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ABSTRACTIn March 2020, the Australian government introduced a raft of public health initiatives to curb the rising cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) including closing schools and work from home orders. As a group of female academics, we were immediately attuned to the potential of COVID-19 to dilute progress made towards reducing the academic gender gap. This study emerged in response and comprised a rapid gender impact assessment of Australian universities’ organisational responses to COVID-19. Our aim was to understand the nature of university policy responses and the extent to which they considered differential impacts for men and women. We searched for relevant communications pertaining to COVID-19 policies from all Australian universities published up to June 2020. Our final sample comprised 79 documents from 29 universities. Information collected was in relation to five key policy domains: support for higher degree research students, leave arrangements for staff, working remotely, managing staff and academic promotion. Overall, little attention was paid to how gender might impact on the need for, or access to, policies in response to COVID-19. Findings showed a reliance on existing workplace mechanisms including access to leave and flexible working arrangements. While the ability to work flexibly is considered a key enabler of gender equality, these approaches have been in place at Australian universities for decades but have, on their own, been inadequate to redress entrenched inequalities. While there is potential for social disruptions brought about by the pandemic to act as a catalyst for change, this will not happen without policies that are transformative in their approach to equality and inclusion.

Gender norms are essential barometers of gender equality; inequitable gender norms are indicative of core inequalities in society that undermine the health of many groups. Fundamentally embedded in the gender system, prescriptive and restrictive gender norms have been shown to have deleterious effects on the health of women, men, girls and boys, as well as gender and sexual minorities. Gender norms are mutable, and there is potential to target and transform harmful and inequitable gender norms to drive gender equality. Gender-transformative approaches are needed, but a necessary first step is to identify and benchmark restrictive and inequitable gender norms, monitor change and progress, and highlight areas where interventions can be targeted for greatest effect. Efforts to do this are currently stymied by a lack of fit-for-purpose data. Routinely collected, population representative data on gender norms is urgently needed. This is vital to supporting and progressing gender equality and will contribute substantially to lifting population health.

The article discusses the National Perinatal Depression Plan (NPDP), a national approach that has been adapted to minimize the occurrence of perinatal mental health in Australian patients. The approach has been shown to be extremely useful in the screening and treating of people, especially women for such psychological disorders.

Objective: The Victorian Suicide Register (VSR) is a state‐based suicide surveillance system that contains detailed information on people who die by suicide and the circumstances surrounding their death. In this paper, we provide an overview of the VSR and then describe the evaluation, which used the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for surveillance system evaluation as a framework. Methods: The evaluation drew on three data sources to assess whether the VSR: i) embodies the attributes of a good public health surveillance system; and ii) can be used to inform community‐based suicide prevention efforts. Results: There was a high level of acceptability and enthusiasm for having an accessible data collection that can stimulate local action on suicide prevention planning. One of the key challenges identified was data quality, particularly around those data collected in the course of death investigations that are not designed for surveillance purposes. Conclusion: The VSR fills an important gap in the sustained and systematic collection of comprehensive information on suicide, with some key challenges identified. Implications for public health: Findings from the evaluation provide important strategic information for national and international jurisdictions seeking to establish their own suicide registers.

While workers’ compensation schemes aim to assist and support injured workers, there is some evidence that the process of pursuing a compensation claim may be extremely stressful for workers. This research aimed to compare hospital admissions for self-harm among workers’ compensation claimants and non-claimants.

Objective:This study investigated the extent to which mandatory responses to coronial recommendations in one state of Australia (Victoria) provided a clear picture of action taken by organisations to protect public health and safety. Method:Analysis of organisations' responses to recommendations issued by coroners over the first three years of Victoria's newly introduced mandatory response regime was carried out. Results:Most responses were provided to the court within the legislated three‐month timeframe and were signed by persons in senior or executive management. Analysis of 282 recommendation‐response pairs, found that less than half (44%) provided explicit statements about whether action had or would be taken. In the remaining 56% of responses there was no explicit statement of action or intent. Ambiguity in the response was strongly associated with lack of implementation. Conclusions:Our findings suggest that the founding objectives of Victoria's innovative mandatory response regime are being compromised by the opacity of many response letters. Implications for public health:Recommendations from the coroner can profoundly affect whether the community is exposed to unsafe practices, policies and products, but without such compliance, the potential for the coroner to make a meaningful contribution to protecting public and safety is substantially compromised.