An operation targeting the supply and distribution of cocaine and other illicit drugs in Sydney's eastern suburbs has led to 55 people being charged with drug supply and possession.
Over the course of six nights this month, police from Strike Force Northrop allegedly seized more than 290 grams of cocaine, 13 grams of MDMA, 110 grams of cannabis and $63,000 in cash. They charged 28 people with drug supply and 27 with drug possession.
Strike force detectives were assisted by officers from Surry Hills, Sydney City, Kings Cross, Eastern Suburbs and Eastern Beaches Police Area Commands, and the Dog Unit, to carry out a series of vehicle searches in Bondi, Paddington and Coogee on Friday and Saturday nights.
On the weekend of May 10 and 11, eight people were arrested and charged following five separate vehicle stops.
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A black BMW stopped on Glenmore Road, Paddington, was allegedly found with 17 grams of cocaine and $4200 in cash.
A silver Volkswagon Passat stopped at the intersection of Dolphin and Hill streets, Coogee, was allegedly found with more than $2400 in cash and 20 grams of cocaine in a hidden compartment.
More cash and drugs were allegedly located inside three vehicles stopped around Bondi Road in Bondi.
Another two people were arrested and charged after their vehicles were stopped and searched on May 17 and 24, with officers allegedly locating more drugs and cash.
Redfern Region Enforcement Squad Commander, Detective Chief Inspector Stuart Bell, said detectives "will continue to investigate and target those in the community that continue to participate in illegal drug-related activity".
"These illicit substances are incredibly dangerous, and we will do everything we can to remove them from the streets of Sydney," he said.
"Police do not want to see any more drug-related deaths and it is disappointing to see so many people putting others' lives at risk through the sale and distribution of these drugs."
Telstra signalled the progress it is making on its T22 transformation strategy on Wednesday by bringing forward $500 million in writedowns on its legacy IT systems and confirming that 6,000 of the 8,000 job losses planned as part of the strategy will occur this financial year.
It means that $200 million of restructuring costs are also expected to be brought forward to the current year.
Like other legacy telecom firms around the world, Telstra is finding it hard to battle cut-throat competition and new technology that has crushed its mainstay fixed-line businesses.
"We expect to have announced or completed approximately 75 per cent of our direct workforce role reductions by the end of FY19," said Telstra chief executive Andy Penn.
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The company stuck to its full year earnings guidance and said the writedown and restructuring costs are subject to board approval.
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"We will continue to see role reductions as we replace our legacy systems, digitise and simplify how we work, and respond to things like declining NBN and call volumes, but if a final decision is made on the proposal announced today we expect the majority of our T22 restructure will be behind us," said Mr Penn.
Telstra announced the T22 strategy in June last year to cut $2.5 billion in annual costs, net job losses of around 8,000 employees as well as streamlining its services and product offering.
Telstra said it has started consultation with unions and staff over the job cuts and expects the process to conclude in mid June which means that that extra $200 million in restructuring costs are expected to be recognised this year, but the cash savings will not be felt until the employees leave next financial year. It will raise the restructuring costs for the current financial year to $800 million.
Mr Penn said the $500 million writedown of legacy systems, which will have a positive impact on depreciation and amortisation charges going forward, is due to the progress it has made in setting up its new systems.
"It's a beacon of the fact that we are making very solid progress on the digitisation part of our T22 program so we're pleased about that," said Mr Penn said on a conference call.
Telstra shares were trading 2.5c higher at $3.585 after the announcement.
Apple's earnings could fall 26 per cent in its 2020 fiscal year if China bans sales of the iPhone, according to Cowen, the latest firm to paint a dramatic picture of the tech giant's risk in the event that trade tensions between the US and China deteriorate further.
While Wall Street has fretted over Chinese demand prospects for the iPhone for months, the issue has gained urgency after the Trump administration blacklisted Huawei Technologies, raising the prospect of reprisals.
Earlier this month, Wedbush called the Huawei ban a "Fort Sumter moment," with Apple the "poster child" for trade uncertainty.
Shares of Apple were little changed on Tuesday, compared with a 0.6 per cent rise in the S&P 500 Information Technology Sector. Apple is coming off a three-day drop, and shares have declined more than 15 per cent from a peak earlier this month.
