Australian property investment advice : an unregulated industry and the need for better consumer protection laws

Currently, consumers have no means of protecting themselves when they are looking for property investment advice in Australia. There is no uniform national or State regulation in the property investment advice and marketeering industry. The only protection and remedies currently available are those under the general consumer protection laws scattered in various Acts, and even so, these have numerous problems. This paper highlights what those problems are under the general consumer protection laws and suggests some changes to the current system. The paper also argues that a national co-operative approach is the only way to move forward in this area and suggests that the constitutional difficulty can be overcome by using the legislative conferral of state powers provision, which has often been overlooked. The paper also argues that a new regulator be set up to administer and enforce the new proposed laws on property investment advice.

Impact of electronic data interchange in the Australian automotive industry

Information technology continues to play an increasingly significant role in the development of firms competing in the vast array of markets from those classified as global markets, such as the automotive industry, to the smaller nationally-based markets such as retailing. An objective of electronic commerce is to assist organisations to remain competitive and gain entry to markets which were previously unattainable. This study focuses on the organisational impact of one form of electronic commerce (electronic data interchange) on the component sector of the Australian automotive industry and examines the extent to which trading partner relationships have been affected. The research investigates the extent to which the integration of electronic data interchange (EDI) with an organisation’s internal application system may facilitate specific net benefits. The automotive industry became the first Australian industry to cooperatively adopt EDI. Research to date has not adequately examined the organisational impact of the nature and extent of net benefits gained from EDI adoption. To achieve the objective of assessing EDI net benefits, a conceptual model was developed. The model proposed that the level of EDI net benefits expected is influenced by the size of the organisation and the concentration of trade achieved within the industry via intervening links through (a) the level of senior management commitment and (b) the extent of system integration. Nine empirically testable research propositions are derived from the model, each testing the relationship between model constructs. Data was collected from 114 component suppliers to Ford Australia in 1992 and 1994 using a repeated cross-sectional longitudinal design. Structural equation modelling using partial least squares was adopted in the analysis of the data. A pure longitudinal model together with 12 case studies of selected component manufacturers supplemented the research design. The results of the research showed that the proposed conceptual model is a good description of the data. In particular, net benefits obtained from EDI adoption are directly determined by the size of the organisation, and the extent to which firms integrate EDI into their internal application systems. The level of net benefits is only indirectly influenced by the level of senior management commitment to the EDI project through (a) management commitment’s direct effect on integration, and (b) the direct effect the volume of trade a supplier achieves with the automotive industry on senior management commitment and system integration. The major benefits organisations experienced from EDI were enhanced productivity, clerical staff savings, improved data accuracy, enhanced customer service and reduced administration costs. The research showed that few suppliers gained inventory savings from EDI, a frequently claimed benefit from EDI adoption. Evidence of small improvements in product quality emerged from the results. In summary, this research attempts to make two primary contributions to knowledge, first in providing a method by which net benefits from electronic commerce can be measured within an industry adopting electronic trading, and second, by providing organisations with the knowledge of the specific net benefits organisations could expect from EDI adoption, together with the four major factors affecting these benefits. The research concludes with possible directions for future research, in particular an assessment of the impact of incorporating financial EDI into electronic trading.

Exposure estimation, uncertainty and variability in occupational hygiene retrospective assessment

This thesis reports on a quantitative exposure assessment and on an analysis of the attributes of the data used in the estimations, in particular distinguishing between its uncertainty and variability. A retrospective assessment of exposure to benzene was carried out for a case control study of leukaemia in the Australian petroleum industry. The study used the mean of personal task-based measurements (Base Estimates) in a deterministic algorithm and applied factors to model back to places, times etc for which no exposure measurements were available. Mean daily exposures were estimated, on an individual subject basis, by summing the task-based exposures. These mean exposures were multiplied by the years spent on each job to provide exposure estimates in ppm-years. These were summed to provide a Cumulative Estimate for each subject. Validation was completed for the model and key inputs. Exposures were low, most jobs were below TWA of 5 ppm benzene. Exposures in terminals were generally higher than at refineries. Cumulative Estimates ranged from 0.005 to 50.9 ppm-years, with 84 percent less than 10 ppm-years. Exposure probability distributions were developed for tanker drivers using Monte Carlo simulation of the exposure estimation algorithm. The outcome was a lognormal distribution of exposure for each driver. These provide the basis for alternative risk assessment metrics e.g. the frequency of short but intense exposures which provided only a minimal contribution to the long-term average exposure but may increase risk of leukaemia. The effect of different inputs to the model were examined and their significance assessed using Monte Carlo simulation. The Base Estimates were the most important determinant of exposure in the model. The sources of variability in the measured data were examined, including the effect of having censored data and the between and within-worker variability. The sources of uncertainty in the exposure estimates were analysed and consequential improvements in exposure assessment identified. Monte Carlo sampling was also used to examine the uncertainties and variability associated with the tanker drivers' exposure assessment, to derive an estimate of the range and to put confidence intervals on the daily mean exposures. The identified uncertainty was less than the variability associated with the estimates. The traditional approach to exposure estimation typically derives only point estimates of mean exposure. The approach developed here allows a range of exposure estimates to be made and provides a more flexible and improved basis for risk assessment.

