Unpacking the income of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians: wages, government payments and other income

Abstract: This paper compares the level and source of income for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians using data from the 2011 wave of the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. Three sources of income are considered: wages and salaries; government benefits; and income from businesses, investments and other private transfers. Consistent with many previous studies, Indigenous Australians have, on average, lower total income than non-Indigenous Australians, with this difference being largest for those who are full-time employed. The difference is also larger for males than females. In terms of non-wage income, Indigenous men and women receive a much smaller proportion of income from other sources than their non-Indigenous counterparts (primarily business and investment income). This is particularly the case for those who are not in the labour force (NILF). Correspondingly, government benefits constitute a higher proportion of income for the Indigenous population than for the non-Indigenous population. This is true for both males and females, and for all labour force statuses, although the difference is largest for part-time employed and those who are NILF. Given that Indigenous people are also more likely to be unemployed than non-Indigenous people, they are more likely to be dependent solely on government payments as a source of income at any one time. The implications of these findings are discussed, as well as directions for future research

The economic impact of the mining boom on Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians

This paper examines changes in Indigenous employment, income and housing costs to identify any localised ‘resource curse’ for Indigenous communities and the Australian population at large. Abstract Until the global financial crisis reduced Australian economic growth in late 2008, Indigenous employment had been increasing in both absolute and relative terms for over a decade. The effect of the international economic contraction has been mitigated by Australia’s booming mining sector, largely due to China’s growing demand for resources. Given that a substantial number of mining operations are on or near Indigenous land, the increase in mining investment may have disproportionately affected Indigenous communities. There are concerns that, in remote mining areas, the increases in housing costs generated by the mining boom mean that anyone who does not work in the mining industry, particularly those who rely on government benefits, will find it harder to afford housing. Localised inflationary tendencies can also affect people employed outside the mining sector, but one would expect that scarcity in the labour market would drive up wages in both mining and non‑mining jobs. This paper examines changes in Indigenous employment, income and housing costs to identify any localised ‘resource curse’ for Indigenous communities and the Australian population at large. The paper draws on data from recent censuses, the geographic location of mines and mining investment to identify some potentially important effects of the mining boom on Indigenous communities. The main finding is that the mining boom has improved employment and income outcomes, but increased average housing costs. While the average increase in income has generally offset the increase in costs, there is some evidence that housing stress for low-income households has increased as a result of the mining boom

Labour Market Outcomes

While recent research has found that there has been a substantial increase in Indigenous mainstream employment since the mid-1990s, there has been relatively little regional analysis of mainstream employment or the extent to which the nature of Indigenous employment has altered in what has been a period of substantial change in the Australian labour market. The aim of this paper is to build on the existing research using the 2006 and 2011 Censuses to provide a more disaggregated analysis of any changes in the nature of labour market outcomes for Indigenous Australians. One of the new findings in this paper is that the employment of Indigenous youth (15?24 years) in remote areas is lower than that of Indigenous youth in non-remote areas, but older Indigenous residents in remote and non-remote areas have more similar employment rates. While the mining boom has had a positive impact on some Indigenous people, in national terms the vast majority of the increases in Indigenous employment between 2006 and 2011 have been in other industries. There is no magic bullet in closing the employment gap between Indigenous and other Australians. Policy needs to facilitate Indigenous participation in the mainstream economy by assisting Indigenous people to be work-ready, especially improving the skills of the Indigenous population so that they are matched to those required by employers.The analysis in the series was funded by the Commonwealth Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) through the Strategic Research Project as well as FaHCSIA and State/Territory governments through the Indigenous Populations Project

The influence of selected elements of service quality provided by Chinese fine-dining restaurants in Port Elizabeth

A good understanding of customer expectations is very important to service providers. Since the Chinese first came to South Africa and started their restaurant businesses. Chinese fine-dining restaurants have become more and more popular. Identifying the customer expectations and Chinese fine-dining restaurant owner perceptions will help Chinese service providers to understand better the restaurant businesses. To ensure the development of the Chinese restaurant business in South Africa, it is very important to understand what South African customers want, whether there are differences between the Chinese restaurant owner perceptions of the service quality and South African customer expectations of the service quality. This would depend on the customers’ preferences, and provide a positive contribution to customer decision-making. Therefore, it is essential to understand and identify what is customer expectations are, what the management perceptions are and the differences between them. 5 In order to achieve the objectives of the research, the following approach was followed: Factors that influence the customer expectations and management perceptions are explained. Five factors used to measure the service quality of Chinese fine-dining restaurants are identified, namely reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, tangibility. The responses to the questionnaire were collected and analysed to determine the extent to which factors are both important to customer expectations and management perceptions

A systematic review and behaviour change technique analysis of remotely delivered alcohol and/or substance misuse interventions for adults

© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)Background: There has been a lack of systematic exploration of remotely delivered intervention content and their effectiveness for behaviour change outcomes. This review provides a synthesis of the behaviour change techniques (BCT) contained in remotely delivered alcohol and/or substance misuse approaches and their association with intervention promise. Methods: Searches in MEDLINE, Scopus, PsycINFO (ProQuest), and the Cochrane Library, included studies reporting remote interventions focusing on alcohol and/or substance misuse among adults, with a primary behaviour change outcome (e.g., alcohol levels consumed). Assessment of risk of bias, study promise, and BCT coding was conducted. Synthesis focussed on the association of BCTs with intervention effectiveness using promise ratios. Results: Studies targeted alcohol misuse (52 studies) or substance misuse (10 studies), with predominantly randomised controlled trial designs and asynchronous digital approaches. For alcohol misuse studies, 16 were very promising, 17 were quite promising, and 13 were not promising. Of the 36 eligible BCTs, 28 showed potential promise, with seven of these only appearing in very or quite promising studies. Particularly promising BCTs were ‘Avoidance/reducing exposure to cues for behaviour’, ‘Pros and cons’ and ‘Self-monitoring of behaviour’. For substance misuse studies, three were very promising and six were quite promising, with all 12 BCTs showing potential promise. Conclusions: This review showed remotely delivered alcohol and substance misuse interventions can be effective and highlighted a range of BCTs that showed promise for improving services. However, concerns with risk of bias and the potential of promise ratios to inflate effectiveness warrant caution in interpreting the evidence.Peer reviewe

Integration of adaptation and mitigation in climate change and forest policies in Indonesia and Vietnam

Forests play a major role in both climate change mitigation and adaptation, but few policies, if any, integrate these two aspects. Using Indonesia and Vietnam as case studies, we identify challenges at the national level but opportunities at the local level. Although both countries demonstrate political commitment to integrating adaptation and mitigation in their development plans, guidelines for policy and planning treat the two approaches separately. The main challenges identified are lack of knowledge, lack of political will, lack of financial incentives, and fragmentation of mandates and tasks of different government agencies. In contrast, at the local level, integration of mitigation and adaptation is facilitated by subnational autonomy, where mitigation projects might have adaptation co-benefits, and vice versa. Our results also show that many actors have a dual mandate that could bridge adaptation and mitigation if appropriate political and financial incentives are put in place. Successful integration of mitigation and adaptation policies would not only remove contradictions between policies, but also encourage governments that are designing domestic policies to exploit the potential for positive spillovers and realize the benefits of both approaches

Whole-genome sequencing reveals host factors underlying critical COVID-19

Critical COVID-19 is caused by immune-mediated inflammatory lung injury. Host genetic variation influences the development of illness requiring critical care1 or hospitalization2–4 after infection with SARS-CoV-2. The GenOMICC (Genetics of Mortality in Critical Care) study enables the comparison of genomes from individuals who are critically ill with those of population controls to find underlying disease mechanisms. Here we use whole-genome sequencing in 7,491 critically ill individuals compared with 48,400 controls to discover and replicate 23 independent variants that significantly predispose to critical COVID-19. We identify 16 new independent associations, including variants within genes that are involved in interferon signalling (IL10RB and PLSCR1), leucocyte differentiation (BCL11A) and blood-type antigen secretor status (FUT2). Using transcriptome-wide association and colocalization to infer the effect of gene expression on disease severity, we find evidence that implicates multiple genes—including reduced expression of a membrane flippase (ATP11A), and increased expression of a mucin (MUC1)—in critical disease. Mendelian randomization provides evidence in support of causal roles for myeloid cell adhesion molecules (SELE, ICAM5 and CD209) and the coagulation factor F8, all of which are potentially druggable targets. Our results are broadly consistent with a multi-component model of COVID-19 pathophysiology, in which at least two distinct mechanisms can predispose to life-threatening disease: failure to control viral replication; or an enhanced tendency towards pulmonary inflammation and intravascular coagulation. We show that comparison between cases of critical illness and population controls is highly efficient for the detection of therapeutically relevant mechanisms of disease

Omecamtiv mecarbil in chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, GALACTIC‐HF: baseline characteristics and comparison with contemporary clinical trials

Aims: The safety and efficacy of the novel selective cardiac myosin activator, omecamtiv mecarbil, in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) is tested in the Global Approach to Lowering Adverse Cardiac outcomes Through Improving Contractility in Heart Failure (GALACTIC‐HF) trial. Here we describe the baseline characteristics of participants in GALACTIC‐HF and how these compare with other contemporary trials. Methods and Results: Adults with established HFrEF, New York Heart Association functional class (NYHA) ≥ II, EF ≤35%, elevated natriuretic peptides and either current hospitalization for HF or history of hospitalization/ emergency department visit for HF within a year were randomized to either placebo or omecamtiv mecarbil (pharmacokinetic‐guided dosing: 25, 37.5 or 50 mg bid). 8256 patients [male (79%), non‐white (22%), mean age 65 years] were enrolled with a mean EF 27%, ischemic etiology in 54%, NYHA II 53% and III/IV 47%, and median NT‐proBNP 1971 pg/mL. HF therapies at baseline were among the most effectively employed in contemporary HF trials. GALACTIC‐HF randomized patients representative of recent HF registries and trials with substantial numbers of patients also having characteristics understudied in previous trials including more from North America (n = 1386), enrolled as inpatients (n = 2084), systolic blood pressure < 100 mmHg (n = 1127), estimated glomerular filtration rate < 30 mL/min/1.73 m2 (n = 528), and treated with sacubitril‐valsartan at baseline (n = 1594). Conclusions: GALACTIC‐HF enrolled a well‐treated, high‐risk population from both inpatient and outpatient settings, which will provide a definitive evaluation of the efficacy and safety of this novel therapy, as well as informing its potential future implementation