Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Federal government Australia'

[Truncated abstract] The objectives of this study are threefold: Firstly, to consider the relevance (to subnational state development) and adaptability (to globalisation) of federalism from a Western Australian perspective. Secondly, to consider the way in which various State Governments in Western Australia have implemented economic development policies to benefit from the global political economy. Finally, it proposes alternative mechanisms for guiding long-term economic development policy decision-making in Western Australia. This final objective is addressed in light of the findings of the first two. It is recognised that incremental changes are possible in full knowledge of the embedded nature of the policy-making process in Western Australia . . . In the case of Western Australia, subnational autonomy does not herald the end of the nationstate so much as a new stage in globalisation. In terms of how the Western Australian State Government attracts capital and labour investment, its history as an independent colony and its physical isolation from the other colonies have created the initial conditions that frame the policy-making process, which includes a set of drivers influencing the decisions that are made by State agents. Overall, the State Government continues to reinforce the State’s role as a peripheral resource supplier to the national and global political economy. Within this context, however, alternative strategies can be proposed that may contribute to the long-term sustainable development of the State’s economy.

This thesis is a study of the federal Australian Labor Party (ALP) in Opposition. It seeks to identify the various factors that shape the political direction of the party when it is out of office by examining three important periods of Labor Opposition. It is argued in the first period (1967-72) that the main factor in the party’s move to the left was the radicalisation that occurred in Australian (and global) politics. Labor in Opposition is potentially more subject to influence by extra-parliamentary forces such as trade unions and social movements. This was true for this period in the case of the reinvigorated trade union movement and the Anti-Vietnam War Movement, whose policy impacts on the ALP under Gough Whitlam are examined in detail. While every one of the party's policies cannot be attributed to the tumult of the period, it is argued that Labor's Program embodied the mood for social change. The second period (1975-83) records a much different experience. After Labor's Dismissal from office in November 1975, the enduring conclusion drawn by the party was that it had failed in government as economic managers, and that in future it would need to embrace responsible economic management and to jettison programmatic-style reform. This conclusion was accepted and argued by both federal leaders during this time, Gough Whitlam (1975-77) and Bill Hayden (1977-83). The thesis argues that the key reason for Labor's abandonment of reformist politics was the dramatic shift in the economic context wrought by the collapse of the post-war boom in 1974, which undermined the economic basis of the Program. The degree to which 'economic responsibility' governed Labor's approach to policy-making is highlighted through case studies of uranium mining and the Prices-Incomes Accord. The final period of Opposition (1996-2001) commences with the party’s landslide defeat at the 1996 Federal Election. Under the leadership of Kim Beazley, the party continued in the pro-free market policy tradition of Labor Prime Ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating. In conjunction with this, it employed a 'small-target' strategy that pitched its electoral success on community anger towards the government, rather than any alternative policies of the Opposition. The free-market policy continuity is set in the context of the ideological effects of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Bloc, in the aftermath of which all political players accepted that there was no real alternative to the market. Furthermore, the overall state of the Australian and world economies was not conducive to a return to 'tax and spend' policies. The party’s bipartisanship on globalisation and economic rationalism effectively robbed it of an alternative political approach to that of the Coalition. Thus, in a sense it was hemmed into the 'small-target' strategy. The thesis concludes by comparing and contrasting the three periods, and assigning weight to the various factors that shape Labor in Opposition.

This thesis is a study of the federal Australian Labor Party (ALP) in Opposition. It seeks to identify the various factors that shape the political direction of the party when it is out of office by examining three important periods of Labor Opposition. It is argued in the first period (1967-72) that the main factor in the party’s move to the left was the radicalisation that occurred in Australian (and global) politics. Labor in Opposition is potentially more subject to influence by extra-parliamentary forces such as trade unions and social movements. This was true for this period in the case of the reinvigorated trade union movement and the Anti-Vietnam War Movement, whose policy impacts on the ALP under Gough Whitlam are examined in detail. While every one of the party's policies cannot be attributed to the tumult of the period, it is argued that Labor's Program embodied the mood for social change. The second period (1975-83) records a much different experience. After Labor's Dismissal from office in November 1975, the enduring conclusion drawn by the party was that it had failed in government as economic managers, and that in future it would need to embrace responsible economic management and to jettison programmatic-style reform. This conclusion was accepted and argued by both federal leaders during this time, Gough Whitlam (1975-77) and Bill Hayden (1977-83). The thesis argues that the key reason for Labor's abandonment of reformist politics was the dramatic shift in the economic context wrought by the collapse of the post-war boom in 1974, which undermined the economic basis of the Program. The degree to which 'economic responsibility' governed Labor's approach to policy-making is highlighted through case studies of uranium mining and the Prices-Incomes Accord. The final period of Opposition (1996-2001) commences with the party’s landslide defeat at the 1996 Federal Election. Under the leadership of Kim Beazley, the party continued in the pro-free market policy tradition of Labor Prime Ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating. In conjunction with this, it employed a 'small-target' strategy that pitched its electoral success on community anger towards the government, rather than any alternative policies of the Opposition. The free-market policy continuity is set in the context of the ideological effects of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Bloc, in the aftermath of which all political players accepted that there was no real alternative to the market. Furthermore, the overall state of the Australian and world economies was not conducive to a return to 'tax and spend' policies. The party’s bipartisanship on globalisation and economic rationalism effectively robbed it of an alternative political approach to that of the Coalition. Thus, in a sense it was hemmed into the 'small-target' strategy. The thesis concludes by comparing and contrasting the three periods, and assigning weight to the various factors that shape Labor in Opposition.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Politics and Public Policy
Full Text

Between 1974 and 1983 the Australian federal government, responding to the increasing demands of grassroots activists, passed a series of legislation that successfully altered the federal relationship in Australia by transferring political responsibility for the environment from the state governments to the federal government in Canberra. To better illustrate this process, this thesis will utilize Tasmania as an emblematic case study. The first part of this thesis is a social history that analyzes the development of environmental consciousness in Tasmania. This analysis spans from the cultural impact of the extinction of the thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) on the island populace and culminates in the well-documented protests against the damming of the Serpentine and Franklin Rivers. This analysis will illustrate the failures of the state government to address public concerns and how this facilitated the transition of the focus of lobbying from the state to the federal level. The second part of this thesis is a legal history, looking at the legislation that was passed during this period that facilitated the transfer and explains the constitutional basis and effectiveness of the legislation. Through these two separate studies, this thesis will expand the existing Australian historiography, which has largely kept political and social analyses of the environmental movement separated, by integrating the two historical narratives. This thesis offers three contributions to Australian historiography. First, this research shows that the constitutional reformation that occurred under the governments of Gough Whitlam, Malcolm Fraser, and Bob Hawke was driven not by government initiative but, rather, by grassroots demands, and illustrate a need to further integrate the studies of social and political history so as to better pursue the histoire totale of Australia. Second, this thesis also helps contribute to the still nascent study of extinction’s socio-cultural impact on human societies with its particular emphasis on the extinction of the thylacine as the genesis of Tasmanian environmentalism. Third, it offers a detailed legal dissection of the federal government’s early environmental legislation and the constitutional foundations for Canberra’s acquisition of this responsibility.
Graduate Studies, College of (Okanagan)
Graduate

