Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Discriminatory legislation in Queensland'

Differential operation of the Global Positioning System (GPS) has proved to offer superior positioning accuracy over unaided GPS. The nature of Differential GPS (DGPS) requires correction data to be sent from a reference station or a network of reference stations to the GPS user in the field. Since it cannot be assumed that the GPS user is close to a telephone or data line, wireless communications technologies must be used to provide the GPS user with DGPS corrections. As very little crossover work has been done between the GPS experts and the data communications experts, there is a real need for a single source of reference which brings together information on these fields and others which relate to DGPS service provision. The thesis reviews the communications options available for the broadcast of DGPS corrections, reviews the DGPS technologies available, and dimensions a DGPS system which would provide an easily-accessible and affordable DGPS service to GPS users anywhere in Australia. The dimensioned DGPS system is analysed in order to determine the positioning accuracies afforded by that system.

This study was concerned with an aspect of the professional knowledge needed by principals to meet the demands that an increasing number of managerial tasks requiring specialist understandings are making of them. In this regard an emergent area of concern to principals is that associated with the considerable volume of legislative, common and criminal law which they are involved with in the management of their schools. Overall the findings indicate that the claims concerning the legalisation of education in Australian schools is well founded and that, as a consequence, there are a number of implications that can be drawn for education authorities and for school practitioners as well as for future research. In particular, the findings may be of value in the current efforts by the Queensland Department of Education Centre for Leadership Excellence to identify areas of professional knowledge appropriate for the induction and ongoing training of new principals. It is hoped, also, that the findings might have considerable importance for school administration and management in that legal risk strategies should ideally be reflected in a range of school policies and practices. The study concludes with a number of suggestions emanating from the findings concerning possibilities for further research which would add to the conclusions reached here.

The Queensland Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995, Regulation,Compliance Standards and Advisory Standards provide a framework for improving levels of workplace health and safety. The Act outlines particular health and safety obligations placed on all members of the workforce. In 1995, the Workplace Health and Safety (Hazardous Substances) Compliance Standard was released. This compliance standard was based on National Model Regulations for Hazardous Substances. This legally binding compliance standard has prompted the Department of Education, Queensland to begin appraising its position in light of new regulations. The aim of this study was to examine the most appropriate method for achieving compliance with Hazardous Substances legislation in the Educational Environment. The population of the study was drawn from the Department of Education, Queensland which is diverse in both educational environment and geographical location. The study consisted of the distribution and analysis of a survey to two sample populations of school Principals (n=90) and regional Occupational Health and Safety Advisers (n=11) of which 77 and 11 surveys were completed and returned respectively. The results highlighted the fact that although 87% of school Principals sampled were aware of Hazardous Substances Legislation only 62% had altered their practices in order to comply with the law. Major barriers were identified to achieving compliance including insufficient resources, insufficient time and the complexity of the legislation. The literature highlighted the nature of hazardous substances in the educational setting as opposed to that in heavy industry. The differences emphasising the probable time, resources and interpretation of law when numerous substances in small controlled amounts are in use as opposed to large volumes of a few substances. Principals and Regional Occupational Health and Safety Advisers identified methods of assistance that would be of most benefit to educational facilities. They were eager to receive assistance that would minimise time and resource expenditure such as generic assessments of risk, a state wide systems approach in the form of a support document and access to training. Access to disposal assistance and advice was another form of assistance sought . Although disposal is not specifically addressed in the Workplace Health and Safety (Hazardous Substances) Compliance Standard, 1995, the ultimate outcome of compliance requires the disposal of excess quantities of substances not in current use.It was concluded that although the hazardous substances legislation is mandatory, many schools in Queensland are currently unable to comply without a statewide strategy of assistance. The use of the theory of Participative Management in the collection of information was useful in obtaining relevant and meaningful data. Recommendations drawn from this study based on the requirements for legislative compliance and the requirements of educational locations within the Department of Education (Queensland) were as follows: • Development of a support document providing a clear process for the management of hazardous substances in schools. • Provision of a coordinated, statewide approach to purchasing and disposal of hazardous substances. • Development of generic strategies through the shared use of knowledge and expertise available. • Development of policy reflecting the response of the Department of Education to the requirements of school locations. The effectiveness of the implementation of these recommendations and the benefits of participative management in the development of policy may provide topics for further research within this area.

