As a brief taste of what we read this morning!
Scott Morrison re-elected in a 'miracle', Shorten resigns
Updated May 19, 2019 — 12.58am, first published at 12.16am
Scott Morrison has pulled off one of the most memorable victories in Australian politics to secure the Coalition a third consecutive term.
In a tight result which saw little change from the status quo, Labor failed to meet its own expectations and underperformed in every state.
In what Mr Morrison called a miracle, the nation is headed for either a minority Coalition government, or a Coalition government with a small majority in its own right.
With more than two-thirds of the vote counted, the Coalition had secured 74 seats, one more than it started with and just two short of the bare majority of 76.
Labor was on 65 seats and there were six crossbenchers. One of these was Zali Steggall, who inflicted a rare loss on the Coalition by defeating Tony Abbott in Warringah and ending the former prime minster's 25-year career.
Another six seats were too close to call. These were Boothby (Lib, SA), Cowan (ALP, WA), Wentworth (Ind, NSW), Lilley (ALP, Qld), Macquarie (ALP, NSW) and Chisholm (Lib, Vic).
Bill Shorten conceded defeat just after 11.30pm and, after two terms and two elections as leader, he stepped down.
"Without wanting to hold out any false hope, while there are still millions of votes to count and important seats yet to be finalised, it is obvious that Labor will not be able to form the next government,'' he said.
"This has been a tough campaign. Toxic at times. But now that the contest is over, all of us have a responsibility to respect the result, respect the wishes of the Australian people and to bring our nation together."
Mr Morrison, who received a hero's welcome from the party faithful, labelled his win a "great victory" for what he has referred to throughout the campaign as "the quiet Australians''.
"I have always believed in miracles,''he said.
There is vastly more here:
Equally as close has been the contest for the present Health Minister’s seat.
Greg Hunt fends off Julia Banks challenge to retain Flinders seat
By Sumeyya Ilanbey, Charlotte Grieve, Yan Zhuang, Benjamin Preiss and Adam Carey
Flinders
- Area: Almost all of the Mornington Peninsula
- Held by: Liberal MP Greg Hunt
- Margin: 7 per cent at 2016 election
- Challengers: Labor's Josh Sinclair, Independent Julia Banks
Mr Sinclair called Mr Hunt around 10pm to concede defeat.
"This has been our toughest battle no question, but as ever steel is tempered through fire all of this makes us stronger," Mr Hunt said at his election-night function in Rye on Saturday night. An ecstatic Mr Hunt thanked his volunteers and supporters for helping him retain the crucial seat of Flinders, as he conceded this was the “toughest battle” he had ever faced.
With almost 35 per cent of the vote counted at 9.40pm, Mr Hunt was ahead 53-47 on a two-party preferred against Mr Sinclair.
More here:
Latest counting gives the margin at 55/45% to Mr. Hunt.
The problem is that Mr Hunt had no digital health policy that I could detect whereas it was clear that Labor planned to conduct a detailed review of just where the My Health Record was up to, to reconfirm all the privacy and security protections and make sure all was in order etc.
Here is the link:
https://aushealthit.blogspot.com/2019/05/we-had-debate-on-future-of-health.html
Mr. Hunt has been a really quite ignorant proponent of the My Health Record based on ADHA assurances from the ADHA that it is a good thing and needs to press forward, despite there being minimal evidence it is a practical fit for purpose solution to some ill-defined need.
Mr. Hunt is a serial plotter who opposed Mr. Turnbull and sought the deputy Liberal leadership from the now re-elected arch plotter Mr. Dutton, but once that failed has been a dedicated Morrison backer. He should be booted from the Health Portfolio for supporting a program he does not properly understand ,and who ever replaces him needs to have a close look at the My Health Record and get ready for the ANAO Audit report in October.
Every month the #myHR gravy train rumbles on is another month real progress in Digital Health is curtailed and obstructed.
In the Digital Health arena I view the Labor loss as I disaster, and had really hoped their election might have lanced the #myHR boil. Sadly that was not to be. Bring on the Audit Office ASAP!
What do you think of Mr. Hunt’s stewardship of digital health?
David.
8 comments:
I am not convinced that who was minister will make a difference to the governments involvement in digital health. Yes the system remains the My Hunt Record but in reality it is a pimple on the backside of the health portfolio, it has the potential to flare up and cause discomfort but largely ‘out-of-sight, out-of-mind’.
It is. It the Minister or party in power that is the root cause it starts in the department and ends in the monster the created in the ADHA. The Minister could I guess show some muscle and remove a few who have become somewhat rogue.
Will be hard to remove that which profits from pointless policy.
I liked the outcome of the election simply because democracy surprised us all ( or exposed polling as a lost art)
We will soon discover how valuable the ADHA is to the department heads. The Finance Minister will be coming for his efficiency gains. Personally what ADHA does mostly could be simply brought back within the department. Clearly the absence of a national body over the last 3-5 years has not harmed progress. ADHA simply facilitate ‘stuff’ and channels money. Hardly requires the overheads of a seperate agency.
The questions are: What is The Department of Health and what is ADHA?
Health is a policy department and ADHA is service delivery agency.
DHS is a service delivery department and already runs medicare, so it would make more sense to put ADHA in DHS.
My experience of DHS is that those guys usually know what they are doing and do it quite well, unless the politicians interfere - which has happened in the past.
It would not surprise me if DHS were to (and maybe already have) resisted taking ADHA.
It is quite possible that ADHA is unloved and unwanted.
Bill Shorten lost the election because he didn't just shut up and let the LNP self destruct. The ADHA is better at politics than Bill was which is why the ADHA has kept a low profile to the extent of not even publishing their weekly statistics and restricting their public outings to the echo chambers of PHNs and other true believers.
They will be hoping like heck that they can survive the ANAO review. They probably won't know what to expect because none of them have lived through one before. If they do know and/or have been told by others, we may well see movement at the top before October.
You may be right Bernard. Without the cover of a new health minister the ADHA will need to survive an existing minister, one that they severely embarrassed.
The future of the medical workforce, a report from Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research, The University of Melbourne
https://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/3069548/ANZ-MI-Health-Sector-Report-Future.pdf
"Digital health records, such as My Health Record, have the potential to make a step change in reducing waste and inefficiency in healthcare. The ability to share medical records has the potential to reduce duplicate ordering of diagnostic tests, consultation times, investigations and medication errors, as well as improve patient safety and care co-ordination for patients across different healthcare providers (Tang et al 2006). However, good evidence on these effects has yet to be produced. Although government policy now allows people to opt out, more than 90 per cent of the population have a MyHealth record, more than 15,000 healthcare provider organisations are registered, and more than 11 million documents have been uploaded (ADHA, 2019). Still, the extent to which patients and providers are actively using these records is unclear"
I wonder when someone in government will realise that all this "potential" and "promise" which has been made for decades now, is not being delivered?
And re myhr -
"good evidence on these effects has yet to be produced." (which isn't surprising as it's not a medical record, something that is lost on the economists)
and
"the extent to which patients and providers are actively using these records is unclear" (and the ADHA isn't keen on publishing document upload statistics, never mind evidence of usage)
It seems to me that the only people who believe that myhr has any use at all are those trying to sell it to those who are unconvinced
The sales people are at ADHA and have no interest in believing otherwise. To them it's their jobs that are at stake, to the rest of us, it's the future of healthcare.
@ 12:49 PM ... Nothing to worry about there. He was too stupid to know he had been embarrassed.
Well said Bernard: "It seems to me that the only people who believe that myhr has any use at all are those trying to sell it to those who are unconvinced". That certainly applies to the myhr in its current form.
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