1. This week 10 years ago, the NSW Government announced a new Victims Support Scheme to provide victims of violent crime with faster and more effective help.
Attorney-General, Greg Smith said the Scheme — which would focus on giving victims assistance when they most needed it, with comprehensive packages of care to be tailored to their individual circumstances — was part of a package of measures to support victims of crime, including a new Commissioner for Victims Rights and a code of practice for the Charter of Victims’ Rights.
“We want to support victims of crime with measures that will make a difference, help them deal with the trauma and get them back on their feet quickly,” Mr Smith said.
2. A world-first clinical study led by the University of Melbourne found Kava, a medicinal plant from the South Pacific, significantly reduced the symptoms of anxiety for some sufferers, suggesting it could be an alternative to pharmaceutical products for the hundreds of thousands of Australians with Generalised Anxiety Disorders.
Lead researcher from the University’s Department of Psychiatry, Dr Jerome Sarris said it was already recognised that plant-based medicines could be a viable treatment for patients with chronic anxiety.
“We’ve been able to show that Kava offers a potential natural alternative for the treatment of chronic clinical anxiety,” Dr Sarris said. “Unlike some other options, it has less risk of dependency and less potential for side effects.”
3. Pathology Queensland laboratory technicians were the first in Australia to develop a test for the new bird flu, the H7N9 virus, with Minister for Health, Lawrence Springborg saying the development was a testament to the quality of work of the State’s microbiologists and lab technicians.
Director of Microbiology at Pathology Queensland, Professor Graeme Nimmo said the test was essential in helping Australia keep the virus at bay.
“The test has been developed as an essential part of the preparedness for a potential bird flu pandemic,” Professor Nimmo said.
“It allows cases to be detected very rapidly, enabling treatment to commence as quickly as possible, limiting the spread of the disease and the impact on the community.”
4. Agriculture and manufacturing industries were expected to be the major beneficiaries of a breakthrough innovation from the University of South Australia (UniSA) designed to purify water through the rapid removal of oily pollutants involving the deployment of surface engineered silica particles that act as oil magnets in water, adsorbing oil, yet repelling water.
Head of UniSA School of Engineering, Professor Peter Majewski said the use of the technology could enable the removal of motor oil, crude oil, petrol or kerosene in just a few minutes and revolutionise the treatment of oil spills at sea and in water reservoirs and rivers.
“The use of the silica particles in small quantities, such as in filters for farms could aid water purification in remote and rural communities,” Professor Majewski said.
“In large quantities, filters for industrial outlets could help in the treatment of waste water.”
5. Also in South Australia, new laws came into effect carrying up to two years’ imprisonment for filming or distributing humiliating or degrading images of a person in what Attorney-General, John Rau called a response to the age of digital criminal behaviour.
Mr Rau said the State Government shared the community’s concerns about people being deliberately humiliated via the internet.
“Whether it be distributing a private image or video of an ex-partner, or the filming of an assault, you can now expect up to two years in prison,” Mr Rau said.
“As technologies change, so must the law.”
6. And a decade ago, the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) found and restored a rarely seen experimental colourised version of Daddy Cool’s promotional film clip for Eagle Rock, which was the biggest selling Australian single of 1971.
The newly discovered version featured a 37-second section using colour filters printed on to colour film stock from the original 16 mm black and white film made by 23-year-old Melbourne filmmaker Chris Lofven.
Television viewers at the time would not have seen the full effects of the sequence, as colour TV transmission did not roll out nationally until 1 March 1975.
The NFSA previously honoured Eagle Rock in 2010 when the song was added to the National Registry of Recorded Sound, which recognises the nation’s most important sound recordings.
