We’ve rounded up all the latest stories from Australia and around the world – so you don’t have to go searching.
1. Bali 9 to be executed this week.
Bali Nine inmates Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran will be executed this week, Bali’s chief prosecutor Momock Bambang Samiorso has confirmed.
He said he had received orders from the Attorney General to move the pair to Nusakambangan island, where the execution will take place.
Officials will meet today to set a date of the transfer.
According to Channel Nine News, Chan and Sukumaran will be held with eight others before they face the firing squad.
2. Study finds that poor and remote areas don’t have equal access to mental health services.
By ABC.
The largest ever study into mental health services in Australia has found government programs are failing to give people in poor and remote areas equal access to help.
The Monash University study looked at Medicare data relating to 25 million mental health items billed between 2007 and 2011.
It found people who lived in disadvantaged parts of metropolitan areas, rural and remote areas accessed the least number of services despite needing them the most.
In some cases, the top fifth of Australian society had about three times better access to some psychological services than the bottom fifth.
In disadvantaged areas, people were more likely to be treated for mental health issues by their general practitioner or a general psychologist than a specialist like a psychiatrist or clinical psychologist.
What treatment they did receive involved fewer visits than in advantaged areas.
The number of mental health items that GPs billed for every 1,000 people in a one-year period was 79 in major cities, 25 in remote areas and eight in rural areas.
The rate of clinical psychologist consultations was 68 for every 1,000 people in the highest socioeconomic status areas compared to 40 and 23 in the middle and lowest status areas.
Researchers used freedom of information laws to gain access to the data.
The results, published today in the Medical Journal of Australia, come as industry advocates wait for the much-anticipated release of the Federal Government’s review of mental health services.
The researchers said they hoped their findings stimulated debate on mental health reform.
Lead research Professor Graham Meadows said they found the Government’s Better Access scheme had increased access overall to mental health services.
“What this study’s looked at is the fact that that increase in access does not seem to be even across the country,” he said.
“It’s different in rural and remote areas – it hasn’t increased to the same kind of level that it has in the cities.
“This doesn’t look to me like the pattern you would be seeing if it was a truly generally universal, consistently fair system.”
Professor Meadows said the field was eagerly awaiting the release of the Government’s review into mental health services.
“The Federal Government’s had it for quite a while now,” he said.
“I would hope that in it there is at least some consideration of this issue of equity.”
This article was originally published by ABC and was republished here with full permission.
3. Sydney’s traffic is grinding working women to a halt.
Lengthy commutes and traffic congestion are blocking women from the workforce, a new study has found.
The study, City limits: why Australia’s cities are broken and how we can fix them, suggests that women are less able to spend hours commuting to work, as they are more likely to face time constraints in the home.
“Poor access to jobs especially restricts the choices available to women. Because women still do most of the work looking after children or frail older people in Australian households, they are more likely than men to be constrained in how long they can commute for,” researchers Paul Donegan and Jane-Frances Kelly wrote in an article published by The Conversation.
Sydney currently has the worst traffic congestion of anywhere in Australia, and is disadvantaging women who live in the city’s western suburbs where jobs close to home are more scarce.
According to the study, men and women in the eastern suburbs and inner west participate in the workforce at relatively similar levels. But in parts of Sydney’s outer west and south-west, women’s workforce participation falls to more than 20 percent below that of men.
The resarchers from the Grattan Institute suggest the government need to make serious changes to Sydney’s roads, pubic transport system and housing situation to remedy the issue.
4. World Health Organisation study warns that listening to loud music may be risking the hearing of 1 billion young people.
By ABC.
More than a billion young people are at risk of losing their hearing because of listening to loud music, a new World Health Organisation (WHO) report warns.
The WHO study found that among people aged 12 to 35, nearly half were at risk of hearing damage because of loud music, be it at live venues or on personal devices.
Read more: Eight signs you’re too old for music festivals.
The report recommends that the 1.1 billion young people affected should turn the volume down or limit their listening to 15 minutes a day.
Dr Shelly Chadha, an expert in hearing loss prevention for the WHO in Geneva, led the study, which analysed data from high and middle-income countries.
It found any more than 15 minutes of daily exposure to music louder than 85 decibels could cause serious problems in a relatively short period of time.
“We have bones inside the ear which are responsible for hearing and when we are exposed to loud sounds it damages them,” she said.
Related content: WATCH: Mia Freedman chats about how technology has changed parenting.
“If one is exposed to sounds which are 85 decibels, it would sound like if you were sitting inside your car in heavy traffic. That level of sound one can actually listen to safely for up to eight hours.
