After three strikes-the continued discriminatory impact of the sentencing system against indigenous Australians: suggested reform

Three strikes laws are discriminatory but not for previously advanced reasons. The three strikes laws are merely an acute example of a fundamentally flawed sentencing system that discriminates against economically and socially disadvantaged people, particularly the group that is the focus of this article – Indigenous Australians. The repeal of the Northern Territory's mandatory sentencing laws has not remedied the unfair manner in which sentencing law and practice operate against Aboriginals; either in the Northern Territory or generally. Criminal punishment systems around the world punish a disproportionate number of socially deprived people. In Australia, Indigenous Australians were grossly over-represented in Australian jails prior to the three strikes laws and will remain so unless steps are taken to address their disadvantage. The obvious solution to redress the over-representation by Indigenous Australians is to provide them with the same social opportunities and resources as the rest of the community. This is overly ambitious – at least in the short term. This article suggests a more attainable change in sentencing law to remedy some of the disadvantages experienced by Aboriginals. It suggests that far less weight should be accorded to prior convictions in the sentencing calculus.

Case comment: Cubillo and Gunner V The Commonwealth: a denial of the stolen generation?

In the recent Australian decision in Cubillo and Gunner v The Commonwealth ( ‘Cubillo 3’ ), the Full Court of the Federal Court dismissed an appeal by the Aboriginal claimants seeking damages for, inter alia, their removal from their families and detention at certain Aboriginal institutions. The removal and detention of the plaintiffs was held to be lawful in the earlier determination of O’Loughlin J because it was, inter alia, believed to be in the [then] child’s best interests and, as the plaintiffs bore the onus of proof, they had failed to show that they were taken without the consent of their parents/guardians. This decision was based upon the factual finding that ‘at the relevant times, there was no general policy in force in the Northern Territory supporting the indiscriminate removal and detention of part-Aboriginal children, irrespective of the personal circumstances of each child’. The Full Court did not comment on O’Loughlin J’s assertion that the policy of removing part-Aboriginal children, as asserted by the plaintiffs, could not be maintained. Moreover, the Full Court in fact joined O’Loughlin J in trying to distance their findings from the broader issue of the legal rights of members of the Stolen Generation, emphasising that they were only concerned with the particular circumstances of the two plaintiffs/appellants. This case comment is not aimed at evaluating the specific legal issues raised by the plaintiffs’ claims in this case or reviewing the history of the Stolen Generation, but rather seeks to examine O’Loughlin J’s comment as to the absence of a policy of indiscriminate removal and detention of part-Aboriginal children in a bid to determine the parameters intended by the court. It will be seen that, at its broadest, the statement is quite inflammatory and may be seen as a denial of the Stolen Generation. It will be submitted that this was not intended by the court. At its narrowest, the statement is merely an assertion that the particular plaintiffs failed to prove their cases. It will be submitted that, whilst this clearly was the view of the court, O’Loughlin J’s statement does have broader implications which, it will be contended, are not warranted.

Undergraduate pre-registration nursing education in Australia: a longitudinal examination of enrolment and completion numbers with a focus on students from rural and remote campus locations

