Raising the profile of public health ethics in Australia : time for debate

This paper argues for greater dialogue on public health ethics. There has been little discussion in Australia about the significant ethical dilemmas in this field, and there is no agreed framework for analysing and responding to these challenges. We highlight concerns about the suitability of biomedical principles-based ethics for public health, and encourage public health professionals in this country to reflect on ethical challenges in public health research. A focus on research ethics concerns will deliver concrete examples demonstrating the need for a public health ethics frame work. Recommendations are offered for how public health ethics promotion may occur locally.

Government involvement in entrepreneurship and new business creation in Australia : a quantitative analysis of public perceptions and opinions

In order to determine the range of Australian perceptions on new venture creation at the end of the decade of the 1980s, and in particular attitudes towards government involvement in fostering entrepreneurship, a major quantitative study was conducted. The survey involved more than 1500 Australians in face-to-face interviews (300 in each mainland capital city) chosen on a random basis.

An analysis of the data provides an assessment of the Australian general public&s perceptions in three key areas: their understanding of the word 'entrepreneur' their rating of importance of new venture creation; their belief in government involvement in fostering new venture creation.

It is believed to be the first study attempting to quantify an entire nation&s perceptions in three areas vital to creators of national economic and industry policies.

Regional differences in business start-up rates in Australia : implications for future research and public policy

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) project in Australia provided both data and theoretical framework for this investigation of regional differences in entrepreneurial activity within Australia and the factors that might underlie such differences.

This study found that entrepreneurial activity as measured by participation in business start-ups varied significantly between 11 defined regions of Australia. Factors found to be associated with high start-up activity were personal acquaintance with someone who had recently started a business (strong and statistically significant) and the perception of good opportunities for starting a business locally (indicative only). Participation rate by age range across region varied widely. Sample size precluded more in-depth analysis.

The study indicates a need for a research program designed to produce data and analysis that might be constructively shared by those who wish to foster entrepreneurship in Australia.

What can Australia learn from the Europeans about public participation? Article 6 of the Aarhus Convention and environmental impact statements

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention) is the only international convention that is exclusively devoted to public participation in environmental matters. Although it is European in origin, much of the detail of the Convention draws upon national environmental legislation, including aspects of the Australian environmental legal system. This article compares the public review provisions relating to environmental impact statements in Australia with Art 6 of the Convention governing "Public Participation in Decisions on Specific Activities". The article finds that much of the Australian laws with some exceptions satisfy the minimum requirements of public participation in Art 6.

The pricing of infrastructure initial public offerings : evidence from Australia

This paper explores first-day returns on infrastructure entity initial public offerings (IPOs) in Australia from 1996 to 2007. While a good deal has been written on the first-day returns of industrial and mining company IPOs and Real Estate Investment Trust IPOs, first-day returns of infrastructure entity IPOs have yet to be reported in the literature. The study uses ordinary least squares regression analysis to identify factors that might influence the percentage first-day returns theoretically available to investing subscribers and factors that might influence the aggregate amount of money left to subscribers by issuers. The study finds that first-day returns, on average, are not significantly different from zero. There is evidence, however, that suggests higher dividend yields and higher percentage direct costs of capital raising influence these first-day returns. The study also finds that infrastructure entity IPOs that seek to raise more equity capital leave less money on the table for subscribing investors.

Public and personal domains : professional standards for teachers of English in Australia

For many teachers the term ‘professional standards’ conjures up notions of benchmarks against which to measure their performance. This is to locate standards in a public domain that is external to individual teachers, defining their professional role largely in terms of their accountability to other stakeholders in education. The following article argues an alternative view of standards as mediating between public and personal domains. Those domains should remain distinct – indeed, sometimes they may exist in a productive tension – but for standards to have any purchase with the profession they must be personally meaningful. The author draws on both his experience in teaching graduate English students in the pre-service Diploma in Education course at Monash University and his research in a national project to develop subject specific standards for primary and secondary teachers of English. The project, Standards for Teachers of English Language and Literacy in Australia (STELLA), is federally funded and involves a consortium of universities, state government bodies and the two English teaching associations, whose members constitute the panels of teachers at the heart of the project.

The use of public transport in coastal Australia : modes of travel to work and greenhouse emissions

Commuting to work is one of the most important and regular routines of transportation in towns and cities. From a geographic perspective, the length of people’s commute is influenced, to some degree, by the spatial separation of their home and workplace and the transport infrastructure. The rise of car ownership in Australia from the 1950s to the present was accompanied by a considerable decrease of public transport use. Currently there is an average of 1.4 persons per car in Australia, and private cars are involved in approximately 90% of the trips, and public transportation in only 10%. Increased personal mobility has fuelled the trend of decentralised housing development, mostly without a clear planning for local employment, or alternative means of transportation. Transport sector accounts for 14% of Australia’s net greenhouse gas emissions. Without further policy action, Australia’s emissions are projected to continue to increase. The Australian Federal Government and the new Department of Climate Change have recently published a set of maps showing that rising seas would submerge large parts of Victoria coastal region. Such event would lead to major disruption in planned urban growth areas in the next 50 years with broad scale inundation of dwellings, facilities and road networks. The Greater Geelong Region has well established infrastructure as a major urban centre and tourist destination and hence attracted the attention of federal and state governments in their quest for further development and population growth. As a result of its natural beauty and ecological sensitivity, scenarios for growth in the region are currently under scrutiny from local government as well as development agencies, scientists, and planners. This paper is part of a broad research in the relationship between transportation system, urban form, trip demand, and emissions, as a paramount in addressing the challenges presented by urban growth. Progressing from previous work focused on private cars, this present paper investigates the use of public transport as a mode for commuting in the Greater Geelong Region. Using a GIS based interaction model, it characterises the current use of the existing public transportation system, and also builds a scenario of increased use of the existing public transportation system, estimating potencial reductions in CO2 emissions. This study provides an improved understanding of the extent to which choices of transport mode and travel activity patterns, affect emissions in the context of regional networks. The results indicate that emissions from commuting by public transportation are significantly lower than those from commuting by private car, and emphasise that there are opportunities for large abatment in the greenhouse emissions from the transportation sector related to efforts in increasing the use of existing public transportation system.

The coming republic : citizenship and the public sphere in post-colonial Australia

The 'coming republic' (Home, 1992) is a reference point in a public discourse about Australian citizenship and national identity. An analysis of this debate raises questions about the degree to which the mass media, as the site of a contemporary public sphere, facilitates democratic change and promotes or demotes the various interests competing for scarce speaking positions. This paper uses the Australian experience to question the ideologies that support the media as marketplace, and suggests the need for an alternative to liberal-democratic and pluralist approaches to theorising the public sphere.

The pillory effect : media, the courts and the punitive role of public shaming in Australia

Public shaming and humiliation have been used across cultures for centuries to punish offenders and define the boundaries of acceptable behaviour for communities. This article argues that since court-imposed shaming sanctions were phased out in Australia, the news media has assumed responsibility for performing this cultural practice. Through critical engagement with some of the research literature on shaming, the historical shift to the media as the modern pillory is explored. This article looks beyond the doctrine of open justice, which assigns the news media a dual role as a watchdog against injustice and a conduit between the courts and the public, to consider its role in shaming and suggest this role continues to evolve in a changing media landscape.