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The article focuses on the concept of commodity frontiers within Australian capitalism and their role in exacerbating socioecological crises. Topics include the Anthropocene debate, where human impacts on the environment prompt reevaluations of geological epochs, challenging established disciplinary boundaries and theories.

Purpose: This study aims to examine customer helping and advocacy behaviours within dyadic financial service relationships involving customers and fellow customer helpers. Design/methodology/approach: The gift-giving literature was used to propose a customer-to-customer interaction model, which was tested and cross-validated among electronic banking customers in South Africa (n = 404) and Australia (n = 244). Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to respondents who are users of electronic banking services and who previously received help with the service from a fellow customer. Data analysis included multi-group structural equation modelling. Findings: The findings support the view that selected source credibility dimensions may influence greater affective commitment towards fellow customer helpers at various levels. Subsequently, further altruistic gift-giving in the form of customer helping and advocacy behaviours may result from higher levels of affective commitment. Feeling secure in their relationships with fellow customer helpers, customer recipients of help are likely to further socialise other customers who may share a common interest in the service category (e.g. electronic banking), but do not necessarily support the financial service provider of the customer. Originality/value: The findings extend the conceptual domain of affective commitment and shed light on the factors contributing to the development of strengthened bonds between customers and fellow customer helpers within dyadic financial service relationships. Additionally, greater financial service socialisation and use may be achieved when the helping and advocacy behaviours of customer helpers are not restricted to a specific service provider. Subsequently, the current investigation advances knowledge of the underlying processes involved in motivating these desired service outcomes and behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the law requirements when buying products or services in Australia. Topics include the effectivity of the Australian Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (ACL) on January 1, 2011, guarantees for every consumer who buys products or services in Australia, and consequence when a buyer is not happy or when the product was faulty.

In the context of decreased demand for whole blood and increased demand for plasma‐derived products, donors in Australia are increasingly being asked to convert from whole‐blood to plasmapheresis donations. Plasmapheresis is a different type of donation to whole blood as the process takes longer and can be engaged in more frequently. What is unknown is whether whole‐blood donors view donating plasma as consistent with their donor identity and how they respond to the possibility of donating more frequently. To explore this, we undertook semistructured telephone interviews with 26 whole‐blood donors who had recently made their first plasma donation. Findings indicated that whereas donating plasma was viewed as a bigger ask than donating whole blood, the former was viewed as consistent with their identity as a donor because both behaviours were seen to benefit others and self and were located within the same institutional context. Donating plasma was an opportunity for donors to enhance their self‐concept as an altruistic giver. When contemplating their future donation behaviour, donors considered how their donor identity would fit alongside other salient roles. These findings have implications for how institutions can position their request of existing donors to give a different gift. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gift of life doctrine underpins Australia's approach to organ donation: in legislation, clinical practice, community awareness campaigns, and educational activities. In this paper, we present an approach that situates an understanding of organ donation within a social representation framework as a system of values, ideas, and practices. In cadaveric donation, the final giving‐of‐the‐gift can never be by the donor, leading us to ask where the potential donor's decision to give the gift really lies. We present research from three studies that explored the relationship between what was socially understood about organ donation and the registration of donation intent. Drawing from three socially and culturally diverse populations, we asked people working in a corporate city institution and those attending two football matches in the outer city area to complete a word‐association task and Likert‐scale belief questions about organ donation—followed by an opportunity to register immediately on the Australian Organ Donor Register. Driven by the interdependent themata of life/death and self/other, the gift of life doctrine is inextricably linked with the loss of life emerging as both positive and negative beliefs allowing their relationship to actual registration behaviour to be observed. Our findings suggest that in many instances, the potential donor's genuine desire to give the gift lies in the tension between positive and negative beliefs, manifesting as a consent registration when the positive beliefs about donation prevail and an immediate opportunity to register is available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1992, wild dolphin provisioning has occurred on a nightly basis at Tangalooma, a resort located on Moretón Island, Australia. Each evening at dusk up to 12 bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.) are provided with fish in a regulated provisioning program. Since July 1998, biologists managing the program have documented 23 occurrences of "gift giving," when several of the provisioned dolphins have offered wild-caught cephalopod or fin fish species to staff members. The characteristics of each of these events are presented, and we explore the relationships between these events and their temporal patterns, and the age and sex of the dolphins involved. We also consider the behavioral explanations for the "gift giving," including prey sharing, play, and teaching behaviors, which have previously been described for cetaceans and other higher mammals. Gift giving may occur either as a discreet behavior (that may be a sequel to one or more other behaviors such as play or food preparation), or as a part of other behaviors, such as play and/or food sharing. It is most likely a manifestation of the particular relationship between the provisioned dolphins and the human participants in the provisioning. Gift giving has become an established but infrequent part of the culture of the provisioned dolphins at Tangalooma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research study sought to identify and categorize international marketing ethical problems that confront business managers in Australia and Canada. The study focused on ten major ethical problems developed from previous exploratory research. Managers from both countries indicate that the most frequently cited ethical problem is "gifts/favors/entertainment" and the most important ethical problem is "large-scale bribery". However, there exist significant differences in terms of rankings and mean values of frequency and importance ratings for other ethical problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective This cost-analysis study explored Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) data to determine the financial patient contribution (PC) towards dispensed medications prescribed by dentists and temporal trends in cost contributions. Methods For this study we used the PBS online dataset and only included concessional data in the analysis. Data on dental medications dispensed under the PBS from 2006 to 2018 were accessed. For all medicines aggregated to different pharmacological categories (antibiotics, analgesics and opiates, anti-inflammatories, antifungals, benzodiazepines, anticonvulsants and anti-emetics, and emergency medications), a temporal trend was generated using annual PC data. Cumulative patient and mean annual PC data were also generated in a similar manner. Results Cumulative PC over the study period for dental PBS prescriptions was A$28783361 (A$5.55 per dispensing). The mean annual PC for dental PBS was A$2214105 (for the entire concessional population from 2006 to 2018), with a statistically significant and strong correlation between year and PC (Dental PBS, A$59756 per year; r=0.98: P<0.0001). Antibiotics represented the highest proportion of PC (87.8%), whereas the lowest proportion of PC was for emergency medications (e.g. adrenaline, atropine, glucagon, naloxone), which amounted to 0.003%. Conclusions This study highlights the increasing contributions made by patients towards antibiotic prescriptions. What is known about the topic? Australian dentists can independently prescribe subsidised medications as per a set scope for general and specialist dentists, regulated under the PBS with requisite adherence to specific legal requirements. What does this paper add? This is the first study highlighting the increased level of patient financial contributions towards dental medicines, according to different pharmacological categories, dispensed by pharmacists in Australia. What are the implications for practitioners? This study creates a base for future research assessing the appropriateness of the PBS subsidy and the PBS Safety Net threshold, possibly reassessing the out-of-pocket pricing on brand substitution and appropriately reassessing the current dental PBS schedule.