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Cowen analyst Krish Sankar wrote that an iPhone ban represented an "extreme case" scenario for how the trade war could play out, adding that the more likely outcome was that Apple would see a "material but manageable" hit to earnings.
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"Apple's iPhone, iPad, and Mac systems are at risk of experiencing demand destruction due to collateral damage from the sales ban to Huawei," Sankar wrote.
The perception that Huawei is being "unfairly punished" could lead Chinese consumers "to retaliate as patriotism leads them to support domestic brands while products and services from US companies fall out of favour."
This view was echoed by Citi, which on Tuesday cut its price target on the stock to $US205 from $US220, seeing "a slowdown of Apple iPhone demand in China as China residents shift their purchasing preference to China national brands."
Apple's 12 per cent market share in the country could be "cut in half," analyst Jim Suva wrote.
Cowen is not the only firm to calculate that earnings could potentially fall more than 20 per cent if retaliatory measures escalate.
Morgan Stanley wrote that earnings could fall by about 23 per cent in a worst-case trade scenario, while Goldman Sachs estimated a drop of 29 per cent if China banned Apple products.
Both China and the iPhone are central to the tech giant. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, Apple derived nearly 20 per cent of its 2018 revenue from China, while the iPhone accounted for more than 60 per cent of its total 2018 revenue.
Bitcoin jumped as much as 10 per cent on Monday to almost breach $US9,000 as it extended the best one-month rally since before the token's historic surge in 2017.
The largest cryptocurrency climbed as much as 10 per cent Monday from levels late Friday, and was trading at $US8,785 at 1.15pm AEST, according to Coindesk. Rival coins were also stronger with Litecoin up more than 12 per cent while Ether, the second largest digital token, rose 6.8 per cent.
Crypto proponents are taking encouragement from a string of recent headlines showing greater interest in the space from mainstream firms. AT&T said last week it will permit customers to pay bills with Bitcoin or Bitcoin cash. That followed news that Fidelity Investments was finalising plans to buy and sell the digital asset for institutional customers.
"Easier to spend means a greater use case," said Mati Greenspan, senior market analyst at trading platform eToro in Tel Aviv. Greenspan said the overall customer base could reach "critical mass, and the technology goes from underground to mainstream."
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The best-known digital token is up almost 70 per cent this month despite concerns from JPMorgan Chase & Co. strategists that its price may have surged beyond its "intrinsic value" – a concept that not all investors agree applies to a digital currency.
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Bitcoin's run this year follows a painful downtrend that lasted the majority of last year and saw the digital currency tumble more than 70 per cent. Bulls are betting the run could continue as more institutions start to build out their own cryptocurrencies or launch projects using the underlying blockchain technology.
"It takes two to tango. The more merchants that accept crypto encourages more people to adopt it and use it," said David Tawil, president of crypto hedge fund ProChain Capital.
"That's major."
But the crypto meltdown is still fresh on many investors' minds and not everyone is betting digital assets will become as widely accepted as enthusiasts hope. There are signs the rally is running too hot, wrote Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mike McGlone in a note. Crypto transactions, for instance, have been lagging the broader rally, indicating caution for additional price increases, he said.
"This is still the thawing out from the crypto winter that was," said Tawil. "There still may be another pullback before we get to fundamentals truly taking over and speculators and frauds being expunged."
Paris: Ashleigh Barty has survived a bumpy ride to book her spot in the French Open second round.
The eighth seed beat American Jessica Pegula 6-3, 6-3 to make it three from three for Australians, after Alex de Minaur and Alexei Popyrin's earlier victories on the Paris clay.
Samantha Stosur followed suit later in the day, beating Czech Barbora Strycova in a tiebreak to win 6-2, 7-6. The 35-year-old veteran – attempting to reach the third round at Roland Garros for the 11th straight year – will now play Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova.
It was far from conventional from Barty, the top-ranked Australian though, who let handy leads slip in both sets, before recovering in time to claim the scrappy win in exactly an hour.
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Barty led 4-0 in the first set before being broken twice by the free-swinging world No.72.
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Order looked to be restored when the Australian broke again to claim the set and move ahead 2-0 in the second stanza.
But again she wandered from the path, Pegula breaking back and suddenly finding herself 0-40 on Barty's serve and ahead 3-2.
