A summary view of government cost recovery policies in Australia and New Zealand relating to the supply of public sector information

Researching administrative history is problematical. A trail of authoritative documents is often hard to find; and useful summaries can be difficult to organise, especially if source material is in paper formats in geographically dispersed locations. In the absence of documents, the reasons for particular decisions and the rationale underpinning particular policies can be confounded as key personnel advance in their professions and retire. The rationale for past decisions may be lost for practical purposes; and if an organisation’s memory of events is diminished, its learning through experience is also diminished. Publishing this document tries to avoid unnecessary duplication of effort by other researchers that need to venture into how policies of charging for public sector information have been justified. The author compiled this work within a somewhat limited time period and the work does not pretend to be a complete or comprehensive analysis of the issues.----- A significant part of the role of government is to provide a framework of legally-enforceable rights and obligations that can support individuals and non-government organisations in their lawful activities. Accordingly, claims that governments should be more ‘business-like’ need careful scrutiny. A significant supply of goods and services occurs as non-market activity where neither benefits nor costs are quantified within conventional accounting systems or in terms of money. Where a government decides to provide information as a service; and information from land registries is archetypical, the transactions occur as a political decision made under a direct or a clearly delegated authority of a parliament with the requisite constitutional powers. This is not a market transaction and the language of the market confuses attempts to describe a number of aspects of how governments allocate resources.----- Cost recovery can be construed as an aspect of taxation that is a sole prerogative of a parliament. The issues are fundamental to political constitutions; but they become more complicated where states cede some taxing powers to a central government as part of a federal system. Nor should the absence of markets be construed necessarily as ‘market failure’ or even ‘government failure’. The absence is often attributable to particular technical, economic and political constraints that preclude the operation of markets. Arguably, greater care is needed in distinguishing between the polity and markets in raising revenues and allocating resources; and that needs to start by removing unhelpful references to ‘business’ in the context of government decision-making.

ePortfolio use by university students in Australia: A review of the Australian ePortfolio Project

In October 2008, the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) released the final report for the commissioned project ePortfolio use by university students in Australia: Informing excellence in policy and practice. The Australian ePortfolio Project represented the first attempt to examine the breadth and depth of ePortfolio practice in the Australian higher education sector. The research activities included surveys of stakeholder groups in learning and teaching, academic management and human resource management, with respondents representing all Australian universities; a series of focus groups and semi-structured interviews which sought to explore key issues in greater depth; and surveys designed to capture students’ pre-course expectations and their post-course experiences of ePortfolio learning. Further qualitative data was collected through interviews with ‘mature users’ of ePortfolios. Project findings revealed that, while there was a high level of interest in the use of ePortfolios in terms of the potential to help students become reflective learners who were conscious of their personal and professional strengths and weaknesses, the state of play in Australian universities was very fragmented. The project investigation identified four individual, yet interrelated, contexts where strategies may be employed to support and foster effective ePortfolio practice in higher education: government policy, technical standards, academic policy, and learning and teaching. Four scenarios for the future were also presented with the goal of stimulating discussion about opportunities for stakeholder engagement. It is argued that the effective use of ePortfolios requires open dialogue and collaboration between the different stakeholders across this range of contexts.

ePortfolio use by university students in Australia: Informing excellence in policy and practice

In mid 2007, the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC), formerly the Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, commissioned an intensive research project to examine the use of ePortfolios by university students in Australia. The project was awarded to a consortium of four universities: Queensland University of Technology as lead institution, The University of Melbourne, University of New England and University of Wollongong.---------- The overarching aim of the research project, which was given the working title of the Australian ePortfolio Project, was to examine the current levels of ePortfolio practice in Australian higher education. The principal project goals sought to provide an overview and analysis of the national and international ePortfolio contexts, document the types of ePortfolios used in Australian higher education, examine the relationship with the National Diploma Supplement project funded by the Federal government, identify any significant issues relating to ePortfolio implementation, and offer guidance about future opportunities for ePortfolio development. The research findings revealed that there was a high level of interest in the use of ePortfolios in the context of higher education, particularly in terms of the potential to help students become reflective learners who are conscious of their personal and professional strengths and weaknesses, as well as to make their existing and developing skills more explicit. There were some good examples of early adoption in different institutions, although this tended to be distributed across the sector. The greatest use of ePortfolios was recorded in coursework programs, rather than in research programs, with implementation generally reflecting subject-specific or program-based activity, as opposed to faculty- or university-wide activity. Accordingly, responsibility for implementation frequently rested with the individual teaching unit, although an alternative centralised model of coordination by ICT services, careers and employment or teaching and learning support was beginning to emerge. The project report concludes with a series of recommendations to guide the process, drawing on the need for open dialogue and effective collaboration between the stakeholders across the range of contexts: government policy, international technical standards, academic policy, and learning and teaching research and practice.

