Industry News

Australian researchers are calling for the open sharing of clinical trial data in the medical research community, saying it would be instrumental in eliminating bottlenecks and duplication, and lead to faster and more trustworthy evidence for many of our most pressing health problems.

Moreover, hackers should be role models for freeing up access to the “source code” of clinical trials – patient-level data – the researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) argue in a commentary published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Hackers revolutionised the software industry by countering the economic and cultural motivations that drove closed source software and disengagement from user needs.

“Similar roadblocks plague the clinical evidence domain where, despite a rapid increase in the volume of published research, physicians still make decisions without access to the synthesised evidence they need,” said paper co-author, UNSW Australian Institute of Health Innovation Research Fellow, Dr Adam Dunn.

The call follows a wider push for free, open access to academic publications and intellectual property rights designed to turn more university research into real-world applications.

Open source communities often out-perform their closed source counterparts, most notably in the software community where millions of programmers contribute code that can be used for free, by anyone.

“If the same principles were applied to medical research, bottlenecks, biases and self-interest would be largely removed,” said Professor Enrico Coiera, a co-author on the paper along with UNSW Professor Ric Day, and Professor Kenneth Mandl from Harvard Medical School.

“Clinical trial data is a potential goldmine. If researchers, doctors and patients were able to re-analyse and pool this data, there would be a host of questions that could start to be answered. But these meta-analyses are very uncommon because researchers and companies don’t like to share data,” Professor Coiera said.

“One solution, which has no support, is for data to be pirated. No one would win in that scenario. But everyone could be a winner if clinical research data went open source.”

While there are technical challenges around building an open source community for clinical trials, including important considerations around privacy and data quality, “these could be easily overcome”, Dr Dunn said.

Less easy to overcome are the social and financial barriers. “Most researchers want to hold their data as long as they can as the basis for publications,” Dr Dunn said. “And unfortunately, pharmaceutical companies want to control the messages that are delivered to doctors and maximise profits rather than facilitate the cost-effective delivery of care.”

The research was supported by Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council and the US-based National Library of Medicine.

Scientists attending a national scientific workshop in Canberra have highlighted the potential of storing large volumes of Australia’s fresh water underground as a way of  offsetting climate change, avoiding evaporation losses and meeting national water needs into the future.

Researchers at the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training (NCGRT) say that managed aquifer recharge – the injection or infiltration of excess surface water into underground aquifers – could help secure the nation’s water supplies.

Professor Tony Jakeman of NCGRT and the Australian National University said that a workshop of leading groundwater experts convened recently by NCGRT identified twelve different sources of water in regional Australia that could be successfully ‘parked’ underground for use in time of need.

These include supplementary irrigation water, surplus runoff into dams, and water brought to the surface by coal seam gas extraction and other mining activities.

Professor Jakeman said there  are many benefits from storing water underground.  “These include recharging depleted aquifers, enlarging storages without building more dams, reducing evaporative losses, reconnecting surface and groundwaters, watering the Australian landscape from underground, and creating strategic reserves in critical food growing or urban areas.”

“Australia already stores the equivalent of 1800 Olympic-size swimming pools of water underground in the Burdekin region of Queensland every year – and bringing it up again for use in agriculture and horticulture,” explains doctoral researcher Andrew Ross. “But in Orange County California they store around 300 gigalitres (GL) a year – enough for the household use of 2.3 million people.”

The combined proven storage capacity of aquifers below Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne is 200GL – capable of meeting the needs of 2.5 million residents - and potentially as much as 430GL.

At present Australia loses around 4200 gigalitres a year in evaporation from surface storages across the Murray-Darling Basin, he adds – sufficient water to supply Sydney and Melbourne for four and a half years.

“On the face of it managed aquifer recharge looks tremendously promising, but we need a more detailed understanding of our aquifers, likely environmental impacts and, of course, we need effective rules and rights for injecting and recovering water on a large scale,” Professor Jakeman said.

