Reports

The Australian Government has commissioned reviews of both the schools and higher education sectors, as well as an early childhood review. While noting the importance of each individual report, the Minister for Education has argued that ‘it’s how they knit together that has the potential to change the lives of people who aren’t even born yet.’ (Clare, 2023). Connecting the schools and higher education reviews is particularly important because university growth and equity targets are unachievable without substantial school reform. In this paper we highlight the scope and inequity of secondary school streaming, and its specific impact on student equity in Australian higher education. We focus here on Queensland data, with a more comprehensive national account to follow. Among other initiatives, increasing the proportion of low socio-economic status (SES) background, Indigenous, and other marginalised students requires systemic school reform.

This submission makes the following recommendations: • That governments collect data around which student groups are streamed into ATAR and non-ATAR streams, and their relative outcomes over time. • That school level metrics be developed on the education and employment outcomes of Year 12 graduates, beyond Year 12 completion rates. • That higher education institutions be supported to develop further curriculum and meaningful pathways for non-ATAR cohorts to engage in higher education. • That more transparent ethnicity data be collected to create a better understanding of how ethnic minority groups are faring in the Australian education system, highlighting areas of need and strength. • That specific reporting on the education success and outcomes of children in out-of-home care be developed within both the schools and the higher education sector. • That specific funding be allocated to support children in OOHC within schools, including through trauma-informed approaches that recognise their broad and unique support needs. • That children in out-of-home care be considered a priority equity group within both schools and higher education sectors, and that policies be aligned across sectors.

Griffith University’s Climate Action Beacon conducted the third of five planned Climate Action Surveys in September-December 2023. The survey aimed to discover what Australians think, feel, and do about climate change and related environmental and climatic events, conditions, and issues. This report gives details of the background to the survey, as well as its methods, major findings, and potential implications. Comparisons are made with findings from the corresponding 2021 and 2022 surveys and with other recent survey research.

To date the Australian and Queensland governments have invested in different policy and program mechanisms including incentives, extension and education, market-based instruments, regulation (Great Barrier Reef Protection Amendment Bill 2009 (Queensland Government)) at a management practice level or gully and streambank remediation level, and conservation management land purchases. More recently, greater focus has been placed on wetland restoration or the application of treatment systems including treatment (constructed) wetlands and bioreactors to reduce land-based anthropogenic pollutant runoff from entering the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Globally, wetlands have been restored and treatment systems have been constructed to help improve water quality from diffuse pollutants such as sediments, nutrients and pesticides from agriculture. In Australia and the GBR specifically, there is a very limited number of studies that have captured all the measured costs and that have been monitored over a number of years. Understanding the measured costs and cost drivers of wetland management and restoration actions is critical for informing new programs and projects seeking to achieve reductions in land-based pollutants.

Griffith University’s Climate Action Beacon conducted the third of five planned Climate Action Surveys from September to December 2023. The survey discovered what Australians think, feel, and do about climate change and related environmental and climatic events, conditions and issues. This report gives details of the background of the survey, as well as its methods, major findings and potential implications. Comparisons are made with findings from the corresponding 2021 and 2022 surveys.

This report documents the results of an assessment of the northern lakes’ precinct on K'gari (formally known as Fraser Island), Great Sandy National Park, undertaken in June 2022. The area was extensively burnt during the Duling 2020 bushfire. The purpose was to assess the condition of wetland ecosystems, survey for the presence of threatened species and identify any ongoing impacts or management needs following the 2020 bushfire. The June 2022 survey was funded by the Queensland Government as part of the action plan (Melzer et al. 2021) supporting the implementation of recommendations in the post-fire ecological assessment (Meiklejohn et al. 2023). Twenty wetlands were assessed in the northern lakes’ precinct. An additional five wetlands outside the precinct were surveyed to examine regeneration following the Duling bushfire, particularly in peat-based systems.

The Queensland Government has identified three river systems – the Flinders, Gilbert and Mitchell rivers in the Gulf of Carpentaria region – where water development for irrigated agriculture is already occurring or likely to occur. Information on the water needs of estuarine ecosystems is needed to ensure that water development is done in a sustainable way, and that economic and social trade-offs between agriculture and the downstream environment are well understood and made transparent.

