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Several national level calls have encouraged reconsideration of diversity issues in medical education. Particular interest has been placed on admissions, as decisions made here shape the nature of the future physician workforce. Critical analysis of current practices paired with evidence-informed policies may counter some of the barriers impeding access for underrepresented groups. We present a framework for diversity-related program development and evaluation grounded within a knowledge translation framework, and supported by the initiation of longitudinal collection of diversity-related data. We provide an illustrative case study for each component of the framework. Descriptive analyses are presented of pre/post intervention diversity metrics if applicable and available. The framework’s focal points are: 1) data-driven identification of underrepresented groups, 2) pipeline development and targeted recruitment, 3) ensuring an inclusive process, 4) ensuring inclusive assessment, 5) ensuring inclusive selection, and 6) iterative use of diversity-related data. Case studies ranged from wording changes on admissions websites to the establishment of educational and administrative offices addressing needs of underrepresented populations. We propose that diversity-related data must be collected on a variety of markers, developed in partnership with stakeholders who are most likely to facilitate implementation of best practices and new policies. These data can facilitate the design, implementation, and evaluation of evidence-informed diversity initiatives and provide a structure for continued investigation into ‘interventions’ supporting diversity-related initiatives.

This article contextualises the rise of political spin in Australian politics and discusses its meaning and implications. It examines the largely unmediated relationship between political leaders and journalists that existed until the 1970s. It locates the foundational period in the growth of professionalised public relations in the Fraser and Hawke governments and suggests that an assertive new style of journalism played a role in its birth. It debates some of the literature on spin, and suggests that spin is a permanent fixture and that journalists need to devise creative responses to it rather than simply denounce it.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is the most powerful media organisation in the world. Murdoch's commercial success is obvious, but less well understood is his successful pursuit of political goals, using his news media. Murdoch himself is probably the most influential Australian of all time. He says the recent News of the Worldhacking scandal went ‘went against everything [he stands] for’. But how true is this? He sees himself as an anti-establishment rebel, yet his influence in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States makes him part of a global elite. He has become one of the key promoters of neo-liberal ideology of small government and deregulation over the past 30 years. The basis of his philosophy was expressed by one of his former editors, David Montgomery, who said ‘Rupert has contempt for the rules. Contempt even for governments.’ Murdoch is also a devotee of the neo-conservative wing of the US Republican Party. The possibility of exercising power through ownership of the news media has been little studied in recent years, but Murdoch's role in English-speaking countries over the last 30 years shows that perhaps we need to look again at such media theories.

The article presents the author's views on life insurance retirement plan (LIRP) which gives clients the tax-free advantages of a Roth individual retirement account (IRA). He offers information on LIRP which is an accumulation tool that has similar tax-free attributes of traditional retirement accounts and does not contribute to the income thresholds that trigger taxation. However, he notes that expenses can overwhelm the growth in the accumulation account unless LIRP is structured correctly.

The article discusses the author's view on tax-free financial planning. He notes that financial consumers must be willing to grow their assets in taxable accounts, tax-deferred accounts or tax-free accounts. The author states about growing assets inside and outside the estate. Meanwhile, he mentions about the liquidity of assets.

The author discusses the benefits that equity indexed universal life (EIUL), also known as life insurance retirement plan (LIRP), has to offer in the U.S. He cites the benefits of EIULs including death benefit passes tax-free to heirs, contributions grow tax-deferred, and distributions do not cause Social Security to be taxed. Meanwhile, the author mentions that many financial advisors are recommending an EIUL due to the threat of higher tax rates and increased market volatility.

