Bill Shorten has denied rumours he may soon leave the government’s frontbench and become Australia’s ambassador to France, playfully asking if there was a vacancy as Nine Entertainment’s chairman instead.
Speaking on Today alongside Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, Shorten turned host Sarah Abdo’s lighthearted question about whether he was preparing to head to Paris back on the Nine presenter after Peter Costello, the network’s chairman, appeared to push a journalist to ground at Canberra Airport yesterday.
“Oh, no. That rumour wasn’t correct,” Shorten said. “But, is there a job going at Channel Nine? Is that is there a job going at Channel Nine as the chairman?”
The NDIS minister was then asked what he thought of Costello’s confrontation with the reporter.
“I don’t know. I guess we’ll leave it for others to sort out. I don’t know what happened there,” he said. “I’ll focus on my day job … which is the NDIS.”
It was designed to be a platform for people to compare out-of-pocket fees doctors charge for specialist procedures so they could find the best deal. The Medical Cost Finder website has received more than $24 million in government funding.
But almost five years after the site launched, just 20 doctors out of the 36,000 specialists nationwide have provided their fees for listing.
Private Health Australia has called on the government to force the publication of doctors’ private fees.Credit: iStock
The revelations from a budget estimates hearing on Thursday prompted Private Healthcare Australia to call on the government to force the publication of doctors’ private fees if they won’t volunteer the information themselves.
“With cost of living hurting and medical out-of-pocket fees spiralling, it’s time for the government to intervene,” Rachel David, the chief executive of the peak body for insurers, said.
The two men in black balaclavas, carrying hammers and spray cans, approached Daniel Mulino’s electorate office while Australia slept in the early hours of last Friday. They walked down the main street of Sunshine, on the western edge of Melbourne, without another soul in sight. They sprayed red paint randomly over the windows of the federal Labor MP’s office, then painted slogans over the footpath. Then they smashed the glass.
Their calling card was a disturbing flourish. They painted an inverted red triangle on the front of the office. This is a deeply divisive symbol that has been used by Hamas for years and is viewed by some as a way for the terrorist group to signal future targets.
Following the two men was an accomplice who filmed the attack, so the video could be uploaded to social media as propaganda. Their post claimed, falsely, that Mulino and Labor had voted with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and the Coalition against recognising the state of Palestine. And they said this: “We, his constituents, opposed to genocide, paid him a visit.”
The smashing of sheet glass is nothing compared with the deaths in the Middle East, where 1200 Israelis died in the Hamas attack on October 7 and an estimated 35,000 Palestinians have died in the subsequent attacks on Gaza. Even so, the vandalism brought a hint of overseas violence to the streets of Australia.
And that is a problem for Greens leader Adam Bandt and his party. He does not want to hear it, but he and the party are using inflammatory language, and outright falsehoods, for political ends.
Good morning, and thanks for your company.
It’s Friday, June 7. I’m Lachlan Abbott, and I’ll be steering our live coverage for the first half of the day.
Here’s what’s making news this morning:
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A dispute about a $1 billion defence deal has escalated Labor’s angry clash with the Greens over misinformation about the war in Gaza, with the federal government rejecting claims it is exporting weapons or ammunition to Israel.
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Nine Entertainment chairman Peter Costello has rubbished suggestions he should resign after video emerged of him appearing to shove a journalist to the ground at Canberra Airport.
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Hundreds of children with ultra-aggressive cancers have had their tumours shrunk or eradicated completely in a world-first program giving hope to every family with a child diagnosed with cancer in Australia. The first study analysing its success was published in the international journal Nature Medicine yesterday.
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In NSW, Premier Chris Minns yesterday delivered a historic apology to generations of the LGBTQI community impacted by discriminatory laws.
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In Victoria, Melbourne’s Supreme Court was packed yesterday as Gregory Lynn, the ex-Jetstar pilot accused of murdering two campers in the state’s High Country, took the rare step of testifying in his own murder trial.
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In Queensland, the Brisbane Times had revealed an extra $554 million will be spent in next week’s state budget to allow a new train navigation system to be extended in the Brisbane rail network.
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In Western Australia, a man who claimed he was one of Perth’s leading cosmetic medical professionals has been struck off this week after the Medical Board of Australia found he tested positive for a long list of illegal drugs and was also having a sexual relationship with a patient.
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In business news, the Australian sharemarket is set for a small gain this morning while US stocks are drifting as Wall Street’s momentum cools following its latest record-setting day.
- In international news, well-known British journalist Michael Mosley went missing late yesterday after taking a coastal walk alone on the Greek island of Symi.
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