Researchers and human rights advocates meeting at the University of New England have pledged their support for replacing mandatory detention with the processing of asylum seekers within the Australian community.

Their resolution to this effect was an outcome of the international conference “Regional Responses to Labour Trafficking and Refugee Movements in Asia-Pacific” held at UNE on Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 September.

“This year marks the 60^th anniversary of the landmark 1951 UN Convention on the Status of Refugees, defining their rights and States’ legal obligations to protect them,” said UNE’s Professor Amarjit Kaur (pictured here), the co-convener of the conference (along with Professor Ian Metcalfe). She said the conference resolution called for “the processing of asylum seekers in the community to replace mandatory detention in accordance with the Government’s ‘Detention Values Statement’ and in compliance with Australia’s obligations to international human rights conventions”.

“The general feeling among the participants was that the current approach of both of Australia’s major political parties – which relies on prolonged detention of many asylum seekers and ad hoc schemes for off-shore processing – is inhumane, counterproductive, massively wasteful of resources, and a violation of Australia’s responsibilities under international law,” Professor Kaur said.

A major focus of the conference was a comparison of the immigration policies of countries in the Asia-Pacific region over time, and an investigation of the causes and effects of immigration policies and their implementation.

Sharuna Verghis from Health Equity Initiatives, Malaysia, discussed the health-related vulnerability of migrant workers, refugees and asylum seekers in Malaysia – a country, she said, with “a conspicuous lack of a comprehensive and coherent migration policy”. Robin Jones from UNE reported on the plight of the minority Karenni people from Burma who have fled persecution to arrive at refugee camps over the border in Thailand. Dr Jones, who spoke from her first-hand experience with the Jesuit Refugee Service, talked about “the general hopelessness that pervades camp life” and “the children’s behaviour – which demonstrates their emotional state and suffering”.

UNE’s Professor Helen Ware spoke about the experiences of Sudanese refugees coming to rural and regional Australia, while Judith Roberts from Northern Settlement Services and Kim Hastings from Regional Development Australia – Northern Inland focused on the New England region in discussing patterns of settlement under the Federal Government’s Settlement Grants Program.

On the subject of labour trafficking, Professor Kaur explained how government policies relating to migrant workers in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand had weakened the legal status of those workers – increasing their vulnerability to labour trafficking and people smuggling. Sister Margaret Ng from the Josephite Counter-Trafficking Project looked at trafficking in Australia, the Australian Government’s approach to trafficking and response to trafficked people, and the impact of trafficking on its survivors.

Other key speakers included Pamela Curr from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in Melbourne,  Professor Tessa Morris-Suzuki from the Australian National University (who focused on the situation in North-east Asia) and  Professor Farida Fozdar  from the University of Western Australia. Myat Mon from Thailand’s Assumption University described the situation of Burmese migrant workers and refugees in Thailand.  Four UNE PhD students presented papers on migrant workers and labour trafficking in Australia  (Melinda Sutherland), South Asia (Zahid Shahab Ahmed), Indonesia (Cakti Gunawan) and Macau (Pao Sio Iu), while Dr Zifirdaus Adnan (UNE) compared the labour-export policies of Indonesia and the Philippines. Dr Saroja Khrishnasawamy (Hunter New England Health and UNE) discussed mental health issues in refugee camps in Sri Lanka.

A new analysis of the implications of Australia’s projected population growth over the next four decades emphasises the urgent need for strategic investment in economic and social infrastructure – in the context of climate change – to ensure that a “bigger Australia” is also sustainable.

“While projected growth rates [for the major cities] are no greater than in the 1960s and 1970s,” the study says, “the context has profoundly shifted to one of global economic uncertainty, climate change, and intense resources constraints.”

Published this week in the international journal Geographical Research, the study – “Population growth and change: Implications for Australia’s cities and regions” – is by the geographers Professor Pauline McGuirk from the University of Newcastle and Associate Professor Neil Argent from the University of New England.

“Environmental and resource constraint is interwoven into all other aspects of urban population growth,” the authors say, pointing out that “all Australia’s major cities are located in areas of climate change-induced rainfall declines, with further reductions of uncertain magnitude predicted in coming decades”.

