Seeing a hard country : Lawrence’s Australian landscape

In 1944 Australian author Eleanor Dark wrote that Australia is a hard country for an outsider to see, citing, in evidence, the writing of the “strange, foreign-looking little man with the beard” -- the self-described by D. H. Lawrence. According to Dark, Lawrence was bewildered by Australia because what his eyes saw was not what they were accustomed to seeing. Kangaroo, she wrote, suggests one long, tormented effort to see. Lawrence appears, for Dark, to be half-blind, struggling, and irritated almost beyond belief with his visit to New South Wales. Eleanor Dark wrote this critique in 1944, long after Lawrence’s 1922 visit, but for her, as for other Australian writers, Kangaroo continued to register as an important book, even if the content rankled. Katharine Susannah Prichard and Christina Stead, both advocates in general of Lawrence, likewise rejected the tenor of Kangaroo, although Lawrence would not have been worried about the response. In 1929 he referred to his irritation with Australia in letters to P.R. “Inky” Stephensen, the Australian nationalist and publisher, and he does not seem to have changed his opinions since writing Kangaroo. Yet the novel continued to be significant for Australian writers, even if as a provocation. My discussion traces the responses of the women authors to Kangaroo, and refers to Lawrence’s letters to Stephensen, as a way of emphasizing this significance, seen especially in relation to ideas about ‘seeing’ and the Australian landscape.

Volunteers :what we need to find out(and why we need to do it)

Public interest in volunteering in Australia has markedly escalated over the past five years, reflected in a number of publications in the popular, professional and academic press. This interest is welcome, and in many ways, is long overdue. Volunteers, or employing a term we find more useful, voluntarism is important for a number of reasons, not least of which is its structural role in the social institutions we have developed to support people, manage dependencies and facilitate a range of developmental activities across the life span. Voluntarism is an extremely complex social phenomenon. Conceptually, it transcends the sum of its parts, in that it is more than a simple aggregation of instances of individual behaviours. Our core argument here is that this complexity is such that equally intricate and multi-faceted perspectives and models need to be employed to further our understanding. In academic speak, this means that we need to develop analytical frameworks that draw on the breadth and depth of the social sciences...

Front page schools, back page schools : a case study of factors perceived to affect academic performance in five Papua New Guinea secondary schools

Papua New Guinea has reformed its colonial established education system and made huge investments with the help of donors to achieve equal access and quality education for all its citizens. Despite this national aspiration and these policy reforms and investments, secondary schools that enrol grade 9 students who are relatively equal in education ability show huge disparities in their grade 10 academic performances. This study examined perceptions of students, teachers and principals regarding factors affecting the disparity in academic performance in the context of a developing country. The central question for the study is: What are the perceptions of students and teachers of the factors that affect disparities in secondary schools' academic performance? This qualitative case study involved two high and three low academic performing secondary schools in Western Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. Primary data were collected through focus groups and semi-structured interviews involving 112 participants. Students and teachers are key participants in this study, as it intends to find out the realities of schools, yet they are an under-researched group. A postcolonial and sense of community conceptual framework was developed for the analysis of the participants. perceptions. In addition, scholarship on school effectiveness and equity in education informed the interpretation of the findings. Three themes were evident in participants. views. First, participants expressed their view that differences in academic performance were related to the adequacy and equitability of resources. The inequities in resource inputs led some of them to coin the metaphor of .back page and front page. schools. Second, many expressed the view that deficiencies in implementing bilingual education, given the difficulty of catering for 800 vernacular languages, contribute to poor English proficiency and subsequent poor academic performance. Finally, participants believed that, in order to have a positive school culture, it is necessary for educators to recognise and respect contemporary students. identities, communal/tribal membership and needs. This study has implications for national education policy on resource allocation to address equality and equity, bilingual education and teacher education. Moreover, as the study found that high academic performance in this context is also influenced by intra-school social relationships, these relationships need to be nurtured. When appropriately nurtured, they become an important factor in sustaining quality education for all secondary school students. This thesis has laid the foundations for further research and invites further investigations into policy and implementation of school reforms aimed at improving academic achievement.

Launch of the BMA chair in Indigenous engagement

I begin by offering a formal acknowledgement to the Darumbal people. I thank Wade Mann for his Welcome as a member of the Darumbal people and the Dance Troupe for dancing on this day. I thank the other people who are here today from other Country that surrounds and borders Darumbal Country and on which this university also works: the Woppaburra; Gungalou; Bidjara; Gurang Gurang; Birri Gubba; and others. I thank the members of the Fitzroy Basin Elders for supporting this event...

