Casey: four decades in the making of Australian foreign policy

Richard Casey was involved in shaping Australian foreign policy for over four decades. Casey's attitudes, ideas, policies and actions towards the rest of the world are therefore an important part of a Liberal tradition in Australian foreign policy. To examine Casey's place in the Liberal tradition this article explores Casey's positions on the great international issues of two periods: the 1930s and the 1950s. The conclusion of the article is that three key ideas shaped Casey's foreign policy, and therefore also lie at the centre of the Liberal tradition; firstly, a strong attachment to the idea of the English speaking alliance; secondly, a realist perspective on international affairs; and, thirdly, a consistent strand of anti-communism.

Winners or losers? Work/life balance and temporary agency workers

This article focuses upon temporary' agency workers' capacity to balance work/life needs. Two extremes are identified within the Victorian temporary agency labour market. On the one hand, there are skilled temporary agency workers employed in areas of high demand accompanied by labour shortages. Nurses are one such group. At the other extreme, there are skilled and semi-skilled temporary agency workers who face a shortfall in demand for permanent, direct hire employees. Drawing upon a survey and focus groups of temporary agency workers, their potential for achieving a satisfactory work/life balance is assessed in relation to control over working time, income and employment security, and a narrow band of employment conditions. The findings differ substantially between the two groups of agency workers, contributing to significantly different perceptions of the personal benefits of working through a temporary employment agency.

Legal professional privilege and the foreign lawyer in Australia

Legal professional privilege is very important to lawyers and clients alike. It has evolved within the common law world over a period of centuries. In a domestic Australian context the test to establish what attracts advice privilege has become reasonably well settled. However, the increasingly international character of commerce has revealed new challenges. Is the current test appropriate to determine whether advice given outside Australia by a foreign lawyer is privileged? This article considers that question in detail. After examining the historical development of legal professional privilege, the article discusses Kennedy v Wallace (2004) 208 ALR 424 (at first instance) and Kennedy v Wallace (2004) 142 FeR 185 (on appeal). The article concludes that the current test is both capable and appropriate if properly applied.

Southeast Asian perceptions of Australia's foreign policy

This article argues that while the US alliance remains at the forefront of Australian security policy, the deepening of ties between the United States and Australia has the potential to complicate Australia's relations with its Southeast asian neighbours. Moreover, the manner in which the Howard government has attempted to manage this shift in policy has only exacerbated the problem. Australian pronouncements of support for the US policy of pre-emption, the perceived preference of the Australian Prime Minister to take on the role of ‘Deputy Sheriff’, and the unwieldy approach taken by the Australian government in policy announcements pertaining to maritime and security policy have caused unnecessary tension and mistrust between Australia and some Southeast asian states.

Mature workers, training and using TLM frameworks

Mature workers have been at the centre of policies aimed at encouraging higher workforce participation, longer working life and enhanced savings for retirement. Low mature age workforce participation rates reflect labour market withdrawal in the face of multiple barriers to participation for many. Their apparent voluntary joblessness conceals the fact that mature workers endure longer periods of unemployment, discrimination, redundancy and other barriers to employment (hence the drift to 'early retirement'). The policy dilemma is not just about addressing discrimination barriers, access to appropriate retraining or skills enhancement for mature workers, but what this tells us about lifelong learning as a means of managing and mitigating risk. The mismatch between work opportunities/skills shortages and the low education and skills base of many mature workers, means it is simplistic to think that working longer might be a short term way to address skills shortages; without an enormous investment in the current ageing cohort. Drawing on Transitional Labour Market (TLM) theory and European reform agendas, this article argues that the link between investment in lifelong education/ skills training and stronger labour market participation needs attention; not just for current cohorts of excluded or underemployed mature workers but to position strategically for future generations.

Foreign debt and financial hedging : evidence from Australia

We investigate the role of foreign currency denominated debt (FCDD) as a natural hedging instrument using a sample of Australian firms. Our results show that the incidence of foreign debt use among industrial sector firms is associated with a lower level of exchange rate exposure. The practice of issuing foreign debt within the industrial sector also conforms better to the hypothesis that firms do so to satisfy a demand for hedging. In contrast, although the incidence of foreign debt issues is higher in the resource/mining sector, the underlying motive for such arises from a demand for financing.

