Industry News

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US has awarded a grant of A$4.48 million to researchers from the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS) and Rempex Pharmaceuticals in California to design and develop new antibiotics that are effective against bacterial ‘superbugs’ that cause life-threatening infections and are resistant to all current antibiotics.

The grant is the third large RO1 grant received over the last five years.

Antibiotic resistance is an urgent global medical challenge. Currently, a class of antibiotics known as polymyxins are used to treat multidrug-resistant bacteria. However infections that are unresponsive to this last-line therapy have recently been reported in many countries.

The MIPS team comprises Associate Professor Jian Li, Dr Tony Velkov, Professor Roger Nation, Associate Professor Philip Thompson and Dr Kade Roberts. Associate Professor Li and Professor Nation have been investigating polymyxins for more than a decade and are regarded as international leaders in the field.

Rempex is a San Diego based pharmaceutical company focused exclusively on developing drugs to combat emerging antibiotic resistance.

Dr Li, the Program Director of the project, said timing was critical as rising resistance to polymyxins would mean virtually a complete lack of treatment options for some life-threatening infections.

"It is not an exaggeration to state that the world is on the brink of a return to the pre-antibiotic era," Associate Professor Li said.

"In recent decades, bacteria that are resistant to all available antibiotics have emerged, while at the same time there has been a marked decline in the search for new drugs to combat these superbugs."

The five year project will design and develop new antibiotics to address bacterial resistance, and allow successful treatment of acute and chronic infections.

"We're aiming to develop at least one new drug candidate for future clinical trials," Associate Professor Li said.

Senior Vice President for Research and Development and Chief Scientific Officer at Rempex Michael Dudley Pharm. D, said that industry-academic partnerships would be a very important mechanism for developing new antiinfectives for development.

“Rempex is looking forward to working with the MIPS team on identifying new drug candidates to meet the serious challenge of antibiotic resistance," Dr Dudley said.

The Infectious Diseases Society of America has identified a 'hit-list' of six multidrug-resistant bacteria as being the most difficult to treat. These bacteria will be targeted by the MIPS researchers and their Rempex collaborators in California.

The Federal Government has announced $469 million in funding to support four major new infrastructure projects in New South Wales.

Federal Minister for Water Tony Burke approved the funding for the projects that are expected to return an average of 80 billion litres of water to the system each year. Mr Burke said the funding would equip farmers in NSW with world-class irrigation technology and improve rural water management systems.

"The funding for NSW is part of the $5 billion the Federal Government is providing to for infrastructure investment in irrigation modernisation and related projects across the Basin," Mr Burke said.

"The water acquired from these projects will be used to improve the health of Murray-Darling Basin rivers, wetlands and floodplains and make an important contribution towards reaching the sustainable diversion limits under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

"All of the water saved through this package will be achieved through improved water infrastructure efficiency. It means irrigators can increase productivity through improved technology and there is more water to return to our precious environment."

The four major rural water infrastructure projects supported by the funding were proposed by NSW for delivery under the Intergovernmental Agreement on Murray-Darling Basin Reform.

Projects to be delivered under the agreement will improve on-farm irrigation systems for farmers, increase stock and domestic water supply and introduce new, modernised metering and telemetry systems.

The key elements of the four projects are:

• $137 million for the 'Basin Pipes' project to replace inefficient replenishment schemes and stock and domestic license schemes with new and secure pipelines;
• $83 million for an 'Irrigated Farm Modernisation' program in the Macquarie, Namoi, Gwydir and Border Rivers Valleys, additional to the $6.6 million already spent on an on-farm pilot program in the Border Rivers and Gwydir Valley
• $198.6 million for a state-wide program to upgrade rural water meters in addition to the $22.4 million already committed to a pilot project in the upper Murray Valley, with a total project value of $221 million; and
• $50 million to implement the NSW Floodplain Harvesting Policy.

The Queensland Government has approved the construction of the $1.7 billion Grosvenor Coal Mine after the state granted Anglo American the requisite mining lease.

