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The Australian economy has changed dramatically over the past quarter of a century. The combination of neoliberal reform, increasing dependence on natural resources, the rise of the services economy and the restructuring of the nation’s manufacturing sector has collectively transformed the national spatial economy. The publication of Fagan and Webber’s Global Restructuring: The Australian Experience in 1994 provided an overview of the shifting geographies of the nation’s economy as the country transitioned from relative stability during the ‘long boom’ after the Second World War into a period of rapid economic and policy change during the 1980s and 1990s. Despite the changes, Antipodean economic geography has, arguably, yet to gain new methodological or theoretical footing. The collection of papers in this special issue attempts to meet the challenge of a new direction to economic geography, reflecting on how this transition played out across different spatial and sectoral contexts, primarily in Australia. Papers documenting structural changes in the agricultural, automotive, creative industries, and energy sectors provide an understanding of how the convergence of political discourses, structural forces, and macroeconomic trends have interfaced with broad global shifts. Tying these together in the collection is a sustained focus on financialisation, particularly through globalised capital flows mediated through Australia’s major cities. Thus the collection of papers in this special issue moves beyond Global Restructuring’s roots in structural political economy to a more globally nuanced perspective on industrial transformation. This editorial concludes by making the case for a direction in economic geography that emerges beyond a methodological Antipodean focus towards a more relational and practice-driven approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the style of analysis of Fagan and Webber’s Global Restructuring, this paper examines the marketisation, privatisation and globalisation of Australia’s electricity generation and transmission sectors. This paper shows how, in Australia’s spatially dispersed and politically fragmented space-economy, marketisation and privatisation policies tend to produce oligopolistic industries with the capacity to thwart market-based regulation. A case study of the vertically integrated and diversified firm AGL reveals the changing nature of globalisation, the shifting relationships between states and firms, and the limits of marketisation policies in small spatially dispersed economies.* [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in economics, Elinor Ostrom has attracted the interest of many feminist economists. Best known for her work on common pool resources, Ostrom made numerous theoretical and methodological contributions to economics, many of which are useful for feminist economists. This paper explores Ostrom's work on coproduction: the active participation of individuals who receive a good or service in the production process. A particular focus is on how Ostrom's model of coproduction might be applied and extended to capture the characteristics and circumstances of aged care. Data from interviews with women employed in Australia's aged-care sector are used to inform a discussion of coproduction in aged care and the institutional supports necessary for successful outcomes. Key issues include the skills and resourcing of aged-care workers, and their authority to negotiate care practice with care recipients under current governance arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The security impact of illegal fishing is not well understood. Where illegal fishing is recognised as a security problem, the focus has been on fish as a natural resource, the depletion of which can have impacts on food security, individual livelihoods, and the economic survival of states relying on illegal fishing. We argue that a focus on fish as a natural resource obscures the other security challenges the crime of illegal fishing poses to Australia. As this paper explains, illegal fishing overlaps with drug, human, weapon and other contraband trafficking and smuggling; irregular maritime arrivals; and maritime piracy. In addition, like other easily transported, high value resources, illegal fish can fund insurgencies and other types of political violence. Understanding illegal fishing as a security challenge will improve Australia's national security policy. First, it acknowledges fish as a vital natural resource, implicated in economic, ecological, and human security; second, it analyses how illegal fishing interlinks with other maritime crimes; third, it challenges the effectiveness of monitoring and enforcement of illegal fishing; fourth, it presents an opportunity for effective regional cooperation; and finally it highlights the benefits of regional cooperation in responding to illegal fishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on the work of Antonio Gramsci and Karl Polanyi in analyzing the consequences of legal regimes that regulate genetically modified foods. Against the tide of neoliberalism, a binding, precautionary agreement over trade in genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has emerged through the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. This Protocol exemplifies what Polanyi termed the ‘self-protection of society,’ the second phase of his double movement. The Protocol's final form was a product of European governments’ responses to public concerns over the potential environmental and health impacts of GMOs in an unregulated global economy. This ‘self-protective’ turn has been manifest at regional and national scales, including in Australia. Drawing on Gramsci, I argue that this unlikely turn emerged in the context of shifting public opinion, effective anti-GMO activism, and alternative discursive framings. It took hold with European publics and governments, generating the relations of force needed to become the hegemonic framing of GMOs globally. The objectives of this paper are thus to demonstrate how a double movement has occurred in the regulation of GMOs and to use Gramsci's relations of force to explain how this double movement has nonetheless failed to challenge the underlying neoliberal basis of GMO agriculture as it exists today. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The home care sector comprises one of Australia’s fastest growing workforces, yet few papers capture the overall landscape of Australian home care. This integrative review investigates home care with the aim of better understanding care recipients and their needs, funding, and regulation; care worker skills, tasks, demographics, employment conditions, and training needs. Over 2,700 pieces of literature were analyzed to inform this review. Results suggest sector fragmentation and a home care workforce who, although well-placed to improve outcomes for care recipients, are in need of better training and employment support. Suggestions for future research regarding Australian home care include studies that combine both aged and disability aspects of care, more research around care recipients, priority needs and strategies for addressing them, and how best to prepare home care workers for their roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of population in and significance of population to sustainability discourse is not well understood. Population is rarely discussed as a sustainability issue in its own right, nor are the complexities surrounding population explored by sustainability scholars, despite the significant role population plays in progression towards just and sustainable societies. This paper draws on tools developed within sustainability literature to provide a political economy typology that classifies different perspectives on recurrent population issues into neoliberal, liberal, social democrat and radical categories. While the focus of this review paper is to understand the way in which key population issues are understood by thinkers from each of the four ideological categories in Australia, the typology offers a way forward to capturing the diversity of the arguments over population and how they sit within sustainability discourse in a form that remains sufficiently clear to make sense of the debate. This paper concludes with implications for further engagement with the population issue amongst sustainability scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that while the main drivers of economic development in the Asia-Pacific region will be a sound development policy and good governance, migration can play a facilitating role at a national, especially at a regional level within countries. It discusses the role of the demographic dividend and Asia-Pacific youth bulges in assisting development in the region and the potential role of migration in that context. It examines the evidence that migration has delivered developmental advantages to sending countries and regions through an analysis of the effects of remittances, diaspora, interactions and return movements. There also is, however, an evidence of brain drain effects having negative impacts. Nevertheless, it concludes that the potential positive effects of emigration on sending countries are being diluted because of poor quality governance of migration systems in the region. These include excessive rent taking at all stages of the migration process, corruption, lack of capacity in migration management and exploitation. The final part of the paper addresses the important issue of what needs to be done if the full potential of international migration to deliver development dividends to sending countries to the region is to be taken advantage of. This includes a change in the attitude towards migration which recognises its potential benefits, a more development-friendly migration policies at origins especially at destinations, capacity building and a parametric improvement in migration management, greater bilateral and multilateral cooperation and more evidence-based decision-making in policy and programme development. A role for Australia in this is also discussed. Migration is not a substitute for good governance and sound socio-economic policy in the development of Asia-Pacific nations, but it can have positive outcomes in poverty reduction and improving the lives and prospects of many people. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the strategic arguments articulated in calls for the teaching and learning of Asia in schools. “Asia literacy” is currently framed as a necessary “solution” for Australian education, but acceptance of this “solution” into the mainstream educational policy agenda has been problematised as a neoliberal and neocolonial construct. Subsequent policy debate indicates the dominance of an economic rationale that is seemingly impossible to resist. This paper suggests that critical policy approaches can be used to identify alternatives to these dominant frameworks, which imagine Asia literacy in alternate ways. Re-imagining the “solution” offers three alternatives: working within an economic agenda; restructuring Asia literacy away from a distinct policy agenda; and treating policy gaps as spaces in which teachers can generate locally relevant possibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The 1981 Australian Financial System Inquiry, known as the Campbell Committee, is widely seen as the start of the reform movement of the 1980s and 1990s. Accounts of its origins have been dominated by a debate about which policy actor can take credit. This paper utilises cabinet and Reserve Bank archives to reassess the origins of the Campbell Committee. The inquiry had its origins in an earlier attempt by the Whitlam government to take federal control of the regulation for non-bank financial institutions and the building society crisis of the mid-1970s. In its response to these political and economic challenges we can identify the moment in which the Fraser cabinet turned towards market-based reform. The political decisions made in the context of crisis set the path for regulatory change in subsequent decades, particularly in the area of prudential regulation, where we have seen regulatory consolidation and expansion rather than ‘deregulation’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Natural data on the Australian Human Rights Commission’s website outlining the complaint cases generated from Disability Discrimination Act, 1992 (DDA) were used to examine the social construction of disability employment discrimination. Using a social model and human rights citizenship lens, some 987 complaint cases were analysed to assess the prevalence of disability discrimination in employment, and its relationship to the types of disability, gender, entity undertaking the actions and organisational context. Of all complaint cases across the Australian Human Rights Commission’s operations, by far the largest proportion involves disability discrimination. Within the disability discrimination complaint cases, employment makes up the greatest proportion of these cases. In examining the patterns of discrimination seven major themes emerged involving: distinctive patterns across disability type; access to premises; human resource mismanagement; selection of new employees; integration of assistive technology; perception of cost of disability inclusions; and inflexible organisational workplace practices. The discussion examines the underlying reasons for the emergent themes where employers misunderstood key legal concepts that underpin the DDA including: unjustifiable hardship; inherent requirements; reasonable adjustment; direct; and indirect discrimination. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of the findings as a way of understanding the social construction of disability discrimination in employment to signal ways to better develop inclusive organisational practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper draws upon literature from economics, and the human capital and equity fields in order to present a theoretical framework for a new multidimensional measure of poverty for Australia. Poverty is about having low living standards; but its measurement has traditionally focused only on an individual's income or on other dimensions of living standards that are not appropriate for contemporary Australian society, such as calorie intake. There are two additional capabilities individuals require for adequate living standards: health and education. Each of these is required for basic functioning within modern society, but have traditionally been ignored by measures of poverty. This paper argues that health is a basic capability people need for a fulfilling life, allowing individuals to participate in activities essential in modern society, and that education can also be seen in this light. As such it is vital that health and education be included in measures of poverty. In order to move Australian poverty measurement forward and build upon the work of the past, poverty measurement must move its focus away from only looking at low income, and take a holistic focus on the living standards of individuals by incorporating assessments of health and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the economic impacts of climate change have been analysed in Australia at the national level, impacts of climate change via tourism activities have been overlooked. It is likely that the induced economic impact through tourism activities is much more than realised, particularly at the regional/destination level. This paper examines the economic flow-on effects of climate change on five selected Australian tourism destinations. While the flow-on effect of impacts on these five destinations is relatively insignificant at the national level, at the regional level the impacts can be very considerable, and those impacts vary widely between regions. In addition to general direct climate change impacts on the economies of these regions, the larger their tourism share, the severer the flow-on economic impacts involved. The paper raises concerns for policymakers that measuring economic impacts of climate change without considering its flow-on effect through tourism activities will significantly underestimate the total impact of climate change for destination regions. Further, when all tourism destinations are taken into account, the flow-on economic impact of climate change could be significant for the Australian economy as a whole. Analyses such as those reported here could form a basis for scenario examination for policy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vocational education and training plays a major and increasing role in developing the knowledge and skills that underpin Australia's economy and society. It is vital, accordingly, that training outcomes are of high quality. This paper reports work undertaken to develop a new evidence-based and outcomes-focused national approach to monitoring and improving the quality of vocational training in Australia. After review of key research contexts, it discusses the development of a suite of 'quality indicators' and two feedback instruments designed to help registered training organisations (RTOs) in Australia manage continuous quality improvement. The paper documents the incorporation of these materials into a research-based package of resources and considers how, by supporting one of the largest data collections of its kind, the resources will underpin new approaches to quality improvement and assurance in vocational education and training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At a moment when regionalisation and regionalism are being widely promoted across a range of policy sectors, this paper argues that much regional activity, including regional environmental management, is often the product of interactions, resources and opportunities at other scales. The paper shows how local and extra-regional interactions, resources and opportunities influence environmental management at the regional level in Australia by the development of a case analysis of Far North Queensland. It finds that much of the current thinking about regionalisation and regionalism ignores these multiscalar dimensions. This can impede and undermine efforts to manage the environment effectively at the regional level. The paper identifies some opportunities to improve regional environmental management activities in Australia and draws out the broader implications for other policy sectors and other countries embracing the movement towards regionalism/regionalisation. The relationship between governance by network at the regional level and the power and control of central government is highlighted. The paper also calls for further research into how governments and other actors successfully manage multiscalar relations of governance in order to promote (or impede) specific public policy initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In April 2004, Mitsubishi Motors Australia Ltd (MMAL) announced the closure of its foundry and engine-making plant at Lonsdale in southern Adelaide. The closure resulted in 700 involuntary redundancies with a further 400 positions lost at MMAL's Tonsley Park plant through voluntary redundancies. The loss of jobs and associated economic activity were a major shock to southern Adelaide, a relatively poor region with few large manufacturing establishments, a limited economic infrastructure and a relatively unskilled labour force. The region had suffered setbacks in the previous three years with a downturn in the wine industry and the closure of the nearby Mobil Oil Refinery at Port Stanvac. This paper draws on debates around multiscalar governance in order to understand how governments have responded to employment loss in southern Adelaide. The paper pays particular attention to the balance between regional and industry-focused initiatives and suggests that regions need to ensure they occupy a central position within the strategies and actions of governments. The paper also highlights the vulnerability of regions that lack growth coalitions able to operate as effective advocates for their region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Funding of local government systems in Australia has been falling relative to other tiers of government for the past 30 years with various adverse consequences, especially the decline of local government infrastructure. This paper seeks to explain this phenomenon by drawing on two relatively new theoretical strands in the political economy literature; the Australian theory of local government failure and the Wittman model of democratic efficiency. Three explanations are assessed: a traditional public finance perspective, Australian local government failure, and the institutional efficiency of democratic preference revelation. A secondary aim of the paper is to evaluate the implications of the Wittman model for the local government failure paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to illustrate the benefits that accrue