The 'two strikes' rule on the remuneration report : threats and opportunities for boards

This article examines the fast moving debate on the law and policy surrounding shareholder voting on their companies’ remuneration report, at the AGM. Recently, Australia has moved from the ‘non-binding’ vote provided to shareholders, to the more prescriptive ‘two strikes rule’; that is, two negative shareholder resolutions after 1 July 2011 may result in a board re-election. While much commentary has focused on the potential threats— impacts on remuneration reports and the potential costs to the company — we discuss another potential consequence: an opportunity for board recruitment. At a time when companies are also expected to comment on their diversity policies, planning for a threatened ‘spill’ creates an opportunity for board composition planning and succession. The arguments presented are also placed in the context of the UK debate, where recent proposals advocate for wider stakeholder engagement and diversity in remuneration planning.

Online or conventional democracy? The Ashgrove election and networked journalism

This study focuses on new media use in democratic discourse, specifically in the Queensland state electoral division of Ashgrove, 2011. This site was chosen to make an enquiry into the place of mass media in public decision- making, asking the question: did online media provide an extension of democracy, and what would be journalism’s role in democratic discourse? The study utilises a survey of 280 constituents, a review of pertinent news coverage, and extensive interviews with a panel of informants. In the outcome, it found those most equipped to utilise online media showed a lack of will to get involved in deeper political, social engagements. It also sees younger demographics forming news habits, not usually in step with traditional political avenues, based on familiarity with online processes, while consciously marginalising the need for trustworthiness in this set- ting. These issues are considered together with one leading proposal as to where the future of new media might be heading. It assesses the notion of professional and amateur collaboration by employing the model articulated by Beckett, called ‘networked journalism’.

Source apportionment of airborne particulate matter : an overview of Australian and New Zealand studies

Despite the existence of air quality guidelines in Australia and New Zealand, the concentrations of particulate matter have exceeded these guidelines on several occasions. To identify the sources of particulate matter, examine the contributions of the sources to the air quality at specific areas and estimate the most likely locations of the sources, a growing number of source apportionment studies have been conducted. This paper provides an overview of the locations of the studies, salient features of the results obtained and offers some perspectives for the improvement of future receptor modelling of air quality in these countries. The review revealed that because of its advantages over alternative models, Positive Matrix Factorisation (PMF) was the most commonly applied model in the studies. Although there were differences in the sources identified in the studies, some general trends were observed. While biomass burning was a common problem in both countries, the characteristics of this source varied from one location to another. In New Zealand, domestic heating was the highest contributor to particle levels on days when the guidelines were exceeded. On the other hand, forest back-burning was a concern in Brisbane while marine aerosol was a major source in most studies. Secondary sulphate, traffic emissions, industrial emissions and re-suspended soil were also identified as important sources. Some unique species, for example, volatile organic compounds and particle size distribution were incorporated into some of the studies with results that have significant ramifications for the improvement of air quality. Overall, the application of source apportionment models provided useful information that can assist the design of epidemiological studies and refine air pollution reduction strategies in Australia and New Zealand.

Election fact check : does Murdoch own 70% of newspapers in Australia?

"One of the more spirited discussions of the first week of this federal election campaign has concerned whether News Corp Australia, as our largest print media company, has a vested interest in the election outcome..."--publisher website

Digitally enabled?! An analysis of law and justice students' use of smart devices

The research seeks to understand the nature of law and justice students’ use of technology for their learning purposes. There is often an assumption made that all students have, and engage with, technology to the same degree. The research tests these assumptions by means of a survey conducted of first year law and justice students to determine their actual use of smart devices inside and outside classes. The analysis of results reveals that while the majority of respondents own at least one smart device; most rarely use their device for their learning purposes.

The Law of Real Property Mortgages [2nd. Ed.]

This book examines the principles and practice of real estate mortgages in an easily accessible text referenced to all the Australian States. It specifically deals with the major theoretical and practical aspects of the land mortgage, including vitiating factors in formation, mortgagees’ powers and duties and mortgagors’ rights – both statutory and other – as well as assignment, insurance and discharge. It focuses exclusively on real estate mortgages and provides a thorough account of the law through analysis of the plethora of court decisions and statutory provisions in this area. Duncan and Dixon analyse the substance of the mortgage transaction from creation through to rights of enforcement. In its detailed consideration of the rights and obligations of mortgagors and mortgagees, it covers topics such as priorities and tacking, insurance, variation and assignment, rights of discharge, entry into possession, foreclosure and power of sale. In addition, the book contains a separate chapter on factors that may affect the validity and enforcement of a mortgage, together with separate consideration of a mortgagee’s right to enforce a guarantee provided on behalf of a mortgagor, and the rights and liabilities associated with a receivership regime initiated by

Legal Reasoning in Environmental Law : a Study of Structure, Form and Language

This book analyses the structure, form and language of a selected number of international and national legal instruments and reviews how an illustrative range of international and national judicial institutions have responded to the issues before them and the processes of legal reasoning engaged by them in reaching their decisions. This involves a very detailed discussion of these primary sources of international and national environmental law with a view to determining their jurisprudential architecture and the processes of reasoning expected of those responsible for implementing these architectural arrangements. This book is concerned not with the effectiveness or the quality of an environmental legal system but only with its jurisprudential characteristics and their associated processes of legal reasoning.

