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Family violence is becoming increasingly visible in Australia, with many state and federal governments taking on more responsibility to address family violence and its impacts on those affected. Current efforts are focused on practice frameworks, identifying and responding to risk factors, and social justice frameworks including legislating against family violence in a range of jurisdictions and addressing more broadly the structural and cultural forces that perpetuate violence and further oppress those victimised. Family violence is not unique to Australia, with prevalence rates internationally suggesting family violence occurs irrespective of country, race, age, culture, effectiveness of social policies or socioeconomic status. This paper explores relevant foundational concepts of Bowen family systems theory (BFST) as it relates to family violence and explores opportunities to evolve practice in this area. BFST offers a unique contribution towards addressing family violence, particularly in relation to the public health challenge of addressing family polyvictimisation. The paper also explores how BFST conceptualises family violence and the role of the professional in working with the family as a single emotional unit. The unique focus of BFST on observing and defining self within the emotional family unit through observation of the underlying multigenerational emotional patterns of functioning provides unique opportunities to evolve and develop both the capacity of clinicians and responses to families who are navigating the serious and challenging impacts of family violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Millions of Australians use the private health system every year. They should receive safe, high-quality, value-based care. However, poor policy and inadequate regulation of medical technology is driving low-value care at great expense to consumers and the broader health system. Key drivers include the Prescribed List of Medical Devices and Human Tissue, gaps in quality and safety controls for devices being used, and marketing and conflicts of interest. All of these should be addressed to reduce low-value care in Australia's private health system, so consumers are protected from harm and limited health budgets are used effectively. What is known about the topic? With health expenditure rising unsustainably, there is a growing focus on ways to reduce low-value care to improve health outcomes and eliminate unnecessary costs. What does this paper add? This paper details drivers of low-value care in Australia's private health system and recommendations to overcome them. Drivers include the Prescribed List of Medical Devices, gaps in safety and quality controls, and conflicts of interest and marketing. What are the implications for practitioners? These insights are relevant to clinicians, researchers, policymakers, consumers and health business leaders with an interest in low-value care. This article belongs to the Special Issue: Value-based Healthcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher shortages are a significant global problem disproportionally affecting "hardest-to-staff" schools and subjects. To better understand (inter)national policy responses to teacher shortages, this paper uses a Bacchian-inspired approach to critically examine proposals suggested as solutions in policy documents from England and Australia, and thus how the problem is being thought about especially in relation to hardest-to-staff contexts. We contend that the problem representations in the policy documents are narrowly conceived and need to be considered differently through the lenses of (re)professionalisation and social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crime rates in Australia have declined or been steady over the past decade yet prison populations are at all-time highs. Similarly, unemployment rates have been low but unemployment for those ex-prisoners seeking work is very high. In this paper, we draw on the findings of an Australia-wide survey of government-funded employment service providers who support working-aged Australians including ex-prisoners in their search for work. We find that the heterogeneity of the needs of ex-prisoners coupled with the frugality and inflexibility of government policies and practices frustrates the abilities of these agencies to provide services to this target group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Western democracies are experiencing a widespread shift towards greater recognition of transgender rights in public policy, yet the timing of change differs across states. To explain this variation, I present a novel theoretical framework called "policy momentum." Unlike existing work on policy diffusion, which typically emphasizes domestic or international processes, I theorize how the combined pressure from each level creates the conditions for policy change to occur. Empirically, I contrast the creation of national human rights policies to protect transgender individuals in Canada (2017) and Australia (2013). Using process‐tracing and within‐case analyses, and drawing on elite interviews, primary documents, and Hansard records, I demonstrate the decisive interaction of subnational legislative changes with an emerging global norm to produce transgender policy change. This paper thus contributes to our understanding of LGBTQ+ public policy while also providing a framework for explaining the conditions for cross‐national policy change more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This summary paper for the symposium provides a brief overview of the papers by Craig Veitch, John Beard and Max Kamien that deal with the environmental, socioeconomic and political descriptors of ‘rurality’. Those three papers deal with a number of fundamental truths about rural and remote health, including the fact that internal migration is an important and poorly understood factor in determining community and health outcomes. A brief treatment of the issue suggests that selective internal migration is likely to mean that the burden of illness in rural and remote areas is even higher than that suggested by the published figures. The paper then asserts that thinking in the rural and remote health sector in Australia focuses largely on the negative aspects of the current characteristics of rural areas. A self-evident definition of ‘rurality’ is offered that has it defined by the set of factors that currently characterise places, communities and individuals outside the major cities. The paper suggests that each of these characteristics has an upside or benefit, as well as a downside or risk, and that giving greater attention to the former will provide a better basis for informing rural health policy and practice than the deficit view alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young women in Australia experience serious risks from intimate partner violence (IPV) as a form of family violence. However, there has been a lack of attention to the impact of this on young women and, as a result, these risks are not well understood. This article critically examines existing literature, policy and research and in doing so, specifically explores the ways in which young women aged between 10 and 20 years old are represented and positioned in contemporary family violence discourses. Framed by a review of socio-political and cultural history, the paper highlights the early colonial, patriarchal foundations of Australia, which have specific implications for the challenges that contemporary young women experience in situations of IPV. With a particular emphasis on the Australian context, this article employs both an intersectional and critical feminist lens, with a key focus on the dimensions of adolescent development and youth social geographies. Focusing specifically on these dimensions, including development, gender and age, highlights the important role that feminist social work perspectives and practices can