PBS spending may also be cut by Fed Govt budget knife

PBS spending may also be cut by Fed Govt budget knife

Reporter: Louise Yaxley

MARK COLVIN: The signs are getting stronger that the new Medicare Safety Net is costing the
Government more than it expected, and it's likely to be cut back.

And with the Budget looming next month, and the Cabinet coming to terms with the figures, it's not
just the Medicare Safety Net under the knife.

The cost of subsidised drugs under the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme, or PBS, is also alarming the
Government.

The likely cuts will be blamed on the way costs are rising as Australia's population gets older.

The Productivity Commission predicts a $2000-billion fiscal gap over the next 40 years, if the
problem of the ageing population isn't addressed now, and it says the health system will bear the
brunt of the problem.

Louise Yaxley reports.

LOUISE YAXLEY: The Treasurer asked the Productivity Commission to find the implications of an
ageing Australia. Its final report today puts the cost at $2,200-billion if nothing is changed.

So Mr Costello's using that to warn that things must change.

PETER COSTELLO: Now we will have to meet it one way or another. We'll either have to meet it with
draconian steps in 10 or 20 years' time, or start meeting it now with small steps.

LOUISE YAXLEY: The Pensioners and Superannuants Association says that's not a warning, it's a way
of alarming people to make budget cuts to social security more palatable.

Labor's acting Health Spokeswoman Jan McLucas says it's a fear campaign.

JAN MCLUCAS: Mr Costello's goal seems to be frightening Australians at the moment. We've known for
more, for a very long time that there is a group of people known as the baby boomers who are going
to get old at a certain point. For him to be running round scaring people at this point in time is,
frankly, outrageous.

He's had nine budgets to deal with the fact that the baby boomers are going to move into older age
in the next 20 years, and he's done nothing. And for him now to be suggesting that we are in crisis
point is patently wrong.

LOUISE YAXLEY: The pensioners and superannuants are also worried about the Government lifting the
pension age to 70 or 75.

Mr Costello says that's not on his agenda now.

PETER COSTELLO: No, I'm not focusing on that at all. I think it would be a great achievement if we
could just give people choice and opportunity to stay till retirement age, to the current
retirement age.

There's an awful lot of men in particular that don't stay in the workforce until retirement age,
which in Australia is 65. So before you start talking about increasing retirement ages, let's just
focus on encouraging people, giving them the choice to stay to the existing retirement age.

LOUISE YAXLEY: But the Treasurer is worried about the increasing cost of the Government's two
medical safety net schemes, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and the Medicare Safety Net.

They are costing much more than estimated, and as the population ages, the medical costs will just
keep growing.

Mr Costello's not saying they'll be curtailed in this budget. He refuses to comment on what will be
in that May document, but he puts a lot of emphasis on making the schemes more sustainable.

PETER COSTELLO: It is important to get health and particularly pharmaceuticals onto a sustainable
basis. Now why do I say that? Because if your health is not put on a sustainable basis, the system
will break, standards will fall. If your pharmaceuticals is not put onto a sustainable basis, you
won't get new drugs.

REPORTER: Is that just code for funding cuts for health and pharmaceuticals?

PETER COSTELLO: No, it's putting things onto a sustainable, it's putting things onto a sustainable
basis.

LOUISE YAXLEY: Mr Costello's thinking of a range of ways of keeping the cost of the Pharmaceutical
Benefits Scheme down.

PETER COSTELLO: We need to ensure there's rigorous cost benefit analysis before new drugs are
listed. We need to be careful about advertising. Now, one of the heaviest advertised drugs in this
country was Celebrex and the demand for Celebrex was pumped up very significantly over a short
period of time.

We need to encourage generics. We need to make sure that the retailing is such that things are
delivered to people at the lowest possible price.

LOUISE YAXLEY: Labor's Jan McLucas says it's a problem of the Government's own making.

JAN MCLUCAS: Well the Government's got itself into this situation. When they proposed the Medicare
Safety Net more than 12 months ago, both Labor and a Senate inquiry questioned the sustainability
of the Medicare Safety Net.

We said that it would blow out and it has. They now face the situation whether they either change
the structure of the safety net, increasing thresholds or capping or whatever, and therefore go
back on an election promise, or they let it blow out.

In terms of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, Mr Costello is keen to attack the scheme and talk
about its cost, but he rarely thinks of the benefit of that scheme. The PBS is an essential
preventative health measure in this country, and whilst he'll always talk about the cost of it, he
doesn't talk about the cost of not having it.