State Natural Resources and Mines Minister Andrew Cripps said the Governor in Council approved the development of the mine.

“The Grosvenor mine will create up to 1000 new jobs for Queenslanders and represents a significant expansion of Anglo American’s Queensland operations,” Mr Cripps said. 

“This is another boost for Queensland and demonstrates our commitment to get the State back on track. That includes strengthening the resources sector, one of the four pillars of our economy.” 

The State Government said the mining lease has been 'thoroughly assessed' by state agencies and meets the environmental requirements of both the State and the Commonwealth.

“This announcement demonstrates our commitment to a rigorous and transparent mines approval process,” Mr Cripps said. 

"A detailed Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was approved late last year by the Queensland Government, and also by the Commonwealth Government pursuant to the Federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999."

Mr Cripps said the approval was also contingent upon Anglo American making provision to accommodate local workers. 

“The Queensland Government will work closely with the company and the Moranbah community to address key issues such as accommodation availability and infrastructure support,” he said. 

“Residential infrastructure is a critical issue for Moranbah and I am pleased that Anglo American is working with other local coal companies to develop and ensure the availability of accommodation and key community facilities. 

Mr Cripps said the mine would create thousands of jobs across its 40 year lifespan.

“This mine will deliver direct economic benefits and jobs to the local Moranbah community, as well as royalties which support infrastructure and services that benefit all Queensland communities,” he said. 

“Anglo American expects site construction to begin soon. First development coal production will begin in 2013, and longwall mining in 2016. 

“It is expected to produce up to 7 million tonnes per annum of high quality hard coking coal, yielding some 5 million tonnes per annum of product coal for export.” 

The announcement by the State Government comes amid an escalating and increasingly public spat between the State and Federal Governments over the environmental assessment and viability of the Alpha Coal mine.

The South Australian Government has extended its existing agreement with Hewlett-Packard for the provision of mainframe computing services.

Minister for the Public Sector, Michael O’Brien, said this will ensure access to the capability required to run critical applications used by most South Australian Government agencies including the Justice Information System, Police Offender Information and some accounting, HR and payroll systems.

Under the “platform-as-a-service” arrangement, HP owns the infrastructure and operating system licences and the government owns and manages the applications that run on the mainframe.

“This agreement sees the government gain the operational and performance benefits associated with new infrastructure without having to purchase, own, maintain and manage that infrastructure,” Mr O’Brien said.

“By spreading the costs over a longer period this new extension, which will expire in May 2018, will achieve approximately $3.1 million in savings over the next six years.”

The rapid expansion of the usage of mainframe computing by the state's major agencies saw an expansion of the original project. The $119 million extension of the project with HP will be due to last 11 years. 

The South Australian Government has released a new blueprint for managing the state's natural resources.

Released by the State Minister for Sustainability Paul Caica, the Our Place Our Future State Natural Resources Management Plan, South Australia 2012-17  establishes the policy framework for natural resource management in the state for the next decade, with specific priorities for the next five years.

“The plan provides high level guidance for anyone making decisions about natural resource use,” Mr Caica said.

“It provides a framework that enables all these groups to work together to responsibly manage natural resources in a way that balances the needs of all community sectors and guarantees the  long term sustainability of our resources. These resources – water, soil, plants and animals – are vital to maintaining our economy and way of life.”

The plan was released after a draft copy of the NRM plan was released for public consultation in September last year. 

The Federal Minister for the Environment, Tony Burke, and the Queensland Deputy Premier, Jeff Seeney, have met for the first time tor resolve their differences over the disputed environmental approval process of the multi-billion dollar Alpha Coal mine.

The ministers agreed that a Commonwealth process has commenced to deal with the outstanding matters relating to the project.

“There was a common view that the best outcome for the future is to have a streamlined process which is able to fully meet the requirements of Queensland and Commonwealth legislation,” Mr Burke said in a statement.

“There will be discussion in the coming days between jurisdictions to determine how the current bilateral would need to be amended to create greater certainty for the environment and business.”

