On the efficacy of key corporate governance recommendations in mid-tier companies : window-dressing or value-adding?

This paper examins the relationship between firm performance and key board and audit committee variables in a sample of mid-tier listed Australian firms. Unlike the UK where the corporate governance Code specifically outlines special arrangements for companies outside the FTSE 350 index, the ASX Corporate Governance recommendations make no special provisions for mid-tier companies. Consequently, mid-tier Australian companies may be expending scarce resources in conforming with recommendations that are not value-creating.

The rise of englightened shareholder primacy and its impact on US corporate self-regulation

Enlightened shareholder primacy (“ESP”) is a new approach in the corporate governance (“CG”) framework. The emergence of this approach is important owing to its role in answering a vital question: is the company really a private organisation to be seen only through the economic prism of contract? Or is it public and about a wider group of interests and underwritten by communitarian concern about social responsibility? Apart from answering this question, ESP explains the changes in corporate directors’ roles and self-regulation strategies of companies.

Development of a new regulatory model for occupational health and safety in the New South Wales coal industry: an issues paper for the New South Wales Department of Mineral Resources

This paper addresses the regulatory issues arising in developing a new regulatory model for the New South Wales Coal Industry. As such, it identifies the relevant literature on this subject, the options available for reform, and the experience of Australian and key international bodies responsible for the development of regulatory standards in this area. In particular it: Identifies the main shortcomings in the existing regulatory approach; Identifies the potential roles/main strengths and weaknesses of different types of standards (eg specification, performance, process and systems-based rules) and potential “best practice’ combinations of standards; Examines the appropriateness of the current regulatory regime whereby the general OHS legislation (including the general duty provisions) applies to mining in addition to the large body of regulation which is specific to mining; Identifies the importance of, and possible means of addressing, issues of worker participation within the coal mining industry; Draws on the literature on what motivates companies and individuals for the purpose of recommending key provisions for inclusion in new legislation to provide appropriate personal and organisational incentives; Draws on the literature on major hazards facilities to suggest the appropriate roles for OHS management systems and safety reports or comparable approaches (eg mine safety management plans); Draws on the United Kingdom (UK) and United States of America (USA) experience of coal mine safety and its regulation for comparative purposes, and for insights as to what sort of regulation most effectively reduces work related injury and disease in coal mining; Examines the relevant roles of International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions; Examines the extent to which different regulatory regimes would be appropriate to open cut and underground coal mining; and Examines options for reform. This paper is focussed specifically on the issues identified above.

Social Justice Impacts of the Resources Boom

Until the 1970s mining leases were issued by state governments subject to conditions that companies build or substantially finance local community infrastructure, including housing, streets, transport, schools, hospitals and recreation facilities. Townships and communities went hand in hand with mining development. However, in the past thirty years mining companies have moved progressively to an expeditionary strategy for natural resources extraction - operating a continuous production cycle of 12 hour shifts - increasingly reliant on non-resident, fly-in, fly-out or drive-in, drive-out (FIFO/DIDO) workers who typically work block rosters, reside in work camps adjacent to existing communities and travel large distances from their homes. This paper presents the key findings of our survey into the social impacts of this kind of mining development in Qld. Based on the results we argue that the social license to develop new mining projects is strong for projects requiring a 25% or less non-resident workforce, diminishes significantly thereafter and is very weak for projects planning to recruit a non-resident workforce in excess of 75%. This finding is significant because there are at least 67 new mining projects undergoing social impact assessment in Queensland, and many it appears are planning to hire significant proportions of non-resident workers. The paper considers the policy implications of this growing social justice issue concluding there is a clear need for national leadership in formulating a national policy framework for guiding socially responsible and sustainable mining development into the next millennium.

Prevention of Pollution of the Marine Environment from Vessels : The Potential and Limits of the International Maritime Organisation

--Critically discusses the role of International Maritime Organization (IMO) in the protection of the marine environment --Presents a clear, updated, concise and critical overview of the IMO marine environmental legal instruments --A fresh outlook on the north-south tensions in the IMO marine environmental discourses --Critically examines the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities in the context of IMO This book examines the role of The International Maritime Organization (IMO) in the prevention and control of pollution of the marine environment from vessels with a particular reference to the current north-south tensions regarding the strategy for combating climate change in the maritime sector as well as the prevention of marine pollution from the ship-breaking industry. The IMO, a United Nations specialized agency, has been entrusted with the duty to provide machinery for cooperation among governments for the prevention and control of pollution of the marine environment from vessels. The organization is responsible for drafting legal instruments as well as for facilitating technical cooperation for the protection of the marine environment. Although IMO legal instruments are mainly targeted at the prevention of pollution of the marine environment from vessels, there is a trend towards a liberal interpretation of this, and the organization has expanded its work to areas like shipbreaking, which is essentially a land-based industry.