The Miami Open champion flicked the switch at that point though, salvaging a hold of serve and powering to victory without conceding another game.
The win takes her to 25-5 this season, having skipped last week's Strasbourg International to manage an arm injury she says should not impact her performance in Paris.
"A little bit scratchy, but solid enough when I needed it," Barty summed up afterwards.
"There were moments in the match when it was tighter, but I was able to be really solid again and do the basics well. I think I just did enough to give myself an opportunity to play another match."
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That will be against a more accomplished opponent in Australian Open semi-finalist Danielle Collins.
The American, the world No.36, charged to the final four in Melbourne and dropped just two games against Tatjana Maria on the way into the second round on Monday.
Barty beat Collins 6-1, 1-6, 6-1 earlier this month in Madrid.
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Stosur, meanwhile, looked right at home on the new Simonne Mathieu arena, wrong-footing Strycova with her deadly combination of heavy topspin and spearing slice from either wing.
The theatrical Czech did everything to will herself back into the contest, with Stosur forced to rally from a break down in the second set to ensure an early night.
She did just that, with Strycova saving one match point on serve before Stosur again ran her down from 2-0 down in the tie-break.
A deft drop volley was followed by a clean forehand winner before Stosur, who hit 35 winners to her opponent's 19, sealed it in one hour 41 minutes.
Astra Sharma is the only Australian casualty to date, bowing out in a 6-3, 6-3 loss to American comeback kid Shelby Rogers on Monday.
Two members of Malcolm Turnbull's extended family are being named as potential contenders in a race for a NSW seat in the Senate, while Victorian Liberal Sarah Henderson is the favourite for a similar contest in Victoria.
Mr Turnbull's son-in-law, James Brown, was named by several Liberals on Monday as an option for the key position in the upper house, to be made vacant later this year following the appointment of Arthur Sinodinos as Australia’s next ambassador in Washington.
But Mr Turnbull's brother-in-law, Michael Hughes, is also being put forward by Liberals as a possible choice because of his long years of service to the party, including as treasurer of its NSW division.
Other contenders for the NSW seat include Dallas McInerney, the chief executive of Catholic Schools NSW, Warren Mundine, who ran for the marginal seat of Gilmore on the state's south coast at the May 18 election, and Richard Shields, one of the candidates who came close to gaining the pre-selection for Mr Turnbull's former seat of Wentworth in Sydney's eastern suburbs last year.
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With a highly contested seat up for grabs, party members also said the field could include heart surgeon and professor Michael Feneley and the former mayor of Liverpool, Ned Mannoun.
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The selection of a new senator is at an early stage, given Senator Sinodinos is not expected to be formally appointed to Washington until much later in the year, and there is time for many others to put themselves forward and others to withdraw before any formal preselection.
The list of potential candidates also includes one woman, Mary-Lou Jarvis, who is the president of the Liberal Women's Council and a vice-president of the party's state division.
Captain Brown, who is married to Mr Turnbull's daughter, Daisy, is the president of the NSW RSL and served in the army in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Solomon Islands.
He is an adjunct associate professor at the University of Sydney after working as a research fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy and the university's United States Studies Centre.
Mr Hughes, who is the brother of Mr Turnbull's wife, Lucy, is a Sydney stockbroker and businessman who has been involved in the Liberal Party since he was a teenager. He, Lucy and their brother Tom jnr are the children of Tom Hughes, who was a federal Liberal MP for nine years, attorney-general in the government of John Gorton, and later a prominent Sydney barrister.
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While there was speculation that former army general Jim Molan might also be a candidate, his fate is yet to be determined by the counting of the votes from the May 18 election, in which he was fourth on the Coalition's Senate ticket.
Senator Molan, whose term expires on June 30 if he is not re-elected, offended some within the Liberal Party by running a “below the line” campaign asking people to give him their votes rather than following the official Coalition ticket.
The Victorian Senate race follows Mr Morrison's announcement that former communications minister Mitch Fifield would take up the position of ambassador to the United Nations in New York later this year.
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Senator Fifield and Senator Sinodinos are yet to resign from the upper house but are expected to do so later this year, once their diplomatic posts are officially confirmed.
Ms Henderson, a former assistant minister, last week conceded she had lost the seat of Corangamite at the election but she is highly regarded and is seen as the favourite to replace Senator Fifield.
