The column highlights the importance of diversity in media, pays respect to the late Dr Michael Yung, links to a new report on medicinal cannabis and brings news on developments in global health and public health.
We also bring Conference Watch, and highlight those who’ve received awards and new appointments.
Meanwhile, in Aotearoa/New Zealand, resistance is building against the new government’s attacks on public health.
The quotable?
We will not tolerate these actions. We will not sit silently. We will speak. We will stand. We will hikoi. We will disrupt. We will resist.”
Media matters
Connecting up some recent developments in the media and media policy…
As ABC management axes The Drum, a current affairs program that has sought to platform First Nations peoples’ voices, listen to an interview with Professor Megan Davis about the media’s role in contributing to the No vote at the recent referendum on an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament, and her observation that media coverage has generally failed to acknowledge the role of racism.
What does it say, at this time, in this year of the referendum, that the national broadcaster would pull a program known for amplifying the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities?
Meanwhile, amid news from Australia and abroad of further contractions in newsrooms, the Federal Government has finally announced next steps on efforts to better support media diversity (Croakey will report more on this at a later date, and encourages readers to engage with this policy process).
Read more about newsroom contractions
Meanwhile, Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has announced that consultation is now open on the News Media Assistance Program (News MAP) to promote a diverse and sustainable media sector, via a Media Diversity Measurement Framework.
“The News MAP will help guide and inform future Government intervention to support public interest journalism and media diversity in Australia, laying the foundations for a principled, targeted and evidence-based approach,” said the Minister.
Given the importance of media policy for public health, hopefully the health sector and wider civil society might engage with this process – especially those communities who are currently under-served by public interest journalism.
And a reminder that media contractions are happening globally. Croakey is stunned that such an experienced and respected specialist journalist as Maryn McKenna would be laid off. 
Meanwhile, this report by KFF Health News in the United States highlights the importance of trusted local news sources in countering misinformation. Dr Drew Altman writes that doctors and local TV news are among the most trusted sources of health information.
“So, it might make sense to mobilise local TV stations to feature their own local doctors trained in health misinformation to appear regularly, providing the facts on key health issues and countering mis and disinformation. We know that local audiences love health information almost as much as the weather. At scale, it would constitute a national network of locally based trusted messengers providing a counterweight to health misinformation.”
Vale
Many are mourning Dr Michael Yung, a former head of the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Adelaide, who died after a violent assault during a home invasion, and whose contributions are acknowledged below by South Australia’s Minister for Health and Wellbeing, Chris Picton.
Rather than flowers, people are asked to donate to a fund supporting Indigenous medical students, which Yung set up in honour of his late wife, Kathryn Browne-Yung, a health policy researcher at Flinders University who died suddenly in 2020.
Public health matters
Read the PHAA statement 
Read the Lung Foundation statement 
Read: “The most culturally safe training I’ve ever had”: the co-design of a culturally safe Managing hepatitis B training course with and for the Aboriginal health workforce of the Northern Territory of Australia
Read the report on cannabis: “…the key prevailing trend is continued expansion of the medicinal cannabis sector, where patient numbers are steadily increasing despite enduring barriers to access..Healthcare professionals should be encouraged to use medicinal cannabis as a harm reduction tool…
“There is still much work to do, especially replacing decades of alarmist fearmongering with evidence-based community knowledge and understanding about the risks and benefits of cannabis. Penington Institute will continue to advocate for a balanced model that facilitates a nationwide shift away from the counterproductive criminalisation model while also taking decisive steps to minimise the health harms that cannabis can cause.”
Read the report on end-of-life care
Aotearoa/New Zealand
Plans by the new government of Aotearoa/New Zealand to abandon pioneering tobacco control measures have been condemned by the Māori health organisation Hāpai Te Hauora as an “unconscionable blow to the health and wellbeing of all New Zealanders”, reports the BMJ (paywalled article).
Read: Protests over government’s plans to repeal Smokefree legislation in Auckland and at Parliament
This is a must-read article by Professor Leonie Pihama on behalf of Te Wharepora Hou, responding to the new government’s actions, and urging collective resistance.
“Where this co-governance government has a three year term, we do not,” she writes. “We will not tolerate these actions. We will not sit silently. We will speak. We will stand. We will hikoi. We will disrupt. We will resist.”
Global health
Read: G20 Plans ‘One Health’ Meeting as Zoonotic Threats Grow 
Read: The value of partnerships for Advancing Universal Health Coverage 
Read: Ottawa launches $13B dental-care program with kids and seniors first up for coverage
This study concludes: “Cancers with modifiable risk factors and potential for screening for precancerous lesions had heterogeneous trends and the greatest geographical inequality. To reduce these inequalities, factors affecting both incidence and survival need to be addressed at the local level.”
Read more on connectors
#AusPol
As taxation policy is set to exacerbate inequalities, a new report shows public support for addressing inequality.
Read: Governing the economics of the common good: from correcting market failures to shaping collective goals
Healthcare news
See: Acceptability and barriers of a GP–physiotherapist partnership in the diagnosis and management of COPD in primary care: A qualitative study.
The researchers conclude: “An experienced cardiorespiratory physiotherapist embedded into a small number of primary care practices to work in partnership with GPs for COPD diagnosis and management was acceptable and viewed as beneficial for patients. Barriers relating to logistics and resources remain, which must be addressed to optimise implementation.” 
See resources on voluntary assisted dying in NSW
Listen up
Listen to this interview with Aunty Jill Gallagher: From being a young girl running away from home at 13 years of age to becoming the CEO of a critical Aboriginal health peak body and Victoria’s Treaty Commissioner, Aunty Jill Gallagher gained a wealth of leadership experience. 
Don’t miss: sexual health promotion with song and the uniquely talented Steven Oliver
First Nations health
Read: Indigenous data sovereignty—A new take on an old theme. This article provides a global overview of related developments.
It says that “Ultimately, the promise of IDSov may be realized more through bottom-up collective action and innovation than top-down regulation. And there is no shortage of examples. In Aotearoa, for example, a small nonprofit Māori radio station Te Hiku Media has built its own speech-to-text engine to transcribe hundreds of hours of Māori language from elders and other community members as part of its homegrown Māori language revitalisation efforts. At the same time, it has taken aim at Open AI and Lionbridge for digital misappropriation of Māori language data—which it describes as the last frontier of colonisation.”
See the Director’s Communique 
Read: Wiradjuri elder Aunty Donna Kirby is a “breastfeeding champion”. 
Conference Watch
Awards, appointments and related
Upcoming events
