Submission to Senate Economics References Committee, An Inquiry in to Affordable Housing

Developer paid fees or infrastructure charges are a commonly used mechanism for local governments to pay for new infrastructure. However, property developers claim that these costs are merely passed on to home buyers, with adverse effects to housing affordability. Despite numerous government reports and many years of industry advocacy, there remains no empirical evidence in Australia to confirm or quantify this passing on effect to home buyers and the consequent effect on housing affordability. Hence there remains no data from which governments can base policy decision on, and the debate continues. This research examines the question of the impact of infrastructure charges on housing affordability in Australia. It employs hedonic regression methods to estimate the impact of infrastructure charges on house prices and vacant lot prices in Brisbane, Australia during 2005-2011, using a data set of 29,752 house sales, comprising 4,699 new house sales and 25,053 existing house sales and 13,739 lot sales. The regression results for the effect of infrastructure charges on house prices in Brisbane indicated that for every $1.00 of infrastructure charge levied on developers, all house prices increase by $3.69 or a 369% overpassing of these government levies onto home buyers. Thus, this one government levy could be responsible for $877 per month on home owner mortgage repayments in Brisbane, Queensland. This research is consistent with international findings, that support the proposition that developer paid infrastructure charges are passed on to home buyers and are a significant contributor to increasing house prices and reduced housing affordability. Understanding who really pays for urban infrastructure is critical to both the housing affordability and infrastructure funding debates in Australia and this research provides the first empirical data for policy makers to assess their policy objectives and outcomes against.

Ecologies of housing and underlying assumptions of vulnerability

Purpose This paper is informed by a study that aimed to understand the difficulties in implementing models of housing, and to help address the lack of accessible and affordable private housing for people with disability in Australia. In responding to this aim, the study formulated an ecological map of housing models, which are examined in this paper in terms of their underlying assumptions of vulnerability. Design/methodology/approach The study involved explanation building, using a multiple case study approach, informed theoretically by an ecological framework. It included organisations, families and individuals with disability. Findings For the purpose of this paper, the study revealed a direct relationship between the nature of the housing models proposed, and assumptions of vulnerability. In the context of the study findings, the paper suggests that attempts to address individual housing needs are more likely to achieve a positive outcome when they are person driven, from a premise of ability rather than disability. Overall, it invites a ‘universalistic’ way of conceptualising housing issues for people with disability that has international relevance. Practical implications This paper highlights how assumptions of vulnerability shape environmental responses, such as housing, for people with disability. Originality/value This paper is based on a study that reconciled a person-centred philosophy with an ecological appreciation of the external and internal factors impacting housing choice for people with disability.

Designing informal learning experiences for early career academics using a knowledge ecosystem model

This article presents a ‘knowledge ecosystem’ model of how early career academics experience using information to learn while building their social networks for developmental purposes. Developed using grounded theory methodology, the model offers a way of conceptualising how to empower early career academics through 1) agency (individual and relational) and 2) facilitation of personalised informal learning (design of physical and virtual systems and environments) in spaces where developmental relationships are formed including programs, courses, events, community, home and social media. It is suggested that the knowledge ecosystem model is suitable for use in designing informal learning experiences for early career academics.

Enhancing information about sustainability features for sustainable housing delivery

Sustainability practices in government regulations and within the society influence the delivery of sustainable housing. The actual delivery rate of Australian sustain-able housing is not as high as other countries. There is an absence of engagement by stakeholders in adopting sustainable housing practices. This may be due, in the current Australian property market, to confusion as to what sustainability features should be considered, given the large range of environmental, economic and social sustainability options possible. One of the main problems appears to be that information demanders, especially real estate agents, valuers, insurance agents and mortgage lenders do not include sustainability perspectives in their advice or in their decision processes. Information distribution in the Australian property market is flawed, resulting in a lack of return-on-investment value of ‘green’ features implemented by some stakeholders. This paper reviewed the global sustainable development concept and Australian sustainable assessment methods. This review identified the possibility of a research project which aimed at identifying and integrating different perceptions and priority needs of the information demanders, for developing a model for the potential implementation of sustainability features distribution in the property industry. This research will reduce confusion on the sustainability-related information which can influence the decision making of stakeholders in the supply and demand of sustainable housing.

