news

Tuesday's news in under 5 minutes.

We’ve rounded up all the latest stories from Australia and around the world – so you don’t have to go searching.

1. Hospital said baby girl just has a virus before she died.

A baby girl, just 18-months-old was diagnosed with just having a virus in the days before her death by The Northern Hospital in Melbourne.

Angela and Matthew Ebbage were told their little girl, Audrey just had croup by the staff at the hospital.

Audrey was admitted to the Northern on December 11 2014, her parents said they just knew there was something else going on but staff dismissed their concerns.

Audrey’s mother, Angela told a coronial inquiry into the baby’s death that she and her husband “regularly raised concerns” with staff at the hospital on that day about Audrey’s lethargy, the initial lack of blood tests and an x-ray, and an alternate diagnosis.

But their view was she “had a virus only.”

Audrey’s condition deteriorated and she went into cardiac arrest and was rushed to the Royal Children’s Hospital on December 14 but she died.

“These concerns we expressed to The Northern Hospital doctors, we believe, were dismissed and we never felt heard, a fate we hope no other parent will have to endure,” Dr Ebbage said.

Northern Health made concessions to the Coroners Court yesterday about its failings. The hospital admitted Audrey’s blood pressure should have been recorded at least once, she should have been assessed by a consultant paediatrician, and a medical emergency team should have been put together given her heart and respiratory rates.

ADVERTISEMENT

Coroner Jacqui Hawkins said it could not be said that Audrey would have survived had a heart problem been diagnosed earlier. However, Dr Ebbage said Audrey’s survival would have been “probable” The Age reports.

Audrey’s parents said, “We want Audrey’s little friends and soon to be little brother to be safe if an ambulance is required to transport them to their nearest hospital — the Northern.”

2. Kids as young as 12 could be given the pill at school without their parents’ knowledge.

 

Concerns over the availability of the pill. Via IStock.

Children in Victoria could soon access the contraceptive pill at school without their parents' knowledge, under a new 'doctors in schools' Labor initiative.

Fairfax Media reports that under the plan doctors will visit 100 disadvantaged state secondary schools from next year.

Students who use the service will be bulk-billed using their own Medicare cards.

Education Minister James Merlino told The Age GPs will follow clear guidelines set out by the Australian Medical Association.

"The doctor-patient relationship will not change," he said.

But Victoria’s Opposition's education spokesman Nick Wakeling said the initiative raised a lot of ethical questions.

“It is putting schools in a difficult position. If a mother finds out their child has been to a doctor at a school and been issued the contraceptive pill without their knowledge, where does that place the school principal? They are seen as the facilitator of that process because it is provided on the school grounds."

ADVERTISEMENT

GP Dr Sally Cockburn told The Age there was nothing preventing teenagers – even 12-year-olds from accessing birth control from a doctor outside school.

"Of course in an ideal world young people should be talking to their parents about these issues," she said. "But they deserve confidentiality and this is a better option than no contraception and unprotected sex."

Children who are deemed "mature minors" can be provided with contraception from doctors without parental authority.

3. Senate Candidate slams Waleed Aly’s Logie win.

A Senate candidate has launched a scathing attack on Waleed Aly’s Gold Logie win.

Australian Liberty Alliance Party NSW senate candidate Kirralie Smith said the win was representative of a “very closed industry” at a lunch yesterday in the Sydney suburb of Northbridge.

“I issued an invitation to Waleed last year to have a debate about these issues and he has ignored it,” Ms Smith said.

Ms Smith was speaking at the launch of former “rock star” Gary “Angry” Anderson’s NSW senate campaign for the Australian Liberty Alliance at Northbridge Golf Club.

“I think that in this case where there is integration and not segregation it is a great example isn’t it?” Ms Smith said.

ADVERTISEMENT

“We are not against any immigration, it is not based on that religious form, we are against ideology. Now, if Waleed Aly was someone who subscribed to the Koran and was preaching versus like: ‘Strike at their necks and put terror into their hearts and cut-off their fingertips,’ we would have a great problem with that. But he is not preaching that is he? He is not preaching from the Koran.

