Description:
Purpose – To explore the failure of equal opportunity policies to counteract the barrier of children for women in management by considering male and female managers’ views on work culture, family division of labour and childlessness. Design/methodology/approach – Thirty Australian managers (19 male, 11 female) were interviewed as a follow up to a larger study in 1996, in order to extend inquiries around the issues of children, childlessness and senior management aspirations. Findings – Managers acknowledge the impediment that children are to a woman’s career path. They also have an awareness of patterns of delayed childbearing and potential childlessness. This awareness is confirmed through first hand experience in the families and at work. Managers also use a language of sacrifice and loss regarding their own or others’ failure to partner and procreate, as well as some reference to freedom and lifestyle. Furthermore there are diverging discourses on company loyalty and company greed given in relation to competing family loyalties and obligations. Finally, acknowledgement of gendered inequality (and some blindness to it) is indicated by both male and female managers. Research limitations/implications – Although based on a small sample from one country, the findings do imply that it is unwise to assume that women committed to a career do not want children. The option of having both is not made easy. Practical implications – Family policy for senior management should continue to be considered. Originality/value – Recognition of the complexity and diversity of attitudes to children, family and work contributes to a critique of overdrawn notions of types of women (Hakim, 2001).
Description:
As late as 1961, nearly seven thousand children were in the custody of Victorian institutions or under the care of the Children's Welfare Department. Many of them were institutionalised simply because they had been born out of welock; more than half were admitted because of so-called 'neglect'. This is what happened to Frank Golding and his two brothers. On Christmas Eve 1940, the boys - Frank (not yet three), Bob (four), and Bill (six) - found themselves on the doorstep of an orphan asylum. They were certainly not orphans, but the boys spent most of their lost childhood inside the walls of the Ballarat Orphanage. 'An Orphan's Escape' is not just about surviving in the emotional wasteland of state care. It would take Frank fifty years to learn what had been happening 'outside the wall' while he was inside. Where were his parents? Why didn't they come for him? Why wouldn't anyone tell him? Frank's childhood puzzlement lasted half a lifetime. Theirs was by no means the only appalling story of the time. Hundreds of similar stories were told to the Federal Senate Committee's 2004 Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care. His parents rescued him at last, but the battle for their children had been at a huge cost. Files from the welfare department, the army and the police opened up a dark pit that his parents had kept hidden. Although his parents had been irresponsible in the early stages of this saga, 'An Orphan's Escape' reveals that evidence Frank discovered in the files showed they care deeply about their children.
Description:
As late as 1961, nearly seven thousand children were in the custody of Victorian institutions or under the care of the Children's Welfare Department. Many of them were institutionalised simply because they had been born out of welock; more than half were admitted because of so-called 'neglect'. This is what happened to Frank Golding and his two brothers. On Christmas Eve 1940, the boys - Frank (not yet three), Bob (four), and Bill (six) - found themselves on the doorstep of an orphan asylum. They were certainly not orphans, but the boys spent most of their lost childhood inside the walls of the Ballarat Orphanage. 'An Orphan's Escape' is not just about surviving in the emotional wasteland of state care. It would take Frank fifty years to learn what had been happening 'outside the wall' while he was inside. Where were his parents? Why didn't they come for him? Why wouldn't anyone tell him? Frank's childhood puzzlement lasted half a lifetime. Theirs was by no means the only appalling story of the time. Hundreds of similar stories were told to the Federal Senate Committee's 2004 Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care. His parents rescued him at last, but the battle for their children had been at a huge cost. Files from the wefare department, the army and the police opened up a dark pit that his parents had kept hidden. Although his parents had been irresponsible in the early stages of this saga, 'An Orphan's Escape' reveals that evidence Frank discovered in the files showed they care deeply about their children.
