tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/three-charts-on-37342/articlesThree charts on – The Conversation2019-09-02T19:52:34Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1227822019-09-02T19:52:34Z2019-09-02T19:52:34ZThree charts on teachers’ pay in Australia: it starts out OK, but goes downhill pretty quickly<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290452/original/file-20190902-175705-gc8v32.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=30%2C495%2C4255%2C2398&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">If you want to earn a high income in Australia, you’re often better off having no degree than having a bachelor degree in teaching.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/Monkey Business Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Depending on who you ask, our teachers are either some of the <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/education/longer-hours-but-aussie-teachers---among-best-paid-says-oecd/news-story/4fc17d1e3eed42a95e1fae6d490911ff">best paid</a> in the world, or they’re <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/why-we-need-to-pay-teachers-more-20160602-gp9j9g.html">underpaid</a>.</p>
<p>Here are the facts: Australian teachers get a very decent starting salary, but their pay quickly falls behind that of other professionals.</p>
<p>Getting teacher pay right is crucial to attracting the best and brightest to the classroom, so it’s important to debunk a few myths.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/better-pay-and-more-challenge-heres-how-to-get-our-top-students-to-become-teachers-122271">Better pay and more challenge: here's how to get our top students to become teachers</a>
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<h2>How to measure a teacher’s pay</h2>
<p>We should not fall into the trap of comparing Australia’s teacher salaries to other countries using dollar amounts, even after taking account of the cost of living. Australia is a rich country. Our incomes are relatively high, and our education system is competing with other industries to attract the best talent.</p>
<p>Chart 1 compares teachers’ pay with the pay of similar-aged professionals in Australia. Chart 2 shows how those numbers compare to other countries. </p>
<p>But average pay is not the only factor, so Chart 3 looks at what opportunity there is for Australian teachers to earn a very high income.</p>
<h2>Young teachers are paid well, but expertise is not rewarded</h2>
<p>The starting full-time salary for a classroom teacher in most Australian <a href="https://www.nswtf.org.au/files/schools_and_saturday_schools_award_381_ig_237.pdf">states</a> is between $65,000 and $70,000, based on every enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) we examined. </p>
<p>That’s reasonably competitive with the starting salary of a graduate with an engineering, commerce, or law degree, and has been <a href="http://ftp.iza.org/dp12027.pdf">improving</a> over the past 15 years.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290420/original/file-20190902-166014-1lebg99.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290420/original/file-20190902-166014-1lebg99.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290420/original/file-20190902-166014-1lebg99.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290420/original/file-20190902-166014-1lebg99.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290420/original/file-20190902-166014-1lebg99.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290420/original/file-20190902-166014-1lebg99.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290420/original/file-20190902-166014-1lebg99.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290420/original/file-20190902-166014-1lebg99.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Includes people who studied a teaching degree but now work as principals. ‘No degree’ includes all levels of education below bachelor. Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2016 Census)</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/censushome.nsf/home/tablebuilder?opendocument&navpos=240">Grattan Institute</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>The trouble is that teacher pay doesn’t rise much with age or expertise. The pay scale for a classroom teacher stops rising after about nine years, while the incomes of their university educated peers in other professions keep rising well into their 30s and 40s.</p>
<p>It’s not like this in every country. Other countries reward teacher expertise with higher pay relative to other professionals. So while Australia’s pay for young secondary teachers <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2018_eag-2018-en">is in the top half</a> of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, Australia’s pay for older secondary teachers is in the bottom half.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290424/original/file-20190902-165981-1iwoex9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290424/original/file-20190902-165981-1iwoex9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290424/original/file-20190902-165981-1iwoex9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290424/original/file-20190902-165981-1iwoex9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290424/original/file-20190902-165981-1iwoex9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290424/original/file-20190902-165981-1iwoex9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290424/original/file-20190902-165981-1iwoex9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290424/original/file-20190902-165981-1iwoex9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Most countries’ figures are from 2016 but some are from 2015. Source: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report, Education at a Glance (2018).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.oecd.org/education/education-at-a-glance/">Grattan Institute</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<h2>Any high-income Australian teachers?</h2>
<p>People with a teaching degree in Australia have almost no chance of earning a very high income. </p>
<p>More than a third of engineering or commerce graduates in their 40s working full-time earn more than $3,000 a week ($156,000 a year).</p>
<p>But for graduates with a teaching degree, that figure is only 2.3%. As Chart 3 shows, if you want to earn a really high income in Australia, you’re often better off having no degree than having a bachelor degree in teaching.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290429/original/file-20190902-166009-vwfoyk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290429/original/file-20190902-166009-vwfoyk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290429/original/file-20190902-166009-vwfoyk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290429/original/file-20190902-166009-vwfoyk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290429/original/file-20190902-166009-vwfoyk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290429/original/file-20190902-166009-vwfoyk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290429/original/file-20190902-166009-vwfoyk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290429/original/file-20190902-166009-vwfoyk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Includes people whose work is unrelated to their degree. $156,000 is chosen because it is the highest income bracket in the Census. Doctors are much more likely to earn more than $156,000, but ‘medical studies’ also includes some other degrees. Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2016 Census).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Grattan Institute</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Teacher pay matters. Most young people who did well at school are interested in becoming a teacher – but most of them are turned off by the big financial sacrifices teaching involves.</p>
<p>A Grattan Institute <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/attracting-high-achievers-to-teaching/">survey</a> of almost 1,000 young high achievers (aged 18-25 and with an ATAR of 80 or higher) found about 70% said they would be willing to give teaching a go.</p>
<p>But university enrolment data show that only about 3% of high achievers actually choose teaching for their undergraduate studies.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-make-good-arguments-at-school-and-everywhere-else-121305">How to make good arguments at school (and everywhere else)</a>
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<p>Our new report, <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/attracting-high-achievers-to-teaching/">Attracting high achievers to teaching</a>, proposes a $1.6 billion-a-year reform package for government schools to double the number of high-achieving young people who choose to become teachers within a decade.</p>
<p>The package includes $10,000-a-year scholarships for high achievers who take up teaching, and new career paths for expert teachers with pay of up to $180,000 a year. That’s about $80,000 more than the current highest standard pay rate for teachers in Australia.</p>
<p>If governments were to implement our blueprint, it would send a strong message to Australia’s best and brightest – if you want a challenging career where expertise is celebrated and paid accordingly, choose teaching.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122782/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grattan Institute began with contributions to its endowment of $15 million from each of the Federal and Victorian Governments. In order to safeguard its independence, Grattan Institute’s board controls this endowment. The funds are invested and Grattan uses the income to pursue its activities.</span></em></p>Teachers get paid a decent starting salary but they soon fall behind other professionals the longer they stay in the job.Jonathan Nolan, Associate, Grattan InstituteJulie Sonnemann, Fellow, Grattan InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1200762019-07-23T20:02:54Z2019-07-23T20:02:54ZThree charts on: how much Australia spends on all levels of education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284457/original/file-20190717-147295-4ilpqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Spending on education in Australia increased nearly 80% between 2000 and 2015.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia spent A$111.8 billion on education in 2015, the most recent year for which the full dataset for all levels of education spending is available. A report from the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) <a href="https://research.acer.edu.au/policy_analysis_misc/29/">released today</a> shows this was an increase of nearly 80% from 2000 spending.</p>
<p>The federal government contributed A$47.2 billion (42%) of the overall funding. State, territory and local governments spent A$39.1 billion (35%). A further A$25.5 billion (23%) came from private sources.</p>
<p>The ACER report is the first to capture data on education spending at all levels of education – from early childhood to higher education – from all funding sources.</p>
<p>The analysis separates funding into three sources: federal government; state, territory and local governments; and private sources (the latter includes contributions by students in the form of fees, as well as contributions by private businesses and non-profit organisations).</p>
<p>The report also organises spending by education sector and levels, as defined in Australia.</p>
<h2>Spending by education level</h2>
<p>Education funding goes through a range of transfers between the three sources. At different points in the funding cycle, the contributions by government sources are transferred to other funding sources.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explaining-australias-school-funding-debate-whats-at-stake-100023">Explaining Australia's school funding debate: what's at stake</a>
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<p>For instance, the federal government transferred A$14 billion of its initial education funding to private sources in 2015, mainly in the form of student loans. It transferred a further A$17.7 billion to state, territory and local governments which then fund schools and other areas of education.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285085/original/file-20190722-45479-cj8kts.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285085/original/file-20190722-45479-cj8kts.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285085/original/file-20190722-45479-cj8kts.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285085/original/file-20190722-45479-cj8kts.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285085/original/file-20190722-45479-cj8kts.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285085/original/file-20190722-45479-cj8kts.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285085/original/file-20190722-45479-cj8kts.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285085/original/file-20190722-45479-cj8kts.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>The final distribution of national education spending, after the transfers, was A$15.5 billion (14%) from the federal government, A$55.4 billion (49%) from state, territory and local governments and A$40.9 billion (37%) from private sources.</p>
<p>The bulk of Australia’s education spending is directed to three levels of education: primary schools (27%), secondary schools (28%) and higher education (26%). </p>
<p>The remaining 19% is spread between early childhood education, preschool, vocational education and training (VET) certificates, diplomas and advanced diplomas.</p>
<h2>Spending as a percentage of GDP</h2>
<p>In 2015, Australia spent A$102.4 billion on primary school and above. In real terms this spending has grown substantially since the beginning of the century and faster than student numbers.</p>
<p>While spending on education increased by 79% between 2000 and 2015, the number of students in the Australian education system increased by only 22%. As a result, education spending per student (primary and above) increased by 46% over this period.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-education-funding-has-increased-but-not-everyone-benefits-65340">Yes, education funding has increased – but not everyone benefits</a>
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<p>Australia’s spending on education as a proportion of GDP has also increased, from 5.1% in 2000 to 5.9% in 2015. </p>
<p>This increase has largely been driven by private sources of funding, rather than government funds, indicating an increasing willingness by people to invest in their own (or their children’s) education. </p>
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<iframe title="Australia's annual spending on education (primary school and above) as a percentage of GDP, 2000-2015&nbsp;" aria-label="Interactive line chart" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Gtily/3/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none;" width="100%" height="500"></iframe>
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<p>The share of private spending on education (primary and above) after transfers increased from 26% of total education spending in 2000 to 34% in 2015. </p>
<p>The fastest period of growth in private spending has been since 2012. This coincided with the introduction of the higher education sector’s demand-driven funding arrangements (where universities didn’t have a cap on the number of bachelor degree students they could take). </p>
<p>But it’s important to remember the government allocates a significant amount of its initial funding (before transfers) to student loans.</p>
<h2>Spending as a percentage of total government spending</h2>
<p>Government spending on education before transfers increased by 67% in real terms between 2000 and 2015. At the same time, total government spending rose by 65%. </p>
<p>So, government spending on education before transfers, as a percentage of total government spending, was 1% higher in 2015 than in 2000. It peaked in 2010 due to the global financial crisis stimulus spending and fell in the interim.</p>
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<iframe title="Annual government spending on education as a percentage of total government spending per level of education, 2000 to 2015" aria-label="Interactive line chart" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/iJ8mS/2/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none;" width="100%" height="541"></iframe>
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<p>Australia’s government spends a <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2018_eag-2018-en#page284">relatively large proportion</a> of its budget on education compared to other OECD countries. In total, government spending on education is 13.5%, which ranks Australia ninth of the 39 countries in the OECD reporting. </p>
<p>But Australia’s total government spending for all services (including health, education, social protection, defence, public order and safety) <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2018_eag-2018-en#page434">is relatively low</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/factcheck-is-australia-below-the-international-average-when-it-comes-to-school-funding-72189">FactCheck: is Australia below the international average when it comes to school funding?</a>
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<p>ACER’s analysis is drawn from annual expenditure data the Australian Government Department of Education submits for the joint UNESCO Institute for Statistics, OECD and Eurostat (UOE) data collection on education statistics – which the OECD releases as the <a href="https://www.oecd.org/education/education-at-a-glance/">Education at a Glance</a> publication. </p>
<p>The Education at a Glance reports are good for obtaining a snapshot of Australian education spending in relation to other OECD countries. But until now the data have not been organised in a useful way for further examining the Australian context.</p>
<p>To fully appreciate the nuances of the data, we need increased expertise in the economics of education in Australia. More emphasis on this would enable long-term forecasting of the policy implications of Australia’s investment in education and would offer an additional objective voice at the education policy table.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120076/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In 2015, the federal government contributed A$47.2 billion (42%) to education. State, territory and local governments spent A$39.1 billion (35%) and A$25.5 billion (23%) came from private sources.Daniel Edwards, Research Director, Australian Council for Educational ResearchJames Mahmud Rice, Research consultant and doctoral student, The University of MelbourneJulie McMillan, Senior Research Fellow, Australian Council for Educational ResearchLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1190822019-06-20T19:59:41Z2019-06-20T19:59:41ZThree charts on: how uncapped university funding actually boosted Indigenous student numbers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280407/original/file-20190620-149839-1m130dm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Indigenous students usually start university later in life.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/4V1dC_eoCwg">Photo by Edwin Andrade on Unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In recent days, the Productivity Commission released its evaluation of the <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/research/completed/university-report-card">demand-driven funding system</a> for universities. From around 2009, until the funding model was suspended in 2017, universities were free to enrol unlimited numbers of students in most undergraduate courses. </p>
<p>The Commissioned described the policy as a “<a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/research/completed/university-report-card">mixed report card</a>”. It argued the demand-driven system led to increased participation from students from low socio-economic backgrounds, but that it didn’t improve access for regional or Indigenous Australians.</p>
<p>In reality though, Indigenous student enrolments rose dramatically under the demand-driven system. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-students-are-going-to-university-than-before-but-those-at-risk-of-dropping-out-need-more-help-118764">More students are going to university than before, but those at risk of dropping out need more help</a>
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<h2>Indigenous university starters are older</h2>
<p>The Commission’s report draws almost exclusively on data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Youth (<a href="https://www.lsay.edu.au/">LSAY</a>), which covers people aged between 15 and 25. But student data from the Higher Education Information Management System (<a href="https://heimshelp.education.gov.au/">HEIMS</a>) shows undergraduate Indigenous students are considerably older when they start university than their non-Indigenous counterparts.</p>
<p>The below chart shows only 42.3% of Indigenous students started university aged 19 or younger, compared with 57.5% of non-Indigenous students. </p>
<p>Our analysis also shows 36% of Indigenous students started university aged older than 25, which makes them outside the cutoff for the LSAY dataset. This is compared with only 21% of non-Indigenous students. This means the Commission’s analysis under-reports Indigenous participation.</p>
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<h2>Rise in Indigenous student enrolments</h2>
<p>The federal government’s <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/node/51366">data on student enrolments</a> show a dramatic increase in Indigenous students starting university between 2009 and 2017, the years the demand-driven system was active. </p>
<p>Over this period, the number of Indigenous students starting university more than doubled, while the total number of domestic undergraduates starting university increased by only around 50%. </p>
<p>The below chart shows 2,786 undergraduate Indigenous students started university in 2008. This increased to 5,867 by 2017. </p>
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<p>During the period of the demand-driven system, the Indigenous university participation rate increased from 1.5% to 2%, although this remains well below population parity of <a href="http://theconversation.com/census-2016-whats-changed-for-indigenous-australians-79836">3.3%</a>. </p>
<p>There are also early signs that the expansion of Indigenous students starting university <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/node/51956">slowed in 2018</a>, which was the first year the demand-driven system was suspended.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/demand-driven-funding-for-universities-is-frozen-what-does-this-mean-and-should-the-policy-be-restored-116060">Demand-driven funding for universities is frozen. What does this mean and should the policy be restored?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Student achievement remained the same</h2>
<p>The rapid increase in Indigenous students starting university also came without an obvious decline in student achievement. <a href="https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiM2MwMWQ2ZDMtNGViNy00Mjc5LThkOTgtNzJhMmM5ZDQwYWUxIiwidCI6ImRkMGNmZDE1LTQ1NTgtNGIxMi04YmFkLWVhMjY5ODRmYzQxNyJ9">Department of Education data</a>, which outlines the completion rate for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students six years after they started their degree, shows the completion rate for Indigenous students remained relatively similar over the duration of the demand-driven years. </p>
