Examining the living with possums policy in Victoria, Australia : community knowledge, support and compliance

Studying the human dimensions of wildlife management issues is now considered to be an essential component
of wildlife research. This study examined the Living with Possums policy in Victoria, Australia, in terms of the policy’s
success in educating the community and ensuring community compliance. Postal surveys and telephone interviews
were conducted across three samples from Greater Melbourne. These samples included people who had experiences
with possums on their property (n = 340), veterinary clinics (n = 45) and the general public (n = 103). Significant
levels of non-compliance were uncovered, highlighting the need for a renewed public education campaign to take place
along with a continued interest in this issue from government agencies and councils. The study also revealed
discrepancies between the policy and public preferences for possum management, suggesting that a shift in the
recommended management technique may be warranted.

Government revenue and government expenditure nexus : evidence from developing countries

The relationship between government revenue and government expenditure has attracted a lot of interest given its policy relevance, particularly with respect to budget deficits. The goal of this paper is to investigate evidence for causality between government revenue and government expenditure within a multivariate framework by modelling them together with gross domestic product for 12 developing countries. Our application of the Toda and Yamamoto (1995) test for Granger causality reveals support for the tax-and-spend hypothesis for Mauritius, El Salvador, Haiti, Chile and Venezuela. For Haiti, there is evidence for the spend-and-tax hypothesis, while for Peru, South Africa, Guatemala, Uruguay and Ecuador there is evidence of neutrality.

An empirical investigation of the relationship between government revenue and expenditure : the case of the Fiji Islands

Purpose – Understanding the relationship between government revenue and government expenditure is important from a policy point of view, especially for a country like Fiji, which is suffering from persistent budget deficits. The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between government revenue and expenditure for Fiji.

Design/methodology/approach – The Johansen test for cointegration and Granger causality test are used to conduct the empirical analysis.

Findings – The key findings are that: government revenue and government expenditure in both the aggregate and disaggregate sense are cointegrated; in the short-run government expenditure Granger causes government revenue in an aggregate sense, departmental expenditure Granger causes aggregate revenue, and there is bidirectional causality running between government expenditure and customs duties; and in the long-run there is evidence of fiscal synchronization, implying that expenditure decisions are not made in isolation from revenue decisions.

Research limitations/implications – This fiscal synchronization has not been able curb the current account deficit in Fiji. Moreover, the confirmation of the spend-tax attitude of the government does not bode well for the level of investments and skilled human capital in Fiji as this may perpetuate tax increases in the future. Given that the Fiji Government is currently trying to rein in the escalating level of fiscal deficit, it is an opportune time for them to engage in extensive expenditure reforms.

Originality/value – The findings of this paper should allow policy makers to make informed decisions. Furthermore, the paper is different from others because apart from examining the revenue and expenditure in an aggregate sense, it also considers the different components of revenue and expenditure.

Generic medicines in Australia : business dynamics and recent policy reform

This article describes the role of generics in the Australian prescription drug market and patterns of business activity in this dynamic market segment. The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) is the central mechanism for the supply of prescription medicines. PBS prices are arrived at through cost-effectiveness analyses comparing new products against already available products and therapies. In this system, prices do not operate effectively as incentives for consumers or prescribers to choose generics, and their market share was historically marginal. In recent years, generics suppliers achieved a growing market share through discounts (trading terms) to pharmacists. It is estimated that around 30% of PBS scripts, representing around 15% of PBS sales by value, are now filled with generics. Complex changes to the PBS were introduced in 2007, to be phased in over the period to 2012, aimed at increasing the scope for cost benefits to the government, and to lesser extent consumers, from the expanding availability of generic medicines.

Moving beyond 'rates, roads and rubbish' : how do local governments make choices about healthy public policy to prevent obesity?

While the causes of obesity are well known traditional education and treatment strategies do not appear to be making an impact. One solution as part of a broader complimentary set of strategies may be regulatory intervention at local government level to create environments for healthy nutrition and increased physical activity. Semi structured interviews were conducted with representatives of local government in Australia. Factors most likely to facilitate policy change were those supported by external funding, developed from an evidence base and sensitive to community and market forces. Barriers to change included a perceived or real lack of power to make change and the complexity of the legislative framework. The development of a systematic evidence base to provide clear feedback on the size and scope of the obesity epidemic at a local level, coupled with cost benefit analysis for any potential regulatory intervention, are crucial to developing a regulatory environment which creates the physical and social environment required to prevent obesity.

Community engagement and working with government

Community engagement in health care can occur from policy to local community levels. It is consistent with democracy. A systems perspective can see consumers engaged to legitimise government agendas. Often community participation is via consultation instead of partnership or delegation. A community development approach to engagement can empower communities to take responsibility for their own health care. Understanding rural place facilitates alignment between health programs and community, assists incorporate community resources into health care and provides information about health needs. Rural communities, health services and other community organisations need skills in working together to develop effective partnerships that transfer some power from health systems. Rural engagement with national/state agendas is a challenge. Community engagement takes time and resources, but can be expected to lead to better health outcomes for rural residents.

Migrant youth, cultural adaptation and social policy

This introductory chapter will attempt to locate these conceptual debates within wider intellectual and research agendas. It will also try to examine the role social policy can play in shaping the life opportunities of young people. The roles of both government agencies and non-government organisations will be considered and discussed.

Stimulating vertical integration in coastal management in a federated nation: The case of Australian coastal policy reform.

Four decades ago Australia was credited as being an early leader in  implementing integrated coastal management (ICM). Nevertheless, as a  federation of states and territories Australia has since struggled to fully  implement vertical integration of its coastal governance arrangements. In particular the federal government has historically possessed only a minor role in coastal management despite the recommendations of several major inquires suggesting that this role needed to be enhanced. This article examines a series of circumstances and events over the past two years in Australia that has created the opportunity for the federal government to adopt a more significant and prominent role in coastal management and hence to substantially complete the vertical integration of ICM in Australia. These stimuli for coastal policy reform could also play a role in enhancing ICM in other federated nations.