The workshop identified four potential projects in regional Australia where the concept of underground storage could be tested more thoroughly – on the Condamine in Queensland, the Namoi in NSW and two rivers in northern Victoria.

In sandy areas, water injection can be simple and low cost – as easy as an artificial sump or soak that allows surplus floodwater to linger and percolate into the underlying aquifer. On clay soils or rock it may require the use of a solar pump or windmill to inject the water down a well. It may also be important to filter or cleanse water before injection.

According to the researchers, water injection is more affordable than desalinating sea water.  They claim that the scale of large floods suggests that some of this water can be used to recharge aquifers without affecting the important ecological role of floods in our river systems.  Such events may be more frequent under climate change and it makes national sense to turn a problem into an opportunity.

“The recent ten year drought is equally a reminder how critically scarce Australia’s water can become in dry times and of the importance of investigating every opportunity to better manage the resources we have by ‘parking’ surplus water in wet years where it can be easily retrieved,”  Professor Jakeman said.

Another important reason for storing more water below ground is to protect the Australian native landscape, helping to keep Australian rivers and wetlands filled and ensuring water is always accessible to the deep-rooted eucalypts and acacias that are key to our native landscapes.

One of the largest untapped sources of water in Australia is the northern wet, covering the top one third of the continent. The wish to preserve wild rivers combined with high evaporation rates make major dam building in the north unlikely – but scope may exist to store some of the runoff underground.

“Underground storage is likely to be socially more acceptable than building new dams in Australia – but it must nevertheless be carried out with care, and with a detailed understanding of the impact on other water bodies, both surface and subsurface, on natural ecosystems and communities,” Professor Jakeman said.

Social research by Professor Allan Curtis’ NCGRT team at Charles Sturt University and others indicates that, so far, Australians are generally positive about the idea of aquifer recharge.

The scientists add that if Australia manages to solve its own water scarcity problems by understanding aquifer recharge, it will position itself as a world leader and major exporter of solutions in a world facing a growing water crisis.

The National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training is an Australian Government initiative, supported by the Australian Research Council and the National Water Commission.

More information is at http://www.groundwater.com.au/

The Productivity Commission has released a  research report on the schools sector workforce which  proposes a package of reforms that it maintains would give priority to improving teacher quality and reducing teacher shortages, including to ameliorate  educational disadvantage.

The report covered:

• factors affecting the supply of, and demand for, school workers
• whether the knowledge and skills base of the workforce, and its deployment within and across schools and regions, are appropriate to meet the community's needs
• whether policy, governance and regulatory arrangements (in place or in prospect) are conducive to maximising the efficiency and effectiveness of the schools workforce and, if not, what changes may be required.

Recommendations include, in summary, that:

• The Australian Government should not provide university fee repayment discounts for students who enrol in pre-service teacher education courses after 2012.
• accreditation standards for initial teacher education programs should be revised so that the discipline-specific knowledge required to enter a postgraduate teaching course can be interpreted more flexibly.
• measures should be trialled that enable principals to use explicit remuneration-based incentives for attracting suitably qualified teachers into hard-to-staff positions.
• guidance should be published on the evidence that training providers are expected to use to demonstrate that their graduates meet the Graduate Teacher Standards.
• accreditation standards for initial teacher education programs should be revised  so that two-year graduate teacher training courses remain an option rather than a mandatory requirement.
• Schools should be required to develop and maintain an effective performance appraisal system for teachers.
• government school principals should have the authority to take disciplinary action — including dismissal — when a teacher’s performance fails to rise to the relevant standard after being given reasonable time and support to do so.
• The Australian Government’s proposed Reward Payments for Great Teachers initiative should be reformulated so that: reward payments are provided only to high-performing teachers; it does not entrench an expectation that higher certification automatically entitles teachers to higher pay; it allows schools to tailor their regular teacher performance appraisals and professional development to local circumstances.

The report is the final in a series on the education and training workforces, following two previous reports which examined the workforces for vocational education and training, and early childhood development.

