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Environmental epigenetics is increasingly employed to understand the health outcomes of communities who have experienced historical trauma and structural violence. Epigenetics provides a way to think about traumatic events and sustained deprivation as biological "exposures" that contribute to ill-health across generations. In Australia, some Indigenous researchers and clinicians are embracing epigenetic science as a framework for theorising the slow violence of colonialism as it plays out in intergenerational legacies of trauma and illness. However, there is dispute, contention, and caution as well as enthusiasm among these research communities.In this article, we trace strategies of "refusal" (Simpson, 2014) in response to epigenetics in Indigenous contexts. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Australia with researchers and clinicians in Indigenous health, we explore how some construct epigenetics as useless knowledge and a distraction from implementing anti-colonial change, rather than a tool with which to enact change. Secondly, we explore how epigenetics narrows definitions of colonial harm through the optic of molecular trauma, reproducing conditions in which Indigenous people are made intelligible through a lens of "damaged" bodies. Faced with these two concerns, many turn away from epigenetics altogether, refusing its novelty and supposed benefit for Indigenous health equity and resisting the pull of postgenomics., (© 2023. Springer Nature Switzerland AG.)

This paper is one of two that bring together a range of education scholars to consider how education might be for democracy in a time of complex challenges facing twenty-first century societies. In this paper, scholars from Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom consider how sites of formal and informal education can respond to multiple unfolding crises, including the COVID-19 global pandemic, catastrophic climate change and ecological collapse, political upheaval, and growing social and economic inequality. What emerges is a wide-ranging set of reflections that engage with these complexities and challenges in a considered and hopeful way.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the educational impulses and effects of Indigenous dialogue with the settler colonial state. Taking the "Uluru Statement from the Heart," devised in May 2017 by a convention of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, as a starting point, and contrasting this with the 1967 Referendum campaign for constitutional reform, the paper explores the role of multiple forms and contexts of education during these processes of First Nations dialogue with the settler state. Design/methodology/approach: This paper draws on historical accounts of the 1967 Referendum and the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart. Findings: The paper demonstrates how education provided by the state has been used by First Nations peoples to challenge education systems and to dialogue with the settler state for Indigenous recognition and rights. It also illuminates the range of views on what education is and should be, therefore, contesting the neat and settled conceptions of education that can dominate policy discourse. Finally the historical cases show the deficiencies of settler state education through its failure to truthfully represent Australian history and its failure to acknowledge and confront the entirety of the consequences of settler colonial practices. Originality/value: This paper seeks to bring issues of education, politics and justice together to illustrate how the settler state and its institutions -- specifically here, education -- are part of an ongoing project of negotiation, contestation and dialogue over questions of justice.

There is little understanding of how recovery-oriented approaches fit within contemporary mental healthcare systems, which emphasise biomedical approaches to care, increased efficiency and cost-cutting. This article examines the established models of service delivery in a private, youth, mental health service and the impacts of the current system on staff. It explores whether the service is prepared or capable of adopting recovery-oriented approaches to care. Qualitative interviews were undertaken with staff and thematically analysed to understand the everyday practices on the unit. Data suggest that economic efficiencies and biomedical dominance largely shaped how health care was organised and delivered, which was perceived by staff as inflexible to change. Additionally, findings suggest that market-oriented principles associated with neoliberalism restricted the capacity of individuals to transform services in line with alternative models of care and lowered staff morale. These finding suggest that, while neoliberal ideologies and biomedical approaches remain dominant in organisations, there will be challenges to adopting alternative recovery-oriented models of care and promoting healthcare systems that understand mental health issues in broader socio-political contexts and can flexibly respond to the needs of service users., (© 2019 Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness.)

We examined the interrelation between religiosity, anti-intellectualism, and political mistrust in predicting belief in conspiracy theories. Improving on previous psychological research on the link between religiosity and societal and political attitudes, we assessed the predictive power of religious self-categorization and the importance attached to one's own (non)religious worldview predicting belief in conspiracy theories separately. Applying quota sampling in a study in Australia (N = 515), the sample consisted of 48.9% believers (i.e., those who self-categorized as religious persons) and 51.1% non-believers (i.e., those who self-categorized as non-religious persons). The results showed that believers and non-believers did not differ in the belief in conspiracy theories. Unpacking this further though, we did find that the extent to which religious worldviews were endorsed predicted belief in conspiracy theories. Among believers, the importance attached to their religious worldview was directly associated with higher belief in conspiracy theories and this link was partly mediated by higher anti-intellectualism. Political trust, in turn, served as an inhibitor of the link between religiosity and conspiracy beliefs. Among non-believers, there was no direct association between the importance of non-religious worldview and belief in conspiracy theories. However, we found that higher trust in political institutions accounted for the negative association between non-religious worldview and lower belief in conspiracy theories. The results underline the importance of distinguishing religiosity as a self-categorization and religiosity as a worldview. We find that it is not the self-categorization as religious, but the extent to which religious worldviews are endorsed that could predict people's beliefs in conspiracy theories., (© 2019 The British Psychological Society.)

