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This paper explores native title legal processes. It seeks to build on earlier scholarship that has investigated what goes on in the tribunal encounter; in particular, it examines what makes it so hard for Indigenous claimants to be heard in the courtroom. Making an intervention into this broad debate, we present a new sociology of knowledge model that can be used to read native title legal processes in a slightly different way -- one that brings knowledge and legitimacy to the fore. Drawing on Legitimation Code Theory and postcolonial theory (Homi Bhabha, in particular), we establish some of the structural relations that enable or disable the voices of Indigenous peoples being heard in native title cases. Our key case study is the Yorta Yorta native title case and the interpretation of a squatter's diary, a piece of knowledge that was central to the outcome of the claim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the barriers faced by Indigenous peoples to participation in research higher degree (RHD) programs -- one of the critical mechanisms for increasing the presence of Indigenous students, staff and senior decision makers in universities. Indigenous RHD participation has emerged as a critical dimension of social inequity, particularly in relation to Indigenous struggles to be heard in major Australian institutions (IHEAC 2011). It plays a central role in Indigenous Australia's capacity to voice its concerns and represent its interests in all the major institutions that shape people's access to economic and social resources. In analysing the obstacles encountered by Indigenous peoples in accessing and completing postgraduate research education, we argue that while Commonwealth Government higher education policy has progressed Indigenous RHD participation, it has simultaneously contributed to consolidating universities as international businesses whose main priority is to compete in an increasingly integrated global knowledge economy in order to survive. The organisational dynamics required of such institutions marginalise the advancement of social goals related to equitable participation, such as Indigenous participation in RHD programs. The paper suggests that although some universities have begun to include Indigenous academics in management, more thoroughgoing integration of Indigenous Australians at all levels of university organisation is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the sovereign requirement for national standards the National Measurement Institute, Australia (NMIA) has developed a measuring system using isotope dilution mass spectrometiy (IDMS) to certify forensic aqueous ethanol solutions. NMIA participated in an international study, CCQM-K27, organized under the auspices of the International Committee for Weights and Measures to compare our measuring system with the techniques being used for certifying aqueous ethanol solutions in other metrology institutes. This comparison provided objective evidence that the measuring system developed was fit for the purpose of certifying aqueous ethanol solutions that ranged in concentration from 0.8 mg/g to 120 mg/g. A complete measurement uncertainty budget is presented and shows that the largest contribution to measurement uncertainty was from method precision followed by the contribution from the calibration solution. The fundamental technology of the measuring system was gas chromatography of the aqueous ethanol solutions using porous layer open tubular columns, and this effectively produced peak area measurements with both GC/MS and GC-FID. It was found that deactivation of the chromatographic system was critical for obtaining reproducible peak shapes and peak area measurements. A range of measuring systems, all using this gas chromatographic technology, was investigated. When conditions were carefully controlled there was no difference in measurement results from GC-IDMS, GC/ MS or GC-FID. There was also no difference in results from on-column or split injection systems. A significant issue with the IDMS system was the fragmentation of 13C2ethanol to produce an ion with the same mass as the molecular ion of ethanol which lead to isobaric interference; careful measurement of this fragmentation ratio was necessary to calculate accurate mass fraction values. NMIA has adopted the GC-lDMS split measuring system to certify aqueous ethanol solutions for Australian legal requirements since this measuring system provided higher analytical specificity than GC-FID, accuracy that was fit for purpose and was operationally less stringent than on-column techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]