Wielding the big stick – Lessons for enforcing anti-discrimination law from the Fair Work Ombudsman

Anti-discrimination law is enforced by a person who has experienced discrimination by lodging a complaint at a statutory equal opportunity agency. The agency is responsible for receiving and resolving discrimination complaints and educating the community; it does not play a role in enforcing the law. The agency relies on ‘carrots’ to encourage voluntary compliance, but it does not wield any ‘sticks’. This is not the case in other areas of law, such as industrial relations, where the Fair Work Ombudsman is charged with enforcing the law — including the prohibition of discrimination in the workplace — and possesses the necessary powers to do so. British academics Hepple, Coussey and Choudhury developed an enforcement pyramid for equal opportunity. This article shows that the model used by the Fair Work Ombudsman reflects what Hepple, Coussey and Choudhury propose, while anti-discrimination law enforcement would be represented as a flat, rectangular structure. The article considers the Fair Work Ombudsman’s discrimination enforcement work to date and identifies some lessons that anti-discrimination law enforcement can learn from its experience.

Book review: Australia's own cold war: The waterfront under Menzies

In recent years, political debate about industrial relations has been dominated by the Howard government’s tendency to strengthen the position of employers against employees. As Tom Sheridan’s fine book, Australia’s Own Cold War: The Waterfront Under Menzies, demonstrates, there has been nothing new in Australian history in the Howard government’s concentration on the relationship between business and labour. The long era of the Menzies governments during the 1950s and 1960s was also dominated by industrial struggles and ideological conflict in the workplace.

Development, implementation and evaluation of an interprofessional graduate program for nursing-paramedicine double-degree graduates

Over the past decade, several Australian universities have offered a double degree in nursing and paramedicine. Mainstream employment models that facilitate integrated graduate practice in both nursing and paramedicine are currently lacking. The aim of the present study was to detail the development of the Interprofessional Graduate Program (IPG), the industrial and professional issues that required solutions, outcomes from the first pilot IPG group and future directions. The IPG was an 18-month program during which participants rotated between graduate nursing experience in emergency nursing at Northern Health, Melbourne, Australia and graduate paramedic experience with Ambulance Victoria. The first IPG with 10 participants ran from January 2011 to August 2012. A survey completed by nine of the 10 participants in March 2014 showed that all nine participants nominated Ambulance Victoria as their main employer and five participants were working casual shifts in nursing. Alternative graduate programs that span two health disciplines are feasible but hampered by rigid industrial relations structures and professional ideologies. Despite a 'purpose built' graduate program that spanned two disciplines, traditional organisational structures still hamper double-degree graduates using all of skills to full capacity, and force the selection of one dominant profession.

Book review: The Unknown Nation : Australia After Empire

The Unknown Nation is an illuminating history of Australia's putative 'search' for national identity. The task of remodelling the national image touched every aspect of Australian life where identifiably British ideas, habits and symbols—from foreign relations to the national anthem—had grown obsolete. How to celebrate Australia's past achievements and present aspirations became a source of public controversy as community leaders struggled to find the appropriate language and rhetoric to invoke a new era.

Book review : Australia's empire

Book review of Australia's Empire by Deryck M. Schreuder and Stuart Ward.

Altered images : the relations between design representations and design practice

As information systems move out of the office into the wider world and are merged with mobile appliances, buildings and even clothing, the representations traditionally used in any one discipline may not be adequate for understanding these new domains. Design representations are ‘ways of seeing and not seeing’. Despite the central role representations play in design, the information systems design community has little understanding of the relation, ideal or actual, between design practice and design representation. This paper reports on an extensive design case study that aims at increasing understanding of the nature and affordances of representations in the design process and argues for the need for information systems as a discipline to open up discussion of the design representations that may be required to effectively design systems that mix traditional IS with disciplines such as industrial design, architecture and fashion design.

Altered images : the relations between design representations and design practice

As information systems move out of the office into the wider world and are merged with mobile appliances, buildings and even clothing, the representations traditionally used in any one discipline may not be adequate for understanding these new domains. Design representations are ‘ways of seeing and not seeing’. Despite the central role representations play in design, the information systems design community has little understanding of the relation, ideal or actual, between design practice and design representation. This paper reports on an extensive design case study that aims at increasing understanding of the nature and affordances of representations in the design process and argues for the need for information systems as a discipline to open up discussion of the design representations that may be required to effectively design systems that mix traditional IS with disciplines such as industrial design, architecture and fashion design.

Monitoring and motivating outworkers : the case of the AMP and the sale of industrial life insurance 1905-1940

The development of labor management practices in the financial services sector provides an interesting insight into how problems associated with agency issues were overcome. Within financial institutions and other white collar occupations, the use of internal labor markets emerged as an effective means of both controlling and motivating employees. However such management techniques were only effective in cases where work tasks could be internalized. The business of some types of organizations necessitated a division of work tasks between those undertaken within the office and those undertaken outside the office. The management and sale of insurance products is a case in point. This paper explores the development of processes implemented to resolve a specific type of labor management issue, namely the control of workers under conditions of uncertainty. Using the example of the Australian Mutual Provident (Australia's largest life insurer), it analyses how and why particular work relations procedures were developed.