MARK COLVIN: Labor's acting Health Spokeswoman Jan McLucas, ending Louise Yaxley's report from
Canberra.

Downer under fire over overseas childcare centre warnings

Downer under fire over overseas childcare centre warnings

Reporter: Liz Foschia

MARK COLVIN: The Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has spent the day defending the warnings that
his department issues about childcare centres for parents travelling overseas.

There've been calls for the travel advisories to be more specific about the dangers to children of
sexual predators in certain resorts.

The worries follow the stories of two Australian children allegedly sexually abused at high-priced
hotels in Bali.

Mr Downer says his department does advise parents to investigate the quality of any childcare they
use, but it would be impossible to be more specific without solid evidence.

Now a warning: this story does contain graphic and disturbing details.

Liz Foschia reports.

LIZ FOSCHIA: Two families have told the ABC's Lateline program their children were sexually abused
while in day care centres at separate exclusive hotels in Bali.

Evelyn, not her real name, says it was discovered on their return to Australia in 2001 that her
two-year-old daughter had contracted gonorrhoea.

EVELYN: And from what the specialist out at Monat (phonetic) Medical Centre said was that it
appeared to be some penis rubbing just inside the vagina. She, her hymen wasn't torn, so she's
still technically is a virgin, but there obviously was rubbing, so someone who had the disease, had
passed it on to her in that way.

LIZ FOSCHIA: Evelyn believes the assault took place while her child was in the care of a babysitter
at what was then the Sheraton Nusa Dua Hotel.

The family took civil proceedings against the hotel chain after a police investigation was
inconclusive, and has since reached an out of court settlement. The hotel's management has not
admitted responsibility and denies the allegations.

Evelyn says at the time she wrote to the Foreign Minister asking for travel warnings about Bali to
be upgraded to include the childcare concerns but was told the warnings were sufficient.

Just two years later, in another Bali hotel just down the road from the Sheraton, a five-year-old
Australian boy was sexually assaulted in similar circumstances.

The boy's aunt says her family also received the same response to their calls for upgraded travel
warnings.

AUNT: I think overall the response has been incredibly inadequate. It's refused to take the case
seriously on an individual level, and it's refused to realise the grave implications for all
Australians travelling overseas.

LIZ FOSCHIA: Alexander Downer says his department has specific advice for parents travelling
overseas who are intending to use childcare to check the standards of the country of their
destination.

But he's told the Sky network there are limits to what his department can say.

ALEXANDER DOWNER: We can't claim that a particular childcare centre is a place where paedophiles
are active, if we don't have any hard evidence for that. And in the case of the hotels in Bali, the
police, including the Australian Federal Police, investigated these cases. They weren't able to
determine who was responsible for the abuse, unfortunately. I mean, I must say I do think that is
very unfortunate that the police were never able to determine who was responsible for the abuse.

But of course we can't then turn around and accuse people of being responsible for the abuse, if we
don't have any evidence. And I mean, if we were to do that, you can imagine the consequences,
including in terms of legal suits that would follow.

LIZ FOSCHIA: Mr Downer says it would be equally impossible for DFAT travel advisories to list all
childcare facilities around the world that don't meet Australian standards.

Whether the Minister will calm concern is hard to say. He was facing an uphill battle when he
agreed to an interview with Sydney's 2GB Radio host, Ray Hadley, today.

RAY HADLEY: How many children do you have, and would you be happy for your children to be going to
the little star club at the Sheraton Nusa Dua, knowing a three-year-old contracted gonorrheae? Yes
or no?

ALEXANDER DOWNER: If I was, if I was rude to you, I would say that that is a preposterous thing to
say. Obviously ...

RAY HADLEY: You're a pompous dope. That's what you are. You're a pompous dope.

ALEXANDER DOWNER: Don't be so bloody rude.

RAY HADLEY: No, I'll be more than rude to you. You're a disgraceful, you're a disgrace.

ALEXANDER DOWNER: Nobody on earth would put their children, really, you're just so over the top.

RAY HADLEY: No, I'm not over the top. You knew, you knew ...

ALEXANDER DOWNER: I didn't know. I've told you that already. The police investigated the case, and
they were unable to establish who in this hotel was responsible.

LIZ FOSCHIA: Labor's Foreign Spokesman Kevin Rudd has called for the DFAT travel advisories for
Bali to be adjusted.

