A critical analysis of the independence of the internal audit function : evidence from Australia

Purpose – This study aims to critically analyse the independence of the internal audit function through its relationship with management and the audit committee.

Design/methodology/approach – Results are based on a critical comparison of responses from questionnaires sent out to Australian chief audit executives (CAEs) versus existing literature and best practice guidelines.

Findings – With respect to the internal audit function's relationship with management, threats identified include: using the internal audit function as a stepping stone to other positions; having the chief executive officer (CEO) or chief finance officer (CFO) approve the internal audit function's budget and provide input for the internal audit plan; and considering the internal auditor to be a “partner”, especially when combined with other indirect threats. With respect to the relationship with the audit committee, significant threats identified include CAEs not reporting functionally to the audit committee; the audit committee not having sole responsibility for appointing, dismissing and evaluating the CAE; and not having all audit committee members or at least one member qualified in accounting.

Originality/value – This study introduces independence threat scores, thereby generating analysis of the internal audit function's independence taking into account a combination of threats.

Protecting legal rights when things go wrong : legal recourse if mandatory fortification of a food were to harm human health

Food laws can encompass considerations that extend beyond food safety. The recent food standard mandating the fortification of flour with folic acid in Australia illustrates the legal problems and legal risks when governments introduce food standards that aim to medicinalise the population through the food supply despite a lack of scientific consensus. Legal analysis of the process by which the folic acid fortification was introduced into flour in Australia demonstrates legal inadequacies, administrative and policy failures, as well as flaws in safety assumptions. An analysis of the restrictions on legal rights and remedies for any adversely affected consumers seeking legal redress, and the existence of statutory immunities for governments, demonstrates a need for legal reform and changes in policy development processes.

Geared equity investments : a case study of tax arbitrage down under

Geared Equity Investment (GEI) contracts are an over-the-counter financial derivative product offered by Macquarie Bank, Ltd. to individual investors in Australia and New Zealand as a managed-risk investment in local shares carrying significant tax shield benefits. Upon issuance, a geared equity contract has three stakeholders: (1) the investor; (2) the issuer; and (3) the national tax authority. We assess the value of these contracts to each stakeholder and their support for tax arbitrage. We find that the national tax authority provides a significant subsidy to GEI contracts via tax shield benefits. These benefits support investor tax arbitrage in certain cases and issuer tax arbitrage in all cases examined.

Genome - wide association study identifies novel breast cancer susceptibility loci

Breast cancer exhibits familial aggregation, consistent with variation in genetic susceptibility to the disease. Known susceptibility genes account for less than 25% of the familial risk of breast cancer, and the residual genetic variance is likely to be due to variants conferring more moderate risks. To identify further susceptibility alleles, we conducted a two-stage genome-wide association study in 4,398 breast cancer cases and 4,316 controls, followed by a third stage in which 30 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were tested for confirmation in 21,860 cases and 22,578 controls from 22 studies. We used 227,876 SNPs that were estimated to correlate with 77% of known common SNPs in Europeans at r² > 0.5. SNPs in five novel independent loci exhibited strong and consistent evidence of association with breast cancer (P < 10^-7). Four of these contain plausible causative genes (FGFR2, TNRC9, MAP3K1 and LSP1). At the second stage, 1,792 SNPs were significant at the P < 0.05 level compared with an estimated 1,343 that would be expected by chance, indicating that many additional common susceptibility alleles may be identifiable by this approach.

The influence of specific luminal factors on the colonic epithelium : high-dose butyrate and physical changes suppress early carcinogenic events in rats

INTRODUCTION Although luminal delivery of butyrate is one putative mechanism by which biology of the colonic epithelium might be influenced by changes in luminal contents, there is a paucity of supportive cause–effect evidence. This study aimed to directly establish whether distal colonic butyrate delivery is able to alter the response of the distal colonic epithelium to a carcinogen.
METHODS Groups of male Sprague-Dawley rats with chronically intubated colons received infusions of 80 mM butyrate or 0.9 percent saline into distal colon two or five times daily. Three weeks after exposure to azoxymethane (15 mg/kg subcutaneously), the density of aberrant crypts was quantified in distal colon.
RESULTS Infusions of 0.5 ml twice daily, whether containing saline or butyrate, decreased the number of aberrant crypt foci by 45 percent compared with rats receiving no infusions (P = 0.004, analysis of variance). Similar results were obtained when infusions were restricted to the postinitiation phase. When infusions were increased to 1 ml five times daily, saline infusions similarly suppressed aberrant crypt formation (38 percent), but butyrate infusions suppressed it to a greater degree (by 64 percent; P = 0.02 compared with saline infusion, t-test).
CONCLUSIONS High levels of butyrate delivery to the distal colonic lumen alter the epithelial response to a carcinogen in otherwise healthy rats. This finding directly supports the notion that the effects of butyrate on cells in vitro do occur in vivo provided a sufficient dose is delivered. The effect of infusion of liquid per se on the epithelial response highlights the potential impact physical changes alone can have on the colonic epithelium.