<p>This contrasts with the slight decline in the achievement of the non-Indigenous cohort over the same period. However, as the below chart shows, there remains a substantial gap in the completion rates of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students.</p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="G90kk" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/G90kk/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<p>Both the success and retention performance indicators for Indigenous students show a similar trend. There is a <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/node/51496">large gap in achievement</a> between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, but there has been consistent improvement in these indicators over the past nine years. </p>
<p>Again, this suggests the rapid increase in Indigenous enrolments did not come at the cost of academic standards or performance.</p>
<p>The above chart also highlights Indigenous students typically progress through their courses at a slower pace than non-Indigenous students. Six years after starting their qualification, 16.5% of Indigenous students were still studying, compared to only 11.9% of non-Indigenous students.</p>
<p>Gaps in access and achievement remain unacceptable, as does the ongoing <a href="https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20181010182528471">racism and discrimination</a> faced by many Indigenous staff and students. Universities Australia has acknowledged many of these issues in its <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/Media-and-Events/submissions-and-reports/Indigenous-Report">Indigenous Strategy</a> but deeper institutional and government reform is required. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/laying-pathways-for-greater-success-in-education-for-indigenous-australians-54380">Laying pathways for greater success in education for Indigenous Australians</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>However, the demand-driven system itself certainly improved Indigenous participation in higher education. Restoring the system should be a high policy priority.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119082/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A recent Productivity Commission report showed the demand driven system of university funding didn’t increase participation rates for Indigenous students. But our analysis actually shows the opposite.Michael Luckman, Senior Research Officer, Centre for Higher Education Equity & Diversity Research, La Trobe UniversityAndrew Harvey, Director, Centre for Higher Education Equity and Diversity Research, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1166602019-05-08T00:32:51Z2019-05-08T00:32:51ZThree Charts on the rise in cycling injuries and deaths in Australia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273198/original/file-20190507-103045-1v235nb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">To reduce the risk of accidents, cyclists can wear bright clothing, use lights and steer clear of car doors, where possible.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/772722667?size=huge_jpg">Maxpro/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One in five people injured on Australian roads and paths is a cyclist, according to a new <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/injury/pedal-cyclist-injury-deaths-hospitalisations/contents/table-of-contents">Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report</a> that examined injury data from 1999–2000 to 2015–16.</p>
<h2>More cyclists are being injured</h2>
<p>Zero is the only acceptable number of deaths on our roads. Yet every year, more than 1,000 people are killed in transport-related crashes. This includes an average of 38 people who were killed while riding their bikes.</p>
<p>Add to this, in 2015-16 more than 12,000 people were hospitalised after crashes while riding, almost 80% of whom were men. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273002/original/file-20190507-103075-1dq6zc6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273002/original/file-20190507-103075-1dq6zc6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273002/original/file-20190507-103075-1dq6zc6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=637&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273002/original/file-20190507-103075-1dq6zc6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=637&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273002/original/file-20190507-103075-1dq6zc6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=637&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273002/original/file-20190507-103075-1dq6zc6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273002/original/file-20190507-103075-1dq6zc6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273002/original/file-20190507-103075-1dq6zc6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>The rate of hospitalisation for cyclists increased by 1.5% per year over the 17-year period of the report. Even more concerningly, in the last six years of the report, the increase was 4.4% per year. </p>
<p>In comparison, the rate of hospitalisation for other road users is going down. For motor vehicle occupants, it fell by 1.3%; for pedestrians, the drop was 2.2%.</p>
<p>Separated infrastructure for cyclists is crucial for safety, but typically some part of every trip will include crossing or travelling on the road with motor vehicles. The greater mass and speed of motor vehicles increases the risk of more severe injuries for cyclists. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/does-everything-and-nothing-change-when-a-cyclist-dies-75131">Does everything and nothing change when a cyclist dies?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Rising injuries among older Australians</h2>
<p>The number of older people who have been killed or injured as a result of a crash while cycling is rising. Over the study period, the number of cyclists aged 45-64 who were hospitalised increased by almost 600%, and 500% among over-65s. </p>
<p>Older cyclists may be more likely to need hospitalisation for an injury that might be less severe in younger cyclists. Compared with cyclists aged under 45, those aged 45 and over were more likely to have life-threatening injuries.</p>
<p>Between 1999–00 and 2015–16, nearly 160,000 cyclists were hospitalised; more than 9,000 per year on average. The age profile of those injured changed dramatically over that period:</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273215/original/file-20190508-73104-8q18ql.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273215/original/file-20190508-73104-8q18ql.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273215/original/file-20190508-73104-8q18ql.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273215/original/file-20190508-73104-8q18ql.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273215/original/file-20190508-73104-8q18ql.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273215/original/file-20190508-73104-8q18ql.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273215/original/file-20190508-73104-8q18ql.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273215/original/file-20190508-73104-8q18ql.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>We can’t unpack crash details from the hospital data, but broader trends might provide possible reasons for these changes.</p>
<p>A decrease in injury crashes involving children may be because more kids are riding with an adult, or riding on the footpath. Or there may be fewer kids riding bikes. </p>
<p>Increased driver distraction, particularly due to mobile phone use while driving, may also be playing a part.</p>
<p>One possible contributing factor for the rise in injuries among older Australians is the increase in use of electric bikes. Electric bikes, or e-bikes, are fitted with a motor that provides assistance when cycling and makes it easier to ride further and uphill with less effort. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214140515000109">recent research</a> with older Australian e-bike riders found 88% rode weekly and one-third rode daily. Owning an e-bike helped people make active transport decisions for longer including people who were not previously regular cyclists.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/electric-bikes-can-boost-older-peoples-mental-performance-and-their-well-being-112264">Electric bikes can boost older people's mental performance and their well-being</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>While e-bikes are a fun, efficient and easy way to get around, their popularity may contribute to the increase in injuries among older cyclists. Rusty bike handling skills, lower muscle strength, and issues with vision may all contribute to increased crash risk. </p>
<h2>Type of injury</h2>
<p>The most common type of injury was a fracture, occurring in 55% of hospitalisations. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273005/original/file-20190507-103045-xx0fqt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273005/original/file-20190507-103045-xx0fqt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273005/original/file-20190507-103045-xx0fqt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=631&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273005/original/file-20190507-103045-xx0fqt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=631&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273005/original/file-20190507-103045-xx0fqt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=631&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273005/original/file-20190507-103045-xx0fqt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=793&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273005/original/file-20190507-103045-xx0fqt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=793&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273005/original/file-20190507-103045-xx0fqt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=793&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>Fractures of the arm and legs were most common. The highest proportion of head and neck fractures occurred in children aged four and under (21%). Older Australians were more likely to fracture their femur and pelvis.</p>
<p>Thousands of people cycle safely every day. However, a crash can be catastrophic, especially when a motor vehicle is involved. Action to create a safe cycling environment in Australia is needed from everyone:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><strong>government</strong>: build safe separated cycling infrastructure; reduce speeds in local areas; include cyclists in the <a href="https://cycleaware.org/">driver licensing test</a>; require truck drivers to complete <a href="https://www.amygillett.org.au/programs-resources/driver-training">training</a> to increase their awareness of all vulnerable road-users including cyclists, pedestrians and motorbike riders</p></li>
<li><p><strong>drivers</strong>: allow at least a metre when passing cyclists (1.5m in speed zones over 60kph); don’t drive distracted or tired</p></li>
<li><p><strong>cyclists</strong>: be bright, use lights; follow the road rules; stay out of the door zone.</p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-cyclists-are-ending-up-in-hospital-with-serious-injuries-so-we-need-to-act-now-83569">More cyclists are ending up in hospital with serious injuries, so we need to act now</a>
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</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116660/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marilyn Johnson receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
She is also the Acting CEO of the Amy Gillett Foundation.</span></em></p>Cyclists account for one in five hospitalisations for transport-related injures in Australia. And around 38 cyclists are killed each year.Marilyn Johnson, Senior Researcher, Institute of Transport Studies, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1101692019-01-22T03:31:42Z2019-01-22T03:31:42ZThree Charts on who uses illicit drugs in Australia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254865/original/file-20190122-100282-19en6jr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">No, it's not mostly unemployed people who dropped out of school.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/pOXHU0UEDcg">Aranxa Esteve</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>To demonstrate the failure of the war on drugs, NSW Greens MP Cate Faehrmann came out this week about her own drug use:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Since my 20s, I’ve occasionally taken MDMA [ecstasy] at dance parties and music festivals. I know journalists, tradies, lawyers, public servants, doctors, police and yes, politicians (most well into their forties), who have done the same.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>When asked by journalists on Monday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he’d never taken illicit drugs, while Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said he <a href="https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2019/01/21/i-might-have-done-something-bill-shorten-admits-he-inhaled/">couldn’t rule out</a> using cannabis while at university. </p>
<p>But what about the rest of Australia?</p>
<h2>Nearly half have tried drugs</h2>
<p>Some <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/illicit-use-of-drugs/ndshs-2016-detailed/contents/table-of-contents">43% of Australians</a> aged 14 years or over have used an illicit drug at least once in their lifetime. </p>
<p>Nearly 16% have used an illicit drug at least once in the last year; around 75% of those use infrequently, between once and 11 times a year.</p>
<p>By far the majority of both lifetime and recent use is of cannabis (around 35% lifetime use), with other drugs such as ecstasy (MDMA) (around 11%), hallucinogens (around 9.5%) and cocaine (around 9%) much less commonly tried. Methamphetamine (including “ice”) is the fifth most commonly used drug at around 6% lifetime use.</p>
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<h2>Age and gender</h2>
<p>The highest rate of lifetime use is among 30-39 year olds (around 55%), closely followed by 40-49 year olds (just under 55%), then 20-29 year olds (49%) and 50-59 year olds (48%).</p>
<p>But recent use (in the past year) is concentrated among 20-29 year olds (28%), dropping off after 30 to 18%. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/drug-use-can-have-social-benefits-and-acknowledging-this-could-improve-rehabilitation-93978">Drug use can have social benefits, and acknowledging this could improve rehabilitation</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>Only 7% of people over 60 and 12% of people over 50 say they have used an illicit drug in the last year.</p>
<p>Most people who try drugs typically do so for a short period in their lives (mostly in their 20s). There is natural attrition over time, probably as people gain more responsibilities, at work and home, which are incompatible with drug use. </p>
<p>Recent illicit drug use among teens has been in decline over the last eight to ten years, and has remained stable among people in their 20s.</p>
<p>In all age groups, men tend to have a higher rate of both lifetime and recent use than women.</p>
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<h2>Education and occupation</h2>
<p>People who have post-school qualifications (such as university and TAFE) have a higher rate of lifetime drug use (47%) than those with no post-school qualifications (34%). </p>
<p>The rate of lifetime cannabis use among people who have post-school qualifications is around 40%, compared to 26% of people with no post-school qualifications.</p>
<p>People in the paid workforce have a higher rate of lifetime drug use (51%) than unemployed people (43%). </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/factcheck-qanda-are-rates-of-drug-use-2-5-times-higher-among-unemployed-people-than-employed-people-78993">FactCheck Q&A: are rates of drug use 2.5 times higher among unemployed people than employed people?</a>
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</em>
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<p>About 45% of people in paid employment say they have used cannabis in their lifetime, compared to 39% of unemployed people. For ecstasy it’s 15% and 12% respectively.</p>
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<p>Illicit drug use is reasonably equally distributed across socioeconomic groups, but the most advantaged tend to have a higher lifetime use (44% compared to 39%) and the more socially disadvantaged have a slightly higher rate of recent use (16% compared to 14%). </p>
<p>This suggests those who are more advantaged are more likely to try drugs but less likely to continue to use them.</p>
<p>There are no recent published analyses of which occupational groups tend to have higher rates of lifetime use. The <a href="http://nceta.flinders.edu.au/files/8212/6317/9671/EN404.pdf">last analysis</a> was from 2004 data and only looked at use in the last 12 months. That data showed workers in hospitality (32%), construction (24%) and retail (20%) had the highest rate of recent use.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-why-doctors-are-backing-pill-testing-at-music-festivals-across-australia-109430">Here's why doctors are backing pill testing at music festivals across Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110169/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Lee works as a paid consultant in the alcohol and other drug sector. She has previously been awarded grants by state and federal governments, NHMRC and other public funding bodies for alcohol and other drug research.</span></em></p>Around 35% of Australians have tried marijuana at some point in their life, and 11% have tried ecstasy. Most people who try drugs do so for a short period in their lives – mostly in their 20s.Nicole Lee, Professor at the National Drug Research Institute, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1013082018-11-05T10:05:38Z2018-11-05T10:05:38ZThree charts on: representation of Australian, New Zealand and Sudan born people in Victorian crime statistics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243842/original/file-20181105-83657-170xld5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Crime and ethnicity: highly divisive issues in the state.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sharonhahndarlin/43266652715/in/photolist-S9K9e1-Fg6VZo-SAssi7-Gzz4Jj-rRbd9V-218eJGq-vikKJh-D7nMA1-PeeLCs-Pz7RwS-PMP8nv-NxeciW-PJBM8d-PMR9s2-NysSJX-PJBWeu-Nxgyg3-Pz6X95-Nxe9pE-E5FkK3-dAqHxg-8HHSYN-7VAsJB-7VAsvr-7VAsak-8biu4-ai2raU-rbfkVF-7VDGtb-7VDGks-CndRvS-HgQm5V-68qZMD-5dyJ3w-7VDFVu-22aNhy5-5HZHN8-Jk13t2-22dtoDk-2imj1-ZS8XSg-psiEsr-rbPYc8-28VjUsX-22aNdj3-218ff7h-218eZdQ-rT6voJ-PJCDdd-7VAsBD">Sharon Hahn Darlin/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of Victoria’s most senior judges has <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-05/media-coverage-of-african-offenders-skewed-warns-chief-judge/10452172">warned</a> the current media reporting and political rhetoric around crime committed by people from South Sudanese backgrounds in Melbourne is “dangerous” and “skewed”.</p>
<p>Interviewed by <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/">ABC Four Corners</a> as part of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/crime-and-panic/10456978">an investigation</a> into the issue, County Court Chief Judge Peter Kidd said there had been an inaccurate portrayal of how much crime is committed by people from the community. </p>
<p>Kidd told reporter Sophie McNeill:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you are an African offender, and certainly if you’re an African youth of South Sudanese background from the western suburbs of Melbourne, rest assured your case will be reported upon.</p>
<p>The media choose to report upon those cases. That creates an impression that we, that our work, a very significant proportion of our work is taken up with African youths from the western suburbs of Melbourne. That’s a false impression.</p>
<p>I can say that in general terms, most of our work, the vast, vast majority of our work does not involve Africans.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Earlier this year, then-Racial Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/race-discrimination-commissioner-departing/10077188">made the point</a> that while Sudanese Australians were over-represented in criminal offending in Victoria, they were “not the only group”. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We have Australian born and New Zealand born offenders over-represented in crime statistics in Victoria, too.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Here are some statistics.</p>
<h2>What does it mean to be ‘over-represented’ in crime statistics?</h2>
<p>The term “over-represented” is used when the level of offending by a particular group is greater than the group’s representation in the general population. </p>
<p>In this case, to determine whether a group is over-represented, we can cross reference general population numbers and country of birth data from the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/Population">Australian Bureau of Statistics</a> (ABS) and unique alleged offender data provided by the <a href="https://www.crimestatistics.vic.gov.au/">Victorian Crime Statistics Agency</a> (CSA).</p>
<p>A “unique alleged offender” is one person who is alleged to have committed a crime. One unique alleged offender may be involved in more than one alleged <em>incident</em> during the reference period. But in the unique alleged offender data, no matter how many incidents a person may have been involved in, they are counted once. </p>
<h2>Which groups are over-represented, and to what degree?</h2>
<p>At the time of the last Census (2016), Victoria’s population was <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/MediaRealesesByCatalogue/C508DD213FD43EA7CA258148000C6BBE?OpenDocument">5.9 million</a>. CSA unique alleged offenders data from April 2015 to March 2018 show that on average over those three years: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>People born in Australia accounted for 64.90% of the Victorian population, and 72.57% of unique alleged offenders (a unique offender rate to population share of 1.1)</p></li>
<li><p>People born in New Zealand accounted for 1.57% of the Victorian population, and 2.23% of unique alleged offenders (a unique offender rate to population share of 1.4), and</p></li>
<li><p>People born in <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-14094995">Sudan</a> or <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-14069082">South Sudan</a> accounted for 0.14% of the Victorian population, and 1% of unique alleged offenders (a unique offender rate to population share of 7).</p></li>
</ul>
<p>While people born in Australia and New Zealand were over-represented in the alleged offender population of Victoria, people born in Sudan were over-represented to higher levels.</p>
<p>The two charts below show the numbers of unique alleged offenders by country of birth for the period April 2017 to March 2018, and the principal offences committed. </p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="jpD9d" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/jpD9d/4/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="TFZVT" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/TFZVT/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<p>The CSA notes that crime “seems to be committed at different rates at different stages of life”, and that therefore, “if a particular group of people are much younger or older than the general population, comparisons may not be as valid”.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-05/fact-check-sudanese-gangs-victoria/10187550">According to</a> Dr Mark Wood of Melbourne University, the South Sudanese population in Victoria is “very young”, with 42% of the community under the age of 25, compared to one-third of the Australian general population.</p>
