Heart

• Overview
  This is a summary of the scientific conclusions reached by the Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products (HMPC) on the medicinal uses of mouse-ear hawkweed.
• The HMPC conclusions are taken into account by EU Member States when evaluating applications for the licensing of herbal medicines containing mouse-ear hawkweed.
• Herbal medicines containing mouse-ear hawkweed are usually available as a herbal tea to be drunk and in solid forms to be taken by mouth.
• Key facts
  - Latin name
  - Pilosellae herba cum radice
  - English common name
  - Mouse-ear hawkweed
  - Botanical name
  Hieracium pilosella L.
  - Therapeutic area
  - Urinary tract and genital disorders
  - Status
  - F: Assessment finalised
  - Date added to the inventory
  - Date added to priority list
  - Outcome of European assessment
  - European Union herbal monograph

Orphan designation: (S)-8-{2-amino-6-[1-(5-chloro-biphenyl-2-yl)-(R)-2,2,2-trifluoro-ethoxy]-pyrimidin-4-yl}-2,8-diaza-spiro[4.5]decane-3-carboxylic acid ethyl ester Treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension, 20/04/2017 Positive

• Anthony Albanese will outline on Thursday a strongly interventionist role for government to make Australia competitive in a world requiring us to “break with old orthodoxies”.
• In a major pre-budget address that puts industry policy at the heart of this agenda, the Prime Minister will declare his government “will not be an observer or a spectator – we will be a participant, a partner, an investor and enabler”.
• To underpin the case for the government’s direction, Albanese highlights comparable countries that are investing in their industrial base, manufacturing capability and economic sovereignty.

‘Not old-fashioned protectionism’

• Australia continued to champion global markets, but “equally, we must recognise that the partners we seek are moving to the beat of a new economic reality”.
• “All these countries are investing in their industrial base, their manufacturing capability and their economic sovereignty.
• And – critically – none of this is merely being left to market forces or trusted to the invisible hand.
• "The heavy lifting of economic transition and industrial transformation is not being done by individuals, companies or communities on their own.
• "It is being facilitated, enabled and empowered by national Governments from every point on the political spectrum.
• Ramping up a rhetoric of urgency, Albanese says: “We need to be clear-eyed about the economic realities of this decade.

Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• Bruce Pascoe is best known for his natural history, Dark Emu, which argues that systems of pre-colonial food production and land management in Australia have been dramatically understated.
• At last count, the book had sold at least 360,000 copies of the original edition – and many more in the form of adaptations, translations, children’s and overseas editions.
• Since the publication of Dark Emu in 2014, Pascoe has had to endure extraordinary public scrutiny, as well as vehement attacks on his personal and professional reputation.

• In light of the last ten years, Black Duck: A Year at Yumburra is a healing and necessary book.
• The farm is a deliberate project designed to test, extend and materialise some of the ideas put forward in Dark Emu.
• The meaning of Yumburra, Pascoe tells us, is Black Duck, the “supreme spiritual being of Yuin country”.

Six seasons on the farm

• Through more than 60 subtitled journal entries, accompanied by numerous photographs and sketches, Pascoe charts the activities of his days.
• These include labouring chores on the farm, visits paid and received (both there and interstate), thoughts, visions and experiments with food and agriculture, and memories and reflections on relationships reaching far back into childhood.
• Pascoe describes life on the farm as solitary at times, but also active.
• Daily farm work includes clearing watercourses or fixing tools and machinery, and at these times his friendships with the nonhuman are forged in both subtle and overt ways.

• Despite their vigilance, the Spur-winged Plover loses a lot of chicks to eagles and foxes […] Their calls are ever-present on the farm.
• If the horses gallop, an eagle passes, a dingo wakes or a car arrives, you hear about it instantly.
• You can’t make friend with Birran Durran Durran because everything is a threat in its opinion.
• Despite their vigilance, the Spur-winged Plover loses a lot of chicks to eagles and foxes […] Their calls are ever-present on the farm.

• There is a sense of time moving on through the seasons.
• Yumburra, too, was affected by that event, leading one of the farm workers to rename a whole section of the farm “Apocalypse Valley” in the aftermath.
• “The unbridled pleasure I used to take in the forest, waters and shores is now tinged with sadness and dread.”

A true storyteller

• The author is respectfully light on detail on these matters, but the reader is left in no doubt about their deep importance to him.
• Pascoe’s authorial style sometimes comes across as a touch too lackadaisical and larrikin-esque, drifting as if unmoored.
• And yet, he’s a true storyteller – and no sooner have you hesitated, than he reels you in again, and has you marvelling with him at the grandchildren’s handstands and cartwheels on the paddle board on the river, or at the cunning of the dingo pair who’ve taken out a young Buru (kangaroo) by gripping him by the ears and drowning him.
• I assume it was the same animal because she made a great point of making sure I was watching her expertise.
• It might be a romantic thought or a wish for longevity of a friend but, whatever the case, I enjoy the personality.“

• Sometimes Pascoe quotes from her journal entries, discrete and beautifully rendered observations of wildlife on her own nearby property.
• But as I was reading, I found myself wondering how else Lyn contributed to the book, and on what terms.

Connection to culture and Country

• For anyone with lingering doubts about Pascoe’s commitment and connection to Country, this book will set them straight.
• It is a quiet, funny, warm and insistent call to return to and care for Country.

Julienne van Loon has been a recipient of funding from Creative Australia, Creative Victoria and ArtsWA.