from critical realism's sustained, explicit reflection about ontological issues. The paper pursues this aim by examining the work of radical subjectivist Austrian economists as it has developed since the post-1974 revival in the fortunes of the Austrian school, focusing in particular on their account of the generation of socio-economic order in decentralized market economies. Ambiguities and tensions can be discerned in the radical subjectivist account of the causal forces at work in the market process. It is argued that the conceptual resources required for resolving those tensions and ambiguities are to be found in critical realism. The final section of the paper draws out some of the broader implications of the suggested resolution for radical subjectivist Austrian economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The political debate concerning the introduction of new national resource rent tax in Australia between 2010 and 2014 provides significant insights into the Australian political system. This collection of papers systematically examines the broader political consequences of the mining tax debate including the power of mining interests and the strategic errors made by the Rudd and Gillard governments. These analyses highlight the institutional limits of the Australian state and the political challenges associated with future economic reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOFing) as a form of sustainable tourism with particular focus on its social and cultural dimensions and the means by which deep engagement in these appear to lead participants to a better awareness or understanding of ecological sustainability issues. It draws upon a grounded theory-based exploration of the perspectives and interactions of WWOOFers and WWOOF hosts in Australia, using 323 formal written surveys of hosts and 188 surveys of WWOOFers, together with 16 in-depth unstructured WWOOFer interviews, which collectively enhances understanding of WWOOFing as an emerging, unique and valuable form of sustainable tourism. By virtue of the highly engaged and symbiotic basis of the exchange involved, WWOOFing is commonly perceived to facilitate a transcendence of the role of tourist. The research indicates this is the product of a unique relationship forged in the WWOOFing context, which differs markedly to relationships forged in more typical fee-for-service tourism contexts in which there is a different relationship at play between power, authenticity and sustainability. This relationship is outlined in order to articulate the notion that WWOOFing represents a type of “sustainability tourism” that is unexplored in the sustainable tourism literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International focus on reducing onward HIV transmission emphasizes the need for routine HIV testing and early uptake of antiretroviral treatment (ART). Strategic targets have been set for 2020 to achieve the goal of 90% of people infected with HIV diagnosed, 90% of identified cases on treatment, and 90% of persons on treatment virally suppressed (90–90–90). It is vital to understand the complexity of factors influencing a person's treatment decisions over time and the context which may enable better adherence. In this paper we present findings from the review of published and gray literature (2003–2013) on the documented factors associated with treatment initiation and adherence in the general adult population of Australia, Canada, and the UK. A framework developed by Begley, McLaws, Ross, and Gold [2008. Cognitive and behavioural correlates of non-adherence to HIV anti-retroviral therapy: Theoretical and practical insight for clinical psychology and health psychology.Clinical Psychologist, 12(1), 9–17] in Australia was adapted to summarize the findings. A systematic database search using keywords and a set of inclusion criteria yielded 17 studies (Australia = 6; Canada = 8; UK = 3). In addition 11 reports were included in the review. We found that a person's abilities and motivations (intrapersonal factors, reported in 7 studies) to start and continue ART are influenced by a host of interconnected factors spanning relationship (interpersonal, 3 studies) and broader structural (extrapersonal, 15 studies) factors that are situated within social determinants of health. People therefore evaluate various costs and benefits of starting and staying on treatment, in which biomedical concerns play an important yet often subsidiary role. In this review the economic barriers to care were found to be significant and under-reported, highlighting the persistent health inequities in terms of access to services. Our understanding of the context around people's use of ART remains poor. Qualitative social research within HIV-positive communities is urgently needed to capture people's lived experiences and may address some of this deficit in understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is under way a worldwide greening of industry, driven by the huge demand generated by China and India as emerging industrial giants whose growth cannot be accommodated by ‘business as usual’ fossil-fuelled development—for reasons having as much to do with energy security as concerns over global warming and climate change. While the role played in this process by fiscal and industry policies (e.g. carbon taxes and other market-based incentives) is well understood (even if not pursued currently in Australia), the potentially powerful leverage to be exercised by trade policy is under-recognised. There are some positive developments such as a proposed Environmental Goods Agreement being discussed in Geneva, while there are negative developments embodied in various bilateral and regional trade agreements such as the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, to which Australia has committed itself. There are rising levels of conflict over trade and climate change mitigation measures, in actions brought at the WTO against countries looking to promote green industries through measures like local content requirements being attached to foreign direct investment, or by countries imposing border tax adjustments against exporters who allegedly fail to implement carbon taxes. The issues involved are discussed in this paper and possible ways forward are proposed, along with some implications for Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Small rural tourism festivals can struggle with governance issues, including succession planning and problems with leadership. This could be linked to several factors, including the largely voluntary composition of organising committees, lack of resources, or the stage the festival has reached in the event life cycle. Surprisingly, little research has explored these challenges, despite the ongoing viability of these festivals often being crucial for the socio-cultural and economic sustainability of local communities, attracting tourists and income, and providing social benefits. A phenomenological qualitative study was conducted, involving in-depth interviews