contribute to uncovering, understanding and responding to young women's experiences of intimate partner violence through policy and advocacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Failure of governments across the world to address climate change has fuelled social movements focused on climate-related policy and action. Research analysing these movements has focused mainly on the types of strategies employed including blockades and occupations, marches and petitions, divestment, boycotts and litigation as well as how groups are framing climate change as a problem. What has been largely missed are the ways these groups are framing the change they want to see, that is their demands to governments. Not all demands and actions have the same potential to create the changes needed to mitigate climate change. Used in public health and health promotion, the systems science Intervention Level Framework (ILF) is a tool that can help analyse to what extent different demands have the leverage to create change in a system. We use the ILF to analyse 131 demands from 35 different climate-related advocacy groups in Australia. Results show demands are more focused on lower system leverage points, such as stopping particular projects, rather than on more impactful leverage points, such as the governance structures that determine climate-related policy and decision-making mechanisms. Further, the results highlight the lack of attention on public health related topics of transport and food systems. This paper shows how a systems science framework used in health promotion, the ILF, could enable climate advocacy groups to more effectively target demands to achieve more impactful outcomes from governments, corporations and the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2000 the Howard government formed a consultative committee to review defence policy and gauge public opinion on defence issues. It concentrated on the impact of budgetary stringency and dramatic strategic change and supported increased defence spending on equipment to cater for high-level threats. Was there a thorough review? Inconsistencies occurred in the reports developed from the review and statements made by senior policy-makers while it was being conducted. The way the review was undertaken points to conceptual tensions in Australia's strategic culture and serious problems with entrenched interests in the services. Unless these challenges are addressed, a thorough review of defence policy cannot be undertaken. The review process itself needs to be reviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2015, religious freedom has become a heated and divisive political and public policy issue in Australia. While rarely defined or interrogated, 'religious freedom' does not exist as a value-neutral principle with a single meaning. Rather, its discursive constructions are varied and serve to promote certain interests at the expense of others. Offering a new perspective on the politics of religious freedom, this paper draws together four separate studies of the public discourse of religious freedom in Australia (spanning 35 years from 1984 to 2019) to chart how its framing has changed over time and to explore the implications of these changes. This analysis reveals three major discourses of religious freedom emerging over three phases: 'religious diversity'; 'balancing rights'; and 'freedom of belief'. This paper demonstrates how, once used to promote a progressive social agenda, religious freedom has become weaponised by the Christian Right and culture warriors in their battle to entrench in law the ongoing acceptability of discrimination against LGBTIQ+ people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The landmark 2021 Resolution on Oral Health by the 74th World Health Assembly has elevated the importance of oral health into the global health policy agenda. This has led to the development and adoption of the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Strategy on Oral Health in 2022. It acknowledged the need to integrate oral health as part of universal health coverage (UHC), which is supported by national clinical leadership for oral health. Although Australia is a signatory WHO member state, it is yet to appoint a Commonwealth Chief Dental Officer to provide national clinical leadership. This commentary provides a background on the current issues on population oral health in Australia, an insight into the Australian oral healthcare system, and explores some of the challenges and learnings related to previous Commonwealth dental programs. This paper highlights why expertise in dental public health is required to steer national oral health policy that is focused on prevention and early intervention. A population oral health approach for UHC should be informed by evidence, prioritise and address oral health inequities, and be co-ordinated by national clinical leadership for oral health. What is known about the topic? Many countries, including Australia, currently do not provide universal access to affordable oral healthcare. There are significant oral health inequities that exist in Australia, particularly for priority populations who are at higher risk for oral diseases. What does this paper add? National clinical leadership on oral health is needed to implement evidence-based oral health policy. This commentary provides justification for the Australian Government to appoint a Commonwealth Chief Dental Officer. What are the implications for practitioners? Strengthening advocacy efforts by the public health practitioners and other stakeholders is important to promote oral health as a critical health issue for urgent action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted countries all over the world, not only in relation to public health responses, but on multiple other societal levels. The pandemic has uncovered structural inequalities within and across societies and highlighted how race remains a powerful lens through which public policy responses are constructed and pursued. This paper examines (im)mobilities in Australia in the context of Asian, and more specifically Chinese-Australian citizens and residents, and how these have been framed in racialized discourses that justified exclusionary practices reminiscent of the White Australia ideology. The paper focuses on how Chinese Australians' mobilities have been (mis)represented and attacked in public and political discourse with particular attention to the situation of Chinese international students' (im)mobilities. Our conceptual attention in this paper, however, is not only on the racialization of mobilities but also immobilities, underpinned by an understanding of the relationality between Othered 'migrants' and hosts, as well as between mobility and immobility. We conclude by discussing future patterns of mobility, how these will impact prospective migrants including international students, and what future forms of mobilities might mean for Australia as a country highly dependent on migrants for its economic, social and cultural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate political activity by large firms has increased in a range of western countries and in Australia. There has also been an increased tendency for large firms to lobby individually on firm-centred agendas. Both trends have seen large firms engaging in institutional adaptation, primarily through developing dedicated government relations functions (GRF). The last research on this topic in Australia was thirty years ago (Bell and Warhurst [1993]. "Business Political Activism and Government Relations in Large Companies in Australia." Australian Journal of Political Science 28: 201–220.) and this paper updates this earlier research. It also frames the relevant developments as an important set of institutional challenges, not only for government relations (GR) managers within corporate hierarchies, but also in interacting with and influencing other key institutional interlocutors, especially government policy makers. The way in which GR managers deal with such challenges through building supportive relations with key internal and external interlocutors, and especially how this shapes the business-government relationship more broadly, is a key focus of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the wholesale destruction of priceless and irreplaceable historical records in Australia during World War II. Impact of Australia's involvement in the war on the policy on waste materials; Features of the plan for the salvage of waste materials; Results of salvage collection in the country; Four types of salvage activities; Historical records destroyed during the campaign.

