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Australia closed its international border for almost two years in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, causing immense hardship for many groups of people inside and outside the country. What, if anything, could have been done differently? Constitutional commentary on the issue has tended to focus on rights and federalism. A bill of rights could have given citizens stranded outside the country a right of return. No federal division of responsibility for international arrivals would have avoided conflict between the Commonwealth and states. This article argues that the episode provides weak evidence for a bill of rights and for the failure of federalism. To help make this argument, it draws a comparison with New Zealand, which imposed similar restrictions even though it had a bill of rights with a right of return and no federal division of responsibilities. The article puts forward two alternative constitutional lessons for consideration. First, legislative specification of what government is and is not obliged to do to assist overseas citizens in an emergency may have helped set expectations. Second, a structural mechanism to represent affected persons may have improved the quality of debate by providing comprehensive, accurate and current information about their situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There are no robust population-based Australian data on prevalence and attributed burden of migraine and medication-overuse headache (MOH) data. In this pilot cross-sectional study, we aimed to capture the participation rate, preferred response method, and acceptability of self-report questionnaires to inform the conduct of a future nationwide migraine/MOH epidemiological study., Methods: We developed a self-report questionnaire, available in hard-copy and online, including modules from the Headache-Attributed Restriction, Disability, Social Handicap and Impaired Participation (HARDSHIP) questionnaire, the Eq. 5D (quality of life), and enquiry into treatment gaps. Study invitations were mailed to 20,000 randomly selected households across Australia's two most populous states. The household member who most recently had a birthday and was aged ≥ 18 years was invited to participate, and could do so by returning a hard-copy questionnaire via reply-paid mail, or by entering responses directly into an online platform., Results: The participation rate was 5.0% (N = 1,000). Participants' median age was 60 years (IQR 44-71 years), and 64.7% (n = 647) were female. Significantly more responses were received from areas with relatively older populations and middle-level socioeconomic status. Hard copy was the more commonly chosen response method (n = 736). Females and younger respondents were significantly more likely to respond online than via hard-copy., Conclusions: This pilot study indicates that alternative methodology is needed to achieve satisfactory engagement in a future nationwide migraine/MOH epidemiological study, for example through inclusion of migraine screening questions in well-resourced, interview-based national health surveys that are conducted regularly by government agencies. Meanwhile, additional future research directions include defining and addressing treatment gaps to improve migraine awareness, and minimise under-diagnosis and under-treatment., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Purpose: Unaffordable housing has a negative impact on mental health; however, little is known about the causal pathways through which it transmits this effect. We examine the role of financial hardship and social support as mediators of this relationship.Methods: We identified households where housing costs changed from affordable to unaffordable across two waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey (2014-2015). The sequential causal mediation analysis was used to decompose the total effect of unaffordable housing on mental health into the portion attributable to financial hardship and social support [natural indirect effect (NIE)] and the portion not occurring through measured pathways [natural direct effect (NDE)]. Mental health was measured using the Mental Health Inventory (MHI) and Kessler psychological distress (KPD) scale. Baseline covariates included age, sex, household income, financial hardship, social support, marital status and employment status. Bootstrapping with 1000 replications was used to calculate 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Multiple imputations using chained equations were applied to account for missing data.Results: Unaffordable housing led to a change in mean mental health score on the MHI scale (- 1.3, 95% CI: - 2.1, - 0.6) and KPDS scale (0.9, 95% CI: 0.4, 1.4). Financial hardship accounted for 54% of the total effect on MHI scale and 53% on KPD scale. Collectively, financial hardship and social support explained 68% of the total effect on MHI scale and 67% on KPD scale, respectively.Conclusions: In conclusion, the negative mental health effect of unaffordable housing is largely mediated through increased financial hardship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the prominence of 'vulnerability' as a way of making sense of disadvantage and suffering in both social policy and social science. It examines the interplay of vulnerability as a material phenomenon and cultural script by foregrounding the experiences of the most marginal benefit claimants in Australia's residual social security system. The article questions whether the everyday disruptions and challenges that unsettle yet settle-into life in poverty are intelligible within authorised idioms of vulnerability that govern access to support. By examining what people surviving on benefits are vulnerable to and how they are compelled to demonstrate their status as vulnerable, it contributes a critical account of lived experiences of vulnerability that holds both its discursive and phenomenological dimensions in view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women’s experiences of drought are often made invisible particularly in terms of their long-term effects. Drought differs from other “natural disasters” in that droughts are, by definition, experienced over an extended time. This means those experiencing drought do so as they age, with elderly cohorts particularly vulnerable. As such, there is a need to better understand the longitudinal needs and experiences of women living with drought. This study investigates the experiences of drought for 15 Australian women aged over 70, over a period