Culture and trade

This investigation emphasises the significant role socio-cultural considerations play in Australia's education sector initiatives in the Middle East, and the direct impact this has on wider Australian-Middle Eastern trade and strategic relations. In order to enhance these relations, there is an urgent need for Australia to develop a more sophisticated policy of engagement that moves away from historical and contemporary misconceptions.

The politics of the pharmaceutical industry and access to medicines : world pharmacy and India

The Pharmaceutical Industry presents one of India’s most successful stories of economic expansion and improvements in public health. Indian firms have made access to quality medicines possible and affordable in many developing countries. Indian pharmaceuticals are also exported on a large scale to the United States and other highly regulated markets. A wave of mergers, acquisitions and tie-ups point to growing integration between Indian firms and global pharma multinationals.

The Politics of the Pharmaceutical Industry and Access to Medicines: World Pharmacy and India examines this important industry from different economic, social and political perspectives. Topics covered include the implications of TRIPS-compliant intellectual property rights, the role of flexibilities under TRIPS, the market regulation system, the role of Indian firms in exporting HIV/AIDS medications to Africa, the issue of free trade agreements, the power and reach of foreign pharmaceutical multinationals in India’s domestic market, and the sustainability of India as a major generics supplier.

Reluctant relaxation: The end of the iron ore export embargo and the origins of Australia's mining boom, 1960-1966

The Australian government embargoed any export of iron ore between 1938 and 1960. Joseph Lyons’s government imposed the ban on the eve of World War II for a strategic reason: to prevent the Japanese from importing ore from Yampi Sound in Western Australia. Another consideration, which underpinned the retention of the ban for more than two decades, was the Commonwealth of Australia's perception that Australia's iron ore reserves were limited. In the space of a few years after the partial lifting of the embargo in 1960, world-class reserves of iron ore, mainly in Western Australia, were discovered. Mined and exported from the mid-1960s, iron ore would become, in time, Australia’s best export earner. This article explores the reasons behind the lifting of the ban and how the relaxation of the embargo in stages between 1960 and 1966 shaped the emerging iron ore industry and therefore Australia’s mining boom.

Australia and the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, 1945–1974

This volume in the Documents on Australian Foreign Policy series draws on unpublished records from the National Archives of Australia to document the negotiation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) from an Australian perspective. Commencing with early post-war efforts to control nuclear energy following the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the volumes traces Australia’s changing attitude to the issue of nuclear arms control and disarmament during the Cold War years of the 1950s and 1960s and its ambiguous approach to the acquisition of nuclear weapons in the subsequent negotiation of the NPT. Signed by the Gorton government in 1970 after considerable debate in the policymaking community in Canberra, the treaty was ratified by the Whitlam government in 1973 and has since formed a fundamental plank in Australian attitudes and policies towards international efforts to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons.

The Brazilian venture capital industry and its strategic role in closing the financing gap of SMEs

This discussion paper is a contribution of the Brazilian Government to the 2006 Annual Conference of the OECD High-level Conference on "Better Financing for Entrepreneurship and SMEs" to be held in Brasilia, Brazil on 27-30 March 2006. It has been prepared by The Center for Studies in Private Equity and Venture Capital of EAESP-Fundação Getúlio Vargas under the auspices of ABDI – Agência Brasileira para o Desenvolvimento Industrial – an agency of the Ministry of Industrial Development and Foreign Trade, in cooperation with ABVCAP – The Brazilian Association of Private Equity and Venture Capital

Trade policies and trade mis-reporting in Myanmar

While the trade statistics of Myanmar show surpluses for 2007 through 2010, the corresponding statistics of trade partner countries indicate deficits. Such discrepancies in mirror trade statistics are analyzed in connection with the ‘export-first and import-second’ policy provisioning import permissions on permission applicants possessing a sufficient amount of the export-tax-deducted export earnings. Under this policy, the recorded imports and exports of the private sector have been maintaining equilibrium, whereas discrepancies in the mirror statistics have fluctuated. This suggests that traders adjusted mis-reporting in accordance with the supply and demand of the export earnings.

Uruguay's livestock and meat industry.

Mode of access: Internet.

Occupational employment survey booklet of definitions : food and tobacco products industry.

"BLS-2877 220."

Report from the Committee Appointed to Enquire into the State of the Copper Mines and Copper Trade of This Kingdom.

Includes bibliographical references.

Small-business problems in the aluminum industry; report of Subcommittee No. 3 on Minerals and Raw Materials, to the Select Committee on Small Business, House of Representatives, Eighty-fifth Congress, second session, pursuant to H. Res. 56.

Mode of access: Internet.

Report of the National recovery administration on the operation of the basing point system in the iron and steel industry, November 30, 1934 [and Appendix A-E] Pursuant to the first statement in paragraph 3 of Executive order dated May 30, 1934, approving the amendment to the Code of fair competition for the iron and steel industry.

Mimeographed.