Australian property investment advice : an unregulated industry and the need for better consumer protection laws

Currently, consumers have no means of protecting themselves when they are looking for property investment advice in Australia. There is no uniform national or State regulation in the property investment advice and marketeering industry. The only protection and remedies currently available are those under the general consumer protection laws scattered in various Acts, and even so, these have numerous problems. This paper highlights what those problems are under the general consumer protection laws and suggests some changes to the current system. The paper also argues that a national co-operative approach is the only way to move forward in this area and suggests that the constitutional difficulty can be overcome by using the legislative conferral of state powers provision, which has often been overlooked. The paper also argues that a new regulator be set up to administer and enforce the new proposed laws on property investment advice.

Physical activity advice and obesity

Current physical activity guidelines need to be modified to incorporate specific recommendations for obese people and consideration needs to be given to greater collaboration among health care providers to provide a multi disciplinary team approach that may be a more effective method of managing obesity and promoting physical activity.

Responses to Australian society and culture by Greek-Australian writers

Focuses on the themes and preoccupations in Greek-Australian literature that reflect the influence of Australia on the traditional sense of identity of Greek migrants. Predominant concerns connected with identity are those of nostalgic references to the homeland, feelings of alienation and discrimination. These themes are related to what is recognised in life and in literature as "xenitia". Second generation writers reveal an acceptance of belonging to two cultures and having dual identities.

Advice for international students on assessment practices in Australia

This guide provides a brief overview of the practices of assessment of learning in Australian universities. The information, suggestions and advice that follow will be especially useful if you are an international student who has little or no experience of the Australian university system. It will also be useful if you have had experience of assessment methods that are very different from Australian university practices, either at high school or university in another country.

Advice on assessing large classes

After a decade of rapid expansion in Australian higher education, student numbers have grown considerably in many courses and subjects, especially at the undergraduate level.
Larger class sizes pose significant teaching challenges, not least in the assessment of student learning. Perhaps most troubling, large classes may limit the amount of feedback provided to students.
In response to the pressures and challenges of assessing larger groups of students, academic staff are responding through:
• greater attention to the communication of clear assessment criteria to students;
• the development and use of marking guides to be used by teaching and assessing teams;
• the increasing use of various forms of exemplars to guide student efforts — as well as to guide marking and grading — including the modelling of discipline-based thinking, writing and performance; and
• the continuous refinement and dissemination of assessment policy and practice in relation to large student groups.
The issue of workload is central in any decisions about assessment of large classes for it is a serious one for students and staff alike. Staff teaching large student groups invariably undertake an informal, qualitative weighing-up of the efficiency of assessment tasks vis-à-vis their educational effectiveness.
There is little doubt that establishing an effective assessment program — developing criteria, guides, exemplars and models; discussing and refining them and communicating them to students and other staff — will have an initial negative impact on workload for staff with coordinating responsibilities.
However, this preparatory work is likely to lead to three gains. The first is a reduction in the time required for marking due to a higher quality of student submission. The second is a resolution of some of the potential issues likely when many staff are involved in marking and grading, through a streamlining of marking and grading practices. Finally, the availability of clear, transparent criteria and examples of work will contribute positively to the overall quality of teaching and learning.

Advice on assessing international students

Australian higher education has assessment practices that are quite different from assessment practices in some other international settings. The following suggestions will particularly benefit international students unfamiliar with assessment practices in Australian universities and may also assist local students to adjust to this higher education’s new expectations.

Advice on online assessment

A good deal of investigation and development is underway in Australian universities into the possibilities for effective and efficient on-line and computer-based assessment. The current commercial ‘virtual learning environments’, which integrate various curriculum elements at subject level into a single software portal, usually offer various built-in options for student assessment. As well, many on-line assessment initiatives are being locally developed to suit specific curriculum needs.

There are many reasons why on-line assessment is being adopted by Australian universities. Many academics are seeking to diversify assessment tasks, broaden the range of skills assessed and provide students with more timely and informative feedback on their progress. Others are wishing to meet student expectations for more flexible delivery and to generate efficiencies in assessment that can ease academic staff workloads. All staff involved in such initiatives are discovering they face a large number of technical and educational decisions.

The move to on-line and computer based assessment is a natural outcome of the increasing use of information and communication technologies to enhance learning. As more students seek flexibility in their courses, it seems inevitable there will be growing expectations for flexible assessment as well.

At the same time, in a climate of increasing academic workloads, the adoption of on-line assessment may help to manage large volumes of marking and assessment-related administration efficiently. The automation of routine on-line tasks, in particular, may have the potential in the long-term to provide time/cost-efficient student assessment, though the present evidence suggests that some on-line assessment, at least in the early stages, can add significantly both to staff workload and to overall expenses.

Patient recall of receiving lifestyle advice for overweight and hypertension from their general practitioner

Background
Overweight, obesity and hypertension can be prevented through improvements in lifestyle including nutrition and physical activity. General practitioners (GPs) in Australia have access to over 90% of the population in the course of a year and therefore, the general practice setting may be ideal to assist patients with lifestyle change for weight management and hypertension. The present study aimed to determine the proportion of overweight/obese patients that recalled receiving advice by their GP to make lifestyle changes for weight loss. Recall of advice received by hypertensive patients to reduce salt intake was also measured.

Methods
A face to face survey was conducted on a representative sample (urban, suburban and rural) of South Australian residents. Respondents provided information on height and weight (self-report), whether they had received lifestyle advice from their GP for weight loss, and for those with self reported hypertension if they had received advice to reduce dietary salt.

Results
The sample included 2947 South Australian adult residents (58% female; BMI (mean (SD)), 26.6 (5.3) kg/m2; age, 50.7 (18.0) years). Ninety-six percent had visited their GP in the past 12 months. Forty-one percent of males and 25% of females were overweight and 19% of males and 20% of females were obese. Twenty-seven percent of overweight/obese respondents reported receiving lifestyle advice for weight loss purposes. Of the 33% who reported they had hypertension, 34% reported receiving advice to reduce salt intake.

Conclusions
Less than 1/3 of overweight/obese patients reported that they had received lifestyle advice that could assist with weight loss from their GP. About a third of respondents with hypertension reported that they received advice to reduce salt intake. There are potentially missed opportunities in which GPs could provide re-enforcement of benefits of lifestyle changes with respect to weight and blood pressure control.