They report that 72 per cent of Australia’s predicted population growth (which will bring the total population to more than 35 million by 2050) is expected to be captured by the capital cities,

Without significant technological and behavioural adaptation, they say, cities’ growth will not be sustainable. “Water-efficient appliances and water-sensitive design can simultaneously reduce demand and enable rainwater catchment such that per capita consumption in the capital cities is expected to remain stable or marginally decline,” they report, adding that higher-density urban development could reduce water consumption “optimistically by 30-50 percent”.

“One of the key messages of our paper is that rapid population growth presents opportunities as well as challenges,” said Dr Argent (pictured here), an Associate Professor in the Division of Geography and Planning at UNE. “There will be real opportunities to harness research strengths – including those at UNE – to develop a more sustainable approach to population and economic growth.”

Dr Argent pointed out that improved transport and communication infrastructure were helping to break down a long-standing “metropolitan/rural dichotomy” in Australia. “Some of the fastest-growing centres are based in the regions – while having strong connections to major cities,” he said.

The study examines such new trends in population distribution, including “the emergence of peri-urban zones of mixed urban and rural land uses, reaching 100 km from the major cities’ centres”. “Four such mega-metro regions are in formation and have been adding population at well above the national average,” it says. These regions are centred on Sydney (Newcastle – Sydney – Wollongong), Melbourne (Geelong – Melbourne – Mornington Peninsula), Perth (Wanneroo – Perth – Mandurah) and Brisbane (Sunshine Coast – Brisbane – Gold Coast).

In discussing the Federal/NSW Government-funded “EVOcities” program, aimed at attracting Sydney residents to relocate to Albury, Armidale, Bathurst, Dubbo, Orange, Tamworth and Wagga Wagga, the study emphasises the importance of providing key infrastructure – including broadband connection – to meet demands. “Population growth is critical in this regard,” Dr Argent said. “Additional resources are more likely to be provided if more people are using the available services.”

UNE has been awarded funding from the NSW Government’s Environmental Trust for two exciting research projects that will help to better understand, prevent and measure environmental impacts.

A grant of $19,500 has been awarded to Professor Martin Thoms, of Geography and Planning in the School of Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Sciences, to investigate ecological thresholds and river health in NSW.  This research will take the novel approach of examining fish specimens collected in the past. By measuring their carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios, he hopes to establish a series of food webs that will enable comparison of food webs that existed in the past to those in rivers today.

‘Once established, we can investigate the influence of a range of environmental disturbances, like drought, on our river systems,’ Professor Thoms said.  His approach is based on cutting edge, collaborative research which is currently examining rivers in the United States and which will create a ‘timeline’ of river health.

A grant of $19,160 has also been awarded to research the role National Parks currently play in carbon storage and also where carbon storage in National Parks can be enhanced to contribute to mitigation. The project will be undertaken in collaboration with the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water (DECCW) by Associate Professor Brian Wilson and Dr Lalit Kumar of the School of Environmental and Rural Sciences.

Using existing spatial data, this project aims to estimate current carbon stocks (soil and vegetation), to delineate areas where land is suitable for management to enhance carbon storage, and to provide a “first approximation” of carbon storage potential across NSW National Parks. This will also provide a conceptual and practical framework for a more extensive and refined carbon inventory.

Associate Professor Wilson said that, to date, much of the attention relating to carbon sequestration has been focused on the agricultural and forestry sectors but National Parks are an extensive, publicly owned asset that has the potential to sequester large quantities of carbon in soils and vegetation. They might therefore offer a number of effective strategies for carbon storage, consistent with biodiversity conservation, that have been somewhat overlooked to date and for which information is largely lacking.

In announcing the approval of the seeding grants, the NSW Minister for the Environment, Robyn Parker, said they were ‘for innovative research to test creative ideas that might lead to significant breakthroughs in managing our natural environment’ and could be used to test a theory or concept that may be used for a larger research project in the future. She added that the research would also ‘tell us where to concentrate rehabilitation efforts to ensure environmental health.’

UNE is seeking participants for a new study which aims to improve our understanding of the role played by ambient and body temperature in problems such as obesity and depressed mood.

Coordinated by Emma van’t Hoenderdal, an honours student in the School of Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Sciences, the project will look at the complex relationships between low and high body weight, body temperature, ambient temperature, physical activity/exercise, and mood.

