Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Police in Australia'

Australian Police Ministers and Commissioners occupy a pivotal position in the system of law enforcement. Collectively, they are responsible for the general policy, administration and operational direction and control of policing through the Australian States. There has been in the past twenty five years a growing complexity and a variety of problems facing police agencies which are arduous and demanding. Continuing social tension of recent years have given police ministers and commissioners higher public profiles than ever before. The research undertaken in this thesis examines the difficulties experienced between police ministers and commissioners in Queensland and New South Wales from 1970 to 1995. Three models have been developed as a framework to analyse the relationships and how they operate. The three models are called - 'Dependency', 'Independency' and 'Interdependency'. Twenty-one police ministers, commissioners and advisers from Queensland and New South Wales were interviewed during the course of the research. Five separate case studies were developed to analyse and interpret the relationships within the context of the three models. A summary chapter of additional research data provides supporting information which was used to substantiate the case study material. The conclusion argues that relationships operate more effectively when elements of the 'Interdependency' model exist. The need for further debate about the administrative, legal and management elements of the working relationship between a police minister and commissioner is essential to achieve a balance between policy, administration and operational requirements within a modern western democratic policing system.

Diversified, essentially privatised, policing options are expanding daily in modern societies. They have become available to, and are being accessed by, individuals, community groups and governments on a regular basis. While this dissertation examines the phenomenon of private policing in Australia generally, its task, more specifically, is to document and review the laws that govern, shape and make accountable private policing operations and activities. Chapter 1 reviews the origins and manifestations of contemporary shifts to privatised models of policing. Chapter 2 examines models of relationships between public and private personnel, and the various methods of accountability that may serve to govern the activities of the latter. Chapters 3 to 8 explore and explain the applicable laws that inform, shape and govern private policing generally. What this examination reveals is that "private police" are empowered by a multitude of common law and legislative principles, along with a mosaic of diverse and semi-structured rules not necessarily designed for this specific purpose. One quickly finds that the laws that permit, facilitate, regulate and manage private manifestations of policing do not fall within easily discernible legal parameters. Finally, Chapter 9 provides a summary of the dissertation, together with some general thoughts concerning the effectiveness and appropriateness of the law as a vehicle for bringing about the desired goals, namely effective policing that provides appropriate outcomes for victims, suspects, private personnel, public police and the general public alike.

"January 2002".
Thesis (DEd)--Macquarie University, Australian Centre for Educational Studies, School of Education, 2003.
Bibliography: p. 229-246.
Introduction: police education and police practice -- "Police": a definition -- Policing in a democratic society: the role dilemma -- Contemporary policing: a convergence of ideas -- Role conception: the United Kingdom -- Development of policing: Australia and the United States of America -- The nature of crime -- The police response: effectiveness and outcomes -- The perceptions and expectations of stakeholders -- The police culture -- The police organisation -- Police education and training: models of learning -- Police education and training: providers -- Police education and training: evaluation of 'training' models -- Police education and training: evaluation of 'professional models' -- Police education and training: evaluation of 'professional/academic' model -- Police education and training: evaluation of experience -- Conclusion.
A perception of escalating social disorder and allegations of police corruption and ineptitude have led to a social and political imperative to reform policing. Fundamental to this reform is the modification of the core mission of the police and the operational practices of the uniformed Constable. The core characteristics of policing and the operational practices of the uniformed Constable are determined by the core mission and the operational context of policing. -- Despite an imperative to reform the quality and provision of police services to the community the core mission of the police has not fundamentally altered during the last half century and remains crime control (Zaho, 1996). The core mission of contemporary policing has been criticised for being in direct conflict with basic democratic principles and for being simply unachievable. This thesis will establish that the origins and occurrence of crime, its prevalence and persistence is detennined by social, economic and cultural factors that are beyond the control of the police. It will be argued that long-term successful law-enforcement in a democratic society requires the acceptance, cooperation and approval of the community. Community oriented policing may provide the theoretical framework for internalising normative controls and for enhancing public participation in and sharing responsibility for crime control. -- It will be demonstrated that the strategc shift in policing implicit within the theoretical framework of community policing has significant implications for the reform of police . education and training. Several commentators and various Commissions of Inquiry have recommended upgrading police education and training, and the participation of police in tertiary education. -- The reform of police practice is contingent upon the reform of the core mission and the operational context of policing. The core mission and the operational context of policing is substantially defined, controlled and manipulated by the perceptions, expectations and actions of stakeholders. Directly or indirectly these have been found to be antithetical to alternative models of policing that are service orientated; thus blocking, diluting or redirecting efforts to implement community policing. -- Unless the core mission of the police and the operational context of policing are substantially modified then police education will continue to have a limited impact upon the operational practices of the uniformed Constable.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
xxi, 246 p

Bibliography: leaves 210-226. Based on 18 months ethnographic fieldwork about the ways in which members of the South Australian Police Band make music. Studies their disconnection from the body of the community, acheived via an embodiment of emotional disconnection; the power of the Department to appropriate a particular order of emotion for the purposes of power; and, the misrecognition of the appropriation of emotion by members of the public who are open to the Department's emotional domination. The context material describes the reasons for the existence of the police band in the police view, while the core material of the thesis is concerned with describing what it is that police band members do, and what they do most of all is, in their own words, experience something that they call "the feel".

We are currently at a point in time in Australia where questions concerning how to govern police have never been more pressing or more fluid. Systemic corruption has been identified in several states; a range of new accountability mechanisms have been established internal and external to police and in Victoria police corruption has been linked with a violent 'gangland war'. This thesis locates these contemporary developments within a broader analysis of the historical circumstances shaping the changing techniques for governing state police. More specifically, this thesis engages in a detailed comparative study of the changing techniques of governing police in Queensland and Victoria. The theoretical tools to conduct this analysis are drawn from 'governmentality studies'. This refers to a broad grouping of theoretical scholarship concerned with the changing ideas - or 'political rationalities' - on how to govern some thing or some activity, and the underlying reasoning, justifications and ambitions contained within the practical tools or 'techniques' used to govern. Central to the thesis is an argument that a new politics of policing has emerged recently, one that extends the dyad of the old accountability - 'police powers' and 'external accountability' - to a pluralisation of accountability processes and structures. The thesis argues that governmentality studies offer new insights into ways of analysing the techniques for governing state police, increasingly shaped by the managerialisation of governing and embodying efforts to make police innovative, risk-taking problems-solvers. This is what I refer to as an open-ended normative project for re-making the entrepreneurial officer. However, a detailed examination of the development of governmental techniques for 'making up' the entrepreneurial officer indicates that such a governmental project is not implemented unproblematically. Nonetheless, the thesis concludes that the attempts to remake the entrepreneurial officer through the managerialisation of governing presents distinct possibilities for a new 'politics of policing' that fosters deliberative, reflective police practice within a new framework of police accountabilities.