Force majeure circumstances, such as those witnessed in the COVID-19 pandemic, have been used to justify new technologies of governance as policy-makers around the world began to realise the magnitude of the problem and its political implications. In Australia, the coronavirus crisis focussed attention on the vital role education plays in society and was used as an opportunity by policy-makers to reinforce an agenda that, over the past two decades, has tied education policy-making to the economy and 'national interest'. Indeed, Australia's growing federal involvement, with respect to schooling policy was continued in the pandemic as the Australian Prime Minister (PM) created a national cabinet to deal with the crisis, consisting of the PM and state and territory leaders. However, despite the ongoing ambition of a national policy agenda pursued by federal policy-makers, fault lines appeared. Informed by Foucauldian notions of discourse, governmentality and biopolitics, this paper explores how Australia's federal Coalition government endeavoured to manage the population at the outset of the pandemic and subjectified teachers as responsible in the service of the economy. While COVID-19 was a crisis in search of a narrative, federal policy-makers experienced pushback as state and territory leaders assumed control and teachers refused subject positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, a range of financial services, including education bonds, high interest personal loans and credit card debt, have long been used to help families pay for the cost of schooling. However, innovative financial technology (fintech) solutions are emerging which align with the growth of a lower risk 'buy now, pay later' phenomenon. Fintechs claim to expand financial inclusion to more people, particularly when their lending activities are compared to traditional banking services. This paper focuses on Edstart, a fintech edu-business that provides low-risk lending for families managing the cost of school fees. In conducting qualitative content analysis of Edstart's website and blog, I catalogue its market-making activities and how it is leveraging logics of school choice to create a new education service market in Australia that normalises school privatisation and the payment of school fees. I end this paper with a discussion of how school choice—as a key policy reform of governments—is associated with the rollback of the welfare state and increased levels of individual financialisation. I argue that parent consumers have become increasingly invested in choosing the 'best' school for their children, and that this often increases their level of private debt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diagnostic imaging is increasingly being used in Australia to aid clinician diagnostic and therapeutic decision-making. There is concern that this increased use represents an overconsumption of inappropriate health services, which wastes finite resources and may cause direct or indirect harm to the patient. Australian health policies have primarily focused on increasing patient access to diagnostic imaging. While these policies address inequitable access and may lead to timely diagnosis and improved health outcomes, these benefits have not been weighed against the unintended harms. This perspective article will explore the unintended consequences of increasing access to diagnostic imaging as well as provide potential solutions to improve the effectiveness of policies in this area. What is known about the topic? When warranted, diagnostic imaging aids the diagnostic process by ruling in (or out) conditions that benefit from treatment and lead to improved patient outcomes. What does this paper add? This paper describes recent policies related to diagnostic imaging in Australia, discusses how increasing access may lead to unintended harms and create further inefficiencies in the system, and provides direction for future health policies in this area. What are the implications for practitioners? Addressing the inappropriate use of diagnostic imaging is crucial for the sustainability of the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dental caries, a non-communicable disease, is one of the most prevalent diseases globally and share common modifiable risk factors with obesity such as excess sugar intake. However, prioritization by governments to improve population oral health has been limited and is typically excluded from the discourse of public health policy development. Therefore, interventions that target dental caries can have other co-benefits including obesity prevention. In Victoria, Australia, local government authorities have a regulatory requirement to develop their Municipal Health and Wellbeing Plans. The aim of this paper is to identify whether prioritization for oral health by local government authorities in Victoria has changed through the subsequent renewal of the Victorian Public Health and Wellbeing Plans 2011–2015 and 2019–2023. Three desktop audits for all publicly available Municipal Health and Wellbeing Plans by local government authorities in Victoria were conducted between 2014 and 2022. Key terms related to oral health was searched within these policy documents and categorized into six indicators: (i) included oral health as a priority, (ii) linked healthy eating and oral health, (iii) supported the Achievement Program, (iv) included the Smiles 4 Miles program, (v) advocated for fluoridated drinking water, and (vi) included other strategies related to oral health. Overall, there was statistically significant reduction in five of the six indicators, with the exception for prioritization of other strategies related to oral health such as targeting excess sugar intake and smoking. A multi-sectoral approach, that includes oral health would be advantageous to address the growing burden of non-communicable diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A series of Community Pharmacy Agreements (Agreements) between the Federal government and a pharmacy-owners' body, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia (PGA) have been influential policy in Australian community pharmacy (CP) since 1990. While ostensibly to support the public's access and use of medicines, the core elements of the Agreements have been remuneration for dispensing and rules that limit the establishment of new pharmacies. Criticism has focused on the self-interest of pharmacy owners, the exclusion of other pharmacy stakeholders from the Agreement negotiations, the lack of transparency, and the impact on competition. The objective of this paper is to determine the true nature of the policy by examining the evolution of the CPA from a policy theory perspective. Methods: A qualitative evaluation of all seven Agreement documents and their impact was undertaken using policy theories including a linear policy development model, Multiple Streams Framework, Incremental Theory, the Advocacy Coalition Framework, the Theory of Economic Regulation, the Punctuated Equilibrium Framework, and Elite Theory. The Agreements were evaluated using four lenses: their objectives, evidentiary base, stakeholders and beneficiaries. Results: The PGA has acted as an elite organisation with long-standing influence on the policy's development and implementation. Notable has been the failure of other