Reflection on the use of rating and score cards for asset and service assessment

The concept of star rating council facilities has progressively gained traction in Australia following the work of Dean Taylor at Marochy Shire Council in Queensland in 2006 – 2007 and more recently by the Victorian STEP asset management program. The following paper provides a brief discussion on the use and merits of star rating within community asset management. We suggest that the current adoption of the star rating system to manage community investment in services is lacking in consistency. It is suggested that the major failing is a lack of clear understanding in the purpose being served by the systems. The discussion goes on to make some recommendations on how the concept of a star system could be further enhanced to serve the needs of our communities better.

Characteristics of sustainable entrepreneurship : some early explorations from the CAUSEE study

Principal Topic: For forward thinking companies, the environment may represent the ''biggest opportunity for enterprise and invention the industrial world has ever seen'' (Cairncross 1990). Increasing awareness of environmental and sustainability issues through media including the promotion of Al Gore's ''An Inconvenient Truth'' has seen increased awareness of environmental and sustainability issues and increased demand for business processes that reduce detrimental environmental impacts of global development (Dean & McMullen 2007). The increased demand for more environmentally sensitive products and services represents an opportunity for the development of ventures that seek to satisfy this demand through entrepreneurial action. As a consequence, increasing recent market developments in renewable energy, carbon emissions, fuel cells, green building, and other sectors suggest an increasing importance of opportunities for environmental entrepreneurship (Dean and McMullen 2007) and increasingly important area of business activity (Schaper 2005). In the last decade in particular, big business has sought to develop a more ''sustainability/ green friendly'' orientation as a response to public pressure and increased government legislation and policy to improve environmental performance (Cohen and Winn 2007). Whilst much of the literature and media is littered with examples of sustainability practices of large firms, nascent and young sustainability firms have only recently begun generating strong research and policy interest (Shepherd, Kuskova and Patzelt 2009): not only for their potential to generate above average financial performance and returns owing to a greater popularity and demand towards sustainability products and services offerings, but also for their intent to lessen environmental impacts, and to provide a more accurate reflection of the ''true cost'' of market offerings taking into account carbon and environmental impacts. More specifically, researchers have suggested that although the previous focus has been on large firms and their impact on the environment, the estimated collective impact of entries and exits of nascent and young firms in development is substantial and could outweigh the combined environmental impact of large companies (Hillary, 2000). Therefore, it may be argued that greater attention should be paid to nascent and young firms and researching sustainability practices, for both their impact in reducing environmental impacts and potential higher financial performance. Whilst acknowledging this research only uses the first wave of a four year longitudinal study of nascent and young firms, it can still begin to provide initial analysis on which to continue further research. The aim of this paper therefore is to provide an overview of the emerging literature in sustainable entrepreneurship and to present some selected preliminary results from the first wave of the data collection, with comparison, where appropriate, of sustainable and firms that do not fulfil this criteria. ''One of the key challenges in evaluating sustainability entrepreneurship is the lack of agreement in how it is defined'' (Schaper, 2005: 10). Some evaluate sustainable entrepreneurs simply as one category of entrepreneurs with little difference between them and traditional entrepreneurs (Dees, 1998). Other research recognises values-based sustainable enterprises requiring a unique perspective (Parrish, 2005). Some see the environmental or sustainable entrepreneurship is a subset of social entrepreneurship (Cohen & Winn, 2007; Dean & McMullen, 2007) whilst others see it as a separate, distinct theory (Archer 2009). Following one of the first definitions of sustainability developed by the Brundtland Commission (1987) we define sustainable entrepreneurship as firms which ''seek to meet the needs and aspirations of the present without compromising the ability to meet those of the future''. ---------- Methodology/Key Propositions: In this exploratory paper we investigate sustainable entrepreneurship using Cohen et al.'s (2008) framework to identify strategies of nascent and young entrepreneurial firms. We use data from The Comprehensive Australian Study of Entrepreneurial Emergence (CAUSEE). This study shares the general empirical approach with PSED studies in the US (Reynolds et al 1994; Reynolds & Curtin 2008). The overall study uses samples of 727 nascent (not yet operational) firms and another 674 young firms, the latter being in an operational stage but less than four years old. To generate the sub sample of sustainability firms, we used content analysis techniques on firm titles, descriptions and product descriptions provided by respondents. Two independent coders used a predefined codebook developed from our review of the sustainability entrepreneurship literature (Cohen et al. 2009) to evaluate the content based on terms such as ''sustainable'' ''eco-friendly'' ''renewable energy'' ''environment'' amongst others. The inter-rater reliability was checked and the Kappa's co-efficient was found to be within the acceptable range (0.746). 85 firms fulfilled the criteria given for inclusion in the sustainability cohort. ---------- Results and Implications: The results for this paper are based on Wave one of the CAUSEE survey which has been completed and the data is available for analysis. It is expected that the findings will assist in beginning to develop an understanding of nascent and young firms that are driven to contribute to a society which is sustainable, not just from an economic perspective (Cohen et al 2008), but from an environmental and social perspective as well. The CAUSEE study provides an opportunity to compare the characteristics of sustainability entrepreneurs with entrepreneurial firms without a stated environmental purpose, which constitutes the majority of the new firms created each year, using a large scale novel longitudinal dataset. The results have implications for Government in the design of better conditions for the creation of new business, firms who assist sustainability in developing better advice programs in line with a better understanding of their needs and requirements, individuals who may be considering becoming entrepreneurs in high potential arenas and existing entrepreneurs make better decisions.

