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The law of contract is changing. "Good faith" and "relational contracts" are used by parties more than ever before in commercial disputes. Yet, their definition and what it really means to act in good faith are still unsettled in the UK and Australia, reducing the (judicial and doctrinal) utility and impact of such conceptual tools. In contrast, the construction industry is trying to move forward in policy terms. Over the last 30 years, industry-led initiatives have been working to improve collaboration. In the UK and Australia, new collaborative frameworks contain express provisions asking parties to act with mutual trust and cooperation among other collaborative schemes. Examination of the judicial approach and industry initiatives demonstrates that there is – underpinning both – a project-centric approach (even if that is yet to be fully recognised or articulated). It is the aim of this paper to further articulate this understanding by examining at the judicial and industry positions in the UK and Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines myths and misconceptions about university student volunteering. Our study explored the experiences of students, host organisations and universities participating in volunteering in Australia, identify good practice, and discover barriers to success. A qualitative approach involved 60 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders. Students were often seen as being energetic, having flexible time and having skills associated with their studies. Some organisations, however, viewed students as unreliable, hard to manage and requiring specific programs. Some hosts were viewed as not valuing student volunteers, or not having the capacity to supervise. These perceptions were found to be nuanced. Erroneous myths were seen to develop from a single event, later confirmed by a 'related' event; in scenarios with multiple players, motivations, and complexities. The potential for misconceptions to undermine the true value of student volunteering for all stakeholders is ameliorated when there is common understanding, clear expectation setting, and ongoing dialogue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fairy tales are ubiquitous in Australian primary schools. Drawing on a review of key literature, this paper aims to determine the implications of teaching fairy tales in the twenty-first-century primary classroom. Research points to the benefits of including fairy tales as a tool to improve all subject areas of the curriculum. Fairy tales present opportunities to positively engage students through the teaching of social justice and the development of emotional intelligence. The review of literature found that teachers need to be cautious and critical when teaching traditional fairy tales which often perpetrate an outdated, gender-ignorant representation of society, and allow students an opportunity to confront these ideas. The book form of Disney fairy tales can be problematic, particularly the earlier versions, which are criticised for being domesticated, sentimental and overly simplistic. The review has also found that multicultural fairy tales have enormous potential to increase cultural equity in the contemporary classroom, but unfortunately, they do not appear to be easily accessible in Australia. The fairy tale is constantly being reinvented and reimagined to fit into modern society, which has led to the emergence of the fractured fairy tale genre, where a traditional fairy tale is subverted. This review found that when used in a critical and inclusive manner, fairy tales have the potential to be an effective resource to teach primary school students in the contemporary classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how changing digital literacy practices in educational contexts require that we continually revisit conceptualisations of digital literacy education. We begin by analysing the positions taken by stakeholders who contribute to digital literacy discourses in Australia, exploring how competing interests produce effects which manifest in ways that differently consecrate social and cultural practice in the digital age. We advocate the need for pedagogic frameworks that support digital literacy education. Existing approaches tend to privilege the operationalisation of digital technology. By contrast, teaching is needed which focusses on meaning-making and creating. However, the 'datafication of everyday life' (Barassi, 2018, p.170) has included extraordinary interventions into schooling that have significant implications for teachers and students. We argue that preparing young people for digital citizenship must include a focus on critical digital literacies that are responsive to contemporary digital forces (e.g. platformatisation, artificial intelligence, edu-apps, algorithms) as well as those digital technologies that are yet to make their way into formal schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper's aim is to propose a mediation framework and test whether lifestyle choices and social capital are pathways through which baseline levels of well-being affect subsequent physical health among older adults. Using large-scale panel data for Australia, we find that past levels of well-being have strong direct effects on present physical health. We also show that more frequent socialization and more frequent participation in physical activity are two pathways through which higher levels of well-being lead to better physical health. These mediating effects vary across gender. Our findings highlight a protective role of subjective well-being in physical health. Interventions taking into account not only the direct but also the indirect effects of well-being are promising avenues for physical health maintenance in the older population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatial clustering of life satisfaction scores noted in recent empirical research suggests that ‘happier’ people may live in specific neighbourhoods or regions. This prompts the questions: Do ‘happier’ people choose to move to specific places? Does living in specific places make people ‘happier’? To answer these questions, this paper explores possible occurrences of selective mobility, and social and ecological influence. Using panel data collected in Australia from 2013 to 2021, we examine the association between life satisfaction scores and selective geographic mobility, and the possible influence that living at specific locations may have on individual life satisfaction trajectory, while controlling for individual personality traits and socio-demographic factors. Our results indicate that urban residents reporting lower life satisfaction scores before the move have a higher probability of moving to a rural area. Similarly, lower life satisfaction scores are associated with a higher probability of moving to a region with a different climate. We also find evidence that moving from the city to the country is associated with an uplift of the life satisfaction trajectory for the individual. A similar conclusion is reached for people who moved to a warmer climate, but not for a move to a cooler climate. To our knowledge, this is the first time the concepts of selective mobility and social and ecological influence have been applied in life satisfaction research. Our work provides an indicator that can be important to demographers predicting population movements. It can also inform policy development around assisting regional and rural areas attract/ retain residents to support regional sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite decades of managerial university reforms, collegiality emerges as an idea that unites academics, and that both symbolises and legitimises the collective aspirations of the academy. Typically, collegiality is positioned as an unquestionably "good thing"—an unproblematic academic ideal or an academic structure—obscuring the contingency of social arrangements in universities. This paper investigates the plurality of collegial practices that unfold "on the ground" in the context of university reforms and the diversification of the academic workforce over recent decades. The paper presents a qualitative and exploratory study of collegial practices in seven contemporary Australian and New Zealand/Aotearoa universities, employing a social cartographic analysis. Eleven types of logics underpinning collegial practices are identified and described in detail, by drawing on examples of collegial practices offered by fifteen research participants. A reconfigured