Internationally, there have been few studies examining the attitudes of people who have been raped towards police (Jordan, 2001a; Lievore, 2005; Temkin, 1997, 1999). Little research in Australia (particularly South Australia) has examined the experiences of victims/survivors of rape with police. Existing data do show that women who have been raped rarely report assaults to police. This has been attributed by researchers to a range of reasons, both personal and systemic, including the influence of stereotypes and myths about rape on victims’/survivors’ decision-making. Rape myths often reflect community attitudes, social norms and police responses. For example, victims/survivors may blame themselves and also expect police will blame or disbelieve them. Such expectations (or subsequent experiences) of negative police responses undermine victims’/survivors’ faith in police. However, this is not the whole story. In reality, police responses to rape are complex and inconsistent, influenced by both individual and organisational factors. I initiated this study to explore victims’/survivors’ expectations of, and experiences with, police in a transparent and accessible forum. Based on semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 11 women who had been raped in South Australia, my findings illustrated the diversity of South Australia Police responses to victims/survivors of rape and suggested that South Australia Police practices were similar to those of other Australian and English-speaking jurisdictions. Overall, interactions with South Australia Police ‘simultaneously provide grounds for hope and are disappointing (Lievore, 2005: 59; emphasis added). In many cases police responses were disappointing, through service provision that was partly or wholly negative. Specific individual and organisational factors were associated with satisfactory or unsatisfactory police practices. Poor service provision was evident in individual police officers’ apathy and dismissive or disbelieving responses, and through low prioritisation and limited resourcing of sexual violence at an organisation level. However, my findings indicated that there was also much to be hopeful about when considering South Australia Police responses to rape. The participants in my study often reported exemplary service from individual officers. At the reporting and investigation stages, good practices were based on ‘procedural justice’ rather than ‘outcome justice’: characterised by strong communication, empathy and professionalism at an individual level and consistency at an organisational level.

In 1996 the Police Service of Western Australia embarked on a major and ongoing period of change regarding all aspects of local policing. Part of this program involved the adoption of a number of practices that included an undertaking to pay increased attention to issues such as a customer focus, problem solving, a commitment to developing and motivating personnel, a localised delivery of policing services and improved management practices. This research was conducted for the purpose of uncovering the factors that create the unique environment of the Police Service of Western Australia and exploring how these might impact upon the manner in which officers conduct their daily duties. More specifically the purpose was to determine if there existed any aspects of organizational culture or structure that have an influence on the ability and/or willingness of officers to carry out their duties according to the processes and procedures of either the problem solving or the problem-oriented policing philosophy. The research methodology was guided by the grounded theory approach. Twenty-eight interviews were conducted with constables, sergeants, inspectors and superintendents as it was considered that these ranks best represented the views of the members of the organization in terms of numbers and those most affected by day-to-day events. The data analysis revealed the existence of 13 factors that all exhibit negative aspects and collectively create a Basic Social Problem that has been termed “Feeling Vulnerable”. Although all of these factors have been well known for many years, the current research integrates these in a new way in order to produce a model of the organization that demonstrates how they combine to create an environment that is counter-productive to the implementation of a problem-solving or problem-oriented approach to policing by members of The Police Service of Western Australia at many levels. The Basic Social Process disclosed by the current research has been termed “Controlling By Avoidance”. It is based on four tactics used by officers to control their working environment. The employment of one or more of these tactics by officers is designed to give the impression of engaging with issues while simultaneously exerting control over events in order to prevent the occurrence of outcomes that experience tells them are likely to have undesirable personal consequences. The intention is to create an environment where they hope to be safe from the consequences of problems that will inevitably occur at some time. As well as providing an explanation for the conduct of officers under the problem solving model the analysis also provides an insight into why the organization has apparently avoided coming to grips with the implementation of the full Goldstein model of problem-oriented policing. This appears to be due to concerns on the part of senior management about the likelihood of a loss of control over subordinate ranks and the personal problems that this would generate for them. Recommendations are made about the need to adopt the Goldstein model and the steps required to successfully implement this approach are listed.

In 1996 the Police Service of Western Australia embarked on a major and ongoing period of change regarding all aspects of local policing. Part of this program involved the adoption of a number of practices that included an undertaking to pay increased attention to issues such as a customer focus, problem solving, a commitment to developing and motivating personnel, a localised delivery of policing services and improved management practices. This research was conducted for the purpose of uncovering the factors that create the unique environment of the Police Service of Western Australia and exploring how these might impact upon the manner in which officers conduct their daily duties. More specifically the purpose was to determine if there existed any aspects of organizational culture or structure that have an influence on the ability and/or willingness of officers to carry out their duties according to the processes and procedures of either the problem solving or the problem-oriented policing philosophy. The research methodology was guided by the grounded theory approach. Twenty-eight interviews were conducted with constables, sergeants, inspectors and superintendents as it was considered that these ranks best represented the views of the members of the organization in terms of numbers and those most affected by day-to-day events. The data analysis revealed the existence of 13 factors that all exhibit negative aspects and collectively create a Basic Social Problem that has been termed 'Feeling Vulnerable'. Although all of these factors have been well known for many years, the current research integrates these in a new way in order to produce a model of the organization that demonstrates how they combine to create an environment that is counter-productive to the implementation of a problem-solving or problem-oriented approach to policing by members of The Police Service of Western Australia at many levels. The Basic Social Process disclosed by the current research has been termed 'Controlling By Avoidance'. It is based on four tactics used by officers to control their working environment. The employment of one or more of these tactics by officers is designed to give the impression of engaging with issues while simultaneously exerting control over events in order to prevent the occurrence of outcomes that experience tells them are likely to have undesirable personal consequences. The intention is to create an environment where they hope to be safe from the consequences of problems that will inevitably occur at some time. As well as providing an explanation for the conduct of officers under the problem solving model the analysis also provides an insight into why the organization has apparently avoided coming to grips with the implementation of the full Goldstein model of problem-oriented policing. This appears to be due to concerns on the part of senior management about the likelihood of a loss of control over subordinate ranks and the personal problems that this would generate for them. Recommendations are made about the need to adopt the Goldstein model and the steps required to successfully implement this approach are listed.

The word 'marijuana' was introduced to Australia by the US Bureau of Narcotics via the Diggers newspaper, Smith's Weekly, in 1938. Marijuana was said to be 'a new drug that maddens victims' and it was sensationally described as an 'evil sex drug'. The resulting tabloid furore saw the plant cannabis sativa banned in Australia, even though cannabis had been a well-known and widely used drug in Australia for many decades. In 1964, a massive infestation of wild cannabis was found growing along a stretch of the Hunter River between Singleton and Maitland in New South Wales. The explosion in Australian marijuana use began there. It was fuelled after 1967 by US soldiers on rest and recreation leave from Vietnam. It was the Baby-Boomer young who were turning on. Pot smoking was overwhelmingly associated with the generation born in the decade after the Second World War. As the conflict over the Vietnam War raged in Australia, it provoked intense generational conflict between the Baby-Boomers and older generations. Just as in the US, pot was adopted by Australian Baby-Boomers as their symbol; and, as in the US, the attack on pot users served as code for an attack on the young, the Left, and the alternative. In 1976, the 'War on Drugs' began in earnest in Australia with paramilitary attacks on the hippie colonies at Cedar Bay in Queensland and Tuntable Falls in New South Wales. It was a time of increasing US style prohibition characterised by 'tough-on-drugs' right-wing rhetoric, police crackdowns, numerous murders, and a marijuana drought followed quickly by a heroin plague; in short by a massive worsening of 'the drug problem'. During this decade, organised crime moved into the pot scene and the price of pot skyrocketed, reaching $450 an ounce in 1988. Thanks to the Americanisation of drugs policy, the black market made 'a killing'. In Marijuana Australiana I argue that the 'War on Drugs' developed -- not for health reasons -- but for reasons of social control; as a domestic counter-revolution against the Whitlamite, Baby-Boomer generation by older Nixonite Drug War warriors like Queensland Premier, Bjelke-Petersen. It was a misuse of drugs policy which greatly worsened drug problems, bringing with it American-style organised crime. As the subtitle suggests, Marijuana Australiana relies significantly on 'alternative' sources, and I trawl the waters of popular culture, looking for songs, posters, comics and underground magazines to produce an 'underground' history of cannabis in Australia. This 'pop' approach is balanced with a hard-edged, quantitative analysis of the size of the marijuana market, the movement of price, and the seizure figures in the section called 'History By Numbers'. As Alfred McCoy notes, we need to understand drugs as commodities. It is only through a detailed understanding of the drug trade that the deeper secrets of this underground world can be revealed. In this section, I present an economic history of the cannabis market and formulate three laws of the market.