Queensland's political history has been built upon a culture of developmentalism, particularly at the cost of environmental protection. This has been a prominent feature in the policies of past Queensland Premiers such as T.J. Ryan, Ted Theodore, William McCormack, Forgan Smith, Frank Nicklin, Johannes Bjelke-Petersen and Wayne Goss. The policies pursued by many of these Premiers often resulted in the destruction of many sensitive environmental areas, of which the effects are still evident today. This study examines how anti-environmentalism has been a recurrent theme in state politics, as well as examining the extent to which industry has influenced governmental policies toward developmentalism. In particular, this research explores in depth the theory of 'regulatory capture' and examines the extent to which this is applicable to the Queensland context. A secondary issue which is explored is that of the development of a culture of nonenforcement within government departments. The testing of these theories is conducted through an analysis of the Queensland Criminal Justice Commission Inquiry into the Improper Disposal of Liquid Waste in South-East Queensland. The outcome of this thesis certainly demonstrates that state government departments responsible for environmental protection were negligent in fulfilling their roles. This thesis will highlight how such departments were 'captured' by the interests of industry to the extent that they failed to administer and enforce effective environmental legislation. It also raises the possibility that, as a result, administrators were guilty of official misconduct. Finally this thesis argues that while departmental culture is so strongly embedded in pro-development policies, responsibility for the environment should be centralised in an agency whose sole responsibility would be environmental protection. Such an agency could be an Environmental Protection Authority.

The role of midwife has been an integral part of the culture of childbirth in Queensland throughout its history, but it is a role that has been modified and reshaped over time. This thesis explores the factors that underpinned a crucial aspect of that modification and reshaping. Specifically, the thesis examines the factors that contributed to the statutory regulation of midwives that began in 1912 and argues that it was that event that etched the development of midwifery practice for the remainder of the twentieth century. In 1859, when Queensland seceded from New South Wales, childbirth was very much a private event that took place predominantly in the home attended by a woman who acted as midwife. In the fifty-threeyears that followed, childbirth became a medical event that was the subject of scrutiny by the medical profession and the state. The thesis argues that, the year 1912 marks the point at which the practice of midwifery by midwives in Queensland began a transition from lay practice in the home to qualified status in the hospital. In 1912, through the combined efforts of the medical profession, senior nurses and the state, midwives in Queensland were brought under the jurisdiction of the Nurses' Registration Board as "midwifery nurses". The Nurses' Registration Board was established as part of the Health Act Amendment Act of 1911. The inclusion of midwives within a regulatory authority for nurses represented the beginning of the end of midwifery practice as a discrete occupational role and marked its redefinition as a nursing specialty. It was a redefinition that suited the three major stakeholders. The medical profession perceived lay midwives to be a disjointed and uncoordinated body of women whose practice contributed to needless loss of life in childbirth. Further, lay midwives inhibited the generalist medical practitioners' access to family practice. Trained nurses looked upon midwifery as an extension of nursing and one which offered them an area in which they might specialise in order to enhance their occupational status and career prospects. The state was keen to improve birth rates and to reduce infant mortality. It was prepared to accept that the regulation of midwives under the auspices of nursing was a reasonable and proper strategy and one that might assist it to meet its objectives. It was these separate, but complementary, agendas that prompted the medical profession and the state to debate the culture of childbirth, to examine the role of midwives within it, and to support the amalgamation of nursing and midwifery practice. This thesis argues that the medical profession was the most active and persistent protagonist in the moves to limit the scope of midwives and to claim midwifery practice as a medical specialty. Through a campaign to defame midwives and to reduce their credibility as birth attendants, the medical profession enlisted the help of senior nurses and the state in order to redefine midwifery practice as a nursing role and to cultivate the notion of the midwife as a subordinate to the medical practitioner. While this thesis contests the intervention of the medical profession in the reproductive lives of women and the occupational territory of midwives, it concedes that there was a need to initiate change. Drawing on evidence submitted at Inquests into deaths associated with childbirth, the thesis illuminates a childbirth culture that was characterised by anguish and suffering and it