Questions on sexuality and gender to be part of Census trial
Homes in Melbourne and Perth, as well as locations in regional Queensland, NSW and Western Australia, have been chosen for the voluntary test run.
Census general manager Jenny Telford said the trial run would be critical to ensuring the nationwide questionnaire would be successful. "We are testing our collection processes and IT systems to ensure our processes work well and that the form captures the right information, in the right way," she said.
"By taking part, you're helping us to improve the next Census for everyone and ensure it produces high-quality statistics."
Testing will also be carried out to allow people to carry out the Census through myGov. The 2016 Census was beset by technical issues after the website hosting the questionnaire crashed on the night of the survey. The Census test is to be carried out on 5 August.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
West Australian
2 hours ago
- West Australian
Apple to buy rare earths from Gina Rinehart and Pentagon-backed US producer MP Materials
Tech giant Apple has struck a $US500 million ($767m) deal to buy rare earth minerals from Gina Rinehart-backed MP Materials, the US producer that just last week secured backing from the Pentagon. The two companies will build a factory in Texas, with neodymium magnet manufacturing lines tailored for Apple products, the iPhone maker said overnight Tuesday in a statement. Apple said the spending on rare earths is part of its earlier pledge to invest more than $US500b in the US over the next four years. Shares of MP Materials surged as much as 18 per cent in New York to the highest intraday price since April 2022. Mrs Rinehart has an 8.5 per cent stake in Las Vegas-based MP Materials, which along with Perth-headquartered Lynas Rare Earths is the only rare earths producer of note with operations beyond Chinese borders. She also holds 8.2 per cent of Lynas' register. The world's dependence on China for rare earths permanent magnets that are essential for consumer tech, cars, wind turbines and fighter aircrafts, has become a flash point in the Asian nation's trade war with the US. After the Trump administration imposed 145 per cemt tariffs on China, boasting that it had the upper hand, Beijing turned the tables by essentially shutting down exports of the critical component. MP Materials operates the sole US rare earths mine at Mountain Pass in California. 'Rare earth materials are essential for making advanced technology, and this partnership will help strengthen the supply of these vital materials here in the United States,' Apple chief executive Tim Cook said in the statement. The increased production will support dozens of new manufacturing and R&D jobs, Apple said. The two companies will also work together to establish a rare earths recycling line in Mountain Pass and develop novel magnet materials and innovative processing technologies to enhance magnet performance, according to the statement. That facility will allow MP Materials to take in recycled rare earth feedstock and use it in Apple products. 'This collaboration deepens our vertical integration, strengthens supply chain resilience, and reinforces America's industrial capacity at a pivotal moment,' MP Materials CEO James Litinsky said in a separate statement. Magnet shipments from the MP Materials facility in Fort Worth, Texas are expected to begin in 2027 and ramp up to support hundreds of millions of Apple devices, the Las Vegas-based firm said. Investor euphoria over the deal flowed through to trade in Australia, with Lynas up 1.5 per cent to $10.17 amid a broad decline across the rest of the ASX200. Iluka Resources — which is building a rare earths processing plant near Eneabba — also shot up 4 per cent to $4.87. China curbs on rare earths have reverberated across global supply chains — Ford Motor and Suzuki Motor idled some production. Elon Musk said shortages were hurting his robotics business. And governments rushed to secure the few suppliers outside of China. Signs have emerged in recent weeks that the US and China are beginning to deliver on promises made in trade talks held in Geneva and London in the past two months. China agreed to resume shipments of rare earths — with exports surging in June — while the Trump administration has reversed some restrictions on technology exports to China, including some semiconductors from Nvidia Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Still, in its biggest move yet to push back against China's weaponisation of rare earths, the Pentagon took a $US400m stake in MP last week to secure supplies of magnets critical for military and other applications. The deal came with $US1 billion in financing from JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs to fund a major new plant. While the export halt boosted prices and sparked fears of shortages, over the longer run western producers like MP Materials and Lynas have struggled to turn a profit due to weak prices and oversupply. Bloomberg
News.com.au
7 hours ago
- News.com.au
Biocurious: with fresh grant funding, Emvision's Emu stroke device won't take a step backwards
A fresh $5 million government grant takes Emvision's cumulative non-dilutive funding to $25 million The company is trialing its Emu stroke detection device with a view to FDA clearance The lightweight variant First Responder could give ambulances rapid stoke detection capabilities With US biotech grant funding under pressure, drug and device developers need to delve more deeply for sources of valuable non-dilutive capital. Happily, numerous programs are still available for Australian life sciences plays willing to do their homework. In the case of stroke and traumatic brain injury (TBI) detection device developer Emvision, grant funding and partnerships have underpinned the company since it was formed in 2017. Co-founder and CEO Scott Kirkland puts the running tally at $25 million. This month, Emvision was awarded a $5 million Australian Government Industry Growth Program Commercialisation and Growth Grant. The funding is to accelerate development of Emvision's portable brain scanner, First Responder. Other funding sources have included the Australian Stroke Alliance, the NSW Medical Devices Fund and – we kid you not – the Modern Manufacturing Medical Products Manufacturing Translation Stream Project. Take nothing for grant-ed Kirkland says applying for grants takes significant time and management focus – and companies usually need to kiss a lot of frogs. 