Expanding the Australian empire?: the Australian Council for the World Council of Churches, the Menzies Government and the New Hebrides in the late 1950s

In the late 1950s the Australian Council for the World Council of Churches (AC-WCC) inspired primarily by the Presbyterian Church, undertook a concerted campaign to pressure the Australian government to assume a greater role in the affairs of the New Hebrides. The AC-WCC wanted the Australian government to take over the United Kingdom's role in the administration of the Anglo-French Condominium. It was motivated to undertake this campaign by the dismal social and economic conditions in the islands, the neglect of the British and French colonial authorities, and their failure to offer the indigenous people a way forward to self-government. The high point of the campaign was a meeting between Robert Menzies, the Australian prime minister and a delegation from the AC-WCC in early 1958. As a result of this meeting Australian ministers and officials, for the final time, gave extended consideration to expanding Australia's empire in the South Pacific to include the New Hebrides. This article examines the AC-WCC's campaign, explores the Australian government's response, and analyses the outcome of this important episode in Australia's involvement in the colonial territories of the South Pacific.

Providing information for business: government strategy for the online world

Governments assume a major role in providing information resources for business as a way of promoting national development. This has proven to be a much more demanding task than one might suppose, given the diversity and complexity of business needs and the limitation of government resources for undertaking the task. This chapter will: (1) identify the challenges posed for government online business information strategies, (2) discuss research relating to the information strategy of one Australian government agency to support export development among small business, and (3) set out a framework for government online information provision in a diverse industry context. Coordination of the many government information services remains a challenge, especially among different levels of government. Well-designed strategies can improve the usability of online information and the efficiency of government information services.

Self-reported health beliefs of government housing tenants

Our aim was to provide a description of the self-reported health beliefs of a sample of Victorian public housing tenants, and to identify how gender, age and geographic location relate to these beliefs. Telephone interviews were conducted with a stratified random sample of 360 tenants, asking questions such as what they believe are the major health problems for men and women, what they do to keep healthy, and what makes it difficult to keep healthy. There were many differences in the beliefs held by older participants compared with those of younger participants. By asking about health in general, rather than specific aspects of health, this research identified the views about health which are most salient to participants, rather than those prompted by a survey on a particular disease or health behaviour. The health promotion implications of these findings are discussed.

Mustering consent: government-sponsored virtual communities and the incentives for buy-in

The global trend to electronic service delivery (ESD) by governments can include the sponsorship of virtual communities that create value and become places where people, content, and communication come together around a need, enabling government agencies to extend their traditional service-provision role. Implementation is sometimes problematic, however, and understanding the implementation process is crucial to the success of such virtual communities. This paper reports a case study of a virtual community (an on-line export-documentation system) that links government and business. The study employs Bijker's framework to conceptualize the process of defining the technical standard and implementing the documentation system. Diffusion effects shaped the implementation and influenced participant responses, illustrating Bijker's argument that an artifact or product demonstrates interpretive flexibility before it stabilizes.

Regulation and autonomy in teacher education: government, community or democracy?

Current attempts in industrialised countries to regulate teacher education in increasingly prescriptive ways raise profound social, ethical and pedagogical issues. This paper looks at the challenge such prescriptions pose and suggests that such regulation serves the democratic state less well than a more autonomous form of education. The implications of this alternative for teacher education are explored.

Elections and representations in local government: A Victorian case study

This article examines the application of different views of representation in the electoral systems at local government level: interest, corporate and mirror representation. The electoral framework underpins the process of representation, influencing both who are eligible to become voters and how their votes are collected and counted. The paper examines the  interrelationship between representation and the electoral framework in local government in Victoria. We use a historical analysis, and identify a long period of interest representation; a short, relatively recent period of corporate representation; and an attempt to introduce some elements of mirror representation. We conclude by arguing that local electoral reform needs to take into account the multiple meanings of representation.

Selection, exclusion and assimilation: the project lambert of 1931 on the reform of French immigration policy

The unemployment crisis of 1926-7 focused attention onto the question of immigration. Historians of this period have generally focused on the crisis of public policy and popular antipathies towards foreigners; more recently historians have become attuned to voices of racism. Less attention has been paid to attempts to redress the policy weaknesses through a new legislative regime on immigration. This paper reviews one such proposal, made by Charles Lambert, a deputy from the Rhone, in 1931. Instrumental in a revision of the naturalization law in 1927 to encourage the assimilation of foreigners through the acquisition of French citizenship, Lambert proposed a comprehensive statute on immigration to select “desirable” foreigners and exclude the “undesirables” to promote the assimilation of the “better” elements. The paper argues that his rationale betrays a profound fear of mounting French weakness in the face of economic and demographic decline, and grave anxieties for the future health of the French nation.

Of personalities and personae: a French victory for film producers and authors

The international medium of film poses many challenges for authors and copyright owners. So do the practices of the advertising industry. Each jurisdiction approaches these challenges differently. In a recent French decision three issues that are of interest in Australia were discussed – the copyright status of a literary or dramatic character, the use of such a persona in character merchandising, and the moral right of film directors to control the exploitation of the persona. This article examines the 2004 decision of the Paris Court of Appeal in the matter of the film “The Fifth Element”. It compares the protection offered to author and copyright owner under French law with the protection offered by Australian legislation and common law.

Changing communities: international students in local government schools

Although fewer than 10% of international students are in the primary and secondary educational sectors, recent figures show the number of these students to have increased exponentially making Australia a leading player in school education provision along with Britain and the United States. The impact of these changes on local schools and the correspondent negotiation of globalising trends on secondary schools alter the ways that identity and difference are understood and played out and the ways that policy and practice in participating schools can be understood At the same time the terms and conditions that define these demands - particularly as they characterize them as marketable commodities. English language and as global and western education need to spelt out and interrogated. In this paper 1 interrogate the ways that community members within local government schools speak about the impact of fee-paying international students on their school. 1 suggest that these discussions are defined by the material and conceptual relations of identity and difference crisscrossed by the politics of consumption and production.