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This paper reports on the results of research into the trends and nature of coverage of climate change issues in the Australian print media over the past ten years. Studies were undertaken at national, state and local levels, with a focus on Queensland (state) and the Townsville region (local) in northeastern Australia. At a national level there has been an almost exponential increase in coverage, with a decrease in the past year. Issues which have caused media coverage levels to surge are identified, showing a shift from international events/meetings to domestic policy issues as triggers. Interviews were conducted with decision-makers in print media to explore publication mechanisms. This is part of a wider study examining media coverage, public perception, and political/policy activities to inform judgement as to the likelihood of sustained levels of discussion and action on climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well established that encounters between welfare bureaucracies and their clients have been reconfigured under neoliberalism to address the problem of "welfare dependency." Contemporary bureaucratic encounters therefore entail measures to activate clients' entrepreneurial/self-governing capacities, and conditionality/sanctioning practices to deal with clients who behave "irresponsibly." Despite the dominance of the neoliberal model, recent research has identified a counter-trend in the practices of housing services away from entrepreneurializing and punitive strategies and towards a more supportive approach. This paper examines this counter-trend and its implications for neoliberal welfare governance. To do this, it presents findings from research into social housing governance in Queensland, Australia, where the neoliberal focus on welfare independence, conditionality and sanctioning has been tempered by a new supportive approach focused on assisting vulnerable clients to maintain and benefit from access to welfare/housing support. Following Larner, we argue that this shift signals the emergence of an "after neoliberal" governmental formation, wherein key features of neoliberal governmentality are replaced by, or redeployed in the service of, progressive initiatives that address neoliberalism's failings at the street level, but leave broader neoliberal policy settings undisturbed. We also challenge recent sociological accounts that construe supportive welfare practices as a function of an all-encompassing neoliberal project, arguing instead for appreciation of the contingency of these developments and the progressive political affordances that they entail., (© 2020 London School of Economics and Political Science.)

This paper explores how the strong policy push to improve students' results on national literacy and numeracy tests - the National Assessment Program, Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) - in the Australian state of Queensland influenced schooling practices, including teachers' learning. The paper argues the focus upon improved test scores on NAPLAN within schools was the result of sustained policy pressure for increased attention to such foci at national and state levels, and a broader political context in which rapid improvement in test results was considered imperative. However, implementation, (or what this paper describes more accurately as 'enactment') of the policy also revealed NAPLAN as providing evidence of students' learning, as useful for grouping students to help improve their literacy and numeracy capabilities, and as a stimulus for teacher professional development. Drawing upon the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, the paper argues that even as more political concerns about comparing NAPLAN results with other states were recognised by educators, the field of schooling practices was characterised by a logic of active appropriation of political concerns about improved test scores by teachers, for more educative purposes. In this way, policy enactment in schools is characterised by competing interests, and involving not just interpretation, translation and critique but active appropriation of political concerns by teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the response of a regional body, the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health (IUIH), coordinating Aboriginal community controlled health organisations (ACCHOs) in south-east Queensland, to research evidence as they prioritise and plan services in response to internal economic and organisational factors, as well as external policy change. An event-based analysis of a quarterly management meeting of the IUIH allowed an exploration of how the IUIH uses a range of evidence to respond to the challenges faced within the Aboriginal community controlled health sector. The study identified three distinct but interconnected processes: (1) identifying evidence for change; (2) exploring and reframing this evidence; and (3) the application of this evidence at different levels of policy and practice. These processes were evident in each of the three major agendas addressed during the meeting, namely navigating current political change, reforming the ACCHO business model and reframing the available evidence for advocacy. The result has been the emergence of a new service delivery model, in which evidence supports accountability, change management, self-sufficiency and attempts to redefine community control.

From a normative perspective, conventional economic analysis is often used to establish a framework in which social objectives can be built into the decision-making process. The health economics literature, however, tends to overlook the positive analysis of decision making--often assuming particular social objectives that may or may not correspond with reality. This perhaps explains why exercises in health economics priority setting on occasions break down. This study is a positive analysis of group decision making. It examines the process of deliberating upon proposed changes to funding arrangements across Divisions of General Practice in Queensland, Australia. Existing levels of funding had, for a number of years, largely been determined by an allocation formula. The motivation for this study was a perceived inequity created by the long-term under-funding of smaller (resource poor or 'marginal') Divisions. The challenge in this project was that any change in funding arrangements required the support of all the Divisions but also would potentially create 'winners' and 'losers'. Decision making within such an institutional context was rendered a zero sum game. This paper documents a consultative process whereby the relevant stakeholders, with clear interests in any decision, were asked to participate in deliberations as to how such a problem should be tackled. The objective was, in the face of adverse incentives, to derive recommendations for addressing existing shortfalls experienced by some of these Divisions. The process involved encouraging relevant players to take into consideration the global allocation issues and to move beyond their localised interests. The results indicate that such a process can be effective in not only generating the necessary goodwill to enable such group decision making, but also in establishing a more realistic set of policy recommendations.

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