adamantium|wang posted:

adamantium|wang posted:

https://twitter.com/MattAkersten/status/783512581487128577

BBJoey posted:

#disrupt the emergency services. turn firefighters into an app. gamify the police force. outsource paramedics to a call centre.

quote:

Indigenous suicide: Doubts raised over WA Health Minister's claims Kimberley rate is falling By Erin Parke Updated about an hour ago

Suicide researchers say they are shocked at claims by Western Australia's Mental Health Minister the Indigenous suicide rate is falling.

The Kimberley region has one of the highest suicide rates in the world.

However the Minister, Andrea Mitchell, has said the number of Indigenous deaths by suicide has fallen in the last two years. "Unfortunately I can't use official figures because the coroner provides the official suicide rates and they can take up to two years to come through," she said. "But our agencies on the ground are reporting that the rates are down and we are making a significant difference ... we've had a much better year, and it's particularly down over the last couple of years. [We're] not so much giving money to government agencies, but actually getting the money into the communities and the towns where the Aboriginal population is."

The comments were dismissed by Professor Pat Dudgeon, a Bardi woman who sits on the National Mental Health Commission.

"I'm a bit shocked," she said. "I haven't seen any statistics to show the suicide rate is decreasing, and even if it did decrease slightly it's still a very, very high rate. I'd be a bit sceptical. I think that you need to look at the stats overall and track them over a number of years."

Suicide rates are difficult to track because there is a lag between the completion of police reports on each death, and when the coroner's office signs off on the official cause. A study recently published in the Medical Journal of Australia showed a doubling of Indigenous suicides in the Kimberley in the decade to 2014. Official statistics are yet to be confirmed for 2015 and 2016, but suicide researcher Gerry Georgatos has been keeping an unofficial count. "I pray to be proven wrong, but last year we had at least 15 suicides of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, and this year it's on track to be above average as well," he said. "So who's providing [the Government] with this information? We cannot play with people's lives here by playing down the crisis … It's a life and death space. If any minister or anyone wants to suggest that the toll and the rates are down, then they need to tell that to me at the table, to police at the table and to the hospital at the table … things have got worse, not better."

A roundtable on Indigenous suicide is due to be held in the Kimberley later this month.

The ABC understands the forum, organised by Federal Health Minister Sussan Ley, will be held in Derby on October 14. The discussion will focus on the findings of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Evaluation Project, which has assessed the effectiveness of existing programs. The report has been submitted to the Federal Government but is yet to be made public.

Vladimir Poutine posted:

hopefully this warms the cockles of your heart. stop the banana boats etc etc

Cartoon posted:

Brandis is as guilty as hell and needs to resign. So in the firm tradition of LNP dirt bags will hold on till force-ably removed by the armed proletariat. In other lying Tory scumbag news:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-06/wa-indigenous-suicide-rate-claims-in-doubt/7906566


Black arm band (etc.)

norp posted:

Telstrahealth

Tokamak posted:

LJ Hooker-TripleZero

quote:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-06/victoria-p-plate-inquiry-into-lowering-driver-age/7908208
Victoria's P-plate drivers are urging the State Government to allow them to get behind the wheel a year earlier.

In Victoria, drivers must be 18 years old before they can receive their probationary licence and drive without supervision — a year older than most places in Australia.

A parliamentary inquiry has now begun across Victoria to allow students, employers and members of the community to share their views on lowering the Victorian P-plate age.

A public hearing in Wodonga, being conducted by the Law Reform, Road and Community Safety Committee, has been told many employers prefer workers who are able to drive.

A survey was presented as evidence by the Wodonga Chamber of Commerce that showed more than 40 per cent of its members would be more likely to hire an employee with a driver's licence.

The licence age gap is a difficulty for employers and job hunters on the Victoria-New South Wales border.

Chamber business manager Bernie Squire said the licence age gap had been a cross-border anomaly that had been causing problems for years.

"Some of the feedback that we received around tradespeople and young people with apprenticeships is they would be more valuable to their employer if, [at] 17 to 18, they were able to drive trades vehicles or do some of the running around during the day," he said.

Mr Squire said many Victorian young people resorted to lying about their address to get behind the wheel at 17.

"A Wodonga boy or girl can claim to be living at an Albury address to get their licence a year earlier, and I know that actually happens, so this committee might be able to close that loophole by bringing both states into line with the age kids can get their licence," he said.

Students from Wodonga Senior Secondary College have told the inquiry they are disadvantaged when it comes to competing with Albury and New South Wales candidates for a job, because they have to wait longer to drive.

Jack Beer is one of those students, and desperately wants to enter the workforce.

Instead, he is still at school and missed out on his dream job because he cannot drive.

"I've done a lot of work experience and grown up on a farm, always been driving, and I did work experience and they said 'Look mate you can have the job, but you need your licence'," he said.

"I couldn't have the job so I'm just at school.

The Victorian inquiry will also consider the adequacy of current transport infrastructure and services available to young Victorians, particularly in regional and rural areas.

Strategies have been considered to help remove some of the barriers to work and study Victorian teenagers face as a result of the higher P-plate age, including introducing a special licence for young apprentices and employees.

But Wodonga's Young Citizen of the Year Jacob Mildren said it was important to give all young people in Victoria the same independence as other 17-year-olds in Australia.

"Students want to be independent from their parents, and those inhibitors of getting work, getting jobs and getting involved in the community," he said.

Jacob said some employers and parents were worried about seeing younger people behind the wheel, but too many young Victorians were missing out on vital opportunities and mobility.

"When we look at the rest of Australia, with Victoria being the only state at 18, and Albury across the border, those kids over there are getting those opportunities for work because they can drive," he said.

BBJoey posted:

the concept of green and red p plates is intrinsically foreign to me. if you're limited to 80, are you still allowed on highways?

BBJoey posted:

the concept of green and red p plates is intrinsically foreign to me. if you're limited to 80, are you still allowed on highways?

NPR Journalizard posted:

In Perth, L drivers are not allowed on the freeway. We dont have the red/green system though.

sidviscous posted:

I think you're as old as me L platers are allowed on the freeways now, and they're allowed to do 100.

BBJoey posted:

when I did road ready it was an optional after school thing.

also afaik the only limits on Ps in the act are no alcohol and no towing other cars. gently caress this nanny state poo poo you states have going on.

Starshark posted:

Frankly people shouldn't be allowed to drive at all unless a high court judge deems it necessary for the undertaking of their job. Everyone else can take public transport.

Ora Tzo posted:

DancingShade posted:

He can't. oval office's hosed.

hooman posted:

Can someone explain this in not legal terms?

DancingShade posted:

The solicitor general has Brandis in his sights and going public like that after doing his homework first (because he's a Real Lawyer unlike the sunburnt dickhead of course) suggests to me that he's going for bone.

https://twitter.com/markdreyfusQCMP/status/783841359866187778

The definition of "consult" is a very legal one, both are lawyers (obviously one is a better quality than the other) and the onus is on Brandis to prove he consulted.

He can't. oval office's hosed.

hooman posted:

Can someone explain this in not legal terms?

Starshark posted:

Reading it now but maybe this will help?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-06/brandis-gleeson-standoff-threatens-rule-of-law/7908490