Prior to 1994 I had little interest in the activities of the police. As a mass media consumer I was aware of the prominence of crime in the daily news agenda and I watched, read and listened to potted summaries of rape, mayhem and murder. Frequent too, were stories of police malpractice, incompetence and corruption. Police stories were also a significant part of television drama with programs like the long running British series The Bill, and a range of Australian productions: The Feds, Halifax f.p, Rafferty's Rules, Blue Heelers, State Coroner, and Water Rats. The police also featured at the cinema with crime genre movies Natural Born Killers (Oliver Stone, USA), Once Were Warriors (Lee Tamahori, New Zealand) and Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, USA) becoming box office hits. My interest in the portrayal of police change dramatically when on the 7th of October 1994, I was appointed Officer-in-Charge of the Media and Publications Branch of the Australian Federal Police (AFP). I was responsible for all aspects of the communication function including: media liaison, crisis management, media management, publications and internal communication. My branch dealt with media inquiries from local, national and international media across the gamut of issues facing the AFP. These ranged fiom industrial issues about budgets and overtime, allegations of corruption and incompetence, and operational matters as diverse as burglaries, alleged Nazi war criminals, peace-keeping operations and drug 'busts'. Needless to say my police stakeholders did not always see things the same way as my media colleagues. I was seeing at a practical day-to-day level the complex taxonomy of police/media relations outlined by Putnis (1996). Putnis noted the ubiquity of the police and the media as social institutions and observed that their daily operations involved a complex, dynamic, relationship constructed out of many thousands of interactions, across all levels of the organisations, in many different settings. My experiences in dealing with the media became the genesis of this study. My aim is to expand our understanding of the police/media relationship by exploring characteristic forms of print news-media reports about policing, the impact these reports have on police, and on law and order policy. The possibility of bias towards police in this study is acknowledged given I was a member of a police service fiom 1994 until 2002 and the research relies heavily on 'participant observer' techniques (Kay 1997; Potter1 996; Schofield 1993). Every effort has been made to maintain a critical perspective on the subject matters raised and it should be noted my association with police ended prior to the writing-up phase of the research. In addition to comments fiom my supervisory panel, ongoing discussions with media colleagues were another strategy adopted to ensure balance in the writing-up of this study. This is a unique study in that it offers an insider's perspective of police/media relations and at a time that represented a watershed for police. The early 90s was a period of straightened finances for public sector agencies and police, like other agencies, were under pressure fiom governments to demonstrate the efficient use of public monies (AFP 1995; Grieve 2000). Reform programs swept through policing with many, like the AFP, being organised along business lines (Palmer 1995; Etter 1995; Rohl 1999; WAPOL 1999). The 90s were also a watershed for criminal organisations with the emergence of transnational criminal syndicates, such as drug traffickers, that had the potential to impact on crime at a local level without even entering the country, let alone the jurisdiction, in which the crime took place (Bliss and Harfield 1998; Palmer 1995; McFarlane 1999). In order to combat these syndicates, police began to work in a more cooperative fashion and formed loose coalitions, often across countries, in a manner similar to the criminal syndicates they were trying to combat (Palmer 1995). The 90s also saw the continuation of committees of inquiry and royal commissions into police malpractice (Landa and Dillon 1995) and the inevitable bad press for police (Wood 1996; Munday 1995). The media and police have a symbiotic relationship and it is a critical one as most members of society have little direct contact with the criminal justice system. Information about crime, and the efforts of police to combat it, is obtained second hand through fictional accounts from such vehicles as television dramas, and from the news media. As aptly described by Hall et al. (1975), nearly thirty years ago, the media is the link between crime and the public. The police are therefore heavily reliant on the media to provide a balanced account of the panoply of issues surrounding the criminal justice system (Cowdery 2001). At its most fundamental, police require the support of the communities they serve in order to be effective, and the news media can have a major impact on perceptions about police performance (Reiner 1997; Surette 1992). As organisational entities, police need to compete with other bureaucracies for public hnding, and the media is an essential tool in generating positive publicity about successful operations and policies. The media is, therefore, critical to the maintenance of positive relationships with the two most important stakeholders in the policing function: the community and the government. McGregor (1993) provides a useful summary of the literature relating to print media coverage of policing issues: there are substantial discrepancies between official accounts of criminal activity and press reports of crime; the media tends to homogenise crime by concentrating on a limited range of crimes (mainly violent crime) and drawing facts from a limited range of sources (police/court reports); the media over-report serious crimes, especially murder and crimes with a sexual element; and, the press concentrates crime reportage on events rather than issues, so crime incidents and specific crimes form the bulk of crime news as opposed to analyses of the causes of crime or remedies, trends or issues. McQuail (1994, p.256) reminds us that assessing media performance on the basis of media content, measured against the extent to which content relates to reality, is open to question. He argues that there is no general answer to questions of meaning construction, but media research has pointed to several elements in a more general framework of social and personal meanings including clues as to what is more or less important, salient or relevant in many different contexts (1994, p. 379). An important research question concerns the impact of news media practices, particularly given the significant costs to the community flowing from the commission of crime, its investigation by police, and the processing of offenders through the criminal justice system. The Australian Institute of Criminology estimates the cost of crime in Australia is approximately $19 billion, while the cost of dealing with crime is another $13 billion (Mayhew 2003). The news media, articulated through radio talk-back hosts, are seen as having undue influence on how public funds on crime control are spent (ABC, The Media Report, 1 August 2002; Chan 1995; Cowdery 2001; Dixon 2002; Weatherbum 2002). These commentators have pointed to the serious public policy issues arising from the contribution made by the media towards what Weatherburn describes as an irrational public debate about law and order (2002, p. 12) and Hogg and Brown have coined 'the uncivil politics of law and order' (1998, p. 4). As Hogg and Brown (1998, p. 4) observe: crime is depicted as a problem of ever-increasing gravity set to overwhelm society unless urgent, typically punitive measures are taken to control and suppress it. The influence of the media on public policy has long been recognised. As Paletz and Entmann (l981, p. 6) observe: they influence the decisions and actions of politicians; they are open to manipulation by the powerful which insulates the powerful fiom accountability to the public; they reallocate power amongst the already powerful; they decreased to a marked extent the ability of ordinary citizens to judge events; they foment discontent among the public; and they preserve the legitimacy of the political, economic and social system. Ethnomethodological approaches (Ericson and Haggerty 1997) underpin the research in this study. The ethnomethodological approach was used because of its wider scope, employing as it does, observation, interviewing, and document-analysis techniques (Ericson et al. 1987, p. 77) and its ability to provide meaning and context to the phenomena under observation (Hall 1978; Willis l981). Ethnomethodological approaches are complemented by news framing analyses (Barkin and Gurevitch 1987; Blood, Putnis and Pirkis 2002; Capella and Jamieson 1996; Coleman 1995; Entman 1993; Kitzinger 2000; Keely 1999; Darling-Wolf 1997; London 1993; Pan and Kosicki 2001; Miller and Riechert 2001; Pirkis and Blood 2001; Reese, Gandy and Grant 2003; Scheufele 1999) to explore the news media frames employed in the genre of print crime reporting. What emerges from the study is evidence of a one-sided, highly negative, discourse about policing implemented through a range of media frames centred on conflict and broader xenophobic and egalitarian narratives. Despite the advantages police have as information gatekeepers, their attempts to manage the media environment have met with little success (Hughes 2004; Williams 2002) and the need for police to restrict access to police communications is being challenged (Crime and Misconduct Commission 2004, Inquiry into the effects of a Queensland Police Service decision to adopt digital technology for radio communications). There are exceptions, of course: the news media are not all bad. Routine reporting of crimes, where details of offenders are publicised, greatly assists the work of police as reflected in the case of 43-year-old Mr Colin George Dunstan which is discussed in Chapter Eight. Dunstan sent a series of explosive devices through the mail system in Canberra and police provided the media with photographs of the devices, Mr Dunstan (who was the main suspect), and his vehicle. The media coverage restricted Mr Dunstan's movements and led to his early arrest. Similarly, publication of the details of missing persons, warnings about lethal batches of drugs and crimes such as drink-spiking, enable police to reach a mass audience efficiently and quickly. And at a more abstract level, as noted by McQuail (1994, p. 34), modem communication vehicles can make a positive contribution to cohesion and community. The emergence of the 'yapping pack' form of journalism (Tiffen 1999, p. 207) has resulted in elements of the media exercising a worrying degree of influence over what should be a broader and better informed debate about criminal justice issues. An illustration of this process occurred toward the end of this study with the widely reported spectacle of the Premier of New South Wales presenting his replacement police minister before radio presenter Mr Alan Jones for his endorsement; the subsequent involvement of that minister in operational police matters (Williams 2002); and the departure of the state's police commissioner as a result of sustained media attack (ABC, The Media Report, 1 August 2002; Weatherburn 2002). These incidents say much about the influence of the news media in relation to police matters and makes this study a timely one. What follows is a literature review examining contemporary trends in policing and the media; a detailed analysis of two major case studies involving complex police operations; an analysis of a number of examples of print media reports about policing, to identify typical, or characteristic, media frames; the findings from nearly 50 interviews with senior people involved in the policelmedia interface; and an examination of changes in the milieu in which media reports about policing occur.