Mr Rudd says even if investigations into the assaults proved inconclusive, the fact remains that
two small children in a similar location were the subject of sexual abuse.

MARK COLVIN: Liz Foschia.

Childwise to train workers in Balinese hotel childcare centres

Childwise to train workers in Balinese hotel childcare centres

Reporter: David Mark

MARK COLVIN: As you just heard, the Foreign Minister Alexander Downer believes it's the
responsibility of parents to vet overseas childcare centres.

But after almost a year of negotiations, the Government today agreed to fund a program which it
hopes will provide better training for Balinese hotel childcare workers and managers.

The program will be run by Childwise - a group which works to prevent child abuse in Australia and
overseas.

When Karen Flanagan, a program manager with Childwise, spoke to David Mark she began by explaining
what training her group would do in Bali.

KAREN FLANAGAN: The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade are going to provide us with funding to
educate people who work in hotels what are the standards that they should have in place around
child protection policies and procedures, how to select and screen their staff, what's expected
behaviour, how to develop a code of conduct, and how to manage complaints should they arise. The
hotel has to show that they're actually going to take it seriously.

So that's the focus of the training that we would be offering.

DAVID MARK: Karen Flanagan, the allegation is that two Australian children have been sexually
abused while being cared for in childcare centres in hotels in Bali. Have you heard of any other
similar instances occurring to Australian families overseas?

KAREN FLANAGAN: No, look, these are the first two that we've become aware of. However, I think it's
not surprising in that child abuse happens in a whole range of settings and a whole range of
countries every day.

DAVID MARK: Why do you say it's not surprising?

KAREN FLANAGAN: Well, because I think wherever children are being looked after there's always the
potential risk that someone could abuse them. Most children are at risk in their own homes.
However, we know now that people who want to abuse children can target children's organisations,
and with that knowledge we must be proactive rather than reactive.

So I would prefer to look at the positive side of right, we've learned now that this has happened,
and I would hope that if there are any other families that it has happened to, that they would come
forward. But in the absence of that, then I think let's use this as a good start and say, okay,
let's do something and empower people to act now rather than waiting until it's going to happen
again.

DAVID MARK: What sort of information should be made available to Australian families who are
travelling overseas and may put their children into childcare centres?

KAREN FLANAGAN: I think parents really need to be proactive and seek advice and ring or contact the
hotels they plan to stay in and ask them what measures they have in place in their children's
centres in regards to the selection of the staff who look after the children - if the staff are
qualified, what are the staff supervision ratios, do they have a child protection policy, what
would happen if there was a complaint, how would that be managed.

And I think I would assess them on their capacity to be responsive and take the inquiry seriously
and say things like, "that's something that they would be looking at and they take very seriously".

DAVID MARK: What information do you believe the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade should be
making available to Australian tourists?

KAREN FLANAGAN: I think, as they've already said, they need to highlight to parents that they do
need to ask the questions, and work out what standards, if any, there are in place and, you know,
the tourists are the consumer, if they're not satisfied with the answers or what's on offer, they
can choose to go elsewhere.

DAVID MARK: At present the Department's advice says: "parents planning to place their children in
childcare facilities or employ the services of babysitters or nannies overseas may wish to research
the standards of childcare provided in their country of destination". And then it refers to
websites of the National Child Care Accreditation Council, or Childwise.

Is that warning adequate?

KAREN FLANAGAN: Well, I think it's a good start. I mean, we would always say you can do more to
prevent child abuse on so many levels, but I think the Government are at least bringing it to the
attention of people, but coupled with funding some training for hotels to avail of, I think that's
an even better start.

MARK COLVIN: Karen Flanagan is a program manager with the anti-child abuse campaigners, Childwise.
She was speaking to David Mark.

IRC begins hearing minimum wage case

IRC begins hearing minimum wage case

Reporter: Neal Woolrich

MARK COLVIN: The Industrial Relations Commission and its predecessors have been Australia's
employment umpires for 100 years.

Today the Commission has started its hearing into the minimum wage case, and some are predicting
that this year's case will be the last in its current form.

The Federal Government is looking at having a panel of economists, employers and unions decide the
minimum wage in future.

Amid the uncertainty, the Commission must decide between the competing arguments for a rise in the
minimum wage.

Unions want an increase of $26 a week. The Government and business groups say it should be $11 a
week.

In Melbourne, Neal Woolrich reports.

NEAL WOOLRICH: Jonathan Broome is a Melbourne factory worker earning the minimum award wage.

