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The political potency of national history has been understood for generations. Yet there has been an unquestionable surge in history's political influence over the last twenty or thirty years, as the various history wars that have broken out around the world attest. Australia has been no exception: disputes over its national story continue to generate considerable controversy in the media, in politics and in public debate. But how has this politicisation of the past affected Australian political history in the present? This paper examines how history is practised in contemporary Australian politics — and notices an increasingly strategic use of the past by politicians in recent years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Coalition's clear victory over Labor at the 2004 federal election after prominent campaigning by conservative church-based groups - along with the election to the Senate of a member of the Family First party - seemed to many commentators to confirm the growing power of a 'Religious Right' in Australia. This paper argues that two features of the 2007 federal election campaign are impossible to square with the rise of the Religious Right thesis. First, Labor won in 2007 without shifting its leadership, policies or electoral strategy to suit the Christian Right. Second, the contributions of church groups to the 2007 election campaign were not dominated by a single perspective but covered a wide range of issues and expressed competing views on key policy issues. This pluralism allowed Kevin Rudd, the Labor Party and even the Greens room to present themselves favourably to significant groups of Christian voters. The 2007 election suggests that, rather than being dominated by a hegemonic Christian Right, church involvement in Australian electoral politics is pluralistic in character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to this special issue is presented which focuses on aspects of the 2007 Australian national elections. The author discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Ian Ward on the political campaigns in Queensland, one by Dean Jaensch on how the election results of South Australia helped shape the national government, and one by James Jupp on the voting patterns of Chinese Australians.

In 1999 the Australian government dropped its objections to the Italian legislation that contemplated postal voting and parliamentary representation for its Italian citizens resident abroad. This was a significant turning point for the Australian government approach on the question of voting rights for expatriate communities in Australia voting in their homeland elections. Based on undisclosed government sources and interviews with former Australian diplomatic and government officials, this paper will recall and examine the Australian government's reaction to the Italian political debates leading up to, and eventual passage of, the Italian expatriate vote legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Home and Community Care (HACC) is a funding programme of the Commonwealth and State governments of Australia which supports the vast majority of community care services. Gaining access to basic community care services is via an assessment process undertaken by workers in roles that may be comprised partially or solely of assessment and care planning tasks. Arguably, the role of assessor in the HACC programme has become increasingly professionalised in recent years, and the complexity and demands of the role have increased. However, to date, little information has been available about the composition of this workforce, making initiatives to improve practice difficult to plan and implement. This paper reports findings of research from Victoria in which interviews were conducted with a range of key informants, and staff employed in client assessment roles. Results indicate considerable diversity on issues such as: the professional backgrounds of HACC assessment staff; the education, training and support they receive; how they learn their role; and what they draw upon to assist decision-making. A significant theme to emerge is that the nature of their practice derives substantially from the local contexts in which they work. In the absence of a single profession or narrative that guides their practice, they draw from a diverse range of knowledge sources. The significance of the workplace as a site of professional learning, which may provide the basis for the development of a new qualification for this workforce, is highlighted, as is the need for a professional body for this group of workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently politicians in Australia have raised concerns that some Muslims are not adopting Australian values to a sufficient extent. In this paper I explore the notion of Australian values with respect to immigrant youth. By analysing interviews with 32 Muslim students who are 15-18 years of age and of diverse backgrounds in two state schools in Sydney, I focus on the extent to which these young people seem to be adopting Australian values. I discuss the factors that hinder the adoption of Australian values, and whether such hindrance can lead to a possible jihadi threat. This paper relies on oral testimonies and secondary sources, including international literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the professional middle class in information industries, “working from home” is an increasingly common feature of the employment landscape, resulting from the affordability and portability of information and communication technologies (ICTs). The phrase invokes a sense of freedom from the banality of the traditional office, offering flexibility in both working hours and location when other commitments prevail. In recent debates in Australian politics, working from home is also offered as an empowered