From this week, Australian families can begin finding out how their child’s education and care service is rated under a new and more challenging assessment and rating system.

The Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) has published the quality ratings on its website as part of new national registers under the National Quality Framework (NQF) for Early Childhood Education and Care.

ACECQA Board Chair Rachel Hunter said this was the first time quality ratings under the new National Quality Standard (NQS) had been made available publicly, with ratings for more than 2000 services now online.

“The NQS raises the bar on quality for Australian children’s education and care services,” Ms Hunter said.

“Over time, all 13,000 long day care, family day care, outside school hours care, preschools and kindergartens in the national registers will be assessed on their progress in meeting the new quality standard.”

Services receive a rating for each of the seven quality areas under the NQS, as well as an overall rating.  There are five rating levels within the national quality assessment and rating process:

• Excellent
• Exceeding National Quality Standard
• Meeting National Quality Standard
• Working Towards National Quality Standard
• Significant Improvement Required

The Excellent rating is only given to services that have received an overall rating of Exceeding and who successfully apply to ACECQA to be assessed as an excellent service. Applications for the Excellent rating are now open and more information can be found here.

The Independent Government Review Panel has defended criticism of its recently-released report into sweeping changes for local councils.

Panel member, Glenn Inglis, says the initial recommendations and map boundaries are out for public consultation for the next eight weeks.

One of the recommendations includes the establishment of a Namoi County Council, incorporating Tamworth, Gunnedah, Liverpool Plains, Inverell and Narrabri Shire Councils.

Glenn Inglis says the concept takes into consideration the region's resources and its economic potential into the future.

"When you look forward over the next 25 years with, say, the Namoi County Council it's got a lot on its plate, there's no doubt about that," he said.

"That's a good example, the coal industry, and all the sort of things that are going to go on there to better manage and plan those things, particularly around land use planning, at a greater regional level."

The report also recommends a merger of Tenterfield and Glen Innes Severn Councils; a merger of Gwydir and Moree Plains Shire Councils; and a New England amalgamation of the four councils, Armidale-Dumaresq, Guyra, Walcha and Uralla.

Panel member, Glenn Inglis, says there's sound rationale behind the report's recommendations.

The public and interested stakeholders are invited to comment on the Panel's Future Directions report.

Three local authorities - Redlands, Rockhampton and Mackay - are taking part in a pilot project which will identify best practice processes for council planning systems.

Premier Campbell Newman said the “Planning Healthcheck” pilot project would build on the planning reform already being rolled out by the Government.

“In our first year of government, we have introduced a number of major reforms, including establishing Economic Development Queensland, introducing a temporary state planning policy and amending the Sustainable Planning Act, among others,” Mr Newman said.

“We will keep improving council planning systems this year with the roll-out of three regional plans, the introduction of a State Planning Policy and a State Assessment and Referral Agency, plus a review of the infrastructure charges framework.

“Now we’re looking at the issue of cultural and attitudinal change so we can create Australia’s most efficient and effective planning and development system.”

Deputy Premier and Minister for State Development, Infrastructure and Planning Jeff Seeney said while industry had embraced the reform agenda, some local governments needed to improve their planning processes.

“The concerns raised include excessive approval timeframes, minor matters being bogged down through requiring applications, fees that bear no relation to the cost of assessment, and development standards that are ‘gold plated’, or excessive,” Mr Seeney said.

“The pilot scheme will be used to create a simple system for a council to assess their processes against the State Government’s expectations of best practice, identify areas for improvements and report against meaningful key performance indicators.

“Having standardised information and performance measures will allow a council to understand its performance, consider it in relation to others, and identify where improvements may be needed."

Victoria's leading child accident prevention foundation is urging the State Government to register backyard swimming pools.

Three children under four years died in backyard swimming pool accidents last year.  Another 15 were permanently injured.

Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales all have registration schemes.

The president of Kidsafe Victoria, Robert Caulfield, says the Victorian Government needs to follow suit.

Mr Caulfield says it has been proven that good maintenance of swimming pools fences and safety areas around swimming pools has led to a dramatic reduction in deaths and injuries to toddlers in particular.

"There are many pools that the local government doesn't even know exist at the moment so they're not even being supervised," he said.

"A compulsory register with a fine for people who don't register will at least give the local government the opportunity of knowing how many pools they've got in their municipality." 

The Gold Coast City Council's planning committee chairman says council initiatives appear to be contributing to a fall in local unemployment.

Cameron Caldwell says the latest unemployment figure of 5.6 per cent is below the south-east Queensland average.

Councillor Caldwell says construction and development are making a difference.

"We've brought in the Construction Kickstart initiative and that's been very successful in bringing forward development that would otherwise not have occurred, particularly around industrial development," he said.

"We've had about four times the annual average of industrial property delivered in the last six months and with that has brought approximately 1,200 full-time equivalent jobs."

Tourism grew faster than the total of the economy last financial year, contributing more than $112 million dollars a day to the Australian economy, outpacing industries such as agriculture, forestry and fishing, construction, and transport, postal and warehousing according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Sean Thompson, Assistant Director of Tourism Statistics said: "Tourism GDP grew 5.3 per cent during 2011-12, compared to 4.9 per cent for the economy as a whole. Overall, domestic and international tourism contributed over $112 million a day to the economy."

