Inquiry into the gathering and use of criminal intelligence

This report brings to light legislative, technological, resource and cultural impediments to the effective gathering and use of criminal intelligence in Australia. &nbsp

An American Reset – Safe Water & a Workable Model of Federalism

In 2015, at least 3.9 million Americans were exposed to lead in their drinking water at legally unacceptable levels. An additional 18 million Americans were at risk because their water systems were not in compliance with federal rules designed to detect the presence of lead contamination and to ameliorate its impact. What’s more, in 82 percent of the cases where the violation related to a health standard, no formal state or federal enforcement action was taken. These startling statistics indicate that the Flint Water Crisis (“Flint Water”) is not an isolated event. In fact, it is a case study that might explain these statistics. Flint Water reveals a fault line within our cooperative federalism model: We are relying on an increasingly ineffective power structure to guarantee the safety of our water supply, one that places the heaviest burden on the least powerful actor—the water supplier. This article proposes a ‘reset’ of the model in order to achieve safe water and government accountability

An American Reset – Safe Water & a Workable Model of Federalism

In 2015, at least 3.9 million Americans were exposed to lead in their drinking water at legally unacceptable levels. An additional 18 million Americans were at risk because their water systems were not in compliance with federal rules designed to detect the presence of lead contamination and to ameliorate its impact. What’s more, in 82 percent of the cases where the violation related to a health standard, no formal state or federal enforcement action was taken. These startling statistics indicate that the Flint Water Crisis (“Flint Water”) is not an isolated event. In fact, it is a case study that might explain these statistics. Flint Water reveals a fault line within our cooperative federalism model: We are relying on an increasingly ineffective power structure to guarantee the safety of our water supply, one that places the heaviest burden on the least powerful actor—the water supplier. This article proposes a ‘reset’ of the model in order to achieve safe water and government accountability

DP5: A Private Presence Service

Users of social applications like to be notified when their friends are online. Typically, this is done by a central server keeping track of who is online and offline, as well as of all of the users’ “buddy lists”, which contain sensitive information. We present DP5, a cryptographic service that implements online presence indication in a privacy-friendly way. DP5 allows clients to register their online presence and query the presence of their list of friends while keeping this list secret. Besides presence, high-integrity status updates are supported, to facilitate key update and rendezvous protocols. While infrastructure services are required for DP5 to operate, they are designed to not require any long-term secrets and provide perfect forward secrecy in case of compromise. We provide security arguments for the indistinguishability properties of the protocol, as well as an evaluation of its scalability and performance

Analyzing Avoidance: Judicial Strategy in Comparative Perspective

Courts sometimes avoid deciding contentious issues. One prominent justification for this practice is that, by employing avoidance strategically, a court can postpone reaching decisions that might threaten its institutional viability. Avoidance creates delay, which can allow for productive dialogue with and among the political branches. That dialogue, in turn, may result in the democratic resolution of—or the evolution of popular societal consensus around—a contested question, relieving the court of its duty. Many scholars and judges assume that, by creating and deferring to this dialogue, a court can safeguard its institutional legitimacy and security. Accepting this assumption arguendo, this Article seeks to evaluate avoidance as it relates to dialogue. It identifies two key factors in the avoidance decision that might affect dialogue with the political branches: first, the timing of avoidance (i.e., when in the life cycle of a case does a high court choose to avoid); and, second, a court’s candor about the decision (i.e., to what degree does a court openly acknowledge its choice to avoid). The Article draws on a series of avoidance strategies from apex courts around the world to tease out the relationships among timing, candor, and dialogue. As the first study to analyze avoidance from a comparative perspective, the Article generates a new framework for assessing avoidance by highlighting the impact of timing on the quality of dialogue, the possible unintended consequences of candor, and the critical trade-offs between avoidance and power

Enhancing the Parliament Capacity to Hold Government Accountable in Kurdistan Region

The current structures and draft structures grant the party leaders and the Executive undue power over the Parliament in two ways. First, by virtue of constitutional design, the Executive and the party leader’s hegemony reduce the Parliament’s capacity to act as a check on the Executive. Second, there are contextual factors correlated with political will in using available accountability mechanisms which locate beyond the design factors and they have nexus with effectiveness of the Parliament. In the other words, the contextual factor such as electoral system, party discipline, and party formations impact on the will of the parliament in holding the executive accountable. Moreover, despite the existence of some mechanisms to hold the government accountable, political accountability is eroding

Enhancing the Parliament Capacity to Hold Government Accountable in Kurdistan Region

The current structures and draft structures grant the party leaders and the Executive undue power over the Parliament in two ways. First, by virtue of constitutional design, the Executive and the party leader’s hegemony reduce the Parliament’s capacity to act as a check on the Executive. Second, there are contextual factors correlated with political will in using available accountability mechanisms which locate beyond the design factors and they have nexus with effectiveness of the Parliament. In the other words, the contextual factor such as electoral system, party discipline, and party formations impact on the will of the parliament in holding the executive accountable. Moreover, despite the existence of some mechanisms to hold the government accountable, political accountability is eroding

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF ADOPTING MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS (MIS) FOR PASSPORT PROCESSING: COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN LESOTHO AND SOUTH AFRICA

