Young carers in receipt of Carer Payment and Carer Allowance 2001 to 2006: characteristics, experiences and post-care outcomes

This paper aims to provide a better understanding of the circumstances of young people (aged under 25 years) who receive transfer payments to support them in providing ‘informal’ care to people with disabilities and the frail aged. A specific motivation of the research was to examine the extent to which young carers are reliant on income support, both while caring and post-care, and their education participation.Author: J. Rob Bray, Social Policy Evaluation, Analysis and Research Centre, Australian National University

Reflections on the evolution of the minimum wage in Australia: options for the future paper

This paper argues that Australia needs to have a national conversation about the minimum wage, starting with breaking free from the short-term thinking of the annual negotiations.This paper is concerned with the future of the minimum wage in Australia. While the minimum wage, from the time of the 1907 Harvester decision, has been a core element of the Australian wages system, its nature and role has varied. Established as a ‘family’ wage it has moved to be a wage for a single person, with the role of family support being taken up by government and by changing patterns of workforce participation. Despite the minimum wage remaining relatively stable in real terms over recent decades, this transition has seen rising living standards for low waged families. This has occurred without strongly exacerbating inequality and without the potential adverse consequences of a growing minimum wage outstripping the productivity of many low paid workers. Notwithstanding the central role of government policies and programs in this, there is little to suggest that this is the consequence of a deliberate and coherent policy strategy implemented by different governments over time.It is however a transition which is coming to an end.After an introduction in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 looks at the history of the federal minimum wage in Australia. While the paper notes that for much of the period State minimum wages, and award minimums, may have played much more direct roles, the focus on the federal minimum wage reflects both the current role of the wage and the influence it has had over time. Over this period the well-being of workers on the minimum wage has also been impacted on by other changes, including in relation to working hours and superannuation. In weekly terms the minimum wage has increased by almost 120 per cent since the Harvester decision, but taking account of these other factors suggests a real hourly increase of some 220 per cent. The minimum wage has though declined relative to other earnings. In part a consequence of the family wage structure of the Harvester decision and its underlying male breadwinner model, it was not until 1975 that the minimum wage was extended to women.The current role of the minimum wage is discussed in Chapter 3. In the absence of direct data on the payment of the minimum wage the paper draws estimates from a range of different surveys. These suggest that between 4 and 10 per cent of adults are currently paid at or around the minimum wage. Minimum wage employment is higher among small firms and in occupations such as food preparation, process workers, sales, hospitality and in agriculture and related occupations. Part-time workers are more likely to be employed on the minimum wage as are those employed on a casual basis. Although there is contradictory data, on balance it appears women are more likely to be employed on the minimum wage than men. Minimum wage employment is more frequent amongst younger workers, but picks up again for older age groups. It is also much more common amongst those with low levels of education.In stark contrast to the original conception of the Harvester minimum wage as a family wage, the archetype of a single breadwinner supporting a partner and children while working on the minimum wage has virtually disappeared. Indeed it is estimated that just 1.1 per cent of couple families with dependent children currently fit the Harvester model. Rather the income of minimum wage employees tends to supplement that of higher earners in households. Amongst couples receipt of the minimum wage is most frequently by one member of a couple, working either full or part-time for the minimum wage, while their partner works full-time at a higher earnings rate. In many other households the minimum wage employee is an adult child still living at home. A consequence of this is that while minimum wage workers are more likely to be in lower income households, they are represented in households across the income distribution. While 30 per cent of minimum wage workers are in the ‘poorest’ 20 per cent of working households, almost a quarter are in the ‘richest’ 40 per cent. Using relative income measures minimum wage employees were only marginally more likely to be in a household ‘in poverty’ than other employees, with this result holding also for measures of financial stress and ‘consistent poverty’. Where these measures identified disadvantage, this was associated with either a lack of employment, or part-time employment. A consequence of this is that today the minimum wage is a relatively inefficient and ineffective means of boosting the incomes of low income households.Internationally Australia has a high minimum wage, and along with France, which also has a high minimum wage and New Zealand, it has a relatively high incidence of minimum wage employment. In contrast the UK and Netherlands, while also having a relative high minimum wage, have a much lower rate of minimum wage employment. Canada and the United States have comparatively lower minimum wages and rates of incidence somewhat between these other two groupings.Chapter 4 looks at more recent trends in the minimum wage, relative to other earnings and its interaction with the tax and transfer system. Compared to other earnings, the value of the minimum wage in Australia has declined over recent decades. This reflects higher rates of growth in these earnings rather than a fall in the minimum wage. The most significant trends however are those arising from the interaction of wages with the tax and transfer systems. Between January 1986 and January 2012 the paper estimates that, while the real value of minimum wage increased by just 1.3 per cent, the disposable income of a single person earning this wage increased by $53 per week mainly due to lower taxation. For a couple with a single wage earner on the minimum wage with two young children, as a consequence of policies directed at providing support to low income families with children, disposable incomes are estimated to have increased by$410 per week – a 70 per cent increase.There are many theories about the economic role of the minimum wage. These and the evidence from empirical research about the impact of changes in minimum wages are discussed in Chapter 5. The paper argues that, while these theories are most frequently portrayed as conflicting – and the results of analysis interpreted as proving or refuting a generalised case about the impact of minimum wage policies – much of this debate is misplaced. Rather it needs to be recognised that the labour market is complex, has many distortions and that labour supply is not homogeneous. A consequence of this is that the impact of minimum wage changes, especially at the margin, is very sensitive to specific circumstances and may be quite different depending upon these. In the longer run however, sustained increases in real wages require higher productivity.The final chapter addresses future policy options. It recognises that Australia has adopted national policies of boosting participation and productivity and it places the question of the minimum wage in this context. Three options are considered. The first is maintaining the minimum wage at around its current real value, as has been done over recent decades. While minimising pressure on employment this comes at the cost of greater wages inequality and potential poor outcomes for single people depending on this income. The second is to allow the minimum wage to increase in line with overall productivity growth and other wages. This strategy, unless accompanied by increased productivity of minimum wage employees is likely to have adverse employment outcomes – with this being borne by those with the lowest skills. The third is to hold the minimum wage steady, as with the first option, but with the government intervening in a targeted way to boost the incomes of the low paid through policies such as an earned income tax credit.In identifying these options the paper emphasises that while this relatively benign transition in the role of the minimum wage is coming to an end, what is required is not a short term fix, but rather a clear strategy. Future policy requires the development of a clear articulation of the role of the minimum wage, and the building of appropriate institutional supports for this