picture of academic relations is presented, revealing the range of collegial practices that tend to be subsumed under a generic notion of collegiality. The effects of different types of collegial practices are examined, contesting exclusionary collegial relations and highlighting practices that have the potential to produce a more inclusive and socially just academy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Violence against women remains a serious and widespread problem in Australia with enormous impacts and social costs. Recently, there have been renewed government efforts to address gender-based violence in schools through a whole school approach. This approach has come to be known as Respectful Relationships Education (RRE) and supports schools to build cultures and practices of gender respect. Recognition of the need for RRE is well established in Australia with states and territories implementing a range of policy and programme initiatives. This paper presents data generated from a mixed methods evaluation of the implementation and impact of RRE in eighteen Australian primary schools. Our focus is on case study data gathered from two of these schools to illustrate the significance of context in shaping the capacity of schools to take up RRE in the ways it is intended. We identify and analyse the specific situated, professional, material and external factors at these schools that enabled and constrained the implementation of this reform. In light of the continued tendency within policy for schools to be dematerialised (i.e. not seen in relation to the complexities of context), the paper argues for greater attention to matters of context in understanding the differential impact of reforms such as RRE in schools. In particular, we draw attention to the urgency and imperative of differential support to schools in relation to such matters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) is well established in Australian hospitals. Electronic medical record (EMR) implementation has lagged in Australia, with two Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Stage 6 hospitals and one Stage 7 hospital as of September 2020. Specific barriers faced by AMS teams with paper-based prescribing and medical records include real-time identification of antimicrobials orders; the ability to prospectively monitor antimicrobial use; and the integration of fundamental point of prescribing AMS principles into routine clinical practice. There are few local guidelines to assist Australian hospitals and AMS teams beyond "out of the box" EMR functionality. EMR implementation has enormous potential to positively impact AMS teams through more efficient workflows and the ability to expand the reach and coverage of AMS activities. There are inevitable limitations associated with EMR implementation that must be considered. In this paper, four Australian hospitals share their experience with EMR roll out, AMS customisation and how they have overcome specific barriers in local AMS practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One fundamental aspect of organizational transformation in higher education is the change to the profile of universities' non-academic workforce. Key staffing trends identified in recent studies conducted in a variety of national settings include an increase in the proportion of non-academic staff at universities and a shift toward more highly qualified and remunerated non-academic roles. This paper examines the extent to which these trends have played out at Australian universities over the period 1997 to 2017. Drawing on unpublished sets of staffing data, the analyses show that while the proportion of non-academic positions at Australian universities has remained largely stable, there has been a striking and uniform growth in management-rank positions, concurrent with a substantial decline in lower-level and less expensive support roles. This has some significant implications, in particular the growth in more complex "corporate" structures, the relatively fewer staff to support academic work, and the increase in the relative costs associated with maintaining the non-academic workforce at Australian universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper undertakes a near real-time analysis of the income distribution effects of the Covid-19 crisis in Australia to understand the ongoing changes in the income distribution as well as the impact of policy responses. By semi-parametrically combining incomplete observed data from three different sources–the monthly Longitudinal Labour Force Survey, the Survey of Income and Housing and administrative payroll data–we estimate the impact of Covid-19 on the Australian income distribution and decompose its impact into the income shock effect and the policy effect between February and June 2020, covering the immediate periods before and after the initial Covid-19 outbreak. Our results suggest that, despite growth in unemployment, the Gini coefficient of equivalised household disposable income dropped by more than 0.02 points between February and June 2020. This reduction is due to the additional wage subsidies and welfare supports offered as part of the policy response, offsetting the increase in income inequality from the income shock effect. The results shows the effectiveness of temporary policy measures both in maintaining living standards and avoiding increases in income inequality. However, the heavy reliance on the support measures shown in the modelling raises the possibility that the changes in the income distribution may be reversed, or even that inequality and living standards could substantially worsen once the measures are withdrawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth in student numbers from the Indian subcontinent countries has increased exponentially in the Australian higher education system over the past decade. Unfortunately, this growth has not been accompanied by initiatives to address the distinctive cross-cultural challenges faced by this cohort. This paper seeks to identify academic and professional staff perceptions of how they can help alleviate the social and academic challenges faced by subcontinent students. Thematic analysis of multiple focus group interviews established a range of simple initiatives that university staff and decision-makers could introduce to alleviate these challenges. Academic and professional staff should clearly and repeatedly articulate course, assessment and integrity expectations and make use of pre-arrival and orientation interactions. The pedagogic environment should be customised to subcontinent students in the classroom, and written teaching materials should be supplemented with engaging videos, ideally subtitled. The introduction of cross-cultural awareness training for academic and professional staff would improve the learning experience of subcontinent students. Adequate resourcing of academic skills and English language support and mental health support services also emerged as valuable initiatives. The cross-cultural awareness training for academic and professional staff should also be customised to their specific roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores attitudes toward dating people with disability amongst young people in Australia and Hong Kong. Data relating to disability were extracted from an e-survey that investigated young people's (n = 2208) experiences of and attitudes toward dating. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics while open ended responses were subjected to interpretive content analysis. When asked about preferred characteristics for potential dates, young people identified factors that were unlikely to be negatively influenced by disability, such as loyalty, honesty, dedication, humour, and kindness. Yet when asked whether disability would influence their dating choices, most said that it would and expressed an unwillingness to date people with disability. Young adults in Hong Kong expressed less openness to dating people with disability than those in Australia. Physical disability and mental health issues were seen as less of a barrier to dating than intellectual or developmental disability. Despite recent gains in public attitudes toward people with disability, improvements are needed in terms of young people in the general population viewing people with disability as suitable partners and thus, allowing them to enjoy equal rights to relationships and sexuality. Culture is an important determinant, indicating a potential for change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research into nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) has primarily focussed on the experience and regulation of emotion. Recently, NSSI-specific cognitions, including self-efficacy to resist self-injury, have been explored to further understand the behaviour. However, within these studies self-efficacy to resist NSSI has been assessed broadly using an adapted measure of self-efficacy to avoid suicide. There is a need for a NSSI-specific measure of self-efficacy, which considers specific contexts that may influence confidence in the ability to resist self-injuring. This paper reports the development of such a measure. An initial item pool (125 items) was generated from interviews with people with lived experience of NSSI and experts in the field of self-injury. These items were then administered to 650 participants aged 18–40 years (M = 21.14, SD = 2.32, 45.69% with a history of NSSI). Analyses revealed a three-factor structure representing: contexts in which it would be difficult to resist NSSI (risk contexts); contexts which make it easier to resist NSSI (protective contexts); and contexts in which people are reminded of self-injury (reminders of NSSI). To reduce the number of items, eight items with the highest loadings on each factor were retained. The final 24 item (three subscales) scale fit the data well and demonstrated invariance across individuals with and without a history of self-injury. Correlations with related but distinct constructs (e.g., self-esteem, locus of control) supported convergent and discriminative validity. This measure could be used to further theoretical understanding of NSSI and may be useful in clinical settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether adolescents can be reliably categorized into subgroups based on their patterns of anxiety levels over time and whether low levels of social support from parents, peers, and their school, and high levels of peer victimization, predict a pattern of increasing anxiety. Participants were 3392 youth from the Longitudinal Study of Australia's Children (LSAC). Youth-reported anxiety was measured at three occasions at ages 12/13 years, 14/15 years, and 16/17 years, with social support and victimization assessed at age 12/13 years. Anxiety trajectories were identified using latent class growth mixture modelling, and predictors of class membership were examined using multinomial logistic regression analyses. Three discrete classes of anxiety trajectories were identified. Most youth fell within a stable-low anxiety symptom class (89.5% males; 78.2% females), with smaller percentages in low-increasing (5.6% males; 14.4% females) or high-decreasing (4.9% males; 7.4% females) classes. Low support from parents and teachers, low sense of school belonging, and high peer victimization predicted membership of the low-increasing anxiety trajectory class, irrespective of gender. Social support did not moderate the effect of peer victimization upon the risk of developing anxiety, with peer victimization remaining a risk factor even when adolescents experienced good social support from parents, peers, and school. The findings highlight the need for screening in early adolescence to identify those who are experiencing low social support and high peer victimization and are thus at increased risk of developing anxiety problems. These youth could then be offered targeted intervention to reduce the likelihood of anxiety development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The incidence of colonic diverticulitis is increasing. In Australia the majority of diverticulitis occurs in the left colon and patients typically undergo colonoscopy following an attack. At present debate exists regarding the utility of this costly procedure and a flexible sigmoidoscopy has been proposed as a cheaper, less invasive alternative. This paper seeks to examine whether significant pathology is being detected in the right and transverse colon to warrant colonoscopy, as opposed to a flexible sigmoidoscopy. Methods: A retrospective review of colonoscopies performed between August 2016 and August 2018, indicated by diverticulitis alone, performed in a single Australian metropolitan hospital. Results: 189 patient colonoscopies were reviewed in combination with the pathology forms. Only 1 primary colonic malignancy was detected, found in the left colon. 110 traditional adenomas and 35 sessile serrated adenomas were detected. 41.8% of patients had a polyp detected with an average of 1.9 polyps per patient. 38.6% of polyps were resected from the left colon while 61.4% were removed from the right and transverse colon. In total 30 polyps > 10 mm or with high-risk histological features were resected, 18 (60%) from the left colon and 12 (40%) from the right and transverse. 20 patients (10.6%) met the criteria for high-risk adenomas and 50% of those had > 40% of their polyps in the right and transverse colon. There was no significant difference in age between patients with polyps and those without. Conclusion: Despite over half the patients having no polyps and only one left sided malignancy. This study demonstrates that the right and transverse colon is responsible for over 50% of the polyps removed and similar proportion of the advanced polyps. Where endoscopic surveillance after acute colonic diverticulitis is performed, this study supports the use of colonoscopy and cautions against flexible sigmoidoscopy alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of appropriate statistical methods has a key role in improving the accuracy of selection decisions in a plant breeding program. This is particularly important in the early stages of testing in which selections are based on data from a limited number of field trials that include large numbers of breeding lines with minimal replication. The method of analysis currently recommended for early-stage trials in Australia involves a linear mixed model that includes genetic relatedness via ancestral information: non-genetic effects that reflect the experimental design and a residual model that accommodates spatial dependence. Such analyses have been widely accepted as they have been found to produce accurate predictions of both additive and total genetic effects, the latter providing the basis for selection decisions. In this paper, we present the results of a case study of 34 early-stage trials to demonstrate this type of analysis and to reinforce the importance of including information on genetic relatedness. In addition to the application of a superior method of analysis, it is also critical to ensure the use of sound experimental designs. Recently, model-based designs have become popular in Australian plant breeding programs. Within this paradigm, the design search would ideally be based on a linear mixed model that matches, as closely as possible, the model used for analysis. Therefore, in this paper, we propose the use of models for design generation that include information on genetic relatedness and also include non-genetic and residual models based on the analysis of historic data for individual breeding programs. At present, the most commonly used design generation model omits genetic relatedness information and uses non-genetic and residual models that are supplied as default models in the associated software packages. The major reasons for this are that preexisting software is unacceptably slow for designs incorporating genetic relatedness and the accuracy gains resulting from the use of genetic relatedness have not been quantified. Both of these issues are addressed in the current paper. An updating scheme for calculating the optimality criterion in the design search is presented and is shown to afford prodigious computational savings. An in silico study that compares three types of design function across a range of ancillary treatments shows the gains in accuracy for the prediction of total genetic effects (and thence selection) achieved from model-based designs using genetic relatedness and program specific non-genetic and residual models. Supplementary materials accompanying this paper appear online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies how consumption expenditures, especially spending on certain types of goods and services, affect people's life satisfaction. The results demonstrate that conspicuous (i.e., visible and positional) spending increases life satisfaction. The analysis suggests that it is one's conspicuous consumption expenditures relative to those of other households in one's reference group that really matter. In contrast, savings and spending on basic goods and services, the less visible components of income, do not contribute to life satisfaction. This paper also evaluates the often-discussed relationship between income and life satisfaction, finding that the relationship is largely driven by conspicuous spending. Evidence of relationship heterogeneity across income groups is presented: conspicuous consumption expenditures have a positive influence on life satisfaction for individuals in all income groups; basic consumption expenditures, however, have a negative influence for people in the lowest income quartile. The findings of this paper underscore the importance of social comparisons to people's well-being and imply that interdependence should be modeled in utility functions. The results are based on the Arellano–Bond generalized method of moments estimation, which controls for bias from unobserved individual heterogeneity and endogenous variables. The data come from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey (2006–2010). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the limited empirical analysis of higher education students' perceptions of contemporary labour market demands. It explores their perspectives on the health of the graduate labour market, what factors determine these and how their perceptions relate to self-perceived employability, career proactivity, career control and efforts to develop positional advantage. Further, the study examines determinants of students' career planning, all in the context of a challenging graduate labour market and higher education systems that have become more market-driven. The paper draws on evidence from a survey among Australian and UK students (N = 433), from two institutions and across a range of disciplines. Data revealed a number of significant findings. Overall, students who reported more positive perceptions of the current labour market were more likely to develop higher self-perceptions of employability, believe they had a greater sense of control over their career yet were less engaged with proactive career behaviours. Students perceived employability, their sense of career control and their reported career proactivity positively determined their engagement in career planning. The study enhances our understanding of the impact of labour market demand-side factors on student approaches to careers. It raises significant implications for universities and their career practitioners in identifying ways of enhancing students' career planning strategies within a more challenging labour market context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia has the most significant wildfire problem in Oceania, with in excess of 50,000 wildfires per annum on average, and an average of 500,000 km2 of land burnt by wildfires annually across the nation. Each year a number of these wildfires also affect the built environment at the wildland-urban interface (WUI). Each year in Australia, 84 dwellings are destroyed by wildfires on average, albeit historically, only a small number of extreme wildfire events have accounted for the vast majority of the destruction. In response to this WUI fire problem, Australia has developed standards that are cited in the National Construction Code (or NCC), which control construction at the WUI. These standards are constantly under review and evolving as new research is conducted. This paper is a review paper which provides a summary of the building regulatory controls that are in place in Australia to minimise the impact of WUI fires on the built environment. As such, the paper attempts to clarify for a broader international audience how the WUI fire problem is dealt with in one developed country where a significant WUI fire problem exists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeologists usually see, and understand, rock shelters as taphonomically active, but pre-existing, physical structures onto which people undertake a variety of actions including rock art. Our aim in this paper is not only to document the changes undergone by rock shelters but also to identify traces of anthropic actions that have intentionally led to these changes. Recent research in northern Australia provides empirical evidence that for thousands of years, Aboriginal peoples altered the physical shape of rock shelters by removing masses of rock to create alcoves, restructure internal spaces and create stone-worked furniture. Through archaeomorphological research, this paper presents evidence from Borologa in Australia's Kimberley region, where hard quartzite monoliths were shaped and engaged as architectural designs by Aboriginal people prior to painting many surfaces, making us rethink what have traditionally been distinguished as natural versus cultural dimensions of archaeological landscapes and rock art sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents additional qualitative results from Phase 1 of a larger study examining potentially morally injurious events/experiences (PMIE) and/or moral injury (MI) among Australian veterans (Hodgson et al. in J Relig Health 60(5):3061–3089, 2021). It makes specific reference to (1) betrayal and (2) retribution experienced or perpetrated by Australian military veterans during military conflicts and peacekeeping missions. During two veteran seminars conducted in Adelaide, South Australia, a total of 50 veterans were recruited, 10 of whom were willing to be interviewed and audio-recorded about their deployment experiences. Narrative data analysis of veteran transcripts indicated that all participants had engaged in or were exposed to a PMIE/MI of one kind or another, and all had experienced betrayal and/or witnessed or perpetrated retribution. Given the ethical, moral and spiritual issues involved, the role of chaplains in addressing moral injury for the benefit of veterans through the use of 'Pastoral Narrative Disclosure' (PND) is suggested—with a specific focus upon 'restoration' and 'ritual'. Additional research is recommended with regard to acts of betrayal and retribution among veterans, as well as the further development of PND to address PMIE/MI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A significant body of work problematises the assumption that student evaluations of teaching (SET) actually measure teaching quality. This is concerning, given that SET are increasingly relied upon not only to evaluate candidates for employment (so job acquisition is influenced by flawed data) but also to inform performance metrics for those in employment (so job security is influenced by flawed data). This paper presents qualitative research conducted at a large public university in Australia. The findings suggest that student evaluations of teaching seem to measure conformity with gendered expectations rather than teaching quality, with particularly negative effects for women. The integration of SET into performance management practices within institutions of higher education could be entrenching inequalities amongst university staff that could ultimately disadvantage female academics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stories and literature play an important and necessary role in understanding the past and in creating the future. Yet, in colonised countries such as Australia, the status of contemporary national texts, particularly those reflecting the diverse voices of Indigenous writers, women, and other marginalised groups, continue to be underrepresented in schools. In this article, we explore the reasons why Australian texts continue to be marginalised in education, when there is a clear desire for diverse Australian voices amongst the reading public. We also consider the kinds of national identities that current text selection and teaching policies are creating and maintaining in schools. In order to develop these ideas, we draw on data collected via a survey of secondary English teachers for a pilot research project called Teaching Australia. In this project, we explored the Australian texts being selected and championed by teachers in secondary schools, the perceptions of nation and national identity these convey, and teachers' approaches to including diverse Australian texts in their classrooms. In the final section of the paper, we consider some future opportunities for engagement with diverse Australian literature for teachers and students of English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mining industry, considered a traditional and conservative industry with respect to innovation, finds itself at a turning point due to the increasingly complex challenges, such as declining