with 13 organisers and stakeholders of 7 rural Australian festivals, together with background studies of the communities involved and their festivals. Findings highlight the different approaches taken by rural communities to manage the growing complexity of festival organisation, including finding new committee members and dealing with perceptions that these committees are not representative of the whole community. Issues of burnout were raised, linked to the increasingly onerous regulatory and administrative burden of managing and staging these events. This created a need for greater professional assistance, generally from local government: consideration is given to the pros and cons of this development. The paper provides a micro-study of wider community tourism governance issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the literature by separately analysing the course enrolment and completion effects of vocational education and training (VET) as well as higher education. Moreover, we investigate the persistence of these wage effects over time while controlling for two potential selection biases. We take advantage of the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth, which contains comprehensive information about completed and uncompleted courses and subsequent labour market outcomes. We find evidence of positive enrolment and completion effects for VET and university courses with important differences by type of course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the trend of many comparable countries, Australian universities are now part of a massified system which is a significant contributor to the national economy. The commercial university is solicitous as to its product and its position in the market, but must also navigate the regulatory environment. Uncontrollable aspects of the university, including staff and student organisations, can threaten the marketable image of the university corporation and its relationship with government. This paper considers the creation and regulation of student organisations in Australia. In Australia's federal system some state legislation accorded student organisations a legitimate place in university governance; most universities accepted the role of student organisations as beneficial to both students and the university itself. Since the 1980s, however, the financial leverage of the federal government purchased increasing intervention in universities, and this extended to the rearticulation of the role of the student organisations in 2006. The reorientation of the university sector has been facilitated by a reconfiguration of important relationships in the sector – between universities and students on the one hand, and universities and student organisations on the other. The contractualisation of relationships in the sector enables the modelling of the university on the commercial enterprise, creating other techniques of control, within a wider regulatory system steered by funding arrangements. The resulting depoliticisation of student organisations is part of a wider process of disengagement of universities from public critique and its embrace of commercial forms of governance generally. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Across the globe, groups are experimenting with initiatives to create alternatives to the dominant food system. What role might research play in helping to strengthen and multiply these initiatives? In this paper we discuss two research projects in Australia and the Philippines in which we have cultivated hybrid collectives of academic researchers, lay researchers and various non-human others with the intention of enacting community food economies. We feature three critical interactions in the “hybrid collective research method”: gathering, which brings together those who share concerns about community food economies; reassembling, in which material gathered is deliberatively rebundled to amplify particular insights; and translating, by which reassembled ideas are taken up by other collectives so they may continue to “do work”. We argue that in a climate-changing world, the hybrid collective research method fosters opportunities for a range of human and non-human participants to act in concert to build community food economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybrid economy research in remote Indigenous Australia is what Gibson-Graham [2008. Diverse economies: performative practices for “other worlds”.Progress in Human Geography, 32 (5), 613–632] describe as a performative ontological project. This research seeks to address the marginalisation of customary economic activities that contribute to the well-being of Indigenous Australians. It aims to make the customary sector more real, more credible and more viable as an object of policy and activism, challenging the dual dominance of the state and the market as the focus of development (cf.Gibson-Graham 2008). This paper outlines how hybrid economy research has sought to broaden views of the economic landscape in remote Indigenous Australia amid the withdrawal of key policy and programmatic support by the Australian Government. This research draws on Canadian national surveys of Indigenous peoples, harvest studies and programmatic support for customary harvest – hunting, fishing and gathering of bush foods – to identify ways in which the Australian Government might better see and support Indigenous community food economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the use of three economic approaches to water management in Australia that can increase the efficiency of water use and water security, thus providing a fillip to sustainability and economic growth: the establishment of water markets and water pricing; government spending; and the adoption of legislation and economic regulations promoting the development of water markets. Australia is well down the reform path, but needs to complete implementation. Australia's challenge is relevant to many countries struggling with demand and supply water imbalances, and the consequential declining environmental outcomes in rural areas and persistent water shortages in urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The term equity is ubiquitous in Australian education policy and evolves amidst ongoing debates about what it means to be fair in education. Over the past three decades, meanings and practices associated with equity have reflected broader shifts in advanced liberal governance, with equity being reframed as a ‘market-enhancing’ mechanism and melted into economic productivity agendas. In this paper, I argue that an emerging, yet, under-examined policy tension is the view that secondary schools are capable of being equitable, whilst simultaneously acting as adaptive service providers, tailoring education to different students and local markets. A dilemma here is whether or not schools should ‘tailor equity’ or whether tailoring equity is indeed antithetical to equity in so far as it implies unequal provision. To explore this tension, I draw upon fieldwork from ethnographic research in two socially and economically disparate government secondary schools in suburban Melbourne, Australia. In doing so, I explore how equity is enacted and governed by educators, how forms of equity at each school relate to versions of equity in policy and the extent to which each school tailors equity to its local community. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Australia–India relations continue to puzzle foreign policy analysts. The reasons for stronger ties seem obvious, yet each successive Australian government has proved unable to forge the links necessary for more fruitful collaboration. Prime minister John Howard made two visits to India. His second visit in 2006—when he expressed unqualified enthusiasm for India's fast-growing economy and for the development of a new centre of gravity for the world, the emerging ‘global middle class’ of China and India—promised to change the language of engagement from neglect to partnership. This paper examines the context of the changing relationship, looks at the role of leadership in the formulation of foreign policy, and asks whether the momentum developed from Howard's visit was deep and strong enough to sustain the shocks ahead—the 2009 attacks on Indian students and the reversal of the decision on the sale of uranium—and to maintain a position for Australia in India's growing global engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land use planning systems in Australia and the United Kingdom (UK) share a common history. In both nations, one objective of town planning has been to improve housing conditions for the urban poor and facilitate sufficient housing supply for growing post-war populations, with UK legislation serving as a model for Australia, at least until the Town and Country Planning Act 1947. Since this time however, approaches have diverged. In the UK, housing assistance and the land use planning system have co-evolved, with planning an important tool for securing affordable housing, particularly in England. In contrast, a deep cleavage between urban planning and housing policy persists in Australia. Drawing on a series of studies undertaken separately by the authors over the past decade which concentrate on Australia and England, the paper compares urban and housing policy in both nations, and examines planning system performance in securing new affordable homes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the economic benefits created by international education export are well documented, few systematic and qualitative analysis studies have been conducted to examine how academic staff perceive the presence of international students in their institutions. Using interview data from 80 academic staff from different disciplines in one higher institution in Australia, this study examines whether the presence of international students has an impact on staff teaching practice. Some of the academic staff reported that they made no adjustments to their teaching. They treated all students as one student group. Other staff members said that there have been changes in their teaching in response to the presence of international students in their classroom. The paper discusses some of the underlying causes of these responses, and implications for the practice of international education. The discussion of the findings is informed by Bennett’s Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity, which helps us understand how people respond to cultural differences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Australia is facing many of the same trends in journalism that are occurring in other countries with mature media industries including declining numbers of journalists, fragmenting audiences, a loss of advertising revenue for media organisations and other challenges to their traditional business models including shifting patterns of news consumption, new competitors for old media and new technologies that demand more time from audiences. However, Australia is also in a unique position. It has a small population and unusually concentrated media ownership; recent newspaper circulation declines have not been as large as in the United States or United Kingdom; and Australia's major media organisations have “colonised the Web” to a larger degree than in many other countries. This has led to suggestions that Australian journalism will be immune from many of the most damaging international trends. Yet other evidence suggests Australia is already in the midst of an economic and professional crisis in newspaper journalism and that this is even more advanced than in other countries such as the United States and United Kingdom. This paper tests these competing propositions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent history, the music industry has been built on a small number of relationships, largely driven from the top down. While the actual music forges a direct link between musicians and their fans, the reality of the industry is that a number of intermediaries interrupt that relationship, forcing musicians to communicate through their management companies and record labels. The promise of the new technologies is to reconfigure the possibilities, allowing the emergence of new relationships. The communication and distribution potential of the Internet (which can be encapsulated as Music 2.0) suggests that disintermediation and reconfigured relationships are possible. But what is the reality of this promise? In the context of a broader global experience, this paper draws on primary research consisting of interviews with a range of Australian musicians to explore how they may be forging new networks of opportunity, and how realistic the promise of Music 2.0 might be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the writings of David Syme and Charles H Pearson are important for understanding the history of the ideal of democracy in Australia. Although Syme did not write directly on democracy, his writings on political economy and political representation focused on issues relevant to democratic theory. His Outlines of an Industrial Science argued for the dominance of the social and the ethical over the economic and for the role of the state in enforcing that dominance. His Representative Government in England advocated the case for the delegate theory of democracy, in effect meant the particular interests of the majority. Pearson also argued the case for this version of majoritarian democracy. His National Life and Character concluded that it would lead to the suppression of individualism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gambling has a prominent place in Australian culture. Following the liberalization of commercial gambling in the 1970s, Australia entered into an intensive phase of industrializing gambling as a form of mass entertainment and a significant source of public revenue and private profit. An important part of the industrialization of gambling has been technological transformation, which has made possible the production and distribution of new and enhanced gambling commodities. Knowledgeable actors in betting markets have always been required to adapt themselves to contingencies in assessing risks. These contingencies now include those that arise from institutional arrangements designed to protect commercial house advantage or provide credible gambling products to a mass market. This paper analyses the example of controversy surrounding betting on AFL matches, to shed light on dynamic interactions between gambling consumption, the introduction of technology and gambling commodities, and the culture of the game. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic theory suggests that competitive pressures will impact on organisational efficiency. In recent years, universities in Australia and New Zealand have faced increased competition for students. The aim of this paper is to explore the efficiency of Australian and New Zealand public universities and to investigate the impact of competition for students from overseas on efficiency. Output distance functions are estimated using panel data for the period 1995-2002 for Australia and 1997-2003 for New Zealand. The results show that competition for overseas students has led to increased efficiency in Australian universities. However, competition for overseas students appears to have had no effect on efficiency in New Zealand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 20 years from 1982 to 2002, the proportion of Australian public housing tenants in employment has fallen markedly relative to Australians living in other housing tenures. This paper explores the potential causes of this trend and their policy implications. For male public renters, the declining employment participation rate can be accounted for by closer targeting of public housing to the most disadvantaged in the labour market and blunter work incentives. This is not the case for female public renters. Their employment participation rate has remained flat while improved labour market conditions should have lifted employment participation rates among this group, even after controlling for an extensive range of individual characteristics. Work incentives are important to female public renters, but further research is required if we are to understand why their employment rates have not improved over this 20-year period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The twenty-first century wine industry is a very different one from that which dominated operations in the 1980s and 1990s. Production, distribution and marketing of wine are now colonised by an array of complex and intersecting dynamics. Primary among these is a growing demand among consumers for value-added qualities. Particularly in mature markets, standardised, commodity-style wine is failing to satisfy an increasingly educated consumer base. What is required now among a number of New World producers is an understanding of the way in which wine's cultural and economic qualities can be woven into a more enriched fabric. This would not simply add cultural elements to an economically oriented product. Rather, it would weave individual and community values, passion, care, identity, and terroir together with the more tangible aspects of production, distribution, price-points and marketing. Such an enriched 'fabric' will be referred to throughout this paper as the cultural economy of wine. It will be argued that the Australian wine industry, as a case study, must not only reconfigure its operational structure to reflect these qualities, but must change the way it thinks collectively about its product if it is to remain competitive in an increasingly complex environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Raising children takes both time and money. Scholars have sought convincing ways to capture the costs of children, but even when these estimates include indirect costs, such as mothers' foregone earnings, they fall short of the true time costs involved. This paper uses data from the 1997 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Time Use Survey to study how the allocation of time differs across households with varying numbers and ages of children and how households with children differ from those without children. It also examines the intra household division of time resources, showing how childcare, related unpaid work, and the total market and non-market workloads compare for a couple in the same household. It includes secondary activity in an analysis of total parental time commitments to give a more accurate picture of the time cost of children than is possible on the basis of analyzing "primary" activities alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shift away from family immigration and towards skilled immigration is one of the most important changes over the past decade in Australian immigration policy. Yet the implications of this shift for female applicants have remained largely unexplored. Skilled immigration has slipped by as a genderless story in which the androgynous skilled migrant is the central character and economists do most of the storytelling. This paper discusses the gender equality concerns raised by the policy shift towards skilled immigration. It argues that Australia's skilled immigration scheme disadvantages female applicants through its construction both of economic independence and 'skill.' A comparison with Canada's skilled migration law and regulations, which are audited by gender mainstreaming tools, is considered to ascertain what role, if any, gender-based analysis plays in identifying and rectifying the potential gender inequalities produced by skilled immigration selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2004 the Australian Opposition party introduced to Parliament a private member's bill proposing the amendment of Australian copyright law to include an artist's resale royalty. In response to the bill the Government released the Proposed Resale Royalty Arrangement Discussion Paper, which successfully provided a tangible foundation for discussions and stimulated the first strong academic debate regarding a resale royalty within Australia. Despite overwhelming support from respondents, in May 2006 the Government announced it would not support the adoption of a resale royalty right and the Resale Royalty Bill 2004 failed to pass through Parliament. The rejection of a resale royalty by the Australian Government illustrates the ongoing difficulty of incorporating civil law notions of creative rights, and moral rights in particular, into common law - particularly as the Australian Government's approach to policy making is increasingly underpinned by economic rationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there have been significant developments in climate science relevant to agriculture and natural resource management. Assessing impacts of climate variability and use of seasonal climate forecasts have become increasingly important elements in the management ‘toolkit’ for many