Creating new possibilities : using design processes to overcome constraints

This paper describes how a team from a large company, when faced with a challenge to develop new customers in fast growing international markets, carried out the exploration of the needs of new clients in the largely unexplored market space of a developing country. This team used design methods and processes to identify the latent needs of new customers in situations of major economic, geographical, cultural and financial constraints. This encapsulation of the life experiences of potential customers is used extensively in some new product development, but is largely novel to business practices and in processes of developing new services. This research links with the sub-theme of discovering creativity in necessity and highlights the potential benefits of design methodologies to create new possibilities for better accessibility of the company’s products to new clients, with future implications for organizational strategy. The overall theme of Design for the Colloquium encourages exploration of the ways and means of developing new ideas for new business with better outcomes, using design concepts and design technologies.

Fatalism and its implications for risky road use and receptiveness to safety messages : a qualitative investigation in Pakistan

Given the increasing vehicle numbers and expanding road construction in developing countries, the importance of safe road user behaviour is critical. Road traffic crashes (RTC) are a significant problem in Pakistan, however the factors that contribute to RTC in Pakistan are not well-researched. Fatalistic beliefs are a potential barrier to the enhancement of road safety, especially participation in health-promoting and injury prevention behaviours, and also contribute to risk-taking. Fatalistic beliefs relating to road safety have been found in some developing countries, although again research is scarce and indicates that the nature and extent of fatalism differs in each country. Qualitative research was undertaken with a range of drivers, religious orators, police and policy makers to explore associations between fatalism, risky road use and associated issues. Findings indicate that fatalistic beliefs are pervasive in Pakistan, are strongly linked with religion, present a likely barrier to road safety messages and contribute to risky road use. Fatalism appears to be a default attribution of RTC and the intensity of belief in fate surpasses the kinds of fatalism noted in the limited existing literature. These findings have importance to developing road safety countermeasures in countries where fatalistic beliefs are strong.

The use of virtual prototyping to rehearse the sequence of construction work involving mobile cranes

Purpose – Rehearsing practical site operations is without doubt one of the most effective methods for minimising planning mistakes, because of the learning that takes place during the rehearsal activity. However, real rehearsal is not a practical solution for on-site construction activities, as it not only involves a considerable amount of cost but can also have adverse environmental implications. One approach to overcoming this is by the use of virtual rehearsals. The purpose of this paper is to investigate an approach to simulation of the motion of cranes in order to test the feasibility of associated construction sequencing and generate construction schedules for review and visualisation. Design/methodology/approach – The paper describes a system involving two technologies, virtual prototyping (VP) and four-dimensional (4D) simulation, to assist construction planners in testing the sequence of construction activities when mobile cranes are involved. The system consists of five modules, comprising input, database, equipment, process and output, and is capable of detecting potential collisions. A real-world trial is described in which the system was tested and validated. Findings – Feedback from the planners involved in the trial indicated that they found the system to be useful in its present form and that they would welcome its further development into a fully automated platform for validating construction sequencing decisions. Research limitations/implications – The tool has the potential to provide a cost-effective means of improving construction planning. However, it is limited at present to the specific case of crane movement under special consideration. Originality/value – This paper presents a large-scale, real life case of applying VP technology in planning construction processes and activities.

Enabling access to research data in developing countries : designing a policy and practice framework for Malaysia’s Public Research Universities

Members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are obliged to implement the Agreement on Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights 1994 (TRIPS) which establishes minimum standards for the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights. Almost two decades after TRIPS was adopted at the conclusion of the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations, it is widely accepted that intellectual property systems in developing and least-developed countries must be consistent with, and serve, their development needs and objectives. In adopting the Development Agenda in 2007, the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) emphasised the importance to developing and least-developed countries of being able to obtain access to knowledge and technology and to participate in collaborations and exchanges with research and scientific institutions in other countries. Access to knowledge, information and technology is crucial if creativity and innovation is to be fostered in developing and least-developed countries. It is particularly important that developing and least-developed countries give effect to their TRIPS obligations by implementing intellectual property systems and adopting intellectual property management practices that enable them to benefit from knowledge flows and support their engagement in international research and science collaborations. However, developing and least-developed countries did not participate in the deliberations leading to the adoption in 2004 by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries of the Ministerial Declaration on Access to Research Data from Public Funding, nor have they formulated policies on access to publicly funded research outputs such as those developed by the National Institutes of Health in the United States, the United Kingdom Research Councils or the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council. These issues are considered from the viewpoint of Malaysia, a developing country whose economy has grown strongly in recent years. Lacking an established policy covering access to the outputs of publicly funded research, data sharing and licensing practices continue to be fragmented. Obtaining access to research data requires arrangements to be negotiated with individual data owners and custodians. Given the potential for restrictions on access to impact negatively on scientific progress and development in Malaysia, measures are required to ensure that access to knowledge and research results is facilitated. This paper proposes a policy framework for Malaysia‘s public research universities that recognises intellectual property rights while enabling the open access to research data that is essential for innovation and development. It also considers how intellectual property rights in research data can be managed in order to give effect to the policy‘s open access objectives.

