Perspectives on the Capacity of the Australian Public Service and Effective Policy Development and Implementation

It is a long held tradition of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) to invite speakers to address the Fellow's Colloquium as part of the annual symposium, with an aim to spark discussion and debate on a controversial and contemporary topic. In 2010 the debate was focused on the question of whether there had been a degradation of the professional capacity of the Australian Public Service (APS) with regard to effective policy development and implementation. The contributions of each of the four panel members are reproduced here, in part, and they reflect the diverse perspectives which informed a robust and compelling debate. Janine O'Flynn, the editor of these contributions, argues that any claim of degradation is based on rumour rather than hard evidence, and she sets out how we might think about policy capacity from a public sector management perspective. Sue Vardon, the former CEO of Centrelink and the architect of a transformation change program which redefined the delivery of public services in Australia, reflects on the strengths of the APS, but points out the current stresses that it now finds itself under. Anna Yeatman, an expert in political theory and its application to citizenship and public policy, argues that in the last twenty years we have witnessed degradation in the work of government and that this has impacted on policy capacity. Lyn Carson, an expert in deliberative democracy, points to the unrealised capacity that could come from increasing citizen involvement. Policy capacity is degraded, she argues, because we have systems that are neither deliberative nor representative. Individually these contributions spark their own controversies; together they ask us to consider the question in different ways.     

The evaluation of human hand odor volatiles on various textiles: a comparison between contact and noncontact sampling methods

The focus of this study is to compare contact and noncontact human scent collection procedures across an array of textiles (cotton, rayon, polyester, and wool) to determine an optimized collection method for human scent evidence. Six subjects were sampled in triplicate for each textile and collection mode, and the samples were then analyzed through headspace solid-phase micro-extraction in combination with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (SPME-GC/MS). Contact sampling with cotton material has been shown to be the collection method that yielded the greatest number of volatile compounds and the highest scent mass amounts. Through Spearman rank correlations, it was shown that an individual's scent profile is more reproducible within samples collected on the same textile type than between different materials. Furthermore, contact sampling with cotton fabric demonstrated the greatest reproducibility producing the lowest amount of type I and type II errors with 90.85% of the samples distinguished at the 0.9 match/no match threshold.     

Online solicitation offenders are different from child pornography offenders and lower risk contact sexual offenders

The current study compared 38 lower risk (based on actuarial risk assessments) men convicted of contact sexual offenses against children, 38 child pornography offenders, and 70 solicitation offenders (also known as luring or traveler offenders). Solicitation and child pornography offenders were better educated than contact offenders but did not differ on other sociodemographic variables. In comparison to child pornography offenders, solicitation offenders had lower capacity for relationship stability and lower levels of sex drive/preoccupation and deviant sexual preference. Solicitation offenders were also more problematic than lower risk contact offenders on sex drive/preoccupation and capacity for relationship stability and had greater self-reported use of child pornography. Differences between groups on two actuarial risk measures, the Static-99 and the VASOR, were inconsistent. This study suggests that solicitation offenders differ in meaningful ways from lower risk contact offenders and child pornography offenders and, consequently, in risk, treatment, and supervision needs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Teacher victimization,turnover, and contextual factors promoting resilience

Teacher victimization is a relatively understudied phenomenon that may contribute to teacher turnover. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between teacher reports of victimization and teachers leaving their school and the profession. Using nationally representative data (n = 104,840) from the Schools and Staffing Survey, we examine the extent to which being threatened or attacked by students predicts higher rates of teacher turnover and whether this relationship differs due to factors that may promote teacher resilience. We utilize conditional multinomial logistic regression, implicitly controlling for school-by-year fixed effects. Findings suggest that perceived victimization predicts an increased probability of leaving the school and profession. School-level promoters of resilience are found to lessen this relationship. We discuss ways schools can mitigate the impact of victimization. This work contributes to a nascent body of literature on teacher victimization and informs a policy lever by which turnover may be reduced.     

Paths toward reclamation: therapeutic jurisprudence and the regulation of medical practitioners

Much about what used to be termed "disciplinary" investigations and hearings is being revisited in the modern era. Therapeutic jurisprudence enables informed and sensitive awareness to potentially therapeutic and counter-therapeutic effects of both investigations and hearings conducted by medical regulatory authorities. This article analyses key aspects of authorities' processes from the perspective of notifiers/complainants and practitioners. Using developments at the Victorian Medical Practitioners Board as a base, it addresses issues of both investigative procedures and decision-making at formal and informal hearings, as well as the ramifications of re-hearings for the integrity of peer review informed regulation. It argues that where reclamation of practitioners is possible (namely where impropriety is not of the most serious order), there is much that is constructive about a focus upon enhancement of performance and competence levels, rather than the traditional preoccupation with whether registered status needs to be affected as a result of practitioner conduct.     

Evidence in support of self-declaration as a sampling method for the formation of sub-population DNA databases

Well constructed sub-population databases are fundamental to the application of DNA-based forensic statistics. The size of such databases can affect the ability to examine adequately statistical or population genetic features, and the integrity of both the DNA profile and associated ethnicity information is also of importance. Use of short tandem repeat (STR) DNA profiling technology and the thoughtful construction of the governing legislation has seen large databases of DNA profiles collated for the four major sub-populations of New Zealand. Examination of the data illustrates the suitability of self-declaration as a means of categorizing samples on the basis of ethnicity.     

The random presence of glass and paint on the clothing and footwear of members of the general population: A US baseline survey at various seasons

This study assists the interpretation of glass and paint evidence by filling an existing gap in the background occurrence that reflects the socioeconomic and demographic circumstances in the United States. The collection was performed in a college US city (Morgantown, West Virginia) to determine the effect of the type of clothing worn at different seasons on the presence of glass and paint. Tape lifts and sole scrapings (1038) were collected from 210 participants and up to six clothing and footwear areas per individual. Glass fragments were analyzed via polarized light microscopy (PLM), refractive index (RI), micro-X-Ray fluorescence (μXRF), and scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), while paint specimens were examined by light microscopy and infrared spectroscopy (μFTIR). Higher occurrences of glass and paint were found in the winter season. The winter collection yielded 10 glass fragments and 68 paint particles, whereas the summer collection resulted in one glass fragment and 23 paint particles. The percentage of individuals with traces varied between seasons; 7% of individuals in the winter and 0.9% in the summer had glass, whereas 36% of individuals in the winter and 19% in the summer bore paint. Lastly, when considering the overall garment and footwear areas, glass was detected in 1.4% of the winter set, compared to 0.2% in the summer collection; paint was found in 9.2% of the winter collection, whereas only 4.2% was found in the summer set. There were no instances where both glass and paint were detected on the clothing and footwear of the same individual.     

The Greening of the Grey: National Competition Policy and the Environment

Concern for environmental degradation is now widespread, and has penetrated key policy institutions such as the National Competition Council (NCC) - the body overseeing National Competition Policy. While the NCC's primary focus is on promoting competition, it acknowledges the importance of environmental considerations. Such a body thus represents the contemporary Ecological Modernsiation approach to environmental policy-making. Ecological Modernisation posits that there can be a reconciliation and synthesis between economic and ecological goals. This paper investigates this claim by exploring the relationship between competition and the environment in the three areas of electricity, regulatory review and rural water.