Service innovation in Australia : a preliminary exploration of the Cinderella sector

Service innovation is of increasing importance in the Australian economy, yet it remains a largely neglected area of study. Recent studies overseas have shown that services are becoming more engaged with innovation, and that service innovation is complex and multi-dimensional. Official R&D and business innovation statistics in Australia are examined, and they reveal that service providers across all service industries in Australia are performing R&D and are actively innovating, a finding that is consonant with the overseas studies. However, innovation performance varies across and within service industries, reflecting differences in the nature and structure of those industries. A clear need for further research is identified, both to provide a clearer understanding of the nature of service innovation and to provide a basis for practical recommendations.

Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza in Australia : absenteeism and redeployment of emergency medicine and nursing staff

Objective: The aim of the present study was to examine the impact of Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 Influenza on the Australian emergency nursing and medicine workforce, specifically absenteeism and deployment.

Methods: Data were collected using an online survey of 618 members of the three professional emergency medicine or emergency nursing colleges.

Results: Despite significant increases in emergency demand during the Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 Influenza, 56.6% of emergency nursing and medicine staff reported absenteeism of at least 1 day and only 8.5% of staff were redeployed. Staff illness with influenza-like illness was reported by 37% of respondents, and 87% of respondents who became ill were not tested for the Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 Influenza. Of the respondents who became ill, 43% (n = 79) reported missing no days of work and only 8% of respondents (n = 14) reported being absent for more than 5 days. The mean number of days away from work was 3.73 (standard deviation = 3.63). Factors anecdotally associated with staff absenteeism (caregiver responsibilities, concern about personal illness, concern about exposing family members to illness, school closures, risk of quarantine, stress and increased workload) appeared to be of little or no relevance. Redeployment was reported by 8% of respondents and the majority of redeployment was for operational reasons.

Conclusion: Future research related to absenteeism, redeployment during actual pandemic events is urgently needed. Workforce data collection should be an integral part of organizational pandemic planning.

Australia and the question of internet control

The Australian Federal Government is concerned about the impact of the Internet on Australian society and has been considering ways to protect the Australian public against the "darker" elements of the Internet. The Federal Government has proposed a new model whereby Internet Service Provider's (ISP's) level the filtering of overseas hosted Internet material classified as Refused Classification (RC) under the National Classification Scheme. This paper will describe the historical development of this strategy and will analyse the outcome of the public consultation of the proposed Australian Federal Government proposals.

International commercial arbitration : an Asia-Pacific perspective

This book focuses on the general principles of ICA while drawing on case law and relevant legislation from Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea (Republic of), Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines and Singapore. Equips the reader to deal with many arbitration issues which are not dealt with (or are scarcely dealt with) in the various arbitration statutes. The book succinctly summarises the key features of a complex and evolving area of law and practice while not shying away from the more difficult or contentious issues.

Researching Moslem-Christian marriages : extrapolating from mixed-faith couples towards the practices of Convivencia

Moslem–Christian marriage can be seen as a kind of ‘testing place’ for examining and appreciating the practices of difference. This article offers a summary from a recent local research project which investigated these relationships (Ata, 2003). The empirical data from the study was ‘milled’ for its potential to inform practice, a process that generated four themes that practitioners may find useful in their attempts to design practice approaches that are sensitive to alternative anthropologies. Beginning from the contention that the otherness of those for whom we work can be a mirror for our own cultural and practice assumptions, we extrapolate from these themes to practise with other examples of diversity. It is argued that our efforts to practise with diverse populations will be unengaging, even colonising, unless we are able to denaturalise our own positions.

Politics of accommodation of the Rise of China : the case of Australia

In the context of the rise of China, Southeast Asian countries and Australia have begun shifting towards an accommodation policy. Robert Ross examines the accommodation policy in South Korea, Mochizuki discusses Japanese accommodationists, and Manicom and O’Neil show some evidence of Australian accommodation of Chinese strategic preferences. The scholarship has, however, narrowly focused on and overestimated the role of security. Through a study of the origin, process, structural conditions and impacts of accommodation policy, this paper broadens the concept of accommodation to capture its multiple meanings and practices. It finds that a selective accommodation policy and strategy toward the rise of China developed in Australia is a sign of the changing power relations under which the mainstream paradigms of containment and engagement, hard balancing or bandwagoning, have proved inadequate to the task of dealing with China, and that economic interdependence has driven the politics of accommodation in Australia and several Asian countries.