He's one of the many employees hoping the ACTU succeeds in its claim for a $26 a week increase in
the minimum wage.

JONATHAN BROOME: Well the minimum wage case means it would give you extra money, a little bit of
extra money per week to help us just live a normal life.

It could mean that you can pay that bill off earlier than what you normally would do, you can pay
your gas bill, you can pay your electricity bill, and then pay for the petrol you put in the car.
That's how much difference $26 can make to a family living on minimum award rates.

NEAL WOOLRICH: Unions say an extra $26 a week for the lowest paid workers is a responsible amount
in the current economic climate.

But the Federal Government and employer groups are arguing for a pay rise of $11 a week.

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry's Peter Anderson says that would give Australia the
second highest minimum wage in the world, $28,000 a year.

PETER ANDERSON: Australian employers are looking to the Commission to make sure that in this case
it is sensitive to both the economic slow down in the Australian circumstance as well as the plight
of the half a million unemployed, and the 1.2 million workers who are looking for a better
performance out of the Australian labour market.

Because the economy is slowing, minimum wage increases should be more moderate than they have been
when the economy was growing at record levels.

NEAL WOOLRICH: The Industrial Relations Commission and its predecessors have ruled on working
conditions for 100 years.

The Federal Government is looking at stripping the Commission of responsibility to determine the
minimum wage.

One option is a panel of economists, employers and unions to decide the minimum wage.

The ACTU's Greg Combet says the Government's agenda is simply to cut wages.

GREG COMBET: If you look back since 1996, if the Federal Government had had its way, low paid
workers would be $44 a week worse off, and that equates to $2,280-odd a year worse off.

So the ACTU's worked very hard opposing the Government's position to make sure that low paid people
get a decent increase, and we intend to push on.

NEAL WOOLRICH: The Chamber of Commerce and Industry says the system is in need of an overhaul
because the Commission can't take into account all relevant considerations.

The Chamber's Peter Anderson.

PETER ANDERSON: It cannot take into account the broader policy issues that affect the incomes of
low paid workers, particularly the welfare and tax system.

It cannot conduct research of its own. It cannot sit down with experts and discuss the issues in an
informal way.

NEAL WOOLRICH: But the Federal Government says it doesn't have definite plans yet, and future wage
cases may still be heard in front of the Industrial Relations Commission.

Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews today refused to be drawn on union claims that a new
system will result in lower wages.

KEVIN ANDREWS: Oh look, I'm not in the business of giving guarantees for or against anything. I
think that's a fairly sterile sort of argument. This is a situation where minimum wages are not set
in Australia at the present time by the Government. If there was any new mechanism, it might be by
another independent body, so to engage in that sort of, as I said, sterile argument, I don't think
really advances the cause.

But ACTU Secretary Greg Combet wants a pledge from the Government that real wages won't fall.

GREG COMBET: We want the Government to guarantee that no matter what industrial relations changes
it makes, low paid workers will not find themselves worse off in real terms. That is, that minimum
wages will at least keep pace with inflation. Now that's the least that the Prime Minister could
guarantee to the one-and-a-half million people and their families who depend upon minimum wages.

MARK COLVIN: ACTU Secretary Greg Combet ending Neal Woolrich's report.

Beazley attacks Howard's leadership

Beazley attacks Howard's leadership

Reporter: Stephanie Kennedy

MARK COLVIN: The Federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley has launched a scathing attack on the
Federal Government.

In a key address delivered at the National Press Club, Mr Beazley said the Government was obsessed
with ideology and riddled with arrogance.

And the Labor leader described the Treasurer as a "worn out husk of a man" and insisted that Mr
Howard has ridden rough-shod over Peter Costello's last seven budgets.

Stephanie Kennedy reports from Canberra.

STEPHANIE KENNEDY: Kim Beazley's address outlining just how Labor will tackle the Government once
the Coalition assumes control in the Senate was light on detail but strong on criticism.

He insists the Howard Government is a poor government which is less and less accountable yet more
and more arrogant, and he attacked John Howard's frequent warnings to his party about hubris.

KIM BEAZLEY: We know that Coalition hubris will be the order of the day, not only because it has
been self-evident to anyone paying attention to this rabble, but more conclusively because John
Howard has denied it.

At present, we have the spectacle of John Howard frequently seen warning about hubris, and just as
frequently seen demonstrating it.

