Community consultation in public policy: The case of the Murray-Darling Basin of Australia

Community consultation is widely employed in contemporary Australia as a means of improving the formulation and implementation of public policy. However, little is known about the optimal expenditure of effort required for any given consultation. This article develops a rational choice model of community consultation that seeks to encapsulate the major elements involved in optimising consultation effort. The framework is particularly useful for understanding and explaining why actual community consultation processes may be sub-optimal. The rational choice model is then applied to the Living Murray debate over water resources in the Murray-Darling Basin of Australia.     

The haves and have nots in Australia's Tropical North – New Perspectives on a Persisting Problem

There is significant confluence in the literature that leads one to expect groups of haves and groups of have nots in socio‐economic systems within common spatial contexts. Several economic theories suggest economic activity to be concentrated in a few core areas with geographically large ‘peripheries’ relying on one or two industries for employment and income. In the context of the north of Australia, issues of disparities in socio‐economic status between the region and elsewhere in Australia, and also within the region have been highlighted in the literature for some time. This paper discusses the contemporary situation using customised data collected and analysed for 55 river‐basin catchments in the Tropical Rivers region of northern Australia to highlight the extent of the haves and have nots problem. A range of spatial economic theories are discussed as theoretical bases for the present day situation and as pointers to revisionist approaches which may address it. Transforming the have nots to improved states of well‐being will be a costly and difficult process. Consequently, we argue that factors other than raw incomes and economic production should be reconsidered and re‐prioritised by governments as redress to the ongoing ‘problem’ of the North.     

A Role for Geomorphology in Integrated Catchment Management

Catchments (watersheds) are integrated through water movements. Water moves sediments; and the translocation of materials has geomorphic and pedological responses. Fertiliser and pesticide residues and other toxic substances are also transported by water, in solution and attached to sediment particles, affecting various ecological components of catchments. The insertion of pollutants is directly caused by land‐use practices. In turn, land uses are influenced by the pedo‐geomorphology of the catchments (uplands, valley sides, flood plains and terraces, spurs and hollows, convexities and concavities; position in the upper, middle or lower catchment; and by catenary relationships). Therefore catchment management must deal with interrelationships amongst human activities and various geomorphic elements. Several case study examples from southwestern Australia demonstrate the importance of geomorphology in catchment management. They include: rates of hillslope erosion and translocation of P in micro‐catchments within a drainage basin context; stream salinisation; accumulation of heavy metals in stream sediments; geomorphic elements influencing the spread of weeds and the erosion of access tracks; and some relationships between valley‐side land uses and stream morphology. The incorporation of these and other issues in a management strategy is then illustrated. Complex skills are involved in producing and implementing a management strategy, including but extending well beyond those of the geomorphologist.     

Intrastate federalism in Australia

The article applies a distinction often used in the study of Canadian federalism—intra‐versus interstate federalism—to the Australian federal system. The intrastate federalism model focuses on the representation of state, regional and local interests directly within central government institutions. On the surface the model appears to have little applicability to Australia. However, the examination of selected Commonwealth institutions and arenas, primarily the cabinet and party system, indicates that intrastate practices may in fact be much more pronounced in Australia than what is generally supposed. There are networks of influence at work outside the confines of standard intergovernmental arenas, networks that at times can be used to advantage by state governments or by state or local interests, at other times by the Commonwealth to enhance centralised control or even to undermine the status of state governments as legitimate actors within the Australian federal system.     

Monitoring Saline Discharge Areas: Farrell Flat,a Case Study

By monitoring saline groundwater discharge areas, an indication of the extent of dryland salinisation processes occurring in an area may be determined. Processed remotely sensed data (SPOT MS and aerial photography) has been analysed within a geographic information system database to identify the dynamic relationship between changing vegetation cover and increasing salt levels on a saline groundwater discharge area. Temporal analysis of this database was conducted for a saline discharge area on a wheat/sheep property in South Australia from the period 1966 to 1990. The results provide a directional and quantitative assessment of the change in salt affected areas during the study period. Information of this type benefits land managers at the regional scale by quantifying salinisation trends.     

Planning for Climate Change Adaptation in a Multi-level Context: The Gothenburg Metropolitan Area

Individual local governments are key players in Sweden's strategy for climate adaptation but their authority does not match the scale of climate change and its impacts. Competences are divided among local, regional and national authorities. Climate adaptation thus requires cooperation, particularly in metropolitan regions. This raises issues of coordination, legitimacy and effectiveness of adaptation measures recommended in local Master Plans. The focus here is on how the 13 municipalities in the Gothenburg Metropolitan Area—expected to be the part of Sweden most affected by impacts of climate change—address and act upon issues of climate change adaptation within the framework of Sweden's Planning and Building Act, which places responsibility for the “common interest” of climate adaptation with local governments. Analysing municipal Master Plans, as well as the comments on these plans from the regional County Administrative Board and from Göteborg Region Association of Local Authorities, the inter-municipal association charged with infrastructural planning, I identify patterns in terms of coordination, legitimacy and effectiveness of planning for climate change adaptation. Results are discussed in relation to propositions from recent research on planning for climate adaptation in multi-level contexts.     