'You really need to dig around on the guidelines and look at what they have funded previously,' he says. 'But there are plenty of opportunities where objectives are boosting domestic manufacturing, creating engineering roles, generating IP and tackling the big health and societal burdens.' In the case of the US, the military complex can fund programs of specific interest, such as TBI assessment. The company is likely to progress TBI – a 'significant unmet need' – via a collaboration or grant. The Golden Hour As far as 'big health societal burdens' go, Emvision is tackling the need for more portable – and thus faster – ways to detect a stroke. The first 60 minutes post-event is known as the Golden Hour. But even the second hour – dubbed, you guessed it, the Silver Hour – is vital. 'With a stroke, time is brain,' Kirkland says. 'The faster it is diagnosed and treated; the more of the brain function that can be saved'. If treated early, a clot is softer and more treatable via clot-busting drugs or surgical removal of the blockage. In the US, a study of Mobile Stroke Units (MSUs) with a CT (computed tomography) scanner reported 33% of patients being treated in the first hour. This compared to just 3% for the normal ambulance arm. 'If you can bring the diagnostics tools to the patients, you save a lot of time to achieve better functional outcomes and less disability,' Kirkland says. Different strokes for different folks Clinicians and paramedics need to know whether the stroke is a blockage (ischaemic) or a bleed (haemorrhagic) as different treatments apply. To date, patients have been imaged with bulky, centralised scanners in hospitals. Emvision is developing a portable bedside scanner – Emu – which can be moved bed to bed on a cart. These units weigh about 100 kilograms, compared with a few tonnes for a typical CT unit. A trained healthcare professional can operate Emu, whilst a CT requires a radiographer. In a regular neurological intensive care unit, Emu's ability to hop from bed to bed is better than carting fragile patients to radiology. Emvision hopes Emu will pave the regulatory pathway for First Responder, its backpack-sized version for use in road and air ambulances and remote locations. On trial Emvision's work currently revolves around a pivotal trial for Emu, to support US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) clearance under the De Novo (novel device) pathway. The company hopes this will pave the way for First Responder approval under the less arduous 510(k) predicate device route. The US trial sites consist of New York's Mt Sinai, Florida's Mayo Clinic and Houston's Memorial Hermann Texas Medical Centre. A west coast site is pending. Locally, the trial has enlisted the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Sydney's Liverpool Hospital. They are all high calibre research centres handling high stroke volumes. The study aims to enrol up to 300 suspected stroke victims, who will receive the usual clinical care along with an Emu scan. Overlaying that, Emu then determines whether the stroke is a bleed or not, with a primary endpoint of at least 80% sensitivity and specificity for haemorrhage detection. Sensitivity is the ability to detect positive results, while specificity is the ability to discount false positives. The patients might have a different 'stroke mimic' condition, such as a migraine or epileptic seizure. 'We are seeking to also demonstrate that a 'mimic' does not confound our algorithms,' Kirkland says. Never a step back with Emu In an earlier domestic trial called Emview, Emu achieved 92% sensitivity and 85% specificity for bleed detection in a smaller cohort. For blockages, the results showed 95% sensitivity and 85% specificity. Kirkland says CT is good for detecting bleeds, with a 90-99% sensitivity. Without the use of contrast agents, it's less so for blockages (30-70%). (About 80% of stroke cases are blockages). Kirkland says while CT (or MRI) scans provide the 'ground truths', Emu's performance doesn't need to be identical to these machines. Especially in the case of First Responder, operators will use them where traditional neuroimaging is unavailable. Eyeing the US market While strokes afflict 15 million people annually – one-third fatally – there are fewer than 50 dedicated Mobile Stroke Unit ambulances globally. (Melbourne hosts two of them). That's because they cost upwards of $1 million to set up and a similar amount to operate annually. First Responder could provide every ambulance with a stroke and stroke type detection function. The US market eclipses anywhere else: 60,000 road ambulances – half the global tally – and 1500-1800 air ambulances. Post approval, Emvision's initial focus is likely to be in the expanded 'stroke belt' of southern states including Texas and Florida. For lifestyle and other reasons, the incidence of strokes there is much higher than the rest of the country. First Responder takes to the skies Alongside the Emu study, Emvision expects First Responder pre-hospital studies to get underway with the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), a Melbourne MSU and a standard road ambo. 'The initial focus is on feasibility, usability and how it fits into the workflow,' Kirkland says. 'In parallel, we are doing product development translation from advanced prototypes to commercial production units.' To date, RFDS scanning of healthy volunteers in real-world conditions has confirmed First Responder's durability. The company is obtaining ethics approval to scan actual RFDS patients. A cost-effective solution In theory, Emu and First Responder should walk off the shelves, given the age-old problem they promise to solve. But for cash-strapped healthcare systems, cost is always a factor. Kirkland expects an Emu to cost around $US175,000 – about a third of the price of a decent CT machine. First Responder is likely to be half or a third of the cost of an Emu. The company also expects to charge US$25 per Emu scan and US$50 per First Responder scan for a 'consumable'. This single-use item is a liquid that flows through a silicon membrane used to adjust to varying head sizes. 'We think we have a compelling, cost-effective solution,' Kirkland says. Kirkland says chasing grants requires patience as the process winds from initial application to presentations, due diligence and contract negotiations. 'I won't give away too many secrets because there are still a lot of grants we want to apply for."