Just look at his remarks last night. The message is clear. He's in charge and the

States must obey. He calls it nationalism, but it's simply a Canberra power grab.

STEPHANIE KENNEDY: The Labor leader listed a string of examples of the Government's hubris,
including the regional rorts affair, Senator Ross Lightfoot's gun toting Iraq adventure,
allegations of bribing an Independent MP, and John Howard's lack of knowledge of the Reserve Bank's
concerns over the Coalition's interest rate campaign during last year's election.

Kim Beazley is now planning to set up a backbench waste watch committee to scrutinise the
Government's actions and he says that's not a vote of no-confidence in his own shadow ministry.

KIM BEAZLEY: I mention gothic irresponsibility fiscally. Well we have gothic irresponsibility, in
the things that waste watch committees normally concern themselves with.

Take the regional rorts. It's a $400-million plus program. There are real savings to be obtained
here and we really do need people with some considerable expertise in government to actually
rewrite what is happening here, what proprieties are being disturbed, what is not being effectively
done.

So the waste watch committee, when it goes in place after July the first, will have a lot of work
to do and a lot of people working to it.

STEPHANIE KENNEDY: He left his greatest criticism for the Treasurer, seizing on a poll which was
released today showing voters believe John Howard is doing a better job than Peter Costello.

KIM BEAZLEY: I think the pair of them are joined at the hip when it comes to operating this
government. They are both complicit in it. It is true that John Howard has trashed Peter Costello's
reputation as a treasurer.

I mean, I didn't agree with one of the things that he did, the things that he did in his first
three budgets, but the first three budgets were treasurers' budgets. The last seven budgets have in
fact been whatever John Howard wanted for his own political interests.

And it must have been a total humiliation to somebody who once had a reputation as a treasurer to
have to put up with all of that, but there's not much of him left, really, after seven budgets'
worth of trashing by John Howard.

And really they're joined at the hip politically. It doesn't matter which one we confront.

STEPHANIE KENNEDY: But Mr Beazley doesn't thinks Mr Howard will lead the Coalition to the next
election.

KIM BEAZLEY: I think, um, I think John Howard is pretty played out. I do expect that it's more
likely than not I will be confronting Peter Costello as prime minister of this country, but
compared to what he was a few years ago, as a political individual he's a very worn husk of a man.

STEPHANIE KENNEDY: A testy Peter Costello fronted a press conference with a well-prepared comeback.

PETER COSTELLO: Well, I think Mr Beazley was a husk after one budget, wasn't he? He was finance
minister for the 1995 budget, and he said that budget was a surplus when it was $10,000-million in
deficit. That's the one thing that we can remember about his time as a finance minister, so I don't
think too many people in Australia will be taking economic advice from Kim Beazley.

REPORTER: That's him, what about you? Have you been overridden in the last seven budgets by the
Prime Minister, as Beazley said?

PETER COSTELLO: Okay, well, let's go through it. I've done nine budgets, seven surpluses, more than
any other treasurer in Australia's history, I think. We've now retired $73-billion of the Labor
Party debt, cut the unemployment rate from 8.6 to 5.1 per cent, mortgage interest rates, which were
ten-and-a-half per cent are now 7.1.

Australia has moved up the international league tables in per capita income and recovered, I think,
to fifth place.

The OECD countries have been through recession, the East Asian financial collapse took out Asia,
and America went into a 2001 recession. Australia has continued to grow. I mean, how long have you
got for this press conference?

(laughter)

STEPHANIE KENNEDY: And if that's Peter Costello's resume for the nation's most prized political
job, Kim Beazley's is much shorter.

KIM BEAZLEY: I want to be prime minister of this country because I think we have the ideas and the
direction we now need for the next phase of what generates economic growth. I said at one election
campaign I wanted to be an education prime minister. I'll amend that. I want to be an education,
skills and innovation prime minister, so people have absolutely clear what it is that we need now,
right now.

MARK COLVIN: Kim Beazley ending that report from Stephanie Kennedy.

Queen's role in question over military awards

Queen's role in question over military awards

Reporter: Jayne-Maree Sedgman

MARK COLVIN: As the Federal Government contemplates the most appropriate posthumous award for the
nine victims of the Sea King helicopter crash on Nias, the role that the Queen plays in the process
has come into question.

Under the present structure, the Queen still signs off on all medals awarded to Australian
servicemen and women.

Those in favour of Australia becoming a republic say this flies in the face of monarchists' claims
that the Queen plays no active role in day-to-day government here.

