Ethical investment in superannuation funds; Can it occur without breaching traditional trust principles?

Ethical investing in commercial activities is a topic which has received considerable attention of late. This has occurred in the areas of company law at all levels, with the concerns of consumers in relation to the production of products, and also in trust law, in particular superannuation trusts. Superannuation Trusts are of particular significance as they have become significant institutional investors in a number of substantial commercial activities. Ethical investment which requires the trustees to take account of issues other than financial when investing is seen to run counter to traditional trust law principles. Relevant issues relating to ethical investing include: human rights and labour concerns, environmental and moral issues such as investing in the alcohol and tobacco industries. This paper focusing upon superannuation law in the Australian and New Zealand jurisdictions considers the investment obligations of trustees in superannuation trusts. Such obligations closely resemble what may be referred to as traditional or core obligations of trustees. It acknowledges that difficulties arise when attempting to include ethical considerations in investment decisions with trust property. Having acknowledged this, the paper in upholding the place of ethical investing in the current environment proceeds to outline a means by which ethical investing can be adopted without compromising the position of trustees in any manner and which still focuses upon the best financial interests of the beneficiaries

Refugee status and religious conversion: The significance of refugee appeal number 76204

Doug Tennent from Waikato University considers the effect of adverse findings of credibility in a refugee claim involving religious conversion and cautions the need for support agencies to act with care when assisting people with refugee determination

The bothersome crow people and the silent princess: exploring the orientations of children as they play a digital narrative game

This study builds on and extends our understanding of literacy through exploring children's encounters with a digital narrative game. The research analyses different stances or orientations that children take as they progress through the game and how they draw on schematic understandings about narratives and digital gaming to support their game-play. The study extends previous research exploring how children make meaning from visual texts and how we draw on resources across and between modes to understand narratives. Taking a socio-cultural approach, the research suggests a framework of possible orientations that children take as they engage with the storyworld of the game, showing how this is at times strategic and critical, and at other times immersive and reactive.Many thanks to the United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA) who kindly funded this research through their research grant scheme

Profiling students on courses with the highest multiple failure rates : empirical evidence from a blended learning environment

This paper reports the results of a study of student performance in the ten course units most often failed more than once by students at an Australian university between 2004 and 2008. Of those ten courses, seven were in accounting. Over 50,000 enrolments were captured. Crosstabs were examined for almost all possible combinations of fields under which data was recorded. Significant risk factors for multiple failures were found to be gender, mode of study, place of enrolment, first language group, and exposure to certain teachers rather than others. It was also noteworthy that first year undergraduate course units featured more strongly than other courses and that those units of accounting requiring the most agile arithmetic, such as consolidations, seemed to cause many casualties

Firesetting: Psychopathology, theory and treatment

In this paper, we comprehensively review characteristics of adult firesetters, and the etiological features of firesetting. In particular, we pay attention to contemporary research available as to core traits and psychopathological features required to understand firesetters, and the classificatory systems and etiological theories developed to understand firesetting. This evaluation of contemporary research suggests that clinical knowledge and practice relating to firesetting is extremely underdeveloped relative to other areas of forensicclinical psychology.We conclude that there are very few etiological theories available to guide consulting clinicians in this area, and little information available specifying the exact criminogenic needs associated with firesetters, or how these needs compare to other offender groups. The significant lack of contemporary treatment programs designed to target firesetting behavior is also noted.We conclude by highlighting core areas for future research and treatment progression