Country practice : a case study of regional public relations practice

Research into public relations practice in all settings is vital given the extent and spread of its practice. However, despite the maturity of the public relations profession and the number of public relations practitioners who operate outside metropolitan areas, there has been little research to identify the distinctive nature of public relations practice in regional locations.

This research project begins a dissection of the nature of professional public relations practice in a non-metropolitan setting through the examination of public relations activity, workplaces and interactions in a regional locale. The project seeks to examine the specific nature of public relations practice in non-metropolitan Australia through a case study of two Victorian regional cities; Ballarat and Warrnambool. Analysis of these two sites provides the pilot stage for a larger future comparative examination of public relations practice in regional Australian centres with a variety of economic, demographic and geographic profiles.

Biopharmaceutical innovation and industrial developments in South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan

South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan are well known as export-oriented developmental states which for decades employed industrial policy to target particular industries for government support. In the past fifteen years, these three countries all identified the biopharmaceutical industry as a strategic sector. This article explores, through economic analysis, the rationale for this decision and the strategies chosen for linking into the global bio-economy with the objective of catching up in biopharmaceuticals. The paper identifies three comparative advantages enjoyed by these countries in the biopharma sector: (1) public investments in basic research; (2) private investments in phase 1 clinical trials; and (3) a potentially significant contract research industry managing latter-stage clinical trials. Governments employ a range of industrial policies, consistent with these comparative advantages, to promote the biopharmaceutical industry, including public investment in biomedical hubs, research funding and research and development (R&D) tax credits. We argue that the most important feature of the biopharmaceutical industry in these countries is the dominant role of the public sector. That these countries have made progress in innovative capabilities is illustrated by input measures such as R&D expenditure as share of gross domestic product, number of patents granted and clinical trials, and volume of foreign direct investment. In contrast, output indicators such as approval of new chemical entities suggest that the process of catching up has only just commenced. Pharmaceutical innovation is at the stage of mainly generating inputs to integrated processes controlled by the globally incumbent firms.

State–Chaebol relations in the post-crisis period

This article examines contemporary Korean capitalism via an analysis of state-chaebol relations in the post-crisis period. The Korean state played a prominent role in industrial and financial restructuring after the crisis. Some scholars argue that a 'new' state has emerged in Korea, with the activism during the financial crisis representing only a temporary diversion from the shift towards a 'competition state'. Others claim that the Korean state still seeks to directly shape economic outcomes: some policy instruments have changed, but strategic intent, defined here as the will to directly manage investment flows and shape economic structures, has not. The transition of Korean capitalism from the developmental state system towards neo-liberalism, this article argues, is far from complete. Emphasizing the situated choices of state elites and the challenging political context in which they find themselves, we presume a condition of mutual dependence between the state and chaebols. Given incidences of conflict in the post-crisis context, we argue that the state has not fully reasserted its will over the chaebols. The restructuring of chaebols ('Big Deals') are best understood as symbolic measures intended to garner external support for the Korean state rather than unfettered exercise of strategic intent. At the same time, we go beyond existing accounts of 'state decline' by highlighting the place of economic performance by the chaebols as the preeminent criteria for state support. The state and chaebols remain central to Korean capitalism, even in its current hybrid and somewhat dysfunctional form.

The implied convenience yield of precious metals: safe haven versus industrial usage

During a financial crisis, investors find it convenient to hold gold (Gd) as a safe haven. But during good economic times, manufacturing firms find it convenient to stockpile platinum (Pl), palladium (Pd) and especially silver (Si), for industrial usages. We have three related objectives. First, we examine the nature of cross-market interactions among the convenience yields (cy_it) of {Gd, Pl, Pd, Si}, which are implied from cost-of-carry relations. Second, we test if the more influential cy_it of certain precious metals are also affecting the return, volatility and/or volume dynamics of other precious metals. Third, we analyze if the cy_it of gold is enhanced (diluted) during (after) the Asian and Global financial crises. We find, consistent with our propositions, that during crisis period, gold’s cy_it provides incremental information to the volatility series of {Gd, Pl, Pd, Si}. But during good economic times, it is silver’s cy_it that has the most influence on the return series across {Gd, Pl, Pd, Si}. This is not surprising given that Si has the largest proportion of industrial usage among the four metals.

Education and training deficits in industrial clusters : empirical evidence that managers can use to rectify the skills gap in Auckland precinct

Tertiary institutions should seek continuous feedback from industries to keep track of the needs of businesses to provide education and training. In designing programmes and upgrading curricula, there are important factors to bear in mind so that programmes "cater" for all levels of learners. The Auckland City Council financed this study, focussing on Auckland's Rosebank Business Precinct (ARBP). Surrounding communities, particularly Maori, Pacific peoples and recent migrants, experience disparities in employment. The target population were 500+ businesses operating on Rosebank Road. A total of 529 businesses were identified. Interviews with 102 companies with a 36-question questionnaire were conducted. Areas were identified and covered in this paper in the ARBP for developing programmes and curricula for tertiary institutions to provide employable students with the right knowledge, skills and attributes to grow and manage existing ventures. In the analysis we point out what education or training is necessary for ARBP to provide greater efficiencies and improvement in profit levels. Recommendations and conclusions are provided.