News.com.au
7 hours ago
- News.com.au
Big pharma takes notice as Novo Nordisk puts Clever Culture's APAS to the test
Novo Nordisk kicks off APAS test drive Clever Culture eyes global rollout The company's pharma pipeline is swelling It's a big moment for any Australian company when a global pharmaceutical giant comes knocking. But for Adelaide-based Clever Culture Systems (ASX:CC5), this wasn't just a knock; it was a deliberate move by a global heavyweight in drug manufacturing, Novo Nordisk. On Monday, Clever Culture confirmed that it had received a purchase order from Novo for its flagship APAS Independence instrument. The machine will be delivered to Novo's central team in Denmark, where it will undergo a full-scale evaluation to assess its suitability for deployment across Novo's global manufacturing network. The Danish giant will be comparing Clever's automated plate reading technology against its existing manual microbiology workflows. The evaluation will cover both standard 90mm 'settle plates' and the more nuanced 55mm 'contact plates' – the two staples of pharmaceutical environmental monitoring. Why this matters Novo Nordisk is a global leader in diabetes and obesity treatment. The company currently pumps billions into its manufacturing footprint to keep up with global demand for its blockbuster drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy. Its facilities are massive, complex, and stringently sterile; and that's exactly where Clever's APAS technology enters the frame. The APAS Independence uses AI technology to automate one of the most time-consuming parts of microbiology – analysing agar plates for contamination. It can assess hundreds of plates per hour, filtering out the negatives, and flagging anything that might require closer inspection by human microbiologists. That's a big deal in an industry where even minor contamination can derail production, trigger recalls, and in extreme cases, harm patients. APAS essentially transforms a manual, repetitive process into a standardised digital workflow, creating a clean audit trail. Novo will now test APAS across both plate types, aiming to validate its ability as a complete solution. The fact that Novo is doing this at its central 'centre of excellence' site is no small detail; it suggests potentially broader applicability for APAS across Novo's global network. The long-term strategy For Clever Culture, this sale is a key milestone in a long-term strategy to focus on top-tier pharmaceutical manufacturers. CEO Brent Barnes, who's been leading the company's shift toward applications in pharmaceutical manufacturing, said the adoption by these top-tier pharma firms helps establish credibility across the entire industry. 'Novo is amongst the largest sterile drug manufacturers globally and have been great to work with, adding significant bench-strength to customer advocacy and the industry with respect to APAS," he said. 'By doing it in this manner, they also have the most to gain from automation and standardisation." From a sales execution perspective, it also means that Clever Culture is working with a centralised point of contact that could then introduce APAS to their global manufacturing sites. These organisations have both the resources and infrastructure to evaluate new technologies centrally and deploy them at scale. 'This is therefore a very targeted and efficient sales process.' How big could it get? The short answer: potentially very. According to Novo Nordisk's own website, the company operates 16 large manufacturing sites around the world. And just like AstraZeneca, which started with one APAS system and now has nine installed, it's likely that multiple units could be required at each facility if the evaluation is successful. But Barnes is careful not to overstate things, saying that the company isn't in a position to put out forecasts at this early stage. 'We have stated that for larger manufacturing sites, multiple APAS instruments may be required, this has been the case for AstraZeneca as an example. 'You could take an external view on what the opportunity could look like based on this information.' Clever Culture now counts five top-tier pharmaceutical customers that are either evaluating or already using APAS: AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Thermo Fisher Pharma Services, an unnamed multinational that recently completed a major settle plate evaluation and, now, Novo Nordisk. Together, these five customers alone represent a potential opportunity of 60–80 APAS instruments, according to Barnes. Stacked pipeline Once evaluations begin, the question becomes: how long before they lead to actual rollout? 'Customers will typically go through an evaluation that could take 4-6 months,' Barnes said. 'During this process, they are evaluating performance of APAS in addition to considering where APAS could be adopted throughout their global sites.' To put this in perspective, in FY25 Clever Culture sold and shipped 9 instruments to AstraZeneca within a 12 month timeframe. That kind of timeline is encouraging for investors, especially when you consider that more than 40 pharmaceutical companies are currently in Clever Culture's active pipeline. Collectively, those opportunities represent about $75 million in potential upfront sales, and another $15 million in recurring annual revenue, said Barnes. For now though, the first APAS unit has landed in Denmark. What happens next depends on performance, process, and plenty of plates. But Clever Culture has the platform, the momentum, and now one more giant evaluating it with serious intent. At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Clever Culture Systems is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.