Others named by Liberals as potential choices for the seat in south-west Victoria include Kate Ashmore, who ran for the seat of Macnamara in Greater Melbourne, and Steve Martin, who ran for the seat of Indi in north-east Victoria at the federal election.
Small businesses are calling for reform in the wake of new research showing less than 1 per cent of unfair dismissal claims were backed by the industrial umpire.
The Australasian Convenience and Petroleum Marketers Association claims small businesses are incurring significant financial and time penalties contesting unfair dismissal claims at the Fair Work Commission that rarely succeed.
During the first three months of this year the commission received 3583 applications for unfair dismissal with less than 1 per cent resulting in findings of unfairness by the commission.
The Small Business Unfair Dismissal Code applies to businesses with fewer than 15 employees and gives special treatment to small businesses including an inability for employees to claim unfair dismissal in their first 12 months in a job or to dismiss an employee summarily for misconduct.
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Of the applications studied 3180 were settled during mediation or conciliation, 6 were withdrawn, and 172 were finalised by a decision of the commission with the remaining 225 presumably still in the system, and yet to be finalised.
ACAPMA chief executive Mark McKenzie said while the results of mediation or conciliation were confidential it is clear the code needs to be reformed.
"From ACAPMA’s experience, the vast majority of the matters subject to mediation and conciliation result in either the employee withdrawing the application after mediation, or the employer deciding to make a modest ‘go away’ payment – rather than go through the stress and expense of fighting the claim in the commission”, Mr McKenzie said.
Of the 172 cases brought before the commission 32 cases (or 19 per cent) were resolved in favour of the employee.
This was similar to previous years with 15 per cent resolved in favour of employees in 2018 and 17 per cent in 2017.
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Of the cases 79 were dismissed by the commission as 'without merit' while 32 were dismissed for being legally invalid due to the claims being lodged ‘out of time’, the case being a genuine redundancy, or the case being ineligible on other technical grounds.
Mr McKenzie said given the significant financial and time penalties associated with preparing a defence against an adverse dismissal claim, the high number of cases that were dismissed by the commission suggests that the current operation of the code is imposing unnecessary costs on small business owners.
"That is to say nothing of the stress involved in defending these actions and the fact that they often result in the business owner losing sight of their small business and suffering other financial consequences," Mr McKenzie said.
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A spokesperson for the commission declined to comment on the calls for reform.
"Many matters are resolved by agreement between the employee and the employer at conciliation, others are resolved by the applicant withdrawing their application, and applications may be formally dismissed for example where it is found to be outside the commission’s jurisdiction," the spokesperson said.
Anthony Massaro from law firm Russell Kennedy said it is likely a "significant proportion" of the 3180 settled claims would, or might, have been successful at arbitration.
"If an employer knows that there were problems with the dismissal, and the employee is not asking for a significant amount of money, then in most cases the matter settles," he said.
"Obviously, there are frustrating situations where a seemingly merit-free claim can proceed because there is minimal prospect of an adverse costs order at the end of it. At the same time, any alteration to the system needs to take into account that the entire purpose of the system is to ensure that certain employees have a channel to contest unfair decisions. If the system is too discouraging, it fails."
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Fantasy and science fiction currently make up a disproportionate amount of the world's biggest mainstream films and TV shows, from Game of Thrones to The Avengers: Endgame. And while most can trace their inspirations back to legendarily geeky sources, like Lord of the Rings and Marvel Comics respectively, their popularity has also led to something of a revival for the king of all nerdy past-times.
Dungeons & Dragons has never gone away but it now has more global players than ever, spurred not only by the general fantasy renaissance but also its explicit inclusion in shows like Community and — most recently — Stranger Things.
As a storytelling game, D&D has long appealed to writers and creators, and so has often inspired or appeared in film, TVs and music. Yet the growth the game is currently seeing is unmatched, even compared to its '80s heyday, according to Dungeons & Dragons creative director Mike Mearls.
"I think what might be different this time is that we're really seeing D&D break into more mainstream culture. We're getting more people now who 10, 20, 30 years ago we would not have thought of as gamers, people who were sort of outside that sphere of geekdom," Mearls says.
