Australian Policy Online

An initiative of Swinburne Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University

Research & Evidence Base

New Research

Posted this week

More than temporary: Australia's 457 visa program

11 May 2013 | Over the past decade, Australia’s migration program has evolved. This report outlines this evolution and explores the attitudes of both visa holders and employers under the program.

Uncovering the wider structure of extreme right communities spanning popular online networks

Derek O’Callaghan | ACM Web Science 2013

13 May 2013 | This paper investigates the potential for Twitter to act as one possible gateway to communities within the wider online network of the extreme right, given its facility for the dissemination of content.

Innocent mistakes: a controversial film finds journalism caught between image and reality

Ethical Journalism Network (EJN)

15 May 2013 | This report highlights the influence on media of deeply-embedded stereotypes and how the rush to publish is squeezing editorial standards.

“Just do it” – making and measuring social impact

John Fitzgerald | Asia-Pacific Centre for Social Investment and Philanthropy

14 March 2013 | This lecture examines the pressure on philanthropic organisations to provide quantifiable short-term impact measurements.

Student load and employment outcomes attached to mid-level qualifications

Gavin Moodie, Nick Fredman | National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER)

08 May 2013 | This paper explores trends in mid-level qualifications (diplomas, advanced diplomas and associate degrees) from 2002 to 2011.

From recovery to renewal: case studies report

Regional Australia Institute (RAI)

20 May 2013 | Resurrection of the local economy is crucial to getting communities back on track after a natural disaster, but this is often overlooked in favour of rebuilding physical infrastructure and getting a town back to ‘normal’ although key economic drivers may have been permanently altered.

Pathways to the co-management of protected areas and native title in Australia

Toni Bauman, Chris Haynes, Gabrielle Lauder | Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATIS)

20 May 2013 | This paper examines the regulatory and non-regulatory institutions that frame the entrance to co-management arrangements of national parks and other protected areas by governments and Indigenous people

Meanings of a long life: cultural, social and historical perspectives

Ashley Carr, Simon Biggs, Helen Kimberley | Brotherhood of St Laurence

30 April 2013 | As part of a series that attempts to re-position the perceptions and contributions of older people in contemporary Australian society, this paper examines the existing models and alternatives available to older adults and looks at the sweep of historical and cultural tradition.

Bicultural practice in the Northern Territory children and families sector

Kate McGuinness, Bernard Leckning | Centre for Child Development and Education (CCDE)

30 March 2013 | This paper presents the results of a qualitative research project aimed to better understand the key elements of promising bicultural practice in the Northern Territory children and families sector.

Citizens' assemblies and policy reform in New Zealand

Janine Hayward | Policy Quarterly Volume 9 Number 2

13 May 2013 | The article considers the merits and limitations of citizens' assemblies for electoral reform, particularly in the New Zealand context.

The challenge of securing durable reductions in child poverty in New Zealand

Jonathan Boston | Policy Quarterly Volume 9 Number 2

13 May 2013 | This article examines the causes of child poverty in New Zealand and how child poverty rates might be reduced.

Does culture need explaining?

Julian Meyrick | Text Journal Vol 17 No 1 April 2013

30 April 2013 | This paper focuses on the relationship between the idea of culture and the different ways it is talked about in the contemporary world including the media, the academy, the creative professions and in public policy.

My country, mine country: Indigenous people, mining and development contestation in remote Australia

Benedict Scambary | ANU E Press

09 May 2013 | Agreements between the mining industry and Indigenous people are not creating sustainable economic futures for Indigenous people, according to this book which examines three mining agreements in north Australia.

Analysing regulatory systems in mixed public-private health systems: A new assessment tool and its application in India

Krishna Hort, Kabir Sheikh, Lakshmi E. Prasad | Health Policy and Health Finance Knowledge Hub, Nossal Institute for Global Health

20 May 2013 | Health systems in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in the Asia-Pacific region can be characterised as mixed public-private systems, with common features such as blurred boundaries between public and private sectors, low government investment in public services and ineffectual policies and institutions for regulating health care.

On sustainability: an economic approach

Ana Markulev, Anthea Long | Productivity Commission

14 May 2013 | Using an economic framework, this paper illustrates possible interpretations of sustainability and what they imply for policy analysis.

Commentary

Why do we gamble?

Gareth Austin | Life Matters, ABC Radio National

20 May 2013 | Australia has a big culture of taking a punt. Life Matters spoke to researchers and a number of professed problem gamblers to find out why we do it.

A welcome touch of modesty

Frank Bongiorno | Inside Story

18 May 2013 | Tim Rowse’s new book shows the strengths of an evidence-based approach to Indigenous policy

The middle-aged mobile

Ramon Lobato | Inside Story

18 May 2013 | The mobile phone turned forty this month. Three recent books examine the worlds it has created

Audio

Saving Medicare

Amanda Vanstone | Counterpoint, ABC Radio National

20 May 2013 | How much does Medicare really cost? In the last ten years federal, state and territory health spending has increased by 80%. In 2000 – 2001 it was 53 billion dollars ten years later it’s 90 billion. So how can we curb those costs and still retain a national health system?

Middle class enclaves and escapes

Laurie Taylor | Thinking Allowed, BBC 4

08 May 2013 | Privatised neighbourhoods and lifestyle migration are a global phenomenon. Increasingly, it seems, middle class people with sufficient capital are choosing to 'opt out' of urban environments, or, at least, to shield themselves from their more 'dangerous' elements, namely the poorer residents.

Public intimacies: the royal commission on human relationships

Lorena Allam | Hindsight, ABC Radio National

28 April 2013 | The Whitlam government was full of reforming zeal when it was elected in late 1972. But while it couldn’t change the laws around abortion, it did create something much more complex: a Royal Commission on Human Relationships.

Book Reviews

Response to Mark Latham’s Quarterly Essay

It's occasionally been forgotten since he left the Labor leadership nearly a decade ago, but when he chooses to engage in policy, Mark Latham has a lot to say.

The least of all possible evils

The logical collapse between compassion and punitive force is what Eyal Weizman explores in his latest book, writes Sverre Molland for ForMhub.

How Obama did it

How did Obama defy last minute predictions of political demise so quickly in 2012 and win? asks Dennis Phillips in the Australian Review of Public Affairs.

A guide to open educational resources

JISC

27 March 2013 | This guide explains open educational resources (OER) and the benefits that creating, sharing and using OER can provide.Open educational resources (OER) are learning and teaching materials, freely available online for anyone to use. Examples include full courses, course modules, lectures, games, teaching materials and assignments. They can take the form of text, images, audio, video and may even be interactive.

Navigating public health chemicals policy in Australia: a policy maker’s and practitioner’s guide

Adam Capon, Wayne Smith, James Gillespie | New South Wales Public Health Bulletin

15 March 2013 | Chemicals are ubiquitous in everyday life. Environmental health practitioners rely on a complex web of regulators and policy bodies to ensure the protection of public health, yet few understand the full extent of this web.

VicHealth local government action guides - preventing violence against women

VicHealth | VicHealth

13 November 2012 | This guide is one of ten outlining a range of evidence-informed actions that councils may consider when preparing their Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plans and other strategies.

Videos

Are economic models useful in the global macroeconomic policy debate?

Warwick McKibbin | ANU Channel

25 April 2013 | Professor Warwick J. McKibbin, ANU Chair in Public Policy, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis in the Crawford School of Public Policy, outlines some key issues in the global economy and gives insight into these questions using a global intertemporal general equilibrium model.

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