This paper discusses contradictory imperatives in contemporary Australian pedagogy--the notions of "controversy" and "diversity" as they relate the subjects of genders and sexualities. It is a common view that both gender and sexuality are important organising features of identity, society and politics. Consistent effort is made in the Australian educational context to combat discrimination, prejudice against sexually, and gender 'diverse' people. However, the state's commitment to diversity policies must be balanced with a secondary focus on appeasing those who are hostile to non-heteronormative expression, or who view such expression as inherently "political" in nature and therefore inappropriate for the school setting. Australia has arguably demonstrated this dilemma recently in two notable controversies: an intervention in planned school screenings of "Gayby" Baby, a documentary exploring the experience of children in same-sex families, and media furore over the trans-positive "All of Us" teaching kit. Using these case studies, this paper explores the competing imperatives of controversy and diversity, commenting on the tendency for the lives and experiences of LGBTIQ people becoming consequently politicised. To do so, is arguably detrimental to the meaningful participation of LGBTIQ people as social citizens.

Background and Aims: Business corporations' use of political donations to garner political influence is especially troubling in relation to products that damage human health. We sought to investigate patterns of donations to Australian political parties from tobacco, alcohol and gambling industry actors and the experiences of key informants., Design and Methods: We analysed public data on federal and state donations for 10 years to June 2015. We conducted 28 semi-structured interviews with current and former politicians, ex-political staffers and other key informants, concerning the role played by political donations of tobacco, alcohol and gambling companies in Australian politics. We examined temporal associations in donations data, and thematically analysed interviews., Results: Australian political parties declared donations of A$14 million (US$11 M) from tobacco ($1.9 M), alcohol ($7.7 M), gambling ($2.9 M) and supermarket ($1.7 M) entities, excluding donations below the $12 800 reporting threshold. Donations to the governing party increased substantially during debates about an alcohol tax and gambling law reform. Alcohol industry donations to major parties spiked ahead of elections. Interviewees identified the function of donations in terms of: (i) buying immediate influence; (ii) building long-term relationships; (iii) exploiting a flawed political system; and (iv) the need to look beyond donations, for example, to favour exchange; and the public's right to know about corporate influence on policy-makers., Discussion and Conclusions: The alcohol and gambling industries make substantial donations to influence particular decisions in the short term and build relationships over the long term. Banning corporate donations and publicly funding political parties warrant consideration to safeguard the integrity of public policy-making., (© 2018 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.)

It is all too easy to be discouraged, indeed, outraged, by the continuing state of socio-economic inequality and the fragility of "the neighbourhood" (our world) in a deteriorating, conflict-ridden environment. As educators, we struggle with the perceived lack of educational quality, relevance, and ethics of policy and practice. Education systems tend to reflect the political ideologies of the day, many of which are socially and economically divisive and hostile to equitable change. It is crucial to condemn, in the strongest manner, current racist, separatist, and discriminatory views that tend to permeate our social media space, affecting public attitudes. Comparative and international education theorists and practitioners can play a crucial role in critiquing, through the lens of critical postcolonial awareness, such socio-political constructions of society and education. The observations made in this article refer in particular to comparativists in Oceania, a region containing both large economies such as Australia, and small Pacific island states. This paper sets out an argument for "unleashing our global postcolonial consciousnesses" to effect change, acting with non-violence and empathy in an intercultural, ethical, and actionable space (Ermine, 2007; Sharma-Brymer, 2008).

The quote in the title of this paper is taken from the first line of Marc Depaepe's article "An Agenda for the History of Colonial Education", published in "The Colonial Experience in Education" (Ghent, 1995). This presentation takes as its focus the informal learning space of the museum and the art gallery, and the emergence in recent years of curatorial activism. It seeks to explore the changing discourse and politics around addressing through display the history of colonialism and its meaning in today's globalised world.

This paper explores young people's understandings of gender and investigates their gender-based experiences in high schools in Australia. The discussion is based on qualitative research including focus groups and interviews with 47 recent high school leavers from diverse linguistic, socioeconomic, religious, ethnic, gender and sexuality backgrounds, who attended a broad range of high school types in New South Wales (NSW). We found that young people are critically engaging in gender issues and are often challenging binary gender and associated inequitable practices in schools and beyond. They are taking a leading role in educating adults about gender—that is, they are 'teaching up', as young people conceptualised it, to their families and teachers about gender, gender-related issues and doing gender differently in contemporary times. Their views on gender are often in contrast to those institutional views that currently prevail in NSW schools, which often still reflect stereotypes that perpetuate gender inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School funding is a principal site of policy reform and contestation in the context of broad global shifts towards private- and market-based funding models. These shifts are transforming not only how schools are funded but also the meanings and practices of public education: that is, shifts in what is "public" about schooling. In this paper, we examine the ways in which different articulations of "the public" are brought to bear in contemporary debates surrounding school funding. Taking the Australian "Review of Funding for Schooling" (the Gonski Report) as our case, we analyse the policy report and its subsequent media coverage to consider what meanings are made concerning the "publicness" of schooling. Our analysis reveals three broad themes of debate in the report and related media coverage: (1) the primacy of "procedural politics" (i.e. the political imperatives and processes associated with public policy negotiations in the Australian federation); (2) changing relations between what is considered public and private; and (3) a connection of government schooling to concerns surrounding equity and a "public in need." We suggest these three themes contour the debates and understandings that surround the "publicness" of education generally, and school funding more specifically.

