Comparing Australian commonwealth, state and territory budget balance numbers

This article presents the findings from a case study of the 2004–05 annual budgets prepared by the Commonwealth, state and territory governments of Australia. The study examined the headline budget balance (general government sector surplus or deficit) announced in the budget papers and speeches of each of the nine governments. Findings indicate the adoption of varying measurement bases and a consequent lack of comparability in the headlined budget balance numbers. Accounting reforms have resulted in adoption of two different systems of accrual accounting by governments — the Government Finance Statistics (GFS) system and the professional Australian Accounting Standards (AAS) system — which provide significantly different measurements of the budget balance. However, there has been no prescription of the manner in which these alternative measures should be presented. This raises a number of questions from an accounting perspective.

Behind the headlines : an analysis of Australian Commonwealth, State and Territory budget balance numbers

The introduction of accrual accounting principles for government reporting in recent years has been complicated by the presence of two alternative financial reporting frameworks, the Government Finance Statistics (GFS) framework and the Australian professional accounting standard rules. This paper presents the findings from a study of the 2004-05 and 2005-06 annual budgets prepared by the Australian Commonwealth government and the governments of the six Australian States and the two Australian Territories. The study examined the basis for the budget balance numbers (government surplus or deficit) headlined in the budgets of each of the nine governments over the two year period. Findings indicate the adoption of varying measurement bases and a resultant lack of inter-governmental and inter temporal comparability. A number of departures from the measurements
prescribed in the reporting frameworks were also observed.

Estimating the economic value of Mount Buffalo National Park with the travel cost and contingent valuation models

The Mount Buffalo National Park is the oldest national park in Victoria, Australia. There has been a rapid increase in the number of visitors to the park during the last decade and park management has been a concern, especially in the light of declining budgetary allocations and potential damage due to the increased visitor numbers. Policy options to increase park revenue remain unclear because of a lack of information on demand parameters and user costs. This study estimates the economic value of the park using the travel cost method (TCM) and the contingent valuation method (CVM). The TCM gives higher consumer surplus (CS) than the CVM. The CS shows that the economic value of the park is high and that there are opportunities to introduce innovative fee schemes to enhance its revenue. Present entry fee systems do not capture the economic value of the park.

Pricing in the museum sector : the need to balance social responsibility and organisational viability

An essential component of marketing strategy is pricing. Pricing in museums, however, is problematic as issues beyond cost recovery or surplus, such as social responsibilities, need to be considered. This area of marketing is under researched. The aim of this study is to address the research gap by synthesising the literature on pricing strategy in the museum sector. The study found that there are a number of strategies being advocated with regard to pricing in the museum sector in the literature, each representing various perspectives of museology. A research agenda was proposed to assist marketers in the museum sector to meet their organisational needs, whilst balancing their social responsibilities.

Fiscal responsibility and Australian Commonwealth, State and Territory government budgets

The government sector in Australia has seen the introduction of accrual accounting principles in recent years. However, this process has been complicated by the presence of two alternative financial reporting frameworks in the form of a) the Government Finance Statistics (OFS) uniform framework and b) the accrual accounting rules specified in Australian professional accounting standards, principally AAS 31. While a variety of cash and accrual based measurements are available pursuant to these frameworks, there has been no prescription of the manner in which the alternative measures should be presented. This paper presents the findings from a case study of the 2005-06 annual budgets prepared by the Australian Commonwealth government and the governments of the six Australian States and the two Australian Territories. The study examined the headlined financial outcome (general government sector budget surplus or deficit) announced in the budget papers of the nine governments. Findings indicate the adoption of varying measurement bases and a consequent lack of inter-government comparability. A number of variations to the measurements prescribed in the accounting frameworks were also observed. The paper analyses these government budget surplus and deficit numbers in the context of fiscal responsibility, the Commonwealth government's Charter of Budget Honesty and the AASB's current GAAPIGFS Convergence project.

Sequential technology adoption with asymmetric firms

We analyse the incentives and welfare implications of costly technology adoption in a two-period duopoly model where firms have different amounts of capital. We also extend our framework to an open economy set-up and examine the relationship between trade and technology adoption. Our findings are as follows. First, no monotone relationship exists between the threshold cost of adoption and capital shares. Second, an unequal distribution of capital, despite lessening competition, can increase total surplus. Third, trade generally encourages adoption of modern technology unless the share of capital for the adopters is too low.

Environmental efficiency : meaning and measurement and application to Australian dairy farms

Technical efficiency has been widely studied in the literature, but in its pursuit, many of the inputs used can impact on the environment. Environmental effects can be modelled as undesirable output or, as has been the case in more recent studies, as conventional inputs. This paper examines the concept of environmental efficiency and how it can be used to evaluate the performance of Australian dairy farming, using nitrogen surplus, arising from excessive applications of fertilizer, as a detrimental input. Farming promotes the image of clean and green production and if this image is to be maintained, there is a need to ensure activities are environmentally friendly.

Competition and unitization in oil extraction : a tale of two tragedies

This paper compares two organizational modes for extracting oil from a common pool: unitization and competitive extraction. The analysis suggests that the general presumption that unitization is surplus enhancing relative to competitive extraction may not always be valid due to contractual incompleteness associated with unitization contracts. While competitive extraction suffers from the tragedy of the commons, unitization can be subject to the dual tragedy of the anticommons. This provides an explanation for the puzzle confronting the oil industry that firms are often reluctant to voluntarily enter unitization agreements.

