Iranian soccer players seek asylum

0:00ABC Listen, podcasts, radio, news, music, and more. Good morning. Welcome to AM. It's Tuesday, the 10th of March. I'm Melissa Clark in Canberra, coming to you from Nunnerwall Country and acknowledging other custodians. The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, says the Iranian women's soccer team is welcome to stay in Australia and at least five are known to have fled their minders and are seeking protection here in the country. There are fears they'll be persecuted if they return to Iran after not singing the national anthem during matches in the Asian Cup. Tony Burke has also sent a message to the other members of the team when he spoke to the media in Queensland a short time ago. This is my second night here in Brisbane. I was here the night before as well. And at that point, we had conversations happening with some of the women, but we didn't know whether any would seek assistance. On the very early hours of yesterday morning, the conversation started in earnest.

1:02Once that happened during the course of yesterday, it was made clear that there were five women who wanted to be able to stay in Australia. They were moved to a safe location by the Australian Federal Police and last night I met with them at that location. I signed off last night for their applications to go on to humanitarian visas and at a little bit after 1.30am this morning, the processing was completed by the Department of Home Affairs. I say to the other members of the team, the same opportunity is there. Australia has taken the Iranian women's soccer team into our hearts. These women are tremendously popular in Australia, but we realise they are in a terribly difficult situation with the decisions that they're making. But the opportunity will continue to be there for them to talk to Australian officials if they wish to. That's Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke there.

2:04Brisbane-based human rights activist Hardy Karemi is one of many who have been outside the team's Gold Coast Hotel where he says that the security has been tight. He's one calling on authorities to help keep the rest of the team in Australia too. They're not going to be dangerous. They are in dangerous situation. They're alive in danger. We know Islamic victims they've threatened and they're going to do something to them today for them. We don't want them to go. We want them to stay. We want to save their life. That's why we are here. That's why we are here 24 hours. That's human rights activist Hardy Karemi there. The US President Donald Trump has also involved himself in the fate of these women and the entire Iranian women's soccer team. In a couple of social media posts overnight, the US President first chastised and then praised Australia for the way it's handling the players. I spoke with our correspondent in Washington, Barbara Miller.

3:06There have been a couple of posts there from the US President with different tones on the Iranian players. What has he been saying? Yeah, in Donald Trump's first post he accused Australia of making what he said was a terrible humanitarian mistake by he said, allowing the Iranian women's soccer team to be forced back to Iran. He said they would likely be killed there. Don't do it, Mr. Prime Minister. He wrote, give asylum and the US President suggested that if Australia didn't give the women asylum, then America would then just less than a couple of hours later. We got a further post saying that Donald Trump had no spoken to Anthony Albanese. He's on it. He said with an exclamation mark, five have already been taken care of a reference there to those five women who the ABC understands have left their accommodation on the gold cost. And he acknowledged that some feel he said that they must go back to Iran because they're

4:06worried about the safety of their families, including threats to family members if they don't return. In any event, Donald Trump said the Prime Minister is doing a very good job having to deal with this rather delicate situation. God bless Australia. So unclear what brought this particular matter to the US President's attention. He certainly seems to have sort of backtracked significantly after this call with Anthony Albanese. And that post that he put out really was in the wee hours of the morning Australia time. So unclear at this point if that's when Anthony Albanese spoke to Donald Trump on this issue. And bad news for motorists at the start of the working week there. How much are petrol prices rising? So since the war in Iran began, they've gone up on average across the US by 50 US cents. That's about 70 Australian cents a gallon. Now that may not sound like much, but it is a significant hike in DC.

5:08It means that regular gas is costing about $3.50 US. I asked some mortars how they were feeling. It's not good. So is the president, he needs to consider it when the prices goes up. It's not good for the lives of the people. The president says, look, they will go up for a short time, but it's worth it for America's security. What do you think about that? We don't really know how long it's going to take. We don't know how long his war is going to be. So it's uncertainty. He doesn't ever really tell us anything clear to us. I felt pretty secure three weeks ago before this war, so I'm not really sure what he's talking about. Are you worried it's going to keep climbing? Or do you think? I know it is. I'm terrified of what's going to happen. I don't know that we're going to wake up from one day to the next, to be honest. And Donald Trump's been giving another interview with the media outlet with NBC this time. He said in that, it's too soon to talk about the prospect of seizing Iran's oil to