ore grades. These challenges have created an imperative to innovate. Parallel to the above, several digital innovations are being implemented in many mining operations across the globe. Not only do these provide solutions to the existing problems but also radically transform mining processes, increasing efficiency, profitability, and the ability to comply with stricter regulations. The incorporation of mature and incipient technologies into the mining industry has opened up many opportunities for long-established firms as well as knowledge-based start-ups. This includes potential suppliers in countries where mining accounts for a significant share of the GDP but the development of productive linkages remains suboptimal, as in Latin American countries. While in recent years, some suppliers in Latin America have made important contributions to increasing innovation in the mining industry, most suppliers in the region have not been able to do so. This paper provides an overview of the innovation paradigm of the mining sector from a global perspective, i.e., how innovation processes take place in countries with a long-established technological leadership in the mining sector, such as Australia and Canada. Given the importance of suppliers in this process, a special attention is paid to innovation in various stages of the supply chain. This is in order to provide a departure point for identifying windows of opportunity for equipment and service suppliers in Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been forty years since the first multi-channel cochlear implant was used in Australia. While heralded in the hearing world as one of the greatest inventions in modern medicine, not everyone reflects on this achievement with enthusiasm. For many people in the Deaf community, they see the cochlear implant as a tool that reinforces a social construct that pathologizes deafness and removes Deaf identity. In this paper, I set out the main arguments for and against cochlear implantation. While I conclude that, on balance, cochlear implants improve the well-being and broaden the open futures of deaf children, this does not justify mandating implants in circumstances where parents refuse them because this may compound unintended harms when society interferes in the parent-child relationship. For this reason, I argue that parental refusal of cochlear implantation falls within Gillam's concept of the zone of parental discretion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the visual and verbal representation of diversity in Australian early childhood picture books, focusing on those that have been shortlisted for the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Early Childhood Book of the Year award (2001–2020). Educators at all levels draw on award lists to help create their reading lists and build their library collections. For early childhood to kindergarten educators, these selections are principally picture books. Picture books are significant for the cultural messages and values they convey about society, and for helping children learn about their world. How diverse that world is impacts on a child's sense of belonging and inclusion. Using content analysis, this study demonstrates the extent to which the story worlds in the CBCA award winning early childhood picture books may be considered a source of diversity for young Australian readers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores strategies that support Aboriginal parents' mastery of evidence-based early learning strategies, and their impact on young Aboriginal children's learning outcomes. The three-year study followed 32 parent-child dyads attending Families as First Teachers (FaFT) playgroups in two remote Northern Territory communities in 2015–2017. Trained FaFT staff provided parents with coaching in the use of Conversational Reading—an evidence-based shared reading strategy in first language—at FaFT. The study examined patterns of parent mastery across the three-year study period, the relationship between levels of parent-child participation at FaFT (program dosage) and parent mastery, and the impact of parent mastery of Conversational Reading on young Aboriginal children's language and learning outcomes. By including measures of parent-child participation and parent mastery of key program strategies at three time points, the study also provides a picture of the fidelity of program implementation across the study period. The findings indicate that parents' mastery of strategies (and thus the fidelity of program implementation) increased over time in line with the program dosage parents received. Higher levels of parent-child participation at FaFT and parent mastery of strategies at the end of the program were positively associated with children's language and learning outcomes. This study demonstrates that the provision of coaching at playgroup is an effective way to build parent capacity in the implementation of evidence-based early learning strategies, and that supporting parent mastery of teaching strategies has the potential to improve the learning outcomes of young children in remote Aboriginal communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although it is often assumed that electronic gaming machines (EGMs) are associated with the highest level of risk, it has proved difficult to find reliable evidence in support of this proposition. In this paper, we analysed statistics from major Australian community prevalence studies for the period 2011-2020 to investigate whether EGMs (in comparison to racing and casino table games) have a stronger association with problem gambling. All prevalence studies reviewed used telephone sampling and the Problem Gambling Severity Index to assess problem gambling. In this paper, we examine the principal hypothesis using several lines of evidence, including whether problem gamblers are more likely to gamble and gamble regularly on EGMs as opposed to racing and casino games and if the EGM-problem gambling association was maintained after controlling for other forms of participation. Results showed that of all gambling activities, EGMs do appear to have the strongest association with problem gambling. Despite having a disproportionately higher level of participation on racing and casino games as compared with other gamblers, problem gamblers are more likely to report regular or weekly participation in EGM gambling and this may be the reason why this activity emerges most strongly as a predictor of problem gambling in multivariate models. This finding is particularly salient, given the very high prevalence of EGM participation, compared to other risky gambling forms. The findings underscore the importance of survey reporting that presents results in a form that can inform policy relevant research relating to the potential impact of different gambling activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Around the world, the financial landscape is becoming increasingly complex. In response to this, an array of initiatives seeks to address financial participation, education, and inclusion for the broad as well as the vulnerable population. There is an increased expectation that these programs will improve the financial wellbeing of individuals and households. But financial wellbeing is inadequately conceptualized and inconsistently defined, making it difficult to understand and improve financial outcomes. Existing conceptualizations, do not adequately account for the dynamic interplay between a person's environment and their financial wellbeing as well as how aspects of financial wellbeing can interact according to age and life stages. This paper aims to address this gap by redefining and re-conceptualizing financial wellbeing and understanding its components and the relationships between them. To do so, nine focus groups with 54 people living in Australia of different ages, genders, and socio-economic statuses; and 18 one-on-one interviews with people experiencing challenges to their financial wellbeing, are conducted. Using an ecological life-course approach, this paper proposes a definition of financial wellbeing and puts forward a conceptual model allowing us to better understand how financial wellbeing may change over time, and how it is achieved, maintained, or challenged. Policy makers, regulators and organizations may use this model to consider where they might focus their efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there are many cross-sectional studies that provide data on gambling behaviour and the characteristics of those who gamble, there are few