Description:
Arid vegetation is subjected to more or less frequent fire, drought, and sporadic flooding events and grazing. Whilst fire, drought and grazing have been the subject of considerable research, little is known of the impact of flooding in arid environments. In this study we examined opportunistically the effects of a flooding event, and its interaction with fire and grazing on moulding arid vegetation in New South Wales, Australia. We assessed vegetation approximately 2 and 5 years after recession of the water in fenced and unfenced plots subjected to different combinations of flooding and fire. Number of species per area dropped from 11.8 to 5.7 per 625 m(2). Vegetation in plots left open to grazing by vertebrates differed from fenced plots, but the amount of variation explained was small compared with flooding and the change over time. The taxa mostly associated with flooding were Eragrostis spp., Pseudognaphalium luteoalbum and the exotic Nicotiana glauca. Major flooding events not only trigger native species' germination and recruitment but may also create an avenue for exotic species to invade. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Description:
Arid vegetation is subjected to more or less frequent fire, drought, and sporadic flooding events and grazing. Whilst fire, drought and grazing have been the subject of considerable research, little is known of the impact of flooding in arid environments. In this study we examined opportunistically the effects of a flooding event, and its interaction with fire and grazing on moulding arid vegetation in New South Wales, Australia. We assessed vegetation approximately 2 and 5 years after recession of the water in fenced and unfenced plots subjected to different combinations of flooding and fire. Number of species per area dropped from 11.8 to 5.7 per 625 m(2). Vegetation in plots left open to grazing by vertebrates differed from fenced plots, but the amount of variation explained was small compared with flooding and the change over time. The taxa mostly associated with flooding were Eragrostis spp., Pseudognaphalium luteoalbum and the exotic Nicotiana glauca. Major flooding events not only trigger native species' germination and recruitment but may also create an avenue for exotic species to invade. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Description:
Over the last three decades the way in which public policy analysts learn about the structure and function of Australia’s small towns has shifted from the intensive, in-depth analysis provided by the anthropologist living in the community (called “community studies”) to a more empirically oriented, demographic-based research carried out at a distance from these places (called “sustainability studies”). Rather than just understanding the functioning of small towns through case studies, recent research emphasis has centred on the more “aggregative” question of small town sustainability in all it forms. This alters the way in which small towns are viewed and complicates the current policy approaches to small town development and change. This paper identifies the two different methodologies implied by these divergent approaches and examines what this means to understanding of small towns and the policy implications that emerge. By reviewing the community studies approach to learning about small towns popular in the 1960s and 1970s, and contrasting this approach with recent, more aggregative approaches to learning about the sustainability of towns; this paper aims to find points of alignment and suggest a broader research framework that incorporates both approaches. This provides a comprehensive understanding of small towns, leading to a more effective development of public policies for these communities.
Description:
Over the last three decades the way in which public policy analysts learn about the structure and function of Australia’s small towns has shifted from the intensive, in-depth analysis provided by the anthropologist living in the community (called “community studies”) to a more empirically oriented, demographic-based research carried out at a distance from these places (called “sustainability studies”). Rather than just understanding the functioning of small towns through case studies, recent research emphasis has centred on the more “aggregative” question of small town sustainability in all it forms. This alters the way in which small towns are viewed and complicates the current policy approaches to small town development and change. This paper identifies the two different methodologies implied by these divergent approaches and examines what this means to understanding of small towns and the policy implications that emerge. By reviewing the community studies approach to learning about small towns popular in the 1960s and 1970s, and contrasting this approach with recent, more aggregative approaches to learning about the sustainability of towns; this paper aims to find points of alignment and suggest a broader research framework that incorporates both approaches. This provides a comprehensive understanding of small towns, leading to a more effective development of public policies for these communities.
Description:
This paper interrogates recurring discourses in Australia’s public domain with regards to the issue of refugees and Australianness, and how they have been used to ratify notions of inclusion and exclusion with regards to what being Australian - or indeed being un-Australian - does and should mean. The unpacking of these primary discursive positions will be based on an analysis of the letters to the editor published in both The Australian (Australia’s national newspaper) and The West Australian, covering one key period from 22 January to 28 February 2002 (a period encompassing the Woomera hunger strike).