pharmacy stakeholders to establish broad-based advocacy coalitions in order to influence the Agreements. The incremental changes negotiated every 5 years to the core elements of the Agreements have supported the publics' access to medication, provided stability for the government, and security for existing pharmacy owners. Their impact on the evolution of pharmacists' scope of practice and through that, on the public's safe and appropriate use of medication, has been less clear. Conclusions: The Agreements can be characterised predominantly as industry policy benefiting pharmacy owners, rather than health policy. An emerging issue is whether incremental change will continue to be an adequate policy response to the social, political, and technological changes that are affecting health care, or whether policy disruption is likely to arise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the influence of political traditions on policymaking at the interface of national and transnational governance. It uncovers various dimensions of influence on boundary-setting through policy change, derived from a case study examining how Australia reconceptualised longstanding freedom of residential movement and equal treatment for citizens across the Tasman. These policymaking activities spanned boundaries across policy subsystems at the interface of both domestic and transnational arenas, in response to perceived dilemmas. This paper focuses on the enabling role of neoliberal ideations to effect an agenda driven by more covert motives. In context of bilateral economic integration, conflicting traditions created a dilemma for Australia, which sought to maintain the advantages of the free labour-market whilst minimizing the problem of granting access to social security and citizenship to those perceived to be unsuitable. I find that Australia, in resolving this dilemma, allowed neoliberal conceptions of labour as a commodity, thereby enabling traditions of exclusion and border control, to override longstanding trans-Tasman traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, like many high-income countries, food insecurity is associated with increased risks of chronic diseases, sub-optimal development outcomes in children, and mental health conditions including depression and anxiety. Food insecure households employ a range of strategies, including the use of food charity, to help alleviate hunger and meet cost of living pressures. The aim of this paper is to investigate the lived experience of food insecurity for welfare-dependent households, and to examine these experiences within a structural violence framework. Structural violence investigations seek to understand the distal causal factors that can help explain poor health patterns and inequities. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with customers (n = 78) of food pantries, soup kitchens, and community development programs (June 2018 to January 2019) in the state of Victoria, Australia. Thematic analysis established evidence of controlling, demeaning and depriving practices in the interactions between the participants and the services and staff at national welfare providers and food charities. The same providers and charities nominally set up to address the exact situations in which participants found themselves. The findings of this study suggest that food and social services are an on-the-ground setting through which structural violence is enacted and experienced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the controversial ways the Australian Commonwealth Government is enforcing the use of the Basics Card (BC) and Cashless Debit Card (CDC) (also known as Indue cards) as economic instruments, thereby preventing self-determination for many First Nations peoples and communities around Australia. Imposing these cards in communities has resulted in barriers to First Nations peoples' social, cultural and economic rights. I will draw upon literature that addresses the implications and obstacles associated with these cards for many First Nations peoples receiving income support. Addressing the Australian Government's' historical and current involvement in the income management of First Nations peoples, this literature review considers the political contexts behind the decision to extend trials in communities and what this means for First Nations communities across these trial sites. In light of the Australian senate's recent approval for a two-year extension of the CDC, legitimising the BC or CDC without providing robust research or evidence is highly problematic. Enforcement of these cards has not explicitly proven to counteract social or economic disadvantages for First Nations peoples. Clearly, it demonstrates that government policy is unjust and considered by many to be racist and punitive. The final component of this paper briefly evaluates the policy implementation so far, and in closing, advocates for the revocation of the current legislation, which disregards the human rights of First Nations peoples and others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National equity policy debates in education are often driven by issues of disadvantage, opportunity, and achievement. However, little is known about how a disadvantaged position mediates people's ability to transform opportunities into valuable achievements. Using African refugees in Australia as an empirical case, and drawing on a mixed method of research, this paper aims to address this knowledge gap. The main sources of data were policy documents, population census reports, and national higher education statistics. The findings highlight limitations with existing higher education equity policies in Australia and the extent to which African refugees have benefited from generic equity programs. In making sense of the data, the paper develops a new conceptual model by innovatively synthesizing the capability approach to social justice and a theory of social reproduction. The model offers an analytical lens to understand the dialectical interplay between objective contexts and subjective conditions that mediate substantive opportunity, conversion ability, and educational choice of the refugee youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A voluminous empirical literature has examined scale economies in public organisations, particularly in local government. By contrast, little effort has been directed at the empirical investigation of economies of scale in higher education administration, including in Australian universities. To address this gap in the empirical literature, this paper examines administrative scale economies and task density in Australian public universities for the period 2009/10–2018/19 using a pooled data framework. We find that there are administrative scale economies in Australian universities and that task density is a key determinant of administrative intensity. In addition, regional universities exhibit a higher level of administrative intensity than their metropolitan counterparts. We conclude by canvassing some of the main public policy implications of our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a blueprint to address urgent global challenges, with a clear role for social workers. This paper explores a Sustainable Development Goal's focused student placement at the Australian Association of Social Workers, with RMIT University. Students reviewed the AASW's policy actions and their contribution to the SDGs, including recommendations for future work. The review identified advocacy in key areas, and the need for action on several issues, including climate action. Students learned about social work policy, practice, and sustainability. The placement itself provides a model for other organisations to align their actions to the SDGs. IMPLICATIONS There is a need for greater social work engagement with the United Nations' SDGs to address urgent social and environmental challenges. Field education placements can provide an important opportunity for students