UN-consistent : a comparison of Australia's military interventions in Somalia and Rwanda

This article seeks to compare Australia's involvement in two key 1990s peace missions: those to Somalia in 1992-93 and Rwanda in 1994-95. While there are many similarities between the two missions in terms of time, scale and theatre, the differences are more important. Both missions are usually recalled as failures despite the Australian troops having been extremely successful in their roles during both deployments. Moreover the experiences with intervention in Africa seem to have forever blighted Australian participation in peace missions on that continent.

Can investors hedge residential price dynamics of Australia's capital cities?

The study described in this paper focuses on testing the short-run and
long-run relationships between house price and consumer price indices in Australia’s capital cities from 1998 to 2008. The autoregressive distributed lag model is adopted to obtain the estimates of the short-run relationships, while the error correction model is used to investigate the long-run relationships. The t-statistic is used to compute the significance of these relationships. The research results give no evidence that house price indices are correlated with consumer price indices in the short run. However, the long-run relationships between house and consumer price indices exist in most of the cities.

Remedies in equity : the laws of Australia

A clear and simple overview of key remedies in equity. Extensive case examples and factual discussion complement a thorough examination of established principles. This includes coverage of the latest judicial decisions and any statutory modification of the remedies in equity. Wright, University of Adelaide; Hepburn, Deakin University.

Financial structure and policy of Australia's retirement system

Inoreasing life expectancies for both males and females in the Asia-Pacific region have resulted in an ageing population. Given an ageing p'opulation, adequate income is of increasing importance to people who will experience longer periods in retirement. This paper provides an overview of the structure of the Australian retirement system which includes a means-tested government provided age pension, retirement savings and voluntary savings. Despite policy Initiatives to boost retirement savings and income, it is concluded that due to the relative immaturity of this system it will fail to provide many community groups (baby-boomers, females, low income earners, long-term unemployed, part-time workers) with an adequate retirement income.

Strength training of one limb increases corticomotor excitability projecting to the contralateral homologous limb

The contralateral transfer of strength following unilateral strength training (ULS) is thought to be due to changes within the nervous system. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) we compared corticospinal responses following ULS of the right biceps brachii (BB) projecting to the untrained left BB. Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) were recorded from both BB of 23 individuals pre and post 4 weeks heavy load (80% of 1RM) ULS of right BB. TMS was delivered at intensities below active motor threshold (AMT) to saturation of the MEP (MEP_max). ULS resulted in a 28% increase in 1RM right BB strength, resulting in a 19.2% increase in contralateral strength of the left BB (p = .0001). There was a significant increase in MEP amplitude of 30.3% (p = .03), 33% (p = .05), and 26.5% (p = .01) at AMT, 20% above AMT and MEP_max respectively. No significant differences in silent period were seen at AMT, 20% above AMT or MEP_max. This study has demonstrated increased corticospinal excitability projecting to the untrained arm following heavy load ULS.

Mislabeling marine protected areas and why it matters : a case study of Australia

As part of international obligations and national policies, most nations are working toward establishing comprehensive, adequate, and representative systems of terrestrial and marine protected areas (MPAs). Assigning internationally recognized International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) protected area categories to these MPAs is an important part of this process. The most recent guidance from the IUCN clearly states that commercial or recreational fishing is inappropriate in MPAs designated as category II (National Park). However, in at least two developed countries with long histories of protected area development (e.g., Canada and Australia), category II is being assigned to a number of MPAs that allow some form of commercial or recreational fishing. Using Australia as a case study, this article explores the legal and policy implications of applying protected area categories to MPAs and the consequences for misapplying them. As the Australian Government is about to embark on potentially one of the largest expansions of MPA networks in the world, ensuring the application of IUCN categories is both transparent and consistent with international practice will be important, both for the sake of international conventions and to accurately track conservation progress.

Protection of Australia in the cyber age

Australia has developed sophisticated national security policies and physical security agencies to protect against current and future security threats associated with critical infrastructure protection and cyber warfare protection. In this paper, the authors examine some common security risks that face Australia and how government policies and strategies have been developed and changed over time, for example, the proposed Australian Homeland Security department. This paper discusses the different steps that Australia has undertaken in relation to developing national policies to deal with critical infrastructure protection.

The role of Australia's public broadcasters in development and democracy

In this article I investigate the ways in which the ABC and SBS use the internet. I predominantly focus on how the public broadcasters’ promote an informed citizenry though participation online. Such online participation further develops a second vital role of public broadcasting which is to develop a sense of nationhood—through Australian content (which can include information and communication in languages other than English) and which provides for local and international communities in rural and metropolitan areas to engage with each other. In order to understand the capacity for the public broadcasters to enhance online public communication and democratic participation, I firstly examine general internet theory and evaluate how liberating the internet has been for those living in countries where the state and political alliances control traditional broadcast and print media. For this analysis, the key aspects of virtual communication and cyber-democracy are explored as they are relevant to the services the public broadcasters could provide. Furthermore, case examples of current practical work undertaken in these areas are examined. The framework of the ‘virtual agora’ is considered because it represents the ideals of a public sphere in cyberspace where people are currently able to discuss and debate key issues. The theory is then related to activities undertaken through the ‘vortals’ of the ABC and SBS. Finally, the extent of political intervention and commercial influence is evaluated.

Politics of accommodation of the Rise of China : the case of Australia

In the context of the rise of China, Southeast Asian countries and Australia have begun shifting towards an accommodation policy. Robert Ross examines the accommodation policy in South Korea, Mochizuki discusses Japanese accommodationists, and Manicom and O’Neil show some evidence of Australian accommodation of Chinese strategic preferences. The scholarship has, however, narrowly focused on and overestimated the role of security. Through a study of the origin, process, structural conditions and impacts of accommodation policy, this paper broadens the concept of accommodation to capture its multiple meanings and practices. It finds that a selective accommodation policy and strategy toward the rise of China developed in Australia is a sign of the changing power relations under which the mainstream paradigms of containment and engagement, hard balancing or bandwagoning, have proved inadequate to the task of dealing with China, and that economic interdependence has driven the politics of accommodation in Australia and several Asian countries.