<p>The chart below shows Sudanese born alleged offenders tend to be younger than those born in Australia or New Zealand. </p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="QbDgo" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/QbDgo/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<h2>The bigger picture about crime in Victoria</h2>
<p>The latest federal <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/research/ongoing/report-on-government-services/2018/justice">Report on Government Services (2018)</a> does highlight a significant drop in perceptions of public safety in Victoria. But it’s often the case that public perceptions do not match the reality.</p>
<p>The number and rate of all criminal incidents in Victoria have been at higher levels in recent years than they were in the period before the Andrews Labor government came to power in 2014. However, crime has <a href="https://www.crimestatistics.vic.gov.au/crime-statistics/latest-crime-data/recorded-criminal-incidents-2">declined in the last 12 months</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101308/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Terry Goldsworthy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>All three groups are over-represented in the alleged offender population, with Sudan born offenders to a higher degree. But the vast majority of crime is committed by Australian born offenders.Terry Goldsworthy, Associate Professor in Criminology, Bond UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1022572018-08-29T06:16:06Z2018-08-29T06:16:06ZDigital inclusion in Tasmania has improved in line with NBN rollout – will the other states follow?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233996/original/file-20180829-86123-s7v9fo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rollout of the NBN in Tasmania is well ahead of other states and territories in Australia. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/russelljsmith/5588052269/in/photolist-9vNefM-FeA4PD-bpmRaE-xakcir-qjNQdJ-qQP4M2-ZwdECc-WtzaZ4-aZ55Qi-c11crq-iu6viv-ccWzgW-7sfn8R-dsFSNQ-ikj5tg-cpuqwd-Me3vA-rG1KLC-dDCSk3-dJ8RXZ-7zkR3w-dFwNDa-RdtqGs-dqQeVc-dn5VCY-ivhq45-nvE7Jj-Fd2KgN-92VKav-4zD8Gm-ivYcLN-dFCfEY-doq788-6qnEPh-ecoMgz-5gRZJV-FdAre9-FZT6LL-G6KyH5-G6KFpm-TseVaU-bWC8Pj-in3PNK-5h5aT2-bJZ2CV-ecxY8T-Lw5iTv-bUcXJT-ivSzay-dSSif5">russelljsmith/flickr </a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Released today, the third annual <a href="https://digitalinclusionindex.org.au/">Australian Digital Inclusion Index</a> report shows that digital inclusion – a measure of digital access, affordability and ability – has improved for Australians over the past 12 months. </p>
<p>While the gains were modest across the country (<a href="https://theconversation.com/lack-of-internet-affordability-may-worsen-australias-digital-divide-new-report-81823">reflecting the trend since 2014</a>), the digital inclusion score recorded by Tasmania rose substantially. This improvement is partly a result of the rapid and extensive uptake of NBN services across a state where the rollout is now <a href="https://www.nbnco.com.au/content/dam/nbnco2/2018/documents/corporate-reports/corporate-plan-2018-2021.pdf">essentially complete</a>.</p>
<p>Overall, the NBN does not seem to have been hugely successful so far in convincing the more than 2.5 million Australians who are not online to <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-digital-divide-is-not-going-away-91834">connect</a>. </p>
<p>But the <a href="https://digitalinclusionindex.org.au/the-index-report/about-the-index/">ADII</a>, which comprises more than 100 indicators of personal internet access, expenditure, activity and attitudes, shows that the NBN can directly and indirectly enhance a range of aspects of digital inclusion.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-digital-divide-is-not-going-away-91834">Australia's digital divide is not going away</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The Australian digital inclusion index: ADII</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://digitalinclusionindex.org.au/the-index-report/about-the-index/">ADII</a> measures three critical dimensions of digital inclusion: access, affordability, and digital ability.</p>
<p>Each dimension registers a score out of 100, and together these form an overall digital inclusion index score. </p>
<p>An ADII score of 100 represents a hypothetically perfect level of access, affordability, and ability. A score of 70 or over is regarded as high; one below 50 as low.</p>
<p>The ADII is populated with data from around 16,000 respondents to Roy Morgan’s Single Source face-to-face interview and product poll survey collected weekly over the course of a year. </p>
<p>The 12 months of data used in ADII reporting is collected April to March – so 2018 data was collected between April 2017 and March 2018.</p>
<h2>The NBN and Tasmania’s rise in digital inclusion</h2>
<p>Tasmania’s <a href="https://digitalinclusionindex.org.au/">ADII score</a> for 2018 is 58.1. Although this is the second lowest score of any state or territory in Australia (just above South Australia), it represents a major improvement on Tasmania’s 2017 ADII result of 50.1.</p>
<p>The 8.0-point increase in digital inclusion in Tasmania greatly exceeded the 2.2-point rise recorded nationally, reducing the overall digital inclusion gap between Tasmania and the nation from 7.9 points in 2017 to 2.1 points in 2018.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234024/original/file-20180829-195328-4qesub.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234024/original/file-20180829-195328-4qesub.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234024/original/file-20180829-195328-4qesub.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234024/original/file-20180829-195328-4qesub.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234024/original/file-20180829-195328-4qesub.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234024/original/file-20180829-195328-4qesub.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234024/original/file-20180829-195328-4qesub.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tasmania’s digital inclusion – measured by access, affordability, digital ability and overall ADII score – has improved beyond the national average since 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Roy Morgan, ADII Dataset, March 2018</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Notably, the gap in the access dimension (which captures if, how, and where people access the internet and the data allowances they have at their disposal) has now all but disappeared.</p>
<p>Tasmania’s access improvement is underpinned by the uptake of NBN services. </p>
<p>Between 2017 and 2018 the percentage of Tasmanians with NBN connections more than doubled, from 29% to 60%. Over this period the NBN became accessible to almost all Tasmanian households. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234027/original/file-20180829-195310-omc1ef.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234027/original/file-20180829-195310-omc1ef.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234027/original/file-20180829-195310-omc1ef.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234027/original/file-20180829-195310-omc1ef.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234027/original/file-20180829-195310-omc1ef.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234027/original/file-20180829-195310-omc1ef.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234027/original/file-20180829-195310-omc1ef.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The rollout of NBN in Tasmania is close to complete - and it’s having an impact on internet connectivity in that state.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Roy Morgan, ADII Dataset, March 2018</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many of these households were required to make NBN decisions in the past year as the <a href="https://www.nbnco.com.au/residential/learn/device-compatibility/services-that-will-be-switched-off.html">shutdown of existing landline and internet networks</a> progressed across NBN-accessible areas.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/councils-help-with-affordable-housing-shows-how-local-government-can-make-a-difference-94739">Councils' help with affordable housing shows how local government can make a difference</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Why has NBN improved access?</h2>
<p>The uptake of the NBN has directly increased the access score for Tasmania because, based on <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/internet-phone/broadband-performance-data">speed and reliability </a>, the NBN is generally a superior fixed broadband technology than ADSL (notwithstanding some <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-17/nbn-complaint-melbourne-man-left-without-internet-six-weeks/9663648">consumer experiences</a>). </p>
<p>An analysis of other indicators contributing to access improvements in Tasmania reveal some secondary NBN effects.</p>
<h3>1. More people signed up for the NBN</h3>
<p>The NBN rollout seems to have encouraged those previously without fixed broadband to establish a connection. Around 11% of Tasmanian NBN subscribers indicate that they did not have fixed broadband a year earlier, while the corresponding “conversion rate” for ADSL connection technology was 6%. </p>
<p>Having fixed broadband of any type fundamentally improves access. So the NBN rollout’s impact on pushing up fixed broadband penetration in Tasmanian from 58.6% of the population in 2017 to 73.7% in 2018 is important.</p>
<h3>2. People signed up for more data</h3>
<p>The NBN rollout has contributed to a large increase in the internet data allowances Tasmanians have at their disposal. </p>
<p>A large number of Tasmanians have moved from ADSL where the average data allowance was 420GB in 2017, to the NBN where the 2018 average data allowance was 545GB. </p>
<h3>3. People are getting better value for money</h3>
<p>The increase in data allowances had a flow-on impact on affordability. In particular, it has improved value for money based on cost per gigabyte of data since the sharp rise in allowances has not been matched by an equivalent rise in expenditure. </p>
<p>Despite this improvement, Tasmania’s affordability score remains lower than the national average. This is largely due to a poor level of relative affordability - Tasmanians spend a <a href="https://digitalinclusionindex.org.au/">larger portion</a> of their household income on internet access than the national average.</p>
<p>It is essential that the speed, capacity, reliability and value for money improvements yielded by NBN connectivity be translated into more productive and rewarding online activity if digital inclusion is to be meaningfully realised.</p>
<p>Tasmania’s digital ability score, which measures people’s attitudes to technology and their capacity to engage in online tasks, rose substantially in the past year. This is reassuring, but the state still trails the national average by 2.9 points on this dimension of digital inclusion.</p>
<h2>Will the NBN fix digital inclusion nationally?</h2>
<p>The direct and secondary effects of the NBN rollout on digital inclusion seen in Tasmania may also be felt in other states as the NBN rollout <a href="https://www.nbnco.com.au/content/dam/nbnco2/2018/documents/corporate-reports/corporate-plan-2018-2021.pdf">nears completion</a>. </p>
<p>But the impact will be tempered by local factors. Tasmania registered a substantial improvement in digital inclusion across all three dimensions, but it did so from a <a href="https://digitalinclusionindex.org.au/">very low base</a>. Whether states with higher existing levels of digital inclusion will experience the same NBN step change remains to be seen. </p>
<p>The NBN may have improved the average level of digital inclusion across Tasmania, but <a href="https://digitalinclusionindex.org.au/">deep digital inequalities persist</a> in the state, as they do elsewhere, based on a range of geographic and socio-economic factors. </p>
<p>Low-income earners, those not in the labour force, those who did not complete secondary school, and people aged over 65 continue to record <a href="https://digitalinclusionindex.org.au/">low digital inclusion index scores in 2018</a>, and some of these groups are falling further behind. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/three-charts-on-the-nbn-and-australias-digital-divide-78911">Three charts on: the NBN and Australia’s digital divide</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Some <a href="https://theconversation.com/three-charts-on-the-nbn-and-australias-digital-divide-78911">recent research</a> also suggests that the NBN may actually exacerbate digital inequality, since the rollout of lower speed and less upgradable NBN technologies is more prevalent in lower socio-economic areas. It will take many years to gauge the long-run social and economic consequences of NBN’s complex, evolving mix of technologies in creating a patchwork of new digital inequalities. </p>
<p>The ADII does not currently capture data on specific NBN technologies. This is an aspect of digital inclusion worthy of further investigation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102257/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julian Thomas receives funding from Telstra to undertake research on the Australian Digital Inclusion Index. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris K Wilson receives funding from Telstra to undertake research on the Australian Digital Inclusion Index.</span></em></p>Tasmania’s digital inclusion increased dramatically and more than the national average from 2017 to 2018. This change is underpinned by a doubling of access to NBN in Tasmania in that period.Julian Thomas, Director, Social Change Enabling Capability Platform, RMIT UniversityChris K Wilson, Research Fellow, Technology, Communication and Policy Lab - Digital Ethnography Research Centre, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/926682018-03-05T00:15:18Z2018-03-05T00:15:18ZThree charts on: the changing status of Indigenous Australians<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208601/original/file-20180302-65522-6ntjxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In each survey or census, people are asked to identify if they are Indigenous.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Lukas Coch</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A new dataset <a href="http://abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/2080.0Main%20Features12011-2016?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=2080.0&issue=2011-2016&num=&view=">has shed fresh light</a> on the changing socioeconomic status of Indigenous Australians. It shows that what appears to be slow progress or steady outcomes for the whole population may be masking worsening results.</p>
<p>This stems from how the Indigenous population is counted in the census and in surveys, and how that identification might change over time.</p>
<p>In each survey or census, people are asked to indicate if they are of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin. If they move in or out of the group classified as Indigenous, then this can appear in the aggregate as if people’s life-chances are changing. Rather, this may be an artefact of the group’s changing composition.</p>
<h2>Flows into and out of the Indigenous population</h2>
<p>Between 2011 and 2016, the best estimate of the Indigenous population grew by 128,500, or around 19%. This was due to a greater number of births than deaths, but also partly due to changes in how people were identified (either by themselves or others) as being of Indigenous origin.</p>
<p>There are many good reasons why Indigenous people may choose not to disclose their ancestry. These are often of a highly personal nature, especially given Australia’s history of discrimination against Indigenous people. </p>
<p>A decision to identify as Indigenous (or not) in the census should not be interpreted as a reflection on someone’s Indigenous identity, which is a separate matter from what box gets ticked on a census form. But the box-ticking does inform the government’s understanding of the Indigenous population – including monitoring progress against <a href="https://theconversation.com/three-reasons-why-the-gaps-between-indigenous-and-non-indigenous-australians-arent-closing-91561">Closing the Gap targets</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/three-reasons-why-the-gaps-between-indigenous-and-non-indigenous-australians-arent-closing-91561">Three reasons why the gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians aren't closing</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Using the data, we can identify three groups of Indigenous people in the 2011 and 2016 censuses:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the “always identified” - those who identified as Indigenous in both censuses;</p></li>
<li><p>the “formerly identified” – those who identified as Indigenous in the 2011 census but not the 2016 census; and</p></li>
<li><p>the “newly identified” – those who did not identify as Indigenous in the 2011 census, but who did identify as such in the 2016 census.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The figure below gives our best estimate of the flows that constitute these populations, and estimated births and deaths over the period.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208420/original/file-20180301-152552-kr3kl1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208420/original/file-20180301-152552-kr3kl1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208420/original/file-20180301-152552-kr3kl1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208420/original/file-20180301-152552-kr3kl1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208420/original/file-20180301-152552-kr3kl1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=619&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208420/original/file-20180301-152552-kr3kl1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=619&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208420/original/file-20180301-152552-kr3kl1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=619&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Indigenous population flows, 2011-2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Authors/Australian Bureau of Statistics</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The largest of these three groups is the 572,400 people who identified as being of Indigenous origin in both the 2011 and 2016 censuses. This is the population we usually think about when analysing and interpreting Indigenous socioeconomic and demographic change.</p>
<p>However, two other groups were also quite large. There were 45,000 people in Australia who identified as Indigenous in the 2011 Census, but who didn’t identify as such in the 2016 Census. While this is a large number relative to the 2011 population estimate, the newly identified number is larger still (129,600). </p>
<p>The net increase from identification change was therefore estimated to be 84,600. This is equivalent to 13.7% of the Indigenous population in 2011.</p>
<h2>The geography of identification change</h2>
<p>The vast majority of those who changed how they identified their Indigenous origins in the census lived in urban parts of Australia in 2011. There are significant differences in the level of change in each of Australia’s eight states and territories. </p>
<p><iframe id="SL1j3" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/SL1j3/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Changing answers to the census question on Indigenous origin had a particularly pronounced impact on Indigenous population estimates in three jurisdictions – Victoria (21.5%), the Australian Capital Territory (20.9%), and New South Wales (20.8%). </p>
<p>However, because NSW had a relatively large Indigenous population in 2011 relative to Victoria and the ACT, net identification change in that state made up 48% of the total identification change. This is almost double the next greatest contribution – Queensland, which contributed 24.3%.</p>
<p>This may have implications for the distribution of GST revenue between the states and territories.</p>
<h2>The relationship between socioeconomic and demographic change</h2>
<p>Changes to the way people answer the census question on Indigenous origin has the potential to impact on the understanding of change in Indigenous socioeconomic outcomes. </p>
<p>If those who newly identified in the census had higher relative socioeconomic status before their identification changed, then this will tend to bias upward any measured change in socioeconomic outcomes.</p>
<p>Looking at all Indigenous adults aged 15 years and above at the time of each census, the employment rate in 2011 was 49.7%, while for the same measure in 2016 it was 50.4%. </p>
<p>If we only used repeated cross-sections, we would think that Indigenous employment is improving, albeit relatively slowly. But when we look at the employment rates using the linked population, a very different picture emerges.</p>
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<p>The employment rate for “always identifiers” was 49.6% in 2011 and 48.7% in 2016. So, there was actually <em>worsening</em> employment outcomes between 2011 and 2016 for this group, rather than the small increase that might be concluded from looking at the two censuses separately.</p>
<h2>The complexity of identification change</h2>
<p>Changes to the way people answer the census question on Indigenous origin not only changes official estimates of the size of the Indigenous population – it also changes the composition. </p>
<p>Compared to those previously identified in the census, those who are newly identified are more likely to:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>be young;</p></li>
<li><p>live in NSW, Victoria or ACT; </p></li>
<li><p>likely to live in a major city;</p></li>
<li><p>be employed; </p></li>
<li><p>live in higher-income households; and </p></li>
<li><p>have higher rates of education.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The data do not tell us anything about the content or meaning of Indigenous identity, or who is or isn’t Indigenous. These data do not suggest changing identification in the census in any way leads to an improvement in outcomes, nor is that the motivation for people’s identification to change. </p>
<p>Rather, there are a range of social and familial reasons why some people may change their identification in the census. And the person who filled out a census form on behalf of someone in 2011 might be different to the person who filled out the form in 2016. </p>
<p>There should not be any intervention to reduce identification change; in fact it should be seen as a positive development. But identification change must always be always kept in mind when assessing the progress toward targets related to Indigenous Australians like Closing the Gap.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92668/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicholas Biddle works for a Centre that has and continues to receive funding from the Commonwealth Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, and Aboriginal Affairs NSW.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francis Markham's research centre has received funding from the Commonwealth Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and a number of relevant State/Territory agencies and Indigenous organisations.
