An examination of tax-deductible donations made by individual taxpayers in Australia for 1997/98

This paper analyses the amount and type of tax-deductible donations made by Australian taxpayers to charities for the period 1 July 1997 to 30 June 1998. The information has been extracted from the Australian Taxation Office's publication Taxation Statistics 1997-98 which provides an overview and profile of the income and taxation status of Australian taxpayers using information extracted from their income tax returns for the period 1 July 1997 to 30 June 1998. This report is the latest publicly available summary. At the time of writing.

A gust-attenuation controller for fixed-wing UAVs during collision avoidance course

This paper presents a nonlinear gust-attenuation controller to stabilize velocities, attitudes and angular rates of a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in the presence of wind gusts. The proposed controller aims to achieve a steady-state flight condition such that the host UAV can avoid airspace collision with other UAVs during the cruise flight. Based on the typical UAV model capturing flight aerodynamics, a nonlinear Hinf controller is developed with rapid response property in consideration of actuator constraints. Simulations are conducted for the Shadow UAV to verify performance of the proposed controller. Comparative studies with the proportional-integral derivative (PID) controllers demonstrate that the proposed controller exhibits great performance improvement in a gusty environment, making it suitable for integration into the design of flight control systems for cruise flight with safety guarantees.

The national specificity of horror sources in Asian horror cinema

This dissertation explores the relationship between horror films and the national contexts in which they are produced by analyzing several Asian horror movies – Ringu (Japan), The Eye (Hong Kong) and Shutter (Thailand). Utilizing these films as case studies, the dissertation examines the degree to which genre cinemas are nationally-specific, and the degree to which it is possible to make genre films that can enter international markets and be comprehensible in various national markets as well. The dissertation also makes the following claims on the national specificity of genre cinema: i) The sources of frightening elements in horror films are nationally-specific. ii) There is a regional "Asian" horror because of the intertwining national histories and shared cultural elements across several Asian countries.

Simple as ABC? An examination of Activity Based Costing (ABC) Implementation in Fiji

We review the level of Activity Based Costing (ABC) in Fiji in this article. This exercise is important in furthering our understanding of the use of ABC in Fiji. ABC is a popular costing system and strategic tool for organizations in developed countries (Chenhall and Langfield-Smith 1998). However, little is known about the benefits and challenges of implementing ABC in developing countries. Such an understanding could stimulate discussion on the development or modification of ABC to suit developing country circumstances. The article also has a practical objective in informing and education organizations in Fiji regarding the benefits and challenges of ABC implementation in Fiji and also provides practical suggestions for improving and easing the implementation of ABC.

Elementary teacher education in papua new guinea: towards a culturally connected perspective of teaching

Global and national agendas for quality education have led to reforms in Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) elementary education, but criticism of the learner-centred, Western pedagogies has emerged. One key influence on quality teacher education relates to perspectives of teaching. Existing research shows teachers’ beliefs and perceptions of teaching influence their practice, however to date little research has investigated perspectives of teaching for elementary education in PNG. This single exploratory case study investigated the perspectives of teaching for eighteen elementary teacher trainers as they studied for a Bachelor of Early Childhood (Teacher Education). The study, drawing on an interpretivist paradigm, analysed journals and course planning documents using a thematic approach. The findings revealed that while the trainers’ perspectives of teaching children tended to reflect a learning-centred perspective (focused on what the teacher does), their perspectives of teaching adults were both learning-centred and learner-centred (what the learner does). Based on these findings, a culturally connected perspective of teaching is advocated for PNG elementary teacher education. This perspective enables the co-existence of both the learning-centred and learner-centred perspectives of teaching in the PNG cultural context and has implications for teacher education and the communities involved in elementary education in general.

Project alliancing and information technology in building construction : the National Museum of Australia

The construction industry demands priority from all governments because it impacts economically and socially on all citizens. A number of recent studies have identified inefficiencies in the Australian construction industry by modelling the building process. A culture of reform supported by industry and government is now emerging in the industry – one in which alternate forms of project delivery are being trialed. The Australian Building and Construction Industry Action Agenda brought together industry and government to identify actions necessary to lift Australia’s innovative and knowledge creating capacity at the sector level. A central activity under this Action Agenda was dissemination of information relating to industry best practice initiatives in innovation, project delivery and the use of information technology. Government and industry identified project alliance contracting and more advanced information technology as means to increase efficiency in construction as part of a new innovative procurement environment.

Use of hierarchical cluster analysis to assess the representativeness of a baseline groundwater quality monitoring network: comparison of New Zealand’s national and regional groundwater monitoring programs

Baseline monitoring of groundwater quality aims to characterize the ambient condition of the resource and identify spatial or temporal trends. Sites comprising any baseline monitoring network must be selected to provide a representative perspective of groundwater quality across the aquifer(s) of interest. Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) has been used as a means of assessing the representativeness of a groundwater quality monitoring network, using example datasets from New Zealand. HCA allows New Zealand's national and regional monitoring networks to be compared in terms of the number of water-quality categories identified in each network, the hydrochemistry at the centroids of these water-quality categories, the proportions of monitoring sites assigned to each water-quality category, and the range of concentrations for each analyte within each water-quality category. Through the HCA approach, the National Groundwater Monitoring Programme (117 sites) is shown to provide a highly representative perspective of groundwater quality across New Zealand, relative to the amalgamated regional monitoring networks operated by 15 different regional authorities (680 sites have sufficient data for inclusion in HCA). This methodology can be applied to evaluate the representativeness of any subset of monitoring sites taken from a larger network.

An examination of recent taxation amendments, corporate law reforms and Queensland legislative reforms affecting nonprofit organisations

There is a tax amendment bill which will be debated. The Government has promised to outline its plan for the reform of the taxation system sometime this year. The plans appear to go beyond the mere introduction of some sort of goods and services tax to reform of the whole taxation system including fiscal relations with the States. Not for profit organisations will find their taxation environment will change. Governments are reluctant to permit exemptions to a GST style arrangements. GST trade offs such as reduced income tax rates and abolishing indirect taxes are useless to nonprofit organisations, as many are already exempt from such imposts. Administrative changes to tax collections may also have an impact. If the government decides to make an individual PAYE taxpayer return optional in exchange for no or standard deductions, this may have an effect on fundraising. The FBT and salary packaging schemes that not for profit organisations use will be under intense scrutiny. A regionalisation of the ATO along the successful model of the ASC would see discrete areas such as not for profit exemptions being centralised in one regional office for the whole of Australia. For example the Tasmanian ASC Office has the responsibility for much work in respect of corporate charities and not for profit companies.