Industry News

The Western Australian Fisheries Minister Norman Moore has announced he will be writing to the Federal Government this week to seek clarification about the white shark’s status as a protected species, following the fifth fatal attack by a white pointer in the state since September last year.

“There is no documented level of fatal attacks attributed to white sharks in such a short time and geographic location, anywhere in the world, than what we have experienced in WA and further action is necessary to deal with it,” Mr Moore said.

White sharks have been a protected species for more than a decade, since International Union for Conservation of Nature identified them as vulnerable.  The Federal Government’s White Shark Recovery Plan was released in 2002 and reviewed in 2008.  That review found insufficient evidence to confirm an increase in species abundance.

Mr Moore said the WA Government was urgently requesting the Federal Government share with WA what research data its agencies possessed that could be used for white shark population assessments and any outcomes of population assessments that might have been undertaken in the past by the Commonwealth.

“We need to know if there has been any update on the status of the white sharks and the sustainability level at which the Federal Government will lift protection.  I would also like to know if the Commonwealth is considering revising any policy,”  Mr Moore said.

The Queensland Government has launched its new Six Month Action Plan for the state, outlining 149 separate actions the Government intends to take between July and December.

The main points outlined in the plan are as follows:

• Starting consultation on a 30 year strategic plan for agriculture and developing a timber industry plan;
• Improving access for Queensland families, bee keepers and tourism and ecotourism operators to national parks and reducing entry permits by 50 per cent;
• Amending the Racing Act to establish a new racing industry structure and supporting country racing by introducing a new clubs cooperation scheme;
• Amalgamating South East Queensland Bulk Water Entities to save Queenslanders money and finalising a 30 year plan for the State’s electricity sector.
• Starting construction on the long awaited Sunshine Coast University Hospital and preparing draft statutory plans for the Darling Downs and the Golden Triangle;
• Delivering a first draft of the 10 year plan for the Bruce Highway and completing the design of the Toowoomba CBD Ringroad
• Delivering, in partnership with the sugarcane and beef industries, a framework for a best management program to protect our precious Great Barrier Reef; and
• Appointing new parole board members and issuing new guidelines to ensure community safety is considered in parole decisions, as well as finalising the recruitment of 300 new police, engaging service providers to deliver the LNP’s youth boot camp trials and cracking down on hoons.

Premier Campbell Newman said the Government remained committed to released six monthly progress reports on the implementation of other action items. 

Australians receive “appropriate” health care in only 57 per cent of consultations, according the first ever national snapshot of the quality of clinical care in Australia.

The landmark CareTrack study, published in the Medical Journal of Australia (MJA), found that although there were pockets of excellence in Australian health care delivery there were also shortfalls in treatment for some common conditions and disparities in the standards of care provided by different medical practices.

Research teams from the University of New South Wales and the University of South Australia spent two years tracking levels of “appropriate care” – that is care in line with best practice based on the latest medical evidence – in a representative sample of the Australian population.

For some conditions, such as coronary artery disease, patients received very high levels of appropriate care but there was poor compliance with appropriate care standards in some others areas, such as responding to very high blood pressure, administering prophylactic antibiotics at the correct time before surgery, and treating sinusitis.

Discrepancies between healthcare providers were also significant, with some offering best practice care in 86% of encounters and some in only 32% of encounters. The study focused on 22 common conditions responsible for over 40 per cent of the total national disease burden.

With health budgets under growing pressure from the ageing population and costly chronic diseases, the study provides a road map for more efficient and cost-effective care delivery. 

“Healthcare is likely to become unaffordable unless more appropriate care is provided,” said one of the study’s Chief Investigators,  Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite of the University of New South Wales.

“To plan for a sustainable healthcare system into the future, it’s important to maximise the rate at which patients receive appropriate care so we can address the gaps in care that have been identified.”

The study identified a number of barriers to providing appropriate care into the future. Plans to overcome these limitations include a Wiki-type process to develop national clinical standards and tools to guide treatment, and to document whether care is appropriate. 

The proposed up-to-date, simple standards can be embedded as tools in both patient and healthcare provider-held medical records, paving the way for automatic electronic monitoring and feedback. “Seventeen years after the landmark Quality in Australian Health Care Study, our research provides an opportunity to establish a healthcare baseline from which to move forward, and has identified some gaps in care which should be addressed,” says lead researcher at the University of South Australia, Professor Bill Runciman.

This is the second study of its kind to be conducted in the world. The first, conducted in the United States 10 years ago, found 55% of US healthcare encounters provided appropriate care.

