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This article focuses on gendered youth music practices in community-based organizations (CBOs) in Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Drawing on interviews and observational fieldwork from the Playing for Life research project, the authors highlight the absence of young women from many activities, especially in the area of hip hop (e.g., MCing, break dancing, DJing, and graffiti workshops). Attempts by CBOs to redress gender imbalances are observed, and evaluations are made of how successful these projects appear to be for female participants. Our subsequent findings question the reasoning and outcomes of projects that promote women-only sessions or specifically employ female facilitators to activate young women's interests in musical activities. The research shows multiple factors affect girls' involvement in such activities and that gender-specific projects can have positive (e.g., improving confidence, skills, and performance ability) and negative (e.g. lack of skill sharing, isolation from other young artists) consequences on music skills development. (Contains 4 notes.)

Abstract On balance, it appears reform of the electricity sector has delivered considerable benefits for Australia, and for its individual states and territories. However, these changes have not been without cost, and as is often the case with major long-term reforms, ongoing implementation gives rise to a range of new challenges that need to be addressed, including security of supply and rising prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper was to examine the origins of the use of the line-in-the-sand approach in utility pricing in the Australian context. In Australia, this method has only been used in the water and wastewater industry and only to government-owned water companies in a regulatory context. The object of using the line-in-the-sand method by regulators has been to help create a smooth, but longer, transition, from political to commercially established prices, and to do so with the least community opposition. This has meant consumers initially enjoyed lower prices than may otherwise have been the case; however, prices rose as water and wastewater companies undertook extensive capital expenditure programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rail sector globally has seen considerable reform in recent years. To date, the shape of reform has varied across jurisdictions, as has the nature of the rail operations being reformed. In numerous jurisdictions, the reform processes have encompassed the privatization of assets and operations. Unlike many other industries where privatization has occurred, however, the rail sector has experienced several instances where asset ownership and operations have been taken back into the hands of the government. In this paper, an examination is made of the privatization and de-privatization (or reverse privatization) of rail assets in three jurisdictions in Australia and New Zealand to see what insights can be drawn with regard to the factors that led to the failure of privatization and the government's reclaiming of control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the factors that contributed to the evolving structure and ownership of the electricity industry in Australia in the inter-war and immediate post-World War II period. It details how the industry developed in the Australian states from the latter part of the 19th century through the first half of the 20th century. In examining the industry's transformation, network effects, generation plant scales, and the influence of the conflicting ideologies of socialism versus private ownership are considered. It then provides an assessment of the impact the changes in structure collectively had on the industry's performance during this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a survey is provided of the privatisation of government-owned enterprises in Australia since the 1980s. In particular, the article evaluates the evidence that has been compiled on the success or failure of privatisation in enhancing efficiency in various industry sectors. In terms of efficiency improvements, some privatisations have been a clear success. In other cases, however, most of the improvements in efficiency took place after corporatisation, rather than following privatisation. In most cases, improvements in efficiency were also probably due in varying (and sometimes substantial) parts to regulatory reform, increases in competition and technological change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a reasonable community expectation that ministerial staff who enjoy the privilege of working at the interface of politics and public administration in Australia are subject to appropriate accountability measures. The key questions are what measures currently exist to hold ministerial staff accountable, how effective are such measures, and how could accountability be improved. While descriptions of an ‘accountability black hole’ for ministerial staff are overstated, the measures now in place do not operate uniformly across Australian jurisdictions, have on occasion developed in an ad hoc fashion and are sometimes uncertain in their application. Such circumstances highlight the need for reform, which may potentially encompass both accountability mechanisms directly applicable to ministerial staff, as well as measures that operate more broadly and apply to those with whom ministerial staff interact. 在政治与公共管理交合处工作的澳大利亚内阁工作人员需要 接受适当的问责，这是一种合情合理的社会期待。关键的问题在于目前都有哪些手段能对他们问责，这些手段能否改进。设计问责方法的关键因素是内阁工作人员特殊角色和责任，其不同于非政治的公务员，也不同于作为决策者并直接参加公共辩论的大臣。说内阁工作人员为“问责黑洞”未免言过其实，但现在的那些方法在所有澳大利亚司法辖区并未统一运行，有时以特事特办的方式存在，往往在应用上含糊不定。这种状况说明需要改革。改革可以囊括直接适用于内阁工作人员的问责机制，以及涵盖更广、适用于与他们打交道的那些人的办法。 [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the appropriateness and consequences of compensation and transitional arrangements such as "grandfathering" in regulatory design, with particular reference to two public policy initiatives championed by the Rudd Labor Government in Australia between 2007 and 2010 - the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) and the Resources Super Profits Tax (RSPT). In particular, this paper explores the efficacy of alternative approaches to compensation and transitional relief where regulatory change has a retrospective impact. In doing so it considers factors that may be relevant to the choice of whether or not to provide any compensatory or transitional relief. This paper also highlights the risks associated with governments taking inconsistent approaches to compensation and transitional relief on policy reform, and argues that the different approaches taken to compensation with respect to the CPRS and the RSPT was a factor that contributed to the uncertainty and opposition that enveloped both policy proposals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Substantial structural reform has occurred in the water and wastewater sectors of Australia’s major urban centers over the past two decades. This reform has involved the corporatization of government assets and some vertical and horizontal separation. This paper analyses the performance of these sectors since the mid 1990s. In particular, it uses Malmquist Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to determine the different levels of productivity and efficiency improvement over this period. The results point to modest, but positive productivity gains in the larger urban centers, independent of industry structure. Further, it highlights the need to consider exogenous factors that can influence productivity outcomes in an industry generally associated with monopoly characteristics and dependent on water sources that are, to varying extents, unpredictable and uncontrollable. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The purpose of this paper is to provide a consideration of the role of battery energy storage in enhancing electricity grid stability at a time of increased use of non-hydro renewable generation sources, focusing on the Australian case. Besides the creation of a strategic reserve one measure that might reduce this instability that have being increasingly attracted much attention by both the operators of power systems and electricity distribution networks is the use of battery energy storage. Together, the multitude of regulatory and advisory bodies operating in and around the National Electricity Market of Australia (NEM), and the diverse and sometimes contrary opinions as to the best underlying foundational architecture for the NEM, overlaid by ongoing disagreement at the government policy level, point to continuing uncertainty and difficulties for an Australian electricity system in a state of transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines security of supply concerns in an Australian electricity market under transition and considers potential policy pathways to address them. It details the current state of Australia's electricity industry, considers the extent to which supply security in the electricity sector may be considered a public good, and examines the features likely to impact on the efficacy of current and potential future market designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Attrition rate in new army recruits is higher than in incumbent troops. In the current study, we identified the risk factors for attrition due to injuries and physical fitness failure in recruit training. A variety of predictive models were attempted., Methods: This retrospective cohort included 19,769 Army soldiers of the Australian Defence Force receiving recruit training during a period from 2006 to 2011. Among them, 7692 reserve soldiers received a 28-day training course, and the remaining 12,077 full-time soldiers received an 80-day training course. Retrieved data included anthropometric measures, course-specific variables, injury, and physical fitness failure. Multivariate regression was used to develop a variety of models to predict the rate of attrition due to injuries and physical fitness failure. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was used to compare the performance of the models., Results: In the overall analysis that included both the 28-day and 80-day courses, the incidence of injury of any type was 27.8%. The 80-day course had a higher rate of injury if calculated per course (34.3% vs. 17.6% in the 28-day course), but lower number of injuries per person-year (1.56 vs. 2.29). Fitness test failure rate was significantly higher in the 28-day course (30.0% vs. 12.1%). The overall attrition rate was 5.2 and 5.0% in the 28-day and 80-day courses, respectively. Stress fracture was common in the 80-day course (n = 44) and rare in the 28-day course (n = 1). The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves for the course-specific predictive models were relatively low (ranging from 0.51 to 0.69), consistent with "failed" to "poor" predictive accuracy. The course-combined models performed somewhat better than the course-specific models, with two models having AUC of 0.70 and 0.78, which are considered "fair" predictive accuracy., Conclusion: Attrition rate was similar between 28-day and 80-day courses. In comparison to the 80-day full course, the 28-day course had a lower rate of injury but a higher number of injuries per person-year and of fitness test failure. These findings suggest fitness level at the commencement of training is a critically important factor to consider when designing the course curriculum, particularly short courses.