</span></em></p>What may appear to be slow progress or steady outcomes for the whole Indigenous population may be masking worsening results.Nicholas Biddle, Associate Professor, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National UniversityFrancis Markham, Research Fellow, College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/870032017-11-28T19:09:00Z2017-11-28T19:09:00ZThree charts on: poorer Australians bearing the brunt of rising housing costs<p>Rising housing costs are hurting low-income Australians the most. Those at the bottom end of the income spectrum are much less likely to own their own home than in the past, are often spending more of their income on rent, and are more likely to be living a long way from where most jobs are being created.</p>
<p>Low-income households have always had lower home ownership rates than wealthier households, but the <a href="https://theconversation.com/home-ownership-falling-debts-rising-its-looking-grim-for-the-under-40s-81619">gap has widened</a> in the past decade. The dream of owning a home is fast slipping away for most younger, poorer Australians.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/three-charts-on-the-great-australian-wealth-gap-84515">Three charts on: the great Australian wealth gap</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As you can see in the following chart, in 1981 home ownership rates were pretty similar among 25-34 year olds no matter what their income. Since then, home ownership rates for the poorest 20% have fallen from 63% to 23%. </p>
<p>Home ownership rates also declined more for poorer households among older age groups. Home ownership now depends on income much more than in the past.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196663/original/file-20171128-2038-1wvj4pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196663/original/file-20171128-2038-1wvj4pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196663/original/file-20171128-2038-1wvj4pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196663/original/file-20171128-2038-1wvj4pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196663/original/file-20171128-2038-1wvj4pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196663/original/file-20171128-2038-1wvj4pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196663/original/file-20171128-2038-1wvj4pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196663/original/file-20171128-2038-1wvj4pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Lower home ownership rates mean more low-income households are renting, and for longer. But <a href="http://insidestory.org.au/why-should-we-care-about-housing-affordability/">renting is relatively unattractive</a> for many families. It is generally much less secure and many tenants are restrained from making their house into a home.</p>
<p>For poorer Australians who do manage to purchase a home, many will buy on the edges of the major cities where housing is cheaper. But because jobs are becoming <a href="http://www.sgsep.com.au/publications/employment-insights-census">more concentrated</a> in our city centres, people living on the fringe have access to <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Productivity-and-geography-Productivity-Commission-Dec-2016.pdf">fewer jobs</a> and face <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/news/inner-city-v-outer-suburbs-where-you-live-really-does-determine-what-you-get/">longer commutes</a>, damaging their family and social life.</p>
<h2>Prices for low-cost housing have increased the fastest</h2>
<p>The next chart shows that the price for cheaper homes has grown much faster than for more expensive homes over the past decade. This has made it much harder for low-income earners to buy a home. </p>
<p>If we group the housing market into ten categories (deciles), we can see the price of a home in the lowest (first and second) deciles more than doubled between 2003-04 and 2015-16. By contrast, the price of a home in the fifth, sixth and seventh deciles only increased by about 70%.</p>
<p><iframe id="E5GCL" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/E5GCL/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Tax incentives for investors may explain why the price of low-value homes increased faster. Negative gearing remains a popular investment strategy; about 1.3 million landlords reported collective losses of A$11 billion in 2014-15. </p>
<p>Many investors prefer low-value properties because they pay less land tax as a proportion of the investment. For example, an investor who buys a Sydney property on land worth A$550,000 pays no <a href="http://www.revenue.nsw.gov.au/taxes/land/calculation">land tax</a>, whereas the same investor would pay about A$9,000 each year on a property on land worth A$1.1 million.</p>
<h2>Rising housing costs also hurt low-income renters</h2>
<p>As this last chart shows, more low-income households (the bottom 40% of income earners) are <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4130.0">spending more than 30%</a> of their income on rent (often referred to as “rental stress”), particularly in our capital cities. In comparison, only about 20% of middle-income households who rent are spending more than 30% of their income on rent. </p>
<p><iframe id="kA82f" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/kA82f/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Why are more low-income renters under rental stress? </p>
<p>First, <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/housing-support/programmes-services/commonwealth-rent-assistance">Commonwealth Rent Assistance</a>, which provides financial support to low-income renters, is indexed to the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6401.0">consumer price index</a> and so it <a href="https://www.ahuri.edu.au/policy/policy-analysis/private-rental-for-lower-income-households">fell behind</a> private market rents which rose roughly in line with wages. </p>
<p>Secondly, rents for cheaper dwellings have grown slightly faster than rents for more expensive dwellings. Finally, the <a href="http://www.aist.asn.au/media/20734/AIST_Housing%20affordability%20and%20retirement%20incomes_FINAL%2021032017.pdf">stock of social housing</a> – currently around 400,000 dwellings – has <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/research/completed/housing-employment/housing-employment-volume2.pdf">barely grown</a> in 20 years, while the population has <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/3101.0">increased by 33%</a>. </p>
<p>As a result, many low-income earners who would once have been in social housing are now in the private rental market. </p>
<h2>What can be done about it?</h2>
<p>Increasing the social housing stock would improve affordability for low-income earners. But the public subsidies required to make a real difference would be very large - roughly <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/news/making-housing-more-affordable-submission-to-the-national-housing-finance-and-investment-corporation-consultation-paper/">A$12 billion a year</a> - to return the affordable housing stock to its historical share of all housing.</p>
<p>In addition, the existing social housing stock is not well managed. Homes are often not allocated to people who <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/research/completed/housing-employment/housing-employment-volume2.pdf">most need them</a>, and quality of housing is <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/4130.02013-14?OpenDocument">often poor</a>. Increased financial assistance by <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-shouldnt-use-super-to-help-low-income-savers-68746">boosting</a> Commonwealth Rent Assistance may be a better way to help low-income renters meet their housing costs </p>
<p>Boosting Rent Assistance for aged pensioners by A$500 a year, and A$500 a year for working-age welfare recipients would cost A$250 million and A$450 million a year respectively. </p>
<p>Commonwealth and state governments should also act to improve housing affordability more generally. This will require policies affecting <a href="http://insidestory.org.au/options-for-housing-affordability-the-good-the-bad-and-the-cosmetic/">both demand and supply</a>. </p>
<p>Reducing demand – such as by <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/hot-property/">cutting the capital gains tax discount and abolishing negative gearing</a> – would reduce prices a little. But in the long term, boosting the supply of housing will have the <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/news/if-we-want-cheaper-housing-we-have-to-build-more-of-it-submission-to-the-nsw-housing-supply-inquiry/">biggest impact on affordability</a>. To achieve this, state governments need to change planning rules to allow more housing to be built in inner and middle-ring suburbs.</p>
<p>Unless governments tackle the housing affordability crisis, the poorest Australians will fall further behind.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87003/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grattan Institute began with contributions to its endowment of $15 million from each of the Federal and Victorian Governments, $4 million from BHP Billiton, and $1 million from NAB. In order to safeguard its independence, Grattan Institute’s board controls this endowment. The funds are invested and contribute to funding Grattan Institute's activities. Grattan Institute also receives funding from corporates, foundations, and individuals to support its general activities as disclosed on its website.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brendan Coates and Trent Wiltshire do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Rising housing costs are hurting low-income Australians the most. The gap in home ownership between rich and poor is widening, house prices are rising fastest at the bottom and rental stress is rising.John Daley, Chief Executive Officer, Grattan InstituteBrendan Coates, Fellow, Grattan InstituteTrent Wiltshire, Associate, Grattan InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/875842017-11-19T19:07:46Z2017-11-19T19:07:46ZThree charts on: how emotional and economic abuse go hand-in-hand<p>People who have been in an abusive relationship often don’t realise it until they’ve left it, so looking at the data on past relationships is the best way of getting a picture of how bad it can be. We find that emotional and economic abuse in relationships <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1753-6405.12651/full">are often intertwined</a>. People who insult and shame their partners will often also try to control their income and assets.</p>
<p>The Australian Bureau of Statistics <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4906.0.55.003main+features242016">Personal Safety Survey</a> found in 2016, 23% of women, and 15.9% of men <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4906.0%7E2016%7EMain%20Features%7EExperience%20of%20Partner%20Emotional%20Abuse%7E26">experienced emotional abuse</a> by a current or previous partner. In <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4906.0Chapter8002012">the 2012 survey</a>, this was 24.5% of women and 14.4% of men. </p>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/rInUg/2/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="531"></iframe>
<p>It is not entirely clear as to why slightly more men are reporting emotional abuse in the 2016 survey. There has certainly been more awareness raising around the issue of emotional abuse and a recognition that it can affect both genders: this is reflected <a href="https://www.1800respect.org.au/violence-and-abuse/psychological-abuse/">in national websites</a> that offer gender-inclusive support and information. </p>
<p>The survey shows some of the most visible forms of emotional abuse with 63% of women and 46% of men reported experiencing intimidating shouting, yelling and verbal abuse. </p>
<p>We see too that economic abuse is very common among those who report emotional abuse — 38% of women and 22% of men also reported that their partner tried to control their access to, knowledge about or making decisions about household money.</p>
<p>But of women who experienced emotional abuse, financial control is in the top five most frequently occurring forms. Financial control includes controlling access to household money, such as not having access to bank accounts and being given an “allowance”; controlling decision-making and information about financial decisions.</p>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/dXNZU/4/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="845"></iframe>
<p>For men, financial control ranks ninth, superseded by other forms of emotional abuse such as lies to family, friends and children with the intent of turning them against them. The profile of most frequent forms of emotional abuse appear to be different for men and women.</p>
<p>These tactics, along with other emotional abuse tactics, aim to control and maintain power over the other. Emotional abuse depletes someone’s psychological resolve and resilience, while financial abuse depletes their financial independence and confidence. All types aim to increase dependence. </p>
<p>While the 2012 Personal Safety Survey data examines abuse with current or previous partners, the 2016 data is only for previous partners. At the population level in 2016, the most common indicators of economic abuse in previous relationships was controlling access to household money. In 2012, damaging property was the most common form in current or previous relationships. </p>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/MjMwc/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="320"></iframe>
<p>Economic abuse is a serious and devastating component of intimate partner violence. It’s a significant component of emotional abuse. It can also continue well after the relationship has ended. </p>
<p><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1753-6405.12651/full">Our previous research</a> has also established that economic abuse goes hand in hand with emotional abuse. There is community awareness and acceptance that all forms of partner physical and sexual violence are unacceptable. However, emotional and economic abuse are lesser known forms of partner violence, with many shades of grey. </p>
<p>While the Personal Safety Survey is our only source of population based data, its current structure underestimates the prevalence of abuse because economic abuse is not asked about separately from the emotional abuse.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87584/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Emotional and economic abuse in relationships are often intertwined as people who insult and shame their partners will also try to control their income and assets.Jozica Kutin, PhD Candidate - Economic Abuse and Young Adults, RMIT UniversityMike Reid, Professor, School of Economics, Finance and Marketing, RMIT UniversityRoslyn Russell, Professor, School of Economics, Finance and Marketing, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/873542017-11-17T01:30:28Z2017-11-17T01:30:28ZThree charts on: what’s going on at Manus Island<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195137/original/file-20171117-15442-1syb213.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There are few options left for the asylum seekers remaining on Manus Island.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marcella Cheng/The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Tensions at the Manus Island Regional Processing Centre remain high after the centre was officially closed on October 31 this year and handed back to the Papua New Guinea government.</p>
<p>Reports are that there are still around 420 people in the now-defunct regional processing centre who are refusing to move to recently built transit centres in Lorengau. However, these numbers shift on a daily basis as men move in and out of the centre. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195102/original/file-20171116-18368-1uakep5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195102/original/file-20171116-18368-1uakep5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195102/original/file-20171116-18368-1uakep5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195102/original/file-20171116-18368-1uakep5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195102/original/file-20171116-18368-1uakep5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195102/original/file-20171116-18368-1uakep5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=669&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195102/original/file-20171116-18368-1uakep5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=669&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195102/original/file-20171116-18368-1uakep5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=669&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) recently <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/en-au/news/latest/2017/11/5a05c1b44/unhcr-urges-humane-approach-manus-island.html">said that:</a> </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The abrupt ending of services and the closure of the regional processing centre needs to involve the people who have been in this regional processing centre for years in a very vulnerable state … It is really high time to bring an end to this unconscionable human suffering.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>How did we get here?</h2>
<p>The offshore processing of asylum seekers who came to Australia by boat recommenced in 2012. At that time, single adult men were sent to Nauru and families with children and some adult men were sent to Manus Island in PNG.</p>
<p>However, <a href="http://dfat.gov.au/geo/papua-new-guinea/Pages/regional-resettlement-arrangement-between-australia-and-papua-new-guinea.aspx">since July 2013</a> only adult men were transferred to Manus and all the asylum seekers there today are male. Families with children, single women, couples and some single men are on Nauru.</p>
<p>Since July 2013 a total of <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/%7E/media/Committees/legcon_ctte/estimates/add_1617/DIBP/QoNs/AE17-170.pdf">1,523</a> people have been transferred to Manus from Australia.</p>
<p>When the Manus processing centre closed on October 31, there were <a href="http://newsroom.border.gov.au/channels/Operation-Sovereign-Borders/releases/45c49e50-9be6-45b5-a569-f0e693dea3af">690 people</a> in the facility.</p>
<hr>
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<p>The number of asylum seekers on Manus Island has slowly reduced over the years as people have either accepted packages to <a href="https://uploads.guim.co.uk/2017/10/29/Media_Release-Minister_Thomas_on_Closure_of_Manus_RPC.pdf">return to their country of origin</a>, been <a href="https://uploads.guim.co.uk/2017/10/29/Media_Release-Minister_Thomas_on_Closure_of_Manus_RPC.pdf">deported</a> from PNG, been resettled in the US or temporarily settled in PNG. Six others have died. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194529/original/file-20171114-27607-1lhp22j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194529/original/file-20171114-27607-1lhp22j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194529/original/file-20171114-27607-1lhp22j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=220&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194529/original/file-20171114-27607-1lhp22j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=220&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194529/original/file-20171114-27607-1lhp22j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=220&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194529/original/file-20171114-27607-1lhp22j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=277&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194529/original/file-20171114-27607-1lhp22j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=277&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194529/original/file-20171114-27607-1lhp22j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=277&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The population has reduced over time.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
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<h2>Why was the Manus Regional Processing Centre closed?</h2>
<p>On April 27 last year, the PNG Supreme Court ruled that the detention of the asylum seekers on Manus Island was <a href="https://theconversation.com/png-court-decision-forces-australia-to-act-on-manus-island-detainees-58439">unconstitutional</a>.</p>
<p>After the decision was made the PNG government said that those at the centre were free to come and go from the processing centre.</p>
<p>It was not until <a href="http://www.minister.border.gov.au/peterdutton/2017/Pages/sky-sunday-agenda-09042017.aspx">April 2017</a> that the Australian government and the PNG government announced publicly that the processing centre would close on October 31. </p>
<p>All of the service providers (including health providers) and Australian government officials left the centre on October 31 this year and the centre was supposed to be reoccupied by the PNG Defence Force from November 1.</p>
<h2>What are the options for those left on Manus?</h2>
<p>According to the Australian government, those who have been found by PNG authorities to be refugees have the following options: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>resettle in PNG; </p></li>
<li><p>wait in PNG for possible resettlement in the US;</p></li>
<li><p>transfer to Nauru to wait for possible resettlement in the US; or </p></li>
<li><p>return to the country from which they had fled persecution.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Resettlement of refugees in PNG has been <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/FlagPost/2017/October/Manus_Island_RPC">slow and problematic</a> with few people opting to leave the processing centre to live elsewhere in PNG. </p>
<p>The UNHCR has raised concern about just how “voluntarily” refugees can return to the country from which they fled.</p>
<p>Since the <a href="http://www.minister.border.gov.au/peterdutton/Pages/Refugee-resettlement-from-Regional-Process-Centres.aspx">US resettlement deal</a> was announced about a year ago, 516 refugees from Manus have been <a href="http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/committees/estimate/3a32f9b8-b53d-4251-a739-7e12e1fc506e/toc_pdf/Legal%20and%20Constitutional%20Affairs%20Legislation%20Committee_2017_10_23_5658.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf">referred</a> to the US for resettlement.</p>
<p>Reviews of their cases and interviews are underway. Only <a href="http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/committees/estimate/3a32f9b8-b53d-4251-a739-7e12e1fc506e/toc_pdf/Legal%20and%20Constitutional%20Affairs%20Legislation%20Committee_2017_10_23_5658.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf">25 have been resettled</a> so far. However, it is up to the US as to how many they will take and it is unclear when the next refugees will be transferred to the US.</p>
<p>Currently, it is clear the majority want to wait to see if they will be offered resettlement in the US. Refugees remaining in the processing centre have been <a href="http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/committees/estimate/3a32f9b8-b53d-4251-a739-7e12e1fc506e/toc_pdf/Legal%20and%20Constitutional%20Affairs%20Legislation%20Committee_2017_10_23_5658.pdf;fileType%3Dapplication%2Fpdf">offered</a> alternative accommodation at East Lorengau Refugee Transit Centre (for up to 400 people) and West Lorengau House (for up to 300 people). Whether these facilities can in fact house this many men is as yet unclear. </p>
<p>The UNHCR is <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/en-au/news/press/2017/11/5a0545da7/unhcr-urges-humane-approach-on-manus-island.html">urging</a> against the forced movement of refugees and asylum seekers to these centres from the processing centre. </p>
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<p>The men who have been found by PNG authorities not to be refugees have been offered supported accommodation in Lorengau (Hillside House). </p>
<p>However, the PNG government expects them to eventually make arrangements to return home voluntarily or they will be deported.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87354/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Anne Kenny receives sitting fees from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection. She has previously received grant funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>There are about 400-600 people in the now-defunct regional processing centre refusing to move to recently built transit centres in Lorengau – but these numbers shift daily.Mary Anne Kenny, Associate Professor, School of Law, Murdoch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/837242017-10-31T19:06:09Z2017-10-31T19:06:09ZThree charts on: job prospects for refugees in Australia<p>While refugees will always face major challenges in making the transition to employment, new <a href="https://aifs.gov.au/sites/default/files/publication-documents/bnla-researchsummary-eees-oct17.pdf">research</a> indicates their job prospects improve the longer they are in Australia.</p>
<p>But for those who do find work, it’s not always in their chosen profession. Most are in low-skilled occupations.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www3.aifs.gov.au/bnla/">Building a New Life in Australia study</a> is longitudinal, following the journey of almost 2,400 humanitarian migrants, including refugees and asylum seekers, from their arrival in Australia or when granted a permanent visa. The participants come from 35 countries and speak close to 50 languages. </p>
<p>Some 89% have experienced significant trauma such as war and persecution. Most have arrived in Australia with little or no English, and many had their schooling interrupted.</p>
<h2>The challenge of finding work</h2>
<p>At the first interview for the study (three to six months after arrival for most), 6% of participants aged 18-64 were in paid employment. This had risen to 16% around one year later (during wave 2) and 23% two years later (wave 3). This is a four-fold increase between the first and third interviews.</p>
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<p>Employment rates for men were higher than for women, with 36% of men in paid work at wave three compared to 8% of women. <a href="https://aifs.gov.au/sites/default/files/publication-documents/rr38-empowering_migrant_women_report.pdf">Many women</a> take on family and caring obligations in the early years of settlement, which partly explains their lower rates of employment. </p>
<p>We found searching for a job can be challenging and time-consuming for many humanitarian migrants. </p>
<p>Most participants had been in Australia for only a few months at the first interview. Over 80% of those job seekers found it hard to get a job. Consistent with previous research, humanitarian migrants’ employment is expected to gradually increase as they spend more time in Australia. </p>
<p>Importantly, humanitarian migrants in Australia <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/3418.0">seem to be entrepreneurs</a>, showing <a href="https://www.border.gov.au/ReportsandPublications/Documents/research/economic-social-civic-contributions-about-the-research2011.pdf">higher-than-average</a> engagement in small and medium-sized business.</p>
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<p>One of the most challenging factors associated with employment is English proficiency. Not surprisingly, participants with good understanding of spoken English were much more likely to be employed. </p>
<p>However, there are <a href="http://library.bsl.org.au/jspui/bitstream/1/811/1/Refugees%20and%20employment.pdf">other barriers</a> to employment. These include lack of Australian experience and ongoing discrimination against certain ethnic groups in the labour market. For example, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2435.2007.00396.x/abstract">research</a> has shown that African and Middle Eastern refugees had poorer employment outcomes than ex-Yugoslavs despite having similar levels of knowledge, skills and qualifications.</p>
<p>So <a href="http://library.bsl.org.au/jspui/bitstream/1/811/1/Refugees%20and%20employment.pdf">educating</a> employers on the skills of humanitarian migrants may be worthwhile.</p>
<h2>What jobs can refugees get?</h2>
<p>Even though more humanitarian migrants are finding jobs, certain areas remain a challenge. Our analysis shows some evidence of what is known as “<a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/01_2014/economic-social-civic-contributions-booklet2011.pdf">occupational skidding</a>”. </p>
<p>That is when humanitarian migrants cannot obtain jobs in line with their skills and qualifications. Think of the stereotypical surgeon who ends up working as a taxi driver in their new country. </p>
<p>The following chart shows a decline in the proportion of 18-64-year-olds working as managers and professionals, after arriving in Australia. </p>
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<p>As you can see from the data, the most common occupations among humanitarian migrants were labouring (37% at wave 1, 36% at wave 2, and 42% at wave 3) followed by technicians/trades (29%, 26% and 22%). </p>
<p>This contrasts starkly with pre-migration occupations, where sizeable percentages were working in professional occupations (21%) and technicians/trades were most common (28%). Examples of professional occupations include engineers, teachers, doctors and lawyers. </p>
<p>There were almost as many managers as there were labourers prior to migration (11% and 16%). By the time of the third interview, no participants reported working in managerial positions. </p>
<p>Previous Australian <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jrs/article-abstract/19/2/203/1545469/Employment-Niches-for-Recent-Refugees-Segmented">research</a> shows there are niches (cleaning, aged care, meat processing, taxi driving, security and building) where humanitarian migrants tend to find employment and that the process for recognising skills can be difficult in Australia.</p>
<h2>Employment prospects improve over time</h2>
<p>The longer humanitarian migrants spend in Australia, the more likely they are to find employment. Despite some improvements, many still struggle to obtain work in Australia commensurate with their previous skills and qualifications. This is also a problem in other resettlement countries such as <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1755-618X.2003.tb00235.x/abstract">Canada</a> and <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13691830410001699522">Sweden</a>.</p>
<p>The Australian government is piloting the <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/settlement-and-multicultural-affairs/programs-policy/settlement-services/career-pathways-pilot-for-humanitarian-entrants">Careers Pathways Pilot for Humanitarian Entrants</a> and has recently launched a new <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/settlement-and-multicultural-affairs/programs-policy/settlement-services/humanitarian-settlement-program">Humanitarian Settlement Program</a>. </p>
<p>We expect these programs will improve outcomes as employment helps to create new social and professional networks, improve English skills and can lead to financial independence.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83724/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pilar Rioseco does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.
