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Assessing road travel conditions in the Bowen Basin region: implications for transport planning in Australian mining communities
No full textEffective road transport networks are essential for sustainability of mining activities as well as the liveability of the mining communities. This paper examines the mining impacts of road travel conditions in the Bowen Basin region, which produces about 83% of Queensland’s total coal product. A household travel survey was conducted to explore mining communities’ level of satisfaction with road travel experiences, through a case study of the Moranbah and Emerald townships. The pavement condition of regional roads was the primary issue raised by residents, followed by concerns about safety and congestion issues associated with over-dimensional vehicles, and perceptions of poor driver behaviour, particularly around speed, inattention and fatigue. The research identified support for confining the movement of wide loads to low-traffic periods (such as overnight), and introducing carpooling arrangements to reduce congestion and issues of driver fatigue. These findings have policy implications for all tiers of government as well as mining industries, with respect to future transport planning
Medicinal cannabis harvested in Victoria to be distributed nation-wide
No full textVictoria\u27s first legal crop of cannabis has just been harvested for medicinal use.
The state has been manufacturing the drug at a secret location and is still putting it through the testing phase.
While patients in Victoria wait for access, NSW parliamentarians have been debating their own cannabis bill
The impact of demographic change on labour supply and economic growth: can APEC meet the challenges ahead?
No full textThis report analyses the components of economic growth in 21 APEC economies in the past 25 years and the next 35. Written to contribute to discussions at APEC Senior Officials’ meetings in the run up to APEC ministerial and leaders meetings, it highlights the critical role played by population ageing and discusses relevant policy interventions.
The analysis adopts a supply-side, GDP accounting framework to decompose the contribution of population, participation, and productivity to economic growth. This is similar approach used in the Intergenerational Report for Australia, but economic outcomes are modelled for the whole set of 21 APEC member economies.
Wheras in the population size and age structure contributed positively to past growth it is expected to contribute less, or indeed act as a headwind to growth in future. Historically high rates of productivity growth are expected to decline as emerging economies converge toward rates seen in advanced economies.
Between 2015 and 2050, declines in the size of labour forces are expected in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Russia, Thailand, and Chinese Taipei. A deceleration in the growth of labour forces is expected in other economies. And only Mexico, Peru, Philippines, and Papua New Guinea are projected to see labour forces grow at above 1% per annum over the next 35 years.
This will have profound effects on economic growth, with average real GDP growth declining from an unweighted 4.1% per annum between 1990 and 2015, to a projected 2.2% between 2015 and 2050. China, for instance, is expected to grow at a modest 3.4% per annum over the next 35 years, compared to about 10% over the last 25. Those projected to grow fastest, with rates of 4% or above, include Indonesia, Philippines, and Papua New Guinea. Average growth in the standards of living in APEC, as measured by GDP per capita, is also expected to slow.
Various policy levers can affect the population, participation and productivity. Several scenario analyses in the paper show that attracting permanent migrants and increasing international flows of labour, or increasing participation rates of older workers and women can benefit economic activity, raising standards of living and offsetting some of the economic headwinds of population ageing. Such policies are complementary responses; all should be on the table if APEC is to meet the demographic challenges ahead
Fraud against the Commonwealth: report to Government 2014
No full textIn response to the censuses, more than a third of Commonwealth entities reported experiencing fraud over the four financial years 2010–11 to 2013–14. Over 90 percent of reported frauds were allegedly perpetrated by members of the public, and the remainder by Commonwealth employees or contractors. Commonwealth entities reported 391,831 incidents of alleged, suspected and proven fraud over the four-year period.
Fraud losses totalled approximately 119m in 2010–11 to 75.3m previously lost to fraud (whether during these years or earlier)
Settling better: reforming refugee employment and settlement services
No full textSince the end of World War II, successive governments have helped more than 800,000 refugees and displaced people of different nationalities and faiths to build new lives in Australia. Our humanitarian migration program – one of the world’s largest – enjoys the backing of all major political parties and broad community support. As Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull confidently told the UN General Assembly in September 2016, ‘Australia is one of the most successful multicultural societies in the world’.
