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378.9431
~ensland
University of Technology
Newspaper
103
Issue No. 52
Queensland University of Technology 2 George Street Brisbane Q 4000 Telephone (07) 223 2111
Registered by Australia Post- Publication No. QBF 4778 30 March 1990
Birt hdate set for new QUT
QUT and Brisbane CAE will be- come one university from 1 May 1990. The enabling legislation was passed by the Queensland Parlia- ment on 28 March - but still must be assented to by the Governor.
And on 29 March, BCAE Council approved the I May effective date which had previously been recom- mended by QUT Council.
With 20 000 students on four cam- puses in Brisbane's city and northside the new QUT will be one of the largest universities in Australia. Disciplines will include business, law, technology, teacher education, and performing and visual arts.
Summing up the second reading debate on the amalgamation Bill, Education Minister, Mr Braddy, said that while it provided a basic framework for amalgamation, there were still many implementation details to be resolved.
"Indeed this is the most complex amalgamation undertaJI,en in Queensland as part of the movement towards a unified national system of higher education," he said.
In July, the State Government will appoint a new Council for QUT which is representar've of the broad range of professions served by the new univer- sity.
Mr Vic Pullar will continue as Chan- cellor, and the Vice-Chancellor,
Professor Dennis Gibson, will be chief executive of the merged university from I May.
In the meantime, the Consolidation Implementation Committee compris- ing senior executives, staff and stu- dents of both institutions and reporting to both Councils will continue to pave the way for amalgamation. Its working parties are considering academic and administrative structures, the mission and goals, and student administration, personnel and finance systems, library services and communications.
Interim arrangements from I May and until final structures are deter- mined include Council committees and management reporting.
The two student organisations will remain independent for the balance of
1990 but will cooperate closely.
With the QUT/BCAE merger now definite, a Ministerial working party set up to draft an agreement for amal- gamation between Queensland Conser- .-iuw.ot Mujjjc~Q1!T~i~l2'to report to QUT Councir·s Apnr meet- ing.
To mark the merger, a fun run from QUT's Gardens Point campus to the future QUT Kelvin Grove campus, fol- lowed by breakfast, is planned for Sun- day morning 29 April. Runners will include the Premier, Vice-Chancellor, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, and staff and students of BCAE and QUT.
Goblet gets gi ggles
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Super-serious comedian Elliot Goblet gives students a /ow-energy lunch-time gigg/P.. Full report on page 3.
Uni club lets fly with J r is _Q~e,s.
QUT students have formed a team to breathe life into a sophisticated ver- sion of a much loved childhood pas- time -- frisbee-throwing.
No longer the catch and pitch recreation so many would remember, this sport involves a range of serious individual and team events.
The degree of competitive en- thusiasm of the upgraded pastime is inherent in the name, flying disc sports, which replaces 'frisbee', a brand name.
QUT students are participating in a Brisbane league competition playing 'Ultimate', a seven per side game similar to netball or soccer with gridiron-like scoring zones at the ends of the playing field.
Organiser Mr Doug Bryers said:
"Ultimate is a fast-moving, non-con- tact sport where the object is to score goals by passing the disc until it is caught in the appropriate end zone.
Running with the disc is not al- lowed. "The game combines the cut- ting and guarding of basketball and the non-stop movement of soccer with
most amazing dimension to this game is the manner in which it is self- refereed. "Competition is rarely mali- cious and players call their own fouls.
This creates an etiquette and spirit of camaraderie," Mr Bryers said.
The QUT flying disc club, the first in Queensland, was initiated when stu- dents shared a seven-bedroom house in Milton in 1987. The sport grew so rapidly that the Queensland Flying Disc Association and the University of Queensland club were both formed last year.
Further information is available from Mr Bryers on 378 3597 (h) or 833 4482 (w).
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Detector will prote ct eyes
A QUT physicist has developed a process to use a commercially avail- able plastic material to measure UV exposure to eyes.
A QUT team originally developed the material as a detector or dosimeter to measure skin exposure to ultra violet radiation. It can be attached to any ob- ject or awkward parts of the body.
Used as a personal detector, the device could warm of potential sun- bum.
Lecturer Dr Joe Wong said an ad- vantage this UV dosimeter had over Polysulphone, the only other detector for a similar purpose, was that the plas- tic-film material was transparent and remained so, even after exposure.
Dr Wong said: "It is this property that will allow us to develop a system further to measure UV exposure to the eyes."
"Polysulphone cannot be attached to the eye without interference to eyesight and inconvenience," he said.
A joint QUT and University of Queensland team has received an Oph- thalmic Research Institute of Australia grant for $30 000 to investigate the
Dr Wong said the dosimeter material and human skin showed similar sen- sitivities to UV exposure.
After the material has been exposed to UV radiation it is chemically treated or etched in a processing sequence.
From this Dr Wong's team can deter- mine how much the harmful ultra violet radiation has affecred the material and thus measure the ex- posure.
Dr Wong said: "Another distin- guishing factor between this and Polysulphone is that our device's sen- sitivity to the UV can be adjusted by
varying the processing conditions.
"This makes our dosimeter more flexible."
Since 1987 the project team has received $26 000 from the Queensland Cancer F\lnd to develop the dosimeter.
The detector measures UV-B ex- posure. UV-B, one of three ultra violet bands, causes most skin damage and is linked to cancer.
Ultra violet radiation is charac- terised by wavelengths up to 400 nano- metres. UV-B falls within 280 to 320 nano-metres. The human skin is most sensitive to 290 to 295 nano-metres.
Four campuses in next issue
The next issue of "Inside QUT" will be published on I May, the effective date for the QUT/BCAE amalgamation. The paper will cover news from all four QUT campuses with stories on science, teacher education, business, health and welfare, information technology, health science, fine and dramatic arts, and law.
Circulation will increase from 8000 to about 14 000.
