EU migration policy - new realities, new opportunities. CHALLENGE EUROPE Issue 22 - Challenges and new beginnings: Priorities for the EU’s new leadership. September 2014

European countries, like the United States, Canada, and Australia before them, are becoming lands of immigrants. While the percentage of foreign-born residents in the EU is still relatively low, immigration is a significant factor in European societies and their labour markets. Therefore, the question whether or not we need migrants is moot. Instead, we should focus on how to make the most of migration and how to make Europe attractive to the migrants we need.

FHWA study tour for highway safety management practices in Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.

Mode of access: Internet.

The World Administrative Radio Conference and international communications policy : hearings before the Subcommittee on International Operations of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, Ninety-sixth Congress, June 14, 1979, and July 31, 1980.

Mode of access: Internet.

Essays on Monetary Policy in Small Open Economies

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Causes and Implications of the Decline of the Economics Majors: A Focus on Australia

This paper analyses the causes and implications of declining economics major in Australia. Based on a brief review of the relevant literature and an analysis of the Australian time series data, it is found that economics continues to be less attractive to students in relative terms. Three major factors contribute to this phenomenon: less than appropriate product for an increasingly diverse clientele, the introduction of more attractive and business, commerce and industry-oriented programs such as finance, accounting and commerce, and business majors geared to the needs of the real world, and the use of less experienced teaching staff in lower undergraduate courses. It is argued that stemming the tide against the economics discipline would require a significant rethink of development of products more vocational and real world-oriented, market segmentation for different clientele types, and marshalling of more experienced and capable teaching staff for lower undergraduate levels.

Out of the generosity of your heart: Are we creating active citizens through compulsory volunteer programmes for young people in Australia?

Using governmentality as a theoretical framework, we examine two Australian policy areas where young people are disciplined into becoming good, active citizens. These policies-mutual obligation through the work for the dole programme, and school-based active citizenship programmes similar to American service learning programmes-both mirror volunteer-ope activities, in a social context where volunteers are viewed as good citizens. In this study, we present findings from a qualitative study that addresses the question of whether young people will develop active citizenship through compulsory volunteer-type programmes. The findings show that first, young people are very conscious of the lack of choice involved in these programmes and that this weakened their sense of agency. Second, the programmes failed to develop positive community attitudes and active social behaviours. These results suggest that policies that compel individuals to contribute to society may actually weaken their citizenship identities.

Australia's relationship with the United States: The case for greater independence

A number of recent events-especially attempts to negotiate a bilateral trade agreement and Australia's participation in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq(1)-have thrown Australia's relationship with the United States into sharp relief. While this relationship has historically enjoyed strong bilateral endorsement, such uncritical support is beginning to unravel. At the very least, the relationship is being subjected to a renewed, more critical scrutiny. This paper argues that a dispassionate analysis of the relationship is appropriate and overdue. Not only are the benefits that accrue to 'Australia' from the relationship debateable, even when judged within the limited calculus of the 'national interest', but Australia's uncritical support for US foreign policy is also helping to entrench potentially damaging aspects of American foreign policy and somewhat ironically-undermining the legitimacy of its pre-eminent 'hegemonic' position.

Risk technology in Australia: The role of the job seeker classification instrument in employment services

Promoted as the key policy response to unemployment, the Job Network constitutes an array of interlocking processes that position unemployed people as `problems' in need of remediation. Unemployment is presented as a primary risk threatening society, and unemployed people are presented as displaying various degrees of riskiness. The Job Seeker Classification Instrument (JSCI) is a `technology' employed by Centrelink to assess `risk' and to determine the type of interaction that unemployed people have with the job Network. In the first instance, we critically examine the development of the JSCI and expose issues that erode its credibility and legitimacy. Second, employing the analytical tools of discourse analysis, we show how the JSCI both assumes and imposes particular subject identities on unemployed people. The purpose of this latter analysis is to illustrate the consequences of the sorts of technologies and interventions used within the job Network.

