Industry News

The first trial of a treatment allowing doctors to insert a fully repositionable replacement heart valve without the need for open-heart surgery has been successfully conducted at a Melbourne hospital.

Doctors at the Monash Medical Centre heart unit, known as MonashHeart, saved the lives of 11 elderly women who were suffering from aortic stenosis, the degrading and narrowing of the main heart valve.

A team of cardiologists and surgeons, led by MonashHeart director Professor Ian Meredith, inserted a replacement heart valve, on the end of a wire, through a small hole in the groin of the women, who were too frail to undergo the invasive open-heart surgery often given to younger patients with the condition.

Dubbed a ‘lotus valve’, the valve opens up like a flower once inside the heart, and can be easily repositioned. The trial, which reported a 100 per cent success rate, promises to help save the lives of senior patients around the world.

Professor Meredith, from the Department of Medicine at Monash University, said the prognosis for elderly aortic stenosis patients was usually about the same as people with advanced forms of cancer.

"When you have severe aortic valve narrowing and you become breathless as a consequence of that, more than half the people won't survive 12 months," Professor Meredith said.

"Only about a third will survive up to two years."

Professor Meredith said he would now lead a wider, international trial of the lotus heart valve device.

"This will have a significant impact on patients all around the world because this is a very common problem in the elderly," Professor Meredith said.

Sixteen facilities in four countries will take part in the new trial.

The Monash Medical Centre is part the Department of Medicine at Monash University. Established in 2007, MonashHeart is an amalgamation of the former Departments of Cardiology of Monash Medical Centre, Clayton and Dandenong Hospital.

The Queensland Government has announced the formation of the State’s new Skills and Training Taskforce, which will be responsible for developing a roadmap for the state’s vocational education and training sector.

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman announced Michael Roche, Chief Executive Officer of the Queensland Resources Council would lead the Skills and Training Taskforce, and be joined by other key industry and business leaders as well as public and private training providers.

“Mr Roche will work with members from other key Queensland industry sectors including construction, agriculture and tourism to overhaul the State’s training sector and meet current skills shortages and future skills needs,” Premier Newman said.

“Strengthening our vocational education and training (VET) sector is a key part of delivering on my Government’s commitments by ensuring we have a skilled and productive workforce.”

Mr Newman said all taskforce members were experts in their fields and were well-placed to bring renewed vigour to the diverse skills and training landscape.

The Skills and Training Taskforce members are:

Members:

The appointed members are:

• Michael Roche, Queensland Resources Council (Chair)
• Daniel Gschwind, Queensland Tourism Industry Council
• Warwick Temby, Housing Industry Association
• Matthew Martyn-Jones, Australian Industry Group
• Alex Livingstone, Growcom
• Gary Black, National Retail Association
• Pat McKendry, Careers Australia Group
• Claire Field, Australian Council for Private Education and Training
• Michael Ravbar, Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union

Official Members:

Official members include representatives of key Government agencies, as follows:

• Julie Grantham, Director-General, Department of Education, Training and Employment
• Jon Grayson, Director-General, Department of the Premier and Cabinet
• Helen Gluer, Under Treasurer, Department of Treasury and Trade

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman has issued an ominous warning to the state’s public sector, saying the State Government employs roughly 20,000 more public servants than the state can afford to employ.

Mr Newman’s ominous warning comes a week after the Queensland Commission of Audit released its interim report into the state of Queensland’s financial position, painting a bleak picture of Queensland’s finances.

Premier Newman blamed the previous government on the blowout to the public sector, saying that it relied heavily on debt to finance its growth.

While no cuts have yet been identified by the Government, the State Opposition says that up to 55,000 positions are under risk. 

The Federal Government has announced approval of Western Australia’s compliance and enforcement plan to protect the state’s water sources from illegal use.

State Water Minister Bill Marmion said the integration of the State’s compliance and enforcement plan with a national framework would provide the State with extra resources for its increased efforts in this important area of operations.

WA’s implementation plan for the National Framework for Compliance and Enforcement Systems for Water Resource Management was recently approved by the Federal Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities Tony Burke.

“This will complement the actions the State Government has already taken to strengthen its compliance and enforcement systems,” Mr Marmion said.

