Emergency department doctors say hospital overcrowding and bed shortages are costing Australian lives. A study of 76 emergency departments over one day in September found more than a third of all patients were waiting to be transferred to a ward. The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine findings will be presented at today’s annual Emergency Medicine conference in Canberra.

 

After winning a key concession from the Government on the National Broadband Network, the Greens say they’ll now support moves to split Telstra. The Government wanted the power to automatically privatise the NBN, but the Greens say they’ve now done a deal. That means Parliament would have to approve any plans to privatise the network. 

 

The Prime Minister is out of step with the majority of Australians who support gay marriage, according to a new poll. The Nielsen poll shows 57 per cent of people support same sex marriage; thirty-seven per cent were either undecided or opposed to gay marriage. 

 

And the Irish government is expected to make an official bailout request from the EU today. Finance Minister Brian Lenihan did not specify how much Ireland would ask for, but it’s expected to be in the tens of billions of dollars.