In the lead-up to the 2007 Australian federal election, Labor candidate Kevin Rudd described climate change as the "great moral challenge of our generation". In the years since then, the heat in Australia has been rising--in terms of both temperature and climate politics--, but government action has slowed down. Endorsement of economic growth is prioritised, with only intermittent recognition of environmental costs. At grassroots level, citizens' attitudes are influenced by social norms. This kind of social learning is a major constraint on sustainability. Therefore, it seems useful to consider how educators might help build sustainable futures. To understand how historical context entangles social learning in ways that complicate policies associated with Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and practices of Education for Sustainability (EfS), the author of this paper draws on the concept of "space of orientation". Focusing on adult education, she traces the contradiction between "globalisation" and "sustainability" through policy logics, relational practices in Australian adult education and the "necessary utopia" which provides a point of reference for making futures. She argues that spaces of orientation are a critical resource in this era of intensifying conflicts of interest between economic priorities of globalisation and environmental priorities intended to slow global warming, because they mediate context and orient learning in ways that clear a path towards sustainability through the entangled histories of this present.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) courses can be more time consuming and resource intensive to design, teach, administer and support than classroom-based courses, as they generally require different curricula and pedagogical approaches as well as additional administrative and pastoral responsibilities. Workload and resourcing issues are reported as key challenges to the implementation of WIL, but most of the evidence to date is anecdotal. Accurately quantifying workload associated with WIL is difficult, because teaching and administrative roles can be so interconnected. To address this gap in the literature and inform institutional practice, a study was initiated at an Australian university to collect empirical data on the type and amount of work involved in delivering WIL courses. This paper describes the process of survey development, including literature review, extensive consultation phase and pilot study, all of which had to take account of the inherent power dynamics, politics and sensitivities around measuring staff workload.

This paper reports on a recent study of aspirations for higher education by secondary school students from disadvantaged backgrounds in regional Australia. At the same time, it goes in search of explanations that transcend a Bourdieuian account of aspirations as produced by and reproductive of cultural histories and dominance, given the apparent inadequacy of these accounts in redressing disadvantage. To this end the authors distinguish between historicising and spatialising aspirations, taking up Appadurai's notion of navigational capacity as a way of advancing greater agency for disadvantaged groups. Data from the research inform the analysis, including the mediation of students' desired futures by their perception of what is possible given their differentiated locations and access to resources. It is concluded that while this spatial turn in theorising aspiration has potential for changing the terms of recognition "internal" to disadvantaged communities, there remain structural limits on change "from below."

This paper investigates the role that guilt plays in Australia's construction of its outsiders by focusing on contemporary migrant experience. I build upon Sarah Ahmed's work on the politics of emotion to read migrant interviews in relation to media: films, political speeches, and other discursive structures that facilitate social organization in Australia. In the first part of this paper, I argue that a 'multicultural narrative' positions the nation as a 'happy home,' and examine how this can displace feelings of guilt in the migrant by rendering possible social transgressions positive steps towards attaining a greater social good. In the second section of this paper, I discuss Australia's 'hatred narratives.' I do not define hatred as a necessarily aggressive emotion, but instead, demonstrate the way particular words can be affectively charged because of the histories they invoke, and show how this affect can be mobilized to create outsiders who are not welcome in the national imaginary and Australian society. These narratives however, are not fixed: political parties can appeal to tropes that have accumulated in affective value – such as the 'home' – in order to achieve different political goals, and to organize social groups by aligning individuals with or against affectively charged objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent comments by the Federal Education Minister, Alan Tudge, have reignited the socalled history and culture war in Australian schools. Tudge has argued that the newest draft version of the Australian Curriculum is critical of Australia's proud history and does not leave students feeling optimistic about their future in Australia. This paper examines the accuracy of Tudge's claims by carefully placing them within the context of the draft and current version of the Australian Curriculum in relation to History and Civics and Citizenship and also examining them in relation to the history of political involvement in the development of curriculum. By doing so, it demonstrates that Tudge's claims are not founded on an understanding of the content and structure of the curriculum and betray a limited understanding of both the teaching of History and Civics and Citizenship, and the development of curriculum as a whole. The paper concludes with advice for teachers seeking to navigate the troubled waters of curriculum and education at this time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to understand the construction of teachers within one New South Wales education policy, querying this construction in relation to both local and international processes and factors. As such, it also looks to contribute to a growing body of international literature which grapples with the role and nature of neoliberal policy development in education more broadly. To accomplish this, the paper analyses Great Teaching, Inspired Learning (GTIL), a policy with wide-ranging and potentially significant ramifications for teachers. Ultimately it is argued that although aspects of neoliberal thinking are evident in the policy, particularities of context have mediated this push. It is suggested that this has led to a particular neoliberalisation of policy that variously targets and supports individual teachers and the systems and structures surrounding them, while the place of GTIL within both local state politics and the global imaginary is questioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce and quantify a relatively new form of influence: the Answer Bot Effect (ABE). In a 2015 report in PNAS, researchers demonstrated the power that biased search results have to shift opinions and voting preferences without people's knowledge-by up to 80% in some demographic groups. They labeled this phenomenon the Search Engine Manipulation Effect (SEME), speculating that its power derives from the high level of trust people have in algorithmically-generated content. We now describe three experiments with a total of 1,736 US participants conducted to determine to what extent giving users "the answer"-either via an answer box at the top of a page of search results or via a vocal reply to a question posed to an intelligent personal assistant (IPA)-might also impact opinions and votes. Participants were first given basic information about two candidates running for prime minister of Australia (this, in order to assure that participants were "undecided"), then asked questions about their voting preferences, then given answers to questions they posed about the candidates-either with answer boxes or with vocal answers on an Alexa simulator-and then asked again about their voting preferences. The experiments were controlled, randomized, double-blind, and counterbalanced. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that answer boxes can shift voting preferences by as much as 38.6% and that the appearance of an answer box can reduce search times and clicks on search results. Experiment 3 demonstrated that even a single question-and-answer interaction on an IPA can shift voting preferences by more than 40%. Multiple questions posed to an IPA leading to answers that all have the same bias can shift voting preferences by more than 65%. Simple masking procedures still produced large opinion shifts while reducing awareness of bias to close to zero. ABE poses a serious threat to both democracy and human autonomy because (a) it produces large shifts in opinions and voting preferences with little or no user awareness, (b) it is an ephemeral form of influence that leaves no paper trail, and (c) worldwide, it is controlled almost exclusively by just four American tech companies. ABE will become a greater threat as people increasingly rely on IPAs for answers., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Contract cheating remains a significant problem for universities and higher education (HE) generally, both within Australia and internationally. In 2020, the Australian Federal Government passed legislation establishing a new criminal offence, criminalising the provision or advertisement of academic cheating services by individuals and businesses. This legislation represents the Australian Government's formal commitment to a criminal justice response to address the problem of contract cheating behaviour, which seeks to prevent and minimise the use and/or promotion of such cheating services within the higher education sector. This paper provides a political discourse analysis (PDA) and interpretive policy analysis (IPA) of Australian Parliamentary Hansard documents regarding debate of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Amendment (Prohibiting Academic Cheating Services) Bill 2019. Our findings suggest a discord between the putative purpose of this legislation and the way the contract cheating problem has been represented in Australian Parliament. We argue that debates regarding the solution to, or at least how to address contract cheating first need to understand and agree on the problem if they are to meaningfully prevent crime. Our analysis exposes the politicisation of the higher education sector and associated discourse, where concern about contract cheating, in this case, was used as a vehicle to further rationalise ongoing Government paternalism and interference in tertiary institutions, underscoring the need for critical evaluation of criminological interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing women's representation in male‐dominated work sectors remains a persistent problem. This paper reorientates the focus from women's underrepresentation to male overrepresentation and privilege, to identify and compare the causal mechanisms between the overrepresentation of men in two traditionally male‐dominated work places in Australia: politics and construction. By applying feminist institutionalism, masculinities, and privilege, it argues the overrepresentation of men is linked to gendered rules that uphold hegemonic masculinities which produce masculine privilege and supports a gender hierarchy. Masculine privilege occurs via three mechanisms: (1) a culture of denial; (2) perceptions that rules are neutral, legitimate, and applied objectively; (3) through backlash and resistance to keep the gender status quo in place. We argue the effects of privilege combine to act as a barrier to the attraction, retention, and progression of women to both sectors and conclude that the masculine privilege provides a valuable lens to explore how male dominance operates within work sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If health promotion as a field of change for human and ecological health is to maintain its urgency, it needs to continue building its policy credentials. This paper charts the development of policy as a concern for IUHE/IUHPE (International Union for Health Education/International Union for Health Promotion and Education) from the mid-1970s when 'health education policies' were prominent issues, to the launch of Healthy Public Policy (in the 1980s) and Health in All Policy (in the 2000s). We argue that solid conceptual and theoretical foundations exist to frame and develop the relevance and connectedness of health promotion more prominently. We start off with a brief introduction into (health) political science, and then illustrate the urgency of the argument with three case studies. The first takes a critical realist perspective on 'closing the gap' in Australian Indigenous populations. With recent evidence it demonstrates that the core of the policymaking process needs to re-align itself with an Indigenous narrative. The second case study reviews the politics of healthy urban planning and health equity in cities. Taking a critical theory institutionalist view, the case describes how the political and narrative parallels between urban theory and health equity have gone underexplored. With an explicit gaze to connect the two, the field could become a large and influential driver of enhanced health promotion and public health policy. The third case describes the languages, policy frames, and distinctions, in four urban/health paradigms. It shows that unconscious policy and practice bias exists in policy priorities and processes. We conclude with observations and recommendations on the role of health promotion as a conceptual realm and field of activity. We show that all health promoters should be aware of the political nature of their enterprise. Tools and analyses exist to help further action.