to learn about sustainability, social work policy practice, and the SDGs. The placement model proposed in the article is suitable for any organisation that seeks to review their actions and better align their work to the SDGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building operations use 45% of the total energy in Australia, and Net-Zero Energy Buildings (NZEBs) are instrumental in achieving net zero emissions by 2050. However, research reveals that various factors hinder NZEB adoption in Australia, and it is imperative to contextualise the barriers, thereby highlighting clear gaps that can be addressed to enhance the implementation of NZEB in Australia. This study presents a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis to examine the barriers that hinder the implementation of NZEB contextualised within the Australian building industry. The paper's novelty resides in its contextualisation of barriers to NZEB thereby highlighting clear gaps that can be addressed to enhance the implementation of NZEB in Australia. Emergent results reveal the most impactful barriers experienced and the inter-relatedness between barriers and their effects on each other. These identified barriers are also compared with comparable countries, including the UK, China, Italy and the US. New insight and knowledge acquired provide a basis for assessing potential solutions to the main barriers. Findings show that a lack of knowledge, climate issues, and cost issues, in addition to government policy factors, are considered primary barriers encountered by the industry, hindering the achievement of NZEBs. It is imperative that future studies and initiatives counteract these impacts to realise a better implementation of NZEB in the Australian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents findings from a national survey of Australian planning experts examining future settlement patterns and locations at the continental scale. Collective judgement supported efforts to achieve population decentralisation and favoured three possible scenarios – Satellite Cities, Boosted Secondary Capital Cities, and East West Megaregions. The findings on preferred settlement pattern scenarios can inform future efforts to develop a national urban policy for Australia. This case study can also serve as a reference point to the over 160 countries worldwide that are developing, implementing, or evaluating national urban policies in support of global urban agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2007, 'Closing the Gap' between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people has been an ambition of Australian state and federal governments in areas including education, employment, and health. This paper examines media responses to government policies aimed at closing the achievement gap in schools. The paper analyses print and online newspaper articles in national and capital city/state-based newspapers that reported on the implementation and success of Closing the Gap policies in Australia's schools. The paper argues that media narratives are often based on NAPLAN results, data sourced from the MySchool website, or newspaper-created metrics that support their own narrative. This paper highlights the narratives being purported to readers via the selective nature of newspaper data, and subsequently how these narratives attempt to influence the public discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to share reflections on the frontline delivery of a wrap-around secondary school re-engagement programme on compounding digital inequality during the COVID-19 lockdown. Design/methodology/approach: This paper presents a deliberative reflection on practice and policy lessons learned while negotiating the digital divide during the COVID-19 lockdown in the delivery of the yourtown education youth engagement programme. Findings: Frontline youth worker practice lessons highlight the compounding effect of digital inequality on vulnerable young people who are already disengaged or disengaging from secondary education and the necessity for a reflexive, agile and adaptable practice response, particularly during unprecedented events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Originality/value: This paper presents a wraparound service perspective and outlines important practice lessons gained from adapting an education re-engagement programme to respond to the COVID-19 lockdown in the Greater Brisbane area, Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do public health advocates and practitioners encourage policy actors to address the social determinants of health? What strategies can be used to elevate healthy social policies onto government agendas? In this paper, we examine the case of Australia's first national paid parental leave scheme, announced in 2009 after decades of policy advocacy. This scheme provides job-protected leave and government-funded pay at the minimum wage for 18 weeks for eligible primary care givers on the birth of an infant, and has been shown to reduce health inequities. Drawing on documentary sources and interviews (n  = 25) with key policy actors, this paper traces the evolution of this landmark social policy in Australia, focusing on the role of actors, institutions and policy framings in setting the policy agenda. We find that advocates strategically deployed three different framings—for economy, gender equality and health—to drive paid parental leave onto the Government's agenda. They navigated barriers linked to power, gender ideology and cost, shifting tactics along the way by adopting different frames in various institutional settings and broadening their coalitions. Health arguments varied in different institutional settings and, at times, advocates selectively argued the economic or gender equality framing over health. The case illustrates the successful use of strategic pragmatism to provoke action, and raises broader lessons for advancing action on the social determinants of health. In particular, the case highlights the importance of adopting multiple synergistic policy framings to draw support from non-traditional allies and building coalitions to secure public policy change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to inform the design of individualised funding schemes via an examination of discourses and experiences of choice related to people with psychosocial disability. Mind Australia, in partnership with Deakin University, interviewed 22 individuals with psychosocial disability who are recipients of individual funding packages in three National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) trial sites across Australia. This research involved examining the policy and assumptions of choice under the NDIS, as well as the experience of undertaking choice through individualised funding arrangements which position people with psychosocial disability as consumers in a market place of service provision. The findings demonstrate that choice is an ongoing activity and that at every stage personal, programmatic and market barriers impact individuals' capacity to maximise choice. The intent of government policy to provide choice to individual funding recipients based on an optimally functioning market place with empowered self‐actualising individuals collides with a complex reality where barriers abound at every stage of the choice making process. Enhancing choice making of people with psychosocial disability within the NDIS requires governments and services to explicitly address the personal, programmatic and market‐based barriers to choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The projected long-term growth of Australia's population to over 50 million people raises significant implications for infrastructure planning and liveability. Concomitantly, support for population growth through immigration is, according to some measures, waning. This paper presents findings from a national survey, Plan My Australia, measuring support for alternative national settlement