News Articles for Roger Cook

Western Australia has called for more of the state's GPs to be approved to administer COVID-19 vaccines as national figures show its trails other states in the rollout.

Declining iron ore royalties will ensure the May 2022 state budget is a vastly different document to the latest iteration.

Health Minister Roger Cook has confirmed the AFL Grand Final will go ahead as planned this Saturday after a truck driver who travelled through regional WA earlier this month tested positive for COVID-19.

Mandatory jabs will be expanded to port workers as of next month as extra doses of the Moderna shot are set to boost WA's flagging vaccine rollout.

Western Australians aged 12 and above able to access any COVID-19 vaccine candidate from state-run clinics from Monday.

WA's recent history of rolling back privatisations could yet inform the future of the state's ambulance services.

Premier Mark McGowan has blamed an uneven distribution of coronavirus vaccines by the federal government for his state's slow rollout.

The state government has tightened restrictions for travellers from high risk jurisdictions, while signing new directions which will require those in the healthcare sector to be vaccinated by 2022.

Wesfarmers-backed Covalent Lithium has signed a lease for its planned Kwinana refinery project with the state government.

The state government announced it will employ another 170 graduate nurses in COVID-response roles, the same day new figures laid bare the strain on Perth's biggest hospitals.

Western Australia's capacity to handle a COVID-19 outbreak is being questioned as the state again postpones hundreds of elective surgeries.

The state government is in talks with the Transport Workers Union about mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for interstate truck drivers.

Western Australia will reintroduce a hard border with New Zealand from midnight tonight, while travel from NSW will be halted under the state's new ‘extreme risk' rating.

The state government must cut environmental approval times and rethink its new onshore export ban to make Mark McGowan's gas-powered manufacturing plans a reality, a report shows.

Hundreds of Western Australians have heeded a call to return from coronavirus-plagued NSW ahead of restrictions being further tightened.

Rio Tinto has linked arms with the state government to roll out COVID-19 vaccines to FIFO workers and Pilbara residents.

The state government will provide quarantine assistance to arrivals from Kabul, as part of Australia's mission to evacuate people from the Taliban-controlled city.

Nurses and midwives have rallied against "dangerous" staff shortages and working conditions at Perth's primary maternity hospital.

John Langoulant will be jetting off to London after being named agent general at the state's investment and trade office.

Some operations at Fortescue Metals Group's Cloudbreak mine have been suspended and Qantas has cancelled flights after a mine worker returned a weak COVID-positive result.

Fortescue Metals Group has commenced contact tracing of up to 2,000 workers at its Cloudbreak mine after a maintenance contractor tested positive for COVID.

The ports industry has questioned Western Australia's hardline stance on high-risk ships, saying pre-existing safeguards were working.

Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research and its projects have won a $1.7 million grant from the state's medical research fund, while UWA researchers will receive $1.2 million.

Younger Western Australians will be targeted in a coronavirus vaccination blitz as the state looks to boost its faltering rollout.

Queensland authorities are on alert after a man with COVID-19 flew between Brisbane and Perth last week.

A further six crew members on board a cargo ship docked at Fremantle Port have tested positive for COVID-19 overnight, taking the total number of cases on the vessel to nine.

Western Australia could keep hard borders in place for the foreseeable future despite other states emerging from coronavirus lockdowns.

Two unvaccinated healthcare workers are in hotel quarantine after potential exposure to COVID-19 during the transfer of a sick crew member from a Fremantle cargo vessel yesterday.

Premier Mark McGowan has announced that the lockdown will be lifted from midnight tonight, despite the state recording one new local case overnight.

About 60 Western Australians are expected to peacefully end their own lives within the next 12 months under newly implemented voluntary assisted dying laws.

Western Australia has recorded no new cases of COVID-19 overnight, as those in the Perth and Peel regions enter the third day of the four-day circuit-breaker lockdown.

A Western Australian woman who visited Sydney and returned home has contracted COVID-19, prompting increased restrictions including mask wearing indoors.

It would not be easy to replace the economic benefits China has brought WA, but reliance brings risk.

Rosanna Capolingua, a former president of the state and federal branches of the AMA, has been appointed chair of the health department's child and adolescent health services.

WA has many advantages in terms of hosting a thriving medical research and innovation ecosystem.

Cancer Council WA has been awarded a $2.1 million grant from Healthway for public health campaigns over the next three years to encourage healthy lifestyles.

Aged care sector leaders say it is difficult to recruit skilled workers when the award for nurses in the industry is about 30 per cent less than those working in disability or hospital settings.

Social services executive Sue Ash has been named independent chair of the state government's newly formed quarantine advisory panel.

Tensions within WA's health system are set to be addressed when doctors and nurses rally outside Perth Children's Hospital.

The Australian Medical Association and Australian Nurses Federation are planning a rally outside Perth Children's Hospital to address "systemic problems".