Police culture often valorises 'hard' drinking, and in NSW police label their heavy drinkers 'heroes'. It is queried if there is some relationship between occupational culture and drinking style.It is found that much of the current theorising about the origins and nature of problem drinking, such as psychological theorising about stress, is inadequate to explain and address the extraordinary level of high-risk drinking among police.This thesis explores alternative views such as critical and feminist perspectives on police culture, constructions of masculinity, and mechanisms of 'enabling', to discover whether these might prove more applicable and more productive. The research also explores the matter of whether a case can be made for taking alternative ideas and theories into account in designing intervention programmes for specific occupation contexts, and whether they raise any policy and practical implications for addressing problem drinking within the NSW Police Service.
Master of Science (Hons)

no
Implicit in the current dialogue on community policing in Australia and New Zealand, is the assumption that the people who comprise our policing organisations need to respond efficiently and competently to changing demographics, crime, terrorism, increasing community and government expectations. It is timely for Australian and New Zealand police jurisdictions to take a lead role in policy and practice of policing in a culturally, linguistically, politically and religiously diverse environment. In order to facilitate this, focus and organisational commitment must be given to developing leadership and recruitment and retention initiatives which enhance the internal diversity of our workforces.

This dissertation presents an evaluation of a funded consultancy that was intended to bring about change in the education and training of police in Australia in response to illicit drugs. Sponsored by what was at the time known as the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care, the ultimate goal of the consultancy was a national framework for police education and training to enhance frontline police response to illicit drug problems. The research used a case study design. Guba and Stufflebeam’s (1970) Context, Input, Process, and Product (CIPP) model was used to organise the presentation of a rich description of the design, development and implementation of the consultancy. Application of this framework enabled illumination of a number of issues related to social policy, change and innovation, and quality improvement processes. The study explores the role of education and training in organisational change and concludes that the potential of external consultancy activity to effect meaningful change in police education, training and practice is limited by a number of factors. Key findings of the study are that while a number of consultancy processes could have been enhanced, the primary determinants of the extent to which a change in police education and training will enhance frontline practice are contextual and conceptual factors. The study reveals that the response of frontline police to illicit drug use is influenced by multivariate factors. The findings of this study suggest that while frontline police are keen to provide solutions to a range of practice issues in response to illicit drug problems, they desire concrete strategies that are well defined and supported by management, consistent with policy and within the law. However, the complexity of police activity in response to illicit drugs; the dissonance between the conceptual frameworks of police and health agencies; and, resistance to what is perceived as externally initiated change in police practice, education and training; were found to be powerful inhibitors of an utopian attempt to enhance frontline police response to illicit drug problems. Using the metaphor of board games, the study concludes that the development of an education and training framework will be of little value in achieving enhanced frontline practice in response to illicit drug problems unless the criteria for enhanced response are made more explicit and seen to be congruent with both the conceptualisation and operationalisation of police roles and functions. Moreover, the study questions the mechanisms through which changes in policy are conceived, implemented and evaluated and highlights a need for greater congruence between evaluation frameworks and the nature of change.

This thesis is about the importance of nuclear weapons to Australian defence and strategic policy in Southeast Asia between 1953 and 1973. It argues that Australia's approach to nuclear issues during this period, and its attitude towards the development and acquisition of nuclear weapons in particular, was aimed exclusively at achieving narrowly defined political objectives. Australia was thus never interested in possessing nuclear weapons, and any moves seemingly taken along these lines were calculated to obtain political concessions - not as part of a 'bid' for their acquirement. This viewpoint sits at odds with the consensus position of several focused studies of Australian nuclear policy published in the past decade. Although in general these studies correctly argue that Australia maintained the 'nuclear weapons option' until the early 1970s, all have misrepresented the motivation for this by contending that the government viewed such weapons in exclusively military terms. The claim that Australia was interested only in the military aspect of nuclear weapons does not pay due attention to the fact that defence planning was based entirely on the provision of conventional forces to Southeast Asia. Accordingly, the military was interested first and foremost with issues arising from extant conventional planning concepts, and the government was chiefly concerned about obtaining allied assurances of support for established plans. The most pressing requirement for Australia therefore was gaining sway over allied countries. However, the Australian government was never in a position to overtly influence more powerful allies against an undertaking that could escalate into limited war, and was similarly incapable of inducing its allies to retain forces in the region in spite of competing pressures. It was for this reason that Australia would seek to manipulate the nuclear weapons option. Indeed, access to such weapons offered Australia the opportunity to achieve greater integration in formulating allied planning, while the threat to manufacture them provided a means of convincing regional partners to maintain a presence in the area. The thesis therefore concludes that Australia carefully presented its options for procuring nuclear weapons to gain influence over its allies in response to strategic developments in Southeast Asia.

