Sabra Lane: Good morning. Welcome to AM. It's Monday the 29th of April. I'm Sabra Lane coming to you from Nipaluna, Hobart. The Prime Minister will convene a National Cabinet meeting this Wednesday to discuss what more the federal, state and territory governments can do to stop violence against women. It follows rallies held around the nation on the weekend sparked by the number of women killed so far this year. Stephanie Smail reports.
Opinion: Five, six, seven, eight. No more violence, no more hate.
Stephanie Smail: The chants echo through Brisbane's CBD with thousands of men, women and children filling the streets. They're holding up signs saying enough is enough, stop killing women and keep us safe.
Opinion: There is a lot of anger and we need to harness that anger and push for real change. I don't think we can leave it up to future generations to fix, we have to fix it today.
Stephanie Smail: Men marching alongside their partners, families and friends say there's no excuse for violence.
Opinion: We can do better. I grew up in a family with domestic violence and I always asked the question where were the other men? You know, there were uncles, there were friends, there were people who always asked why didn't they step in and do something? The status quo is not good enough, the standards that we have at the moment need to be improved. Five, six, seven, eight. No more violence, no more hate.
Stephanie Smail: The deaths of women have been making headlines all year, including the alleged murder of New South Wales mother Molly Ticehurst, which has prompted a review of the state's bail laws. And as the rallies rolled out across the country, another man was charged. This time over the death of a woman in Western Australia. At Brisbane's rally, former prison manager and domestic violence prevention advocate Shaan Ross-Smith accused governments of neglecting the issue of gender-based violence.
Shaan Ross-Smith: People blame bureaucracy but that's just bullshit. The fact that men's violence against women is not being prioritised at a local, state or federal level is not okay.
Stephanie Smail: Sexual violence prevention advocates Camille Schloeffel and Afrida Imrose echoed her criticism.
Camille Schloeffel: We can't wait to invest in radical change and we don't need another inquiry or new research to know what the problem is because we have been telling you for years.
Afrida Imrose: We owe it to ourselves to go beyond what's made available for us and respect ourselves enough to stop trusting the systems that continue to fail us.
Stephanie Smail: Queensland's Premier Stephen Miles attended the Brisbane rally.
Steven Miles: To support the crowd that's here and to support their calls to end domestic violence.
Stephanie Smail: Does it make you revisit what's in place now? Is there room to make more change?
Steven Miles: This is a national problem and all of the states and territories need to do our part but we also need a national solution.
Stephanie Smail: At a similar rally in Canberra, the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese answered that call, saying he'll meet with state and territory leaders this week.
Anthony Albanese: Governments of all levels must do better, including my own, including every state and territory government.
Sabra Lane: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese ending Stephanie Smail's report there. This next story might be uncomfortable listening. It discusses child sex abuse, and it's an important one to illustrate this is happening in Australia. Former members of a fundamentalist Christian sect are hoping an FBI investigation into the group will finally deliver justice for victims of child sexual abuse. The ABC can reveal more than 100 Australian victims have contacted a hotline for survivors. Reporter Tobi Loftus has the story.
Tobi Loftus: Lisa Smith was just 10 years old when her life growing up in Brisbane was turned upside down.
Lisa Smith: That was the start of the sexual abuse.
Tobi Loftus: Lisa's not her real name. We've changed her name for legal reasons.
Lisa Smith: I was the only one in my bedroom. And dad said to me I need to check if you've developed. If you're developing properly, was his words.
Tobi Loftus: Her dad was a local leader in a global fundamentalist Christian sect, which does not have an official name, but is known as the Truth, the Way, or the Two by Twos.
Lisa Smith: I'll probably call it a cult. No radio, no TV, no worldly music, not allowed to cut your hair.
Tobi Loftus: The abuse against her continued for years, all while her dad remained in the sect. He was only made to leave after he pleaded guilty to seven charges of indecent treatment of a child under 14 in a Queensland court in 2020. He was sentenced to three years in prison, which was suspended after four months. Lisa's not alone in her experience.
Jillian Hishon: Brave Truth Australia, this is Gillian speaking.
Tobi Loftus: Jillian Hishon runs a hotline from her Brisbane home, connecting former sect members who have experienced sexual abuse within the sect in Australia and New Zealand to support services.
