The inherent international tax regime and its constraints on Australia's sovereignty

Neither an international tax, nor an international taxing body exists. Rather, there are domestic taxing rules adopted by jurisdictions which, coupled with double tax treaties, apply to cross-border transactions and international taxation issues. International bodies such as the OECD and UN, which provide guidance on tax issues, often steer and supplement these domestic adoptions but have no binding international taxing powers. These pragmatic realities, together with the specific use of the word ‘regime’ within the tax community, lead many to argue that an international tax regime does not exist. However, an international tax regime should be defined no differently to any other area of international law and when we step outside the confines of tax law to consider the definition of a ‘regime’ within international relations it is possible to demonstrate that such a regime is very real. The first part of this article, by defining an international tax regime in a broader and more traditional context, also outlining both the tax policy and principles which frame that regime, reveals its existence. Once it is accepted that an international tax regime exists, it is possible to consider its adoption by jurisdictions and subsequent constraints it places on them. Using the proposed changes to transfer pricing laws as the impetus for assessing Australia’s adoption of the international tax regime, the constraints on sovereignty are assessed through a taxonomy of the level adoption. This reveals the subsequent constraints which flow from the broad acceptance of an international tax regime through to the specific adoption of technical detail. By undertaking this analysis, the second part of this article demonstrates that Australia has inherently adopted an international tax regime, with a move towards explicit adoption and a clear embedding of its principles within the domestic tax legislation.

Third International Conference on plant-based vaccines and antibodies

This relatively new biennial meeting - the first was in Prague in 2005 - was chaired by Julian Ma (Guy's Hospital, London, UK), with Mario Pezzotti (University of Verona, Italy) as local organizer, and attracted approximately 180 delegates from 25 countries. The theme was 'Plant Expression Systems for Recombinant Pharmacologics': there were 46 talks gathered into two plenaries, 12 themed sessions and 72 posters. Topics covered included publicly funded and commercial developments, innovation, regulation and commercialization, competition with conventional technology, manufacture and new products. © 2009 Expert Reviews Ltd.

International differences in management of physical activity data: Can they explain some of the difference in prevalence estimates?

Background: National physical activity data suggest that there is a considerable difference in physical activity levels of US and Australian adults. Although different surveys (Active Australia and BRFSS) are used, the questions are similar. Different protocols, however, are used to estimate “activity” from the data collected. The primary aim of this study was to assess whether the 2 approaches to the management of PA data could explain some of the difference in prevalence estimates derived from the two national surveys. Methods: Secondary data analysis of the most recent AA survey (N = 2987). Results: 15% of the sample was defined as “active” using Australian criteria but as “inactive” using the BRFSS protocol, even though weekly energy expenditure was commensurate with meeting current guidelines. Younger respondents (age < 45 y) were more likely to be “misclassified” using the BRFSS criteria. Conclusions: The prevalence of activity in Australia and the US appears to be more similar than we had previously thought.

Relationships and sexual health promotion project for QUT international students

International students may experience a variety of sexual health problems which include unplanned pregnancies, abortions and sexually transmitted diseases. These are often because of limited knowledge of sexual health matters and lack of sexual health education and/or access to health services in their home country. A study was undertaken to identify the concerns of international students and how to provide culturally appropriate promotion of sexual health for international students at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). The project included consultations with stakeholders, interviews with key informants, an online survey and focus group discussions with international students. The project found that sexual health is a concern for international students, particularly in developing relationships and when becoming sexually active in Australia, and there is a perceived lack of access to health services and insufficient knowledge on sexual health matters. Preferred methods of dissemination of sexual health information included use of student mentors, web-based online resources, brochures and confidential on-line advice.

International students using online information resources to learn : complex experience and learning needs

This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study which investigated 25 international students’ use of online information resources for study purposes at two Australian universities. Using an expanded critical incident approach, the study viewed international students through an information literacy lens, as information-using learners. The findings are presented in two complementary parts: as a word picture that describes their whole experience of using online information resources to learn; and as a tabulated set of critical findings that summarises their associated information literacy learning needs. The word picture shows international students’ resource use as a complex interplay of eight inter-related elements: students; information-learning environment; interactions (with online resources); strengths-challenges; learning-help; affective responses; reflective responses; cultural-linguistic dimensions. In using online resources, the international students experience an array of strengths and challenges, and an apparent information literacy imbalance between their more developed information skills and less developed critical information use. The critical findings about information literacy needs provide a framework for developing an inclusive informed learning approach that responds to international students’ complex information using experiences and needs. While the study is situated in Australia, the findings are of potential interest to educators, information professionals and researchers worldwide who seek to support learning in culturally diverse higher education contexts.