“The plan’s approval validates the measures we are taking to toughen up on compliance and enforcement by allowing us to allocate extra resources to an area of water resource management that hasn’t been a priority under previous governments.

“The Department of Water licenses more than 2,700GL of the State’s water to service providers, industry, business and community organisations for a range of purposes including providing drinking water, growing food, manufacturing goods and maintaining parks and sports grounds.

“To ensure management decisions are followed on the ground, the State has recognised the need to better identify and penalise water users who want to go outside the State’s water laws.

The Federal Government has passed its Shipping Industry Reform legislative package through Parliament, enabling a number of major maritime reforms to go ahead.

The Bills passed by Parliament include:

• Coastal Trading (Revitalising Australian Shipping) Bill;
• Coastal Trading (Revitalising Australian Shipping) (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill;
• Shipping Registration Amendment (Australian International Shipping Register) Bill;
• Shipping Reform (Tax Incentives) Bill; and
• Tax Laws Amendment (Shipping Reforms) Bill.

“In the past decade the Australian fleet has gone from 55 ships to 21, with only four operating on international routes,” Minister for Transport Anthony Albanese said.

“Our reforms put in place a zero tax rate for Australian shipping companies, along with a suite of other fiscal measures, ensuring that Australian ships will be able to compete against their international competitors on a level playing field.” 

Environmental conservation group Friends of the Earth (FoE) has released a report investigating the risks and impacts associated with pesticides in Melbourne’s drinking supply. The report focuses on the city’s Sugarloaf Reservoir, which supplies 1.5 million Melbournians, which, according to the FoE, has recorded 31 positive pesticide samples.

The report found herbicides Atrazine and Simazine both being detected above European Guideline levels and levels which have been determined to impact on hormones.

An independent study published in 2011 also found more than 40 pesticides in the Yarra River catchment upstream of the offtake to Sugarloaf Reservoir, many of which were at levels that may impact on the ecology of the river.

“This is a real concern, not only for the people drinking the water, but also for the ecological health of the Yarra itself” said FoE spokesperson Anthony Amis.

“The Yarra should not be treated like an agricultural drain, it has unique attributes that require urgent protection measures. Possibly no other river in Australia has had as many pesticides detected in it, as the Yarra has in the past few years.

“Our fear is that pesticides may have been pumped from the Yarra River since 1980, yet the treatment plant has not had the capacity to properly filter out these residues. Of particular concern would have also been the insecticide Dieldrin commonly used in the 1980's.”

The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) of New South Wales has announced Sydney Water’s prices for the four years to June 2016, with the prices determined to go up by less than the inflation rate over the period.

This means the combined water and wastewater bill for a typical residential household (using 200 kL of water a year) is proposed to decrease before inflation by $29 (or 2.6%) by 2016. If inflation is 2.5% a year, customer bills will still only rise by $72 by 2016.

Sydney Water Managing Director Kevin Young said the company accepted the price determination.

“We know there are pressures facing customers and we intend to do all we can to ensure costs are kept low,” Mr Young said.

“IPART has set us a challenging target of making $173 million of operating efficiencies across the organisation, and we are already making changes to meet this.”

 IPART has also introduced new price structures in its determination. Sydney Water welcomes any changes that mean fairer and more transparent pricing for customers.

Melbourne Water has announced a price freeze following a huge public backlash following its attempts to recoup $306 million in lost funds through a $88 per year per customer price hike.

The price hike was a direct result of the beleaguered Wonthaggi desalination plant, which ongoing delay has contributed an ongoing price blowout in the project.

The State Government bowed to increased public pressure by forcing Melbourne Water to cancel its planned price hike that would have resulted in a 10 per cent increase starting from July.

However, it is not entirely clear how long it will take for customers who have been wrongly credited.

“We understand that customers are concerned about the over recovery of desalination funds in 2011-12 to 2012-13 due to delays in the completion of the Victorian desalination plant, and are keenly interested in how this money will be returned,” the company said in a statement last week. 

The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) has urged the Federal Government to conduct modeling for an increase to 4,000 gigalitres, saying that failure to do so would limit the capacity to understand the trade-offs of a lower environmental flow.

