2015 Queensland state election: an overview

Executive summary This paper provides an overview of the issues and outcomes for the January 2015 election for the Queensland Legislative Assembly. Where appropriate, it draws on the Library’s earlier publication on the 2012 Queensland state election. The 2015 Queensland state election result surprised many observers with the dramatic shift in the fortunes of the two major parties. The Australian Labor Party (ALP), having lost government at the 2012 election and retaining just seven seats, emerged with 44 of the 89 seats with a swing of 10.8 per cent. The Liberal National Party (LNP), which had won a record majority of 78 of the 89 seats at the 2012 state election, experienced a swing of 8.3 per cent against it with its seats reduced to 42. Of the remaining seats, two were won by Katter’s Australian Party and one by Independent Peter Wellington. The election outcome was initially unclear when it was revealed that a Palmer United Party candidate was ineligible as a result of being an undischarged bankrupt. Electoral Commission Queensland (ECQ) indicated that it would refer the Ferny Grove election result to the Court of Disputed Returns but subsequently decided not to proceed based on legal advice, paving the way for the ALP to form minority government with the support of an Independent. Several key issues emerged during the election campaign including political financing, privatisation and asset sales, the impact of mining on the Great Barrier Reef and anti-association laws. Other events also overshadowed the election, including two defamation cases involving Premier Campbell Newman, a Senate Select Committee into the Queensland Government’s administration of Commonwealth funds, and leadership issues in the Queensland and Commonwealth Governments. The incoming ALP minority government led by Annastacia Palaszczuk features several milestones in Australian and Queensland political history, including: the first Australian ministry with a majority of women the first female state opposition leader to lead her party to victory the second all-female elected leadership team in Australia Queensland’s first female Attorney-General and the first Indigenous woman MP in the Queensland Parliament and Queensland’s first Indigenous minister

Medical-legal partnerships: the role of mental health providers and legal authorities in the development of a coordinated approach to supporting mental health clients\u27 legal needs in regional and rural settings

INTRODUCTION: Medical-legal partnerships (MLP) are a model in which medical and legal practitioners are co-located and work together to support the health and wellbeing of individuals by identifying and resolving legal issues that impact patients\u27 health and wellbeing. The aim of this article is to analyse the benefits of this model, which has proliferated in the USA, and its applicability in the context of rural and remote Australia. METHODS: This review was undertaken with three research questions in mind: What is an MLP? Is service provision for individuals with mental health concerns being adequately addressed by current service models particularly in the rural context? Are MLPs a service delivery channel that would benefit individuals experiencing mental health issues? RESULTS: The combined searches from all EBSCO Host databases resulted in 462 citations. This search aggregated academic journals, newspapers, book reviews, magazines and trade publications. After several reviews 38 papers were selected for the final review based on their relevance to this review question: How do MLPs support mental health providers and legal service providers in the development of a coordinated approach to supporting mental health clients\u27 legal needs in regional and rural Australia? CONCLUSIONS: There is considerable merit in pursuing the development of MLPs in rural and remote Australia particularly as individuals living in rural and remote areas have far fewer opportunities to access support services than those people living in regional and metropolitan locations. MLPS are important channels of service delivery to assist in early invention of legal problems that can exacerbate mental health problems

Affordances for Science Learning in “Bush Kinders”

The European forest kindergarten movement has recently translated into an Australian ‘bush kinder’ approach. The affordances of bush kindergarten settings with relation to the science experienced through play has not been previously investigated. This pilot project followed three kindergartens in South Eastern Australia using a bush kindergarten approach. A phenomenographic case study approach was used, in which data consisted of observations of ‘science learning through play’ during bush kinder sessions and educator interviews. Using interactive video interviews, educators were asked to comment on their perceptions of the science that formed children’s play. Findings suggest that the bush kinder environment enables children to experience and improve their understanding of a range of science ideas, however, there is an impact in the scope of children’s learning based on the educator scaffolding. It is argued here that bush kinder provides affordances for science learning and makes an important contribution to science education