Introduction: There is much evidence to indicate a shortage of Registered Nurses (RNs) in Australia and to suggest that the shortage may be more pronounced in rural and remote locations. Attracting RNs to work in rural and remote areas may not be as simple as increasing the intake of students into university undergraduate pre-registration nursing courses. There is some evidence indicating that student nurses may be more likely to enter the nursing workforce in rural and remote locations if they have existing associations with rural and remote areas and/or their undergraduate education provides opportunities to undertake supported placements in rural and remote settings. Two important difficulties have been associated with measuring outcomes in relation to rural and remote pre-registration nursing students. One is defining what constitutes a rural or remote location and the other is suspect data on the number of nursing students enrolled in, and completing, nursing courses. The aims of this study were to provide a longitudinal profile of the number of domestic students studying and completing undergraduate pre-registration nursing courses in Australia, with a particular emphasis on identifying those at rural and remote university campuses, and to compare results across States and Territories.
Method: This study presents the combined findings from two investigative reports. Data on undergraduate pre-registration nursing student numbers were collected via electronic survey instruments completed by staff at all Australian educational institutions offering undergraduate pre-registration nursing education programs in 2001 and 2002. Australian domestic students were the focus of this study. Data included the total number of domestic students enrolled in undergraduate pre-registration nursing courses in 2001 and 2002, the number of domestic students who successfully completed courses in 1999, 2000 and 2001, and estimates for the number expected to complete in 2002. Surveys were sent to course coordinators or other staff nominated by heads of divisions of nursing at each institution.
Results: There was a 100% response rate. Twenty-four rural and remote campus locations were identified using an adjusted form of the Rural, Remote and Metropolitan Areas (RRMA) classification system. The Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory did not have any rural or remote campus locations. In contrast, undergraduate pre-registration nursing in Tasmania was offered at a rural campus only (for the first 2 years). From 2001 to 2002, there was an increase of just over 5% in the total number of domestic students enrolled in undergraduate pre-registration nursing courses in Australia (2002 total = 22 811 students). Rural and remote location students accounted for slightly more than 25% of these students in 2001, and almost 27% in 2002. The States Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland had the highest percentage of students enrolled at rural and remote campus locations, greater than the Australian average for both years. In contrast, South Australia and Western Australia had less than 11% of students enrolled at rural and remote campus locations for each year. Total undergraduate pre-registration course completions increased by approximately 16% across Australia between 1999 (n = 4868) and 2002 (n = 5667), although for 2002, the figure was projected. Of these total course completions, the percentage of students completing at rural and remote campus locations increased from almost 23% to nearly 28% during the same period. Of the States/Territories with both metropolitan and rural/remote campus locations, only Victoria and Queensland had more than 25% of their total student completions consisting of students enrolled at rural and remote campus locations for each year. In contrast, South Australia and Western Australia had approximately 6% of student completions consisting of students enrolled at rural and remote campus locations in 1999, increasing to approximately 12% projected for 2002.
Conclusion: In this study, the authors attempted to improve the accuracy of data collection in relation to the number of domestic undergraduate pre-registration nursing students in Australia, which is representative of the potentially new Australian domestic RN workforce. There was a trend towards an increasing number of students being enrolled in undergraduate pre-registration nursing courses, and also toward an increasing number of course completions. From the perspective of the rural and remote RN workforce, the percentage of students enrolled and completing courses at rural and remote campus locations was found to be increasing. However, there may be some areas of concern for education and workforce planners in States and Territories that are providing a smaller percentage of their undergraduate pre-registration nursing courses in rural and remote areas. Several study limitations are discussed and suggestions made for future research.

Active transport to work in Australia: is it all downhill from here?

Physical inactivity is increasing in Australia and active forms of transportation may be one way to increase the working population’s daily physical activity. We used travel-to-work data from employed persons aged 15 years and over participating in the 1996 (n=7,636,319) and 2001(n=8,298,606) Australian censuses to determine prevalence and trends in walking and cycling to work by state and gender, and differences in prevalence by age. In 2001, 3.8% of Australians walked to work and <1% cycled. Over 64% travelled to work by car. There have been small declines in walking (men and women) and cycling (men) over the 5-years from 1996 to 2001. People were more likely to walk or cycle to work if they lived in the Northern Territory, if they were male or if they were aged 15 to 24 years. They were more likely to travel by car if they lived in the Australian Capital Territory, if they were male, or if they were aged 45-54 years. Few people walk or cycle to work in Australia. Efforts to encourage active transportation are urgently needed.

The environment always matters

Superficially, the high human populations of prosperous, well-fed city-states such as Singapore and Hong Kong might appear to support the view that high concentrations of human dynamism and enterprise can alone transcend environmental constraints. Indeed, extrapolations from such densely populated regions to the whole world form the historical basis for the most optimistic estimates of how many people the Earth might support. In fact, these affluent, densely populated regions require goods and services that are produced by areas far larger than the residential area of the state. For the foreseeable future, the whole world cannot live as densely and as well as Singapore. For example, some of the fish eaten in Hong Kong is captured in Pacific Island fisheries. Beef from the Northern Territory is exported to Japan. More generally, the supply of environmentally dependent goods - including sinks for wastes - is always limited, as are inputs such as fertile soil, clean fresh water and a benign climate.