Improving Coastal Vulnerability Assessment Methodologies for Integrated Coastal Zone Management: an Approach from South Australia

The global concern about human-induced climatic change and its potential effect on sea-level has dominated the debate on coastal vulnerability, particularly since a common assessment methodology was developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1991. There have been numerous attempts to use or adapt this methodology but the focus has remained on sea-level rise as the single most important issue for coastal vulnerability. This paper presents a revised and more holistic coastal vulnerability assessment methodology which incorporates spatial and temporal scales relevant to the predicted impacts of climatic change and current human-induced hazards. Three studies in contrasting coastal environments of South Australia demonstrate that there are significant regional variations in sea-level response, human-induced hazards and local planning issues and that these may present a greater immediate threat than the possibility of sea-level rise.     

Palestinian Water: Resources,Use, Conservation,Climate Change,and Land Use

This article addresses the future of freshwater resources in the Palestinian West Bank through a discussion of contemporary issues that each plays a vital role in determining the long‐term sustainability of freshwater reserves, such as water resource availability, trans‐boundary water issues, water reuse and conservation, changes in land use, and the potential impact of climate change on long‐term water management. Climate change and changing land use patterns are already altering this region's water resources. Future predictions regarding the long‐term effects of these changes are complex and therefore inherently uncertain. However, the consensus among most studies on this subject indicates that currently water‐poor regions such as the Middle East will experience even greater water stress in the future. Nearly all of the freshwater consumed in the West Bank is obtained from local groundwater supplies that are suffering overdraft as well as decreasing water quality. Climate change will exacerbate water stress by increasing overall temperatures, decreasing and fluctuating precipitation, and reducing overall aquifer replenishment. Expanding urbanization will continue to strain freshwater supplies by negatively impacting the quality and quantity of available freshwater. Water management in the West Bank is further complicated by total Israeli control over water resources, which often causes water delivery to Palestinians in this region to be marginalized. This article finds that Palestinian and Israeli water managers must plan for future water crises, which will likely be a result of the combined effects of increasing urbanization and climate change coupled with exponential population growth.     

“We're not a paper for working women,but of and by them”: Australian communist party womens’ papers 1930–1939

Historical studies of the radical left in Australia have, until recently, been neglectful of the contribution of female activists. The specific problems and issues faced by these women have been largely ignored. For instance, the principal academic history of the CPA mentions in passing only a handful of prominent women members and alludes to no issues which were of specific concern to the female membership of the CPA (Davidson, 1969). However, despite a ’line’ which opposed separate womens’ organisations, the CPA was sufficiently mindful of the specificity of a range of issues facing women to establish a separate national women's journal in 1930. This journal was called Working Woman, and continued in publication until 1936, when it was succeeded by a new journal entitled Woman Today, which went out of existence in 1939.     

Shades of green: Public opinion on environmental issues in Australia

Data from the 1990 and 1993 Australian Electoral Studies are used to investigate whether public concern about the environment has declined in Australia over recent years. Questions of the ranking and structure of environmental concerns and of levels of support for environmental organisations are addressed. The data show that public concern about the environment remains high on an ‘agenda of long‐term issues’, that environmental concerns form two distinct clusters (termed ‘brown’ and ‘green') and that active support for environmental organisations correlates only with the green cluster. It is argued that these findings give no more than partial support to the ‘organisational’, ‘postmaterialist’ and ‘risk society’ perspectives on environmental issues.     

Local Governments and Indigenous Australians: Developments and Dilemmas in Contrasting Circumstances

This paper examines developments and dilemmas in relations between local governments and indigenous Australians over the last quarter century. It establishes a framework for analysis based on differences in local government systems, circumstances and populations. It then examines two sets of developments in relations which have occurred in contrasting circumstances. The first is ongoing poor relations in incorporated local government areas, focusing on a complex of issues surrounding landownership, rates and services. The second is discrete predominantly Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander communities in sparsely settled areas themselves becoming local governments. Both of these sets of developments are seen as being accompanied by significant dilemmas. In relation to the first, the major dilemma identified is how superordinate levels of government should best proceed in attempts to improve relations. In relation to the second, major dilemmas are identified relating to indigenous 'ownership' of the resulting local government structures and the weakness of the financial position of these newly emerging local governments. The paper suggests there have been some very significant and quite complex developments in relations between local governments and indigenous Australians over the last quarter century. However, these developments have only tentatively moved relations in a more positive direction, if indeed at all. Poor relations still predominate between local governments and indigenous Australians.     

