From country town to provincial city : Albury, 1934-1949

Examines the process of urbanisation in non-metropolitan New South Wales by focusing on the transition of Albury from country town to provincial city. The study traces changes in function, form, government and society.

Managerial approaches to deal with corruption and bribery in a host country

This paper discusses two current managerial approaches in dealing with corruption and bribery in a multinational business context, namely the 'when in Rome approach' and 'the legal compliance approach'. It briefly revisits the impact of corruption on business and society and proposes a third approach, that is, 'stakeholder compliance approach' on part of multinational business managers in dealing with corruption/bribery.

Barriers to blood donation in African communities in Australia: the role of home and host country culture and experience

BACKGROUND: An influx of African migrants and refugees can strain a host country's blood services, because often migrants have unique blood needs that cannot be sourced from local donors. To increase blood donation by the new migrants, host country blood services need to understand how blood and blood donations are viewed by immigrant communities, because recruitment models that are not culturally adapted may have limited success.

STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Nine focus groups representing a cross-section of Australian-based African communities were conducted in multiple languages, facilitated by bilingual workers. The qualitative protocol was guided by the literature on blood donation by African migrants and communities in Africa. Thematic analysis identified the relevance of issues previously included in the literature and whether other issues facilitated or prohibited blood donation.

RESULTS: Home country cultural issues were not generally raised as barriers to donation, and respondents were positively disposed toward donation. Home country experiences shaped respondents' views in Australia. Participants focused on assisting “individuals in need,” rather than giving to a blood service that many viewed with suspicion because of issues in their home country. There was a lack of knowledge about the donation process in Australia. More importantly, respondents perceived that their blood would not be wanted, based on a perception of host country mistrust and discrimination.

CONCLUSION: Developing an intervention that encourages migrants to donate blood needs to be culturally focused. It appears that addressing perceptions based on home country experiences is essential. Overcoming a general perception of discrimination is beyond any blood service, but there can be an attempt to ensure that blood donation is seen as an inclusive process—blood from everyone, for everyone.

Why ERP systems fail to generate intended benefits in developing-country organisations

ERP adoptions in developing countries such as Sri Lanka have struggled to achieve intended benefits. To identify reasons for this problem, this paper begins by integrating ERP benefit-derivers models in developed countries, and Hayami’s technology-transfer model, which argues that three factors retard adoption of imported technology in a developing country, namely, culture, institutions and resources. The model is tested using four in-depth case studies in Sri Lanka. The results suggest that Hayami’s factors, culture, institutions and resources, are, indeed, key factors that make benefits from ERP systems difficult to achieve in Sri Lanka, and by inference, in other developing countries.

Welcome workers from 'bipolar' Pacific

The article focuses on the comments concerning the Australian government's Pacific Seasonal Worker Pilot Scheme in Papua New Guinea. It has been perceived that it could not help the employment problems in the country and other countries included. Its objective has been questioned by Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson. Many believed that few people to be included in the scheme would only make an insignificant difference to the problems of under-and unemployment with which they are faced.

The 'country' within : the challenges for landscape architecture to legitimatise its residency on terra nullius

The nexus between the landscape architecture profession and the Australian Indigenous communities about place and 'country' has been floundering despite recent events in history, including recognition of native title by the High Court in Mabo v the State of Queensland [No. 2] (1992) 175 CLR 1 that have heightened recognition of the rights, interests, needs and aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia and internationally.

Back to the future: Warlpiri encounters with drawings, country and others in the digital age

Since the early 1900s, Warlpiri people living in the central desert region of Australia have experienced an intense process of adaption to the changing circumstances of postcolonial life. From the earliest days, their encounters with kardiya, non-Aboriginal people, have been mediated by diverse visual technologies that have, over time, become integral to the ways Warlpiri orient themselves to each other and their wider world. In this paper I trace the key elements of the complex visual environment that has emerged from this history of mediation. The central part of the paper considers events around the repatriation to Warlpiri communities in 2011 of a collection of drawings made in the 1950s by their forebears.In responses to a medium that once was new but now is old, several points of interest emerge, among them a clear sense of a hierarchy of value Warlpiri apply to modes of visual communication. In the context of the return of the drawings, the significance Warlpiri ascribe to other visual media comes to the fore. I consider some of the ways visual forms are deployed in support of public projections of cultural identity on the one hand and everyday modes of expression and address on the other. The paper’s central argument is that contemporary Warlpiri attitudes to images – whether they be drawn, painted or broadcast – reveal the complex postcolonial workings of mimetic desire.