Environmental reporting in annual reports: an examination of Australian state government departments

The nature and extent of environmental reporting within the annual reports of four Australian state government departments over a six year period from 2000-2006 is examined in this study. The Victorian Government Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE), the New South Wales Department of Energy, Utilities and Sustainability (DEUS), the South Australian Department for Environment and Heritage (DEH) and the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment (DPIWE) have been selected. These departments are responsible for environmentally sensitive areas such as conservation, water management and public land management. The nature of these areas is a factor which might potentially affect disclosure practices so it might be expected that these departments disclose more environmental information than departments in less environmentally and politically sensitive areas. These departments also have a number of politically active stakeholder groups, including Aboriginal communities and organisations, environmental groups and forest and timber industries. This study found a reduction in environmental reporting after a five year period of increases.

Aboriginal and non-aboriginal Australia : the dilemma of apologies, forgiveness, and reconciliation

This article presents a qualitative study of the indigenous Australian perspective on reconciliation with nonindigenous Australia, with a focus on the role of an apology for the oppression and violence perpetrated by nonindigenous Australians, and forgiveness on the part of indigenous Australians. A brief historical analysis of the relationship between Aborigines and waves of settlers is presented to demonstrate the extent of the wrong that was perpetrated against Aborigines and the need for social as well as practical reconciliation in the current context. It is argued that negotiated forgiveness is a concept that is pertinent to the discussion of reconciliation, because it requires a dialogue between the parties and ultimately for the wrongdoer to accept accountability and responsibility for offending actions, thereby opening the door for forgiveness and, ultimately, possible reconciliation. It is suggested that a first step in the required reconciliation dialogue is an apology, but the issue of who should give and receive an apology is a complex one. The issue of who should forgive and who should be forgiven is shown to be similarly complex. Qualitative analysis of interview data from 10 participants indicated that at this point in time, forgiveness might not be salient to the indigenous population, whose primary focus is more on the matter of an apology. This suggests that negotiated forgiveness and reconciliation will remain elusive goals until the matter of an apology is resolved.

The effects of television advertisements for junk food versus nutritious food on children's food attitudes and preferences

Television (TV) food advertising has attracted criticism for its potential role in promoting unhealthy dietary practices among children. Content analyses indicate junk food advertising is prevalent on Australian children's TV; healthy eating is rarely promoted. This paper presents (a) a cross-sectional survey examining associations between children's regular TV viewing habits and their food-related attitudes and behaviour; and (b) an experiment assessing the impact of varying combinations of TV advertisements (ads) for unhealthy and healthy foods on children's dietary knowledge, attitudes and intentions. The experimental conditions simulated possible models for regulating food ads on children's TV. Participants were 919 grade five and six students from schools in Melbourne, Australia. The survey showed that heavier TV use and more frequent commercial TV viewing were independently associated with more positive attitudes toward junk food; heavier TV use was also independently associated with higher reported junk food consumption. The experiment found that ads for nutritious foods promote selected positive attitudes and beliefs concerning these foods. Findings are discussed in light of methodological issues in media effects research and their implications for policy and practice. It is concluded that changing the food advertising environment on children's TV to one where nutritious foods are promoted and junk foods are relatively unrepresented would help to normalize and reinforce healthy eating.

High childhood obesity in an Australian population

Objective: The objective was to determine the prevalences of overweight and obesity in regional Australian children and to examine the association between BMI and indicators of socioeconomic status (SES).

Research Methods and Procedures: Regionally representative cross-sectional survey of 2184 children, 4 to 12 years of age, was conducted, and the socio-demographic characteristics of their parents from regional Victoria, Australia, 2003 to 2004, were obtained.

Results: The prevalences of overweight and obesity were 19.3 plusminus 0.8% (proportion plusminus standard error) and 7.6 plusminus 0.6% , respectively, using international criteria, and the proportion of overweight/obese girls was significantly higher than that of boys (29.6 plusminus 1.4% vs. 23.9 plusminus 1.3% , chi2 = 9.01, p = 0.003). Children from households of lower SES had higher odds of being overweight/obese; lower SES was defined by lower paternal education (adjusted odds ratio, 1.18; 95% confidence interval, 1.08 to 1.30) and lower area-level SES (adjusted odds ratio, 1.13; 95% confidence interval, 1.02 to 1.25), adjusted for age, gender, height, and clustering by school.

