Government Policies On Employment And Superannuation: Contradictions And Consequences For Older Australians

Older women today are most likely to live on limited incomes and are more dependent on the age pension than men. This paper examines the Federal government's employment policies that have reduced older women's opportunities to save for retirement and the government's attempt in recent years to equalise women's economic status. These policies also discouraged the participation of women in the paid workforce and confined them to low paid, part time, casual employment. Up until 1988 very few superannuation schemes allowed part time and casual workers to join or retain membership. As Superannuation Guarantee Charge is based on continuous paid work people in unpaid work, such as household chores and caring, are excluded. The principle of self-reliance as reflected in the Home and Community Care programme will further erode women's employment opportunities since it relies on unpaid carers, who are mostly women. Recently the gender gap has narrowed owing to increased Federal funding for childcare, the equal pay case, affirmative action and the universal superannuation provisions that bridge broken work patterns. However these come too late for today's older women. The past inequalities experienced by Australian women are now amplified during their retirement. Many older women today are the major recipients of the very institution that contributed to their lower economic status.

The Supply of Doctors in Australia: Is There A Shortage?

understand the situation better, this paper reviews the current English language literature on the supply of doctors in developed and developing countries with a special interest in Australia. The definition of doctor shortage and the accepted ratio of patients to full-time equivalent (FTE) doctors that is followed in this paper, is the one that is provided by the Australian Government�s Department of Health and Ageing. The issue of supply imbalance with respect to doctors is one that is particularly controversial in Australia, with some policy-makers arguing that it is a problem of under-utilisation of existing doctors, not under supply. The paper focuses on the literature on (1) mobility issues relating to geographical and sectoral imbalances, (2) incentive issues (monetary and non-monetary) relating to medical specialisation imbalance and (3) government regulation issues relating to geographical, sectoral and professional specialisation imbalances. The paper offers some suggestions to deal with the problem of supply imbalance. One of the key findings is that developed countries such as Australia cannot continue to rely on foreign-born overseas trained doctors to fill the gaps in supply. Hence, to solve the medical workforce crisis, Australia will have to increase the number of doctors being trained.

Socio-Economic Impact Of Social Ties On Community Care For Older Australians

Mounting pressure on government expenditure, from the needs of an ageing population, has led to the introduction of the Home and Community Care (HACC) programme, based upon the self-reliance principle. This programme may, however, disadvantage certain groups, as its success depends, in part on the informal support from family and friends. It is essential, therefore that we examine older Australians individual characteristics to help explain the levels of informal care and support presently available, as represented by the social network. Using a regression analysis of the information collected from 401 non-institutionalised older Gold Coast residents sampled in a household survey conducted in 1999, we test two hypotheses: 1. gender, education and household type explain levels of social network accessed by older people; 2. older males are more vulnerable than older females to the social network effect of living alone. Based on the findings of our study, we have concerns about the accessibility of the informal care and support (from family and friends) available for older men living alone as the level of the social network was the lowest for this group of older Australians.

Determinants Of Unionisation For Part-Time Women Employees In Australian Banks

Against the declining trend of Australian employees to join unions, unionisation of part-time female employees in the banking industry is relatively strong. For the finance and insurance industry in 2001, 30.3% of total part-time female employees were unionised compared to 25% of full-time female employees and 17.2% of full-time male employees. Overall, 22.3% of employees from this industry were members (ABS, 2002). Under freedom of association, what can influence an individual's decision to unionise? A survey was conducted on three major Australian banks in August 2000. We use a binary choice regression model to analyse personal and union-organising characteristics that significantly influence individual's decision to unionise. Previous membership under union preference provisions and earning relatively high wages would lead to a higher probability to join the union. Union's role in enterprise bargaining and whether union did anything to recruit have significant impact on individual decisions. Thus, part-time female employees are not unwilling to join when they recognise the need for job protection.

Deciphering the assembly of the Yersinia type III secretion injectisome

The assembly of the Yersinia enterocolitica type III secretion injectisome was investigated by grafting fluorescent proteins onto several components, YscC (outer-membrane (OM) ring), YscD (forms the inner-membrane (IM) ring together with YscJ), YscN (ATPase), and YscQ (putative C ring). The recombinant injectisomes were functional and appeared as fluorescent spots at the cell periphery. Epistasis experiments with the hybrid alleles in an array of injectisome mutants revealed a novel outside-in assembly order: whereas YscC formed spots in the absence of any other structural protein, formation of YscD foci required YscC, but not YscJ. We therefore propose that the assembly starts with YscC and proceeds through the connector YscD to YscJ, which was further corroborated by co-immunoprecipitation experiments. Completion of the membrane rings allowed the subsequent assembly of cytosolic components. YscN and YscQ attached synchronously, requiring each other, the interacting proteins YscK and YscL, but no further injectisome component for their assembly. These results show that assembly is initiated by the formation of the OM ring and progresses inwards to the IM ring and, finally, to a large cytosolic complex