Here are a few I have come across the last week or so. Note: Each link is followed by a title and a few paragraphs. For the full article click on the link above title of the article. Note also that full access to some links may require site registration or subscription payment.
General Comment
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A fair bit going on with misrepresentation, worsening digital divide, bludgeoning of myHR use and tech shortages.
You have nothing to loose but your innocence reading on!
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September 2 2021 - 4:30AM
Australians redirected to My Health Record for vaccine certificates despite opting out
Finn McHugh
Australians looking to access their Covid vaccine certificate are being directed to My Health Record, even if they have opted out of the scheme.
Fully vaccinated Australians have been able to receive a digital vaccination certificate to their phone for the past week, via Medicare's Express Plus app or myGov.
To access the certificate via myGov, users must ensure their account is linked to their Medicare profile.
But people whose myGov account and Medicare profiles aren't linked have been directed to the My Health Record website, even if they have opted-out of the contentious service, via a link which promises to "Get proof of your vaccinations".
Services Australia general manager Hank Jongen insisted there was no error in the system, saying My Health Record was just one way to access a vaccine certificate.
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Digital medical record systems causing fatigue and burnout in health staff
By Stuart Layt
August 31, 2021 — 8.43pm
The inability of doctors and nurses to properly use electronic record-keeping systems remains the biggest challenge to how well the systems perform across Australia, new research has found.
Over the past few years, all states and territories have moved to some form of electronic medical record system (EMR) to replace old paper records.
The first large-scale study into the use of EMRs across the country has found smaller venues, such as GP clinics, are integrating the systems better than larger facilities, such as hospitals, which are struggling with a one-size-fits-all approach.
Lead author Sheree Lloyd, from Griffith University’s School of Applied Psychology, said problems experienced with EMRs contributed to fatigue and burnout in health staff, as well as more errors.
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Problems with EMR cause burnout, increased errors: study
Wednesday, 01 September, 2021
Problems with electronic medical record systems (EMRs) contribute to fatigue, burnout and increased errors, according to a study on EMR usability in Australia.
The study, led by Griffith University, captured views from medical, nursing and allied health professionals across the acute, primary and community care sectors. It found that nursing and medical professionals have differing experiences depending on where they work.
Results showed technical and quality features were more positively experienced by doctors in the primary care sector than nurses, as well as ease of obtaining patient information and prevention of errors.
In the hospital sector, nurses’ experiences with EMRs were more positive with regards to support for routine task completion, learnability, ease of obtaining patient information and entry of patient data.
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Independent review found Australia's COVID-19 contact tracing app 'inefficient,' 'cumbersome'
Some contact tracers said the app created two additional hours of work for them.
By Adam Ang
August 31, 2021 03:00 AM
An independent report has found that Australia's COVID-19 contact tracing app COVIDSafe has not been helpful in the country's pandemic response.
The report, written by consulting firm Abt Associates, was accessed and read by the Canberra Times via a freedom of information request. It covered the March-November 2020 period of the app's implementation.
FINDINGS
Australia introduced the COVIDSafe app last year in April as a contact tracing tool. Jointly developed by the Health Department and the Digital Transformation Agency, the mobile app adopted the same Bluetooth technology used in Singapore's TraceTogether contact tracing app. By May this year, there were more than 7 million registered users of the app in the country.
The document stated that the app has led to a "cumbersome and inefficient" process for government contact tracers to access information, such as entering data manually from a screen into a system or spreadsheet. Some tracers disclosed to reviewers that the app added two hours to the tracing process.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/dta-sheds-covidsafe-app-duties-569370
DTA sheds COVIDSafe app duties
By Justin Hendry on Sep 3, 2021 7:00AM
Health department to take over.
The Digital Transformation Agency will seed all responsibility for the much-maligned COVIDSafe contact tracing app to the Department of Health at the end of this month as its "significant" restructure continues.
As the government’s lead IT agency, the DTA was tasked with the development and operation of COVIDSafe in the early stages of the pandemic last year, including the app and national COVIDSafe data store.
The data store, which is hosted in Amazon Web Services, stores personal information like names and phone numbers, as well data collected through "digital handshakes" or encounters with devices.
But with COVIDSafe now operating in what former CEO Randall Brugeaud described as a business-as-usual mode, the DTA has now transfered all responsibility to the Department of Health.
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Prosthetic arm so sensitive it can tell if a peach is ripe
By Rhys Blakely
The Times
1:08PM September 2, 2021
Scientists have developed a robotic prosthetic arm that restores a sense of touch through each finger.
