The column this week celebrates the first issue of The Lowitja Journal, and also brings suggestions for making global health publishing more equitable.
We report calls for reform to address education inequities (which are, of course, also important for health inequities), and share moving tributes to Peta Murphy, a Labor MP who died this week and is warmly remembered by colleagues and many in the health sector.
As well as Conference Watch, there are details of recent awards and appointments. And, apparently this still needs to be said: “Don’t bring a gun into an MRI.”
The quotable?
Currently, the danger posed by COVID is indeed being underestimated. Nothing is worse than infecting someone at Christmas who then becomes seriously ill and may not fully recover.”
Celebrating First Nations research and researchers
Watch the video and see the topics covered in the first issue.
Read the NHMRC article: Delivering a legacy of culturally safe maternity care
#AusPol
Read the report by the Select Committee into the Provision of and Access to Dental Services in Australia – A system in decay: a review into dental
services in Australia. Croakey will report further on the findings and recommendations in coming days.
In this interview, Pat Turner says she wants a Closing the Gap fund established, to which the Commonwealth, states and territories can contribute, to support community initiatives, with decisions made at the community level between government and community representatives.
She also wants to see the big funding agreements between governments, in areas like housing, education and health, to do much more for Closing the Gap.
Turner encourages Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to set up regional and local voices themselves, to exercise self-determination, and to have wider objectives than just advising government.
Unpacking power
Read: 
Global health
Read: The World Health Organization calls on countries to increase taxes on alcohol and sugary sweetened beverages 
A sharp rise in child poverty was registered across 40 of the world’s richest countries between 2014 and 2021, according to a new report published by the UN Children’s Fund’s global research centre, Innocenti. 
Read more in these recent Croakey articles:
- Health and social inequities predicted to increase in Aotearoa/New Zealand under new government
- New government in Aotearoa/New Zealand launches attack on public health
Vale
Conference Watch
#IDPwD
The theme for IDPwD 2023 is ‘United in action to rescue and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for, with and by persons with disabilities.’
Awards and appointments
Read more in the Vox article:As editor of BMJ Global Health, Abimbola aims to decentralise global health research. 
Seasons greetings
The German Health Minister concludes: “Currently, the danger posed by COVID is indeed being underestimated. Nothing is worse than infecting someone at Christmas who then becomes seriously ill and may not fully recover.”