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"As geek culture is becoming demystified by the internet, you have so many people who grew up loving comics, loving science fiction and fantasy, and they're now the ones crafting mainstream entertainment, and they're bringing that stuff and placing it in the mainstream. We're seeing a lot of people now who [in the past] would never have been exposed to D&D."
And it's not just retro-inspired TV shows like Riverdale bringing the game to new audiences through their screens. D&D's personality-driven and performative aspects have seen it become a hit on live-streaming services like Twitch, where viewers have watched for a combined total of more than 1.5 billion minutes.
There are of course also countless video games inspired by D&D, but the reason they haven't supplanted the original comes down to the social dynamics of the tabletop game. The ability for players to create the experience and set the pace and rules even as they play through is D&D's defining feature, and the reason it's such a natural way to frame stories about groups of friends on a fantastical adventure, like Stranger Things.
And it seems that inspiration goes both ways, with Wizards of the Coast (the Hasbro-owned creative force behind Dungeons & Dragons) recently announcing a D&D starter kit themed after the Netflix show. The set gives players access to an original adventure designed to resemble the one played by Stranger Things' main characters, and although it offers something new for seasoned adventurers Mearls says it's also specifically targeted at those who may be interested in discovering the game after watching the show.
"One of the design directives was to make a single adventure you could play in a couple hours, that would give you a nice broad, diverse array of the different set of challenges that you might encounter in a game of Dungeons & Dragons," he says, adding that the door is open for further adventures and campaigns that draw on pop culture.
"I like to say that every generation gets the Dungeons & Dragons that they need. The game has to evolve, we can't get too focused on what we did in the past. And I think part of that is finding more ways to appeal to a larger and larger audience."
The integration of a $7.3 billion new metro line into Sydney's broader rail network passed its first test on Monday despite a greater number of commuters than expected riding on the driverless trains.
A day after about 140,000 people hopped on board for the first time, attention turned to how the system would handle high commuter volumes during the morning peak, especially at pinch points such as Chatswood and Epping stations.
About 21,000 people travelled on the Metro Northwest line between 4.45am and 10am on Monday, which was higher than government expectations of up to 17,000 passengers.
Half of the commuters using the 36-kilometre line from Rouse Hill to Chatswood on Monday morning travelled to destinations along the north-west corridor, instead of switching to other services to get into central Sydney.
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Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the 21,000 people who had travelled on the metro trains on Monday morning had exceeded her expectations.
"People have confidence in the system and are using it," she said.
Figures show Chatswood had the highest number of people (9425) using their Opal cards to tap off between 4.45am and 10am, followed by Macquarie University (5875) and Epping (2368).
Platform crowding was greatest at Epping during the morning peak, partly because an escalator funnels passengers to the centre of a platform.
Some commuters have been startled by metro trains slightly overshooting station platforms, and then reversing to line up carriage doors with the and glass-screen platform doors.
But Transport Minister Andrew Constance said the trains were "doing exactly" what they should. "The train is designed to make sure the doors align," he said. "It's a matter of seconds [to line up the doors]. That is the same with every system around the world."
With an initial frequency of a train every five minutes during peak periods, the metro line can carry about 17,000 passengers an hour. The frequency during the morning and evening peaks will rise to four-minute intervals in about six weeks.
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While each driverless metro train will initially have at least one staff member on board, Rail, Tram and Bus Union state secretary Alex Claassens said he was concerned that the workers would be removed in the "very near future".
"We’ve long held real concerns about the Sydney Metro system," he said.
But Transport for NSW secretary Rodd Staples said the automated trains were built to operate successfully without a customer service attendant on board each train.
"While we bed the system down, we will have a customer attendant on board until we are comfortable," he said.
Asked when that was likely to be, he said: "We will wait and see."
Mr Staples said one of the lessons from the opening of the line on Sunday was that it took too long to remove a train from service after it suffered a door fault at Macquarie Park.
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"But once [the line] started moving, the power of the system became obvious because we added more trains quickly. When we had that fault with the doors at Macquarie Park, we had 12 trains on the system. We inserted another three to four trains to clear the waiting customers," he said.
Epping resident Julia Hood gave the thumbs up to the new metro services on her first ride on Monday morning, saying the driverless train she rode on to get to Chatswood was smooth, quick and easy. "Once it goes all the way to the city it will be better," she said.