patterns for accommodating population growth. The responses favourthree possible settlement patterns – satellite cities orbiting the state capital cities, regional cities on rail links connecting the capital cities, and cities in inland regions. Policymakers should consider the findings in the context of a re-emerging national urban policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transnational corporations (TNCs) shape population health both positively and negatively through their national and international social, political and economic power and influence; and are a vital commercial determinant of health. Individual and group advocacy and activism in response to corporate products, practices or policy influences can mediate negative health impacts. This paper discusses the unequal power relations existing between TNCs that promote their own financial interests, and activists and advocates who support population and environmental health by challenging corporate power. It draws on interview data from 19 respondents who informed 2 health impact assessments conducted on TNCs; 1 from the fast food industry, and 1 from the extractive industries sector. It reveals the types of strategies that civil society organizations (CSOs) have used to encourage TNCs to act in more health promoting ways. It discusses the extent to which these strategies have been effective, and how TNCs have used their power to respond to civil society action. The paper highlights the rewards, and the very real challenges faced by CSOs trying to change TNC practices related to health, within a neoliberal policy environment. It aims to provide evidence for socially oriented actors to inform their advocacy for changes in public policy or corporate practices that can contribute to improving population health and equity and tackling commercial determinants of health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian Government's attempts at national urban policy have been sporadic and inconsistent, under the constraints of constitutional, financial, ideological and political factors. This paper concerns the recent resurgence of national urban policy under the rubric of "smart cities" adopted by the Turnbull Government and carried on by the incumbent Morrison Government. It investigates how this round of smart cities agenda articulates with Australia's political tradition of national urban policy to seek continuity and change, through comparing historical policies, unpacking major smart cities programmes, identifying explanatory factors and critically commenting on its innovation and legacy. Drawing upon these analyses, this paper argues that understanding the smart cities agenda needs to move beyond the political, ideological "to‐and‐fro" pendulum to national urban policy observed in history. Rather, it resonates with a globalised policy norm established upon the city‐based global integration and competition, driven by an imperative of transitioning to a knowledge economy and pursuing innovation capacity. It is too early to judge whether the smart cities agenda will bring changes to Australian cities in the way it wishes, since it involves long‐term infrastructure investment and urban development projects. However, a comprehensive and consistent national urban policy to govern the Australian system of cities and towns has not been established yet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a rapidly changing global environment, there have been renewed calls to position community development more centrally in social work, particularly in the face of contemporary practice challenges. This paper analyses the broad policy contexts of neoliberalism, globalisation, and governance change and discusses how these forces interact with social work and community development, drawing on examples from Australia and Ireland. The paper argues that sociopolitical forces both restrict and present opportunities for social work and community development practice and we seek to reactivate debate about the position of community development within changing and challenging contexts. IMPLICATIONS Contextualises community development practice, policy, and research within contemporary environments of neoliberalism, globalisation, and governance change. Critically evaluates implications and new opportunities for social work and community development, drawing on examples from Australia and Ireland. Reactivates debate and analysis on the position of community development in contemporary social work as we move forward into the new decade, and the next global agenda for social work and social development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International tax justice issues, such as corporate tax avoidance, have gained particular salience over the past decade in an environment of financial instability and government austerity. Civil society involvement has ranged from trade unions and NGOs calling for parliamentary inquiries to civil disobedience by less established actors. Since the international financial crisis, how have levels of contentious collective action around these issues waxed and waned? Is contentiousness associated most with domestic politics or global media events like the Panama Papers? This paper uses an original hand-coded dataset from five national newspapers in the United Kingdom and Australia between 2008 and 2016. Political claims analysis (PCA) was used to collect all instances of claims around international tax justice and compare the types of actions and the different frames used by civil society actors. In both countries, mobilising grievances are generated most strongly in the period after domestic austerity policies are introduced. The qualitative coding provides evidence of accompanying frame alignment in these periods, as international taxation is problematized in terms of national revenue, demonstrating scale shift from the global to the national political stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to critically analyse the concept of mandatory reporting in adult safeguarding in the jurisdictions of Australia, Canada, England, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Design/methodology/approach: A rapid realist evaluation of the literature on this topic was carried out in order to answer the question: "what works, for whom and in what circumstances?" Particular attention was paid to Context(s), Mechanism(s) and Outcome(s) configurations of adult safeguarding reporting systems and processes. Findings: The evaluation found a range of arguments for and against mandatory reporting and international variations on the scope and powers of mandatory reporting. Research limitations/implications: This review was undertaken in late 2018 so subsequent policy and practice developments will be missing from the evaluation. The evaluation focussed on five jurisdictions therefore, the findings are not necessarily translatable to other contexts. Practical implications: Some jurisdictions have introduced mandatory reporting and others are considering doing so. The potential advantages and challenges of introducing mandatory reporting are highlighted. Social implications: The introduction of mandatory reporting may offer professionals increased powers to prevent and reduce the abuse of adults, but this could also change the dynamic of relationships within families, and between families and professionals. Originality/value: This paper provides an accessible discussion of mandatory reporting across Ireland and internationally which to date has been lacking from the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australian elections are digitising. Electronic ballots, electronic certified lists, electronic scrutiny, and electronic data are becoming part of the electoral status quo. The digitisation of elections in Australia induces new vulnerabilities that malign foreign entities can exploit to subvert the nation's democratic sovereignty. Problems such as inauthenticity, data insecurity, and disinformation are amplified