Through the late 20th century, global society experienced waves of unprecedented political and institutional change, but Australia came to be identified as "constitutionally speaking... the frozen continent", unable or unprepared to comprehensively modernise its own fundamental laws (Sawer 1967). This thesis opens up a subject basic to, but largely unexplored in debate about constitutional change: the territorial foundations of Australian constitutional thought. Our conventional conclusions about territory are first, that Australia's federal system has settled around a 'natural' and presumably final territorial structure; and second, that this is because any federal system such as possessed by Australia since 1901 is more decentralised and therefore more suitable than any 'unitary' one. With federalism coming back into vogue internationally, we have no reason to believe our present structure is not already the best. Reviewing the concepts of territory underpinning colonial and federal political thought from 1815 to the present day, this thesis presents a new territorial story revealing both these conclusions to be flawed. For most of its history, Australian political experience has been based around a richer, more complex and still evolving range of territorial ideas. Federalism is fundamental to our political values, but Australians have known more types of federalism, emerging differently in time and place, than we customarily admit. Unitary values have supplied important symbols of centralisation, but for most of our history have also sought to supply far less centralised models of political institutions than those of our current federal experience. Since the 1930s, in addition to underutilising both federal and unitary lines of imported constitutional theory, Australian politics has underestimated the extent to which our institutional treatment of territory has itself become unique. Despite its recent fall from constitutional discourse, territory is also again on the rise. While political debate has been poorly placed to see it, Australia has experienced a recent resurgence in ideas about territorial reform, offering the promise of a better understanding of the full complexity of our constitutional theory and a new 'unfreezing' of the assumption that territorially, Australia will never change. This thesis seeks to inform these vital new debates.

Through the late 20th century, global society experienced waves of unprecedented political and institutional change, but Australia came to be identified as "constitutionally speaking... the frozen continent", unable or unprepared to comprehensively modernise its own fundamental laws (Sawer 1967). This thesis opens up a subject basic to, but largely unexplored in debate about constitutional change: the territorial foundations of Australian constitutional thought. Our conventional conclusions about territory are first, that Australia's federal system has settled around a 'natural' and presumably final territorial structure; and second, that this is because any federal system such as possessed by Australia since 1901 is more decentralised and therefore more suitable than any 'unitary' one. With federalism coming back into vogue internationally, we have no reason to believe our present structure is not already the best. Reviewing the concepts of territory underpinning colonial and federal political thought from 1815 to the present day, this thesis presents a new territorial story revealing both these conclusions to be flawed. For most of its history, Australian political experience has been based around a richer, more complex and still evolving range of territorial ideas. Federalism is fundamental to our political values, but Australians have known more types of federalism, emerging differently in time and place, than we customarily admit. Unitary values have supplied important symbols of centralisation, but for most of our history have also sought to supply far less centralised models of political institutions than those of our current federal experience. Since the 1930s, in addition to underutilising both federal and unitary lines of imported constitutional theory, Australian politics has underestimated the extent to which our institutional treatment of territory has itself become unique. Despite its recent fall from constitutional discourse, territory is also again on the rise. While political debate has been poorly placed to see it, Australia has experienced a recent resurgence in ideas about territorial reform, offering the promise of a better understanding of the full complexity of our constitutional theory and a new 'unfreezing' of the assumption that territorially, Australia will never change. This thesis seeks to inform these vital new debates.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance
Faculty of Arts
Full Text

The thesis argues that the relations between culture and government are best viewed through an analysis of the programmatic and institutional contexts for the use of culture as an interface in the relations between citizenship and government. Discussion takes place through an analysis of the history of art programmes which, in seeking to target a 'general' population, have attempted to equip this population with various particular capacities. We aim to provide a history of rationalities of art administration. This will provide us with an approach through which we might understand some of the seemingly irreconcilable policy discourses which characterise contemporary discussion of government arts funding. Research for this thesis aims to make a contribution to historical research on arts institutions in Australia and provide a base from which to think about the role of government in culture in contemporary Australia. In order to reflect on the relations between government and culture the thesis discusses the key rationales for the conjunction of art, citizenship and government in post-World War Two (WWII) Australia to the present day. Thus, the thesis aims to contribute an overview of the discursive origins of the main contemporary rationales framing arts subvention in post-WWII Australia. The relations involved in the government of culture in late eighteenth-century France, nineteenth-century Britain, America in the 1930s and Britain during WWII are examined by way of arguing that the discursive influences on government cultural policy in Australia have been diverse. It is suggested in relation to present day Australian cultural policy that more effective terms of engagement with policy imperatives might be found in a history of the funding of culture which emphasises the plurality of relations between governmental programmes and the self-shaping activities of citizens. During this century there has been a shift in the political rationality which organises government in modern Western liberal democracies. The historical case studies which form section two of the thesis enable us to argue that, since WWII, cultural programmes have been increasingly deployed on the basis of a governmental rationality that can be described as advanced or neo-liberal. This is both in relation to the forms these programmes have taken and in relation to the character of the forms of conduct such programmes have sought to shape in the populations they act upon. Mechanisms characteristic of such neo-liberal forms of government are those associated with the welfare state and include cultural programmes. Analysis of governmental programmes using such conceptual tools allows us to interpret problems of modern social democratic government less in terms of oppositions between structure and agency and more in terms of the strategies and techniques of government which shape the activities of citizens. Thus, the thesis will approach the field of cultural management not as a field of monolithic decision making but as a domain in which there are a multiplicity of power effects, knowledges, and tactics, which react to, or are based upon, the management of the population through culture. The thesis consists of two sections. Section one serves primarily to establish a set of historical and theoretical co-ordinates on which the more detailed historical work of the thesis in section two will be based. We conclude by emphasising the necessity for the continuation of a mix of policy frameworks in the construction of the relations between art, government and citizenship which will encompass a focus on diverse and sometimes competing policy goals.

This thesis examines the role of religion in Australian government schools. Drawing on analysis of frameworks for religion in curriculum and as instruction, and informed by the case of the National School Chaplaincy Program, the research considers how the issue is determined at the state and territory level and, in some cases, by school communities. The thesis found that discourse taking place in the context of contemporary Australian federal arrangements for government schooling gives rise to communities of interest existing at different levels which determine the reach of religion in this public space, as considered appropriate to their needs.

The thesis argues that the relations between culture and government are best viewed through an analysis of the programmatic and institutional contexts for the use of culture as an interface in the relations between citizenship and government. Discussion takes place through an analysis of the history of art programmes which, in seeking to target a 'general' population, have attempted to equip this population with various particular capacities. We aim to provide a history of rationalities of art administration. This will provide us with an approach through which we might understand some of the seemingly irreconcilable policy discourses which characterise contemporary discussion of government arts funding. Research for this thesis aims to make a contribution to historical research on arts institutions in Australia and provide a base from which to think about the role of government in culture in contemporary Australia. In order to reflect on the relations between government and culture the thesis discusses the key rationales for the conjunction of art, citizenship and government in post-World War Two (WWII) Australia to the present day. Thus, the thesis aims to contribute an overview of the discursive origins of the main contemporary rationales framing arts subvention in post-WWII Australia. The relations involved in the government of culture in late eighteenth-century France, nineteenth-century Britain, America in the 1930s and Britain during WWII are examined by way of arguing that the discursive influences on government cultural policy in Australia have been diverse. It is suggested in relation to present day Australian cultural policy that more effective terms of engagement with policy imperatives might be found in a history of the funding of culture which emphasises the plurality of relations between governmental programmes and the self-shaping activities of citizens. During this century there has been a shift in the political rationality which organises government in modern Western liberal democracies. The historical case studies which form section two of the thesis enable us to argue that, since WWII, cultural programmes have been increasingly deployed on the basis of a governmental rationality that can be described as advanced or neo-liberal. This is both in relation to the forms these programmes have taken and in relation to the character of the forms of conduct such programmes have sought to shape in the populations they act upon. Mechanisms characteristic of such neo-liberal forms of government are those associated with the welfare state and include cultural programmes. Analysis of governmental programmes using such conceptual tools allows us to interpret problems of modern social democratic government less in terms of oppositions between structure and agency and more in terms of the strategies and techniques of government which shape the activities of citizens. Thus, the thesis will approach the field of cultural management not as a field of monolithic decision making but as a domain in which there are a multiplicity of power effects, knowledges, and tactics, which react to, or are based upon, the management of the population through culture. The thesis consists of two sections. Section one serves primarily to establish a set of historical and theoretical co-ordinates on which the more detailed historical work of the thesis in section two will be based. We conclude by emphasising the necessity for the continuation of a mix of policy frameworks in the construction of the relations between art, government and citizenship which will encompass a focus on diverse and sometimes competing policy goals.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Film, Media and Cultural Studies
Arts, Education and Law
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2002.
Title from title screen (viewed 15 April 2008). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Discipline of Government and International Relations, School of Economics and Politics, Faculty of Economics and Business. Degree awarded 2002; thesis submitted 2001. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

