Problems of Indigenous Community Councils in North Australia

Since 1978 community councils have been able to directly qualify for Northern Territory government funding. Community councils have therefore become instruments for community governance as well as being responsible for delivering municipal services to Northern Territory Indigenous communities. The effectiveness of these councils are influenced by the community/cultural environment and the strategic environment. A community council plays an important role in negotiations between these two environments. The article observes that there is a strong separation of responsibilities in communities between those relating to municipal services and those relating to community/cultural issues and suggests a realignment of supervisory authority and de‐concentration of responsibilities within community councils.     

“The Information Gap?”

While the “achievement gap” generally and appropriately focuses upon gaps in test scores and other outcome measures, there may also be an “information gap” between higher and lower income parents that creates a disadvantage for lower income families in choosing good schools. In this article, we examine the extent to which there is such a gap, with a focus on data from a new survey of low‐ and moderate‐income parents who have made school choices. We find that, at least in relatively mature school choice environments like Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Washington, DC, most low‐ and moderate‐income parents report being quite well informed and they engage in a variety of different activities to become informed. Thus, the information gap between lower and higher income parents may not be as large as scholars and policymakers had assumed. We do find that parents at the very lowest end of the income spectrum, especially those earning less than $10,000 per year, do feel less well‐informed and gather less information, but even here the differences are not enormous, relative to higher income parents.     

Author Index of Volume 16

Authors Index

Author Index of Volume 16     

The neo pi-r,inwald personality inventory,and mmpi-2 in the prediction of police academy performance: A case for incremental validity

The utility of personality inventories for predicting successful police officer performance is an important issue in the law enforcement employment selection process. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the incremental validity of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2), the Inwald Personality Inventory (IPI), and the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R) for predicting police academy performance of 79 recruits. Results indicate that each inventory contributes significantly to prediction of academic performance in the academy, while only the NEO PI-R predicts physical performance. The addition of the NEO PI-R to selection processes that already incorporate the MMPI-2 and IPI may be useful for enhancing prediction of police officer performance.     

From Convergence to Divergence: Reforming Australian Local Government

The article maps local government reform in the six Australian states over the last decade. It identifies an earlier phase of reform that focused primarily on redefining the roles and relationships within local government, especially between state and local governments, principally through the reform of the state local government Acts. As state reform agendas have shifted more to focus on managerial improvement, significant differences between local government reforms between states have emerged, in focus, process and outcomes. These differences are such that the role of local government itself has been refocused in several states away from the traditional local democracy values that have for so long underpinned this third sphere of government.