Timor-Leste’s foreign policy approach to the Timor Sea disputes: pipeline or pipe dream?

Over recent years, Australia and Timor-Leste’s bilateral relationship has been consumed by contested maritime boundary claims in the resource-rich Timor Sea. Intractable disagreements over the right to build a petroleum export pipeline have led Timor-Leste to reinvigorate its pursuit of permanent maritime boundaries as ‘a national priority’. This article examines Timor-Leste’s interests in the Timor Sea and assesses its strategies for achieving its foreign policy goals. It argues that Timor-Leste’s attainment of its stated goals relies on Australia shifting its Timor Sea policy, which has been largely consistent since the 1970s. Timor-Leste’s key strategy is a public diplomacy campaign that positions permanent maritime boundaries as the final stage of its independence struggle, and presents Timor-Leste as owning the disputed Greater Sunrise gas field under international law. While the public diplomacy campaign aims to win enough Australian ‘hearts and minds’ to put pressure on the Australian government, it ultimately fails to negotiate the strategic and historical realities of the interests that define Australia’s realpolitik approach to the Timor Sea.     

Local Councils as ‘Place-shapers’: The Implications of the Lyons Report for Australian Local Government

The recent past has seen an intense focus on ‘financial sustainability’ in Australian local government to the exclusion of other important dimensions of local governance. This restrictive emphasis on finance has been unfortunate as it has ignored important developments in the international literature, which is best exemplified in the landmark 2007 Lyons Report in the United Kingdom. In this official inquiry, Sir Michael Lyons reiterates the critical significance of local voice and local choice in contemporary local government and develops the concept of ‘place-shaping’ as epitomising the modern role of local councils. However, British local government enjoys far broader service provision responsibilities than its Australian counterpart. Accordingly, this paper thus seeks to outline the nature of ‘place-shaping’, as conceived in the Lyons Report, and consider its applicability in the much narrower Australian local government milieu.     

CENTRALIZATION AND URBAN SERVICES: THE AUSTRALIAN EXPERIENCE

The effect on the distribution of urban services of the “geographical fragmentation” of American metropolitan areas into many local government jurisdictions, each with important service responsibilities, is often overlooked. Comparison with Australia, where services are generally administered and financed at the State level, is instructive. Australian centralism tends to have an equalizing effect, largely due to bureaucratic patterns of service delivery, but has also produced both an insensitivity to specialized local factors and an “organizational fragmentation.” Developments in the 1970s suggest improvements in these areas of deficiency.     

The Fiscal-Electoral Nexus in Australia, 1976-94

This article re-evaluates existing political business cycle theory in the specific context of the political economy of Australian fiscal policy since the mid-1970s. Whereas 'traditional' political business cycle models, formulated within a Keynesian framework, assume a high level of state autonomy over fiscal policy, this article argues that an environment of fiscal restraint has been imposed on Australian federal governments over the study period. Given the historical dynamics of Australian economic policy which inform this study, a hypothesis is developed which reflects the policy optimisation dilemma which has confronted Australian federal governments when formulating fiscal priorities in a pre-election context. On one hand, there are pre-poll demands for expansionary fiscal settings from the electorate; on the other, there are demands from financial markets and domestic neoliberal interests for fiscal restraint. Reflecting the fact that identifiable costs are associated with implementing expansionary fiscal policy settings, it is hypothesised that such an approach will be adopted only in times of greatest political need, when an incumbent government is facing a popularity deficit in a pre-election context. While the study confirms that the fiscal-electoral effect is relatively weak, electoral demands do still influence the fiscal priorities of Australian federal governments. This is particularly so with the case of personal taxation relief, a policy approach that appears to be more acceptable to financial markets, key neoliberal interests and some segments of the electorate.     

The Campbell Committee and the origins of ‘deregulation’ in Australia

The 1981 Australian Financial System Inquiry, known as the Campbell Committee, is widely seen as the start of the reform movement of the 1980s and 1990s. Accounts of its origins have been dominated by a debate about which policy actor can take credit. This paper utilises cabinet and Reserve Bank archives to reassess the origins of the Campbell Committee. The inquiry had its origins in an earlier attempt by the Whitlam government to take federal control of the regulation for non-bank financial institutions and the building society crisis of the mid-1970s. In its response to these political and economic challenges we can identify the moment in which the Fraser cabinet turned towards market-based reform. The political decisions made in the context of crisis set the path for regulatory change in subsequent decades, particularly in the area of prudential regulation, where we have seen regulatory consolidation and expansion rather than ‘deregulation’.     