Australia’s achievement rests in large part on the effectiveness of its post-arrival settlement program. ‘No country has integrated newcomers as well as we have,’ says former immigration department head John Menadue AO. Australia provides refugees with services to help them overcome past trauma and integrate into the community. It offers hundreds of hours of free English classes and provides immediate access to government benefits and public healthcare. The active engagement of a myriad of community organisations helps refugees to build social connections and find their way in a new society. Over time, these resettled refugees and their children make an enormous contribution to the community and the economy.
If there is a weak link in Australia’s settlement record, it is getting refugees into jobs soon after they arrive.
There is overwhelming evidence that employment provides the bedrock for successful settlement. The best way to help humanitarian migrants to build flourishing lives is to help them find work. Yet the current expansion of Australia’s humanitarian program comes at a time of profound changes in the economy that mean many of the jobs taken up by refugees in the past are becoming scarcer.
Two out of five recently arrived humanitarian migrants work as labourers, but the need for labourers in the economy is falling. Refugees may also find jobs as machinery operators or drivers, but demand for workers in these roles is stagnant.
On the best available evidence, 17 per cent of humanitarian migrants are in paid work after being in Australia for 18 months. While employment rates improve with time, to get more refugees into jobs more quickly would be a triple-win: it would benefit vulnerable people, boost the budget and improve social cohesion.
This report identifies five principal barriers to newly arrived refugees finding jobs: limited English, a lack of work experience, poor health, a lack of opportunities for women and having only been in Australia for a short amount time. If we want better employment outcomes then it makes sense to focus on removing these barriers or reducing their impact. There is much that we can learn in this regard from best practice from overseas.
There is plenty of evidence that settling humanitarian migrants better will have substantial payoffs. Statistics show that refugees are more entrepreneurial than other migrants and that over time they can catch up with others in the job market. But there is potential to accelerate their entry into work to the benefit of all.
If the labour market outcomes for just one year’s intake of humanitarian migrants improved by 25 per cent, then over the subsequent decade those new arrivals would be 175 million in budget savings.
To achieve this outcome year on year would compound the benefits, producing additional income for humanitarian migrants of close to 1 billion for the Australian Government over the subsequent decade.
The rewards from this growing dividend are far more than financial. Expanding employment opportunities for refugees is central to successful integration. Better job outcomes will strengthen social cohesion and help reduce alienation and extremism – not just amongst refugees, but also amongst those established members of the Australian community who might fear or resent the presence of newcomers.
If Australia is to remain a leader in refugee resettlement then we must adapt in the face of change. Political leadership and investment must nurture the public legitimacy that forms the bedrock of the humanitarian program. This report charts the path forward. It explains how our proposed three-pronged approach can improve settlement services, build social cohesion and prosperity, and sustain confidence in Australia’s humanitarian program as one of the world’s best
Global studies and the New Zealand Centre: meaning and potential
No full textThis article discusses the concept of \u27global studies\u27, its place in universities worldwide and introduces New Zealand Centre for Global Studies. It contrasts the academic disciplines of international relations with the more recent field of global studies and includes a survey of gloabl think-tanks.
Things change with the passage of time. In the late decades of the 20th century, international relations were naturally founded on 20th-century thought – the nation state as dominant actor; sovereign equality as central principle; international organisation as neutral arena; political-military strategy as guarantor of peace and security; self-determination, economic and social development and human rights as emerging norms. The United Nations Charter was the lodestar, despite the paralysis of the Cold War. The challenge was to make the charter work politically.
In the early 21st century the world is different. The nation state is surrounded by other actors on the world stage, equally potent: corporations with global reach, civil society with a global conscience, mega-cities with global ties. Sovereign equality of the nation state remains defiant, yet is increasingly under siege. International peace has mutated into global security. Self-determination is evolving into ‘multi-layered jurisdiction’. Rights are twinned with responsibility, and individual criminal liability has entered the hallowed precinct of international law. Economic growth wrestles with the imperative of sustainability within a ‘safe operating space for humanity’. Interregional migration further complicates the phenomenon of global change. In 1993 the UN secretary general observed that ‘the first truly global era’ had begun. Economic globalisation, the threat of a ‘nuclear winter’ affecting the planet after major conflict, ozone depletion and climate change, and ‘limits to growth’ had formed a new mosaic on the human canvas.
