News In Brief

Welcome to our ‘News In Brief’ column in which we digest all the news releases for you in no more than five paragraphs.
Below are snippets of all the media releases we received from May 4 till the end of the week.
This article updates throughout the week.

Pentagon’s $21M Animal Test Waste

Perth, May 8: Animal rights organisation PETA U.S. has written to Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth calling on the War Department to cut funding for animal experiments being conducted in Australian laboratories.
PETA’s research reveals more than $21 million has been funnelled into foreign animal laboratories over the past seven years, including funding to Australian institutions such as Recce Pharmaceuticals in Sydney, the University of Queensland, and the University of Melbourne.
Experiments funded include inflicting severe thermal burns on rats and pigs, subjecting pigs to traumatic haemorrhage, and implanting magnetic stents into the brains of sheep.
PETA Australia Senior Campaigns Advisor Mimi Bekhechi said the funding should be redirected toward animal-free research methods.

Allied Health Workforce Crisis Demands Action

Perth, May 8: Australia’s peak body for health sciences education is calling on Federal Health Minister Mark Butler to urgently develop a national allied health workforce strategy.
The Australian Council of Deans of Health Sciences (ACDHS) says the country lacks effective national workforce data collection and a coordinated approach to planning, despite a growing crisis in allied health access.
The call comes as new data shows a continued decline in allied health care time in aged care facilities, and as demand for allied health support increasingly outstrips supply.
ACDHS represents more than 300,000 allied health professionals and says an additional 25,000 workers will need to be trained by 2033 to meet aged care targets alone.
The organisation is calling on Minister Butler to partner with peak bodies to establish evidence-based workforce data and support growth of the allied health workforce nationally.

ACCC Gets Funding

Perth, May 13: The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has welcomed an additional $67.7 million in federal funding over four years to strengthen its competition and consumer law enforcement work.
“Active, proportionate and evidence-based enforcement of Australia’s competition and consumer laws has been central to the ACCC’s work for many years, and is vital for the strength and productivity of our economy as a whole,” ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said.
The funding will support the ACCC’s work in areas including supermarkets and retail, essential services, aviation and digital markets.
“This additional funding will ensure we keep pace with technological advancements and remain effective in identifying, investigating and addressing unlawful conduct that harms consumers and seeks to disadvantage businesses that follow the rules.”
Budget measures also include funding for consumer law guidance and education campaigns, e-micromobility safety standards, the National Anti-Scam Centre, the Digital ID Regulator role and Consumer Data Right functions.
“This additional funding highlights that on top of our role as an independent law enforcement agency, we have many additional regulatory responsibilities to safeguard consumers, promote competition, and bring transparency to complex markets,” Cass-Gottlieb said.

Road Safety Call

Perth, May 15: National Road Safety Week 2026 begins this Sunday, with renewed calls for stronger safety measures across Australia’s heavy vehicle sector.
Microlise APAC managing director Luke Olsen said heavy vehicle safety must move beyond awareness campaigns and become part of daily transport operations.
“Road Safety Week 2026 comes at a critical moment for Australia’s transport industry. With 139 lives lost due to heavy vehicle related incidents in the 12 months leading up to February 2026, and truck drivers 13 times more likely to die at work than workers in other industries, the numbers demand more than awareness campaigns. They demand action at an operational level.”
Olsen said fatigue, distraction, inattention and speeding remain major risks in heavy vehicle incidents, and that existing safety technology must be adopted more widely.
“What Road Safety Week should be forcing transport leaders to ask is not whether they have a safety policy; it’s whether their safety culture is real or just documented. Technology is one of the clearest ways to tell the two apart.”
He said Australia’s Chain of Responsibility laws mean safety accountability no longer rests solely with drivers, but extends across schedulers, managers and businesses.
“The businesses getting this right are not just avoiding incidents; they are building a demonstrably safer operation that holds up under scrutiny.”