large-scale population based longitudinal studies of gambling. This is a serious limitation. It is increasingly being recognised that longitudinal data is required to properly understand gambling behaviour, trajectories, risks and consequences. This paper makes use of a large-scale longitudinal survey that includes questions on gambling behaviour in Australia: the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. Although the HILDA survey currently provides data on gambling at a single point in time in 2015, there are data on the individuals, in the majority of cases, back to 2001. This paper analyses the trajectories of a range of social, health and economic outcomes according to self-reported risk of experiencing gambling related problems. The analysis clearly shows that problem gamblers experience significantly worse outcomes than those without gambling problems, and poor outcomes go back a number of years. In a number of cases, outcomes are becoming progressively poorer, which may suggest either increasingly risky gambling behaviour or the cumulative effects of a sustained period of gambling problems. The long-term nature of the poor health and social outcomes experienced by problem gamblers strongly suggests that programs designed to address gambling problems will have to be cognisant of, and address these underlying issues. Effective treatment is thus likely to be long-term and challenging. It also suggests that restricting access to gambling via mechanisms such as pre-commitment or self-exclusion will be effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Doctoral training continues to grow in scale and scope in Australia, but has been subjected to far less design and improvement compared with other facets of higher education. Governments and universities engage in ongoing change which helps respond to opportunities and challenges but also leads to a proliferation of options and approaches. The current research study was seeded and shaped by the ambitious view that despite such refinement the doctorate remains in need of much bolder and deeper design, and particularly design with an education focus. This paper reports outcomes from a four-year national project which sought to articulate a doctoral design architecture. The paper discusses framing contexts and concepts, design and characteristics of the doctoral architecture, then implications for sectoral, institutional and individual practice. It concludes that this kind of architecture can provide a useful guide for growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a global trend away from delivering 'climate information' towards producing 'climate services' for decision-makers. The rationale for this shift is said to be the demand for timely and actionable climate knowledge, whilst the means of its delivery involves a shift from public good to more privatised forms of climate science. This paper identifies important implications of this shift to climate services by examining the role of consultants, drawing on an in-depth study of adaptation consultants in Australia. The role of consultants is instructive, not just because these private sector experts are engaged in climate services, but also because publicly funded climate science agencies are increasingly encouraged to behave as consulting firms do. Four imperatives of knowledge businesses—to be client-focussed, solutions-oriented, resource-efficient and self-replicating—are described. The paper argues that an emphasis on climate services shifts the incentives for climate science away from the public interest towards the ongoing pursuit of profit. There is a subsequent diversion of effort away from publicly accessible and transparent climate information to private knowledge for discrete clients. Climate services also emphasise knowledge for climate solutions as opposed to the politically charged identification of climate risks. The paper concludes with a warning that the trend towards climate services undermines the knowledge required for societies to adequately respond to the scale, speed and severity of climate change. At the heart of this issue is a climate services paradox: how to achieve customisation without exclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study reported in this paper was conducted in Australia and was situated in the context of starting school. The focus of the inquiry was on determining and understanding the processes that adults engage with when coming together to support children making the transition to school. The theoretical lens of the cultural interface was used as a tool for analysis. Findings suggest that as adults come together to support the learning of young children they engage in specific processes. These processes are embedded in the action of locating the contextual self, and they take place at different times in the establishment and maintenance of adult relationships, and the formation of a working partnership. In this paper, these findings are shared and future research directions in family-educator partnership work are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The comparative analysis of artifact assemblages is simultaneously enticing and daunting. New research questions can potentially be addressed but a number of limiting factors can hinder the process. The first section of this paper will examine these limitations; the remainder of the paper proposes a model for conducting comparative research via archaeological biography, data mining, and tracing material and quality-of-life trajectories. The model was developed for the Gold Rush Lives project, which seeks to trace how everyday people faired in gold-rush era cities in Victoria, Australia. Drawing from the comparison of two households in Little Lon, Melbourne, the paper will make the case for comparing material trajectories rather than data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial inclusion has become a policy priority. For many countries, this has meant focusing on the delivery and practical aspects of financial products and services. This paper argues that this approach is not sufficient to improve financial wellbeing more broadly. It suggests a more comprehensive approach moving away from asking whether people are excluded or not to asking whether they have access to accessible, acceptable and appropriate resources and supports in adverse financial circumstances. A better understanding of individuals' financial resilience: how they bounce back from adverse financial events and the resources and supports they draw on; could help determine where resources can and should be invested to assist people to cope with financial adversity, assist the development of effective policy and, ultimately, improve financial wellbeing. This paper puts forward a definition of financial resilience and a methodology for measuring it. Australia is used as a case country from which to draw conclusions using a survey of 1496 representative adults (18+). The findings indicate that over 2 million Australian adults experienced severe or high levels of financial vulnerability raising very real concerns about financial wellbeing. Implications for academics and policy makers are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the determinants of environmental degradation in Australia from 1990 to 2017, using ecological footprint analysis and the well-established logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) decomposition method. Additionally, decoupling factor analysis was performed to examine the link between environment related variables (CO2 emissions and ecological footprint) and their determinants such as real income and population. The decomposition analysis considered the impact of five different factors on CO2 emissions: income effect, population, energy intensity, energy structure, and carbon intensity. For decoupling factor analysis, the link between ecological footprint and its two determinants, real income and population, was examined. Furthermore, the possible decoupling between CO2 emissions and these determinants was also analyzed, because CO2 emissions are the main cause of the country's increasing ecological footprint. The present study has a more comprehensive approach because it analyzes the factors affecting environmental degradation in Australia by assigning two proxies (CO2 emissions and ecological footprint) as dependent variables. The results confirmed that Australia's ecological reserve substantially declined over the past three decades due to deforestation and energy industries. The LMDI results demonstrated that income