“He actually discredits the Koran, because he does not follow it and does not obey it. We have a problem with ideology. While ever he is not representing a Koran, following Muhammad, the example of Muhammad, following the Koran, then: Fantastic. We do not have a problem with that, we are all for integration and not segregation and upholding western democratic values over and above sharia law

4. NAPLAN exams "take up too much time".

Students today sit NAPLAN. Via IStock.

As more than a million students across the country today begin the first of NAPLAN’s grammar, spelling and writing tests a leading educator has critisised the tests as being a “very blunt instrument” that "take up too much time."

Australian Catholic University senior research fellow Dr Kevin Donnelly told News Limited NAPLAN takes up too much teaching time.

“While I’m in favour of accountability and transparency, it takes up too much time,” he said.

“There’s a lot of pressure on schools and teachers to perform, especially in Years 3 and 5 and it does interfere with teaching and learning.”

ADVERTISEMENT

“It is a very narrow test. I would argue from an educational point of view, it’s only testing a very narrow spectrum of skills and abilities.”

5. Inquiry into Phillip Hughes' death to hand down findings today.

An independent report into the death of cricketer Phillip Hughes will be handed down today that is expected to push for increased safety in the game.

In Novemeber 2014 the young batsman died in a Sydney hospital two days after he was struck beneath his helmet while batting for South Australia in a Sheffield Shield match against NSW at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

News Limited reports that the inquiry by David Curtain QC for Cricket Australia will call for the compulsory wearing of helmets for batsmen, close-in fielders and net coaches. The move, which would bring Australia into line with standards already adopted by English cricket.

There is expected to be a focus on clip-on stem guards – described as a piece of technology that protects the part of the neck where Hughes was struck.

6. Woman abused by her partner stabbed her two daughters to death.

“If I can't have them he can't have them either.”

A young mother murdered her two young daughters because she feared their father wanted to take them from her, a court has heard.

British woman Samira Lupidi, 24, has denied murdering her daughters Jasmine Weaver, 17-months-old and Evelyn Lupidi, 3, at a UK women's refuge in November.

ADVERTISEMENT

The court heard Ms Lupidi told police she been hit by her partner and was worried about her safety.

She admits manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility reports The Guardian.

The prosecutor told the court, the morning after she was admitted, staff at the refuge found Ms Lupidi running out of the flat and shouting that she had "killed the children".

A kitchen knife was found on one of the children's beds and she had blood on her hands.

After Lupidi was arrested, she said: "I know what I have done. My life is nothing now."

Ms Lupidi, an Italian national, told another member of staff: "It's his fault. Now he has a reason to kill me. If I can't have them, he can't have them either.

"He was coming to get me. I had to do this."

Her trial continues.

7. Rain falls on inland areas who have been suffering drought like conditions.

Heavy rain has fallen across inland areas of the eastern states reports the ABC giving famers who have been dealing with the drought-like conditions associated with El Nino weather system relief.

Rain has fallen across the nation from the north-east of Western Australia, across Queensland and down to the south-eastern states.

Farmer James Ingrey from Central West NSW said it has been a particularly dry summer and that most farmers had resorted to hand feeding their stock but that this rain was a good sign.

ADVERTISEMENT

"I've just had a drive around to see whether any water ran and there's been absolutely none, it's been absolutely brilliant soaking rainfall. Absolutely ideal for this time of year” he told the ABC.

8. Mothers spend up to 51 hours a week on housework.

A report from the Australian Institute of Family Studies has shown that when women have children they go from an average of two hours a week caring for others to 51 hours a week and even after their children leave home they still spend 30 hours a week on housework and caring duties.

Mothers spend 10 hours more a week on housework such as cooking and cleaning.

“This is a huge change for women who virtually overnight start wrestling with far greater caring responsibilities than they have ever had to confront before,” AIFS director Anne Hollonds said.

The report, in today’s Herald Sun shows that regardless of the hours of paid work women do, housework demands stay constant. When children start school they peak at 30 hours.

“Even when their youngest child turns 15, mothers still spend 28 hours on housework — and this doesn’t really change — even in the year after all the children have left home — housework still consumes 25 hours a week,” AIFS senior researcher Jennifer Baxter said.

Do you have a story to share with Mamamia? Email us news@mamamia.com.au