The Unseen Terrorist Connection: Exploring Jihadist Links Between Lebanon and Australia

A defining feature of Australian jihadism over the past decade has been the predominant involvement of individuals of Lebanese descent, along with Australian citizens engaging in jihadist activity in Lebanon. This article outlines the separate relevant cases of jihadist activity in Australia and Lebanon, and examines various explanations for this unique situation. It finds long-distance nationalism, target selection, and training locations to be inadequate explanations, despite their utility in other cases where ethnic diaspora associations converge with jihadist activity. The marginalisation and disadvantage faced by Lebanese-Australian Muslims proved to be an influence, but could not account for the difference between the small numbers involved in jihadism and the tens of thousands facing comparable social circumstances. The most direct explanation for this phenomenon proved to be the intimate personal connections between the radical networks straddling the two countries. A network analysis is therefore conducted, distinguishing between operational and social connections, in order to give greater insight into this threat.     

Australia's National Broadband Network – A cybersecure critical infrastructure?

In 2009 the Australian National Broadband Network (NBN) began to be rolled out across Australia. The Australian NBN is the largest infrastructure project in Australia's history since the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme from 1949 to 1972 and it has a projected cost of between AU$37 billion and AU$43 billion. Its purposes are to provide high speed broadband connectivity to 93% of Australia's homes and businesses, to enhance productivity, to improve the delivery of education, tele-medicine and regional connectivity and to form the basis of the Australian telecommunications network for the 21st Century. However, the project does not have bi-partisan support and has been affected by high-level management changes and anticipated cost over-runs.     

The Advantage of Proximity: The Distinctive Role of Local Government in Cultural Policy

The arts and cultural sector has historically relied on funding from state and federal levels of government. Increasingly, however, local government has become a source of distinctive cultural policy making and a provider of significant funding for arts and cultural activities. The paper notes the relative absence of analyses of the role of local government in policy literature. It argues that with the recent proliferation of dedicated local cultural policies and plans, the attention of scholars is warranted. Through an analysis of the cultural plans of five local councils around Australia, the paper argues that the distinctive feature of cultural policy at the local level is a function of local government's proximity to its constituents, flexibility in decision‐making and the discretionary nature of its expenditure.     

The Impact of Socialisation on Graduates’ Public Service Motivation – a Mixed Method Study

The need to attract and retain a high calibre cadre of public servants today has resulted in a renaissance of interest in public service motivation (PSM) within public management literature. This article outlines a study of PSM with graduate employees within an Australian public sector. The study extends our understanding of PSM by adopting a longitudinal, mixed method design, including surveys and individual interviews, to consider the effects of socialisation on levels of PSM. Results show an organisation's mission and values do not affect individual PSM while work type and communication style is vital and organisational socialisation can provide a negative influence.     

Through thick or thin? The performance and operation of firms and the institutional thickness model

The idea that “institutional thickness” is an important component for the resilience of local economies continues to attract attention several years after the seminal work on the subject by Amin and Thrift (1994). In Melbourne's northern suburbs, one manufacturing sector has recently seen significant job growth. Coinciding with this trend is the emergence of regional economic development bodies. Have they influenced the performance and operation of firms? Results from interviews with firm managers suggest not, with non-institutional factors predominating. This “business as usual” scenario suggests local economic development strategies have limitations.     

澳大利亚警察招募与教育训练体制的特色

作为行政执法重要力量之一的人民警察队伍,其综合素质能否与国际接轨,教育训练是关键。对国内外警察教育训练模式进行对比研究,具有重要的理论意义和时代意义。文章对澳大利亚警察招募与教育训练体制的特色进行了对比研究,力求学习和借鉴国外警察教育训练模式的成功经验和做法,以期对构建我国人民警察教育训练体制有所启示。     

Modifying children's court care plans to acknowledge poverty and disadvantage

This think piece suggests that Children's Court Care Plans should include a new section that documents poverty and social disadvantage, especially of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, when they are under investigation for child abuse and neglect. New South Wales in Australia is used as the exemplar state, but this suggestion may find an echo elsewhere.

Points for practitioners

• As a general proposition social and economic circumstances should be considered in addition to parental dysfunction in child protection proceedings in Children's court.
• Care Plans prepared for hearings in the NSW Children's Court, often developed in response to serious harm report investigations, currently do not contain information about parents' poverty and social disadvantage and hence decontextualise family living circumstances.
• Consistent with international evidence, Care Plans should require information about parents' socioeconomic situation, including social disadvantage of residential neighbourhood, status and cost of household tenancy, and household income.
• Taking account of social and economic circumstances has the potential to generate savings in out-of-home care that can be re-allocated to support services to reduce poverty and social disadvantage and thereby reduce the need for removal of children from parental care.