Evaluation and learning from failure and success: An ANZSOG research paper for the Australian Public Service Review Panel

A research report of how accountability mechanisms within the APS can be improved to ensure evidence-based policy making and advice to government. The authors contend the APS must change how it evaluates the outcomes of its programs and how it learns from examples of success (as well as failure) to ensure more effective and efficient public sector management.Commissioned by Independent Review of the Australian Public Service, ANZSOG

Hero turned villain: Identification of components of the sex pheromone of the tomato bug, Nesidiocoris tenuis

Nesidiocoris tenuis (Reuter) (Heteroptera: Miridae) is a tropical mirid bug used as a biocontrol agent in protected crops, including tomatoes. Although N. tenuis predates important insect pests, especially whitefly, it also causes damage by feeding on tomato plants when prey populations decline, resulting in significant economic losses for growers. The pest is now established in some all-year-round tomato crops in Europe and control measures involve the application of pesticides which are incompatible with current IPM programs. As part of future IPM strategies, the pheromone of N. tenuis was investigated. Volatile collections were made from groups and individuals of mated and unmated, females and males. In analyses of these collections by gas chromatography coupled with electroantennographic (EAG) recording from antennae of male bugs, two EAG-active components were detected and identified as 1-octanol and octyl hexanoate. Unlike other mirids, both male and female N. tenuis produced the two compounds, before and after mating, and both sexes gave EAG responses to both compounds. Furthermore, only octyl hexanoate was detected in whole body solvent washes from both sexes. These compounds are not related to the derivatives of 3-hydroxybutyrate esters found as pheromone components in other members of the Bryocrinae sub-family, and the latter could not be detected in volatiles from N. tenuis and did not elicit EAG responses. Nevertheless, experiments carried out in commercial glasshouses showed that traps baited with a blend of the synthetic pheromone components caught essentially only male N. tenuis, and significantly more than traps baited with octyl hexanoate alone. The latter caught significantly more N. tenuis than unbaited traps which generally caught very few bugs. Traps at plant height caught more N. tenuis males than traps 1 m above or at the base of the plants. The trap catches provided an indication of population levels of N. tenuis and were greatly reduced following an application of insecticide

Transmission patterns of smallpox: systematic review of natural outbreaks in Europe and North America since World War II

BACKGROUND: Because smallpox (variola major) may be used as a biological weapon, we reviewed outbreaks in post-World War II Europe and North America in order to understand smallpox transmission patterns. METHODS: A systematic review was used to identify papers from the National Library of Medicine, Embase, Biosis, Cochrane Library, Defense Technical Information Center, WorldCat, and reference lists of included publications. Two authors reviewed selected papers for smallpox outbreaks. RESULTS: 51 relevant outbreaks were identified from 1,389 publications. The median for the effective first generation reproduction rate (initial R) was 2 (range 0–38). The majority outbreaks were small (less than 5 cases) and contained within one generation. Outbreaks with few hospitalized patients had low initial R values (median of 1) and were prolonged if not initially recognized (median of 3 generations); outbreaks with mostly hospitalized patients had higher initial R values (median 12) and were shorter (median of 3 generations). Index cases with an atypical presentation of smallpox were less likely to have been diagnosed with smallpox; outbreaks in which the index case was not correctly diagnosed were larger (median of 27.5 cases) and longer (median of 3 generations) compared to outbreaks in which the index case was correctly diagnosed (median of 3 cases and 1 generation). CONCLUSION: Patterns of spread during Smallpox outbreaks varied with circumstances, but early detection and implementation of control measures is a most important influence on the magnitude of outbreaks. The majority of outbreaks studied in Europe and North America were controlled within a few generations if detected early