"Domestic tourism was particularly solid, up 8.3 per cent and showing the strongest growth we've seen since the late nineties. The increase was mostly due to people making more trips; domestic visitor numbers overall were up by 6.6 per cent, driven by a significant increase in day trips - up 8 per cent - while overnight trips grew a smaller but still solid 3.4 per cent," Mr Thompson said.

"Travel by householders was the reason behind two-thirds of the growth in domestic tourism with the remainder being business related; however business trips grew at nearly three times the rate of household travel.

"Despite the high Australian dollar, international tourism also continued to grow; we continued the trend of record numbers of overseas arrivals with nearly six million international visitors - or over 16,000 people per day - making short term visits here during 2011-12.

"The increase was led by gains from China, New Zealand, Indonesia and Taiwan, and the number of Chinese visitors grew at double digit rates for the third year running.

"Australians took advantage of the high dollar by making a record eight million short-term departures, an increase of eight per cent on the previous financial year. 

"This meant that an extra 6,000 Australians per day decided to take a trip overseas compared to just three years earlier - back in 2008-09, the Australia dollar was around US$0.75, compared to US$1.03 last year. 

"Departures to all of Australia’s top ten destinations increased in 2011-12, with Thailand, Indonesia and the United States experiencing the largest increase in Australian visitors," he said.

More information on these topics can be found in the 2011-12 edition of the Tourism Satellite Account (cat. no. 5249.0), available for free download from the ABS website.

Registrations to attend the 2013 national Local Government Researchers Forum are now open.  The forum will be held at the University of Adelaide, Thursday 6th and Friday 7th June, and provides a unique opportunity for local government researchers and practitioners to hear about the latest research in the sector and to discuss implications for policy and practice.

The forum will include streamed presentation sessions, panel discussions and a concluding debate.

More than forty papers will showcase the latest in local government research that relates to pressing policy issues such as local government finance and revenue, political and executive leadership, future workforce, climate change, planning and community wellbeing, responding to demographic change, and others.

Workshops on building local government research capacity will also be held to give forum attendees expert tips about carrying out and publishing research and measuring impact.

The forum is being organised by the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government (ACELG) in partnership with the Local Government Association of South Australia and builds on successful state based research forums in Brisbane and Perth in 2012 and the 2011 national forum run by ACELG at the University of Technology, Sydney.

For the latest information on the event, including information on registration, click here.

“Australians have put a lot of emphasis on trying to make cities more productive and sustainable, but devoted far less attention to what makes them friendly places to live,” According to Grattan Cities Program Director, Jane-Frances Kelly.

Launching Grattan’s new report, Social cities, Ms Kelly emphasised that relationships are critical to wellbeing.  “A lack of face-to-face contact can put our health at risk,” Ms Kelly said.  “Unfortunately, there are worrying signs that isolation and loneliness are growing in Australia.”

The report cites evidence that people have fewer friendships and neighbourhood connections than they did two decades ago.  A quarter of Australian households now consist of people living by themselves and this is the fastest growing household type.

“By no means are we saying that everyone who lives alone is lonely,” said Ms Kelly. “But if more Australians live by themselves this makes connecting with others outside the home all the more important.”

Ms Kelly said that the way we build and organise our cities has a big part to play in helping to bring people together or in keeping them apart. “For example, we tend to hurry past a building that presents a blank wall to the street, whereas an open façade can create inviting spaces to stop and talk.”

Grattan’s report examines how improving the design of our cities and the way they function - from transport networks, to the availability of parks and sporting grounds, to the architecture of public spaces and buildings - makes it easier for people to connect with each other.

The report shows how even tiny changes, such as installing a few benches at the edge of a public area or converting an unused lot into a ‘pocket park’, can make urban spaces more welcoming.

“Improving social connection is not necessarily hard or costly. As the examples in our report show, in many cases, big returns can come from small outlays.”

Australian cities are expected to keep growing for the foreseeable future.  “If those cities are to improve quality of life for all then they will need to meet our social as well as our material needs," Ms Kelly said.

The Resilient Australia Awards for 2013 are now open for applications. 

The Awards are a terrific way to recognise the projects and initiatives that are happening nation-wide to support disaster resilience. 

This year an online application process provided by eAwards is being trialled. The system allows collection, tracking and management of submissions including judging, online. 

More information about the awards can be found in the attached flyer or at www.em.gov.au.

The ABC's Heywire competition is now open to people aged 16-22, to submit a story about life in Australia outside the major cities.

Stories can be created in any form of media: text, video, photography or audio. Winning stories will be featured on ABC Local Radio, ABC Radio National, ABC TV and abc.net.au.

The Heywire Summit is a chance for participants to develop outstanding ideas and proposals that will create change in their local communities.

"Initially, I didn't fully understand what winning Heywire really meant," says 2011 Heywire winner Zoe Williams from Jerdacuttup in Western Australia.

"I was still excited, and glad to know that someone thought that what I had to say mattered. But I still didn't know what I was in for.

"I left the Heywire Summit with a brand new outlook on the political voice of our nation's youth and a group of friends that I would continue to keep in touch with, despite being from all corners of Australia."

"The Heywire Regional Youth Summit showed me that there are people in our Government and Non Government Organisations that do care about what we have to say and are ready to help us tackle problems in our communities, no matter how small the community may be," Heywire winner Zoe Williams said.

For more information, or to upload a story, click here.