“In its current form, the Basin Plan does not provide enough water to reach many Ramsar listed wetlands and ecologically significant floodplains,” ACF Healthy Ecosystems Program Manager Paul Sinclair said.

Despite the likely increase in funding for environmental works and infrastructure, Dr Sinclair said only an actual increase in environmental flow can increase the health of the ecosystem.

“It’s wrong to think environmental works and measures can somehow offset the amount of water needed to restore the Basin’s rivers and wetlands to health,” Dr Sinclair said.

“In some cases, environmental works and measures can supplement environmental flows but they are no substitute for delivering actual water.”

The Victorian Government has launched a new $24.8 million program aimed at encouraging manufacturers to invest in new technology to boost productivity and competitiveness of the state’s manufacturing sector.

Launching the Investing in Manufacturing Technology (IMT), State Minister for Manufacturing Richard Dalla-Riva said the program would provide grants of up to $250,000 to support the uptake of leading technologies and practices.

Mr Dalla-Riva said the program is aimed at offsetting the increased pressures from the high Australian dollar and growing costs.

"There is great resilience in the Victorian manufacturing sector, and I was pleased to see manufacturing jobs in Victoria rose for the second consecutive quarter, reported on Thursday with the release of the Australian Bureau of Statistics labour force data,” Mr Dalla-Riva said.

Applications for IMT Round One are open from 18 June 2012 to 20 July 2012, with total funding of up to $3 million available in this round. Grants will be allocated on a competitive basis and will require a minimum co-contribution from the business of $3 for every $1 of government support.

An outline of the program, key dates, application process, eligibility criteria, assessment process and reporting requirements can be found at www.business.vic.gov.au/imt or call Business Victoria on 13 22 15.

The Board of ACTEW Corporation has decided it will fully integrate the water and sewerage operations currently undertaken by ActewAGL Water Division into ACTEW from 1 July 2012. Water and sewerage will be managed under the trading name of Actew Water.

ACTEW AGL was formed to manage water and sewerage in the ACT in 2000 when ACTEW Corporation and AGL formed a joint venture

Announcing the decision, ACTEW Managing Director, Mark Sullivan, said the restructure would enable the company to become more customer focussed. 

“Many things like customer support, billing and a central contact point will continue to be delivered by ActewAGL. We will however focus on the needs of customer segments.   To the developer we would prefer to be viewed as a partner in providing future sound infrastructure rather than a regulator.   To the relatively few industrial customers we wish to help balance the processing and environmental issues of their waste with commercial viability, to the residential customer we want to help assist in wise water usage.   We want to continue our community engagement.

“We want to be at the forefront of developing leading-edge urban water policy with our ACT Government colleagues, taking into consideration sustaining long-term water security while ensuring our continued record on environmental sustainability. 

“To do this we will draw on the work of our water and climate modelling team, which has mapped more than 200 climate possibilities for our region, reviewed almost 100 years of climate records and taken the CSIRO 2030 climate model to develop the likely range of climate scenarios for our region.

We want to engage with our environmental regulators, to ensure a rigorous and effective regime that will maintain the standards of water and treated effluent across the ACT.  By sharing our data, comparing analysis, engaging quality experts and partaking in exchanges of ideas the ACT can continue to be a leader in the treatment of water.”

Mr Sullivan said that as a single business, ACTEW could more efficiently reach its aim of being a leader in the water business in Australia and presenting a clear report card on how that is being achieved.

“Our timing is also deliberate as we approach the next five-year review of our business and price path by the Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission (ICRC).   Our submission will be lodged in July as part of their consideration of many aspects of our business.  Most people are aware that the ICRC determines the price of water and sewerage services in the ACT.   The Commission also sets out a range of operational parameters for ACTEW, from our five year capital expenditure, to annual operational expenditure levels and our ability to recoup or reclaim lost revenue from previous periods.”

“I am encouraged by and support fully the efforts of the Commission to engage the community in their determination.   I join them in encouraging individuals and corporations to join in the debate and discussion.  I am disappointed that only seven submissions were made on the excellent issues paper released by the Commission – three were ACTEW, the Government and the Tribunal.  The final determination of the ICRC is a statement of value for water.”

