When being a boy is everything: understanding Re Alex

The decision of the Family Court of Australia in the matter of Re Alex¹demonstrated yet again that there's nothing .like a bit of under-age sex to raise the armchair experts from their usual near-supine positions. The  opinions of commentators like Bill Muehlenberg,² John Flemming³ and Babette Francis⁴ and even, unfortunately, the July 2004 "According to Merit" article⁵ have been unlikely to advance the profession's understanding of the complex issues faced by people experiencing transsexualism. The factors that should be considered in determining a person's sex for the purpose of the law in Australia are now well-settled, yet controversies over diagnoses, access to treatment and consequent legal status continue almost unabated as Alex's case has so aptly demonstrated.

David v. Goliath: the gay games, the Olympics, and the ownership of language

The Gay Games is firmly established on the contemporary global sports calendar, but is seldom canvassed in mainstream sports media, or considered a model for sports administrators. This is regrettable, as the Games’ ethos offers many clues into the relationships between individual and communal empowerment for homosexual and heterosexual participants alike, while providing a site of resistance against entrenched norms of elitism, nationalism, victory and record-breaking indicative of the modern Olympic movement. Credit for this inclusive ethos rests with the vision of inaugural Gay Games organiser Dr. Tom Waddell. Drawing on Games archives, this paper outlines Waddell’s vision, then discusses the impact of a protracted legal dispute instigated by the United States Olympic Committee in 1982 over the use of the term ‘Olympics’ in association with Gay Games I and II. Four United States Federal court rulings are examined, with particular reference to the contrasting hierarchy of private intellectual property and public civil rights considered under United States law of the time. Domestic and international legacies of the dispute are also briefly examined, focusing on the inherent tensions between the state-sanctioned protection of Olympic terminology, the ideals of free speech, the ownership of common sporting terms, and the potential discriminatory effects of selective trademark enforcement. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of how Waddell’s vision superseded each of these legal technicalities to ensure the Games continues to provide a viable model for inclusive and engaged participation for all people.

Instrumentalism and the 'helping' discourse : Australian indigenous performing arts and policy

Indigenous arts are significant to the way Australia is represented to the world. Since the early 19705 Indigenous cultural policies, at both federal and state levels, have helped to shape the development of Indigenous performing arts in Australia. Over this period, cultural policies, in confluence with the aims of Indigenous artists and civil rights activists, have produced and reproduced instrumentalist rationales for the support of Indigenous arts. In particular, the sector has deployed <helping' rationales for cultural policies which focus on social and economic outcomes. This article addresses current debates around the instrumentalist purposes of cultural policy and the participation of Indigenous practitioners in reproducing the 'helping' discourse. The article, however, finds evidence of a recent break in the consensus which sees some Indigenous artists resisting the historical imperative for their arts practice to be exclusively focused on instrumentalist outcomes.

Cultural diversity, heritage and human rights : intersections in theory and practice

This theoretically innovative anthology investigates the problematic linkages between conserving cultural heritage, maintaining cultural diversity, defining and establishing cultural citizenship, and enforcing human rights.

It is the first publication to address the notions of cultural diversity, cultural heritage and human rights in one volume. Heritage provides the basis of humanity’s rich cultural diversity. While there is a considerable literature dealing separately with cultural diversity, cultural heritage and human rights, this book is distinctive and has contemporary relevance in focusing on the intersection between the three concepts. Cultural Diversity, Heritage and Human Rights establishes a fresh approach that will interest students and practitioners alike and on which future work in the heritage field might proceed.

Future of building surveying in Australia

Building surveying is fragmenting into specialist areas that will in time displace the profession and contribute to its demise. For the profession to survive it must change and embrace these new areas as part of the building surveying family. The research identified 18 ingredients of successful professional bodies that the Australian Institute of Building Surveyors can use to position the organisation to accommodate these new areas and assist it to prosper and grow into an effective professional body.

Fractured lives : Australian prisoners of war of the Japanese and their families

Examines how the particular nature of captivity by the Japanese during World War II intensified and complicated the impact, legacy and memory of war for POWs and their families. It presents insights into the experience of the prisoners' wives and how battalion associations protect and promote the remembrance of war.

Converting potential organ donors : a situational analysis of Australian physicians

This theory-building research suggests that the key to unlocking Australia's potential organ donor pool is to reduce the ethical ambiguity and legal uncertainty plaguing physicians' interepretation of the patients's best interests standard. This may generate a greater acceptance of organ donation as part of end-of-life patient care amongst our physicians.

Cross-sectional analysis of association between socioeconomic status and utilization of primary total hip joint replacements 2006-7 : Australian orthopaedic association national joint replacement registry

Background The utilization of total hip replacement (THR) surgery is rapidly increasing, however few data examine whether these procedures are associated with socioeconomic status (SES) within Australia. This study examined primary THR across SES for both genders for the Barwon Statistical Division (BSD) of Victoria, Australia.