[Truncated abstract] Conservative, incremental and modest approaches to redressing gendered workplace cultures have had limited success in challenging the demographic profile of densely masculinist workplaces. In this thesis I draw on a study of women in police work to argue that combating highly institutionalised, entrenched masculinist practices calls for more than modesty. Indeed the study shows that ambitious, even contentious, recommendations for new procedures can play an important role when the goal is tangible change in cultures where there is an excess of men. In conclusion I posit the need for some bold risk-taking, alongside incremental tactics, if the aim is to change the habits and practices of masculinist organisations . . . This dissertation maps that interventionist process across a four-year period. In assessing the role played by the feminist methodology I analyse what people can learn to see and say about organisational practices, how they participate in or seek to undermine various forms of teamwork, as well as how individual team members display their new understandings and behaviours. I conclude that the techniques for supporting women in authoritarian, densely masculinist workplaces should include some bold and highly visible ‘critical acts’, based on commitment from the top coupled to strongly motivated and highly informed teamwork.

Are there policy markets in Australia, and if so, how do they operate? This is the core question for this dissertation. Beginning with a focus on this simple formulation of the problem, the thesis explores the idea of policy markets, breaking it down into its constituent parts��policy� and �markets��and develops four different ways in which policy markets (i.e. markets for policy analysis, research and advice) might be modeled: 1. the dimensions of knowledge, values and competition in policy development systems and processes; 2. a hierarchy of policy markets according to strategic, programmatic and operational concerns; 3. policy markets in the context of cyclical process models of policy-making, especially the variant posited by Bridgman and Davis (1998); and 4. a typology of policy markets ranging from �pseudo� forms through to a form of full (or �pure�) policy market. Against the background of this theory-building, the empirical evidence�which was gathered through a combination of documentary investigation and some 77 interviews with senior public servants, consultants and ministers�is addressed through three interrelated approaches: an analysis of the (relatively limited) government-wide data; a comparison of this material with experience in New Zealand; and a set of three extended case studies. The three case studies address the idea and experience of policy markets from the point of view of: � the supplier�in this case, the economic forecasting and analysis firm, Access Economics; � ministers-as-buyers�through a study of the Coalition Government�s 1998 efforts to reform the waterfront; and � the bureaucracy as implementers of an extensive program of outsourcing�through a detailed examination of the outsourcing of corporate services (especially human resource management) by the Department of Finance and Administration. Several conclusions are drawn as to the character, extent and theoretical and practical significance of policy markets in Australia. While various elements of actual markets (e.g. contracts, price and service competition, multiple sources of supply, etc.) can be detected in the Australian approach to policy-making, policy markets are not as prevalent or as consistent as the rhetoric might suggest. In particular, while the language of the market is a common feature throughout the Australian policy-making system, it tends to mask a complex, �mixed economy�, whereby there is a continued preference for many of the mechanisms of bureaucratic ways of organising for policy analysis, combined with a growing challenge from various forms of networks, which are sometimes �dressed� as markets but retain the essential elements of policy (or, perhaps more particularly, political) networks. Nevertheless, the growing use of the language and some of the forms of the market in Australia�s policy-making system suggests that practitioners and researchers need to take this form into account when considering ways of organising (in the case of practitioners) or ways of studying (for researchers) policy development in Australia.

Žvelgiant iš istorinės perspektyvos, svarbu pastebėti, kad Australijos užsienio politika, kaip savarankiška ir nepriklausoma nuo Didžiosios Britanijos, pradėjo formuotis gana vėlai. Tai įvyko tik Antrojo pasaulinio karo metais, kai silpstanti Didžioji Britanija nebesugebėjo išlaikyti kolonijinės valdžios daugelyje savo kolonijų bei užjūrio teritorijų. Australija, pasinaudojusi šia padėtimi, siekė glaudesnių ryšių su JAV. Nuo šalies užsienio politikos formavimosi pradžios Australijos užsienio politikai didžiulę įtaką daro JAV, dėl šios priežasties Australijai JAV nuo pat jos diplomatinės tradicijos formavimo pradžios tapo pagrindine partnere. Pabrėžiama, kad Australijos užsienio politika ne tik nesivaizduojama be JAV, bet ir šios šalies praradimas Australams reikštų pagrindinio strateginio partnerio bei pagrindinių gynybinių pajėgumų praradimą. Kita vertus, JAV aktyviai veikia, siekdama Australiją paversti savo satelitu. De facto šią šalį ir taip galima vadinti JAV pasiuntine pietryčių Azijoje ir Okeanijoje. Nors Australiją ir galima laikyti viena iš regiono lyderiu, visgi Australija yra šalis, pasižyminti nepilnavertiškumo kompleksu. Ši aplinkybė apsunkina jos įtakos regione sklaidą bei siekius tapti stipria vidutine galybe. Australijos svarbos šiame regione negalima paneigti, tačiau pastebima jos pajėgumų koncentracija į tuos pasaulio kraštus, kurie ne tik nedaro jokios įtakos šalies raidai, tačiau ir teikia abejotiną naudą pačios Australijos vykdomai politikai. Visgi... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]
From a historical perspective, it is important to note that Australia's foreign policy, as an autonomous and independent from the United Kingdom, began to take shape quite late. It was the Second World War when the weakening Great Britain remained unable to maintain the colonial government in many of its colonies and overseas territories. Australia used this situation to seek closer relations with the United States. Since the formation of the country's foreign policy beginning in Australia's foreign policy a U.S made the major impact. It is emphasized that Australia's foreign policy not only could not be seen without the U.S., but the country would mean the loss of Australia’s main strategic partner and key defensive capacity. On the other hand, the U.S. is actively engaged, Australia to turn their satellite. De facto this country can be called the ambassador of the U.S. in Southeast Asia and Oceania. While Australia can be considered one of the region's leaders, however, Australia is a country characterized by an inferiority complex. This circumstance complicates the spread of its influence in the region and aims to become a strong “Medium Power”. Australia's interest in the region cannot be denied, however, has seen its capacity levels to those of the world, which not only does not affect the development of the country, and provide questionable benefits to the Australian policies. It is noted that Australia since the start of cooperation with the United States actively... [to full text]

Master of Philosophy
As Australia’s leading agency for funding health research (expending over $400 million in 2006), the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has a major responsibility to improve the evidence base for health policy and practice. There is an urgent need for better evidence to guide policy and programs that improve the health of Indigenous peoples. In 2002, NHMRC endorsed a series of landmark policy changes to acknowledge its ongoing role and responsibilities in Indigenous health research—adopting a strategic Road Map for research, improving Indigenous representation across NHMRC Council and Principal Committees, and committing 5% of its annual budget to Indigenous health research. This thesis examines how these policies evolved, the extent to which they have been implemented, and their impact on agency expenditure in relation to People Support. Additionally, this thesis describes the impact of NHMRC policies in reshaping research practices among Indigenous populations.

