Returning a dislocated child's body to the scene of a crime

The 'Event' considered here is my 'abduction' as a child by my parents out of the Netherlands as part of the post war European migration to Australia in the 1950s. The migrant exists in many ways in-between cultures and this also holds for the migrant child. This event created a traumatic split in me as an eight year old boy. It was one that occurred to many children of migrants who left Europe post WWII. The migration in turn engaged with an unspoken racist complicity with Australia's 'White Australia Policy'. The 'white' Dutch were a good fit for this migration and thus the focus here applies to both 1950s Australia and the Netherlands. This article deals with how I expressed the two aspects of dislocation and racism made evident by this event through my art in a collaborative exhibition The Unwanted Land (see Figure 1). As this art is primarily visual, I have included a photo gallery of 28 images at the end of this text to reference and support this discussion.

Child physical activity levels and associations with modifiable characteristics in centre-based childcare

Objective: To describe children's physical activity levels during childcare and associations with modifiable characteristics. Methods: A cross-sectional study of 328 preschool children (43% girls; age 3-5 years) and 145 staff from 20 long day care centres in the Hunter Region of NSW, Australia. Pedometers assessed child physical activity levels. Centre characteristics and staff attitudes and behaviours towards children's physical activity were assessed using surveys, interviews and observational audit. Results were analysed using descriptive statistics and linear regression. Results: Over the measurement period, average step count of children was 15.8 (SD=6.8) steps/minute. Four-year-olds had the highest step counts (16.4, SD=7.1, p=0.03) with no differences by sex. Step counts were significantly higher in centres that had a written physical activity policy (+3.8 steps/minute, p=0.03) and where staff led structured physical activity (+3.7 steps/minute, p<0.001) and joined in active play (+2.9 steps/minute, p=0.06). Conclusions: Written physical activity policy, structured staff-led physical activity and staff joining in active play were associated with higher levels of physical activity. Implications: Childcare physical activity interventions should consider including strategies to encourage written physical activity policies and support structured staff led physical activities.

Child and adolescent obesity: part of a bigger picture

The prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity has risen substantially worldwide in less than one generation. In the USA, the average weight of a child has risen by more than 5 kg within three decades, to a point where a third of the country's children are overweight or obese. Some low-income and middle-income countries have reported similar or more rapid rises in child obesity, despite continuing high levels of undernutrition. Nutrition policies to tackle child obesity need to promote healthy growth and household nutrition security and protect children from inducements to be inactive or to overconsume foods of poor nutritional quality. The promotion of energy-rich and nutrient-poor products will encourage rapid weight gain in early childhood and exacerbate risk factors for chronic disease in all children, especially those showing poor linear growth. Whereas much public health effort has been expended to restrict the adverse marketing of breastmilk substitutes, similar effort now needs to be expanded and strengthened to protect older children from increasingly sophisticated marketing of sedentary activities and energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods and beverages. To meet this challenge, the governance of food supply and food markets should be improved and commercial activities subordinated to protect and promote children's health.

Child sexual abuse research: challenges of case tracking through administrative databases

Child sexual abuse has a serious impact on victims, their families and the broader community. As such, there is a critical need for sound research evidence to inform specialist responses. Increasingly, researchers are utilising administrative databases to track outcomes of individual cases across health, justice and other government agencies. There are unique advantages to this approach, including the ability to access a rich source of information at a population-wide level. However, the potential limitations of utilising administrative databases have not been fully explored. Because these databases were created originally for administrative rather than research purposes, there are significant problems with using this data at face value for research projects. We draw on our collective research experience in child sexual abuse to highlight common problems that have emerged when applying administrative databases to research questions. Some of the problems discussed include identification of relevant cases, ensuring reliability and dealing with missing data. Our article concludes with recommendations for researchers and policy-makers to enhance data quality.

Guidelines for using movement science to inform biodiversity policy

Substantial advances have been made in our understanding of the movement of species, including processes such as dispersal and migration. This knowledge has the potential to improve decisions about biodiversity policy and management, but it can be difficult for decision makers to readily access and integrate the growing body of movement science. This is, in part, due to a lack of synthesis of information that is sufficiently contextualized for a policy audience. Here, we identify key species movement concepts, including mechanisms, types, and moderators of movement, and review their relevance to (1) national biodiversity policies and strategies, (2) reserve planning and management, (3) threatened species protection and recovery, (4) impact and risk assessments, and (5) the prioritization of restoration actions. Based on the review, and considering recent developments in movement ecology, we provide a new framework that draws links between aspects of movement knowledge that are likely the most relevant to each biodiversity policy category. Our framework also shows that there is substantial opportunity for collaboration between researchers and government decision makers in the use of movement science to promote positive biodiversity outcomes.

Communication keys: understanding the importance of the early childhood teacher's role in children's language and literacy development within a holistic, integrative approach to child development

Early childhood is a critical period in children’s lives during which experiences and the quality of the interactions lay the foundation for their subsequent learning and behavior, impacting upon the their lives. In response to Early Years research that identifies the positive impact of quality early years education upon children’s future learning, governments worldwide are implementing changes in policy, processes, professional learning and practice and are pouring funds into early childhood education. A range of approaches and multiple strategies are being adopted in an effort to improve children’s health, education and overall well-being, including the holistic and integrative approach such as that undertaken in Indonesia. This paper argues that high quality Early Childhood teachers play an important role within these approaches and this is discussed in light of the research - policy - praxis nexus, with language and literacy development as a focus area.

