Regulatory and enabling approaches to corporate law enforcement : patterns of litigation 1986-2002 and the effect of recent reforms in New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom

Enforcement of corporate rights and duties may follow either a ‘regulatory’ or ‘enabling’ model. If a regulatory approach is taken, enforcement action will generally be undertaken by regulatory agencies such as, in New Zealand, the Registrar of Companies and Securities Commission, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) or the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in the United Kingdom. If an enabling approach is chosen, enforcement action will more often be by private parties such as company shareholders, directors or creditors. When New Zealand's company law was reformed in 1993, a primarily private enforcement regime was adopted, consisting of a list of statutory directors' duties and an enhanced collection of shareholder remedies, based in part upon North American models and including a statutory derivative action. Public enforcement was largely confined to administrative matters and the enforcement of the disclosure requirements of New Zealand's securities law. While the previous enforcement regime was similarly reliant on private action, the law on directors' duties was less accessible, and shareholder action was hindered by the majority rule principle and the rule in Foss v Harbottle. This approach is in contrast with that used in Australia and the United Kingdom, where public agencies have a much more prominent enforcement role despite recent and proposed reforms to directors' duties and shareholder remedies. These reforms are designed to improve the ability of private parties to enforce corporate rights and duties. A survey of enforcement litigation in New Zealand since 1986 indicates that the object of a primarily enabling enforcement regime seems to have been achieved, and may well have been achieved even without the 1993 reform package. Private enforcement has, in fact, been much more prevalent than public enforcement since well before the enactment of the new legislation. Most enforcement action both before and after the reform was commenced by shareholders and shareholder/directors, and most involved closely held companies. Public enforcement was largely undertaken in areas such as securities law, where the wider public interest was affected. Similar surveys of Australian and United Kingdom enforcement litigation reveal a proportionally much greater reliance on public bodies to enforce corporate rights and duties, indicating a more regulatory approach. The ASIC and DTI enforced a wider range of provisions, affecting both closely and widely held companies, than those subject to public enforcement in New Zealand. Publicly enforced provisions in Australia and the United Kingdom include directors' duties and provisions dealing with disqualification from managing companies, as well as securities law requirements.

Investment banks' entry into new IPO markets and IPO underpricing

We examine the relationship between investment banks' initial public offering (IPO) market shares and their prior IPO underpricing in the new IPO market for China-based companies on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. To gain expertise in Chinese business practices, investment banks have the incentive to obtain business in this new IPO market by providing high offer prices to the issuer, leading to less underpricing and less money on the table. We hypothesize and find that the less an investment bank underprices Chinabased company IPOs, the greater its subsequent market share of China-based company IPOs in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Furthermore, this relationship is driven by a bank's initial China-based company IPO deals. These results suggest that in new IPO markets, investment banks' initial market shares, obtained through lower underpricing, help them grow their market shares in later periods, possibly through the expertise gained in the initial business.

Differences in underpricing of A-REIT IPOs and Australian property company IPOs

Purpose – A variety of papers have analyzed the underpricing of REIT IPOs or property company IPOs. The purpose of this paper is to compare the two sectors and examines differences in the underpricing of the two types of IPOs. Design/methodology/approach – An OLS regression is used to identify factors influencing the underpricing of A-REIT and property company IPOs from 1994 until 2014. Findings – This study finds that A-REIT IPOs have a significantly lower underpricing on average than Australian property company IPOs. The time taken to list appears to influence the underpricing of both A-REIT IPOs and property company IPOs, in that issues that are filled more quickly have higher underpricing but with the magnitude of the impact being less for A-REITs. The sentiment toward the stock market also appears to impact on the underpricing of A-REIT and property company IPOs again with the magnitude of the impact being less for A-REITs. Practical implications – The paper provides information to new A-REIT and property company issuers, underwriters and investors. Originality/value – The study is the first to compare and examine the differences in the underpricing of both REITs and property companies in the one country over the same time period.

