Aged care provision in Greater Bendigo : current provision and future requirements

In the following paper, ratios which correlate aged care places with physical infrastructure requirements are developed for the regional Victorian Local Government Area of Greater Bendigo, by analysing its existing aged care facilities. These ratios are then used in conjunction with the federal government’s population based measures to model scenarios of future aged care infrastructure requirements for Greater Bendigo. Strategies for the provision of additional residential aged care facilities are explored using a matrix governed by size and configuration. Variations in these two aspects are shown to affect the location options for future facilities in Greater Bendigo.

A new relationship between planning and democracy? Urban activism in Melbourne 1965-1975

This paper is a reflective overview of urban social protest in the years 1965-1975 and its influence on post-war planning, especially on models of public participation in planning, and conceptions of effective local democracy. Drawing extensively on a major study of urban activism in Melbourne, Australia, the paper discusses the political and organisational strategies used by activists in Melbourne’s inner city areas to resist the large-scale planning/urban renewal projects especially of the Victorian state government. The paper focuses on Melbourne’s inner city Residents’ Action Groups and examines their motivations, strategies and rationales, placing them within an international context of urban protest movements demanding local democracy and consultation. The paper concludes that the Melbourne urban protest movements of the late 60s and early 70s deserve recognition for their contribution to inclusive, consultative processes in planning decision-making. This is done within a context of questioning contemporary academic discussion around the interpretative concept of gentrification, widely and indiscriminately applied to this and later periods of urban change.

Smaller steps into longer journeys : experiencing African music and expressing culture

This paper outlines an exploratory research project that draws on survey data from both primary and secondary school music teachers in Victoria. The research stems from a study that I undertook in 2002-2003 with final year Deakin University undergraduate students. That project investigated the potential of African music to enhance the generic musical experiences, learning, motivation, interest, confidence and competence of non-specialist primary teacher education students. The research project being reported in this paper is an extension of the previous study to focus on practising music teachers at both primary and secondary school levels. The research addresses the significance and contribution of African music and culture as a cross-cultural experience for music teachers, their students and the wider community. It further considers my role as an African music practitioner in terms of transformation and acculturation. This paper outlines the progress of, and provides preliminary data about, the emergence of an innovative area of teaching and learning based on African music in Victorian schools. It also explores the notion of why cross-cultural and multi-cultural engagement matters in the contemporary context of educational change.

Career progression, human capital and pay equity in Australian public sector labour markets

This study uses data from the Victorian Public Sector Census 2004 to identify the extent of equity in pay and career progression (promotion). A system of three equations is developed to capture the endogeneity between human capital and promotion and the interdependence between promotion, pay and human capital. The results indicate that there are substantial differences in the average wages earned by public sector employees in different Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) groups. While some of these differences arise from factors beyond the control of the public sector employers, others arise from bias in the public sector employment system and procedures. The earnings of individual employees in the public sector are determined in a systematic way by the wage structures in the different sub-sectors, the skill base of the employee on recruitment, sub-sector specific promotion rates, acquisition of formal and informal training and the apparent bias within recruitment and promotion systems in dealing with particular groups. The apparent bias of recruitment and promotion systems is complex in makeup and varies within EEO groups as well as between EEO groups. Most of the difference in pay across employees can be explained as an outcome of individual choice and labour market conditions external to the public sector. After adjusting for sectoral wage differences, skill base when recruited, sectoral promotion rate differences, experience in the public sector, whether individuals are employed on a full-time or part-time basis and individual training decisions, the statistical evidence is consistent with the finding that public sector recruitment and promotion systems tends to be biased, on average, against females and those from culturally diverse backgrounds. Achievements in formal education are important for salary progression. This is particularly the case for women. The main drivers of participation in formal education were employer support in both financial and non-financial terms. Promotion rates were important factors in explaining wage differences. Women tended to receive slightly fewer promotions than men, but women received, on average, greater rewards for each promotion.