One of the two patients who have tested the technology is Claudia Mitchell, 41, who lives in Arkansas and lost her left arm at the shoulder in a motorcycle accident in 2004. Her new limb is so deft she can use its robotic fingers to slice a peach, or even to test how firm the flesh is. “I know if something I’m holding is starting to slip away, or if I’m squeezing someone’s hand too hard,” she said.
“Before I could only tell by looking. These are things that may not seem like a big deal, but that really make a difference in someone’s life.”
Crucially, the researchers say that the arm has been designed to restore the sense of kinaesthesia – the ability to know, without looking, where your limbs are in space and whether they are moving.
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https://medicalrepublic.com.au/telehealth-rules-deprive-bush-docs-of-care/52177
31 August 2021
Telehealth rules deprive bush docs of care
Rural healthcare workers have been marooned by travel restrictions and left without access to Medicare-subsidised telehealth, says a GP who works in one of Australia’s most remote communities.
In a recent webinar hosted by the Regional Australia Institute, Associate Professor Jill Benson said she would like to see Medicare grant exemptions to the “existing relationship” rule so healthcare workers could access subsidised telehealth.
As the medical director of Spinifex Health Service,
Professor Benson provides services to the remote West Australian Aboriginal
community of Tjuntjuntjara, which is about 700km from the nearest town,
Kalgoorlie.
“The road is very bad and occasionally is completely unusable,” she said on the
webinar.
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https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/professional/they-ve-got-the-maths-wrong-gps-say-telehealth-sho
‘They’ve got the maths wrong’: GPs say telehealth should be part of PIP
Recent changes to the way Practice Incentive Payments are being calculated is threatening the viability of general practice, according to a new GP-led petition.
01 Sep 2021
When GP and practice owner Dr John Henderson noticed that
his practice’s Practice
Incentive Program Quality Improvement (PIP QI) payments had significantly
declined, he was surprised given his clinic’s busy workload.
But that surprise soon turned to disbelief.
‘Our practice manager was told that our SWPE [Standardised Whole Patient
Equivalents] had gone down because they’re not counting telehealth – I actually
did not believe it,’ Dr Henderson told newsGP.
‘As it turns out, that’s been happening since the start of the pandemic.
‘We didn’t know if we’d missed an announcement. But all the searching I did, I
couldn’t find any sign of any announcement.’
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New trial to assist patients with severe and enduring mental health illnesses
Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Sep 1 2021
The pandemic has made it more difficult for the 430,000+ Australians living with severe mental illnesses who are highly vulnerable to acute illness relapses when their habitual routines and standard health care arrangements are disrupted.
With telehealth solutions now responding to the rising demand for mental health services across the board, a new project led by Flinders University is targeting this more vulnerable group with a digital solution created with their special needs in mind.
The AI2 (Actionable In-time Insights) project aims to change the way healthcare is delivered - both for better mental health service delivery and for wider chronic disease management in the community. Regular remote checks on these patients aim to reduce the number who end up in hospital or emergency departments, adding $2.6 billion to hospital care costs every year.
After extensive research and trials, the AI2 software model is now rolling out across Adelaide and South Australia in partnership with public mental health services linked to the Local Health Networks of Southern Adelaide, Northern Adelaide, Central Adelaide, Barossa Fleurieu and Adelaide Hills, as well as the State Government's Digital Health SA.
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https://www.innovationaus.com/craig-kelly-texts-show-need-for-spam-privacy-reform-experts/
Craig Kelly texts show need for spam, privacy reform: experts
Ben
Grubb
Editor
1 September 2021
United Australia Party MP Craig Kelly’s ‘spam’ text messages to thousands of people across the nation highlight the need for reform to privacy, spam and electoral laws, experts say.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) told InnovationAus it had received 3,420 complaints over the past several days about the controversial MP’s messages, which state “You can never trust the Liberals, Labor or Greens again” with a link directing them to the UAP website.
The messages prompted news website Crikey to publish Mr Kelly’s mobile number and invite readers to spam him back, and follow similar mass blasts by the Labor Party during 2016’s election, dubbed the “Mediscare” texts, and the Australian Marriage Equality campaign’s “Yes” messages in 2017.
Mr Kelly told The Sydney Morning Herald he had not purchased a list of phone numbers, but rather had sent the messages using software that generated phone numbers at random – the same method used by the Australian Marriage Equality campaign in 2017.
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https://rpassistants.com.au/news/immunisation-events-need-to-be-reported-to-the-air/
Immunisation events need to be reported to the AIR
August 31, 2021
As part of public health monitoring, it is encouraged that vaccinators report immunisation events, including Covid-19, influenza, and NIP vaccines, to the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR).