“A fully streamlined process occurs when reports from Queensland deal with all matters of national environmental significance that are required for a Commonwealth decision to be made.”

The Western Australian Government has opened nominations for the WA Education Edwards 2012 that will acknowledge the stat’es best public school teachers, support staff and schools.

State ducation Minister Liz Constable said that this year the new the WA Premier’s Early Childhood Teacher of the Year category would reward those making a difference in the lives of WA’s youngest students.

“The addition of this category reflects the vital importance of quality early childhood education for children’s future learning and opportunities,” Dr Constable said.

“We are looking for the best early childhood teacher in a public school in WA - teaching in the year groups of kindergarten to year 3.”

The Minister said that for the first time, parents and children could go online to suggest a teacher, principal or school staff member for an award via the ‘Recognise your teacher’ section of the awards website.

“One good teacher can have a positive influence on so many young lives, and I strongly encourage people to highlight the good work that school staff do every day,” she said.

The WA Education Awards 2012 winners will be announced at a presentation breakfast in Perth on Monday, December 3.

There is a total of $264,000 in prizes for winners and State finalists across nine categories.

More information can be found here

The worsening sovereign debt situation and general global uncertainty are beginning to effect the general outlook of the country’s Chief Investment Officers (CIO) according to the latest Financial Services Council Chief Investment Officer Index.

The survey of CIOs from the Council’s members show that sentiment has fallen from the March quarter as the positive outlook for equities is outweighed by an increasingly down graded view of the global market.

On a scale of -100 to 100, CIOs rate the investment outlook for the next year as -2, down from 16 in March and 20 in December 2011.

John Brogden, CEO of the Financial Services Council said the European sovereign debt crisis is beginning to outweigh a positive view of Australia and the Asia region.

“The continued downward trend in sentiment reflects the ongoing and worsening sovereign debt crisis in Europe.  While fund managers had remained positive overall during the European crisis as it unfolded through 2011, the latest machinations have seen overall sentiment dragged into negative territory”, Mr Brogden said.

The view on Australian and international equities remains positive. Despite falls in global equities markets in May, CIOs believe company balance sheets remain strong. The overall negative sentiment reflects the negative view of international and domestic fixed income, which is outweighing the positive view on equities.

International petroleum giant Shell has confirmed that it will close its Clyde Refinery from the end of September, following an announcement last July that the refinery would be converted into a dedicated fuel terminal.

 “The initial decision to close and convert Clyde, taken in July last year, was consistent with Shell’s strategy to focus its refining portfolio on larger assets and to build a profitable downstream business here in Australia,” Shell Australia Downstream Vice President Andrew Smith said.

“Since the decision was taken, the refinery has continued to struggle against sustained poor industry margins and intense competition from mega-refineries in Asia.”

Mr Smith said the company will continue to support the staff whether it’s within the new terminal operation, elsewhere within Shell or outside the company.

A new report released by the National Broadband Network Co (NBN Co) has found that parents must do more to prepare their children for the ‘fiercely competitive’ internet enabled future.

The Learning in the New Millennium report found that while the majority of parents (96 per cent) understand the importance of the internet as a learning tool, the minority (45 per cent) said their children have problems using the internet for homework which they feel they are unable to help resolve.

According to international education expert Professor Stephen Heppell, this shows there has been a fundamental shift in how parents view education. With computers and ubiquitous access to high speed broadband education never stops he says.

"What's exciting is that a large number of parents have made the leap to embrace online learning, and this is pretty recent, it's only happened in the last five years. For those who haven't, it's often just because they are yet to experience how magnificent the new world of broadband-enabled education can be," says Professor Heppell.

"What we have seen in other countries with high-speed broadband like the National Broadband Network (NBN) connecting homes and schools, is that the role of learning in the home is changing. Homework becomes the time for self-directed discovery in exciting online worlds, where students can collaborate via the internet with real authors or scientists as well as each other. 