Others argue it's entirely appropriate as long as the Queen remains our head of state, as
Jayne-Maree Sedgman reports.

JAYNE-MAREE SEDGMAN: Much has been said about the awarding of medals to those who died in the Sea
King helicopter crash. The Government says it will soon reveal what awards it may bestow.

Last year Canberra also announced a new award. The Australian Defence Medal is to be created. At
this stage it's expected to be given to those who've served for six years or more over the past 60
years, but the final criteria are still being determined.

Whatever the outcome, the Queen still has to sign off on the medals, although the Government says
she's already given in-principle approval.

John Warhurst is the Chair of the Australian Republican Movement. He says he was astonished to hear
medals are still subject to the Queen's approval and doesn't believe it's appropriate.

JOHN WARHURST: In the general republican debate, monarchists, who are defending the current
arrangements, are always saying well of course the Queen doesn't play a role in general Australian
political life, other than accepting the recommendation of the Prime Minister for the appointment
of the Governor-General, and here's just another example which puts the lie to that claim, and it
shows that the Queen does continue to play a role in Australian political life, and it's one that I
don't believe she should play. Republicans believe that this is just the sort of thing that an
Australian head of state should be doing and it shouldn't involve the Queen at all.

JAYNE-MAREE SEDGMAN: Professor Warhurst says there must be scope for such quintessentially
Australian matters to be transferred to local authorities.

JOHN WARHURST: It may be that it's a practice which could be transferred to the Queen's
representative in Australia, the Governor-General. That would be a step in the right direction as
far as we're concerned, but we want to go much further than that and we want to make sure that we
have an Australian head of state acting on their own accord, not as the representative of the
Queen, and we would certainly in this instance, and generally, be in favour of an Australian head
of state.

JAYNE-MAREE SEDGMAN: Gerard Carney is a professor who specialises in constitutional law at Bond
University. He too was surprised to learn the Queen's sign off is still necessary.

GERARD CARNEY: I only became aware of this last year and it surprised me that, because we say that
the Queen only has two powers in relation to Australia, and that's the power to appoint and dismiss
her representatives - the Governor-General and the State Governors. And so to discover that she
also is engaged to approve the award of medals I found rather surprising.

JAYNE-MAREE SEDGMAN: Professor Carney says assuming there's no statutory provision in relation to
the granting of medals, it should be a fairly easy thing to change.

GERARD CARNEY: That would mean just a matter of the executive or the Government making the
necessary arrangements for the Governor-General to approve whatever medals they wish to award.

JAYNE-MAREE SEDGMAN: But the body that represents serving and ex-servicemen and woman, the RSL,
can't see what all the fuss is about.

Deputy National President, Ian Kennett.

IAN KENNETT: All we're saying is that the Queen is still the Queen of Australia, and we've got the
Governor-General, who is her representative at the head of Australia. So you've talking about the
medals, and look, all medals, that the royal warrant and accessioned, go to England.

I mean, even under the Order of Australia system, all names go to the Queen, and the
Governor-General. I mean, I can't see what the issue is?

JAYNE-MAREE SEDGMAN: Ian Kennett says it's simply a case of adhering to a long-standing tradition.

IAN KENNETT: The Queen is the Queen of Australia, and when the Australian awards were first came
into practice in 1975, and I think that might have been under a Labor Government, the Queen then
was still needed to sign off on all medals warrants.

MARK COLVIN: RSL Deputy National President, Ian Kennett, ending that report by Jayne-Maree Sedgman.

Caesarean births rising drastically: leading gynaecologist

Caesarean births rising drastically: leading gynaecologist

Reporter: Gavin Fang

MARK COLVIN: A leading gynaecologist has made the extraordinary claim that within 30 years, almost
no Australian woman will give birth naturally and caesarean sections will be the order of the day.

Professor David Ellwood has told a conference in Hobart that caesareans are growing at such a rate
that soon, public hospitals may not be able to cope.

The Australian Medical Association has rejected his claims. It says it expects the number of
caesarean births will stay at their current level.

Gavin Fang reports.

GAVIN FANG: David Ellwood is a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Australian National
University. He says that at present about 30 per cent of babies are born by caesarean.

Rates ebb and flow but Dr Ellwood believes that within 25 years almost 90 per cent of births will
be caesareans.

Professor Ellwood believes the trend is unhealthy.