The BNLA study is conducted in partnership between the Department of Social Services (DSS) and the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS). The views reported in this article are those of the authors and should not be attributed to DSS or AIFS. This article is based on research commissioned by Settlement Services Branch, DSS.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>John De Maio does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The longer humanitarian migrants stay in Australia, the more likely it is that they will get a job.Pilar Rioseco, Senior Research Officer, Australian Institute of Family StudiesJohn De Maio, Research Fellow, Australian Institute of Family StudiesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/851832017-10-11T19:14:13Z2017-10-11T19:14:13ZThree charts on: disability discrimination in the workplace<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189498/original/file-20171010-10864-1yj61lu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many workplaces do not make reasonable adjustments for disabled employees.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4433.0.55.006">Only 53%</a> of Australians with disability are employed, compared to 83% of all working-age people. Australia ranks 21st out of 29 <a href="http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-issues-migration-health/sickness-disability-and-work-breaking-the-barriers_9789264088856-en">OECD nations</a> when it comes to employment rates for people with a disability. </p>
<p>But looking at the <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/complaints">data</a> reveals an even darker story – complaints about disability discrimination are the largest category of discrimination reported to the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), and the numbers have been steady for around 20 years. </p>
<p>Lower employment levels translate into Australians with disability living in poverty at the <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/FlagPost/2011/December/Disability_employment_in_Australia_and_the_OECD">highest rates in the OECD</a>. </p>
<p>The Australian Bureau of Statistics <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4433.0.55.006">also found</a> that the employment rates vary radically depending upon the “disability type”. Those who have a “psychological disability”, for example, have the lowest employment rate at 29%. </p>
<p>Employment also varies by “disability severity” (defined as mild, moderate, severe and profound). Employment decreases as severity increases. Only 26% of people with profound or severe physical disability are employed. </p>
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<p>As you can see in the chart above, complaints to the AHRC are categorised by the legislation they fall under – Disability Discrimination Act, Sex Discrimination Act, Racial Discrimination Act, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act, and Age Discrimination Act.</p>
<p>Using this, we can see that disability discrimination has consistently represented the highest proportion of complaints, currently 37%. When you consider that the Racial Discrimination Act and the Sex Discrimination Act total 41% of cases combined, this gives some insight into the prevalence of workplace discrimination faced by people with disability.</p>
<p>The next chart shows the proportion of disability discrimination complaints that relate to the workplace. This is approximately 35% from the latest figures but has peaked at a much higher rate. </p>
<p>While we can’t explain the fluctuation, at various times there have been changes to the system, cuts in funding and political tensions. What can be interpreted from the figures is that disability discrimination has been sustained and ongoing over the two decades. </p>
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<p>In <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09687599.2016.1256807">our research</a>, using publicly available complaint case summaries, we found that employers incorrectly assumed that the costs of employing people with disability were higher than they are, or were unaware of government programs to offset the costs of reasonable adjustments in the workplace. In other cases, people were discriminated against by the strict adherence to guidelines and policies. </p>
<p>We found several distinctive themes in the disability complaints made. </p>
<p>For instance, many employers do not provide adequate access to the workplace. This could be as simple as tactile ground surfaces for people who are blind. Many cases also involved managers, or human resource procedures, being too quick to dismiss an employee who acquired a disability. Reasonable adjustments can often be made to the position descriptions. </p>
<p>Hiring practices were often biased and discounted the abilities of applicants (otherwise known as <a href="https://www.enei.org.uk/resources/reports/disability-a-research-study-on-unconscious-bias/">unconscious bias</a>). In many cases, workplaces were not inclusive of assistive technologies, such as screen reading software or hearing loops. These would have allowed employees with a disability to do their job. </p>
<p>Mental health complaints have doubled in prevalence over time suggesting the dynamic nature of disability discrimination and the willingness of those with <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-disclose-or-not-to-disclose-mental-health-issues-in-the-workplace-52980">mental health issues to disclose their disability</a> who previously may not have instigated a complaint case.</p>
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<p>In reading the summaries of the complaints to the AHRC, it is apparent that employers, co-workers and third-party organisations (e.g. insurance companies) directly or indirectly treat people unfairly, or, in the worst cases, display open hostility to Australians with a disability. </p>
<p>In doing so, those involved show a lack of understanding of the basic legal principles of the Disability Discrimination Act. These include sections covering <a href="http://www.humanrights.gov.au/federal-discrimination-law-chapter-5-disability-discrimination-act#5_2_2">direct discrimination</a>, <a href="http://www.humanrights.gov.au/federal-discrimination-law-chapter-5-disability-discrimination-act#5_2_3">indirect discrimination</a>, <a href="http://www.humanrights.gov.au/federal-discrimination-law-chapter-5-disability-discrimination-act#5_5">unjustifiable hardship</a>, <a href="http://www.humanrights.gov.au/federal-discrimination-law-chapter-5-disability-discrimination-act#5_3_1d">inherent requirements</a> and <a href="https://www.humanrightscommission.vic.gov.au/the-workplace/employer-responsibilities/reasonable-adjustments-in-employment">reasonable adjustments</a>. </p>
<h2>What can be done?</h2>
<p>Some may argue that Australians with severe levels of disability would be unable to work. But <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/our-responsibilities/disability-and-carers/publications-articles/policy-research/shut-out-the-experience-of-people-with-disabilities-and-their-families-in-australia?HTML#2.4">their experiences</a> show that, with the correct assistive technology and attitudes that focus on ability rather than disability, employment is not just possible but imperative. </p>
<p>A recent <a href="http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/employment/connecting-people-with-jobs-key-issues-for-raising-labour-market-participation-in-australia_9789264269637-en#.WdsmnGiCxhE#page81">OECD report</a> singled out Denmark and Switzerland for their targeted intervention for younger people with disability or medical conditions. This ensures they have the highest chances of being employed rather than becoming welfare-dependent.</p>
<p>The foundation of the <a href="https://www.ndis.gov.au/">National Disability Insurance Scheme</a> shows the government’s desire to give people with disability the opportunity to move from welfare to employment. While we wait for the major policy change to take effect, other immediate options are available to bring about positive social change. </p>
<p>Positive exposure in the media (see <a href="http://www.attitude.org.au/about-us/people/">Attitude Foundation</a>), personal contact and education could change attitudes to disability. The government and non-profit organisations have a multitude of resources available for businesses, to raise awareness about best practice and inclusive assistance. </p>
<p>One good resource is <a href="https://www.jobaccess.gov.au/">Job Access</a>. This government site provides education and resources to assist with workplace adjustment. It also provides direct assistance to people with disability. </p>
<p>Other organisations like the <a href="https://www.and.org.au/">Australian Network on Disability</a> can help businesses to become strategically more inclusive. In the end it will come down to employers giving every Australian job seeker with disability a fair go and not judging “<a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/news/speeches/speeches-dont-judge-what-i-can-do-what-you-think-i-cant">what I can do by what you think I can’t</a>”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85183/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Darcy receives funding from the Australian Research Council for the disability entrepreneurship Project working with Settlement Services Australia, National Disability Services and BreakThru People Solutions</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tracy Taylor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australia has the highest poverty rate in the OECD for people with a disability. The barriers to, and discrimination in, the workplace are part of the reason.Simon Darcy, Professor of Social Inclusion - UTS Business School - Centres for Business and Social innovation, and Business Intelligence and Data Analytics, University of Technology SydneyTracy Taylor, Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/845152017-10-01T18:39:06Z2017-10-01T18:39:06ZThree charts on: the great Australian wealth gap<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187925/original/file-20170928-24182-1ksar8g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Young Australians still remain locked out of the housing market as the wealth disparity grows across generations</span> </figcaption></figure><p>It’s a tale of two Australias: older Australians are getting much wealthier, and the young are being left behind. </p>
<p>It’s a story only too familiar to Australians under 45 who have struggled to save enough money to access the housing market in Australian cities. They are a generation for whom the great Australian dream of home ownership has become largely elusive. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/6523.0Main+Features12015-16?OpenDocument">Data</a> from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows that older Australians are capturing an increasing share of the nation’s wealth, and the house-price boom is a major cause of the growing divide between the generations. </p>
<p>As you can see in the following chart, households headed by 65-74-year-olds were on average A$480,000 wealthier in 2015-16 than households in the same age group 12 years ago. And that’s after taking inflation into account and despite the damage caused by the global financial crisis. Households headed by 45-54-year-olds are A$400,000 richer. </p>
<p>In contrast, households headed by 35-44-year-olds are on average only A$120,000 wealthier – and for 25-34-year-olds the figure is just A$40,000. </p>
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<h2>Property is a key factor for wealth disparity</h2>
<p>Soaring property prices are a major factor behind the rapidly growing wealth of older Australians. According to the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/6416.0Main+Features1Jun%202017?OpenDocument">ABS</a>, house prices grew by 37% on average across all the capital cities between 2003-04 and 2015-16 (and by more than 50% in Melbourne alone). The boom was not limited to the capitals; prices also grew strongly in <a href="https://www.corelogic.com.au/reports/CL_Housing-Affordability-Dec_2016.pdf">regional areas</a>. </p>
<p>The next chart shows that for households headed by someone aged 75 or over, greater property wealth contributed about three-quarters of the increase in their total net wealth. For households headed by 65-74-year-olds and 55-64-year-olds, property contributed about half of the total increase in wealth.</p>
<p>But for younger Australians, again it is a different story. </p>
<p>Bigger mortgages largely offset the increase in property wealth for households headed by 25-34-year-olds and 35-44-year-olds. Baby Boomers have also used the superannuation system to build their wealth. They took advantage of the <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/832-Super-tax-targeting.pdf">generous super tax breaks</a> on offer for people nearing retirement, such as the ability to put large, concessionally taxed sums into their super funds just before retirement. </p>
<p>Average superannuation wealth over the same 12-year period increased by A$230,000 in real terms for households headed by 65-74-year-olds, and by more than A$150,000 for households headed by 55-64-year-olds. Strong <a href="https://au.investing.com/indices/s-p-asx-200-net-total-return-historical-data">share market returns</a> have further boosted superannuation balances and other financial wealth.</p>
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<h2>Young people locked out</h2>
<p>As property prices have boomed, more young Australians have been locked out of home ownership. </p>
<p>As this last chart shows, home ownership rates among households headed by 25-34-year-olds fell between 1981 and 2016, from more than 60% to 45%. For households headed by 35-44-year-olds the fall was from 75% to around 62%. Home ownership rates are also falling for households headed by 45-54-year-olds. </p>
<p>Some of these falls are also partly the result of social changes: Australians are waiting until later in life before starting work, forming long-term partnerships, and having children. But most Australians still <em>want</em> to own a home, so it is reasonable to conclude that higher property prices are the <a href="http://www.rba.gov.au/publications/rdp/2017/2017-05.html">biggest cause</a> of lower ownership rates. </p>
<p>Two-thirds of 25-34-year-olds responding to a 2017 <a href="http://politicsir.cass.anu.edu.au/sites/politicsir.anu.edu.au/files/ANUpoll-24-Housing-2017.pdf">Australian National University survey</a> thought owning a home was an important “part of the Australian way of life”, and more than half were “very concerned” that younger generations won’t be able to afford a house. </p>
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<h2>The bank of mum and dad</h2>
<p>The wealth divide between generations can easily lead to a more profound divide within generations. For many younger people, the only way that they can afford to buy a house is with help from “the bank of mum and dad”. </p>
<p>As house prices have increased, <a href="https://www.rba.gov.au/speeches/2017/sp-ag-2017-02-16.html">more first home buyers are receiving assistance</a> from family and friends to enter the property market. The strong growth in the wealth of today’s older generations, combined with the steady shrinking of the family size from 1960 to 2000, will lead to more and larger inheritances. </p>
<p>Inheritances tend to transmit wealth to children who are <a href="http://grattan.edu.au/report/the-wealth-of-generations/">already well-off</a>, and home ownership is <a href="https://www.ahuri.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0021/2847/AHURI_Positioning_Paper_No163_The-relationship-between-intergenerational-transfers,-housing-and-economic-outcomes.pdf">more likely</a> among those who receive an inheritance, and more likely still among those who receive larger inheritances.</p>
<p>Australia is becoming wealthier, but much of the increase is concentrated in the hands of older generations. The trend is unmistakable: unless something changes, the young will fall further behind and inequality will get worse.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84515/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australia is becoming wealthier, but much of that wealth remains concentrated in the hands of older generations.Trent Wiltshire, Associate, Grattan InstituteDanielle Wood, Fellow, Australian Perspectives, Grattan InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/827522017-08-22T04:09:24Z2017-08-22T04:09:24ZScience is important but moves too fast: five charts on how Australians view science and scientists<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182891/original/file-20170822-5221-r3yjkl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">More than 50% of Australians think drugs should be cleared for use before they've completed clinical trials. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/melbourne-january-22-crowd-2011-australian-71400895?src=RiwW28DPje0dQFfnlOvo-w-1-94">Neale Cousland/shutterstock </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ninety percent of Australians feel <a href="http://www.science.gov.au/community/Documents/REPORT-SCAPA172001-CPAS-poll.pdf">science has made life easier</a> overall. But we’re a complex nation when it comes to the finer details of how we view science and scientists.</p>
<p>We recently released results of the 2017 Australian Beliefs and Attitudes Towards Science (ABAS) survey, which was conducted by the <a href="http://cpas.anu.edu.au/">Australian Centre for the Public Awareness of Science</a>, and commissioned by the <a href="https://industry.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx">Department of Industry, Innovation and Science</a>. </p>
<p>The report contains a snapshot of beliefs and attitudes of Australians towards science, and also links key attitudes and beliefs with demographic characteristics of the survey sample.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australians-largely-support-science-but-not-all-see-the-benefits-76399">Australians largely support science, but not all see the benefits</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Some of the new results confirm what we knew already:</p>
<ul>
<li>overall, Australians are very pro-science</li>
<li>as a society, we are generally quite highly engaged with science-related issues</li>
<li>we are predominately a nation of people who accept and are concerned about climate change and our role in it. </li>
</ul>
<p>But there were some surprises, too. The data show some tension between the benefits and the pace of scientific change, and a far from straightforward relationship between the perceived contribution and prestige of scientists as professionals. Further, more than 50% of Australians think that drugs should be released for use before clinical trials are completed. </p>
<h2>The benefits and pace of science</h2>
<p>Eighty percent of Australians say the benefits of science have been greater than any harmful effects. </p>
<p>However, despite this positive perception of the value of science, nearly half of us say science has changed our way of life too fast. </p>
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<p>Our attitudes to science and its outputs are far from straightforward. Personally I find this encouraging. It suggests that many Australians are thinking quite deeply about the way science and society interact, rather than uncritically accepting or dismissing its effects and implications. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bored-reading-science-lets-change-how-scientists-write-81688">Bored reading science? Let's change how scientists write</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Contribution and prestige of scientists</h2>
<p>Around 80% of Australians felt scientists contribute enormously to society, just beating doctors (80%) and farmers (78.5%) as the biggest contributors. Less than 20% of respondents saw lawyers as contributing enormously to society. </p>
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<p>Interestingly though, only 62% saw the sciences as very professionally prestigious. Doctors came first there, scientists second, and farmers came third. Around 26% of respondents saw being a lawyer as very professionally prestigious. </p>
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<p>We analysed the data in another way to ascertain the relationship between views on contribution and prestige in individual Australians. We found that when it came to scientists, the relationship between prestige and contribution to society was the least straightforward of all 16 professions we asked people to rate. </p>
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<p>This data shows that many people who rated scientists highly on contribution to society did not rate them highly on prestige. However, people who rated priests or members of the military as high contributors were far more likely to rate them as more prestigious as well. </p>
<p>Clearly our opinions about how scientists fit into the world are complicated.</p>
<h2>Drug access without complete clinical trials</h2>
<p>We asked respondents whether they were in favour of or opposed to a range of specified scientific activities. </p>
<p>As shown in the graphs below, opinions about use of animal in research, nuclear power for electricity generation, growing genetically modified crops to make fuel and fracking all received varied degrees of support. </p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-gas-between-a-fracked-rock-and-a-socially-hard-place-74932">Australian gas: between a fracked rock and a hard place</a></em> </p>
<hr>
<p>Interestingly, more than half (54%) of respondents favoured releasing drugs before full clinical trial approvals have been conducted. </p>
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<p>This is remarkable, and is actually almost exactly the same proportion as a similar question in the <a href="http://www.%20pewinternet.org/2015/01/29/public-and-scientists-views-on-science-and-society/">2015 US PEW poll</a>. </p>
<p>For now, I can only speculate as to why this might be the case. Perhaps many of us believe clinical trials exist to block access, seeing them as a regulatory sticking point rather than a critical part of the process of assuring safety. We recently saw a very public battle between mainstream medical opinion and the promise of untried medical treatments in <a href="https://theconversation.com/three-ways-the-charlie-gard-case-could-affect-future-end-of-life-cases-globally-81168">the case of Charlie Gard</a>, who has since died from mitochondrial disease. </p>
<p>Australians don’t have a simple relationship with science and its products. But this is a good thing in a modern society. The fact that we can applaud what science does well, but are still prepared to question what we don’t like or understand is a sign of a healthy democratic relationship with science, scientists and science funding. </p>
<p>To view a complete picture of the survey results, you can download the full report and the data tables <a href="http://www.science.gov.au/community/Pages/National-survey-results-Australian-beliefs-and-attitudes-towards-science.aspx">here</a>.</p>
