College of Business, Government and Law

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    2014 Budget, policy versus politics: seven or 126 taxes?
    (LexisNexis, 2014-05) Kenny, Paul
    The 2014 Federal Budget's budget deficit debt levy arguably takes Australia from 125 to 126 taxes. With the high probability of significant tax reform under the new federal Liberal Coalition government, it is pertinent to reflect on the findings of recent major tax reviews in Australia (the 2009 Henry Review),1 as well as in the United Kingdom (the 2011 Mirrlees Review)2 on possible future directions. There is much similarity in the opinions of these two reviews as to what constitutes a sensible tax system. From examining their findings, this article distils seven generally broad taxes that could replace the current 126 taxes. However, the politics of tax reform is all consuming.
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    ‘25 degrees of separation’ versus the ‘ease of doing it closer to home’: Motivations to offshore surrogacy arrangements amongst Australian citizens
    (Edinburgh University Press, 2015-03) Riggs, Damien Wayne
    At present, onshore commercial surrogacy is illegal in all Australian states and territories. By contrast, offshore commercial surrogacy is legal in all bar one territory and two states. As a result, significant numbers of Australian citizens undertake travel each year to enter into commercial surrogacy arrangements. The present paper reports on findings derived from interview data collected with 21 Australian citizens who had children through an offshore commercial surrogacy arrangement, either in India or the United States. Framed by an understanding of the vulnerability that arises from the demand of reproductive citizenship, the analysis focuses specifically on whether or not the participants would have entered into an onshore commercial surrogacy arrangement had this been legal at the time. The findings suggest that for some participants, undertaking surrogacy ‘at a distance’ was perceived to be safer and provided a degree of privacy, whilst for other participants surrogacy closer to home would have removed some of the more challenging aspects of offshore arrangements. With these findings in mind, the paper concludes by considering Millbank’s (2014) suggestion that Australian states and territories should legalise onshore commercial surrogacy, and the barriers that may exist to the uptake of such potential legal change.
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    The $6 million net asset value test for small business
    (LexisNexis, 2014-07) Kenny, Paul ; Blissenden, Michael
    Taxpayers who seek to disregard a capital gain under the small business capital gains tax (CGT) concessions regime are likely to be audited and those who are not formally audited may face a phone review. The Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO’s) focus on a single aspect of this concessional regime is reflected in issues examined in some recent cases. Small business operators and their advisers need to be vigilant in planning for and applying the $6 million maximum net asset value test ($6 million test), an alternative requirement, within the second of the four basic conditions.
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    Aboriginal legal aid funding: discriminatory policy or a failure of federalism?
    (Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales, 2009) Robbins, Elizabeth Jane
    Australia’s federal system of government poses some difficulty in relation to compliance with obligations under international instruments, notwithstanding the Commonwealth’s unequivocal powers on external affairs in the Australian Constitution. It is the Commonwealth Government that is a signatory to international agreements and treaties, but this does not necessarily mean that it administers the relevant policy field domestically. In practice, the complex and multi-faceted relationships between Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments make the political dimensions of the federal relationship as important as the legal arrangements. The Commonwealth Government does not always have unambiguous control over a given policy issue.
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    Africa in/and the World
    (African Studies Association of Australasia and the Pacific, 2009) Lyons, Tanya Julie
    Back in 2000 Gavin Kitching sparked a major debate about giving up African Studies, his main argument being that African studies had become depressing, because the leaders he had supported during anti-colonial and anti-apartheid struggles had become the tyrants, keeping their countries and peoples subjugated and in poverty. His departure from the field of African studies flowed on the tide of Australian academics moving toward more mainstream fields of study including Asian studies, keeping job prospects open rather than closed. A rational choice in the face of an irrational Africa! A decade has passed since Kitching's 'depressing' announcement, and if only for the sake of assisting in the resettlement of former African refugees and African migrants in Australia, we need to engage with Africa and in particular conduct research and analysis of African issues in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the experiences and conditions in Africa today.
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    Allowable deductions, cost base of CGT assets and the GAAR: a minefield for taxpayers and their advisers
    (LexisNexis, 2014-10) Xynas, Lidia ; Blissenden, Michael ; Villios, Sylvia ; Kenny, Paul
    Taxpayers and their advisers have, for decades, struggled to reconcile outgoings that can be considered as allowable deductions under s 8-1 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (Cth) (ITAA 97), with those outgoings which may be included in the cost base of a Capital Gains Tax (CGT) asset.1 In this article we briefly examine Hart’s case2 and the subsequent Taxation Determination TD 2005/33 issued by the Australian Tax Office (ATO). This Tax Determination sets out the Commissioner’s view regarding the inclusion (or non-inclusion) of non-capital costs of ownership of a CGT asset in its cost base where such outgoings had been previously denied deductibility under the general deduction provisions3 of the ITAA 97 by virtue of the general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR) under Pt IVA of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth) (ITAA 36).
