Author: Wan Kerr

New report from UNDP says reducing poverty in Asia-Pacific is no longer enough.

Zero poverty, better quality education and accountable government top the agenda (more…)

Visitors to Crusoe Island in southern Moreton Bay have welcomed the removal of illegal fishing huts and debris (more…)

DVD launch of a West End Community Arts Archive

“Our Arts, Our Stories”: The documentary is to be launched at the Avid Reader (more…)

Kevin Andrews has been named Minister for Social Services, under Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott’s cabinet – placing most of the control of the Not for Profit sector under one portfolio.

The social services portfolio, described by Abbott as “the largest area of expenditure and payments in the Budget”, will be responsible for settlement services, multicultural affairs and aged care.

Labor Government portfolios including Housing and Homelessness, Community Services, Disability Reform, Mental Health and Ageing, and Climate Change have all gone.

“The Hon Kevin Andrews MP will be Minister for Social Services and be responsible for the largest area of expenditure and payments in the Budget,” Abbott said.

Senator Mitch Fifield will be Assistant Minister for Social Services responsible for the development of the National Disability Insurance Scheme and aged care.

Former Community Services Minister Jenny Macklin says she’s disappointed that the Minister in charge of delivering DisabilityCare (NDIS) which she describes as the single biggest social reform in since Medicare – “has been quietly demoted and will not sit in the new Cabinet”.

“It is deeply worrying that the biggest social reform in a generation is not a high enough priority for the new Government to warrant the attention of a Cabinet Minister.

“We need someone inside the Cabinet room to fight for people with disability when the tough decisions are being made – not waiting outside.”

Also in the Abbott line-up, Senator Marise Payne will be Minister for Human Services. Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells will be Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social Services with special responsibility for multicultural affairs and settlement services.

Andrews had reiterated at the Not for Profit pre-election forum at the National Press Club in Canberra last month that the Coalition would abolish the charity regulator, the ACNC, if elected into office and replace it with a Centre for Excellence.

Community Council for Australia CEO David Crosbie reserved judgement on the Coalition Cabinet.

“We need to look beyond the headline titles and see the Administrative Orders which explain in more detail exactly which Ministers and Assistant Ministers are accepting responsibility of each area of administration,” he said.

“There may well be a range of changes in the structure and operation of programs and services outlined in these Administrative Orders.  These are due to be released on Wednesday.”

Crosbie said the CCA had always welcomed the Coalition commitment to reducing red tape and compliance costs, to establishing a new Business Community partnership and a Centre of Excellence for the sector.

“We look forward to working with Minister Andrews, Senator Sinodinus and others to implement these policies,” he said.

Other appointments include Scott Morrison as Minister for Immigration and Border Protection and Senator Michaelia Cash as Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection which will also include Customs.

“As promised, the administration of Indigenous Affairs will move into the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet,” Abbott said.

“Senator the Hon Nigel Scullion will be Minister for Indigenous Affairs.”

George Brandis has been named Attorney-General and Minister for the Arts, and Greg Hunt Minister for Environment.

Julie Bishop, the only female in the Cabinet, was named Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Re-published from http://www.probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2013/09/coalition-gives-andrews-control-not-profit-sector

Brisbane is the only city where the newest $2 coin – the first circulating coin with purple stripes – will be able to be swapped for your change directly from the Royal Australian Mint.

The Mint went onsite at Queen Street Mall on Friday, swapping the new $2 coin for old change. Excitement surrounding this coin was high, with keen Brisbanites tweeting to bring the coin swap to Queensland.

In a hotly contested hashtag competition held on Twitter, there were only two tweets separating Brisbane and Adelaide when the competition closed on Monday 26 August.

“People across Australia have been really excited to get their hands on the new purple-striped $2 coin, so we thought it was only fair that they got to choose which Australian capital city would host the coin swap,” said Royal Australian Mint CEO Ross MacDiarmid.

“When Brisbane emerged as the victors, we knew that the coin swap had to be held in Queen Street Mall to help keep the royal connection, as the coin celebrates the 60th anniversary of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II,” said Mr MacDiarmid.

The coin swap is likely to bring a boost to Brisbane tourism, with collectors from across Australia keen to get their hands on this coin.