<p>The data consists of a nationally representative sample of 1,203 Australian adults in early 2017, and is an update and extension of a <a href="http://lyceum.anu.edu.au/wp-content/blogs/3/uploads//ANUpoll%20on%20science1.pdf">2010 Australian national survey of public opinion about science</a>. The 2017 edition includes some questions inspired by a <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/01/29/public-and-scientists-views-on-science-and-society/">recent US national survey</a> conducted by PEW.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82752/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rod Lamberts currently receives some funding from the Dept of Industry, Innovation and Science and has previously received funding from the Australian Research Council Linkage Program.</span></em></p>Most Australians value science. But we do have some hesitations about the pace of scientific advances, and we’re not sure if scientists are prestigious or not.Rod Lamberts, Deputy Director, Australian National Centre for Public Awareness of Science, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/801412017-07-05T02:25:44Z2017-07-05T02:25:44ZThree charts on: the changing face of Australian union members<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176379/original/file-20170630-8242-3r0eda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Despite public perception, figures indicate that white collar workers are more likely to be a member of a union than people working in traditionally blue collar professions. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What comes to mind when I say union member? Perhaps it conjures up a blue collar construction or factory worker. Well data on unions shows it’s more likely to be a lawyer or teacher.</p>
<p>Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicates an increase in the number of professionals hold a union ticket in today’s Australia. The number of union members who listed their occupation as “manager” (89,900) or “professional” (543,300) easily exceeded the combined number of those who recorded their calling as a trade or technical worker (195,200), a sales worker (89,800), a machinery operator or driver (138,600) or a labourer (146,800). </p>
<p>So the image that many of us have of a union member – a militant building worker who belongs to the Construction Forestry Mining & Energy Union – is a misnomer. In fact, despite the CFMEU’s prominence in the media, union density in the construction industry stands at only 9.4%. </p>
<p>In the private sector, union density now stands at 10.1%. In the public sector, the percentage of workers in this domain holding a union ticket falling by 4.9 percentage points to 38.5% between 2013 and 2016.</p>
<h2>A history of change</h2>
<p>Many reasons have been put forward to explain the decline in Australian unionism – enterprise bargaining, laws unfriendly to unions, managerial hostility and youth indifference. However it’s clear that union decline has broadly tracked the declining share of jobs held by blue-collar workers.</p>
<p>Union decline can be broken into three broad periods. Between 1954 and 1976, declining union density moved in lock-step with the blue-collar working class’s declining workforce share. </p>
<p>Between 1971 and 1996, union decline occurred at a slower pace than the fall in the blue-collar share of the workforce, as unions had success in recruiting white-collar workers and professionals. This more than offset declines in blue-collar membership. </p>
<p>From 1996 onwards, unions became increasingly dominated by professionals as blue-collar membership collapsed.</p>
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<p>Today, union members can be categorised into three groups: </p>
<p>1) Managers and professionals
2) Blue-collar workers engaged in trade work, labouring, machinery operation and driving
3) Unskilled and semi-skilled workers engaged in sales, clerical work and community and personal service. </p>
<p>As blue-collar unionists became increasingly rare figures within the ranks of the trade unions, so it was that union membership became increasingly dominated by managers and professionals. </p>
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<p>In many ways the increasing domination of union membership by professionals should not surprise us. Since 1986, the industries largely staffed by professionals and semi-professionals (such as media and information systems, finance, health, education and education) have provided more jobs than traditional blue-collar industries.</p>
<p>The problem for unions is that as the workforce has changed, they have got the worst of both worlds. Since 1996, union density has clearly fallen more sharply than the blue-collar share of the workforce. However, unions have not been able to win over enough professionals to offset the loss of blue-collar unionists.</p>
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<h2>Missing the mark</h2>
<p>Part of the problem in securing new members for unions is that professional recruitment is largely confined to one cohort: those employed in publicly-funded or regulated industries, such as education and health. In these areas, unions still represent around a third of the workforce.</p>
<p>By contrast, in areas of professional employment characterised by private-ownership and market-competition (i.e. media, finance, professional services) unions perform poorly. In finance and insurance, union density stands at 9.7%. In professional and scientific services – an area that employed more than a million in 2016 – only 2% of the workforce has a union ticket.</p>
<p>This data reveals union membership is increasingly confined to one area of the economy – professional and semi-professional employment in publicly-funded and regulated areas. Leaving the rest of the workforce behind.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80141/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bradley Bowden does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Union membership continues to fall, particularly within industries that traditionally claim a strong union heritage.Bradley Bowden, Professor, Griffith Business School, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/783532017-06-26T20:09:37Z2017-06-26T20:09:37ZThree charts on: Australia’s addiction to poker machines<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174657/original/file-20170620-24885-ggjhtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pokie losses in Australia's pubs and clubs increased fourfold between 1990 and 2000.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Paul Jeffers</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia has <a href="http://gamingta.com/australia-has-2-4-of-the-worlds-gaming-machines/">more poker machines per person</a> than any country in the world, excluding casino-tourism destinations like Macau and Monaco. It has nearly 200,000 machines – one for every 114 people.</p>
<p>This startling statistic resulted from a wave of pokie liberalisation during the 1990s that saw them introduced into pubs and clubs in every state and territory – except Western Australia.</p>
<p>To track the social impacts of this expansion, state and territory governments have commissioned surveys to measure the levels of gambling consumption and gambling-related harm. In total, more than 275,000 Australians have been interviewed in 42 studies of this kind since 1994. </p>
<p>We recently conducted <a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-017-4413-6">an analysis</a> of these studies to build a nationwide picture of how pokie gambling has changed across Australia over the past 25 years. We linked the participation rates reported by the surveys with government data on <a href="http://www.qgso.qld.gov.au/products/reports/aus-gambling-stats/">actual poker machine expenditure in pubs and clubs</a> for each jurisdiction – converted into 2015 dollars to account for inflation. </p>
<p>The expenditure data exclude poker machines in casinos; these data are not disaggregated for government reporting purposes.</p>
<p>Consequently, the figures we present here should be considered minimums – especially in Tasmania and the Northern Territory, where a large proportion of pokies are located in casinos. WA is excluded from the expenditure analysis because it has no pokies outside Burswood Casino.</p>
<h2>A recent gradual decline in pokie losses</h2>
<p>Nationally, pokie losses in pubs and clubs increased fourfold between 1990 and 2000 before plateauing at around A$860 per adult per year in 2005. Since 2005, there has been a consistent gradual decline in gambling losses across the various jurisdictions. Throughout this period, pokie losses per adult in New South Wales have remained around 50% higher than the national average. </p>
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<p>The biggest contributor to the decline since 2005 has been tobacco control, not gambling policy. The introduction of indoor smoking bans across Australia in the 2000s <a href="http://doi.org/10.1136/jech.2006.051557">hit pokie revenues</a> quite hard. </p>
<p>It is also likely that caps on pokie numbers – which have been relatively stable since 2000 – <a href="http://doi.org/10.4309/jgi.2013.28.2">played a role</a> in limiting pokie expenditure.</p>
<p>However, this should give no reason for complacency. The decline in pokie revenue is slowing, and possibly beginning to reverse in NSW, the NT and Queensland.</p>
<p>Current annual losses on pokies in pubs and clubs for Australia amount to $633 per adult. Losses in NSW are highest at $978 per adult and lowest in Tasmania at $283 per adult – although casinos play a more important role in Tasmania. </p>
<p>These figures are <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2017/02/daily-chart-4">very high by world standards</a>. The losses by Australians on pokies outside of casinos dwarf those of any other comparable country. They are 2.4 times greater than those of our nearest rival, Italy.</p>
<p>These losses are even more anomalous when compared to non-casino gambling machines in other English-speaking countries. Australians lose three times more than New Zealanders, 4.1 times more than Canadians, 6.4 times more than the Irish, 7.5 times more than the British, and 9.8 times more than Americans.</p>
<h2>Falling numbers of pokie gamblers</h2>
<p>The modest decline in losses since the mid-2000s has been driven by a falling number of people playing the pokies. </p>
<p>The chart below shows the proportion of the adult population in each Australian state or territory that gambles on pokies at least once per year. These proportions are derived from the surveys described above. Each survey estimate is represented by a single dot.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175149/original/file-20170622-3049-1nu8fwx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175149/original/file-20170622-3049-1nu8fwx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175149/original/file-20170622-3049-1nu8fwx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175149/original/file-20170622-3049-1nu8fwx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175149/original/file-20170622-3049-1nu8fwx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175149/original/file-20170622-3049-1nu8fwx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175149/original/file-20170622-3049-1nu8fwx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided/The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Participation rates peaked shortly after pokies were introduced in the late 1990s at around 40% for the larger states. Since that time, participation has consistently dropped to below 30% across Australia and has fallen to less than 20% in Tasmania, Victoria and the ACT.</p>
<h2>Amounts lost per gambler have remained constant</h2>
<p>Dividing the pokie losses in clubs and pubs for each jurisdiction by the number of actual gamblers reveals the average amount lost per pokie gambler per year as shown by the chart below. Some lines on this chart are shorter than others because the survey-based participation data is not uniformly available.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174874/original/file-20170621-30211-1i5o31p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174874/original/file-20170621-30211-1i5o31p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174874/original/file-20170621-30211-1i5o31p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174874/original/file-20170621-30211-1i5o31p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174874/original/file-20170621-30211-1i5o31p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=777&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174874/original/file-20170621-30211-1i5o31p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=777&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174874/original/file-20170621-30211-1i5o31p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=777&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided/The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The reduction in total pokie losses since 2005 has not been matched by a corresponding decline in losses per individual gambler. After a reduction due to the smoking bans, losses per gambler appear to have plateaued – with some jurisdictions trending up (ACT and NT) and others down (NSW and SA). </p>
<p>This suggests that while fewer people are playing the pokies, the amount of money lost per gambler has remained relatively constant. And this amount appears very high. </p>
<p>The amount lost per pokie gambler (just in pubs and clubs) in both NSW and Victoria is around $3,500 per year, or around $65 per week. The ACT sits at around $3,000 per gambler per year, followed by the NT and Tasmania at around $1,500 per year.</p>
<p>To put this in some perspective, the average Australian adult <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/5204.02014-15?OpenDocument">spent $1,245</a> on electricity and gas in 2014-15. </p>
<p>And while we now have concerted government action to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-finkel-review-finally-a-sensible-and-solid-footing-for-the-electricity-sector-79118">reduce energy costs</a>, the regulatory reforms required to reduce the amount of losses for pokie gamblers are not on the legislative agenda in most of Australia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78353/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin Young has previously received research funding from the Australian Research Council, Gambling Research Australia, and several state government departments. His research is currently funded by the Community Benefit Fund of the Northern Territory Government. In addition to his SCU position, he a Visiting Fellow, Fenner School of Environment and Society, ANU.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francis Markham has received funding from or been employed on projects that received funding from the Australian Research Council, the Community Benefit Fund of the Northern Territory and the ACT Gambling and Racing Commission. He has had his travel expenses to speak at an international conference paid for by the Alberta Gambling Research Institute, an organisation that is funded by the provincial government of Alberta. He is a member of the Public Health Association of Australia.
</span></em></p>While fewer people are gambling on the pokies, the amount of money lost per gambler has remained relatively constant over time.Martin Young, Associate Professor, School of Business and Tourism, Southern Cross UniversityFrancis Markham, Research Fellow, College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/795722017-06-25T20:11:43Z2017-06-25T20:11:43ZThree charts on: cancer rates in Australia, where liver cancer is on the rise while other types fall<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175094/original/file-20170622-30227-39gmf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3994%2C2658&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The incidence of liver cancer is increasing and has the potential to become a national health crisis.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Liver cancer is a looming health threat in Australia, recent findings from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s (AIHW) <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/publication-detail/?id=60129559785">Burden of Cancer report</a> suggest. </p>
<p>While rates of other cancers are falling or remaining static, liver cancer is the only “top ten” cancer for which rates increased between 2003 and 2011.</p>
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<p>The “burden” of cancer is a measure also called “Disability Adjusted Life Years” (or DALYs), capturing quality and quantity of life. It combines the impact of the number of deaths (and how young people die) and number of people ill from a disease, accounting for how sick or disabled they are and for how long. This allows comparisons across different diseases. </p>
<p>Using “rates” allows comparisons across time, taking account of differences in population numbers and age profiles.</p>
<h2>Liver cancer crisis?</h2>
<p>While still not a common cancer, making up less than 1.5% of the 125,000 cancer cases diagnosed in 2013, liver cancer rates have <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/acim-books/">increased fivefold</a> since 1982. Action is required due to the <a href="http://ww2.health.wa.gov.au/%7E/media/Files/Corporate/general%20documents/WA%20Cancer%20Registry/The-Cancer-Effect-All-Cancers-Survival-2010-2014.ashx">poor five-year-survival rate</a> of less than 20%.</p>
<p>But why are diagnosis rates going up?</p>
<p>Unpublished work in progress, which builds on a <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/azph.2015.39.issue-5/issuetoc">series of studies</a> by the Cancer Control Group at QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane, suggests liver cancer is caused by five main factors.</p>
<p>Tobacco smoking caused 365 liver cancer cases, or about 21% in 2013 in Australia. Hepatitis C virus contributed to 330 cases (19%) of liver cancer. Hepatitis B virus accounted for 281 cases (16%), alcohol 266 cases (15%) and obesity 451 (25%).</p>
<h2>What’s to blame?</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=60129556763">Falling smoking rates</a> suggest liver cancer figures should have been have been higher in the past. Due to the lag time between when people smoked and cancer diagnosis, tobacco is still a leading driver of liver cancer. Current smoking trends leave us optimistic these rates may drop in the future. </p>
<p>Similarly, alcohol consumption is on a <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4364.0.55.001%7E2014-15%7EMain%20Features%7EAlcohol%20consumption%7E25">modest decline</a> and is unlikely to explain the increase in liver cancer. </p>
<p>Obesity is a different story. Well-documented <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=60129556760">increases in overweight and obesity</a> will likely be a driver of liver cancer through the pathways of diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, a condition where fat accumulates in liver cells. </p>
<p>But the major engine driving increased liver cancer is likely to be the rising prevalence of people infected with hepatitis B and hepatitis C viruses. Chronic hepatitis causes infection and inflammation of the liver, which can lead to scarring called cirrhosis. In some, this leads to cancer.</p>
<p>Around <a href="http://wiki.cancer.org.au/policy/Liver_cancer/Causes">450,000 Australians</a> live with either hepatitis B or hepatitis C. The two viruses are passed on in quite different ways. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24090323">More than 90%</a> of people with hepatitis B virus were born overseas in countries where the virus is common, such as the Asia Pacific or sub-Saharan Africa. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, <a href="https://kirby.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/kirby/report/SERP_HepBandC-Annual-Surveillance-Report-Supp-2016.pdf">injecting drug users</a> dominate the 227,000 people with chronic hepatitis C virus in Australia, making up 57% of those affected. </p>
<h2>Liver cancer in Indigenous Australians</h2>
<p>Aboriginal people are another major group among which hepatitis B virus is endemic and hepatitis C is disproportionately common. High rates of viral infection in these communities (as in any community) are often untreated and tend to persist. This is especially the case when high rates of incarceration, needle sharing and other infection transmission behaviours occur. </p>
<p>While other causes of the disease are also at play, hepatitis rates are likely to be the main culprit to explain disturbing liver cancer rates in Australia’s First Nations people. It has become the third-most-common cancer in that group. </p>
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<h2>Other cancer deaths expected to rise</h2>
<p>Liver cancer is predicted to grow to become the fifth-most-common cause of cancer death in 2020 in Australian men and the sixth-biggest killer in women. This will eclipse melanoma as a cause of death.</p>
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<p>Higher death rates from pancreatic and brain cancers may be linked to a lack of successful treatment for these cancers. Increased pancreatic cancer mortality is also linked to smoking. Increased lung cancer mortality in women is linked to the higher uptake of smoking by women in the 1970s and ’80s. The elevated bowel cancer death rates expected in women do not take into consideration the effect of the government’s <a href="http://www.health.gov.au/internet/screening/publishing.nsf/Content/bowel-screening-1">National Bowel Cancer Screening Program</a>, which should soon start to show benefits in reduced mortality from that cancer.</p>
<h2>Averting the ‘crisis’</h2>
<p>Improved efforts to identify and treat people with hepatitis B and C viruses are required to combat liver cancer. </p>
<p>Infant vaccination for hepatitis B virus is making great strides, with <a href="https://kirby.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/kirby/report/SERP_HepBandC-Annual-Surveillance-Report-Supp-2016.pdf">participation rates exceeding 90%</a> in general and Indigenous populations. While this is good news, the challenge of reaching inbound migrant communities remains.</p>
<p>Needle exchange programs in prisons and outside are vital strategies to reduce needle sharing – the vehicle for much of the transmission of hepatitis C virus.</p>
<p>Efforts to reduce smoking, obesity and alcohol consumption are under way, but persistence is vital, especially in Indigenous communities. Tools are available to avert the “liver cancer crisis”, but we need to use them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79572/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Terry Slevin is employed by Cancer Council Western Australia and is affiliated with Cancer Council Australia and Curtin University. He is a Fellow of the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) and a Board member of the WA Health Promotion Foundation. He has been involved in funded cancer research programs on various topics over more than two decades. </span></em></p>While other cancer rates fall or remain static, liver cancer is on the rise. Here’s why we need to start paying attention.Terry Slevin, Adjunct Professor, School of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Curtin University; Education and Research Director, Cancer Council WA; Chair, Occupational and Environmental Cancer Committee, Cancer Council AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/796542017-06-21T01:30:50Z2017-06-21T01:30:50ZThree charts on: Australia’s declining homicide rates<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174639/original/file-20170620-22075-1trry6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Firearms are not the main weapon of choice in homicides in Australia.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Caroline Schelle</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia’s overall homicide rate <a href="http://www.crimestats.aic.gov.au/NHMP/">continues to decline</a>: it has reached a historic low, according to <a href="http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/sr/sr002.html">newly published data</a>.</p>
