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Overseas-trained doctors are set to be fast-tracked to work in communities across Australia facing GP shortages.

The nation's peak body for general practitioners says it will simplify its processes for international medical graduates as it tries to get more GPs into communities that need them sooner.

The assessment and accreditation processes will be easier for applicants, the minimum time for their training reduced, and the type of training considered applicable widened under new measures to be brought in by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

College president Dr Nicole Higgins said she hoped to get more GPs into communities that need them sooner.

"We've committed to doing what we can to make it simpler, less onerous, and more streamlined," she said.

The changes come as a response to a federal government review of regulatory settings for health professionals, independently led by former NSW health secretary Robyn Kruk.

Dr Higgins said she warned against Ms Kruk's recommendation that comparability assessments - which determine if a specialist international medical graduate (IMG) is competent and safe to practise in Australia - are transitioned to the Australian Medical Council.

"The inquiry into the 'Dr Death' case at Bundaberg Base Hospital made clear the risks to patient safety when specialist colleges don't have responsibility for assessing specialist IMGs," she said.

"We cannot risk this happening again."

Dr Higgins said training and comparability assessments must also consider where international medical graduates work.

"Rural doctors need to have the right skills and ability to work independently because there is often less support available, as well as cultural safety training," she said.

Dr Higgins said she largely supported the report's other recommendations, including a single portal for applications, the removal of labour market testing for employers sponsoring visas for priority practitioners, broadening age exemptions for permanent skilled visas to include key practitioners, and continued workforce support and demand modelling.

She said international medical graduates make up about 50 per cent of Australia's rural medical workforce.

"They make a valuable contribution to the communities in which they work and live," Dr Higgins said.

"There is much more we can do to make their journey here easier, and ensure they have the support to thrive."

In a submission handed to this year's Senate Joint Standing Committee on Migration, Dr Higgins warned worker shortages across the health sector were leading to poorer health outcomes and lower life expectancy, particularly in rural and remote areas.

"Australia's health system is in crisis and one of the key issues is that we have a shortage of workers right across the board, including GPs, pharmacists and nurses," she said at the time.

Since 2020, overseas graduates have represented about 45 per cent of all GPs in Australia, and more than 50 per cent of GPs have attained their medical degree overseas.

© AAP 2023

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Treasurer Jim Chalmers says Australia is finally starting to make progress in its fight against inflation, as homeowners brace for higher interest rates.

Borrowers will be gunning for another month of interest rate relief as the Reserve Bank readies for its next rates call on Tuesday.

The RBA paused interest rates at 4.1 per cent in July after a lengthy series of hikes starting in May last year.

Dr Chalmers said the central bank would take into account how inflation had been moderating.

"We are starting to make some welcome progress in this fight against inflation, which has been pushing up interest rates," he told ABC Radio.

"The rate rises which are already in the system have made life harder for people, I mean that's self evident."

The treasurer said the banks had options to help people struggling to afford their mortgages.

"If there's something that the bank can do to make it a little bit easier, they're prepared to have that conversation with customers," Dr Chalmers said.

Central banks around the world have been lifting interest rates to combat high inflation and are now closing in on the end of their hiking cycles.

It is again likely to be a close call between another 25 basis point hike and a second month on hold for the RBA on Tuesday, with economists and markets divided on the likely outcome.

The futures market was confident the central bank would hold fire, pricing in less than a 10 per cent chance of a rate rise.

But economists were conflicted, with a Reuters poll revealing a slender majority in favour of a rise.

Twenty of the 36 economists surveyed between July 26 and 28 expected the cash rate to rise to 4.35 per cent.

The other 16 said there would be no change.

Economists from Australia's big four banks were also split, with two forecasting a pause and the other two tipping a hike.

The board will comb through a conflicting run of data since its members met last month.

The centrepiece of the August call, quarterly inflation numbers, critically came in below the RBA's own predictions for June.

The consumer price index grew by six per cent annually in the June quarter, down from seven per cent through to March.

But prices are still rising much faster than the RBA's two-to-three per cent target, and the official index revealed a few lingering sources of inflation to worry about, including rents.