Leveraging the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne for community engagement: an examination of Equal First and the Adopt-a-Second-Team program

Event leverage provides information about what outcomes occur as a result of an event. Unlike event impact studies, event leverage analysis identifies why particular outcomes occurred, and the processes that can be used to optimise desired event outcomes. While research has been directed towards understanding how events can be leveraged to provide optimal economic outcomes for host communities, there is little research that examines social leverage within the context of events. The research presented in this paper is part of a larger study that investigated social leverage within the context of the 2006 Commonwealth Games, held in Melbourne, Australia. This paper presents preliminary results relating to two Victorian regions with regard to one the over-arching social policy, Equal First, and a subsidiary program called, Adopt-a-Second-Team. Participant observations and stakeholder interviews were employed to explore the development, operationalisation, implementation and outcomes of Equal First and Adopt-a-Second-Team. The results suggest that although each region achieved outcomes that were consistent with the directions of Equal First, each implemented the Adopt-a-Second-Team differently. The two case studies presented in this paper highlight that the model of implementation developed by the City of Port Phillip may provide a benchmark in social leverage of events. Implications for leveraging social impacts and managing social legacies of events through an approach that includes consideration of policy development and operationalisation from the event organising body and program implementation from the perspective of local community event organisers are discussed.

The blind men and the elephant : music education in a changing world

Education provides unique opportunities for individuals to develop their full character as Australian citizens who can play a part in the shaping of the future. All educational settings have an important role to play in bridging differences and promoting mutual respect, tolerance and understanding between people of different races, cultures, and religions. The curriculum is one component of the wider educational milieu that should be 'an enabling mechanism that nurtures adjustment to change, and simultaneously provides a roadmap of expectation' (Bruniges, 2005, p.15). As the rate and diversity of both local and global change accelerates, education continues to be faced with a multiplicity of challenges. The ways in which we respond to this will influence both the society and the curriculum that we design, implement and evaluate. Currently music educators implementing the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) are faced with the challenge of developing multicultural practices that align with both curriculum initiatives and create authentic experiences for students. As in the well-known story of the blind men and the elephant, teachers are faced with resources that offer only a shallow introduction to what is a multifaceted field. The question we pose is: 'How do educators embrace a vast range of cultural and social dimensions in our school music programmes without being like a blind man, grasping only one perspective of an extensive and complex whole?'

Farm-level efficiency and productivity measurement using panel data: wool production in south-west Victoria

In this article we explore some issues surrounding the use of farm-level efficiency and productivity estimates for benchmarking studies. Using an eight-year balanced panel of Victorian wool producers we analyse annual variation between estimates of farm-level technical efficiency derived using Data Envelopment Analysis and Malmquist estimates of Total Factor Productivity. We find that farms change their relative rank in terms of efficiency across years. Also, unlike aggregate studies of Total Factor Productivity, we find at best erratic and modest growth, a worrying result for this industry. However, caution is needed when interpreting these results, and for that matter, benchmarking analysis as currently practised when using frontier estimation techniques like Data Envelopment Analysis.

Gardner; re BWW: Victorian Supreme Court makes landmark Australian ruling on tube feeding

• The Victorian Supreme Court has decided that artificial nutrition and hydration provided through a percutaneous gastrostomy tube to a woman in a persistent vegetative state may be withdrawn.
• The judge ruled, in line with a substantial body of international medical, ethical and legal opinion, that any form of artificial nutrition and hydration is a medical procedure, not part of palliative care, and that it is a procedure to sustain life, not to manage the dying process.
• Thus, the law does not impose a rigid obligation to administer artificial nutrition or hydration to people who are dying, without due regard to their clinical condition. The definition of key terms such as “medical treatment”, “palliative care”, and “reasonable provision of food and water” in this case will serve as guidance for end-of-life decisions in other states and territories.
• The case also reiterates the right of patients, and, when incompetent, their validly appointed agents or guardians, to refuse medical treatment.
• Where an incompetent patient has not executed a binding advance directive and no agent or guardian has been appointed, physicians, in consultation with the family, may decide to withdraw medical treatment, including artificial nutrition or hydration, on the basis that continuation of treatment is inappropriate and not in the patient’s best interests. However, Victoria and other jurisdictions would benefit from clarification of this area of the law

Distribution of an alien aquatic snail in relation to flow variability, human activities and water quality

1. Disturbance and anthropogenic land use changes are usually considered to be key factors facilitating biological invasions. However, specific comparisons of invasion success between sites affected to different degrees by these factors are rare.

