Evaluation of the Quality Strategy for Disability Employment Services and Rehabilitation Services: Final Report

[Excerpt] The Quality Strategy for disability employment and rehabilitation services is part of a reform agenda announced in the 1996-1997 Federal Budget with the overall aim of improving the participation of people with disabilities in the workforce. The Quality Strategy was designed to address issues raised in a 1997 report, Assuring Quality, prepared by the Disability Quality and Standards Working Party. The goal of the Quality Strategy is to ensure that people with disabilities can seek assistance and support from a range of Australian Government-funded employment services certified against the Disability Services Standards. The aims of introducing the Quality Strategy were to improve service quality and to guarantee that people with disabilities could access appropriate quality services that provide high level and appropriate support. The introduction of the Quality Strategy reinforced the Australian Government’s commitment to ensuring that people with disabilities can access the same rights and opportunities as other Australians, including being appropriately supported in the workplace. The Quality Strategy has three components: ◗ a quality assurance system (introduced on a voluntary basis from 1 January 2002 and legislated from 1 July 2002, now applying to all disability employment services and CRS Australia); ◗ continuous improvement activities; and ◗ complaints and referrals mechanisms (the Complaints Resolution and Referral Service and the National Disability Abuse and Neglect Hotline)

Investigation of a Q fever outbreak in a Scottish co-located slaughterhouse and cutting plant

Outbreaks of Q fever are rare in the UK. In 2006, the largest outbreak of Q fever in Scotland occurred at a co-located slaughterhouse and cutting plant with 110 cases. Preliminary investigations pointed to the sheep lairage being the potential source of exposure to the infective agent. A retrospective cohort study was carried out among workers along with environmental sampling to guide public health interventions. A total of 179 individuals were interviewed of whom 66 (37%) were migrant workers. Seventy-five (41.9%) were serologically confirmed cases. Passing through a walkway situated next to the sheep lairage, a nearby stores area, and being male were independently associated with being serologically positive for Q fever. The large proportion of migrant workers infected presented a significant logistical problem during outbreak investigation and follow up. The topic of vaccination against Q fever for slaughterhouse workers is contentious out with Australasia, but this outbreak highlights important occupational health issues

Tripartism in comparative and historical perspective

This special issue explores changes in the nature of tripartite arrangements between firms, governments and organized labour across the last century, focusing on their post-1945 heyday. Although tripartism has its origins at the turn of the Twentieth Century, the post-1945 long boom represented an historical high-water mark that may now be seen as quite distinct from our own long period of volatility and crisis. Historical concerns are frequently stimulated by those of the present and this is especially the case in contemporary history. Anglo-Saxon historians may feel that the age of tripartism is at an end, but the contributions within this issue show that although this may accurately reflect current perceptions, tripartism continues , albeit often in weak forms, in other national and transnational contexts; its history therefore retains contemporary resonance. In our present age, it is commonly assumed that the relative power of employers has increased at the expense of government – the central co-ordinating actor in tripartism – and organized labour. Within the firm, not only workers, but also traditional managers have been displaced by assertive investors and allied to them, a new managerial class that has little emotional capital sunk in the firm other than as a vehicle for shareholder value maximization or release, and personal enrichment. From the business historian’s viewpoint, these assumptions raise a number of issues surrounding long term trends and diversity in the nature of the capitalist ecosystem within which tripartism is located. In this connection, there are four alternative points of view on broad approaches to labour management. The first, rooted in the then apparent solidity of the British postwar tripartite settlement, was that the incorporation of labour’s institutions was structurally essential to the state’s role in avoiding or genuinely resolving crises. The second sees tripartism as very much an historical exception, representing to a large extent a product of a very specific set of historic circumstances around the Great Depression and the post-World War Two long boom. The third, a variant of the second, would see historic compromises between state, the firm, and workers as a reflection of the thirty year period of relative global prosperity and growth which had deeper historic roots stretching back at least into the Nineteenth Century. The fourth highlights national diversity in global capitalism and views the labour management options adopted according not only to temporal trends but also to such dimensions as space, scale, and global centre-periphery relations. The latter view implies that elements of post-war compromises may persist, even if, within many of the advanced societies, they do so in dilute form