effect, population, and carbon intensity were the main factors that raised Australia's CO2 emissions, whereas the energy intensity factor substantially curbed them. The reducing impact of energy structure on CO2 emissions was minimal; thus, Australia was not able to prevent an upward trend in CO2 emissions. Lastly, an analysis of Australia's CO2 emissions according to economic activities was conducted for the period between 1990 and 2017 in order to understand other factors that may have affected environmental sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Competition on Spatial Statistics for Large Datasets ran in late 2020 and early 2021 and attracted several researchers in spatial statistics, including some in our group at the University of Wollongong, Australia. In this discussion paper, we first summarize our submission to the competition. We then discuss some aspects of the competition and give suggestions for future competitions with regard to the datasets and the assessment methods used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was designed to understand the interaction between Christian faith and gender incongruence. An anonymous online survey was advertised to the Australian Christian community. Individuals with first-hand experience of transgender issues were eligible to participate. There were 122 eligible responses. This paper describes the experience of the 30 participants experiencing gender incongruence. Persons in the church experiencing gender incongruence desired to hold onto faith. As a result, they experienced a tension between the desire to remain in the church, and the desire to live congruously with their gender, which could lead to expulsion. Strategies to reconcile these two factors varied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has required health services to rapidly respond to the needs of people diagnosed with the virus. Over 80% of people diagnosed with COVID-19 experience a mild illness and there is a need for community management to support these people in their home. In this paper we present, a telephone based COVID-19 community monitoring service developed in an Australian public health network, and we describe the rapid implementation of the service and the demographic and clinical characteristics of those enrolled. A retrospective mixed methods evaluation of the COVID-19 community monitoring service using the RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance) framework. Eight hundred and fifty COVID-19 positive patients were enrolled, 54% female, 45% male, mean age 34 years SD 17. Four hundred and nine (48%) patients were born outside Australia. Among the 850 patients, 305 (36%) were classified as having a high risk of serious illness from COVID-19. The most prevalent risk factors were cardiovascular disease (37%), lung disease (30%) and age over 60 years (26%). The most common reported ongoing symptoms were fatigue (55%), breathing issues (26%) and mental health issues such as low mood (19%). There were no deaths in patients that participated in the service. The process of risk stratification undertaken with telephone triage was effective in determining risk of prolonged illness from COVID-19. Telephone monitoring by trained health professionals has a strong potential in the effective management of patients with a mild COVID-19 illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of generalised extreme value distribution (GEVD) requires the estimation of three parameters. Different researchers adopted different techniques for the estimation of the GEVD parameters and no standard comparison amongst those methods are available. This paper investigates the comparison of the commonly used GEVD parameters' estimations for extreme rainfall modelling. The maximum likelihood estimation, generalised maximum likelihood estimation, Bayesian and L-moments methods were considered in this study to compare the magnitude of the GEVD parameters and the corresponding return level estimations. The analysis was performed using the monthly and yearly extreme rainfall of Tasmania, Australia. The GEVD was fitted to four different data sets using the four parameters estimation techniques. Estimated return levels of the GEVD for all the estimation techniques were compared with the return levels provided by the Australian Rainfall and Runoff (ARR), which is the national guideline for Australian rainfall and flood studies. The outcomes of the analysis suggest that the L-moments method is the better estimator of the return levels when comparing the ARR provided return levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic/family violence (DFV) and child protection co-occurrence of risk is common, with related homicides remaining a grave public concern. Recognising and prioritising high-risk cases that pose a lethal risk remains a complex challenge for practitioners across a range of services and legal jurisdictions. There are significant gaps in practice knowledge about how to assess and respond to high-risk cases involving child protection and DFV concerns, while working safely and effectively. This paper reports on qualitative research conducted with practitioners from a range of justice and service delivery organisations in Queensland, Australia. A community of practice, supported by the U.S. based Safe & Together Institute, provided the forum for data to be collected on participants' reflections and observations. An action research framework was employed to connect practice learning into research data through an iterative cycle of reflection and review. Ethnographic note taking was used to document arising policy and practice issues. Discussions in the CoP were also recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis was undertaken combining inductive and deductive techniques. Key findings include: learning from and partnering with women; applying a perpetrator pattern-based approach in high-risk cases; engaging with men as fathers; and improving the role of the judicial system. Practice needs to be informed by centring the victim/survivor perspective, which requires a collaborative approach while maintaining system integrity to hold the perpetrator within system responses to ensure accountability. There are important learnings for developing service sector responses and future research on high-risk cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents two studies that explored community attitudes to autism in Australia; and autistic people and their families' perspectives of community attitudes. In Study One 2424 (primarily non-autistic) people completed a survey on autism-related knowledge and attitudes; identifying a number of misperceptions and knowledge gaps in the general community. In Study Two 1353 people (primarily parents and carers of autistic people) completed a survey on autism-related experiences; identifying that the community's awareness of autism does not appear to extend to understanding how to support autistic people. There is a need for more research which integrates the perspectives of both autistic people and the broader community; and the development of communication and education interventions, with rather than about autistic people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses secondary analysis to understand how COVID-19 shaped people's experiences with psychosocial support services in Australia. Data are drawn from questionnaires (n = 66) and semi-structured interviews (n = 62), conducted for a national service evaluation, with 121 people living with enduring mental health conditions and using psychosocial support services. Data relating to COVID-19 were inductively coded and analysed using constant comparative analysis. Most people's experiences included tele-support. While some people described minimal disruption to their support, many reported reduced engagement. People's wellbeing and engagement were influenced by: their location, living situation and pre-COVID lifestyles; physical health conditions; access to, comfort with, and support worker facilitation of technology; pre-COVID relationships with support workers; and communication from the organisation. The findings can help services prepare for future pandemics, adjust their services for a 'COVID-normal' world, and consider how learnings from COVID-19 could be incorporated into a flexible suite of service delivery options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Case-based learning (CBL) approaches are critical to the education of tomorrow's executives and managers. CBL instigates critical discussion, draws out relevant experiences from