The report is available at www.pc.gov.au

Optus announced the signing of a binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) and Vodafone Network. Optus customers will receive wider coverage through access to nearly 1,000 additional mobile sites strengthening Optus’ 3G and 4G services across Australia.

The expanded agreement will provide an approximately 20% increase in the overall number of mobile sites on the Optus mobile network by 2015.

The expanded arrangements will provide five key benefits for Optus:

• Enhanced coverage: The expanded site sharing arrangements will allow Optus to expand 3G and 4G coverage through additional mobile sites in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Geelong, Central Coast, Gold Coast and Canberra - improving the network experience for customers in these areas.
• Accelerated delivery of services: The expanded joint venture agreement will accelerate the delivery of improved 3G and new 4G services to customers by 12-18 months by using existing mobile sites.
• Improved cost efficiencies: The expanded site sharing agreement enables Optus and VHA to share costs for new and existing mobile sites while significantly expanding overall network coverage.
• Exclusive roaming partner: For a period of 5 years from April 2013, Optus will be the exclusive roaming partner for VHA customers in selected regional areas – a strong endorsement of Optus’ mobile network and its significant regional expansion over the past three years.
• Community benefit: Optus and VHA will be able to co-locate the majority of their new infrastructure on existing sites minimising the impact of a large infrastructure rollout on local communities.

The expanded joint venture network arrangement is subject to approval by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

Australia’s tourism ministers have pushed ahead with efforts to streamline regulation in order to stimulate investment and future growth in tourism.

Commonwealth, state and territory tourism ministers met in Melbourne to discuss Australia’s Tourism 2020 strategy, which aims to enhance industry growth and competitiveness and increase overnight visitor spending to $140 billion by 2020.

Ministers also agreed to commit $1.2 million to help fill labour and skills shortages in eight key tourism regions through Tourism Employment Plans which will develop strategies for tourism businesses to address skills and labour shortages.

Arts Minister Simon Crean announced the appointment of Mr Tim Fairfax AM as Interim Chair of the Council and the reappointment of Dr Ron Radford AM as Director of the National Gallery of Australia for a further two years.

Mr Crean paid tribute to outgoing Council Chair Mr Rupert Myer AM's nine years of service at the helm of the Gallery.

"Mr Myer has many legacies, including the redevelopment of the Gallery and its 11 new Indigenous galleries, made possible through his genuine love of the arts, the links he built between the Gallery and the business community, and his own philanthropy," Mr Crean said.

Mr Fairfax is Chairman of the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation, Tim Fairfax Family Foundation, Salvation Army Brisbane Advisory Board, a member of the Philanthropy Australia Council and patron of a wide range of other organisations.

Dr Radford will continue to lead the National Gallery of Australia for a third term until 30 September 2014.

Mr Crean said that in his first two terms, Dr Radford has overseen the recent extension of the Gallery, an expansion of the collection, an increase in visitor numbers as well as the extraordinarily successful Masterpieces from Paris exhibition.

Parliamentary Secretary for Industry and Innovation, Mark Dreyfus, announced the 2012 Australian Clean Technologies Competition open for nominations.

"This year's Australian Clean Technologies Competition is a unique opportunity for Australian clean technology firms to develop their capabilities and gain market exposure for their innovations."

Through the Competition, entrants will link with business mentors, access training opportunities and showcase their capabilities to potential customers, investors and the media.

Competition finalists are given access to the Cleantech Business Accelerator Program through which they are provided with mentoring on commercialisation pathways, business modelling, funding solutions and successful techniques for pitch delivery.

2011 Competition winner, SMAC Technologies, with its innovative air-conditioning technology that reduces energy consumption, represented Australia at the International Global Ideas Competition in the USA.

For further information on how you can participate in the Australian Clean Technologies Competition visit www.cleantechopen.com.au

The Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA) has appointed Dr John Skerritt as the new National Manager of the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) which is responsible for regulating therapeutic goods including medicines, medical devices, blood and blood products.