American hegemony: the view from Australia

Australia and the United States have been extremely close allies since World War II. The engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq have continued this tradition. Yet even before the bombings in Bali and the confrontation with Iraq, an important debate about the costs and benefits of the relationship with the United States was underway in Australia. At a number of levels—economic, political, and even strategic—increasing numbers of Australians were critically reassessing the relationship and questioning the supposed benefits. Recent events have accelerated this process and thrown the relationship into even starker relief. This paper argues that the increasingly unilateral nature of American economic and strategic policy is imposing major costs on even its most loyal allies, a situation that threatens to undermine the legitimacy of, and support for, U.S. hegemony.

Improving supportive care for women with breast cancer in Australia: The challenge of modifying health systems

Although the benefits of many psychosocial support strategies in improving well being in women with breast cancer have been demonstrated, few women receive these programs as part of routine care. This paper provides some recommendations, based on experience in Australia, about how access to evidence-based supportive care strategies might be improved through modification of health systems. It demonstrates the paucity of research about the costs and health service implications of psychosocial support strategies, which is vital to health planning and service delivery change. It outlines the systematic approach taken in Australia to improving psychosocial support nationally by: the development of research reviews; preparation of guidelines about supportive care, implementation of programs to foster the adoption of guidelines through modification of policy, health service delivery and clinician training; and monitoring programs. Coalitions of government, health care professionals and consumers are key to effective lobbying for change. If all women with breast cancer are to receive better supportive care, there is a need for approaches which: refocus the research effort in psycho-oncology; develop more strategic approaches to generating change in health systems and health policy and foster partnerships to advocate for improved resources. Copyright (C) 2003 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.

Australia's Security and the threat of Islamic Extremism in Southeast Asia

Australian foreign and security policy confronts a series of difficult challenges in coping with the emergence of an Islamic extremist threat in Southeast Asia. Australian policy makers are being drawn into unfamiliar linkages with moderate Islam, and into closer cooperation with Indonesia, the most populous Islamic nation in the world, in an attempt to offset Islamic extremists. Further, they must achieve those objectives at a time when important interests are at stake beyond Southeast Asia, when bipartisan agreement about the direction of foreign policy is waning, and when divisions over the appropriate trajectory of Australian security policy are intense. A delicacy almost unprecedented in Australian foreign policy will be required.

Managing woodlands for income maximisation in western Queensland, Australia: clearing for grazing versus timber production

Queensland, Australia, has a proud pastoral history; however, the private and social benefits of continued woodland clearing for pasture development are unlikely to be as pronounced as they had been in the past. The environmental benefits of tree retention in and regions of the State are now better appreciated and market opportunities have arisen for the unique timbers of western Queensland. A financial model is developed to facilitate a comparison of the private profitability of small-scale timber production from remnant Acacia woodlands against clearing for pasture development in the Mulga Lands and Desert Uplands bioregions of western Queensland. Four small-scale timber production scenarios, which differ in target markets and the extent of processing (value-adding), are explored within the model. Each scenario is examined for the cases where property rights to the timber are vested with the timber processor, and where royalties are payable. For both cases of resource ownership, at least one scenario generates positive returns from timber production, and exceeds the net farm income per hectare for an average grazing property in the study regions over the period 1989-1990 to 2000-2001. The net present value per hectare of selectively harvesting and processing high-value clearwood from remnant western Queensland woodlands is found to be greater than clearing for grazing. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Economic Impact of E.coli 0111 Outbreak in 1995 in Australia

Increased incidence of food-borne illnesses is a matter of significant concern for the community and the government alike. An outbreak of E.coli O111 that occurred in Australia in 1995 affected 200 people of whom 22 developed HUS while one person died. This study analyses the economic costs of the outbreak. The total cost of the outbreak is estimated to be A$5.61 million. Productivity loss represented the highest percentage of outbreak costs (66%) due to death, disability and chronic illness. The direct medical costs contributed 33%. The estimated loss could be even higher if all costs could be quantified. Nevertheless, the findings provide an idea to the policy maker regarding the extent and nature of the damage that could result from an outbreak. The severity of the damage warrants allocation of necessary resources to prevent such occurrences.