choice for women who seek to combine paid work and childcare duties, thereby consecrating a preferable version of (post)feminist subjectivity suited to neoliberal economics and ideologies. This paper shows how these subjectivities have been represented in recent ICT advertising for two purposes: firstly, to highlight the role of mainstream media in normalising preferred uses of new media technology for work purposes; and secondly, to note how this process contributes to wider discourses limiting the aspirations of middle-class feminist politics to an individual level. In doing so, the paper seeks to question the ethical horizon of new media advertising as well as the feminist and labour politics upon which its appeal relies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst there has been a proliferation of research on the role of nationalism in the exclusion of asylum seekers, less attention has been paid to how nationalism can be mobilised in accounts opposing, rather than supporting, harsh anti-asylum seeker regimes. This paper compares the ways in which ‘Australia’ is constructed and used in parliamentary speeches on asylum seekers by both refugee advocates and those seeking harsher asylum seeker laws in Australia. This dual focus is particularly important as it highlights the flexibility of nationalist discourse, in that the same constructions of the nation may be used for both exclusive and inclusive purposes. Whilst typologies of inclusive and exclusive nationalisms, such as Smith's (1991) ethnic/civic typology, focus on the content of nationalist ideologies, we argue that the inclusivity or exclusivity of nationalism can best be determined by examining the subject positions, political solutions and social realities they make possible, and who these discourses benefit and oppress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the operation of a network governance experiment that accompanied political and policy responses to an economic shock in an Australian provincial city. The economic shock was precipitated by the closure of a steelworks operation, wiping out a significant base of employment in the city. Challenges to the operation of network governance raised in the study relate to: asymmetries of information, capabilities, resources and power; political agendas by higher-tier governments; the diverse calls of interests and, not least, the tensions and indeterminacies of a liberal, market-oriented variety of capitalism. Implications for the development of network governance approaches are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, the topic of rural governance has generated considerable interest as regional Australia seeks to find innovative ways to remain sustainable, and rural communities seek to mobilise their energies to adapt to an aging population and increasing global competition. However, despite this apparent interest in new forms of governance and innovation, old forms of participation continue (Pini, 200Sa). Gender relationships in regional communities remain traditional, and gendered communication and participation patterns remain disappointingly stable. This paper takes up the issue of gender and governance in rural areas by reporting on a new governing organisation in a local government area in a small rural township in Australia. The paper draws a link between gender and entrepreneurial activity (a significant quality claimed as characteristic of these governance bodies), and offers a case study, involving interviews, participant observation, and document analysis to examine how the discourses of governance, rurality, gender, and entrepreneurship play across each other to constitute the identities of rural communities. The paper concludes that, while there may be a lot that is 'new' in the governance of regional Australia, these forms of governance are gendered, just as the traditional state has always been, in a way that excludes women and feminine subjectivities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Academy of Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) and the Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA) hosted a ‘Policy Roundtable on Federalism’ on the 17–18 May 2007 at the University of Canberra. Around 50 attended the roundtable comprising politicians, Commonwealth and state public servants, and academics. The roundtable was provided with a number of background papers including the Hollander-Patapan article and another produced by staff of the Commonwealth Grants Commission entitled ‘Trends in Commonwealth-State Financial Relations: a Grants Commission Perspective’. The roundtable focused not only on issues and challenges but, more practically, on options and how to make federalism work better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses how understandings of culture and place are deployed in governing colonial Aboriginal1 subjects in contemporary Australia. Recently, Australia's conservative Federal Government has sought to reorientate Aboriginal affairs away from debates about rights and inheritances, to the 'responsibilities' that communities must accept in order to be provided with infrastructure and services from government. Discourses of mutual obligation and responsibility target Aboriginal populations and are linked to claims that Aboriginal communities themselves have requested more overt and tailored interventions from central governments. The new 'Shared Responsibility Agreements' (SRAs) signal the formalisation of these shifts and oblige Aboriginal communities to conform to a series of specified disciplinary practices (such as improving personal hygiene, maintaining clean households, and preventing school truancy) in order to receive access to health care and other basic social services and supplies. We analyse how a hierarchy of 'culture' is articulated in SRAs, and highlight the particular complexity of governing remote