In making the announcement today, the Secretary of the DoHA, Professor Jane Halton, said Dr John Skerritt, who has a PhD in Pharmacology and is an adjunct Professor at the University of Queensland, is currently the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Primary Industries in the Victorian Government and will come to the TGA with extensive experience in medical, agricultural and environmental policy, regulation, research, research management, technology application and commercialisation.

Dr Skerritt is the former Deputy CEO of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (a commonwealth statutory authority) and a two term Ministerial appointee on the Gene Technology Technical Advisory Committee (Office of Gene Technology Regulator). He has experience on Boards of international and national organisations and more than 25 years experience in negotiating, leading major technical and commercial collaborations with OECD and Asia-Pacific countries.

Australians are now able to have their say on the nation’s first Report Card on Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, through a new online survey available at http://www.mentalhealthcommission.gov.au/report_card

The release of the online survey follows a series of four Roundtable discussions, with over 140 prominent Australians from across the mental health and related sectors, which were held in Sydney.

Financial advisers will be granted an extension to their exemption from the taxation agent services regime until 30 June 2013, said Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury.

This decision will extend for one year the current exemption, which expires on 30 June 2012 and will allow for a smooth transition to the new regulatory regime, which will bring taxation advice provided in the context of financial product advice within the scope of the Tax Agent Services Act 2009.

The decision to grant an extension followed consultation with representatives from the financial planning, tax and accounting bodies, the Tax Practitioners Board and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

"This will allow for the details of the regulatory model to be settled and ensure resolution of implementation issues associated with bringing financial advice under the scope of the tax agent services regime," said Mr Bradbury.

"The new regulatory arrangements will focus on the principles of consumer protection and the delivery of quality taxation advice by financial advisers who offer this as part of their financial product advice services." 

The Government will consult further on these changes and ensure the required legislation is introduced before the changes will take effect on 1 July 2013.

The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy is aware of satellite phone carriers promoting zero up-front payment schemes for satellite phones in Australia.

The Department wants to ensure consumers are aware that unless a payment plan indicates a specific charge for the phone itself, phones included under such plans will not be eligible for support under the Australian Government’s Satellite Phone Subsidy Scheme.

The Satellite Phone Subsidy Scheme is an Australian Government initiative to help people living or working outside of terrestrial mobile phone coverage areas to purchase satellite mobile phones.

The Australian Government recognises satellite phone handsets can be more expensive than terrestrial mobile handsets. The subsidy program is offered to make the cost of the handset more affordable for eligible applicants.

An employer push to remove weekend penalty rates for workers in restaurants, cafes, bars and pubs would slash the pay of many of Australia’s lowest-paid workers, say unions.

Employers calling for pay cuts for hospitality staff should try giving up their weekends, evenings and public holidays for the same low wages as the workers who generate the industry’s profits, say unions.

Low-paid workers in the restaurant, catering and hospitality sectors rely on penalty rates to not only compensate them for working unsociable hours, but to help them make ends meet, said ACTU President Ged Kearney.

She said the latest call to slash penalty rates was part of a wider but tired employer campaign to remove workers’ rights.

“Penalty rates exist because the Australian community expects that if people forego their evenings, weekends or public holidays to work, they should be compensated,” Ms Kearney said.

“Many of these workers earn among Australia’s lowest wages and penalty rates are the only things that enable them to pay their rent, mortgages, and bills and put food on the table.”

The employer group’s argument that workers should be paid penalty rates only if they work six or seven days in a row was nonsensical and was just another way of saying ‘we don’t want to pay penalty rates at all’, Ms Kearney said.

In the 12 months to September last year, hospitality industry wages increased by 3.1%, well below the pace of inflation, and below the average 3.6% wages growth average across all industries.

A new $213 million blood processing facility has been opened in Melbourne which will manufacture about 30 per cent of Australia’s national fresh blood supply.

The new centre, the largest in Australia, replaces an older facility that was no longer fit for purpose.

The Australian Government is contributing more than half of the cost of the new facility and its future running costs, with the remainder funded by the state governments.

The Australian Government contribution is through its $5 billion Health and Hospital Fund established in 2009.