CareTrack Australia assessed the appropriateness of the healthcare received by 1,150 Australians in 2009/10 in 35,573 healthcare encounters for conditions ranging from coronary heart disease and low back pain, through to stroke, asthma and depression.

Among the study’s key findings were:-

• Appropriate care was provided in 57% of healthcare encounters in Australia
• Nearly 90% of patients with sinusitis were prescribed antibiotics, care known to be ineffective
• 18% of patients with asthma had a documented action plan for when they had an attack.
• Less than 30% of patients over 50 had a documented bowel cancer screening test.
• 73%  of 50 to 69 year old women had a mammogram every two years
• Almost 90%  of people over 18 years old had two yearly blood pressure checks

The $2 million CareTrack research project was undertaken as one part of an $8.4 million National Health and Medical Research Council program grant, Patient safety; enabling and supporting change for a safer more effective health system, awarded in 2009.

Federal Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, has taken time out of his busy schedule to open Melbourne’s first NBN enabled cafe in Brunswick, in Melbourne’s north.

The Hungry Birds café is attached to a building housing eight small businesses, all of which are connected to the NBN's fixed line high-speed broadband.

"Not only does Hungry Birds provide great food and coffee, but its customers can also experience the speed of the NBN through free Wi-Fi," Senator Conroy said.

"This is the first cafe in Melbourne connected to the NBN, but as the rollout gathers pace I expect cafes like this will become the norm. It is great to see a small business like Hungry Birds embrace the NBN."

To show the NBN's capabilities over Wi-Fi, Senator Conroy and Mr Thomson were part of a video conference with three NBN-enabled Digital Hubs in Brunswick; Townsville, Queensland; and Kiama, New South Wales.

The Standing committee on Infrastructure and Communications has announced it will hold its first public hearing into the investigation into IT pricing in Australia in Sydney on 30 July.

“The inquiry into IT price discrimination has generated a great deal of interest, judging by submissions, but also by comments on social media, including twitter. The Committee hopes to hear from consumer and industry groups in Sydney, including CHOICE,” said Committee Chair, Mr Nick Champion MP.

The Committee will host a forum to discuss the main issues concerned with the pricing inquiry to encourage public engagement.

“The Committee wants to understand the extent of concerns of Australians about IT price discrimination. I encourage anyone who wants to be involved in this inquiry to register their interest via the Committee’s website. That way we can let people know how they can be part of it,” Mr Champion said.

“As part of the program in Sydney, the Committee wants to include a focus on the music industry – looking at the impact on retailers and consumers of music downloads, and about price disparities between here and overseas.”

The public hearing will take place from 9.30 am, in the Macquarie Room, in Parliament House, Sydney. More information will be posted to the website as it becomes available.

For inquiry information: including the terms of reference and submissions, go to: www.aph.gov.au/itpricing, or contact the secretariat on (02) 6277 4580.

Results published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show that new home lending has slipped back in May. The ABS tracked a 1.4 per cent contraction in the value of total dwelling commencements over the April to May period, while fixed loans entered freefall, recording a 4.6 per cent fall.

The Housing Industry Association expressed its concern over the ‘disappointing result’, saying that the industry urgently needs support.

“Following two consecutive increases in March and April, the  number of loans for the construction or purchase of new homes fell by 2.4 per cent in May 2012,” said HIA Chief Economist, Dr Harley Dale.

“It is evident that new home starts will bottom at GFC-equivalent levels this year, which is a very poor outcome for Australian businesses, households, and therefore the wider economy.”

The ABS statistics can be found here

Australian doctors are working ‘unsafe’ shifts in the country’s public hospitals, according to an audit of hospital working conditions for doctors released by the Australian Medical Association (AMA).

The AMA Safe Hours Audit 2011 found that 53 per cent of Australian hospital doctors are working ‘unsafe hours’, classified as high risk or significant risk, with reports of continuous unbroken shifts of up to 43 hours.

AMA Vice President, Professor Geoffrey Dobb, said that State and Territory Governments and public hospital administrators must strengthen their efforts to ensure that they improve rostering and work practices for their doctors.

Professor Dobb said the audit shows how work rpactices contribute to doctor fatigue and ultimately negatively affect the quality of care and patient safety in the public hospital system.

“The performance impairment of a person after 17 hours of sustained wakefulness has been shown to be equivalent to that at a blood alcohol concentration greater than 0.05 per cent,” Professor Dobb said.

Despite the AMA finding some improvement since the first audit conducted in 2001, the association argues that more must be done expedite the reform to the country’s hospital’s work practices.