Commonwealth Members of Parliament who have served in war: the Second World War

Introduction This paper chronicles Commonwealth Members of Parliament (MPs) who are identified as having engaged in active service in the Australian Defence Forces during the Second World War, based on the Department of Veterans’ Affairs World War 2 Nominal Roll. The list contains 164 parliamentarians: 125 Members of the House of Representatives and 44 Senators, five of whom served in both chambers (Don Chipp, John Gorton, David Hamer, George Rankin and Keith Wilson). It includes: four future Prime Ministers (John Gorton, Harold Holt, William McMahon and Gough Whitlam) four Speakers of the House of Representatives (Archie Cameron, William Aston, John McLeay and Billy Snedden) five Presidents of the Senate (Edward Mattner, Alister McMullin, Magnus Cormack, Justin O’Byrne and Douglas McClelland) nine men who served in the war effort while at the same time sitting in Parliament (Adair Blain, Max Falstein, George Bowden, Thomas Burke, Archie Cameron, William Hutchinson, Harold Holt, George Rankin and Thomas White) and 12 MPs who were prisoners-of-war (Charles Anderson, Kenneth Anderson, Adair Blain, George Branson, John Carrick, Alexander Downer, Wilfred Kent Hughes, Justin O’Byrne, Thomas Pearsall, Reginald Swartz, Winton Turnbull and Tom Uren)

The role of ecological linkage mechanisms in plasmodium knowlesi transmission and spread

Defining the linkages between landscape change, disease ecology and human health is essential to explain and predict the emergence of Plasmodium knowlesi malaria, a zoonotic parasite residing in Southeast Asian macaques, and transmitted by species of Anopheles mosquitos. Changing patterns of land use throughout Southeast Asia, particularly deforestation, are suggested to be the primary drivers behind the recent spread of this zoonotic parasite in humans. Local ecological changes at the landscape scale appear to be increasing the risk of disease in humans by altering the dynamics of transmission between the parasite and its primary hosts. This paper will focus on the emergence of P. knowlesi in humans in Malaysian Borneo and the ecological linkage mechanisms suggested to be playing an important role

Defining the ecological and evolutionary drivers of Plasmodium knowlesi transmission within a multi-scale framework

Plasmodium knowlesi is a zoonotic malaria parasite normally residing in long-tailed and pig-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis and Macaca nemestrina, respectively) found throughout Southeast Asia. Recently, knowlesi malaria has become the predominant malaria affecting humans in Malaysian Borneo, being responsible for approximately 70% of reported cases. Largely as a result of anthropogenic land use changes in Borneo, vectors which transmit the parasite, along with macaque hosts, are both now frequently found in disturbed forest habitats, or at the forest fringes, thus having more frequent contact with humans. Having access to human hosts provides the parasite with the opportunity to further its adaption to the human immune system. The ecological drivers of the transmission and spread of P. knowlesi are operating over many different spatial (and, therefore, temporal) scales, from the molecular to the continental. Strategies to prevent and manage zoonoses, such as P. knowlesi malaria require interdisciplinary research exploring the impact of land use change and biodiversity loss on the evolving relationship between parasite, reservoir hosts, vectors, and humans over multiple spatial scales

Disrupting the cortical actin cytoskeleton points to two distinct mechanisms of yeast [PSI+] prion formation

Mammalian and fungal prions arise de novo; however, the mechanism is poorly understood in molecular terms. One strong possibility is that oxidative damage to the non-prion form of a protein may be an important trigger influencing the formation of its heritable prion conformation. We have examined the oxidative stress-induced formation of the yeast [PSI+] prion, which is the altered conformation of the Sup35 translation termination factor. We used tandem affinity purification (TAP) and mass spectrometry to identify the proteins which associate with Sup35 in a tsa1 tsa2 antioxidant mutant to address the mechanism by which Sup35 forms the [PSI+] prion during oxidative stress conditions. This analysis identified several components of the cortical actin cytoskeleton including the Abp1 actin nucleation promoting factor, and we show that deletion of the ABP1 gene abrogates oxidant-induced [PSI+] prion formation. The frequency of spontaneous [PSI+] prion formation can be increased by overexpression of Sup35 since the excess Sup35 increases the probability of forming prion seeds. In contrast to oxidant-induced [PSI+] prion formation, overexpression-induced [PSI+] prion formation was only modestly affected in an abp1 mutant. Furthermore, treating yeast cells with latrunculin A to disrupt the formation of actin cables and patches abrogated oxidant-induced, but not overexpression-induced [PSI+] prion formation, suggesting a mechanistic difference in prion formation. [PIN+], the prion form of Rnq1, localizes to the IPOD (insoluble protein deposit) and is thought to influence the aggregation of other proteins. We show Sup35 becomes oxidized and aggregates during oxidative stress conditions, but does not co-localize with Rnq1 in an abp1 mutant which may account for the reduced frequency of [PSI+] prion formation