Formal total synthesis of 2-pupukeanone via radical mediated cyclisation of an enyne

Diels-Alder reaction of the dienone 12, obtained by C-alkylation of sodium 2,6-dimethylphenoxide, with acrylonitrile and phenyl vinyl sulfones generate the enynes 14 and 17. Tributyltin radical addition to the terminal acetylene in 14 and 17 lead to the vinylstannanes 15 and 18 via 5-exo trig cyclisation of the resulting vinyl radical, which on oxidative cleavage furnishes the isotwistane-diones 16 and 19. Reductive desulfonylation of the diketosulfone 19 furnishes the dione 11, constituting a formal total synthesis of 2-pupukeanone 5 and 2-isocyanopupukeanone 3.

Courtyard housing as a subtropical urban design model

Through both theory and practice, this practice-based research develops and tests the idea that courtyard housing can deliver sustainable, compact housing in rapidly growing subtropical cities. It proposes a contemporary urban design model that incorporates urban design courtyard housing prototypes. These prototypes can be further developed by architects and urban designers for similar climatic conditions across the world.

Submission to the Senate Economics References Committee Inquiry into affordable housing 20 August 2014: De-risking development of medium density housing to improve housing affordability and boost supply

This submission addresses the problem of housing price inflation, the chronic under-supply of new housing stock, and the resultant decline in housing affordability for low and middle income households. It specifically focusses on the supply of medium density housing (multi-unit development) in Melbourne, although we believe that the observations made about housing in supply in Melbourne are relevant in other urban centres and to other types of housing supply. In terms of medium density housing (MDH) our concern also extends to the poor quality and design. Why the market tends to deliver generic apartments of poor quality and design which are uncompetitive with lower density housing and amenity despite planning objectives, and how this apparently intractable problem can be overcome is the topic of this submission...

Smarten up! Applying market design theory to housing supply

PROBLEM Cost of delivering medium density apartments impedes supply of new and more affordable housing in established suburbs EXISTING FOCUS - Planning controls - Construction costs, esp labour - Regulation eg sustainability

Human mating in the informal market for sperm donation: Preferences and decision making

Choosing a mate is one of the largest (economic) decisions humans make. This thesis investigates this large scale decision and how the process is changing with the advent of the internet and the growing market for online informal sperm donation. This research identifies individual factors that influence female mating preferences. It explores the roles of behavioural traits and physical appearance, preferences for homogamy and hypergamy, and personality, and how these impact the decision to choose a donor. Overall, this thesis makes contributions to both the literature on human behaviour, and that on decision-making in extreme and highly important situations.

Odour Emissions from Tunnel Ventilated Poultry Housing

In Australia, factors such as local planning processes, urban encroachment into rural areas and intensification of the poultry industry have increased the potential for odour and dust nuisance. At present, accurate estimates of odour emissions from mechanically ventilated poultry housing systems do not exist for Australian conditions. This has made the poultry industry vulnerable to unsubstantiated criticism. Recently, the Australian poultry industry have made a significant investment in research to obtain accurate estimates of odour, dust and volatile chemical emission rates from typical poultry housing systems. This paper describes the measurement of odour emissions from tunnel ventilated poultry housing systems in different climatic zones in Queensland and Victoria, Australia (humid sub-tropical and Mediterranean respectively) during two seasons (summer and winter). Samples were collected at defined intervals over typical batch production cycles to define the odour emission profiles. These samples were analysed using dynamic olfactometry according to the Australian Standard 4323.3 to derive the odour concentration values. Ventilation rates were measured concurrently, allowing the calculation of odour emission rates. Odour concentration and emission rates were assessed in terms of ventilation rate, ambient and shed air temperature and relative humidity and litter moisture status. Odour emission rates varied with bird age. Seasonal differences in odour emission rate were also observed.