The newspaper will bring readers the latest developments in research and teaching practices. A story in "Inside QUT" reaches a large audience - Australian-wide media outlets, other universities, libraries. politicians and students and staff.
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Vice-Chancellor 's comment
Keep one eye on the long-term
Subject to the Governor's assent, the OUT!BCAE amalgamation will be effective 1 May.
It began with a vision shared by OUT and BCAE Councils for a mega-university, with broad disciplines, stretching from Brisbane city north to the Sunshine Coast -a university responsive to the needs of the professions and the world of work.
The process of turning that vision into reality began late last year with the establishment of the joint Consolidation Implementation Com- mittee and its various working parties. This process will continue throughout 1990.
With only a month to go before the appointed day, we are now getting into "nitty-gritty" issues, preoccupied with the very short term.
There is no question that some of these issues are extremely impor- tant. However, it is also important to keep one eye on the longer-term future. By June, the university will need to be firming up its 1993 plans for Commonwealth consideration - new courses, capital programs, postgraduate study including doctorates, research infrastructure and,
of course, money.
Then in September, Common- wealth officers will visit OUT to discuss these 1993 plans. If our plans are half-baked, they will not receive favourable funding treat- ment. The Unified National Sys- tem is a competitive environment and growth funds are allocated among universities on the merit of individual plans.
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Talent rewarded with QUT service medals
QUT announced the 1990 awards for Distinguished Academic Service this month.
The recipients, nominated by faculty deans, will receive the awards at facul- ty graduation ceremonies in April. For the_f.i.rst ~ winners have received
$5 000 each towards the purchase of reaching and research marerials, con- ference expenses, employment of rsearch or technical staff and for fund- ing PEP or higher degree study.
The award winners are:
Brian Rigden.
For outstanding performance as a teacher, consultant, researcher and communicator in public health en- gineering.
Andre G. de Jong
For major contributions to mechani- cal and manufacturing engineering through teaching, research and ad- ministration.
Vesna Popovic
For outstanding teaching, research and administration in the field of in- dustrial design.
Chadwick R. Perry
For outstanding teaching, research and administration in the fields of economics and management.
Myles McGregor-Lowndes For innovative teaching, research and publication in business law.
Michael F. Capra
For exemplary contributions to public health and nutrition as a teacher, researcher and administrator.
Jan Lovie-Kitchin
For highly effective teaching in op- tometry, dedicated research, and ex- ceptional leadership in continuing education.
Kenneth F. Anderson
For significant contributions to com- puting science through teaching, cur-
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riculum development, research and ad- ministration.
Stephen G. Corones
For notable achievements as a teacher, consultant and researcher in the complexities of business law, in particular, tract~· practices.
Yo Anh
For outstanding contributions to mathematics through teaching, re- search, administration and professional activities.
Serge Kokot
For outstanding teaching and re- search in analytical and inorganic chemistry.
Graduation ceremonies will be held on 17 April for Engineering, 18 April for Business, 19 April for Health Science, 23 April for Science and The Built Environment, and 24 April for Law and Information Technology.
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DAS winners (from back left) Vo Ahn, Ken Anderson, Brian Rigden, Serge Kokot, Stephen Corones, Andre de Jong, Myles McGregor-Lowndes, Jan Lovie-Kitchin, Mike Capra, Vesna Popovic. Chadwick Perry absent.
INSIDE OUT, 30 March 1990 Page 2
Architecture professor wins uni's first Fulbright
QUT architect, Professor Bill Lim, has received a prestigious Fulbright Senior Scholar Award to study in the United States for three months.
Professor Lim, Head of the Charles Fulton School of Architecture and In- dustrial Design, was one of eight- Australians, and the only Queenslander, to be offered a senior scholar award.
He is the first QUT acadcrnic ro receive the award, granted through the Australian-American Educational Foundation.
Professor Lim will visit Lehigh University, Pennsylvania, where he will be Fazlur Rahman Khan Visiting Professor from April to June. Khan was a leading American structural en- gineer who pioneered much work on tall buildings. Professor Lim will give guest lectures on highrise construction in Australia and Singapore.
An internationally recognised expert on the environmental design issues of tall buildings, Professor Lim is also chairman of the international body the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat's 'Planning and Environmental Criteria' Committee.
Professor Lim said the community needed to come to terms with tall build- ing proposals in dense urban areas, be- cause land values would make low or
Professor Bill Lim
medium density development un- economical. To support this statement he cited a building planned for Japan which will be more than a kilometre tall- twice as high as the world's tallest standing building, Chicago's Sears Tower.
The proposed building will have layered trays, each standing 56 metres high and comprising a fully self-con- tained mini city.
Convocation seen as c . atalyst _ for . change
Newly appointed Warden of Con- vocation, Mr Mark Raymond, dis- cussed the future directions of the in- fant QUT body.
He graduated in civil engineering in 1982 and now owns the consultancy company Quality Assurance Manage- ment.
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"I see com•ocation is as a catalyst for QUT graduates to place expertise
hack into the institution.
This can he done in a number of ways including being a I'Oice in the decision making proass, 1·isiting schools and advertising l'acant posi- tions for industry to the benefit of both members and studems.
I admit that some of these areas m•er/ap with goals alumni groups ha1•e set, hut feel that duplication could he avoided if tasks were designated to either one or the other.
Oh1·iously where alumni groups hm•e already begun a project then they should continue, hut where their resources are limited con1·ocation could help relieve the burden.
To this end I hope the members will play a large and acti1•e role in con-
\'ocation.
The group has a commitmem to pass on to Council any queries or sug- gestions its members may raise.
As warden I hm•e had the challeng- ing task of organising convocation.
This was made more difficult initially because we had to define what jurisdic- tion coni'Ocation covered and what should he tackled first.
We established a working party which decided the role of com·ocation and how often meetings will he held.
Full com•ocation meetings will he an annual event with a standing commit- tee meeting every six weeks. "
Spuds tell a Green Story
A humble bag of spuds and a Bolivian hat are fast becoming the trademarks of biology lecturer Dr Grahame Kelly when he discusses Greenhouse gas emissions.