students, encourages questioning of accepted practices, and creates dialogue between theory and practice. There is unfortunately a lack of quality teaching resources to support CBL in information security management (ISM). In this paper, we address this need by developing, refining, and evaluating a teaching case of a hypothetical firm that suffers a catastrophic incident of intellectual property (IP) theft. Protecting IP is both complex and expensive as it involves developing enterprise-wide security mechanisms for the people, process, and technology dimensions of organizations. We drew the plot, narrative, characterization, dilemmas, and conflict from two landmark legal cases to focus on the three key areas of organizational security as defined by the joint task force on cybersecurity education—risk management, planning and strategy, and policy and governance. Our case was used to teach information security to Management Information Systems students enrolled in a Master's Degree at the University of Melbourne, Australia. We subsequently developed a survey instrument to measure the utility of the teaching instrument for teaching. Survey data collected across 2 consecutive years indicated that students strongly agreed that the teaching case was relevant, realistic, engaging, challenging, and instructional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia is one of the few countries where Apis mellifera are not infested by the parasitic mite Varroa destructor. In Australia a program called the 'Sugar Shake Team' has been implemented to detect an incursion of V. destructor, should it occur. The aim of this paper was to provide an estimate of the probability that V. destructor would be detected by the Sugar Shake Team program if an incursion had actually occurred (surveillance system sensitivity) using a scenario tree modelling approach. A secondary aim was to provide commentary on how surveillance for V. destructor incursions into Australia might be made more effective. Our analyses show that if one apiary in the study area was infested with V. destructor, there was only a 0.47% probability that infestation would be detected by the current program. We conclude that in its current form the Sugar Shake Team program does not provide protection to multi-billion-dollar beekeeping, pollination and agricultural industries in Australia. Surveillance for V. destructor can be made more effective by increasing the coverage and frequency of testing, deployment of additional sentinel hives and the use of sticky boards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Almost 80 million people globally are forcibly displaced. A small number reach wealthy western countries and seek asylum. Over half are children. Wealthy reception countries have increasingly adopted restrictive reception practices including immigration detention. There is an expanding literature on the mental health impacts of immigration detention for adults, but less about children. This scoping review identified 22 studies of children detained by 6 countries (Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Netherlands, the UK and the US) through searches of Medline, PsychINFO, Emcare, CINAHL and Scopus data bases for the period January 1992–May 2019. The results are presented thematically. There is quantitative data about the mental health of children and parents who are detained and qualitative evidence includes the words and drawings of detained children. The papers are predominantly small cross-sectional studies using mixed methodologies with convenience samples. Despite weaknesses in individual studies the review provides a rich and consistent picture of the experience and impact of immigration detention on children's wellbeing, parental mental health and parenting. Displaced children are exposed to peri-migration trauma and loss compounded by further adversity while held detained. There are high rates of distress, mental disorder, physical health and developmental problems in children aged from infancy to adolescence which persist after resettlement. Restrictive detention is a particularly adverse reception experience and children and parents should not be detained or separated for immigration purposes. The findings have implications for policy and practice. Clinicians and researchers have a role in advocacy for reception polices that support the wellbeing of accompanied and unaccompanied children who seek asylum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Future soil moisture (SM) estimation is a practically useful task for eco-hydrologists, agriculturists, and stakeholders in environment health monitoring to generate comprehensive understanding of hydro-physical and soil dynamic system. This paper demonstrates the capability of a hybridised long short-term memory (LSTM) predictive framework to emulate SM under global warming scenarios. The proposed model is developed by integrating Boruta-random forest (BRF) feature selection and capturing significant antecedent memory of SM behaviour were applied to estimate the future SM using Coupled Model Intercomparison Phase-5 (CMIP5) repository. The BRF is adapted to extract pertinent features in hydro-meteorological variables intrinsically related to SM, and therefore, is used to construct a hybridised deep learning (i.e., BRF-LSTM) model. To establish the viability of deep learning model for SM estimation until 2100, five stations closely matched to the global climate model grid are selected in Australia's Murray Darling Basin. The performance skill of BRF-LSTM model is compared against standalone models (i.e., LSTM, SVR, and MARS). The results showed that the hybrid deep learning model (i.e., BRF-LSTM) with a feature selection capability could significantly outperform the standalone models for both warming simulations. The proposed hybrid model also demonstrated superiority in SM estimation with over 95% of all predictive errors lying below 0.02 mm, and low relative root means square error (≈ 1.06% for RCP4.5 and ≈ 1.888% for RCP8.5) to outperform all the benchmark models. This study demonstrates the capability of LSTM algorithm coupled with BRF feature selection to simulate future soil moisture under climate change, and so, can be successfully implemented in hydrology, agriculture, soil use management and environmental management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mainstreaming of English-as-an-additional-language (EAL) education necessitates collaboration between EAL teachers and content teachers to support EAL students' learning in content areas. A question left open is how EAL and content teachers exercise relational agency through professional dialogue and collaborative practices. The current paper examined this question through the concept of relational agency grounded in sociocultural theory. Data include group interviews with and self-recorded collaborative conversations between an EAL teacher and a science teacher in planning and delivering science content in an Australian secondary school. Findings reveal professional dialogue and collaborative practices created mediational spaces for them to exercise relational agency. They actively worked together on a complex problem and shared motive, built and utilised common knowledge, and drew on relational expertise in responding to the demands of enhancing EAL students' learning of language and content in the science classroom. Findings have implications for promoting teacher agency and quality collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reported rates of mental illness continue to climb amongst young Australians. In a family environment the carers of these young people play a highly influential role in their recovery process, however this responsibility can also have significant emotional, financial and health impacts on carers. This paper details the findings of an evaluation project examining the impact and effectiveness of a newly developed and implemented Family Peer Support Work model. Benefits were found which included: family care-givers receiving emotional support and empathy; reduced stress, loneliness, isolation and stigma; bridging between the family and the clinical care team; helping families to navigate through the complexities of the care system; and connecting families to other services. Clarity on role definition for the FPSWs evolved over the course of implementation along with a clearer articulation of the model of care and emergent knowledge on useful elements of training, ongoing professional development, mentoring and wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]