Effectiveness of screening preschool children for amblyopia: a systematic review

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Amblyopia and amblyogenic factors like strabismus and refractive errors are the most common vision disorders in children. Although different studies suggest that preschool vision screening is associated with a reduced prevalence rate of amblyopia, the value of these programmes is the subject of a continuing scientific and health policy discussion. Therefore, this systematic review focuses on the question of whether screening for amblyopia in children up to the age of six years leads to better vision outcomes.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Ten bibliographic databases were searched for randomised controlled trials, non-randomised controlled trials and cohort studies with no limitations to a specific year of publication and language. The searches were supplemented by handsearching the bibliographies of included studies and reviews to identify articles not captured through our main search strategy.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Five studies met the inclusion criteria. Of these, three studies suggested that screening is associated with an absolute reduction in the prevalence of amblyopia between 0.9% and 1.6% (relative reduction: between 45% and 62%). However, the studies showed weaknesses, limiting the validity and reliability of their findings. The main limitation was that studies with significant results considered only a proportion of the originally recruited children in their analysis. On the other hand, retrospective sample size calculation indicated that the power based on the cohort size was not sufficient to detect small changes between the groups. Outcome parameters such as quality of life or adverse effects of screening have not been adequately investigated in the literature currently available.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Population based preschool vision screening programmes cannot be sufficiently assessed by the literature currently available. However, it is most likely that the present systematic review contains the most detailed description of the main limitations in current available literature evaluating these programmes. Therefore, future research work should be guided by the findings of this publication.</p

Accelerated high-dose radiotherapy alone or combined with either concomitant or sequential chemotherapy; treatments of choice in patients with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Results of high-dose chemo-radiotherapy (CRT), using the treatment schedules of EORTC study 08972/22973 or radiotherapy (RT) alone were analyzed among all patients (pts) with Non Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) treated with curative intent in our department from 1995–2004.</p> <p>Material</p> <p>Included are 131 pts with medically inoperable or with irresectable NSCLC (TNM stage I:15 pts, IIB:15 pts, IIIA:57 pts, IIIB:43 pts, X:1 pt).</p> <p>Treatment</p> <p>Group I: Concomitant CRT: 66 Gy/2.75 Gy/24 fractions (fx)/33 days combined with daily administration of cisplatin 6 mg/m²: 56 pts (standard).</p> <p>Group II: Sequential CRT: two courses of a 21-day schedule of chemotherapy (gemcitabin 1250 mg/m²d1, cisplatin 75 mg/m2 d2) followed by 66 Gy/2.75 Gy/24 fx/33 days without daily cisplatin: 26 pts.</p> <p>Group III: RT: 66 Gy/2.75 Gy/24 fx/33 days or 60 Gy/3 Gy/20 fx/26 days: 49 pts.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The 1, 2, and 5 year actuarial overall survival (OS) were 46%, 24%, and 15%, respectively.</p> <p>At multivariate analysis the only factor with a significantly positive influence on OS was treatment with chemo-radiation (P = 0.024) (1-, 2-, and 5-yr OS 56%, 30% and 22% respectively). The incidence of local recurrence was 36%, the incidence of distant metastases 46%.</p> <p>Late complications grade 3 were seen in 21 pts and grade 4 in 4 patients. One patient had a lethal complication (oesophageal). For 32 patients insufficient data were available to assess late complications.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In this study we were able to reproduce the results of EORTC trial 08972/22973 in a non-selected patient population outside of the setting of a randomised trial. Radiotherapy (66 Gy/24 fx/33 days) combined with either concomitant daily low dose cisplatin or with two neo-adjuvant courses of gemcitabin and cisplatin are effective treatments for patients with locally advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. The concomitant schedule is also suitable for elderly people with co-morbidity.</p

Training future generations to deliver evidence-based conservation and ecosystem management

1. To be effective, the next generation of conservation practitioners and managers need to be critical thinkers with a deep understanding of how to make evidence-based decisions and of the value of evidence synthesis. 2. If, as educators, we do not make these priorities a core part of what we teach, we are failing to prepare our students to make an effective contribution to conservation practice. 3. To help overcome this problem we have created open access online teaching materials in multiple languages that are stored in Applied Ecology Resources. So far, 117 educators from 23 countries have acknowledged the importance of this and are already teaching or about to teach skills in appraising or using evidence in conservation decision-making. This includes 145 undergraduate, postgraduate or professional development courses. 4. We call for wider teaching of the tools and skills that facilitate evidence-based conservation and also suggest that providing online teaching materials in multiple languages could be beneficial for improving global understanding of other subject areas.Peer reviewe