in today's epoch of digital era governance. Since these problems have the potential to erode the legitimacy of Australian elections, it is imperative to deepen understanding of these risks to optimise the nation's democratic resilience. Through applying a conceptual framework derived from democratic theory and public policy, this paper assesses the vulnerability of Australia's elections to foreign interference based on the Australian electoral system irrespective of adversary capabilities. It finds that Australia's federal elections are relatively secure from hard cyber security risks due to digital-analogue hybridity in electoral processes, but they are vulnerable to soft cyber risks such as digital disinformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surveillance of people's health takes on an important meaning in the practice of public health because it allows monitoring of diseases and prompt response to change in proportions and rates at which diseases occur in populations. Improving health of populations requires establishment of an effective public health system. Population level data and analysis is critically important in government policy and program development and monitoring. Lack of or inadequate information about the health of populations leads to ineffective policies that may often attenuate health problems instead of solving them. Australia's current oral health surveillance is mostly through ad hoc sentinel surveys, which lack recency in time. This position paper is to present the need for real-time oral health surveillance in Australia, which can be used to inform health decision-making in a timely manner. A proper oral health surveillance system in Australia is lacking. An oral health surveillance system is a large enterprise that will require piecemeal development involving proof-of-concept, a feasibility study, a demonstration case, and implementation of a working prototype, before a full-fledged system can be put in place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many water scientists aim for their work to inform water policy and management, and in pursuit of this objective, they often work alongside government water agencies to ensure their research is relevant, timely and communicated effectively. A paper in this issue, examining 'Science integrity, public policy and water governance in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia', suggests that a large group of scientists, who work on water management in the Murray- Darling Basin (MDB) including the Basin Plan, have been subject to possible 'administrative capture'. Specifically, it is suggested that they have advocated for policies favoured by government agencies with the objective of gaining personal benefit, such as increased research funding. We examine evidence for this claim and conclude that it is not justified. The efforts of scientists working alongside government water agencies appear to have been misinterpreted as possible administrative capture. Although unsubstantiated, this claim does indicate that the science used in basin water planning is increasingly caught up in the politics of water management. We suggest actions to improve science-policy engagement in basin planning, to promote constructive debate over contested views and avoid the over-politicisation of basin science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, a new system of collecting data on school-aged students with disability is in the early phases of implementation. The nationally consistent collection of data on school-age students with disability (NCCD) establishes a mandatory data collection process in which teachers categorise and report on individual students' level of additional educational needs. This data is used to determine funding allocations for students with disability. Under this policy, teachers are responsible for assessing students' needs, and for documenting their own teaching practice. This paper reports on the early phases of policy implementation. It presents data from teachers at two schools to make visible the new work teachers must undertake. Drawing on Dorothy E. Smith's sociological contributions, we show how the NCCD reorients teachers' work towards documentation and the production of evidence. After exploring teachers' work, we analyse how the NCCD is being taken up in ways that do not contribute to policy aims of ensuring teachers are better able to understand and meet student requirements. Our aim is to understand how the everyday realities of how teachers' work intersects with NCCD goals, and whether this new national policy is likely to make sustained inroads into achieving broader inclusive education ideals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inheritance drives wealth concentration and economic inequality, meaning there is a strong case for wealth transfer taxation as an important element of government redistributive policy. In contrast to many OECD countries, Australia has not had estate or inheritance taxes for 40 years and little is known about contemporary public attitudes towards wealth transfer taxation. This paper draws on qualitative interviews investigating the attitudes of young adult and senior Australians towards wealth transfer taxation. Both groups supported the idea of reintroducing wealth transfer taxation in Australia, largely due to an almost universal absence of expectation that people would or should leave bequests to their descendants. These findings raise the possibility that considering the reintroduction of appropriately targeted wealth transfer taxation in Australia at a time when the Commonwealth Government is experiencing acute fiscal pressures may not generate as much public resistance as might have been assumed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Greek-born population in Australia increased from 15,000 in 1930 to well over 300,000 by 1970. Over the next fifty years, first-generation Greek migrants successfully sustain an identity that promotes difference within Australia while maintaining strong connections to their "homeland". Their Australian-born children, while identifying as Greek-Australian, have integrated successfully into Australian society. There is evidence to suggest that children of second-generation Australian-born Greek migrants or the third generation continue to identify as Greek rather than Australian. Of interest to this paper is an examination of why third-generation Australia's of Greek heritage adopt a Greek identity and what aspects of Greekness they value. It appears that the third generation's steadfast identification as Greek is marked by a desire to distance oneself from assumed Australian traits that they find unappealing and that are contrary to their perception of being Greek. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like many other regional powers in the Asia‐Pacific, Australia is a middle‐sized state wedged between two great powers, the United States (US) and the People's Republic of China. While Australia continues to rely upon the US alliance for security, China remains its biggest trading partner. Over the past two decades, Australia's public foreign policy discussions have centred upon Australia's "China Choice" in the context of growing strategic rivalry between these dominant powers. This debate has sought to grapple with the options available to Australia in managing its relations with an increasingly assertive China and an unpredictable US. This article examines the public debate on China policy since the election of the conservative Liberal‐National Coalition government in 2013. It argues the appropriateness of a pragmatic foreign policy in relation to the engagement of great powers has been the central question in Australia's China debate. Yet what constitutes pragmatic action in relation to Australia's China policy is varied and based on differing understandings of how middle‐sized states can and do seek to cope with structural shifts. The paper also argues, however, that an emergent