Key findings of the report include:

• Australian parents understand the importance of the internet in the preparation of their children for the future. Virtually all (96%) feel their children using the internet for homework, research or educational games is important in their preparation for the future, of which 51% consider it very important.
• The internet plays a significant role in the education of Australian children with the majority of parents (87%) indicating their children are using the internet at least weekly for homework, research or educational games.
• As children get older their frequency of using the internet for these purposes also increases. Daily usage rises from 25% among primary school aged children to 44% among high school aged children.
• With this greater usage of the internet comes a greater onus on parents to assist with this aspect of their child's education. Many parents (45%) have been unable to resolve issues for example when searching for information, accessing Youtube for video, or Skyping friends to discuss group assignments their children have had on the internet. Around one in ten (11%) report this happens on a regular basis.
• Most parents (61%) still feel more confident than their children when it comes to using the internet. Whether it is the children catching up or the parents falling behind, parents of high school aged children are less likely to feel they have the upper hand (47%) than parents of primary school aged children (74%).
• Despite the importance parents place on the internet in their child's future most are keen to limit its use to a few hours a week. Very few (1%) think their children should be using the internet for more than 10 hours a week, with the overwhelming majority (78%) of the opinion that it should be used for no more than 4 hours each week.
• Parents of primary school aged children are more likely to feel their children should be spending less time on the internet. The majority (65%) of parents of primary school aged children feel their children should be using the internet for less than two hours a week, compared to 45% of parents of older children.
• The consensus among parents (94%) is that having high speed internet at home is important for the future of their child's education. Similarly, 84% feel that improvements in the National Broadband Network will be important in their child's educational outcomes.

ANZ bank has announced it will enter into a managed service agreement with French IT giant Capgemini to supply the bank with IT testing and environment management services for its global services.

The bank has assured its employees there will be no job losses among permanent employees, with 110 staff in Melbourne and 250 staff in Bangalore offered comparable roles with Capgemini with comparable entitlements.

ANZ Chief Information Officer Anne Weatherston said: “The partnership with Capgemini will help deliver a step-change by more effectively and efficiently providing the IT testing services that support the delivery of major projects and ongoing technology programs.

“It will enable us to build world class testing and environment management services to support change for approximately 800 applications and more than 280 projects at a pace that we can not achieve alone,” Ms Weatherston said.

ANZ will also consolidate testing services provided by over 40 external providers to Capgemini.

Ms Weatherston added: “As part of ANZ’s 2017 technology roadmap, we need to continue to access increasingly scarce IT skills to deliver major projects and ongoing business requirements.

“Building a hybrid technology delivery model will help us achieve this by matching our internal capabilities with partnerships with best-in-class technology vendors such as Capgemini,” she said.

It is intended that the managed service partnership with Capgemini will progressively be put in place from mid-2012 with all impacted permanent ANZ staff transferring to Capgemini by the end of the year.

The ANZ and RMIT University have released a report that indicates a strong connection between financial skills and overall wellbeing.

The Reach and impact of MoneyMinded in the Asia Pacific 2010-2011 report surveyed 171 participants of the MoneyMinded program across Australia, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

The key findings for Australia were:

• 80% felt less stressed about the future and 90% stated they had more confidence in other aspects of their life
• 92% encouraged their children and family members to save money
•  66% cut back on spending in order to increase their monthly savings deposits, with 91% reporting a greater capacity to make ends meet.

The key findings for Fiji and Papua New Guinea were:

• 74% increased their monthly savings deposits and nearly all, 97%, reported a greater capacity to make ends meet
• 91% encouraged their children and family members to save money
• Life satisfaction increased for 51%.

 Philip Chronican, ANZ Australia Chief Executive Officer said: “This year’s study shows a clear linkage between improved savings and reduced stress in participants’ lives.

The study’s author, RMIT’s Professor Roslyn Russell, said: “This year’s survey is one of the most comprehensive assessments we’ve undertaken into MoneyMinded since ANZ launched the program back in 2004.

Australia’s construction industry has recorded its 24^th consecutive month of contraction according to the latest figures released by the Australian Industry Group (AI Group).

