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Lesley Russell

Dr Russell returned to Australia in October 2012 after three years in Washington DC where she worked on a range of issues around the enactment and implementation of health care reform, initially as a Visiting Fellow at the Center for American Progress (known as the 'Obama think tank') and later as a Senior Advisor to the U.S. Surgeon General in the Department of Health and Human Services.

Dr Russell has substantial experience working in health policy in the United States and Australia. both in and out of government. She was previously the inaugural Menzies Foundation Fellow at the Menzies Centre for Health Policy (MCHP) and a Research Associate at the US Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. Prior to that she was a health policy advisor to the Federal ALP. She worked for seven years as health policy advisor on the Energy and Commerce Committee in the US House of Representatuves.

Dr Russell is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the MCHP and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Australian and New Zealand Studies at Georgetown University. She holds a PhD in biochemistry from the John Curtin School of Medical Research at ANU.

Getting rid of junk health insurance policies is just tinkering at the margins of a much bigger issue

Aug 28, 2017 14:27 pm UTC| Insights & Views Health

In media interviews and his speech at the National Press Club this week, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) president, Michael Gannon, has spoken out against junk health-insurance policies. He said these are worth...

Investing in rural health brings ten-fold returns to local economies (and improves health)

Apr 26, 2017 07:59 am UTC| Insights & Views Investing

When we talk about rural health, its easy to focus on health inequalities between the roughly 10% of Australians who live in rural and remote areas and those who live in our cities. Statistics show the further...

Is the investment in private health insurance worthwhile?

Nov 22, 2016 01:27 am UTC| Insights & Views Business

A frequent topic of conversation at any social or workplace gathering is the cost and unfairness of private health insurance. Despite guaranteed free treatment in public hospitals, we are both conditioned and persuaded to...

Do you really need to go to hospital? Time to recentre the health system

Mar 17, 2016 23:01 pm UTC| Insights & Views Health

Hospitals dominate our health-care system and account for more than one-third of Australias A$150 billion-plus health budget. Pressure is growing on hospital services and costs are spiralling. This is because of the...

Economy

Trump Opens Tax-Exempt Dyed Diesel Access as Fuel Prices Surge

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday expanding access to tax-exempt dyed diesel as soaring fuel prices and global oil supply disruptions put pressure on American consumers and businesses. Under...

Australia Consumer Confidence Plunges as RBA Rate Hike Hits Households

Australian consumer confidence fell sharply in October as households grew increasingly worried about rising living costs, higher interest rates, personal finances and the jobs outlook, according to data released Tuesday by...

Samsung, SK Hynix Shares Fall Ahead of Q3 Earnings

Shares of South Korean chip giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix declined on Tuesday as investors turned cautious ahead of their third-quarter earnings reports, despite broader strength across the global semiconductor...

Asian Currencies Steady as Dollar Holds Near 18-Month High

Asian currencies traded mostly flat on Tuesday as the U.S. dollar remained close to an 18-month high, supported by elevated Treasury yields and persistent inflation concerns. The euro stayed under pressure near a 17-month...

Asian Stocks Rise as Nasdaq Record Offsets Bond Yield Pressure

Asian stocks traded mostly higher on Tuesday, supported by a record close on the Nasdaq, although surging U.S. Treasury yields and elevated oil prices kept investors cautious. Wall Street provided a positive lead after the...

Politics

Trump Envoy Meets Sudan Army Chief in Egypt

A senior envoy for U.S. President Donald Trump attended an event in Egypt alongside Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan as Washington continues efforts to find a political solution to Sudans devastating civil war....

France Student Protests Intensify Nationwide

France faced widespread high-school blockades and union-backed demonstrations on Tuesday as students stepped up pressure on President Emmanuel Macrons government over teacher shortages, deteriorating school buildings and...

Flavio Bolsonaro Surges as Family Scores Brazil Election Comeback

Brazils election delivered a dramatic political comeback for the Bolsonaro family, even though former President Jair Bolsonaro was not on the ballot. Bolsonaro, 71, is under house arrest while serving a 27-year sentence...

Trump Gaza Peace Plan Stalls as Israel Retains Control

US President Donald Trumps Gaza peace plan remains stalled a year after its launch, with Israel retaining control over roughly two-thirds of the enclave and continuing near-daily strikes despite an October 2025 ceasefire....

Trump Orders Firing Squad Execution for Fort Hood Gunman

President Donald Trump has approved the execution by firing squad of former U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan, who was sentenced to death for killing 13 people in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting in Texas. Pentagon spokesperson Sean...

Science

Blue Origin New Glenn Explosion Could Delay Launch Operations Until 2028

Blue Origin is facing a significant setback after a dramatic explosion involving its New Glenn rocket severely damaged a launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida. According to NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, repairs to the...

Blue Origin New Glenn Rocket Explodes During Launch Pad Test, Delaying Space Ambitions

Blue Origin suffered a major setback after its uncrewed New Glenn rocket exploded during a launch pad test in Florida on Thursday, raising new challenges for Jeff Bezos space company as it competes with Elon Musks SpaceX...

SpaceX Delays Starship V3 Launch Ahead of Potential Record IPO

SpaceX on Thursday postponed the highly anticipated launch of its 12th Starship rocket test from Texas after technical issues interrupted the final countdown. The company now plans to attempt the Starship V3 launch again...

Trump Administration Releases New UFO Files and Apollo Mission Records

The U.S. Defense Department has released dozens of previously classified UFO-related files following an order from President Donald Trump, sparking renewed debate over unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) and government...

China vs. NASA: The New Moon Race and What's at Stake by 2030

The space race is back and this time, its a direct competition between the United States and China for dominance on the lunar surface. NASAs Artemis II mission recently made history when four astronauts flew farther into...

Technology

Zcash Prepares for NU7 Upgrade as Zebra Gets Key Security Fixes

The Zcash network is moving closer to its NU7 upgrade following a series of Zebra releases focused on security, performance and network stability. According to an engineering update from the official Zcash Foundation X...

OpenAI, Anthropic Back Mandatory AI Breach Reporting in Australia

OpenAI and Anthropic said they would support Australian laws requiring artificial intelligence companies to report data breaches caused by AI agents, as lawmakers consider tougher AI regulation following several security...

DeepSeek Seeks $12 Billion Funding Round Backed by Tencent, CATL

Chinese artificial intelligence powerhouse DeepSeek is preparing to raise at least 80 billion yuan ($12 billion) in a major funding round backed by Tencent and battery giant CATL, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. DeepSeek...

Nvidia-Backed Reflection AI Launches Beam Open-Weight Model

Nvidia-backed startup Reflection AI has launched Beam, its first open-weight artificial intelligence model, as the U.S. company looks to challenge lower-cost Chinese AI models in coding and agentic tasks. Reflection AI...

Meta and Microsoft Cut Internal Claude AI Use

Meta Platforms and Microsoft are reducing their internal reliance on Anthropics Claude AI models as both technology giants encourage employees to adopt proprietary artificial intelligence tools, according to a report from...