A study of green product industries in Taiwan

Based on the model of ‘The Smile of Value Creation' (Mudambi 2007) and the theory of concept marketing, this study aims to examine the top 20 Taiwanese environmental marks companies, and explore their circumstances, innovation patterns and value chain system in Taiwan. It found out all of them are information technology product and household appliances companies. In addition, they make special efforts in two parts of value creation: product (including basic and applied ‘R and D' (Research and Design), design, commercialization) and marketing (including advertising and brand management, specialized logistics, after-sales services). They also locate their branches depending on different stages of the value chain, and expand them globally.

CC & Government Guide : Using Creative Commons 2.5 Australia Licences on Government Copyright Materials

This guide explains how copyright law applies to Australian government material, how copyright can be managed to facilitate beneficial open access practices by government, how CC licences can be used to achieve open access to government material, and provides practical step-by-step guidance for agencies and their officers on licensing and use of government copyright materials under CC 2.5 Australia licences.

Responding to sustainability challenge and cost implications in highway construction projects

Highway construction often requires a significant capital input; therefore it often causes serious financial implications for developers, owners and operators. The recent industry-wide focus on sustainability has added a new dimension to the evaluation of highway projects, particularly on the economical scale of ‘going green’. Comprehensive analysis of the whole-of-life highway development that responds to sustainability challenges is one of the primary concerns for stakeholders. Principles of engineering economics and life cycle costing have been used to determine the incremental capacity investments for highway projects. However, the consideration of costs and issues associated with sustainability is still very limited in current studies on highway projects. Previous studies have identified that highway project investments are primarily concerned with direct market costs that can be quantified through life cycle costing analysis (LCCA). But they tend to ignore costs that are difficult to calculate, as those related to environmental and social elements. On a more positive note, these studies proved that the inclusion of such costs is an essential part of the overall development investment and a primary concern for decision making by the stakeholders. This paper discusses a research attempt to identify and categorise sustainability cost elements for highway projects. Through questionnaire survey, a set of sustainability cost elements on highway projects has been proposed. These cost elements are incorporated into the extension of some of the existing Life Cycle Costing Analysis (LCCA) models in order to produce a holistic financial picture of the highway project. It is expected that a new LCCA model will be established to serve as a suitable tool for decision making for highway project stakeholders.