The rising prevalence of diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance : the Australian diabetes, obesity and lifestyle study

OBJECTIVE—To determine the population-based prevalence of diabetes and other categories of glucose intolerance (impaired glucose tolerance [IGT] and impaired fasting glucose [IFG]) in Australia and to compare the prevalence with previous Australian data.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—A national sample involving 11,247 participants aged >=25 years living in 42 randomly selected areas from the six states and the Northern Territory were examined in a cross-sectional survey using the 75-g oral glucose tolerance test to assess fasting and 2-h plasma glucose concentrations. The World Health Organization diagnostic criteria were used to determine the prevalence of abnormal glucose tolerance.

RESULTS—The prevalence of diabetes in Australia was 8.0% in men and 6.8% in women, and an additional 17.4% of men and 15.4% of women had IGT or IFG. Even in the youngest age group (25–34 years), 5.7% of subjects had abnormal glucose tolerance. The overall diabetes prevalence in Australia was 7.4%, and an additional 16.4% had IGT or IFG. Diabetes prevalence has more than doubled since 1981, and this is only partially explained by changes in age profile and obesity.

CONCLUSIONS—Australia has a rapidly rising prevalence of diabetes and other categories of abnormal glucose tolerance. The prevalence of abnormal glucose tolerance in Australia is one of the highest yet reported from a developed nation with a predominantly Europid background.

Abbreviations: 2hPG, 2-h plasma glucose • AusDiab, Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study • CD, Census Collector District • FPG, fasting plasma glucose • IFG, impaired fasting glucose • IGT, impaired glucose tolerance • KDM, known diabetes mellitus • NDM, newly diagnosed diabetes mellitus • OGTT, oral glucose tolerance test • WHO, World Health Organization

Guest editorial

An examination of Australian media reports over the last twelve months on the subject of Indigenous arts suggests a number of significant contradictions. Indigenous affairs Minister Amanda Vanstone called Aboriginal arts ‘Australia’s greatest cultural gift to the world’ (Australian, 24 January 2006), while the always-controversial expatriate Germaine Greer argued that much Indigenous art was in fact poor quality and ‘a big con’ (West Australian, 13 December 2005). Curators at France’s Musee du Quai Branly dedicated a wing of the new gallery to Aboriginal art. Yet many Indigenous leaders – including David Ross from the Central Land Council and Hetti Perkins, curator of Indigenous Arts at the Art Gallery of NSW – continue to publicise the widespread exploitation of Aboriginal artists in Central Australia by unscrupulous art dealers (Northern Territory News, 22 December 2005). Former head of the Northern Land Council and former Australian of the Year, Galarrwuy Yunupingu, who twenty years ago presented Bob Hawke with the painting Barunga Statement in celebration of the government’s commitment to a treaty, recently threatened to take the painting back from Parliament House in protest against ‘successive governments’’ neglect of Indigenous policy (Sydney Morning Herald, 21 January 2006). And in the performing arts, Richard Walley drew attention to the lack of professional recognition of Indigenous performing artists (Australian, 24 January 2006).

Such contradictions within the management and marketing of Indigenous arts have persisted for several years, and it was in response that this special issue of the Asia Pacific Journal of Arts and Cultural Management was initiated. As guest editors, we sought to present research that examines, more deeply and constructively, the marketing of Indigenous arts in Australia both historically and in the present. What emerges from this collection of five papers is a familiar scholarly theme: a tension between the ‘periphery’ and the ‘centre’, between outback and city, between larger and smaller Australian states and between Australia and other nations.

Jonathan Sweet’s ‘UNESCO and cultural heritage practice in Australia in the 1950s’ looks at the evolving relationship between Australia and the United Nations through an analysis of a significant touring exhibition: Australian Aboriginal Culture. Sweet pinpoints the 1950s as a period in which Australian museology’s approach to Indigenous cultures gradually changed, and in which Australian participation in UNESCO through the exhibition helped shape the ideological position UNESCO advocated. His article provides a useful historical contrast against which the following four articles may be read.