Institutional processes and the production of gender inequalities: the case of Australian child support research and administration

This article analyses the administrative and research capture of child support data as a case study of how institutional data collection processes are performative in perpetuating gendered inequalities. We compare interviews with 19 low-income single mothers and their longitudinal survey responses from the same research to reveal how low-income women strategically or inadvertently ‘smoothed’ their experiences when responding to data collection processes. This directly resulted in material and symbolic costs in the form of reduced welfare benefits and limited evidence with which to lobby for policy reform. These processes in turn provided benefits to fathers and the state in the form of reduced child support liabilities and enforcement action, and welfare outlays, respectively. We conclude that current administrative and research data collection practices provide a limited and gendered evidence base for administrative justice and policy reform.

Child play therapists’ understanding and application of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: a narrative analysis

Narrative inquiry was used to explore the ways in which play therapy practitioners understand and uphold the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in their practice. Seven play therapy practitioners responded to questions about their experiences of working within a rights-based framework. Analysis of their responses revealed 5 themes: Child play therapy upholds Article 39; respondents demonstrated an implicit rather than explicit understanding of children’s rights; children are sometimes perceived only in terms of their behaviors; there can be a tension between the rights of the child and adults’ rights; and therapists aim to support children’s right to choice, privacy, and confidentiality, but this is not always easy. These findings are intended to support further development of curriculum and course content for trainee therapists and professional development for practitioners. The results add further evidence regarding the need to engage a rights framework when developing policy for early years therapeutic support services.

Immigration detention: the migration of a policy and its human impact

Before the turn of the century, few states used immigration detention. Today, nearly every state around the world has adopted immigration detention policy in some form. States practice detention as a means to address both the accelerating numbers of people crossing their borders, and the populations residing in their states without authorisation. This edited volume examines the contemporary diffusion of immigration detention policy throughout the world and the impact of this expansion on the prospects of protection for people seeking asylum. It includes contributions by immigration detention experts working in Australasia, the Americas, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. It is the first to set out a systematic comparison of immigration detention policy across these regions and to examine how immigration detention has become a ubiquitous part of border and immigration control strategies globally. In so doing, the volume presents a global perspective on the diversity of immigration detention policies and practices, how these circumstances developed, and the human impact of states exchanging individuals' rights to liberty for the collective assurance of border and immigration control. This text will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners of immigration, migration, public administration, comparative policy studies, comparative politics and international political economy.

The state of legislation and policy protecting Australia's mangrove and salt marsh and their ecosystem services

Saline coastal wetlands, such as mangrove and coastal salt marsh, provide many ecosystem services. In Australia, large areas have been lost since European colonization, particularly as a result of drainage, infilling and flood-mitigation works, often starting in the mid-19th century and aimed primarily towards converting land to agricultural, urban or industrial uses. These threats remain ongoing, and will be exacerbated by rapid population growth and climate change in the 21st century. Establishing the effect of wetland loss on the delivery of ecosystem services is confounded by the absence of a nationally consistent approach to mapping wetlands and defining the boundaries of different types of coastal wetland. In addition, climate change and its projected effect on mangrove and salt marsh distribution and ecosystem services is poorly, if at all, acknowledged in existing legislation and policy. Intensifying climate change means that there is little time to be complacent; indeed, there is an urgent need for proper valuation of ecosystem services and explicit recognition of ecosystem services within policy and legislation. Seven actions are identified that could improve protection of coastal wetlands and the ecosystem services they provide, including benchmarking and improving coastal wetland extent and health, reducing complexity and inconsistency in governance arrangements, and facilitating wetland adaptation and ecosystem service delivery using a range of relevant mechanisms. Actions that build upon the momentum to mitigate climate change by sequestering carbon – ‘blue carbon’ – could achieve multiple desirable objectives, including climate-change mitigation and adaptation, floodplain rehabilitation and habitat protection.

Nordic policy lessons for Australia

This report considers public debate on Scandinavian and Finnish policy ideas of possible relevance to Australia since the publication in November 2014 by an Australian university press of Andrew Scott’s book Northern Lights: The Positive Policy Example of Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway. Two years on from the book’s publication, the report considers the varying reception in Australia of propositions advanced in Northern Lights for: expansion of public early childhood education and care and extension of paid parental leave, as well as properly enshrining children’s rights and other actions to reduce child poverty and improve children’s wellbeing (learning from Sweden); more equitable schools funding, better valuing of a quality teaching profession and more effective provision of vocational education in schools (learning from Finland); enhancement of support and skills retraining for mature-age workers displaced by job losses (learning from Denmark); and increasing revenue including through greater taxation and regulation of natural resource wealth (learning from Norway). The report then considers the main priority areas of Nordic achievement nominated by policy actors for additional consideration for Australia to now learn from. These are: better, healthier and more natural urban design, together with more balanced regional development; better workplace design – specifically the importance of taking into account aesthetics, ergonomics and nature in people’s workplace environments; and greater emphasis on both the prevention of crime and the rehabilitation of persons convicted of crimes. Sweden and Norway’s continuing leadership in the provision of quality foreign aid and other foreign policy initiatives such as Sweden's current “feminist foreign policy” are also discussed. Objections raised to the book’s premises, including to the possibility of policy transfer to Australia from nations presumed to be less multicultural, are evaluated.