The Australian Industry Group Performance of Construction Index indicates that the sector contracted by 0.2 points, where anything below 50 indicates a contraction in activity.

By sector, commercial construction recorded the sharpest fall in more than three years. House and apartment building also contracted substantially, while engineering construction contracted the slowest of all sectors reflecting the strength of resource related projects.

“The index continues to reflect the cyclical downturn in residential housing activity as well as the downturn in non-residential building and construction, outside the mining sector,” AI Group’s Chief Economist Julie Toth said.

The key findings for May include:

• The national construction industry continued to contract sharply in May amid declining new orders and subdued workloads.
• The latest Australian Industry Group Australian Industry Group Australian Performance of Construction Index (Australian PCI®) in conjunction with the Housing Industry Association, registered 34.7 in May pointing to a broadly unchanged rate of contraction from April.
• The Australian PCI® has now been in negative territory for two years.
• Weak demand, difficulties in obtaining finance, project delays and intense competition to secure new work were the main factors cited by respondents as undermining activity in the industry.
• Reflecting the continued lack of new business, the new orders sub-index contracted for the 24th straight month in May - recording 33.7, only a slight improvement on the previous month.
• Falling activity and attempts to reduce costs saw employment again contract at a sharp rate (38.4).

The full report can be found here

Australia's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased 0.2 percentage points to 5.1 per cent in May, as announced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). There was also an increase in the labour force participation rate of 0.3 percentage points in May to 65.5 per cent.

The ABS reported the number of people employed increased by 38,900 to 11,537,900 in May. The increase in employment was driven by increased full-time employment, up 46,100 people to 8,107,900, and was offset by a decrease in part-time employment, down 7,200 people to 3,430,100. The increase in employment was driven by increases in both male and female full-time employment.

The number of people unemployed increased by 22,400 people to 622,800 in May, the ABS reported.

The ABS monthly aggregate hours worked series showed a decrease in May, down 4.7 million hours to 1,627.2 million hours. 

The seasonally adjusted underemployment rate was 7.4 per cent in May 2012. Combined with the unemployment rate of 5.1 per cent, the latest estimate of total seasonally adjusted labour force underutilisation was 12.6 per cent in May. For more information on underemployment and underutilisation, please refer to the article 'Understanding Labour Force,' which is published every month in Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0). 

Consultancy firm Australian Living has announced the formation of a new multi-disciplinary taskforce of key building and sustainability figures to clear up the confusion surrounding green homes.

The Taskforce will aim to promote the benefits of building sustainable homes in Australia and stimulate an increase number of such homes being constructed across Australia.

“There is a lot of great work being done around sustainability at an industry level and many seeds are being planted. We want to bring the community into the picture and take them on a journey of opportunity,” Cameron Rosen, Managing Director of Australian Living said.

The Taskforce will develop ways to reach the community; increase collaboration and transparency within the industry; inject inspiration into the community; drive the community towards sustainable material choice and educate the community on how to make a truly sustainable home.

The Taskforce consists of marketing specialists from a range of fields, including suppliers, architects, project developers, real estate agents and builders as well as members of councils, government departments and other community oriented businesses.

The Federal Government has outlined more details on the work currently underway on the recommendations of the Gonski review of school funding, including work examinging the details of the per student amount and the levels for loadings to tackle educational disadvantage.

The undated review of the Government’s progress was provided to the mebers of the Ministerial Reference Group on school funding, which recently held its third meeting in Canberra.

“Our aim has always been to introduce legislation this year, in time for a new funding system to be settled before the current funding agreements with schools expire at the end of next year. It’s an ambitious timeframe but I think it can be done,” Federal Minister for School Education Peter Garrett said.

Some of the work to test the recommendations so far has included:

• Loading for indigenous students. The Gonski report recommended loadings from between 40% to 100% of the student resource standard for each indigenous student in a school. Work is underway to test the effects of different loadings within this range.
• Loading for socio-economic status. The report recommended loadings from between 10% to 50% for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Work is underway to determine how these ranges would be set and the increments at which they are introduced.
• Non-government school funding. The review recommended a minimum public contribution of between 20-25% of the Student Resource Standard for non-government schools, and a maximum of 90%, and work is underway to test the effects of various percentages between these two amounts. 