BreastScreen Australia evaluation : a review of methodological options for evaluating the effect of BreastScreen Australia on breast cancer mortality

This report provides evidence-based recommendations for appropriate and cost-effective methods that could be used to evaluate the impact of the national BreastScreen Australia population-based mammographic screening program on mortality from female breast cancer. The report represents a significant collaboration between the Australian Government, the National Breast Cancer Centre as well as Australian and international experts in mammography research and evaluation, epidemiology and health services research.

The recommendations are based on a review of national and international evidence on approaches used to assess the impact of mammography screening programs on breast cancer mortality in other settings. The review has used a systematic approach to assessing the strategic and methodological approaches taken in each of the studies identified and their potential limitations.

The national evaluation of the BreastScreen Australia Program aims to assess the appropriateness, efficiency and effectiveness of the BreastScreen Program. The completion of this report marks an important first step in that process. In addition, the review and recommendations in this report may have broader application at an international level.

Buddhism in Australia : an emerging field of study

In 2006, Paul D. Numrich (2008) posed the question of whether contemporary scholarship on North American Buddhism constituted a distinct "field of study" and identified several factors that defined both academic disciplines and fields. This paper applies Numrich's criteria to the study of Buddhism in Australia, in its multiple and diverse forms, suggesting that it is an emerging field of study. While there has been an increase in historical, anthropological, and sociological scholarship in recent years, a comprehensive analysis of Buddhism in Australia, and particularly its impact on Australian life and culture, is yet to be conducted. This paper argues that such a study is both timely and necessary, given that Buddhism is the second largest religion in Australia, and we appear to be entering an "Asian century."

Narrating heritage's living stories : a comparative study of China's Suojia ecomuseum and Australia's Melbourne living museum of the West

The Ecomusée, as emerged in France in the 1970s, is a form of open-air museum that aims to maintain collections in their original environments with local communities serving as curators and managing their own heritage. This approach and philosophy implies and is dependent upon democratic principles in the conservation and interpretation processes. Since the 1990s, China has adopted the ecomusée concept for the conservation of selected ethnic villages to relieve tensions between poverty and heritage conservation. However, does this concept really work in China? To answer this question, the Suojia Ecomuseum, the first such initiative - has been selected as a case study and assessed using the mixed methodologies of on-site observation, documentation and semistructured interviews. This process has identified several issues and problems associated with this ecomuseum. It demonstrates that Suojia Ecomuseum has not achieved international benchmarks, neither philosophical nor practical expectations have been met. This conclusion challenges the internationally acknowledged notion that all ecomuseums develop and are operated using a bottom-up approach, that they were all community-based and democratic. These discrepancies lead to other questions about the differences between ecomuseums in China and elsewhere. In order to map and compare the differences between ecomuseums in China and in Western democracies, a detailed survey was undertaken using Melbourne’s Living Museum of the West, Australia. Applying the same methodologies as in China, a comparable examination was undertaken as to its background, objectives, management structures, programs and activities, and project outcomes as well as problems. The differences between Suojia Ecomuseum and Melbourne’s Living Museum are then explained and shown. They demonstrate quite diverse organisations with different objectives and management structures relating to different cultural and natural resources. However, the unexpected finding was that the futures of both ecomuseums relied on the financial support and passion of younger generations and hence were vulnerable.

Lobbying in Australia : child or sibling of public relations

It is accepted now that lobbying and public relations share a strong relationship. How did this come about? How did lobbying become a subset of the discipline of public relations and is it accepted as such – by its practitioners and those it serves? In lobbying’s attempts to define the practice it has sought a broader discipline for explanation. Many terms came into being because as Harrison observed ‘ it has been impossible to clearly define a lobbyist’ (2011, p865). Macnamara (2012) includes lobbying under a heading of public affairs and government relations. Sekuless subtitled his 1991 text Lobbying in the Nineties ‘the government relations game’.
This paper seeks to define lobbying and its practice in Australia. In so doing it looks specifically at professional and academic definition of the lobbying and its growth as a subset of PR.