Mr Sullivan said that ACTEW is becoming more involved in the broader water picture.  

“Our work in the Upper Murrumbidgee, in environmental reference groups and river action groups reflects the fact that our core business is impacted markedly by the broader water quality and management issues be they be as broad as the negotiation of the Murray Darling Basin Plan, catchment management, secondary water use, including stormwater and the possible re-use of effluent.

“The ACT’s water system is a sub-set of a larger system and one of the key priorities is to ensure that when water leaves the ACT, be it from our rivers, the stormwater or as treated effluent - it is clean.

“The creation of ACTEW Water and its positioning closer to mainstream government indicates our willingness to engage in broader operational water issues.   Recent enquiries by the Assembly and the ICRC both point to a further concentration of water within an operational agency.   We support that move and hope to display the knowledge and business acumen for ACTEW to extend its current role.”

More information is here.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has released a report into traffic related injuries, finding the rate of people suffering major injuries on the country’s road is rising, while the rate of those injuried in train related accidents is declining.

The Trends in serious injury due to transport accidents, Australia 2001-01 to 2008-09 report shows that over the nine year period, the rate of people seriously injured due to road crashes had increased from 138.3 to 156.7 per 100,000 people, recording a 1.7 per cent increase per year. Over a quarter of those suffered life threatening injures.

“Rates rose more steeply for cases involving motorcyclists (6.8%) and pedal cyclists (6.9%). The rise was still sharper for cases involving males aged 45–64 years as motorcyclists (14.7%) and pedal cyclists (14.0%),” AIHW spokesman Professor James Harrison said.

People living in remote areas recorded the highest average annual increase in the rate of life-threatening injury due to road traffic crashes (5.8%), but there were small increases for all areas.

Another AIHW report released today, Serious injury due to transport accidents involving a railway train, Australia 2004–05 to 2008–09, shows that rates of serious injury due to transport accidents involving trains dropped by an average of 5.1% a year over the 9-year period from 2000–01 to 2008–09.

‘About one rail user was seriously injured per 100 million passenger kilometres travelled in 2008–09,’ Professor Harrison said.

All reports can be found here:

Trends in serious injury due to land transport accidents, Australia 2000-01 to 2008-09 

Serious injury due to transport accidents involving a railway train, Australia 2004–05 to 2008–09 

 Serious injury due to land transport accidents, Australia 2007–08

Serious injury due to land transport accidents, Australia, 2008–09 

CSIRO’s Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope is due to start operations next year, with all 36 dishes now on site in the mid-west region of Western Australia.

"By mid-2013, ASKAP will be the world's foremost survey radio telescope being able to survey large areas of the sky with unprecedented speed,” Minister for Science Senator Chris Evans said.

"The completion of the ASKAP telescope will confirm Australia's standing as world-leaders in the field of radio astronomy.”

The dishes will be equipped with Australian designed and built smart electronic and information communications technology, developed with the help of Dr John O'Sullivan who invented the technology at the heart of WiFi.

The groundbreaking CSIRO-developed Phased Array Feed (PAF) 'radio cameras' will enable ASKAP to survey the sky 100 times faster than any previous radio telescope.

"This is the kind of project that really demonstrates Australia's world class capability to successfully deliver significant science infrastructure," Senator Evans said. 

The installation of the array comes after construction of the Square Kilometre Arraay was split between South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Phase 1 of the array will be due for completion by 2020, and will be the world’s most powerful radio telescope. 

The NSW Minister for Local Government, Don Page, will be launching a new book that could help councils prepare for the future of local government in NSW in accordance with his Destination 2036 Action Plan.

The book, Councils in Cooperation, is a study of shared services in local government. It examines the international and Australian literature on shared services, evaluates shared service theory, and advances a new conceptual framework for explaining the comparative performance of shared service programs in practice. It also considers alternative models of shared service provision and investigates their relative merits.

“It’s coming out in time to help local government councils organise their shared services as best they can,” said Professor Brian Dollery, one of the book’s authors. Professor Dollery, the Director of the Centre for Local Government at the University of New England, pointed out that the Minister had just announced, as the first initiative in the Destination 2036 Action Plan, the appointment of an expert panel that will examine the structural arrangements of councils in the context of improving the financial sustainability of the NSW local government sector.