depicts the lay midwife as a further peril to an already hazardous event that helps to explain medical intervention in childbirth and, in part, to excuse it. The strategies developed by the medical profession and the state to bring about the occupational transition of midwives from lay to qualified were based upon a conceptual unity between the work of midwives and nurses. That conceptualisation was reinforced by a practical training schedule that deployed midwives within the institution of the lying-in hospital in order to receive the formal instruction that underpinned their entitlement to inclusion on the Register of Midwifery Nurses held by the Nurses' Registration Board. The structure that was put in place in Queensland in 1912 to control and monitor the practice of midwives was consistent with the policies of other Australian states at that time. It was an arrangement that gained acceptance and strength over time so that by the end of the twentieth century, throughout Australia, the practice of midwifery by midwives was, generally, consequent upon prior qualification as a Registered Nurse. In Queensland, in the opening years of the twenty-first century, the role of midwife remains tied to that of the nurse but the balance of power has shifted from the medical profession to the nursing profession. At this time, with the exception of a small number of midwives who have acquired their qualification in midwifery from an overseas country that recognises midwifery practice as a discipline independent of nursing, the vast majority of midwives practising in Queensland do so on the basis of their registration as a nurse. Methodology This thesis explores the factors that influenced the decision to regulate midwifery practice in Queensland in 1912 and the means by which that regulation was achieved. The historical approach underpins this research. The historical approach is an inductive process that is an appropriate method to employ for several reasons. First, it assists in identifying the origins of midwifery as a social role performed by women. Second, it presents a systematic way of analysing the evidence concerning the development of the midwifery role and the status of the midwife in society. Third, it highlights the political, social and economic influences which have impacted on midwifery in the past and which have had a bearing on subsequent midwifery practice in Queensland. Fourth, the historical approach exposes important chronological elements pertaining to the research question. Finally, it assists the exposure of themes in the sources that demonstrate the behaviour of key individuals and governing authorities and their connection to the transition of midwifery from lay to qualified. Consequently, through analysing the sources and collating the emerging evidence, a cogent account of interpretations of midwifery history in Queensland may be constructed. Data collection and analysis The data collection began with secondary source material in the formative stages of the research and this provided direction for the primary sources that were later accessed. The primary source material that is employed includes testimonies submitted at Inquests into maternal and neonatal deaths; parliamentary records; legislation, government gazettes, and medical journals. The data has been analysed through an inductive process and its presentation has combined exploration and narration to produce an accurate and plausible account. The story that unfolds is complex and confusing. Its primary focus lies in ascertaining why and how midwifery practice was regulated in Queensland. The thesis therefore explores the factors that influenced the decision to regulate midwifery practice in Queensland in 1912 and the means by which that regulation was achieved. Limitations of the study The limitations of the study relate to the documentary evidence and to the cultural group that form the basis of the study. It is acknowledged that historical accounts rely upon the integrity of the historian to select and interpret the data in a fair and plausible manner. In the case of this thesis, one of its limitations is that midwives did not speak for themselves but were, instead, spoken for by medical practitioners and parliamentarians. As a consequence, the coronial and magisterial testimonies that are employed constitute a limitation in that while they reveal the ways in which lay midwifery occurred, they relate only to those childbirth events that resulted in death. Thus, they may be said to represent the minority of cases involving the lay midwife rather than to offer a broader and perhaps more balanced picture. A second limitation is that the accounts are recorded by an official such as a member of the police or of the Coroner's Office and are sanctioned by the witness with a signature or, more often, a cross. It is therefore possible that the recorder has guided these accounts and that they are not the spontaneous evidence of the witness. Those witnesses and the culture they represent are drawn predominantly from non- Indigenous working class. Thus, a third limitation is that the principal ethnic group featured in this thesis has been women of European descent who were born in Queensland or other parts of Australia. This focus has originated from the data itself and has not been contrived. However, it does impose a restriction to the scope of the study.

