Lost opportunity?: An evaluation of the senate\u27s report on disaster management

The inability of the Australian federal governments to dominate the Senate has enhanced the Senate’s ability to review and make recommendations on public policy issues. In 1994, the Senate Standing Committee on Industry, Science, Technology, Transport, Communications and Infrastructure reviewed and made recommendations on Australia’s emergency management arrangements. Australian emergency management has developed in a complex environment where it has been heavily influenced by incremental development from its civil defence origins in the Second World War and by factors including international developments, federalism and the hazards impacting on Australia. The Senate Committee’s review was a unique opportunity for a high level investigation of the adequacy of the arrangements. The Review, although it produced forty five recommendations, failed to consider a range of significant issues in Australian emergency management. These omissions include federalism, the impact of economic rationalism, and the need for national emergency management legislation. The inquiry conducted by the Senate Committee failed to engage key stakeholders, notably local government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The inquiry also focused on administrative as opposed to policy issues. As a consequence of these deficiencies, it failed to result in significant change to Australia’s emergency management arrangements

Australia\u27s Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act: Addressing Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Inequities at the Expense of International Human Rights?

In 2007, Australia passed the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act (“NT Emergency Response Act”), ostensibly reacting to a recent report detailing exceedingly high levels of sexual abuse of Aboriginal children. This Comment argues that the NT Emergency Response Act likely violates Australia’s obligations under the United Nations’ (“U.N.”) International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (“Racial Discrimination Convention”). The NT Emergency Response Act provides an opportunity for the Racial Discrimination Convention’s enforcement body, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (“CERD”), to extend its application of the specialized guidelines for indigenous peoples beyond the land title and land use matters. The entire NT Emergency Response Act likely violates CERD’s indigenous policies, as it was passed without the meaningful participation or informed consent of indigenous peoples affected by the Act. Specifically, the land title portions of the NT Emergency Response Act violate Australia’s obligations under the Racial Discrimination Convention because they do not allow for indigenous peoples to use or control their own communal land. CERD should expand its previous use of General Recommendation Number XXIII on Indigenous Peoples (“General Recommendation”), a 1997 CERD document that lists the specific responsibilities States parties have towards indigenous peoples. CERD should use the General Recommendation to analyze the non-land title provisions of the NT Emergency Response Act through a model that combines the informed consent provisions of the General Recommendation with the traditional nondiscrimination norm of the Racial Discrimination Convention. Combining the informed consent and nondiscrimination modes of analysis enables CERD to better address the unique and sensitive issues related to indigenous rights; by so doing, CERD will likely find that many of the non-land title provisions of the NT Emergency Response Act violate the Racial Discrimination Convention

Clinical deterioration as a nurse sensitive indicator in the out-of-hospital context: A scoping review

Aims: To explore and summarise the literature on the concept of ‘clinical deterioration’ as a nurse-sensitive indicator of quality of care in the out-of-hospital context. Design: The scoping review adhered to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Review and the JBI best practice guidelines for scoping reviews. Methods: Studies focusing on clinical deterioration, errors of omission, nurse sensitive indicators and the quality of nursing and midwifery care for all categories of registered, enrolled, or licensed practice nurses and midwives in the out-of-hospital context were included regardless of methodology. Text and opinion papers were also considered. Study protocols were excluded. Data Sources: Data bases were searched from inception to June 2022 and included CINAHL, PsychINFO, MEDLINE, The Allied and Complementary Medicine Database, EmCare, Maternity and Infant Care Database, Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet, Informit Health and Society Database, JSTOR, Nursing and Allied Health Database, RURAL, Cochrane Library and Joanna Briggs Institute. Results: Thirty-four studies were included. Workloads, education and training opportunities, access to technology, home visits, clinical assessments and use of screening tools or guidelines impacted the ability to recognise, relay information and respond to clinical deterioration in the out-of-hospital setting. Conclusions: Little is known about the work of nurses or midwives in out-of-hospital settings and their recognition, reaction to and relay of information about patient deterioration. The complex and subtle nature of non-acute deterioration creates challenges in defining and subsequently evaluating the role and impact of nurses in these settings. Implications for the profession and/or patient care: Further research is needed to clarify outcome measures and nurse contribution to the care of the deteriorating patient in the out-of-hospital setting to reduce the rate of avoidable hospitalisation and articulate the contribution of nurses and midwives to patient care. Impact: What Problem Did the Study Address? Factors that impact a nurse\u27s ability to recognise, relay information and respond to clinical deterioration in the out-of-hospital setting are not examined to date. What Were the Main Findings? A range of factors were identified that impacted a nurse\u27s ability to recognise, relay information and respond to clinical deterioration in the out-of-hospital setting including workloads, education and training opportunities, access to technology, home visits, clinical assessments, use of screening tools or guidelines, and avoidable hospitalisation.Where and on whom will the research have an impact?Nurses and nursing management will benefit from understanding the factors that act as barriers and facilitators for effective recognition of, and responding to, a deteriorating patient in the out-of-hospital setting. This in turn will impact patient survival and satisfaction. Reporting Method: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Review guidelines guided this review. The PRISMA-Scr Checklist (Tricco et al., 2018) is included as (supplementary file 1).Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.”. No Patient or Public Contribution: Not required as the Scoping Review used publicly available information

