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Background: Despite the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation that pregnant women be prioritised for seasonal influenza vaccination, coverage in the Western Pacific Region remains low. Our goal was to provide additional data for the Western Pacific Region about the value of maternal influenza vaccination to pregnant women and their families. Methods: We conducted a 16‐year retrospective cohort to evaluate risks associated with influenza‐associated maternal acute respiratory infection (ARI) in New Zealand. ARI hospitalisations during the May to September influenza season were identified using select ICD‐10‐AM primary and secondary discharge codes from chapter J00–J99 (diseases of the respiratory system). Cox proportional hazards models were used to calculate crude and adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: We identified 822,391 pregnancies among New Zealand residents between 2003 and 2018; 5095 (0.6%) had ≥1 associated ARI hospitalisation during the influenza season; these pregnancies were at greater risk of preterm birth (aHR 1.50, 95% CI 1.39–1.61) and low birthweight (aHR 1.64, 95% CI 1.51–1.79) than pregnancies without such hospitalisations. We did not find an association between maternal ARI hospitalisation and fetal death (aHR 0.96, 95% CI 0.69–1.34) during the influenza season. Maternal influenza vaccination was associated with reduced risk of preterm birth (aHR 0.79, 95% CI 0.77–0.82), low birthweight (aHR 0.87, 95% CI 0.83–0.90) and fetal death (aHR 0.50%, 95% CI 0.44–0.57). Conclusion: In this population‐based cohort, being hospitalised for an ARI during the influenza season while pregnant was a risk factor for delivering a preterm or a low birthweight infant and vaccination reduced this risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussion of the role of migrant care workers in long-term care (LTC) that has gained increasing attention in the United States and other developed countries in recent years is of particular relevance to Australia, where 24% of the total population is overseas-born, two-thirds of them coming from countries where English is not the primary language. Issues of interest arise regarding meeting LTC workforce demands in general and responding to the particular cultural and linguistic needs of postwar immigrants who are now reaching old age in increasing numbers. This review begins with an account of the overseas-born components of the aged care workforce and then examines this representation with reference to the four factors identified as shaping international flows of care workers in the comparative study carried out for the AARP Public Policy Institute in 2005: migration policies, LTC financing arrangements, worker recruitment and training, and credentialing. The ways in which these factors play out in Australia mean that while overseas-born workers are overrepresented in the LTC workforce, migrant care workers are not identifiable as a marginalized group experiencing disadvantage in employment conditions, nor do they offer a solution to workforce shortages. The Australian experience is different from those of other countries in many respects, but it does show that the experience of migrant care workers is not unique to LTC and points to the need to extend the search for solutions to workforce shortages and improving conditions of all care workers well beyond L TC systems to wider policy settings. KEYWORDS Australia, immigration, long-term care, overseas workers, workforce DOI: 10.1080/08959420903167140

Retirement incomes and aged care have both received considerable policy attention in Australia over the last three decades, but as in other countries, the two financing systems have remained largely separate in policy and practice. The problem is located at the intersection of wider policy debates about shifts from public to private welfare and concerns over intergenerational equity. This paper aims to integrate these related debates by incorporating aged care into the "pillars" framework used to understand retirement incomes. We propose an Aged Care Superannuation Levy applied to superannuation fund earnings, winding back the large and growing public tax concessions that support this pillar of private defined contribution pensions in Australia's retirement income system. This revenue would create a social insurance pillar for aged care to stand alongside the four other pillars of retirement incomes that interact variously with aged care financing. Interest in a social insurance pillar of aged care financing is renewed in the light of the Royal Commission into quality and safety of aged care that reported in February 2021. As the Royal Commission recommendations on financing were divided and not taken up in government policy, the way remains opens for further consideration of the alternative approach proposed here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of major reforms implemented through the mid 1980s sought to contain residential care and expand community care in Australia's long-term care system. While this goal has been maintained, a number of new policy initiatives followed the change of federal government in 1996. This article presents a systematic account of current policy objectives, implementation measures, and outcomes in three major policy areas: changing the balance between residential and community care, targeting in community care, and support for family caregivers. This analysis shows that while there have been shifts in emphasis from time to time, concerted policy efforts over the last 20 years have contained the growth of expenditure on long-term care and realized significant change in the service system. KEYWORDS. Assessment, Australia, caregivers, community care, targeting, planning