Changes in the Australian Commonwealth departmental machinery of government 1928-1982

The Commonwealth departmental machinery of government is changed by using Orders in Council to create, abolish or change the name of departments. Since 1906 governments have utilised a particular form of Order in Council, the Administrative Arrangements Order (AAO), as the means to reallocate functions between departments for administration. After 1928 successive governments from Scullin to Fraser gradually streamlined and increasingly used the formal processes for the executive to change departmental arrangements and the practical role of Parliament, in the process of change, virtually disappeared. From 1929 to 1982, 105 separate departments were brought into being, as new departments or through merger, and 91 were abolished, following the merger of their functions in one way or another with other departments. These figures exclude 6 situations where the change was simply that of name alone. Several hundred less substantial transfers of responsibilities were also made between departments. This dissertation describes, documents and analyses all these changes. The above changes can be distilled down to 79 events termed primary decisions. Measures of the magnitude of change arising from the decisions are developed with 157.25 units of change identified as occurring during the period, most being in the Whitlam and Fraser periods. The reasons for the changes were assessed and classified as occurring for reasons of policy, administrative logic or cabinet comfort. 47.2% of the units of change were attributed to policy, 34.9% to administrative logic, 17% to cabinet comfort. Further conclusions are drawn from more detailed analysis of the change and the reasons for the changes.

Intellectual capital reporting : an examination of local government in Victoria

The objective of this research is to examine how Victorian local government annual reports disclose information on intellectual capital. The idea of intellectual capital has become part of the working organisational vocabulary, and is widely held in management literature to be the pre-eminent economic resource and a key driver of efficiency, effectiveness and continual improvement in the private and public sectors. Under the recent Best Value Victoria policy, local governments are under increasing pressure to acquire and apply intellectual capital to improve responsiveness to community needs and meet cost and quality criteria. Annual reports exist as vehicles for communication, accountability and decision making. This study examines how the internal, external and human categories of intellectual capital are represented in the annual reports for the 2000 year for 77 of the 78 Victorian local
governments.

Using a matrix approach derived from Petty and Guthrie's (2000) framework, content analysis is employed to examine the incidence and intensity with which specific elements of intellectual capital are reported. This research indicates that generally the content of annual reports have not provided clear and coherent representations of how local government in Victoria are developing, applying and measuring intellectual capital. The nature and extent of intellectual capital reporting varies considerably between councils, and the disclosure of the human elements of intellectual capital is particularly underdeveloped. The findings suggest that more research in this area is needed to determine the extent to which intellectual capital should be disclosed and whether the current paucity of disclosure stems from disinterest or technical problems. There is also the need for further research into the need to identify and describe elements of intellectual capital, and into effective
reporting strategies and techniques. This may lead to the development of a 'best practice' reporting model for intellectual capital. Furthermore, the preliminary investigations indicate a perceived need to raise the consciousness of public sector
managers as to the existence of intellectual capital within their organisations, and ultimately lead to more informed and effective management of this asset.

Bringing Bourdieu to policy sociology : codification, misrecognition and exchange value in the UK context

The task of social scientists is to find ways of investigating and understanding the social, political and economic world, in order to offer insights into everyday and public life in the past, present and future. Bourdieu’s tool kit offers a particular way of theorizing the rules, narratives and self-held truths of social phenomena and of educational policy as a specific object of analysis. In this article I develop a series of propositions about the ways in which field theory might be applied to explain the abrupt public policy shift effected by the Thatcher government and the adjustments made to it by the Blair government. I suggest that a Bourdieuian approach shows policy working as a means of codification, as a doxa of misrecognition and as currency exchange within and across fields. I conclude with some thoughts about the difficulties of explicating interactions between fields.

Creative tensions? Creativity and basic skills in recent educational policy.

Recently, in response to sustained criticism about the standards driven curriculum, UK government agencies have been promoting creativity in schools. In this article we explore how creativity is being defined in current national educational policy statements; how these definitions relate to other theoretical work on creativity, and the implications for the curriculum and pedagogies.

Policy rhetoric and the renovation of English schooling: the case of Creative Partnerships

Facing difficulties in the implementation of its ‘standards’ agenda, the English government has recently introduced a set of policy strategies and initiatives which seek to promote enjoyment, innovation and creativity in education. One such initiative is Creative Partnerships (CP). Funded predominantly from the Arts portfolio, CP brings creative practitioners into schools with the intention of bringing change to teaching and learning, and, more widely, of achieving whole school change. Using a corpus of policy texts and interviews, we examine the claims made within CP about innovation and indicate the rhetorical means by which the impression of radical change is married to the standards agenda. In particular, we highlight the ways in which texts re-work traditions of progressive change. We argue that this rhetorical recuperation of the ideals of an earlier period is a sign of a more general policy adjustment in English education. However, since it is combined with a continuing commitment to market-driven change, it cannot be said to be indicative of a new policy settlement.

Forgotten outcomes for rural areas in central policy-making : the case of blue gums in Australia

The expansion of private forestry and the partnership between government and private sector timber growers and processors highlights the issues associated with a functionally based rather than a place based approaches to changing patterns of land use in rural areas. Rural development through blue gum forestry was promoted as a means of revitalising rural communities, providing both economic and social gains to regional areas. The purpose of this study is to examine the economic consequences of policies designed to promote plantation forestry at a local level. It concludes that while plantation forestry may bring benefits to the national economy, these benefits may not be apparent at a local level especially if the industry operates in competition with a viable alternative.