Industry News

Federal Minister for Water, Tony Burke, has announced that his office will continue to work closely with the Murray Darling Basin Authority in releasing its final plan following an agreement with all Basin States.

Mr Burke’s announcement comes after South Australia, Victoria, the ACT and NSW reached consensus on the final details of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

“This latest agreed document gets us closer still to a genuine consensus position to reform of the Murray-Darling Basin,” Mr Burke said.

“This reform is all about delivering a healthy working basin for generations to come.

“While the Act would allow me move to the next stage where I have unilateral legal powers to direct changes, I have decided to continue to seek the final elements of a genuine consensus position over the coming weeks.

“Consensus has failed for a century so I don't rule out using these legal powers in the future.

“But if for the sake of a few more weeks we can get an agreed outcome, then I believe it's worth the continued effort.

“This additional consultation with the states does not in any way compromise my determination to have a plan in place this year.”

Mr Burke said there is strong support for a mechanism which allows the volume of held water to vary within limits in circumstances where water can be used more efficiently, whether that be environmental water or irrigation water.

“This puts the focus squarely on outcomes rather than volume,” he said.

"While every jurisdiction is actively engaged in finding ways to maximise environmental outcomes while minimising any negative impact on the communities, I don't want to stop that conversation short."

The Western Australian Government has released details of the Master plan for the new Perth stadium and surrounding sport and recreation precinct.

Premier Colin Barnett released a briefing on the key elements of the master plan that will deliver the integrated Burswood precinct, including a new pedestrian bridge to deliver fans from East Perth to the new stadium.

“The Burswood Peninsula location is a unique site that allows for the construction of the best stadium in Australia, along with an expansive sports and entertainment precinct for all West Australians,” Mr Barnett said.

In developing the master plan for the Burswood sports precinct, the following key principles were reflected:

• integrating land use and transport planning
• design flexibility, allowing for future major events at the new stadium
• stadium designed as a multi-purpose venue
• further developing Perth as a ‘river city’.

Sport and Recreation Minister Terry Waldron said in order to design a stadium which catered for the fans first, the master planning process had included input from a wide range of stakeholders, including the sporting bodies that would use the stadium.

“With careful planning, the State Government is ensuring the delivery of a world-class stadium in a sports precinct, which will provide sport and recreational opportunities for the whole year, not just on major event days at the venue,” he said.

The master plan includes a strategy to maximise public transport at major events, with a target of more than 80 per cent of fans using public transport.

The Western Australian Government has launched a plan to improve and maintain long-term water quality in the Hardy Inlet.

State Water Minister Bill Marmion released the Hardy Inlet Water Quality Improvement Plan Stage One – The Scott River Catchment, which he said was developed after extensive community and stakeholder consultation, bringing together scientific knowledge to improve and protect the estuary of the Blackwood and Scott rivers.

“The Hardy Inlet is an important habitat for migratory and resident birds and provides significant public amenity for recreational fishing, boating and eco-tourism,” Mr Marmion said.

“There is growing community concern about its water quality as changing land uses have led to increased nutrient loads. These can lead to algal blooms and fish deaths.

“Implementing plan recommendations, such as improved fertiliser management and greater investigation of nutrient hotspots, will contribute to the long-term protection of the inlet and improve agricultural efficiency in the Scott River catchment.”

The Minister acknowledged the importance of collaboration between community, industry, local government and landholder groups in developing the plan.

“It was also pleasing to see the willingness of Scott River growers to take on the actions set out in the plan,” he said.

The New South Wales Government has announced reform that will make it easier for Government-owned entities, local government and public universities to lodge security deposits to cover workers compensation obligations.

State Minister for Finance and Services, Greg Pearce, said the reform will free up millions of dollars for councils to spend on community projects.

“A total of $229 million is held in security deposits, mostly in the form of bank guarantees, which reduces the borrowing capacity of these entities for core activities,”  Mr Pearce said.

“Under the new reforms, for those self insured councils and public universities that have provided cash deposits for their security, the change in requirements will see the immediate release of a total of $5.7 million in funds currently held in respect of the Bankstown, Campbelltown, and Shoalhaven councils, and the University of Wollongong.