The AMA is pleased that there is an overall trend of continued improvement, but the 2011 audit clearly shows that extremes still exist and, in some cases, they have become worse.  For example:

• in 2011, 21 per cent of doctors had no days free from work during the audit period;
• the longest recorded shift increased from 39 hours in 2006 to 43 hours in 2011; and
• the maximum total number of hours worked during the audit week actually went up - from 113 in 2006 to 120 in 2011.

The release of the audit coincides with a report conducted by the Universities of South Australia and New South Wales showed that the 43 per cent of patients are receiving sub quality care in the country’s health care institutions.

The average of total hours worked in the 2011 audit week for all hospital doctors was 55.1 hours.

Conducted in August 2011, the audit tabulated responses from more than 1486 public hospital doctors of all ages from all States and Territories.

The AMA Safe Hours Audit 2011 is at http://ama.com.au/node/8025

Master Builders Australia has argued that the release of the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency’s National Building Energy Standard Setting Assessment and Rating Framework shows the underlying need to focus more on retrofitting current buildings.

The framework suggests further improvements should not be made to the thermal shell of new buildings, bur rather energy efficiency focus should shift to improving fixed appliances, equipment and building services and on-site renewable energy systems.

In a submission on the draft framework, Chief Executive Officer of Master Builders Australia, Wilhelm Harnisch renewed the call to Government and the Council of Australian Governments to shift its focus further towards existing buildings to improve energy efficiency,” Mr Harnisch said.

“Increased stringency for the thermal shell of residential buildings introduced over the past few years is close to an optimum level and supports the argument not to increase energy efficiency stringencies beyond the current six star rating.

“Policy to ensure existing buildings become more energy efficient is the most effective way of achieving carbon abatement and was identified in the COAG National Strategy on Energy Efficiency Blueprint.

“There is $6 trillion in existing stock of buildings to be retrofitted to be more energy efficient and less carbon intensive.

The framework can be found here

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has won its Federal Court action against Energy Watch, which ordered the company to pay $1.95 million for misleading advertising, while former CEO, Benjamin Polis, designated as the “figurehead of Energy Watch”, to pay $65,000 for his voiceover role in the misleading radio advertisements.           

“The Australian people have been misled and deceived by the sharp business practices engaged in by Energy Watch and Mr Polis and they would rightly expect that such conduct not be treated lightly by this Court,” Federal Court Justice Marshall stated.

The misleading advertising finding related to representations about the nature of Energy Watch services in relation to the claims of how much customers will save.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims said providers of energy price comparison services, and other comparison services, should take the penalties awarded in this case as a serious warning.

"The ACCC is acutely aware that increasing energy prices are a significant issue for small business and consumers and they are at the very heart of cost of living pressures. Energy Watch took advantage of this to further its business interests,” Mr Simms said.

A report published by the Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO) has found that stronger links between astronomers and industry is critical driving innovation in the area.

The AAO's Forward Look review, released by Federal Science and Research Minister Chris Evans, outlines a specific strategy for Australian astronomy out to 2015 and beyond.

"As part of this review, the AAO has made a commitment to work with my department to share that technology and research with Australian industry in order to drive innovation and keep Australian industry competitive," Senator Evans said.

"The AAO is at the forefront of developing innovative technologies to address challenges in astronomy that could have important commercial implications in the future."

The AAO has outlined a strategy that will see it pursue greater access to large international optical telescope for Australia's astronomers.

Australia currently has a 6.2 per cent share in the two eight-metre Gemini telescopes, one in Hawaii and the other in Chile. The AAO will endeavour to boost access for Australian astronomers to the level of a 20 per cent share in an eight-metre telescope.

"These programs are undertaken in collaboration with Australian and overseas institutions, and the AAO will look to multiply and strengthen links with our international partners," Senator Evans said.

"At the same time, it will seek to share its intellectual property with industry, in line with the National Innovation Priorities."

The Federal Government has announced the next round of high-speed satellite and fixed wireless broadband contracts for regional and remote Australia.

The main contract, worth an initial $280 million, has been signed between NBN Co and Via Sat Inc for the manufacture of satellite dishes and other key infrastructure to deliver fixed wireless and satellite broadband services to regional and rural areas of the country.

The contract will see the construction of two 13.5 metre-wide satellite antennas for the National Broadband Network’s ten satellite ground stations; as well as household satellite dishes and network infrastructure for NBN Co’s data centres.

The contract will facilitate the delivery of services to as many as 200,000 homes and businesses in some of the most remote parts of Australia.