International tax cooperation in the Post-GFC era

Over the last five years we have observed the fallout from the global financial crisis (GFC). International cooperation and jointly adopted policies have dominated many of the solutions to the problems which have arisen. Initially, many nations in response to the GFC, implemented a two pronged short term solution by undertaking fiscal intervention and delivering rescue packages aimed at first, bailing out financial institutions and second, preventing or minimising the impact of a recession. Both programs involved large amounts of domestic spending. It was difficult in early 2007 to foresee the reduction that nations were about the face in domestic revenue collected. Five years on, not only have the first line effects of the GFC reduced the revenue raised by governments around the world, but the consequential costs associated with the rescue packages have also depleted domestic revenue bases. The response by stakeholders has been to attempt to secure domestic revenue bases through fiscally sustainable measures. Domestic sovereignty allows the levying of taxes as a nation chooses. However, rather than raise domestic taxes, revenue may also be increased by stemming the flow of income and capital to low and no-tax jurisdictions. The intervening five-year period since the GFC allows a unique insight into the response by nations and international organisations to tax evasion, tax avoidance and aggressive tax competition through the cross border flows of capital and the resulting affect that the GFC has had on international tax cooperation. By investigating the change in the international tax landscape over the last five years, which reveals the work done by stakeholders in developing fiscally responsible responses to the problems that have arisen, it may be possible to predict the trajectory of the international tax landscape over the next five years.

The standard bearers : Governing teachers through professional standards

Teacher professional standards have become a key policy mechanism for the reform of teaching and education in recent years. While standards policies claim to improve the quality of teaching and learning in schools today, this paper argues that a disjunction exists between the stated intentions of such programmes and the intelligibility of the practices of government in which they are invested. To this effect, the paper conducts an analytics of government of the recently released National Professional Standards for Teachers (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, 2011) arguing that the explicit, calculated rationality of the programme exists within a wider field of effects. Such analysis has the critical consequence of calling into question the claims of the programmers themselves thus breaching the self-evidence on which the standards rest.

The preferences of private equity investors in selecting target acquisitions : an international investigation

This study investigates the characteristics and attributes that private equity investors prefer when selecting target acquisitions. These characteristics are examined against a matched sample of firms subject to corporate acquisitions via tender/merger offer during 2000-2009, across seven countries: Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the USA, France, Germany and Sweden. We show that firm-specific characteristics are more influential in target selection than external or institutional variables. In particular, private equity targets exhibit lower stock volatility and long-term growth prospects, are larger, and have greater abnormal operating income relative to tender/merger offer target firms. Further, private equity bidders exhibit 'home bias', implying that familiarity motivates target selection. Institutional factors remain largely insignificant across all tests.

How can Australia sustain middle-schooling education?

Middle schooling is a crucial area of education where adolescents experiencing physiological and psychological hanges require expert guidance. As more research evidence is provided about adolescent learning, teachers are considered pivotal to adolescents’ educational development. The two levels of implementing reform measures need to be targeted, that is, at the inservice and preservice teacher levels. This quantitative study employs a 40-item, five-part Likert scale survey to understand preservice teachers’ (n=142) perceptions of their confidence to teach in the middle school at the conclusion of their tertiary education. The survey instrument was developed from the literature with connections to the Queensland College of Teachers professional standards. Results indicated that they perceived themselves as capable of creating a positive classroom environment with seven items greater than 80%, except with behaviour management (<80% for two items) and they considered their pedagogical knowledge to be adequate (i.e., 7 out of 8 items >84%). Items associated with implementing middle schooling curriculum had varied responses (e.g., implementing literacy and numeracy were 74% while implementing learning with real-world connections was 91%). This information may assist coursework designers. For example, if significant percentages of preservice teachers indicate they believe they were not well prepared for assessment and reporting in the middle school then course designers can target these areas more effectively.