The Australian Red Cross Blood Service will operate the new Melbourne centre under a funding agreement with the National Blood Authority.

Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth Peter Garrett visited the Mount Rogers Early Links to Learning Playgroup in Canberra to launch the second data collection for the Australian Early Development Index (AEDI).

More than 7500 government and non-government schools across Australia are expected to participate in the second national study into young children. This national approach, which is a world first initiative, will provide insights into the development of children as they start school.

Director of the Centre for Community Child Health Professor Frank Oberklaid said the 2012-14 index was the second delivery of the AEDI following the first collection in 2009 and an opportunity to build a more detailed picture of children’s development in communities.

“While the 2012-14 AEDI is the second delivery of the index, it will be the first set of comparative data results. This will not only provide a greater understanding of current conditions within communities but also emerging trends,” Professor Oberklaid said.

This is Australia’s, and the world’s, most comprehensive collection of information on the development of children as they start school. This information will enable communities and governments to understand what is working well and what may need to change to better support families.

The AEDI measures five key areas of young children’s development: physical health and wellbeing, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills, and communication skills and general knowledge.

Data on children in their first year of full-time school will be collected on an ongoing basis every three years and will help ensure governments and communities continue to have the information they need to make a difference to the lives of young children and their families.

The Republic of Korea, the world's 15th largest economy and one of Australia's top trading partners, passed legislation for a national emissions trading scheme (ETS).

The Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Greg Combet, welcomed the move.

"I congratulate the South Korean Government and National Assembly for taking this important step to drive sustainable growth and reduce greenhouse gas emissions," Mr Combet said.

"Australia is now one of 34 countries around the world, including South Korea, that will use emissions trading as the primary vehicle to drive carbon pollution reduction. We are far from leading the world, as some have claimed."

The South Korean ETS is similar to Australia's carbon pricing mechanism.

"Both schemes will cover the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in our economies," said Mr Combet.

The South Korean ETS will start in 2015 and cover facilities emitting 25,000 tonnes of carbon pollution - expected to be around 500 of the country's largest emitters. The Government will set emissions caps and reduction targets for each trading period.

"By the beginning of next year, 27 European Union members, Norway, Iceland, and Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, the US state of California and the Canadian province of Quebec will be using emissions trading to cut carbon pollution," Mr Combet said.

The Republic of Korea is Australia's fourth largest trading partner. Two-way trade in goods and services between the two countries was worth $31.9 billion in 2010-11.

Origin Energy has signed an agreement with the Santos-led Gladstone LNG (GLNG) project with 365 petajoules of gas across 10 years from 2015: about 7 per cent of its gas requirements.

The sale is estimated to be valued at $3 billion.

Origin Managing Director, Grant King said, “The gas sales agreement with GLNG will deliver significant value to Origin, opening an export channel to market for our legacy fuel reserves and allowing a more rapid monetisation of the resource in line with international oil-linked pricing.

"The transaction demonstrates the strength and value inherent in Origin's diverse and flexible portfolio of physical and contracted fuel resources, which has positioned the company to capitalise on the growing demand for gas in the energy markets of Asia," Mr King said.

Origin has a substantial reserves position with access to more than 2,500 PJe of contract rights and uncontracted 3P equity gas reserves. Origin also possesses gas development options on Australia's east coast including Ironbark (Queensland) and Halladale/Blackwatch (Victoria).

"Gas demand in eastern Australia is expected to triple over the next five years and Origin continues to invest in exploration and development in anticipation of this growth," Mr King said.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says Australia has the potential to become a future food superpower in an address to the Global Foundation in Melbourne.

"Just as we have become a minerals and energy giant, Australia can be a great provider of reliable, high-quality food to meet Asia's growing needs," she said.

"In doing this, we are not just an exporter of commodities but a partner in growing international markets and a provider of higher value products and services for the global food industry."

Ms Gillard’s also anticipates Australia providing methods for food production to Asia also.

"It's not just about more exports. It is about developing the systems and services that add extra value to them and participating in the development of a market-based solution to food security across the region," she said.