Graduated driver licensing : an international review

Graduated driver licensing (GDL) aims to gradually increase the exposure of new drivers to more complex driving situations and typically consists of learner, provisional and open licence phases. The first phase, the learner licence, is designed to allow novice drivers to obtain practical driving experience in lower risk situations. The learner licence can delay licensure, encourage novice drivers to learn under supervision, mandate the number of hours of practice required to progress to the next phase and encourage parental involvement. The second phase, the provisional licence, establishes various driving restrictions and thereby reduces exposure to situations of higher risk, such as driving at night, with passengers or after drinking alcohol. Parental involvement with a GDL system appears essential in helping novices obtain sufficient practice and in enforcing compliance with restrictions once the new driver obtains a provisional licence. Given the significant number of young drivers involved in crashes within Oman, GDL is one countermeasure that may be beneficial in reducing crash risk and involvement for this group.

Advances in the science of objective physical activity monitoring : 3rd International Conference on Ambulatory Monitoring of Physical Activity and Movement

Editorial: This theme issue of BJSM presents key papers from the 3rd International Conference on Ambulatory Monitoring of Physical Activity and Movement (ICAMPAM). The July 2013 conference was hosted by the University of Massachusetts and was attended by researchers, clinicians, students and technology vendors for North America, Europe, Australasia and Asia...

Data as an asset : what the upstream oil & gas industry can learn about ‘big data’ from companies like Facebook

The upstream oil & gas industry has been contending with massive data sets and monolithic files for many years, but “Big Data”—that is, the ability to apply more sophisticated types of analytical tools to information in a way that extracts new insights or creates new forms of value—is a relatively new concept that has the potential to significantly re-shape the industry. Despite the impressive amount of value that is being realized by Big Data technologies in other parts of the marketplace, however, much of the data collected within the oil & gas sector tends to be discarded, ignored, or analyzed in a very cursory way. This paper examines existing data management practices in the upstream oil & gas industry, and compares them to practices and philosophies that have emerged in organizations that are leading the Big Data revolution. The comparison shows that, in companies that are leading the Big Data revolution, data is regarded as a valuable asset. The presented evidence also shows, however, that this is usually not true within the oil & gas industry insofar as data is frequently regarded there as descriptive information about a physical asset rather than something that is valuable in and of itself. The paper then discusses how upstream oil & gas companies could potentially extract more value from data, and concludes with a series of specific technical and management-related recommendations to this end.

Old mastheads and new media : newspapers striving to adapt in Australia and South-east Asia

As a key element in their response to new media forcing transformations in mass media and media use, newspapers have deployed various strategies to not only establish online and mobile products, and develop healthy business plans, but to set out to be dominant portals. Their response to change was the subject of an early investigation by one of the present authors (Keshvani 2000). That was part of a set of short studies inquiring into what impact new software applications and digital convergence might have on journalism practice (Tickle and Keshvani 2000), and also looking for demonstrations of the way that innovations, technologies and protocols then under development might produce a “wireless, streamlined electronic news production process (Tickle and Keshvani 2001).” The newspaper study compared the online products of The Age in Melbourne and the Straits Times in Singapore. It provided an audit of the Singapore and Australia Information and Communications Technology (ICT) climate concentrating on the state of development of carrier networks, as a determining factor in the potential strength of the two services with their respective markets. In the outcome, contrary to initial expectations, the early cable roll-out and extensive ‘wiring’ of the city in Singapore had not produced a level of uptake of Internet services as strong as that achieved in Melbourne by more ad hoc and varied strategies. By interpretation, while news websites and online content were at an early stage of development everywhere, and much the same as one another, no determining structural imbalance existed to separate these leading media participants in Australia and South-east Asia. The present research revisits that situation, by again studying the online editions of the two large newspapers in the original study, and one other, The Courier Mail, (recognising the diversification of types of product in this field, by including it as a representative of Newscorp, now a major participant). The inquiry works through the principle of comparison. It is an exercise in qualitative, empirical research that establishes a comparison between the situation in 2000 as described in the earlier work, and the situation in 2014, after a decade of intense development in digital technology affecting the media industries. It is in that sense a follow-up study on the earlier work, although this time giving emphasis to content and style of the actual products as experienced by their users. It compares the online and print editions of each of these three newspapers; then the three mastheads as print and online entities, among themselves; and finally it compares one against the other two, as representing a South-east Asian model and Australian models. This exercise is accompanied by a review of literature on the developments in ICT affecting media production and media organisations, to establish the changed context. The new study of the online editions is conducted as a systematic appraisal of the first level, or principal screens, of the three publications, over the course of six days (10-15.2.14 inclusive). For this, categories for analysis were made, through conducting a preliminary examination of the products over three days in the week before. That process identified significant elements of media production, such as: variegated sourcing of materials; randomness in the presentation of items; differential production values among media platforms considered, whether text, video or stills images; the occasional repurposing and repackaging of top news stories of the day and the presence of standard news values – once again drawn out of the trial ‘bundle’ of journalistic items. Reduced in this way the online artefacts become comparable with the companion print editions from the same days. The categories devised and then used in the appraisal of the online products have been adapted to print, to give the closest match of sets of variables. This device, to study the two sets of publications on like standards -- essentially production values and news values—has enabled the comparisons to be made. This comparing of the online and print editions of each of the three publications was set up as up the first step in the investigation. In recognition of the nature of the artefacts, as ones that carry very diverse information by subject and level of depth, and involve heavy creative investment in the formulation and presentation of the information; the assessment also includes an open section for interpreting and commenting on main points of comparison. This takes the form of a field for text, for the insertion of notes, in the table employed for summarising the features of each product, for each day. When the sets of comparisons as outlined above are noted, the process then becomes interpretative, guided by the notion of change. In the context of changing media technology and publication processes, what substantive alterations have taken place, in the overall effort of news organisations in the print and online fields since 2001; and in their print and online products separately? Have they diverged or continued along similar lines? The remaining task is to begin to make inferences from that. Will the examination of findings enforce the proposition that a review of the earlier study, and a forensic review of new models, does provide evidence of the character and content of change --especially change in journalistic products and practice? Will it permit an authoritative description on of the essentials of such change in products and practice? Will it permit generalisation, and provide a reliable base for discussion of the implications of change, and future prospects? Preliminary observations suggest a more dynamic and diversified product has been developed in Singapore, well themed, obviously sustained by public commitment and habituation to diversified online and mobile media services. The Australian products suggest a concentrated corporate and journalistic effort and deployment of resources, with a strong market focus, but less settled and ordered, and showing signs of limitations imposed by the delay in establishing a uniform, large broadband network. The scope of the study is limited. It is intended to test, and take advantage of the original study as evidentiary material from the early days of newspaper companies’ experimentation with online formats. Both are small studies. The key opportunity for discovery lies in the ‘time capsule’ factor; the availability of well-gathered and processed information on major newspaper company production, at the threshold of a transformational decade of change in their industry. The comparison stands to identify key changes. It should also be useful as a reference for further inquiries of the same kind that might be made, and for monitoring of the situation in regard to newspaper portals on line, into the future.

