Budget reviews and commissions of audit in Australia

Examining the origins, conduct, conclusions of, and reactions to, previous budget reviews provides some indications about how the current National Commission of Audit might unfold. Introduction On 22 October 2013 the Abbott Government announced the appointment of a National Commission of Audit. In announcing the review, Treasurer Joe Hockey and Finance Minister Cormann said ‘[i]t is …essential that the Commonwealth government live within its means and begin to pay down debt’. The review, headed by the president of the Business Council of Australia, Tony Shepherd AO, has broad terms of reference that are intended to allow it to ‘assess the role and scope of Government, as well as ensuring taxpayers’ money is spent wisely and in an efficient manner.\u27The other members of the Commission are the current head of the New South Wales Independent Regulatory and Pricing Tribunal, Dr Peter Boxall AO, former public servants Tony Cole AO and Robert Fisher AM, and former politician Amanda Vanstone. The appointment of the current Commission of Audit has not passed without criticism. For example, the Shadow Finance Minister, Tony Burke has described the review as a ‘Commission of Cuts,’ and declared that it was ‘an extraordinary outsourcing of the responsibilities of Government across to big business’. The current National Commission of Audit is but one in a long series of budget reviews that have been conducted by Commonwealth, state and territory governments in Australia. Many previous reviews have largely been forgotten by the general public and sometimes even by the governments that have commissioned them. Others provided broad recommendations that have assisted in providing coherence and purpose to what have usually been new administrations. Examining the origins, conduct and conclusions of, and reactions to previous reviews provides some indications about how the current National Commission of Audit might unfold. While every review is inevitably a product of its time and the political and economic circumstances in which it was commissioned, there are recurring themes that emerge from many of these exercises. Arguably, the general nature of the findings and recommendations of budget reviews can be broadly predicted, but how—and even if—governments respond to them cannot.  Examining past reviews may also show whether the current review has provided genuinely new approaches to managing and prioritising Commonwealth expenditure and service delivery, or has rehashed well-worn policy prescriptions posed repeatedly by prior reviews

Staff attitudes towards inpatients with borderline personality disorder

This article discusses the negative attitudes of some nursing staff towards inpatients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD), from the perspective of a third-year mental health nursing student. Factors to support underlying nurses’ attitudes are considered, including stigma associated with BPD, the relationship between BPD and self-harm, clients being viewed as manipulative and nurses’ lack of optimism for client recovery. Work pressures, poor communication skills and time restraints also contribute to the poor care being delivered by some mental health nurses. The authors suggest ways to improve staff attitudes, based on recommendations in the literature. Further education relating to BPD is discussed, as well as the need for increased supervision of mental health nurses and more time for effective communication between nurse, client and the multidisciplinary team

The Budget: a quick guide

The Budget is an opportunity for the Government to inform the Parliament, and therefore the broader public, about matters including: the expected performance of the international and Australian economy the Government’s economic and fiscal strategy specific policy decisions the Government has made. Budget Night is typically the most important annual policy statement by the Government

Restoring Soil Fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa: Technical and Economic Issues

Land Economics/Use, Downloads July 2008-June 2009: 9,

Locative systems using mobile phones

In the age of mobile media, artists interested in storytelling and place have been exploring various technologies to enable their locative media work. The author traces the aesthetic and technical background to these works and discusses recent RMIT projects, which work with a solar powered Bluetooth server to deliver their poetic psychogeographic stories

Metacognition as a Mental Health Support Strategy for Elementary Students with Anxiety

Mental health issues affect learning and performance in profound ways. Schools tend to lack a comprehensive approach to address the needs of students with anxiety, due to the limited training staff receive in mental health identification and support. As teachers work to address barriers to learning, schools must develop a system to fully address the growing needs of students with anxiety. Metacognition plays a significant role in clinical psychology and is used as a mental health intervention and support in clinical settings. The possibility of the application of a specific cognitive strategy to classroom settings in order to support elementary students with anxiety could impact how students are served appropriately for mental health issues within the school setting. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between metacognition and its use as a mental health support strategy for elementary school students suffering from anxiety. The study presents a critical analysis of metacognition studies in both the educational setting and the clinical setting, as well as examines teacher perceptional data about supporting students with anxiety within the classroom. Participants in the study consisted of a convenience sample from an ex post facto survey administered to school staff in a small suburban Washington school district. Results of the study showed a statistically significant relationship between the use of metacognition, self-regulation as a component of metacognition, and teacher confidence level in supporting students with anxiety. This study works to further advance the growing body of knowledge regarding the teacher’s role in the support of mental health needs of students. Though the level of cognitive monitoring in children with generalized anxiety orders is not fully understood, further research linking the strategy of metacognition for students suffering from anxiety as a possible school intervention could aid the field of education in serving the social, emotional and behavioral development of students with anxiety

God and Revolution:Religion and Power from Pre-Revolutionary France to the Napoleonic Empire

In 1789, the advent of the French Revolution led to the shift in political power as the Catholic Church and French Monarchy ruled Pre-Revolutionary, or Ancien Regime France was replaced by a new, revolutionary government. The fall of Catholicism as the official religion of France, however, did not stop religion as an central component for political power. The creation of new religious groups and thought produced a secularized revolutionary religion, the “Cult of the Supreme Being,” Which increased political power by using liturgical rites and festivals to gain popularity with the French public. With Napoleon’s rise to power in a coup d\u27etat in 1799 , the Napoleonic Empire continued the political trend of using religion for power with Napoleon’s alliance with the Catholic Church, which politically validated his claim to power. Despite the existence of three very different and distinct political entities from pre-revolutionary France through the Napoleonic Empire, the French state depended upon religion and its liturgical structures for the consolidation of political power through the use of religious ceremonies and language

Reversible adsorption on a random site surface

We examine the reversible adsorption of hard spheres on a random site surface in which the adsorption sites are uniformly and randomly distributed on a plane. Each site can be occupied by one solute provided that the nearest occupied site is at least one diameter away. We use a numerical method to obtain the adsorption isotherm, i.e. the number of adsorbed particles as a function of the bulk activity. The maximum coverage is obtained in the limit of infinite activity and is known exactly in the limits of low and high site density. An approximate theory for the adsorption isotherms, valid at low site density, is developed by using a cluster expansion of the grand canonical partition function. This requires as input the number of clusters of adsorption site of a given size. The theory is accurate for the entire range of activity as long as the site density is less than about 0.3 sites per particle area. We also discuss a connection between this model and the vertex cover problem.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figure

Analysis of stacked retaining walls

Not much literature is available which addresses the analysis of stacked retaining walls. Many designers have developed undocumented and informal methods of analysis based on geotechnical theory, practical experience and intuition; This thesis presents and compares results from eight common methods of analysis: four methods based on limit equilibrium, three based on elastic theory, and one that is a combination of limit equilibrium and elastic theory. These eight different methods were used to analyze 64 different configurations of double-stacked cantilever retaining walls, including a double-stacked configuration that failed in 1992. In all, results from a total of 512 separate analyses are presented and compared herein, including analysis with a finite element computer application, Plaxis; The results of these analyses follow the generally accepted notion that as the horizontal spacing between double-stacked walls decreases, the forces at the lower wall increase due to the effects of the upper wall. No method of analysis consistently yields the most or least conservative values, suggesting that the retaining wall designer need take great care in selecting a method of analysis