“But if you were to go on increasing the sound, and if you’re listening to your music at 100 decibels, [that] would sound something like what a lawnmower would sound like.
“If you’re exposed to that intensity of sound, you can listen to it only for about 15 minutes or less than 15 minutes, and if you listen for longer than this on a daily basis, it’s bound to damage your hearing cells.”
This article was originally published by ABC and was republished here with full permission.
5. Family violence victims forced to sit within metres of offenders in Victorian country courts.
By ABC.
Frightened domestic violence victims who are forced sit within metres of their attackers at some Victorian courthouses need better protection, according to legal professionals.
Concerns have been raised about the level of security at a number of small courthouses in country areas.
Key criticisms include a lack of safe waiting spaces for people involved in family violence cases and the reduced level of security screening compared to metropolitan facilities.
Victoria’s Deputy Chief Magistrate Felicity Broughton singled out the Kyneton courthouse recently because of its inadequacy to handle domestic violence cases.
One woman, who wanted to remain anonymous, spoke out about her domestic violence-related court battle at Kyneton.
Related content: I sat through the trial of my baby’s killer.
“I knew he would have been angry because I had taken the order out on him. I knew he’d be angry, I was freaked out,” she said.
“The court space doesn’t make you feel safe. He is there maybe at the most a few metres from you.
“I tried to spend as much time outside the court room. It is not a safe setting at all. There is no privacy, everyone in this town knows everybody.”
This article was originally published by ABC and was republished here with full permission
6. Skydiving instructor saves man having a seizure in mid-air.
The dramatic rescue of a skydiver who lost consciousness during a freefall over Western Australia has been caught on tape by a helmet-mounted camera.
In the footage, which has had more than 1 million views since it was uploaded to YouTube yesterday, the man is seen jumping from the plane before suffering a seizure seconds into the flight.
The nail-biting incident then unfolds with the man’s instructor trying to grab a hold of him in freefall to deploy the parachute.
The man, known as Christopher, was halfway through his skydiving training program when he made the jump in November.
WA Skydiving Academy business manager and chief instructor Robin O’Neill said Christopher was the perfect student.
“Halfway through the skydive, he had a seizure and rolled onto his back,” Mr O’Neill said.
He said the instructor on the dive, Sheldon McFarlane, managed to get hold Christopher and pulled the rip cord.
“The guy came to consciousness under the canopy well before he landed,” Mr O’Neill said.
“He landed uneventfully. It was a controlled landing in the Pinjarra drop zone.”
Mr O’Neill said no ambulance was called, and Christopher’s mother collected him and took him home.
He said the academy had a questionnaire specifically asking course participants whether they had illnesses and conditions such as epilepsy.
“(Christopher’s) treating specialist wrote a letter specifically saying he was fit for skydiving,” Mr O’Neill said.
“Obviously he wasn’t.”
This article was originally published by the ABC and was republished here with full permission.
Top Comments
@Fair Go Cobber
The reason why it is such a big deal this time is because we have two completely reformed men who have asked for clemency and been refused. Clemency should have been granted here given the complete turnaround the two have had and the positive work they have been doing in the jail for drug users etc. They have reduced the usage of drugs in jail, helped drug addicts to turn away from drugs, taught English, Art to fellow prisoners who have come out of prison rehabilitated. So what does one need to do to get clemency. It's been almost 10 years. It's clear the President hasn't considered individual circumstances because otherwise these two would have received clemency. Prisoners with less or no reformation have been granted clemency in the past. This issue really makes me sick. The two are being used as a political vehicle for the President. That's sick and UNFAIR.
Don't judge them based on their actions ten years ago. They received the judgement then. The clemency request should be judged on the men today.
Anyone who still thinks they should be executed clearly don't understand what clemency is and why it isn't being correctly applied here. You won't find two men more worthy. They are not asking to be set free for pete's sake. They are asking to just live and spend the rest of their life in jail to continue their good work bozo!
STORY 1 : Bali 9 to be executed this week, or so it has been reported again. Ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran will be executed this week. That's unless the Australian government offers big bucks $$$$$$ in funding a "joint" taskforce into the Indonesian drug trade, as inferred recently by foreign minister, Julie Bishop.
For the last ten years, the masses haven't really heard much, nor cared about the Bali 9. Recently, it's been getting rammed down our throats. What is the lesson to be learnt from this and way back to Barlow and Chambers in 1980's? The death penalty applies in some countries fro drugs. Does the death penalty rehabilitate? No. It is not intended to. It's a penalty, a punishment and warning to others.
Isn't it time as a nation, we move on to more pressing matters that actually benefit our society? After all, what goes around , comes around.