Prime ministerial power in the Australian federal context is somewhat constrained. This thesis investigates an Australian prime minister's power to achieve reform by examining Kevin Rudd's machinery changes to intergovernmental arrangements and his policy reform agenda in two key areas of shared responsibility. Rudd committed his government (2007-2010) to transforming the federation and pursuing a significant reform agenda using a strategy of cooperative federalism. Rudd's explicit invitation to states and territories to be partners in this reform appeared in contrast to ongoing Commonwealth centralisation of policy and recent decades of increasingly coercive intergovernmental relations. This study interrogates the notion of cooperative federalism which framed Rudd's approach to policy reform. It describes Rudd's centralising changes to the intergovernmental arrangements and examines his reform agenda in the areas of finance and health. Drawing on primary research of Rudd's parliamentary speeches and using a case study method, the research traces Rudd's reforms to intergovernmental finances and health from his pre-election commitments, through the policy development, to execution, focusing in particular on his engagement with the states and territories. The analysis shows that Rudd's policy solutions in finance and health were both centralist, but that the approach taken by him and his government differed across the two cases.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Griffith Business School
Griffith Business School
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In August 2000, Justice O�Loughlin of the Federal Court of Australia handed down the decision in Cubillo v Commonwealth in which Lorna Cubillo and Peter Gunner took action against the Commonwealth Government, arguing that it was vicariously liable for their removal from their families and communities as children and subsequent detentions in the Northern Territory during the 1940s and 1950s. The case is the landmark decision in relation to legal action taken by members of the Stolen Generations. Using the decision in Cubillo as a key site of contestation, my thesis provides a critique of legal positivism as the dominant jurisprudential discourse operating within the Anglo-Australian legal system. I argue that the function of legal positivism as the principal paradigm and source of authority for the decision serves to ensure that the debate concerning reconciliation in Australia operates rhetorically to maintain whiteness at the centre of political and discursive power. Specifically concerned with the performative function of legal discourse, the thesis is an interrogation of the interface of law and language, of rhetoric, and the semiotics of legal discourse. The dominant theory of evidence law is a rationalist and empiricist epistemology in which oral testimony and documentary evidence are regarded as mediating the relationship between proof and truth. I argue that by attributing primacy to principles of rationality, objectivity and narrative coherence, and by privileging that which is visually represented, the decision serves an ideological purpose which diminishes the significance of race in the construction of knowledge. Legal positivism identifies the knowing subject and the object of knowledge as discrete entities. However, I argue that in Cubillo, Justice O�Loughlin inscribes himself into the text of the judgment and in doing so, reveals the way in which textual and corporeal specificities undermine the pretence of objective judgment and therefore the source of judicial authority.

Under traditional International relations theory, diplomacy relates to relations between sovereign nations. There have been two broad schools of thought on the dynamics behind these relations: the ‘realist’ school, which tends to consider power and conflict as the major lens through which such should be viewed, and the ‘idealist’ school which tended to focus on cooperation rather than conflict. Between these two extreme views, a third school, the English School of International Relations, also known as the British Institutionalists, provides somewhat of a compromise view, acknowledging the merit of both realism and idealism, by accepting that power remains an important element but also advocating that acceptance of common norms and institutions plays a significant role in determining relations, or the International Society between states. In 1977 Hedley Bull offered the following definition of International Society when he stated that International Society … exists when a group of states, conscious of certain common interests and common values, form a society in the sense that they conceive themselves to be bound by a common set of rules in their relations with one another, and share in the working of common institutions. This thesis is not specifically related to International Relations theory, which deals with inter-state relations. Whilst inter-state conflict and international relations remain important drivers of foreign and military policy, there is a growing recognition that it is intra-state conflict avoidance and post-conflict reconstruction which increasingly mitigate the risk to the safety, security, peace and prosperity of nations and regions. Much of this disquiet has its roots in maladministration, poor governance and a lack of justice. These are areas in which traditional approaches to foreign intervention via trade, aid and military force have limited effect, and in which effective consent-based policing and justice can play a significant part in building sustainable and peaceful outcomes. This thesis discusses the role played by a non-traditional actor in the international arena, the police, specifically the Australian Federal Police (AFP), in addressing some of these intra-state justice and governance issues in a constantly changing, unstable and unpredictable global and regional environment. The thesis is intended to outline the diversity and versatility of AFP activities and to contextualise them in terms of non-traditional New Diplomacy. The aspects of diplomacy of most significance relate to diplomatic qualities or traits of the individual police officer, diplomatic behaviours of these members, and diplomatic outcomes of their activities. As such the thesis does not relate directly to International Relations theory or to International Society, as espoused by Hedley Bull. There are, however, some interesting intersections which are worthy of note. There are some critics of the English School who argue that it is Eurocentric. Today’s International Relations originated in the 19th century when a number of European nations formed a club of ‘civilised’ states bound by international law, which expanded around the globe to involve all nations. This concept has been used to explain the lack of imperative for a supra-state or world government to maintain orderly inter-state relations, as the force which binds them is consent to agree to common interest and values within a global rules-based order. In terms of policing on an international scale, global government is simply too unwieldy. There are a number of global, consent-based institutions such as the United Nations and INTERPOL, which fulfil this requirement to a certain extent. The AFP has had long involvement with both of these global institutions, as well as several regional policing institutions. In terms of conflict-oriented ‘realism’ and cooperative ‘idealism’, policing walks both sides of the street. As this thesis will discuss, the whole posture of liberal-democratic policing is conflict prevention, and the means by which such police carry out their daily duties is by cooperation. This is the context in which replication or expansion of International Society should be considered in relation to the activities of the AFP internationally and regionally. This thesis is by definition Eurocentric, or more specifically Anglo-centric, due to the historical fact that the AFP draws all of its principles from Australia’s British antecedents and adheres to a largely ‘western’ or European notion of human rights values. This thesis explores the role of the AFP as an international actor. The thesis asserts that effective international policing has never been more important in linking the international with the domestic. The way the AFP operates in a landscape where traditional policing paradigms are rapidly changing, due to ever-changing, political, diplomatic, and transnational issues, is examined in the context of the ‘globalisation paradox’, of both needing and fearing, global governance simultaneously, as raised by Anne-Marie Slaughter in her book, A New World Order. The way the organisation has evolved from its origins, based on Western liberal-democratic policing values, approaches and skills, to an organisation involved in international policing and diplomacy at the highest levels, while still retaining its liberal-democratic credentials is explained. It is argued that in the contemporary international and Australian context, the AFP is an effective and experienced agency. It is further argued that this is a distinctive form of new diplomacy, appropriate to an increasingly globalised world. The AFP has established an extensive international network in more than 30 countries, has been a consistent contributor to national security, has participated in numerous international deployments over half a century, and continues to play a meaningful role in Australian foreign policy efforts. The thesis provides evidence to show how AFP officers exhibit diplomatic qualities similar to those listed by Daryl Copeland in his book Guerrilla Diplomacy , as well as those mentioned by Christopher Meyer in his book Getting Our Way. In all of its international endeavours, AFP members have demonstrated, in varying degrees, the three enduring elements of diplomacy as outlined by Jonsson and Hall in their book The Essence of Diplomacy. They have communicated and negotiated in some very challenging circumstances and they are representatives of the Australian Government and its humanitarian values. The AFP, as part of broader efforts with institutions such as the UN, have not so much sought a replication of international society, as mentioned by Jonsson and Hall, but have provided a supplement to international society, by effective networking, thereby addressing in large part, Slaughter’s ‘globalisation paradox’. It is not so much universal police homogeneity which is sought by such endeavours, as a balance between it, and the heterogeneity which is inevitably associated with cultures transitioning from custom and tradition, to 21st century expectations of nationhood. The way the AFP’s transnational operations, activities, and deployments, not only serve perceived national interests, but result in more effective regional governance, is identified as ‘diplomacy by default’, because formal Track I diplomacy is not their primary objective. It will be demonstrated how international diplomacy, while generally conducted with perceived national interests as its primary goal, has a secondary benefit, good international citizenship, and that the AFP has a credible history of serving both. It is argued that the AFP is well positioned within government, law and intelligence and security circles, in the Australian and international contexts, through an extensive liaison officer network in South-East Asia, the South-West Pacific as well as more broadly. It will be demonstrated how the AFP has shown itself as capable and ready to respond effectively to extant and emerging challenges, and as such, has earned a place in foreign policy discussions and considerations at the highest diplomatic levels, including the UN. The AFP provides a distinctive and direct link between the global, the regional, and the domestic, which matches the rapidly globalised community it represents. The thesis confirms that international policing acts as a distinctive aspect of Australian ‘firm’ diplomacy, and supplements the more traditional elements of international engagement, between the ‘soft’ or traditional diplomacy, and the ‘hard’ form of military intervention. The evidence provided shows how it is by this form of whole-of-government activity, inclusive of policing, that stability and security are enhanced, and peace and prosperity are encouraged. Overall, the thesis affirms the AFP as a transnational agency, which is well placed to link the international with the domestic, the contextual with the aspirational, and the theoretical with the practical, in a period of strategic uncertainty in international affairs at the dawn of the Third Millennium.