National workplace safety agency Comcare has released its sedentary work practices toolkit, a collection of information, guidance materials and templates that can help workplaces develop and apply a strategy to reduce prolonged sitting in the workplace.

Comcare has warned that prolonged sitting poses significant risks to the health of workers and the organisations they work for, including chronic disease and early death for workers and loss of productivity for organisations.

More information on the risks of sedentary work practices and cost-effective strategies to reduce risks and promote work health is below.

• Fact sheet: Implementing a program to reduce sedentary work practices—checklist
• Fact sheet: Strategies to help you stand up, sit less, move more
• Fact sheet: The business case for reducing sedentary work practices
• Poster: Healthy workplace tip—drink water, stand up
• Poster: Healthy workplace tip—stand during meetings
• Poster: The dangers of prolonged sitting

Australians are significantly less likely to claim GP visits for psychological illnesses on workers’ compensation than they are for physical work-related injuries, according to research conducted by the Institute for Safety, Compensation and Recovery Research (ISCRR).

Conducted in partnership with the University of Sydney, the research examined 486,000 GP visits around Australia between 2004 and 2009, with doctors recording whether the patient’s health problem was work-related and whether the visit was being claimed through worker’s compensation.

ISCRR’s Chief Research Officer, Dr Alex Collie, said that over 22 per cent of workers didn’t make compensation claims even though their GP had determined that the illness was work-related.

"There are a number of reasons we are seeing work-related conditions not being claimed," Dr Collie said.

"It could be that workers are less willing to claim for psychological conditions compared with physical conditions because of potential for stigma in the workplace. Workers' may also be unaware they can make a workers' compensation claim."

Location also seems to be a serious influence on whether a claim is made, with claims much more likely to be made in a city or inner regional area when compared to outer regional and remot regions.

Dr Helena Britt from the Family Medicine Research Centre at the University of Sydney said this was one of the first investigations into the nature of GP treated occupational health problems that are claimed and not claimed through workers' compensation.

"Assessment and management of work-related health problems are an important part of a GP's role. The BEACH dataset we used allows us to analyse the wide range of problems that GPs judge to be work related," she said.

Western Australia’s newly appointed head of resources safety, Simon Ridge, has been nominated for the Next Generation Mining Australia Summit’s Occupational Health and Safety Leader of 2012 Award.

State Mines and Petroleum Minister Norman Moore welcomed the announcement, saying it was well deserved.

“This nomination recognises Simon’s outstanding contribution to safety and reform in the Western Australian resources industry,” Mr Moore said.

“Simon, who is also the State Mining Engineer, has 16 years’ experience in WA mines safety and has been a central figure in the State Government’s reforms to resources safety for the WA mining industry.

“Simon was nominated by the event’s standing committee, an independent advisory board consisting of 20 mining leaders. He is one of 19 contenders for the award.”

The New South Wales Government has awarded its first goods and services contracts for of management fees after the State Government moved to roll out major changes to procurement processes which it says will save businesses millions of dollars.

State Minister for Finance and Services, Greg Pearce, said businesses supplying photocopiers and printers to government agencies would now no longer have to pay the 2.5 per cent contract fee.

“Earlier this year I announced the Government’s decision to remove costly management fees from NSW Government contracts saving  business  up to $15 million a year.

“In the past these fees have been paid to agencies handling the contract which is then passed on to NSW Procurement.

“Under the reforms, these fees are no longer necessary which mean big savings for business and less expense for the NSW Government,” he said.

Mr Pearce said the new contract, which covers the supply of office equipment such as printers and photocopiers, is the first not to include the fee.

“Government agencies purchased more than $40 million worth of these products over the last 12 months so this will result in huge savings for business,” he said.  “Under new arrangements, businesses supplying these products will  not be paying any unnecessary fees.

“Over the last year, the reforms have included the simplifying of terms and conditions in contract documents, and an overhaul of governance arrangements for procurement.

WorkSafe Victoria has completed its ‘Safe Towns’ workplace blitz in the state, issuing over 85 improvement notices to Shepparton small businesses.

WorkSafe Group Leader for Shepparton, Simon Brown, said it was good to see quite a few businesses had prepared for the inspections, but there was still room for improvement in some workplaces.

“It was pleasing that a number of employers took a proactive approach to the inspections, however we still saw a significant number of safety issues in some workplaces,” Mr Brown said.