" This is on top of 25,000 premises already announced, bringing the total so far in Queensland to 55,000 homes and businesses in rural areas that are expected to be served by fast, reliable broadband via fixed wireless," Prime Minister Julia Gillard said in a statement.

The Federal Government has announced Australia is now an international collaborator with the United States satellite mission, under an agreement signed with the United States Geological Survey.

The Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson AM MP, welcomed the news that Geoscience Australia has signed a Memorandum of Understanding making Australia a partner in the operation of a new United States of America satellite, named Landsat 8. 

Landsat 8, the latest in the series of Landsat satellites, is expected to launch in January 2013. It will continue almost forty years of operation of the Landsat series of land observing satellites, part of the Landsat Data Continuity Mission, which is the longest continuous record of the Earth’s surface as seen from space.

“This agreement is vital to ensuring the nation’s future satellite imagery requirements are met, and confirms Australia’s commitment to working with the United States to deliver civilian uses of space,” Minister Ferguson said.

“When launched, the satellite will provide Australia with immediate and direct access to the highest quality satellite data, replacing its current reliance on the ageing Landsat 5 and 7 satellites.”

The University of Melbourne has announced it will be hosted a select group of teachers from across Victoria who will be attending a workshop aimed at creating a new secondary school curriculum based on computer science.

Dubbed 'iGeneration', the workshop will be sponsored by Google and hosted by the University of Melbourne with the goal of educating teachers about developments in Computer Science in order to get out a new message to students. 

 "Computer Science is a fascinating and rigorous area of study and it leads to diverse and rewarding employment opportunities", Melbourne University's Associate Professor Steven Bird said.

"Computer Science powers our information society, but the students we want to attract are still only able to study traditional subjects like Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics.  We hope to fix this problem."

More information can be found here

Former Chief Defence Scientist Professor Robert Clark has been appointed to the newly created Chair of Energy Strategy and Policy at the University of New South Wales.

Professor Clark will focus on evaluating the potential for unconventional gas (shale gas) to play a role in Australia's reduced-carbon-footprint energy mix. This will include an assessment of the environmental impact of shale gas extraction and the development of responsible strategies and policy recommendations. 

Professor Clark was appointed Australia’s Chief Defence Scientist (CDS) and CEO of the Defence Science and Technology Organisation in 2008, a post he held until October last year. As CDS, he was a member of Australia’s Defence Committee and the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council. He had previously been head of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computer Technology, based at UNSW.

Professor Clark gained his Bachelor of Science from UNSW and the Royal Australian Naval College at Jervis Bay in 1973. After 10 years Navy service he completed a PhD in Physics at UNSW and the University of Oxford and went on to hold the combined faculty position of a lectureship at Oxford and Fellow of The Queen’s College, Oxford.

Professor Clark headed a research group in experimental quantum physics at Oxford’s Clarendon Laboratory before returning to Australia in 1991 to take up the Chair of Experimental Physics at UNSW. In 2000 he established the ARC Special Research Centre for Quantum Computer Technology, one of the world’s largest centres devoted to this new science, which became an ARC Centre of Excellence in 2003. 

Professor Clark is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, has the rare distinction of being twice named as an Australian Government Federation Fellow, and has received both the Australian Defence Medal and the Australian Centenary Medal. In 2008 he was awarded the Eureka Prize for Leadership in Science for his pioneering role in making Australia a world leader in nanotechnology and quantum computing.

Queensland Local Government Minister David Crisafulli has announced he has accepted Marjorie Pagani's nomination to become a Tablelands councillor after nobody nominated for the position before April's Local Government elections.

After the election, 52 people nominated for the role during the Expression of Interest process, with the Minister asking Mayor Rosa Lee Long and councillors to select a suitable candidate.

“Communities deserve the right to choose the person who will best serve them,” Mr Crisafulli said.

“Obviously, people should be able to vote for their choice, but Council choosing a candidate is the best option if people fail to nominate for the election.

“While the Act allows for the Minister to appoint someone, it should not be for me to tell a local community who should represent them.”

Mr Crisafulli said he was exploring changing the Local Government Act to enable a by-election to be called if no nominations were received in future elections.

The Queensland Government has announced Bryan Lowe as the new Chief Executive Officer of Screen Queensland.

“Mr Lowe has spent more than 30 years in the television, film and media industry in the UK and Australia,” Screen Queensland Chair Geoffrey Cooper said.

“He has served in senior roles with TV broadcast, production, distribution, rights licensing and finance for Virgin Vision Australia, Granada Television International, Thames Television, MGM-UA, Macquarie Bank, the Nine Network and Beyond International. 