Description:
This paper interrogates recurring discourses in Australia’s public domain with regards to the issue of refugees and Australianness, and how they have been used to ratify notions of inclusion and exclusion with regards to what being Australian - or indeed being un-Australian - does and should mean. The unpacking of these primary discursive positions will be based on an analysis of the letters to the editor published in both The Australian (Australia’s national newspaper) and The West Australian, covering one key period from 22 January to 28 February 2002 (a period encompassing the Woomera hunger strike).
Description:
"This study is an investigation of progress in Australia over the 20th century. Progress is defined here as the enhancement of human wellbeing. For the purposes of this study, human wellbeing will be characterised by five main components: knowledge, environment, economy, individual and social. Enhancement refers to positive directional change in terms of these components. The study firstly develops a framework to conceptualise progress. It then collects and uses statistical data in a descriptive study of what happened in Australia, over those 100 years, in terms of progress in general and in terms of its components. The study also develops a typology of relationships for models of progress, which best explain the Australian data. This study finally explores some of the relationships between the elements that make up the components of progress and looks at ways to best explain what has happened..." --p.1.
Description:
"This study is an investigation of progress in Australia over the 20th century. Progress is defined here as the enhancement of human wellbeing. For the purposes of this study, human wellbeing will be characterised by five main components: knowledge, environment, economy, individual and social. Enhancement refers to positive directional change in terms of these components. The study firstly develops a framework to conceptualise progress. It then collects and uses statistical data in a descriptive study of what happened in Australia, over those 100 years, in terms of progress in general and in terms of its components. The study also develops a typology of relationships for models of progress, which best explain the Australian data. This study finally explores some of the relationships between the elements that make up the components of progress and looks at ways to best explain what has happened..." --p.1.
Description:
Nationally there are more than 50 member centres and sub-centres of Lifeline Australia’s telephone counselling and referral service, providing an equitable, free, anonymous, and highly accessible primary health resource. The accessibility of this service may mean that it has a particularly important role to play in contributing to the health and well-being of rural and remote Australians. The trained volunteer counsellors of the service receive more than 400 000 calls annually. Information on many of these calls is recorded by telephone counsellors in Lifeline’s Client Service Management Information System (CSMIS). The purpose of this study was to establish if a relationship between the Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA) and calls to Lifeline Australia could be found. Population standardised areal call rates to Lifeline Ballarat were compiled using Telstra exchange service area to test the hypothesis that a positive relationship between the call rates to the service and the ARIA would be found. 90 128 CSMIS cases from 2003 were examined to explore if any linear relationship between caller characteristics and a centre’s ARIA score were apparent. A number of significant associations with the ARIA scores and CSMIS call variables were observed. However, the hypothesis that a positive relationship between call rates to the service and the ARIA would be found was not supported. An important implication of this exploratory study is that Lifeline’s telephone counselling and referral service may need to be promoted more widely to rural clients and health care providers.
Description:
Nationally there are more than 50 member centres and sub-centres of Lifeline Australia’s telephone counselling and referral service, providing an equitable, free, anonymous, and highly accessible primary health resource. The accessibility of this service may mean that it has a particularly important role to play in contributing to the health and well-being of rural and remote Australians. The trained volunteer counsellors of the service receive more than 400 000 calls annually. Information on many of these calls is recorded by telephone counsellors in Lifeline’s Client Service Management Information System (CSMIS). The purpose of this study was to establish if a relationship between the Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA) and calls to Lifeline Australia could be found. Population standardised areal call rates to Lifeline Ballarat were compiled using Telstra exchange service area to test the hypothesis that a positive relationship between the call rates to the service and the ARIA would be found. 90 128 CSMIS cases from 2003 were examined to explore if any linear relationship between caller characteristics and a centre’s ARIA score were apparent. A number of significant associations with the ARIA scores and CSMIS call variables were observed. However, the hypothesis that a positive relationship between call rates to the service and the ARIA would be found was not supported. An important implication of this exploratory study is that Lifeline’s telephone counselling and referral service may need to be promoted more widely to rural clients and health care providers.