The southern Gulf has been identified as a key Australian site for migratory shorebirds (Garnett, 1989; Driscoll, 1997, 2001, 2014). Migratory shorebirds use the Gulf intertidal flats for feeding on macrobenthos during summer months. However, there have been very few surveys of shorebirds in the Gulf (Driscoll, 2014). Additionally, little is known of the scale of the macrobenthic food supply, and the likely impact of water development on the sustainability of this food supply.

This National Environmental Science Program (NESP) project therefore examined the links between freshwater flow and estuarine and coastal productivity as a mechanism for understanding how changes in flow may impact shorebirds and their food supply in estuaries and adjacent coastal environments. A range of approaches were used, including measuring coastal and estuarine primary productivity and macrobenthos densities, based on sampling during a number of field trips. The premise is that this productivity is the fundamental underpinning of the resource needs of shorebirds. Additionally, shorebird surveys were conducted to assess the importance of the Flinders, Gilbert and Mitchell estuaries and nearshore as feeding sites for birds. This study complemented NESP Northern Australia Environmental Resources (NAER) Hub project 1.4 (Burford et al., 2020) which examined freshwater inputs to the three Gulf estuaries in the context of fisheries species, and some productivity data overlaps with outputs from project 1.4. The primary productivity and macrobenthos components of the research are presented as published (Burford & Faggotter, 2021) and submitted papers (Lowe et al., submitted ECSS; Venarsky et al., submitted ECSS).

This study showed that freshwater flows had a number of impacts on primary productivity in the Flinders, Gilbert and Mitchell river estuaries and nearshore environment. In the short term, when wet season flooding was occurring, chlorophyll a concentrations in the water column and intertidal flats decreased as salinities decreased. This is because low salinity has negative effects on the physiology of the marine algal species in estuaries. However, low salinity water also contributed significant nutrient loads to estuaries and the nearshore. In our in-situ experiments, addition of nutrients stimulated mudflat primary production in all estuaries at multiple sampling times, suggesting chronic nutrient limitation. Therefore, we conclude that catchment nutrients are critical to promoting primary productivity across all three estuaries.

This briefing paper has been created to give the user tools to understand the history and sociology of race, racism, and antiracism. These concepts contribute to enhancing racial literacy in society.

Over the past decade the Vietnamese beef sector has witnessed significant change. A growing population of around 100 million people and a 35% upsurge in domestic demand for beef products over the last 5 years together with increasing consumer awareness and demand for increased hygiene, food safety and nutrition present both opportunities as well as challenges for the sector.

Increased demand has led to a change in supply patterns for beef in Vietnam. From a position of self-sufficiency in the early 2010’s, Vietnam now supplies around half of beef demand from domestically produced cattle with the balance coming from a variety of sources, including beef produced from cattle imported from Myanmar, Thailand and Australia; beef imported from Australia, USA, Brazil and Argentina; and frozen buffalo meat from India.

The rapid changes in sources of beef accompanied by increases in demand and unstable international trading conditions mean that the policy implications of the future pathways for Vietnam to meet its beef demand are not yet well understood. Policymakers need to consider many factors when developing strategies for the beef sector, including imports of fodder and feed grains, changes in cold chain availability, the impact of increased competition with China for animal protein and implications for Vietnam’s GHG emission targets.

IPSARD conducted a study to gain insights and evidence about drivers and implications of rapid transformations in trading patterns of beef and cattle in Vietnam and to propose potential policy implications of these transformations.

This report is a key deliverable of the Joint Data Project under the strengthening Australia – Vietnam Tourism Cooperation (SAVTC). This project is led by Austrade in cooperation with the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism and funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in support of the Australia Vietnam Enhanced Economic Engagement Strategy. The report offers comprehensive profiles of visitors travelling between Vietnam and Australia. These detailed profiles enable the identification of distinct needs and preferences among different visitor groups, facilitating tailored tourism offerings that enhance visitor satisfaction.

This report presents the key findings and recommendations from the ARC Linkage Project Constructing Building Integrity: Raising Standards through Professionalism. This executive summary outlines the key findings and main recommendations, explaining how strengthening and better leveraging professional standards in the industry can contribute to improved quality building outcomes.