"Building our food processing industry so that it can supply Asia's growing consumer markets and developing the research, technologies and logistics that strengthen irrigation, grow higher-yield crops and improve safety."

"If you think the change we have lived through already in our region and in our nation is amazing, then hang on to your hats because so much more change is still to come," she said.

"Today, for example, 30 per cent of global output is created within 10,000 kilometres of Australia's shores. That may double by 2050."

Virgin Australia revealed the contemporary design of its new Airbus 330-200 aircraft.

The airline will receive the first two new aircraft direct from the manufacturer Airbus this month and a third later in the year, creating a fleet of five Airbus 330 aircraft by the end of 2012.

The aircraft will operate trans-continental services from Sydney and Melbourne to Perth and are ideally suited to medium-haul travel, with wide and spacious cabin interiors, lie-flat Business Class seats in a two-two-two configuration, luxury leather seating and LED mood-lighting throughout the cabin.

Virgin Australia Chief Executive Officer John Borghetti said the introduction of the new Airbus 330 product would take the standard of domestic travel to a new level in Australia.

“We are focused on becoming Australia’s airline of choice and key to that is creating a consistent experience of relaxation and comfort across all of our aircraft, complemented by the best of service.

“These new Airbus 330 aircraft will be the flagship of our domestic fleet, providing Business and Leisure travellers with the kind of experience that is valued on longer flights,” Mr Borghetti said.

The new aircraft is scheduled to go into service from 15 May 2012 and will form an important part of the Business Class end-to-end customer experience that includes kerbside valet parking; lounge access; award-winning in-flight entertainment and gourmet dining.

The Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA) has appointed Dr John Skerritt as the new National Manager of the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA)

The TGA  is responsible for regulating therapeutic goods including medicines, medical devices, blood and blood products.

Dr Skerritt has a PhD in Pharmacology and is an adjunct Professor at the University of Queensland, and is currently the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Primary Industries in the Victorian Government.

Announcing the appointment, the Secretary of the DoHA, Professor Jane Halton, said Dr Skerritt has extensive experience in medical, agricultural and environmental policy, regulation, research, research management, technology application and commercialisation.


“Dr Skerritt currently leads more than 1200 staff (including 700 regulatory staff in two major science-based regulatory Divisions) and has more than 17 years experience managing laboratory programs and operations in diagnostics, cell culture, biomedical instrumentation, chemistry and biochemistry,” Professor Halton said. “He also has recent experience in the regulatory reform of veterinary drugs and agrochemicals, which includes chairing a national committee of Commonwealth and State Regulators. “


Dr Skerritt is the former Deputy CEO of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (a commonwealth statutory authority) and a two term Ministerial appointee on the Gene Technology Technical Advisory Committee (Office of Gene Technology Regulator). He has experience on Boards of international and national organisations and more than 25 years experience in negotiating, leading major technical and commercial collaborations with OECD and Asia-Pacific countries.


He takes up the position at the TGA at the end of May 2012.

The Australian National University, the University of Canberra and the Southern General Practice Network have received joint funding of $31 million to improve medical care infrastructure in the Canberra region.

Awarded by the Department of Health and Ageing’s Health and Hospitals Fund, the funding will go towards upgrading clinical and training facilities in Moruya, Bega and Cooma. The project will also develop e-Health infrastructure to support shared medical records, local workforce education and specialist tele-health services for patients.  

Dean of the ANU Medical School Professor Nicholas Glasgow said the partnership has a strong focus on training medical, nursing, pharmacy and allied health students as future health professionals who will work in the region.

“The generous funds that are being provided by the Federal Government will support essential infrastructure including accommodation for medical and other health professional students training in the region, new clinical facilities and educational infrastructure” he said.

“It will also result in enhanced opportunities for our medical students to experience practice in rural and regional Australia. It provides really exciting opportunities for our students to work with students in other health disciplines, developing inter-professional working relationships across health disciplines.

Construction of the new training facilities will commence this year and is expected to be completed by 2014.