To facilitate reporting to the AIR, the Australian Digital Health Agency has developed the Clinician Vaccine Integrated Platform (CVIP), which is expected to make it easier for vaccination providers who do not have clinical software that reports to the AIR, record vaccination information.
While it is not a requirement for healthcare professionals to use CVIP, it is said to provide a more streamlined method that makes uploading information to AIR more efficient – it provides a simpler solution in some instances by integrating vaccination check-in with vaccination recording and reporting in AIR.
To help pharmacists gain an understanding on how to report to the AIR and on how to use CVIP to undertake this reporting, Guild Learning and Developing has announced the availability of the online module titled Clinician Vaccine Integrated Platform (Pharmacy), which has been developed by the Australian Digital Health Agency.
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Incident management system at Victoria's Health Department not yet fully implemented: state auditor
Adam Ang | 03 Sep 2021
The Victorian Auditor-General's Office has published a review of Victoria's Department of Health to determine if it has improved clinical governance over the past five years.
While the department did make "some clinical governance improvements," it still has "limited" ability to assure the health system's safety and quality, according to the report.
FINDINGS
Among findings, the VAGO noted that the DH still has not fully implemented a statewide incident management system to detect systemic risks.
In 2009, the then-Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) introduced the Victorian Health Incident Management System (VHIMS), which categorises all incidents occurring in public health services by four incident severity ratings, from "no harm" to "severe". It was envisioned to provide reliable and accurate incident data from all health services for regular and systematic analysis of clinical incidents.
However, there was no data dictionary established that comprehensively defines all data fields in the system, which led health services to use inconsistent data collection methods and rendered flaws in statewide incident reporting.
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https://newsroom.nt.gov.au/mediaRelease/34890
Fast-Tracked Breastscreening Results For Territorians
28 August 2021
Territorian women will now have faster access to mammogram results as BreastScreenNT becomes the second breast screening service in the country to connect to My Health Record.
This means consenting women in the Northern Territory will have their breast screen results uploaded to their My Health Record account following assessment from two consultant radiologists.
Using My Health Record ensures medical results are kept in one secure place and can be accessed at any time to inform decisions around patient care.
BreastScreenNT is a joint Territory and Australian Government funded program which provides free breast screening for Territory women without signs or symptoms of breast cancer.
The free breast screening service is available to all women over the age of 40 and is specifically targeted to women aged 50 to 74.
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Digital resource to improve aged-care nutrition
Wednesday, 01 September, 2021
Nestlé Professional has launched a new digital resource designed to help aged-care providers improve the nutritional quality of the meals they provide for the elderly under their care.
The free online recipe book, Nourished: Make Every Bite Count, was created in collaboration with nutrition and culinary experts to provide appetising menus with appropriate nutrition for those in aged care and healthcare settings.
The recent Royal Commission into Aged Care identified food and nutrition as one of the critical areas of focus requiring immediate attention.
Accredited Practising Dietitian and Brand Nutritionist for Nestlé Professional Karen Kingham said research shows malnutrition among elderly people living in care exceeds 1 in 2.1 While ageing can present many barriers to good nutrition, a menu offering a range of nutritious, energy and protein dense foods can make a difference.
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The power of technology in creating more equitable and accessible health care
By Gadi Bichler, Head of Growth and Customer Experience at
Curve Tomorrow
Thursday, 26 August, 2021
There has never been a more important time for the medical industry to redefine what the future of patient health care looks like. While the last year and a half has tested the healthcare sector and pushed it beyond what we knew was possible, it’s remarkable to see what we’ve been able to achieve through the power of technology.
Curve Tomorrow is focused on using technology to create purpose-led healthcare solutions that help to improve people’s lives, with a mission to positively impact one billion lives in the next 25 years.
To do that, we take a human-centred approach to developing healthcare solutions that not only address the unique needs of our users, but help to remove barriers to equitable and accessible health care. Over the last 10 years we’ve built more than 20 patient engagement mobile apps; from helping to identify symptoms, to tracking patient outcomes, to collecting data for scientific research.
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Watch Managing Director Kate Quirke's recent interviews on Alcidion's FY21 Full Year Results
Last week, Alcidion released its Full Year Results for
FY21. Managing Director Kate Quirke was interviewed by ausbiz,
Kalkine Media and the ASX Investor YouTube Channel to
discuss the Company's record year of growth and its strong position
going into FY22.
In the interviews, Kate Quirke talked about how Alcidion expanded its
footprint in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, signing important
contracts that provided the Company with a solid foundation to lead the
digital transformation of the healthcare industry.
