The Australian Government issued Infrastructure Australia with its first Statement of Expectations, following changes to the organisation.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development Warren Truss said the Australian Government's vision for Infrastructure Australia is that it should now be free to manage its own agenda and deliver high quality advice on nationally significant infrastructure needs.

"The Board will keep me informed of its actions and alert me to events or issues that may impact on operations. In particular, I look forward to regular progress reports on initiatives and activities, as well as a twice-yearly report to the Ministerial Transport and Infrastructure Council.

Mr Truss stressed that the Australian Government expects Infrastructure Australia to complete a full audit of Australia’s infrastructure asset base, which is evidence-based and undertaken in consultation with all jurisdictions.

"Importantly, Infrastructure Australia is now undertake a comprehensive audit of northern Australia's infrastructure, while also developing a 15-year national Infrastructure Plan that identifies the infrastructure required to increase productivity and support economic growth," he said.

Infrastructure Australia will respond to the Australian Government's Statement of Expectations with a Statement of Intent before the end of this year.

Polls will close at 5pm today in the 2014 South Australian local government elections.

The elections have attracted a record 1,334 candidates including 72 positions elected unopposed and a record number of 382 women standing for council. The number of mayors and councillors returned unopposed was the lowest on record resulting in 1,261 candidates vying for 629 positions.

Counting of votes will start tomorrow, and the declaration of results will follow at the end of each election count.

The Government announced the finalisation of the competitive tender process for the remaining part of the $300 million per year Disability Management Service to help people with disability find jobs, yesterday, Thursday 6 November.

The Government announced in May that it would put to open tender the 47 per cent of Disability Management Service currently delivered by the Government provider, CRS Australia.

Senator Mitch Fifield said 47 successful tenderers will receive 202 separate offers to deliver Disability Management Services (DMS) across 97 Employment Service Areas.

Senator Fifield said this was the first time the entire disability employment market would be fully open to competition. 

There are 14 new specialist services, including five services to assist people from a culturally and linguistically diverse background, and nine services to assist job-seekers who have a mental health condition.

The new contracts will take effect from March 2015 and will be offered until March 2018. All other DMS contracts, which were due to expire 30 June 2014, will be extended to March 2018.

Information about the successful DES-DMS tenderers can be found at the Department of Social Services website.

NSW Environment Minister Rob Stokes announced a new strategy to minimise the impacts of flying-fox camps surrounding populated areas, on Monday 3 November.

The strategy will give councils more power to resolve issues within their communities and take appropriate local action at the earliest opportunity.

"Active management is needed where flying-fox camps are close to urban settlements, causing noise, odour and potentially putting health at risk," Mr Stokes said.

Flying-foxes remain protected and under the new policy land managers will be able to  get a five year license to:

• Create buffer zones by removing vegetation to create a separation from populated areas and to disturb animals at the boundary of the camp to encourage roosting away from human settlement;
• Carry out camp disturbance or dispersal by clearing of vegetation or dispersal of  animals by noise, water, smoke or light; and
• Undertake camp management such as removal of trees that pose a health and safety risk, weed removal (including removal of noxious weeds), trimming of understorey vegetation and the planting of vegetation.

The Flying-fox Management Policy is on public exhibition and can be viewed here.

The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) has announced the appointment of an independent panel to advise the NHVR on decisions it takes in relation to Advanced Fatigue Management (AFM).

NHVR Chief Executive, Sal Petroccitto, said that establishment of the NHVR Fatigue Expert Reference Group (FERG) is a major milestone in the 20-year journey to support the growth of a professional fatigue management culture in the Australian road transport industry.

"Under one Regulator and one rule book, Australia's transport ministers have entrusted the NHVR to run a single AFM scheme for the country," said Mr Petroccitto.

"Now that the national law has commenced, the NHVR is the sole government agency approving AFM accreditation and we take that responsibility seriously.

For more information click here.

The Heads of Asbestos Coordination Authorities (HACA) has engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers to conduct an independent investigation into loose-fill asbestos in New South Wales, and is providing free ceiling insulation testing to identify the full extent of affected homes across the State.

Free ceiling insulation tests are being provided for homeowners across 26 local government areas.

Free independent technical assessments are being offered to affected homeowners, advising on and confirming the adequacy of risk controls in each of the identified homes for a 12 month period.