“We’ll be conducting follow up visits in the coming weeks to ensure businesses have fixed the identified safety breaches and are providing a safe working environment for their workers.”

Common safety issues identified during the visits included inappropriate storage of dangerous goods and failing to have up-to-date material safety data sheets - documents that provide important information about hazardous substances onsite.

Other problems inspectors found in businesses included electrical issues on construction sites, inadequate systems in place to ensure separation of pedestrians from mobile plant, forklift hazards, issues with pallet racking and slip/trip hazards.

Federal Shadow Minister for Education Christopher Pyne has issued a statement denying the Coalition has any plans to increase university fees or cap places.

"Reports that this is being considered are wrong. In fact the Coalition strongly supported the uncapping of university places and many other elements of the Bradley Review,” Mr Pyne said.

“For example, only the Coalition supports bringing back full fee paying places for Australian domestic students, which are currently restricted to overseas students,” he said.

“This measure alone would give universities greater freedom to grow.

“While we welcome debate over the quality and standards in our Universities, we have no plans to increase fees or cap places,” Mr Pyne said.

The redevelopment of Asciano’s Port Botany operations is critical to improving efficiency and productivity Australian Logistics Council’s (ALC) Managing Director Michael Kilgariff has told a meeting of exports in Sydney.

The speech by Mr Kilgariff comes after port operator Asciano announced plans to invest $348 million to redevelop and expand its container terminal at Port Botany in a bid to transform the terminal into a world class and internationally competitive facility by 2014.

“ALC commends Asciano for its commitment to improve supply chain efficiency and for taking positive steps to prepare for future trade growth at the port,” Mr Kilgariff said.

“Asciano’s redevelopment and expansion plans are welcome news to every Australian business that relies on improved port efficiency and productivity to keep their costs down.”

The project will see capacity increase from 1.15 million to 1.6 million TEU per annum to meet trade growth forecasts, and follows the automation of Asciano’s Brisbane terminal that saw significant productivity and safety improvements.

“ALC looks forward to Asciano being able to roll out its redevelopment fully in due course,” Mr Kilgariff said. 

A new report released by Infrastructure Partnerships Australia has called on Infrastructure NSW to release a strategy to provide a detailed, ambitious and long-term vision to protect and corridors and prioritise the right projects to ensure sustainable growth.

“Infrastructure NSW must recapture the ambition of John Bradfield’s master plan of the 1920s and the discipline that saw the 1951 County of Cumberland Scheme protect corridors for Sydney’s contemporary road network,” said Brendan Lyon, Chief Executive of IPA.

“The Cumberland Scheme protected corridors for Sydney’s major motorways, some of which remain undelivered 60 years on. These plans reshaped Sydney and put in place the backbone of every subsequent government’s infrastructure plans through to the present day.

“Now, with most of the Cumberland Scheme delivered, we need again to look over the horizon and deliver a real and ambitious plan that reshapes the State over the next 50 years.

“If Infrastructure NSW gets its plan right, it will be remembered long after the individual projects that it recommends have faded in significance.

“Infrastructure NSW will look at projects for the next 20 years, but it must look longer-term in protecting land for potential projects, like High Speed Rail, future motorway corridors like the M9 and metro-style mass transit in Sydney and beyond.

The report can be found here

A report published by BIS Shrapnel shows that the country’s mining boom still has a few years left to run, with mining investment continuing to underpin activity of coming years.

The report found that the booming mining sector will continue to see the country’s GDP hover at around 3 per cent, before it tapers off and diversification of investment picks up the slack.

“Don’t panic. Mining investment will continue to grow, albeit more slowly, for a few years yet,” says BIS Shrapnel’s Chief Economist, Dr Frank Gelber.

The report found that Western Australia still has three years of projects under way, while Queensland has five years of development to go.

BIS Shrapnel forecasts have had a mid-decade downturn in mining investment forecasts for some time.

It’s the magnitude of the eventual downturn in mining investment that will determine the severity of the impact on the rest of the economy.

As mining investment peaks in 2014, and starts to decline, non-mining investment will stabilise and start to pick up, taking over as the engine of growth, and smoothing the transition.