Can the use of foreign currency derivatives explain variations in foreign exchange exposure? Evidence from Australian companies

We investigate the role of foreign currency derivatives (FCD) in alleviating foreign exchange rate exposure of Australian firms. While there is some evidence that the use of FCD reduces the level of ex-post short-term exposure, such an effect is absent with regard to the degree of foreign operations. Our results support the view that FCDs are used to hedge existing exchange rate exposures and that Australian firms, generally, are extensively exposed to currency fluctuations in the long run. While monthly exposure appears to be a function of a firm's size and financial hedging, exchange rate exposure of shorter horizons (1 and 3 months) appears to be negatively related to a firm's price earnings ratio (proxying growth opportunities)—thereby supporting the ‘underinvestment’ hypothesis. Further, the exposure of longer horizons (12 and 24 months) is positively related to a firm's liquidity, supporting the view that liquidity is a substitute for hedging.

Further evidence on the corporate use of derivatives in Australia : the case of foreign currency and interest rate instruments

In a recent issue of this journal Nguyen and Faff (2002) reported on an empirical exploration of the motives behind the aggregate use of financial derivatives by Australian companies. Employing the same sample of firms, the current paper extends their analysis to investigate similar issues, this time focussing separately on foreign currency and interest rate derivatives. At a specific level, our results reveal the following. A firm is more likely to use foreign currency derivatives if it is large and has more debt in its capital structure. Interest rate derivatives, on the other hand, are more likely to be used if a firm is larger, more levered, more liquid and pays higher dividends. These results are consistent with existing hedging theories. Market to book value (proxying growth opportunities), however, portrays an inconsistent relationship with the likelihood of interest rate derivative usage. When it comes to the extent of usage, a firm uses foreign currency derivatives more extensively if it is smaller, pays higher dividends and has more debt. Similarly, interest rate derivatives are used more extensively to address a high level of debt and a high dividend payout policy. At a general level, the current study confirms the core finding of Nguyen and Faff (2002), namely, that Australian companies use derivatives with a view to value maximisation.

An agent-based hybrid intelligent system for foreign exchange trading

The foreign exchange (FX) market has many features including (1) Each trader’s payoff depends not only on his own behavior, but also on other traders’ decisions; (2) The number of traders is too large to make them all know the other dealers’ methods of decision making; and (3) The FX market has many levels. The FX market is complex because of these features. A diversity of techniques are required to deal with such complex problems. That is hybrid solutions are crucial for the FX market. On the other hand, research into the FX market has revealed that it demonstrates some characteristics of multi-agent systems such as autonomy, interaction, and emergence. To this end, an agent-based hybrid intelligent system was developed for FX trading, which is based on our proposed agent-based hybrid framework. This paper is to discuss the analysis, design, and implementation such a system. Some experimental results and comparisons with related works are also provided. The interest of this paper does not reside in improving the predictive capabilities of different FX models, but rather in how to integrate different models into one system under the unifying agent framework. The success of this system indicates that agent perspectives are very appropriate to model complex problems such as the FX trading.

The Australian Association of Social Workers and social policy debates: a strategy for the future?

It has been argued that the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) not only has a mandate, but also an important role to play in influencing social debates for the benefit of the users of social services and, further, that as a professional association, it is ideally positioned to do so. However, the AASW has been criticised for failing to meet this mandate and have any lasting impact on the formulation of social policy. In the present article, the author considers the process by which the AASW engages in social policy debates and speculates on the historical, cultural, and structural factors that may impede its ability to do so. From this analysis, strategies are suggested for the AASW to increase its impact on the formulation of social policy.

Exchange rate exposure, foreign currency derivatives and the introduction of the euro: French evidence

We investigate the impact of the introduction of the Euro on exchange rate exposures for French corporations and examine the corporate use of foreign currency derivatives to hedge exchange rate exposure post-Euro. Our findings indicate that the introduction of the Euro is associated with both a reduction in the number of firms that have significant exchange rate exposure and the absolute size of exposure. Consistent with these reduced exposures, French firms use foreign currency derivatives less intensively. Furthermore, the use of foreign currency derivatives is found to be associated with lower exchange rate exposure but there is insufficient evidence that these instruments are more effective in the post-Euro environment.