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    Anti-Asian sentiment amongst a sample of white Australian men on gaydar
    (Springer Verlag, 2013-06) Riggs, Damien Wayne
    Whilst the homogenizing descriptor 'gay' is often used in a singular sense to refer to 'the gay community,' research has increasingly recognized that individuals within gay communities are as diverse as they are within the broader community. Importantly, recognition of this diversity requires an acknowledgement of the fact that, just as in the broader community, discrimination occurs within gay communities. The present study sought to examine the degree to which racism occurs within gay men's online communities (in the form of anti-Asian sentiment expressed in the profiles of a small number of the 60,082 White Australian gay men living in five major Australian states whose profiles were listed on the website gaydar.com.au during October 2010), the forms that such racism takes, and whether any White gay men resisted such racism. The findings report on a thematic and subsequent rhetorical analysis of the profiles of the sub-sample of 403 White gay men who expressed anti-Asian sentiment. Such sentiment, it was found, was expressed in four distinct ways: 1) the construction of racism as 'personal preference,' 2) the construction of Asian gay men as not 'real men,' 3) the construction of Asian gay men as a 'type,' and 4) the assumption that saying 'sorry' renders anti-Asian sentiment somehow acceptable. Whilst the numbers of White gay men expressing anti-Asian sentiment were relatively small, it is suggested that the potential impact of anti-Asian sentiment upon Asian gay men who view such profiles may be considerable, and thus that this phenomenon requires ongoing examination.
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    Anzac heritage or Anzac history: Truth or Fiction?
    ( 2000) Couvalis, Spyridon George ; Simpson, Cheryl Ann
    In recent years, the protection of heritage has been discussed in many parts of the world. In Australia, new laws have been passed, such as "The Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Act 1998 (Cth)", "The Heritage Act 1993 (SA)", "Heritage Amendment Act 1988 (NSW)", "Heritage Act 1995 (Vic)". Heritage has acquired a beatific image in popular culture (see for instance the cover of this issue of the "AltLJ"). However, in a diverse Australia the struggle for ownership of the past has lead to disputes about which heritage should be protected and to debates as to the level of protection that should be provided. As more 'things' have been included in the definition of cultural heritage, so too has protection of these 'things' been sought through the legal system. Thus legal definitions of cultural heritage can be cast in a narrow restrictive way to limit heritage to tangibles such as buildings, sites or objects. Conversely, legal definitions can be broad enough to encapsulate intangibles such as religion, folklore, oral history and living culture. When we consider all these points, it becomes obvious that the process of legislating for the protection of cultural heritage requires decisions as to what is to be protected, how it is to be protected and why it is to be protected. Legislators and regulators do not just protect items, they protect items understood in particular ways. The significant past is chosen - treating a war medal as something which should be protected to preserve what is quintessentially Australian is very different from treating it as a minor piece of Victorian bronze work. Further, in choosing the significant past, legislators and regulators are not just responding to demands made by some members of the public or by historians. They are also acting to shape the public's view of how the past is politically laden.
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    Are changes to negative gearing in Australia imminent?
    (LexisNexis, 2015-12) Villios, Sylvia ; Blissenden, Michael ; Kenny, Paul
    Negative gearing on levered investments is one of Australia’s most prevalent tax shelters and has been the focal point of an ongoing and heated debate.1 While negative gearing is most commonly used in property,2 there is no limit on deductions from investments across a range of asset classes, such as bonds,3 managed funds, agriculture, real property or shares.4 This article will consider negative gearing concessions for investment in residential property, the arguments in favour of the abolition of negative gearing centered at the heart of the negative gearing debate, possible reform options and barriers to achieving reform.
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    The Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement: the boomerang of competitive liberalisation?
    (Center for Australian Studies, Chengchi University, 2005) Leaver, Richard Lawrence
    Not all that long ago, considerable intellectual energy was spent across Australia analysing the formation of trade policy. And much as elsewhere, there were two basic approaches. The first approach focussed on the evolution of the rules of the game in multilateral trade, stepping from the assumption that national policy was essentially an autonomous instrument designed to leverage those rules in directions broadly favourable to local industries. The second approach consisted of tracking the course of pressure group politics, and worked on the assumption that national policy was the vector outcome of many conflicting interests.