When Dr Kelly jumped up at a February science conference in Tas- mania and hoisted a bag of potatoes above his head to make a graphic il- lustration of daily human carbon emis- sion, it wasn't the first time he had done so.
His point is simple. The average Australasian is responsible for pump- ing 7.4 kg of carbon daily into the at- mosphere through burning fossil fuels and deforestation.
According to Dr Kelly"s argument, a person would have to gobble up 80 kg of potatoes to breathe out that 7.4 kg of carbon daily.
His spud episode attracted national media coverage during the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS) conference at the Umversity of Tas- mania from 14 to 16 February.
The conference, themed 'Global Change and the South West Pacific', attracted about 600 scientists from various disciplines.
And the Bolivian hat'1 It is Dr Kelly's way of challenging the politi · cally-elusive term "sustainable development".
Like a grow1ng number of academics, Dr Kelly believes the term
Is like "military intelligence"-mutual- ly exclusive!
His solution to environmental degradation is in fact "de- develop- ment''.
In his view. the industrially-simple Bolivian lifestyle should be a model for the future direction of the western world.
"There are many poor countnes which emulate western civilisation.
Any contributions on Australia's part (to reduce Greenhouse gas emissions) will be far outweigh<-d by these countries trying to catch up with the west."
Dr Kelly said that even though Bolivia was a relatively undeveloped country. it generated the equivalent of .05 kg per head of carbon daily in fossil fuel emissions. If the Bolivians were to breathe out this carbon themselves, they would need to eat only 5 kg of potatoes.
Dr Kelly believes that politicians will only seek solutions to the Green- house effect after scientists deliver the
"cold hard facts" that it is actually oc- curring.
Biology lecturer Dr Grahame Kelly making an environmental statement with potatoes and a Bolivian hat.
"The ozone story sat around for about 15 years before it was actually confirmed and then all hell broke loose in politics and the banning of CFCs began. I predict that will happen with the Greenhouse issue," Dr Kelly said.
"If the hotter temperatures of the
1980s continue through the 1990s the figures could become statistically sig- nificant and then the Greenhouse Ef- fect will be confirn1ed.
"At present there io., no evidence that it is actually happening-it is still only a theory." he said.
Along with the two "popular" issues of ozone depletion and Greenhouse emissions, other environmental issues fortunately received significant ex- posure in the media.
"Soil erosion, deforestation and species extinction - they are not hypotheses. Like ozone, they are the
Boredom is a big laugh for serious funny man Goblet
The man who memorises street directories just for fun, super-serious Elliot Goblet, entertained a very recep- tive lunchtime crowd at the QUT Gar- dens Point Campus Club earlier this month.
Melbourne-based comedian Jack Levi has made the stage personality El- liot Goblet and his fascination with the dull and boring into a roaring comedy hit.
Elliot is known for his less-than-ex- cited product endorsement in a car television commercial. He will also be familiar to Triple M-FM 104 radio lis- teners with his Thought of the Day spot in the afternoons, and TV viewers may have seen him in comedy sketches on Hinch, Hey Hey It's Saturday and the Big Gig.
He has also injected monotone low- energy humour into corporate videos, live theatre, conference and campus meetings, and hotel shows.
The QUT performance marked the start of the 40-year-old funny man's Queensland tour from March 13 to 18.
The campus club was packed to hear Elliot's liking for oddities including skin-coloured tatoos, televised chess games with action replays and ozone-
friendly roll-on surface fly spray.
Brisbane rock comedian Paul McKel warmed up the crowd as a roving guitarist. His comedy agency, Paul
McKel Management, organised Goblet's tour.
The show was financed by QUT Student Guild's activities budget.
Rock Comedian Paul McKel shakes hands with an unsuspecting student in a warm-up performance to Elliot Goblet.
Month by month
From clocking the heart beat of Australia's Olympic swimmers on the cover of the last issue of 'Inside OUT' physicist Dr Bob Treffene has diverged to monitoring horse heart rates.
He addressed veterinarians in Toowoomba this month on the advantages of heart rate monitoring in racehorse training.
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The Key Centre in Strategic Management will hold a series of lunchtime lectures on management topics during first semester.
Australian and international experts will talk on quality, strategic management, human resources, labour relations and economic issues.
The lectures will be held on Thursdays, Room 509 in B Block between 12.30 pm and 2 pm.
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A group of hedonistic and chocolate addicted students has banded together to form the 'Chocolate Appreciation Society'. Slogans such as 'Free Nestle Mandela' reveal that club members are socially aware of the struggle facing chocolate in such a health conscious environment.
To combat chocolate's 'bad-boy' image, members are rallying for a Chocolate Ball (a black tie and chocolate event), the Indoor Chocolympics and a OUT easter egg hunt.
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Editor of the new Australian 'Design World' magazine, Mr Colin Wood, visited the QUT Charles Fulton School of Architecture and Industrial Design this month. A forthcoming issue of the magazine will feature the QUT course and student designs.
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Here's a tale for the "confusing names" file. The fact that Central Records in U Block has a Tina and a Lissette is nothing so strange.
But when unsuspecting souls venture into a nearby office and find Tina Lissette, they really start scratching their heads!!
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The fame of the OUT-tested "Shuroo" device has spread far and wide.
A Japanese film crew visited Australia recently to investigate travel safety and queried Greyhound about the problem of kangaroos on country roads. Greyhound was quick to mention
"Shuroo", a vehicle device which emits a high-frequenc.v sound to frighten nearby kangaroos.
Within the next week, a full team arrived from Japan including Uki, Japan's answer to Beyond 2000's Carmel Travers. The team travelled in a helicopter to Stradbroke Island to find a wild kangaroo herd, and scared them most satisfactorily.
The Japanese film crew was last seen panting across the sand
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Japanese contract
Electrical engineering expertise unique to QUT is being tapped in japan, a world giant in electronic technology.