Liquor licences issued to Australian schools

BACKGROUND: Children's positive socialisation to alcohol is associated with early initiation of drinking and alcohol-related harm in adult life. Internationally, there have been reports of adults' alcohol consumption at school events in the presence of children. The aim of this research was to identify the conditions under which Australian schools are required to apply for a liquor licence and the associated prevalence of liquor licences for these events where children were likely to be present. METHODS: A document review was conducted to examine temporary liquor licensing legislation. Quantitative analysis was used to examine relevant licensing data. Coding criteria was developed to determine school type, student year levels and the likely presence of children. RESULTS: Four jurisdictions provided data on 1817 relevant licences. The average annual licences/100 schools was highest amongst Independent schools followed by Catholic and public (government) schools. The rates were highest in Queensland and Victoria where children were present at 61% and 32% of events respectively. CONCLUSIONS: While there are legislative differences across jurisdictions, the prevalence of adults' alcohol use at school events in the presence of children may reflect the various education department policies and principals' and school communities' beliefs and attitudes. Licences are not required for all events where liquor is consumed so the prevalence of adults' use of alcohol at school events is likely to be higher than our analyses imply. Such practices may undermine teaching about alcohol use in the school curriculum and health promotion efforts to develop alcohol-free events when children are present

Tenure, mobility and retention of nurses in Queensland, Australia: 2001 and 2004

[Abstract]: Aim: Data were collected on tenure, mobility and retention of the nursing workforce in Queensland to aid strategic planning by the Queensland Nurses’ Union. Background: Shortages of nurses negatively affect the health outcomes of patients. Population rise is increasing the demand for nurses in Queensland. The supply of nurses is affected by recruitment of new and returning nurses, retention of the existing workforce and mobility within institutions. Methods: A self-reporting, postal survey was undertaken of Queensland Nurses Union members from the major employment sectors of aged care, public acute and community health and private acute and community health. Results: Only 60% of nurses had been with their current employer more than five years. In contrast 90% had been nursing for five years or more and most (80%) expected to remain in nursing for at least another five years. Breaks from nursing were common and part-time positions in the private and aged care sectors offered flexibility. Conclusion: The study demonstrated a mobile nursing workforce in Queensland although data on tenure and future time in nursing suggested that retention in the industry was high. Concern is expressed for replacement of an aging nursing population

Future eDestination Marketing: Perspective of an Australian Tourism Stakeholder Network.

Tourism destinations are difficult to manage because of the complex relationships of their diverse public and private stakeholders. At the same time, strategic marketing efforts are important for destinations to foster positive consequences of tourism, particularly given the range of opportunities and challenges created by the emergence of social media that destinations can use advantageously. This article aims to explore future eDestination marketing from Australian tourism stakeholder network perspectives. Workshops were convened in July 2012 in Melbourne, Australia, for select stakeholders invited to contribute to the futures national tourism technology strategy. They presented a stakeholder network approach to futures strategy development that aims to contribute to that used in recent national tourism plans and strategies for Australia developed by the government. Building on theories of stakeholder networks and futures, the article demonstrates the value of a futures stakeholder network method compared to traditional government approaches by critically analyzing outcomes of both

Joint associations of poor diet quality and prolonged television viewing time with abnormal glucose metabolism in Australian men and women

Objective. To examine the independent and joint associations of diet quality and television viewing time with abnormal glucose metabolism (AGM) in men and women

Department of Fisheries Annual Report to the Parliament 2010/11

This annual report provides an overview of the Department and its operations for the financial year ended 30 June 2011. It has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Financial Management Act 2006, the Fish Resources Management Act 1994 and the Public Sector Commission’s Annual reporting framework – 2010/11 reporting year.https://researchlibrary.agric.wa.gov.au/ar_fish/1001/thumbnail.jp

Historical learning in the design of WTO rules: the EC sugar case

The Uruguay Round Agreement made significant changes to the governance of international trade. Trade rules and dispute settlement mechanisms were altered and a series of specific agreements provided for liberalisation across economic sectors. The Agreement on Agriculture, arguably the most difficult and contentious to negotiate, permitted the continued use of trade-distorting instruments, both domestically and at the border. Rule-enforcement in agriculture therefore relies crucially on the clarity of the rules. This paper provides an in-depth study of a unique and critical case for understanding the new rules: the EC sugar regime. This policy was challenged unsuccessfully under the pre-Uruguay Round rules, but successfully under the new rules. This case is particularly valuable in allowing us to isolate the effect of the Uruguay Round on agricultural trade disputes: the policy under challenge was essentially unchanged and the legal actions addressed the same concern – excessive export subsidisation. Drawing on primary and secondary materials and interviews with key policy actors, sugar is used to illustrate how those involved in the multilateral process learned from particular rule weaknesses revealed in earlier cases, revising those rules in the Uruguay Round in such a way that dispute panels can more readily and objectively determine rule breaches