Neoliberalism and the Institutions for Regional Development in Australia

This paper examines some effects of the pursuit of neoliberalism on regional development policy and practice in Australia, and in particular on the activities and effectiveness of regional development organisations. The paper interprets data from a survey of 505 regional development organisations across Australia through the framework of Jessop's contribution to state theory and his identification of four key trends in economic management under neoliberalism. Regional development policies are seen as a response of governments to electoral pressure from regions, but a response that is constrained by the dominance of neoliberal ideology. The objectives of regional development are predominantly economic, but are often limited to the role of facilitation and the provision of information. Some responsibility for regional development has been shifted downwards to regions, but the effectiveness of the organisations given this responsibility is reduced by the short‐term and competitive nature of much of their funding, the lack of coordination between regional development actors at the local level, the proliferation of agencies and the competition between them. The paper concludes that regional development agencies in Australia are in many ways a product of neoliberalism, since they represent one way in which governments can be seen to be responding to regional pressure for assistance but they can do so without incurring significant costs. Yet regional development bodies are also a victim of neoliberalist thinking, since it denies them the resources and the powers they need to be more successful in their work.     

Public administration in the Australian Journal of Political Science: A review

This article reviews publications on public administration in the Australian Journal of Political Science (AJPS). A distinction needs to be drawn between public administration as a discipline and as a field of inquiry that engages specialists from several areas. The latter has been more significant in Australia in contrast to Europe and the United States. The questions discussed in the AJPS cover changes in the field and practice of public administration; the state and government; the structures of local government, public organisation and federalism; interfaces between public administration and other sectors and institutions; and issues with public sector reform and accountability. Despite the emphasis on governance in discourse and practice, the role of government continues to be central, and what emerges from experiments in new governance is that the authority of government and the significance of hierarchy (compared to markets and networks) very often remains pivotal.     

The Religious Crisis of the 1960s: The Experience of the Australian Churches

The decade of the 1960s in North America and Europe is generally seen by historians and sociologists as a time of sudden and unexpected religious upheaval. But was this the case in Australia? This article examines the changes in belief and behaviour within Australia’s major churches during the ‘remembered sixties’ from c. 1964 to c. 1972, in relation to the cultural and social context, and the extent to which these amounted to a religious turnaround or crisis. Areas examined include the impact of radical theology, symbolized by the book Honest to God, and the ‘new morality’; the changes in Australian Catholicism initiated by the Second Vatican Council; the debate among Catholics over birth control and the papal encyclical Humanae Vitae; the decline in weekly church attendance, Sunday school enrolments and the membership of church youth organizations; the ‘crisis’ in the ordained ministry; changing attitudes in the churches towards social issues; and the responses of the churches to the Vietnam War. The religious unsettlement that occurred in Australia during this period was very similar to North America and Europe, though there were distinctive local emphases. The central issues in debate were common to all major denominations: the relevance and authority of traditional institutions and formulations of belief.     

古代北方的水质与民生

水质与民生密切相关,中国南北地理环境不同决定了水质的差异。一般而言,古代南方的日常生活用水以江河湖泉为多,外在"所染"为其水质问题的主要方面;北方民生用水以井水为多,井水自身"所含"的水质问题则较突出,由此而引发的地方病也和南方地区有较大差异。井水咸苦长期困扰北方居民的日常生活,它曾对历史时期北方国都营建产生重要影响,对各级治所的经营也有所制约。水质是生态环境问题也是社会问题,不同时代、地域、阶层对北方水质有不同感知,历经实践浸染与文字流布,这一日常生活的身体实践逐渐演变成为一种知识、观念乃至于文化。     

The Sydney 2000 Olympics and Urban Entrepreneurialism: Local Variations in Urban Governance

Hallmark events are important redevelopment tools utilised by entrepreneurial governments. The features of these events are analogous to those of entrepreneurial urban governance. This study examined the local impacts of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, particularly in relation to its social and political legacies, in three local government areas which hosted Olympic venues. It also investigated the nature of urban governance in Sydney, Australia, as it was manifested in the planning of the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Examples of entrepreneurialism in planning for the Olympics included the centralisation of planning powers, the increasing involvement of the private sector in government activities, and the relaxation of planning processes, resulting in reduced openness, accountability and public participation. Examples of resistance to the anti–democratic tendencies of entrepreneurialism were however evident in some areas, with managerial and democratic concerns remaining important to some local governments. Local community activism was imperative to achieving civic participation and ensuring commitment by local government to these managerial and democratic concerns. Activism also enabled some local communities to secure significant benefits from the Olympic Games.     