What motivates corporate political action? Are corporations motivated by their own narrow economic self-interest; are they committed to pursuing larger class interests; or are corporations instruments for status groups to pursue their own agendas? Sociologists have been divided over this question for much of the last century. This paper introduces a novel case - that of Australia - and an extensive dataset of over 1,500 corporations and 7,500 directors. The paper attempts to understand the motives of corporate political action by examining patterns of corporate political donations. Using statistical modelling, supported by qualitative evidence, the paper argues that, in the Australian case, corporate political action is largely motivated by the narrow economic self-interest of individual corporations. Firms' interests are, consistent with regulatory environment theory, defined by the nature of government regulation in their industry: those in highly regulated industries (such as banking) and those dependent on government support (such as defence) tend to adopt a strategy of hedging their political support, and make bipartisan donations (to both major parties). In contrast, firms facing hostile regulation (such as timber or mining), and those without strong dependence on state support (such as small companies) tend to adopt a strategy of conservative partisanship, and make conservative-only donations. This paper argues that regulatory environment theory needs to be modified to incorporate greater emphasis on the subjective political judgements of corporations facing hostile regulation: a corporation's adoption of conservative partisanship or hedging is not just a product of the objective regulation they face, but also whether corporate leaders judge such regulation as politically inevitable or something that can be resisted. Such a judgement is highly subjective, introducing a dynamic and unpredictable dimension to corporate political action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Substantial evidence supports assistive technology and environmental adaptations as key enablers to participation. In order to realise the potential of these interventions, they need to be both recognised in policy, and resourced in practice. This paper uses political theory to understand the complexities of assistive technology (AT) policy reform in Australia. AT research will not be influential in improving AT policy without consideration of political drivers. Method: Theories of policy formation are considered, with Kingdon's (2003) theory of multiple streams identified as a useful lens through which to understand government actions. This theory is applied to the case of current AT policy reformulation in Australia. Results: The convergence model of problem identification, policy formulation and political will is found to be an applicable construct with which to evaluate contemporary policy changes. This paper illustrates the cogency of this theory for the field of AT, in the case of Australia's recent disability and aged care reforms. Conclusions: Political theory provides a way of conceptualising the difficulties of consumers and AT practitioners experience in getting therapeutically valid solutions into public policy, and then getting policies prioritised and funded. It is suggested that AT practitioners must comprehend and consider political factors in working towards effective policies to support their practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and Aims: Following several deaths due to drug overdoses at music festivals in Australia, pill testing (or drug checking) has been proposed as a means of reducing the risk to young people. However, pill testing is a politically controversial policy in Australia. This paper examines the political dimension to the debate, its relationship with other social issues and how it divides party supporters., Design and Methods: The data come from the 2019 Australian Election Study survey-a large (n = 2179), nationally weighted representative probability survey conducted immediately after the federal election. Bivariate and multivariate analyses are used to identify the social groups, attitudes and vote preferences most associated with public views about pill testing., Results: Almost two-thirds of the public support pill testing at music festivals. The young and those who do not attend church are most likely to express support. Supporters of other liberal social opinions, such as the legalisation of marijuana, are also strongly supportive of pill testing. Those who vote for one of the two main conservative parties are less likely to support pill testing., Discussion and Conclusions: While a majority of the public support pill testing, beyond the Australian Capital Territory this has not translated into policy in other jurisdictions. The results show that there is a high level of political polarisation surrounding opinions among both voters and political elites. This issue must be addressed if the policy is to be advanced as part of an overall harm reduction approach to drug use., (© 2020 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.)

A historic paper from 2010, republished here, describes a demonstration of wireless transmission between Victoria and Tasmania by the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company in 1906. The subsequent debate and delays in adopting the new wireless communication system highlight the influence of imperial politics on Australian telecommunications, post Federation. The impasse with Marconi over his initial refusal to license his patent was eventually resolved by the creation of Amalgamated Wireless Holdings (AWA) in 1911. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizenship education in Australia is embedded throughout the school curriculum. Despite a coherent policy context for the inclusion of citizenship and civic education at all levels of schooling, the links between education and civic minded citizens are tenuous. This paper explores these connections by drawing on the views of participants in an international community service program between Western Australia and Tanzania. By situating the interview data in relation to the policy goals, the paper argues that the current policy framework 'sanitises' the political nature of modern citizenship. The results from this study demonstrate that students have little understanding of the connections between the civic, the social and the political realms of citizenship. These results suggest that the current policy context does not adequately prepare young people to position themselves in the political realm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prevention is an attractive idea to policymakers in theory, particularly in health where the burden of spending and care is increasingly taken up by complex and chronic conditions associated with lifestyle choices. However, prevention in general, and preventive health in particular, has proven hard to implement in practice. In this paper, we look to one tangible legacy of the recent rise of the prevention agenda: agencies with responsibility for preventive health policy. We ask how this form of institutionalizing preventive health happens in practice, and what consequences it has for the advancement of the prevention agenda. We draw on qualitative data to compare the trajectories of newly formed agencies in Australia, New Zealand and England. We find that building and maintaining legitimacy for such agencies may come at the expense of quick progress or radical action in service of the prevention agenda., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Problem: Do conservative econometric models that comply with the Golden Rule of Forecasting provide more accurate forecasts?, Methods: To test the effects of forecast accuracy, we applied three evidence-based guidelines to 19 published regression models used for forecasting 154 elections in Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, U.K., and the U.S. The guidelines direct forecasters using causal models to be conservative to account for uncertainty by (I) modifying