Doctor of Philosophy(PhD)
Retirement income policy in Australia has undergone significant changes over the last two decades, including the introduction of the Superannuation Guarantee [SG] with mandatory contributions in 1992 and the 2007 superannuation changes with the benefit tax abolition. Numerical implications of adopted pension reforms and reform proposals such as further increases in the SG contribution rate, changes to superannuation taxation and to means-testing of the age pension have been examined mainly by micro-simulation models. These models, often criticized for their lack of theoretical content, provide an incomplete picture of pension policy effects because of no or limited behavioural responses to underlying policy changes. In this thesis, models based on the life-cycle theory of saving pioneered by Modigliani and Brumberg (1954) are applied to simulate behavioural, welfare and macroeconomics effects of proposed changes to Australia’s pension policy. In particular, this thesis develops the following computable models: a life-cycle, single household model, a partial equilibrium, household model and a general equilibrium model with overlapping generations [OLG]. The single household model describes lifetime behaviour of the utility-maximising single household with uncertain lifespan. The model features perfect capital markets, endogenous labour supply and retirement decisions, and it incorporates main aspects of Australia’s pension and income tax policy settings. The simulated policy changes are (i) increase in the SG contribution rate, (ii) superannuation tax changes and (iii) abolition of the age pension means test. The results indicate higher retirement consumption and welfare gains from all the analysed pension policy changes. Partial equilibrium and general equilibrium models introduced in this thesis are built on lifetime behaviour of the single household. Both models distinguish many generations of households by age and, therefore, are capable of studying behavioural and welfare effects of policy changes for different generations. The partial equilibrium model examines behaviour of the household sector in the environment of the fixed factor prices. It is shown, for instance, that welfare gains from the investigated pension policy changes are not uniformly distributed across generations. The general equilibrium OLG model extends the partial equilibrium analyses by incorporating production, government and foreign sectors in addition to household and pension sectors. The model is a small open economy version of Auerbach and Kotlikoff’s (1987) OLG model. The simulation results are significantly different from those in the partial equilibrium framework, driven mainly by the changes in aggregate labour supply. For instance, the higher SG rate policy increases aggregate assets and saving. However, the saving increases are exported abroad rather than invested in the domestic capital stock. Hence, the implications of this policy change for the capital stock and output are minimal. Younger cohorts and future born generations experience consumption and welfare gains but older cohorts are negatively affected by a higher consumption tax rate resulting from this hypothetical policy change.

This thesis contributes to the ongoing discussion of modern Chinese identity by pro-viding a case study of Cheok Hong CHEONG. It necessarily considers Australian atti-tudes towards the Chinese during the 19th century, not least the White Australia Pol-icy. The emergence of that discriminatory immigration policy over the second half of the 19th century until its national implementation in 1901 provides the background to the thesis. Cheong was the leading figure among Chinese-Australian Christians and a prominent figure in the Australian Chinese community and the thesis seeks to iden-tify a man whose contribution has largely been shadowy in other studies or, more commonly, overlooked by the parochialism of colony/state emphasis in many histo-ries of Australia. His role in the Christian church fills a space in Victorian religious history. Although Cheong accumulated great wealth he was not part of the Chinese mer-chant class of the huagong/huaquiao traditions of the overseas Chinese diaspora of the 19th and 20th centuries. His wealth was accumulated through property investments following the spectacular collapse of the Victorian banking system during the 1890s. His community leadership role arose through his position in the Christian Church rather than, as was generally the case, through business. His English language skills, resulting from his church association, were the key to his role as a Chinese community spokesman.¶ Cheok Hong Cheong left an archive of some 800 documents in the English lan-guage covering the major people, incidents and concerns of his life and times. His Let-terbooks, together with the archives of the various Christian missions to the Chinese in Australia in the 19th and early 20th centuries, shed light on one person’s life and more broadly, through his involvements on the complex relationships of Chinese emigrants, with the often unsympathetic majority of Australians.¶ This is a case study of a Chinese identity formed outside China and influenced by a wider set of cultural influences than any other Chinese-Australian of his time —an identity that justifies the description of him as an ‘Alien Son’. Cheong’s story is a con-tribution to the urban and family history of an important ethnic sub-group within the wider immigrant history of Australia.¶ While Cheong remained a Chinese subject his identification with Australia cannot be questioned. All his children were born in Australia and he left just twice after his arrival in 1863. He visited England in 1891-2 and in 1906 he briefly visited China. Identity and culture issues are growing in importance as part of the revived relation-ship between the Chinese of the diaspora and the economic renewal of the People’s Republic of China and this thesis is offers a contribution to that discussion.

This study explored how the discursive practices of government education systemic discipline policy shape the behaviour of Aboriginal primary school students in an urban education district in Western Australia. First, this study conducted a Foucauldian genealogical discourse analysis of the historical and contemporary discursive forces that shaped systemic discipline policy in Western Australian government schools between 1983 and 1998 to uncover changing discursive practices within the institution. This period represented a most turbulent era of systemic discipline policy development within the institution. The analysis of the historical and contemporary discursive forces that shaped policy during this period revealed nine major and consistent discursive practices. Secondly, the study conducted a Foucauldian genealogical discourse analysis into the perspectives of key interest groups of students, parents and Education Department employees in an urban Aboriginal community on discipline policy in Education Department primary schools during the period from 2000 to 2001; and the influence of these policies on the behaviour of Aboriginal students in primary schools. The analysis was accomplished using Foucault's method of genealogy through a tactical use of subjugated knowledges. A cross section of the Aboriginal community was interviewed to examine issues of consultation, suspension and exclusion, institutional organisation and discourse. The study revealed that there are minimal consistent conceptual underpinnings to the development of Education Department discipline policy between 1983 and 1998. What is clear through the nine discursive practices that emerged during the first part of the study is a strengthened recentralising pattern of regulation, in response to the influence of a neo-liberal doctrine that commodifies students in a network of accountability mechanisms driven by the market-state economy. Evidence from both genealogical analyses in this study confirms that the increasing psychologisation of the classroom is contributing towards the pathologisation of Aboriginal student behaviour. It is apparent from the findings in this study that Aboriginal students regularly display Aboriginality-as-resistance type behaviours in response to school discipline regimes. The daily tension for these students at school is the maintenance of their Aboriginality in the face of school policy that disregards many of their regular cultural and behavioural practices, or regimes of truth, that are socially acceptable at home and in their community but threaten the 'good order' of the institution when brought to school. This study found that teachers and principals are ensnared in a web of governmentality with their ability to manoeuvre within the constraints of systemic discipline policy extremely limited. The consequence of this web of governmentality is that those doing the governing in the school are simultaneously the prisoner and the gaoler, and in effect the principle of their own subjection. Also revealed were the obscure and dividing discursive practices of discipline regimes that contribute to the epistemic violence enacted upon Noongar students in primary schools through technologies of power.

This thesis set out to ascertain the position of recent Australian Governments on the latest instalments of Asian regionalism in the context of an assessment of whether there has been a redefinition of Asia and thus a redefinition of Australia???s engagement with Asia. It will concentrate on the broad themes of politico-strategic and economic engagement. Whilst there has been extensive research and documentation on the Asian economic crisis there has been less work on the issue of a new Asian regionalism and the implications for Australia???s complex and variable engagement with the region. This is the basis for the claim to originality of this thesis, a claim supported by its focus on the practical and policy implications of Australia???s engagement, or lack of it, with regional institutions. The process of regional integration has been extremely slow, thus supporting the conclusion that there is no evidence of a major redefinition of Asia. Efforts at Asian regionalism are meeting obstacles that pose immense challenges. Asian regionalism remains nascent and poorly defined. This reflects the diversity and enormous disparities in cultures, political systems and the levels of economic development and differences over economic philosophies within East Asia. What is discernible is that the regionalism is proceeding more rapidly on financial issues than on trade, and in the security area it is conspicuously absent. This research highlights the fact that the question of Asian engagement remains a sensitive issue in Australia and continues to grow more complex. Australia???s engagement with Asia since 1996 has been variable because of the Howard Government???s broader balance of priorities between global and regional issues, and because of the changing nature of the Asian region. The perception gleaned from sources is that, for the Australian Government, regionalism initiatives are characterised by much discussion but lack substance. Consequently, this appears to have led the Government to the position that exclusion from some manifestations of regionalism is not so important. Australia is excluded from some of the regional architectures being constructed. In its efforts to seek inclusion in ASEAN + 3 and ASEM, Australia is facing the same barriers that have stood in the way of an AFTA-CER agreement. Exclusion would be important if the performance of regional groupings was not so indifferent. Exclusion from ASEAN + 3 and ASEM, however, does not equate to Australia???s exclusion from the region.