“After the coin swap location was released, we have been inundated with callers from across the country saying that they’re ready to book a flight to Brisbane to get their hands on this coin,” said Mr MacDiarmid.

“These include collectors from Adelaide and Katoomba, so be sure to get to the coin swap early so they don’t all get swapped straight away!”

While there is no standard limit to how many can be swapped, it will depend on how long the line is at the time. The public should keep an eye on Mint’s Facebook page and Twitter feed for any event updates.

This coin was officially launched in June 2013 by the Governor-General of Australia, Her Excellency the Honourable Quentin Bryce AC CVO, as part of the Colourful Change program.

For more information about the coin swap, 2013 60th anniversary of the Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II $2 coloured circulating coin or images of this coin please visit www.ramint.gov.au

Screening for minor memory changes will wrongly label many with dementia, warn experts

A political drive, led by the UK and US, to screen older people for minor memory changes (often called mild cognitive impairment or pre-dementia) is leading to unnecessary investigation and potentially harmful treatment for what is arguably an inevitable consequence of ageing, warn University of Sydney experts in a paper published in the British Medical Journal today.

A team of specialists in Australia and the UK say that expanding diagnosis of dementia will result in up to 65 per cent of people aged over 80 having Alzheimer’s disease diagnosed – and up to 23 per cent of non-demented older people being labelled with dementia.

They argue this policy is not backed by evidence and ignores the risks, harms and costs to individuals, families and societies. It may also divert resources that are badly needed for the care of people with advanced dementia.

Their views come as the Preventing Overdiagnosis conference opens in New Hampshire next week, partnered by BMJ’s Too Much Medicine campaign, where experts from around the world will gather to discuss how to tackle the threat to health and the waste of money caused by unnecessary care.

Paper co-author, Professor David Le Couteur from the University’s Charles Perkins Centre, said dementia is an age related condition and with an ageing global population, it is predicted to become an overwhelming and costly problem.

“Although evidence suggests that only 5-10 per cent of people with mild cognitive symptoms will develop dementia each year, current policy in many countries is aimed at encouraging more widespread and earlier diagnosis of dementia,” he said.

“For example, in the US, the Medicare insurance programme will cover an annual wellness visit to a physician that includes a cognitive impairment test. In England, the government has announced that it will reward general practitioners for assessing brain function in older patients – and has committed to have “a memory clinic in every town and every city” despite no sound evidence of benefit.

“This has led to the development of imaging techniques and tests that are increasingly used in diagnosis, despite uncertainty over their accuracy.

“Furthermore, there are no drugs that prevent the progression of dementia or are effective in patients with mild cognitive impairment, raising concerns that once patients are labelled with disease or pre-disease, they may try untested therapies and run the risk of adverse effects.”

The paper co-authors also question whether ageing of the population is becoming a “commercial opportunity” for developing screening, early diagnosis tests and medicines marketed to maintain cognition in old age.

The desire of politicians, dementia organisations, and academics and clinicians in the field to raise the profile of dementia is understandable, write the authors, “but we risk being conscripted into an unwanted war against dementia.”

Yet they suggest that the political rhetoric expended on preventing the burden of dementia would be much better served by efforts to reduce smoking and obesity, given current knowledge linking mid-life obesity and cigarettes with the risk of dementia.

“Current policy is rolling out untested and uncontrolled experiments in the frailest people in society without a rigorous evaluation of its benefits and harms to individuals, families, service settings, and professionals,” Professor Le Couteur concluded.

Link to PDF article: http://press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/september/dementia.pdf

Link to published article: http://www.bmj.com/cgi/doi/10.1136/bmj.f5125

Find out more about the conference at: www.preventingoverdiagnosis.net

Read more about the BMJ’s campaign at: bmj.com/too-much-medicine

About the Charles Perkins Centre:  Obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease account for half the deaths in Australia and have become epidemics of global proportions. The University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre aims to ease the burden of these diseases by transforming how we eat, work and live. Most initiatives have treated these diseases as medical conditions, concentrating on complex biology at the levels of genes, cells and organs. By contrast, the Charles Perkins Centre brings medical and health experts together with some of the best minds from the arts and social sciences, architecture, business, education, law, engineering and information technology to look at all three conditions together in a bid to reduce their incidence, not just in Australia, but worldwide.