The thesis seeks to provide a deeper understanding of the dynamics of interaction between the environmental and labour movements, and the conditions under which they can cooperate and form alliances in pursuit of a sustainable development agenda which simultaneously promotes ecological and social justice goals. After developing an explanatory model of the labour-environmentalist relationship (LER) on the basis of a survey of theoretical and case-study literature, the thesis applies this model to three significant cases of labour-environmental interaction in Australia, each representing a different point on the spectrum from LER conflict to LER cooperation, during the period from 1983 to 1996. Commonly held views that there are inevitable tendencies to LER conflict, whether due to an irreconcilable "jobs versus environment" contradiction or due to the different class bases of the respective movements, are analysed and rejected. A model of the LER implicit in Siegmann (1985) is interrogated against more recent LER studies from six countries, and reworked into a new model (the Siegmann-Norton model) which explains tendencies to conflict and cooperation in the LER in terms of the respective ideologies of labour and environmentalism, their organisational forms and cultures, the national political-institutional framework and the respective places of labour and environmentalism therein, the political economy of specific sectors and regions in which LER interaction occurs, and sui generis sociological and demographic characteristics of labour and environmental actors. The thesis then discusses the major changes in the ideologies, organisational forms and political-institutional roles of the Australian labour movement which occurred during the period of the study, and their likely influence on the LER. The two processes of most importance in driving such changes were the corporatist Accord relationship between the trade union movement and Labor Party government from 1983 to 1996, and the strategic reorganisation of the trade union movement between 1988 and 1996 in response to challenges and opportunities in the wider political-economic environment. The research hypothesis is that the net effect of these changes would have been to foster tendencies towards LER conflict. The hypothesis is tested in three significant case studies, namely: (a) the interaction, often conflictual, between the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and the environmental movement in debates around macroeconomic policy, economic restructuring and sustainable development from the mid-1980s onwards; (b) the complex interaction, involving elements of cooperation, disagreement and dialogue, between the environmental movement and the unions representing coal mining and energy workers in the formulation of Australia's climate change policies; and (c) the environmental policy and campaign initiatives of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union to improve workplace environmental performance and promote worker environmental education. The case studies confirmed the research hypothesis in the sense that, whilst the LER tended overall towards greater cooperation in the period of the study, the Accord relationship and union restructuring process worked to slow the growth of cooperative tendencies and sustain conflict over particular issues beyond what might otherwise have been the case. The Accord relationship served to maintain conflict tendencies due to the dominance of productivist ideologies within the ACTU, and the union movement's perseverance with this relationship after the vitiation of its progressive potential by neo-liberal trends in public policy. The tripartite Accord processes institutionalised a "growth coalition" of labour, business and the state in opposition to excluded constituencies such as the environmental movement. This was partially overcome during the period of the Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) process, which temporarily included the environmental movement as an insider in the political-institutional framework. The long-run effects of union reorganisation on the LER are difficult to determine as the new organisational forms of unions were not in place until almost the end of the period of the study. However, in the short term the disruptive effects of the amalgamations process restricted unions' capacity to engage with environmental issues. Pro-environment initiatives by the AMWU, and cooperative aspects of the coal industry unions' relationship with environmentalists, reflected the social unionist ideology and internal democratic practices of those unions, and the influence of the ESD Working Group process, whilst LER conflict over greenhouse reflected the adverse political economy of the coal industry, but also the relevant unions' less developed capacity for independent research and membership education compared to the AMWU. The LER in all three cases can be satisfactorily explained, and important insights derived, through application of the Siegmann-Norton model. Conclusions drawn include suggestions for further research and proposals for steps to be taken by labour and environmental actors to improve cooperation.