The Heavy Current Laboratory in the School of Electrical and Electronic Systems Engineering recently com- pleted research into circuit breakers, commissioned late last year by a large Japanese manufacturing company.
With the help of the testing com- pleted earlier this month and a report now being prepared, the company will be better able to design its products.
Circuit breakers are used in build- ings to interrupt electrical current when electrical faults with the potential to spark fires develop. They also provide protection from live currents.
Senior lecturer in charge of the laboratory, Mr David Birtwhistle, said QUT was the only centre in Australia which had developed techniques for making impedance measures (the resis- tance to flow of alternating currents in alternating circuits) on high-current circuit breakers.
The Japanese contract was initially sparked when Mr Birtwhistle took professional experience leave to Japan in 1984 and looked at the testing facilities of circuit breaker manufac- turer Teraski Denki.
The company is second only to Mit- subishi in the manufacture of moulded- case circuit breakers and has its own laboratories in Osaka.
A company representative visited QUT in 1987 during a promotional sales tour of Australia, noted techni- ques and asked for the measurements to be done, Mr Birtwhistle said.
"The commissioning of this research by a Japanese company was quite a feather in QUT's cap," he added.
Measurements from eight industrial circuit breakers were looked at during the $13 000 research project.
As a result of the work, manufac- turers now know exactly how much power is dissipated by circuit breakers - information which assists in the design of the steel enclosures or the switch boards to which they are con- nected.
This information is essential for manufacturers meeting modern day demand for smaller circuit breakers capable of carrying increasingly larger currents.
"With high rise buildings. for ex- ample, the electrical power consump- tion in the building has risen dramati-. cally because of increased use of electronic equipment and computer systems," Mr Birtwhistle said.
"At the same time, however, there is an economic requirement that space for switch board rooms be minimised.
"The manufacturers now have far more precise information to meet this demand."
The technique developed by the QUT laboratory team measures very small potential differences in very noisy electronic environments. (Noisy meaning that the magnetic field as- sociated with high currents causes in- terfering potential differences of higher magnitude than the potential differen- ces being measured).
The potential difference is the electrical pressure drop across a circuit breaker. To determine the impedance measure, the potential difference is divided by the flow of electrical cur- rent.
Mr Birtwhistle said the work would also have an impact on the way type tests were specified in international standards.
Postgrads tackle a tough trio
QUT awarded its first three Commonwealth Postgraduate Research Scholarships last year after the granting of university status. Doctoral Commonwealth award winners were medical laboratory scientist Suzanne Elliott and optometrist Sally Falconer.
Biology masters student Raelee Whyte won a Commonwealth postgraduate research award. At the beginning of this year, the awards were renamed the Australian Postgraduate Research A wards.
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Biology masters student Raelee Whyte looking into the reproductive cycle of wingless cockroaches.
Clue in cockroach control
When Biology student Raelee Whyte tells people at parties that she studies the mating habits of wingless cockroaches, she predictably gets some amusing reactions.
However, Raelee's masters degree research could provide a desperately- needed breakthrough to save millions of dollars worth of oilseed crops ravaged by the pest in the central high- lands near Emerald.
In spite of a distinct dislike for the household variety, Raelee has handled thousands of the "quite cute" wingless breed to collect basic data on their reproductive cycle and development.
''I'm trying to see if there is an weak- ness in their life cycle where a biologi- cal control could be applied," she said.
An organo-chlorine pesticide Chlor- pyrifos is currently used to control the pests which prey on crops at the see- dling stage - often chewing up thousands of square hectares.
Supervisor Dr Chris King suggested the research after discussions with the Emerald Department of Primary In- dustries. Raelee hopes to make a field trip to the area later in the year.
After graduating in 1987, Rae lee started her masters part-time in 1988 while working as a QUT research as- sistant.
Now in the process of analysing her data, she hopes to finish her masters by the end of the year. She may then un- dertake doctoral research to continue her investigations.
Vi sio n link in learn ing
Linking a child's vision, reading problems and classroom perfor- mance is a PhD focus for optometrist Sally Falconer.
Her work will test two conflicting schools of thought in optometry, and could provide a breakthrough in the way childhood vision is viewed.
Ms Falconer will examine the vision of about 30 children at Mackay op- tometry practice Hartley and Dolan.
She will then study the effect which the prescription of near-point (reading) glasses has on reading ability and academic achievement.
"Near-point lenses are frequently used in America, but traditional op- tometry views them with some scep- ticism," Ms Falconer said from her Mackay office.
"While some believe they improve reading, others claim they simply have a placebo effect.
"Traditional lines of thought cannot see how they can work because there is no substantial proof other than anecdo- tal evidence and single case studies."
Ms Falconer's study will test below- average readers, but not children with pronounced difficulties like dyslexia.
Having graduated with first class honours in 1988, Ms Falconer began her doctoral study last year concentrat- ing on background reading and a litera- ture review.
Early this year she began her re- search program at the Mackay clinic at the invitation of partner Leo Hartley junior. She is now seeing patients, practising techniques and designing her study.
"I will be devoting a lot of attention to the avoidance of biases and hope to finish the experiment by Christmas."
Ms Falconer then plans to return to Brisbane and complete her data analysis and conclusions by the end of next year.
Her supervisors are Professor Brian Brown and Ms Christine Wildsoet.
Optometrist Sally Falconer.
Leukaemia therapy testing
Increased funding for QUT can- cer research studies reflects the university's growing profile as a na- tional centre for research projects.
Research teams from the university's Centre for Molecular Biotechnology are currently involved in three cancer projects.
Apart from independent grants, the projects have jointly received a $25 000 QUT collaborative research grant.
Cancer research scientist and centre member, Mr Peter Timms, predicted that funding for the unit would climb steeply as the university received recognition for cancer biotechnology research.
In one of the projects, a QUT re- searcher has begun monitoring chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) patients treated with a new drug combination.
