From fare evasion to illegal downloads : the cost of defiance

Australian households currently pay the second highest “honesty tax” in the world at $290 per household per year, levied by retailers to offset the $AU1.86 billion in losses they incur from customer theft. Theft is only one type of consumer deviance, which can include behaviours that are against the law, an organisation’s policy, or behaviours that violate normally accepted conduct. An individual’s “deviant behaviour” can vary from one person to the next. My research exploring consumer definitions of right and wrong has found a number of things can inform what an individual thinks is “deviant behaviour”, beyond what the law or organisational policy states as right or wrong. Consumers then use their own justifications to excuse their actions...

The implications of de‐collectivist industrial relations laws and associated developments for worker health and safety in Australia, 1996–2007

The institutional and regulatory interlinkages between industrial relations (IR) and occupational health and safety (OHS) are seldom explored in the IR literature. This article begins to address this gap by examining regulatory initiatives in Australia during a period of neoliberal government. It examines the laws enacted by the federal government during this period and events and cases arising from these laws that go some way to illustrating their effects. Evidence is also drawn from detailed research on a number of state OHS inspectorates between 2004 and 2006. It is argued that de-collectivist changes to IR laws exacerbated problems posed by the growth of flexible work arrangements and a drop in union density, weakening participatory provisions in OHS laws and promoting work arrangements that undermined OHS standards. The study provides evidence of the implications of a divergence in the trajectory of IR and OHS laws and the importance of better integrating worker protection laws.

Public relations and engagement : theoretical imperatives of a multidimensional concept

Engagement has emerged as important concept in public relations, as stakeholders challenge the discourse of organizational primacy and organizations prioritize the need for authentic stakeholder involvement. As a multidimensional concept, engagement offers a foundation for building organizational relationships, and provides a means to facilitate community–organization interaction. This special issue on engagement and public relations presents a body of work that both explicates and expands the theoretical foundations of engagement, and contributes to scholarly understanding of its contexts, processes, and outcomes.

Effects of supervision on tax compliance : evidence from a field experiment in Austria

We conduct a field experiment on tax compliance, focusing on newly founded firms. As a novelty the effect of tax authorities’ supervision on timely tax payments is examined. Interestingly, results show no positive overall effect of close supervision on tax compliance.

An unrelated income tax for Australia?

The Australian tax regime for not for profit organisations is notable because of its tolerance of such organisations generating untaxed trading income, unlike the United States and United Kingdom tax regimes. In 2011, the Australian government announced new arrangements for untaxed trading income after a High Court case drew attention to it. This chapter identifies issues experienced on a practical level in the US and the UK, where unrelated business income is taxed, and offers directions for any future Australian attempt to tax this income.

Black comedy : the ABC makes bold foray into race relations

ABC’s new Indigenous sketch show Black Comedy, which premiered last night, is touted as a “show by blackfellas … for everyone”. As a blackfella, I’m not sure I agree that it is for “everyone” but that’s precisely why I love it. It’s been over 40 years since Basically Black, the first Indigenous sketch show aired on our screens, and it’s been too long a wait to see our mob doing humour our way in our living rooms once again. The characters we met last night were, as promised, bigger and blacker than ever. When it comes to Australian television … well it’s about time.

Social media(tion) and the reshaping of public/private boundaries in employment relations

Tensions surrounding social media in the employment relationship are increasingly evident in the media, public rhetoric, and courts and employment tribunals. Yet the underlying causes and dimensions of these tensions have remained largely unexplored. This article firstly reviews the available literature addressing social media and employment, outlining three primary sources of contestation: profiling, disparaging posts and blogs, and private use of social media during work time. In each area, the key dynamics and underlying concerns of the central actors involved are identified. The article then seeks to canvas explanations for these forms of contestation associated with social media at work. It is argued that the architecture of social media disrupts traditional relations in organisational life by driving employer and employee actions that (re)shape and (re)constitute the boundaries between public and private spheres. Although employers and employees are using the same social technologies, their respective concerns about and points of entry to these technologies, in contrast to traditional manifestations of conflict and resistance, are asymmetric. The article concludes with a representational summary of the relative legitimacy of concerns for organisational actors and outlines areas for future research.

Powering innovation through tax concessions: The changing research & development tax incentives

The changes to the R&D tax concession in 2011 were touted as the biggest reform to business innovation policy in over a decade. Three years later, as part of the 2014 Federal Budget, a reduction in the concession rates was announced. While the most recent of the pro-posed changes are designed to align with the reduction in company tax rate, the Australian Federal Government also indicated that the gain to revenue from the reduction in the incentive scheme will be redirected by the Government to repair the Budget and fund policy priori-ties. The consequence is that the R&D concessions, while designed to encourage innovation, are clearly linked with the tax system. As such, the first part of this article considers whether the R&D concession is a changing tax for changing times. Leading on from part one, this article also addresses a second question of ‘what’s tax got to do with it’? To answer this question, the article argues that, rather than ever being substantive tax reform, the constantly changing measures simply alter the criteria and means by which companies become eligible for a Federal Government subsidy for qualifying R&D activity, whatever that amount is. It further argues that when considered as part of the broader innovation agenda, all R&D tax concessions should be evaluated as a government spending program in the same way as any direct spending on innovation. When this is done, the tax regime is arguably merely the administrative policy instrument by which the subsidy is delivered. However, this may not be best practice to distribute those funds fairly, efficiently, and without distortion, while at the same time maintaining adequate government control and accountability. Finally, in answering the question of ‘what’s tax got to do with it?’ the article concludes that the answer is: very little.