Jillian Hishon: So I would have probably over 100 that have made contact with me.
Tobi Loftus: The sect was established in Ireland in the late 1800s and quickly spread around the world. It's estimated there are about 100,000 believers worldwide and roughly 8,000 in Australia. Believers of the church meet in people's homes for prayer sessions, with the group's ministers moving between the different cities where followers are based. The sect has chapters in cities and towns in every Australian state, as well as the ACT. Charlie Blundell grew up in the sect.
Charlie Blundell: The sexual abuse was when I was a toddler. I was very, very young. For me, it sounds callous to say, but it was the minor part of the abuse. The physical and emotional abuse have had far more detrimental effects. Those memories never go away.
Tobi Loftus: Charlie is one of a number of Australian survivors to make a submission to an FBI inquiry into the sect in the United States. The FBI says it's seeking the public's help in identifying victims or individuals with knowledge of abuse in the sect. In a written statement to the ABC, the sect's Australian leaders say,
Statement: We are aware of some historic cases where individuals who were respected within the fellowship abused people's trust. We are truly sorry. We have learned from these experiences and are constantly reviewing our current practices to keep children safe.
Tobi Loftus: But that's not enough for Jillian Hishon from The Brave Truth. She'd like to see a similar investigation as the FBI's in Australia.
Jillian Hishon: We're sitting at about 130 perpetrators that have been reported to me. I know there's a lot more than just what's been reported to me.
Sabra Lane: The Brave Truth's Jillian Hishon ending that report from Tobi Loftus. And if you have experienced childhood trauma or abuse, you can call the Blue Knot Helpline on 1300 657 380. The Federal Government's trumpeting new data showing bulk billing rates are up 2.1% from last November when the Government tripled the rate it paid GPs who see patients under the scheme. Bulk billed patients pay no out-of-pocket expenses to see a doctor. The Health Minister's Mark Butler. Mr Butler, thanks for joining AM.
Mark Butler: Thank you.
Sabra Lane: The 2.1% increase is a figure the Government reported in February this year. Is the Government considering additional investments to further increase the bulk billing rate?
Mark Butler: No, we're not right now. We've seen an additional 950,000 free visits to the doctor since these new incentives came in on the 1st of November. So they are working to arrest, first of all, the freefall in bulk billing that we inherited when we came to Government. They're providing, I think, much better remuneration to GPs who are bulk billing, their pensioners, their health care cardholders and children under the age of 16. And we are seeing a pleasing rebound in bulk billing, particularly in some of those areas I was most worried about. So Tasmania is up 5%, which had the lowest rates of bulk billing of any of the major states. And we're seeing big increases in regional Australia as well.
Sabra Lane: Concerns were raised though last week that the benefits of tripling the bulk billing incentive have been eroded because some states have changed the way that they interpret payroll tax, meaning that GPs now are counted as employees rather than contractors, with the states increasing their tax take from those GPs. And the doctors say that's coming from their pockets. Have you got a handle on just how big a problem that is and what are you saying to the states?
Mark Butler: Well I have said to states a number of times publicly that I'm urging them to sit down with doctor representative groups and make sure that these changes in the interpretation of existing payroll tax rules don't impact the GPs in a way that effectively neuters or neutralises the impact of the massive investments we made in last year's budget.
Sabra Lane: Have you got a handle on how big it is, the problem?
Mark Butler: Well it varies from state to state because each state government is taking a slightly different approach to this question and it would be good to have some uniformity across the country. That would give certainty to general practice and I think to patients who have seen over the last several years it's never been harder, never more expensive to see a GP than it has been over the last few years which is why it was our highest priority when we came to government.
Sabra Lane: So you don't know how big a problem it is with the states?
Mark Butler: States are still really negotiating the impact of these things. They're still talking to doctors groups about potential amnesties and which general practices might or might not be subject to these changes. So by and large they haven't yet impacted general practice but understandably general practice is very worried that in the future they might see changes that really do neutralise the impact of the significant investment we made in general practice in last year's budget.
Sabra Lane: You mentioned Tasmania there at the start. I am Hobart based and many people here struggle to see a GP in a timely fashion. We have another example here of Risdenvale Clinic. It closed a week ago because they cannot find GPs and that's affected 1,400 patients. What can the Commonwealth do to ease those problems?