Medical laboratory science PhD candidate, Ms Suzanne Elliott, said the monit()ring gave doctors an insight into the extent to which the drug therapy combated the disease.
International pharmaceutical com- pany Hoffman-LaRoche Biomedical released the drug (a combination of the wonder-drug "interferon" and an estab- lished cancer therapy drug) to Brisbane's Mater Hospital a year ago.
Director of Haematology at the Mater Hospital, Dr Kerry Taylor, has coordinated the trial.
Project supervisor, Mr Timms, said:
"CML sufferers usually die less than five years after diagnosis, from secon- dary disease caused through lack of im- munity.
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"The drug will be a welcome ad- junct to treatment."
Chronic myeloid leukaemia is one of the best characterised forms of malignancy. The disease has a charac- teristic chromosome marker which develops when two chromosomes (strands of DNA material) snap and rejoin - exchanging genetic informa- tion.
Ms Elliott has used DNA analyses to examine the restructured chromosomes of cells affected with CML. In this way she has been able to monitor the disease's progression, or, more correctly, its regression in response to the drug treatment.
Because many cancer therapies have unwanted side-effects, it is impor- tant to minimise treatment.
Ms Elliott said: "DNA analyses allow the researcher to monitor molecular changes of this disease to indicate when the treatment has been most effective."
The research was supported last year with a $3000 J.P. Kelly Grant from the Mater Hospital and $3000 from QUT's Centre for Molecular Biotechnology. Support will continue this year.
Winner of the Leslie Vacation Scholarship, QUT honours student Ms Moyra Wood, assisted Ms Elliott during December and January. The Australian Cancer Society-awarded scholarship was for seven weeks. It was the first time a QUT student had received the award - one of two given in Queensland.
Medica/laboratory science PhD student Suzanne Elliott
QUT uncovers asbestos in local ABC studios
Tests conducted at the QUT Fibre Identification Laboratory this month detected potentially fatal asbestos in the ABC concert studios in West End.
Applied Geology laboratory tech- nician Mr Bill Kwiecien said the ABC acted immediately to have contractors remove the asbestos after its presence was identified.
He confirmed that the brown (amosite) and white (chrysotile) asbes- tos, although not as dangerous as the blue, could still have constituted a major health risk.
"Heavy rain washed the asbestos surrounding a box gutter in the build- Page 4 INSIDE OUT, 30 March 1990
ing ceiling on to the floor. Fortunately, because it remained wet, it was not a health risk," Mr Kwiecien said.
He explained that asbestos was a fibrous mineral which was only harm- ful when airborne.
"Once the fibres get into the air they do not settle. Rather like a gas, they continue to float. In this instance air monitoring analysis by a private laboratory confirmed readings were below the maximum permissible level."
The ABC contacted Australian Con- struction Services, another federal body, which in tum approached QUT
for test confirmation that the fallen material was in fact asbestos. Confir- mation was made in less than 12 hours, and contractors immediately sealed the building to allow removal to begin.
Mr Kwiecien said there was still a great deal of asbestos around, because Australia had been one of the largest users of the material.
"It was used in over 3000 products
and can be found in home building materials and even in toasters, as a heat insulant. But I must stress that it doesn't constitute a risk unless dis- turbed, by renovation for example," he said.
Exposure to airborne asbestos can cause asbestosis (where fibres lodge in the lungs forming scar tissue which prevents oxygen from passing into the blood), mesothelioma (a rare asbestos- caused cancer which attacks the lining of the lungs and gut) and lung cancer.
Experts estimate that about 4000 Australians may die from asbestos ex- posure by the mid-1990s.
Mr Kwiecien said the QUT laboratory, the only independent facility in Queensland, usually did not release client details.
Right: An air filter in a city building captures amosite asbestos.
N.ew.AIDS pap~~ Act will harm aged
h I g h II g h t S I e g a II t I e S
A QUT accountancy lecturer has "Nursing homes, hostels, retirement will be over 60.The first paper to consider the legislative aspects of AIDS in Australia claims that inconsistency, inaccuracy and confusion mark the legal response to the disease in this country.
The paper, written by QUT lawyer Mr Phillip Tahmindjis, considers whether Australian laws help or hinder community concern, and concludes that the legal response generally is counter-productive to the medical and social battle against the disease.
Mr Tahmindjis' paper covers legis- lative attempts at control, including notification requirements, penalties, criminal sanctions and compulsory treatment provisions.
According to the paper, the Australian government recognises a four-tiered classification system for Human Immune Deficiency Virus (HIV), while most legislation relates to a previous three-tiered classification system.
The report highlights other anomalies including the conflict be- tween medical ethics dictating that a doctor maintain patient confidentiality and legislation compelling notification of certain diseases to government health authorities, and the lack of con- sistency between the laws of different Australian states and the penalties they imposed.
Mr Tahmindjis said: "Unfortunately the notification provisions throughout Australia are neither clear nor consis- tent. The legal classifications of the conditions which must be notified dif- fer, and lack medical accuracy."
He said legislation on notification in Queensland, together with the North-
em Territory, Tasmania and the ACT,
simply mentioned 'acquired immune deficiency syndrome', while in other states additional HIV classifications were recognised.
Mr Tahmindjis said a 1984 amend- ment to Section 5 of the Queensland Health Act added AIDS to the defini- tion of a venereal disease.
"Classifying AIDS as being venereal, while legislatively possible, was medically incorrect, because the disease can be transmitted by other means than sexual intercourse", Mr Tahmindjis explained.
The subsequent Health Act Amend- ment Act introduced in 1988 repealed all provisions relating to venereal dis- eases, and introduced a new Section 32A. Patients suffering from any dis- ease deemed as 'notifiable' must now be reported.
Mr Tahmindjis argues in the paper that this legal provision creates a dilemma for the medical profession - the choice between complying with the law, and exposing patients to the stig-
/ / Mr Phillip Tahmindjis.
rna of being an AIDS sufferer.