An econometric model of the determinants of private investment and a CGE model of the impact of democracy on investment and economic growth in Fiji

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to construct an econometric model of the determinants of private investment with a particular focus on the impact of democracy on investment.

Design/methodology/approach – The first step was to econometrically derive the long-run elasticities; then to modify the Fiji computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to incorporate the investment function. Also the econometrically derived long run elasticities in the CGE model were used.

Findings – It was found that democracy has a positive and statistically significant impact on private investment in Fiji. The paper's simulation of Fiji becoming a fully democratic country on investment and other macroeconomic fundamentals, based on a CGE model, reveals that real gross domestic product and real national welfare increase by around 0.01 and 0.05 per cent, respectively; government savings and revenue performance improves; there is a trade balance surplus; and both private consumption and disposable income increase by around 0.05 and 0.12 per cent, respectively.

Originality/value – This is the first study that uses a CGE model to examine the impact of democracy, via investment, on other macroeconomic fundaments. No other study is known to have modelled democracy in a CGE framework.

Fatty acid metabolism (desaturation, elongation and β-oxidation) in rainbow trout fed fish oil- or linseed oil-based diets

In consideration of economical and environmental concerns, fish oil (FO) substitution in aquaculture is the focus of many fish nutritionists. The most stringent drawback of FO replacement in aquafeeds is the consequential modification to the final fatty acid (FA) make-up of the fish fillet.However, it is envisaged that a solution may be achieved through a better understanding of fish FA metabolism. Therefore, the present study investigated the fate of individual dietary FA in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) fed a FO-based diet (rich in 20 : 5n-3) or a linseed oil-based diet (LO; rich in 18 : 3n-3). The study demonstrated that much of the 18 : 3n-3 content from the LO diet was oxidised and, despite the significantly increased accretion of D-6 and D-5 desaturated FA, a 2- and 3-fold reduction in the fish body content of 20 : 5n-3 and 22 : 6n-3, respectively, compared with the FO-fed fish, was recorded. The accretion of longer-chain FA was unaffected by the dietary treatments, while there was a greater net disappearance of FA provided in dietary surplus. SFA and MUFA recorded a net accretion of FA produced ex novo. In the fish fed the FO diet, the majority of dietary 20 : 5n-3 was accumulated (53·8 %), some was oxidised (14·7 %) and a large proportion (31·6 %) was elongated and desaturated up to 22 : 6n-3. In the fish fed the LO diet, the majority of dietary 18 : 3n-3 was accumulated (58·1 %), a large proportion was oxidised (29·5 %) and a limited amount (12·4 %) was bio-converted to longer and more unsaturated homologues.

Encounters with 'strangers' : towards dialogical ethics in English language education

This article takes the inquiry into 'nativeness' and 'non-nativeness' to the level of developing an ethical framework for professional practice in English language education. In so doing, our aim is firstly to use the 'sociology of the stranger' as a framework to problematize discourses on the Other and Othering. We shall argue that these discourses are sedimented in the modernist project of perpetual purification in which "order making ... becomes indistinguishable from announcing ever new abnormalities, drawing ever new dividing lines, identifying and setting apart ever new strangers" (Bauman, 1997, p. 11). Our next step is to open up the possibility of transcending these discourses in education through a dialogical ethics of respecting the otherness in the Other. Pedagogy based on the ethics of dialogical recognition emphasizes the value of difference in learning through the 'surplus of vision' that the Other provides for constructing new meanings and new ways to mean (Bakhtin, 1981; Levinas, 1969). The recognition of 'the foreigner in the self' has significant pedagogical implications for language educators and marks the movement from ethics to politics.

Shilpa’s filthy hands

The celebrity Big Brother race row centers, in part, on the preparation, handling and consumption of food. While the ritual of formal and informal dining is a key trope of the series, in this instance it is used to construct notions of difference and Otherness. Eating/not eating Indian becomes a symbol of purity and danger: of Shilpa's filthy natural self that somehow lurked beneath her glamorous exterior. If one eats Indian one is consuming the Other, with the potential to be taken over or spoiled by it. Shilpa, then, comes to stand for a complex and contradictory mix of Eastern/Oriental gender stereotypes. However, at the same time, the racialised grammar of representation used to mark her out as Other draws attention to the white bodies attempting to deny her wholeness. In choosing to eat/not eat Indian one opens up a dynamic space for an interrogation of whiteness to emerge. In fact, Jade, Jo, and Danielle become inferior signifiers of national identity in an age of global consumption. By contrast, Shilpa becomes 'surplus value', a supericonic sign that resists the name calling, fetishisation, marginalisation demanded by those on the show. The Big Brother race row may well be a text that directly speaks to the new post-colonial communication flows in place in the contemporary age.

A note on the property rights theory and the ex ante value of information

This paper examines the ex ante value of information in the property rights model where the possibility exists that an investing agent can be provided with relevant information before investments are undertaken. When contracts are incomplete, from an ex ante perspective, informing the investing agent does not necessarily increase the expected surplus resulting from a relationship between two economic agents. The paper highlights the fact that the second-best nature of the problem that arises from contractual incompleteness can ensure this.