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    Australian Family Diversity: an Historical Overview 1960-2015
    (Flinders University, School of Social and Policy Studies, 2016) Riggs, Damien Wayne ; Bartholomaeus, Clare
    Over the past three decades, increasing attention has been paid to the diversification of Australian families, particularly with regard to both modes of family formation and family structure. Researchers have provided extensive accounts of, for example, lesbian mother families, families formed through surrogacy, grandparents parenting their grandchildren, and the lives of people who were donor-conceived. These accounts, among many others, have served to expand our understanding of what counts as a family, and the specific experiences and needs of a range of family groups. At the same time, however, changes in the political landscape have increasingly brought to the fore an emphasis upon one particular form: the heterosexual nuclear family formed through reproductive heterosex. As such, whilst on the one hand we have seen increased recognition and indeed celebration of family diversification, we have also seen something of a push back against this diversification. The present report was developed in order to facilitate a robust, empirically-based discussion of the topic of family diversification in Australia. The report highlights two key points that address both the fact of diversification outlined above, and concerns that have arisen in response to it: First, changes to the face of Australian families have been slow yet consistent over the past five decades. Such changes have been brought about by developments in the realm of reproductive science, legislative change, and shifts in public attitudes. In this sense, diversification reflects the reality of Australian society, rather than being the agenda of any one group. Second, despite changes to the face of Australian families, much remains the same. In other words, the information presented in this report highlights both continuity and change. In drawing upon data collected by, amongst others, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australian Institute for Health and Welfare, available both publically and through request by the authors, this report presents an overview of key family-related areas. As such, it builds upon the significant work undertaken by the Australian Institute of Family Studies in their Diversity and Change in Australian Families report (de Vaus, 2004) by adding a historical component. Mapping changes and continuity across time provides researchers, policy makers, and members of the public with an informed understanding of Australian family diversification.
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    Australian foster carers' negotiations of intimacy with agency workers, birth families and children
    (Policy Press, 2014-05-29) Riggs, Damien Wayne
    This article seeks to examine what are argued to be a particular set of non-normative relationships between Australian foster carers, the children in their care, the children’s birth parents, and agency workers who act as legal guardians for children who are removed from their birth parents. Eighty-five Australian foster carers participated in interviews on the topic of foster family life. Coding of responses to questions related to agency workers, abuse allegations and birth parents suggested a novel topic of ‘intimacy’ in regards to foster carers’ experiences of these three areas. Findings indicate three key themes within the overarching focus on intimacy: (a) the impact of abuse allegations on foster family intimacy, (b) the intimate presence of birth families and (c) what are termed ‘awkward intimacies’ with agency workers. While such intimacies may be viewed as non-normative, they nonetheless would appear to play a formative role in interactions between all parties, and thus warrant ongoing attention.
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    Australian lesbian, gay and/or transgender people and the law
    (Federation Press, 2014-02-11) Riggs, Damien Wayne ; Due, Clemence
    Notionally the law is designed to protect people from harm or stigma (Posner 2002): it can of course do the opposite. While, as this chapter outlines, laws in Australia have increasingly become inclusive of lesbians, gay men and/or transgender people, this is only a relatively recent development in Australian law, and there is a much longer history of the law endorsing the marginalisation of these populations.1 For social workers, this means two things. Firstly, given the relationship between the law and social norms (where laws reflect social norms as much as they shape them), it is likely that historically many in the social work profession may have been complicit with the marginalisation of lesbians, gay men and/or transgender people. This might have been implicitly (i.e., by failing to challenge stereotypes or discrimination against lesbians, gay men and/or transgender people) or explicitly (i.e., by endorsing the marginalisation of lesbians, gay men and/or transgender people including in social work practice). Given the relatively slow and recent change in Australian laws related to lesbians, gay men and/or transgender people, it is possible that some social work practitioners continue to hold uninformed or discriminatory attitudes towards these populations, a fact that this chapter attempts to address through the provision of information about current laws and their impact upon these populations.
