Tasmanian Liberal senator Jonathon Duniam has announced he will leave parliament before the end of the year. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.
Duniam's retirement
Liberal frontbencher Jonathan Duniam says he will quit politics before the next election. The announcement is a blow for the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, as the Coalition faces persistently poor polling and a challenge from One Nation.
The shadow home affairs minister says he will quit the Senate at the end of the year. In a statement, he said: "This was an extremely difficult decision to make – albeit that it is one I have been considering for quite some time. I have spent the past 25 years in politics, the last 10 of those as a Senator for Tasmania – and I have given everything to these responsibilities, often at the expense of family. Twenty-five years is a long time in any vocation and, when you take your role seriously, it always comes first. It is time I reversed my priorities and I can’t do that if I am to stay in politics. Obviously, I acknowledge that I am leaving at a difficult time for the Federal Coalition. But I am confident that my friends across both the Liberal Party and the National Party are firmly on the right path. No two people in the Coalition are more equipped to lead us (and Australia) back to success than Angus Taylor and Matt Canavan; they are both outstanding leaders and have a love for our country that is unrivalled."
Duniam said he had discussed his plans with Taylor in recent weeks. He described Tasmania as "the best state in the Commonwealth" and added: "Representing Tasmania has been a blessing and the honour of a lifetime – one that will be hard to match. While I know there will be some who will be disappointed that I am leaving, I am very grateful to the Liberal Party membership in Tasmania for granting me the privilege of being a Senator and for all the support that they have provided to me. Now is the right time for my party to choose new Senate team members who will carry forward the fight for Tasmania and for the values in which the Liberal Party believes. I leave Federal politics proud and grateful but exhausted. I wish our current Senators, and our new Senate team as a whole, nothing but the best as they strive hard to deliver for our state."
Father and daughter found dead
The body of a seven-year-old girl has been recovered from Sydney’s Parramatta River after her father was also found dead earlier on Saturday, with an investigation into their deaths to continue. Emergency services were called to Bayview Park in Concord just before 11:45am on Saturday after a passerby on another vessel spotted a man’s body in the water near a small, drifting boat. Officers from the Burwood Police Area Command boarded another boat to reach the scene, where they pulled the man from the water and commenced CPR. He could not be revived. Police believe the deceased man is a father in his 40s from the Westmead area who had hired the vessel earlier in the day. Upon investigating the boat, police discovered that his seven-year-old daughter was missing from the vessel. Specialist police divers recovered her body hours later. Superintendent Christine McDonald, Commander of the Burwood Police Area Command, described the situation as an “absolute tragedy”. McDonald said a friend of the family had called authorities at 12:30pm to request a welfare check on the father and daughter, unaware that police had already located the man’s body about 45 minutes earlier. The child’s distraught mother was assisting investigators with their inquiries. A crime scene has been established and forensic officers were examining the hired vessel. Police said they would “leave no stone unturned” as they investigate whether the incident was a tragic accident or intentional.
Lung cancer screening program
The federal government’s national lung cancer screening program has concluded its first 12 months, with data showing almost 100,000 high-risk Australians accessed the free service and more than 230 primary lung cancers detected. Lung cancer remains Australia’s leading cause of cancer death, claiming about 9,000 lives annually, and late diagnosis remains the biggest hurdle in treating the disease. Health minister Mark Butler said screening can detect up to 70% of lung cancers, and when caught early, more than 65% of cases can be successfully treated. The program targets Australians aged 50 to 70 with a history of smoking, using low-dose CT scans available in every state and territory. In remote regions, a partnership with Heart of Australia has so far delivered 519 mobile scans via specialised trucks across north Western Australia and the Northern Territory, with additional services to be rolled out across the remaining states over the next 10 months. First Nations participants made up more than 5% of those screened, an uptake credited to a structural partnership with the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO). NACCHO chief executive Dr Dawn Casey PSM said the strong numbers were no accident, proving that national health initiatives succeed when they are co-designed with the community-controlled sector to ensure cultural safety.