Ms van’t Hoenderdal says that a better understanding of these factors may lead to new approaches in the treatment of obesity – for example, using body cooling or cooling of the home to potentially accelerate weight loss via increased physical activity.

She said the study is prompted by recent large increases in the incidences of overweight/obesity and recent advances in our understanding of low-weight eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa. For example, anorexia nervosa is now regarded as a secondary response to weight loss which is complicated by mood changes and reduced body temperature, and treated by ambient or body warming, rather than being a primary psychiatric disorder.

This knowledge has recently prompted eating disorders experts to ponder whether body-cooling strategies, or strategies which alter thermogenesis (i.e. energy expenditure above the metabolic rate at rest) may promote weight loss in obese people. However, there is very limited available research on this topic.

Another major factor impacting on body weight is physical activity, such as leisure activities, house and yard work, and also spontaneous physical activity such as foot tapping. In addition, body weight and ambient and body temperature are all linked to changes in mood. For example, exercise is known to rapidly increase body temperature and improve mood, and high and low ambient and body temperature are linked to a worsening of mood. Thus, in this study, Emma is examining the relationships between these interlinked factors.

Ms van’t Hoenderdal said she is collecting data for the study through a short online questionnaire, which will take about 15-20 minutes to complete. A follow-up questionnaire of the same length will then be completed one month later. In this questionnaire, participants will be asked to record their weight, ambient (i.e. in the house) temperature and body temperature, mood and physical activity levels, on two test days, one month apart. In addition, some local participants will receive a pedometer to wear on the two test days. Participants must be 18 years of age or older, and have access to a thermometer and weighing scales to participate in this study.

Those interested in participating in the study are invited to visit the following link to the questionnaire:

http://unebcss.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_2bZDKi4VzH5ZRE8

Further information: Dr Rhonda Brown, School of Behavioural, Cognitive & Social Sciences. Ph: (02) 6773 2410.

UNE has signed a pathway agreement with Lifeline Australia which will provide a pathway for Lifeline Counsellors and staff into postgraduate study at UNE.

Lifeline Australia is a highly respected, not-for-profit organisation and a Registered Training Organisation that has been delivering training to telephone counsellors for over 47 years. Lifeline Australia currently has a workforce of more than 3,000 volunteer counsellors and trains about 1,500 telephone counsellors a year at more than 60 centres across Australia. It has a high profile – particularly in the area of suicide prevention.

Counsellors who have been recommended by Lifeline Australia may be eligible for entry into the Graduate Diploma of Counselling for Health and Social Care. These telephone counsellors, who have been put forward by Lifeline, will hold a Certificate IV in Telephone Counselling Practice, have a minimum of three years’ relevant work experience and at least one year’s work experience as a Lifeline Supervisor, Group Facilitator or Lifeline Suicide Crisis Support Program Counsellor. Joe Roff, from Lifeline’s National Office, said that this pathway was “a fantastic recognition of the expertise our Telephone Counsellors hold, and of the service and value that they provide to the Australian Community”. “While this service is an end in itself, the fact that it is now also a means to achieving further education and qualifications in the area of their vocation is a wonderful opportunity that will appeal to the Lifeline network,” he said. I have no doubt our Telephone Counsellors will benefit from this opportunity with UNE, and that UNE will benefit in the students that are sourced from Lifeline.”

Dr Sally Hunter, a Senior Lecturer in Counselling at UNE, said: “At UNE, we currently recommend that all our students do a Lifeline training program. We see experienced Lifeline telephone counsellors as a valuable asset to our program, since they have already developed so many skills – counselling microskills, communication skills, assessment skills, people management skills, the ability to listen non-judgmentally without giving advice, and an ability to deal effectively with suicidal people. These are skills that some of our current students often find challenging to develop.”

This agreement offers a new pathway for the future professional development of the Lifeline workforce, some of whom do not have undergraduate degrees. “During the course of their studies, these experienced Lifeline telephone counsellors will be encouraged by UNE to remain with Lifeline Australia to do their clinical placement, thereby potentially increasing the length of service of Lifeline’s trained volunteer workforce,” said Shane Merritt, Acting Course Co-ordinator for Counselling at UNE.

