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Natasha Robinson is The Australian’s health editor and writes across medicine, science, health policy, research, and lifestyle. Natasha has been a journalist for more than 20 years in newspapers and broadcasting, has been recognised as the National Press Club’s health journalist of the year and is a Walkley awards finalist and a Kennedy Awards winner. She is a former Northern Territory correspondent for The Australian with a special interest in Indigenous health. Natasha is also a graduate of the NSW Legal Profession Admission Board’s Diploma of Law and has been accepted as a doctoral candidate at QUT’s Australian Centre for Health Law Research, researching involuntary mental health treatment and patient autonomy.

Natasha Robinson

Latest

BreakthroughMedical

Andrew Morrish, 63, has been living with multiple scleroris for 24 years and hopes to see a cure in his lifetime, as research from the Florey Institute proves a vital link between inflammation and the mutation of neurons in MS sufferers. Picture: Alex Coppel.

Australian researchers offer hope for MS sufferers

Australian scientists have for the first time opened the way for targeted and regenerative therapies that could prevent severe disease for multiple sclerosis patients

Natasha Robinson

MAGAZINEThe Weekend Australian Magazine

EMBARGO FOR TWAM, 01 MARCH 2025. FEE MAY APPLY. L-R Alex Dudley, Jane Dudley and Dr Gordon Parker. Psychiatrist Dr Gordon Parker wrote A Gut Mood Solution and is calling for clinical trials after Jane Dudleys Bipolar 1 condition was successfully treated with a gut microbiome transplant, donated by her husband Alex. Photo: Nic Walker / TWAM

Faecal transplant cured Jane’s bipolar. Could dementia be next?

Medicos examining the link between our guts and our brains say if mental health illnesses can be treated and cured via ‘poo transplants’ then neurogenerative diseases could too.

Natasha Robinson

EXCLUSIVEMedical

While politicians spruik Medicare, public hospitals are in critical decline. Picture: Getty Images

Our public hospitals are in critical long-term decline. How do we address the crisis?

Patients with chest pain, severe respiratory distress and acute stroke languish for hours in emergency departments while those needing cardiac surgery frequently wait months.

Natasha Robinson

MedicareHealth

BUDGET 2022: Dr Ken McCroary speaks with patient Margaret Roots at the Macarthur General Practice in Campbelltown, Dr Ken McCroary wants a lift in the Medicare rebate to be in this year's Federal budget. John Feder/The Australian.

We still won’t be able to bulk bill: doctors

Labor’s massive injection into Medicare is being treated with scepticism by many doctors who say the economics of bulk billing still do not add up.

Natasha Robinson

COMMENTARYHealth

LAUNCESTON, TASMANIA, NewsWire Photos. 23 FEBRUARY, 2025. Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese and partner Jodie Haydon arrive to make a major speech about Laborâs plan to Build Australiaâs Future and Strengthening Medicare. Picture: NewsWire/ Scott Gelston

Bulk billing incentive is no cure for health system ills

Bulk billing incentives will be welcome news for many patients but run the risk of rewarding six-minute medicine and move against the direction needed for serious reform of the health system.

Natasha Robinson

‘just the beginning’Health

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - AUGUST 12: Giles Yeo attends a photocall during Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 on August 12, 2019 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Simone Padovani/Awakening/Getty Images)

What really makes us hungry?

Little has been understood about what goes on in the brain’s ‘appetite control centre’. The first cell map of the human hypothalamus, though, is set to supercharge future weight loss drugs.

Natasha Robinson

EXCLUSIVEHealth

12/2/2025: Stacey Allerton (with Archie) is living with Stage 4 lung cancer at her home in Annerley, Brisabane.Stacey wants to see more widespread screening so that cancers can be detected earlier. pic Lyndon Mechielsen / The Australian

From ‘death sentence’ to ‘treatable disease’: lung cancer battle levels up

Lung cancer is the biggest killer of all cancers, with one person in Australia dying of the disease every hour. But with a new screening program, it need not be a death sentence.

Natasha Robinson

EXCLUSIVEHealth

17/2/25: Professor Georgina Long and patient Linda Kavanagh who had stage 4 melanoma. Newly released long-term data from a groundbreaking clinical trial for advanced melanoma patients whose disease had spread to their brain has proven that long-term disease control has been achieved for over 50% of patients given combination immunotherapy as first line treatment. John Feder/The Australian.

Breakthrough: Trial offers miracle ‘cure’ for advanced melanoma

A groundbreaking clinical trial has proved that the majority of melanoma patients whose cancer has spread to the brain can be ‘cured’.

Natasha Robinson

EXCLUSIVEPolitics

27 September 2024; Photo comp of a photo of a window of the dilapidated former Rozelle Hospital in Sydney, previously called Callan Park, was one of the largest mental asylums in the nation before it was shut and an image of a man's forlorn face looking outside the window; Sources: Max Mason-Huber and iStock. Photo comp by Emilia Tortorella. Ratio 16:9.

‘Stopgap more harm than good’

The NSW government’s stopgap strategy of relying on locums and visiting medical officers to care for the most severely mentally ill ‘will almost certainly do more harm than good’.

Natasha Robinson

national strategyHealth

Vapes are banned in Australia but prescribed in England. Picture: Getty Images/The Australian

Ban or prescribe? Who got it right on vapes

England encouraged smokers to switch to vapes and even gave them to pregnant women at antenatal clinics. Now it’s looking to Australia’s tough stance as medics say the English policy has been a disaster.

Natasha Robinson

Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/natasha-robinson/page/3