The thesis seeks to provide a deeper understanding of the dynamics of interaction between the environmental and labour movements, and the conditions under which they can cooperate and form alliances in pursuit of a sustainable development agenda which simultaneously promotes ecological and social justice goals. After developing an explanatory model of the labour-environmentalist relationship (LER) on the basis of a survey of theoretical and case-study literature, the thesis applies this model to three significant cases of labour-environmental interaction in Australia, each representing a different point on the spectrum from LER conflict to LER cooperation, during the period from 1983 to 1996. Commonly held views that there are inevitable tendencies to LER conflict, whether due to an irreconcilable "jobs versus environment" contradiction or due to the different class bases of the respective movements, are analysed and rejected. A model of the LER implicit in Siegmann (1985) is interrogated against more recent LER studies from six countries, and reworked into a new model (the Siegmann-Norton model) which explains tendencies to conflict and cooperation in the LER in terms of the respective ideologies of labour and environmentalism, their organisational forms and cultures, the national political-institutional framework and the respective places of labour and environmentalism therein, the political economy of specific sectors and regions in which LER interaction occurs, and sui generis sociological and demographic characteristics of labour and environmental actors. The thesis then discusses the major changes in the ideologies, organisational forms and political-institutional roles of the Australian labour movement which occurred during the period of the study, and their likely influence on the LER. The two processes of most importance in driving such changes were the corporatist Accord relationship between the trade union movement and Labor Party government from 1983 to 1996, and the strategic reorganisation of the trade union movement between 1988 and 1996 in response to challenges and opportunities in the wider political-economic environment. The research hypothesis is that the net effect of these changes would have been to foster tendencies towards LER conflict. The hypothesis is tested in three significant case studies, namely: (a) the interaction, often conflictual, between the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and the environmental movement in debates around macroeconomic policy, economic restructuring and sustainable development from the mid-1980s onwards; (b) the complex interaction, involving elements of cooperation, disagreement and dialogue, between the environmental movement and the unions representing coal mining and energy workers in the formulation of Australia's climate change policies; and (c) the environmental policy and campaign initiatives of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union to improve workplace environmental performance and promote worker environmental education. The case studies confirmed the research hypothesis in the sense that, whilst the LER tended overall towards greater cooperation in the period of the study, the Accord relationship and union restructuring process worked to slow the growth of cooperative tendencies and sustain conflict over particular issues beyond what might otherwise have been the case. The Accord relationship served to maintain conflict tendencies due to the dominance of productivist ideologies within the ACTU, and the union movement's perseverance with this relationship after the vitiation of its progressive potential by neo-liberal trends in public policy. The tripartite Accord processes institutionalised a "growth coalition" of labour, business and the state in opposition to excluded constituencies such as the environmental movement. This was partially overcome during the period of the Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) process, which temporarily included the environmental movement as an insider in the political-institutional framework. The long-run effects of union reorganisation on the LER are difficult to determine as the new organisational forms of unions were not in place until almost the end of the period of the study. However, in the short term the disruptive effects of the amalgamations process restricted unions' capacity to engage with environmental issues. Pro-environment initiatives by the AMWU, and cooperative aspects of the coal industry unions' relationship with environmentalists, reflected the social unionist ideology and internal democratic practices of those unions, and the influence of the ESD Working Group process, whilst LER conflict over greenhouse reflected the adverse political economy of the coal industry, but also the relevant unions' less developed capacity for independent research and membership education compared to the AMWU. The LER in all three cases can be satisfactorily explained, and important insights derived, through application of the Siegmann-Norton model. Conclusions drawn include suggestions for further research and proposals for steps to be taken by labour and environmental actors to improve cooperation.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Australian School of Environmental Studies
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Thesis (LLM)--Macquarie University. Division of Law.
Bibliography: leaves 192-208.
Introduction -- The perceived problems and the new reforms -- The framework for children's matters in Australia -- Families and functions - regulating the Australian family -- Reorganising the gender hierarchy -- Men's movements, misconceptions and misidentifying the real issues -- Problems with "shared parenting": an ideal or a (rebuttable) presumption? -- Mediation not litigation -- Conclusion -- Bibliography.
In this thesis, I critically appraise the latest reforms of the Australian family law system and assess the underlying philosophy of these measures. I specifically analyse the introduction of shared parenting and mandatory family dispute resolution. My starting point is that legislative changes alone cannot be used as a means of social change. Legal models cannot function correctly if they reflect an ideal rather than social reality, and in light of the current reforms, the Australian family law system risks such a fate. The system, which presumes that parents share parental responsibility upon separation (and therefore during the intact family), does not represent social truth. It appears to make an assumption that shared parenting is the societal practice, but I believe the law is really being used to impose such an ideal. If the reforms are to be successful, I argue that substantial social and economic structural change is required, in order to break down the dichotomy between men's and women's roles, which continue to define the male role as economic and public and the female responsibility as care-giving and private. This is particularly important if the Government is genuine about its aim to make parenting gender neutral in practice and not just in theory.
The thesis demonstrates that the reform measures are a response to the perceived rather than real problems identified in the family law system, and that they are largely issues raised under the influence of fathers' rights groups. The response of the Government to remedy the system is therefore flawed as it is based on misconceived notions about the family law system. It incorrectly identifies judicial discretion as a fundamental cause of the problems and tries to replace it with a more rules-based approach to determining children's matters. I suggest that the real problems can be found in the continuance of deeply entrenched customs and gendered role constructions, and the remedies lie in their overhaul. The social culture that makes the mother the primary caregiver and allocates to the father diminished parental responsibility from the time the child is born needs to be transformed. A suitable legal response to the current impasse would be to begin by educating the public about the way the system works and provide counselling to families on how to structure their united life well before they reach the breakdown point. Assisting families while they are still functional, as opposed to when they are dysfunctional, would arguably make a large difference in how the family law system is understood. Moreover, it would be able to facilitate ongoing communication for separating couples and, most importantly, thereby uphold the best interests of the child.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
208 leaves

This thesis examines the idea that Australian federal political leaders are becoming more powerful. This idea, often referred to as presidentialization, generates heated debates in academic circles. Using one of the more systematic frameworks, namely the Poguntke and Webb (2005) model, and combining a behavioural component, this thesis seeks to explore whether Australian federal politics has become presidentialized. Poguntke and Webb viewed presidentialization as consisting of three separate but inter-related faces. These were: the executive face, the party face and the electoral face. This thesis undertakes this task by examining four leadership periods from the Australian Labor Party (ALP). This includes: The Chifley leadership period (1945-51), the Whitlam leadership period (1967-1977), the Hawke Leadership period (1983-91) and the Kevin Rudd leadership period (2006-2010). In the Chifley leadership period it is argued that very little evidence of the presidentialization phenomenon as described by Poguntke and Webb (2005) is identifiable. This finding adds to their hypothesis that many of the causal factors that contributed to presidentialization did not emerge until after 1960. This section of the thesis also highlights how different Australian society and the ALP were during this period than to the later periods examined in this thesis. The second period, the Whitlam leadership period, is vastly different. Clear increases in the capacity of leaders to exert power began to emerge. Hugely important structural changes to the ALP occur during this period which fundamentally alters intra-party power. Some evidence of leaders being able to exert greater power within the executive of government can also be identified during this period. The elections that Whitlam contested display a mixed level of personalisation.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Griffith Business School
Griffith Business School
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This thesis sits within the broad topic of the relationship between public preferences and government policy. Its specific ambit is the influence, through elections, of majority public preferences on the policy platforms of incoming federal governments in Australia. It constructs a synthesis of each of the two key branches of theory that seek to explain the preferences-to-platform link: both parties in a two-party system deliberately adopting public preference-consistent positions in order to win electoral support, and voters electing a government on the basis of its public preference-consistent positions. By revealing the core underlying assumptions of the theories, this analysis facilitates an understanding of the contours of the debate and points the way to an empirical research strategy. Using a database generated from a comprehensive review of opinion polls and surveys in the periods leading up to the 2001-2013 federal elections, the thesis builds from calculating the level of public preference-holding, to placing public preferences in ideological space, measuring their congruence with incoming government policy platforms, and then examining the causal relationship between them. The research reveals significant preferences-to-platform incongruence and indicates that little congruence is attributable to the parties deliberately adopting public preference-consistent positions and even less to the public voting on the basis of its preferences. The parties are rarely motivated to deliberately follow public preferences and have many constraints on doing so. However, public preferences exercise a passive influence by curbing the parties’ policymaking. The public is offered limited policy alternatives, and many voters have minimal knowledge of those alternatives or do not policy vote. The additional contributions of the thesis are the synthesis of the theories, the formulation of an analytical framework, and the creation of the public preferences database.

The Australian Federal government has well-defined guidelines for undertaking program evaluations. Advertising and Public Relations campaigns support program aims, and are subject to the same guidelines. However, an examination of actual practice in the Australian Federal government, as observed by the Office of Government Information and Advertising in Canberra, suggests that there are significant differences in the extent to which Public Relations campaigns, as opposed to advertising campaigns, are systematically evaluated. Evaluation theory, Public Relations theory, strategic planning theory, and public administration theory provide insights into methods of managing and reporting on communication campaigns designed to forward government objectives. A literature review and an assessment of existing models of Public Relations evaluation were undertaken, and a synthesis of several theoretical and practical approaches led to the construction of a model of Public Relations evaluation which could be applied to Australian government communication campaigns.