Councils in Cooperation explores both successful and unsuccessful attempts at shared services in Australia. It provides case studies of Regional Organisations of Councils and Strategic Alliances, as well as “vertical” and “horizontal” shared service arrangements, in areas as varied as Greater Western Sydney, the NSW Central Tablelands, the Riverina, and outback Queensland.

Professor Dollery said that the failed New England Strategic Alliance of Councils (NESAC) was one example of an unsuccessful attempt at shared services examined in the book. He said that a major reason for the failure of NESAC has been that “the primary purpose of the alliance wasn’t so much to share services as it was to avoid amalgamation”.

“Councils must go into a shared services arrangement with the determination to make it work,” he said.

The successful examples examined in the book include the Wellington Blayney Cabonne Strategic Alliance (WBC Strategic Alliance – see logo above), established in 2003 and joined in 2005 by Central Tablelands Water.

Councils in Cooperation: Shared Services and Australian Local Government, by Brian Dollery, Bligh Grant and Michael Kortt, is published by The Federation Press. Bligh Grant is the Deputy Director of the UNE Centre for Local Government, and Dr Michael Kortt, who holds a PhD in economics from UNE, is a senior Lecturer at Southern Cross University (SCU).

Mr Page, a UNE graduate himself and the grandson of Sir Earle Page, Australia’s 11^th Prime Minister (after whom UNE’s Earle Page College is named), will launch Councils in Cooperation at the Lismore campus of  SCU on Friday 29 June.

More information is here.

The South Australian Centre for Economic Studies has issued a wakeup call to the State Government and to the South Australian community in general in its latest assessment of the state of the South Australian economy.

In a recently released report the Centre finds that the South Australian economy grew only weakly over the past twelve months and that the immediate outlook is for continued weak growth in 2012-13.

The implications of this are that business conditions will remain difficult in many sectors of the State-s economy and new employment opportunities will be in short supply.

The Centre-s findings are contained in its latest Economic Briefing Report, which provides a twice yearly assessment of the state of the South Australian economy and is prepared by economists from the University of Adelaide and Flinders University.

In the report the Centre finds the weakness in the State-s economy is evident across several key sectors, including employment growth, household spending, new home building activity, and new private sector investment in the State.

The report states that while the State-s continuing low level of unemployment, at around 5.1 per cent, is an on-going positive outcome for the State, the reality is that labour market conditions in South Australia have continued to deteriorate over recent months. This is indicated by the fact that the number of persons employed in South Australia in May 2012 – the latest period for which official data is available – was less than the number employed through the middle of last year. Similarly, and even more worrying, the number of persons employed on a full time basis has also declined.

Growth in total employment in South Australia is now the weakest it has been for more than 10 years.

The report finds that the reason South Australia-s unemployment rate has not increased over the past twelve months despite the decline in employment is because there has been no growth in the State-s labour force. To the contrary, slower population growth and a decline in the labour force participation rate have resulted in a decline in the size of the State-s labour force.

According to the report the current weakness of the State-s economy is also evident in household spending, new home building activity and in new business investment.

Household consumption spending grew only weakly over the past twelve months (to March 2012), up only 1.8 per cent in real terms on the previous twelve months.

New home building activity in the past twelve months has fallen to its lowest level since 2001, and is still declining; while total new capital expenditure in South Australia (i.e. public and private expenditure) has remained essentially flat over the past twelve months.

The Centre does not expect economic conditions in South Australia to improve much over 2012-13.

The Centre expects growth in household spending to remain weak, notwithstanding the positive effects of the recent cuts to interest rates. Instead, growth in household spending will continue to be constrained by low levels of consumer confidence, continued weak growth in employment across the State, and a continuation of households- more cautious approach to borrowing and spending evident over recent years.

For similar reasons, new home building activity is also likely to remain weak.

