Fitting in or fitting up?: individual and policy implications of the framing of mental health and disability in the NDIS

With the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), disability policy and mental health policy in Australia collided into one another. During its inquiry into disability care and support which led to the NDIS, the Productivity Commission (2011) determined that some people who had what they termed significant and enduring psychiatric disabilities had similar lifelong support needs to people with an intellectual disability or acquired brain injury. The Productivity Commission proposed that they be included in a mooted insurance scheme for people with disabilities. The term 'primary psychosocial disability' was later used to denote an eligibility category within the NDIS which was distinguishable from the larger group of people with mental health diagnoses. Psychosocial disability is not consistently defined in policy either in Australia or globally, but policy decisions are being made based on the assumption that everyone involved knows what they are talking about, and that they are all talking about the same thing. Identifying, or being identified, as having psychosocial disability can have significant personal and policy consequences, both in terms of eligibility for health and social support and in terms of how people see themselves, and are seen by others, particularly when the term means different things to different groups and in different contexts. This thesis presents a critical analysis of the causes and effects of the introduction of the psychosocial disability category in Australian policy from a lived experience lens. Using Carol Bacchi's WPR ('What's the problem represented to be?') approach, it examines the effect of complex policy problems on how people see themselves, and how people reconcile their ways of understanding their experiences with the policy categories their needs place them in. The thesis draws on interviews with 30 people - carers and consumers with a mental health condition, and those who work with them - and a case study of a mental health advocacy organisation. Policy decisions draw on, and decision-making processes reproduce, mechanisms that disqualify certain individuals and groups as knowers. One such mechanism for people with a mental health diagnosis has been the development of policy categories that align with psy discourses about madness and distress, predicating eligibility for health and social care programs on the agreement that these experiences are best understood in a certain way, by certain types of experts. I show how a decision intended to determine NDIS eligibility has caught people up, willingly and unwillingly, in a battle over knowledge production that has deep historical and philosophical roots, and has produced effects far beyond the initial policy implications. The results reveal the ongoing tension between concepts underpinning the NDIS as disability, social and mental health policy, and contribute to debates about how best to meet the access and support needs of marginalised people

Old Foes, New Challenges: Applied Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases

This thesis details projects undertaken during my field placement at the Burnet Institute and on secondment to the Victorian Department of Health, from February 2023 to December 2024. The Burnet Institute is a medical research institute and an accredited international non-government organisation that specialises in global health. At the Burnet, I worked with the Tuberculosis (TB) Elimination and Implementation Science group, which has been conducting an enhanced public health response to reduce the incidence of TB in Daru Island, Papua New Guinea (PNG). I also worked with the STRIVE project group, which aims to strengthen vector-borne disease surveillance systems in PNG. In mid-2023 I started work within the Communicable Diseases Section in the Health Protection Branch of the Victorian Department of Health. My projects are comprised of: an evaluation of the TB surveillance system, the Bahmni electronic medical records system (EMRS), on Daru Island in PNG; an interrupted-time series analysis exploring the effectiveness of indoor residual spraying on malaria cases in New Ireland, PNG; and an outbreak investigation of invasive group A streptococcal disease (iGAS) in Victoria from 2022-2023 to characterise and describe the increase in notifications. The thesis also details other activities undertaken during my placement such as teaching peers during lessons from the field sessions and first year MAE students during course block. These projects and activities fulfil the competencies of the Master of Philosophy in Applied Epidemiology at the Australian National Universit

Integrated Epidemiological Insights in the ACT: From Carbapenemase Producing Enterobacterales investigation, Influenza Like Illness Surveillance, COVID 19 Waves to Enhanced Gonococcal Data Evaluation

This thesis was developed as a requirement for the Master of Philosophy in Applied Epidemiology (MAE) and presents four projects along with additional public health experiences undertaken during my placement from February 2023 to October 2024. I completed my placement in the Public Health Epidemiology Reporting and Data Science(PHERDS) section of the Preparedness Planning and Surveillance (PPS) branch. This branch of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Health Directorate monitors infectious diseases and implements public health actions. The first chapter describes my MAE experience and field placement activities I completed to meet the MAE competencies. The second chapter presents an evaluation of the gonococcal-enhanced case questionnaire. The third chapter details an outbreak investigation into the local transmission of Klebsiella pneumoniae exhibiting NDM-5 and OXA-48 carbapenemase genes at a tertiary hospital. The fourth chapter presents a validation of an influenza-like illness syndromic surveillance (FluTracking Australia for ACT) using ACT syndromic and laboratory-confirmed influenza notifications. The fifth chapter reports the descriptive epidemiology characteristics of the three COVID-19 waves due to pre-Delta, Delta, and Omicron variants in the ACT from 12 March 2020 to 31 December 2022, and Chapter six is a scoping review that reviewed the associated risk factors and clinical presentations of long COVID in Australia. The seventh chapter outlines the teaching experiences and lessons from the field. The thesis also describes other activities undertaken during this period, including a presentation at the 2024 Communicable Diseases and Immunisation Conference in Brisbane, contributions to the investigation into the Ralstonia Pickettii associated with contaminated saline, contact tracing of the farmworkers implicated in the highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1), peer-reviewed publications, and short courses completed

Autonomy for East New Britain, Independence for Bougainville: Identities and Subnational Governance in Papua New Guinea