Australia’s federal system of government is established by the structure of the Constitution which provides for a central federal government and six state governments. When the Constitution was originally drafted, the framers sought to make the states central players in the new federation, on an equal footing with the new Commonwealth government. This is evident from the Convention Debates, from federal theory itself, and from the manner in which the early High Court of Australia interpreted the Constitution. However, in the Amalgamated Society of Engineers v Adelaide Steamship Co Ltd (‘Engineers’), the High Court broke with this tradition of originalist interpretation by utilising a method of constitutional interpretation (literalism) which favoured centralisation of power, and thus compromised the federal balance.This trend toward centralisation continued and is evident in more recent decisions. These include New South Wales v Commonwealth of Australia (‘Work Choices’ case), where a majority of the High Court affirmed that the federal balance is not relevant when interpreting the Constitution and Ha v New South Wales (‘Ha’), which affirmed a broad interpretation of excise duties resulting in a loss of $5 billion per annum to the states. This thesis will evaluate whether aspects of the principle of subsidiarity can be implemented by way of constitutional amendment and legislative and procedural reforms, to restore the federal balance. The principle of subsidiarity has its origins in Catholic social theory and has been incorporated into European Union law in art 5(3) of the Treaty on European Union (‘TEU’). The principle guards against centralisation by providing that governance should be undertaken at a local or community level, as opposed to a central level, wherever possible.

This study examines ways in which Australian governments, at national and state level, have developed policy responses to the issue of regional service delivery in the post new public management environment. It argues that new public management has changed many institutional arrangements in Australia and led to new public policy approaches based on those reforms. The study compares the approaches taken by federal and state governments in determining service levels for regional communities. The period under consideration is 1996-2001, coinciding first with the election of new NSW and federal governments and their subsequent re-election. Four cases studies are used to analyse a range of activities designed to provide services at local and regional levels, identifying key indicators of policy successes based on coordinated and integrated regional services combined with technology-based solutions that can be adapted to local community needs. The research draws on new governance theory and principles of effective coordination to propose a new model for determining appropriate service delivery. This model highlights the importance of local participation in decision-making, a regional planning focus, social and environmental sustainability, and the engagement of local communities as key determinants of regional policy success.

Public policies are, at once, the means for articulation of political philosophies and processes, the conduits for conversion of political and bureaucratic decisions into actions and the means by which the electorate can assess government performance. Public policy processes offer a means of achieving social and economic change and they are a primary justification for the existence of governmental systems. On these counts, identification of the elements of policy processes and the ways they interact with each other is essential to an understanding of the relationships between public policy decisions, systems of democratic government and their connections with wider society. This thesis goes behind the facade of public policy outcomes and analyses the processes involved in arriving at policy decisions. Linkages are traced between political theories, the processes of public policy decisions and final policy outcomes. This involves, first, an examination and critique of liberal-democratic theories. Second, there is detailed examination of pluralist democratic practice, which is the prevailing political paradigm of modern western liberal-democratic societies. The analysis finds substantial evidence of gross distortions in the process relative to normative theories. Plain causes are the institutionalisation of special interests to the exclusion of wider public interests and inadequate accountability of governments and bureaucracies for their actions. Policy processes in pluralist systems are examined and it is concluded that the social environment, institutional influences and factors which affect the behaviour of institutions are key elements explaining public policy decisions. The capacity for pluralism to significantly influence policy outcomes depends largely on the degree and nature of access to the public policy process at various points. In examining the role of government institutions in public policy processes, it is argued that a clear distinction between the elected legislature and the administrative bureaucracy is artificial and misleading. Further, there is evidence that public service bureaucrats can become captives of their particular client groups and, thus, less accessible to the full range of relevant interests. These problems are exacerbated by the two-party Westminster model of representative democracy which tends to concentrate power in cabinet government, resulting in a decline in the importance of parliament as a deliberative and scrutinising bodies. This dissertation develops the view that there are significant causal links between institutional philosophies and values and the dominant disciplines within institutions. It is also argued that growing professionalism in bureaucracies and a tendency for functional divisions of public policy to be in broad symmetry with the divisions of the professions, tends to intensify the influence of particular professional disciplines on related areas of public policy. The critique of liberal-democratic theories and the related discussion of factors affecting policy processes in a pluralist system are used to identify the essential elements of public policy processes. It is proposed that all policy processes contain the four elements of pluralism, access, accountability and planning which are interactively related. Differences in emphasis given to these elements in the policy process explains the nature of individual policy decisions. Thus, the normative policy process datum model provides both a static and dynamic framework for analysing policy decisions. In order to examine the theoretical arguments in an empirical context, the policy processes of the Australian Federal Government, in the area of industry assistance, are analysed. This policy arena contains all the 'raw material' of pluralist processes and is, therefore, a fertile area for analysis. Furthermore, operating within this policy arena is the Industries Assistance Commission [IAC], a bureaucratic institution which is quite unlike traditional administrative structures. The IAC has, prima-facie, all of the features of the policy process datum model; it operates in an open mode, it encourages a range of pluralistic inputs, it has a highly professional planning function and, because its policy advice is published, it encourages scrutiny and accountability of itself, other actors in the bureaucracy and the elected government. The IAC operates in a rational-comprehensive mode. The analysis concludes that the IAC was established in part to be a countervailing force to restore some balance in the industry policy arena. In this it has been partly successful - the distributive policy decisions of governments have come under much greater scrutiny than in the past and other areas of the bureaucracy have been forced to operate more frequently in a rational-comprehensive mode, rather than as advocates of sectional interests. The IAC has itself limited its range of objectives, however, and has tended to become a computational organisation, isolating its core economic [planning] technology from the interactive processes of the policy process model, i.e. pluralism, access and accountability. By protecting its essential philosophy in this way, the IAC runs the risk of becoming less influential in the overall policy process. Using the policy process model as a datum, and the empirical experience of the IAC and the policy arena in which it operates, several options for administrative reform are examined. A summary agenda for administrative change is proposed which revolves around ways of achieving balanced pluralistic inputs, a greater degree of access, better bureaucratic and government accountability and ways of exploiting but controlling technocratic planning expertise. Emphasis is placed on the need to achieve enriched interactive flows between each of these key elements. If these conditions can be met, it is proposed that a revised and improved administrative bureaucracy will emerge.

In 1974 the Australian Government decided that from 1975 all education on its Territory of Christmas Island, Indian Ocean, would be integrated into a single service. It further decided that all schools would be staffed by Australian teachers from its recent1y established Commonwealth Teaching Service and would implement a curriculum closely reflecting those on the Australian mainland. These were decisive shifts from the previous system of separating the 'Asian' education system from the 'European' (Australian) system. This thesis sets out to find the reasons for these decisions and the expectations, or objectives, of those who made them. The changes to education had many Impacts on the Christmas Island community - both intended or unintended. These impacts are used to assist in evaluations of the policy objectives. The thesis uses the methodology of public policy analysis to examine the links between the government's education policy and its other broader policies regarding the Island. It thus examines operational decisions in the context of strategic considerations. The mid 1970s saw rapid changes in many Australian Government policies. Its new Christmas Island policies were responses to a range of complex, interrelated problems which emerged in the early 1970s - only 15 years after it assumed sovereignty. At the centre of these policy responses was Resettlement. The government's education decisions are examined in the light of the objectives and implications of its Resettlement policy as well as other inputs to the policy problem.