colonial subjects and spaces at a distance. Although SRAs appear to indicate a novel policy direction, our analysis reveals how they mobilise longstanding colonial discourses of Aboriginal people and communities as welfare dependent and ungovernable, and reinstate donor/recipient relationships characteristic of earlier colonial rationalities and citizenship practices. Our case study demonstrates how governing practices are constantly reconstituted through knowledges of the governed, and through techniques that hybridise early illiberal practices with new neoliberal discourses. We argue that the act of governing remains thoroughly mediated by the inheritance of colonial visions of place and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of neoliberalism in shaping Australian federal regional development policy over the past three decades. As in other parts of the world, since the 1980s Australian federal governments have tended to favour the role of market forces, as opposed to direct intervention in regional development. By the 1990s, however, the negative social and economic impacts of neoliberal approaches, together with a widespread electoral backlash, contributed to an adjustment in the direction of regional development policy. We argue that this transition is reflective of a wider shift in neoliberal politics, whereby limited government intervention and institution building are increasingly seen as appropriate policy responses. While in part this is linked to the shortcomings of previous policy approaches, it is also apparent that political opportunism is an important element of this shift. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ATSIC has been portrayed by the Coalition government as an organisation that is not financially accountable and, because of this, is not achieving positive service delivery outcomes for Aboriginal people. Drawing on documentary material and fieldwork data, this article argues that ATSIC is indeed accountable and that the Coalition is putting the accountability argument forward as a means of justifying the dismantling of ATSIC. Given the past and recent actions taken by the Coalition, it is unclear how much longer ATSIC will be able to survive in its current form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small specialist higher education institutions often face challenges when negotiating with larger partners. In 1988, John Dawkins, Australia's federal Minister for Education, introduced sweeping reforms to create a Unified National System of higher education. Dawkins' criteria for funding necessitated mergers for many smaller providers. The Victorian College of Pharmacy in Melbourne, Victoria, presents a case study of how one institution negotiated this policy and asserted its interests to achieve an optimal outcome. It rejected amalgamation with the University of Melbourne, reaching a superior arrangement with Monash University despite state and federal opposition. This article combines archival research from Melbourne and Monash Universities and the state government with interviews of key players. It examines the importance of institutional identity and how small institutions can navigate government policies of consolidation. It also focuses on the deleterious effects of inflexible government policy and how the College successfully overcame these challenges to complete its desired merger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been an international trend in recent years towards voters casting an early ballot. In the 2016 Australian federal election almost one in three votes were cast in this way, most of them in person using pre-polling centres. This trend towards early voting raises both normative and practical questions about the purpose of election campaigns and how they are conducted, as well as what party advantage may be gained from the process. This paper applies multivariate analysis to the 2016 Australian Election Study to test four hypotheses related to early voting. The results show that early voters have less trust in politics and are less likely to participate in the election. There are small but consistent electoral advantages to be gained from early voters for the Liberal-National Coalition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although classic voting studies noted that voters may reach their voting decision on the basis of different criteria most contemporary voting studies assume that one voting model fits all. Building on the limited, but developing literature on the topic, this paper develops and tests models incorporating voter decision criteria heterogeneity. Paying particular attention to the role of voter sophistication, we investigate which voters mainly decide on the basis of ideology, position and valence issues, or party leaders, and how these differences influence their party choices. Analyses using mixed logit and a specially-designed survey instrument embedded in a high-quality, nationally representative survey of Danish voters show that decision criteria heterogeneity has substantial influence on the vote. The conclusion discusses the normative implications, in particular the question of whether voters’ reliance on party leaders constitutes a democratic problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the higher education policies that have been implemented under the administration of John Dawkins, Minister for Employment, Education and Training in Australia. It discusses the major policy changes which connotes a positive and negative impact faced by several universities across the country in the 1990s. It analyzes the implications of the said changes to the aspect of the country's future education. According to the author, the educational reform allows to provide proper allocation of resources such as funds and grants in different fields and disciplines which upgrade the higher education system of the country.

