Good morning and welcome to the Morning Buzz for Thursday, December 7. It’ll be mostly sunny today with temperatures are expected to reach 29 in the city and 33 in the west. Enjoy your day!
Public patients waiting four times longer for surgery
The rules are simple. It doesn't matter whether you're a public patient or a health fund member, if you're a patient in a public hospital, treatment should be delivered based on clinical need not insurance status.
But the latest figures in the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's Private Health Insurance Use in Australian Hospitals report tell a very different, and worrying, story.
Public patients, for some elective operations such as a cataract extraction, are waiting four times longer than privately insured patients in public hospitals – 113 days compared to 29 days. Read more
The battle to save a 'remarkable' brutalist building in Sydney
Facing Glebe Point Road is a Victorian villa, Bidura House, 160 years old and preserved, as far as these things can be, on the State Heritage Register.
Behind Bidura House, in an unusually discreet location for a public building, sits a former Children's Court and remand centre. Unlike the Victorian villa, the Children's Court and Metropolitan Remand Centre (MRC) may not be long for this world.
Police to bill right-wing provocateur over protests
Right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos and his promoters will be slapped with a bill of at least $50,000 to cover the cost of the police numbers required to handle violent protests outside his shows in Melbourne.
Hundreds of left and right-wing protesters gathered in front of the Melbourne Pavilion on Racecourse Road and Stubbs Street, Kensington on Monday night where they faced off and fought with sticks. Read more
World renowned Finnish education expert heads to UNSW
Finland's leading education expert Pasi Sahlberg will move to Australia next year to take up a role at the University of NSW in a move described as a "huge coup" for the university and education research.
The world renowned educator, who is the former director general of the Ministry of Education and Culture in Finland and a visiting professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, has been appointed professor of educational policy at UNSW. Read more
Ben McCormack sentenced over child porn charges
Former Channel Nine reporter Ben McCormack has been abused and drenched with a cup of water as he left court, where he was ordered to pay $1000 and be on good behaviour for three years over sexually explicit conversations he had about children online.
As news cameras surrounded McCormack at the Downing Centre District Court following his sentencing on Wednesday, a man approached and shouted "you f---ing filthy maggot". Read more
NSW women need to make small changes to drastically improve their health
Women's health in NSW is improving overall, but there are still many communities and age groups suffering disproportionately.
The Health and Wellbeing report released by the NSW government provides a snapshot of the physical and mental health of women across the state.
The report also included a summary of government policy being implemented in response to the state's health issues. Read more