effect estimates to reflect uncertainty either by damping coefficients towards no effect or equalizing coefficients, (II) combining forecasts from diverse models, and (III) incorporating more knowledge by including more variables with known important effects., Findings: Modifying the econometric models to make them more conservative reduced forecast errors compared to forecasts from the original models: (I) Damping coefficients by 10% reduced error by 2% on average, although further damping generally harmed accuracy; modifying coefficients by equalizing coefficients consistently reduced errors with average error reductions between 2% and 8% depending on the level of equalizing. Averaging the original regression model forecast with an equal-weights model forecast reduced error by 7%. (II) Combining forecasts from two Australian models and from eight U.S. models reduced error by 14% and 36%, respectively. (III) Using more knowledge by including all six unique variables from the Australian models and all 24 unique variables from the U.S. models in equal-weight "knowledge models" reduced error by 10% and 43%, respectively., Originality: This paper provides the first test of applying guidelines for conservative forecasting to established election forecasting models., Usefulness: Election forecasters can substantially improve the accuracy of forecasts from econometric models by following simple guidelines for conservative forecasting. Decision-makers can make better decisions when they are provided with models that are more realistic and forecasts that are more accurate., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Population and individual deficits in health literacy, and their associated negative health outcomes, have received growing attention in the political arena in recent years. In order to respond to the problem, several governments have adopted national action plans, which outline strategies to improve health literacy. Drawing on the action plans of the USA, Australia, Scotland, and Wales and applying Entman's concept of framing, this paper analyses how health literacy debates are framed within the political arena as well as the factors that influence framing. Analysing data from policy documents and in-depth expert interviews, this paper identifies relevant frames developed to (i) define the problem of limited health literacy, (ii) provide causal explanations, (iii) rationalise why health literacy requires political action, and (iv) present solutions. The findings indicate that the malleability of the concept allows that a diversity of frames and solutions are promoted, yet risks that debates remain vague. Health literacy seems to have been successfully used to instigate political debates about health system reforms, patient empowerment, and shared decision making. The analysis suggests that health literacy might, if applied strategically, help to focus policy debates on key public health problems and the development of systemic solutions., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The following paper provides a critical analysis of the 2013 Australian Crime Commission’s Report into Organised Crime and Drugs in Sport. The paper argues that the Commission’s Report follows a familiar policy narrative in presenting sport as in crisis and in need of fixing. The Report seeks to reinforce the value of sport for Australian society and nationhood and severely critiques sports administrators for not upholding these values. The Report is particularly scathing of the work of sports scientists and some medical practitioners with respect to maximizing performance enhancement through apparently unethical methods. While the content of the Report may be familiar in its underlying anti-doping message, the Report also enters into the complex and sometimes contradictory issue of legitimate versus illegitimate methods of performance enhancement. It is argued that while the Report can be seen as another step in the longer-term trend towards greater governmental control over sport, it is also demonstrative of how power is devolved rather than taken by central government. The Report leaves sports authorities, coaches and teams with a challenge whereby they must use the best sports science and technology available to them but at the same time cannot be seen to be too reliant upon sports scientists and associated medical specialists. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is strong, and growing, evidence documenting health inequities across the world. However, most governments do not prioritize policies to encourage action on the social determinants of health and health equity. Furthermore, despite evidence concerning the benefits of joined-up, intersectoral policy to promote health and health equity, it is rare for such policy approaches to be applied systematically. To examine the usefulness of political and social science theory in understanding the reasons for this disjuncture between evidence and practice, researchers and public servants gathered in Adelaide for an Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) Workshop. This paper draws together the learnings that emerged from the Workshop, including key messages about the usefulness of various theories as well as insights drawn from policy practice. Discussions during the Workshop highlighted that applying multiple theories is particularly helpful in directing attention to, and understanding, the influence of all stages of the policy process; from the construction and framing of policy problems, to the implementation of policy and evaluation of outcomes, including those outcomes that may be unintended. In addition, the Workshop emphasized the value of collaborations among public health researchers, political and social scientists and public servants to open up critical discussion about the intersections between theory, research evidence and practice. Such critique is vital to render visible the processes through which particular sources of knowledge may be privileged over others and to examine how political and bureaucratic environments shape policy proposals and implementation action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In March 2013, the Australian Federal Labor Government releasedCreative Australia. This document was described as the first national Cultural Policy statement in 20 years since the publication by a previous Labor Government ofCreative Nationin 1994. However, within 6 months of the launch of this new policy, a Coalition (Conservative) Federal government was elected in September 2013. Up till now, Coalition Governments have rejected the need for a national cultural policy, so the future forCreative Australiamay in fact be both contested and limited. Indeed, during the previous Federal Coalition Government a ‘cultural war’ erupted between the government and artists and intellectuals, over the latter’s desire for an Australian cultural policy. This paper addresses questions around the process of developing this new national cultural policy, why it occurred, and what future it might have now there is a new Coalition Federal Government in power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly mediatised policy processes influence practice in schools as education becomes a site of parental anxiety and choice exacerbated by standardised national assessment and ranking of schools in the media. This paper analyses the responses to media scrutiny of six principals whose schools’ national test results were reported in the Australian press following the release of the federal Labour Government’s MySchool website in 2010. Drawing on Bourdieu’s theory of social fields, the concept of cross-field effects, and associated research on mediatisation, the evidence suggests that the relationships between the press, education policy and schools are highly contested, and that principals have some agency in talking back regarding their school’s reported ‘performance’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia has long had a deeply speculative housing property market. Arguably this has been accentuated in recent years as successive