But despite the solid signals from the sector, business is ‘still really tough’, with non-mining companies are struggling to secure growth by reducing costs, leading to substantial falls in investment.

The New South Wales Government has launched an ambitious two-year national research project aimed at identifying the gene mutations that lead to melanoma.

Launched the State Minister for Health and Medical Research, Jillian Skinner, launched the $5.5 million Australian Melanoma Genome Project, which will work towards identifying effective treatments for patients based on individual melanomas.

The NSW Government is committed to investing in high quality medical research and I am pleased to join the Commonwealth Government, Cancer Council NSW, The Cancer Institute NSW and a large number of private donors to support this important project,” Mrs Skinner said.

“Sadly, melanoma is the most common cancer in young people aged 15 to 39 and though it represents only two per cent of all skin cancers in Australia, it is responsible for about 80 per cent of skin cancer-related deaths.

“It is for this reason that the NSW Government has committed $500,000 towards the initiative, which has been coordinated by Melanoma Institute Australia to encourage greater knowledge and understanding about treatment of the disease.

Executive Director of Melanoma Institute Australia, Professor John Thompson, welcomed the funding, saying it will be key to conducting further research in the field.

“It will allow us to expedite this important research and deliver meaningful outcomes to the people in our community who need it most. We would be surprised if this work does not translate into a major extension of life for thousands of people worldwide with melanoma,” Professor Thompson said.

The Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA) has welcomed a report by a Senate Inquiry into rural health, saying it has provided a ‘ringing endorsement’  of policies put forward by the Association.

Dr Paul Mara, President of the RDAA, thanked the members of the Senate Inquiry.

“Finally someone is listening,” Dr Mara said.

“For years we’ve been trying to explain to the government why the current policies just don’t work, but they just haven’t got the message.”

“This ASGC-RA system is fatally flawed and instead of doing what it is supposed to do, rewarding doctors for working in rural practice, it is doing the opposite and actually costing some towns their medical services,” Dr Mara said.

Key findings from the inquiry, The factors affecting the supply of health services and medical professionals in rural areas, include:

• Replacement of the current ASGC-RA system
• Calls for increased numbers of rural generalist GPs
• More rural placement opportunities for prevocational training
• Extend HECS rebates to allied health disciplines
• Strategies around increased intakes of rural students into training courses
• Additional support (eg locums) for rural GPs who are providing training

“It was great to see the committee recognise the importance of rural generalists to rural and remote communities,” Dr Mara said.

“These rural doctors have advanced skills training in areas such as obstetrics, anaesthetics, surgery and mental health.”

“We look forward to working further with both the Government and the COAG Reform Council, as suggested by the Senate Committee, to help develop these policies.”

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has released a report that finds that traditional analysis of causes of death in Australia can lead to constant underestimation of the contribution of some chronic diseases.

The Multiple causes of death: an analysis of all natural selected chronic disease causes of death uses multiple causes of death statistics, for the first time, to describe patterns of chronic disease mortality in Australia. Multiple causes of death occur when two or more diseases or conditions are reported as contributing to a death.

“Some chronic diseases are more likely to be reported as an associated cause of death, rather than the main cause of death,” said AIHW spokesperson Ann Hunt.

“Traditional analysis ignores associated causes of death, and so underestimates the contribution of diseases such as chronic kidney failure, diabetes, asthma, dementia and Alzheimer diseases and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to deaths in Australia.”

On average, three diseases contributed to each death due to natural causes in Australia in 2007, and only 20% of these deaths were due to a single disease.

“The report also shows an increase in the number of deaths where five or more causes contributed-up from 11% to 21% between 1997 and 2007,” Ms Hunt said.

People aged 60-89 years, had the highest average number of diseases causing death, more so than younger people and the very old.

For deaths involving some chronic diseases, coronary heart disease (CHD), hypertensive diseases and diabetes were leading contributing causes.

New research conducted by housing researcher Macromonitor has found that the undersupply of housing in Australia is significantly smaller than previously thought.

The new Australian Construction Outlook – Residential Building report predicts a weak upturn in residential building over the coming years, with a much lower peak than past cycles.

The report concludes that a downward revision of the population by almost 300,000, coupled with changes in household formation behavior revealed by the 2011 Census, means that demand for housing is ‘substantially lower than previously estimated’.