Looking at new investment spending in South Australia, the report finds that while expenditure is this area will be supported over the next twelve months by the construction of the new RAH, the redevelopment of Adelaide Oval, and the continuation of a number of other major public sector infrastructure projects, the overall outlook is for only modest growth in new investment expenditure, at best. In particular, private business investment in the absence of the go-ahead for BHP-s massive Olympic Dam expansion project is expected to weaken in 2012-13. Whether or not the Olympic Dam expansion proceeds in 2012-13 is still uncertain, with the latest statements from BHP Billiton indicating that the BHP Billiton Board will now not give consideration to final approval of the project until later this year.

According to the report, the main bright spot in the South Australian economy over the past twelve months has been an increase in South Australian exports. This has occurred on the back of two consecutive good agricultural seasons and rises in mining output and mineral prices.

But even here the report is not overly optimistic, suggesting that there will likely be only modest further growth of South Australian exports in 2012-13, as “…agricultural exports are already at a high and the continuation of a strong $A will mean sustained difficult exporting conditions for South Australian manufacturers”. Mining exports are also likely to increase only modestly in 2012-13.

More information is here.

The South Australian Centre for Economic Studies at the University of Adelaide claims that South Australia is not experiencing a "mining boom" and warns against resting its hopes for future prosperity on the realisation of a mining boom.

The comments are made in the Centre's latest Economic Briefing Report, which provides a twice yearly appraisal of the state of the South Australian economy and is prepared by economists from the University of Adelaide and Flinders University.

In the report, the Centre suggests that while mining activity has grown strongly in South Australia over recent years "it is nevertheless difficult to sustain the notion that South Australia is in the middle of a mining boom".

In support of this conclusion, the report notes that "mining activity in South Australia is still relatively small, such that mining output ... accounts for around only 4 per cent of the State's Gross Product".

Other evidence to support the argument that South Australia is not yet experiencing a mining boom include the fact that new capital expenditure by the mining industry in South Australia was less last year than it was four years ago; while expenditure on mineral exploration in South Australia in 2011 accounted for only 6.6 per cent of such expenditure across Australia as a whole.

The Centre notes that the one project which would dramatically change this picture of a still small mining sector in this State is the proposed expansion by BHP Billiton of its Olympic Dam mine. The cost of this project is estimated to exceed $20 billion. If this project were given the go ahead today it would lift South Australia's share of "advanced new mining projects" across Australia from 0.5 per cent to around 9 per cent, a dramatic increase, which underlines the sheer size of this project.

The report goes on to note, however, that "unfortunately, there is now increasing doubt about when the Olympic Dam project will proceed". The latest statements from BHP Billiton indicate that the BHP Billiton Board will now not give consideration to final approval of the project until later this year.

The report also suggests there are several factors that will limit the contribution the Olympic Dam project will make to the prosperity of the South Australian economy, even once it does proceed.

The report concludes:
"... it is important to keep a proper perspective on the extent to which growth of the mining industry will contribute to growth of the South Australian economy in coming years. Its contribution will not be insignificant, particularly once construction of the Olympic Dam expansion proceeds, but at the same time it is unlikely to be so significant as to be able to solely drive the continued economic expansion and prosperity of the State. And doubts about the timing of the Olympic Dam expansion need to be kept in mind. All in all, it would not be wise for South Australians to rest all of our hopes for the future on the prospects of a "mining boom", especially if it meant becoming complacent in achieving policy objectives and outcomes in other strategic areas. In particular, all South Australians need to continue to work towards growing the overall competitiveness of the State and towards growing productivity within the State. It seems to us that still more could be done, and should be done, in this area."

More information is here.

Kiwi employees and employers now have the opportunity to participate in the country’s largest employment survey, with entries now being taken for the Great New Zealand Employment Survey.

Now in its fourth year, the survey is being conducted in partnership between Clarian HR and, for the first time, Massey University. The survey will canvass employees and managers across the country and aims to ‘uncover what’s really going on under the hood.’

“The pressure on leaders to assimilate and prioritise all the data available to them is increasing. From customer satisfaction and employee engagement, to financial reporting and market intelligence, it’s important to be able to see the wood from the trees when it comes to the massive area of employment,” Michelle Marsden of Clarian HR said.

The survey aims to gauge employee satisfaction and participation, while also attempting to illustrate to managers and employers the importance of management development.

Employees will be asked if they are sitting and waiting for an opportunity to present itself so they can leave, or if they are engaged and striving for the same goals as their employer. Employees will also be asked if their managers tell them everything they need to know to do their job well.