The authors discuss the aspects of alcohol gifts in medical profession in Australia. They say that doctors should be aware of the negative effect of alcohol such as personal health risks, mental health issues, and social issues, the need to develop policies on giving alcohol as gifts to doctors, and how health professionals can promote health by choosing the right gifts in a professional setting.

The article presents original research findings on informal financial assistance for hematological patients; that is, the gifts from family, friends, and communities that help patients cope with the financial hardship associated with cancer. The qualitative study involved interviews with 45 hematology patients that were audio-recorded, transcribed, coded, and then thematically analyzed. The findings examine the differing perspectives that individuals and families bring to the notion of informal financial aid, provide examples of individuals who require and receive informal financial assistance, and conclude with descriptions of those who require informal financial assistance but it is not available. The implications of the findings for oncology social work practice are explored.

Closing the gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians needs to start in the womb. Rates of perinatal mortality, preterm birth and low birthweight are two to three times greater among the babies of Indigenous women than among those of non-Indigenous women; low birthweight predisposes infants to greater risks of chronic illness in later life. Indigenous women in Australia tend to present for antenatal care later in pregnancy than do non-Indigenous women. There are many barriers for Indigenous women seeking to access antenatal care - geographical, social, cultural, financial and in some cases a lack of service provision. Many of these problems are being addressed within the public health system and by Indigenous community-controlled health services. However, more needs to be done. While antenatal care cannot solve all medical and social problems, commencing such care as early as possible in pregnancy has the potential to improve maternal health and hence pregnancy outcomes. Changes in the way the government Baby Bonus is paid to new mothers could act as an incentive not only to service providers but also to women themselves to initiate antenatal care in the first trimester of pregnancy. Such a system has been well established for many years in France. Any changes to the Baby Bonus scheme should provide incentives and not be punitive in nature.