Mark Butler: Well we also have this year seen a really pleasing increase in the number of junior doctors choosing to take on general practice as their vocation. An increase of about 130 additional junior doctors taking up general practice training compared to last year. But this is not going to be a change we see overnight. It has never been harder to see a GP than it is right now.
Sabra Lane: So can you say anything to those people? I mean even your colleague Julie Collins said it was distressing.
Mark Butler: Well and it is distressing. We have seen general practices around the country closed down and particularly in regional areas it has been very hard to attract general practitioners. We have got a range of things underway in those areas, particularly in regional Australia where we rely heavily on overseas trained doctors to make it easier to recruit them from overseas and have them working in regional Australia providing those vital services.
Sabra Lane: Are you going to deliver further assistance in the budget to help smooth that passage? Because those 1400 patients are looking for help now.
Mark Butler: Well you know I am not going to announce any budget initiatives on this program, Sabra, but this is a piece of work that health ministers from a state and territory level and I are working on very, very regularly. We only met again the week before last to talk about the progress of the recommendations we received to make it easier to recruit doctors from overseas. But at the end of the day we also need to recruit more junior doctors into general practice here in Australia and we have seen really over the last several years some of the lowest rates of interest among junior doctors in general practice ever. It used to be the case that about one in two medical graduates chose general practice as their preferred career. That got down to about one in seven. So I am really pleased that this year I hope because of the confidence that they see in general practice more junior doctors are taking up general practice as their preferred career. But that is not going to be seen overnight. It takes some years to train a new general practitioner unfortunately.
Sabra Lane: What about the patients who can't get bulk billing? What's happened to the amount they are charged under the Medicare benefit schedule since November? Are there out of pocket costs going up?
Mark Butler: We had seen out of pocket costs going up very significantly over the last several years. The bulk billing rate that I have talked about today indicates that there still is substantial bulk billing of people who don't qualify for the bulk billing incentives. So those incentives apply to pensioners, to health care card holders, concession card holders and kids under the age of 16.
Sabra Lane: So to the point of that question, sorry.
Mark Butler: Well people who don't qualify for those incentives do still receive bulk billing in some parts of the country. So in Western Sydney there are still significant bulk billing rates. But where you are in Tasmania it is the case that people who don't have that health care card are often not bulk billed.
Sabra Lane: Mr Butler, thanks for talking to AM this morning.
Mark Butler: Thank you Sabra.
Sabra Lane: And Mark Butler is the Federal Health Minister. United States President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have had a phone call about increasing aid to Gaza as Israel prepares to invade the southern city of Rafah. America is not backing down from insisting that Israel needs a credible humanitarian plan to deal with refugees from that city before any military moves on Rafah. The phone conversation also comes ahead of the US Secretary of State making another trip to the Middle East to further negotiations on a ceasefire and further hostage releases. Angus Randall reports.
Angus Randall: Despite Israel building up military assets near the southern Gazan city of Rafah, there's hope that humanitarian aid will soon start to flow. Israel's chief military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, says the amount of aid going into the Gaza Strip will be ramped up in the coming days.
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari: Over the last few weeks, the amount of humanitarian aid going into Gaza has significantly increased. In the coming days, the amount of aid going into Gaza will continue to scale up even more. Food, water, medical supplies, shelter equipment and other aid, more of it is going into Gaza than ever before. This increase in aid is a result of increased efforts.
Angus Randall: Aid organisation World Central Kitchen will soon resume distributing food in Gaza, nearly a month after seven of its aid workers were killed in an Israeli airstrike, including Australian Zomi Frankcom. It says it has eight million meals ready to enter through the Rafah crossing and it's repeating its call for an independent investigation into why an aid convoy was targeted by Israel. White House national security spokesman John Kirby says Israel is working to improve the humanitarian situation.
John Kirby: I will say that they have been increasing the amount of trucks that have been getting into Gaza. Now there's still challenges on the ground in getting it up into the north, but that's starting to happen and the Israelis have started to meet the commitments that President Biden asked them to meet.
Angus Randall: Israel says it plans to launch a ground offensive into Rafah, where more than one million Palestinians have sought shelter. The White House says it wants to see a ceasefire first, to allow civilians to leave.
John Kirby: We want it to last for about six weeks. It would allow for all those hostages to get out and of course to allow for easier aid access to places in Gaza, particularly up in the north.