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    Australian mental health nurses and transgender clients: Attitudes and knowledge
    (SAGE Publications, 2016-05) Riggs, Damien Wayne ; Bartholomaeus, Clare
    As increasing numbers of transgender people access mental health services, so with this comes the requirement that mental health professionals are capable of providing inclusive and informed care. In Australia, mental health nurses play a key role in the mental health workforce, and are increasingly likely to engage with transgender people across a range of practice contexts. The research reported in this paper sought to explore the experience, knowledge and attitudes of a sample of Australian mental health nurses with regards to working with transgender people. A total of 96 mental health nurses completed a survey that included an attitudinal measure and a measure of clinical knowledge. Our findings indicated that a majority of the sample had worked with a transgender client before, but only a minority had undertaken training in working with transgender clients. Training was related to more positive attitudes; and both training and experience were related to greater clinical knowledge. Female and/or older participants had greater clinical knowledge, whilst more religious participants had less positive attitudes. The paper concludes by commenting on the dearth of competency and practice documents specific to mental health nurses working with transgender people, and it outlines the Australian standards that would mandate their development.
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    Australian mental health professionals’ competencies for working with trans clients: a comparative study
    (Taylor & Francis, 2016-05-26) Riggs, Damien Wayne ; Bartholomaeus, Clare
    Growing numbers of trans people require access to mental health services; however, previous research suggests that many trans clients have negative experiences with mental health professionals. This paper reports on an Australian survey of 304 counsellors, mental health nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers with regard to their clinical knowledge, comfort and confidence in working with trans clients. The findings suggest that training and previous experience in working with trans clients are related to increased levels of accurate clinical knowledge and confidence; that psychiatrists had the lowest levels of accurate knowledge; that female participants had higher levels of accurate knowledge than did male participants; that counsellors had the highest levels of confidence and that there was a negative relationship between religiosity and comfort in working with trans clients. The paper concludes by advocating for the development of more nuanced measures to assess the attitudes and skillsets of mental health professionals in regards to working with trans clients and the need for further upskilling of the Australian mental health workforce.
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    Australian trade policy under the Howard Government
    (Center for Australian Studies, Chengchi University, 2002) Leaver, Richard Lawrence
    It is an open secret that APEC has, in recent years, fallen upon hard times. That secret began to circulate at the Vancouver APEC summit held four months into the Asian Financial Crisis when President Clinton casually opined that the whole event was really nothing more than 'a few little glitches in the road'.
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    Awareness of Corruption in the Community and Public Service: a Victorian Study
    (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2014-06-23) Graycar, Adam
    Corruption hurts the public and undermines government. This study of perceptions of corruption in Victoria shows that the community believes corruption is on the increase, yet this view is not shared by public servants. In general corruption is not on the radar of senior Victorian public servants. There are more perceptions of corruption in line agencies than in central agencies. Behaviours most commonly suspected and observed were hiring family and friends, conflict of interest, abuse of discretion and abuse of information. One- third of public servants surveyed thought there were opportunities for bribery, yet only 4% had suspected bribery and less than one per cent had personally observed it. Almost half do not believe they would be protected from victimisation should they report corruption. The data reported here poses challenges in thinking about corruption when devising integrity standards in the public service.
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    Balancing individualism and collectivism: user-centric policy design to enhance evolutionary development and to address complex needs
    (ISSS2009, 2009) McIntyre-Mills, Janet
    The paper discusses research on representation, accountability and sustainability based on testing out ideas with those who are to be affected by the decision-making process. The paper reflects on the relevance of participation for science, democracy and governance in policy development.
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    Being, having, doing and interacting: towards ethical democracy, governance and stewardship
    (International Society for the Systems Sciences, 2013-07) McIntyre-Mills, Janet
    The presentation of the attached user guide aims to address the conference themes by considering the challenge posed by Stiglitz (2010) to the Australian Productivity Commission, namely to foster an understanding that the wellbeing of humanity is dependent on the global commons. The focus of the research is on addressing social, economic and environmental factors that help to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Joseph Stiglitz past president of the World Bank has stressed (at the invitation of the Australian Productivity Commission) that the bottom line is wellbeing – this requires building stocks for the future ( Stiglitz, et al, 2010). Wellbeing is crucial to re-designing economics.
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    Berbagi Suami (Love for share): the discourse of polygamy in a recent Indonesian film
    (Australian National University, 2009) Kurnia, Novi
    This article considers Berbagi Suami (Love for Share), a post-New Order Indonesian film written and directed by an Indonesian female director, Nia Dinata, in 2006. The film brings together the separate stories of three different women (Salma, Siti and Ming) who live in polygamous marriages in a modern city, Jakarta, Indonesia. Although there is no accurate data on polygamous marriage in Indonesia in either official statistics or polygamy studies, Dinata estimated that about 10 per cent of households in Indonesia are polygamous. Indeed, polygamy has become a much more openly practiced form of marriage since the post-New Order era and is a matter of vigorous public debate.