Submission to the Attorney-General’s Department on the Exposure Draft Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2015

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY As has been stated in previous submissions to Government, the Associations acknowledge Government’s desire to protect telecommunications infrastructure and the information transmitted across it from unauthorised access and interference. Indeed, Australian Carriers, Carriage Service Providers and Carriage Service Intermediaries (C/CSPs) and other industry participants have an active and vested interest in ensuring that the nation’s networks and communications infrastructure are robust and resistant to external attack. Industry is, however, unable to support the proposed Telecommunications Sector Security Reform (TSSR), as described in the exposure draft legislation, for reasons including that it constitutes regulatory ‘over-reach’ in the form of a framework that: will face challenges protecting communications networks, i.e. it will not deliver the increased protection the proposed reforms are aiming to achieve; is out of step with regulatory approaches to protecting networks adopted in other countries, including the UK, USA and Canada, thereby putting Australia at a disadvantage in fighting cyber threats and undermine Industry’s ability to support these important peers; hands unjustifiably significant additional and intrusive powers to Government and places regulatory burdens on Industry that will undermine its ability to protect against and respond to cyber attacks; risks being highly disruptive to the deployment of new network technologies that are more robust in preventing cyber attacks; will be a significant deterrent to technological investment in Australia; imposes additional costs on Industry and (ultimately) consumers undermining Australia’s competitiveness at a time when digital innovation is an important area for growth for Australia; fails to offer protection/indemnity to C/CSPs against the risk of civil litigation through ‘safe harbours’, thereby limiting information sharing and the ability to quickly respond to threats and to jointly engage in preventative action; carries the risk that competition in infrastructure supply will be reduced, to the detriment of all Australians; lacks transparency; and fails to provide adequate consultative mechanisms and avenues of appeal

Effect of heating rate on gas emissions and properties of fired clay bricks and fired clay bricks incorporated with cigarette butts

In general, the firing process of clay bricks generates a range of gas emissions into the atmosphere. At high concentrations, these volatile emissions can be a serious source of environmental pollutions. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of different heating rates on gas emissions and properties during the firing of clay bricks and clay bricks incorporated with cigarette butts (CBs). In this investigation, four different heating rates were used: 0.7 °C min−1−1, 2 °C min−1, 5 °C min−1 and 10 °C min. The samples were fired in solid form from room temperature to 1050 °C. During the firing cycles, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides,hydrogen cyanide and chlorine emissions were measured at different heating rates. All bricks were also tested for their physical and mechanical properties including dry density, compressive strength, tensile strength, water absorption and initial rate of absorption. Results show that gas emissions were reduced significantly with higher heating rates (10 °C min) followed by 5 °C min−1−1 and 2 °C min for both types of brick samples. Higher heating rates also decrease the compressive strength and tensile strength value but demonstrate an insignificant effect on the water absorption properties respectively. In conclusion, a higher heating rate is preferable in terms of decreasing gas emissions and it is also able to produce adequate physical and mechanical properties especially for the CB brick

Mental health

PHN Discussion Paper #2 – Mental Health notes a key role for Primary Health Networks in realising effective and lasting improvement in mental health outcomes, through adopting a person-centred approach in service design and enabling integration across service providers in local health systems. The 2014 National Mental Health Commission report noted that “They (PHNs) can work in partnership and apply targeted, value-for-money interventions across the whole continuum of mental wellbeing and ill-health to meet the needs of their communities.” Notwithstanding this, there are challenges and barriers to be resolved in order to effect meaningful and sustainable improvement in mental health outcomes and health system performance.  Further exploration of the challenges and barriers is warranted in order to enable PHNs to deliver on their objectives.&nbsp