Description:
In an educational climate sharply focused on school improvement, a large Australian multi-campus secondary college has developed a formal and ongoing partnership with the School of Education at their regional university. This paper examines one of the initiatives they developed together; an approach aptly called Collaborative Learning Partnerships that aims to enable teachers to learn more deeply in the context of their work through critical reflection, self-analysis, collaborative planning processes, substantive conversation and the testing of new ideas and approaches. The initial concept was inspired by the growing body of research that indicates that teachers make the fundamental difference to students' learning. If teacher learning became a real priority in the college it was felt that students'; learning would subsequently be enhanced. How then could the classroom, the space where teachers spend most of their working time, be used as a context in which teachers too could learn deeply about their role and the complexity of their work? This paper points to the influence of complex social processes that are at play when teachers work together in this way and to the understandings about learning itself that are surfaced through such processes.
Description:
In an educational climate sharply focused on school improvement, a large Australian multi-campus secondary college has developed a formal and ongoing partnership with the School of Education at their regional university. This paper examines one of the initiatives they developed together; an approach aptly called Collaborative Learning Partnerships that aims to enable teachers to learn more deeply in the context of their work through critical reflection, self-analysis, collaborative planning processes, substantive conversation and the testing of new ideas and approaches. The initial concept was inspired by the growing body of research that indicates that teachers make the fundamental difference to students' learning. If teacher learning became a real priority in the college it was felt that students'; learning would subsequently be enhanced. How then could the classroom, the space where teachers spend most of their working time, be used as a context in which teachers too could learn deeply about their role and the complexity of their work? This paper points to the influence of complex social processes that are at play when teachers work together in this way and to the understandings about learning itself that are surfaced through such processes.
Description:
This study investigated the role of psychological variables in help-seeking behaviour and attitudes in a rural population, with particular emphasis as to whether differences existed between farmers and non-farming rural residents. These groups were contrasted, as research suggests that farmers appear to be a sub-group of the Australian population at increased risk of chronic health problems and suicide, even in comparison to other rural residents.
Description:
This paper discusses the value of clan name research as a means of uncovering Aboriginal place names. It argues that clan names are able to provide a layer of place names that in some instances is the only source of information available to researchers of indigenous toponymy. They are an important data set that is useful in the mapping of Aboriginal spatial organization.
Description:
This paper discusses the value of clan name research as a means of uncovering Aboriginal place names. It argues that clan names are able to provide a layer of place names that in some instances is the only source of information available to researchers of indigenous toponymy. They are an important data set that is useful in the mapping of Aboriginal spatial organization.
Description:
This article is based on recent Ph.D research. The practices for appointing Vice Chancellors (VC’s) in Australian Universities were examined, together with the changing role of the VC and new demographic patterns in VC backgrounds. A number of other issues were also examined, including the training and preparation of VC’s, mentoring and the changing skill base required to be effective in the role. In addition, the paradox was investigated of appointing academics from the ranks of individuals with non-business backgrounds, to run large enterprises which are being compelled to adopt an increasingly business-oriented focus.
Description:
This article is based on recent Ph.D research. The practices for appointing Vice Chancellors (VC’s) in Australian Universities were examined, together with the changing role of the VC and new demographic patterns in VC backgrounds. A number of other issues were also examined, including the training and preparation of VC’s, mentoring and the changing skill base required to be effective in the role. In addition, the paradox was investigated of appointing academics from the ranks of individuals with non-business backgrounds, to run large enterprises which are being compelled to adopt an increasingly business-oriented focus.
Description:
An innovative program in rural Victoria matches young homeless women with older homeless women and provides them with a range of support services.The result is more stability in the accommodation setting, mutual benefit and satisfaction for clients, and impressive rates of permanent housing outcomes.
Description:
An innovative program in rural Victoria matches young homeless women with older homeless women and provides them with a range of support services.The result is more stability in the accommodation setting, mutual benefit and satisfaction for clients, and impressive rates of permanent housing outcomes.
