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Much party communication encourages voters to lower issue-related evaluations of rival parties. Yet, studies of such influence are rare. Drawing on research on political parties' negative campaigning, this article starts to fill this gap. We triangulate evidence from four survey experiments across six issues in Denmark, the US, and Australia, and show that a party's negative campaigning decreases voters' evaluations of the target party's issue-handling competence (i.e. issue ownership), but does not backlash on voters' evaluations of the sponsor. Such attack on the target party does not have to be tied to a negative policy development like the crime rate to undermine the target party's competence evaluations. At the same time, a negative policy development only undermines a party's evaluations when it is accompanied by a rival party's negative campaigning attack. The implications for party competition and the mass-elite linkage are important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the idea of an affirmational republic which, both structurally and symbolically, affirms rather than rejects Australia's British history and heritage while equally celebrating the nation's Indigenous inheritance and multicultural achievements. Part II explores the history of republican advocacy to unpack the common, predominantly symbolic, justifications for republican reform. It then elucidates dual, separate but connected, purposes - one small and practical and one big and symbolic - to show that each purpose may entail a different solution. Part III discerns lessons from the failed 1999 referendum, to help guide what an affirmational republic could involve. The proposed approach is developed further in Part IV. Addressing the practical purpose, I suggest the title 'Governor-General' could be retained (instead of 'President') and provide arguments against direct election. Addressing the symbolic purpose, I suggest an inspiring national Declaration could be better achieved extra-constitutionally, as the Referendum Council recommended in 2017. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a meme created by James Blackwell, a Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Impact, to comment on establishing an Indigenous representative Voice within Australia's parliamentary system. Topics covered include Blackwell's intention to encourage an informed discussion about what an Indigenous Voice to Parliament entails and what co-design demands, and the Uluru Statement from the Heart that was devised during First Nations National Constitutional Convention in 2017.

The article offers information on the Sex Discrimination and Fair Work (Respect at Work) Amendment Act of 2021, implements certain recommendations of the Australian Human Rights Commission report titled Respect at Worked, on the Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces. It mentions Act amending several laws such as Australian Human Rights Commission Act of 1986 and Fair Work Act 2009.