The penalty for failing to notify authorities ranges from $50 in some Australian states to a four-sum figure.
Hence, notification procedures are often ignored.
"Such penalties and discrimination result in deliberate under- reporting of AIDS by doctors to protect patients from the social and financial conse- quences," Mr Tahmindjis said.
One consolation under Queensland law is that the patient's identity must be masked to preserve anonymity.
The paper highlights another area of concern for Queenslanders, the Limita- tion of Actions Act 1974-81, which prescribes a three year period for the initiation of a civil action for personal injury.
"Given that AIDS may be able to incubate for up to five years without detection, the three year period is un- just and should be amended in cases such as where AIDS was caught after negligent transfusion with infected blood".
Mr Tahmindjis' paper quotes Na- tional Health and Medical Research Council figures which show that in Australia between 1982 and 1986, there were an average 38 deaths an- nually due to AIDS. By 1986 this fig- ure had risen to 90.
"In comparison, the number of deaths in 1984 from road accidents was 2785 and 23 239 from tobacco related disease. AIDS, however, attracted more social hysteria and a more savage legal response," he said. This was not discounting the possibility, however, that the number of AIDS deaths could increase.
"In a crisis that is as much about prejudice as public health, the legal response should be marked with precision and characterised by finesse.
"Applying to tum-of-the-century in- fectious diseases legislation to AIDS is not such a response."
expressed reticence over recent village~, hos~itals and_ he~lth services :'At present the .state i~ spending Queensland legislation to guard the for the ~ged have traditionally been run tw1ce as much on average for every
ld I , . h.
1 , by prof1t-1nsp1red ventures, but th1s IS elderly person as IllS for every younger e er Y agamst unet •ca operators all about to change," he wrote in the person," he said.
and developers of aged peoples' latest issue of Q Biz, a QUT-produced His main reservation about the
homes. businessjoumal. legislation was that governments
Mr Myles McGregor-Lowndes said Mr McGregor-Lowndes forecast would no longer be able to provide the that while the Retirement Villages Act that ventures of this type would be- same level of assistance for the aged, 1989 created a much-needed register to come one of the most rapidly growing leaving the balance to be met by private strictly vet all schemes for retirement segments of the economy. enterprise.
homes, it could, in the long- term, leave "Developers are moving to establish The aged peoples home sector was Queensland short of accommodation chains of villages," he sa1d, citing rocked in the late eighties by scandals for the aged. statistics to illustrate the importance of involving large sums of money. In
"The act is consumer-oriented, private enterprise interest in such ven- response the Federal Government at- seeking to protect the investment of tures. "In 1981 there were about two tempted to regulate the industry residents and their lifestyle," Mr Me- million people aged 60 and over in through the Companies Code, but later Gregor- Lowndes said. "The exacting Australia - about 14 percent of the handed responsibility to the individual nature of the legislation, could result in population. By 2021 when the baby states.
developers turning their atlention to boom generation reaches retirement The Queensland act was then less states with less restrictive laws. nearly one in four people in Australia passed.
Geologist returns inspired
Overseas travel and souvenirs are synonymous, and Geology lecturer David O'Connell has combined them to add a new dimension to his 20- year QUT teaching career.
Under the QUT's Professional Ex- perience Program (PEP), Mr O'- Connell toured for six months from mid-June last year to America, England, Spain, South Africa and Zim- babwe.
His souvenirs include a large collec- tion of rock and mineral specimens and 300 slides of some of the largest, most impressive mines in the world.
One of the first components of the program was attending the 28th Inter- national Geological Congress in Washington, DC. A one-day sym- posium on geological education within the I 0-day program was of particular interest and benefit, Mr O'Connell said.
As a teacher in economic geology (the study of mineral deposits which are economic to mine), his trip was devoted largely to visiting gold, lead, kaolin, mercury, chromium and copper mines in America, Spain, Cornwall, and South Africa.
Another major aspect of the PEP tour was four months as a visiting lec- turer The Open University in Milton Keynes, UK, a distance education university open to people who do not have standard entry qualifications.
"The stay there gave me a good look at modular or structured teaching methods and I am planning to apply these in my practical sessions.
"Education generally in England has undergone some significant chan- g.!s recently, including the introduction of a national curriculum with core material involving certain compulsory elements of science which will also have components of geology.
Mr David O'Connell displays part of the rock collection from his overseas travels.
"That's a step we should take in Australia. All students should have some knowledge of geology."
According to Mr O'Connell, the general public needs to be better edu- cated to appreciate the need for mining in Australia.
"Many people have the idea that mining is somehow wrong, yet they still expect to throw a switch and have a light come on, or get in a car and drive. That wouldn't be possible without mining."
Mr O'Connell believes that a major geological issue in the future will be competing land use.
"We will have to prioritise our land use options. A high percentage, about a
quarter, of Australia is not available for mining. Mostly national parks and aboriginal reserves, much this land could be mined and then rehabilitated.
"For example, if you put a forest plantation on some land, it is sterilised for about 30 years or more. If it was mined first and then afforested it would serve both purposes.
"Some kinds of mining, like sand mining, do not tie up the land for very long."
The last leg of Mr O'Connell's trip was a one-day stop-over in Zimbabwe where he took the opportunity to photograph the Victoria Falls, one of the most spectacular geomorphological land forms in the world.
Tax system allows national decline QUT fund ra iser joins respected American team
Tax loopholes have led to
Australia's foreign debt and current corporation crisis, according to QUT Adjunct Law Professor Razeen Sap- pideen.
Acknowledged as an authority on taxation, corporation and banking law, Professor Sappideen has a keen interest in the phenomenon of "junk bonds".
The current trend presents two alter- natives - big winners and big losers. In his view, junk bond investors either succeed enormously and thereby bleed the economy by offsetting their interest debts through company takeovers or, they fail enormously and damage the economy and employment sector by taking dangerously-high risks.