The role of midwife has been an integral part of the culture of childbirth in Queensland throughout its history, but it is a role that has been modified and reshaped over time. This thesis explores the factors that underpinned a crucial aspect of that modification and reshaping. Specifically, the thesis examines the factors that contributed to the statutory regulation of midwives that began in 1912 and argues that it was that event that etched the development of midwifery practice for the remainder of the twentieth century. In 1859, when Queensland seceded from New South Wales, childbirth was very much a private event that took place predominantly in the home attended by a woman who acted as midwife. In the fifty-threeyears that followed, childbirth became a medical event that was the subject of scrutiny by the medical profession and the state. The thesis argues that, the year 1912 marks the point at which the practice of midwifery by midwives in Queensland began a transition from lay practice in the home to qualified status in the hospital. In 1912, through the combined efforts of the medical profession, senior nurses and the state, midwives in Queensland were brought under the jurisdiction of the Nurses' Registration Board as "midwifery nurses". The Nurses' Registration Board was established as part of the Health Act Amendment Act of 1911. The inclusion of midwives within a regulatory authority for nurses represented the beginning of the end of midwifery practice as a discrete occupational role and marked its redefinition as a nursing specialty. It was a redefinition that suited the three major stakeholders. The medical profession perceived lay midwives to be a disjointed and uncoordinated body of women whose practice contributed to needless loss of life in childbirth. Further, lay midwives inhibited the generalist medical practitioners' access to family practice. Trained nurses looked upon midwifery as an extension of nursing and one which offered them an area in which they might specialise in order to enhance their occupational status and career prospects. The state was keen to improve birth rates and to reduce infant mortality. It was prepared to accept that the regulation of midwives under the auspices of nursing was a reasonable and proper strategy and one that might assist it to meet its objectives. It was these separate, but complementary, agendas that prompted the medical profession and the state to debate the culture of childbirth, to examine the role of midwives within it, and to support the amalgamation of nursing and midwifery practice. This thesis argues that the medical profession was the most active and persistent protagonist in the moves to limit the scope of midwives and to claim midwifery practice as a medical specialty. Through a campaign to defame midwives and to reduce their credibility as birth attendants, the medical profession enlisted the help of senior nurses and the state in order to redefine midwifery practice as a nursing role and to cultivate the notion of the midwife as a subordinate to the medical practitioner. While this thesis contests the intervention of the medical profession in the reproductive lives of women and the occupational territory of midwives, it concedes that there was a need to initiate change. Drawing on evidence submitted at Inquests into deaths associated with childbirth, the thesis illuminates a childbirth culture that was characterised by anguish and suffering and it depicts the lay midwife as a further peril to an already hazardous event that helps to explain medical intervention in childbirth and, in part, to excuse it. The strategies developed by the medical profession and the state to bring about the occupational transition of midwives from lay to qualified were based upon a conceptual unity between the work of midwives and nurses. That conceptualisation was reinforced by a practical training schedule that deployed midwives within the institution of the lying-in hospital in order to receive the formal instruction that underpinned their entitlement to inclusion on the Register of Midwifery Nurses held by the Nurses' Registration Board. The structure that was put in place in Queensland in 1912 to control and monitor the practice of midwives was consistent with the policies of other Australian states at that time. It was an arrangement that gained acceptance and strength over time so that by the end of the twentieth century, throughout Australia, the practice of midwifery by midwives was, generally, consequent upon prior qualification as a Registered Nurse. In Queensland, in the opening years of the twenty-first century, the role of midwife remains tied to that of the nurse but the balance of power has shifted from the medical profession to the nursing profession. At this time, with the exception of a small number of midwives who have acquired their qualification in midwifery from an overseas country that recognises midwifery practice as a discipline independent of nursing, the vast majority of midwives practising in Queensland do so on the basis of their registration as a nurse. Methodology This thesis explores the factors that influenced the decision to regulate midwifery practice in Queensland in 1912 and the means by which that regulation was achieved. The historical approach underpins this research. The historical approach is an inductive process that is an appropriate method to employ for several reasons. First, it assists in identifying the origins of midwifery as a social role performed by women. Second, it presents a systematic way of analysing the evidence concerning the development of the midwifery role and the status of the midwife in society. Third, it highlights the political, social and economic influences which have impacted on midwifery in the past and which have had a bearing on subsequent midwifery practice in Queensland. Fourth, the historical approach exposes important chronological elements pertaining to the research question. Finally, it assists the exposure of themes in the sources that demonstrate the behaviour of key individuals and governing authorities and their connection to the transition of midwifery from lay to qualified. Consequently, through analysing the sources and collating the emerging evidence, a cogent account of interpretations of midwifery history in Queensland may be constructed. Data collection and analysis The data collection began with secondary source material in the formative stages of the research and this provided direction for the primary sources that were later accessed. The primary source material that is employed includes testimonies submitted at Inquests into maternal and neonatal deaths; parliamentary records; legislation, government gazettes, and medical journals. The data has been analysed through an inductive process and its presentation has combined exploration and narration to produce an accurate and plausible account. The story that unfolds is complex and confusing. Its primary focus lies in ascertaining why and how midwifery practice was regulated in Queensland. The thesis therefore explores the factors that influenced the decision to regulate midwifery practice in Queensland in 1912 and the means by which that regulation was achieved. Limitations of the study The limitations of the study relate to the documentary evidence and to the cultural group that form the basis of the study. It is acknowledged that historical accounts rely upon the integrity of the historian to select and interpret the data in a fair and plausible manner. In the case of this thesis, one of its limitations is that midwives did not speak for themselves but were, instead, spoken for by medical practitioners and parliamentarians. As a consequence, the coronial and magisterial testimonies that are employed constitute a limitation in that while they reveal the ways in which lay midwifery occurred, they relate only to those childbirth events that resulted in death. Thus, they may be said to represent the minority of cases involving the lay midwife rather than to offer a broader and perhaps more balanced picture. A second limitation is that the accounts are recorded by an official such as a member of the police or of the Coroner's Office and are sanctioned by the witness with a signature or, more often, a cross. It is therefore possible that the recorder has guided these accounts and that they are not the spontaneous evidence of the witness. Those witnesses and the culture they represent are drawn predominantly from non- Indigenous working class. Thus, a third limitation is that the principal ethnic group featured in this thesis has been women of European descent who were born in Queensland or other parts of Australia. This focus has originated from the data itself and has not been contrived. However, it does impose a restriction to the scope of the study.