Ethics, Law and Health Care : a Guide for Nurses and Midwives

Understanding ethics and law in health care is an essential part of nurses’ and midwives’ professional standards. Ethics, Law and Health Care focuses on teaching applied ethics and law in a manner that illustrates the real world applications of these core components of the nursing and midwifery curriculum and practice. It equips readers with the ability to recognise and address legal and ethical issues that will arise in their professional practice. The book uses the four principles of biomedical ethics (autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence and justice) together with the use of both the Nursing and Midwifery Codes of Ethics and Codes of Professional Conduct, issued by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, as a central means through which to analyse and approach ethical and legal issues. Ethics, Law and Health Care is scaffolded to assist readers in understanding legal and ethical principles, to integrate them in the context of a particular issue within professional practice, and provide them with a decision-making framework to take action in a professional context by utilising the Codes as well as state and federal law. Aided by pedagogical features such as case studies, review questions, further reading and a glossary of common terms, this book is an essential resource for students, academics and practitioners.

Informed democracy : information experiences during the 2012 Queensland election

This chapter presents the preliminary findings of a qualitative study exploring people’s information experiences during the 2012 Queensland State election in Australia. Six residents of South East Queensland who were eligible to vote in the state election participated in a semi-structured interview. The interviews revealed five themes that depict participants’ information experience during the election: information sources, information flow, personal politics, party politics and sense making. Together these themes represent what is experienced as information, how information is experienced, as well as contextual aspects that were unique to voting in an election. The study outlined here is one in an emerging area of enquiry that has explored information experience as a research object. This study has revealed that people’s information experiences are rich, complex and dynamic, and that information experience as a construct of scholarly inquiry provides deep insights into the ways in which people relate to their information worlds. More studies exploring information experience within different contexts are needed to help develop our theoretical understanding of this important and emerging construct.

Scared straight : boot camps for Queensland

The Liberal National Party (‘LNP’) ‘tough on youth crime’ policy mantra was well publicised in the months leading up to the 2012 Queensland state election. 1 Boot camp trials were espoused as a quick-fix panacea — a way of addressing youth offending. The idea was particularly favoured in the far northern regions of the state. In line with the new government’s policy, the Youth Justice (Boot Camp Orders) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2012 (Qld) (‘the Bill’) had a speedy passage through the unicameral Queensland parliament. It was introduced on 1 November 2012, scrutinised by the Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee (‘LACSC’) which sought community feedback, and reported back to Parliament within the given timeframe of three weeks. The Bill received assent early December and the provisions commenced in January 2013. This article examines the legislative changes implemented in Queensland. It analyses the issues prompting the amendments such as the perception that parts of Queensland were in the grip of a ‘soaring juvenile crime rate’, the conservative government’s ‘tough stance’ policy towards youth offending, and the transfer of youth justice ‘solutions’ such as ‘boot camps’ among jurisdictions. The article assesses the evidence base for boot camp orders as an option in sentencing young offenders and concludes by raising serious concerns about pursuing such a narrow hardline approach to youth justice.

Domestic violence and family law : recognition and appropriation

The battered women’s movement in the United States contributed to a sweeping change in the recognition of men’s violence against female intimate partners. Naming the problem and arguing in favour of its identification as a serious problem meriting a collective response were key aspects of this effort. Criminal and civil laws have been written and revised in an effort to answer calls to take such violence seriously. Scholars have devoted significant attention to the consequences of this reframing of violence, especially around the unintended outcomes of the incorporation of domestic violence into criminal justice regimes. Family law, however, has remained largely unexamined by criminologists. This paper calls for criminological attention to family law responses to domestic violence and provides directions for future research.

Litigating law of the sea disputes using the UNCLOS Dispute Settlement System

The interpretation and application of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) may be the source of many disputes. UNCLOS introduced an à la carte menu for dispute settlement with a number of options for international dispute resolution, including a compulsory procedure entailing binding decisions. While drafting this ambitious and complex system of dispute settlement, the drafters had to negotiate many delicate compromises to secure a system for the uniform interpretation of the Convention. The aim of this paper r is to explore why litigation using the UNCLOS dispute settlement system is, or is not, a preferred mode of settlement for law of the sea disputes.

Populism, law and order and the crimes of the 1%

The article examines the evidence of endemic financial crime in the global financial crisis (GFC), the legal impunity surrounding these crimes and the popular revolt against these abuses in the financial, political and legal systems. This is set against a consideration of the development since the 1970s of a conservative politics championing de-regulation, unfettered markets, welfare cuts and harsh law and order policies. On the one hand, this led to massively increased inequality and concentrations of wealth and political power in the hands of the super-rich, effectively placing them above the law, as the GFC revealed. On the other, a greatly enlarged, more punitive criminal justice system was directed at poor and minority communities. Explanations in terms of the rise of penal populism are helpful in explaining these developments, but it is argued they adopt a limited and reductionist view of populism, failing to see the prospects for a progressive populist politics to re-direct political attention to issues of inequality and corporate and white collar criminality.

Shadow boxing with an imaginary enemy : a response to "Law and Order Blues"

In our rejoinder to Don Weatherburn's paper,"Law and Order Blues", we do not take issue with his advocacy of the need to take crime seriously and to foster a more rational approach to the problems it poses. Where differences do emerge is (1) with his claim that he is willing to do so whilst we (in our different ways) are not; and (2) on the question of what this involves. Of particular concern is the way in which his argument proceeds by a combination of simple misrepresentation of the positions it seeks to disparage, and silence concerning issues of real substance where intellectual debate and exchange would be welcome and useful. Our paper challenges, in turn, the misrepresentation of Indermaur's analysis of trends in violent crime, the misrepresentation of Hogg and Brown's Rethinking Law and Order, the misrepresentation of the findings of some of the research into the effectiveness of punitive policies and the silence on sexual assault in "Law and Order Blues". We suggest that his silence on sexual assault reflects a more widespread unwillingness to acknowledge the methodological problems that arise in the measurement of crime because such problems severely limit the extent to which confident assertions can be made about prevalence and trends.