The research project addresses the need to enhance public trust within the Australian residential apartment sector and respond to escalating concerns about major defects and the quality of multistorey (4+ or higher) apartment buildings, as outlined in the Building Confidence Report (‘Shergold Weir Report’). Building industry professionals practice in a complex environment, highlighted by the fact that their involvement spans numerous interconnected phases, including planning, design, procurement, tendering, construction and management. This provides the relevant context to explore the ‘public trust’ problem through the lens of professions and their professionalism.

This report examines the return-to-work (RTW) experiences of cancer survivors, drawing upon a comprehensive review of 320 empirical research articles published between 2013 and 2023. The scoping review reveals a wide variation of RTW success rates and highlights various barriers and facilitators influencing survivors’ ability to reenter the workforce. Key barriers include cancer-related symptoms, treatment side effects, psychological distress, financial concerns, and workplace challenges. Facilitators encompass physical and psychological interventions, workplace accommodations, social support, and a positive mindset among survivors. The findings of this review highlight the multifaceted support cancer survivors require as they reenter the workforce. While workplace interventions and accommodations are crucial, addressing the financial impact of cancer is equally essential. Life insurance can serve as a vital financial safeguard, offering much-needed support for cancer survivors and their families during and after treatment. By understanding the challenges faced when diagnosed with, treated for, or overcoming cancer, life insurers can explore new ways of providing support to policyholders through personalised cancer products and recovery programs. Ongoing research and collaboration among stakeholders are key to developing innovative life insurance solutions that empower cancer survivors with comprehensive financial security, ultimately promoting their wellbeing and resilience throughout their journey.

It’s widely acknowledged that First Nations peoples value water in ways quite different to the industrialised West. Reconciling the different framings has always been a challenge. Working collaboratively with Aboriginal experts and state government water planners in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, Sarah Laborde and Sue Jackson developed two conceptual models to compare propositions about the ontological character of water, a Living Waters model and a Modern Water model. Here they explain the models, how they are different, and why these differences are so important.

This report draws on the five-year Australian Research Council funded study Exemplary Early Childhood Educators at Work. Three phases include a time use diary, focus groups and case studies to examine what exemplary early childhood educators do and what enables their work. The findings and recommendations provide compelling evidence to inform policy, organisations/employers and educators themselves to provide the highest quality education and care for children.

The source of data used to estimate the e-flow requirement in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Indicator 6.4.2 (level of water stress: freshwater withdrawal as a proportion of available freshwater resources) is the Global Environmental Flow Information System (GEFIS), an online tool produced and managed by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). In addition to the GEFIS estimate, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), as the custodians of the SDG indicator, encourages countries to put forward their locally determined e-flow estimates, especially if it differs from the GEFIS estimate. To date, however, only a few countries have taken up this opportunity. The aim of this report is to compare e-flows estimated by GEFIS with independent e-flow assessments performed at the local level to gauge the level of agreement between the two sets of estimates. We compared e-flow estimates from GEFIS to local e-flow estimates at 533 river sites.

Thousands of species of plants and animals, and many dozens of ecological communities had distributions that were substantially fire-impacted by the 2019-20 fire season. This study aims to provide estimates of population loss and likely extent and timing of recovery for the Australian vertebrate taxa and spiny crayfish taxa that were most heavily impacted by the fires. This information can be used to identify those taxa for which management is most needed to prevent extinction and aid recovery, and for which conservation status assessments are most critical.

Our submission focusses on issues related to administrative review and appeal of National Disability Insurance Scheme (‘NDIS) decisions, currently undertaken in the NDIS Division of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (‘AAT’). This submission builds upon our previous submission to the Attorney-General’s Department Appeals Administrative Review Reform Issues Paper which is attached as Annexure A. We maintain and reiterate the views we expressed in that submission as they are applicable to the new ART Bills. This submission also builds on our current research project, and submissions we have made to numerous Government and independent inquiries over the last several years including the recent NDIS Review. Details of our research findings and our previous submissions are available at https://www.hopkinscentre.edu.au/project/arc-adjudicating-rights-for-a-sustainable-112.

Our submission to this inquiry concerning the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024 (‘NDIS Back on Track Bill’) focusses primarily on issues related to the determination of supports including reasonable and necessary supports in the NDIS.

We submit that any changes to how the NDIS is implemented and administered should be consistent with the principles of administrative justice, enhance the rights of people with disability and be consistent with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (CRPD). We also outline below aspects from our submissions to the NDIS Review, which remain relevant to our assessment of the NDIS Back on Track Bill.