governments have privileged private-sector investment in housing property as the key mechanism for delivering housing and a concurrent winding back of direct government support for housing. This has occurred through a period in which urban renewal and flexible planning regulation have become the key focus of urban planning policy to deliver on compact city ambitions in the name of sustainability. There has been a tendency to read many of the higher density housing outcomes as a relatively homogenous component of the housing market. There has been a comparative lack of critical engagement with differentiated spatial, physical and socio-economic outcomes within the higher density housing market. This paper will explore the interactions between flexible design-based planning policies, the local property market and physical outcomes. Different parts of the property development industry produced distinctive social and physical outcomes within the same regulatory space. Each response was infused with similar politics of exclusion and privilege in which capacity to pay regulated both access and standard of housing accessible, opening new socio-economic divisions within Australia’s housing landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on data from a large-scale sample survey conducted in 2016 within the contemporary ethnic Japanese migrant community in Sydney, Australia, this article focuses on demographics and the political culture of this community to determine the context for Japanese migrants' attitudes, with a focus on gender. Findings suggest that the Japanese community is statistically less politically involved than the wider Australian population, possibly reflecting general attitudes towards politics in Japan, and unique social profiles within the Australian community. Superficially, the lack of interest in political commitment appeared to signify less integration into Australian society. However, our triangulation of the data, combined with follow-up interviews found a new form of political engagement within the Japanese community in contemporary Australia. This article contributes to a deeper understanding of the Japanese ethnic community in Australia and overseas, as well as broadening scholarship about the political awareness and activities of ethnic communities in settler societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropocentric climate change presents an existential threat through impacts such as rising sea levels, effects on agricultural crops and extreme weather events. However, governments, businesses and communities struggle to wean off fossil fuel dependency. In this article, we argue that this is due to the grip of fossil fuel hegemony. To explain this grip, we draw on the theoretical perspectives of new materialism to examine how fossil fuels and politics interact in upholding Australia's fossil fuel regime. Our analysis, based on 70 qualitative interviews conducted with politicians and political advisors, fossil fuel executives and experts and environmental activists, shows three processes – establishment, entrenchment and encroachment – through which political-material entanglements lock in a fossil fuel-based future. These processes are both discursive, with politicians and industry downplaying, if not outright denying, the climate emergency and material, with investment in new mines and infrastructure even while the negative ecological impacts of fossil fuel use gather pace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research points to sections of the middle-class repopulating the ‘ordinary’ urban public school and whilst there are key differences in how they are navigating public school choices, from ‘seeking a critical mass’ to resisting traditional methods of choice and going ‘against-the-grain’, or collectively campaigning for a brand new public school, the urban middle-class are developing contemporary methods to challenge the existing ways of thinking about middle-class choice. Drawing on this literature, this paper explores the symbolism of public schooling for relatively affluent choosers in the city of Melbourne, Australia. The positioning of public schooling as essentially secular and liberal indicates how the public school is valorised within the contemporary market place. Within a market that tends to undersell the public school, the perceived lack of organised religion and progressivism may be the unique selling point for the cosmopolitan, globalised consumer. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Globally, "integrity" has emerged as a critical concept for sport, with scholars, government agencies and NGOs proposing the establishment of "integrity systems", comprising measures such as new policy units, ombudsmen and mediation services. The purpose of this study is to assess the coherence of this reform agenda, to determine its core features and gauge whether it constitutes a new governing paradigm and departure from "professionalisation". Drawing on case material from Australia and New Zealand, we trace the sport integrity agenda and its adoption into each country's government policies and programmes. The emerging agenda focuses on diverse risks at the periphery of "old" professionalised management, while demanding a sector-wide response and universal adherence. Coordination and regulation are emphasised (at national, state/regional and local levels), supported by central government policy frameworks and grievance detection regimes. While the integrity agenda has distinctive elements of a reform movement, preliminary evidence suggests it may become integrated under the existing logics of performance, audits and risk management. It nevertheless signals substantive changes to the conduct of sport organisations at multiple levels of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alcohol labelling laws and policy are contentious and highly politicized. Very few countries have been able to implement health warnings on alcohol labels due to complex legal and governance systems and coordinated industry lobbying. In 2020, Australia and New Zealand implemented a mandatory and evidence-based legal standard for pregnancy warning labels on alcohol products. This article discusses some of the challenges faced in achieving policy change and how these barriers were overcome by public health advocacy groups to build the evidence, counter industry conflicts of interest, consumer test health messages, mobilize community support and gather political support. Reflecting on the decades of ineffective regulation and politicization of this health issue, lessons for other countries include the importance of creating and maintaining relationships with decision makers and regularly updating them with evidence and recommendations, highlighting industry failures and tactics, building broad-based coalitions and sharing lived-experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Australia increasingly faces devastating weather events and natural disasters associated with climate change, strong political engagement by governments is necessary to implement effective policies that address the health impacts of climate change. Keywords: Climate change; Politics; Public health; Public policy EN Climate change Politics Public health Public policy 196 202 7 03/21/23 20230315 NES 230315 Urgent and sustained political engagement is needed to address the health impacts of climate change Recent extreme weather events and natural disasters in Australia, such as the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires and catastrophic floods throughout 2021-2022, have resulted in considerable negative impacts for community and individual health and wellbeing. However, whereas countries around the world are taking action to mitigate climate change, Australia lags, ranking 59/64 in the Climate Change Performance Index.[1] Australia's political engagement on health and climate change is particularly poor. The previous conservative Liberal-National Coalition governments (2013-2022) downplayed the health impacts of climate change, and avoided the use of climate change terminology when discussing the health, social and economic impacts of extreme weather events. [Extracted from the article]