Click on the links below to watch the interviews.
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Project to develop digital analytics tool for patient safety in South Australia underway
The analytics tool aims to predict the risk of adverse events in hospitals.
By Adam Ang
September 02, 2021 03:15 AM
The government-backed Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre, along with the University of South Australia and SA Health, has started working on a project that will create a digital analytics tool predicting the emerging risk of adverse events in hospitals.
WHAT IT'S ABOUT
Based on a press statement, a research team behind the project has studied and developed a preliminary predictive harm algorithm using 18 months of data from the Royal Adelaide Hospital and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. It was developed to "effectively inform safety, quality and risk management strategies related to patient medication strategies".
The research has been expanded to cover falls risk and code blacks (personal threats).
Utilising existing software frameworks, the analytics tool will be instrumental for the development of a "visual, interactive programme" that will be accessible via a dashboard summary for clinicians and administrators, according to Marion Eckert, director of the Rosemary Bryant AO Research Centre at the UniSA.
The said programme will deliver real-time insights describing risk exposure in a hospital setting, informing decision makers' assessments and predictions to forecast special considerations for the implementation of safety measures.
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https://www.hinz.org.nz/news/578580/Tech-skills-shortage-hitting-digital-health-sector.htm
Tech skills shortage hitting digital health sector
Tuesday, 31 August 2021
NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
A skills shortage means New Zealand’s data and digital
health sector is struggling to recruit the people and skills needed to meet the
demand for work and projects are being delayed, industry experts say.
NZTech chief executive Graeme Muller says problems getting tech professionals
into the country is, “causing an explosion in salaries, delays in projects and
offshoring of jobs”.
NZTech conducted a digital skills survey in July, which found there more than
two thousand open jobs for highly paid tech people with specialist or technical
skills in New Zealand.
Gina Hills, chief financial officer and executive vice-president of people at
Orion Health says the shortage of experienced tech workers is a “very real
concern” as the company needs to employ a number of software developers and
engineers for new roles.
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Wednesday, 01 September 2021 11:02
Windows 11 arrival date unveiled: October 5 in the US, October 6 in Australia
The free Windows 11 upgrade to PCs that qualify starts rolling out on October 5, which is the same date new PCs with Windows 11 pre-loaded will become available for purchase, heralding a new era for Microsoft as it fights Apple and Google for computing supremacy.
Windows 11. The launch was sadly marred by Microsoft insisting on strict hardware requirements that didn't apply in the same to Windows 10, and even though Microsoft has reportedly relented in that "unsupported" hardware can still be made to install Windows 11, there's confusion on whether those "unsupported" PCs will get security and other updates via the Windows Update mechanism.
However, if your computer DOES have an Intel Core i-Series 8th-generation processor or better, or is a Surface Studio 2 with qualifying 7th-gen Core i-Series chip, along with a TPM 2.0 chip or equivalent capability, then you'll find the PC Health Check app will give you a clean bill of upgrade health, and you'll have no problems upgrading.
Microsoft's blog post announcing the October 5 date, which is presumably October 6 in Australia due to the usual time zone differences, was published by Aaron Woodman, the General Manager of Windows Marketing, and naturally, Woodman explains all of Windows 11's features and benefits.
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https://www.zdnet.com/article/nbn-forecasts-slightly-lower-revenue-and-earnings-for-fy22/
NBN forecasts slightly lower revenue and earnings for FY22
Another NBN corporate plan, another revision downwards for its finances.
By Chris Duckett | August 30, 2021 -- 21:00 GMT (07:00 AEST) | Topic: Networking
Sticking to its mantra that publishing long term forecasts could hurt the company responsible for the National Broadband Network, the NBN Co Corporate Plan 2022 has restricted itself to stating finances for the current fiscal year.
"NBN Co is targeting annual revenue and other income in FY22 of between AU$5 billion to AU$5.2 billion and EBITDA in the range of AU$3 billion to AU$3.2 billion," the company said in a rare mention of fiscal information. Unlike in years past, it did not state net profit nor capital expenditure for the coming year.
Compared to the last year's set of figures that did, the company said it was previously expecting revenue to be AU$5.3 billion, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) to be AU$3.3 billion, and to post a net loss of AU$2.2 billion. Capital expenditure for FY22 was previously flagged as AU$3.8 billion.
On topics it would talk about, NBN said it was on track to get 75% of its footprint, around 8 million premises, capable of handling 1Gbps ultrafast speeds by 2023.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nbn-co-delays-app-throttling-plans-for-fixed-wireless-569387
NBN Co delays app throttling plans for fixed wireless
By Ry Crozier on Sep 3, 2021 12:45PM
While continuing to consult on what to do about heavy fixed-line users.