anti‐pragmatist tradition has recently emerged that reflects the unprecedented challenges facing Australian foreign policy and presents "pragmatism" as a threat to Australian sovereignty, principles, and values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well established that families facing financial adversity have low enrolment rates in early childhood education and care services. This paper reports on a study that utilised Nancy Fraser's theorising of social justice to analyse the approaches and practices of five centres in Australia with a reputation for doing inclusion well. Findings showed that five-fold interconnected 'E' strategies were utilised in the participating centres – Equity focus; Equip for inclusion; Entice participation; Enable access; and Engage families – and that these strategies embraced both transformative and affirmative approaches to social injustice. In the context of low-income families, inclusion as a social justice construct and practice is shown to be distinct from enrolment and attendance in ECEC services, requiring purposeful and sustained practices that in the absence of transformative inclusive government policy, is likely to continue to be the exception rather than the norm in mainstream services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the incongruity of individualization ideologies that position individuals at the centre of health care, by contributing, making informed decisions and exercising choice regarding their health options and lifestyle considerations. When confronted with a global health threat, government across the world, have understood that the rhetoric of individualization, personal responsibility and personal choice would only led to disastrous national health consequences. In other words, individual choice offers a poor criterion to guide the health and wellbeing of a population. This reality has forced many advanced economies around the world to suspend their pledges to 'small government', individual responsibility and individual freedom, opting instead for a more rebalanced approach to economic and health outcomes with an increasing role for institutions and mutualization. For many marginalized communities, individualization ideologies and personalization approaches have never worked. On the contrary, they have exacerbated social and health inequalities by benefiting affluent individuals who possess the educational, cultural and economic resources required to exercise 'responsibility', avert risks and adopt health protecting behaviours. The individualization of the management of risk has also further stigmatized the poor by shifting the blame for poor health outcomes from government to individuals. This paper will explore how the COVID-19 pandemic exposes the cracks of neoliberal rhetoric on personalization and opens new opportunities to approach the health of a nation as socially, economically and politically determined requiring 'upstream' interventions on key areas of health including housing, employment, education and access to health care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has a long history of realising value from data assets supported by our strong governance and analytical capability. Recent changes to technology, government policy and the complexity and volume of our data holdings have put increasing pressure on our existing processes for data collation, analysis and sharing/release. While the AIHW has already put in place a number of initiatives to respond to the changing demands on data, some slow response times have resulted from new developments required to meet some of the complex challenges posed by Multi‐source Enduring Linked Data Assets (MELDAs) such as the National Integrated Health Services Initiative (NIHSI). The learnings we are taking forward will provide smoother pathways for newer MELDAs such as the National Disability Data Asset. This paper outlines the new challenges faced with appropriately managing MELDAs, and the learnings of the AIHW have taken forward in realising value from this new type of data asset along with how MELDAs, such as the NIHSI, can be applied to address social policy questions in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sale of raw drinking milk from cows is banned in Australia due to regulatory requirements that all milk must be pasteurised. Such a prohibition is based on concern about public health and safety risks, and was upheld in the most recent review of raw milk product regulation undertaken by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ). However, this decision is not one that is universally accepted, with some people challenging the conclusion that raw milk is dangerous, and choosing to still source and drink it. In this paper, the contested regulation of raw milk is examined by questioning the normative assumption that the object in question, raw milk, is a singular entity, and one which is always dangerous. Drawing on analysis of six FSANZ documents released as part of its raw milk review, this paper discusses the practices that stabilise raw milk as always risky; processes that are found to wash away the possibility of other, potentially safe, versions of raw milk. It concludes by finding that such stabilisation has tangible impacts for public health policy and regulation, including limiting the parameters within which debate can occur, and precluding the possibility that other versions of raw milk could exist, or be accounted for in food safety regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper illustrates how systems theory can be used in social work research design to understand the systemic issues associated with spousal care in rural Australia. Spousal caregiving is embedded within multiple formal and informal systems, including family, community, health and aged care practice, social policy, and social and cultural norms. It is therefore a complex phenomenon to explore in social research, with each of these systems interacting with and influencing other aspects of the care system. The purpose of this paper is to provide an illustration of a research design that explores this systemic complexity. The design is conceptually underpinned by the transformative paradigm; a critical approach that reflects social work principles of social justice. The methodology is based on an ecosystems approach to assessment, using multiple methods to explore interactions between systems of care at policy, practice and individual levels. This application of systems theory to research presents an innovative opportunity for social work research to reflect long-established practices of understanding complex phenomenon within its sociocultural context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the injunction of the field of paperwork to look at paper, rather than through it for information, a close read of the first volumes of the New South Wales State Archives & Records series NRS 5031 discloses a surprising history. The New South Wales Legislative Council appointed a select committee in 1846 to enquire into the management of Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum - into its work. Finding the work in order, the committee quickly turned to its paperwork failures. The Legislative Council, created in 1843, worked tirelessly through the 1840s to establish control over the penal colony, anticipating self-government. Cited as an example of its humanitarian impulses and thorough committee work, the 1846 committee’s report shows parliamentarians embracing bureaucratic forms and medicine’s promise to cure madness. The absence of proper records was taken up by the committee and by the colonial press as a weapon; attacking the asylum officers, they attacked also the structure of colonial government and the likeness of irresponsible government in the colonies. NRS 5031, a series of casebooks filled out from 1847, helped to create the ‘imaginary’ lunatic asylum on paper which was demanded by these politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]