Overview of Australian Indigenous health status 2014

This Overview of Australian Indigenous health status provides information about: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations; the context of Indigenous health; various measures of population health status; selected health conditions; and health risk and protective factors. This Overview of Australian Indigenous health status provides a comprehensive summary of the most recent indicators of the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia (states and territories are: New South Wales (NSW), Victoria (Vic), Queensland (Qld), Western Australia (WA), South Australia (SA), Tasmania (Tas), The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and The Northern Territory (NT)). It draws largely on previously published information, some of which has been re-analysed to provide clearer comparisons between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous people (for more details of statistics and methods, readers should refer to the original sources). Very little information is available separately for Australian Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander people. It is often difficult to determine whether original sources that use the term ‘Indigenous\u27 are referring to Aboriginal people only, Torres Strait Islander people only or to both groups. In these instances the terms from the original source are used

War and peace: the ANZAC spirit and human rights

A series of papers given by the various speakers at the Australian Human Rights Commission’s War and Peace: The Anzac spirit and human rights 2014 seminar. Summary Every year around Anzac Day, Australians and New Zealanders remember those who fought in all wars and conflicts over the last 100 years. As the national human rights institutions of Australia and New Zealand we wanted to mark the anniversary of the start of the First World War by examining the relationship between the Anzac spirit and the evolution of international human rights.   We therefore convened a seminar on the 1st of May 2014 that examined the following questions: What was it that New Zealanders and Australians believed they were fighting for during the First World War? Is it merely a romantic myth that the Anzacs fought for individual freedom and liberty against the threat of national aggrandisement and racial superiority? Was it a war of ideas between the individualist democratic enlightened French and English tradition and the German heroic ideal of sacrifice for the common good? In short, did such lofty ideas as liberty really stimulate the Anzac bravery in a conflict that was so many thousands of miles from us? How did the Anzac experiences from 1914-18 shape and articulate the global human rights based regime that we have 100 years later in the 21st Century?       &nbsp

The Australian Cyber Security Centre threat report 2015

Introduction: The number, type and sophistication of cyber security threats to Australia and Australians are increasing. Due to the varied nature of motivations for cyber adversaries targeting Australian organisations, organisations could be a target for malicious activities even if they do not think the information held on their networks is valuable, or that their business would be of interest to cyber adversaries. This first unclassified report by the ACSC describes the range of cyber adversaries targeting Australian networks, explains their motivations, the malicious activities they are conducting and their impact, and provides specific examples of activity targeting Australian networks during 2014. This report also offers mitigation advice on how organisations can defend against these activities. The ACSC’s ability to detect and defend against sophisticated cyber threats continues to improve. But cyber adversaries are constantly improving their tradecraft in their attempts to defeat our network defences and exploit the new technologies we embrace. There are gaps in our understanding of the extent and nature of malicious activity, particularly against the business sector. The ACSC is reaching out to industry to build partnerships to improve our collective understanding. Future iterations of the Threat Report will benefit from these partnerships and help to close gaps in our knowledge

Second action plan 2013-2016 – moving ahead – of the national plan to reduce violence against women and their children 2010-2022

All Australian governments are strongly committed to reducing the alarming rates of violence against women and their children in this country. Commonwealth, state and territory governments are working together, with the community to implement the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010-2022 (the National Plan). The National Plan is a 12-year strategy with a vision that Australian women and their children live free from violence in safe communities. This is the Second Action Plan of the National Plan. It runs from 2013 to 2016 and contains 26 practical actions that all governments agree are critical if we are to move ahead in improving women’s safety. The First Action Plan laid a strong foundation for the changes we want to see in the future by establishing essential national infrastructure and innovative services. The Second Action Plan will build on this by increasing community involvement in actions that will prevent the violent crimes of domestic and family violence and sexual assault. It will focus on women and communities that have diverse experiences of violence, on strengthening and integrating services and systems, and on improving responses to perpetrators across the country. Governments will also continue to work together to build and improve the evidence base around violence against women and their children, and to bring together and disseminate research that can inform policy and practice. Reducing violence against women and their children is a community issue - it needs effort from us all. Living free from violence is everyone’s right, and reducing violence is everyone’s responsibility.&nbsp