Comparing Victoria's genuine progress with that of the Rest-of-Australia

While a range of exogenous and endogenous factors affect the standard of  living of most Australians in a more-or-less uniform way, the different social and economic-policies of each state government are likely to affect the levels of sustainable well-being experienced across the various states. With this in mind, a Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) - a newly devised measure of sustainable well-being - is calculated for Victoria and the Rest- of- Australia (Australia minus Victoria) for the period 1986-2003. The GPI takes account of the various costs and benefits of economic activity in order to investigate the impact of a growing state or national economy on sustainable well-being.
By analysing the GPI results and the policies undertaken by the Victorian government, it is possible to determine what the state of Victoria is doing differently to the Rest-of-Australia that might be beneficial or detrimental to sustainable well-being. While our study reveals that Victoria is performing better than the Rest-of-Australia, it also highlights flaws in the policy-making process that have resulted in Victoria's Gross State Product (GSP) overstating its genuine progress.

Oxygen and hydrogen isotopic ratios and chemistry in semiarid land river water, Southwest Victoria, Australia

Salt in a salt lake accumulated as a result of perfect evaporation of inflow water during the dry season. Water in a salt lake had a high salinity and its isotope indicated a little evaporation in the wet season because precipitation replenished the salt lake and there was no residual water during evaporation process in salt lake. In a marsh, both perfect and partial disappearance of water by repeated evaporation and water supply from upstream contributed to high salinity and high isotopic ratios because residual water had high isotopic ratios and dried areas accumulated salt. On the other hand, salinity and isotopic ratios depended on ratio of evaporation and water supply during evaporation excluding perfect disappearance of water.

Conservation and management of hydromyine rodents in Victoria, Australia

Of the 15 species of native rodents recorded from Victoria, Australia, six became extinct within 70 years of European settlement, and two of the remaining nine are classified as ‘threatened’ and four are classified as ‘near threatened’. Thus, only three species are considered to be adequately conserved. This represents one of the most dramatic mammalian species declines recorded in Australia. All the threatened species belong to the subfamily Hydromyinae, the Australian ‘old endemics’. Of the extinct species, four were recorded only from the semi-arid north-west of the state and two from dry woodlands in the central and southern regions. The two  endangered species are the smoky mouse, which has a disjunct distribution from near-coastal to sub-alpine habitats, and the New Holland mouse, which is the most geographically restricted species. Discovered in Victoria only in 1970, it has become extinct at several locations and is the subject of a major recovery program that includes captive breeding and reintroduction. Conservation protocols and practices for Victoria’s native rodents are implemented under state legislation, but lack of basic ecological information makes their conservation a difficult task.

Nursing education and graduates in Victoria : profiles for 2000, 2001, and 2002 with projections for 2003

This project is the second of two projects commissioned by the Nurse Policy Branch, Victorian Department of Human Services (VDHS). The project investigated nursing education at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels in the university sector and in the VET sector. The data gathered from the project provided VDHS with a better understanding of nurse labour force issues.

Criminal legislation Victoria 2003

Fully annotated Crimes Act 1958 (Victoria) and Summary Offences Act 1966 (Victoria). Extracted from two-volume looseleaf service 'Bourke's Criminal Law Victoria'. Cross-referenced to cases, other acts and regulations and other publications dealing with the topics under discussion. Reflects the law as amended to 1 January 2003. Includes table of cases and index. Nash is a practicing QC and former academic at Monash University. Bagaric is a barrister and solicitor.