Description:
This research investigated the feasibility and capability of neural network-based approaches for predicting the direction of the Australian Stock market index (the target market). It includes several aspects: univariate feature selection from the historical time series of the target market, inter-market analysis for finding the most relevant influential markets, investigations of the effect of time cycles on the target market and the discovery of the optimal neural network architectures. Previous research on US stock markets and other international markets have shown that the neural network approach is one of most powerful techniques for predicting stock market behaviour. Neural networks are capable of capturing the non-linear stochastic and chaotic patterns in the stock market time series data. This study discovered that the relative return series of the Open, High, Low and Close prices of the target market, show 6-day cycles during the studied period of about 14 years. Multi-layer feedforward neural networks trained with a backpropagation algorithm were used for the experiments. Two major testing methods: testing with randomly selected test data and forward testing, were examined and compared. The best neural network developed in this study has achieved 87%, 81% 83% and 81% accuracy respectively in predicting the next-day direction of the relative return of the Open, High, Low and Close prices of the target market. The architecture of this network consists of 33 input features, one hidden layer with 3 neurons and 4 output neurons. The best input features set includes the relative returns from 1 to 6 days in the past of the Open, High, Low and Close prices of the target market, the day of the week, and the previous day’s relative return of the Close prices of the US S&P 500 Index, US Dow Jones Industrial Average Index, US Gold/Silver Index, and the US Oil Index.
Description:
Master of Information Technology by Research
Description:
This research investigated the feasibility and capability of neural network-based approaches for predicting the direction of the Australian Stock market index (the target market). It includes several aspects: univariate feature selection from the historical time series of the target market, inter-market analysis for finding the most relevant influential markets, investigations of the effect of time cycles on the target market and the discovery of the optimal neural network architectures. Previous research on US stock markets and other international markets have shown that the neural network approach is one of most powerful techniques for predicting stock market behaviour. Neural networks are capable of capturing the non-linear stochastic and chaotic patterns in the stock market time series data. This study discovered that the relative return series of the Open, High, Low and Close prices of the target market, show 6-day cycles during the studied period of about 14 years. Multi-layer feedforward neural networks trained with a backpropagation algorithm were used for the experiments. Two major testing methods: testing with randomly selected test data and forward testing, were examined and compared. The best neural network developed in this study has achieved 87%, 81% 83% and 81% accuracy respectively in predicting the next-day direction of the relative return of the Open, High, Low and Close prices of the target market. The architecture of this network consists of 33 input features, one hidden layer with 3 neurons and 4 output neurons. The best input features set includes the relative returns from 1 to 6 days in the past of the Open, High, Low and Close prices of the target market, the day of the week, and the previous day’s relative return of the Close prices of the US S&P 500 Index, US Dow Jones Industrial Average Index, US Gold/Silver Index, and the US Oil Index.
Description:
Master of Information Technology by Research
Description:
This paper explores the circumstances and implications of an episode of accounting change arising from the extended use of accrual accounting within the Australian public sector. The matter under scrutiny is the financial reporting of the library collections of Australia's public universities. Accounting standards applying within the Australian public sector imply that such collections should generally be accounted for as assets in the statements of financial position of the entities that manage them. A survey reveals considerable diversity and subjectivity in the accounting practices adopted in seeking to satisfy this requirement. This raises questions about the reliability and usefulness of the information reported, and renders problematic the technical propriety of attempting to express and account for non-financial resources in financial terms. The financial reporting of library collections is posited as a 'chaotic margin' of accounting and consideration is given to possible explanations for the disorderly state of practice observed.
Description:
This paper explores the circumstances and implications of an episode of accounting change arising from the extended use of accrual accounting within the Australian public sector. The matter under scrutiny is the financial reporting of the library collections of Australia's public universities. Accounting standards applying within the Australian public sector imply that such collections should generally be accounted for as assets in the statements of financial position of the entities that manage them. A survey reveals considerable diversity and subjectivity in the accounting practices adopted in seeking to satisfy this requirement. This raises questions about the reliability and usefulness of the information reported, and renders problematic the technical propriety of attempting to express and account for non-financial resources in financial terms. The financial reporting of library collections is posited as a 'chaotic margin' of accounting and consideration is given to possible explanations for the disorderly state of practice observed.