The inheritance and continuity of party identification is usually traced to the predominant influence of parental political socialization. This paper applies multivanate analysis to Australian and British data to examine (1) the relative importance of parents' partisanship and social milieu on the respondent's own partisanship and (2) the influence of parents' partisanship on the preferences of the respondent in later life. The analysis shows that, in both countries, the social milieu of the family has little or no effect on the preferences of the children and it is the partisanship of the parents that is the dominant factor. In addition, we show that the influence of parents' partisanship is limited to early adulthood and to the first partisanship of the child; it has little or no direct influence on the respondent's subsequent electoral behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies examining opposition transition to government processes and planning usually emphasise the responsibility of oppositions as a legislative institution and the role of party leaders. However, such approaches place too much emphasis on notions of responsible opposition and party leaders. They de-emphasise the importance of partisan considerations that shape transition planning or how party organisations have attempted to assert control over parliamentary parties. Drawing on archival materials, policy documents, and elite interviews, this study examines both public and internal transition to government strategies undertaken by the Liberal Party of Australia during their opposition years (1983-1996). The paper finds that while party leaders became more important over time, the party organisation's involvement remained significant. The Liberal Party transition planning focused primarily on cabinet processes, Australian Public Service (APS) organisation, particularly the senior bureaucratic level, and selecting political staff. In so doing, the Liberal Party anticipated many of the Hawke government's 1987 reforms to the APS. The Liberal Party was motivated by its desire to restructure the machinery and culture of government and to allocate sufficient political staff resources to government. Its aim was to better equip the party to achieve its political and ideological goals when next in government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Andrew Podger wrote an article in the June 2007 AJPA entitled ‘What Really Happens: Department Secretary Appointments, Contracts and Performance Pay in the Australian Public Service’. Dr Peter Shergold replied to his criticisms in the September issue of AJPA. This short response from Podger is the final rejoinder. In a second paper following this rejoinder the present Australian Public Service Commissioner comments on public service independence today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion that the Howard Government (1996-2007) used silencing dissent within Australian civil society as a key tool of political control is not new and has been explored elsewhere. This paper argues that while the Howard Government demonstrated a weakening support for civil society organisations and attempted to delegitimise the role of Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) in the public sphere, the Abbott Government displayed some significant differences. Their approach moved beyond this to undermine key elements of Australian democracy. The government attempted to shrink, delegitimise and criminalise the advocacy and democratic purposes of NGOs and civil society. Crucial access to the judicial system for NGOs was limited by defunding of organisations that supported civil society to access legal mechanisms. In this way, the independence of the public service and of universities was challenged and compromised. These actions suggest a waning commitment to a public battle of ideas and a rethinking of the relationship between government, citizens and civil society. In this case, it represents a significant attempt to re-mark Australian democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1969, over 60 Australian government and non-government policies, documents, committees, working parties and organisations have explored the need to ‘know Asia’. In schools, this engagement is conceptualised as ‘Asia literacy’ and disseminated in the emerging Australian Curriculum through the cross-curriculum priority ‘Asia and Australia's engagement with Asia’. However, ‘Asia literacy’ often struggles for purchase in Australian education. I argue that finding traction requires disruption of the dominant discourse of ‘Asia’ as a unitary construct and questioning what constitutes ‘Asia’. This article explores how discourse can be reconceptualised to open up space for schools to engage with ‘knowing Asia’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many governments in Western democracies conduct the work of leading their societies forward through policy generation and implementation. Despite government attempts at extensive negotiation, collaboration and debate, the general populace in these same countries frequently express feelings of disempowerment and undue pressure to be compliant, often leading to disengagement. Here we outline Plan B: a process for examining how policies that emerge from good intentions are frequently interpreted as burdensome or irrelevant by those on whom they have an impact. Using a case study of professional standards for teachers in Australia, we describe how we distilled Foucault's notions of archaeology into a research approach centring on the creation of ‘polyhedrons of intelligibility’ as an alternative approach by which both policy-makers and those affected by their policies may understand how their respective causes are supported and adversely affected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author comments on the housing policy in Australia's political economy. It states that national housing's finance system is crucial and important in the mediation of global capitalism and it plays differential role in supporting and regulation of securitization. Moreover, the link of national housing to reproduction and labor relations are also stated.

Increasingly short-term, opportunistic, adversarial politics has consistently constrained and compromised significant and genuine tax reform in Australia. This article reviews the various attempts at tax reform since Asprey in the mid-1970s, assesses the existing tax system and attempts to set out the major essential ingredients of genuine tax reform in this country. Tax reform is seen as particularly urgent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian state is not normally considered in the context of fragility. We challenge the assumption of Australian robustness by examining the way in which two potential vulnerabilities are framed and the way these issues are incorporated in to the political and institutional policy agendas. Food and energy security will be examined in the context of Australia as a complex adaptive system with an analysis of the vulnerabilities of these two issues as understood by different actors. While it can be argued that Australia has been resilient in the past, we argue that this state cannot be taken for granted for the future. There are vulnerabilities that could become triggers for unexpected changes, or which could tip towards greater vulnerability and fragility [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses and presents a reprint of the government of the Commonwealth of Australia's document titled "Australian Policy towards the New Hebrides and the British Solomons (Secret)" from the early 1960s. The history of Australia's role in the British colonies of New Hebrides and the Solomon Islands from the late 19th century through the 1960s is discussed. The Australian government's Minister for Territories Paul Hasluck's perspective on Australian imperialism is also discussed.