Business conditions proved resilient, as did the jobs market, suggesting there is still a fair bit of heat in the economy.

The housing market has also started to rebound strongly, which could make people feel wealthy and prompt them to spend more.

However, retail sales moderated by more than expected in June, suggesting consumers are already tightening their belts and that higher interest rates are already working to cool demand.

© AAP 2023

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Borrowers will be gunning for another month of interest rate relief as the Reserve Bank readies for its next rates call.

The Reserve Bank paused interest rates at 4.1 per cent in July after a lengthy series of hikes starting in May last year.

Central banks around the world have been lifting interest rates to combat high inflation and are now closing in on the end of their hiking cycles.

It's likely to be another close call between another 25 basis point hike and a second month on hold for the RBA on Tuesday, with economists and markets divided on the likely outcome.

The futures market was confident the central bank would hold fire, pricing in less than a 10 per cent chance of a rate rise.

But economists were conflicted, with a Reuters poll revealing a slender majority in favour of a hike.

Twenty of the 36 surveyed between July 26-28 expected the cash rate to rise to 4.35 per cent.

The other 16 said there would be no change.

Economists from Australia's big four banks were also split, with two forecasting a pause and the other two tipping a hike.

The board will comb through a conflicting run of data since its members met last month.

The centrepiece of the August call, quarterly inflation numbers, critically came in below the central bank's own predictions for June.

The consumer price index grew by six per cent annually in the June quarter, down from seven per cent through to March.

But prices are still rising much faster than the RBA's two-to-three per cent target, and the official index revealed a few lingering sources of inflation to worry about, including rents.

Business conditions proved resilient, as did the jobs market, suggesting there's still a fair bit of heat in the economy.

The housing market has also started to rebound strongly, which could make people feel wealthy and prompt them to spend more.

But retail sales moderated by more than expected in June, suggesting consumers are already tightening their belts and higher interest rates are already working to cool demand.

© AAP 2023

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Using live hookworms to combat diabetes may sound like a case of the treatment being worse than the disease, but researchers are hopeful their small trial will eventually lead to drugs to help people living with the condition.

Hookworms remain a problem for millions of people around the world but studies have also suggested that places with a lot of people living with the parasites also have fewer metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes.

So scientists at James Cook University used microscopic hookworm larvae to infect participants, and found a small dose was not only safe but improved people's glucose metabolism, reducing their level of insulin resistance.

Insulin helps regulate blood sugar levels, and insulin resistance occurs when cells have trouble responding to the hormone and struggle to take glucose from the blood.

Consistently high blood sugar levels can lead to pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes, which is linked to rising obesity rates.

The university recruited 40 people who had risk factors for developing metabolic diseases such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes, and exposed them to the human hookworm species Necator americanus or a placebo.

Necator hookworms are well adapted to humans and affect people across Africa, Asia and the Americas, causing problems such as anaemia and malnutrition.

Humans usually contract them when larvae burrow through the skin after contact with contaminated dirt.

From there they make their way into the bloodstream, the lungs and then the gut.

To mimic this, the Queensland researchers dripped water containing 20 or 40 larvae on participants' forearms.

"Metabolic diseases are characterised by inflammatory immune responses and previous studies have suggested that hookworms release proteins into their host to control the immune system and safeguard their survival," said Doris Pierce from the university's Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine.

Dr Pierce said participants exposed to 20 hookworm larvae found their level of insulin resistance almost halving to a normal, healthy range in a year, with their median Homeostatic Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance level falling from 3.0 units to just 1.8 units.

JCU senior research fellow and immunologist Paul Giacomin said the trial showed infection with live hookworms was safe and appeared to lead to some improvements in people's metabolic health.

Dr Giacomin said trial results warranted follow-up studies and hoped they would be confirmed by larger international clinical trials in future.

And mindful that few people would find absorbing live hookworms appealing, the scientists hope to learn more about what the parasites release into the body so scientists can design protein-based treatments that copy their effects.

© AAP 2023