<h2>Australia’s homicide rate is declining</h2>
<p>Through its National Homicide Monitoring Program, the Australian Institute of Criminology has outlined the trends in homicides for the financial years 2012-13 and 2013-14. In this period there were 487 homicide incidents involving 512 victims and 549 offenders.</p>
<p>The national homicide rate has decreased from 1.8 per 100,000 people in 1989-90 to 1 per 100,000 in 2013-14. </p>
<p>For Indigenous people, the homicide rate was much higher at 4.9 per 100,000 in 2013-14. The Northern Territory had the highest homicide rate in Australia, with 6.5 per 100,000 for 2013-14.</p>
<p>While there are differences in data collected by each country, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes <a href="https://www.unodc.org/gsh/en/data.html">International Homicide Statistics database</a> allows Australia’s homicide rate to be compared to other countries (see the chart below).</p>
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<p>In terms of the homicide rate, it can be argued that Australia is safer than some other countries. In 2012, for example, the US recorded a homicide rate of 4.7 per 100,000 – with 14,827 incidents of homicide. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.unodc.org/gsh/">United Nations Global Study on Homicide 2013</a> estimated an average global homicide rate of 6.2 per 100,000 people. Other countries had much higher homicide rates in 2012: Colombia (30.8), Mexico (21.5), and South Africa (31).</p>
<h2>Most victims are killed by someone they know</h2>
<p>While we might fear being attacked by an unknown assailant, this perception does not match reality.</p>
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<p>Between 2012 and 2014 the most common relationship between offender and victim was domestic relationship (41%), followed by acquaintance (27%). 13% of homicides are committed by a stranger.</p>
<p>As seen in the graph above, the number of domestic homicides in 2013-14 was far lower than the number in 2001-02; there has been a 36% decrease over that period. Intimate partner relationships account for the most homicides in the domestic relationship category.</p>
<p>Around 19% of homicides between 2012 and 2014 were unclassified due to police not knowing the nature of the relationship between victim and offenders. </p>
<p>Of those killed, 64% of victims were male – and the offending rate for males was six times that for females.</p>
<p>In terms of apparent motive, domestic argument was the most common cause at 16% of homicide incidents, while alcohol-related arguments and other arguments accounted for 8% each. Revenge and jealousy accounted for 4% and 5% of incidents respectively.</p>
<h2>Guns are not the main weapon used in homicides</h2>
<p>Despite recent claims of Australia having a <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/firearms-amnesty-for-july-2017-amid-fears-of-rising-gun-culture/news-story/8c170b6e4709d8bfc0a2e829fab5af19">rising gun culture</a> and an upcoming <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-national-amnesty-will-not-rid-australia-of-violent-gun-crime-79563">national gun amnesty</a>, firearms are not the main weapon of choice in homicides.</p>
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<p>The use of guns features in only 14% of homicides. The two leading causes of homicide are stab wounds (38%) and beatings (25%). </p>
<p>This trend is supported by longer-term <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/4510.02014?OpenDocument">Australia Bureau of Statistics data</a> that shows the use of firearms in homicides remains at historically low levels. In contrast, <a href="https://www.unodc.org/gsh/en/homicide-mechanisms.html">UN data</a> indicates that about 40% of global homicides are caused by firearms. </p>
<p>Of note is that the use of firearms in homicides in Australia has increased since a low in 2005. </p>
<p>Only 16% of homicide incidents between 2012 and 2014 came following, or in the process of, committing another crime. The most common offences that later led to a homicide were robbery, sexual assault, and break-and-enter.</p>
<h2>Are we on the right track?</h2>
<p>Homicides are the most serious of crimes, with far-reaching implications for both individuals and society in terms of harm. In terms of economic cost, the Australian Institute of Criminology estimated each homicide incident had <a href="http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/rpp/121-140/rpp129/08-homicide.html">cost A$2.7 million</a> in 2011. </p>
<p>The outlook for Australia is positive, with a continued reduction in the homicide rate. </p>
<p>However, challenges remain, such as the over-representation of Indigenous people, and that domestic-related homicides still make up the largest number of homicides.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79654/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Terry Goldsworthy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When it comes to homicide rates, the outlook for Australia is positive with continued reduction in the homicide rate. However, challenges remain.Terry Goldsworthy, Assistant Professor in Criminology, Bond UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/789112017-06-21T00:36:13Z2017-06-21T00:36:13ZThree charts on: the NBN and Australia’s digital divide<p>The National Broadband Network (NBN) is widely considered to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nbn-how-a-national-infrastructure-dream-fell-short-77780">be failing</a> Australians, but it isn’t failing them equally.</p>
<p>Our research, undertaken at the <a href="http://www.flinders.edu.au/medicine/research/centres/centre-for-research-excellence-in-the-social-determinants-of-health-equity/">Centre for Research Excellence in the Social Determinants of Health Equity</a>, seeks to address health inequities by looking at the geographical distribution of infrastructure, including digital technology. </p>
<p>Examining the rollout of NBN technologies <a href="http://www.nbnco.com.au/content/dam/nbnco2/documents/website-communities-table.pdf">as of December 2016</a>, our preliminary analyses suggest areas of greatest socio-economic disadvantage overlap with regions typically receiving NBN infrastructure of poorer quality. </p>
<h2>Comparing NBN technology with inequality</h2>
<p>To determine socio-economic disadvantage, we used the Australian Bureau of Statistics’s (ABS) socio-economic indexes for area (<a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/censushome.nsf/home/seifa">SEIFA</a>) and its index of relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/censushome.nsf/home/seifa">(IRSD)</a> from 2011.</p>
<p>Across Australia, we found only 29% of areas with a SEIFA decile of one (the lowest-scoring 10% of areas) had fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) – considered the best broadband technology solution available – or fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) connections. So far, around 71% of the NBN technology available in these areas involves inferior options, including hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC), fixed wireless or satellite technologies.</p>
<p>On the other hand, 93% of areas with a SEIFA decile of 10 (the highest-scoring 10% of areas) had FTTP or FTTN.</p>
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<p>This result tells a similar story to an early analysis by <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/architecture/about/people/profiles/tooran.alizadeh.php?apcode=ACADPROFILE300808">Sydney University’s Tooran Alizadeh</a> of <a href="http://www.inderscienceonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1504/IJCIS.2015.072156">60 NBN release sites</a> that were announced <a href="http://www.nbnco.com.au/corporate-information/media-centre/media-releases/nbn-co-releases-12-month-national-rollout-plan.html">in 2011</a>. She found some of the most disadvantaged areas of Australia were not gaining equal access to the new infrastructure. </p>
<p>If we look only at major cities in Australia – where the level of fibre technology is higher overall – areas with the greatest disadvantage, while exceeding similarly disadvantaged areas nationally, still received significantly less FTTP and FTTN: 65% of areas with a SEIFA decile of one had FTTP and FTTN, compared with 94% of areas with a SEIFA decile of 10. </p>
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<p>Of course Australia is a large, sparsely populated country, which makes the business case for rolling out fibre difficult in some regions. Nevertheless, inequitable access to NBN technology appears even when controlling for the remoteness of the location. </p>
<p>If we look at outer regional Australia where fibre is less prevalent, the pattern looks worse. Only 12% of the most disadvantaged areas with a SEIFA decile of one received FTTP and FTTN, compared with 88% of the most advantaged outer regional areas with a SEIFA decile of nine.</p>
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<p>Receiving FTTP or even FTTN may still be better than receiving HFC, fixed wireless or satellite technologies. While HFC may be able to match maximum speeds of FTTN, this is unlikely to happen during peak times when the increased number of users sharing the same data capacity <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/it-news/nbn-alternatives-fibre-to-the-node-or-hfc-cable-20131219-hv6hd.html">will slow service considerably</a>. And, similar to FTTN, these technologies provide fewer opportunities to upgrade capacity to meet future demand.</p>
<p>However, given only a limited data set was <a href="http://www.nbnco.com.au/develop-or-plan-with-the-nbn/local-government-planning/communities-in-the-rollout.html">made publicly available</a> in December 2016 by the NBN company, it is difficult to determine exactly which services are currently installed where. For example, the data set we used does not differentiate between FTTP and the lesser FTTN connection.</p>
<p>It also aggregates some NBN technology into an “other” category, making it impossible to distinguish between HFC and satellite service.</p>
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<p>The NBN company offers a <a href="http://www.nbnco.com.au/connect-home-or-business/check-your-address.html">“check your address” search</a> for its most up-to-date rollout information including technology type, but was unable to share this information with us in a single, usable data set.</p>
<p>A NBN spokesperson said the network was being rolled out across Australia regardless of any socio-economic mapping. </p>
<p>“Determining the sequence is a complex process of weighing up factors including the location of construction resources, current service levels, existing broadband infrastructure, growth forecasts and proximity to nbn infrastructure such as the transit network,” she said in an email. “Only 8 per cent of premises in Australia are not in the fixed-line footprint.”</p>
<h2>Internet access and social inequity</h2>
<p>A faster internet connection is increasingly central to people’s social connections, education opportunities, employment prospects and ability to access services.</p>
<p>This was raised in <a href="http://www.aphref.aph.gov.au/house/committee/ic/NBN/report/1.%20Final%20NBN%20Report.pdf">a 2011 report</a> by the parliamentary Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communications. It emphasised the potential role of the NBN in enhancing greater equity in digital access to services in regional and rural areas. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Committee heard that, due to the ‘digital divide’, many of the Australians who could benefit the most from broadband currently have the lowest levels of online participation … The extent of accompanying measures implemented by governments will determine whether the NBN narrows or widens this digital divide.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23144236">Previous research</a> has also found that people from lower socioeconomic groups are already restricted in their use of digital information and communication technologies. This can limit their access to a range of social determinants of health. </p>
<p>When populations already facing disadvantage receive poorer quality digital infrastructure, those with the greatest need will continue to slip farther behind. </p>
<p>Equity must be at the forefront of the NBN company’s considerations as it continues to roll out across Australia. Further entrenching social inequities through digital infrastructure is not the NBN anyone dreamed of.</p>
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<p>Note: The “contention rate” section of the NBN technology infographic on this story has been updated to improve clarity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78911/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fran Baum receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council. She is a member of the Global Steering Council of the People's Health Movement </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matt Fisher receives funding from National Health and Medical Research Council and is a member of the Australian Greens.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick Harris receives funding from National Health and Medical Research Council, the Australian Research Council, NSW Health and the Heart Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Toby Freeman receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ashley Schram and Sharon Friel do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The National Broadband Network was meant to provide greater equity of digital access. So far, it’s not looking good.Ashley Schram, Research Fellow, School of Regulation and Global Governance, Australian National UniversityFran Baum, Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor, Foundation Director, Southgate Institute for Health, Society & Equity, Flinders UniversityMatt Fisher, Research Fellow in social determinants of health, Flinders UniversityPatrick Harris, Senior Research Fellow, University of SydneySharon Friel, Director, School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet) and Professor of Health Equity, ANU, Australian National UniversityToby Freeman, Senior Research Fellow in Health Equity, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/793522017-06-19T03:41:11Z2017-06-19T03:41:11ZThree charts on: how part-time work is growing more slowly, but more men are doing it<p>Even though part-time work is growing, this growth is slowing over time.</p>
<p>Employment figures for the early months of 2017 have shown stronger growth in full-time rather <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/MediaRealesesByCatalogue/46DFE12FCDB783D9CA256B740082AA6C?OpenDocument">than part-time employment</a>. The pattern of slowing growth in part-time employment is a long-term phenomenon. </p>
<h2>Growth in part-time work slowing</h2>
<p>From 1966 to 2016 the share of part-time employment rose from 10.1% to 31.9%. This increase reflects factors such as the need by employers in some industries (such as retail trade) to adapt to longer opening hours, and entry to the labour market of workers (such as students) who prefer part-time work. But looking at the change in the share of part-time employment by decade from 1966 to 2016, the smallest increases have occurred over the past 20 years. </p>
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<h2>Part-time work more evenly spread between men and women</h2>
<p>Fifty years ago, part-time employment was mainly concentrated among women – and this is still sometimes the image of part-time work today. However with the overall growth in part-time employment, it has become more evenly spread between men and women. </p>
<p>In 1966 less than one in 20 male workers was employed part-time, whereas in 2016 almost one in five worked part-time. For women, the share of part-time employment rose from 24.5% to 47.0% over the same period.</p>
<p>Growth in the share of part-time employment was most rapid for women between 1966 and 1976, and since then has continued at a slower pace. For men the opposite pattern is evident. </p>
<p>There was little increase in the share of part-time employment until 1976, and a faster (although not accelerating) pace after that time. One explanation for this is the rise in part-time work done by students, who are relatively evenly <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/6202.0Main+Features1May%202017?OpenDocument">distributed by gender in the workforce</a>. </p>
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<h2>Concentration in certain industries</h2>
<p>Growth in part-time employment has not happened uniformly across industries. In some industries, such as mining and construction, there has been limited growth in part-time employment (about two percentage points). Whereas in other industries, including retail trade and accommodation and food services, there has been substantial growth (over 17 percentage points). </p>
<p>The variation across industries, obviously implies that some industries have contributed more than others to the increase in the overall share of part-time employment. In particular, growth in part-time employment in retail trade, accommodation and food services and health care and social assistance, has accounted for about one-half of the increase in the overall share of part-time employment since 1986.</p>
<p>The concentration of part-time employment by industry reflects differences in how production happens in the Australian economy. For example, in mining, where workers may need to move to remote locations, offering part-time work is unlikely to attract workers. By contrast, in retail trade or in accommodation and food services, businesses need to be open outside regular working hours, which makes part-time workers an attractive option for these businesses. </p>
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<p>Part-time work is likely to continue to grow over the next 50 years, just as it has in the past 50 years, but just at a slower rate. What has occurred in the past should be a good guide to how this will happen. </p>
<p>Part-time employment will still be concentrated in industries such as accommodation and food services; and the share of men in part-time employment will also continue to increase. But this slowing in part-time work shows we are certainly not heading for a labour market where we all work part-time.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79352/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeff Borland receives funding from the Australian Research Council</span></em></p>Even though the shift towards part-time employment has actually been happening for many years, it now appears to be slowing.Jeff Borland, Professor of Economics, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/769402017-06-13T20:21:37Z2017-06-13T20:21:37ZThree charts on: Australia’s booming prison population<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173493/original/file-20170613-10220-r9ocyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The prison system is tasked with several purposes: punishment, deterrence, protection and rehabilitation.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Paul Miller</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The prison population in Australia is at its highest-ever recorded level. Over the past decade, the number and rate of people imprisoned across all Australian states and territories has risen rapidly.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4512.0?OpenDocument">Data released</a> from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) last week show there were, on average, 40,577 people in prisons in Australia during the first quarter of 2017. This is up from 25,968 <a href="http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/subscriber.nsf/0/2C494C3A9FBD2C11CA257300001AE022/$File/45120_mar%202007.pdf">ten years ago</a>. The largest increases have been in remand, Indigenous, and women prisoners.</p>
<h2>More people in prison are on remand</h2>
<p>Prisoners held on remand are those who have been charged, not granted bail, but not yet found guilty. They are held in prison custody awaiting their court appearance or trial. </p>
<p>According to the latest data from the ABS, across Australia 33% of the total prison population (13,182) is on remand. </p>
<p>It is important to point out that the numbers the ABS presents are the average daily prisoner numbers. These numbers do not show the more dramatic picture of how many people flow in and out of prison over a year.</p>
<p>Prisoners on remand form a large proportion of this churning flow prisoner population. While we don’t know the exact number, it is estimated that the flow population is close to double the census number. </p>
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<p>As can be seen above, the remand population increased more steeply when compared with the sentenced population. From 2012 to 2017, the remand population grew by 87%.</p>
<p>This higher increase in remandees compared with the numbers of persons sentenced is one reason for the increasing number and rate of prisoners. Reasons for this may be that <a href="http://www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au/Documents/BB/Report-2016-Why-is-the-NSW-prison-population-still-growing-bb113.pdf">more people are being refused bail</a>, and that there are <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/district-court-delays-to-criminal-cases-unlikely-to-ease-for-a-year-judge-warns-20160902-gr7nie.html">backlogs of cases in courts</a> – meaning it is taking longer for remandees to get to trial. </p>
<h2>Increases in Indigenous imprisonment rates</h2>
<p>The imprisonment rate of Indigenous Australians has also increased over the past decade. Indigenous Australians represent 28% of the prisoner population according to the latest figures. </p>
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<p>As can be seen from this graph, the Indigenous prisoner rate has increased at a greater rate than the overall Australian prisoner rate over the past decade. This has helped account for the overall increase in Australian prisoner numbers and rates. </p>
<p>The increasing rate of Indigenous prisoners <a href="http://www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au/Documents/BB/Report-2016-What%27s-causing-the-growth-in-Indigenous-Imprisonment-in-NSW-BB118.pdf">is associated with</a> higher rates of arrest resulting in conviction, a greater likelihood of imprisonment, and a higher rate of bail refusal. </p>
<p>Indigenous Australians’ <a href="https://www.indigenousjustice.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/mp/files/publications/files/brief009.pdf">experiences of</a> removal, dispossession, exclusion from education and employment, and structural disadvantage also play major roles in Indigenous offending rates and over-representation in prison. </p>