NBN Co has delayed plans to limit the bandwidth available to certain apps on its fixed wireless network during periods of heavy usage.
The company unveiled the proposal in October last year as a response to heavy users that routinely dominated available capacity in a particular cell, to the detriment of the experience of other users.
NBN Co said it intended to limit the bandwidth available to applications that heavy users favoured, such as peer-to-peer services and ultra high-definition streams.
With industry consultation completed at the end of last year, NBN Co had been targeting a Q3 2021 introduction of the capability, which it later clarified as September this year.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nbn-co-reveals-future-foray-into-smart-buildings-569385
NBN Co reveals future foray into smart buildings
By Ry Crozier on Sep 3, 2021 7:00AM
Intends to launch commercial service in 2022.
NBN Co will launch a new internet service for connected systems in smart buildings, with individual homes and commercial facilities both appearing to be targets.
The company will call the new offering ‘smart connect’, which it describes as “a ‘modular’ wholesale Layer 2 product to be offered to facilities management [and/or] utilities as an ancillary service.”
Smart connect will be able to provide connectivity to “all non-broadband applications within the facility, such as intercom, metering, CCTV, health and safety alarms [and] building management systems.”
An NBN Co spokesperson confirmed the development of the product, which is currently intended to launch in the third quarter of 2022.
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NBN Co cuts revenue, earnings forecasts
7:21PM August 31, 2021
NBN Co has unveiled its latest corporate plan, revising down its forecast revenue and earnings by hundreds of millions of dollars while the project’s total cost has ballooned to $57bn.
The plan, released to the public on Tuesday, marked down the company’s revenue for the 2021-2022 period down from $5.3bn in the 2020 plan to between $5bn and $5.2bn, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) has been revised down from $3.3bn to between $3bn and $3.2bn.
The project was originally forecast to cost an estimated $29.5bn before the 2013 election, a figure that was revised to $51bn by 2018. That cost is now out to a total of $57bn.
NBN Co’s corporate plan meanwhile removed all financial projections beyond the next 12 months, which it blamed on its debt financing arrangements with overseas investors. Previous corporate plans included four-year financial forecasts.
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NBN Co in $500m-plus Aussie bond deal, taps three banks
Anthony Macdonald and Yolanda Redrup
Aug 31, 2021 – 10.12am
NBN Co is stepping up its private for public debt replacement program.
The company, still owing about $11.7 billion to government, is talking to Australian bond investors this week ahead of a $500 million-plus deal.
NBN Co has mandated ANZ, Westpac and MUFG to arrange the bond deal. The brokers kicked it off with a call for indications of interest on Monday.
The proposed deal was structured as a three-year Australian medium term note, with indicative pricing in the “low 40s” basis points above the three year swap rate.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nbn-co-drops-financial-projections-from-its-corporate-plan-569236
NBN Co drops financial projections from its corporate plan
By Ry Crozier on Aug 31, 2021 12:01AM
Coincides with release of a new statement of expectations.
NBN Co has unveiled a threadbare corporate plan for 2022, with all forward financial projections beyond the next 12 months now removed from view.
Where even last year’s corporate plan contained a table of the company’s key financials between FY20 and FY24, including its forward projections for revenue, earnings, net profit and capex, NBN Co said it could no longer offer these numbers due to its ongoing efforts to secure debt financing.
“Historically, NBN Co has included within its corporate plan forward-looking estimates of core operational and financial metrics beyond a 12-month horizon,” the company said.
“However, since commencing activity in local and global debt capital markets, the company has come under a new suite of obligations and limitations.
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https://www.itwire.com/telecoms-and-nbn/nbn-continuing-to-be-the-political-football.html
Monday, 30 August 2021 15:13
NBN continuing to be the political football
The Shadow Minister for Communications and Member for Greenway Michelle Rowland, issued a media release titled 'Department slaps down dodgy Fletcher for misleading about fibre NBN'.
Rowland says, the Minister has tried to peddle a debunked claim that: “If we'd stuck with Labor's plan, then we would in 2020 have had five million fewer Australian premises able to connect”.
Labor Senators spent six months seeking to establish the reference for this claim, Rowland says.
However, Rowland continues, after the Minister proved unable to produce any page reference for his “source”, the Department cut him loose and effectively advised the Senate the Minister swindled them as well, saying, "The Department does not manage the Minister’s Twitter account and did not provide advice on the Minister’s statement to the House of Representatives."
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Enjoy!
David.
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