Dr Jane Clark, a psychologist and lecturer in the UNE Counselling Programme, said: “This pathway agreement goes some way towards recognising the invaluable contribution made by Lifeline Australia to the training of counsellors in Australia through their new Certificate IV in Telephone Counselling course, and the additional training of mentors, supervisors, group facilitators and suicide prevention counsellors”.

Research at the University of New England could help people suffering from bipolar disorder to control the debilitating mood swings associated with the illness.

Alex Kary, who is studying for a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology at UNE, believes that people with bipolar disorder could learn to dampen the brain activity that causes their massive mood swings by mentally manipulating a visual representation of that brain activity – as it’s actually occurring – on a computer screen.

People with epilepsy have benefited from this kind of “neurofeedback” technique, and it has also been used successfully in the treatment of problems such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children and alcohol abuse in adults. Mr Kary pointed out that epilepsy and bipolar disorder both involved periodic episodes triggered by instability in the brain, and that they could often be treated with the same medication. “We’re arguing that the two conditions could involve similar brain processes,” he said, “and that the neurofeedback techniques used by patients with epilepsy could also be useful for those with bipolar disorder.”

The visual display of electrical activity in the brain is derived from signals detected by an array of electrodes placed against the scalp and organised as a meaningful “graph” by an electroencephalograph (EEG) instrument. Purpose-built software then transforms the “graph” into a display in the form of a computer game: patients observe the movement of characters on the screen as their mood changes, and practise controlling those movements by the voluntary control of their mood. “By playing the game they learn to control their brain activity,” Mr Kary said.

Mr Kary and his supervisors in the project at UNE, Dr Graham Jamieson and Dr Tanya Hanstock, are now recruiting subjects for the study – people between the ages of 18 and 65 who have bipolar disorder and who would be interested in helping with this search for an alternative treatment. It would involve a weekly session of about one hour for 10-15 weeks.

This is the first trial of the efficacy of neurofeedback for managing bipolar disorder. “An adjunct to conventional treatment such as this would be welcomed by people who don’t like taking medication for various reasons – including the development of side-effects such as weight gain and tremors,” Mr Kary said.

People interested in participating in the trial should contact Mr Kary on 0407 243 851 (e-mail: akary@une.edu.au) or Dr Jamieson on (02) 6773 4279 (e-mail: gjamieso@une.edu.au).

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows Alex Kary and Dr Tanya Hanstock demonstrating the attachment of EEG electrodes.

Researchers at the University of New England want to put the excitement back into your love life — and they’re not necessarily talking about the bedroom.

Dr John Malouff and his colleagues at UNE’s School of Psychology are seeking more than 100 couples for two studies that will attempt to make their relationships more exciting and more caring respectively.

The couples don’t have to be married or even living together — they just have to be in a romantic relationship. Same-sex couples are welcome. And since the interventions will be conducted online, the couples can come from anywhere, according to Dr Malouff.

Both of the studies draw on previous UNE research that found romantic relationships can be described in terms of four fundamental characteristics: how exciting, caring, secure, and difficult the partners perceive the relationship to be. That research was presented in San Francisco last year at the Annual Convention of the Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies.

“Our research shows that all four factors are related to relationship satisfaction,” Dr Malouff said, “and this in turn is related to life satisfaction. After all, how happy we are in our primary relationship has a big effect on happiness generally.”

“Of the four, there are two we think we may be able to influence: how exciting and how caring a couple perceives their relationship to be.”

Couples can participate in either study, and participation is completely confidential, with all interaction with the researchers to be conducted via e-mail.

“All we need the participants to do is answer a few questions, and then complete some activities over the course of a few weeks. Afterwards, we’ll ask some more questions to examine the effects of the intervention.”

Besides being over 18, Dr Malouff said there were no limits on the age of the participants.  There was one requirement, however: both partners in a couple must be willing to participate.

“Improving your relationship is not something you can do solo,” Dr Malouff said. “Both partners need to be involved if the intervention is to be effective.”

People interested in participating in the study on increasing excitement levels in a relationship should contact co-researcher Kimberley Coulter at kcoulter@une.edu.au.  Those interested in participating in the study on increasing the level of caring in their relationship should contact co-researcher Sandra Gilbert at sgilber3@une.edu.au.