Discussion: The prevalences of overweight and obesity are increasing in Australian children by about one percentage point per year. This equates to approx40,000 more overweight children each year, placing Australian children among those at highest risk around the world. In addition, girls are more likely to be overweight, and there is a general trend for children of lower SES to be at even greater risk of overweight and obesity.

Association of key foods and beverages with obesity in Australian schoolchildren

Objective: To examine the pattern of intake of key foods and beverages of children aged 4–12 years and the association with weight status.
Design and setting: A computer-assisted telephone interview was used to determine the intake of fruit, vegetables, packaged snacks, fast foods and sweetened drinks ‘yesterday’ and ‘usually’ as reported by parents/guardians of a representative sample of 2184 children from the Barwon South-Western region of Victoria, Australia.
Results: Children who consumed .2–3, .3–4 and .4 servings of fruit juice/drinks ‘yesterday’ were, respectively, 1.7 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.2–2.2), 1.7 (95% CI 1.2–2.5) and 2.1 (95% CI 1.5–2.9) times more likely to be overweight/obese compared with those who had no servings of fruit juice/drink ‘yesterday’, adjusted for age, gender and socio-economic status (SES). Further, children who had $3 servings
of soft drink ‘yesterday’ were 2.2 (95% CI 1.3–3.9) times more likely to be
overweight/obese compared with those who had no servings of soft drink ‘yesterday’, adjusted for age, gender and SES. In addition, children who ‘usually’ drank fruit juice/drinks twice or more per day were 1.7 (95% CI 1.2–2.4) times more likely to be overweight/obese compared with those who drank these beverages once or less per week, adjusted for age, gender and SES. Although fast foods and packaged snacks were regularly eaten, there were no associations between weight status and
consumption of these foods.
Conclusions: Intake of sweetened beverages was associated with overweight and obesity in this population of Australian schoolchildren and should be a target for intervention programmes aimed at preventing unhealthy weight gain in children.

Sex and the surgeon's knife: the family court's dilemma...informed constent and the specter of iatrogenic harm to children with intersex characteristics

The article focuses on the opinion of the Australian High Court on the doctrine of informed consent and the judicial reasoning including the supporting medical evidence in sex assignment cases. The author explains that the remaining credible basis for the jurisdiction assumed by the Family Court in such cases rests in the inability of parents as guardians to give their informed consent to irreversible surgical procedures.

Coetzee's haunting of Australian literature

In June 2006, the Good Weekend, the magazine supplementing Saturday’s the Age in Melbourne, ran the following cover story by Catharine Lumby: “Worried TV will turn your child into a zombie?” The cover featured a science-fiction image of a boy’s upturned face. Televisions were reflected in his pupils, giving them the effect of being square instead of round. The message, though, was ultimately non-alarmist with the subheading already instructing “Relax. It’s all good”. Stories like this appear regularly in the press, and while I am not interested in debating whether TV is good or bad for children, I am interested in the popular image of children—or, for that matter, adults—as being akin to zombies when they watch TV, if only because something similar happens when we read books. Although it is not as fashionable to talk about it, we become emptied of ourselves, possessed by something other.

From empire to filmi: a fusion of western and Indian cultural practices in Australian music education

During the 19th and 20th centuries, Indian culture was represented in Australia as part of celebrations of the British Empire. Children were presented with stereotypic representations of Indian culture, which provide a snapshot of contemporary perceptions. Such representations were rarely authentic. By removing music from one culture and presenting it in the symbolic gestures of another we strip away much of its meaning. Encouragingly, contemporary popular culture can incorporate a fusion of western and Indian cultural practices, such as filmi (Hindi: `film song' or `Indian film music'). This article describes early imperialist understandings of Indian culture in Australian school music to contextualize recent attempts to engage with more authentic intercultural understandings. To assist teachers in the presentation of `other' musics, guidelines for the inclusion of authentic materials are offered. By selecting music that is already a fusion of cultures and musical styles, it becomes easier for western music educators to engage with the other.