Thesis ( M. Tech. (Business Administration )) - Central University of Technology, Free State, 2014Fast and secure public service delivery is not only a necessity, but a compulsory endeavour. However, it is close to impossible to achieve such objectives without the use of Information Technology (IT). It is correspondingly important to find proper sustainability frameworks of technology. Organisations do not only need technology for efficient public service; the constant upgrading of systems and cautious migration to the newest IT developments is also equally indispensable in today’s dynamic technological world. Conversely, countries in Africa are always lagging behind in technological progresses. Such deficiencies have been identified in the passport processing of Lesotho and South Africa, where to unequal extents, problems related to systems of passport production have contributed to delays and have become fertile grounds for corrupt practices. The study seeks to identify the main impediments in the adoption of Management Information Systems (MIS) for passport processing. Furthermore, the study explores the impact MIS might have in attempting to combat long queues and to avoid long waiting periods – from application to issuance of passports to citizens. The reasonable time frame between passport application and issuance, and specific passport management systems, have been extensively discussed along with various strategies that have been adopted by some of the world’s first movers in modern passport management technologies. In all cases and stages of this research, Lesotho and South Africa are compared. The research approach of the study was descriptive and explorative in nature. As a quantitative design, a structured questionnaire was used to solicit responses in Lesotho and South Africa. It was established that both Lesotho and South Africa have somewhat similar problems – although, to a greater extent, Lesotho needs much more urgent attention. Although the processes of South Africa need to be improved, the Republic releases a passport much faster and more efficiently than Lesotho. Economic issues are also revealed by the study as unavoidable factors that always affect technological developments in Africa. The study reveals that the latest MIS for passport processing has facilitated modern, automated border-control systems and resultant e-passports that incorporate more biometric information of citizens to passports – thanks to modern RFID technologies. One can anticipate that this study will provide simple, affordable and secure IT solutions for passport processing. Key words: Information Technology (IT); Management Information Systems (MIS); E-Government; E-Passport; Biometrics; and RFID

Nuclear weapons: the state of play

"The present report ... describes in detail the progress - or lack of it - on the commitments and recommendations of the 2010 NPT Review Conference, the 2010 and 2012 NSS, and the rather more ambitious ICNND, as at December 2012. Its publication in early 2013 is timed to assist the deliberation of the NPT PrepCom process, and it will be followed by a further updated volume in 2015, prior to that year's NPT Review Conference. While there are some other "report card" publications in existence, or in preparation, aimed at tracking particular sets of recommendations or the performance of particular groups of states, we believe that the present volume is the most comprehensive of its kind." - page xCopyright Information: "This publication may be reproduced in full or in part if accompanied with the following citation:Ramesh Thakur and Gareth Evans, eds., Nuclear Weapons:The State of Play (Canberra: Centre for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disar

Public safety mobile broadband: draft report

The draft report was released on 23 September 2015. You are invited to examine the report and to make written submissions by Wednesday 28 October 2015. This draft report looks at the best way to deliver a Public Safety Mobile Broadband (PSMB) capability for emergency services that is reliable, interoperable and works across Australia. The final report will be released in December 2015. Key points Public safety mobile broadband (PSMB) holds considerable potential to improve how the police, fire, ambulance and other public safety agencies (PSAs) deliver their services. It will allow frontline officers to access high-speed video, images, location tracking and much more. PSAs currently rely on their own radio networks for voice communications and some low-speed data. Mobile broadband use has been modest due to concerns that the quality of commercial services is insufficient to support \u27mission critical\u27 operations. The network capacity that PSAs require is uncertain. PSAs are seeking a higher quality of service than what is currently available on commercial networks. However, the standards required (in terms of coverage, reliability, security, priority access and so on) are not specific. There are many ways to provide a PSMB capability, including the construction of a dedicated network, a commercial approach, or some combination (hybrid) of the two. A dedicated network would give PSAs access to (and control over) their own PSMB network using their own parcel of spectrum. A commercial approach would mean that PSAs obtain PSMB services from one or more of the commercial mobile carriers through a contract for service. The Commission has undertaken an illustrative evaluation of the costs of several specific delivery options over a 20-year period. The cost of a dedicated network was estimated to be in the order of $6.1 billion, compared to$2.1 billion for a commercial option. Even the lowest-cost hybrid option is twice as expensive as a commercial option. A commercial option is cheaper because it requires significantly less \u27new investment\u27 than a dedicated or hybrid option as considerable existing infrastructure could be used or shared. Risk factors also influence the relative merits of different options. A dedicated network would likely take longer to deliver and offer less flexibility to scale up network capacity in the short term, relative to other options. Providing priority services under commercial or hybrid options would be more technically complex than under a dedicated option. There are also commercial risks arising from limited competition and supplier \u27lock-in\u27. The benefits of each option are not expected to vary markedly, since the options under evaluation have been designed to deliver a similar level of PSMB capability. On that basis, the cost evaluation is likely to provide the best guide to net community benefit for each option. On first principles, a commercial approach represents the most efficient, effective and economical way of delivering a PSMB capability to PSAs. Small-scale trials would provide an opportunity for jurisdictions to gain confidence in a commercial approach; gauge the costs, benefits and risks of PSMB; and develop a business case for a wider-scale roll out. Competitive procurement is essential. Splitting up tenders, leveraging infrastructure assets and insisting on open technology standards can help governments secure value for money. Achieving interoperability will require jurisdictions to agree on common technical standards. PSAs will also need to adapt their operations to make the most of PSMB. This includes protocols for sharing information and network capacity among agencies. Spectrum allocation is an Australian Government responsibility. Any spectrum made available for PSMB should be priced at its opportunity cost to support its efficient use