民国时期地方税收权力的流失——以1939—1949年重庆营业税为中心的考察

抗战全面爆发以后,重庆由四川省辖市升级为院辖市,逐步建立起独立的地方财政税收制度。作为地方税收的大宗,营业税本是重庆市政府增加财政收入的重要途径,但是,重庆市营业税权力却遭到四川省政府、中央政府、重庆市商人团体和参议会的分割、侵蚀而流失。以营业税为主的地方税收权力大量流失,直接导致地方财政困乏,也是影响国家政权稳定的重要因素之一。     

Three accounts of the emergence of the remote jobs and communities program: changing timeframes and types of actors

Using frameworks for the analysis of policy devised by Colebatch and Bacchi, three accounts are developed of the emergence of an Australian government program for Indigenous employment and community participation in remote areas. Timeframes increase and types of actors change moving from an authoritative choice account to structured interaction and then problematisation. Individual agents in authoritative choice are replaced in structured interaction by government departments as distinctive organisational actors. In the problematisation account, concepts become the dominant actors, changing over longer timeframes. In remote Indigenous employment a change in problematisation is discerned in the 1970s, from inclusion in award wages and social security to concerns about welfare dependence. A later problematisation change reframes a 1970s program from employment to welfare.     

Regional Differences in High and Technical School Demand in Melbourne, 1951–1985

Over half of all young people in Australian government schools do not complete secondary education and leave school without any formal qualification. This paper uses a regional framework to examine long-term trends in retention rates in different areas of Melbourne and concludes that in both older established and newly urbanized parts of the city the post-war transformation of government high schools into a mass system has failed to break down barriers based on social area. Marked regional differences were found in demand for high school, as well as a long downward trend during the 1970s (despite recession). Technical schools have displayed comparatively minor regional differences and retention rates grew during the 1970s. This suggests that the academic curriculum of high schools continues to be culturally selective. In addition to residential differentiation, important structural features, such as the relative over-supply of technical school places, were identified as contributing to regional trends.     

THE IMPACT OF THE SYSTEM OF MINOR CIVIL DIVISIONS ON AGRICULTURE

Mathematical techniques are used to test the hypothesis that Soviet farm efficiency, as reflected in farm profit rates, is higher in areas where the boundaries of collective and state farms coincide with the boundaries of rural soviets, the lowest local government areas. Conversely, farm performance suffers when farm territories are broken up among two or more rural soviets. The use of Karl Pearson's coefficient of contingency, which may be used to measure the strength of a relationship between qualitative variables, shows a positive relationship between farm profit rates and boundary coincidence. The authors therefore urge frequent review of local government areas to insure that they correspond to the boundaries of agricultural operating units.     

Local government failure: Why does Australian local government experience permanent financial austerity?

Funding of local government systems in Australia has been falling relative to other tiers of government for the past 30 years with various adverse consequences, especially the decline of local government infrastructure. This paper seeks to explain this phenomenon by drawing on two relatively new theoretical strands in the political economy literature; the Australian theory of local government failure and the Wittman model of democratic efficiency. Three explanations are assessed: a traditional public finance perspective, Australian local government failure, and the institutional efficiency of democratic preference revelation. A secondary aim of the paper is to evaluate the implications of the Wittman model for the local government failure paradigm.     

Argyle Diamonds: The Political Economy of a Lost Resource

The discovery of the Argyle diamond field in the north of Western Australia during the late-1970s heralded a new phase in Australia's mining history. Initial forecasts rated Argyle's potential output as internationally significant. Even before full-scale mining commenced it was clear that production from Argyle would pose a serious challenge to the South African-based diamond marketing cartel - De Beers. De Beers, through its strategic holdings in a range of foreign and Australian mining companies, worked to bring Argyle production under its control. Despite its strong criticism of the manner in which the Fraser government dealt with the development of Argyle, when in government, Labor too seemed unwilling to exercise regulatory controls. Eager to encourage foreign investment the Federal and State Governments permitted South African mining interests to arrange the terms and conditions for the mining and marketing of Argyle diamonds free from significant public scrutiny.     

Resource Development and Aborigines: The Case of Roebourne 1960–1980

The pervasive and dynamic influence of economic restructuring on political and social relations is highlighted in many aspects of Australian daily life. The effect of economic restructuring on already marginalised and disempowered groups in society is often overlooked Development of iron ore mines and associated new towns, railways and ports transformed the regional economy of Western Australia's Pilbara region in the 1960s and 1970s. For Aborigines in Roebourne, this restructuring represented a new phase in their relations with ‘White Australia’. Interacting historical legacies, corporate strategies, government policies and economic processes further marginalised the region's Aboriginal population and linked the region to the global economy in ways which created significant barriers to the development of Aboriginal self-management strategies. This paper reviews this period with particular emphasis on the social impact of the iron ore ‘boom’ on local Aboriginal people. In the current climate of renewed economic and political crisis in Western Australia, this review provides a timely reminder that such processes occur in a broader context than is often recognised in regional planning processes.     

Local Democracy and Local Government Efficiency: The Case of Elected Executives in Australian Local Government

In the international context it has been argued that institutional reform to leadership in local government can improve the sector in terms of both its democratic legitimacy and its operational efficiency. In Australia, despite two decades of far-reaching reform processes across state government jurisdictions, focused heavily on structural change, local government still faces daunting problems, yet the potential of reform to political leadership as a method of alleviating these problems has not been fully explored. This paper thus examines the applicability of alternative leadership models to Australian local government, in particular the elected executive model which characterises some American and European local government systems. We argue that the introduction of elected executives could prove problematic in terms of accountability and representation in Australian local government.     