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Summary: Medical workforce diversity is important with gender constituting a significant role. Male and female medical practitioners participate in the workforce differently: understanding the cultural and social expectations, economic productivity, professional opportunities, and the effects on workforce supply, will aid workforce planning. Having a workforce that reflects the diversity of the community is important in providing patient‐centred care. As more than half of medical graduates are female, it would be expected that this is reflected in radiology specialty. We analyse the Australian gender‐specific data from the Royal Australian and New Zealand Clinical Radiology (RANZCR) clinical radiology workforce census from 1992 to 2020, focusing on changes in gender representation, number of hours worked per week, differences in subspecialisation and geographical distribution. This analysis found that the proportion of the female radiologists increased from 13% to 29%: still an underrepresentation of women radiologists when compared with the gender distribution of medical students and junior doctors. This will persist in the short to medium term, given the tapering of female doctors entering radiology training. In terms of workforce planning, women are more likely to work less than their male counterparts in the early to mid‐career. Women are underrepresentated in interventional and neurointerventional radiology. There is more self‐reported subspecialty interest in breast and women's imaging. A review of the literature demonstrated a similar situation in comparable countries. We also considered the reasons, potential solutions for this, and knowledge gaps where research is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender and cultural studies is, at its core, a pedagogical project for social and political change. Students are invited to new ways of thinking and acting in the world, shaped by intellectual traditions evolving from various social movements around race, class and feminism in mostly Western nation-states. Our students' imaginations are very much captured by these political possibilities, including international students whose reception and interpretation of these knowledges are filtered through different cultural contexts and in different language registers. Teaching gender and cultural studies in Australia with increasing numbers of international students from Asian countries presents a range of practical, intellectual, and ethical questions. How might we translate different intellectual traditions and languages across local and international student groups, in ways that enhance learning for both cohorts? How might we be implicated in the reshaping of international students' imagination of their own genealogies, and their futurities? What colonising logics might unwittingly be reproduced in our curriculums that are expressly committed to the rhetoric and activism of decolonialism? Through the perspective of two classroom practitioners, this article investigates the challenges and possibilities of teaching Gender and Cultural Studies to local and international students in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emphasis of employers and employer associations, when 2020 began, was largely business as usual. With the pandemic's advent, employers and associations reoriented some industrial relations activity, which encouraged cooperation while also highlighting sharp divisions. As the year progressed, however, it became increasingly apparent that the federal government's responses to the pandemic provided unanticipated opportunities for the employer movement to push intensively their long-expressed desires for changes to the institutional structures of industrial relations, and hence also bargaining and other processes. This article examines these and other activities which preoccupied employers and their associations in 2020 while also analysing some broader environmental, social and governance challenges affecting employer groups, which impact on their purpose and place within the employer movement more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1950s, the Australian Women's Weekly represented the popular face of femininity, publishing features on the home, motherhood and romance. Among articles about raising children and cooking a family dinner, however, were regular discussions of Cold War politics. How, then, did a strong political awareness of global events fit in with 1950s ideals of femininity, when politics was still very much the domain of men? This article puts forward a framework of "feminised politics" to discuss the ways in which the Weekly adapted, generated and fused contemporary ideas about womanhood with discourse on global events to encourage women's increasing participation in the politics of the Cold War. As Australian society grappled with the myriad changes brought about by the end of World War II and new power struggles between East and West, the government and media often presented conservatism as the antidote to the fear generated by these widespread changes. Therefore, this article suggests that the magazine's framing was necessary to alleviate anxieties surrounding women's changing place in the postwar world. Understanding the Weekly's feminised politics reinforces recent scholarship on the complexities of womanhood in the 1950s and illustrates the diverse formulation and expression of femininity in the 20th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Media and politicians both influence public opinion and policy responses to illicit drug issues. This study examines the contribution each may have made in Australia in 2015 to the problem and politics streams of the policy process, as outlined in Kingdon's 'multiple streams' heuristic, when a National Ice Taskforce responded to increased public, political and media concern about methamphetamine use. A retrospective content analysis compared the frequency and content of articles about methamphetamine in print media (N = 639) and federal parliament speeches (N = 158) in 2015. Peaks in the number of media articles and debates in parliament followed the establishment and interim findings of the Ice Taskforce. The findings showed that politicians more frequently framed methamphetamine use as a crisis or epidemic than the media. Both frequently portrayed cost to society as the consequence of methamphetamine use and often cited law enforcement sources. The media most frequently positioned methamphetamine users as criminal or deviant compared to politicians who did not position the user or positioned them as an addict or victim. This analysis highlights the convergence of the problem and politics streams and suggests they are not independent as first posited by Kingdon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The May federal election appeared particularly important to employers' views of their industrial relations' interests. Employers and their associations had long steeled themselves against an unwelcome Labor victory, fearing Labor's promises of substantial changes to industrial relations' structures, processes and outcomes as well as taxation. Associations appeared busier than ever, representing employers through politics-related public relations, lobbying and media. With enterprise bargaining withering and most wages stagnant, Labor's defeat encouraged associations and the re-elected government to engage in another, for-now stalled, attack on what remains of unions' capacity to collectively protect employees. They have also focused on emergent (individual) employment law challenges for employers but have mainly deflected on widespread evidence of wage underpayment. While the political context again strongly favours employers and their associations, they face substantial challenges from rising media and public criticisms over employers' widespread abuses of their social licence to operate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]