Key events
Almost one in five adults delayed or did not see a dental professional in 2022-23 due to cost, according to major report released today.
For the past decade only half of adults have visited a dental professional every year, exposing a two-tier dental care system in which many people go without becuse it’s too expensive.
Natasha May reports and talks to Tara, who lost her teeth in her 50s as a result of undiagnosed gum disease.
Here’s Natasha’s full story:
NSW police say they have not opposed revised plans by the Palestinian Action Group for a public assembly on Sunday 6 October, after the group agreed to change the location and route of the rally.
“Protest organisers have agreed that no flags, portraits or symbols connected to a prohibited terrorist organisation will be displayed,” police said in a statement on Thursday evening. A previous rally allegedly saw Hezbollah flags waved.
Police said they would “work with organisers to conduct a high visibility policing operation on Sunday to ensure the safety of the community. Police will not hesitate to take appropriate action against anyone who commits a criminal offence.”
The statement noted the Palestinian Action Group had withdrawn an application for a public assembly on Monday 7 October and had not made a new one, “making that public assembly unauthorised if it goes ahead”.
Organisers have said they would hold a stationary vigil on Monday.
Sarah Basford Canales
The head of the NDIS has assured the scheme’s more than 650,000 participants debts will only be raised against them as “an absolute last resort” over the next 12 months if they mistakenly purchase prohibited items or services after changes came into effect on Thursday.
The NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, announced the final list for what items and services are available for NDIS participants, and what are not, on Tuesday. The changes came into effect from Thursday.
Shorten said there would be a 12-month transition period for any participants currently receiving items or supports that will no longer be covered.
In an interview with disability advocate Dr George Taleporos on Thursday, the National Disability Insurance Agency‘s chief executive, Rebecca Falkingham, said the transitional period was focused on educating participants who make mistakes, rather than punishing them.
Falkingham said:
One of the changes, having listened to the parliamentary debate, as I did, obviously there was a lot of concern around debt, and that concerned me greatly. And so we’ve made a bit of a tweak in the agency, that if the agency was ever to pursue a debt against a participant, it would need to be signed off by me first, and so that puts a whole lot of safety nets through the process to kind of make it be really clear that raising any debt against a participant would be an absolute last resort.
The NDIA head said plan managers and providers would instead be given a 30-day grace period from Thursday.
Any incorrect claims made by plan managers and providers on a participant’s NDIS plan would result in debts being raised against them and not the participant, Falkingham said.
We’re really clear that plan managers know what their expectations are. They know what they’ve got to be absolutely assisting participants. They should be in a really good place to know what you can and can’t claim for. One of the things they sign up for to be a plan manager is being compliant with the NDIS legislation.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the best of the overnight stories and then it’ll be Rafqa Touma bringing you the main action.
We have a dramatic top story this morning after officers from the National Anti-Corruption Commission conducted a raid at Parliament House in Canberra as part of an ongoing operation – although it does not involve any current or former member of parliament. Our political editor Karen Middleton got the scoop on the story and Nacc confirmed to her that its officers had been at the parliament during the day. Police officers seconded to the commission conducted the raid.
Protest organisers in NSW would be much less likely to end up fighting police in court for permission to hold rallies if the state had a charter of human rights instead of its “undemocratic” approvals system, a legal expert says. The NSW Council for Civil Liberties’ president, Lydia Shelly, said the system whereby a group applies for permission to hold a rally “lent itself to litigation” and had “no place in a democratic society”.
Pro-Palestine activists have agreed a deal with police over a planned march this long weekend in Sydney. They changed their planned route for a rally on Sunday and withdrew an application for an authorised public assembly on Monday – the anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel. Instead they plan a stationary vigil.
In a statement, NSW police said they had not opposed the new planned rally on Sunday but promised a “high visibility policing operation”. They also noted that a public assembly on Monday would be “unauthorised”.
Queensland LNP leader David Crisafulli would step down after one term as premier if he could not meet an ambitious crime target within four years, he said during the first of three televised debates with Labor’s Steven Miles in the lead-up to the state election. Crisafulli’s party is expected to win power this month but Miles hit back in the debate, arguing that solving the crime problem was complex.