For example, Company A with a profit of $15 million sets its sights on taking over Company B and borrows
$100 million to do so.
Company A will then offset the $20 million interest debt on its loan with its own $15 million profit.
The remaining $5 million interest debt, theoretically, is financed through
the profit and dividends paid out by Company B.
The theory comes unstuck when companies fail to consider the pos- sibility that either Company A or B may not make that all-important profit or that interest rates may sky-rocket as they have done recently.
The direct effect, according to Professor Sappideen, is on Australia's huge foreign debt because corporations borrow vast amounts of foreign money to enter into this potentially lucrative, but highly risky arena.
Another area of interest for Profes- sor Sappideen is what he calls the
"myth" of shareholders being "owners"
of a company.
"That is only so in a private com- pany. Today shareholders are generally not individuals, but huge corporations and financial institutions."
According to Professor Sappideen, the law can do little to protect shareholders from theounwise decisions of such powerful corporations.
"You can only hold them respon-
Professor Razeen Sappideen.
sible if they pocket the money themsel- ves, but they don't. They invest that money further in these high-risk ven- tures.
"If they succeed, there is a gain for the shareholders, if they fail, there is a huge loss and the shareholder gains nothing.
"The way out of this conflict of in-
terest has not really been studied in detail in this country and I wish to re- search that further."
On other taxation issues, Professor Sappideen supports the Capital Gains Tax as an "equitable" levy and criticises the Speculative Gains Tax as a proposal difficult to police. He said it would discriminate unfairly against people forced to sell their homes or businesses because of personal hardship.
Professor Sappideen brings 18 years' experience as a law teacher into the QUT Law Faculty. He will lecture postgraduate and undergraduate stu- dents until the end of his six-month stay on June 30.
Previously he was an Associate Professor at Monash and Macquarie Universities and has worked as a con- sultant for several accounting and law firms in Sydney and Melbourne.
A major professional seminar on 27 March will feature a paper from Profes- sor Sappideen on the tax and stamp duty aspects in financing transactions.
Assistant Dean, Development Mr Rod Miller has become the first Australian to join the core faculty of the most respected fundraising centre in the United States.
Indiana University invited Mr Miller to join its Centre on Philanthropy as a visiting academic, and in that capacity he will travel to the United States for brief periods two or three times a year to contribute to the centre's programs.
During his visits he will retain full- time status at QUT.
"By accepting the invitation I have the opportunity to have regular interac- tion with the world's top fundraisers,"
Mr Miller said.
"The centre was searching for an ex- perienced fundraiser who also had a track record as a teacher.
"QUT also had an impressive profile as a higher education institution which is a leader in fundraising through the QUT Foundation," Mr Miller said.
-
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--·~·a d .. d .. · _ s muscle for uni
OUT gym instructor Rushmore Stork demonstrates the extra muscle the VAX gives the computer centre. OUT's Mr Bill Fisher and DEC sales executive Mrs Brenda Williams look on.
QUT has bought a $2 million DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) computer - and the most powerful VAX in Queensland.
The VAX is the second large com puler purchase for QUT m as many months. Last month the university bought a CONVEX C21 0 rmni super computer.
The DEC VAX 6430 wrll join the univcrsrty 's VAX 8550. increasing the muscle of the cluster four trme~. The VAX 6430 has three processors. each more po\\erfulthan the 8550's proce-,.
sor.
"Through the local area network the clu.,ter will also provide dis"- service to many more of the 600 microcomputers on campus." Mr Fisher said.
The computer. handed over at a ceremony on 20 March. also greatly increases the disk capacity of the clu'>ter to 9600 megabytes of storage.
As part of the purcha'>e. DEC is contracted to install an additional 200 to ~00 connections to complement the 550 ,tlready on the system.
Mr Fisher said: "The VAX 6430 has replaced two older systems \\hich no longer coven:d recurrent CO'> h."
Unlike the VAX. the CONVEX C21 0 rs used for specific applications.
especrally rn engineerrng. science and informatron technology research.
IV10l16Y'~f· first boOk analyses early Au stral ian ci ne m a
QUT's Head of the School of Communication Professor Bruce Molloy concedes in the acknow- ledgements of his new book on early Australian film Before the Interval that it has been "evolving for a long time".
So much so that some of his non- academic colleagues carne to regard it as a myth: professors arc invariably working on a book that will be publish- ed one day.
But in this, his first book. Professor Molloy defines the myths of Austral ian society which provide a common thread for about I 00 Australian films produced between 1930 and 1960.
They comprised 17 by Cinesound including the old Dad and Dare films, five produced by the Ealing Studios including The 01·er/anders, and Char- les Chauvel films including Fort\' Thousand Horsem('ll and .Jedda.
Among the stars were George Wal- lace, Roy Rene (Mo), Michael Pate, Peter Finch and Chips Rafferty.
These strong-on-narratrve film'>
helped shape Australians' perceptions of themselves and consequently their cultural myths and archetype'>.
Recurrent myth'>, Molloy says. con cern the bush. the '>Oiid family and the rnrddle cla-,s. linl,.cd by a spirit of proneering and development. Pronecr- ing in the bu'>h transforn1s readrly into the adventure of -,oldiering. Myth'>
could paper over fundamental drf- fcrences in society.
"Australian audiences were le'>s cynical then because people were less well educated. strong on respectability and conformist," he said.
"Don't forget that in those days the cost of a weekly visit to the movies for a family was included in calculation of the basic wage."
While most films being screened were American, being churned out at about 500 per year, Australian films were taken seriously because of their comparative rarity.
The significance of the book's title is that very few Australian films were produced from 1960 until about 1975.
Then. influenced by a "new nationali-,m". the local industry picked up again, fostered by the Australian Film Development Corporation.
And Professor Molloy's favourite film of the era? Charles Chauvel's Un- cit·i/ised, -,hot in 1936 on Palm hland.
He describes the film as a '\trange, quir"-y Tau an-I ike adventure".