Other commuters were equally impressed. Paul Nijjar caught a metro train for the first time from Bella Vista on Monday morning. "It was awesome. It’s up there with Japan now," he said.
Mr Nijjar said it used to take about an hour and 20 minutes to get to work at Rhodes, but the new line meant it should be less than an hour. "It’s a huge difference," he said.
Sydney Trains chief executive Howard Collins said Chatswood and Epping stations were busy during the morning peak but passengers switched between metro and Sydney Trains services relatively smoothly.
"We are really pleased with the service and the loadings on the trains," he said.
Growing numbers of people are being diagnosed with cancer, but the good news is your chances of survival are getting significantly better, the latest Cancer Institute NSW report shows.
As our ageing population swells, so do absolute numbers of cancer diagnoses and deaths across the state, the Cancer Control in NSW report shows.
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This year, 47,526 people will be diagnosed with cancer in NSW and 15,501 will die from the illness.
But cancer mortality rates are falling with rising rates of early detection and better access to treatment.
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The cancer death rate is projected to drop from 148.7 per 100,000 this year to 144.2 per 100,000 in 2021, the report, released on Tuesday, said.
Survival rates were on the rise for all nine major cancer types included in the report.
"Prevention campaigns, cancer screening participation, access to services and new emerging therapies have all helped contribute to an overall reduction in mortality rates," said David Currow, chief cancer officer and chief executive of the Cancer Institute NSW.
"Tackling fatalism is crucial," Professor Currow said.
"The really important message is that if you are diagnosed in 2019 with cancer in NSW, you will get some of the best outcomes in the world and, if you're worried about it, please see your doctor."
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Following a federal election that underscored the inequity of cancer treatment in Australia, the report confirmed significant disparities in cancer incidence and survival depending on the type of cancer and where patients live.
Between 2010 and 2014, more than nine in 10 breast cancer patients (90.6 per cent) were alive five years after they were first diagnosed in NSW; the highest of any state and territory.
NSW also had the highest five-year survival rate for melanoma skin cancers at 93.9 per cent. For bowel cancer, it was more than 70 per cent.
Yet roughly four in five people with lung or liver cancer died within five years. For stomach cancer, it was two in three.
Pancreatic cancer had the highest death rate, with 12 per cent of patients living five years after being diagnosed with the notoriously aggressive and hard-to-detect disease. But this figure was a hard-fought improvement.
"I remember attending a national think tank in 2012 where the thought of getting into double-digit survival [for pancreatic cancer] seemed a faint hope," Professor Currow said.
"We need to keep this in perspective, these are people's lives we are talking about … but we are seeing a real and sustained shift," he said.
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But there was much more work to be done to redress the "unwarranted variations" in diagnosis and survival rates between local health districts, Professor Currow said.
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Lung cancer death rates – intrinsically linked to disadvantage and smoking – were significantly higher than the state average in the local health districts of South Western Sydney and Western NSW and low in the more affluent districts of Northern and South Eastern Sydney.
Western NSW had the highest smoking rate in the state, more than 2.5 times the rate of Northern Sydney with the lowest rate of 9.5 per cent.
Northern and South Eastern Sydney had some of the highest rates of breast cancer, for which – at a population level – social advantage is a known risk factor.
The Central Coast, Mid North Coast and the Hunter New England districts had some of the highest skin cancer death rates, while Sydney, Northern, South Western and Western Sydney districts have some of the lowest in the state.
Meanwhile, bowel cancer rates were high in the Hunter New England, Central Coast and Mid North Coast and Murrumbidgee districts where the retirement population was booming.
The report also showed an uptick in people taking part in national screening programs.
Breast cancer screening participation ranged from 44.8 per cent in Far West NSW to 61.8 per cent in Hunter New England in 2016-2017.
Statewide, 55.9 per cent of women aged 20 to 69 had been screened for cervical cancer between July 2015 and June 2017, almost 63,000 more than were screened from 2010 to 2012.
NSW had the second-lowest participation rate for the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program in Australia (after the Northern Territory) of 38.2 per cent, but it had risen from 31.8 per cent in 2012.
The report also showed the number of enrolments in cancer clinical trials across the state had more than doubled in just four years to 3924 patients. That's nine enrolments in clinical trials for every 100 people newly diagnosed with cancer.