Australia news live updates: Marise Payne won’t be drawn on whether Liberals should dump Katherine Deves; PM to name health minister

Tasmania has recorded one Covid-19 death and 1,212 new cases. It takes the number of Covid-19 deaths in the state since the start of the pandemic to 43.

There are 47 patients in hospital, including one person in intensive care.

The ABC reports about concerns about the growing outbreak of yellow crazy ants in Townsville. Yellow crazy ants are a highly invasive species that affect people and wildlife.

via AAP:

Unfortunately eastern Australia’s big wet has brought funnel-web spiders out in force.

Apparently they don’t like their burrows being flushed through, while excessive rain also tends to send them in search of the opposite sex.

Worry not, though. While there were 13 fatal funnel-web bites in Australia prior to the development of an antivenom for clinical use by the medical researcher Dr Struan Sutherland in 1981, there have been none since.

Moreover, the staff at Australian Reptile Park, north of Sydney, are determined to keep it that way.

In fact, head keeper Jake Meney has just beaten his own record for extracting venom from funnel-webs, which is then used to make lifesaving antivenom.

He was able to milk an average 0.35mg per spider, or .03mg better than his previous best.

Although minuscule, the difference is enough to kill a room full of adult humans. It’s also why park management likes to think of Meney as their friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man.

He and his team work tirelessly to capture every drop possible, says the park’s director, Tim Faulkner.

“We rely heavily on the public handing in funnel-web spiders and would not be able to help save lives if it weren’t for their generous donations,” he said.

Now to the subject of a national integrity commission, Butler says Labor will “clean up the rorts”:

We are very clear, we want to clean up the rorts. Three-and-a-half years after the promise from the prime minister, hundreds of millions of dollars spent as if it’s Liberal party funds – taxpayer money – it’s clearly enough. The only way to end those rorts is by changing the government, because the government itself has walked away from this.

People have said that it is not a big deal, but that’s not the feedback we get. Australians are sick of the rorts, sick of their money being spent as if it’s Liberal party money and we are committed to making sure there is a tough cop on the beat that will clean up the rorts, that can act independently – not on the approval of the government of the day – that can undertake retrospective investigations and have investigations when they think [they] are in the public interest.

Butler says, if elected, Labor will have the 50 clinics up and running in the next financial year, commencing 1 July 2023:

This policy has been fully costed, been informed by work of the Parliamentary Budget Office, but the key consultation about the cost has been with general practices who understand what additional funding they need to make this model work.

A lot of GP organisations have been trying to do this, but they’ve found that the existing Medicare funding arrangements, which are really modelled around standard general practice, simply don’t make the model viable. I’ve worked with them very closely.

Labor’s health spokesman Mark Butler is next up on Insiders. Host David Speers asks about concerns the Australian Medical Association has expressed that Labor’s proposal for government subsidised clinics will create “unfair” competition with other GP practices.

Butler says:

We are very confident that this practice will make it easier for people to see doctors, particularly where those families are spending hours and hours lining up in hospital emergency departments and also, by extension, take real pressure off our hospitals

He adds:

This will be a competitive process overseen by the department. We will identify particular regions where we know there is huge pressure on hospital departments, and GP practices who want to take their practice to the next level will be able to apply for the additional funding that we know is necessary to make these services viable.

On the subject of a federal integrity commission, Payne says the Coalition has a “detailed piece of legislation”:

It has been broadly consulted, over 300 pages in detail. It provides our framework for a commonwealth integrity commission. It has been tabled in the parliament. It is there for all to see. What we have from the Opposition is a two-page summary and that’s all they’ve had for three years.

Payne has now been asked about the reported payment of more than $500,000 to Alan Tudge’s former adviser Rachelle Miller. She’s asked if the government can be transparent about the reason for the half-a-million-dollar payout.

Payne says:

I don’t know and I have no awareness of the details of these matters and it is not appropriate for me to have knowledge of these matters As I understand, through the Comcare process, it is a matter that is handled between individuals and the department itself. It is not something that involves ministers at all.