The Role of Surface Water Drainage in Environmental Change: a Case Example of the Upper South East of South Australia; an Historical Review

The role of surface water drainage in environmental change in Australia is rarely appreciated. Drains can modify surface water hydrology, not only altering flow regimes but also rapidly dispersing contaminants and altering the natural hydrological balance of associated flora and fauna. Yet drainage continues to be considered a viable management strategy rather than as a cause of land degradation. The impact of surface water drainage in an inherently saline area of South Australia, the Upper South East, is investigated. Surface water drains were constructed by developers in an attempt to increase the area of land available and viable for agricultural land use. Drainage strategies altered the natural direction, magnitude and frequency of surface water flow. The Upper South East has experienced periods of both increased surface water and flooding, and surface water deficit, in the past one hundred years. The region now receives less surface water than under pre‐European conditions, but local runoff is channelled into and through the wetlands more rapidly than before European settlement. Future management strategies are likely to continue this trend, to the detriment of remnant natural wetlands.     

REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: A Continent Transformed: Human Impact on the Nutural Vegetation of Australia Jamie Kirkpatrick The Emergence of Bioregionalism in the Murray-Darling Basin J.M. Powell From Forest to Sea: Australia's Changing Environment: Eric Rolls Australian Environmental History: Essays and Cases Stephen Dovers, (ed.) Spirited Cities Urban Planning, Traffic and Environmental Management in the Nineiies Essays for Hans Westerman Robert Freestone (ed.) The Margin Fades: Geographical Itineraries in a World of Islands Eric Waddell and Patrick D. Nunn (eds) Oceanic Islands Patrick D. Nunn Natural Disasters David Alexander REVIEWS IN BRIEF: Geography and National Identity David Hooson (ed.) REVIEWS IN BRIEF: The Challenge for Geography. A Changing World: A Changing Discipline R.J. Johnston (ed.) REVIEWS IN BRIEF: Building Bridges. Geography in Australia Report of the National Committee for Geography Australian Academy of Sciences R.L. Heathcote (ed) REVIEWS IN BRIEF: The Encyclopedic Dictionary of Physical Geography Andrew Goudie, B.W. Atkinson, K.J. Gregory, I.G. Simmons, D.R. Stoddart, David Sugden (eds.) The Dictionary of Human Geography R.J. Johnston, Derek Gregory and David Smith (eds.)     

Sustainability Standards and the Water Question

Increased global trade in agricultural commodities has boosted fresh water consumption. This export of ‘virtual water’, embedded in products sold abroad, has increasingly affected local communities and ecosystems, especially in arid regions. Recent initiatives to certify agricultural production are showing a rapidly growing interest in considering water issues within schemes of quality assurance, sustainable production and fair trade. This article scrutinizes current water sustainability certification schemes, and how they affect local water user communities. The authors use three notions of governmentality to examine water sustainability standards and how they aim ‘to conduct the conduct’ of water users: (1) standards as ‘production of truth’ and ‘mentalities’ that constitute systems of collective rationalities, values, norms and knowledge; (2) standards as networks that prescribe roles and establish power relations between companies and producers; and (3) standards as ‘techniques of visibilization’ that control practices and discipline producers. Private standards in general reinforce the political and market power of private sector agro‐food chains in local water management, to the detriment of local water user communities and national governments. However, sustainability certification could also potentially enable local, regional, national and international organizations of user communities to stake claims and negotiate to protect their water sources and livelihoods.     

Australia and the promise and the perils of humanitarian diplomacy

ABSTRACT

Humanitarian diplomacy has always been a crucial element of humanitarianism, however it is now becoming a more prominent element of states’ foreign policies. It holds many attractions and much promise. It provides states with a way of expressing important qualities of international empathy and solidarity and can also enhance a state’s international reputation and provide valuable means for building relationship of trust and cooperation. This can in turn can be conducive to a state’s broader foreign policy objectives. However, there are also perils to the incorporation of humanitarian diplomacy into a state’s foreign policy. It can generate ambiguity and even conflict within a state’s diplomatic endeavours due to tensions between humanitarian and broader national interests. In exploring these issues it is useful to distinguish between humanitarian diplomacy and humanitarianism as diplomacy. This article explores these issues in relations to Australia’s diplomacy. It argues that Australia has actively engaged in humanitarian diplomacy and humanitarianism as diplomacy. Whilst the two are often complementary, there are areas in which they have been in tension and even at odds. This has implications for Australia’s international reputation but also for its capacity to undertake genuine and effective humanitarian action.