Mixed methods research approach to the development and review of competency standards for dietitians

Aim: Competency standards support a range of professional activities including the accreditation of university courses. Reviewing these standards is essential to ensure universities continue to produce well equipped graduates, who can meet the challenge of changing workforce requirements. This paper has two aims: a) to provide an overview of the methodological approaches utilised for compilation and review of the Competency Standards for Dietetics and b) to evaluate the Dietitians Association of Australia’s Competency Standards and capture emerging and contemporary dietetic practice. Methods: A literature review of the methods used to develop Competency Standards for dietitians in Australia, including entry level, advanced level and DAA Fellow competencies and other specific areas of competency, such as public health nutrition and nutrition education is outlined and compared to other allied health professions. The mixed methods methodology used in the most recent review is described in more detail. Results: The history of Dietetic Competency Standards development and review in Australia is compared to dietetic Competency Standards internationally and within other health professions in Australia. The political context in which these standards have been developed in Australia and which has determined their format is also discussed. The results of the most recent Competency Standards review are reported to highlight emerging practice in Australia. Conclusion: The mixed methods approach used in this review provides rich data about contemporary dietetic practice. Our view supports a planned review of all Competency Standards to ensure practice informs education and credentialling and we recommend the Dietitians Association of Australia consider this in future

Fish out of water : refugee and international students in mainstream Australian schools

In this paper, the authors combine Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of hysteresis (the ‘fish out of water’ experience) with the discourse historical approach to critical discourse analysis (CDA) as a theoretical and analytical framework through which they examine specific moments in the schooling experiences of one refugee student and one international student, both enrolled in post-compulsory education in Australian mainstream secondary schools. We examine specific moments – as narrated by these students during interviews – in which these students can be described as ‘fish out of water’. As such, this paper takes up the concerns of researchers who call for an examination of the lived geographies and the everyday lives of individual students in mainstream schools. We find that our students’ habitus, conditioned by their previous schooling experiences in their home countries, did not match their new Australian schools, resulting in frustration with, and alienation from, their mainstream schools. However, we also note that schools, too, need to adapt and adjust their habitus to the new multicultural world, in which there are international and refugee students among their usual cohort of mainstream students.

The Development of Competency Standards for Specialist Critical Care Nurses

In defining the contemporary role of the specialist nurse it is necessary to challenge the concept of nursing as merely a combination of skills and knowledge. Nursing must be demonstrated and defined in the context of client care and include the broader notions of professional development and competence. This qualitative study sought to identify the competency standards for nurse specialists in critical care and to articulate the differences between entry-to-practice standards and the advanced practice of specialist nurses. Over 800 hours of specialist critical care nursing practice were observed and grouped into 'domains' or major themes of specialist practice using a constant comparison qualitative technique. These domains were further refined to describe attributes of the registered nurses which resulted in effective and/or superior performance (competency standards) and to provide examples of performance (performance criteria) which met the defined standard. Constant comparison of the emerging domains, competency standards and performance criteria to observations of specialist critical care practice, ensured the results provided a true reflection of the specialist nursing role. Data analysis resulted in 20 competency standards grouped into six domains: professional practice, reflective practice, enabling, clinical problem solving, teamwork, and leadership. Each of these domains is comprised of between two and seven competency standards. Each standard is further divided into component parts or 'elements' and the elements are illustrated with performance criteria. The competency standards are currently being used in several Australian critical care educational programmes and are the foundation for an emerging critical care credentialling process. They have been viewed with interest by a variety of non-critical care specialty groups and may form a common precursor from which further specialist nursing practice assessment will evolve.

Educational accountability tests, social and legal inclusion approaches to discrimination for students with disability : a national case study from Australia

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (CRPD) promotes equal and full participation by children in education. Equity of educational access for all students, including students with disability, free from discrimination, is the first stated national goal of Australian education (MCEETYA 2008). Australian federal disability discrimination law, the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA), follows the Convention, with the federal Disability Standards for Education 2005 (DSE) enacting specific requirements for education. This article discusses equity of processes for inclusion of students with disability in Australian educational accountability testing, including international tests in which many countries participate. The conclusion drawn is that equitable inclusion of students with disability in current Australian educational accountability testing in not occurring from a social perspective and is not in principle compliant with law. However, given the reluctance of courts to intervene in education matters and the uncertainty of an outcome in any court consideration, the discussion shows that equitable inclusion in accountability systems is available through policy change rather than expensive, and possibly unsuccessful, legal challenges.