<p>Other research has found that contributing factors include over-policing of Indigenous people with <a href="https://theconversation.com/aboriginal-people-with-disabilities-get-caught-in-a-spiral-of-over-policing-49294">mental and cognitive disability</a>, as well as <a href="https://www.mhdcd.unsw.edu.au/sites/www.mhdcd.unsw.edu.au/files/u18/pdf/a_predictable_and_preventable_path_2nov15.pdf">institutional discrimination</a> and greater severity <a href="http://www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au/Documents/BB/bb41.pdf">by the criminal justice system</a> in its treatment of Indigenous offenders. </p>
<h2>The number of women in prison is on the rise</h2>
<p>The third group of prisoners that is growing rapidly is women. </p>
<p>Over the last decade, the total number of women in prison in Australia has increased by 77%. </p>
<p>Although women are still a very small proportion, their percentage of the prisoner population has grown significantly over the past decade. As evident below, the increase in Indigenous women prisoners accounts for most of that growth. </p>
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<p>The increase in Indigenous women prisoners <a href="https://www.indigenousjustice.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/mp/files/publications/files/brief014.pdf">has been attributed to</a> a higher number of Indigenous women entering prison who have been in prison previously, as well as <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/female-imprisonment-numbers-soar-amid-calls-to-free-the-majority-of-inmates-20160614-gpiy08.html">increased policing</a> and <a href="https://www.indigenousjustice.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/mp/files/publications/files/brief014.pdf">tougher sentencing regimes</a>. </p>
<h2>Why is the growth in prisoners significant?</h2>
<p>The prison system is tasked with several purposes: punishment, deterrence, protection and rehabilitation. Rising prisoner numbers and the associated costs raise important questions about the legitimacy and viability of these purposes for the majority of those in prison. </p>
<p>As seen in the graphs, of concern are the number of people on remand – around half of whom are released <a href="http://www.lawreform.justice.nsw.gov.au/Documents/Publications/Reports/Report-133.pdf">without having to serve further time in prison</a> because they are found not guilty, given a community order, or deemed to have served their time.</p>
<p>Of equal concern are the increased rates of Indigenous prisoners and Indigenous women prisoners – most of whom are on remand or on short sentences. The <a href="http://www.aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/facts/2014/facts_and_figures_2014.pdf">majority of those</a> sent to prison re-offend and return to prison.</p>
<p>Prisons are expensive; expenditure on prisons in Australia in 2014-15 <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/research/ongoing/report-on-government-services/2016/justice/rogs-2016-volumec-justice.pdf">was A$2.9 billion</a>. So, it is important to ask whether this rapid increase in remand, Indigenous and women prisoner numbers and rates is justified.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This piece has been amended since publication.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76940/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sophie Russell receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is also on the Board of Directors for Glebe House and is a volunteer mentor with the Women's Justice Network. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eileen Baldry receives funding from the ARC.</span></em></p>The largest increases in Australia’s prison numbers have been in remand, Indigenous and women prisoners.Sophie Russell, Research Associate, UNSW SydneyEileen Baldry, Professor of Criminology, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/781002017-06-09T00:45:35Z2017-06-09T00:45:35ZThree charts on: Australia’s declining taste for beef and growing appetite for chicken<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170266/original/file-20170522-4489-1fby1xm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Australian consumption of chicken and pork both now far outstrip beef, mutton and lamb.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/figophilm/33709662682/">Ben Phillips/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australians were once world champion beef-eaters but now you’re much more likely to find chicken than steak on Australian dinner tables. </p>
<p>Total meat consumption per capita in Australia has been <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264999315000656">stable since the 1960s</a>, at around <a href="http://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/publications/display?url=http://143.188.17.20/anrdl/DAFFService/display.php?fid=pb_agcomd9abcc20170307_0S6mp.xml">110 kilograms per person per year</a>. But the type of meat consumed has changed significantly, with chicken and pork both now far outstripping beef, mutton and lamb, according to historical data from researchers <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264999315000656">Wong et al</a> and more recent data from the <a href="http://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/publications/display?url=http://143.188.17.20/anrdl/DAFFService/display.php?fid=pb_agcomd9abcc20170307_0S6mp.xml">Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences</a> (ABARES).</p>
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<p>(The apparent spike in beef consumption in the late 1970s is linked to Australia’s <a href="http://www.publish.csiro.au/an/Fulltext/EA05175">beef export trade crash</a> and <a href="https://www.mlahealthymeals.com.au/meat-consumption/meat-consumption-trends/">much of this spike</a> was thought to have gone to <a href="http://www.farmweekly.com.au/news/agriculture/cattle/beef/foreign-investment-has-a-long-history-in-meat-processing/2752964.aspx?storypage=0">pet food and by-products</a> rather than the dinner table). </p>
<p>Whereas chicken was once a rare meal, eaten on special occasions, today the Australian chicken industry produces around <a href="http://www.chicken.org.au/files/ACMF%20Media%20Release%20-%20Chicken%20Meat%20Outlook%20-%206%20March%202015.pdf">600 million chickens a year</a>. Most are consumed domestically. </p>
<p>The per-capita annual consumption of chicken meat in Australia <a href="http://www.chicken.org.au/files/_system/Image/Graphs/Consumption%20of%20meat.jpg?Production=Per+Capita+Consumption+of+Meats">increased ten-fold</a> from 4.6 kilograms per person in 1965 to 47 kilograms in <a href="http://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/publications/display?url=http://143.188.17.20/anrdl/DAFFService/display.php?fid=pb_agcomd9abcc20170307_0S6mp.xml">2016</a>. The industry projects growth to <a href="http://www.chicken.org.au/files/ACMF%20Media%20Release%20-%20Chicken%20Meat%20Outlook%20-%206%20March%202015.pdf">49.2 kilograms a person by 2019–20</a>.</p>
<p>From the 1960s on, public health messages steered people away from red meats. There was also a rapid proliferation of fast food franchises selling chicken - <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55478360">notably the entry of Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1969</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, pork consumption has been bolstered by re-marketing. Once considered a red meat, pork was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfFUbwMXaeg">reinvented as “the other white meat”</a> through a marketing campaign categorising pork as lighter and healthier, alongside chicken (and due to changes in breeding, pork meat really has lightened in colour over recent decades). While not as steep an increase as chicken, pork consumption in Australia has nearly tripled since the 1980s. </p>
<p>However, a major driver of these changes has been price, linked to massive changes in production.</p>
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<p>After adjusting for inflation, chicken per kilo costs less than a third of its price than it did in the early 1970s, while real prices for other meats have been comparatively static. The Australian Chicken Meat Federation, which represents chicken producers, <a href="http://www.chicken.org.au/files/ACMF%20Media%20Release%20-%20Chicken%20Meat%20Outlook%20-%206%20March%202015.pdf">reports</a> that over the five years to 2014–15, chicken meat was on average 50% cheaper than pork, 59% cheaper than lamb and 65% cheaper than beef. </p>
<p>Since the 1960s, most Australian chicken and pork production has become rapidly industrialised and automated in large intensive indoors operations. Piggeries and broiler farms have typically become specialised, intensified, high technology factory farm complexes. Intensification of chicken production has increased efficiency, in turn steadily decreasing the retail price of chicken. <a href="http://www.chicken.org.au/files/ACMF%20Media%20Release%20-%20Chicken%20Meat%20Outlook%20-%206%20March%202015.pdf">Around 70%</a> of chicken meat is supplied by two privately owned processing companies, the Australian Chicken Meat Federation says.</p>
<p>Chicken farms in Australia have increased markedly in size and intensity. Our research on planning disputes shows farms of the <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02697459.2015.1028252">1970s housed around 10,000 chickens</a>. Now, while nearly 600 million broiler chickens were slaughtered in Australia in 2014-15, there were <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/7121.0Main+Features102014-15?OpenDocument">only around 750</a> broiler farms, a decline from the 1990s. The average chicken farm now has nearly 120,000 chickens at any one time and some run into millions. The number of pork farms has also dropped, <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/7121.0">consolidating into larger operations</a>. </p>
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<p><a href="https://ensia.com/articles/these-maps-show-changes-in-global-meat-consumption-by-2024-heres-why-that-matters/">Global meat consumption continues to rise rapidly</a> as more countries – notably China – increase their consumption of meat and dairy products. Australia imports very little meat due to strict quarantine, but is a major exporter of beef, sheep and goats.</p>
<p>Sheep and cattle farms are more extensive, more common, and produce fewer animals than pork or chicken farms. <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/7121.02014-15?OpenDocument">There were</a> over 66,000 <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/7121.0">cattle farms</a> and around 39,000 <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/7121.0">sheep farms</a> in Australia in 2015-16. Cattle farm numbers and the overall cattle herd declined slightly, although this belies the formation of two extremes: at one end large and export-focussed grazing, while other areas have seen a proliferation of sub-commercial, small-scale, scattered “hobby” grazing. The national sheep flock also declined, and is transitioning away <a href="https://www.mla.com.au/prices-markets/market-news/the-transitioning-australian-sheep-flock--where-have-we-come-from-where-are-we-now/">from wool production to meat and dual-purpose breeds</a>. </p>
<p>These transitions in production and consumption of meat result in some rural and semi-rural landscapes shifting to expansive, remotely-managed holdings in areas with declining population. Closer to cities, hobby farmers and amenity migrants <a href="https://theconversation.com/done-like-a-chicken-dinner-city-fringes-locked-in-battles-over-broiler-farms-54886">sit in often uneasy proximity to industrial scale production</a>. </p>
<p>As other countries take up Australia’s traditional fondness for meat, global as well as domestic forces continue to change the nature of farming and Australian rural landscapes. That, in turn, also affects the price and type of meat Australians consume.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78100/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Total meat consumption per capita in Australia has been stable since the 1960s but the type of meat consumed has changed significantly. Chicken and pork both now far outstrip beef, mutton and lamb.Elizabeth Taylor, Vice Chancellor's Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, RMIT UniversityAndrew Butt, Senior Lecturer in Community Planning and Development, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/785232017-06-07T01:34:42Z2017-06-07T01:34:42ZThree charts on: Australia’s growing rates of weight loss surgery<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172597/original/file-20170607-3710-ucbpu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Weight loss surgery carries some risks.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Hospital admissions for weight loss surgery more than doubled in the last decade, <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/media-release-detail/?id=60129559629">new data</a> from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) show.</p>
<p>That may sound like rates are high, but it is important to remember only a tiny fraction of Australians are eligible for weight loss surgery, and very few are getting it in our public hospitals. </p>
<p>Weight loss surgery, also known as bariatric surgery, includes laparoscopic adjustable gastric band, sleeve gastrectomy and gastric bypass operations. The surgery allows only small meals, that satisfy like larger ones. Experts consider it a <a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa066254">highly effective treatment</a> for obesity where diet and exercise haven’t resulted in weight loss. </p>
<p>Like all major surgeries, it carries <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-risks-and-benefits-of-bariatric-surgery-22696">risks</a>, but laparoscopic procedures available these days make it less invasive than it once was.</p>
<p>What does the new report show?</p>
<h2>Weight loss surgery in public hospitals is rare</h2>
<p>The AIHW report, <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/media-release-detail/?id=60129559629">Weight loss surgery in Australia 2014-15: Australian hospital statistics</a>, showed that admissions to hospital for weight loss surgery grew to 22,713 in 2014-15, up from about 9,300 in 2005-06.</p>
<p>Of the 22,713 weight loss operations performed in 2014-15, about 90% were performed in private hospitals, highlighting the difficulty in accessing this type of surgery through the public system.</p>
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<h2>Most operations were ‘primary procedures’, not removals or fix-ups</h2>
<p>About 79% of the weight loss surgeries performed in 2014-15 were “primary procedures”, meaning it was the first time the patient had undergone surgery of this type. Secondary procedures include occasions where, for example, a gastric band needs to be re-positioned or removed.</p>
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<h2>More women than men are getting weight loss surgery</h2>
<p>Women represented the vast majority of Australians choosing to undergo weight loss surgery and this dominance was reflected across all age groups. </p>
<p>Women are over represented in all weight loss treatment programs, which may reflect a lower psychological burden experienced by obese men than obese women. There may also be, in general terms, a reluctance among men to act until health issues such as diabetes develop.</p>
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<p>The <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=60129559649">report</a> said nearly two-thirds of Australian adults are overweight or obese – more than two-thirds (70.8%) of adult males, and over half (56.3%) of adult females. Overweight and obesity disproportionately affects people from lower socio-economic backgrounds.</p>
<p>Of those who are clinically severely obese (meaning women and men of average height weighing greater that 98kg and 112kg respectively with obesity related complications), few are treated beyond first line behavioural and lifestyle interventions.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, optimal diet and exercise, while very effective at improving health and function, do not generate more than very modest sustained weight loss in the majority of adults. Meanwhile, stigmatisation, discrimination, shaming and blaming continue to dominate our public conversation about clinically severe obesity. </p>
<p>There are no weight loss drugs available on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and access to public hospital bariatric surgery is extremely limited. </p>
<p>While experts often question the cost-effectiveness of <a href="https://theconversation.com/australians-are-undergoing-unnecessary-surgery-heres-what-we-can-do-about-it-46089">many forms of surgery</a> that are performed routinely, access to this surgery is often seen as controversial.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78523/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Dixon consults to Bariatric Advantage, I Nova, Novo-nordisk, Apollo Endosurgery, Medtronics, and Nestle Health Science. All activities involve advice to organisations with a focus on weight management. He also receives research support and funding from the NHMRC.</span></em></p>Of the 22,713 weight loss operations performed in 2014-15, about 90% were performed in private hospitals, highlighting the difficulty in accessing this type of surgery through the public system.John Dixon, Professor, NHMRC Senior Research Fellow, Baker Heart and Diabetes InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/785972017-05-31T20:15:49Z2017-05-31T20:15:49ZThree charts on: Australia’s changing drug and alcohol habits<p>Australians are using less alcohol, tobacco and other drugs than they did a decade ago, new results from the <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/">Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s</a> (AIHW) National Drug Strategy Household Survey show.</p>
<p>Although the drug of most concern to the general public is methamphetamine, the rate of methamphetamine use has been showing a steady decline since 1998 and, at 1.4%, is now at its lowest point since the survey began, down from 2.1% three years ago.</p>
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<p>So why are people worried? The data over the past several years has shown a decrease in people who prefer to use the lower purity methamphetamine speed and an increase in people preferring to use the more potent crystal form, “ice”. </p>
<p>This trend continues in this survey. The drop in the proportion of people who use methamphetamine overall appears to be driven by fewer people using speed. </p>
<p>With an increase in crystal methamphetamine as the preferred form has come significant increases in harms. </p>
<p>Recent <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/alcohol-and-other-drugs/data-sources/aodts-nmds-2015-16/">treatment data </a>show an increase in treatment presentations - methamphetamine now represents close to 25% of drug treatment episodes - and there has been increases in ambulance call outs, hospital separations and deaths due to methamphetamine.</p>
<p>The trends in methamphetamine use and harms highlight why policies should focus on harms and harm reduction rather than use and use reduction.</p>
<p>In fact, illicit drug use more generally has decreased, mainly driven by a reduction among teenagers, suggesting that fewer young people are trying illicit drugs. This is also continuing a trend seen over the past decade.</p>
<h2>Age of first drug use is on the rise</h2>
<p>Not only are fewer people using illicit drugs, those who do are trying them later. Specifically methamphetamine, cannabis and hallucinogens showed an increase in the age of first use:</p>
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<p>People aged 35-55 years have increased their use of illicit drugs significantly, driven primarily by increases in use of cannabis, methamphetamine and cocaine. We don’t know whether these are people new to using illicit drugs or people who have a history of use who have moved into an older age group.</p>
<p>Traditionally harm reduction messages have been primarily targeted at young people, but an important growing group of people at risk of harms is now those in middle age.</p>
<p>The proportion of people using illicit drugs in their 60s has also been increasing over time. Although the increase is relatively small from 2013 to 2016, people in their 60s have had the largest increase since 2001. This is mostly accounted for by use of pharmaceuticals for non-medical purposes. Careful monitoring of pharmaceutical prescriptions and over-the-counter medicines are part of a harm reduction solution.</p>
<h2>More people report being non-drinkers</h2>
<p>Despite a lot of media interest in illicit drugs, it is still the legal drugs, alcohol and tobacco that cause most harm in the community.</p>
<p>The good news is that there was a decline in drinking that increases risk of harm over a lifetime (such as chronic health problems). For healthy men and women, drinking no more than two standard drinks on any day <a href="https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/health-topics/alcohol-guidelines">reduces the lifetime risk</a> of harm from alcohol.</p>
<p>There was no overall change in drinking that increases risk on a single drinking occasion (such as injuries), but younger people under 30 years old showed a significant decline in risky drinking. For healthy men and women, drinking no more than four standard drinks on a single occasion <a href="https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/health-topics/alcohol-guidelines">reduces the immediate risk</a> of alcohol-related harm. Alcohol-related incidents also decreased, and the proportion of people who reported never having a full glass of alcohol grew.</p>
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<p>Nearly 94% of 12-15 year olds and 58% of 16-17 year olds did not drink at all, both increases from the previous survey.</p>
<p>There was an increase in the proportion of the population who have never smoked and who are ex-smokers, with a significant increase in teenagers who do not smoke.</p>
<p>Overall, legal and illegal drugs are showing a stable or downward trend in proportion of population who use them over the last decade or more. However, while fewer young people are using, the proportion of people using alcohol and other drugs in the older age groups has increased.</p>
<p><em>CORRECTION: This article was corrected on June 1 to change “a significant decrease in teenagers who do not smoke” to “a significant increase in teenagers who do not smoke.” The Conversation apologies for the error and thanks readers who picked it up.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78597/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Lee works as a paid consultant in the public, private and not for profit health sector to support treatment and policy implementation. She has previously been awarded grants by the state and federal government, NHMRC and other public funding bodies for alcohol and other drug research.</span></em></p>The proportion of population who use legal and illegal drugs has remained stable or trended down. Fewer young people are using, but the proportion of older people using drugs and alcohol has grown.Nicole Lee, Professor at the National Drug Research Institute, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.