During the past decade (1984-1994), Australia experienced its worst recession since the depression of the 30's, followed by a no-growth period and an unemployment rate hovering around nine per cent. The awareness of Commonwealth and State Governments of the need for specific policies to stimulate new ventures and support small and medium enterprises (SME's), was increased by a range of reviews which resulted in a variety of initiatives. However, two key national initiatives, licensed Management and Investment Companies (MIC's) and the Second Board Stock Market, which aimed at making access to funds easier for new ventures, failed to provide sustained financial support to new innovative firms. Small businesses in Australia account for some 80 per cent of all businesses and 50 per cent of employment in the private sector. While many factors contribute to the successful establishment and growth of new businesses, a key factor is the availability of and access to affordable finance. The major objective of this study was to identify key success/failure factors in new venture creation and to review in detail the rise and fall of the Second Board Stock Market (1984-1992) - arguably one of the most significant Government initiatives during the 80's to provide access to equity funds. A survey of Melbourne companies listed on the Second Board was to provide valuable information on the success/failure of the Second Board Stock Market and to illuminate desirable Government initiatives meeting SME's survival needs.

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.

COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DO PESSOAL DE ENSINO SUPERIOR
A presente dissertação constitui um estudo da política externa australiana para o Timor Leste desde a invasão indonésia em 1975, até a intervenção internacional no território em 1999. O principal objetivo do trabalho é explicar como a política australiana para o Timor se modificou, de uma posição conivente com a invasão e o domínio indonésio durante mais de vinte anos, para uma postura de engajamento na discussão sobre o status futuro do território, que culmina com a participação do país na intervenção internacional, assumindo o papel de liderança da força multinacional.
This work constitutes a study of the Australian foreign policy towards East Timor, from the Indonesian invasion in 1975, to the international intervention in the territory in 1999. The main goal is to explain how the Australian foreign policy towards East Timor changed from a position that was conniving with the Indonesian invasion and rule for more than twenty yeras, to a stance of engagement in the debate on the future status of the territory. With that change, Australian eventually took participation in the international intervention and assumed the role of leader of the multinacional force.

This thesis aims to ascertain the pivotal issues that are of most significance for economic development in regional Australia. To understand these issues, it is necessary to understand prevailing economic development theories which have been traditionally considered in a nation’s policymaking. A review of a wide range of theories revealed that no single theory or set of theories provides desired outcomes from the perspective of long-term economic development of a nation given its existing structure. Researchers and policymakers throughout the world are engaged in searching for suitable options, and the ‘regional economic development with local planning’ approach for regional policymaking has been identified as a suitable option for a developed nation. The tested hypothesis of this thesis indicates that to help accelerate a smooth long-term development process of regional Australia, a suitably designed local planning approach is necessary. Simultaneously, providing an improved coordination mechanism is vital. Establishing an independent regional institutional setup throughout regional Australia should be given greater consideration as a priority issue
Master of Commerce (Hons)

"November 2003".
Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Australian Centre for Educational Studies, School of Education, 2004.
Bibliography: leaves 243-267.
Introduction -- Literature review -- Meanings and perspectives of Reconciliation in the Australian socio-political context -- An explanation of the research method -- Meanings of Reconciliation in the school context -- Survey results -- The role of education in the Reconciliation process -- Obstacles and barriers to Reconciliation -- Teaching for Reconciliation: best practice in teaching resources -- Conclusion.
The research detailed in this thesis investigated how schools in NSW responded to the social and political project of Reconciliation at the end of the 1990s. -- The research used a multi-method research approach which included a survey instrument, focus group interviews and key informants interviews with Aboriginal and non Aboriginal teachers, elders and educators, to gather qualitative as well as quantitative data. Differing research methodologies, including Indigenous research paradigms, are presented and discussed within the context of this research. From the initial research questions a number of sub-questions emerged which included: -The exploration of meanings and perspectives of Reconciliation evident in both the school and wider communities contexts and the extent to which these meanings and perspectives were transposed from the community to the school sector. -The perceived level of support for Reconciliation in school communities and what factors impacted on this level of support. -Responses of school communities to Reconciliation in terms of school programs and teaching strategies including factors which enhanced the teaching of Reconciliation issues in the classroom and factors which acted as barriers. -- Firstly in order to provide the context for the research study, the thesis provides a brief historical overview of the creation of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. It then builds a framework through which the discourses of Reconciliation are presented and deconstructed. These various meanings and perspectives of Reconciliation are placed within a linear spectrum of typologies, from 'hard', 'genuine' or 'substantive' Reconciliation advocated by the Left, comprising a strong social justice agenda, first nation rights and compensation for past injustices, to the assimiliationist typologies desired by members of the Right which suggest that Reconciliation is best achieved through the total integration of Aboriginal people into the mainstream community, with Aboriginal people accepting the reality of their dispossession. -- In between these two extremes lie degrees of interpretations of what constitutes Reconciliation, including John Howard's current Federal Government interpretation of 'practical' Reconciliation. In this context "Left" and "Right" are defined less by political ideological lines of the Labor and Liberal parties than by attitudes to human rights and social justice. Secondly, and within the socio-political context presented above, the thesis reports on research conducted with Indigenous and non Indigenous educators, students and elders in the context of the NSW school system to decipher meanings and perspectives on Reconciliation as reflected in that sector. It then makes comparisons with research conducted on behalf of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation during the 1990s on attitudes to Reconciliation in the community. Perceived differences are analysed and discussed.
The research further explores how schools approached the teaching of Reconciliation through a series of survey questions designed to document the types of activities undertaken by the schools with Reconciliation as the main aim. -- Research findings indicated that while both the community at large and the education community are overwhelmingly supportive of Reconciliation, both as a concept and as a government policy, when questioned further as to the depth and details of this commitment to Reconciliation and the extent to which they may be supportive of the 'hard' issues of Reconciliation, their views and level of support were more wide ranging and deflective. -- Findings indicated that, in general, educators have a more multi-layered understanding of the issues related to Reconciliation than the general community, and a proportion of them do articulate more clearly those harder, more controversial aspects of the Reconciliation process (eg just compensation, land and sea rights, customary laws). However, they are in the main, unsure of its meaning beyond the 'soft' symbolic acts and gatherings which occur in schools. In the late 1990s, when Reconciliation was at the forefront of the national agenda, research findings indicate that while schools were organising cultural and curriculum activities in their teaching of Indigenous history or Aboriginal studies - they did not specifically focus on Reconciliation in their teaching programs as an issue in the community. Teachers did not have a clearly defined view of what Reconciliation entailed and schools were not teaching about Reconciliation directly within their curriculum programs. -- The research also sought to identify facotrs which acted as enhancers of a Reconciliation program in schools and factors which were seen as barriers. Research findings clearly pointed to community and parental attitudes as important barriers with time and an overcrowded curriculum as further barriers to the implementation of teaching programs. Factors which promoted Reconciliation in schools often related to human agency and human relationships such as supportive executive leadership, the work of committed teachers and a responsive staff and community.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
xvi, 286 leaves ill

Les processus de construction et de réforme du système policier australien se traduisent par un contrôle accru du pouvoir politique sur les services publics et l'adoption de nouvelles techniques actuarielles pour constituer une gouvernance renouvelée, adaptée à la société du risque.