More detail is on the Gonski review and the most recent update of work underway is available at http://www.schoolfunding.gov.au/sites/default/files/docs/report_and_further_work.pdf

The Federal Government has finalised the rollout of its More Support for Students with Disabilities initiative after allocating $11.9 million for South Australia and $1.9 million for the Northern Territory. 

“The Australian Government is committed to ensuring all students, regardless of their circumstances, can get the best education possible and the best chance to succeed in life,” Parliamentary Secretary for School Education Senator Jacinta Collins said.

Under the scheme, South Australia will receive

• $1 million to provide assistive technologies to support students to work more independently in inclusive environments;
• $2 million to support the establishment of specialist teacher support centres;
• $2.7 million to develop materials, and provide professional development and other support, to help teachers adjust curriculum to meet the individual needs of students with disability;
• $5.8 million to train and mentor teachers and school leaders to build their skills and knowledge in special education and;
• $233,500 to strengthen the skills of paraprofessionals, to support students with disabilities in the classroom. 

Whereas the Northern Territory will receive:

• 629,000 to provide appropriate assistive technologies to support students to work more independently in inclusive environment;
• $256,500 to train and mentor teachers, and school leaders, to build their skills and knowledge in special education;
• $280,000 to expand specialist support services and resource options for students with complex disabilities and high-support needs;
• $552,000 to provide health, allied health or other professionals to strengthen school support for students with disability, and;
• $254,500 to establish special education teachers’ professional learning communities in each region.

The Federal Government has welcomed the appointment of Dr Diane Watson as the inaugural Chief executive Officer of the National Health Performance Authority (NHPA).

“I welcome Dr Watson to this important new role, which will see Australia join a small group of countries which have accelerated improvements in healthcare by publishing timely, accurate and comparable healthcare information,” Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said.

The authority, established under the National Health Reform Act 2011, is charged with reporting on the performance of all local hospital networks, public and private hospitals and primary healthcare organisations across the country.

Dr Watson was the inaugural Chief Executive Officer of the NSW Bureau of Health Information, where she set the standard for providing publicly available reports and information on NSW healthcare.

Before coming to Australia in 2009, Dr Watson worked at the Health Council of Canada which was established to monitor and report to Canadians on the performance of their health system

The authority's first reports are due in late 2012 or early 2013 and will focus on indicators which already have nationally consistent information available. 

The Federal Government has nominated Sussan Pascoe to become the first Commissioner of the new Australian Charities and Not-for=profits Commission (ACNC).

The ACNC, which will commence operations on 1 October 2012, will be the not-for-profit (NFP) sector's Commonwealth regulator and the Commissioner will oversee the functions of the ACNC.

“Ms Pascoe has done a great job as Head of the ACNC Implementation Taskforce, and has been working closely with the sector to communicate the changes associated with the new regulator,” Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury said.

Following passage of the legislation, the appointment is subject to approval by the Governor‑General.  It is the Government's intention to recommend to the Governor-General that Ms Pascoe be appointed for a five year period commencing 1 October 2012.

Logistics giant Brambles has announced its Chief Financial Officer, Greg Hayes, has indicated his intention to retire from the company. Mr Hayes will step down from the company’s Board in October, but will remain in his CFO position until March next year to facilitate a smooth transition to his successor.

“Greg came out of retirement to join us in November 2009 and has been an excellent CFO, playing an important role in the successful operations of the company and, in particular, the development of our strategy to expand our global pooling solutions operations, including the acquisition of IFCO System,” Brambles Chairman Graham Kraehe said.

Brambles CEO, Tom Gorman, thanked Mr Hayes for his service.

“Greg, who had been considering retirement for some time, has now confirmed his intentions. Given our understanding of the possibility that Greg would retire this year, we are already advanced with a leading executive search firm in assessing both internal and external candidates to succeed Greg,” Mr Gorman said.