Australia’s relations with the European Community in a historical perspective: an elusive partnership

ABSTRACT

In 2015, Australia and the European Union successfully negotiated a Framework Agreement. This agreement is an essential step in establishing a stronger Australia–European Union partnership and achieving closer bilateral cooperation. For years, negotiating such an agreement had proved impossible. In the 1970s, successive Australian governments showed interest in enhanced collaboration with the European Community, but the political climate for closer relations was far from encouraging. This article explains why this was the case. In doing so, it also explores how the Whitlam and Fraser governments envisaged, framed and developed Australia’s ties with the European Community in the 1970s, and asks whether a more positive approach on their part could have led to a stronger relationship. Based on recently declassified government files, this article shows that although both Whitlam and Fraser fully grasped the importance of the European Community as an emerging international actor and were willing to deepen Australia’s ties with it, significant constraints existed against enhanced bilateral cooperation. With the Common Agricultural Policy still a considerable challenge to Australian economic interests and with the European Community focused mainly on the management of its internal market, broader political considerations were inevitably relegated to the margins of Australia–European Community consultations.     

Rediscovering Australian federalism by resurrecting old ideas

The federal organisation of government in Australia is one of the least understood aspects of the Australian political system. Despite the durability of federal structures, federal theory in Australia remains largely underdeveloped. Aside from a few scholars who have persistently analysed the federal process, federalism in Australia has received attention as an outmoded system with little scope for distinguishing the benefits to be gained from understanding how government is organised. But where Australian federal theory has languished, American federal theory has flourished. This paper borrows some of the major ideas which have influenced analyses of government functions in the American ‘ system and posits them against analyses of Commonwealth and State government functions in Australia.     

Finance and Industrial Policy in Unsuccessful Developmental States: The Case of Pakistan

While a large body of research indicates that state‐directed finance worked for successful East Asian developers, the dominant assumption remains that countries with a weak state capacity, where corruption is rife, should not ‘try this at home’. In this article, that narrative is questioned through a case study of the role of the financial sector in Pakistan, which is widely considered to be a successful case of financial liberalization, contrasting the role of the publicly controlled financial system in the 1970s and 1980s with that of the liberalized financial system in the 2000s. Utilizing archival firm‐level and aggregate data, historic government documents, and interviews with policy makers, financial sector employees and industrialists, it is argued that in the Pakistani case, the withdrawal of state control over the financial sector led to a deterioration of outcomes. This resulted in the allocation of credit away from the productive sectors, namely industry and agriculture, towards unproductive sectors, for speculative purposes; and in the health of the financial sector not improving as expected, with non‐performing loans and corruption remaining a problem, and banks actually becoming a greater burden on government finances. This indicates that even states with weak capacity and flawed industrial policy may be better off with some degree of public control over finance.     

Tax Havens and Global Capitalism: Vanuatu and the Australian Connection

The growth of tax haven activities has been a feature of recent global capitalist development, yet geographical analysis of these activities has been limited. Vanuatu has become the South Pacific's major tax haven, expanding through its ability to capture (mainly) Australian and Asian investment in the 1970s and 1980s. Tax haven activities in Vanuatu have increasingly contributed to local employment and income generation, despite the growth of competition from newer tax havens in the region. Vanuatu is not used by major Australian public companies to the extent that either Hong Kong or the Caribbean tax havens are used, and it is suggested that activities from Asia are increasingly dominating Vanuatu's finance centre. Recent Australian taxation legislation may reduce Australia's role in the Vanuatu tax haven further, although it is apparent that there are limitations to the legislation's effectiveness in stopping tax haven activities.     

Currency Issues and Financial Crises: The Excessive Issuance of Banknotes and Price Fluctuations during the “New Policies” Period in the Late Qing

In the New Policies period of the late Qing, the central government’s power had declined due to an expansion of power at the local-government level. After gaining the right to independently fundraise during the Self-Strengthening Movement, local governments also obtained the privilege of issuing currency. Following a downward trend in China’s fiscal power, the issuance of banknotes by local government had become a noticeable problem. The influence of foreign banks in China, meanwhile, was continuing to expand, the increasing number of countries involved as well as the growing number of banks being just two examples. Because the central government lacked strong supervision, the rate of issuance of banknotes by foreign banks thus gradually increased, leading to growing prices. In addition, this dispersion of financial power further boosted inflation. Since the Qing government focused on reforming its approaches to finance and strengthening its central role during the New Policies, reorganizing its banknote policy was its primary agenda. However, to a large extent, the policy was guided by the idea that monetary policy should be subordinate to financial needs. Thus, the very limited effect of the Qing government’s banknote-reorganization policy also marked the regime’s failure to bring about the modernization of China.     

Rationality and Decision-making in Australian Federal Government

The predominant view is that decision-making in Australian government is based on politics rather than rationality. This paper argues that while decisionmaking continues to exemplify incremental analysis, it does not for the most part exemplify incremental politics, that is, acts of negotiation, compromise and bargaining or 'partisan mutual adjustment'. This is the case for three reasons: decision-making conforms to models of rationality; the technical nature of most policy issues is amendable to rationality; and relationships between departments have grown more consensual since the 1970s.