Retrieval

Retrieval was a site-specific performance installation which transformed five floors of the National Library of Australia in Nov-Dec 2010. Devised in collaboration with a team of 30 young performers, the production lead the audience on a quest deep into the library to retrieve priceless cultural memories before all was lost. Louise Morris working in collaboration with co-designer Matthew Aberline and the artistic team created the installed environments for the production. The production won numerous awards including Best New Project- Express Media and Best Original Work- CAT awards.

Protein electrochemistry using aligned carbon nanotube arrays

The remarkable electrocatalytic properties and small size of carbon nanotubes make them ideal for achieving direct electron transfer to proteins, important in understanding their redox properties and in the development of biosensors. Here, we report shortened SWNTs can be aligned normal to an electrode by self-assembly and act as molecular wires to allow electrical communication between the underlying electrode and redox proteins covalently attached to the ends of the SWNTs, in this case, microperoxidase MP-11. The efficiency of the electron transfer through the SWNTs is demonstrated by electrodes modified with tubes cut to different lengths having the same electron-transfer rate constant.

Parameters important in fabricating enzyme electrodes using self-assembled monolayers of alkanethiols

The fabrication of enzyme electrodes using self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) has attracted considerable interest because of the spatial control over the enzyme immobilization. A model system of glucose oxidase covalently bound to a gold electrode modified with a SAM of 3-mercaptopropionic acid was investigated with regard to the effect of fabrication variables such as the surface topography of the underlying gold electrode, the conditions during covalent attachment of the enzyme and the buffer used. The resultant monolayer enzyme electrodes have excellent sensitivity and dynamic range which can easily be adjusted by controlling the amount of enzyme immobilized. The major drawback of such electrodes is the response which is limited by the kinetics of the enzyme rather than mass transport of substrates. Approaches to bringing such enzyme electrodes into the mass transport limiting regime by exploiting direct electron transfer between the enzyme and the electrode are outlined.

A comparative analysis of Australian sex offender legislation for sex offender registries

Australia has followed the course taken by other English-speaking countries in recent years of enacting legislation that requires convicted sexual offenders to register personal details with law enforcement agencies. These laws have been enacted to protect the public from the perceived threat posed by sex offenders, but have been written with little apparent reference to the available research literature about the nature and extent of this threat. In addition, there is no empirical evidence supporting the effectiveness of legislatively based sex offender registries to either reduce sexual offending or to enable the police to investigate sex crimes and apprehend offenders. This article compares and contrasts the current laws governing sex offender registration enacted by the various states and territories in Australia, and offers a critical analysis of their provisions in light of the research literature on sexual offending.

Visionnaire 2011

Visionnaire : A screening of postgraduate and masters films

Play ‘Crack the Sky’ - Steffen Hagen
The Priest - Benjamin Engeset
Sitcom Idiots Inc. - Mitchell McTaggart
Playing for it - Jacinta Adams, Alex Dance, Simone Berman, Esteban Ulloa, James Westland & Jarrod Watters
The boy who lived in the cemetery - Kerina Pereira, Emma Robinson, Tim Mitchell, Helin Kusman & Rebecca Drought
A Burger too far - Scott Burgess, Rhys Salmon, Karina McCowan, Tom McCann, Michael Hales & Aidan Truscott
Crimson Drive - Samantha Kuruvita, Shaun McFadyen, Vegard Dahle, Anja Aasheim, Shehan Vestrheim & Mikael Skramesto
Mikael - Kathleen Lynch, David McKinnar, David Davey, Alex Voltz, Gavin Juchnevicius & Shannon McFarland
A Slight Case of Death - David Laub, Tian Zhang, Janine Evans, Josh Horeau, Jacobo Arenas & Ben Teychenne
Neil - Courtney Gardiner, Rebecca Jacobs, Mark D’Alessandro, Jacob Williams, Trygve Nordhammer & Paul Mooney
Little Donnie Berner - Louise Walsh, Bhare Kesmaei, Matthew Skibicki, Krister Svensli & Nicholas Issell
Intervention - Georgie Thomas, Allison Flanagan, Allison Erlanger, Fredrik Waldeland, Torkild Ziegler & Brad Smith
Vicissitudes - Ben Mix, Sinead Lau, Claire Patterson, Joel Buncle, James Magree & Thomas Boarder