The influence of social media on international students' choice of university and course

This thesis is a qualitative study of the influence of social media on the university and course decision making process of international students. It examines the role of social media in influencing international students' decisions on course and university selection and the role of social media in meeting their information needs. It also gathered inputs on how universities could engage, collaborate and communicate using social media communities and channels for more effective recruitment strategies.

An Australian perspective on the ALI-III global principles for cooperation in International insolvency cases

In 2012, Professor Ian Fletcher (United Kingdom) and Professor Bob Wessels (The Netherlands) presented a Report to the American Law Institute and the International Insolvency Institute entitled Transnational Insolvency: Global Principles for Cooperation in International Insolvency Cases (“Global Principles”). This followed their appointment as Joint Reporters to investigate whether the essential provisions of the American Law Institute Principles of Cooperation among the North American Free Trade Agreement Countries with their annexed Guidelines Applicable to Court-to-Court Communication in Cross-border Cases may, with certain necessary modifications, be acceptable for use by jurisdictions across the world. This article comments on the Global Principles from the perspective of a jurisdiction which has adopted the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-border Insolvency (“Model Law”). In 2008, Australia enacted a standalone statute, the Cross-border Insolvency Act 2008 (Cth) to which is annexed the Model Law. In that process, it made minimal changes to the Model Law text. Against the background of the 2008 Act, related procedural laws as well as Australia’s general insolvency statutes and recent cross-border insolvency jurisprudence, this article comments on the potential relevance of the Transnational Insolvency Report as a point of reference for Australian courts and insolvency administrators when addressing international insolvency cases. By comparing the Global Principles with the Model Law as closely adopted in Australia, this analysis is a resource for other Model Law jurisdictions when considering the potential relevance of the Global Principles for their own international insolvency practice.

Developments in court to court communications in International insolvency cases

As business increasingly operates on a global basis, courts are called upon more often to adjudicate insolvency cases with international connections. The financial collapse of Lehman Brothers Holding Inc (‘Lehman Holdings’) provides a recent example where courts across many jurisdictions were called upon to determine issues arising from a multistate insolvent enterprise. Lehman Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States on 15 September 2008. Lehman Brothers was the fourth largest investment bank in America and the largest company ever to file for bankruptcy in the United States. However the effects of its collapse were felt worldwide, including within Australia.

University life and Australian homes : three case studies of international Muslim students in Brisbane

Despite a significant increase in enrolments of postgraduate international Muslim students within Australian universities, little is known about their perceptions of life within Australian homes while undertaking their studies. The aim of this study is to investigate the ways in which students’ cultural and religious traditions affect their use of domestic spaces within the homes in which they reside. The research found that participants faced some minor difficulties in achieving privacy, maintaining modesty and extending hospitality while able to perform their daily activities in Australian designed homes. The findings suggest that greater research attention needs to be given to the development of Australian home designs that are adaptable to the needs of a multicultural society. Australian society encompasses diverse cultural customs and requirements with respect to home design, and these are yet to be explored.