Disability discrimination is an ongoing problem in Australian schools. This study analyses the tension that exists between the requirements of the disability discrimination legislation and the way that principals make decisions about the inclusion of students with disabilities in Queensland state schools. The findings from the study suggest that principals believe the disability discrimination legislation is relevant but it is not helpful in providing a framework for discrimination-free decision-making. Instead, the democratic governance processes of inclusion and collaboration are identified as essential elements of the school principal's decision-making process if inclusive school cultures are to thrive and if discrimination is to be reduced or eliminated. Habermas's critical theory of lifeworld and systems world provides the conceptual framework to analyse the complex lifeworld of the principal and the systemic requirements of the legislation. A lifeworld model of decision-making interactions within the inclusive school is proposed from the data collected in this study. Data were collected using a mixed methodology in which 120 principals responded to surveys about their perspectives on inclusion. This was followed by a series of in-depth interviews with six principals who described their schools as inclusive. Focus groups also provided group perspectives and verified the data collected from the surveys and interviews. Together, the quantitative data and the qualitative information complement each other to provide comprehensive perspectives from principals about inclusion and the law. Recommendations are made in the final chapters that propose a new legal paradigm for disability discrimination legislation so that the discordance between the systems world of the law and the lifeworld of the principal may be reduced. More specific policy and governance recommendations promote collaborative decision-making models to facilitate shared understandings about complex issues that relate to disability.

Disability discrimination is an ongoing problem in Australian schools. This study analyses the tension that exists between the requirements of the disability discrimination legislation and the way that principals make decisions about the inclusion of students with disabilities in Queensland state schools. The findings from the study suggest that principals believe the disability discrimination legislation is relevant but it is not helpful in providing a framework for discrimination-free decision-making. Instead, the democratic governance processes of inclusion and collaboration are identified as essential elements of the school principal's decision-making process if inclusive school cultures are to thrive and if discrimination is to be reduced or eliminated. Habermas's critical theory of lifeworld and systems world provides the conceptual framework to analyse the complex lifeworld of the principal and the systemic requirements of the legislation. A lifeworld model of decision-making interactions within the inclusive school is proposed from the data collected in this study. Data were collected using a mixed methodology in which 120 principals responded to surveys about their perspectives on inclusion. This was followed by a series of in-depth interviews with six principals who described their schools as inclusive. Focus groups also provided group perspectives and verified the data collected from the surveys and interviews. Together, the quantitative data and the qualitative information complement each other to provide comprehensive perspectives from principals about inclusion and the law. Recommendations are made in the final chapters that propose a new legal paradigm for disability discrimination legislation so that the discordance between the systems world of the law and the lifeworld of the principal may be reduced. More specific policy and governance recommendations promote collaborative decision-making models to facilitate shared understandings about complex issues that relate to disability.

