Dynamics of the policy environment and trauma in relations between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the settler-colonial state

This integrative review seeks to employ insights from critical social psychology and Indigenous nation building governance research to advance an explanation for why Australian state policy continually fails to improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and reproduces trauma. The review suggests that settler-colonial law and policy embed a history of oppressive relations that suppress Indigenous voice, culture, and identity, inexorably leading to intergenerational traumatic social and wellbeing outcomes for Indigenous peoples. Given settler-colonial policy’s ongoing role in continuing the subordination of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander law/lore, the ongoing policy failure to redress Indigenous inequality and improve their wellbeing is unsurprising. Nevertheless, our analysis contributes to understanding how just and viable relations between Australian Indigenous peoples and the settler-colonial state are possible through collaborative politics. Allowing space for agreement and disagreement in their worldviews, collaborative negotiations offer a way forward to redress policy failures and traumatic outcomes that are currently entrenched.

Combining accountability forms: transparency and “intelligent” accountability in a public service organization

PurposeThe paper's purpose is to consider the challenges, a public sector organization faces combining both transparency and “intelligent” forms of accountability (cf. Roberts, 2009).Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a case study of StatePol, a police service in an Australian state.FindingsThe data analysis revealed three themes. First, prior to 2013, transparency forms of accountability dominated, emphasizing crime statistics with the effect of reinforcing internal partitions and inhibiting collective action. Second, post-2013, a greater emphasis was placed on “intelligent” accountability with conversations around process and collective accountability at the operational level. Crime statistics were used less for operational-level accountability and more for attention-directing. Third, changing the emphasis from transparency to its combined use with “intelligent” accountability required strong leadership, clearly communicated strategy and middle-level managers with appropriate skills.Originality/valueThe authors identify a number of important factors in combining transparency and “intelligent” forms of accountability. The authors note the difficulties that fragmentation between forms of accountability and the somewhat amorphous nature of the accountability concept itself can cause. In doing so, the authors provide empirical evidence of the challenges changing from an emphasis on transparency, to combined use with an “intelligent” form of accountability.

Reviews of The New Political Economy of Disability by van Toorn & Disability and Neoliberal State Formations, by Soldatic

Two recent disability studies monographs from Routledge devoted in part to the Australian state and its policies with respect to disabled people break exciting new ground in analyzing the economic marginalization of disabled people and how to empower them. Both volumes are creative, well-researched, and thoughtful contributions to disability studies because of the questions they pose and the insightful, novel ways they encourage us to think about the questions.

Kastam: Exploring the Architectural Principles of Exchange and Resilience

<p>The Refugee Resettlement situation on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea is in dire need of a humane intervention. The Manus Island Detention Centre was officially permanently closed on the 31st of October 2017 (ABC News), leaving 600 men with three options; moving back to their countries of origin, relocating to the East Lorengau Refugee Transit Centre or moving and resettling in the United States of America on the basis that they get granted refugee status. The option of relocating to the East Lorengau Refugee Transit Centre may seem like a viable option to the Australian state but to the 600 men it's a move that would render them vulnerable and in danger. Relocating to the transit centre will only cause more overcrowding and depletion of the already scarce resources. The living conditions of the Manus Island Detention Centrefor refugees and asylum seekers was deemed harsh and inhumane. The conditions of East Lorengau Refugee Transit Centre are no different. The lack of bare essentials in these refugee camps such as a constant source of clean water, food, healthcare and accommodation has led to health and psychosocial problems amongst its inmates and if left unaddressed it will worsen further. This has resulted in the refugees becoming increasingly dependent on the Australian and Papua New Guinean states – which treats the centre as a state of exemption. This situation and their isolation from society has also contributed to disempowering the refugees who are increasingly unable to function in day to day life and experiencing difficulty integrating into the Manusian society. This thesis will address this crisis architecturally; its intention is to explore architecture as a medium that will orchestrate the development of better and empowering living opportunities for the refugees and facilitate a sense of community within the Manusian society via a holistic community model. The objective of the model is to firstly enable the refugees to become self-sufficient where they don't have to rely on the resources provided from external sources as the Papua New Guinean and Australian state. Secondly the intention is tofacilitate community integrationby creating opportunities for the refugees and the locals to interact through shared and mutually beneficial opportunities. By developing a sense of community and reliability between the locals and refugees; both parties engaging in a traditional Papua New Guinean practice of Kastam (Otto T.), based on exchange, supportiveness, respect and honour. The thesis aims to test and readdress, through an exploration of architectural principals related to exchange and resilience, the stigma and ideology of refugee resettlement―by moving away from the idea of refugees as reliant on the states that govern them, to the refugees becoming self-sufficient and thereby becoming less of a burdenand more of an asset to the host community.</p>