The article presents information on recent development related to pharmaceutical patent in Australia. The Australian Government has announced a review into whether the pharmaceutical patent regime balances the encouragement of innovation properly in Australia with timely access to competitively priced pharmaceuticals.

It seems inevitable that sovereignty and self-determination engulf any discourse on reconciliation between Australia's settled population and Aboriginal people. The pervasive myth in politics and public policy is that the concept of Australia's sovereignty is highly incompatible with the concept of Aboriginal self-determination, because the former can only mean secession, and shy of that, it is impossible for Australia to have a treaty with itself. However, using an expansive view of self-determination, one commonly accepted historically and abroad, this paper demonstrates how Aboriginal self-determination can actually strengthen Australia's international sovereignty and internal politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In April 2010, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced the deferral of his flagship climate-change policy, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, after it twice failed to gain the support of the Australian Senate. The decision contributed to the curtailment of Rudd's premiership and confirmed climate change as one of the most toxic issues in Australian politics. Although deficits in policy design and structural obstacles caused by Australia's carbon-intensive economy were major obstacles for the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, it could have passed into legislation had more effective political strategies been used to counter political opposition. A policy network framework is used to explore these political obstacles and how alternative political strategies may help to counter political obstacles to and public concern about new climate policies. In conclusion, the wider merits of policy network and political strategy approaches for the analysis of national climate politics are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arthur Calwell was the major architect of Australia's successful post-war migration program that laid the demographic, economic and cultural foundations of contemporary society. In public memory, however, Calwell is now mostly associated with the White Australia policy, which aimed to preserve Australia as a white, British-Australian society by severely restricting Asian immigration. This article assesses Calwell's leadership of the immigration program, his impact and his legacy. It identifies three distinct, often irreconcilable leadership characteristics, defined in terms of him as 'innovative policy-maker', 'political broker' and 'agitator'. This focus on leadership challenges the one-dimensional view of Calwell that exists in Australian political historiography. It is also intended to extend our engagement with leadership studies and illuminate the role leadership plays in political decision-making, especially sensitive portfolios like immigration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper brings historical perspectives to bear on the ambivalent and contradictory position of adoption in Australian public policy. It examines the divergent histories of Australian domestic and intercountry adoption (ICA) since the mid-1970s and the impact of these histories on adoption policy in Australia. It identifies tendencies in contemporary ICA to repeat elements of pre-reform era domestic adoption. In particular, it is argued that the resistance of ICA to the move to openness in local adoption has been an unacknowledged driver of ICA for many Australian families. We offer corrective readings of the rise of ICA in relation to domestic adoption and conclude by offering alternatives for adoption policy which better align the two kinds of adoption, focusing on the needs of children, as distinct from the desires of adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses debates concerning the role of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) following the implementation of changes to its order of battle. The author examines the relationship between naval equipment and strategic guidance systems, along with debates concerning the use of amphibious forces and the possible formation of an Australian Coastguard. The effect of global terrorism on the development of the RAN is analyzed. The author cites various government reports and papers that discussed Australian military strategic policy.