The principal research question addressed in this thesis is how the effectiveness of an environmental legal system can best be evaluated. A legal system is effective if it is achieving or likely to achieve its objectives. For an environmental legal system this means achieving sustainable development. The hypothesis tested in relation to this research question is that the pressure-state-response ("PSR") method of State of the Environment ("SoE") Reporting provides the best available framework for evaluating the effectiveness of an environmental legal system. A subsidiary research question addressed in this thesis is whether the environmental legal system protecting the Great Barrier Reef ("GBR") in north-eastern Australia is likely to achieve sustainable development of it. The hypothesis tested in relation to this research question is that the environmental legal system protecting the GBR is likely to achieve sustainable development of the GBR. The principal method used to address these research questions and test the hypotheses is a case study of the effectiveness of the laws protecting the GBR. Particular emphasis is given in the case study to climate change both because it is now recognised as the major threat to the GBR and is a topic of significant international and national interest. This thesis is intended to contribute, in particular, to the current public and policy debate on responding effectively to climate change by using the GBR as a yardstick against which to measure "dangerous climate change" and, conversely, acceptable climate change. There are five major findings of the research. First, most of the legal writing regarding environmental legal systems is descriptive, explanatory and interpretative rather than evaluative. Second, most legal writers who attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of part or the whole of an environmental legal system implicitly use the PSR method and refer to pressures, conditions, and responses but do not acknowledge this conceptual framework. Third, the best available conceptual and analytical framework for evaluating the effectiveness of an environmental legal system is the PSR method. It is the simplest, most systematic, comprehensive and meaningful framework with the greatest predictive power for evaluating the effectiveness of the total social and legal response to human-induced environmental degradation currently available. Fourth, current practice in SoE reporting, at least in relation to the GBR, is largely descriptive and rarely evaluates the effectiveness of the response. The fifth major finding of this research is that, while there are many effective parts of the response to pressures on the GBR, the current environmental legal system is not likely to be effective in preventing climate change from causing very serious damage to the GBR. Based on what we know at this point in time, particularly the technology that is currently available and current greenhouse gas emissions, the impacts of climate change appear likely to swamp the many good aspects of the legal system protecting the GBR. Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide in 2005 were approximately 379 parts per million ("ppm") and rising by 2 ppm per year. Including the effect of other greenhouse gases such as methane, the total concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases was around 455 ppm carbon dioxide equivalents ("CO2-eq") in 2005, although the cooling effect of aerosols and landuse changes reduced the net effect to around 375 ppm CO2-eq. Limiting the total increase in mean global temperature to approximately 1°C requires stabilization of atmospheric greenhouse gases and aerosols around 350 ppm CO2-eq. Increasing the net effect of greenhouse gases and aerosols to 450-550 ppm CO2-eq is expected to result in a 2-3°C rise in mean surface temperatures. There are currently no international or national legal constraints to hold greenhouse gas concentrations beneath these levels and they appear likely to be exceeded. These increases in mean global temperatures are expected to severely degrade the GBR by 2030-2040. Even the targets being set by the new Australian Government of reducing Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2050 appear insufficient to protect the GBR. If a 60% reduction in emissions can be achieved globally by 2050 a rise in mean global temperature of around 2.4°C is expected. This indicates the environmental legal system protecting the GBR is not likely to be effective in relation to climate change and, therefore, is failing to reach its objective of sustainable development. Three major recommendations arise from the research. First, legal writers attempting to evaluate the effectiveness of the whole or part of an environmental legal system should use and acknowledge the PSR method. Second, SoE reports should include a stand-alone chapter evaluating the effectiveness of the response. Third, the environmental legal system protecting the GBR should take strong and comprehensive measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions if the objective of sustainable development is to be achieved. Such measures should include setting policy targets for stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gas and aerosol concentrations around 350 ppm CO2-eq to limit increases in mean global temperature to 1°C. Policy targets of stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gases and aerosols at 450-550 ppm CO2-eq to limit increases in mean global temperatures to 2-3°C are likely to be too high to avoid severe impacts of coral bleaching to the GBR.