6:14try and get a hold of this issue as it were, but he didn't now rule that out. Barbara Miller in Washington there. A level of panic is rippling through global markets as oil prices saw. The disruption in the crucial shipping lane, the Strait of Hormuz, has prompted major oil producers in the Middle East to scale back production. Any guest reports? The tough talk from Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, warning oil could reach $200 a barrel if the war continues. And Donald Trump's insistence that a short term oil cost increase is a small price for what he calls USA and world safety and peace, swarrying Jackie Newman, the head of capital markets at Sharesys. We can view this spike in oil prices as effectively a de facto tax on the global economy. Jackie Newman says any fuel shortage or price rise could drive up costs of production and stifle supply, while households paying more for petrol could reduce discretionary

7:17spending. Our market pricing for a rate hike next week has jumped from around 20% just last week to now, around 37%. While much of this remains hypothetical for now, Jackie Newman says the share market is starting to see the fallout. The immediate impact here has been most visible in rate sensitive sectors like IT in real estate. It's at the same time industrial and some mining companies are being squeezed as operating costs are expected to surge. And is it also affecting aviation stocks? Absolutely. Yeah, we're seeing a number of aviation stocks like Quantists and New Zealand come under pressure. While this shares may be suffering, airlines for Australia and New Zealand chairman Graham Samuel says the carriers are largely shielded from a big impact for now. They do a lot of forward contracting in terms of the purchase of fuel, but I think it'll loom large and become very relevant in the very, very short-term future.

8:18When you say the very short-term future is at days or weeks. It's likely to be days at the most stretching into weeks, but I have to see the biggest problem, of course, will be not only the prices, but also the reliability of supply. And is there an impact on ticket prices out of Australia and within Australia yet? I think it is inevitable. It always happens if we go to global crisis of this nature that ticket prices will be affected. Graham Samuel, who's also the former A-Triple C-Boss, says it's impossible to predict whether the airlines will run very low on fuel. There are things that are beyond the control of this government. One thing Graham Samuel believes is within everybody's control is avoiding catastrophic predictions. They're all to say to the panic mongerers, just shut up, chill out guys and stop the panic buying that's going on that are leading to long-cused service stations and the like. Even so, some analysts predict the surge in the oil price could be the start of the

9:23biggest energy shock since the 1970s. And he guessed there, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations says his country will continue to target anyone promoting radical ideas against Israel in a threat to Iran's new supreme leader, Mustafa Hamani. The 56-year-old is seen as a hardliner likely to carry on his father's legacy, Middle East correspondent Matthew Doran reports. Across Iran, thousands of regime supporters take to the streets to celebrate the appointment of a new supreme leader. Watched about Hamani, replacing his slain father Ali Hamani, as the Iranian regime puts on a show of strength. Though the reminder of the threat is ever-present, crowned streaming out of a rally in the city of Isfahan, after what authority said was an Israeli strike nearby. Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmeral Begehi insists his country is not yielding. Iran has been the graveyard of the dreams and illusions of foreigners.

10:26Country should be careful. The Islamic Republic of Iran and the Iranian people know well how to defend the integrity of Iran, the sanctity of its territory and its borders. That includes, he argues, attacking the Gulf states. Countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait, which continue to bear the brunt of Iranian retaliatory strikes. I think we are all seeing right now the threat that this clerical regime poses to the region and to the world. The US Secretary of State is Marco Rubio. They are trying to hold the world hostage. They are attacking their neighbors. They are attacking neighboring countries, their energy infrastructure, their civilian population, their attacking embassies. This is a terrorist government. This is a terrorist regime. That criticism coming as Turkey announced it had been forced to intercept another Iranian missile, which strayed into its airspace, promising to act decisively and without hesitation against any threat to its territory. France's President Emmanuel Macron landed on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus after it was targeted by a drone with a clear message for its people and the region.

11:30When Cyprus is attacked, Europe is attacked. As global oil prices surge, the President announced plans for France and its allies to send warships to the region in what he is describing as a purely defensive mission. Which is intended as soon as this becomes possible after the end of the most intense phase of the conflict, to escort container ships and tankers in order to gradually reopen the state of hormones. This is essential not only for international trade, but also for the flow of gas and oil. About these two Cyprus, Beirut has continued to be bombarded by Israel, attacking claimed Hezbollah targets after the Iranian-backed militant group weighed into the broader conflict. Lebanese health authorities revealing the death toll in the city and beyond is around 400, including more than 80 children. While an Israel at least one person was killed, another's wounded as an Iranian missile barrage was launched at the country, hitting six different sites, including near Ben-Gurian

12:35airport. Israel has said is a spokesperson for Zaka, search and rescue. From what I understand, here at this scene it was a custom missile and one of its segments landed right here in the construction site and the result is harsh. Israel and the U.S. are facing allegations from Iran and humanitarian agencies of targeting civilians too, and as the war drags on both sides continue to count the deadly cost of conflict. This is Matthew Doran in your hood, Israel reporting for AM. More than 150,000 tablets or gummies of melatonin have been intercepted by Australian border force in four months as health authorities crack down on unregulated imports of the sleep hormone. Doctors argue it's a welcome intervention, as online products might not be safe to use. People others say authorities should focus less on borders and more on making a crucial medication more affordable and accessible. National Health Reporter Stephanie Dowell has this exclusive report.