Dynamics between Indigenous identities and government development practices play a key role in understanding provincial politics in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and are especially salient when examining efforts for political restructuring at the subnational level. In East New Britain (ENB), this aspiration is found in the quest for special autonomy, a unique constitutionally guaranteed political status that would grant the province substantial control over administrative, financial, and political affairs. In the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (ARoB), autonomy is perceived as a means to an end: independence from PNG a goal since at least the 1960s. Understanding how local groups coexist, comingle, and contest their visions for governance arrangements can shed light on why some provinces like ENB strive for greater administrative powers but opt to stay in the colonially created bounds of PNG, while the ARoB and its people are ready to move on. This In Brief is based on PhD research in ENB and the ARoB. Using relational tok stori methodology to centre Indigenous voices, it seeks to understand the meaning of Indigenous identities, their dynamics with state-led development, and how they shape political aspirations.Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trad

A Fairer Tax and Welfare System for Australia

This research examines the Australian welfare system's inadequacies, particularly for JobSeeker and pension recipients, renters, single parents, and youth, who face high rates of poverty and financial stress. It proposes four budget-neutral reforms, primarily funded by reducing superannuation tax concessions or tightening means testing arrangements for the Age Pension and the Child Care Subsidy. These reforms could increase average household incomes by up to $3,800 annually for lower income households and reduce poverty rates by up to a third. The GST's regressive nature is highlighted, disproportionately impacting low-income households. The reforms target low income regions, enhancing equity while maintaining fiscal responsibility

What Matters to Boatpeople

Not peer-reviewe

Decentralised adaptive-gain control for eliminating epidemic spreading on networks

This paper considers the classical Susceptible–Infected–Susceptible (SIS) network epidemic model, which describes a disease spreading through n nodes, with the network links governing the possible transmission pathways of the disease between nodes. We consider feedback control to eliminate the disease, focusing especially on scenarios where the disease would otherwise persist in an uncontrolled network. We propose a family of decentralised adaptive-gain control algorithms, in which each node has a control gain that adaptively evolves according to a differential equation, independent of the gains of other nodes. The adaptive gain is applied multiplicatively to either decrease the infection rate or increase the recovery rate. To begin, we assume all nodes are controlled with adaptive gains, and prove that both infection rate control and recovery rate control algorithms eliminate the disease with positive finite limiting gains. Then, we consider the possibility of controlling a subset of the nodes, for both the infection rate control and recovery rate control. We first identify a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a subset of nodes, which if controlled would result in the elimination of the disease. For a given network, there may exist several such viable subsets, and we propose an iterative algorithm to identify such a subset. Simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controllers.Peer-reviewe

Learning from Positive Deviance in Gender and Fisheries

We present an initial exploration of why and how participation in a case of community-based resource management (CBRM) in a Pacific context could be considered a deviation from gender norms. Using analysis of in-depth interviews with community members in a village in Malaita Province, Solomon Islands, our data suggest four causal factors appear to have contributed to higher participation of women in CBRM compared to surrounding villages in the province: (1) higher than usual participation of women in fishing, (2) inclusive leadership and intrinsic values towards equality by male leaders, (3) experience of women in other non-fisheries leadership roles, and (4) supportive attitudes by the community towards women’s leadership. We suggest that rather than research focusing on gender of individual leaders or attitudes of individuals, as has been the norm, more attention should be given to the enabling context and specific norms around fisheries, work, community governance, and resource management to understand barriers and opportunities for increased inclusion in coastal fisheries management.Open Access funding enabled and organized by CAUL and its Member Institutions The Australian Government funded this work through the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) projects FIS/2016/300 and FIS/2020/172.Peer-reviewe

Administration map of Sri Lanka

Map of Sri Lanka showing it's nine provinces, provincial capitals and the districts that make up the provinces

Quantifying the Dietary Overlap of Two Co-Occurring Mammal Species Using DNA Metabarcoding to Assess Potential Competition

Interspecific competition is often assumed in ecosystems where co-occurring species have similar resource requirements. The potential for competition can be investigated by measuring the dietary overlap of putative competitor species. The degree of potential competition between generalist species has often received less research attention than competition between specialist species. We examined dietary overlap between two naturally co-occurring dietary generalist species: the common brushtail possum Trichosurus vulpecula and the bush rat Rattus fuscipes. To gauge the potential for competition, we conducted a diet analysis using DNA extracted from faecal samples to identify the range of food items consumed by both species within a shared ecosystem and quantify their dietary overlap. We used DNA metabarcoding on faecal samples to extract plant, fungal, and invertebrate DNA, identifying diet items and quantifying dietary range and overlap. The species' diets were similar, with a Pianka's overlap index score of 0.84 indicating high dietary similarity. Bush rats had a large dietary range, consisting of many plant and fungal species and some invertebrates, with almost no within-species variation. Possums had a more restricted dietary range, consisting primarily of plants. We suggest that the larger dietary range of the bush rat helps buffer it from the impacts of competition from possums by providing access to more food types. We conclude that, despite the high ostensible overlap in the foods consumed by dietary generalist species, fine-scale partitioning of food resources may be a key mechanism to alleviate competition and permit co-existence.Funding: This work was supported by The Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment and The Ecological Society of Australia. We acknowledge and thank the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community, owners of Booderee National Park, for providing access to and support for our work in the park, and to the staff at Booderee National Park and all volunteers for assisting in data collection. We also acknowledge the Biomolecular Resource Facility at the John Curtin School of Medical Research at ANU for processing and sequencing the extracted DNA. Open access publishing facilitated by Australian National University, as part of the Wiley - Australian National University agreement via the Council of Australian University Librarians.Peer-reviewe