Inspired by the past, driven by the passion: music in state-supported education in New South Wales and Victoria 1848-1920

This investigation considers the development of class music teaching in New South Wales and Victoria during the first seventy-two years of state-supported primary education. The first chapter describes the English background including music teaching methods (resulting from the mid-nineteenth century English choral singing movement) and the subsequent development of music teaching in English elementary schools. The promotion of school music is then considered on a broadly chronological basis in the two states and several themes are identified in relation to school music policy and practice. These include the status of music (core curriculum or extra-curricular subject), who should teach music (generalist or specialist teachers), what teaching methods and music notation should be used (staff or Tonic Sol-fa), musical training for generalist teachers, and curriculum content in relation to the aims and objectives of school music. Comparisons are made between developments in both states and between both states and English school music. The final chapter demonstrates the relevance of many of the historical themes identified for music education today. The thesis concludes by identifying a recurring problem from the past. namely the lack of co-ordination between various aspects of school music policy, as the most serious problem to be overcome in the future.

'New heaven and new earth': translation and conversion on Aneityum

The idea that 19th-century Europeans and Islanders faced each other across virtually impassable linguistic and cultural boundaries has been a model for Pacific ethnohistory and can, perhaps, be traced in part to the Sapir-Whorf theory of linguistic incommensurability. Based on a case study concerning the translation of the Aneityum [Anejom] bible in Southern Vanuatu in the mid-19th century, the article considers whether the engagement between Islanders and missionaries might be better investigated through the dynamic dialogic model of Bakhtin and Voloshinov: thus speakers and interlocutors on Aneityum actively sought to understand each other through debates and dialogues about the new deity and His place in the spiritual cosmos of the island. The article first discusses the Protestant missionary defence of linguistic parity and commensurability and the formal practices of 19th-century British bible translation; then analyses debates on the new God's efficacy between missionary John Geddie and Nohoat, the foremost sorcerer of the area; and concludes by considering the translation of words particularly important to the Christian faith.

Differences in underpricing returns between REIT IPOs and industrial company IPOs

This paper follows Chan, Stohs, andWang (2001), which argues that the underlying value of the real estate is not by itself the reason for the very substantial differences in underpricing returns between real estate investment trust (REIT) IPOs and industrial company IPOs.We use variables identified in previous studies that have helped explain the underpricing of industrial company IPOs to help explain the underpricing of property trust IPOs. We find that the prospectus forecast dividend yield is a critical variable in the valuation and hence underpricing of REIT IPOs compared to industrial company IPOs. The sentiment towards the market and whether or not the issue is underwritten also impact the underpricing of REITs but the impact is much less than on industrial company IPOs.

Educational enrolment of students with a disability in New South Wales and Victoria

The extent to which legislation and special education policy have impacted on the nature of the educational enrolment of students with a disability in Australia has not been clearly addressed. Although there are no detailed and systematic national data on the enrolment of students with a disability in inclusive settings, special classes and special schools in Australia, some broad trends are apparent. The legislative background to these trends is discussed. As might be expected, there are variations in the nature of the educational enrolment of students with a disability across the states and territories of Australia. Enrolment trends in the two most populous states, New South Wales and Victoria, are examined and discussed within the context of their respective special education policies, disability discrimination legislation, and educational precedent.

Hot issues, new economy stocks and Australian industry IPO returns in the late 1990s

This paper analyses Australian IPOs at an industry level for the period 1994 to 1999. We find a significant relationship between capital weighted IPO industry returns and contemporaneous index returns suggesting that capital raising and money left on the table arguments matter. We do not find any hot issue years at an industry level. Further at an industry level we find that new economy listings are not different to listings from other sectors of the economy.

Ulster-New Zealand migration and cultural transfers / Brad Patterson

Books
Medievalism and the Gothic in Australian Culture. Edited by Stephanie Trigg.

What If? Australian History as It Might Have Been. Edited by Stuart Macintyre and Sean Scalmer.