This thesis examines the history of Commonwealth Government higher education policy in Australia between 1958 and 1997 and its impact on the development of two groups of academic librarians: the Association of Librarians in Colleges in Advanced Education (ALCAE) and the Committee of Australian University Librarians (CAUL). Although university librarians had met occasionally since the late 1920s, it was only in 1965 that a more formal organisation, known as CAUL, was established to facilitate the exchange of ideas and information. ALCAE was set up in 1969 and played an important role helping develop a special concept of library service peculiar to the newly formed College of Advanced Education (CAE) sector. As well as examining the impact of Commonwealth Government higher education policy on ALCAE and CAUL, the thesis also explores the influence of other factors on these two groups, including the range of personalities that comprised them, and their relationship with their parent institutions and with other professional groups and organisations. The study focuses on how higher education policy and these other external and internal factors shaped the functions, aspirations, and internal dynamics of these two groups and how this resulted in each group evolving differently. The author argues that, because of the greater attention given to the special educational role of libraries in the CAE curriculum, the group of college librarians had the opportunity to participate in, and have some influence on, Commonwealth Government statutory bodies responsible for the coordination of policy and the distribution of funding for the CAE sector. The link between ALCAE and formal policy-making processes resulted in a more dynamic group than CAUL, with the university librarians being discouraged by their Vice-Chancellors from having contact with university funding bodies because of the desire of the universities to maintain a greater level of control over their affairs and resist interference from government. The circumstances of each group underwent a reversal over time as ALCAE's effectiveness began to diminish as a result of changes to the CAE sector and as member interest was transferred to other groups and organisations. Conversely, CAUL gradually became a more active group during the 1980s and early 1990s as a result of changes to higher education, the efforts of some university librarians, and changes in membership. This study is based principally on primary source material, with the story of ALCAE and CAUL being told through the use of a combination of original documentation (including minutes of meetings and correspondence) and interviews with members of each group and other key figures.

This thesis is concerned with Australian sport policy, specifically sport development in Australia. Therefore, its theoretical origins lie within the discourse of public policy. While public policy studies are abundant, sport policy research and in particular sport development studies are limited. Hence there is a shortage in the literature on sport development research. Sport nevertheless established itself as a legitimate policy area in Australia in the mid-1970s. Since then, the Federal Government's involvement with sport policy has expanded and nowadays sport in Australia is very much impacted by Federal Government support. However, increased interest and importance placed on sport have not induced corresponding attention from sport policy studies. This study is a first effort to portray the sport development processes as it occurs in the Australian context. In particular, this thesis examines the impact of the Federal Government involvement with sport policy on the sport development processes at a national level. In doing so, this study explores the roles of the key sport development players and the ways sport policies shape sport development processes. Additionally, the study explores the available sport development pathways and the relationships between sport policy players, policies and sport development processes. There have been previous efforts to depict the processes involved with sport development by means of a pyramid that incorporates mass participants at its base and the elite athletes at its peak. This framework provides a very simplistic representation of sport development and does not explicate the embedded processes (Eady, 1993, Shilbury & Deane, 2001). The aforementioned inadequacy of the existing framework to explain sport development led to grounded theory research. Grounded theory is a qualitative research approach formulated by Glaser and Strauss (1967) as a means of generating theory, when existing theoretical frameworks are inadequate to explain a phenomenon, which is embedded in systematically gathered and analysed data (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Bryman, 1988). Strauss and Corbin (1994) argued that if the research question concerns a process, the method of choice for addressing the question is grounded theory. This method led to the constant comparison and coding of data from the Annual Reports of 35 National Sporting Organisations in Australia. These documents covered the years from 1999-2002 (inclusive) and are linked to a Federal Government funding cycle. Grounded theory research is viewed as 'the foundation for subsequent deductive studies that test out the resulting theory or interventions based on it' (Oshansky, 1996, p. 394). Hence, the model this thesis offers is subject to further empirical testing and future research. The results of the study provide a theoretical framework to understand the Sport Development Processes in Australia. The Sport Development Processes framework illustrates that at the hub of successful sport development there are three major and interrelated requirements: a) Stakeholders, b) Practices and c) Pathways. Sport Development Stakeholders (i.e. governments, sporting organisations and significant others) provide the unity and teamwork necessary for the Sport Development Practices that in turn provide the required Sport Development Pathways. These pathways as the result of sport stakeholder involvement and policy implementation allow Sport Development Processes to occur. According to the Sport Development Processes framework there are three interrelated processes (i.e. Attraction, Retention/Transition, and Nurturing) which involve attracting, retaining and developing the most skilled athletes, building participation and using sport performance to positively influence community involvement with sport. For each process to be successful, a different combination of stakeholder involvement and practices (hence resulting pathways) is necessary. This model provides a unique contribution to the field of sport policy, as it is the first theoretical attempt to fill the void regarding sport development processes. In the process, sport development officers, policy makers and sporting organisations at all levels around Australia are provided with a comprehensive model that assists and advances understanding of sport development processes.

Traditionally, the High Court of Australia has regarded the States of Australia as being "separate countries" for conflict of law purposes and has applied, in a rather formalistic manner, the English common law rules of private international law to resolve intrafederation conflict of laws problems. This paper argues that this approach to intrafederation conflict of laws is inappropriate. Instead, this paper argues that the High Court should follow the approach of the Supreme Court of Canada as exemplified by its decision in Morguard Investments Ltd v De Savoye. That is, the High Court should forsake its formalistic reasoning and instead approach intrafederation conflict of laws rules in a purposive way i.e. identify the purposes of the conflict of laws rules and ensure that the rules operate in a manner that meets these purposes. The purposes and operation of the intrafederation conflict of laws rules can only be understood in the context of the Australian federal environment. Aspects of this environment, such as a unified national legal system and a constitutional "full faith and credit" requirement, point to the conclusion that Australia is "one country and one nation." The States of Australia should be regarded as partners in federation and the conflict of laws rules that mediate the relationship between the laws of the different States should reflect this overall unity. Applying this purposive, contextual approach to the three major questions of the conflict of laws, this paper suggests the following features of an Australian intrafederation conflict of laws: 1. Unified substantive jurisdiction and broad judicial jurisdiction for Australian courts with effective transfer mechanisms to ensure litigation is heard in the most appropriate court; 2. The elimination, to the extent possible, of the "homeward trend" in choice of law rules so that uniform legal consequences will attach throughout Australia to any particular set of facts; and 3. The effective, unqualified enforcement of sister-State judgments throughout Australia.

Bibliography: leaves 318-346.
v, 346 leaves ; 30 cm.
This thesis explores the subject of how effective a national government environment protection institution can be in making industry sustainable.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Politics, 1999