"December 2006".
Thesis (PhD) -- Macquarie University, Division of Environmental and Life Sciences, Department of Human Geography, 2007.
Bibliography: p. 284-307.
Introduction -- Case-study area profile and methodology -- A walkabout race?: contemporary Aboriginal mobilities in Yamatji country -- State service provision and Aboriginal mobilities -- Security and belonging: re-conceptualising Aboriginal mobilities -- Security and belonging and the mainstream economy -- The ties that bind: negotiating security and belonging through family -- Conclusion.
This dissertation explores contemporary Aboriginal spatial practices in Yamatji country, Western Australia, within the context of rural service provision by the State government. The central themes with which it engages are a) historical and contemporary conceptualisations of Aboriginal spatialities; b) the lived experiences of Aboriginal mobilities in the region; and c) the dialectical, and often contentious, relationship between Aboriginal spatial practices and public health, housing, and education services. Drawing primarily on a range of field interviews, the thesis opens up a discursive space for examining the cultural content and hidden assumptions in constructions of 'appropriate' models of spatial mobility. In taking a policy-oriented focus, it argues that the appropriate provision of basic government services requires a shift away from overly simplistic assumptions and discourses of Aboriginal mobility. Until the often subtle practices of rendering particular Aboriginal mobilities as irrational, deviant, and/or mysterious are challenged and replaced, deep-colonising practices in rural and remote Australia will persist. --The thesis reconceptualises contemporary Aboriginal spatial practices in Yamatji country based upon an examination of dynamics and circumstances that undergird Aboriginal mobilities in the region. With this empirical focus, it argues that Aboriginal spatial practices are fashioned by the processes of procuring, cultivating and contesting a sense of security and belonging. Case study material presented suggests that two primary considerations inform these processes. A post-settlement history of contested alienation from family and country (both sources from which belonging and security were traditionally derived), and a changing engagement with mainstream social and economic institutions, have produced a context in which security and belonging are iteratively derived from a number of sources. Contemporary Aboriginal spatial practices therefore take a complex variety of forms. The thesis concludes that adopting the framework of security and belonging for interpreting contemporary Aboriginal mobilities provides a starting point for engaging more effectively and intentionally with dynamic Aboriginal spatial practices in service delivery policy and practice.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
x, 320 p. ill., maps

The conceptual understanding of security and the practicalities of national defence are interdependent. In many countries both are undergoing significant change. This work provides an international context but focuses on Australian defence, arguing that a transition is underway from old security thinking to new, and that this is evidenced by changes in policies and practical activities. The aim of this work is to demonstrate the interdependence between the current reconceptualisation of security and the practicalities of national defence. Old security thinking concerns military power relationships between states, in contrast with new security thinking, which uses a broader conceptual framework. These are described, providing benchmarks for the subsequent analysis. While it is acknowledged that change has occurred in security thinking throughout history, those developments observed since the end of the Cold War and the rise of globalisation signify a fundamental shift. To explore this shift, recent developments in the defence policies and military activities of four relevant nations are examined, providing an international context for the consideration of the primary case study of Australian defence. This case study draws on historical descriptions and empirical data to analyse developments in four spheres - Australian defence policy, current Australian Defence Force activities, recent military developments and contemporary Australian public debate. The weight of evidence supports the thesis of a transition in both security thinking, described as transitional security thinking, and ADF activities. Tensions are observed between the requirements of defending a nation against attack, and contributing to the expanding requirements of the broadened security agenda. Despite these tensions, the expansion in both security thinking and the associated activities of armed forces, is likely to continue. This expansion has important implications for Australia???s defence capabilities which are increasingly required to meet the demands of refocused national security. These demands contribute to the pressing challenges of convergence and overstretch. A strategy of integration is recommended to address these challenges and it follows the principles of whole-of-government security and sustainable partnerships. The application of these principles will require the ADF to emphasise capabilities with versatility and adaptability.

Public health nutrition workforce development is a capacity building strategy identified as a priority in the Australian National Public Health Nutrition Strategy (Eat Well Australia). Systematic and scholarly approaches to workforce development that enhance the capacity of the health system and the broader community to effectively address public health nutrition issues, are limited in Australia. The associated lack of intelligence and a range of methodological difficulties similar to those encountered in broader public health workforce research, provide the need for, and motivation for, this study. The specific objectives of this study relate to the development of workforce development intelligence that: Fills gaps in the knowledge base to inform effective workforce development ; Provides baseline data (benchmarks) for ongoing workforce development planning, evaluation, monitoring and surveillance ; and, Contributes to international scholarship regarding public health nutrition workforce development ; and, Enables the development of a strategic framework for workforce development planning in the national context. The case study research strategy used in this study involved an emergent, multi-method design involving methodological triangulation of data and consensus development. The focus of inquiry was based on a problem-based conceptual framework developed to identify intelligence needs for workforce development strategy planning. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected using five different methods including literature review, interviews with advanced-level public health nutritionists in Australia, a national public health nutrition workforce survey, an analysis of position descriptions and consensus assessment and development via a Delphi survey of an international expert panel. The collection, analysis and interpretation of data in this study focused on developing an intelligence base on six main issues pertinent to public health nutrition workforce development, including: Definitions of public health nutrition; Workforce size and composition; Workforce practices; Core workforce functions needed; Competencies required for effective public health nutrition practice; and, Continuing competency development needs. Data from these multiple methods were used to describe and interpret the determinants of workforce capacity, assisted by triangular analysis. This analysis identified a range of determinants limiting the capacity of the Australian public health nutrition workforce including; A small designated specialist public health nutrition workforce; Workforce instability associated with unsecured funding and staff turnover; Limited collaboration and partnership building practices by the existing workforce; Disorganisation of the workforce in terms of location, accountability, service mandates and support; Workforce practices are not consistent with the required work; Limited access to, and use of, public health nutrition intelligence; A workforce practice culture that does not promote research and dissemination; A lack of practice improvement and learning systems; Limited access to public health nutrition mentors; Limited incentives for practice excellence; An absence of consensus about the required work and competencies required for effective public health nutrition practice; Barriers to continuing competency development; and, Inadequate workforce preparation. This interpretive analysis provided the basis for developing a strategic framework that addresses workforce quantity, quality and performance concerns, based on workforce development strategy categories including: Building human resource infrastructure (quantity); Organisational systems and policy (performance); Intelligence support (performance); Learning systems (quality) and; Workforce preparation. This research has also provided data that can for the basis of tools such as definitions, core function statements, position descriptions and competency standards to assist public health nutrition workforce development in Australia and internationally.