Methods Using the Australian Orthopaedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry data for 2006–7, primary THR with a diagnosis of osteoarthritis (OA) among residents of the BSD was ascertained. The Index of Relative Socioeconomic Disadvantage was used to measure SES; determined by matching residential addresses with Australian Bureau of Statistics census data. The data were categorised into quintiles; quintile 1 indicating the most disadvantaged. Age- and sex-specific rates of primary THR per 1,000 person years were reported for 10-year age bands using the total population at risk.

Results Females accounted for 46.9% of the 642 primary THR performed during 2006–7. THR utilization per 1,000 person years was 1.9 for males and 1.5 for females. The highest utilization of primary THR was observed in those aged 70–79 years (males 6.1, and females 5.4 per 1,000 person years). Overall, the U-shaped pattern of THR across SES gave the appearance of bimodality for both males and females, whereby rates were greater for both the most disadvantaged and least disadvantaged groups.

Conclusions Further work on a larger scale is required to determine whether relationships between SES and THR utilization for the diagnosis of OA is attributable to lifestyle factors related to SES, or alternatively reflects geographic and health system biases. Identifying contributing factors associated with SES may enhance resource planning and enable more effective and focussed preventive strategies for hip OA.

Biological, ecological, conservation and legal information for all species and subspecies of Australian bird

We introduce a dataset of biological, ecological, conservation and legal information for every species and subspecies of Australian bird, 2056 taxa or populations in total. Version 1 contains 230 fields grouped under the following headings: Taxonomy & nomenclature, Phylogeny, Australian population status, Conservation status, Legal status, Distribution, Morphology, Habitat, Food, Behaviour, Breeding, Mobility and Climate metrics. It is envisaged that the dataset will be updated periodically with new data for existing fields and the addition of new fields. The dataset has already had, and will continue to have applications in Australian and international ornithology, especially those that require standard information for a large number of taxa.

Into the protecting arms: the League of Nations and the extension of international assistance to unprotected persons in the Middle East and Europe, 1926 - 1928

The refugee dilemma in Europe in the years between the two world wars had a number of aspects: humanitarian, political, and diplomatic. It raised questions of migration, questions of international law, and questions of the fate of hundreds of thousands of individuals. Refugees were visible from the very last days of the war and remained a matter of serious international concern even beyond the outbreak of war again in September 1939. The refugee dilemma in Europe was, firstly, a humanitarian crisis because the size of the refugee population was without precedent. It was also a political problem because national governments had to contend with questions about the refugees' legal status and their legitimacy under national and international law, as well as balance humanitarian concerns with national political interests. The humanitarian and political aspects together created a crisis for the international community newly united in the League of Nations. One of its first great acts-to take these refugees into its protective care-was not even prescribed for it in its Covenant. But the refugee crisis facing Europe was so great that member states were united in the belief that the League had been established precisely to undertake a task of this kind.

Towards a conceptual framework for citizenship

This chapter aims to provide a conceptual framework for discussing citizenship. It
offers a brief account of various dimensions of citizenship that may be used as a
guide to understanding the evolution of Western ideas and forms of citizenship, as
well as contemporary problems with them. The chapter considers citizenship as a
legal status, as an administrative category, as a political practice and as an ideal to
be attained. 1 It also considers the sites or domains in which citizenship is or ought
to be practised. Each of these dimensions raises questions that citizens, non-citizens
and governments have asked over the centuries and that still provoke debate.2
Nonetheless, the chapter makes no claim to be comprehensive and, for the sake of
brevity, its generalizations may not be sufficiently sensitive to the many variations
and peculiarities of Western concepts and practices of citizenship.

Perceptions of neighborhood safety and physical activity among youth : the CLAN study

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine associations between perceptions of neighborhood safety and physical activity among youth. Methods: We completed a cross-sectional study of children age 8 to 9 years (n = 188) and adolescents age 13 to 15 years (n = 346) in areas of varying socioeconomic status in Melbourne, Australia. Parents and adolescents completed questionnaires on perceptions of neighborhood safety. Scores were computed for perceptions of road safety, incivilities, and personal safety of the child or adolescent. Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) before or after school, on evenings, and on weekends was recorded using accelerometers. Results: There were no associations between parental perceptions of neighborhood safety and children’s MVPA outside school hours. Parental perception of personal safety was positively associated with adolescent boys’ MVPA after school. Adolescent girls’ concern about road safety was negatively associated with their MVPA during evenings and outside school hours. Conclusion: Perceptions of neighborhood safety might influence physical activity among youth in different ways according to age group and sex.