The survey is open to the New Zealand public from 19 June and can be completed by going to the website www.clarian.co.nz/survey

The Federal and Tasmnaina Governments have agreed to a ‘short extension’ of time requested by the Reference Group of Signatories to enable the completion of Tasmanian forest negotiations.

The group requested an extension until July 23 to report to the Governments.

The Federal Minister for the Environment Tony Burke said every effort was being made to secure an agreement.

"While this has yet to be achieved, the Signatories believe a durable agreement is still possible," Mr Burke said.

"The Governments have agreed to an extension of time in recognition that there needs to be more work and analysis completed."

Swinburne University of Technology's new $3 million GPU Supercomputer for Theoretical Astrophysics, 'gSTAR', has been officially launched.

gSTAR represents the next generation of supercomputing, and is one of only six such machines in Australia and among the top 200 in the world.

Astronomers have employed the same graphics processing units (GPUs) used in personal computers and game consoles to build the 120-teraflop supercomputer capable of modelling entire universes.

Director of the Swinburne Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Professor Warrick Couch, said gSTAR is set to accelerate the rate of science and knowledge discovery at Swinburne and is at least 10 times faster than its predecessor.

"This means that the three years of data processing that culminated in early 2011 in the discovery of a diamond planet in the Milky Way galaxy could now potentially be done in one week," Professor Couch said.

"Traditional supercomputers rely on central processing units (CPUs) to process information, whereas gSTAR uses GPUs that can perform numerous high-speed tasks simultaneously," he said.

The system is supported by a quad data rate (QDR) InfiniBand network that transfers data to GPUs and large memory nodes, each with 512 gigabytes of memory, at 1000 times the speed of a wireless internet connection.

Professor Couch said gSTAR is poised to receive a deluge of data from an emerging generation of telescopes equipped to generate a million billion bytes of information in a single night.

"GPUs will make a major contribution to processing data from new optical and radio telescopes, such as SkyMapper in NSW and the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder in Western Australia," Professor Couch said.

The massive jump in capability has involved the investment of more than $1.9 million by Swinburne and $1.04 million from the Federal Government's Education Investment Fund.

Silicon Graphics International (SGI) has supplied the hardware for gSTAR. SGI Australia and New Zealand General Manager, Nick Gorga said Swinburne's scientific discovery profile has been raised as a result of hosting gSTAR.

"This additional capacity gives Swinburne a distinct technological advantage and will rank this system amongst the highest within the south Asia region," Mr Gorga said.

gSTAR uses 636 Intel computer processing units (CPUs) and 121 NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs).  It is contained in 11 cabinets on the fifth floor of the George Swinburne building at Swinburne's Hawthorn Campus, and will meet the supercomputing needs across a number of faculties.

The Queensland Government has announced the appointment of six new GasFields Commissioners,  which, according to the State Government, will help restore confidence in the state’s Coal Seam Gas (CSG) industry.

Deputy Premier, Minister for State Development, Infrastructure and Planning Jeff Seeney said the new GasFields Commissioners came from a range of fields and would bring their own individual expertise to the role. 

“The GasFields Commissioners take on the important role of working with Commission Chairman John Cotter in managing the co existence between rural landholders, regional communities and the CSG industry,” Mr Seeney said.

The State Government announced the appointment of the following commissioenrs:

• Mr Don Stiller – a land holder and former Mayor of Taroom 
• Mr Ian Hayllor – a cotton farmer and irrigator who has a long involvement in managing co-existence through his role as Chair of the Basin Sustainability Alliance 
• Councillor Ray Brown – Mayor of Western Downs Regional Council 
• Mr Rick Wilkinson – Chief Operating Officer of the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association 
• Professor Steven Raine – a leading academic and soil scientist from the University of Southern Queensland 
• Mr Shane Charles – Chief Executive Officer of Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise, with more than 20 years experience as a lawyer 

Mr Seeney said Chairman Cotter would bring the group together in July to review the 55 public submissions and provide feedback on how the Gasfields Commission should operate. 

“This input from the GasFields Commission will shape the legislation which will be introduced in Parliament later this year,” he said.