The 'Dispatched' Week in Review - 1 May

The 'Dispatched' Week in Review - 29 May

Powerful patient stories stand in contrast to a decision-making framework that explicitly dehumanises their lived experience. The need for 'decency and compassion'. Week one of Senate Estimates, the challenge of saying one thing publicly and something else privately, and a Budget that revealed so much about what is coming.

The 'Dispatched' Week in Review'- 15 May

There are enough measures and signals in this week's Budget to suggest medicines, vaccines and other technologies were discussed extensively in the process leading up to Tuesday's announcement. It might also help explain Health Minister Mark Butler's annoyance at one organisation's response. A Government response to a parliamentary inquiry triggered another odd response from stakeholder groups.

The 'Dispatched' Week in Review Podcast - 8 May 2026

In this week's episode, the focus is on the latest example of no progress on reform, the mindset and intransigence it reveals, the repeated pattern, and the early evidence that it would always end this way. Can it be an opportunity? Next week's Budget is upon us, and the discussion focuses on what to look for, that just because it is not in there, does not mean it is not in there, and why gaining any cut-through will be a real challenge.

The 'Dispatched' Podcast - Special Episode

In this special episode, the focus is on the official plan to force a 'consensus' on health technology assessment reforms through a process conducted in secrecy under the guise of ethics approval. The problem with running this policy process like a clinical trial is that we do not and will not know the identities of participants, how they were selected, their input, how it is used and weighted, or even the study protocol.

The 'Dispatched' Week in Review - 1 May

Tokenistic characterisations of patient engagement are no substitute for listening and empowering. The risk of government funding for organisations and how it can impact what they do, primarily because the government is just another vested interest.