The small business CGT concessions: Evidence from the perspective of the tax practitioner

On 21 September 1999 Division 152 was inserted into the Income Tax Assessment Act (1997) (ITAA 1997). Division 152 contains the small business CGT concessions, which enables eligible small business taxpayers to reduce the amount of tax payable on capital gains arising from certain CGT events that occur after 11:45 am on 21 September 1999. One of the principal objectives of the legislation is to provide a concessionary regime for small business owners who do not have the same ability to access the concessionary superannuation regime generally available to employees. When announcing the introduction of the concessions the then Federal Treasurer, Mr Peter Costello, specifically stated that the objective of Division 152 was to provide ‘small business people with access to funds for retirement or expansion’. The purpose of this article is to: one, assess the extent to which small business taxpayers understand the CGT small business concessions, particularly when considering the sale of their business; two, determine which of the four small business CGT concessions are most commonly adopted and/or recommended by tax practitioners to clients; and three, to determine whether the superannuation changes in relation to the capping of the concessional superannuation thresholds have had an impact on the use of the small business retirement concession.

The birthday cake: Social relations and professional practices around mealtimes with toddlers and child care

Events that involve food and eating are important parts of the daily routine in which adults and children participate in child care settings. These events can be viewed as cultural practices because they involve certain everyday ways of acting, thinking or feeling (Grusec JE et al, Child Dev 71(1): 205–211, 2000). The cultural practices around food and eating symbolise and guide the social relations, emotions, social structures and behaviours of the participants. Identities and roles for the participants are created in these practices, marked by ambiguity, movement and fluidity through ongoing processes of negotiation (Punch S et al, Child Geogr 8(3): 227–232, 2010). The formal professional systems that guide these practices in early education and care programs often focus on the nutritional value of the food, while the children and teachers involved in these mealtime events account for the intersubjective experiences. Mealtimes provide opportunities for children and teachers to interact and co-construct meaning around the situations that arise. Of special interest in this research are teachers’ and children’s intentions for communication in the context of events involving food and eating and the kind of learning embedded in the communications that occur. Throughout this chapter, these events are referred to as mealtimes. This study is informed by phenomenological theory which aims to reach understandings about interactions and their meaning from the perspective of the participating individuals.

Emerging from the shadows: Tax as a research discipline (Editorial)

More than ever, research is playing an important part in supporting proposed tax reforms and finding solutions to Australia’s tax system. Also, for tax academics the importance of quality research is critical in an increasingly competitive tertiary environment. However, life for an academic can be an isolating experience at time, especially if one’s expertise is in an area that many of their immediate colleagues do not share an interest in. Collegiately and the ability to be able to discuss research is seen as critical in fostering the next generation of academics. It is with this in mind that on the 5th of July 2010 the Inaugural Queensland Tax Teachers’ Symposium was hosted by Griffith University at its Southbank campus. The aim was to bring together for one day tax academics in Queensland, and further afield, to present their current research projects and encourage independent tax research. If was for this reason that the symposium was later re-named the Queensland Tax Researchers’ Symposium (QTRS) to reflect its emphasis. The Symposium has been held annually mid-year on four occasions with in excess of 120 attendees over this period. The fifth QTRS is planned for June 2014 to be hosted by James Cook University.

Psychological essentialism, implicit theories, and intergroup relations

Research on implicit person theories shows that beliefs about the malleability of human attributes have important implications for social cognition, interpersonal behavior, and intergroup relations. We argue that these implications can be understood within the framework of psychological essentialism, which extends work on implicit theories in promising directions. We review evidence that immutability beliefs covary with a broader set of essentialist beliefs, and that these essentialist beliefs are associated with stereotyping and prejudice. We then present recent studies indicating that associations between implicit person theories and stereotyping may be explained in terms of essentialist beliefs, implying a significant role for these beliefs in the psychology of group perception. Finally, we propose ways in which research and theory on essentialist beliefs might clarify and advance research on implicit person theories.

Making trouble: Ethnographic designs on ruling relations for students and teachers in non-academic pathways

Since 2009, all Australian states require young people to be ‘earning or learning’ until age 17. Secondary schools and vocational colleges now accommodate students for whom the conventional academic pathways of the past were not designed. The paper reflects on a project designed to explore the moral orders in these institutional settings for managing such students in extended compulsory schooling. Originally designed as classroom ethnographies, the project involved observations over three to four weeks and interviews with teachers and students in five sites in towns experiencing high youth unemployment. The project aimed to support teachers to work productively in such classrooms with such students, under the assumption that teachers orchestrate classroom interactions. However, it became clear events in these classrooms were being shaped by relations and parties above and beyond the classroom, as much as by those present. Teachers and students were observed to both comply with, and push against, the layers of policy and institutional processes regulating their behaviours. This paper re-thinks the original project through the gaze and resources of institutional ethnography, to better account for the layers of accountabilities and documentation practices that impacted on both teacher and student behaviours. By tracing the extended webs of ‘ruling relations’, it shows both how teachers and students could make trouble for the institutional moral order, and then be held accountable for this trouble.

Why a movie tax will make even more of us pirates

In a nation of rampant illegal downloaders, a tax on movies and television downloads is the last thing we need. Australian consumers and content producers are among those likely to be worse off should Joe Hockey succeed in his efforts to extend GST to online video-on-demand services like Netflix. It is easy to see why Mr Hockey and his state treasurer counterparts have reportedly agreed to this move. That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.