The principal research question addressed in this thesis is how the effectiveness of an environmental legal system can best be evaluated. A legal system is effective if it is achieving or likely to achieve its objectives. For an environmental legal system this means achieving sustainable development. The hypothesis tested in relation to this research question is that the pressure-state-response ("PSR") method of State of the Environment ("SoE") Reporting provides the best available framework for evaluating the effectiveness of an environmental legal system. A subsidiary research question addressed in this thesis is whether the environmental legal system protecting the Great Barrier Reef ("GBR") in north-eastern Australia is likely to achieve sustainable development of it. The hypothesis tested in relation to this research question is that the environmental legal system protecting the GBR is likely to achieve sustainable development of the GBR. The principal method used to address these research questions and test the hypotheses is a case study of the effectiveness of the laws protecting the GBR. Particular emphasis is given in the case study to climate change both because it is now recognised as the major threat to the GBR and is a topic of significant international and national interest. This thesis is intended to contribute, in particular, to the current public and policy debate on responding effectively to climate change by using the GBR as a yardstick against which to measure "dangerous climate change" and, conversely, acceptable climate change. There are five major findings of the research. First, most of the legal writing regarding environmental legal systems is descriptive, explanatory and interpretative rather than evaluative. Second, most legal writers who attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of part or the whole of an environmental legal system implicitly use the PSR method and refer to pressures, conditions, and responses but do not acknowledge this conceptual framework. Third, the best available conceptual and analytical framework for evaluating the effectiveness of an environmental legal system is the PSR method. It is the simplest, most systematic, comprehensive and meaningful framework with the greatest predictive power for evaluating the effectiveness of the total social and legal response to human-induced environmental degradation currently available. Fourth, current practice in SoE reporting, at least in relation to the GBR, is largely descriptive and rarely evaluates the effectiveness of the response. The fifth major finding of this research is that, while there are many effective parts of the response to pressures on the GBR, the current environmental legal system is not likely to be effective in preventing climate change from causing very serious damage to the GBR. Based on what we know at this point in time, particularly the technology that is currently available and current greenhouse gas emissions, the impacts of climate change appear likely to swamp the many good aspects of the legal system protecting the GBR. Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide in 2005 were approximately 379 parts per million ("ppm") and rising by 2 ppm per year. Including the effect of other greenhouse gases such as methane, the total concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases was around 455 ppm carbon dioxide equivalents ("CO2-eq") in 2005, although the cooling effect of aerosols and landuse changes reduced the net effect to around 375 ppm CO2-eq. Limiting the total increase in mean global temperature to approximately 1°C requires stabilization of atmospheric greenhouse gases and aerosols around 350 ppm CO2-eq. Increasing the net effect of greenhouse gases and aerosols to 450-550 ppm CO2-eq is expected to result in a 2-3°C rise in mean surface temperatures. There are currently no international or national legal constraints to hold greenhouse gas concentrations beneath these levels and they appear likely to be exceeded. These increases in mean global temperatures are expected to severely degrade the GBR by 2030-2040. Even the targets being set by the new Australian Government of reducing Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2050 appear insufficient to protect the GBR. If a 60% reduction in emissions can be achieved globally by 2050 a rise in mean global temperature of around 2.4°C is expected. This indicates the environmental legal system protecting the GBR is not likely to be effective in relation to climate change and, therefore, is failing to reach its objective of sustainable development. Three major recommendations arise from the research. First, legal writers attempting to evaluate the effectiveness of the whole or part of an environmental legal system should use and acknowledge the PSR method. Second, SoE reports should include a stand-alone chapter evaluating the effectiveness of the response. Third, the environmental legal system protecting the GBR should take strong and comprehensive measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions if the objective of sustainable development is to be achieved. Such measures should include setting policy targets for stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gas and aerosol concentrations around 350 ppm CO2-eq to limit increases in mean global temperature to 1°C. Policy targets of stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gases and aerosols at 450-550 ppm CO2-eq to limit increases in mean global temperatures to 2-3°C are likely to be too high to avoid severe impacts of coral bleaching to the GBR.

M.Com. (Industrial Psychology)
In line with recent media reports, it is apparent that homosexual individuals are treated unfairly in a variety of contexts. Yet, little is known regarding the discrimination of homosexual employees in the South African workplace. The objective of this study was to examine the nature of discriminatory experiences of South African homosexual employees. In this study a qualitative approach was used with hermeneutic phenomenology as the method of data analysis. Data were collected through the means of semi-structured interviews with ten homosexual employees from various industries within the Gauteng province. The findings suggest that homosexual individuals do experience discrimination at work and that the experiences of discrimination at work are slightly different for gay employees than for lesbian employees. Three themes generated for gay employees (workplace bullying, the use of prejudice and stereotypes, and problems with people management practices, policies and procedures), while four themes were generated for lesbian employees (workplace bullying, the use of prejudice and stereotypes, problems with people management practices, policies and procedures, and sexual harassment). The contributions of the study will be to provide much needed awareness and understanding of workplace discrimination against homosexual employees. It is hoped that the findings of this research will lead to a re-examination of human resource practices and policies regarding diversity training and anti-discrimination.