The book was launched by Educa- tion Minister. Mr Braddy, on 13 March at the State Library.
The initral print run through Unrvcr- srty of Queensland Press was I 000.
The fact that Molloy i-, now co-edit ing. with Jonathan Dawson. another boo"- for release in June this year on how Quecn\land is represented rn con- temporar) film and television puts paid to the professorial hook ""riling "one day" myth.
Professor Bruce Molloy
'
Qt..:T Director of Computing Ser nces. Mr Bill Fisher. said the system would rncrease computing capabilrty for student use and in administrative areas such as -,tudent records. person- nel and finance.
"It \\ill service the AARNet (Australian Academic and Re-,earch etwor"-l wide area networl,. system to enable QUT to communicate directly
\\ ith universities and computers throughout the world.
Parochial loyalties thwart
national hig hway systems BERT BAILEY mlc~tW.t FIU.O MACDONALD
DICK rAi~ :.."':!~c .... ,
Minister moots manufacturing
The State Government will create a Centre for Manufacturing Sl,.ills Development to enhance the viability of existing industry.
This will be coupled with a Business Regulation Review Unit to make Qu~ensland a more auractive place to establish businesses.
The initiatives were announced by the new Minister for Manufacturing and Commerce, Mr Smith. ar a joint QUT/Department of Manufacturing and Commerce brea"-fast on 8 March at the Brisbane Hilton.
"Of all the sectors of economic ac- tivity in Queensland. the one identified as having the greatest potential for im- provement is manufacturing," he said.
The Centre for Manufacturing Skills Development would provide a new focus for the development and delivery of extension services through the joint- ly funded Commonwealth/Stare Na- tional Industry Extension Service. As- sistance would be provided in strategic and business planning; upgrading of sl,.ills in management, product development. design and marketing;
and the application of advanced manufacturing technologies.
The Business Regulation Review Unit would conduct a systematic review of legislation and regulations affecting economic development to im- prove effeciency. ·The process would provide for input from industry and small business.
Mr Smith abo indicated the government's continued support for the Technology Quadrangle (TECH- QUAD). aimed at achieving collabora- tion among South East Queensland's four universities and the business sec- tor.
An assistance program to enhance the level of R&D by Queensland in- dustry was also on the agenda.
Page 6 INSIDE OUT, 30 March 1990
Parochial state lovalties are threatening vital r.eforms in Australia's transport system, ac- cording to the School of l\llanagement's first Adjunct Profes- sor.
In his non-academic role as an Inter- State Commi'>Sioncr (a role somewhat equivalent in '>latus to a high court judge}, Professor Ted Kolsen gained a unique insight into the way Australia deals with its transport problems.
"We have six states, two territories and the Federal registration - that's nine sets of road vehicle fees and that's barmy."
In Professor Kolsen's view, the states should have only limited power to govern their own individual tranS!JOrt systems. The parochial ap- proach has lead to states allocating far more funding for internal highways (like the Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast motorway) than for upgrading highways linking the states.
"Even today, a divided four-lane highway is not yet complete between Sydney and Melbourne - the two
largest. most populou'> centres in the country."
The Inter-State commi-,.,ion. based in Canberra wa'> initiated in 1913 operating a'> an rndepcndent bod) recommending to government on various issues.
Professor Kolsen wa-, appointed to the Commrs-,ion when it was re-estab- lished by the Whitlam government in March 1984 to report specifically on interstate transport. He resigned from the now-defunct body in June 1986.
On March 9. while the nation's media focused on Prime Minbter Bob Hawke's election policy launched un Brisbane, the Inter-State Commission quitely "dissolved" with lillie media coverage.
Interstate road and rail systems in Australia are at the top of Professor Kolscn 's list for major microeconomic reform. He advocates a national rail- way system under Federal Govern- ment management.
After his resignation from the Inter- State Commission Professor Kolsen continued his academic career at the
Professor Ted Kolsen: State and Federal conflicts stand in the way of a unified national transport system.
Queensland Univcr-,ity EconomiC'>
Department before rctrring rn June la•.t year. The 63-year-old academic was awarded the honorary Professor Emeritus title on his retrremcnt.
Professor Kolsen's six-month ap- pointment with QUT began on February I. He will lecture both post and undergraduate students and will assist in the Key Centre in Strategic Management.
~ .. .., ... il:i.
The classic film series on Dad and Dave is one of many discussed in
"Before the Interval". The films helped create an Aussie archetype.
Father of fund raising ha il s course 'overdue'
QUT's new fundraising strand, believed to be first tertiary- level course of its type in the world, has been hailed by an intemational expert as
"long overdue".
Adjunct Professor Evcrald Com- pton, international fundraiser and visit- ing professor at QUT this semester to help launch the new strand. said the fast-growing fundraising industry badly needed academic standards.
"As governments cut back on fund- ing, all sorts of organisations are forced to raise money from the community to fulfil their aims," he said. "They literal- ly cannot afford to have unprofessional fundraising standards deterring the support of volunteers."
Acknowledged as the father of fundraising in Australia. Professor Compton, determined to make an im- mediate impact on the standard of the local industry. is organising a five-day course at QUT for board members and senior people with an interest in fundraising.
Scheduled for 1-6 July, it will fea- ture international speakers and input from the Indiana University Centre on Philanthropy.
"In the longer term, QUT's new two- year part-time Graduate Diploma course in fundraising will prepare the professionals of tomorrow," Professor Compton said.
A qualified accountant, he estab-
lished what is now Australia's largest fundraising consultancy, Everald Compton International, 34 years ago.
The firm has offices throughout Australia as well as in Britain, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa, where it helped raise funds for the anti-apart- heid opposition.
"One of the opposition's campaigns at the last election, where the party went close to toppling the government, was to free Mandela.
"The party's success was a crucial factor in his release, so I feel I have played a small part in the granting of his freedom," Professor Compton said.
Professor Everald Compton