DAVID ELLWOOD: Particularly once you get up to three or four caesarean sections, then there are
risks that start to come into consideration, such as the risk of a low lying placenta, the risk of
the placenta being abnormally attached to the scarred area in the uterus and that can lead to very
heavy bleeding at the time of giving birth and even to the need for hysterectomy.

And there is some evidence that that is starting to happen. We are starting to see an increase in
that particular complication.

GAVIN FANG: Professor Ellwood has presented his concerns to the Royal Australian and New Zealand
College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, meeting in Hobart this week, and he claims the growth
of non-vaginal birth has widespread implications for the health system.

DAVID ELLWOOD: If you double the number of caesarean sections, it requires an increased resource to
actually perform those caesarean sections, and it also starts to impact on the facilities in our
hospital system, particularly in public hospitals where there is increasing pressure on the
operating theatres for elective surgery.

And one of my concerns is that, particularly gynaecological surgery, will be pushed more and more
out of the public hospital system.

GAVIN FANG: But the Australian Medical Association has disputed Professor Ellwood's thinking.

The AMA's Andrew Pesce believes the number of caesarean births will plateau at their current level,
and he says it's important to defend the right of women to choose what's best for them.

ANDREW PESCE: I believe that properly informed patients very rarely make bad decisions.

Now the reason why any individual woman shouldn't just unnecessarily have a caesarean is that there
are some slight increased risks for herself. But if she understands that and realises that
increased risk is slight, it may be a very rational decision to say well all of the other offset
benefits outweigh that potential disadvantage for me.

GAVIN FANG: As for overstretched hospitals, Dr Pesce says it may in fact be easier to staff
hospitals in the knowledge that many women will choose to have a non-vaginal birth.

ANDREW PESCE: There's current shortages in obstetricians and gynaecologists and there are current
shortages in midwives. There are current shortages in all professions, basically, in Australia in
tradespeople.

I think that the workforce issues are things that need to be addressed and to be honest they are
more easily addressed if everyone was going to have a caesarean section and they are less easily
addressed when you are going to try and give women around the clock 24-hours-a-day,
seven-days-a-week care in labour ward.

So I'm not quite sure why the workforce is seen as a difficulty for caesarean birth.

MARK COLVIN: The AMA's Dr Andrew Pesce ending Gavin Fang's report.

NT politics turns dirty

NT politics turns dirty

Reporter: Rachel Carbonell

MARK COLVIN: The Northern Territory election date is yet to be called, but pre-campaign politics
are already turning dirty.

The Labor candidate in Alice Springs has accused her opponents of being distasteful and intrusive,
after the local newspaper splashed details over the front page of her decision 30 years ago to give
up her daughter for adoption.

It's not the only example of the way Territory politics are played tough, as Rachel Carbonell
reports from Darwin.

RACHEL CARBONELL: The Northern Territory Labor Government must call an election sometime before
mid-October, and Territory politicians are preparing for battle.

Alice Springs Mayor Fran Kilgariff is the Labor candidate for the seat of Greatorex, and this
morning she woke up to a newspaper article detailing her decision in 1974 to adopt out her newborn
baby girl, and the meeting where the two were reunited several years ago.

FRAN KILGARIFF: Well I felt that, I felt that it had been quite distasteful and intrusive for this
story to come up. It's now five years old, and I wondered why it had come to the fore now.

I also felt that this is a very personal and private issue, and it's been the source of great joy
and happiness and fulfilment for me and my family, and I was very concerned that it was not in any
way tainted, what to me has been a great blessing.

RACHEL CARBONELL: The Centralian Advocate newspaper says the story was brought to their attention
by Ms Kilgariff's political opponents.

Ms Kilgaroff says the newspaper article dealt with the issue sensitively, but she was still shocked
and disappointed to find the details of her personal life suddenly in the public domain.

FRAN KILGARIFF: Well the editor of the paper told me that it had been somebody who was from the
CLP. I haven't asked, and I don't want to know who was that person, but this immediately brings up
the issue of it being a political story, and a political gambit, I suppose, for the election, and
I'm very disappointed that that's how it's ... obviously these sort of tricks or these sort of
personal issues are going to be dragged into a campaign, and that the CLP might be, this might be
the opening salvo in their campaign.

So, mixed emotions really. Tentative about my personal life being on the front page, and concern
that what has been such a positive thing for my family doesn't get tainted in the process.

RACHEL CARBONELL: What do you think are the parameters of political behaviour in the lead-up to an
election? Do you think that what's happened today is perhaps outside of the bounds of fair play?