of 12 years. Longitudinal qualitative free-text comments written by the oldest cohort of women in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health were subject to a thematic analysis. Findings indicate that experiences of drought have a relationship to women’s ability to age in ways they may have hoped. Themes of Work and Physical activity, Connection to place, and, Service access were prominent in women’s comments. These results demonstrate that place is an important aspect in the experience of ageing, that work and physical activity often intensify during drought for elderly people who might otherwise be expecting to retire, and that drought presents particular challenges for older women in terms of access to services. This study highlights the complex interactions of living and ageing in drought for Australian women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Special protections for Australians in financial hardship have recently been incorporated into the legal frameworks governing the consumer credit, energy, water and telecommunications sectors. These protections have the objective of enabling consumers to avoid the serious legal consequences of financial hardship, such as debt enforcement action in a court or tribunal, or disconnection from an essential service, by allowing them to seek alternative payment arrangements and other forms of assistance from their creditors. In this article, we draw upon the findings of our survey of consumers who have experienced financial hardship to show that these legal protections play a relatively modest role in the overall range of ways in which consumers cope with debt problems. Consumers face significant barriers to identifying themselves as being in need of assistance under these protections, and tend to favour individualistic strategies for reducing spending, even when this may jeopardise their ability to afford basic living essentials. For those who do access assistance from a creditor under the legal hardship protections, its effectiveness may be undermined by the prevalence of unaffordable payment arrangements across our target sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examine the existing law relating to the relevance of incidental hardships to sentencing as the courts are empowered to impose a range of sanctions, including fines and imprisonment. It mentions that overarching framework for dealing with incidental hardships in the sentencing system. It also mentions that employment deprivations experienced by offenders and deportation which arises due to the commission of a crime.

The article focuses on the study which aims to highlight the experience of single mothers in Australia who chose to relinquish a baby. It states the reasons for relinquishment such as financial hardship, lack of self-confidence, and life experience. It notes that the choice not to parent a child was determined by contextualising forces. It mentions that the results of the study intersects complicated nexus of liberalism.

Objective: It is well established that socio-economic position is associated with depression. The experience of financial hardship, having to go without the essentials of daily living due to limited financial resources, may explain the effect. However, there are few studies examining the link between financial hardship and diagnosable depression at a population level. The current paper addresses this gap and also evaluates the moderating effect of age.Method: Data were from 8841 participants aged 16–85 years in Australia’s 2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing. The 12-month prevalence of depressive episode was assessed using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Measures of socio-economic position included: financial hardship, education, labour-force status, occupational skill, household income, main source of income, and area-level disadvantage.Results: Financial hardship was more strongly associated with depression than other socio-economic variables. Hardship was more strongly associated with current depression than with prior history of depression. The relative effect of hardship was strongest in late adulthood but the absolute effect of hardship was greatest in middle age.Conclusions: The results demonstrate the critical role of financial hardship in the association between socio-economic disadvantage and 12-month depressive episode, and suggest that social and economic policies that address inequalities in living standards may be an appropriate way to reduce the burden attributable to depression. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Debate continues to rage as to the veracity of evidence around the permanence of climate change. There is no doubt that changes are occurring across the world and that these changes are causing significant social hardship, including food and water insecurity and large-scale movements of people. What is also emerging in research across the world is that these social impacts and adaptations are highly gendered. This article draws on several years of research on the Australian drought and more recent research on declining water availability in the Murray—Darling Basin of Australia. It notes the significant social impacts, particularly in remote and irrigation areas, and draws out the gendered impacts of these changes. The article argues for more sensitive rights-based social policy to address people who are under extraordinary stress during times of unparalleled change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There has been little research conducted about scholarships administered to students in financial need from an Australian or international perspective. Despite the dearth of information about what impact receiving a scholarship may have on financially disadvantaged students, there is much written about the diversity of circumstances that may cause disadvantage to students. This article presents some of the key findings of research undertaken in 2005 on the impact of equity scholarships on students in financial need at Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia. Although using relatively small numbers, the results do, however, give a clear message of the level of relief the scholarships provide. Although to be read in an Australian context, the findings show relief in the forms of retention and standard of living - relevant to institutions anywhere in the world. Ultimately, a larger-scale, nationwide study should be carried out, and comparisons made with the impact of relief given in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]