Whilst the past 35 years have seen numerous attempts at national curriculum collaboration in Australia, these have invariably failed largely due to the constitutional reality that the States have responsibility for curriculum. Federal government involvement in curriculum can only be achieved, therefore, with the consent of the States. To achieve this, in 2008 the Rudd Federal government passed the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) Act (2008) which legislated the establishment of ACARA, a national education authority which brought together, for the first time 'the functions of curriculum, assessment and reporting at the national level' (Julia Gillard, media release, 2008). Among its mandates, ACARA is responsible for the development of national curriculum, one of the key election platforms on which the current Rudd Federal Labor government was elected in November 2007. Whilst the ACARA Act appears on the surface to represent unprecedented intergovernmental collaboration and a transition to co-operative federalism; cracks in this co-operative veneer are starting to appear. In this article I draw on critical theory to examine three varied forms of Federal-State relations spanning three different eras, as they relate to issues of national curriculum - those of corporate federalism, coercive federalism and co-operative federalism. Specifically, I will argue that the ACARA Act is not an instrument of co-operative federalism but rather a euphemism for a continued reliance on a new, more subtle form of coercive federalism as a means to 'deliver' national curriculum in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is not widely remembered that on 10 June 1955 two men, Raymond Edward Fitzpatrick and Frank Courtenay Browne, were sentenced to gaol for three months on a vote of the Commonwealth House of Representatives for contempt of parliament. Two parliamentary officials, Frank Green and Harry Evans, have dominated scholarly attempts to explain this unusual event. To the former, the privilege case largely reflected the animus of Prime Minister Menzies towards Browne and his desire for revenge. To the latter the matter was a genuine case of contempt. This article revisits the 1955 Bankstown Observer privilege case with the benefit of recently released archival material. It seeks to understand why two citizens were deprived of their liberty without legal representation or redress and to find some compromise between the divergent interpretations proffered by Green and Evans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Which electorates receive targeted funding, and does targeted funding swing votes? To answer these questions, I analyze four discretionary programs funded by the Australian federal government during the 2001–2004 election cycle. Controlling for relevant demographic characteristics of the electorate, those electorates held by the governing coalition received a larger share of discretionary funding, and a larger number of program grants. Among government seats, funding does not appear to have been directed towards those that were more marginal. More discretionary funding—particularly on road-building—was associated with a larger swing towards the government in the 2004 election. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A position paper prepared in January 2008 by Friends of Libraries Australia (Fola) following the election of a new Australian federal government committed to an educational revolution for the nation. It aims to assist with the strategic positioning and funding of Australia's public library system within a whole of Australian government — national, state and local — and a national educational context. It may be accessed at www.fola.org.au. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arguments presented in this paper and the evidence from the Tasmanian Successful School Principals Project support broadening what counts for successful schools and school leadership. This broadening needs to embrace student outcomes, including non-cognitive social outcomes such as student empowerment. In examining who should provide the evidence for successful school leadership the need for triangulation, that is, multiple sources of evidence, became clear. Research employing only principal perceptions of success, especially on the importance of and improvement in student outcomes, should be examined much more critically than has occurred in the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors review critically an article by Patrick Kilby in Vol. 61(1) of the AJIA on Australian development policy. They claim that the difference between the Government's program and the alternatives suggested by Kilby is one of degree as his objections retain the same neoliberal limitations as AusAID and the Washington Consensus. The authors argue that reducing poverty in a globalized world means going further than institutional changes and considering the key issue of class. They instead suggest a focus on the effect of domestic international politics and the globally constituted nature of poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on several issues concerning national politics in Australia. According to the authors, the year 1999 was filled with debates on taxation reforms, the move for Australia to become a republic, and its dealings with the future of East Timor. The country is dominated by the Liberal party headed by Prime Minister John Howard who strongly voted no to retain the country's status under the queen of Great Britain, while most Australians were in favor of a republic. Furthermore, the article also includes a list of cabinet members of Howard including the number and percentage of parliamentary seats.

Much party communication encourages voters to lower issue-related evaluations of rival parties. Yet, studies of such influence are rare. Drawing on research on political parties' negative campaigning, this article starts to fill this gap. We triangulate evidence from four survey experiments across six issues in Denmark, the US, and Australia, and show that a party's negative campaigning decreases voters' evaluations of the target party's issue-handling competence (i.e. issue ownership), but does not backlash on voters' evaluations of the sponsor. Such attack on the target party does not have to be tied to a negative policy development like the crime rate to undermine the target party's competence evaluations. At the same time, a negative policy development only undermines a party's evaluations when it is accompanied by a rival party's negative campaigning attack. The implications for party competition and the mass-elite linkage are important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Berween 1982 and 1993 the number of women serving on local government councils, the political arena in which women have been most successful, more than doubled. Data from two Australia wide surveys, one in 1982, the other in 1993, indicate that in the period benveen the two studies there were also some significant changes in the characteristics of women entering local government, with the 1993 respondents better educated and more likely to be in the paid workforce than their earlier counterparts. Some aspects of the commonly held stereotype of female councillors as middle aged, middle class housewives with adult children are challenged by these data, particularly with respect to workforce participation. While this indicates that female councillors are in some ways more heterogeneous than the stereotype suggests, their characteristics remain unrepresentative of those of many women in the community. This paper attempts to provide a picture of women who serve on local government councils, drawing on survey data collected Australia wide in 1982 and 1993. It examines the extent to which the characteristics of female councillors have changed over the period between the two surveys and the extent to which these women conform to the commonly held stereotype of women in local government, and considers the relevance of this to the issue of representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]