13:39Do the crime, do the time. Don't destroy your future. By air, land or sea, when illicit drugs, weapons, underclad cash or even endangered animals are smuggled into Australia, they're targeted by border force. But there's now an additional focus at the border, imported, unregulated bottles of a hormone called melatonin. We shouldn't be treating it like a vitamin or anything else that you can just order without any oversight at all. That's Tim Jones from the Royal Australian College of GPs. He says that therapeutic goods administration is warning patients to stop using unregistered imported melatonin products after testing showed large inconsistencies in how much melatonin is actually in each bottle. Melatonin is used by some parents to help their kids sleep, but Dr. Jones says some online products had as much as four times the amount of melatonin advertised. There's an increasing amount of research overseas happening into the quality of these products,

14:41and that really set off some alarm bells. Figures exclusively obtained by the ABC revealed that 150,000 units or individual tablets or gummies of melatonin were intercepted by border force officials between September and December last year. Once it receives a referral from border force, the TGA assesses the product to determine whether it has been lawfully imported before notifying border force to either seize or release the goods. Tim Jones says while the border seizures might seem dramatic to some, imported products don't make the TGA's strict safety standards. I'm very much supportive of this idea that careful action is being taken to ensure that safety of things that we give to our children is paramount. Perth Public Health Professional Naomi Campbell Smith has used melatonin for about five years after her doctor prescribed it to help counteract the effects of ADHD medication, which makes it harder for her to sleep.

15:41The 33-year-old says the prescribed product she can get from the pharmacy now costs more than the $300 compared to the current product she buys online, which is just $32. Rather than the TGA supporting Australians to be able to access goods for their health and wellbeing, they are simply blocking it. But if it soon needs to be scripted, that's fine. $300 is taken to be taken. In a statement, the TGA says it's continuing to monitor what it describes as harmful, unregistered products, and will notify the ABF to seize and destroy an account of it products intercepted at the border. That report by Stephanie Dowell and Caitlin Grieben. A dramatic decline in doctors who do house calls is leaving vulnerable people in distressing and potentially dangerous situations. Aged care and disability workers report more people are struggling to get the health care they need at home, which means they end up in hospital or residential care.

16:44Catherine Gregory reports. Regular GP visits at her group home in Sydney's in-west are essential for Janet Smith. Janet Smith was diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disorder Huntington's disease 15 years ago. Her daughter Alisa could no longer care for her at home because she wasn't getting the medical support she needed. It was almost impossible to get GPs to the home and she was needing to see the doctors regularly to maintain everything. Trips to the doctors became impossible. That was part of the reason I ended up putting them to care. One big part was her being able to access the services and actually appropriate services too. Dr. John Cremens visits and treats people with disability or chronic diseases like Janet at their home, but he's rare. Not having home visits means that patients are actually then turning up at ED departments who are already swamped.

17:46GP Jolvary is the head of general practice at UNSW and says GP home visits declined from close to 4 million nationally in 1994. To just over half a million in 2024, a more than 85% reduction. Home visits associated with improved quality of life, they also reduced hospital admissions. Marilyn Smith cared for her lifelong friend with dementia in regional South Australia, but the lack of GP home visits meant she had to send her to a nursing home. I started trying to get a doctor to visit her at home. Her GP wouldn't do it. It became very clear that nobody wants to pick up home visits for a dementia person at home. Home care providers such as Dachnuan says this is a common story. He sees his clients and their family struggle to get the basic medical care at home. So as a result, their health will be declined quite dramatically and that will result for them to enter into aged care facility.

18:49There are many reasons home visits have largely stopped. GP say it's because they like the time to leave their clinics, face potential safety risks and they're not renumerated appropriately, which is why the Royal Australian College of GPs is calling for an increase in the Medicare rebate for GPs doing home visits. As spokesperson for the Federal Health Department said a review of the Medicare benefits schedule for primary care will look at different consultation types and lengths, including home visits by GPs to consider if current renumeration tiers are working. Catherine Gregory. And that's AM for today. Thanks for your company. I'm Melissa Clark. Hi, Sam Hawley here, host of the ABC News Daily podcast. Donald Trump wanted to personally choose the next leader of Iran. Of course, Iran rejected that and it has elected the son of the former Supreme Leader to rule.

19:49Today, Barbara Slaven, Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Centre, on what that means for the war. Look for the ABC News Daily podcast on ABC Listen.