Australia's mining interests within Nigeria and Libya : policies, corruption and conflict

Crude petroleum remains the single most imported commodity into Australia and is sourced from a number of countries around the world (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), 2011a). While interest in crude petroleum is widespread, in recent years Australia's focus has been drawn to the continent of Africa, where increased political stability, economic recovery and an improved investment climate has made one of the largest oil reserves in the world increasingly more attractive. Despite improvement across the continent, there remain a number of risks which have the potential to significantly damage Australia's economic interests in the petroleum sector,including government policies and legislation, corruption and conflict. The longest exporters of crude petroleum products to Australia – Nigeria and Libya – have been subject to these factors in recent years and, accordingly, are the focus of this paper. Once identified, the impact of political instability, conflict, government corruption and other risk factors to Australia's mining interests within these countries is examined, and efforts to manage such risks are discussed.

IT governance stability in a political changing environment : exploring potential impacts in the public sector

Public sector organisations (PSOs) operate in information-intensive environments often within operational contexts where efficiency is a goal. What's more, the rapid adoption of IT is expected to facilitate good governance within public sector organisations but it often clashes with the bureaucratic culture of these organisations. Accordingly, models such as IT Governance (ITG) and government reform -in particular the new public management (NPM)- were introduced in PSOs in an effort to address the inefficiencies of bureaucracy and under performance. This work explores the potential effect of change in political direction and policy on the stability of IT governance in Australian public sector organisations. The aim of this paper is to examine implications of a change of government and the resulting political environment on the effectiveness of the audit function of ITG. The empirical data discussed here indicate that a number of aspects of audit functionality were negatively affected by change in political direction and resultant policy changes. The results indicate a perceived decline in capacity and capability which in turn disrupts the stability of IT governance systems in public sector organisations.

Great Expectations : stability and change in English teaching : the teacher as chameleon

Curriculum is always in a state of flux and so often the moves to ‘reform’ it are political rather than pedagogical. So often in these days of accountability we focus on the learner. I want to focus on the teacher in this presentation. As English educators we have to ‘fit’ whatever new policy model comes our way. The Australian curriculum seems to have tried to please every stakeholder in its process and as such has been formed without a single, unifying coherent theoretical basis. How do we challenge this paper tiger? We have to find the pedagogical models within the current framework and see what still works in practice. At the chalk-face there are still teaching, learning and assessment practices in English surviving from the last few decades of pedagogical change; and there is also room for accommodating new practices. Embracing and adapting the old and the new may be the key to staying creative and passionately engaged with our subject area.