A tough approach to asylum seekers has been a feature of Australia federal election campaigns over the last decade and a half, with commentators claiming this is a key issue in marginal electorates. However, the extent to which anti-asylum seeker talk is successful in garnering votes remains unclear. The overarching aim of this project was to explore both the use and impact of anti-asylum seeker sentiment in the 2013 Federal Election campaign by analysing political discourse, public opinion, and the voting behaviour of western Sydney constituents. Within a broad critical approach to discourse, this research examined the use of political power, through language, to not only shift accepted notions of anti-asylum seeker sentiment in the public sphere, but to also generate electoral outcomes. The emergence of anti-refugee and asylum seeker sentiment in Australian political discourse was first chronicled, from Federation to 2013; close attention was paid to how this discourse has evolved throughout Australia’s history, in response to various international and national events, and how this discourse functioned in the context of election campaigns. Having set the context for the 2013 Federal Election, a political discourse analysis of election campaign materials used in the 2013 campaign, by both the Liberal and Labor parties, was conducted. Thirty-eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with voters from four western Sydney electorates in New South Wales: Lindsay, Greenway, Parramatta, and Chifley. The intertextualities between these two data sets were examined, exploring the dialectical nature of political discourse. A questionnaire with 400 voters from the same electorates in western Sydney was also conducted. Thematic analysis of the interview data and statistical analysis of the questionnaire data helped reveal the role the asylum seeker issue played in the voting decision of western Sydney constituents in the 2013 election. This project made three key contributions to our understanding of asylum seeker politics in Australia. Firstly, it was revealed that while the last 17 years, in Australia, represents a time of increasingly negative attitudes and punitive exclusionary legislation, much of the refrain about the unprecedented challenges of refugees and asylum seekers entered the public and political vernacular decades earlier. Concerns about fairness, criminality, assimilation, and security were first voiced in the 1930s and 40s regarding Jewish refugees and have re-emerged whenever Australia has been faced with the ‘problem’ of humanitarian entrants or ‘irregular arrivals’. Similarly, anxieties over Australia’s sovereignty and control have long dictated the government’s response to ‘boat people’ and refugees, to the point where the Australian government had a hand in watering down international refugee agreements, seeking to prioritise the rights of nations over refugees. Throughout Australia’s history these discourses have merely been reshaped and adapted to better suit the political agenda of leading politicians at the time. The second contribution of this project pertains to the use of anti-asylum seeker talk in the 2013 federal election. The prominence of asylum seeker issues in the 2013 campaign demonstrated the enduring importance of agenda-setting and issue ownership: The Liberal party sought to emphasise not only the asylum seeker issue in their campaign but also their reputation of having handled this issue well in the past. Political leaders then used various strategies to construct asylum seekers as a threat to national security and identity and to position asylum seeker issues as a proxy for other political issues (i.e. economic management). The framing of asylum seeker issues at a national political level was found to have significant local impacts; the language used by voters to discuss asylum issues mirrored that used by politicians. Interview data reveal that intolerance towards asylum seekers is conflated with peoples’ economic struggles. People are unable to separate the challenges they have endured regarding accessing public housing or affordable childcare, for example, from the arrival of asylum seekers. Political leaders have both generated and capitalised on these feelings of deprivation at the hand of the ‘asylum seeker’. Finally, this study provided insight into the impact of anti-asylum seeker talk on the voting behaviour of Australians. While the quantitative results of this research (and others; for e.g. Carson, Dufresne, & Martin, 2016; McAllister, 2003a) support the assumption that ‘stopping the boats’ is a ‘vote winner’, the qualitative findings complicate this assertion. The survey data suggests that the salience of asylum seeker issues in the 2013 election, combined with largely negative public attitudes, favoured the winning Liberal party. However, findings generated from interview data reveal that Labor partisans rarely defect to the Liberal party on the asylum seeker issue alone; rather, Labor supporters are largely disillusioned with their party as a whole. This disillusionment is predominantly an outcome of Rudd and Gillard’s tumultuous six-years of leadership (2007-2013), combined with the Coalition’s relentless efforts to ensure the Labor party’s disorder was at the forefront of voter’s minds on polling day. Further, many of these voters were largely indifferent to the plight of asylum seekers, they simply did not care enough about this issue in order to it influence their voting decision. The current characterisation of the asylum seeker issue as a ‘vote winner’ fails to identify the complicated nuances in the voting behaviour and attitudes of western Sydney constituents. This research highlights the need for political scientists to enhance their engagement with qualitative methods to generate a more nuanced understanding of voting behaviour.

The impacts of the Cold War on academic-state relations in this country have been neglected in the growing literature on the Australian Cold War. There were greater similarities between the American and Australian university experience during the Cold War than have previously been recognised. The close relationship between the Australian National University and the federal government meant that Cold War tensions were particularly heightened in the case of this university, making it an ideal site for a case study of the Australian Cold War university experience. This thesis asks, ‘what was the nature of the relationship between the Australian National University and the federal government during the Cold War and was the university‘s experience comparable to American Cold War universities?‘ The thesis seeks to address two main themes related to the Cold War experience of universities. The first is the intrusion of government agencies into universities to identify and limit the influence of communist sympathisers and the degree of complicity or otherwise of the university in these activities. The second theme is the role of universities in providing expert advice to government and the implications of this role for academic independence. The concept of the Cold War university has received significant attention in America in recent years. Discussion on this topic had moved from a belief that government influence over the universities was evil and coercive to a more moderate assessment which emphasises the mutual advantages to be gained in the relationship and the role of university administrators in creating it. Despite some significant cultural and local differences, the ANU conformed quite closely to this latter model of the Cold War university. The federal government and administrators of the university worked closely to create a degree of intellectual conformity and to advocate an attitude of social utility. The US Cold War university experience may not have been directly replicated in Australia but enough similarities remain in the relationship between the government and the ANU for it to be classified as an Australian Cold War university.
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of History and Politics, 2009

The offshore has been the centre of intergovernmental interaction in Australia for over twenty-five years yet has remained a neglected topic in studies of Australian federalism. This study examines the development and implementation of a complex intergovernmental arrangement, the Offshore Constitutional Settlement (OCS), which returned jurisdiction to the States from low water mark to three nautical miles offshore following the High Court's decision in the Seas and Submerged Lands case of December 1975, which upheld Commonwealth jurisdiction from low water mark. The OCS was established, after lengthy intergovernmental interaction, in 1979 with what were termed "agreed arrangements" implemented between 1983 and 1990. The most visible element of offshore resource policy in the period following the Second World War is the the continual expansion of the Commonwealth's interests. To focus solely on this expansion gives a limited explanation for the development of intergovernmental agreements such as the OCS which reflect the complexities of interaction between the Commonwealth and the States. A central concern of this study is to examine the factors contributing to the development of the OCS, particularly the extent to which State governments were dominant actors in the negotiations and in the implementation of the "agreed arrangements". The study utilises an analytical framework which allows the examination of institutions and processes by which the States have been able to limit, or counter, the effective reach of increased Commonwealth constitutional power and influence and which act as parameters for intergovernmental interaction in this policy area. In structuring relations between the Commonwealth and States offshore these parameters not only emphasise the significance of a States' constitutional and political bases, but- also identify elements of intergovernmental interaction which counter the more visible expansion of Commonwealth activity. The OCS is thus an outcome -of the evolution (or "ebb and flow") of Australian federalism offshore in which the States remain important actors; an evolution shaped by the impact of the constitutional division of powers, judicial review of jurisdictional disputes, and Australia's responsibilities in relation to the emergent international law of the sea.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Australia is one of the forty-two founding members of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), established in 1919. The objective of the ILP is to develop and raise international labour standards in order to promote social justice and secure world peace, with the ultimate goal of making those standards part of the law and practice of member countries. Yet, eighty-one countries had ratified the 1951 Equal Remuneration Convention before the Australian government's formal agreement in 1974. Within days of being elected in 1972, the Whitlam Labour government asserted its desire to pursue a new direction in foreign affairs and its intention to ratify a number of significant ILO Conventions addressing human rights. The Federal Parliamentary Labour Party also declared its commitment to overruling State involvement in the decision making process if this would assist in the reconstruction of Australia's image overseas. Until now, feminist approaches to the determinants and processes of foreign policy have been paid limited attention,. International relations theorists have either assumed that women's experiences are marginal to the study of "high politics", national security and diplomacy, or that both men and women are similarity affected by foreign policy decision. This study traces the development of successive Australian governments' relationships with the ILO from 1919 to 1975 in order to assess the interconnections between domestic and foreign policy decision-making with regard to the issue of equal pay for women. A particular focus is on the role of external influences, such as ILO standards, on major forces or groups within Australia. The defence of "domestic jurisdiction" has an extensive history. As such, equal pay for women was long in coming. This thesis challenges a commonly held view: - that successive Australia governments were unable to ratify many ILO Conventions, particularly those that supported equal remuneration for men and women, simply because of the constraints of the federal constitution. It demonstrates that the elimination of discrimination between men and women was both a foreign and domestic policy issue, actively ignored, suppressed or confronted through strategies designed to effectively counter demands for social justice.