Kastam: Exploring the Architectural Principles of Exchange and Resilience

<p>The Refugee Resettlement situation on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea is in dire need of a humane intervention. The Manus Island Detention Centre was officially permanently closed on the 31st of October 2017 (ABC News), leaving 600 men with three options; moving back to their countries of origin, relocating to the East Lorengau Refugee Transit Centre or moving and resettling in the United States of America on the basis that they get granted refugee status. The option of relocating to the East Lorengau Refugee Transit Centre may seem like a viable option to the Australian state but to the 600 men it's a move that would render them vulnerable and in danger. Relocating to the transit centre will only cause more overcrowding and depletion of the already scarce resources. The living conditions of the Manus Island Detention Centrefor refugees and asylum seekers was deemed harsh and inhumane. The conditions of East Lorengau Refugee Transit Centre are no different. The lack of bare essentials in these refugee camps such as a constant source of clean water, food, healthcare and accommodation has led to health and psychosocial problems amongst its inmates and if left unaddressed it will worsen further. This has resulted in the refugees becoming increasingly dependent on the Australian and Papua New Guinean states – which treats the centre as a state of exemption. This situation and their isolation from society has also contributed to disempowering the refugees who are increasingly unable to function in day to day life and experiencing difficulty integrating into the Manusian society. This thesis will address this crisis architecturally; its intention is to explore architecture as a medium that will orchestrate the development of better and empowering living opportunities for the refugees and facilitate a sense of community within the Manusian society via a holistic community model. The objective of the model is to firstly enable the refugees to become self-sufficient where they don't have to rely on the resources provided from external sources as the Papua New Guinean and Australian state. Secondly the intention is tofacilitate community integrationby creating opportunities for the refugees and the locals to interact through shared and mutually beneficial opportunities. By developing a sense of community and reliability between the locals and refugees; both parties engaging in a traditional Papua New Guinean practice of Kastam (Otto T.), based on exchange, supportiveness, respect and honour. The thesis aims to test and readdress, through an exploration of architectural principals related to exchange and resilience, the stigma and ideology of refugee resettlement―by moving away from the idea of refugees as reliant on the states that govern them, to the refugees becoming self-sufficient and thereby becoming less of a burdenand more of an asset to the host community.</p>

Between-school inequalities in access to STEM curricula in a marketized education system: The case of Australia

We used descriptive statistics and a logistic regression to examine between-school inequalities in science and math curricular offerings in Year 12 (final year) in all schools in one Australian state (Victoria). Dataset contains variables about school contexts: school enrolment size, school socioeconomic composition, school sector, and school location.

Translated Transcripts From Covert Recordings Used for Evidence in Court: Issues of Reliability

Nation states increasingly apply electronic surveillance techniques to combat serious and organised crime after broadening and deepening their national security agendas. Covertly obtained recordings from telephone interception and listening devices of conversations related to suspected criminal activity in Languages Other Than English (LOTE) frequently contain jargon and/or code words. Community translators and interpreters are routinely called upon to transcribe intercepted conversations into English for evidentiary purposes. This paper examines the language capabilities of community translators and interpreters undertaking this work for law enforcement agencies in the Australian state of Victoria. Using data collected during the observation of public court trials, this paper presents a detailed analysis of Vietnamese-to-English translated transcripts submitted as evidence by the Prosecution in drug-related criminal cases. The data analysis reveals that translated transcripts presented for use as evidence in drug-related trials contain frequent and significant errors. However, these discrepancies are difficult to detect in the complex environment of a court trial without the expert skills of an independent discourse analyst fluent in both languages involved. As a result, trials tend to proceed without the reliability of the translated transcript being adequately tested.

The extent to which off-patent registered prescription medicines are used for off-label indications in Australia: A scoping review

Aim The aim of this scoping review was to determine the extent of off-patent prescription medicine use beyond registered indications in various Australian clinical settings. Method The review followed the Joanna Briggs Institute approach and reported using PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews. Online databases were used to identify published literature about off-patent registered prescription medicines used for off-label indications in Australian public hospital, community and primary healthcare settings. In addition, empirical data from the Queensland and the South Australian state-wide medicine formularies were screened for the same medication/off-label indication dyads identified in the literature, and other locally approved uses. Results Overall, fourteen studies were included, conducted in public hospitals (n = 11), palliative care units (n = 2) and the community setting (n = 1). There were 213 reports extracted from the literature describing off-patent registered prescription medicines used for off-label indications, representing 128 unique medication/off-label indication dyads and 32 different medicines. Of these, just five medication/off-label indication dyads were approved for use on both the Queensland and South Australian state-wide medicine formularies, with 12 others only approved for use in Queensland and 16 others only approved for use in South Australia. Further examination of these state-wide formularies demonstrated that the use of off-patent registered prescription medicines beyond registered indications is more extensive than has been reported to date in the literature. There were 28 additional medication/off-label indication dyads approved on the Queensland state-wide medicine formulary and 14 such examples approved for use in South Australia. Of these, just two medication/off-label indication dyads were approved for use on both formularies. Conclusion The extent to which off-patent registered prescription medicines have been repurposed in clinical settings for off-label indications in Australia is greater than previously reported in the literature. Usage and funded availability of certain medication/off-label indication dyads, varies across Australia. These results further expose the two tiered system of medicines regulation in Australia, and its impact on equity of access to medicines. Further research is required to support policy change to encourage submission of registration updates for off-patent prescription medicines.

Between-school inequalities in access to STEM curricula in a marketized education system: The case of Australia

We used descriptive statistics and a logistic regression to examine between-school inequalities in science and math curricular offerings in Year 12 (final year) in all schools in one Australian state (Victoria). Dataset contains variables about school contexts: school enrolment size, school socioeconomic composition, school sector, and school location.