Historians have rethought some of the prevailing assumptions employed in writing about the Cold War in Australia. Until recently, the history of the Cold War in Australia was often written with too little detachment and skepticism toward the Left, and with a failure of scholarly empathy toward the claims of the anti-Communist Right. The opening of new archival and intelligence sources (such as the ‘Venona’ papers) is one reason for the shift in the field. Another is a reassessment of the link between the USSR and the Communist Party of Australia (CPA), that leads to questions about the CPA’s dogmatic pro-Soviet stance, and to what degree this was partly responsible for its defeats, rather than simply victimisation. New archival sources establish that some clandestine political activity was undertaken, including espionage and that Soviet funds were given to the CPA over a long period. Not every historian, however, has embraced this new evidence. The present article critiques recent contributions by Cain and Hocking, suggesting that discussion of political fundamentalism on the Left and the security response to it is vital if Cold War history is to be understood and made relevant to discussions of contemporary terrorism.

During the Cold War in Australia, the political agenda was dominated by the threat of communism. One factor in building this agenda was the ‘counter-propaganda operations’ of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) which regularly released unattributable information to selected mass media outlets. In the period when these activities were most prevalent (1960–72), ASIO officers had regular contact with editors and with selected journalists on major newspapers and television. This formed part of a broader ‘cultural Cold War’ in which anti-communism was an organising principle. This article outlines new information on these activities, suggests that these operations were more extensive than previously thought, and discusses this relationship in terms of the scholarly work on media sources, government-sponsored intervention in the media and classical theories of propaganda. It suggests that one way to understand the controversial media role in counter-propaganda operations lies in the relationship between police and crime reporters.

This article examines whether, and in what way, anti-communism was a factor in the slow development of an Australian film industry in the 1950s and early 1960s and in the kind of film culture developed in Australia, particularly through film festivals. In particular it examines the activities of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) towards left and liberal filmmakers and film lovers. It briefly examines the effect of anti-communism on the struggle for Australian content by Actors' Equity in the early years of television.

This article discusses journalism as a form of ‘vernacular literature’ and explores two traditions of reporting: the objective and the interpretive. In the first, emphasis is placed on the fact; in the second, on the story. In these terms, the article examines the transformation of the reporting style of the Sydney Morning Heraldfrom objective reporting to interpretive reporting in the early 1980s. It examines the Herald's journalism from the 1950s to the 1970s as an exemplar of the objective style. It also comments on the linkage between these styles and differing rationales about the purpose of journalism in terms of market values and non-market values.

The publication of decoded KGB cables between Australia and Moscow has settled several major controversies. First, that a small group of communists in the public service gave secret documents to a local KGB resident; second, that the testimony of two Soviet intelligence defectors, Vladimir and Evdokia Petrov, was largely accurate; third, that the highly-political 1954 Royal Commission into Espionage was not a baseless frame-up, as the Labor opposition leader, Dr Evatt, charged. The nature of the so-called spy ring, however, was exaggerated, since it was largely an amateur group set up for domestic not espionage purposes. The authenticity and value to historians of the Venona cables released by the Natiional Security Agency is discussed.

For many years, Australia's internal securtity agency, ASIO, ran security checks on potential and actual ABC staff and monitored ABC radio and TV broadcasts, noting examples of left-wing influence. This was done with the cooperation of ABC senior management and the encouragement of the conservative federal government. These facts, long suspected, are now confirmed by the use of recently released archives which give specific instances of security surveillance and vetting.

The article focuses on the strategies being adopted by financial advisors to help protect clients from the impact of higher taxes, such as the tax-free paradigms that put clients in the zero percent tax bracket. It states that the tax-free paradigm proposes the removal of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from the retirement equation. The author explores the strategies of various financial advisors such as Dave Ramsey and Ed Slott.

The article discusses the implications of careful positioning of the assets during accumulation to help protect client from rising taxes. It highlights the need to understand the merit of the 0% tax bracket. It indicates that defining the three basic types of investment buckets which are taxable, tax-deferred, and tax-free will help client appreciate the benefits of the 0% tax bracket.

‘Social Protest Movements and the Labour Movement, 1965-75’ organised by the Sydney Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History on 22-23 September, 2001. Held at Women’s College, University of Sydney, it featured some 40 speakers and attracted over 130 participants.