Public awareness of “green” and “energy efficient” residential property : an empirical survey based on data from New Zealand

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the buyer awareness and acceptance of environmental and energy efficiency measures in the New Zealand residential property markets. This study aims to provide a greater understanding of consumer behaviour in the residential property market in relation to green housing issues ---------- Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on an extensive survey of Christchurch real estate offices and was designed to gather data on the factors that were considered important by buyers in the residential property market. The survey was designed to allow these factors to be analysed on a socio-economic basis and to compare buyer behaviour based on property values. ---------- Findings – The results show that regardless of income levels, buyers still consider that the most important factor in the house purchase decision is the location of the property and price. Although the awareness of green housing issues and energy efficiency in housing is growing in the residential property market, it is only a major consideration for young and older buyers in the high income brackets and is only of some importance for all other buyer sectors of the residential property market. Many of the voluntary measures introduced by Governments to improve the energy efficiency of residential housing are still not considered important by buyers, indicating that a more mandatory approach may have to be undertaken to improve energy efficiency in the established housing market, as these measures are not valued by the buyer. ---------- Originality/value – The paper confirms the variations in real estate buyer behaviour across the full range of residential property markets and the acceptance and awareness of green housing issues and measures. These results would be applicable to most established and transparent residential property markets.

Information interoperability, government and open standards

The activities of governments, by their very nature, involve interactions with a broad array of public and private sector entities, from other governments, to business, academia and individual citizens. In the current era, there is a growing expectation that government programs and services will be delivered in a ‘simple, seamless and connected’ manner,1 leading to increased efficiency in government operations and improved service delivery.2 Achieving ‘collaborative, effective and efficient government and the delivery of seamless government services’ requires the implementation of interoperable technologies and procedures.3 Standards, which aim to enable organisations, platforms and systems to work with each other, are fundamental to interoperability.

Unlocking the potential through Creative Commons

In November 2006, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCi), in conjunction with the Queensland University of Technology, hosted the CCau Industry Forum, a research-focused industry engagement event. The event was run by the CCi ccClinic and CC + OCL Research projects, and aimed to evaluate understanding of and attitudes towards copyright, OCL and CC in Australia. The Forum focused on the government, education and the creative industries sectors. Unlocking the Potential Through Creative Commons: An Industry Engagement and Action Agenda evaluates and responds to the outcomes of this Forum and presents a strategy for continued research into Creative Commons in Australia.

Coordinating aerial robots and sensor networks for localization and navigation

We consider multi-robot systems that include sensor nodes and aerial or ground robots networked together. We describe two cooperative algorithms that allow robots and sensors to enhance each other's performance. In the first algorithm, an aerial robot assists the localization of the sensors. In the second algorithm, a localized sensor network controls the navigation of an aerial robot. We present physical experiments with an flying robot and a large Mica Mote sensor network.

The Green Falcon - Solar Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

In recent months the extremes of Australia’s weather have affected, killed a good number of people and millions of dollars lost. Contrary to a manned aircraft or a helicopter; which have restricted air time, a UAS or a group of UAS could provide 24 hours coverage of the disaster area and be instrumented with infrared cameras to locate distressed people and relay information to emergency services. The solar powered UAV is capable of carrying a 0.25Kg payload consuming 0.5 watt and fly continuously for at low altitude for 24 hrs ,collect the data and create a special distribution . This system, named Green Falcon, is fully autonomous in navigation and power generation, equipped with solar cells covering its wing, it retrieves energy from the sun in order to supply power to the propulsion system and the control electronics, and charge the battery with the surplus of energy. During the night, the only energy available comes from the battery, which discharges slowly until the next morning when a new cycle starts. The prototype airplane was exhibited at the Melbourne Museum form Nov09 to Feb 2010.

Graduate research capabilities : a new agenda for research supervisors

There has been a conversation about university graduate employability within the Higher Education literature for some time (Cryer, 1997; Barrie, 2004, 2006, 2007; Murray, 2000; McAlpine, 2005). Within this, and often under the banner of questioning the relevance of the PhD (Murray, 2000), there have been discussions about the employability of research postgraduates. Both the broad discussion of graduate employment and the specific discussion of research degree graduate employment have produced an agenda of graduate research capabilities. Traditionally, assisting research higher degree (RHD) students with their career development has not been an articulated part of the research supervision process. However, the graduate research capabilities agenda has added a new element to the practices of research supervision, in that it brings with it a mandate for research graduates to be aware of the range of capabilities they have acquired through their research degree candidature and how these apply in the workforce. Additionally, there is an emphasis on preparing students for varied career paths rather than a traditional academic route (e.g., in industry or government). Supervisors have a vital role to play in assisting students with these important career development tasks. In this practice application brief we report on a strategy recently used at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) to assist supervisors understand their role in a student’s career development.