Australian farmers. Consideration of climate change further increases the need for improved management strategies. While climate risk extension activities have kept pace with advances in climate science, a national review of the Vocational Education and Training system in Australia in relation to ‘weather and climate’ showed that these topics were ‘poorly represented’ at the management level in the Australian Qualifications Framework, and needed increased emphasis. Consequently, a new Unit of Competency concerning management of climatic risk was developed and accredited to address this deficiency. The objective of the unit was to build knowledge and skills for better management of climate variability via the elements of surveying climatic and enterprise data; analysing climatic risks and opportunities; and developing climatic risk management strategies. This paper describes establishment of a new unit for vocational education that is designed to harness recent developments in applied climate science for better management of Australia's highly variable climate. The main benefits of the new unit of competency, ‘Developing climatic risk management strategies,’ were seen as improving decisions in climate and agriculture, and reducing climate risk exposure to enhance sustainable agriculture. The educational unit is now within the scope of agricultural colleges, universities, and registered training organisations as an accredited unit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New national and international economic and social forces have reshaped national geographies in general and the characteristics of cities in particular, resulting in a range of diverse social and spatial outcomes. These outcomes, which include greater differentiation across, within and between cities has become a feature of the economic and social forces associated with post-Fordist social structures. Taking localities across Australia's metropolitan regions, this paper develops a typology of advantage and disadvantage using a model-based approach with clustering of data represented by a parameterised Gaussian mixture model and confidence intervals of the means providing a measure of differences between the clusters. The analysis finds seven clusters of localities that represent different aspects of the socio-spatial structure of the metropolitan regions studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are no controlled experiments in macroeconomic policy, nor in systematic programs of microeconomic reform, but a comparison between New Zealand and Australia over the period since 1984 provides as close an approach to such an experiment as is ever likely to be possible. From quite similar starting points the two countries pursued liberal reform programs that differed sharply, mainly as a result of exogenous differences in constitutional structures and the personal styles of the central actors. Australia followed a more cautious, piecemeal, consensus-based approach, whereas New Zealand, in contrast, adopted a radical, rapid, ‘purist’ platform. The NZ reform package was generally seen by contemporary commentators as representing a ‘textbook’ model for best practice reform. However, Australia since 1984 has performed much better than New Zealand, whose per capita GDP growth indeed ranked at or near the bottom of the OECD. In this paper, we assess a variety of explanations for the divergences in policies and outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first presents a snapshot of the impact of vision loss in Australia. It then reviews the demographic changes in our community and shows how these changes also affect blindness rates around the world. It finally discusses the exciting work being done by Vision 2020, the global initiative to eliminate avoidable blindness by the year 2020 (www.vision2020.org). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically examines the exchange rate pass-through elasticity, using sheep meat exports from the two major exporters, Australia and New Zealand. The results show the coexistence of incomplete and complete pass-through in the international sheep meat industry. The Australian .sheep meat exporters have a relatively .smaller market share than New Zealand and are not able to exercise monopoly power. New Zealand producers, on the other hand, can increase their markups in those destination countries where they have a large market share. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research plays an important role in underpinning a country `s economic and social life. Universities are at the centre of the research and human capital generating process. The aim of this paper is to explore the links between research output, research income, academic and non-academic labour and some of the characteristics of Australian universities. The results indicate that research income, academic staff and postgraduates are all positively associated with research output. There are noticeable differences across different types of universities, with the newer universities lagging in research performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I argue for the importance of theorising citizenship as an independent axis of social inequality in the contemporary world. As a foil, I take two intertwined tendencies within anthropological writings on migration. First is the historical trend of anthropology as a discipline to theorise against the grain of the nation-state. Second is the tendency within anthropological studies of transnationalism and migration to theorise their subject in terms of Marxian understandings of class and exploitation or in terms of the intersecting dimensions of race, class and gender (but not citizenship). The result of these approaches is to elide the role of national boundaries and citizenship as significant theoretical objects in themselves. To build my approach, I contrast the production of migrant 'illegality' in three national contexts: the United States, China and Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender budgets have now been introduced in varying forms in more than forty countries throughout the world. These exercises emerged out of feminist practical politics initially in Australia and later in a number of other countries. The idea of gender budgets gathered further momentum when the United Nations Beijing Platform for Action called for the integration of a gender perspective into budgetary decision-making. Most of these experiments share three core goals. They seek to: (1) mainstream gender issues within government policies; (2) promote greater accountability for governments' commitment to gender equality; and (3) change budgets and policies. However, very little research has examined their success in achieving these goals. In discussing the lessons learnt from the Australian experience, this paper adopts a feminist political economy perspective on the state as an analytical starting point for discussing the future of gender budgets elsewhere in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]