• As of 31 October 2014, 593 premises in the 26 council areas have registered for the free sampling service. These LGAs have been identified through the analysis of archival government records. A breakdown of sampling requests by LGA is available on the WorkCover website 
• Licensed asbestos assessors are currently undertaking inspections and testing of properties.
• As of 31 October 2014, 64 properties have been tested, and all samples have returned a negative result.
• Testing is ongoing.

HACA is taking action to accelerate these assessments so the interim findings can be used to inform the NSW Government on any immediate actions that need to be taken. HACA is working quickly to develop a prudent, evidence-based solution to assist those with loose-fill asbestos in their homes.

The NSW Government will consider the findings of the independent investigation and possible measures to assist affected householders. The Chief Health Officer has considered the ACT Taskforce Report and confirmed the need to wait for the results of the current NSW investigation.

For further information, advice and fact sheets, visit www.workcover.nsw.gov.au

Major opportunities for expanding northern Australia's irrigated agricultural industries-across Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland-have been identified in a new joint study by CSIRO and the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES).

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development Warren Truss said the Northern Australia Food & Fibre Supply Chains Study examines new opportunities and highlights a range of critical infrastructure and supply chain investments needed to realise northern Australia's potential.

This study was commissioned to help guide future investment decisions, Mr Truss said.

Funding for the work was provided by the Australian, Queensland, Western Australian and Northern Territory governments, as well as the Pilbara Regional Development Australia (RDA) Committee and the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC).

Minister for Agriculture Barnaby Joyce said the report's findings feed into both the forthcoming Developing Northern Australia and Agricultural Competitiveness White Papers.

The Northern Australia Food & Fibre Supply Chains Study Synthesis Report is available online.

Paint the Town REaD Ltd together with Paint the Gong REaD and Paint Shellharbour REaD are inviting registrations for the 5th National Conference, Making Waves.

The conference will be held in Wollongong in March 2015.

Paint the Town REaD (PTTR) Ltd is an early literacy collective impact charity whose aim is to encourage all levels of the community to support the development of children’s early literacy skills from birth, which are critical for future success in school and life.

Conference organisers say the event will appeal to those who work in a range of fields, from early childhood services, to libraries, child and family services, volunteers in a Service Club, or you’re a strategic planner in your government position – or if you just want to learn about how to get started painting your community REaD.

For more information go to http://www.paintthetownread.info/

A new resource from the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government (ACELG) provides practical assistance to all rural-remote and Indigenous (RRI) councils in Australia looking to adopt integrated long-term planning processes.

The publication Integrated long-term planning: An information and resource manual for rural-remote and Indigenous councils will help RRI councils capture the benefits of this contemporary approach to local-level planning for their communities and organisations. Although targeted at RRI councils, ACELG hopes that the resource will be useful for non-RRI councils also.

The Manual presents key resources for considering an ITLP approach, including:

• up-to-date foundation principles about ITLP with time-saving research and examples of community planning goals, strategies and indicators, plus a comparative table of council planning requirements from all jurisdictions
• case studies from councils using an ILTP approach such as Roper Gulf Shire Council (NT), Wentworth Shire Council (NSW), Shire of Exmouth (WA) and others in Queensland and South Australia
• practical templates for developing a community plan, a council or corporate plan, and a community engagement plan
• an inventory of current Australian local government ILTP resources developed by state and territory governments and representative organisations - all with active web-links.

The Manual is free to download from www.acelg.org.au

Minister for Social Services Kevin Andrews has welcomed a report providing further evidence of Australia as a cohesive society.

Mr Andrews welcomed the findings of the Scanlon Foundation's 2014 Mapping Social Cohesion report and confirmed the Government's commitment to a multicultural Australia and to strengthen social cohesion.

"About 2500 people were surveyed across two polls which found high levels of belonging and broad public support for multiculturalism," he said.

"It found an almost unanimous (92 per cent) sense of belonging to Australia, pride in the Australian way of life (88 per cent) and that its maintenance was important (91 per cent).

"Support for multiculturalism remained strong, with 85 per cent of respondents agreeing that “multiculturalism has been good for Australia."

"Concerns over immigration were also at their lowest level since the first survey in 2007, with just 35 per cent of respondents considered the immigration intake "too high". 

To read the full report, click here.