2010

Courts and tribunals in Australia are making substantial investments in court technology, in particular, videoconferencing and broadband technology, as a way of delivering justice to remote and regional Australia. While the deployment of technology in this way is most often justified on the grounds of cost-savings and convenience, ....

This report builds on four earlier State New Economy Indexes published in 1999, 2002, 2007, and 2008. The purpose of the State New Economy Index is to measure the economic structure of states. Unlike some reports, which assess state economic performance or state economic policies, this report focuses more narrowly on a&nb ....

Education is a key determinant at both a national and individual level for health, wellbeing and access to economic resources. What's more, education has intrinsic benefits for those who undertake it, as well as for those around them. The standard human capital model has been used by many to understand the education decisions that ....

Men in rural regions of Australia may face distinct health issues because of their location, work and lifestyle. This report provides a snapshot of some of these issues and compares the illness and mortality of men in rural and urban areas. Overall, men in rural areas are more likely than their urban counterparts to experience chro ....

This dissertation answers the general question of when and where consolidation of rural and medium size community water systems is appropriate and should be considered as a solution to address the growing water demands of a single critical community. To this end, a planning support system was developed, applied and consolidation recomme ....

The extent to which governments have an obligation to provide a core set of essential services to all taxpayers, irrespective of their place of residence, is a topic of regular political debate. Of particular concern is the quality of telecommunication, health and education services in rural and regional Australia. A major weakness of discussions ....

Housing affordability is a pressing social issue for many Australians with public housing stocks not coping with demand in recent years. Local government has a genuine capacity through partnerships with the other spheres of government as well as with private sector community housing and property developer interests, to playa key ro ....

The paper assesses the application of the precautionary principle in the Queensland Wild Rivers Act 2005. It finds that the Act is more restrictive than the ecologically sustainable development principles as conceived, and deployed, by the Queensland Government elsewhere. At the same time the Act is injurious to property rights, unneces ....

To maximise economic potential, we therefore need to be able to take maximum advantage of the possibilities generated by the NBN. So it is crucial that we understand the state of preparedness of businesses, and what needs to be done. Macquarie Telecom has therefore undertaken a survey of Australian businesses to advance our understanding of curre ....

This quarterly report provides: - up to date national mineral statistics on production, trade and policy - indexes and graphs of Australian mine production and export prices - a graphical summary of mineral exports. Report Locationhttp://data.daff.gov.au/brs/data/warehouse/pe_abarebrs99001725/AMS10.3_June_qtr_REPORT.pdf ....

This article discusses the funding, focus and deficiencies of Indigenous education, predominantly in remote and rural Australia and focused on school retention. It also evaluates the lack of research on current activities and programs, and future program development and funding decisions. Report Locationhttp://inform.regionalaustralia ....

Research about rural education, and education policy directions for rural schools, are set against formal measures of 'disadvantage'. These measures about rural 'disadvantage' have been defined, evaluated and compared to more 'advantaged' provincial and urban schools. Rarely has educational research or policy been 'inverted' to be ....

Advocates for devolution of responsibility for economic development have frequently made a link between the governance of city-regions and their economic performance. The evidence they adduce for this does not clearly bear this out, since there are problems in defining the scale of the cities under consideration, the scope of the powers involved ....

This paper presents the findings of two surveys conducted on behalf of BREAZE, a Renewable Energy and Zero Emissions community group in the Ballarat region. The research presented in this study was designed to identify the group's effectiveness in supporting its members to achieve zero emissions. Another objective of the research w ....