2. In this study we related the large-scale distribution of the invading New Zealand mud snail (Potamopyrgus antipodarum) in southern Victorian streams, Australia, to anthropogenic land use, flow variability, water quality and distance from the site to the sea along the stream channel.

3. The presence of P. antipodarum was positively related to an index of flow-driven disturbance, the coefficient of variability of mean daily flows for the year prior to the study.

4. Furthermore, we found that the invader was more likely to occur at sites with multiple land uses in the catchment, in the forms of grazing, forestry and anthropogenic developments (e.g. towns and dams), compared with sites with low-impact activities in the catchment. However, this relationship was confounded by a higher likelihood of finding this snail in lowland sites close to the sea.

5. We conclude that P. antipodarum could potentially be found worldwide at sites with similar ecological characteristics. We hypothesise that its success as an invader may be related to an ability to quickly re-colonise denuded areas and that population abundances may respond to increased food resources. Disturbances could facilitate this invader by creating spaces for colonisation (e.g. a possible consequence of floods) or changing resource levels (e.g. increased nutrient levels in streams with intense human land use in their catchments).

Is a contained fire less risky than a going fire? Career and volunteer firefighters

Since fighting fires can pose a great risk to the lives of firefighters, it is important to understand how they perceive risks in dynamic wildfire situations. The aim of the current study was to determine whether career and volunteer firefighters differ in their perception of the risk of a going vs. contained fire and whether descriptions of a fire as either going or contained affected perceptions of risk. It was expected that career firefighters would rate a contained fire as significantly riskier than would volunteer firefighters. The sample consisted of 55 career and 84 volunteer CFA Victorian firefighters (134 males and 5 females). An ambiguous wildfire scenario was presented and described as either going or contained and risk ratings were recorded. Two-way ANOVA results showed that career firefighters rated a going fire as equally risky as a contained fire. On the other hand, volunteer firefighters perceived a fire described as contained to be significantly less risky than a fire described as going, despite the fact that the same fireground conditions were described in both cases. It was concluded that a framing effect had occurred and that career firefighters demonstrated a higher level of situation awareness than volunteer firefighters due to their heightened levels of risk perception when exposed to contained wildfire scenarios. A practical implication of the current research is that those conducting firefighting briefings need to be aware of possible framing effects in the way information is presented to firefighters and need to ensure that all briefings make risks cognitively salient to firefighters.

Workforce trends in specialist and GP obstetric practice in Victoria

OBJECTIVE: To provide a contemporary picture of the general practitioner and specialist obstetric workforce in Victoria.

DESIGN, PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Postal census by questionnaire of all 317 Fellows and 961 Diplomates on the Victorian database of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in September 2003.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Sex, age and geographical distributions and patterns of retirement from and recruitment to the GP and specialist obstetric workforce in Victoria.

RESULTS: 244 Fellows (77.0%) and 652 Diplomates (67.8%) participated. The average age of Diplomates was 42 years; only 20% were involved in procedural obstetrics. Of GPs practising procedural obstetrics, 56% intended to cease within 7 years. Two-thirds of specialist obstetricians continued to practise obstetrics. Among those ceasing obstetrics, almost half had done so since 2000. Among Fellows ceasing obstetric practice, there is a peak in the 50-60-years age group, but cessation of obstetric practice occurred across all age groups.

CONCLUSION: The proportion of GPs involved in procedural obstetrics has fallen markedly over the past decade, with half of those ceasing practice in the 40-50-years age group. New GPs entering the workforce with the Diploma and overseas doctors are unlikely to meet the procedural workforce shortfall. Attracting the large cohort of doctors aged 40-50 years back to obstetric practice must be a priority. Given the pattern of retirements from obstetrics, there will be insufficient numbers of specialists to maintain current levels of service. The reasons include non-participation in obstetrics by new graduates and international medical graduates, the inadequate number of new graduates, and the predominance of women among specialists aged under 40 years, whose work output tends to be affected by family commitments.