Land policy and law are fundamental to the development of the State of Queensland; and instrumental in wreaking disastrous environmental consequences on privately held rural land. Such policy and laws have been indelibly shaped by prolonged political cycles and ideologies of successive State administrations. In the second half of the 1950s, a non-Labor government took office and held power for 32 years. This era encouraged, and often legally required, unsustainable land management practices. The demise of this conservative regime came in 1989: Queensland Labor took office and enacted a raft of environmental laws as part of a general shift towards biodiversity conservation. This research was undertaken primarily during this latest Queensland Labor administration. Two environmental statutes were examined. The Vegetation Management Act 1999 (Qld) (VMA) was a new statute enacted to redress the effects of broadscale land clearing on freehold land. The Land Act 1994 (Qld) (LA) was an existing statute upon which requirements for sustainable management on leasehold land were grafted. The aim of this thesis has been to advance understanding of natural resource legislation and contribute to the body of knowledge on State environmental laws. Each law is examined in the traditional doctrinal manner, adopting a conventional positivist approach and accompanied by socio-legal research. This methodology brings an insight into environmental law and the reality of the Queensland legislature and legal practice. This is achieved by analysing the circumstances which led to the creation of each law, including the political and parliamentary setting within which the laws were made; and by exploring the process of implementation. To assist the focus of this study, the thesis explores a series of research questions. Each designed to elicit an understanding of the making and implementation of environmental laws and to effectively link each component of the thesis to provide an integrated work. Both environmental laws aimed to rectify the degradation of rural land caused by unsustainable policy and law. Notwithstanding this common environmental endeavour, the making and implementation of each statute differed. The VMA has been one of the most controversial pieces of legislation to be made and implemented in the last decade of the Queensland parliament; conversely, amendments to the LA, never reached the same level of controversy. This thesis ultimately asks why the statutes differed and advances a range of explanatory reasons. By exploring this question, the thesis aims to show that the public environmental good, and long-term sustainability of rural land, can be more readily achieved with leasehold title. The concern, as discussed in the concluding chapter, is that leasehold tenure might be facing its own expiry in Queensland.

The intention of this study is to examine the relevance of applying the Queensland Adoption Act 1964-1988 to the traditional adoption practice of Torres Strait Islanders. The concept of adoption as defined by the Queensland adoption legislation reflects the cultural context of “white Australia” and the intention of the Adoption Act 1964-1988 is to legalise a specific concept of adoption. This study will show that the Queensland Government, through the Department of Family Services, the Department which has the responsibility for implementing adoption legislation, does not make any allowance for differing views of adoption. The accepted definition of adoption is biased toward the dominant white culture in Queensland and the legislation was intended to service the needs of the dominant white culture.

‘Walking My Path: An Autoethnographic Study of Identity’ is a doctoral thesis written in first person narrative about my search for my ancestral country in Far North Queensland. Incorporating both physical walking on country and metaphorical walking of trauma trails (Atkinson 2002) the story of my matrilineal Grandfather’s childhood builds on Shirleen Robinson’s (2008) ‘Something like Slavery?’. Enabling me to explore First-Nations philosophical concepts, I explain how I practise this philosophy inside my First-Nations family and community in the 21st century. Embedding my research in Indigenous Standpoint Theory and gathering the data, using a methodological net that includes yarning and dadirri, I am honouring First-Nations peoples. Finding that much of the data was distressing I have developed Creative Healing Inquiry (CHI), a process that supports the rebalancing of an individual’s psyche. CHI also makes the thesis both intertextual and serves as a mechanism that acknowledges multiliteracies. The Cusp Generation, children born between the end of WWII (1945) and Australia’s withdrawal from Vietnam (1972), are the people I propose would benefit most from public pedagogy that tells of Australia’s history. With the release of the Australian Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody report in 1991 and the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission’s Bringing Them Home report in 1997; my work makes shared history more relevant through its direct connection with actual people rather than abstract statistics. Demonstrated by the Commonwealth Government’s continuation of ‘The Intervention’ and rejection of the ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart’, Australia is not a post-colonial nation-state and Australians, in general, need to undertake cognitive decolonisation; and truth telling, as steps that may lead to what Marcia Langton has called a ‘genuine intercultural dialogue’ (cited in Healy 1997, p. 46).