The report’s author, Macromonitor Director Nigel Hatcher, says, “We now know that any housing shortage which exists in Australia is relatively small, and so a major boom in housing markets over the next few years is highly unlikely.”

“While there is some degree of undersupply in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, there are also pockets of considerable oversupply, particularly in Victoria, South Australia and the ACT,” says Hatcher.

Macromonitor is forecasting an increase in the number of dwelling starts over the next three years of around 18%, peaking at just over 160,000 dwellings in 2014/15. The upturn is expected to be concentrated in just three states, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia. A decline is forecast in 2015/16.

Grain handling giant CBH has launched its new $175 million fleet of locomotives and wagons to service the $5 billion Western Australian grain sector.

The 22 new locomotives, each named after historic rail sidings across the WA wheatbelt, and 574 new purpose-built wagons represent the first dedicated new grain rail fleet to arrive in the state for over 30 years.

CBH General Manager Operations Colin Tutt said today marks two years of dedication and hard work to bring the dream of growers owning their own rail fleet to life and also marks the beginning of a very proud chapter in the history of the CBH Group and the WA grain industry.

"We will go from strength to strength this year as each train is commissioned and growers see more tonnes moving to port more efficiently," Mr Tutt said.

"The trains have state-of-the-art technology and across the fleet we'll have more horsepower to achieve faster journeys to port and faster turnaround times at sites.

"The locomotives have distributed power which means they can push and pull, allowing us to operate more efficiently and be far more productive.  This coupled with our new light-weight aluminium wagons will revitalise rail in Western Australia."

Western Australian Agriculture and Food Minister Terry Redman said welcomed CBH’s investment, saying it’clearly demonstrates’ its confidence in the future of the state’s grains sector.

“This investment, combined with a State Government contribution of $187.9million to help replace line sleepers and upgrade rail sidings, will ensure WA has the infrastructure needed to efficiently move grain from the regions to our ports and then to vital export markets,” Mr Redman said.

The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) has announced the first round of skilled migrants invited to formally apply of visas under the Federal Government’s new SkillSelect service.

Doctors, dentists, nurses, engineers and ICT professionals dominated the first round, with financial services professionals also making a significant portion of the first cohort.

“This is an excellent result for the economy, employers, and ultimately for Australia,” a spokesman from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) said.

“SkillSelect helps to ensure the skilled migration program is based on the economic needs of Australia. It supports the government in managing who can apply for skilled migration, when they can apply and in what numbers.”

So far, over 10,000 skilled people have completed expressions of interest (EOI) forms through the service since it went live at the start of July.

Earlier this month, the first automated invitation round for skilled independent (90 visas) and skilled regional family-sponsored (10 visas) was completed. 

The lowest points score invited was 75 points in both the skilled independent and skilled family sponsored visas.  This is significantly above the 60 point pass mark, and demonstrates the quality of the skilled people interested in migrating to Australia, and the benefits of selecting only the best.

Full details of the first round of SkillSelect visa invitations are available at www.skillselect.gov.au.

More information on first round offers and statistics can be found here 

The National Broadband Network Co (NBN Co) has confirmed the small South Australian town of Ceduna as the site of the next NBN satellite ground station.

The stations form the essential infrastructure backbone of the NBN’s Long Term Satellite Service, which will, together with fixed wireless, provide 7 per cent of the NBN’s total coverage.

“The ground station will employ between 20 and 30 people in the local Ceduna area during its construction, which is expected to begin early next year with the facility to be operational by 2015,”  Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Senator Stephen Conroy said.

While in South Australia, Senator Conroy also inspected construction at a new NBN deployment site which will provide vital NBN infrastructure to the state.

The NBN Co Technical Aggregation Node and Deployment (TAND) site being built in the suburb of Green Fields will support fibre network construction, training, and NBN maintenance for much of South Australia. It will also be an integral part of NBN Co’s fibre network, helping create more retail competition and better broadband prices for South Australians.

“The construction of the TAND is another sign that the NBN is already delivering jobs and better broadband to South Australia. The TAND will employ around 22 permanent staff - part of an estimated 16,000 to 18,000 jobs that will be created by the rollout of the NBN across Australia,” Senator Conroy said.