FRAN KILGARIFF: I think it is, and I say that because it's, to me and my family, a wonderful story
and a blessing, and I feel very concerned, I feel it's very distasteful that somebody has leaked
this story. I don't know how you leak something that's been out in the open for five years anyway,
but with the idea, presumably, of making it an embarrassment to me and my family, and it absolutely
is not. It's something that we are proud of, and something that we find has been such a positive
influence in our life.

RACHEL CARBONELL: It isn't the first time things have turned a little nasty in Territory politics
this year.

Two months ago an MP threatened to hit a Cabinet minister who had called him a poofter in
Parliament.

The pair was ejected from Parliament, and the Speaker publicly described their behaviour as
unacceptable.

MARK COLVIN: Rachel Carbonell reporting from Darwin.

Rare species of macadamia tree discovered in Qld

Rare species of macadamia tree discovered in Qld

Reporter: Ian Townsend

MARK COLVIN: Despite its riches, the Australian bush has produced just one major horticultural
export crop - the macadamia nut.

And although the macadamia industry is now worth $120-million a year, the tree itself has become
harder to find in the wild.

So the discovery of a rare species of macadamia in Queensland has excited plant breeders who've
been tinkering with the nut lately, trying to produce a better commercial tree.

Ian Townsend reports.

IAN TOWNSEND: Australia has been slow to realise the full potential of the macadamia. This
delicious nut is native to Queensland and northern New South Wales, but it was pinched by Hawaiian
farmers in the late 1800s and early 1900s, who managed to turn the nut into a major export crop.

It wasn't until the mid 1990s that Australia reclaimed the title of the world's biggest macadamia
exporter and there's now a concerted effort to breed better nuts and trees, exploiting Australia's
natural advantage.

Unfortunately, much of the native habitat of the main commercial macadamia species, the rainforests
of south-east Queensland and northern NSW, has disappeared. Native trees are harder to find.

And that's why there's been quite a bit of excitement about a rare species of macadamia tree found
in central Queensland.

CRAIG HARDNER: It's tucked away in the back of a, just off the highway, and just realising it's
only a few individuals of this one species is something pretty special.

IAN TOWNSEND: Dr Craig Hardner is the leader of the CSIRO's macadamia conservation and breeding
program, and was a member of an expedition that's just returned after rediscovering a new species
of macadamia near Miriam Vale on the Queensland coast.

There are nine known macadamia species, four in south-east Queensland and northern NSW, three on
Cape York, and for reasons still a bit of a mystery, two species on the island of Sulawesi in
Indonesia.

But what makes this new Australian species special is its rarity. It appears there are just a few
trees left in a small pocket of bush. It was a macadamia species found in the mid-1980s and then
lost.

Ian McConachie is a pioneer of Australia's macadamia industry who's taken a shine to this rare
tree.

IAN MCCONACHIE: We only found 10 or 11, and the only trees that have ever been found have been this
one very small area.

IAN TOWNSEND: What do these nuts look like?

IAN MCCONACHIE: They look exactly like a small macadamia, looking at them in the shell or looking
at the kernel, they just look like a small macadamia, about half the size of the edible macadamia.

They have a slight bitter component, the same as in bitter almonds, it's actually a minute amount
of cyanide, but it's been calculated that you'll need to eat 62 kilos in a day to have a toxic
effect.

IAN TOWNSEND: Well I could probably do that... I like macadamias.

(laughter)

But not these ones, obviously.

IAN MCCONACHIE: No, they've got an interesting bitter flavour.

IAN TOWNSEND: And what could be the commercial value of such a tree? You said the nuts are bitter,
but is there any aspect of the tree that could be used for crossing with other, say, commercial
macadamia trees?

IAN MCCONACHIE: Well, the macadamia industry has got a 10-year plant breeding program to try and
develop varieties that are more suited to Australian farming conditions. And it's possible that in
time that the genes in this macadamia gancanai (phonetic) might be used to be able to give the
commercial macadamia more high temperature hardiness.

We're faced with temperature increases, and we're faced with finding future areas where well be
able to grow macadamias, because everywhere we grow them now is being challenged by residential
development, so in the future we'll be almost certainly looking at growing them either further
north or further west where we have higher temperatures.

MARK COLVIN: Ian McConachie, a Queensland macadamia grower, with Ian Townsend. Maybe they could
grow one with slightly less incredibly hard shell. I once broke a pair of nutcrackers on a
macadamia.