Sending a message: How significant events have influenced the warnings landscape in Australia

Publisher's version (útgefin grein)The Bureau of Meteorology has a mandate to issue warnings for weather and climate events that are likely to result in harm and loss. This service has been delivered in an end-to-end (science to service) context and warnings messages have typically been crafted to describe the current and predicted future state of the environment and recommended protective actions. However, the warnings landscape is evolving and Australian governments and emergency management agencies are adopting rapidly diversifying roles in a range of warnings processes. This evolution coincides with the shift in international strategies: from the mitigation and crisis management approach to the emphasis on building community resilience. Following a number of severe weather-related events that resulted in serious losses a series of Australian inquiries, reviews and social research investigated warnings efficacy. This included the National Review of Warnings and Information for Australia, with a recommendation suggesting that a Total Warning System concept be more formally considered across multiple hazards, rather than just flood, as it currently stands. Consequently, Australian warnings agencies are embracing a more people-centred approach recognising the need for messages to include detail of likely impact alongside an implied level of risk. Thus, developing capability to deliver impact forecasting and risk-based warnings services in a multi (natural) hazard context. With a key focus on flood, fire and tropical cyclone, this paper reviews international and national warnings policy documents and social research and explores the evidence-based evolution of warning services with respect to the Total Warning System concept.Deanne Bird has been supported by the Nordic Centre of Excellence for Resilience and Societal Security – NORDRESS, which is funded by the Nordic Societal Security Programme.Peer Reviewe

Climate and Land Degradation

On the occasion of the Seventh session of the Conference of Parties, The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has prepared this brochure which explains the role of different climatic factors in land degradation and WMO's contribution in addressing this important subject. Educational levels: Undergraduate lower division, Undergraduate upper division, Graduate or professional, Informal education, General public

Supporting evidence-based adaptation decision-making in South Australia: a synthesis of climate change adaptation research

This research synthesis provides policy-makers and practitioners with an understanding of the building blocks for effective adaptation decision-making, as evidenced through the NCCARF research program. It synthesised a portfolio of adaptation research for each Australian state and territory and addressing the complex relationships between research and policy development.   Each state and territory synthesis report directs users to research relevant identified priorities

Supporting evidence-based adaptation decision-making in the Australian Capital Territory: a synthesis of climate change adaptation research

This research synthesis provides policy-makers and practitioners with an understanding of the building blocks for effective adaptation decision-making, as evidenced through the NCCARF research program. It synthesised a portfolio of adaptation research for each Australian state and territory and addressing the complex relationships between research and policy development.   Each state and territory synthesis report directs users to research relevant identified priorities. Authored by Jennifer Cane, Laura Cacho, Nicolas Dircks and Peter Steele

Measurement, impact and mitigation of heatwaves

Heatwaves are frequently dismissed as uncomfortable seasonal events which are of little consequence. Agreement on a definition has evaded this natural hazard, obscuring lessons from historical losses. This work establishes a robust innovative definition which has transformed management of Australia’s most dangerous natural hazard. The Excess Heat Factor (EHF) is a 3-day heatwave index which combines long- and short-term daily temperature anomalies to produce a sensitive signal to noise signature which is proportional to impact. A statistically robust percentile-based temperature-only index, the EHF measures locally significant heatwave intensity. Intensity is normalised using points over threshold (POT) from extreme value theory to measure and map heatwave severity. City, regional and national epidemiological studies have used EHF to measure heatwave vulnerability by location across Australia. Local, national and international health, emergency services and meteorological authorities now operate within a common framework for the delivery of coordinated heatwave services based on EHF. The Excess Heat Factor is introduced and evaluated for its effectiveness as a heatwave intensity and severity index. The utility of EHF in monitoring and forecasting heatwaves is investigated, as is its effectiveness in predicting impact. This study underpinned the general utility of EHF as a heatwave hazard for health outcomes. Further investigations have found it an effective tool in understanding the impact of severe and extreme heatwaves on infrastructure and utilities. Many collaborative epidemiological studies have now utilised EHF to study the impact of heatwaves, including a national Reducing Illness and Lives Lost for Heatwaves (RILLH) project which has developed heatwave vulnerability data for Australia at local (SA2), regional, major cities and by individual morbidity. We have found EHF to work as an effective warning index across Australia’s diverse mid-latitude and subtropical climate zones. It is also effective in the tropics, particularly in unusually dry environments or in humidity conditions normal for each location. Unusually humid heatwaves have been examined and are not always warned by the current operational temperature-only EHF index. Application of EHF across historical and future climate scenarios, and for multi-day and seasonal predictions is developed in support of a comprehensive heatwave service framework that allows for coordinated heatwave warnings and targeted services.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Biological Sciences, 202