Striving to achieve best practice in heart failure disease management

Based on a national audit of chronic heart failure (CHF) management programmes (CHF-MPs) conducted in 2006, Driscoll et al identified a disproportionate distribution ranging from 0 to 4.2 programmes/million population in the various states of Australia with many programmes not following best practice.1 We welcome their proposal to develop national benchmarks for CHF management and acknowledge the contributions of the Heart Foundation and health professionals in finalising these recommendations.2 We would like to share the Queensland experience in striving towards best practice with the number of CHF-MPs increasing from four (at the time of the 2006 survey) to 23, equating to 5.0 programmes/million population. Queensland now has a state-wide heart failure service steering committee with a focus on the development of CHF-MPs supported by a central coordinator...

Submission to the Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee - Youth Justice (Boot Camp Orders) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2012

This submission addresses the Youth Justice (Boot Camp Orders) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2012 which has as its objectives (1) the introduction of a Boot Camp Order as an option instead of detention for young offenders and (2) the removal of the option of court referred youth justice conferencing for young offenders. As members of the QUT Faculty of Law Centre for Crime and Justice we welcome the invitation to participate in the discussion of these issues which are critically important to the Queensland community at large but especially to our young people.

Socioeconomic status and health outcomes in a developing country

Although the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and health is well documented for developed countries, less evidence has been presented for developing countries. The aim of this paper is to analyse this relationship at the household level for Fiji, a developing country in the South Pacific, using original household survey data. To allow for the endogeneity of SES status in the household health production function, we utilize a simultaneous equation approach where estimates are achieved by full information maximum likelihood. By restricting our sample to one, relatively small island, and including area and district hospital effects, physical geography effects are unpacked from income effects. We measure SES, as permanent income which is constructed using principal components analysis. An alternative specification considers transitory household income. We find that a 1% increase in wealth (our measure of permanent income) would lead to a 15% decrease in the probability of an incapacitating illness occurring intra-household. Although the presence of a strong relationship indicates that relatively small improvements in SES status can significantly improve health at the household level, it is argued that the design of appropriate policy would also require an understanding of the various mechanisms through which the relationship operates.

Job satisfaction in haemodialysis nurses : results from a two country study

• Australian nurses report lower levels of job satisfaction than the broader working population and perceive they have limited influence over important workplace decisions. • Higher levels of nurse job satisfaction is positively linked to improved quality of care, patient outcomes and staff retention. • Identifying factors that contribute to job satisfaction can improve retention of highly skilled and specialised haemodialysis nurses. • Contributors to job satisfaction and current levels of job satisfaction are poorly understood in the Australia and New Zealand context.

Why do policy decision-makers opt for command and control environmental regulation? An economic analysis with special reference to Sri Lanka

This chapter examines why policy decision-makers opt for command and control environmental regulation despite the availability of a plethora of market-based instruments which are more efficient and cost-effective. Interestingly, Sri Lanka has adopted a wholly command and control system, during both the pre and post liberalisation economic policies. This chapter first examines the merits and demerits of command and control and market-based approaches and then looks at Sri Lanka’s extensive environmental regulatory framework. The chapter then examines the likely reasons as to why the country has gone down the path of inflexible regulatory measures and has become entrenched in them. The various hypotheses are discussed and empirical evidence is provided. The chapter also discusses the consequences of an environmentally slack economy and policy implications stemming from adopting a wholly regulatory approach. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the main results.

The challenges in developing a strategic approach to managing diversity

Diversity management is recognised as a major challenge for organizations throughout the world. There is broad acceptance that when it comes to all aspects of workforce management major differences exist among individuals in terms of age, gender, national origin, physical capability, sexuality, religion and others. This chapter discusses the concept, meaning and application of managing that difference or ‘diversity’ through programs known as diversity management. It identifies and discusses the different contextual and theoretical approaches that frame diversity programs found in organizations today. A number of programs within different country contexts are examined. The discussion examines the challenges of diversity management its programs and its outcomes with a view to understanding the lessons learned and recommending future directions.

Achieving safe road use in a rapidly motorising country : The influence of longstanding beliefs on risky driver behaviour in Pakistan

Road crashes are one of the most significant public health problems in Pakistan; however the factors that contribute to road crashes in Pakistan are not well-researched. Traditional beliefs and values can act as a barrier to health-promoting and injury prevention behaviours, in general and especially in relation to road safety, and may also contribute to risk-taking behaviours. Such beliefs can present significant challenges for health advocates who aim to change behaviour in order to avert road crashes and diminish their consequences. Qualitative research was undertaken in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Lahore with a range of drivers, religious orators, police and policy makers to explore cultural and religious beliefs and their association with risky road use, and to understand how they might affect development of road safety interventions. The findings highlight a range of issues, including the identification of aspects of beliefs that have complex social implications when designing safety intervention strategies. The pervasive nature of religious and superstitious beliefs in Pakistan can affect road user behaviour by reinforcing the presumption that the individual has no part to play in safety, thereby supporting continued risk taking behaviour. It is anticipated that the findings could be used to inform the design of interventions aimed at influencing broad-spectrum health attitudes and practices among the communities where such beliefs are prevalent.