Disputed Histories: Imagining New Zealand's Pasts. Edited by Tony Ballantyne and Brian Moloughney.

The Myth of the Great Depression. By David Potts.

Memory, Monuments and Museums: The Past in the Present. Edited by Marilyn Lake.

Connected Worlds: History in Transnational Perspective. Edited by Marilyn Lake and Ann Curthoys.

Island Ministers: Indigenous Leadership in Nineteenth Century Pacific Islands Christianity. By Raeburn Lange.

Texts and Contexts: Reflections in Pacific Islands Historiography. Edited by Doug Munro and Brij V. Lai.

Day of Reckoning. By Lachlan Strahan.

Appropriated Pasts: Indigenous Peoples and the Colonial Culture of Archaeology. By Ian J. McNiven and Lynette Russell.

Recognising Aboriginal Title: The Mabo Case and Indigenous Resistance to English-Settler Colonialism. By Peter H. Russell.

Black Glass: Western Australian Courts of Native Affairs 1936-54. By Kate Auty.

Edward Eyre, Race and Colonial Governance. By Julie Evans.

Gender and Empire. By Angela Woollacott.

Uncommon Ground: White Women in Aboriginal History. Edited by Anna Cole, Victoria Haskins and Fiona Paisley.

Mixed Relations: Asian-Aboriginal Contact in North Australia. By Regina Ganter, with contributions from Julia Martinez and Gary Lee.

Botany Bay: Where Histories Meet. By Maria Nugent.

A Man of All Tribes: The Life of Alick Jackomos. By Richard Broome and Corinne Manning.

Black Founders: The Unknown Story of Australia's First Black Settlers. By Cassandra Pybus.

Over the Mountains of the Sea: Life on the Migrant Ships 1870-1885. By David Hastings.

Ulster-New Zealand Migration and Cultural Transfers. Edited by Brad Patterson.

From Paesani to Global Italians: Veneto Migrants in Australia. By Loretta Baldassar and Ros Pesman.

Ways of Seeing China: From Yellow Peril to Shangrila. By Timothy Kendall.

East by South: China in the Australasian Imagination. Edited by Charles Ferrall, Paul Millar and Keren Smith.

Arthur Tange: Last of the Mandarins. By Peter Edwards.

Kin: A Collective Biography of a Working-Class New Zealand Family. By Melanie Nolan.

Ida Leeson A Life: Not a Blue-Stocking Lady. By Sylvia Martin.

Will Dyson: Australia's Radical Genius. By Ross McMullin.

Francis De Groot: Irish Fascist Australian Legend. By Andrew Moore.

South by Northwest: The Magnetic Crusade and the Contest for Antarctica. By Granville Allen Mawer.

From Woolloomooloo to 'Eternity': A History of Australian Baptists. 2 vols. Volume 1: Crowing and Australian Church (1831-1914), Volume 2: A National Church in a Global Community (1914-2005). By Ken R. Manley.

New learning networks and their invisible students : policy as simulation or the avoidance game?

Within a climate of policy hysteria, it is often claimed that a 'preoccupation with performance' develops, focussing on individual success stories, resulting in 'fad-like waves of adoption and abandonment'. Within this increasing pace and intensity of reform, new networks are formed and new relationships developed, with key players taking on new forms of identity to morph into the constantly changing policy climate. Despite continued evidence of young people's pathways from school being more like mosaic than linear, new policy still seeks to define and limit the possible lines of flight and trajectories, closely managing the education and training of young people at risk. In Victoria, the major policy initiative has involved the establishment of LLENs, the local all purpose solution to young people who might not be sticking to the linear policy pathway. So are we involved in 'an avoidance game', filling up the post compulsory policy space with more and more policies, which in fact seek to continue to regulate and constrain young people, rather than supporting them? This paper interrogates the policies and practices which have created the learning networks, of the SGR LLEN through policy analysis and case studies.