Chapman, Cardamone, Manahan and Rentschler look at local and contemporary issues in Indigenous arts marketing. Katrina Chapman’s ‘Positioning urban Aboriginal art in the Australian Indigenous art market’ investigates perceptions about contemporary urban Aboriginal art, concluding that the estrangement – and indeed stereotyping – of urban and traditional art creates a false set of values that urban artists are challenging. Similarly, Megan Cardamone, Esmai Manahan and Ruth Rentschler contrast perceptions of Aboriginal arts from the northern and south-eastern states, identifying crucial misconceptions that contribute to the value system applied to these arts. As Ruth Rentschler is a joint editor of this issue, the review process for this article has been managed by Katya Johanson as co-editor.

Two case studies of marketing the arts – which look at different artforms and in opposite sides of the country – then follow. Jennifer Radbourne, Janet Campbell and Vera Ding’s ‘Building audiences for Indigenous theatre’ analyses research on audiences and potential audiences for Kooemba Jdarra – Brisbane’s Indigenous performing arts company – to identify the ways in which audience attendance may be encouraged.

Finally, Jacqui Healy’s ‘Balgo 4-04’ provides a close examination of a unique art exhibition: a major commercial exhibition of the kind usually seen in Sydney and Melbourne, held in an arts centre in the middle of the Tanami Desert and retailing directly to collectors.

The editors are grateful to Warlayirti Artists Art Centre for permission to use the photographs that accompany Jacqui Healy’s article. We would also like to thank the contributors, Jo Caust for the opportunity to present this special issue, and Pearl Field for her assistance in putting it all together.

Opportunities and challenges for global education in social education curriculum

This paper will explore understandings about global education as expressed in national and local curriculum statements. Despite curriculum statements in Studies of Society and Environment area including ‘global’ in their rationale, slippage occurs between policy documents and the translation to standards statements. The curriculum area - Studies of Society and Environment is - changing as new titles describe the field and a more integrated approach is being developed in some states – Tasmania and Victoria, this presents challenges for global education.

My work in global education is a result of many years as a Geography teacher, nine years at the Asia Education Foundation, a leader of teacher study tours to Asia and pre-service teacher education students to Canada and Northern Territory. I am a passionate believer in the power of travel to unsettle, to educate, and to be reminded of all I have, and to be thankful.

Regional people more content : wellbeing index

Are you feeling happier, safer and are more connected to your community? You should be, if you're living in rural and regional Australia, according to the latest research from Deakin University. Nine of the top ten happiest electorates are in rural Australia, and all of them report feeling safer and having a stronger sense of belonging to their communities, compared to their city counterparts. Rural Social researcher from Charles Sturt University in Wagga, Margaret Alston, says even bad events like drought and bushfires tend to bring people together. "I'd have to agree that there are certain factors that actually lead to people in the country being on average happier than those in cities. The community where I live, we're just recovering from quite a significant bushfire. People have come forward and offered adjistment for stock for the affected farmers, there's been community drives to support the people who've lost their houses, some real moves from the community to make sure the incident didn't scar people unnecessarily." Deakin University researcher, Liz Eckerman, says when it comes to feeling connected to your community, rural and regional people come out on top. She also agrees difficult circumstances like drought often bring out the best sense of community.

Can the internet improve the well-being of the elderly?

In this paper we report on a project that aimed to evaluate the potential of the Internet to reduce social isolation amongst the elderly, and thereby, improve psychosocial functioning. Twenty residents of a retirement village volunteered to be given access to, and training in, the use of computers and the Internet. After 3 months, they exhibited little change in measures of self-esteem, positive affect, personal well-being, optimism and social connectedness. However, they reported that they found the use of the Internet to be of great benefit. Over the 12 months of the study 12 participants discontinued their involvement for a variety of reasons. After 12 months, the eight participants who remained in the study again reported a range of positive outcomes however, quantitative survey data did not confirm these findings of a generally-positive experience. This discrepancy between the qualitative (interview) data and the quantitative (survey) data suggests that impact of the Internet on the wellbeing of the elderly may be more complex than suggested, and broader than was assessed psychometrically. We make specific recommendations about the introduction of computers to elderly with care both in how participants are selected and how their well being is monitored subsequently.

