawn warnings from some analysts, given a large number of its shares are tied up in escrow and unable to trade, increasing demand for the remaining stock.
Nurses’ strike at eight private NSW hospitals suspended
Natasha May
Hundreds of nurses and midwives at eight private hospitals across NSW had planned to strike for 26 hours today – but the strike won’t go ahead after an emergency decision by the Fair Work Commission.
Healthscope, the country’s second-largest private hospital operator, lodged an urgent application to suspend the protected industrial action in the commission yesterday afternoon, with an emergency hearing held into the evening.
The commission made a decision to suspend industrial action at the birth suite in Newcastle private hospital, according to the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association (NSWNMA).
Because any suspension order means all protected industrial action in relation to an agreement is “unprotected”, according to the Fair Work Act, the strikes across all eight hospitals have been called off.
NSWNMA acting general secretary, Michael Whaites, said the union was disappointed by the decision and would meet with members as soon as possible to discuss next steps:
Our members are in pursuit of pay equity with their Queensland counterparts and minimum safe staffing levels in all Healthscope hospitals.
Benita Kolovos
More on Paterson leaving Victoria police
In an email to staff, seen by Guardian Australia, Neil Paterson said he had “committed his life” to the force:
I have been committed to serving the Victorian community for over thirty-seven years, by detecting and apprehending offenders, supporting victims and helping those in need of assistance. That’s the reason I and every other police officer joins policing and turns up every day.
He thanked his husband and children and said he was proud of his work to improve the mental health of officers but conceded more needed to be done to make the community safe:
This past year has seen a significant rise in crime to record high levels. Our hard-working police officers have never arrested more people or helped more victims, a very sad reality.
Policing is only a part of the justice system, and in effect, the justice system requires strong legislation and appropriate accountability in the courts.
Police own the piece in the middle; they enforce the legislation provided by governments and front offenders before the court.
Paterson said he had taken a period of leave prior to his contract ending in July.
Victoria police deputy commissioner Neil Paterson ousted
Benita Kolovos
Victoria police’s deputy commissioner, Neil Paterson, has become the second senior officer to leave the force within a week.
In an email to police on Thursday afternoon, Paterson said the acting chief commissioner, Rick Nugent, informed him the government would not renew his contract when it expires in July.
Nugent has only been in the top job for three days, after Shane Patton resigned on Sunday evening after a no-confidence vote by 87% of rank-and-file officers last week.