“Most recently he operated Beyond Harbourside, a joint production and finance venture with Beyond International. Mr Lowe has also operated a joint venture in screen finance with Macquarie Bank, with which he funded more than $100 million of film and television production. 

Mr Lowe will begin on August 20. 

Australian gas markets are expected to undergo significant change over the short and long term, particularly in eastern Australia via a rapid increase in LNG exports from the middle of this decade according to the recently released BREE Gas Market Report.

Over the next five years, Australia's wholesale gas prices could increase substantially as prices converge towards international prices once LNG exports from Gladstone commence around the middle of this decade and also from higher production costs.

"Higher gas prices in Eastern Australia should support investment in gas supply and, ultimately result in an increase in gas production, which in turn would put downward pressure on gas prices," said Professor Quentin Grafton, BREE's Executive Director and Chief Economist.

International gas markets are also expected to experience change via strong increases in consumption, the application of new technology and changes to pricing and trade patterns.

"Gas will increasingly become the fuel of choice in many developing economies due to its low carbon emissions relative to other fossil fuels and because of its versatility as a fuel that can be used in electricity power generation and for direct heating," Professor Grafton said.

BREE expects global gas consumption and trade to increase over the next two decades, largely in non-OECD economies, underpinned by strong economic growth and diversification of electricity generation away from coal to gas.

Australia is expected to play an important role as a world class LNG exporter with exports increasing from around 20 million tonnes currently to over 63 million tonnes in 2016-17 and continuing to increase until the end of this decade.

"Australia is well positioned to take advantage of increased global LNG trade with three projects in operation and seven projects under construction. This will provide large economic benefits to Australia," Professor Grafton said.

The Gas Market Report is available at www.bree.gov.au.

The Federal Government has pledged $161 million in funding to progress the goals outlined under the Smarter Schools National Partnerships. School Education Minister Peter Garrett released the annual state and territory progress reports for the Low SES School Communities, Literacy and Numeracy and Improving Teacher Quality National Partnerships.

Under the scheme, the Federal Government will make facilitation payments of $138.5 million for low social economic status schools and $16.5 million under the Teacher Quality National Partnerships scheme.

“The partnerships are also helping us build a strong evidence base about what works in our schools. These are valuable lessons as the Government continues to work with education providers on developing a new and better funding model that aims to lift Australia’s education performance and overcome disadvantage," Mr Garrett said.

The Smarter Schools 2011 Annual Reports are available at www.smarterschools.gov.au.

The state by state breakdown in funding is as follows:

NSW: 
Teacher Quality $3 281 724 
Low SES School Communities $37 078 125
NSW Total $40 359 849

VIC: 
Teacher Quality $5 212 561
Low SES School Communities $34 406 250
VIC Total $39 618 811

QLD:
Teacher Quality $4 045 808
Low SES School Communities $26 984 606
QLD Total $31 030 414

WA:
Teacher Quality $2 076 277
Low SES School Communities $12 093 750|
WA Total $14 170 027

SA:
Teacher Quality $748 605
Low SES School Communities $9 984 375
SA Total $10 732 980

TAS:
Teacher Quality $486 590
Low SES School Communities $8 765 625
TAS Total $9 252 215

ACT:
Teacher Quality $366 463
Low SES School Communities $375 000
ACT Total $741 463

NT:
Teacher Quality $250 629
Low SES School Communities $8 765 625
Closing the Gap – Quality teaching, enhanced literacy measures $6 144 500
NT Total $15 160 754

In a world first, the Federal Government has announced Australian schoolboys will be able to start receiving the Gardasil vaccine, which will protect them against developing a range of cancers while bolstering the effectiveness of the vaccine in women.

The vaccine has proven successful in protecting against four important genotypes of the human papillomavirus, which can cause genital warts and cervical cancer.

Starting next year, the Federal Government will fund the vaccine for 12 and 13 year-old boys through school based programs under the National Immunisation Program. Year 9 boys will also receive the vaccine at school under a catch-up program for the next two years.

Minister for Health Tanya Plibersek said providing the HPV vaccine to boys would protect them and increase the effectiveness of the vaccination program for girls.

“Already the HPV vaccine has had an impact – significantly reducing the number of lesions that lead to cervical cancer amongst women in the vaccinated age group. It is estimated that a quarter of new infections will be avoided by extending the vaccine to boys,” said Ms Plibersek.

The HPV vaccination program for boys is expected to cost $21.1 million over four years. This will include an information campaign, a vaccine register and monitoring of adverse reactions.