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Key posts
- Health department considers funding gender-affirming surgery under Medicare
- Government takes cautious approach amid reports of Israel-Hamas pause
- UN team tours Al Shifa after hospital evacuated by Israeli soldiers
- This morning’s headlines at a glance
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Health department considers funding gender-affirming surgery under Medicare
Gender-affirming procedures such as chest surgery and genital reconfiguration would be subsidised by Medicare under a push to improve mental health and quality of life for transgender people.
The federal health department will consider an application from the Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons that seeks to establish 21 Medicare items for gender-affirming surgeries for people who have gender incongruence, in which a person’s experience of gender does not align with how they were born.
The application said gender-affirming surgery is already being performed in Australia but the system is fragmented and can have high out-of-pocket costs.Credit: Eddie Jim
The application to the Medical Services Advisory Committee says gender-affirming surgery – a catch-all term for procedures that align a person’s body with their gender identity – is already being performed in Australia but that the system is fragmented and can have high out-of-pocket costs.
It estimated there would be 64,101 transgender people who were born male and 64,044 transgender people who were born female who could be candidates for the procedures in Australia.
Find out more about this here.
Government takes cautious approach amid reports of Israel-Hamas pause
And back in Australia, Foreign Minister Penny Wong reacted cautiously to the reported temporary freeze in hostilities and declined to comment, as did her opposition counterpart Simon Birmingham.
In a carefully worded statement issued late on Sunday evening, a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs said Australia had been clear about its support for humanitarian pauses of hostilities so food, water, medicine, fuel and other essential assistance could reach people and so civilians could reach safety.
Tens of thousands of people marched for the sixth Sunday in a row from the State Library of Victoria through the streets of Melbourne in support of Palestine.Credit: Chris Hopkins
“We support the ongoing efforts of international partners to prevent the conflict from spreading, including next steps towards a ceasefire, but this cannot be one-sided,” they said.
“Australia continues to call for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.”
Here’s the full story on this issue.
UN team tours Al Shifa after hospital evacuated by Israeli soldiers
In world news, a United Nations team said that 291 patients were left at Gaza’s largest hospital after Israeli troops had others evacuate, including 32 babies in extremely critical condition.
The team was able to tour Al Shifa Hospital for an hour after about 2500 displaced people, mobile patients and medical staff left the sprawling compound, the World Health Organisation said, which led the mission.
A nurse cares for prematurely born Palestinian babies that were brought from Al Shifa Hospital.Credit: AP
“Patients and health staff with whom they spoke were terrified for their safety and health, and pleaded for evacuation,” the agency said on Sunday, describing Al Shifa as a death zone.
It said more teams will attempt to reach the facility in the coming days to try to evacuate the patients to southern Gaza, where hospitals are also overwhelmed.
Here’s more on this from AP.
This morning’s headlines at a glance
Good morning, and thanks for your company.
It’s Monday, November 20. I’m Caroline Schelle, and I’ll be anchoring our live coverage for the first half of the day.
Here’s what you need to know before we get started:
- A new National Cyber Intel Partnership will see major telcos, banks and other companies working together to proactively block online scams and malware.
- Gender-affirming procedures such as chest surgery would be subsidised by Medicare under a push to improve mental health and quality of life for transgender people.
- Police forces around the country are lobbying the federal government to deport non-citizens pointing to suspected crimes not proven in court.
- A Chinese warship’s “unsafe and unprofessional” use of sonar is suspected of injuring Australian navy divers during an operation in international waters.
- Advocates are calling for a re-think of available support to keep women in their homes and in the workforce after separating from a partner.
- The home affairs minister said it was “very unlikely” that all 340 people in a larger cohort of detainees would be freed by the High Court’s ruling, but can’t be sure until next year.
- Overseas, US and Israeli officials said a deal to free some of the hostages being held in Gaza was edging closer.
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