Ischaemic heart disease and Australian immigrants: the influence of birthplace and language skills on treatment and use of health services

Admission rates for ischaemic heart disease (IHD), and the use of invasive cardiovascular procedures, separation mode and length of stay (LOS) were compared between Australians from non-English speaking background (NESB; n=8627) and English speaking background (ESB; n=13162) aged 20 years and over admitted to Victorian urban public hospitals. The study covered the period from 1993 to 1998. It was found that, compared with their ESB counterparts, the incidence of admission for acute myocardial infarction was significantly higher for NESB men and women before and after controlling for confounding factors. The age-adjusted ratios for NESB women compared with their ESB counterparts ranged from 1.23 to 1.89 for cardiac catheterisation, from 0.23 to 0.27 for percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), and from 1.04 to 1.80 for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG).
Procedure rates were comparable in men for cardiac catheterisation and CABG but higher for PTA rates in NESB men (OR: 1.29, 95%CI: 1.11-1.50) than their ESB counterparts. Both NESB men (β=0.04, 95%CI: 0.01-0.07) and women (β=0.03, 95%CI: 0.02-0.08) experienced significantly longer hospital stays than their ESB counterparts. These findings indicate there may be systematic differences in patients’ treatment and service utilisation in Victorian public hospitals. The extent to which physicians’ bias and
patients’ choice could explain these differences requires further investigation.

Peripartum urinary incontinence : a study of midwive's knowledge and practices

Urinary incontinence impacts on women's quality of life and their wellbeing. The objectives of this study were to obtain knowledge and information on midwives’ assessment and management practices of urinary incontinence in childbearing women and to explore midwives’ knowledge of risk factors associated with developing urinary incontinence. A non-experimental descriptive research design was used, and participants were current members of the Victorian branch of the Australian College of Midwives. Data was obtained using a survey tool that contained both qualitative and quantitative questions. Key findings indicated that the majority of midwives do not assess women for urinary incontinence during the peripartum period and guidelines for bladder management in maternity services were lacking.

Diaspora, return and migrant architectures

Nearly all discourses on migration (to my knowledge) emphasise that the migrant is not so much a traveller, but a figure oriented towards settlement and a particular destination. Discourses on migration have attended more to the process and site of ‘arrival’, and few studies have focused on the process and site of ‘departure’. However, central to the thesis of this paper would be the testimony of two migrant houses – one in the city of  immigration (Melbourne, Australia), and the other in the village of emigration (Zavoj in Macedonia). The focus will be on the Zavoj house as a significant house, a house that points to a thesis about how architecture makes explicit other processes of migration, namely that of ‘return’. Here there are several intertwined communities and nations, and also different notions of community and nation. It has been noted that ‘diaspora’ is constituted through longer distances, severe separation, and a taboo on return. And yet implicit in many more ‘autobiographical’ accounts is that one only leaves with a promise to return. The conflict and question of ‘return’ is at the centre of the migrant’s imaginary. A study of the two houses of migration implicates a set of networks, forces, relations, circumscribing a much larger global geopolitical and cultural field that questions our understandings of diaspora, the currency of transnationalism, the binary structure of dwelling/travelling, and the fabric and fabrication of community. But the study goes inwards and underneath as well through the figure of the migrant, the figure through which the two migrant houses are deeply associated. The paper will explore the subjective nature of the thesis, the idea of a ‘migrant house’ as an imaginary architecture, a psychic geography, an imaginary community and sense of nationhood.

Victorian local government reforms 1992-1999, revisited: implication for trade unions

Between 1992 and 1999 the Victorian State Government, Led by Jeff Kennett, set about implementing the most extensive public sector reform program ever witnessed in Australia, part of which involved significant changes in the organisation and operation of Local government. Although Local government had traditionally been 'the blind spot' in governmental arrangements, within three years of assuming office Local government had undergone major structural and operational change. This paper revisits this period by examining four elements of the reform agenda including the factors driving the reform, the Kennett government's approach to Local government reform, the expected outcomes sought by this government, and the policies implemented in Local government to achieve the expected outcomes. The paper identifies a number of implications for trade unions arising from this reform agenda and concludes that further investigation is warranted in this area.