Succession and Indigenous Australians : addressing Indigenous customary law notions of 'property' and 'kinship' in a succession law context

The purpose of this article is to critically evaluate the existing capacity of Indigenous people to exercise succession rights against their estate. This article begins with a discussion of the sources of the general succession laws in Australia, noting that they have derived from UK law, where the common law notions of property, property rights and family, including the expectational right to succeed to property, are all important factors. These common law notions do not easily fit within the spectrum of Indigenous customary law. Generally, many Indigenous Australians will die without executing a valid will (ie, they die intestate) and it is here that this article undertakes an examination of the general intestacy laws in all Australian jurisdictions noting the inadequacy of the provisions to recognise Indigenous persons’ spiritual and cultural obligations to property, land or otherwise, together with a failure to distinguish extended Indigenous kinship relationships under Indigenous customary law. It is argued that Indigenous people who die intestate should be supported by a flexible and adaptive intestacy framework, responsive to the full customary and cultural responsibilities of the deceased, thus promoting an organic and developmental approach to succession entitlements.

Challenges in collaborative writing : addressing authorship attribution

Purpose – Increasing pressure to enhance research coupled with a desire for a broadening of
academic input, are prompting greater levels of collaboration. Research collaboration can generate
notable benefits but can also pose a variety of challenges. The purpose of this paper is to explore the
reasons, facilitators, benefits and challenges of academic collaboration. It also provides suggestions to
manage identifiable risks and enhance team dynamics.
Design/methodology/approach – This is a conceptual paper exploring prior literature in relation
to the contentious points of research collaboration, particularly in regard to authorship attribution.
Findings – The authors present two checklists that researchers can utilise to ensure the successful
completion of collaborative projects. The checklists incorporate the main factors required for effective
collaborative work and research, and form a foundation for discussion among team members.
Originality/value – The paper draws upon experiences, observations, academic literature and
protocols, and provides strategies and recommendations to enhance collaboration and authorship
attribution. The two checklists presented in the paper are value-adding for team members.

Capacity building : just rhetoric, or a way forward in addressing health inequality?

Issue addressed: It is time to move beyond defining the problem of health inequality to taking action. The response required is complex and calls for system wide action. It is in this context that a discussion of increasing the capacity of the health system to respond to health inequality is both timely and essential. Methods: This paper looks at a capacity building framework that has been developed by the New South Wales Health Department and provides an example of a number of projects that have applied capacity building strategies. Conclusion: Addressing health inequality presents a significant challenge to health promotion practitioners. Emerging capacity building theory provides direction for strategies to build the capacity of a health system to address equity. It proposes a set of practical actions using the five focus areas of organisational development, workforce development, resource allocation, partnerships and leadership. So what?: A capacity building approach by itself will not provide the mandate and framework for the action that needs to be taken to address health inequality, but it helps to ensure that once potential solutions are identified the health system has the capacity to respond.

Addressing aquaculture-fisheries interactions through the implementation of the ecosystem approach to aquaculture (EAA

This review addresses how the ecosystem approach to aquaculture (EAA) can optimize aquaculture-fisheries interactions considering different spatial scales from farm, aquaculture zone and watershed through to the global market. Aquaculture and fisheries are closely related subsectors with frequent interactions, largely due to the sharing of common ecosystems and natural resources. Interactions are also born from the flow of biomass from fisheries to aquaculture through fish-based feeds (e.g. fishmeal, fish oil and trashfish), through the collection of wild seed and brookstock, and genetic resources and biomass transfer from aquaculture to fisheries through culture-based fisheries (CBF) and escapees. Negative effects include modification of habitats affecting fisheries resources and activities (e.g. mangrove clearing for shrimp ponds, seabed disturbances through anchoring of aquaculture cages or pens, damage to seagrasses, alteration to reproductive habitats, biodiversity loss). Eutrophication of waterbodies due to excess nutrient release leading to anoxia and fish mortality can also impact negatively on biodiversity and wild fish stocks. Release of diseases and chemicals also imposes some threats on fisheries. Yet there could be beneficial impacts; for example, aquaculture is increasingly contributing to capture fisheries through CBF and could contribute to restore overfished stocks. Aquaculture can offer alternative livelihoods to fisherfolk, providing increased opportunity to them and also to their families, and especially to women. Aquaculture-increased production and marketing can also enhance and indirectly improve processing and market access to similar fishery products. The ecosystem approach to aquaculture (EAA) is a strategy for the management of the sector that emphasizes intersectoral complementarities by taking into account the interactions between all the activities within ecologically meaningful boundaries and acknowledging the multiple services provided by ecosystems. The main objective of this review is to understand the status of aquaculture-fisheries interactions associated with the biological, technological, social, economic, environmental, policy, legal and other aspects of aquaculture development and to analyze how these interactions are or could be addressed with an EAA. Therefore, the review involves aspects of scoping, identification of issues, prioritizing, devising management tools and plans for minimizing negative effects and optimizing positive ones within the context of social-ecological resilience, at different relevant geographical scales. Many of the management measures suggested in this review must involve not only EAA but also an ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF), especially to deal with issues such as fishery of wild seed and the management of fisheries to produce fishmeal/oil for pelleted feeds or for direct feeding with wet fish. The implementation of EAA and EAF should help to overcome the sectoral and intergovernmental fragmentation of resource management efforts and assist in the development of institutional mechanisms and private-sector arrangements for effective coordination among various sectors active in ecosystems in which aquaculture and fisheries operate and between the various levels of government. Ecosystem-based management involves a transition from traditional sectoral planning and decision-making to the application of a more holistic approach to integrated natural resource management in an adaptive manner.

Addressing retained austenite stability in advanced high strength steels

Advances in the development of new high strength steels have resulted in microstructures containing significant volume fractions of retained austenite. The transformation of retained austenite to martensite upon straining contributes towards improving the ductility. However, in order to gain from the above beneficial effect, the volume fraction, size, morphology and distribution of the retained austenite need to be controlled. In this regard, it is well known that carbon concentration in the retained austenite is responsible for its chemical stability, whereas its size and morphology determines its mechanical stability. Thus, to achieve the required mechanical properties, control of the processing parameters affecting the microstructure development is essential.