COLLECTING and managing data is a key component of the infrastructure information revolution. How data is stored and accessed is a question that is vital to the productivity gains that smart infrastructure can bring.

Tomorrow, the Infrastructure and Communications Committee will meet with representatives of the National Archives of Australia.

In its submission, National Archives highlights how Smart ICT is transforming government and industry business models, resulting in the creation and collection of large volumes of data.

Smart ICT technologies include data analytics, optimisation, modelling and software systems, networked sensors, mobile device integration, and new ways of gathering data.

According to National Archives, “Data provides new insights into how infrastructure investments are made, how infrastructure is developed and deployed, maintained and used, what future infrastructure demands might be and where efficiencies might be gained. It also ensures the accountability of government and industry decision-making.”

Committee Chairman Jane Prentice MP (Ryan, Qld) said that collection, storage and accessibility of data have been identified as vital components in the development of smart infrastructure.

“The Committee’s role is to identify what government and industry can do to ensure data is collected and made available in forms that are useful and enduring, and that the data component of infrastructure lasts as long as the steel and concrete it supports,” Mrs Prentice said.

Hearing details

Date: Wednesday, 16 September 2015

Time: 8:00 am–9:00 am

Witness: National Archives of Australia

Venue: Committee Room 1R3, Parliament House, Canberra

The public hearing will be webcast live at http://www.aph.gov.au/live

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VECCI Chief Executive Mark Stone said VECCI congratulates the Hon Malcolm Turnbull MP on his election to leader of the Liberal Party and Prime Minister of Australia following the Liberal party room ballot last night.

"Victorian business looks to Mr Turnbull to provide strong, stable leadership and get on with the job of governing," Mr Stone said.

"It is positive that Mr Turnbull has pledged to prioritise Australia’s economic growth through measures that boost business confidence and build an agile, innovative and creative nation. This is in-keeping with VECCI’s recommendations for the future prosperity of Victorian business.

"Business urges Mr Turnbull to progress reforms to raise productivity and increase flexibility in Australia’s workplace relations system; work with the States to fix the federation and undertake critical tax reform; advance the cause of free trade; and provide federal funding for vital infrastructure projects, such as the Melbourne Metro Rail Project," Mr Stone said.

"This agenda must be progressed as a priority given its significance to the Victorian economy and wider business community.

"As part of the united chamber movement VECCI looks forward to continuing to work constructively with the Federal Government and supporting business to capitalise on opportunities for growth in 2015 and beyond."

The Victorian Employers Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VECCI) is the most influential business organisation in Victoria, informing and servicing more than 15,000 members, customers and clients around the state.

vecci.org.au

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THE Northern Australia Committee will hold a public hearing in Canberra on Tuesday, 15 September as part of its inquiry into opportunities to expand the aquaculture industry in Northern Australia.

The CSIRO has identified 1.5 million hectares of land in Australia which is suitable for aquaculture — with almost 0.5 million hectares being in Queensland—and has commented that much of tropical Australia is suited to meeting the major requirements for aquaculture development: clean seawater and an abundance of suitable coastal land.

Committee Chair, the Hon Warren Entsch MP, said: ‘The CSIRO has a strong history of supporting aquaculture through developing feedstocks and researching the environmental impacts of aquaculture farm discharges. For example, this has resulted in the introduction of discharge treatment systems and compliance with strict discharge water quality standards that have enabled the Australian prawn industry to operate for 20 years with no adverse impacts on adjacent ecosystems.

 ‘The CSIRO has also suggested the development of a spatial planning framework which would provide a rigorous basis for establishing aquaculture zones along the Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australian coast similar to those operating in Tasmania and South Australia.

 ‘The Committee will examine how new aquaculture projects can coexist in areas of environmental significance, such as the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, when the Department of the Environment appears at the public hearing,’ Mr Entsch said.

The Department of the Environment is responsible for administering the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 which is triggered when developments are proposed which could impact on the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

Where: Committee Room 2R2, Parliament House, Canberra

When: Tuesday, 15 September 2015, 6.00 pm–9.00 pm

PROGRAM 

6.00 pm      Department of Agriculture

6.40 pm      Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

7.40 pm       Department of the Environment

8.20 pm      Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation

Hearing programs are available at:www.aph.gov.au/jscna

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A CALL for a new Human Right – the right not to be poisoned – will be made at the CleanUp 2015 conference in Melbourne today.

“This is a right that most of our ancestors enjoyed throughout history – but in the last two generations has been swept away by an avalanche of man-made toxins,” says Australian science writer Julian Cribb, author of the book Poisoned Planet (Allen&Unwin, 2014).

Mr Cribb says that every year human activities release more than 250 billion tonnes of substances into the Earth system in what is proving to be our largest impact on the planet – one that is five times greater in scale even than our greenhouse emissions.

“Official government records show there are now 144,000 man-made chemicals registered for use worldwide, with between 1000 and 2000 new ones released each year. Most of these have never been tested for human or environmental safety, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP),” Mr Cribb says.

“Tests reveal that humans in most societies now carry a lifelong chemical burden, that unborn babies are being contaminated with industrial chemicals and that mothers’ milk in 68 countries is contaminated with pesticides and other noxious substances.

“The World Health Organization and UNEP have estimated that one in 12 humans now dies from environmental poisoning and around 86 million are maimed each year: this toll is greater than for HIV, malaria or car crashes. One in five cancer deaths – or nearly two million a year – are attributed to environmental exposure to carcinogens.

“Medical scientists are warning of a ‘silent pandemic’ of childhood brain disorders due to the global release of neurotoxins by human activity. Health officials caution that reproductive and hormonal disorders are on the rise worldwide.

Above all, health researchers are concerned at the impact of mixtures of thousands of different substances combined in the human diet and living environment, which they link to conditions including developmental disorders, sexual dysfunction (including sterility), nerve and brain diseases (including autism, depression, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s), cancers and heart disease.”

In his talk Mr Cribb explores new opportunities to reduce the toxic risks to humanity and life on Earth arising out of overuse and misuse of unsafe chemicals globally.

He will discuss ways in which social media is helping global consumers and citizens to become informed about chemical risks and how they in turn can encourage and incentivise industry to adopt green chemistry, cradle-to-cradle, clean-up, zero-waste and other enlightened technologies leading to a safer, healthier world.

Mr Cribb will propose ten recommendations for cleaning up the world, including a creation of a new human right ‘not to be poisoned’ under the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

He will present his paper “Cleansing a Poisoned Planet: chemicals, science communication and global people power” at 10.40 am on Monday, September 14 in Crown Conference Centre Meeting Room 13.

CleanUp 2015, the 6th International Contaminated Site Remediation Conference, is being held at the Crown Conference Centre, Melbourne, from September 13-16, 2015. The program is at: http://www.crccare.com/files/dmfile/CleanUpConferenceProgram-03Sept15.pdf

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