Angus Randall: Israel is continuing its campaign of airstrikes in Gaza and tanks are still operating in the north. Asaf Shariv is a former Israeli diplomat. He told the BBC a ground assault of Rafah is inevitable if Hamas does not release Israeli hostages.
Asaf Shariv: That is the main problem. That's why we're trying to solve the issue. If there will be a ceasefire now and the hostages will come back, hopefully we can solve this problem as well. But if not, we will have no other issue. No other option, I'm sorry.
Angus Randall: Delegations from Hamas and Israel are expected to attend peace talks in Egypt early this week. Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, says there needs to be long-term solutions.
Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud: It's in everybody's interest in the region. Our interest, the interest of the Palestinians, the interest of the Israelis, the interest of the global community of nations, that we find a pathway to resolve this issue once and for all. Because that's the only way. We are going to avoid, first of all, a repeat.
Angus Randall: The October 7 Hamas terrorist attack killed around 1,200 people. Israel has killed 34,000 people in Gaza.
Sabra Lane: Angus Randall. Global trade is tipped to rise this year after falling in 2023 due to inflation and high energy costs. While the supply chain problems that existed during the peak of the COVID pandemic have eased, new ones have popped up in their place. Daniel Ziffer explains.
Andrew Schwartz: Thank you very much.
Daniel Ziffer: It takes a lot to get items from around the world into this Hobart store.
Andrew Schwartz: I should have had another. Hello. Just the Pokemon? Okay, little dude. There you go.
Daniel Ziffer: Andrew Schwartz of Hobart's Area 52 says his customers want the latest comic books but can't always get them.
Andrew Schwartz: A lot of people, you know, they think that they can just grab it in like a week or something and unfortunately a lot of the time there's still going to be a little delay.
Daniel Ziffer: Global supply chains are smoother now than during the first years of the COVID pandemic when passenger planes that carry 80% of our air freight were grounded.
Andrew Schwartz: Everything seems to be slowly getting back to normal. It's just though it seems like there's one thing after another that keeps hitting them. Something new keeps popping up.
Daniel Ziffer: That's an understatement. Conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East, wild weather in Dubai, drought, shrinking access to the Panama Canal and pirates in the Red Sea are all having an impact. Paul Zalai, who represents both importers and large exporters, says shipping companies are paying more in insurance and fuel and passing that on.
Paul Zalai: We've got significant difficulties now around the world, whether it's the geopolitical tension, weather conditions that are quite extreme.
Daniel Ziffer: The director of the Freight Trade Alliance says attacks by Houthi rebels on container ships in the Red Sea might seem disconnected from the shelves of your local store, but they're linked. Ships are going further to avoid conflict zones or the Panama Canal, where drought has restricted access.
Paul Zalai: In an Australian context, trade to and from the Mediterranean in the UK and Europe is taking an extra 10 to 14 days because of that. That comes at extra costs.
Daniel Ziffer: Investment bank JP Morgan suggests the Red Sea hostilities alone could push inflation up globally by about a third of one per cent. On the water of the Port of Melbourne, the nation's busiest general cargo and container port, its chief executive, Saul Cannon, says the freight has to keep moving.
Saul Cannon: We do see flow-on effects right up and down and I guess the big reflection for me is right across the supply chain, just how connected we all are.
Daniel Ziffer: The World Trade Organisation says global trade shrank in 2023, down 1.2 per cent in volume, but 5 per cent in value, as people put off buying high-ticket items as the global cost of living crisis flared. The WTO predicts trade will rise by 2.6 per cent this year and 3.3 per cent in 2025. As an island nation, we didn't need the pandemic to tell us how reliant we are on global trade, but the problems in the global supply chain exposed our vulnerabilities. We're now seeing more investment in infrastructure as global trade roars again.
Sabra Lane: Daniel Ziffer reporting there. That's AM for today. Thanks for your company. I'm Sabra Lane.
As Australians rally against violence towards women, the Prime Minister calls a National Cabinet meeting to discuss what can be done.
The Government says its incentives are driving up bulk billing rates ... but are Australians actually getting better access to GPs?
And how former members of a fundamentalist Christian sect are hoping an FBI investigation will finally deliver justice for victims of child sexual abuse.
Credits
In this episode