Size matters : extraordinary rodent abundance on an Australian tropical floodplain

Published estimates of the total biomass of natural populations of mammalian herbivores generally have ignored small-bodied taxa (especially, rodents). Including such taxa may dramatically change our understanding of total biomass and energy flow in such systems. Dusky rats (Rattus colletti) are small (up to 210 g) native Australian mammals, and our 5-year mark-recapture study on a tropical flood plain (Adelaide River, Northern Territory) revealed that rat biomass can reach extraordinary levels (up to 4.7 t km⁻²). Because their small body size results in high mass-specific metabolic rates, a given biomass of rodents has a several-fold higher total energy requirement than the same mass of large-bodied herbivores. Accordingly, during some years dusky rat biomass can be double that estimated for large herbivores on the world's most productive savannas in eastern and southern Africa. The huge rodent biomass strongly suggests that the Adelaide River flood plain must be an incredibly productive habitat. Considering the immense biological importance of these productive ecosystems, flood plain conservation must be placed high on the priority list of habitats that require immediate protection.

The impact of racism upon the health and wellbeing of young Australians

The Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation at Deakin University has worked in partnership with the Foundation for Young Australians to conduct this research project into the impact of racism upon the health and wellbeing of young Australians. The research has been carried out in eighteen Australian secondary schools in Victoria, New South Wales, Northern Territory and Queensland. Students aged 15-18 were surveyed and interviewed in both the government and Catholic education systems in order to ascertain the experience of racism and racist behaviours among Australian youth and their impact on health and wellbeing. The scope of the research brief included the nature of the racist experience, its setting, the individual and institutional responses and its reporting. The research also aimed to examine the impact of the experience of racism upon the health and wellbeing of Australian youth. A glossary of terms is included in Appendix 1 to assist with the reading of this Report.

The evidentiary strategies of Two Laws

This article examines the ways in which the documentary film Two Laws deploys a variety of strategies to represent the historical claim to land made in the early 1980s by the Borroloola people of Australia's Northern Territory. Cross-cultural collaboration between the indigenous people of Borroloola and two non-indigenous film-makers produced a film that combines a vigorous reflexivity with dramatic re-enactment and oral testimony. Importantly, the presentation of evidence in support of the land claim is achieved via a form communally devised by the Borroloola people based on their cultural needs and contingent on Borroloola social structure. In this way the so-called documentary truth claim and indigenous land claim intersect in Two Laws: for the Borroloola people, the filmic evidentiary truth claim functions in a direct way in support of their legal claim to their lands.

Kurdungurlu got to drive Toyota : differential colonizing process among the Warlpiri

This thesis is based on fieldwork I carried out between December 1987 and June 1989 while living with the residents of a small Warlpiri Outstation Community situated ca. 75 km north-west of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory of Australia. Colonialism is a process whereby incommensurate gender regimes impact differently on women and men and this is reflected in the indigenous response which affects the socialization of Western things. The notion of the indigenous KIRDA-KURDUNGURLU reciprocity is shown to be consistent with a gender system and to articulate all exchange relations as pro-creative social relationships. This contrasts with the Western capitalist system of production and social reproduction of gendered individuals in that it does not ascribe gender to biological differences between women and men but is derived from a land based social division between Sister-Brother. Social relationships are put under great strain in an effort to socialize Western things for Warlpiri internal use, I argue that the colonization of Aboriginal societies is an ongoing process. Despite the historical shift from a physical all-male frontier to the present day cross-cultural negotiations between Aborigines and Non-Aborigines, men still privilege men. The negotiation process for ownership of a Community Toyota is the most recent phenomenon where this can be observed. Male privilege is established by linking control over the access to the Community Toyota with traditional rights to land. However, the Toyota as Western object has a Western gender identity as well. By pitting women against men it engages people in social conflict which is brought into existence through an organisation of Western concepts based on an alien gender regime. But Western things, especially the Community Toyota, resist socialization because the Warlpiri do not produce these things. Warlpiri people know this and, to satisfy their need for Western things, they engage them in a process of social differentiation. By this process they can be seen actively to maintain the Western system in an effort to maintain themselves as Warlpiri and to secure the production of Western things. This investigation of the cultural response to Western influences shows that indigenous gender relations are only maintained through a socially stressful process of socializing Western things.