Exclusions and inclusions: multiculturalism in contemporary Taiwanese and Australian picturebooks

In a 1990 essay on multiculturalism and Australian children's literature, John Stephens points out that in texts of the 1970s and 1980s, examinations of multicultural issues are conducted within a relatively conservative set of paradigms where views of cultures other than Anglo-Celtic are filtered through the perspectives of Anglo-Celtic, middle-class characters, and multiculturalism is valued only in so far as it is seen to contribute to the wellbeing (economic and psychological) of the dominant culture. In Taiwan, as social groups previously marginalised seek justice through the practices and policies of multiculturalism, long-standing resentment at the authoritarian conduct of the Nationalists has manifested in texts which examine the political conflicts and cultural clashes of the past: the silenced truth is uncovered and the stigmatisation of certain ethnic groups is gradually removed.\n But these texts typically address ideas of cultural difference obliquely and by way of analogies, rather than through the realist representations of WhoeverYou Are and Fang Fang's Chinese NewYear.

Mental health and wellbeing of Australian adolescents: pathways to vulnerability and resilience

The Australian Temperament Project (ATP) provides a unique lens through which to view he pathways to vulnerability and resilience that Australian children take from infancy to adolescence, and beyond. Commencing in 1983, the ATP is now completing its 24th year and 14th wave of data collection. The present paper provides an overview of the data on adolescent antisocial behaviour, substance use, internalising problems and aspects of positive development and wellbeing. Several pathways to vulnerability or resilience are described that vary in their age of onset. Constellations of common risk factors suggest that there may be overlapping priming factors for later mental health problems. A different mix of factors relates to pathways to wellbeing. This unique Australian study provides invaluable insights into stability and change in the pathways to mental health that children take across life.

Framing the discourses of harm and loss: a case study of power relations, mobile phones, and children in Australia

The current penetration of mobile phones in Australia is 92% and it records one of the world’s highest rates of ownership among children under 18. The paper reviews the literature on mobile phones and Australian children and examines the various discourses dominating the public debates; the systematic frames used in these discourses; and whose interests are served in the process. The frames discussed fall under the optimistic (gains); pessimistic (losses, costs or harms); pluralistic (technology per se is neutral but how it is used matters); historical development (skills learnt and the importance of using mobiles); futuristic predictions (promises and dangers for the future); current uses (connectivity, convergence and interactivity); and the techno-realist view (as a mixed blessing) views of technology. Taking the critical perspective and borrowing from Joshua Meyrowitz, the paper illustrates how mobile phones have eroded parental power over how, when, where and with whom their children communicate, surpassing adult supervision, intervention or knowledge, while at the same time, becoming a ‘digital leash’ for parents to re-establish their control an d an ‘umbilical cord’ for their off spring to remain connect! ed with parents, at all times.

Qualitative analysis of the care of children in hospital in four countries : part 2

As part of a large study of the care of children in Australian, British, Indonesian, and Thai hospitals, qualitative methods were used to examine differences influenced by culture. Two groups were surveyed: parents of hospitalized children, and staff caring for them. Vignettes were used to invoke discussion, and content analysis was used to examine the data. Subjects were interviewed singly, or in focus groups. These interviews were audiotaped and transcribed for analysis. This article is the second of a two-part series, and includes results of the staff's interviews and discussion. The parents' results and discussion were published in Part 1 (Shields [amp ] King, 2001). Staff in all the countries considered communication with parents to be an important part of care of the hospitalized child, and this was consistent with the parents' responses. Staff were mindful of safe practices, though more so in Australia and Britain than Indonesia and Thailand. Cost of treatment for the parents was an important consideration for staff in Indonesia and Thailand when they were planning care for the child. Cultural constructions were more likely to be considered by the Australian and British staff than the Indonesian and Thai staff, and this may have been influenced by the prevailing culture of medical dominance in those countries.

Qualitative analysis of the care of children in hospital in four countries : part 1

As part of a large study of the care of children in Australian, British, Indonesian, and Thai hospitals, qualitative methods were used to examine differences influenced by culture. Two groups were surveyed: parents of hospitalized children, and staff caring for them. Vignettes were used to invoke discussion, and content analysis was used to examine the data. Subjects were interviewed singly, or in focus groups. These interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. The data were explored by using content analysis to extract themes of understanding of cultural experiences. This article is the first of a two-part series, and includes a review of the literature, description of the methods used, and results of the parents' interviews. The staff results and discussion will be published in Part 2. Analysis revealed that parents in all countries were primarily concerned with treating the child's illness and the child's recovery. Parents were concerned with their work (employment), but this was a much larger consideration in Indonesia and Thailand, where no social security systems exist, than in Australia and Britain. Communication with staff was the most commonly mentioned theme for parents, indicating that irrespective of the culture in which the care was given, good communication between parents and staff was of paramount importance.