Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development Jamie Briggs has announced a range of reforms for the governance of Norfolk Island, to take effect from 1 July 2016.

Norfolk Island has been required to deliver local, state and federal services since 1979.

Assistant Minister Briggs said as Australian citizens, residents on Norfolk Island deserve equal access to government services and entitlements as those residing on the mainland and other external territories.

They will be required to pay taxes, including all personal and business taxes, but not the GST at this time. However, they will also be entitled to access social security payments, Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme which they are currently denied.

Norfolk Island Reform will require the Norfolk Island Act 1979 (Cth) to be amended to transition the Norfolk Island Legislative Assembly to a Norfolk Island Regional Council, with elections to be held in the first half of 2016.

In the interim, a five member community Advisory Council will be established to represent the local community. Assistant Minister Briggs has said that the Chief Minister, the Hon Lisle Snell MLA, and the Speaker, the Hon David Buffett AM, MLA, have been invited to be members of this new Council, and that nominations will be sought from the community for Council membership.

Further information is available here.

The Australian Government has announced $2.06 million to fix eight Black Spot projects in the Northern Territory, plus an additional $606,000 set aside for black spots nominated by the community to be considered.

Five councils have had Black Spot projects funding approved; Darwin City, Palmerston City (three pojrects) Roper Gulf Regional, Tiwi Islands Regional and Central Desert Regional Councils. The final project is for work on the Arnhem Highway at Marrakai.

Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development Jamie Briggs said more sites are currently being investigated and the Northern Territory Black Spot Consultative Panel will meet again in June 2015 to allocate the remaining $606,000 of available funding to further projects for 2015-16."

Individuals and community groups are also encouraged to nominate black spots for consideration.

Nomination forms for Black Spot locations are available here.

Local government has been invited to participate in the inquiry launched by The Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal (the Tribunal) into the sectors in the waste management industry.The Tribunal is an independent, national tribunal that has functions relating to the road transport industry.

The Tribunal has invited interested parties to make submissions on issues, incentives, pressures or practices affectiong safety and fairness in the waste management industry that may be improved by a road safety remuneration order (RSRO).

Written submissions, or comment on the written submissions received can be lodged with the Tribunal by 17 April, 2015.

More information on the inquiry, the roles and functions of the Tribunal can be found on its website.

The Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia (FECCA) this week released its landmark Review of Australian Research on Older People from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds.

Despite increasing numbers of older Australians from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, research about this group has been sporadic.

The aims of the review were to identify the existing research evidence base about older CALD Australians and to identify gaps in the research.

The review report highlights that older people from CALD backgrounds are not a homogeneous group and therefore meeting their needs is highly complex. Many older people from CALD backgrounds have higher levels of disadvantage and other risk factors than older Anglo- Australians.

The research looks at areas such as older people from CALD backgrounds with dementia, ageing and mental health issues, caring for  older people from CALD backgrounds and identifying gaps in research in this field.

More information can be found here.

A new report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), released on Wednesday 18 March, looks at the use of aged care services by Australians towards the end of their life.

Among the findings, approximately 80 percent of people who died in 2010-11 aged 65 or over had used aged care in the eight years before death.

The report also looks at the type of aged care services people used in the years before their death.

The majority of program users (a little more than 80 percent) first used community care, usually access the Home and Community Care (HACC) program. Permanent residential care was the first program used by one in 10.

The report is available here.

The Australian Government today announced the appointment of five eminent Australians to its premier advisory body on heritage - the Australian Heritage Council, yesterday, Thursday 19 March.

Minister for the Environment Greg Hunt said the new appointees come from a broad cross section of Australian society including the arts, academia, cultural heritage management and politics.

They are:

• Mr Lyndon Ormond-Parker, Research Fellow, Indigenous Studies Unit, University of Melbourne
• Ms Rachel Perkins, Film Curator, Festival and Film Director, Blackfella Films 
• Dr Jane Harrington, Director Conservation and Infrastructure, Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority
• Associate Professor Don Garden, President of the Federation of Australian Historical Societies
• The Hon Dr David Kemp, former Minister for the Environment, Minister for Education, Training and Youth Affairs and Member for Goldstein.

Minister Hunt said the tenure of Dr Jackie Huggins, Dr Jak Ah Kit, Associate Professor Peter Valentine, Ms Helen Larder and Ms Kate Clark, saw the inscription of a number of iconic Australian places on the National Heritage List, such as the Great Ocean Road, the QANTAS Hangar in Longreach and Moree Baths and Swimming Pool.

I look forward to working with the new Council members, the current Chairperson Professor Carmen Lawrence, and continuing Council member Dr Jennie Whinam to build on the work of previous council members.

Representatives from councils around Australia are being asked to complete a short survey to participate in a research project examining the safety performance of on-road infrastructure for cyclists.

The survey will collect information about the cycle infrastructure in use around Australia, what barriers exist to using different types of infrastructure, and what barriers, needs and opportunities exist for research into the safety of on-road treatments affecting cyclists. The survey should take around 10 minutes to complete and can be completed anonymously. 

This survey is being undertaken by Fay Patterson as part of a Masters of Philosophy degree being supervised by Dr Jennifer Bonham, at the University of Adelaide, and funded by the Australasian Road Research Board as a University Research Grant project. 

To be part of this project, please complete the online survey by Wednesday 25 March. The survey can be found here.

Four suburbs across Queensland and New South Wales have been selected to take part in a construction trial designed to speed up the rollout of the National Broadband Network. The homes and businesses to be potentially included in the trial are among the more than three million premises that sit inside the Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) network cable footprint currently owned by Optus and Telstra.

NBN Co said these cables may be progressively incorporated in to the NBN with the aim of delivering fast broadband services to home and businesses within that footprint.

The construction trial is planned to progressively begin from mid-2015, ahead of a large scale integration of HFC technology into the network which is scheduled for commencement in 2016.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has warned consumers and businesses to watch out for scams relating to the National Broadband Network (NBN) asking for your financial details or telling you to buy equipment you don't need.

"As the NBN rollout progresses, you may be receiving legitimate materials from NBN Co and telecommunications service providers outlining your options when it is available in your area," ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard said.

Further details on the ACCC's warning can be found at here.

The call to end to health inequality between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and other Australians continues to get louder with a record number of events held marking National Close the Gap Day.

Over 1,500 National Close the Gap Day events were held this week at schools, parks with community groups, health services, schools, businesses, government offices and councils all being involved.

Mr Gooda, Social Justice Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission, said new research into the high level of undetected chronic conditions in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people demonstrates the significant impact chronic conditions have on life expectancy.

"We have a real opportunity to make relatively large health and life expectancy gains in relatively short periods of time if we detect and treat these chronic conditions. Funding for anti-smoking initiatives must continue and we need to fund new initiatives that target chronic conditions such as diabetes, otherwise momentum will be lost," Commissioner Gooda said.