freelance science journalist and author
From Medscape Medical News, 10 March 2025: Medicare, Australia’s national health insurance scheme, is set for its biggest boost in funding since its creation half a century ago, as both major political parties promise billions ahead of this year’s federal election. The incumbent Labor government, led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, announced an AU$8.5 billion … Continue reading Australian politicians promise billions for healthcare
From The Saturday Paper, 2 November 2024: In 2018, the Australian government conducted a simulated pandemic stress test of how well federal departments on the frontline of a major health crisis would cope. It found they would perform well enough for shorter or “ordinary” crises but were not equipped for a significant, near-existential crisis dragging … Continue reading Covid-19 inquiry finds key failings in pandemic response
From Nature, 13 December 2023: Australian Indigenous communities from different regions in the north and centre of the country are some of the most genetically distinct people on the planet, according to a pair of studies published in Nature today. Indigenous Australian communities have the highest rate of genetic variation outside people in Africa. Hundreds … Continue reading Australian Indigenous genomes are highly diverse and unlike those anywhere else
From BMJ, 4 May 2023: The importation and sale of all e-cigarettes, regardless of whether they are labelled as containing nicotine or not, will soon be banned in Australia, unless they are supplied by prescription through a licensed pharmacist. The crackdown by the Australian government was announced amid concerns that a growing black market in … Continue reading Australia bans all vapes except on prescription to stem use in children
From WIRED, 14 June 2022: First came the drought. Then the bushfires. Then the floods. And then, on May 21, 2022, came the federal election. After nearly four years as Australian prime minister—a term in office marked by repeated and record-breaking natural disasters—the conservative Scott Morrison was ousted following a contest that hinged on climate … Continue reading Australia has finally woken up to climate change
From Wired UK, 21 April 2020: Everything was chaos, but at least he wasn’t being hunted by a lion. Chad Staples comforted himself with that thought as he crammed pandas, marmosets and tamarins into his kitchen until his counters overflowed with animals. Outside his home, giraffes, rhinoceroses, zebras and ostriches fended for themselves in flaming … Continue reading The day Australia burned
From The Atlantic, 8 January 2020: Facing a future of fire, drought, and rising oceans, Australians will have to weigh the choice between getting out early or staying to fight. Read more.
From Nature, 10 May 2018: In 1999, an Australian federal government briefing paper on biotechnology in the country concluded that the sector “hardly rates as an economic force” because of its small size and the financial challenges that it faced in getting products to market. Now, barely two decades later, Australia has ranked in the … Continue reading Australia makes its mark in biotechnology
From The Guardian, 4 October 2017: For a brief and shining moment in 2012, Australia was at the global forefront of climate change action, as one of the first countries to implement a carbon pricing mechanism. It lasted only two years, and was repealed amid much fanfare by the Abbott government in July 2014. During … Continue reading China’s emissions trading scheme puts Australian companies on notice
From Ensia magazine, 13 October 2017: The Australian federal government’s love affair with coal has reached new levels in recent years, with federal ministers bringing chunks of the mineral into parliament and donning high-visibility mining vests as pro-coal publicity stunts. Yet against this backdrop, one Australian state has managed to break global records in the … Continue reading South Australia goes all-out on renewables despite Federal focus on coal
Bianca Nogrady 