The current decade is witness to two global revolutions, driven by the same dynamic but whose nature and future outcome are fundamentally different. One is the notion of a world uniting. The other is of a world dividing into fragmented units that belie such unity. Yet in both cases the same global dynamic remains, paradoxically, the underlying driver. It is therefore no surprise that ‘global studies’ has emerged in recent decades as an academic and policy field of enquiry. In this country in 2012, a group of colleagues from academia, government and media established the New Zealand Centre for Global Studies. The centre is a charitable educational trust, and operates as a research institute and think-tank. Its short experience to date persuades us, and I think others, that the field of global studies is a valid one, and that the centre has something useful to offer
Authorisation and decision-making in native title
No full textNative title involves an interface between the Australian legal system and Indigenous legal, cultural and political systems. The assertion and management of native title rights involves collective action by sometimes large and disparate groups of Indigenous people. Contentious politics makes such collective action difficult and the courts will often be asked to decide whether group decisions have been validly made. In the last two decades a vast and complex body of law and practice has developed to address this challenge. Authorisation law is a set of principles about how the views and intentions of native title claimants or holders are translated into legally effective decisions. This book sets out the legal rules and their application in various situations: native title claims, native title agreement-making, decision-making by native title corporations, and compensation applications. It also addresses key practical, ethical and political dimensions of native title decision-making. This book will be useful for native title practitioners including lawyers, judges and native title holders. It will also be relevant to academic research into the ethical, political and anthropological dimensions of Indigenous governance
Regulating gambling and liquor
No full textThe Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR) was established in 2012 by bringing together the functions and resources of two predecessor regulators. The aim was to create a modern world-class regulator—one that would apply an integrated and risk-based approach to regulation in order to deliver more efficient and effective regulation, and compliance monitoring and enforcement, with a focus on minimising harm.
In this audit, we assessed VCGLR’s licensing and compliance functions, its oversight of the Melbourne Casino, its performance measurement and reporting, and its collaboration with other agencies. We also followed up on our recommendations from two previous audits, Taking Action on Problem Gambling in 2010 and Effectiveness of Justice Strategies in Preventing and Reducing Alcohol-Related Harm in 2012.
In this report, 12 recommendations are made for VCGLR, another is directed to VCGLR and Victoria Police, and a further recommendation is made to the Department of Justice and Regulation
“We wouldn’t want to be where you guys are, that’s for sure”
No full textSchools in Australia and New Zealand set off in opposite directions in the 1970s. Tom Greenwell looks at where they have ended up.
The story is familiar enough. An opposition leader seeks to modernise his party by transcending the old ideological opposition between state schools and church schools. Above all, he wants to woo the Catholic vote needed to win government. Prevailing over his rivals, he jettisons the party’s century-old opposition to public funding of private schools.Then, on winning government, he initiates a process of consultation, negotiation and policy formulation that culminates in a widely hailed breakthrough. Those years in power, from 1972 to 1975, come to be seen as a turning point that still defines the education landscape. Gough Whitlam’s Australia? Yes, but also Norman Kirk’s New Zealand. That’s where the likeness ends, though, for the new educational epoch Kirk ushered in was quite different from the era created by Whitlam and his education adviser Peter Karmel
National Quality Framework (NQF) snapshot: Q4 2016
No full textAs at 31 December 2016, more than 70 per cent of children’s education and care services have been rated at Meeting National Quality Standard (NQS) or above, according to new data released by the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA).
ACECQA Chief Executive Officer Gabrielle Sinclair said the figures indicated the national assessment and rating system is driving quality improvement, with the latest results up from 68 per cent at the end of 2015, 65 per cent at the end of 2014 and 59 per cent at the end of 2013.
“I am very pleased to see the continued trend of year on year improvement in performance because the NQS is a very high benchmark. Children’s education and care services are assessed against 58 different elements of quality. If any of these elements are not met, services receive an overall rating of Working Towards NQS,” Ms Sinclair said.
“The national rating of education and care services is not designed as a pass-fail system. It examines a broad range of quality measures and encourages continuous improvement. With over 1700 reassessments undertaken, more than 60 per cent have resulted in a service receiving a higher overall quality rating. More than 900 services have improved their overall rating from Working Towards NQS to Meeting NQS or Exceeding NQS at reassessment.”
Highlights from the latest NQF Snapshot include:
15,434 approved children’s education and care services in Australia
86 per cent of these have a quality rating
53 services have been rated as Excellent by ACECQA
1705 services have been reassessed, with 62 per cent resulting in the service receiving a higher overall quality rating