The impacts of policy change on collaborative governance networks

For many complex natural resources problems, planning and management efforts involve groups of organizations working collaboratively through networks (Agranoff, 2007; Booher & Innes, 2010). These networks sometimes involve formal roles and relationships, but often include informal elements (Edelenbos & Klijn, 2007). All of these roles and relationships undergo change in response to changes in personnel, priorities and policy. There has been considerable focus in the planning and public policy literature on describing and characterizing these networks (Mandell & Keast, 2008; Provan & Kenis, 2007). However, there has been far less research assessing how networks change and adjust in response to policy and political change. In the Australian state of Queensland, Natural Resource Management (NRM) organizations were created as lead organizations to address land and water management issues on a regional basis with Commonwealth funding and state support. In 2012, a change in state government signaled a dramatic change in policy that resulted in a significant reduction of state support and commitment. In response to this change, NRM organizations have had to adapt their networks and relationships. In this study, we examine the issues of network relationships, capacity and changing relationships over time using written surveys and focus groups with NRM CEOs, managers and planners (note: data collection events scheduled for March and April 2015). The research team will meet with each of these three groups separately, conduct an in-person survey followed by a facilitated focus group discussion. The NRM participant focus groups will also be subdivided by region, which correlates with capacity (inland/low capacity; coastal/high capacity). The findings focus on how changes in state government commitment have affected NRM networks and their relationships with state agencies. We also examine how these changes vary according to the level within the organization and the capacity of the organization. We hypothesize that: (1) NRM organizations have struggled to maintain capacity in the wake of state agency withdrawal of support; (2) NRM organizations with the lowest capacity have been most adversely affected, while some high capacity NRM organizations may have become more resilient as they have sought out other partners; (3) Network relationships at the highest levels of the organization have been affected the most by state policy change; (4) NRM relationships at the lowest levels of the organizations have changed the least, as formal relationships are replaced by informal networks and relationships.

WISENOM. A formal organic chemical nomenclature system

A formal chemical nomenclature system WISENOM based on a context-free grammar and graph coding is described. The system is unique, unambiguous, easily pronounceable, encodable, and decodable for organic compounds. Being a formal system, every name is provable as a theorem or derivable as a terminal sentence by using the basic axioms and rewrite rules. The syntax in Backus-Naur form, examples of name derivations, and the corresponding derivation trees are provided. Encoding procedures to convert connectivity tables to WISENOM, parsing, and decoding are described.

Towards formal specification of a distributed computing system

Onboard spacecraft computing system is a case of a functionally distributed system that requires continuous interaction among the nodes to control the operations at different nodes. A simple and reliable protocol is desired for such an application. This paper discusses a formal approach to specify the computing system with respect to some important issues encountered in the design and development of a protocol for the onboard distributed system. The issues considered in this paper are concurrency, exclusiveness and sequencing relationships among the various processes at different nodes. A 6-tuple model is developed for the precise specification of the system. The model also enables us to check the consistency of specification and deadlock caused due to improper specification. An example is given to illustrate the use of the proposed methodology for a typical spacecraft configuration. Although the theory is motivated by a specific application the same may be applied to other distributed computing system such as those encountered in process control industries, power plant control and other similar environments.

Ohjaukselliset käytännöt yliopisto-opintojen alkuvaiheessa : Maatalous-metsätieteellisen tiedekunnan opiskelijoiden merkitykselliset kokemukset ensimmäisen opiskeluvuoden ohjauksesta

In this Master's Thesis I study guidance practises, which facilitate first year students' integration into the university. Besides formal guidance, for example tutoring and peer tutoring, general student advising and introduction courses, I address my research to informal everyday guidance practices. I aim to highlight existing supportive practices, which are meaningful from the university students' perspective. My aim is to study what kind of guidance practises exists in university and how these practises support first year student. The aim of the guidance practises is to facilitate new university student to integrate into the academic community. I study the implementation of this aim as a development of an academic identity, which requires that students have an opportunity for guided participation in academic practises. The research is based on phenomenological-hermeneutic research tradition, and my aim is to produce information of students' everyday experiences and meanings. My informants were students of agriculture and forestry at University of Helsinki. I gathered research material utilizing the critical incident technique in 11 theme interviews, which I carried out with individuals, pairs or small groups. During interviews I asked the students to describe and evaluate their first year guidance experiences, especially those that were extreme positive or negative. Based on my research I specified four meaningful guidance practices: care of students, transparency of the practises of the learning community, presence of guidance in everyday activities of a student and communal reflection to studies. I represent the character and components of the guidance practises, and I also describe the meaning of those practises to university students. Keywords: Guidance practices, guidance, first year studies, academic community, integration, academic identity,critical incidents